TheGhostOfDebs

Red states, defying reality, are reclassifying gas as a “green” fuel The designation, pushed by right-wing think tank ALEC, allows fossil fuel firms to compete for clean energy funding.

Red states, defying reality, are reclassifying gas as a “green” fuel

[from our @climatedesk.org partners, @grist.org]

really feels like housing affordability is one of the most important political issues of our time, affecting nearly every aspect of our lives, and everyday our mainstream political discourse is about whether sour cream is woke or not

There is no simple formula for the relationship of art to justice. But I do know that art — in my own case the art of poetry — means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of power which holds it hostage. The radical disparities of wealth and power in America are widening at a devastating rate. A President cannot meaningfully honor certain token artists while the people at large are so dishonored. I know you have been engaged in a serious and disheartening struggle to save government funding for the arts, against those whose fear and suspicion of art is nakedly repressive. In the end, I don't think we can separate art from overall human dignity and hope. My concern for my country is inextricable from my concerns as an artist. I could not participate in a ritual which would feel so hypocritical to me. Sincerely, Adrienne Rich cc: President Clinton

My concern for my country is inextricable from my concerns as an artist. I could not participate in a ritual which would feel so hypocritical to me.

Adrienne Rich

Trump Administration Threatens to Take Over Harvard’s Patents The move is the latest escalation in the White House’s battle with the Ivy League school.

The Commerce Department threatening to take over Harvard's patents shows the extent to which the federal government is trying to pressure the university into a settlement. They are trying everything possible. (gift link)

Justice Department opens investigation into New York attorney general who won civil fraud case against Trump | CNN Politics The Justice Department has subpoenaed New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office as part of a criminal investigation into President Donald Trump’s long-time adversary, according to multiple sourc...

The perversion of our Department of Justice into a personal, rage-inflamed revenge machine is poison to our institutions.

All Conservative and Liberal Americans will lose in the long run from this total lack of wisdom, balance, restraint, and nonpartisan legal ethics.

Trump Administration Poised to Cut SSI Benefits for Nearly 400,000 Low-Income Disabled and Older People | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities The average annual savings from these benefit cuts would barely pay for a single day of the massive tax cuts for the wealthy that are part of the Republican megabill enacted in July.

The Trump Administration is preparing to propose a rule to cut Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits and strip eligibility for hundreds of thousands of low-income older people and severely disabled adults and children. 🧵

www.cbpp.org/research/soc...

The United States respectfully requests this Court to preclude Burke in advance of trial from making any argument or statement or offering any testimony or other evidence that directly or indirectly suggests Burke’s claimed status as a “journalist” somehow impacts the legal implications of his charged conduct in this case. As explained below, this Court is the sole arbiter of any

The United States therefore respectfully requests the Court to preclude in limine any argument and evidence during trial that suggests Burke’s claimed status as a “journalist” somehow impacts the legal implications of his charged conduct in this case. Such argument and evidence would be contrary to law and irrelevant under Fed. R. Evid. 401 and 402. In addition, any potential probative value (which does not exist here) is substantially outweighed by the threat of confusing and misleading the jury, inevitable delay, and would be a waste of time and resources, and should be excluded under Fed. R. Evid. 403 regardless.

The Department of Justice has filed a motion seeking to effectively ban any references to me being a journalist from my trial

Federal court filing system hit in sweeping hack The identities of confidential court informants are feared compromised in a series of breaches across multiple U.S. states.

"The hack ... is feared to have compromised the identities of confidential informants involved in criminal cases at multiple federal district courts. ...

"It is not immediately clear who is behind the hack, though nation-state-affiliated actors are widely suspected."

Well this is alarming: Unidentified thieves broke into National Guard armories in Tennessee and stole "night vision goggles, laser target locators, and thermal weapons sights, among other equipment" — possibly with insider help. www.wired.com/story/myster...

Illinois is the first state to ban AI therapists Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has signed a bill banning AI therapists into law, the first in the nation.

