journalist Peter Canellos discusses “his new book Revenge for the Sixties: Sam Alito and the Triumph of the Conservative Legal Movement. a complete portrait not only of Alito as a person and a jurist, but of the reactionary conservative legal revolution which helped get him to the Supreme Court. who Alito really is, how his early life shaped his view of the world, and why so many people who knew him before his nomination now say that they don't recognize who he became after it.”

The Pulitzer Prize-winning environmental journalist, New Yorker staff writer, and author of The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert says EPA chief Lee Zeldin has rescinded regulations, cut or eliminated departments and terminated the jobs of many scientists.

This person tells a few stories about similar protests going back to the 80s and contrasts the response to solidarity with Palestinians. (Podcast episode with commercials)

Radio show—25 minutes and 25 seconds.

While the payoff for organizing happens only over a longer timeframe, the work starts now; there are no shortcuts. We can begin by organizing in the spaces where weapons are designed, marketed, created, transferred, and sold. A grassroots campaign spent months pushing a drone company with ties to both the Israeli and U.S. security state out of Brooklyn. They just won. These are successes we can replicate.

"About 150 protesters block Third Avenue in Manhattan in front of the offices of Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand on April 13, 2026."

The Future in Our Past tells the story of the 1926 General Strike on its centenary. It is a compelling on-the-ground account of how workers brought the country to a standstill for nine extraordinary days. Callum Cant and Matthew Lee take us on a journey through a Britain living on its nerves, from the London docklands to the South Wales coalfields and the railways and warehouses of middle England. Churchill feared that labour militancy presaged a Bolshevik-style revolution. The question of power hung in the air as rank-and-file militants pursued a chaotic, improvised and wildly uneven confrontation with the British ruling class.

People living in Los Angeles sewers

What has the far right learned from the Frankfurt School? And what can we learn from Frankfurt School thinkers like Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse to understand the appeal of the right? Paul Fleming sheds light on the fixation of conservatives like Christopher Rufo — who has set about remaking higher education — with cultural Marxism. He also discusses Adorno’s insights into the attraction of authoritarian leaders.

Theodore Adorno, “Anti-Semitism and Fascist Propaganda” https://student.cc.uoc.gr/uploadFiles/181-%CE%A1%CE%91%CE%A4%CE%9A387/Adorno-anti-semitism_and_fascist_propaganda_in_the_stars_down.pdf

New German Critique https://ngc.arts.cornell.edu/

Advocates say ICE arrests continue daily across Chicagoland, even as tactics grow more targeted and less visible.

Best summary of the Prairieland Trial for a noise demo at an immigration detention center

Trump specifically called out the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal for reporting over the weekend that “five US Air Force refueling planes were struck and damaged on the ground at Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia.” Citing two unnamed US officials, the Journal noted that “the tankers were hit during an Iranian missile strike on the Saudi base,” and that the planes were “damaged but not fully destroyed and are being repaired.”

The US president called the story “false reporting” without substantively refuting its content. Trump wrote that four of the refueling planes are “in service” and one “will soon be flying the skies” — none of which is inconsistent with the Journal’s reporting.

Aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump attacked a reporter as “a very obnoxious person” after she asked the president why he’s sending 5,000 US Marines and sailors to the Middle East.

US Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) warned in a letter to Carr on Sunday that the Trump administration is engaged in a “blatant attempt to muzzle the free press” if outlets don’t align their coverage of the Iran war “with Trump’s preferred narrative.”

“Your Saturday post follows that same logic but extends it to the coverage of an active military conflict, where the chilling effect on journalists and the damage to the public’s right to know are most severe,” Markey wrote to Carr.

In this Q&A with Prism, the Appalachian Prison Book Project’s Lydia Welker discusses the barriers prisons place on books and why access is worth fighting for

August 28th, 2024

For two decades, the Appalachian Prison Book Project (APBP) has mailed books to people in prisons and jails across six states in Appalachia. More than 70,000 reference, nonfiction, and fiction books have reached people behind bars who would not have otherwise had access to them.

Lydia Welker is the digital communications coordinator for the project, which is run by an all-volunteer team in Morgantown, West Virginia. In 2021, the Appalachian Prison Book Project expanded by creating a pen pal program, facilitating book clubs, and supporting an associate’s degree program at a prison in Pennsylvania. In December 2024, the organization will publish a book of art and letters by incarcerated people with West Virginia University Press.

On the 20th anniversary of the project, Prism’s Ray Levy Uyeda spoke with Welker by phone about the work that has—as she said—changed her perspective on everything she encounters and her outlook on her “entire life.”

...

Ray Levy Uyeda: What does it take to send a book to someone in prison?

Lydia Welker: Sending anything—especially books—to people who are incarcerated is extremely difficult. Federal, state, and county governments each have different rules about what can be mailed inside. Individual wardens also have a say, and then it often comes down to the discretion of someone working in the mail room.

The Appalachian Prison Book Project keeps very detailed records about different prisons and jails in the region that we serve. We keep careful records about what books have been rejected and why. Most prisons won’t accept hardback books and won’t accept books that aren’t in “good” condition. If a book has a ripped cover, torn pages, pencil or pen marks, it will get rejected. There are also content-based reasons for rejection. We’ve learned that violence, nudity, and maps are all reasons books won’t be accepted, which can include action books or art books like Michelangelo’s David.

What’s in the package is just as important as what’s on the outside. You have to include the person’s name and their ID number and then their mailing address, and then inside we include a note that says, “This book is free and yours to keep.” That is a very important language that we have to include in each package so it’s not seen as an exchange where someone would need to pay us for that book.

...

Since its founding in 2003, the legal services and advocacy organization If/When/How has been working to fight back against state intervention in people’s reproductive lives. In addition to training lawyers, working with law students, and maintaining a legal defense fund, the organization also operates a free and confidential helpline designed to help callers navigate legal emergencies and pose questions regarding their right to access abortions and other forms of reproductive care.

... Since Dobbs, If/When/How has received more than 5,000 inquiries, with more than half of them pertaining to the caller’s legal rights to use abortion pills, the risks of using pills, or judicial bypass, which allows minors to petition a judge to grant them permission for an abortion without telling their parents.

The report, “State Violence and the Far-Reaching Impact of Dobbs,” ... also focuses on calls from those currently under carceral control, whether detained in jails and prisons or on probation or parole.

Barriers to care

Abortion access varies depending on where incarcerated pregnant people are detained. Even prior to Dobbs, some states did not allow incarcerated people to have abortions, while many others only allowed abortions during the first trimester. Pre-Dobbs, only four states had laws ensuring abortion access to incarcerated people; just 23 states had some standard or regulation regarding abortion access for incarcerated pregnant people.

...

picture of burned excavator

in Atlanta early Wednesday at a construction site of a company previously targeted in similar incidents over its role in the building of Cop City

City officials said earlier this year site prep work was almost finished and that actual construction of the facility would soon begin.

They have targeted December of this year for completion of the project. Schierbaum said Wednesday morning a ribbon-cutting ceremony in December is still in the works.