David Moore

This could have been part of the lasting, clear-to-all successes of De Blasio’s second term, but his perma-crisis city management left an atrophied NYC DOT for Eric Adams, who minimized the agency. De Blasio should recognize now that transit and safe streets would have greatly helped his reputation.

Clout Chasing Will Be the Death of Us All The New Yorker’s Clare Malone recently published a long profile of Jessica Reed Kraus, the QAnon-adjacent mommy blogger who played an instrumental role in Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s successful bid to be...

TODAY: @littlewow.online on MAGA gossip blogger Houseinhabit. “In the new tradition of other disgraced figures … who swerved to the right, she’s found open arms (and wallets) when no one else would have her.” flaminghydra.com/clout-chasin...

These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department. Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of publ...

The Trump administration is working to dramatically expand school choice, moving kids to a range of private & religious schools or homeschooling. Ultimately, what percentage of children would remain in public schools? A Moms for Liberty co-founder told me: “I hope zero. I hope to get to zero.”

Roots of Understanding a fiery writer-owned cooperative

TODAY: @tomscocca.bsky.social on learning new things in an unfamiliar and only partially legible place. “The longer we wandered the garden, the more affection I had for the signage.” flaminghydra.com/roots-of-und...

After Passing Legislation That Decimated Outdoor Dining, NYC Council Demands to Know What Killed Outdoor Dining Councilmembers and DOT officials traded blame at a hearing on Wednesday, while both sides said they’d be open to making changes to the program.

Chatter on here recently about how driving makes people antisocial and irate, posing mortal danger on the roads.

New Yorkers can ask their @council.nyc.gov if Speaker Adrienne Adams and others made the right decision in 2023 by decimating outdoor dining for private car storage on city streets.

PODCAST! How to Fix AI, with Paul Ford Special guest, writer, editor, technologist, and entrepreneur Paul Ford talks with Maria Bustillos about, in Paul’s words, “the thing, which is they launched Frankenstein’s Monster, but inside of Fran...

ALSO TODAY: @mariabustillos.com and the great @ftrain.bsky.social talk about fixing the equally wretched AI problem flaminghydra.com/podcast-how-...

SCOOP: Apple Quietly Made ICE Agents a Protected Class Internal emails show tech giant used anti-hate-speech rules meant for minorities to block an app documenting immigration enforcement.

Shame on Apple. Tim Cook's commitment to capitulation is remarkable.

migrantinsider.com/p/scoop-appl...

Free shipping from @bookshop.org continues today. Plus they have Life After Cars for about $2 off, so preorder your copy!

Trump approves mining road, delivers $70 million windfall to MAGA billionaire On April 6, 2024, a procession of Range Rovers, Aston Martins, and Bentleys rolled up to the Palm Beach mansion of billionaire John Paulson. The occasion was a glitzy fundraiser for Donald Trump’s…

1. On Monday, Trump delivered a $70 million windfall to his billionaire buddy, John Paulson.

Paulson hosted the biggest fundraiser of Trump's 2024 campaign, raising over $50 million.

This week, Trump returned the favor.

Follow along for details.

Photo by Heidi Levine (July 30, 2025) showing an aerial view of Gaza destruction, taken during a Royal Jordanian military flight for a humanitarian aid mission.

BREAKING: The post-10/7 wars have killed or injured at least 236,505 people in Gaza alone. The U.S. has spent over $31 billion and counting in the wider region since Oct. 7, 2023, where millions have been displaced, according to new Costs of War research. [THREAD]

Photo Credit: Heidi Levine, 2025

We'd be interested in talking about forming a consortium to fundraise for this, and to contribute our progress so far on ebook sales. I wrote about the dangers recently here:

www.cjr.org/analysis/the...

Retired US supreme court justice fears ‘democracy is not guaranteed to survive’ Anthony Kennedy told NPR ‘partisanship is becoming ... more prevalent and more bitter’ in the high court’s opinions

Democratic primary voters in MA, MN, TN, TX, and VA handed the nomination on Super Tuesday 2020 to Biden, one of the candidates who did not support expanding the Supreme Court. (Obvs. Kennedy’s late sputtering here is absurd.)

More Democrats can examine who at the DNC decided the primary calendar.

Pressuring Biden to Declare a National Climate Emergency Restraining fossil fuel extraction was indeed among the things that more than 380 environmental groups called on President-elect Biden to do.

Globally, renewables overtook coal for electricity generation for the first time in the first half of 2025. Progressives proposed investing in clean energy in 2011, but they’re frozen out of congressional committee leadership and party fundraising rules by Pelosi, Schumer, and Jeffries. “Oh well.”

Better banknotes Yemisi Aribisala reimagines money

Yemisi Aribisala is always spectacular; this time she has redesigned not just the Nigerian currency, but ways of thinking about history and women and labor more generally; who does money belong to?

at @flaminghydra.com

flaminghydra.com/issue-417/

Israel’s New U.S. Influence Campaigns Target TikTok, Churches, and ChatGPT In the wake of SKDK’s cancelled contract, three firms newly registered under FARA are executing influence operations in the U.S. for Israel.

