Don't use AI to mess around in your court case

August 3, 2026

A court filing contains a prompt injection in tiny white font, asking the court to side with them.

The court noticed:

While reviewing Docket Entry #176.00 (marked "take papers" for August 3, 2026), the Court printed recent pleadings to try to decipher the motion and see what recent pleadings may be related to it. When reviewing the pleadings, Docket Entries ##177.00 & 178.00, seemed to have extra "white space" apart from other pleadings of the plaintiff. Upon close review, the Court has identified in these pleadings, potential text that was formatted so as to be nearly invisible to a human reader while remaining fully legible to software that potentially processes the documents' text.

Rob Freund on X: "Pro se plaintiff attempts prompt injection in motion for default in Connecticut superior court. Court revokes plaintiff's ability to e-file, requiring in-person filings going forward."

Also in August 2026

New: An "expert witness" in a $61 million lawsuit over an industrial explosion that killed three people and destroyed 200 homes used ChatGPT to write his report for the court. He prompted ChatGPT to "show how 3M is 0% at fault for the explosion at Watson Grinding" www.404media.co/show-how-3m-...

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— Jason Koebler (@jasonkoebler.bsky.social) August 17, 2026 at 10:00 AM

this story is batshit Here is the full article, which includes all prompts, trial transcripts, the report itself. The firm hired charged more than $80,000 for the report. Also shows that AI transcripts can be discoverable and can be very revealing: www.404media.co/show-how-3m-...

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— Jason Koebler (@jasonkoebler.bsky.social) August 17, 2026 at 10:02 AM

In divorce or paternity court

While we're here: Don't use AI or LLMs to write your parenting documents for court. There are better, non-AI apps for that.

U.S.: Centrist Democrats manufacture consent

Two passages from my reading today:

"The freakout among centrist Democrats is an expression of a deep, deep terror at the realization that regular people are starting to understand that the long-reining political paradigm does not represent them or their interest and are rapidly becoming open to alternatives. This is a very large threat to both their political power and their income. The commentators and pundits you’re no doubt seeing lose their minds have made an incredible living off peddling moderate political positions on behalf of the wealth class to anxious liberals and supposed independents. They’re hired constantly by the party and its stakeholders to do everything from give talks to strategize and make advertisements to going on corporate media to offer milquetoast opinions in order to manufacture consent. They get book deals, are invited to the wealth class’s shindigs, and are continually glandhanded into class solidarity. The Democratic Party, as a political representative and partner of the wealth class, is inextricably intertwined with these people and its purpose is their purpose.

Recently I published an article about the problem of the entrenched Democratic machine. An entrenched machine isn’t just reliant on stakeholders, it requires a superstructure that voices the party line and attempts to keep the base in check. This is why you are bombarded with “vote blue no matter who” rhetoric when it’s convenient and why it falls by the wayside when insurgent candidates emerge who better voice the desires of the base. This is why you are consistently fed article after article by corporate media about how “dangerous the Left is” while you’re also bombarded by pieces that normalize things like AI, flock cameras, anti-trans rhetoric, and the need for the party to “reach across the aisle” to fascists. When there aren’t alternatives - say, independent media or social media or insurgent candidates - you’re supposed to be convinced this is just the way things are."

— Jared Yates Sexton, Dispatches Mailbag, August 17, 2026

"We should not bother to treat the arguments seriously. We should not behave as if transphobia is the bitter fruit of benign misunderstanding.

The mainstream, obscene contempt for trans people is no mystery. Americans may be bigoted but we are not imbeciles: we know that people fear what they do not understand, and we know that that fear can be harvested and manipulated for political gain. We know these things because we experience the fear and bigotry ourselves and we see them in our friends. Transphobia has been incubated on the center-left for at least as long as I’ve been reading what it has been printing. It has been proliferated for years by that great mirror of the vast American middle, The Atlantic which has been at the forefront of this “battle” since long before Trump announced his first campaign. And it is no coincidence that that organ continues to hector that Harris lost the election because Biden was too woke. “She talked about trans people too much” When? How I wish she had! “and about protecting immigrants” Did she? Did Biden? Somehow I can’t recall “and both of them bellowed with pride repeatedly that Harris was a black woman running for the highest office in the land” Right?? If we’re going to get slashed for championing the vulnerable I wish we could at least be guilty of the courage.

