Hello!
Steve has a couple of days off and comes back next week.
In the meantime, here is some of what's on our radar...
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WHAT'S ON RACHEL'S BLUESKY RADAR?
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- Ken Paxton’s many real estate holdings become an issue in Texas Senate race — State Rep. James Talarico said the state attorney general owns 11 homes. According to public documents, that’s accurate.
(Steve did some serious legwork before his break.)
- Social Security is chronically understaffed. Public servants are massively overworked.
Commissioner Frank Bisignano’s response?
Sending them “thank you” pretzels from his daughter’s company. 🤡🤡🤡
The Social Security Chief Keeps Sending Staff His Daughter’s Pretzels — Staff say the gesture isn’t increasing morale, but it is raising ethics questions.
(Social Security Works shares NOTUS)
- The Trump administration has spent the last year systematically slashing and reassigning staff responsible for detecting and disrupting foreign disinformation operations in U.S. elections.
(The Brennan Center shares a link to their analysis)
- We’ve worked with Todd Blanche. He shouldn’t be attorney general.
(MS NOW)
- "Note the date"
- CDC is no longer surveilling outbreaks caused by campylobacter, cyclospora, listeria, shigella, vibrio and Yersinia. What could go wrong?
(Radley Balko shares a 10-month old post from Ryan Marino, MD)
- "Less than 15 miles from an opulent palace associated with Vladimir Putin that was the focus of an investigation by the late opposition activist Alexei Navalny..."
Ukraine Sea Drone Sinks Russian Ship Near Compound Said to Be Linked to Putin
(Wall Street Journal)
Follow Rachel Maddow on BlueSky here.
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OTHER STORIES WE'RE WATCHING
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- "DOGE axed the CDC team that tracks cyclospora. Now 1000s are sick, restaurants & hospitals scrambling. What's next?"
“Cyclospora is just one piece. It's making the news right now, but there are other, more dangerous pathogens.”
By @emilymullin.bsky.social
(Amy Maxmen, PhD shares Wired)
- "In the latter half of Joe Biden’s presidency, confidence in him was higher than confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping across most countries surveyed, though Biden’s rating declined in many places from 2023 to 2024.
During the first two years of Trump’s second term, ratings of the U.S. president worsened significantly."
(Pew Research)
- "The Treasury Department’s top tax policy official was forced out of his job after he warned that the White House was at risk of violating a federal law prohibiting senior officials’ involvement in IRS audits, according to people familiar with the matter. "
(Wall Street Journal)
- "The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets, several of his close relatives told The Associated Press."
(Associated Press)
- "One video posted on social media showed a man yelling and crying on the ground in Terminal 3 at Harry Reid International Airport on Monday when a man and a masked woman, both in plainclothes, tried to control, handcuff and detain him. When the pair realized they were being filmed, they walked away, leaving the man with a handcuff attached to one arm.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police found no outstanding warrants for the man, removed his handcuffs and notified ICE."
(Associated Press)
- "Wu Shaoping fled China at the end of 2019 amid a crackdown on human rights lawyers. He travelled to the US on a tourist visa and made an asylum claim in 2020, for which he is still awaiting a decision."
...
"According to an account relayed through Shi Minglei, a friend who spoke to him in detention on Thursday, ICE officers asked Wu to provide proof of his citizenship. Wu presented proof of his pending asylum application and explained that he had entered the country legally.
However, ICE agents arrested him and took him to a detention facility in Pennsylvania."
(The Guardian)
- "Despite his formal credentials, Mr. Blanche’s actions, both as Deputy Attorney General and as Acting Attorney General, have repeatedly demonstrated that his primary loyalty is not to the United States Constitution or the rule of law but to President Donald J. Trump, whom Mr. Blanche previously represented as a private attorney and whose personal interests he has continued to protect. As a result, his actions have been detrimental to the Department of Justice and the rule of law. Specifically, Mr. Blanche has compromised the integrity and independence of the Department he has been nominated to lead."
(New York City Bar)
- "ABC and NBC did not specify why they declined to air the speech, but networks are often loath to grant time to presidents for overtly political purposes. Fellow broadcast network Fox took the speech live while CBS preempted programming for a special report, in which it aired part of the speech and explained Trump’s long history of falsehoods on the topic of election security."
Trump says ABC, NBC licenses should be revoked over refusal to air speech on election integrity
(Washington Post)
- "Trump could benefit substantially from the move. Since his family remains the majority shareholder in the company, the president stands to profit directly from selling expedited access to his own public statements."
Trump Media to sell instant access to 'market-moving' social posts
(BBC)
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You've probably seen this mentioned on the air a bunch of times, but the gang is hopping on the bus to Texas this September. Tickets start roughly around the $30 range.
But also there is this: Each ticket to “Together in Texas” comes with a special offer for one year of free access to MS NOW’s new Membership. This forthcoming Membership experience will bring MS NOW fans closer to our hosts and to each other, with real-time connections and exclusive content you can’t get on-air.
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