Illinois has banned AI therapy, making it the first state to regulate the use of AI in mental health services.

www.engadget.com/ai/illinois-...

Opinion | Donald Trump and John Roberts Have a Lot in Common

new piece from on the 60th anniversary of the voting rights act, and what the law has meant for american democracy www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/o...

The think that always makes me laugh about the Anduril and Palantir’s of the world is how they are literally reinventing shit that’s been around for a decade, slapping drone and AI onto it, and calling it “innovation”

We have to get comfortable telling people they’ve been acting like suckers and the things they believe are cultivated for suckers. Radical honesty.

Homeland Security removes age limits for ICE recruits to boost hiring for Trump deportations The Department of Homeland Security has removed age limits for new hires at the agency responsible for immigration enforcement.

Fascist jackboot hiring blitz going well, I see

Tech fascism, like the tech libertarianism that birthed it, specializes in hijacking left-wing ideals, repackaging them as right-wing ideology, and selling the resulting sludge as “moderate/centrist/common sense.”

The roots of this go very deep. Keep an eye out!

Calvinball isn’t undermined by facts, history or dates. That’s just a misreading of the foundational premises of Calvinball.

Vice president heads to Indiana to push redistricting, but legalities remain unclear • Indiana Capital Chronicle Gov. Mike Braun was careful in his comments Tuesday about potential redistricting in Indiana to net a GOP seat — or two — in Congress.

Vice president heads to Indiana to push redistricting, but legalities remain unclear

indianacapitalchronicle.com/2025/08/05/v...

BREAKING: Gov. Mike Braun confirms Vice President JD Vance is coming to Indiana Thursday to discuss possibly redistricting in the state.

We will have a story up soon on the issue, including the possible legal constraints of such a move.

Gov. Abbott Asks Court to Expel Leading Democrat Over Redistricting Protest Read more here.

🚨BREAKING: Greg Abbott filed an emergency petition with the Texas Supreme Court Tuesday seeking to forcibly remove House Rep. Gene Wu from office — accusing the Democratic lawmaker of violating the state constitution by fleeing the Capitol to block a vote on the GOP’s proposed congressional map.

this work saved millions of lives in 2021, won the Nobel Prize in 2023, and is cancelled in 2025

We—and especially our political press—need to be very clear that they are saying exactly what they mean. Concentration camps, limited sanitation, no due process, mosquito-filled. This is what they want, nationwide. And very quickly, who they fill them with will be whoever they choose.

Black Resistance to Quaker Enslavement A moral reckoning.

For too long, the story of Quaker abolition has been told as one of conscience, but it was Black resistance that forced the Religious Society of Friends to confront its deepest contradictions.

Watters: Do you think it’s smart for all headlines to say Democrats ran away from the job?

Nellis: Do you think it's good for the headlines to say Republicans are so worried about losing the mid-terms that they decided to rig the maps?

The Stock Market Just Got a Sobering Reality Check Recent economic reports show that there’s little booming these days outside of AI and equities.

"we’ve seen an explosion in AI capital spending in recent years. But this increasingly looks like the only game in town for growth. Housing, consumption and government spending — nearly 90% of the economy — are now stagnant at best." www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

i think even if republicans in texas fail to gerrymander away those democratic house seats, illinois and california should still try to gerrymander away republican seats

fitting that there was an e.o. about this
"strategy"
bsky.app/profile/mirr...

"What is relevant is where credit is receivable"

"Today, as campaigns like Mamdani’s promote pilots of municipal grocery stores and other public institutions, we have the opportunity to publicly deliberate receivability itself. We no longer need to maintain the fiction that political labor and public provisioning belong to separate spheres"

"Creditworthiness has long stood in for segregation, racism, and exclusion-baked into zoning laws, lending practices, public education funding, and municipal bond markets. Home loans, student debt, and city budgets ..... rehearsed the ideologies of American racism"

I attended a State (IN) conference last year that promoted the same thing, and this was before November