The Atlantic and its fellows in the middle package anti-trans sentiment in prettier packaging than Trumpites. The center left doesn’t want to be brave, it wants to be seemly. Bigotry is less vile when it is seemly. That is how much of America likes its hates. And we have so many of them. They are what propelled the unseemly hate to high office: Trump did not swell his base, he merely failed to ignite the fury of the opposition. The fat, comfortable middle refused to turn out and vote because the fat, comfortable middle has been fed on seemly hatreds.

The middle does not express its hates the way Trump does but, well, don’t they basically agree? After all, when we press them on it, the thing they most fear from Trump seems to be his unseemly manner. They don’t like a scene, and the scene is what they will spend the next four years screeching about while trans children grow fearful."

— Celeste Marcus, CIS Or Subhuman, Liberties Journal, November 2024

Also:

I wrote this because most journalists facing this pressure can’t. The paper we count on to check authoritarianism spiked an investigation into the Democratic Party because the party’s lawyers threatened to sue. Holding authoritarians accountable starts with holding your own side accountable.

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— Adam Bonica (@adambonica.bsky.social) August 17, 2026 at 11:05 AM

An affirmation: I revoke access to me that was taken without my consent

This video contains an affirmation.

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UK releases report on intersex people, 7 years late

A few weeks ago, after a 7 year delay, the UK government quietly dropped the results of their 2019 Call for Evidence on variations in sex characteristics The results are striking but will of course seem deeply familiar to anyone working in this field. www.gov.uk/government/c...

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— Mitch Travis (@profmitchtravis.bsky.social) August 10, 2026 at 7:08 AM

A court reins in Javier Milei, benefiting trans people in Argentina

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Two years ago:

In progressive Argentina, the LGBTQ+ community says President Milei has turned back the clock, Débora Rey, AP, May 12, 2024

USA can't have salad

Yesterday, a couple minutes into "The Check-In" with Jared Yates Sexton and Danielle Moodie, Part 1, Danielle says:

"On top of the lettuce, you can't eat. On top of the jalapenos, you can't eat. The guacamole, you can't eat. The salsa, you can't eat. The peppers that you can't eat. The eggs that are recalled. They recalled 30,000 tons of of raw beef from Argentina.

Why did that happen? Oh, oops, because it didn't go through a second inspection when it came into the United States and was distributed to Texas and I forget the other state...you don't have any inspectors anymore because, when Elon Musk came in, you fired all of them because Taylor Farms can pay off Donald Trump with a million dollars. All of these other Big Food, Big Ag can pay off so that they get rid of the inspectors, they get rid of the regulations, and you, you get to sit on a toilet or potentially end up in a fucking ICU for weeks on end. Because this is what it's like to live in an underdeveloped country...to sit down and eat a bowl of lettuce, to sit down and eat a bowl of perfectly ripe tomatoes shouldn't be a fucking luxury.

But now it is, because they're not concerned with what you and I are eating in the U.S. because they have their organic farms. Their kids are getting their vaccinations from private doctors. They're getting all of the things that they need done...You and I, however, unless you have a few bucks, unless you want to roll the dice, you're pretty much fucked...The country that is known for its obesity, hypertension and diabetes, we can't now have fucking salad."

Jared talks about the ICE electric gloves and says he's been saying for a long time:

"whenever fascism comes around, you have three choices: One is to put on the armband and possibly get some spoils.
Second is to close your door and hope that it never knocks on your door and don't say anything.
And third is to fight it and risk being destroyed.
Well, guess what? That question, it's not asked in a vacuum. Eventually, we're going to reach a point where we're not going to have anything. We're not going to have any conditions that are conducive to living a life of dignity and longevity...If you suddenly have...total censorship and criminal of dissident critiques, all of a sudden that question becomes very clear, especially in this new era with digital surveillance, especially now."

A couple minutes into Part 2, there's a discussion of how this results from what I call chainsaw conservatism:

Danielle: "You can't, your kids can't get vaccinations. A majority of people are now out of work. Are they connecting the dots back to the cause of this, or is the way that it's being narrated, as if this is all just an anomaly, kind of the way that they talk about wildfires and the fucking climate, it being 100 degrees, like in Europe, it's like, Oh, well, isn't that just weird? No, it's not fucking weird. Like, it's the product of what happens when you deny climate science. Like, it's not just weird that you can't have lettuce and tomatoes and jalapenos and beef. Those things are not just happening. They are the product of what happens when you dismantle agencies, fire inspectors, and have no one minding the fucking store or the health of 330 million Americans...I guess my curiosity is, like, Do people get it? Are they connecting these things or are they just thinking it's like whack-a-mole and it's just coming out of nowhere?"
Jared: "I think the answer is complicated, and I think that there are some people who do understand it. I think there are other people who intuit it, but they lack the information to articulate it, largely because they are consistently given a narrative that doesn't have anything to do with it."

