august.thoughtify.space

There are assorted fights here: Texas v. other states for corporate HQs/legal homes, but also wider fight over ESG/DEI investing, incl shareholder movements on diversity of boards, climate policies etc. Many institutional investors rely on ISS or Glass Lewis when they vote their shares.

NEW: Ted Cruz is demanding answers from proxy advisers Glass Lewis and ISS after they opposed a series of corporate moves to Texas, including ExxonMobil's. Republicans/Trump admin have been targeting the firms re: ESG/DEI (GIFT link) www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

It's clear Dems are going to do well this cycle. The question is, will it be a mere blue wave, or possibly an "extinction-level event" for the GOP, as Cohen puts it? The possibility exists. Not holding my breath, but by gawd if it happens...by gawd.

It shouldn’t need to be pointed out again and again that there are specific human beings responsible for outcomes like this who should be held responsible

At least 6 US Attys have been DQ'd as wrongfully appointed since Jan 2025: Central District of CA (Essayli); Nevada (Chatta); Northern D of NY (Sarcone); Eastern D of VA (Halligan); NJ (Habba); New Mexico (Ryan Ellison). DOJ seeking SCOTUS review of 2d & 9th Circuit rulings.

Here's Judge Seabright's reasoning for expanding the scope of his earlier disqualification of Bill Essayli as US Atty in L.A. It seems to hold that his "First Assistant" title is "not meaningful" here & he can't supervise cases. Order stayed for now. 1/2 storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

excited to read this. as always, i am struck by how the unitary executive rests, in terms of political theory, on treating the presidency in a distinctly extra-constitutional way: as an instantiation of the general will. it's as if roberts et al got drunk on an undergraduate reading of rousseau.

If you read one story today, make it this one by @dougbockclark.bsky.social. A masterclass in reporting. How Cleta Mitchell Turned Trump’s “Big Lie” Into a Movement

Nothing screams “The Aristocrats!” like having one frivolous DOJ prosecution interrupted by a DOJ lawyer informing the court that a grand jury declined to return an indictment in a wholly separate, even more frivolous prosecution.

Worth noting that the US has an extradition treaty with Brazil.

So ... are we cutting off diplomatic recognition of the elected government in Brazil? Are we sponsoring a government in exile? Have they thought this through at all?

This is good for multiple reasons.

Will Chamberlain of the Thiel-backed Edmund Burke Foundation (which organizes NatCon) says that “The Brazilian regime should look carefully at what has happened to Venezuela and Cuba, and remember that this hemisphere belongs to the United States of America.” 1/

I feel like I’m living in some weird fucking Beckett play or a dystopian sequel to Being There where the president of the United States is just increasingly obviously a porridge-brained mental patient and everyone nods and smiles like it’s normal.

"15 percent of American adults think that between 1 and 5 percent of NCAA athletes are transgender, and 14 percent of Americans think between 6 and 25 percent of student athletes are trans." Eh, no.

Generally pretty skeptical of most defamation cases... but this one... seems like Piker's got a point. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The families of the US service members killed in the Middle East will be happy to hear that the Trump Crime Family is making money off of their children's deaths.

If they’re going to go on TV and tell lies then they need to be held legally accountable for those lies.

But that’s not even a huge deal compared to what Witt said on cross. It’s not just that Castor wasn’t present for Benavides’ testimony… Castor also apparently told Witt that HE DID NOT READ A TRANSCRIPT OF BENAVIDES’ TESTIMONY. Which makes this part of the superseding affidavit completely nuts!

www.wired.com/story/a-28-y...

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter of Los Angeles warned the Trump DOJ: "This court believe that it would be wise that any threats to state and county election employees cease immediately."

Unironically this is Trump’s major appeal. A bunch of frustrated, stunted people want permission to be bigots and assholes.

So… he’s dragging it out for the lulz?

The US government poured all its resources into fabricating evidence that day laborer Kilmar Abrego Garcia was a criminal (all because he embarrassed the despot) even as it now rolls out the red carpet for an actual criminal who happens to be an ally of Trump

NEW: buried in anthropic's hefty ipo documents released yesterday is an interesting admission: the company's increasing reliance on dirty gas to power its data centers is actually exposing it to financial risk wrote about it for @wired.com www.wired.com/story/anthro...

This is bonkers. Like as bonkers as it gets.

we are very lucky that they are so bad at this

The Army awarded an artillery shell project to General Dynamics in a rushed process without the typical vetting. The result: a fiasco in a Texas factory with robots in flames and half a billion dollars in taxpayer funds that yielded no usable shells. (Published August)

The Secret Service is and has been broken for quite some time. It needs oversight disconnected from the President and the Federal branch. Congressional requirements seem an obvious option in a functioning Congress.

grand juries are holding up better than any of the three branches of government tbh

No. Your attitude has to be that absolutely nothing will get done. If you’re trying to “pass common-sense legislation to help the American people”in this environment you’re a fucking traitor.

Rubio may be worse than Pompeo and he definitely makes Tillerson look good. The harm Rubio has done to American foreign policy and to the US position in the world is astonishing.

No indictment for Cassidy Hutchinson. American citizens, doing their duty on a grand jury, rejected the injustice of the Trump regime.

I...worked on this story for a decade...and...he just...he blurted it out.

You shouldn’t elect your coroner or geologist or insurance commissioner! You should have an explicitly political/partisan elected official whose office you have a reasonable chance of being able to petition in depth because their district is not the better part of a million people.

My most incredibly pedantic bugbear is that America has: -too many elected offices -too many elections -not enough actual legislators

California legislature is ludicrously small as well! Should be easily over 200!

New: "The State Department will issue visas to Flavio Bolsanaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States," per a senior State Department official

Give me your corrupt, your thuggish, your enemies of democracy yearning to escape the law....

Trump speaks to small Corpus Christi crowd, repeatedly glitches and makes strange noises during speech where he also slurred heavily while his dentures seemed to be falling out Supercut: