arguably Not Good that Democrats have opted to ignore climate and environmental politics, which are structural components of the right's long-running crusade against democracy newrepublic.com/article/2093...
NEW: For 50 years, the federal government waged the War on Cancer. For the last year it has instead fought a war on cancer's victims. Our @dylangyauchl.bsky.social makes the case:
revolvingdoorproject.substack.com/p/the-pro-ca...
The task of de-Trumpification of science and public health will take a generation and a "Marshall Plan" to rebuild. Without a bold, expansive vision to guide us, there is no coming back. Small-bore, poll-tested versions of the future will not help us. www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Last week's hearings were just one step in holding Russell Vought accountable. The opposition needs to build on the most notable moments and ensure the constituents most harmed by Vought's actions hear his damning testimony.
I wrote about AMOC newrepublic.com/article/2091...
Very grateful to Senator Bernie Sanders for bringing U.S. unions together to create a common front in the face of the threat AI poses to workers and much else.
Sometimes it takes an 84-year-old to do the high tech stuff!
www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...
Today @cplusc.bsky.social launches a working class strategy for tackling the affordability & climate crises. The climate‑cost nexus is already costing billions every year, and it will get worse the longer we don’t act on climate; we also must address working peoples’ immediate economic problems
Happy Tax Day folks. As I pointed out here, the technical arguments about having free tax filing is over. Direct File proved it. What we are seeing now is just rent-seekers bribing policymakers to be allowed to keep extracting money from you.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/what-the-d...
NEW: At least 88 corporations paid $0 in federal income tax in 2025.
That's despite collectively earning more than $105 billion in U.S. income.
The list includes Tesla, Palantir, Live Nation Entertainment, Coinbase, United Airlines, Walt Disney, and more.
itep.org/88-profitabl...
🎧LEVER TIME: The secret 40-year plot to bury you in tax paperwork & force you to pay accountants - rather than letting the IRS send you your completed tax returns like other countries do.
This story is enraging - it's a GOP plot to enrich tax prep companies & make you hate taxes.
OMB Director Russell Vought, an unelected official, is unilaterally blocking funds that we need to better understand how the climate crisis is accelerating.
This is a life-threatening attack on the public good by our shadow dictator.
Trump's mistreatment of disaster victims in blue states continues. In the past week, he:
-denied an appeal from IL even though the damage-to-wealth ratio was 3x higher than what had historically triggered aid
-denied two appeals from CO even though both disasters exceeded the threshold for aid
This is the future the Trump administration wants for us.
US budgets less for improving lives, more for ending them. Discretionary spending by function, constant 2026 dollars. This chart shows war spending increasing steadily since 2017 and shows public investment spending peaking in 2020 before steadily falling ever since. Trump’s 2027 budget includes $1.5 trillion in war spending and only $432.3 billion in public investment. Amounts reflect discretionary funding plus supplemental discretionary funding via reconciliation. Budget function 050 in war category; others minus 700, 750 in public investment. Data: Office of Management and Budget, Congressional Research Service.
Budgets are moral documents
www.stephensemler.com/p/trumps-bud...
Trump pretending to be Jesus
“Be at peace my child - you just lost your Medicaid coverage because of my new work requirements. They’re gonna pull the plug in a minute.”
OMB Director Russell Vought it set to testify before the House and Senate Budget Committees this week. For far too long, Vought has operated in the shadows as the chief architect of Trump's destruction of the federal government.
It's time to shine a light on Vampire Vought.🧵
Cybercriminals have used AI and crypto to supercharge fraud and scams, stealing a record $16 billion from Americans last year. Between weakened cybersecurity agencies and sensitive personal information being uprooted from secure databases, those losses will only grow.
“We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter,” said Altman, laying out an intensely dystopian future as just another business development. “One of the most important things in the future is that we make intelligence, to borrow an old phrase from the energy industry that didn’t quite work, ‘Too cheap to meter.’” When I first heard what Altman had said, I was shocked and bewildered. How does someone even conceive of metering (and monetizing) intelligence if they’re not a tech billionaire with an intense antipathy toward humanity? It was clearly not something that would ever be achieved in practice. But it did hint at a much deeper issue with these AI tools, what they’re doing to our cognitive capacities, and the broader ideology underpinning the industry’s effort to force AI into every facet of our lives.
Altman made this declaration at an infrastructure summit hosted by BlackRock. It’s the latest in a long line of outrageous statements he’s made to try to justify the rollout of generative AI and the massive cost to power it.
disconnect.blog/make-em-dumb...
For every $1 the IRS spends auditing the top 1%, it could collect roughly $13.
For every $1 the IRS spends auditing the top 0.1%, it could collect $26.
Wondering why the Trump regime has cut 25,000 IRS employees in the last year?
It's about making it easier for the rich to evade taxes.
I have never seen a politician take such a consistent and active interest in workers.
What are we really talking about when we talk about NEPA?
For @prospect.org today, @hannahstoryb.bsky.social spoke with several experts about what the ongoing political debate about reforming the National Environmental Policy Act is missing.
They had plenty of illuminating ideas.
Russell Vought has once again proposed eliminating lifesaving utility assistance for our most vulnerable neighbors.
This, at a time when dangerous, fossil fuel-intensified heat has already arrived and bills are skyrocketing due to AI data centers and Trump's devastating war on Iran.
Congress last year rebuffed Vought's attempt to abolish LIHEAP. It's imperative that federal lawmakers do so again.
The Trump regime's unrelenting attacks on that program are just one part of its lethal war on democracy, working people, and a livable climate.
More on that here:
Russell Vought is trying to dismantle two agencies created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill because when the next big financial crash comes bankers don’t want to spoil the surprise.
newrepublic.com/article/2085...
Hell isn't hot enough for Donald Trump and the cruel sycophants in his administration.
"While ordinary people are suffering amid the war and resulting fuel price shocks, fossil fuel companies – such as those who furnished Trump with record donations on the campaign trail – are seeing handsome windfall profits, said Bigger." Me in @dharna.bsky.social 's latest in @theguardian.com
Top Republicans have already floated the idea of federal health care cuts to offset the Pentagon’s massive Iran War price tag. trib.al/qQAN4JK
Doing so would drastically increase out-of-pocket premium costs and could cause some 300,000 people to lose their health insurance by 2034.