It did not come from nowhere.

The anti-trans moral panic is not unprecedented

"Our society seems to keep surviving equality remarkably well. ... Moral panics end. Queer community doesn't." — Jessica Kellgren-Fozard

Today in Second Trump: Iran war, USAID cuts, climate, concentration camps, anti-trans agenda

Andrea Pitzer writes today:

"At this point, we’re over eighteen months into the second Trump administration. Officials have unleashed countless crises in health, science, medicine, government services, military affairs, foreign affairs, and several other arenas. On top of it all, we’re trapped in a totally unnecessary and unbelievably dangerous war that’s following the plot of Groundhog Day.

In addition to the war, there are, to my mind, three particularly significant horror shows unfolding right now—ones that may be easier for most Americans to ignore or fail to notice than the war. The first, which I try to mention almost every week, is the ongoing death toll of the cuts to USAID. We are on track for millions of deaths to take place before the end of the first Trump administration. The second, which is also easy to miss, despite current conditions, is climate change. The third — which is the focus of this post and the one I write most about on here — is the war on immigrants and the concentration camp system that Trump and Stephen Miller have prioritized expanding exponentially while they are still able to.

* * *

...the same tactics and dynamics that radicalized a significant minority of Americans against immigrants are now in play against trans people. We’re just witnessing an earlier stage of the demonization. A story out this week about U.S. Army Captain Kai Proce traces the Department of Defense’s systematic removal of trans people from service through shameful hearings in which the outcome has been decided by top brass before each session even begins."

Previously

Stoking ‘Trans Panic’?! We Have to Create Other Political Narratives: Andrea Pitzer’s video on ‘Ending Trans Panic’ (my 5-min read on Medium, Apr 2, 2026)

Bari Weiss as CBS president

CBS News boss Wendy McMahon exits amid Trump pressure, Brian Stelter, CNN, May 19, 2025

Denny Carter says:

"The Trump regime announced today that it would dispatch a “truth arbiter” who will monitor all CBS coverage to ensure the network does not criticize the regime’s fascist agenda or broadcast stories that might conflict with the push to unravel democratic self governance in the United States. It’s a sickening turn in our drift toward all-out authoritarianism – I’m begging corporate leaders to read one fucking book – and it’s one born out of the right’s bad faith, like every other major accomplishment their movement has secured in its slow-motion coup." ("The Media Bias Wars Are Over," Bad Faith Times, Aug 8, 2025)

As someone said in a deleted Bluesky post: "...at some point you bend the knee so far that you are just kneeling..."

Kennedy Center Board President weighs in on CBS controversy

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— I. B. Cole (@ibc.bsky.social) December 22, 2025 at 10:53 AM

Stephen Miller is Bari Weiss's boss? "White House official Stephen Miller on Tuesday had an extreme response to what he called a “revolt” at CBS: “Fire” everyone who objected to CBS News boss Bari Weiss yanking a “60 Minutes” segment at the last minute." (HuffPost)

Bari Weiss Is Doing Exactly What She Was Installed at CBS to Do: By pulling a “60 Minutes” segment, the new editor-in-chief is torching the network’s credibility to protect the Ellison family’s interests. Adam Johnson, December 22 2025

This is quite a read about the BW attack on 60 Minutes. I'm glad it also highlights the incredibly solid reporting in the piece, a fact that has been largely overlooked in this red hot debate about Weiss' actions. Yes, what Sharyn Alfonsi & her team did here is journalism. Damn good journalism.

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— @NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) (@newsjennifer.bsky.social) December 31, 2025 at 11:52 AM

Dan D'Addario’s take on the new CBS Evening News is unflinchingly and deservedly brutal. “… a Weissian willingness to bulldoze past that which might seem too untidy for whatever hypothetical viewer he and his editor have in mind.” Good on him and Variety. variety.com/2026/tv/colu...