Trump's digital guru Brad Parscale's Clock Tower X is one of the newly-formed firms working for Israel on messaging campaigns across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Latest:

Ellison's CBS brought on the two editors that got NYT to publish Tom Cotton's 2020 op-ed calling for soldiers to shoot protesters in the streets. Hard to find a clearer editorial throughline than "anyone protesting murder by the state should be killed for it."

California passes bill curbing utilities use of ratepayer money for political spending State lawmakers last week made California the seventh state to pass a bill limiting investor-owned utilities from using customer money to pay for political and lobbying costs.

Governor Newsom has a bill on his desk to hold utilities accountable, and get them to stop passing along their dark money campaigns to everyday Californians.

Is he going to side with utilities, or side with the public and help lower electricity rates?
energyandpolicy.org/california-l...

Jackson Chourio

Brewers player Jackson Chourio

Brewers player Jackson Chourio

All 7 Brewers runs scored with two outs - Jackson Chourio et al et al

Better banknotes Yemisi Aribisala reimagines money

TODAY: Yemisi Aribisala on the chaotic history of Nigerian money. "The Nigerian government has forgotten that the Naira belongs to us" flaminghydra.com/issue-417/#t...

this feels like forty years ago but it was 2023

www.newsweek.com/nancy-pelosi...

Poll question: Should AI companies be required to prove their systems are safe before releasing them to the public? - 79% of all registered voters approved in the online poll of 1,700 registered voters was conducted nationwide by Bullfinch Group from Sept. 6-11, 2025.

Voters could ask Sens. Maria Cantwell (WA) and John Hickenlooper (CO), who last year introduced bipartisan AI measures, if they've seen this new poll: 79% of voters say companies should prove their AI systems are safe before releasing them to the public.

demandprogress.org/multiple-pol...

Top Dem Bundler Lobbies Against Worker Protections for Amazon Steve Elmendorf, a major DCCC bundler, is lobbying for Amazon on the Warehouse Worker Protection Act that is championed by the Teamsters union representing recently-striking workers.

Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic insider, and his firm Avoq lobby for Amazon against federal labor protections supported by the Teamsters.

Elmendorf bundles six-figure sums for the DCCC and DSCC; reformers urge Dems to reject lobbyist cash, but that's not going to happen under current party leaders.

Breaking: Amazon Actually Employs Its Delivery Drivers While Trump, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos seek to nullify worker rights, a Los Angeles court last week forced Bezos’s company to document the truth.

A Los Angeles court is considering a parade of clear evidence that Amazon is indeed employer of its delivery drivers, @prospect.org reports from the courtroom, which, golly, would make the workers not 'independent contractors.'

Corporate Clients of Top Democratic Firm Oppose the Democratic Agenda Bully Pulpit International touts its reputation rehab and policy change services for companies like McDonald’s, Uber, and Walmart.

The DNC has kept its member roster hush-hush for decades to avoid scrutiny of the corporate clients of its insider decision-makers, like principals at consultancy Dewey Square Group.

Other highly-paid DNC comms firms like Bully Pulpit work for far larger clients like Uber, McDonald's, and Walmart.

Democratic Convention Chair’s Firm Helps Companies Block Labor Laws Dewey Square Group, where DNC Chair Minyon Moore leads State and Local Affairs, was paid millions of dollars last year by a Lyft-funded industry group fighting state labor protections.

In California, 800,000 drivers for Uber and Lyft will be able to unionize next year under a newly-signed bill.

The gig economy companies spent huge to defeat the measure. Minyon Moore, the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee co-chair, heads sate affairs at a firm that worked for Lyft on the MA campaign.

Israel’s New U.S. Influence Campaigns Target TikTok, Churches, and ChatGPT In the wake of SKDK’s cancelled contract, three firms newly registered under FARA are executing influence operations in the U.S. for Israel.

NEW: Following the bot army backlash, Israel ramps up propaganda with 3 US firms: $6M Gen Z campaign by Brad Parscale, "Esther Project" that pays influencers, and a VR "10/7 Experience" deployed at churches. readsludge.com/2025/10/06/i...

Bessent Picks Social Security Chief Frank Bisignano as IRS CEO The Social Security head will do double duty at the tax agency while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent retains his formal title as acting IRS commissioner.

Alarming news this morning that Social Security head Frank Bisignano has been named “CEO” of IRS, a move that raises 3 major concerns:

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

Brad Lander Wants New York City to Resist The NYC Comptroller talks ICE, Trump, Zohran, and Brooklyn.

"When Trump sends troops here, how will we stand up to them insistently and make clear New York doesn’t need them, New York doesn’t want them, New York is resisting them?"
I spoke to @bradlander.bsky.social about ICE, Trump, Zohran, and the future of New York.
www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/brad-lande...

Bringing a Survey to a Gun Fight “Pollingism” Has Failed Democrats and Voters. Here’s Why, and What to Do Instead.

Sidelining marginalized groups/causes for electoral purposes is morally bad, as Ta-Nehisi Coates argued so well recently. @anatosaurus.bsky.social is making an important case---that strategy's electoral benefits are often limited or non-existent. A must-read. www.weekendreading.net/p/bringing-a...

New Yorkers can ask Transportation Committee Chair Selvena Brooks-Powers, of Far Rockaway, if our city should have done the same. And if so, what has been the holdup to fully funding the NYC DOT — how did the Adams administration exacerbate the agency’s atrophy.