GIFT LINK:

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

UT to consolidate gender and ethnic studies programs into one new department Affected departments include those that focus on African and African Diaspora Studies, Mexican American Studies, Women and Gender Studies and American Studies.

"Consolidating the programs effectively eliminates any institutional support...and further curtails faculty input in university decisions." So far no one has been fired but that's just so far. www.statesman.com/news/educati...

Episode 280: They Have Built Forced Birth Concentration Camps Fifteen Minutes of Fascism is a sadly topical podcast covering the global rise of the radical right. Listen every Thursday for news, analysis, historical background, and celebrations of the deaths of

Episode 280: They Have Built Forced Birth Concentration Camps by Craig Johnson.

Episode: soundcloud.com/user-6272349... .

Media: feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/22654...

A Russian strike hit a maternity hospital in Zaporizhzhia, regional authorities said. The number of injured has already risen to six people, according to the regional administration. #Ukraine

From @natashalennard.bsky.social in 2023 on the FACE Act:

Peeling Back the Curtain on Big Plastic’s False Solutions  - Inside Climate News Environmental policy expert and environmental justice champion Judith Enck says in a new book that it’s possible to move beyond society’s dependence on plastics, if we each play a part.

"The only aspect of plastics actually being recycled is the myth that recycling will stop plastic pollution."

insideclimatenews.org/news/0112202...

The Year We Lost Everything — Assigned An authoritarian government, a captured press and cowardice at the head of most major institutions led to a year of losses for trans people’s safety and equality in the US.

www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...

Four panel comic The K Chronicles by Keith Knight Panel 1: across the US, agreed libraries & closed abortion clinics are reopening... ...As white marker bakery pop-ups!! Sign: Today's special: marshmallow fluff on wonder bread!! Panel 2: to make up for lower wages & higher prices caused by their orange-faced führer, Trump loyalists are shocking the pastiest of pastries for local ICE units. Blonde baker: we don't serve brownies here!! Only Twinkies & Angel food cake!! Panel 3: pile of stinky gold shoes, red bibles and, Trump coins with bite marks. These white marker bakeries are generally cash only, but Trump bibles, Bitcoin, & Trump sneakers are also eagerly accepted. Panel 4: Silhouette of two MAGA trucks and a shop with a confused cashier. Some say these palest of patisseries are just a front for some like-minded MAGA-matchmaking. Speech balloon: Here's a little cream for them hot-cross buns!!

www.patreon.com/posts/146942...

An old timey illustration from The Chimes, showing a frightened old men surrounded by goblins. The caption reads "What Trotty saw in the belfry"

An old thread is making the rounds again, so here's an updated version.

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is one of the most enduring and adapted works of literature in history.

But did you know that he wrote 22 sequels?

Some are great! Some are trash! Some are bizarrely fascinating.

Colorado pastor: Sign these anti-trans ballot petitions or "you're a traitor" to Jesus Jim Burgen's recent sermon to Flatirons Community Church exposes how fear and lies drive anti-trans Christian politics

open.substack.com/pub/friendly...

Is It Too Late? No. But We Must Better Understand the Nature of the Battle

open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...

HHS changed the name of transgender health leader on her official portrait Admiral Rachel Levine was the first transgender person to be confirmed by the Senate to serve in the federal government. Her official portrait at HHS headquarters has been altered.

www.npr.org/sections/sho...

I read this 1000 times a day, what would you call it? 😄

bad actors like wurman are why i think it is important to place the birthright clause in the full context of section 1 and section 1 in the context of both dred scott and the two decades of antislavery and abolitionist agitation and political thinking that proceeded it

Know your rights. Protect your neighbors.

New York is — and always will be — a city for all immigrants.

During ratification of the 14th Amendment, senators discussed whether the Citizenship Clause would apply to the children of immigrants and resoundingly concluded that it did. The text and history all point in one direction and the counter-arguments are patently fraudulent. I am going to lose my mind

"I would describe it as a sacrifice zone," said Lavigne, who is now an environmental activist. "We have become the sacrificial lamb for the rest of the world to have single-use plastics."

Journal Club: The Real Harm of Incorrect IDs — Assigned A 2022 study digs into the mental and emotional harm of having official identification that doesn’t match a person’s real identity.

www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...

The Supreme Court Wants Republicans to Keep the House In 2026 A federal district court found that Texas Republicans’ redistricting proposal is an illegal racial gerrymander. The conservative justices couldn't care less.

Yet again, a district court showed its work

Yet again, the Supreme Court showed its ass

ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/texas...

A Christian mom who tried to ban LGBTQ books just got arrested for kidnapping her own daughter From censoring LGBTQ books to staging a kidnapping, Tammi Hamby’s crusade shows how Christian Nationalist power harms the very communities it claims to protect

A Christian mom who tried to ban LGBTQ books just got arrested for kidnapping her own daughter open.substack.com/pub/friendly...

Deadly in Small Doses: New Research Shows the Lethal Effects of Ingested Plastic on Marine Animals - Inside Climate News Fragments of rubber balloons, plastic bags and fishing line can cause fatal blockages and injuries in sea turtles, seabirds and marine mammals, according to a new analysis.

insideclimatenews.org/news/1711202...

4 frame comic. in the first frame, we see a candle; in the second, a trans flag ; in the third, birds flying off a tree near a house; in the fourth, someone blowing on a fire. text reads : november 20th is trans day of remembrance, during which we remember trans people who died in the past year due to transphobic violence. When I was younger, t.d.o.r. always galvanized me into working even harder towards dignity and justice for trans people. may each of the 281 names on this year's list - and the many more names that we don't know - ignite in our heart a relentless desire to keep dreaming.

A relentless desire to keep dreaming

A Researcher Made an AI That Completely Breaks the Online Surveys Scientists Rely On We can no longer trust that survey responses are coming from real people.”

🧪 A new AI agent successfully bypasses 99.8% of survey bot detectors. By simulating human keystrokes and typos, the tool demonstrates how easily synthetic respondents can poison scientific data and manipulate polling results.
#AcademicSky

Kristi Noem sits on a horse wearing a cowboy hat. In the background is Mount Rushmore.

NEW: We’ve uncovered the first known example of taxpayer money flowing from DHS to businesses controlled by Kristi Noem’s allies and friends.

It’s part of a money trail that’s been shrouded in secrecy—and involves $220 million, a mysterious Delaware LLC & a horse named Gill.

3 stars. Politically correct version of US history. "Moderately interesting episode. Story woke. Sorry I listened to this lecture series. 15 words required."

My series w/ The Great Courses, "Forgotten America: Rediscovering Events that Changed the Nation," is on Audible.
I noticed this review & had to laugh. Still got 3 stars out of them!
For super cool histories of inoculations, the Capitol Crawl, or the Hayes Code, check it out! 🗃️
adbl.co/3HEk4q6

This Week at Democracy Docket: First on Voter Suppression News Read more here.

NEW: The DOJ pressured Ohio to scrap its grace period for mail ballots. A GOP member of a key federal election panel made shocking comments that led one state election leader to call for her resignation.

Read our exclusive reporting from this week 👇

This.

I've turned down crypto investment, because that shit is disgusting. I know where that money comes from, and what was involved in taking it. So I said no. Decent people say no.

Refusing to say no to collabs and investment from morally reprehensible people and orgs makes you complicit.

What an odd set of options offered in the CBS News Poll. DEI but nothing about democracy or rule of law.👀

Fake news?

In the eyes of the establishment, there’s literally nothing Mamdani can do to prove he’s not an antisemite, and literally nothing the openly fascist trump regime can do to prove they are, up to and including intentionally dressing like literal, historical Nazis