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— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner.bsky.social) January 6, 2026 at 12:06 AM

Read more: David Letterman Wrecks 'Idiots' At CBS News Over Rightward Shift The former "Late Show" host ripped the leadership at his old network's news division. Ben Blanchet, HuffPost, Jan 10, 2026

Sources: Bari Weiss has privately been deeply frustrated by the negative reaction to her CBS tenure and has blamed subordinates for not stanching the criticism (New York Times) Main Link | Mediagazer Permalink

— Mediagazer (@mediagazer.com) January 13, 2026 at 7:50 AM

Tuesday morning: New CBS boss promises “huge emphasis on scoops.” Tuesday evening: CBS Evening News anchor interviews his mom. www.yahoo.com/entertainmen...

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— Bill Grueskin (@bgrueskin.bsky.social) January 28, 2026 at 9:33 AM

"The White House threatened to take legal action against CBS following anchor Tony Dokoupil's recent interview with the president if their discussion didn't air in full.

"He said, 'If it’s not out in full, we’ll sue your ass off,'" Leavitt told Dokoupil, according to The New York Times.

Trump had also told Dokoupil he owes his job to him during the interview."

— HuffPost, Jan 26, 2026

this email offers no details about what the actual offer is and you have to opt in before you find out lol

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— Joshua Erlich (@joshuaerlich.bsky.social) January 28, 2026 at 7:06 PM

Simply incredible

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— Phil Lewis (@phillewis.bsky.social) February 2, 2026 at 7:43 PM

I'm not saying CBS News is now a pedophile protection racket, just that it wouldn't be doing much differently if it weren't

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— Subscribe to Radio Free America (link in bio) (@kleinman.bsky.social) February 2, 2026 at 9:16 PM

The party against cancel culture loves canceling everyone. deadline.com/2026/02/step...

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— Wajahat Ali (@wajali.bsky.social) February 17, 2026 at 2:46 AM

The richest man owns X. The second and third richest men control Google. The fourth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The fifth richest man owns The Washington Post. And now the sixth richest could soon take over both Paramount and Warner Bros. See the problem here?

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— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) February 26, 2026 at 6:40 PM

This is very bad. Handing CNN to Bari Weiss/David Ellison is very, very bad.

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— Parker Molloy (@parkermolloy.com) February 26, 2026 at 6:07 PM

@semafor.com is such a perfect example of softball brunchlord media and the feckless way it normalizes and downplays radical censorial authoritarians reading this you'd barely be aware that Carr is a free speech trampling extremist (who in his free time guts telecom and media consumer protections)

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— Karl Bode (@karlbode.com) February 26, 2026 at 1:17 PM

March 20, 2026: Layoffs at CBS!

March 20, 2026: CBS News Radio Is Shutting Down After Nearly 100 Years Of Operation, Marita Vlachou

Six months into Bari Weiss’ overhaul of CBS News, new ratings data obtained by Status shows its flagship programs are shedding viewers at an alarming rate, collapsing to historic lows and accelerating the network’s decline. Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/cbs-news-r...

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— Status (@status.news) March 24, 2026 at 9:39 PM

David Ellison says 70% of Americans are centrist. Surveys tell a different story: Paramount Skydance CEO has repeatedly cited the statistic when laying out the approach that CBS News and potentially CNN would take, Jeremy Barr, Guardian, 6 Apr 2026

CBS News Streaming Staffers To Walk Out Tuesday

Bari Weiss Dialogue, February 17, 2021

Paramount Officially Acquiring The Free Press and Making Bari Weiss CBS News Editor in Chief: Report, Sarah Rumpf, Mediaite, Oct 2, 2025

CBS settling

CBS News Producer Warns ‘Shifting Set of Ideological Expectations’ In Bombshell Farewell Note: Alicia Hastey wrote that the network’s changes pressure “producers and reporters to self-censor.” Pocharapon Neammanee, HuffPost, Feb 12, 2026

60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley accuses Bari Weiss of ‘murdering’ show: Pelley reportedly rebuked CBS ousting show’s executive producer, executive editor and two top correspondents. Jeremy Barr in Washington, Guardian, 1 Jun 2026

oh no what a terrible and completely unforeseeable thing to happen to one of the leading intellectual lights of her generation

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— Anjali Dayal (@anjalikdayal.bsky.social) May 19, 2026 at 2:14 PM

1. This is an extremely satisfying read. 2. Pelley is going to be replaced by someone who is at least willing to attest that everything Weiss is doing is great. www.status.news/p/scott-pell...

