Mike Stewart

Ukraine’s Plan to Starve the Russian War Machine Negotiations have stalled. Trump keeps changing his policies. Ukrainians, backed by Europeans, are taking matters into their own hands. ​​​

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Opinion | The Supreme Court Owes the Country Explanations for Its Big Decisions

The Supreme Court, as the embodiment of rule of law, should be especially protective of transparency required for democracy; massive decisions w/o explanation are what we expect from China, Iran.

The Supreme Court Owes the Country Explanations for Its Big Decisions www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/o...

Photos: Starvation and Chaos in Gaza Israel’s blockade of most food and aid, along with distribution difficulties inside the Gaza Strip, have driven many of Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians to the brink of starvation.

Entirely preventable:

www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Nearly Half of America’s Murderers Get Away With It

Nearly Half of America’s Murderers Get Away With It www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/u.... Important article. The failure to meaningfully investigate murders - often of the young - is a national scandal.

Cassidy, in Break With Kennedy, Calls for Vaccine Meeting Delay

Cassidy, in Break With Kennedy, Calls for Vaccine Meeting Delay www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/u...

We live in an age when it is necessary to mention that a Senator is a “strong supporter of vaccines.”

Opinion | A Progressive Future Depends on National Identity

A Progressive Future Depends on National Identity www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/o...

Trump just paused ICE raids on farms and businesses. Because his donors are hurt by them. People should not mistake televised cruelty toward individual immigrants for a coherent immigration policy.

No apology for using force against a U.S. Senator? Not just all Senior Trump officials, but all members of Congress who are silent are complicit.

NEWSOM: "It's a vulgar display. It's the kind of thing you see with Kim Jong Un, Putin, dictators that are weak… How weak do you have to be to commandeer the military for your birthday?“

Opinion | Elizabeth Warren: Trump Is Right About This One Thing

Elizabeth Warren: Trump Is Right About This One Thing www.nytimes.com/2025/06/12/o...

Warren is great. But completely wrong here. Debt has been the essential fuel of the GOP machine since Reagan. Trump wants to get rid of debt limit because it restricts his fiscal recklessness.

Misguided “liberals” like @pkrugman.bsky.social and Modern Monetary Theory charlatans have done their part to normalize the massive deficits that are the essential fuel of the Republican machine and should get the partial credit they deserve for the current Trump fiasco.

The big beneficiary of our no-deficit-too-large political culture is President and Demagogue-in-Chief Trump. Real budgets require real governing. Freed from such restraints, he can promise anything. If Social Security is bankrupted, that’s some future President’s problem.

So the House Republicans have completed their performative posturing about deficits and have now decided to … jack up the federal debt and give the borrowed money to their richest supporters. Did any serious person think the outcome would be different?

Apparently at her Town Hall where citizens were taxed, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was suggesting that Doge cuts are tied to deficit reduction. She just voted to jack up the debt by trillions in unfunded tax cuts. Such hypocrisy, though routine, is at the center of our failed politics.

“We have got to do something to put this country on a more sustainable path.” When R Sen. Thune says that while working to pass multi-trillion tax cut for rich, does he think “I am a gigantic liar and hypocrite?” What does he think, exactly?

What’s missing from budget debate is the fact that theTrump tax cuts, which overwhelmingly pay out to the already rich, have since 2017 all been funded with deficits. Republicans continue to use debt as an end run around Congress’s responsibility to set budget priorities.

@hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social once again kept Dems united against Repub plan to drain the Treasury to hand out unfunded tax cuts to Top 1% while undermining Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. That’s good Dem leadership.

The Manufacturing Boom Set Off By Clean Energy Tax Credits More than $100 billion in private investment has already been spurred by the federal Inflation Reduction Act, helping to drive advanced manufacturing in many states.

www.governing.com/resilience/t...

This was how Democrats expanded manufacturing:

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a moderate Republican, slammed President Trump’s decision to fire the director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and his top deputy…

NSA director fired on advice of nut. In normal times this alone would render a President unfit for office.

From yesterday’s Hands Off protest:

Well done!

Awesome smackdown.

A gift article (Musk can eat dirt)
Wisconsin Spring Election Results https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/04/01/us/elections/results-wisconsin.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8k4.H5xG.vHjUpPVfhYkg&smid=nytcore-android-share

Network effects of protest 10x the participants have 100x the effect

Great piece by @samwang.bsky.social:

samwang.substack.com/p/network-ef...

Thank you to Jenner & Block for fighting this flagrantly unconstitutional order.

Warren, Pressley, Markey, Congressional Democrats Demand Explanation for “Disturbing Arrest and Detention” of Tufts University Student | U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts The Official U.S. Senate website of Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts

www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/pre...

Security clearances are essential to our national defense. Politicizing them makes Americans less safe.

Good riddance.

Trump’s Latest Executive Order is a Sham—and a Warning From Marc | The greatest threat to Donald Trump’s authoritarian dream is not the courts — it is free and fair elections.

It would disenfranchise millions. It seeks to restrict what ballots states can count. It purports to give DOGE unspecified powers to review state run voter rolls. No wonder vote suppressors and election deniers from coast to coast lavished it with praise. www.democracydocket.com/opinion/trum...