It is minor compared to people losing their food aid or paychecks, but I'm pissed that the FEMA online education system is shut down. Everybody from disaster managers to public health to your fire department, county and state, use those free training programs, sometimes to qualify for jobs.

Due to the federal government shutdown, CalFresh benefits won't be issued in November. However, San Franciscans who are use CalFresh will get a letter from our agency next week with instructions for accessing a one-time prepaid card that can be used at grocery stores citywide: sfhsa.org/calfreshaid

When we were deployed, some Afghans risked their lives to help us. Now Trump wants to send them out to be killed by the Taliban. It’s a disgrace, a betrayal, and a decision that endangers future US troops.

I suspect the shift to fascism is in part due to this very phenomenon. There is a shift in late stage capitalism to plutonimy where those outside the ultra-rich are economically irrelevant, but even the limited franchise of a farce of a democracy like the US is getting in the way of this change.

Join the movement to End Hunger in America - volunteer at a food bank - advocate - donate www.feedingamerica.org/take-action

After every disaster when people lose power, there are deaths of this kind. Please be careful with portable generators and don't use them indoors.

My publisher’s been very patient. I’m not doing everything I said I’d do to promote this book (out in a few weeks) because I’m an organizer in a city under federal attack. My days are full and emotionally exhausting. Any help getting the word out means a lot. It's a book people need right now.

4/ Russia may be able to pose a significant threat to NATO on a timeline much sooner than 2036 and without necessarily reconstituting its tank fleet. European authorities continue to report increased unidentified drone sightings in European airspace near military facilities.

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

I don't want to shill for the Post, but this is a serious, silent and growing issue. Disabled folks below that age mark are in the same unpleasant boat. Nursing homes are not nice places to live, and we're supposed to have the right to care in the community - but that care is not great either.

I think we really should stop using antifa and just fully say anti-fascist and get them saying they are against anti fascism. Using antifa is giving them some distance and I genuinely think some of their base don’t even know that’s what it stands for.

For those not fluent in Catholic: refusing the Monstrance is not denying prisoners the Eucharist, it is refusing Christ himself, since Christ is present in the Monstrance. If Portland’s blow up animals are the right language for Portland, this is the right language for Chicago.

The Oregon Republican Party tried to help Donald Trump make the case for military intervention in Portland with an image of a fiery protest — but since Portland is calm, they had to fabricate one by merging old photos of police in Ecuador and protesters in Brazil www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

at its core, a lot of these guys use AI as a woman who can be forced to love them, cannot say no to them, and that they have 100% control over. the problem isn't the specific words used or the specific target, it's what such behavior indicates about the user themselves

Check out this project to document and preserve existing National Park Service signs before they disappear under orders of the regime. Help gather information and spread the word. sites.google.com/umn.edu/save...

"The possibly imminent government shutdown would be like no federal funding crunch before it," writes Stephen Collinson | Analysis https://cnn.it/4pMhGiM

“If this was done by another country, we absolutely would call this corruption,” said Kristofer Harrison, who served as a high-level State Department official in the George W. Bush administration. “Because it is corruption.” (Published May)

Here’s the text of a public health order issued by the Dir. of Colorado’s public health dept directing the state’s health officer to issue a new standing order to allow pharmacists to administer Covid shots & laying out add’l steps authorized by existing statutes: drive.google.com/file/d/1sNIV...

Republican legislators in WI propose bill to prevent local ‘rights of nature’ ordinances. Granting natural entities legal rights is relatively new in the US, but countries & Indigenous communities around the world have enshrined legal rights for nature. ictnews.org/news/republi...

New statement: IDSA, APHA and partners call for RFK Jr. to resign: "Our country needs leadership that will promote open, honest dialogue — not disregard decades of lifesaving science, spread misinformation, reverse medical progress and decimate programs that keep us safe." bit.ly/3JOgDya

At least 10 gun industry businesses, including Glock, Smith & Wesson, Remington and Mossberg, secretly handed over names, addresses and other data to lobbyists, who used the details to rally firearm owners to elect pro-gun politicians. By @coreygjohnson.bsky.social (Published Oct. 2024)

A dramatic, extremely worrying moment; over 61,000 people held in ICE detention. That is the highest number ever on record in United States history; roughly 6,000 higher than the previous record set under Trump six years ago, and over 21,000 higher than when Trump took office just seven months ago.

