Union Now Is America’s New Strike Fund - The American Prospect The new nonprofit will put money directly into the hands of workers so they can fight harder and win bigger.

It was exciting to talk to Sara Nelson and Bernie Sanders about their new plan to strengthen and expand organized labor. It's pretty straightforward: give workers money.

Whom to trust New fiction from Nathan Munn

TODAY: New fiction from Nathan Munn. "As he passed the woman’s table he pretended to trip and hit the floor with a thump and a cry."

flaminghydra.com/r/e25567c1?m...

A fabulous collection of free to read writing at @flaminghydra.com to wet your beak on flaminghydra.com/free/

The Shell Game Donors Use to Hide Their Identities Party leaders’ super PACs are increasingly routing contributions through nonprofits first, so donor names disappear before the money shows up in public filings.

Will Senate Dems pledge to nudge back up tax rates on millionaires and billionaires? To crack down on union busting, break up monopolies, enforce human rights laws in arms sales, unwind domestic surveillance contractors?

Impossible to know which wealthy donors already have promises booked!

Reid Hoffman-Funded ‘Pink Slime’ Site Runs Kamala Harris Ads Courier Newsroom began running Harris ads on Facebook and Instagram just days before Hoffman made his endorsement.

The $31 million in dark donations so far this cycle just from Majority Forward to SMP (not counting other dark money groups) could be from billionaires who are not too keen on having tech companies power data centers exclusively with renewable energy, or not a fan of antitrust enforcement.

The Shell Game Donors Use to Hide Their Identities Party leaders’ super PACs are increasingly routing contributions through nonprofits first, so donor names disappear before the money shows up in public filings.

Tens of millions of dark money is being funneled into Senate Dems' aligned super PAC this cycle. Whatever happens in the midterms, Senate Dem insiders have a secret ledger of wealthy donors to keep in mind.

The Shell Game Donors Use to Hide Their Identities Party leaders’ super PACs are increasingly routing contributions through nonprofits first, so donor names disappear before the money shows up in public filings.

New: $44 million in secret-donor money flowed into the super PACs aligned with congressional leaders in Q1 from their affiliated "dark money" groups.

Senate Dems' super PAC raised the highest amount, and highest share, of dark money during that period.

Watch Out In recent weeks, the cultural discourse on my feeds has been focused on the romantic relationships of two white women who became famous for telling all: Lindy West, author of a new memoir, Adult Brace...

ALSO TODAY: @ilanaslightly.bsky.social on watching and being watched. “The act of watching someone can very much feel like the intimacy of seeing them—but projection, fantasy, and obsession are ultimately ways of relating to the self, not the other.” flaminghydra.com/watch-out/

Horror show Sarah Weinman recommends a place to not go in New York this weekend, or ever

TODAY: @sarahweinman.com gives her strongest possible non-recommendation for a new “immersive” serial killer exhibit in Manhattan. “Every shred of sensitivity and care disappeared in the next space, which was devoted to Jeffrey Dahmer.” flaminghydra.com/r/4fea2912?m...

Meta threw a party for a right-wing influencer who wants to “save the West” The celebration offers a cocktail-fueled look at the tech behemoth's rightward pivot.

NEW: Meta co-sponsored a celebration with the Daily Wire for podcaster Isabel Brown, who often foments about Islam and wants to "save the West," which is an interesting, cocktail-party-level look at the company's rightward pivot www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

DSCC Took Lobbyist Bundles From Firms Reaping Rewards Under Trump Senate Democrats’ campaign arm quietly received donations in the first half of this year from lobbyists for Palantir, Andreessen Horowitz, and SpaceX, according to a new disclosure.

Last month, Anthropic hired the deeply Trump-tied lobbying firm Ballard Partners.

So it made sense for Anthropic to hire a top Trump fundraiser. Other Trump-tied lobbying firms, e.g. for SpaceX, are bundling millions for Senate Dems.

