David Menschel

Performative public lying is a hallmark of far right authoritarian parties

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."

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.

NEW: "The electronic case filing system used by the federal judiciary has been breached in a sweeping cyber intrusion that is believed to have exposed sensitive court data across multiple U.S. states, according to two people with knowledge of the incident."

As I wrote last year in @justsecurity.org, Israel’s pager attack in Lebanon violated the law of war.

www.justsecurity.org/103184/amend...

Survivors of Israel's pager attack on Hezbollah struggle to recover The pager attack across Lebanon killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded more than 3,000.

Thousands of pagers exploded in an Israeli attack against Hezbollah last year. Now some of the survivors, including children, are speaking about their recovery.

What if the media treated lies as moral deficiencies rather than spin to be merely debunked. And what if the media treated repeated liars as presumptive prevaricators and warned us – every time they quoted that person – that their veracity should be doubted.

This! All of us have to fight for the rights of all of us!!

JD Vance’s team had water level of Ohio river raised for family’s boating trip Exclusive: Incident raises questions of exploitation of public services, but Secret Service says it was requested for ‘safe navigation’ Stephanie Kirchgaessner and David Smith Wed 6 Aug 2025 17.46 EDT Share JD Vance’s team had the army corps of engineers take the unusual step of changing the outflow of a lake in Ohio to accommodate a recent boating excursion on a family holiday, the Guardian has learned. The request from the US Secret Service was made to “support safe navigation” of the US vice-president’s security detail for an August outing on the Little Miami River, according to a statement by the US army corps of engineers (USACE). Vance was spotted in the south-western Ohio area on 2 August, his 41st birthday, according to social media posts that noted he was seen canoeing on the river, a tributary that Caesar Creek Lake feeds into. One source with knowledge of the matter who communicated with the Guardian anonymously alleged that the outflow request for the Caesar Creek Lake was not just to support the vice-president’s Secret Service detail, but also to create “ideal kayaking conditions”. The Guardian could not independently confirm this specific claim.

What good is being VP if you can't abuse your power to have the Army Corps of Engineers making your kayaking trip more ideal by changing the waterflow of a lake?

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

YouTube video by NBC10 Boston Mass. public defenders take steps to unionize

#Massachusetts public defenders have filed the initial paperwork for a ballot initiative that would allow them to unionize. They will still need to collect signatures to get the question on the ballot.

#mapoli

My name is Krem Miskevich. I am a chef, and together with my spouse Lily Rose, we co-own Good Pierogi, an Eastern European pop up currently operating on Martha's Vineyard. The business was born from a desire to connect my Polish heritage with local food growers and producers on-island, and to feed its residents and visitors. I want to directly address the incident that occurred last Wednesday, July 30, 2025, at the West Tisbury Farmers Market, which has garnered national attention, and more than a few fabricated and fallacious claims about the events and myself.

The fuss affects not only me, my partner, and our business, but the other extremely hard-working vendors who come together Wednesdays and Saturdays to sell their wares from land and sea. The negative impact on them is unfair and I never intended for my decision to cause so much consternation to a community I deeply care about. The catalyst was our legally justified decision to not sell our pierogi to Alan Dershowitz, a figure recognized locally and nationally. When he came to our booth, I experienced a surge of emotion. As a chef, I love to share what I cook with the public, regardless of who they are. In this case, what was in the forefront of my mind was the fact that this was the high-profile attorney who represented several sexual predators and abusers including Jeffrey Epstein.

I have no desire to argue about the legal system in the U.S., or one's right to a fair trial. But, I personally know too many sexual abuse survivors. Mr. Dershowitz consciously decided to befriend and defend men who have been accused of abusing and harming women. The food we make is a labor of love, it's our craft. In our minds and hearts, selling to Alan Dershowitz was the equivalent to supporting his decisions and statements. It caused me to pause and question my willingness to sell to him and when I did, he began to harass us, misgender me, and film us without our consent.

In the days that followed, Mr. Dershowitz chose to execute a public smear campaign. If not for the traction gained from his one-sided, mythical storyline, we would have remained silent. However, the continued aggression and threats of groundless litigation have been followed by the distribution of defamatory flyers where we conduct business in an effort to cement further falsehoods. He has also taken to the internet and used the news media to circulate his fiction. I do not wish to argue with Mr. Dershowitz about Israel. But, to contextualize his hurtful rant, I think it would be helpful to share a bit about myself and our business:

Statement from the chef-owner of Good Pierogi of Martha's Vineyard: "In our minds and hearts, selling to Alan Dershowitz was the equivalent to supporting his decisions and statements." 🧵 www.instagram.com/p/DM_g1OyxirL/

Researchers forecast what Trump’s bill will mean for patients: Debt and delayed care Delayed treatments, canceled doctor visits and skipped prescriptions: Researchers say all will increase because of the tax and spending bill signed into law by President Donald Trump earlier this summ...