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— Matthew Gertz (@mattgertz.bsky.social) June 1, 2026 at 12:22 PM

Trump’s War On The Free Press Reaches A Terrifying New Milestone We’re watching a journalistic institution crumble in real time — revealing the chilling cost of the president’s war on media. HuffPost Editors Jun 2, 2026

Scott Pelley fired by CBS after ‘60 Minutes’ clash with management Brian Stelter, CNN, June 2, 2026

What's happening to CBS News is what the tech oligarchs call "parallel" strategy. Buy an existing institution, gut it, and convert it into a right-wing zombie version of itself. They are doing this to media, government, education, biotech, defense tech, etc. Some call it the "Network State."

— Gil Durán (@gilduran.com) June 2, 2026 at 9:24 PM

she did warn us

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— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper.com) September 11, 2025 at 11:31 AM

Experience, Knowledge, and Talent Need Not Apply Trump suck-ups are poisoning America — not just inside the U.S. government Robert Reich, Jun 08, 2026

Veteran '60 Minutes' Star Has 'A Feeling' About Bari Weiss' Future — And She Won't Like It "I hope it’s going to come to an end, but I don’t have a great deal of confidence in Bari Weiss to do what she says that she’s going to do,” the "60 Minute" veteran said of the recent turmoil. Pocharapon Neammanee, HuffPost, Jun 12, 2026

Warner on CBS: I was embarrassed that the president went before our country and networks like yours carried this as news as opposed to a rehash of falsehoods. It is incumbent upon you and any responsible journalist to pushback on this.

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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) July 16, 2026 at 9:04 PM

CBS claimed “thousands” of 9/11 families wanted Zohran Mamdani banned from the anniversary ceremony. Then a journalist demanded the evidence—and the network quietly rewrote its story. #ZohranMamdani #CBSNews #MediaAccountability

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— Moments to Remember | News (@moments2remember.link) July 28, 2026 at 2:56 PM

Shocked not shocked that Bari Weiss hired yet another right wing opinion writer with no actual news reporting experience. That's her jam. However, I am shocked that Ross is only 46. Wow.

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— @NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) (@newsjennifer.bsky.social) July 28, 2026 at 4:15 PM

While Douthat is a leading authoritarian thinker (he praised Orban for seeking to destroy higher education in Hungary), he -- like Bari Weiss -- is not a journalist.

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— davidrlurie (@davidrlurie.com) July 28, 2026 at 4:34 PM

Had Bari Weiss been hired by CBS-Paramount to secretly run a "Producers" scam and destroy all of "60 Minutes"'s value as quickly as possible it's difficult to imagine what should would've done differently.

— Ken Tremendous (@kentremendous.bsky.social) July 28, 2026 at 4:37 PM

It's fun watch Bari Weiss grasping her way to figuring out what journalism is through her hires at 60 Minutes. Is it when you ask a prominent person a question and nod? Is it when you make sure that something Benny Johnson said on Twitter makes it into a reported story despite it not being true?

— David_j_roth (@davidjroth.bsky.social) July 28, 2026 at 4:02 PM

CBS and Bari Weiss may have created their own biggest competitor. Reports say journalists fired from 60 Minutes are planning to reunite with former exec. producer Bill Owens working bring on Scott Pelley, and other former correspondents/producers. This is how you do it.

— Karly Kingsley (@karlykingsley.bsky.social) August 7, 2026 at 8:53 AM

Bari Weiss’s “60 Minutes” Hires Producer Who Downplayed Gaza Starvation, Justified Killing Journalists: The latest CBS News hire shows that the way to get ahead in journalism is to act as a tool for the powerful. Adam Johnson, The Intercept, August 4 2026

Parker Molloy, Straight Down the Middle, August 6, 2026

US allowing data centers to be built on public land

Data center to be built on public land.

An Incomplete List of Successful Anti-Data Center Legislation, Matthew Gault, 404 Media, May 25, 2026

Here's a bit of good news www.cleveland.com/news/2026/08...

