Emily

With the Epstein Files dominating political news, Trump is doubling down on rigging maps.

Line graph of percent change in Medicaid enrollment and total spending shows Medicaid enrollment is expected to flatten, growing by 0.2%, as total spending grows by 7.9% in FY 2026.

Beyond FY 2026, states are preparing for $911B in federal Medicaid cuts enacted in this year’s budget reconciliation law, including new financing limits and work requirements, which will exacerbate existing budget challenges.

Learn more: https://on.kff.org/4oJnA3e

This would be “worst NFP print since Dec 2020,” adds the Goldman desk.

40 years ago we’d have congressional hearings falsely accusing metal bands of putting backwards messages in their songs that told kids to kill themselves & now we have a planet-killing chatbot that’s all like “bet you won’t commit suicide chickenshit bitch” & the government is like here’s $5 billion

Lots of hard, shitty lessons being learned from this presidency. And one of the many I hope you're learning is, white supremacy is incompatible with reality, and cannot exist without historical revisionism.

North Carolina Adds More Partisan GOP Staffers to Election Board Read more here.

🚨BREAKING: The North Carolina election board on Thursday announced a raft of new hires with backgrounds in Republican politics — the latest sign of the GOP’s partisan takeover of the board as it prepares for next year’s election. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Rates Soared. ProPublica’s first-of-its-kind analysis is the most detailed look yet into a rise in life-threatening complications for women experiencing pregnancy loss under Texas’ abortion ban.

Pregnancy became far more dangerous in Texas after the state banned abortion, according to our analysis, which found the sepsis rate for women hospitalized as they miscarried in the 2nd trimester shot up by more than 50%.

(Published February)

The elimination of the filibuster at the start of the Trump administration would be the most disastrous thing to happen for trans people federally.

The policies it would usher in would make what we've seen the first 11 months feel like a cakewalk.

Millionaire Tax That Inspired Mamdani Fuels $5.7 Billion Haul in Massachusetts A millionaire levy in Massachusetts that New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani holds up as a model for taxing the rich has generated $3 billion more in revenue than expected without forcing...

"In the two years since the state started charging a 4% surtax on incomes over $1 million, the effort has created a $5.7 billion windfall, with the surplus being used to fund bridge repairs, bolster literacy programs and address the transportation system’s budget deficit."

Taxing the rich works!

FCC moves to end discounts for Wi-Fi hotspot lending and school bus connectivity The Federal Communications Commission voted to end discounts for library and school Wi-Fi hotspot lending programs on Tuesday, drawing criticism from lawmakers and librarians who say the move will mak...

Trump's FCC yesterday voted to kill a program that provided free Wi-Fi to rural school kids at no cost to taxpayers, falsely claiming the program was "illegal" and was being used to "censor Conservative ideology."

Adrian Brakeley. YDNC’s 84th President.

We’re proud to announce that Adrian Brakeley of Johnston County was elected as YDNC’s 84th president.

“I promise that we’ll take every righteous fight in pursuit of a future that’s safer, more welcoming, and leaves no one behind. Let’s get to work.” #ncpol

I’m going to be rocking myself in a corner screaming WHAT DID WE SAY WE TOLD YOU WE TOLD YOU for the rest of my life it seems

Trump DOJ is looking at ways to ban transgender Americans from owning guns, sources say | CNN Politics Senior Justice Department officials are weighing proposals to limit transgender people’s right to possess firearms, according to two officials familiar with the internal discussions.

This move by the Trump administration is an overtly discriminatory civil rights violation. Trans people have the same legal rights as other Americans — end of story. There are lots of good reasons to keep certain people from owning guns. Being trans isn't one of them. https://cnn.it/4niJnxG

COVID is the deadliest virus ever when they talk about the "lab leak" theory to gin up outrage, but just a mild little cold when they talk about masking and public health measures to gin up outrage.

Trump's EPA now says greenhouse gases don't endanger people The Trump administration wants to reverse a 2009 EPA finding that greenhouse gases endanger people. The finding is the basis for much of the United States' climate change regulations.

Feeling literally gaslit here.

Justice Department Told Trump in May That His Name Is Among Many in the Epstein Files Bondi told president at the meeting that Justice also decided to not release more Jeffrey Epstein documents because of the presence of child pornography and the need to protect victims.

Exclusive: The Justice Department told President Trump in May that his name is among many in the Epstein files.

Gaza hospital boss says 21 children died of malnutrition, starvation over last 3 days As Israel faces mounting pressure to end the Gaza war, a hospital director says the Palestinian enclave is facing "alarming numbers of deaths" from starvation.

The United States is complicit in this. Both Democratic and Republican Administrations.

And for what?

www.cbsnews.com/news/gaza-st...

There's literally never been a trans woman who has ever competed on any US Olympic team despite trans people having been eligible since 2004.

A new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office finds that the final version of Trump's tax law will add $3.4 trillion to the U.S. national debt over the next decade and will "increase by 10 million the number of people without health insurance" by 2034.

These guys have been throwing random people into gulags without a second thought but they've suddenly rediscovered the concept of presumption of innocence

Don’t Say Vote: NC GOPers Want to Bar Election Officials From Encouraging Turnout Read about the fight for democracy from activists, elected officials, legal experts and others.

No, this is not a joke. This is real.

North Carolina Republicans have introduced a sweeping elections bill that, among other steps, would bar election officials from encouraging or promoting voter turnout. www.democracydocket.com/analysis/don...

I hate to say I told you so but… I told you so.
#mythofantiwartrump

As culture wars flared up under Trump, North Carolina lawmakers passed these anti-trans bills • NC Newsline Six months into Trump’s term, North Carolina Republicans have passed several measures attacking trans rights, viewing it as a winning issue.

North Carolina Republicans have prioritized several pieces of anti-trans legislation in 2025. Some Democrats are helping to pass them.

Read my new analysis of attacks on trans rights in NC:

Homeland Security DHS account on X: Remember your Homeland's Heritage. New Life in a New Land - Morgan Weistling

The official DHS account is now tweeting about “your homeland’s heritage”

Exclusive: Hundreds at Alligator Alcatraz have no criminal charges, Miami Herald learns Descriptions of the Everglades detention center as a place for violent criminals tell only part of the story.

People who entered the US legally and have no criminal charges are being held in the Everglades camp, according to records obtained by the Miami Herald. Maybe that’s why the government won’t release the names of those being detained. www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

Louisiana Is Bulldozing the Right of Prisoners to Prove Their Innocence After a Conviction - Bolts Malcolm Alexander had been incarcerated at Angola prison 14 years already when he learned about DNA testing, the thing that would ultimately free him, while watching television coverage of the... Read...

NEW in Bolts: Louisiana Republicans have passed a new law that effectively eviscerates people's ability to claim their innocence and seek relief once they've been convicted.

A massive blow to the rights of people in prison in a state that's full of wrongful convictions:
boltsmag.org/louisiana-li...

I am grieving the barbarism that is going to unfurl from all this. People are going to die. Livelihoods gone. All to feed a corrupt kleptocracy.

I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.

trump should’ve been in handcuffs in jan 2021 and there is no way to quantify just how much human suffering will result from the disastrous decision to slow walk his prosecution or even avoid it altogether

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.

This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.

It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.