Researchers can forecast what this will mean for patient care. As a direct result of losing coverage: 2.5 million people will no longer have a personal doctor. 1.6 million patients will take on medical debt. The lack of care will cause nearly 22,000 deaths annually.
apnews.com/article/medi...

The reason we are in the unbelievably awful place that we are in is that for too long we’ve treated certain groups of people as not deserving of basic rights. The way we treat prisoners was always the canary in the coal mine.

The way out is for all of us to fight for the rights of all of us.

I wrote this piece from prison. Why shouldn’t I vote from here too? - The Boston Globe Voting would strengthen incarcerated people's connections to a society they still hope to contribute to.

“I feel that restoring [voting rights for incarcerated felons] will help reform the way I think and how I exist in society.” Yes. It’s time to restore voting rights for incarcerated felons. #mapoli #votingrights www.bostonglobe.com/2025/08/06/o...

Newly unsealed docs in POLITICO's effort to access Kash Patel's grand jury materials show that Judge Howell said his behavior "borders on the contemptuous" as he sought to repeatedly postpone his testimony to Jack Smith investigators. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

This is 18th century European aristocracy shit.

While Democracy Docket is covering the attacks on free and fair elections, The Washington Post is publishing...well...you decide what to call it.👀

Support pro-democracy independent media. Subscribe to DD now. hubs.ly/Q03jcjqP0

Today we learned Andrew Cuomo is directly coordinating with Donald Trump, even as this President sends masked agents to rip our neighbors off the streets and guts the social services so many New Yorkers rely on.

It’s disqualifying and a betrayal of our city.

Among Republicans, net approval of President Trump's handling of Epstein investigations has fallen.
(Economist / @today.yougov.com)
More, via Opinion Today:
opiniontoday.substack.com/p/250806-top...

Rand Paul on Trump's tariffs: "It's just not a good idea. We have great trade with Canada, and to disrupt the trade with Canada and Mexico isn't good for anyone. It certainly isn't gonna be good for our economy."

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

- Antoine de Saint Expery

Former FCC staffer, named as potential commissioner nominee, may have violated Hatch Act - CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Gavin Wax, a former FCC staffer, may have violated the Hatch Act several times during his brief tenure at the agency earlier this year.

NEW: Former FCC staffer Gavin Wax may have violated the Hatch Act several times during his brief tenure at the agency earlier this year. Now, he's been named as a potential commissioner nominee.

Women shouldn’t hold office, says GOP woman now running for office “I don’t know if I would vote for any female,” said state senate hopeful Mylie Biggs, the daughter of GOP Rep. Andy Biggs.

HOW IS THIS NOT THE FREAKING ONION www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/female-...

Miss United States Files Restraining Order Against GOP Rep. Cory Mills Lindsey Langston reported the Florida Republican to law enforcement for harassment last month.

Rep. Cory Mills is a complete personal trainwreck. Yikes.

"You Have To Be Willing To Fight" Hopium Paid Subscribers Gather Tonight at 7pm ET

"You Have To Be Willing To Fight" - my latest essay on our precarious moment 👇
www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/you-have-t...

Absolutely. What the New York City electorate is currently clamoring for is a candidate endorsed by Donald Trump.

bsky.app/profile/pear...

Leadership.

You can get kicked out of Columbia on antisemitism charges for publicly agreeing with the head of J St. There is no looking glass

ICE has a new courthouse tactic: Get immigrants’ cases tossed, then arrest them outside | Alabama Reflector Late last month, advocates filed a lawsuit on behalf of a dozen immigrants unexpectedly arrested by ICE, often after having their cases dismissed.

Via @timhenderson.bsky.social and @stateline.org: Rather than pursue a deportation case, the Trump administration has started convincing judges to dismiss immigrants’ cases — thus depriving the immigrants of protection from arrest and detention — then taking them into custody.

we’ve made it clear that anyone who visits the US could be disappeared into a Salvadoran prison but I’m sure it’s the kids and their avocado toasts who’re to blame

For my entire life, Democrats have approached virtually every battle while voluntarily tying their hands behind their back while Republicans have constantly broken norms and sought to exercise power. It is not just the latter, but the COMBINATION of those things that has led us to where we are.