Ami Fields-Meyer

The Orange County Mayor, which encompasses Orlando, signed an agreement to cooperate with ICE as he, along with the entire board of county commissioners, were threatened with removal from office if they didn't.

They should've forced DeSantis to do it and not take the cowardly way out.

Eric Holder on Why He Reversed Course on Gerrymandering

Why counter-gerrymandering is both necessary and justified: this authoritarian move by Trump and his loyal, compliant red state followers in places like Texas has to be met without hesitation: The very survival of our republic is at stake in this moment.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/02/u...

Kentucky hospital group warns of closures, reduced services, job losses due to Medicaid cuts Healthcare in Kentucky is facing a tough future with billions in Medicaid cuts on the horizon, according to the Kentucky Hospital Association.

Kentucky hospital group warns of closures, reduced services, job losses due to Medicaid cuts www.lex18.com/news/coverin...

Texas Democrats head to Illinois to deny Republicans a quorum on redistricting In an extraordinary move brokered with Illinois Gov. Pritzker, dozens of Texas House Democrats move to deny quorum as the GOP is set to draw new maps.

BREAKING: Dozens of Texas Democrats leave the state and head to Illinois to deny Republican legislators a quorum on redistricting.

Names of children killed before first birthday

The Post is keeping a list of the 18,500 babies and children killed in Gaza. It just goes on and on and on. www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

Kevin Hassett is having a brutal time during this Meet the Press appearance. Completely unequipped to defend the firing of the head of labor statistics

Opinion | A.I. Is Not a 21st-Century Enlightenment

“We formulate the questions, drive the inquiry … and we search … for answers that reinforce what we already think we know. ChatGPT has often responded, with patently insincere flattery: ‘That’s a great question.’ It has never responded: ‘That’s the wrong question.’” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/02/o...

Evyatar David, 24, looks looks visibly gaunt as he ticks off days on a calendar in a narrow tunnel. Another section of the Hamas video shows him being forced to dig a hole in the ground that he says will be his grave.

Evyatar David, 24, looks looks visibly gaunt as he ticks off days on a calendar in a narrow tunnel. Another section of the Hamas video shows him being forced to dig a hole in the ground that he says will be his grave.

Horrific. Do not look away: Evyatar David, 24, looks looks visibly gaunt as he ticks off days on a calendar in a narrow tunnel. Another section of the Hamas video shows him being forced to dig a hole in the ground that he says will be his grave.

time.com/7307125/evya...

My guess is the AI bubble popping will be similar to the dot com bubble popping at the turn of the century. There’s a real technological advancement, it will have real long-term impact on the world, but a lot of the money now is hype, FOMO, and irrational exuberance.

But I guess we’ll see.

Saif Hijazi, 13, who suffers from severe malnutrition and was partially paralyzed by shelling lies on a bed to have his picture taken at the Shifa Hospital where he is being treated in Gaza City, Monday, July 28, 2025. In Gaza, malnutrition is often worsened by preexisting conditions and compounded by illnesses linked to inadequate health care and poor sanitation, largely the result of the ongoing war. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Horrific. Saif Hijazi, 13, who suffers from severe malnutrition and was partially paralyzed by shelling lies on a bed. Malnutrition is often worsened by preexisting conditions and compounded by illnesses linked to inadequate health care/poor sanitation. Don't look away.

bit.ly/45gZPah

Syria: Authorities must investigate abductions of Alawite women and girls   The Syrian government must urgently step up efforts to prevent gender-based violence and promptly, thoroughly and impartially investigate cases of abducted and kidnapped Alawite women and girls, and hold perpetrators accountable, Amnesty International said today.   

This is a nightmare: "Many interviewees said that women and girls, primarily from the Alawite community, but also others living in the affected governorates, are now afraid or extremely cautious when leaving their homes to attend school, university, or work. "

www.amnesty.org/en/latest/new...

I'm going to start calling this "Elias's razor":

“When it comes to elections, Democrats should [n]ever engage in any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith"

Perhaps, but nothing is inevitable and it's worth lifting up examples of where media gets it right

I agree that Axios et al often miss the forest for the clicks, but here they use language of "purging dissenters, rewriting history, criminalizing opposition" and say Trump "threatened to eviscerate the integrity of US govt data."

That is the kind of descriptive language we need more of from media

I am quoted here so let me be totally clear on my take: Jonathan Greenblatt has made a calculated choice to aid the consolidation of authoritarian power by the MAGA movement in exchange for the suppression of criticism of Israel. And the consequences for American Jews will be devastating.