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— John Scalzi (@scalzi.com) August 9, 2026 at 10:18 AM

AI’s climate problem is worse than we thought A new study reveals that AI’s climate impact extends far beyond its massive data center footprint. Emily Atkin, HEATED, Aug 12, 2026

Call for papers: ''CONGRESO ESTÉTICA(S) DEL HORROR: FILOSOFÍA, CINE Y LITERATURA'

Abierto el plazo de recepción de propuestas de comunicación
Deadline: 11 de septiembre de 2026
Toda la información aquí

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Call for papers: '𝗔𝗽𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹𝘆𝗽𝘀𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁? 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱'

𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘀 (250 words) + short bio (50 words): 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟯𝟭, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲

If accepted: full article (8,000–9,000 words) due by January 31, 2027.

Full details

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U.S. Latino vote, 2024 presidential election

Quote:

"One of the other things I was really surprised about was how nearly a decade of brutal, dehumanizing anti-immigrant rhetoric from the right instead of creating a racial solidarity consciousness among Latinos offered them a choice. That is the choice that has been offered to immigrants throughout our history, which is to either remain the maligned and dehumanized other or opt in and be white. Just be white, you know which is the greatest thing in the world to be, apparently.

And Latinos literally have that option on the census, they're not a race. They're white people who may or may not be of Spanish-speaking origin, It's not surprising in the sense that many people have predicted that this would be what would happen. But I think that the scale of it, and in response to such pre-genocidal rhetoric. Rhetoric that fully dehumanized immigrants, made them into mortal threats, that created a blood libel narrative."

— How to compete with the right-wing meaning-making media machine: Writer and policy wonk Heather McGhee on how Democrats failed to reach voters on policy, why having Beyoncé on your side isn't enough, and what it will take to build a left media in the Trump years. The Ink, Nov 11, 2024

When Trump said he would arrest someone, he meant he was going to arrest you.

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ICE killed three men in a week

The murders will continue until the murders are allowed to continue.

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— A.R. Moxon (@juliusgoat.bsky.social) July 16, 2026 at 12:42 PM

The murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo:

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was murdered by ICE. His three sons called him “El mundo entero” — the whole world. They watched as their whole world died in a video posted on Facebook. Lorenzo was our neighbor and fellow Texan. He deserves justice.

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— James Talarico (@jamestalarico.bsky.social) July 12, 2026 at 1:17 PM

The son of the man shot and killed by ICE: I am Ronaldo Salgado, the oldest son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. He should've been picking up the last of his guys before heading to finish up construction. Unbeknownst to all of us, my dad had been shot inside his van by ICE agents in unmarked cars.

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— Headquarters (@headquartersnews.bsky.social) July 9, 2026 at 10:13 AM

His father grieves.

Mexico demands an investigation.

ICE Officer Who Shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo ‘Switched Guns’ Afterward: Witness: Witness accounts of the fatal ICE shooting were published as part of new legal filings this week. Matt Shuham, HuffPost, Jul 22, 2026

Two other men died later in the week.

I wrote: This Week, Three Men Are Dead After Encountering ICE: The U.S. regime continues to wage violence in the streets, 3-min read, July 14, 2026

Trump Says ICE 'Cannot Give Up' Traffic Stops, Undercutting Reported Agency Directive: “The men and women of ICE are doing a GREAT job, one that has to be done,” the president said. Marita Vlachou, HuffPost, Jul 15, 2026

While someone attempted (for whatever reason, perhaps only a performative one) to temporarily halt the ICE tactic of stopping vehicles on the road, on July 15, Trump overturned that decision and said it was game on for stopping vehicles again. (Trump overturns suspension of ICE traffic stops, White House official says, Priscilla Alvarez, Kit Maher, Julianna Bragg, CNN, July 15, 2026)

Tom Homan is blaming Democrats. Invalid response.

Senator doesn't regret funding ICE. (Collins Won’t Say She Regrets Funding ICE After Killing in Maine: “Maine does not need a senator who signs the checks and hopes for the best from Donald Trump,” said one Democratic US Senate candidate. Julia Conley, Common Dreams, Jul 15, 2026) Invalid response.