Maybe they're getting what they want out of Congress, too.

interactive map of Thomson Reuters contract with ICE, based at its McLean headquarters in Virginia, from Sludge post: https://readsludge.com/2026/01/16/the-companies-behind-ice/

We covered Thomson Reuters' $7.5 million ICE data deal in our latest interactive map, plus searchable data table, of all ICE contractors.

Free to see, by signing up for our newsletter:

readsludge.com/2026/01/16/t...

Thomson Reuters Fired Worker For Speaking Out About ICE, Former Employee Says “When I saw evidence that our products were being used to harm people and undermine the law, I did what anyone should do—I raised the alarm. Thomson Reuters’ response was to fire me.”

Thomson Reuters and @reuters.com fired senior attorney editor Billie Little for leading hundreds of employees in questioning the company's data provision to ICE.

Controlled Experiments When the opportunity arose for me to speak at a local Stand Up For Science event in March, I hesitated. Despite everything I’ve written, I found myself wrestling with the idea of becoming a participan...

TODAY: Misha Angrist stands up for science. “But if I were going to speak, then I thought it was important to try to do more than just serve up a cocktail of rage.” flaminghydra.com/controlled-e...

Republican Mutiny Sinks Trump's Push to Extend Warrantless Surveillance A post-midnight revolt in the House sank the White House's efforts to extend Section 702—a spy program the FBI has used to look into members of Congress, protesters, and political donors.

Everyone is reading about how Rep. Jim Himes of #CT04, a former chair and still-member of the New Democrat Coalition (@newdems.bsky.social), tried to hand the Trump administration an extension of warrantless surveillance under Section 702.

Himes and his allies are very trusting of Kash Patel.

In California, It's Either Tax the Billionaires or Face a Health Care "Catastrophe" An interview with the union leaders pushing a state wealth tax.

Spoke to the SEIU union leaders heading up the push for a billionaire tax in California. They say it is a pretty clear choice: A small tax on 200 of the richest people on earth, or millions of Californians losing access to health care.

www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/in-califor...

Joe Manchin, who axed the Build Back Better Act, was an honorary co-chair of the "dark money" group Third Way ( @thirdway.bsky.social ). Its findable top donors are billionaires and large corporations.

Spouse of Intel Committee Member Makes Timely Quantum Stock Purchase MAGA Rep. Greg Steube’s spouse bought stock last month in a quantum computing company whose share price boomed when it reached a technical milestone and was awarded a defense contract.

How are congressional ethics going?

MAGA Rep. Greg Steube is one of two sponsors of the PELOSI Act to ban lawmakers' stock trading. He sits on the House Intel Committee. His spouse made an uncommon stock buy last month in a quantum computing company that just announced a defense contract.

Chart 1. Percentage of Electricity Sold in 2022 that can be Fulfilled by Different Solar Project Types - showing Parking Lots (60%) - from May 2023 policy brief: Pursuing a Just and Renewable Energy System https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/energy-justice/pdfs/Policy-Brief-for-Positive-Vision.pdf

Environmental groups urged the Biden admin to use executive powers to jump-start such a nationwide program! For whatever reasons they did not.

A May 2023 report from Center for Biological Diversity et al showed how to catalyze large-scale renewables. Alas.

www.davidrussellmoore.net/pressuring-b...

Life and taxes Celebrating the U.S. taxpayer with Joe MacLeod

TODAY: @joemacleod666.bsky.social remembers his temp taxman job. “The regular schedule of breaks helped stave off the mind-numbing aspect of the repetitive work of opening, reading, separating, stapling/unstapling and sorting, over and over, for hours.” flaminghydra.com/r/7b50a3b6?m...

Intuit’s Top Lobbying Firms Are Also Major DSCC Bundlers Congress is set to receive a report on how the IRS can streamline the tax filing process after lobbyists for Intuit bundled millions for the Senate Democrats' campaign arm.

