Sam

ICYMI: Here's the full text of the threat issued by Cobb County, Ga., the 23rd largest school district in the country.

In a county which voted for Biden and Kamala Harris for 15 points, the district also came under fire in the past few years for aggressive book bans:
www.cobbk12.org/important-up...

Who could have guessed that Cobb County Schools would take the most aggressive position in metro Atlanta on this (at least publicly)?

Everyone in metro Atlanta basically.

Oh boy

Last year, I collaborated with @gelliottmorris.com and scores of journalists and volunteers to conduct a crowdsourced, unofficial, nationwide estimate of "No Kings" attendees.

We're pretty confident that both "No Kings" days were the two largest single-day protest events in American history:

ding ding ding

Oh no

❤️ well wishes for you and the bb

None of these people should be able to work in our industry again

My dad struggled with addiction his entire adult life, due in large part American healthcare’s complete and utter failure to treat the severe and intractable chronic pain he was in from age 17 onward.

Ain’t got shit to do with Venezuela.

I’m so sorry friend ❤️

Yall I just woke up what the fuck

Don't overthink the Trump admin's reasoning here. They don't have a grand scheme. They are willing to upend the international order because they think everyone else will be too scared to fuck with them. And whatever terrorist attacks this inspires against us will just help them electorally.

I hold no brief for Maduro. He's a murdering autocratic dictator who has done deep long term economic damage to his country.

But do not fantasize that there is a rightwing, Western-oriented majority waiting in the wings in Venezuela, and the only obstacle to a color revolution is Maduro.

this one’s super shameful.

encryption was rolled out because 2020 activists learned how to listen to their scanners to know when SRG would be showing up to beat them up, and NYPD disliked that.

the only actual impact this has is preventing news teams from being able to report on emergencies.

I also bruise very easily…because I have a genetic condition lmao

🥳🥳🥳 I also gave to @thexylom.com because I believe in putting my money where my mouth is!

Every additional $$ helps rebuild The Xylom's rainy-day fund, which was completely depleted in 2025. It takes a village for independent, human-powered reporting to not just survive but thrive!

I don’t have a place to host the judge’s orders because Document Cloud refuses to approve my account, but I’m happy to email the PDFs to anyone.

ICYMI: The racketeering charges in the eponymous Cop City RICO case were dismissed yesterday. However, this is just the first step in what will surely be a lengthy appeals process.

Hero of 2025: Alice Wong The disability justice icon's last message: "Don’t let the bastards grind you down."

For my hero of 2025 at @motherjones.com, I wrote about the late great disabled disability justice oracle Alice Wong, including her work with Disability Visibility Project, Crips for eSims for Gaza, and #CripTheVote. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Watching Bari Weiss Murder Investigative Journalism at CBS Notes from someone who's withstood White House demands to stop an explosive story—and who once even had a 60 Minutes piece spiked

As it happens, I have experience with high-level government demands to stop an explosive, accurate story from running, and I also have experience with 60 Minutes spiking a story I was involved in, so I have thoughts about the travesty at CBS. If you want some journalism anecdotes, here are a lot:

In a separate ruling, Farmer declined to dismiss the domestic terrorism charges.

I'm waiting to see if a ruling will be posted on the arson charges.

At some point the AG's powers must not intrude upon those constitutionally granted to the District Attorneys of the state. This is that point. The court has not been presented with, nor found any case law itself, that addresses RICO (or any other criminal charges that do not expressly grant the AG concurrent jurisdiction) being brought by the AG without prior approval from the governor. If the AG had sought and received permission from the governor to bring RICO charges, the check on the division of powers would be satisfied. And that permission may still be sought and the charges brought properly. but they were not in this case.

As expected, count 1 of the Cop City RICO indictment has been dismissed by Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer on the grounds that the Attorney General's office did not seek the required permission to prosecute a RICO indictment.

The state has already announced its intent to appeal this ruling.

i should do something nice for myself -> buy affordable secondhand knitting machine -> use it for the first time, experience joy -> uh oh my back hurts but when doesn't it -> oh god i'm in so much pain -> it's been a week, it's not better -> congratulations, it's a muscle spasm

merry christmas

If you pay attention to any large industry long enough and follow it to its logical conclusion you eventually end up sounding like a communist even if you started off testing CPU case fans. youtu.be/cUrJVdF2me0?...

Are the Chicago Bears the real Toronto Blue Jays we made along the way?

Rockets owners expand talks to buy, move Sun

Terrifying headline if you don’t realize they are sports teams.

oh you wanted to have fun?? you wanted to do something for your MENTAL HEALTH??

Starting a new hobby with a connective tissue disorder is just finding new ways to injure myself

Trump’s health cuts leave ‘huge void’ in Buffalo, New York – and patients fearing lack of care After a traumatic brain injury, Rita Buckley worries the skills she worked hard to regain will atrophy as the largest healthcare provider in the area closes clinics

I spent a few days in Buffalo, where Trump's sweeping health care cuts are already closing facilities and leaving people in pain.

One organizer told me: "A cut that is as big as this, in terms of the human suffering that will create–it’s actually immeasurable."

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

In which state government documents that yes, if federal funds are cut, the state has to backfill or do without or change things somehow

#gapol

Follow @gapolbot.bsky.social for the latest in Georgia public documents fresh off the internet, including reports from the audit dept ⬇️