NEW: SSA chief data officer and whistleblower Charles Borges resigned today—but his resignation email quickly disappeared from recipients' inboxes, sources tell @wired.com. @makenakelly.bsky.social and @davidgilbert.bsky.social report: www.wired.com/story/charle...

oh

FEMA employees were just placed on leave after criticizing the Trump regime in open letter. Their letter was meant to "sound the alarm" about inexperienced appointees and drastic cuts to agency programs. Like all tyrants in history, Trump wants to squelch dissent.

Former Japanese Internment Camp Used As Immigrant Detention Center https://theonion.com/former-japanese-internment-camp-used-as-immigrant-detention-center/

CDC Director Susan Monarez has been ousted less than a month after being sworn in. Monarez, a federal scientist, was confirmed by the Senate on July 29 to lead the CDC after being nominated by President Donald Trump. Her departure follows a shooting at CDC headquarters in Atlanta earlier this month.

I blame RFK

Labor Day and May Day both have roots in the 19th-century America, and the battle to limit working to 9 hours a day. “The call for shorter hours was rooted in a big idea: that workers’ days belonged to them, even if employers owned the workplace and paid for their work.” buff.ly/ZVeD4Od

A transgender woman has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a male partner by failing to disclose her gender status to him, meaning he could not consent to the sexual activity, British prosecutors said.

Here’s what was NOT released today: - the proffer agreement between Maxwell and the DoJ - the agreement transferring Maxwell to club fed - communications showing who waived Maxwell’s sex offender status allowing her transfer and possible work assignments outside prison - the Epstein files

Here’s a link to the resource—-please share with folks!! There is no excuse for using GenAI :( docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Experts warn that suspending the mental health coverage rules could mean serious consequences: longer waits when patients challenge insurance decisions, fewer investigations of possible violations of federal law and more people going without care.

In the Rockies, subalpine wetlands may be producing toxic methylmercury, posing a risk to downstream water supplies. Climate change and pollution create perfect conditions for this neurotoxin to form in seemingly pristine mountain ecosystems, according to a biogeochemistry professor.

Red meat prices are skyrocketing in the United States, the world’s largest consumer and producer of beef, thanks to drought and tariffs. So far, Americans haven't cut back.

Wikipedia publishes list of AI writing tells boingboing.net/2025/08/20/w...

Texas lawmakers passed a new congressional district map intended to flip five Democratic-held House seats to Republican control in next year's midterm elections, a key step in an increasingly acrimonious partisan battle as California Democrats lined up their own redistricting effort reut.rs/3Jo4DDw

The US government is again moving to outright force drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, threatening both caribou and the Gwich’in people in northern Yukon who depend on them. thenarwhal.ca/yukon-old-cr...

Theil Takedown - Action at Founders Fund! • Friday, August 22, 2025 • 11:00 AM 1:00 PM • Founders Fund (map) • Google Calendar ICS Take the fight with usat Founders Fund – one of Peter Thiel's primary venture capital vehicles and a key early investor in Palantir.

1/ Quick update on #fallvaccines: Flu and RSV vaccines remain business as usual this fall: if you’re eligible, you should be able to get them without issue. Vaccinations should start in September. Covid-19 vaccines are another story. There will be three key developments this week 👇

NEW: The president, who has framed mental health as a national crisis, paused rules to hold insurers accountable for unlawfully denying coverage. And Congress cut funding to the agency that enforces insurers’ equal treatment of mental and physical health.

The Independent has identified Eric Lendrum as the DHS PR officer responsible for a relentless flood of social media posts on DHS pages using Nazis memes, slogans and images. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Thrilled that my book chapter, "Mask Shaming: On Private Enforcement and Disability Politics," in print as part of the important @nyupress.bsky.social book Regulating the Body: Autonomy, Control, and the Broken Promise of Equality in American Law, ed. by the legendary Austin Sarat & Susanna Lee! 1/3

Texas Republicans are holding a Black woman, a Democratic state rep, hostage in the legislative chamber. They have locked the doors and have banned her from leaving.

*I wonder how many victims of "AI psychosis" believe that their AI is their ultra-powerful personal enemy instead of their confidante and therapist

‘Shut it down and start again’: staff disquiet as Alan Turing Institute faces identity crisis