Good-gov experts recommend that politicians are banned from fundraising from lobbyists like Brownstein Hyatt, but Dem leaders love big bundled checks, as fixes wither and die.

As much as we post in anger, there are few ways in the Dem Party to debate lobbyist donations. It's not a democratic body.

The Lobbyists Who Make Filing Your Taxes a Nightmare Some of Intuit's lobbyists at a top D.C. firm recently held a swanky fundraiser for Senate Democrats.

Intuit's K Street firms throw fundraising parties for Senate Dems as they fight a direct tax filing option, which could provide a pre-populated return, as dozens of wealthy countries do.

Senate Dems take the money. The IRS direct file tool, proposed in 2019, didn't launch until 2024, then was axed.

A couple of fans dancing at Jays-Brewers April 14, 2026

A couple of fans dancing at Jays-Brewers April 14, 2026 (2)

A couple of fans dancing at Jays-Brewers April 14, 2026 (3)

A couple of fans dancing at Jays-Brewers April 14, 2026 (4)

Happy #414day to the great city of Milwaukee

Corporate Dems’ Rapidly Growing ‘Dark Money’ Arm Tax documents reveal the group Center Forward received a record $18.8 million in 2021 and spent big to back conservative Democrats who bucked their party on drug pricing reforms.

The dark money Center Forward, deeply tied to the Blue Dogs, raised record high revenue in 2021 of more than $18.8 million as the Dems tried to pass a reconciliation budget.

The Blue Dogs demanded a vote first on an infrastructure bill, leadership caved, and as predicted, the BBB died in Senate.

Virginia Governor Vetoes a Ban on Plea Deals That Waive People's Constitutional Rights - Bolts Abigail Spanberger blocked a bill to bar prosecutors from pressuring Virginians to waive protections against unreasonable police searches as a condition of pleas.

Abigail Spanberger, elected in 2018, joined the conservative Blue Dog Coalition in 2021. That year, seven Blue Dogs demanded that the Democrats delay a vote on the Build Back Better Act.

In 2022, an allied dark-money super PAC, the Center Forward Committee, spent $300,00 backing her re-election.

I was one of 100+ journalists signing this letter thanking the @archive.org for the indispensable Wayback Machine, along with Rachel Maddow, Karl Bode, Annalee Newitz, and others. For accountability journalism, you have to know who was saying what and when!

www.savethearchive.com/journalists/

VOGUS Spring 2026 Trend Predictions Graphic tees with increasingly direct messages No beating around the flower bush with these cotton ringers.

ALSO TODAY: @camoot.bsky.social with some SPRING trend predictions. flaminghydra.com/vogus-spring...

Dem Governors Gathered With AI Lobbyists Ahead of Trump Preemption EO OpenAI and Meta were among the tech companies that sent lobbyists to the Democratic Governors Association's annual meeting, according to a list obtained by Sludge.

A few months ago at the high-profile Democratic Governors Association conference, lobbyists from OpenAI, Meta, and Waymo were in the mix.

CA watchdog groups had been urging the Newsom admin to stand against Trump's AI order on preemption, but he demurred until it was signed. Hochul had been mum.

AI Super PACs Are Unleashing Millions to Tilt Primaries in Their Favor So far, the industry groups have won nearly all the races they’ve thrown their money at, helping to advance allies who could help shape AI legislation in the next Congress.

One might think that CA and NY would be upset about governors overruling their legislators. The bills would cover only large AI companies ($100M+ in training).

But the state Dem machines behind Newsom and Hochul caved to AI lobbyists and watered them down. Both OpenAI and Anthropic are smiling.

In both California and New York, AI safety bills passed overwhelmingly in the state Senate and Assembly... and Dem governors shot them down.

Newsom vetoed SB 1047 before signing a much weaker "transparency" bill SB 53 a year later; Hochul rewrote much of the RAISE Act with SB53's weaker language.