Oct. 1, 2024: Government information was the gold standard, whether you wanted to know how many people died in a war or what to wear the next day. We should be able to count on our government for facts and truth. But ... we won’t be able to if Trump and Vance win. www.thebulwark.com/p/say-goodby...

ADL Musk

I spoke with 40+ sources for a look inside the Anti-Defamation League. Here’s some of what I found.

ADL’s gentle response to Elon Musk’s infamous salute was partially driven by his support of Israel. To ADL, that indicated he didn’t have “antisemitic tendencies.” (1/x)

nymag.com/intelligence...

ADL web gone

Shortly after Trump’s election in November, the Internet Archive registered major changes to ADL’s website. Sections devoted to voting rights, racial justice, and other civil-rights issues were all gone. (3/x)

Hamas releases video of Israeli hostage Evyatar David from Gaza captivity

The still images of from the video of the emaciated Evyatar David from within the narrow concrete tunnel are horrific. Nauseating.

Playing Dead: Do the Democrats really want reform? (Harper's)

harpers.org/archive/2025/08/p...

Israeli police release settler accused of killing Palestinian activist Yinon Levi was placed under three days of house arrest, while police have refused to release the body of Awdah Hathaleen

"Israeli police said they would not release Hathaleen’s body until his family agreed to 10 conditions, including limiting the funeral to 15 people and burying his body outside his birth village, according to a lawyer representing the family."

Opinion | JD Vance Claims One of Our Worst Traditions as His Own The vice president envisions a world of tiered citizenship, where entry depends on heritage and status rests on obedience.

From ‪@jamellebouie.net‬, an outstanding analysis of Vance:

"Vance sees the egalitarian ideals of our founding documents but says...that we must look elsewhere for our vision of American citizenship. And that elsewhere is your heritage — your connection to the soil and to the dead. bit.ly/4oqsqCX

We are just so lost

117. Alondra Nelson, Biden's Head of Science and Technology Policy, talks AI, Trump's research funding cuts, and how memes replaced Happy Days - Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure at UMass A... Alondra Nelson is arguably the most important sociologist of science in America. She isn’t just a brilliant researcher of how race and racism has shaped public health in America, nor just a thoughtful...

I've spent a lot of time listening to and learning from @alondra.bsky.social, and still I'm reminded with every new interview that she is singularly dynamic thinker.

Here she cuts through the noise of the Trump AI farce: "They’re trying to erode a sense that there is a fundamental human equality"

His Name Is Jesus. He’s a Carpenter. ICE Arrested Him. Seriously.

"We're going to go after the welfare loafers and the criminal aliens" turned into "We're literally arresting a hardworking carpenter named Jesus"

NYT Headline: No One Is Defying Trump Like Brazil’s President Faced with threats of 50 percent tariffs and demands to end a criminal case, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he wouldn’t take orders from President Trump.

Trump, not satisfied with undermining US democracy, has imposed 50% tariffs on Brazil to pressure it into dropping the case against fellow coup-plotter Jair Bolsonaro. And we are all paying more for coffee! Outrageous.

A.I. Is About to Solve Loneliness. That’s a Problem The discomfort of loneliness shapes us in ways we don’t recognize—and we may not like what we become without it.

"[Critics] usually worry about others getting sucked in—never themselves. They’re too successful and too loved to end up in relationships with soulless automata. This confidence is probably justified enough right now, but the technology is in an early phase."

www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...

Curtis Yarvin tweets: "Here’s how the libs got the USG to spend $2T a year on libbery. They greased the road with their OWN MONEY FIRST. That’s where this NGO empire came from. Before WW2 it was all private. Do you know what it took to raise a mil or so for Doug Mackey? I wasn’t involved. But I saw it" Then a second tweet from him: "No. We have only one problem. The problem is: our billionaires are n—ers. They may be rich. But they’re n—er rich. The nature and function of their wealth is profoundly negrous. You can probably name exceptions. I can too. But in every way, the exceptions prove the rule"

Some utter nonsense, really just drivel, the conclusion of which is edgy racism - this is the essence of Curtis Yarvin, the purest distillation of who he is as a person.

I'm going to buy this book.

Seattle mayoral race tightens as Katie Wilson matches Bruce Harrell in fundraising Wilson is giving the incumbent mayor a fight ahead of the Aug. 5 primary.

Do something good, Seattle!