davidpham5

Now that Trump has unleashed federal law enforcement on the streets of DC, I'm reupping this new reporting on where all this seems to be going:

It’s a reason why journaling, note taking is vital to preserving a past, resistant to powerful people making claims that are just plain lies

Why Georgia's National Memory is on Trial - Coda Story On the anniversary of Russia's 2008 invasion of Georgia, an increasingly autocratic Georgian government toes the Kremlin line, blaming its predecessors for "instigating" war

"memory is fragile. Every time we recall the past, we reshape it, filter it through what we’ve heard, what we’ve lost, and what we choose to believe. Repeated messages from those in power can overwrite what we thought we knew"

from @codastory.bsky.social

www.codastory.com/rewriting-hi...

Getting out of the corn ethanol game would help bring down grocery prices and benefit the environment

www.slowboring.com/p/a-cure-for...

Opinion | She’s a Democratic Bellwether, and She’s Changing Her Position on Israel

I wrote about a glimmer of hope that elite Democrats are starting to change their minds about supporting Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/o...

Very plainspoken column. The US’s funding of the scorched-earth leveling of Gaza and its civilians is going to go down as one of our great foreign-policy atrocities — if we ever pull out of our current moral and educational nosedive, theses will be written about this for years

Congress doesn't want to talk to Alex Acosta, Epstein's 'sweetheart deal' maker Acosta, who previously was Trump's labor secretary, wasn't named in a list of people a House committee subpoenaed.

www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...

Oversight Republicans are demanding to speak with the Clintons, James Comey, and Eric Holder about Jeffrey Epstein.

Not subpoenaed: Alex Acosta — the U.S. attorney who made the 'sweetheart' non-prosecution agreement with Epstein. Acosta was Trump's first term Labor Secretary.

Prosperity and blessings

Trump Is Undermining Trust in Official Economic Statistics. China Shows Where That Path Can Lead China demonstrates how manipulating economic data can ultimately erode government credibility.

What happens when a government undermines trust in economic data, as the Trump admin is poised to do? China can show us:

www.wired.com/story/trump-...

This is unconstitutional bsky.app/profile/hans...

And yet 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.

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...

I see the vaunted AI safety team at Microsoft has been moved to Xbox Heaven

NBC News confirms: Tulsi Gabbard decided to declassify a document on 2016 Russian election interference over the objections of CIA officials who argued that more details should remain secret to protect sensitive spying sources and methods. @msnbc.com

I am to the view that the American Century, where we dominated in economics, politics, energy and culture came to end sometime this March 2025. I foresee China picking up where we left, like in medicine, research, space and clean energy production. The Chinese Century started this year.

Opinion | How to lose the 21st century, in three easy steps Trump is throwing away what could have been the next great American century.

Probably should have included "destroy investment in promising new technologies" in this guide for Losing the 21st Century in 3 Easy Steps www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

AI in Search is driving more queries and higher quality clicks We continue to send billions of clicks to the web every day and are committed to prioritizing the web in our AI experiences in Search.

Google says news publishers that are seeing dramatic declines in traffic due to AI overviews (basically everyone) are all just measuring wrong blog.google/products/sea...

Trump Administration Continues Purge of F.B.I. Officials

BREAKING NYT:

The FBI is forcing out at least two agents — including the former acting head of the bureau — as Kash Patel continues his purge at the agency.

Another agent being pushed out is Walter Giardina, who was involved in a number of Trump investigations. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/u...

What the hell is wrong with this rotten corrupt party?

www.theverge.com/2024/9/24/24...

Abject fucking humiliation for everyone who works at Apple. They could have merely provided a big headline of building products in the U.S., investing in manufacturing, the bullshit that would count as sufficient appeasement. But this performance? Tap dancing as they build concentration camps?

There is *zero* reason the most consequential tech company in history, synonymous with the most controlling and powerful exec in business history, needed to be this obsequious. Pathetic. Tim is cooked.

The humanities should be harder Low standards have devalued non-STEM study

A grumpy old man yelling at clouds take — humanities classes should be hard, with lots of homework and rigorous grading.

We should show these courses are valuable by taking them more seriously.

www.slowboring.com/p/the-humani...

Social Security offices lost estimated 20% of staff this year, causing delays Americans applying for benefits at their local Social Security field offices are facing delays, workers say.

The Trump Administration made the largest cut to Social Security staff in the agency's history. This hurts people in every community across the nation. If you need help from SSA, you're going to wait longer.

www.axios.com/2025/08/07/t...

'Out Of Control' Republicans Are Viciously Attacking A Congresswoman With Calls To Deport Her Right-wingers are going after Rep. Delia C. Ramirez (D-Ill.), who was born in the U.S., for comments she made about her pride in her Guatemalan heritage.

These attacks against Congresswoman @ramirez.house.gov are unconscionable.

I'll be interviewing her live tomorrow evening at the @netrootsnation.bsky.social conference in New Orleans, and look forward to talking about this and much more.

This is really fuckin’ good. And exactly what smart media needs to be doing.

How every blue state can counter new GOP gerrymanders For many, fighting fire with fire won't be easy, but it's always possible

www.the-downballot.com/p/how-every-...

i feel it my bones, this is the way.

this is the way.