Jascha

man you are a smooth operator

The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city.

This is not a joke. This is not normal.

Donald Trump isn't a strongman, he's a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.

Americans keep talking about “strategic policy ambiguity.”

Nope. What you have is a very familiar case of erratic personalist rule amidst entrenched institutional decay.

Rule 1: Resist. Then adapt Hungary teaches us how to change tactics to get ahead of shifting attacks

Looking for ways to safeguard our democratic freedoms? Here’s what we can learn from the Hungarian pro-democracy coalition's efforts to push back against Viktor Orbán’s autocratic impulses. Join us to discover the role you can play in shaping our history. www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/rule-1-res...

aka the subway

The Nonprofit
Toolkit: Responding to Government Investigations Resources to help organizations face politicized threats while continuing 
to serve their communities.

NEW RESOURCE: The threat to civil society is real—and growing. Our Nonprofit Investigations Toolkit has information to help orgs prepare for politicized government investigations. Start here: protdem.org/NonprofitInv...

Pulling the plug from PEPFAR would do immense human harm — and undo the single best GOP policy of the 21st century.

U.S. Quietly Drafts Plan to End Program That Saved Millions From AIDS

PEPFAR, the American H.I.V. response, earned a reprieve when Congress voted to restore $400 m in funding. But that may be short-lived: Officials at the State Department have been mapping out a plan to shut it down -- exiting some countries in as little as 2 years.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/h...

🍋🍾🥂

A large yellow ribbon with a star is displayed on the right side. Text reads: "Timor-Leste is officially malaria-free." Below it is the hashtag: #EndMalaria.

Congratulations! #TimorLeste has been certified malaria-free by WHO.

Since gaining independence in 2002, the country has made remarkable progress to #EndMalaria, reducing cases from a peak of over 223 000 in 2006 to zero indigenous cases from 2021 onwards. 👉 bit.ly/3UqU04X

Thank you for sharing this letter.

We are standing in solidarity with the organizations targeted in this unfounded investigation because nonprofits of all types, members of the clergy and religious groups, advocates, and community serving organizations should not be punished for their work – even if those in power find it threatening to their policy agenda.

#CollectiveCourage: Over 600 nonprofit and nonpartisan orgs spoke out against the House Homeland Security Committee’s unfounded, politically-motivated investigation of nonprofit groups. Read their letter and join us in standing up for those doing important, lawful work. protdem.org/46hdIHM

The picture is even worse for lifesaving assistance. More than 2/3s of the way through the FY, USAID’s humanitarian assistance bureau down 92% on new obligations compared to full-year FY24. USAID’s global health bureau was down 93%. State hasn't picked up any of the slack.

FDA Layoffs Could Compromise Safety of Medications Made at Foreign Factories, Inspectors Say Beyond staff cuts, the departures of some longtime investigators in recent months have left less experienced people tasked with rooting out dangerous manufacturing practices.

This is bleak. FDA Cuts Will Limit Scrutiny of Troubled Foreign Drug Factories, Inspectors Say

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I think Shakespeare sampled this … from the Jews.

First, they killed healthcare for underserved communities in other countries

Nobody cared

Then they killed healthcare for underserved citizens within the country

Will any one care??

The spirit of July 4th is that we will fight against tyranny, that self-determination and self-government is a human right, and that even if the forces arrayed against us seem daunting, we will ultimately prevail.

When I see fireworks and flags tonight, that’s what I’ll be seeing. Time to stand up.

And the irony is: We'll likely fuel more anti-American sentiments with this move than we would have if we'd never invested in foreign aid. Because broken trust hurts worse than no trust at all.

that could totally be a Starbucks order

STAGGERING: This new study of 133 countries is the first to estimate the impact of all USAID’s work. In 2 decades, it has saved *92M* lives. Current cuts, if not reversed, are forecast to cost up to *14M* lives thru 2030. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

The White House has ordered the US Dept. of Justice to prioritize denaturalization: voiding the citizenship of US citizens.

Who will it denaturalize? "Any" case that it "determines to be sufficiently important".

Point 10 leaves the criteria opaque and arbitrary.

substack.com/redirect/169...

New paper estimates the effects of USAID over the last 20 years:
• ~92m lives saved (that's 12k per day for 20 years), including ~30.4m kids
• 65% mortality reduction for HIV/AIDS, 51% for malaria

Projects 2025 cuts followed by ending USAID would cost 14m+ lives.
www.thelancet.com/action/show...

In the past 24 hours, Trump’s threatened Elon Musk, Thomas Massie, Japan, a judge in Israel, the CEO of AT&T, Jerome Powell, Canada, Thom Tillis, a Forbes reporter, Harvard, & migrants with being eaten by Burmese pythons in the Everglades, while releasing a new line of colognes.

The sun has risen over the Capitol. We've been voting on amendments to the Big Ugly Bill for 21 hours.

Republicans can't find the votes to pass this monstrosity – so they're wheeling and dealing.

And making a bad bill even worse.

This is how you do it and huge credit to Selzer and @thefireorg.bsky.social for having more courage, patriotism, and legal skill than Paramount and its lawyers. The First Amendment is worth fighting for.

Gianturl.com

RFK Jr. says US won’t donate to global vaccine effort Kennedy ripped into Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in a video address at its pledging summit.

This is a travesty & a nightmare. The US was a founder of @gavi.org. It lowers global vaccine costs, has vaccinated 1B children, & averted 19M deaths. This pull out will cost 100s of thousands of children's lives a year - and RFK Jr will be personally responsible.
www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

Masked Terror At this point, we have all seen the videos.

One of our earliest civil rights statutes was designed to protect us against masked gangs who violate our constitutional rights. This particular history makes the masked ICE gangs uniquely repugnant. open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...