Sadie Renander

Beshear: Let me be clear. The president has both the funding and the authority to fund snap during a shutdown. In fact, every other president in every other shutdown has done so. People going hungry in this instance is a choice that this president has made.

Inside TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free Using lobbying, the revolving door and “dark pattern” customer tricks, Intuit fended off the government’s attempts to make tax filing free and easy, and created its multi-billion-dollar franchise.

The IRS is reportedly not offering its Direct File program next year. Here’s a look back at how TurboTax owner Intuit spent two decades fighting to prevent Americans from filing their taxes online for free:

(Published 2019)

More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...

Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents.

They’ve had their necks kneeled on.

They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear.

At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them.

Perfect response from @neguse.house.gov here. Watch this.

The people yearn for (democratic) socialism (this one will make you cry)

Citing Trump Order on “Biological Truth,” VA Makes It Harder for Male Veterans With Breast Cancer to Get Coverage A Department of Veterans Affairs memo obtained by ProPublica erects new roadblocks to care for veterans with the rare but deadly cancer. The agency cites no new science but relies on an executive orde...

Citing a Trump executive order banning "gender ideology," the VA is withholding coverage and treatment for male veterans with breast cancer, an increasing condition among veterans exposed to toxic chemicals during service. 100 male veterans a year are diagnosed with breast cancer.

Yes! And people are acting like his explanation that people saw it and didn't say anything to him is a good thing! People definitely saw it, were definitely harmed by it, and he has no consideration if that. Only ever thinking about himself and other people's responsibility to him.

Progressive Candidate Has Dropped Out Of ME Senate Race Not Platner. Daira Smith-Rodriguez

wrote about Daira Smith-Rodriguez, and how the one candidate who has dropped out of the ME Senate race because of Platner's rape denialism is a sexual assault survivor. www.everythingishorrible.net/p/progressiv...

This whole thing is incredible, but look how his hand is shaking when he points at the guys who are being hassled. He's scared, he's angry, he's pounding with adrenaline, but he's maintaining control of himself and not backing down. He's taking a stand, whatever the cost.

STEREOGUM: People my age, we talk about how we were lucky that we didn’t have social media growing up, and there’s no record of all the dumb shit we said and did. You didn’t have social media, but everything you said and did in those years is on record, and you’ve got to live with it now. That’s tough. VIOLENT J: And the amount of gay Juggalos out there is really surprising. I think about them doing their research and getting the old records, getting excited about it, and getting their hearts broke or something, you know? I tell my daughter, “For the rest of your life, when your friends ask why your dad said that, say it’s because your dad was a fool. Don’t defend me. Say I was a fool then, but I’m not now.” There’s no excuse. I was going with the flow, and that’s the very thing we preach against — being a sheep. And that’s what I was doing. https://www.stereogum.com/2083804/icp-interview-juggalos/interviews/weve-got-a-file-on-you/

Reminder that Violent J of Insane Clown Posse has the correct response to a lot of the shitty things he said in the early days.

Honestly, the thing that he and so many others who are arguing this are accomplishing is that they're making it really easy on me to know who to block. But seriously, why are so many people making this argument?

Anyway, the tl;dr to take away from all this is a thing I have been repeating for ages, which is that extremism symbols function on a plausible-deniability basis. People who use them 100% rely on normal people going "I had no idea, so maybe he didn't either."

A NYMag interview with the photographer: "This was one of the hardest assignments I've ever done in my life. With a lot of social-justice-type assignments I've had, there's something maybe a little hopeful about it, but I feel like in this, there is no hope to hold on to."

worst of the worst?

If I had explain American history in one sentence, I could do worse than "John Brown was hung for treason, but Robert E. Lee was not."

Today, I convened a group of former military generals and veterans to hear perspectives on deploying troops in American cities.

Their commitment is to our nation. That’s why they’re speaking out against what the President's doing as uncalled-for, unprecedented, and un-American.

The media is largely ignoring the trauma of millions. Here's why. Plus: Watch George Stephanopolous pushes JD Vance with follow-up questions, cringe at Bari Weiss's pep talk to CBS journalists; and more

Source: margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/the-media-...

He was caring for his 5-year-old son with brain cancer. Then he was detained by ICE. A court has temporarily blocked Johny Merida Aguilar's deportation to Bolivia.

Every day at noon, no matter how busy, Johny Merida Aguilar left his construction job and hurried to his 5-year-old son's school to feed him. His son has brain cancer and generally only accepts food from his father.

Merida Aguilar was arrested by ICE in September and faces deportation to Bolivia.

There. Are. No. Exceptions. To. Human. Rights. If one of us isn't free, none of us are free. I want to live in a country where a politician who stands on this principle isn't the exception. But until then, Mamdani is an example of what's possible, and what we should demand from our leaders.

sherman, for the love of god!

We surveyed 90 trans Texans. Most said they’re living in fear and weighing a move Respondents said anti-trans policies have complicated their sense of home in Texas and pushed them to consider leaving the state.

My dope friend Adrian, who is trans, interviewed 90 transgender Texans. His project is finally out: www.dallasnews.com/news/politic...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused apnews.com/article/myan...

i think it is cool that a government run by fanatical bigots is on track to plunge the economy into a mountain and cause a food crisis

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

The Far Side's Most Controversial Comic Has a Heartwarming Backstory Talk about pivoting

My very favorite Jane Goodall story is about how she befriended Gary Larson after he made a mildly offensive comic about her:

I'm so glad you said this, because about 30 seconds ago, I published a newsletter piece detailing how conservatives have dump-trucked through all of the previously established common sense, nuanced, compromise positions on trans rights to get here: burns-notice.ghost.io/what-would-t...

Trump’s Politicized Prosecutions May Hit a Roadblock When the president puts his political enemies on trial on pretextual grounds, jurors have the option of refusing to convict.

There is one tried and true way ordinary Americans can stop Trump’s political prosecutions: Jury Nullification. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Freedom is 20 kitted up feds armed to breach the bin laden compound chasing a delivery worker bsky.app/profile/marm...

So exhausting..