An ICE officer fired at an SUV fleeing a car stop in Pennsylvania. That’s not how it should happen, policing experts say. Shimon Prokupecz, Nicki Brown, CNN, July 18, 2026

"Border Czar Tom Homan claimed the several deaths springing from confrontations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents might not have happened if the deceased were following orders before he admitted he hadn’t seen crucial video evidence from one of the cases." (HuffPost, July 19, emphasis mine)

Federal Agents Were Told FBI Will No Longer Investigate ICE Confrontations: Senior officials deny such a change is in the works, despite guidance shared with agents around the country in recent days. New York Times, July 19, 2026

Corruption and cryptocurrency

a functional press would, every single day, repeatedly, across numerous paragraphs in every story about him, make it clear that this is indisputably the most corrupt President in U.S. history

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— Karl Bode (@karlbode.com) October 21, 2025 at 5:08 PM

Jared Yates Sexton: "The other side of this coin, the first thing is: Nobody would think to pass a law or a restriction that would keep someone from doing this 'cause most people can't imagine someone doing it. Meanwhile, the Trump crypto banking thing: I want to make something clear because I'm always talking about this. Donald Trump didn't think about making his crypto into a banking project. Which God help us, God help us if that actually happens because it's just another — You know what it reminds me of, Nick? It reminds me of the old cartoons where someone would steal someone's wallet, but they weren't done, and they picked the person up and shook them until the lint came out of their pockets. You know? Until the Grinch went back to steal the hooks off the wall. That's what this is. I always talk about these think tanks and institutes that are being flooded with money by billionaires and now trillionaires. This is the shit that they sit around thinking up. This is where they make their money. It's not figuring out how to make the world better. It's not figuring out what laws and legislation can be passed in order to improve people's lives. They're being paid to come up with some of the most evil shit imaginable. And you're thinking about the Grinch stealing the hooks, you're thinking about the cartoon character shaking the lint of the pockets. That's what they're there for now. They're there to not only figure out how to get that lint out of your pocket. They're there to figure out how to create a legal apparatus that not only shakes the lint out, but creates an entire law enforcement structure that stands there and watches and sometimes helps. So it's stuff that people are imagining and creating in order to get at the last scraps that the poor class and the middle class have."
(We're Talking About Revolutionary Shit, Here, Muckrake Podcast, June 19, 2026, 31:05–32:49)

Dennis Kelleher of Better Markets, speaking to Paul Krugman, Jul 11, 2026:

"...there is no legitimate use case for crypto. They’ve had 18 years to come up with one. They keep throwing things up like “an inflation hedge” or “source of stability.” Every one of them has turned out to be baseless. The only real use for crypto is tax evasion, money laundering, and crime. It’s the preferred mechanism of choice for global terrorists, sex traffickers, and rogue nations like North Korea and Iran.

You have to ask yourself why crypto has basically hijacked the political agenda of Washington. It’s because they followed the Sam Bankman-Fried model of buying bipartisan support by spending hundreds of millions of dollars in campaigns. ... It’s the biggest bait-and-switch in history. In the hundreds of millions of dollars they spend on campaigns, they don’t mention crypto. That’s because they know crypto is toxic. Poll after poll shows crypto is toxic with the American people. Politico and the Wall Street Journal independently looked at the massive amounts of ads bought by the crypto industry supporting candidates in the United States, and not one mentioned crypto. Then they get their friends elected who come to Washington and say, “Crypto voters sent us here,” except not one voter voted based on crypto. They were mostly negative attack ads on extraneous issues.

So crypto has now basically hijacked the agenda. The amount of attention politicians give it is crazy. The Senator from Maryland was recently quoted as saying, “I’m spending virtually all my time on crypto.” If his constituents knew that, they wouldn’t be happy. So here we have a financial product of no social use and massive negative uses that is being integrated with our core banking and financial system. ...the President is getting filthy rich on crypto.

The problem is that the downside of crypto is not going to fall only on the people getting rich on it. Once they connect it up to the banking and financial system, which they’re doing across the board, we are going to see problems. In many ways, I think what’s happening now is worse than what happened before the ‘08 crash...we have this entirely new multi-trillion dollar financial product that has no value, is incredibly volatile, and is rife with conflicts of interest. It is going to be a core part of our banking system within the next twelve to thirty-six months."

"Capital One Cites Money Laundering Review in Trump-Related Suit" Erik Larson for @bloomberg.com

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— Zach Everson (@zacheverson.com) August 1, 2026 at 6:11 PM

Trump Admin Permanently Guts Law ‘Designed to Stop Criminals from Laundering Money’ After Push From Elon Musk: “Trump is making it easier for cartels, criminals, and US adversaries to abuse our financial system,” said Sen. Andy Kim. “Because he’s in the pocket of billionaires like Elon Musk, who’d potentially benefit.” Stephen Prager, Common Dreams, Aug 13, 2026