Blacklisted for journalism

“I don’t understand why building owners want to drive out long time family owned businesses by increasing the rent to the point it is insane.... That’s the thing that really hurts me that it has so much history behind it, that all these corporate people don’t care nothing.”

As a Gen Xer, I can tell you boomers and even my own generation comparing their 20s to today’s 20-30 year-olds needs to stop. I paid $600 for a West Hollywood apartment at 23. Today it’s $3500. Burgers weren’t $20, they were $6 to $8 in a nice restaurant. Life is not comparable. It’s a completely different world now.

NEW: 4 former chemical lobbyists control America’s pesticide regulations, letting pesticide companies pump the country full of toxins. For every 1 meeting with an environmental group, the EPA met 25x with corporate interests. We revealed the corporate lobby poisoning America:

Just a reminder that you are doing your best, and that’s more than enough. It’s okay to take it one day at a time.

As a Professor in the Study of Religion at the University of Oslo, I have the formal opportunity to nominate candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize. I have therefore just nominated the People of Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the 2026 Nobel Peace Price for their valiant defence of peace in Europe against Russian aggression, which seems not limited to Ukraine. Through their immense sacrifice, the People of Ukraine and their President have kept the rest of Europe safe from Russian totalitarianism and imperialism. They are the true and most noble defenders of European liberty, democracy and peace. The formal nomination text is as follows: Through their defence of their own democracy against Russian aggression, the People of Ukraine since 2014 and President Zelenskyy 2019, have helped preserve peace for Europe. As pointed out by various leading politicians, foreign policy experts, and intelligence reports from various states, the Russian territorial ambitions are not limited to Ukraine but extend to other areas previously under Russian control. The official justifications behind the Russian invasion – the alleged right to reclaim land that at one point has been Russian, the claim to allegedly protect Russophone population, and the refusal to accept the legitimacy of a democratically elected government – are just as applicable for Russia’s relations with numerous other countries. The defence of the Ukrainian people against the unilateral Russian invasion of 2014 onwards and particularly after the full-scale invasion of 2022, and of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his entire term, seems, consequently, to have helped preserve peace for other European democracies in the most direct way reflecting the values promoted by the Nobel Peace Prize. In agreement with numerous former Prizes, the achievement of the People of Ukraine and President Zelenskyy is also one of preserving and promoting democracy, as their struggle is one against the totalitarianism and various severe human rights abuses Russia systematically imposes on any territory they illegally occupy The resistance of Ukraine represents, moreover, a decisive defence of the international rules-based order, as it is firmly rooted in the principles of the UN Charter, notably the right of a people to defend itself against aggression. President Zelenskyy and the People of Ukrainian have consistently called for a just and lasting peace based on sovereignty and human rights, and have shown remarkable restraint in the face of systematic attacks on civilians. Author: Professor Dag Øistein Endsjø

The New York Times, earner of more Pulitzer Prizes than any other organization in history, uses video to confirm what every eyewitness has been saying since last week: Agent Jonathan Ross was never hit by Renée Nicole Good’s vehicle.

“Newly available videos and existing footage synchronized and assessed by The New York Times provide a frame-by-frame look at what led to Renee Good being shot and killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis. Watch our visual investigation.” nyti.ms/3Nh4CmV

We wrote about Renee Good's killing for French weekly @franctireurmag, edited by @CarolineFourest. The world is shocked by the slaughter of this unarmed mother slandered when her body was not even cold. Watch how many MAGA types defame a dead woman because she had a wife.

Renee Nicole Good was an avid writer, a proud mother and a hobby guitarist who won a poetry prize in 2020, according to online records and an interview with her father. Here’s more of what we know about her life: wapo.st/4bjKzxW

Gov. Kathy Hochul endorsed legislation that would allow New York residents to sue ICE agents in state court for civil rights violations, an escalation of efforts by Democratic-led states to rein in the agency. wapo.st/49utY9z

This is our moment in history. Speak now or forever be under the boot of fascism. substack.com/@cliffsedge/not…

We need to stop thinking about universal healthcare like it’s time travel or a Starfleet replicator. It’s not sci-fi; every wealthy nation except the US has had universal healthcare for decades! Vote out all the Republicans and your health insurance premium falls to $0.00/mo.

I’m not sure how many people know about this: the wealthiest person in the world Elon Musk actually paid zero federal income tax in 2017. It is so absurd and insane a rigged tax system in America. Period.

Chris Cuomo asked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez how we pay for Medicare for All, tuition free college, and the green new deal. It gives people sticker shock. Her answer: “People talk about the sticker shock of Medicare for All, but they do not talk about the sticker shock of our existing system. In a Koch brothers funded study, it shows that Medicare for All is actually much cheaper than the current system. Let's not forget that the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act because they ruled that each of these monthly payments that everyday Americans make is a tax. We pay it every single month. (Or we pay at tax season if we don't buy plans off of the exchange.) Americans have the sticker shock of healthcare as it is. Why aren't we incorporating the cost of funeral expenses of those who die because they can't afford access to healthcare? That is part of the cost of our system. Or the cost of reduced productivity because of people who need to go on disability or are not able to participate in our economy because they don't have access to the healthcare that they need? At the end of the day, we see that this is not a pipe dream. Every other developed nation in the world has this. Why can't America? And that is the question we need to ask. We write blank checks for war. We just wrote a $2 trillion check for the GOP tax cut. And nobody asks how are we going to pay for it. So my question is why are our pockets only empty when it comes to education and healthcare for our kids? Why are our pockets only empty when we talk about 100% renewable energy that is going to save this planet and allow our children to thrive? We only have empty pockets when it comes to the morally right things to do. But when it comes to tax cuts for billionaires or unlimited war, we seem to be able to invent that money very easily. To me it belies a lack of moral priorities that people have right now, especially the Republican Party.”

Trump says we’re putting American first by arresting a foreign president because “we want good neighbors” ( their oil) And, THEY’RE CORRUPT -- a forever claim by aggressors. China could use similar language for Taiwan. Russia could use similar language for Ukraine, Poland, etc.

Chaos → Exhaustion → Control → Isolation. That's Trump’s strategy to manipulate people. Don’t just say… of course he’s done another outrageous/illegal/amoral thing. Don’t doom scroll. Don’t isolate yourself. Work with others to fight back. open.substack.com/pub/paults…

THIS ISN’T GETTING ENOUGH ATTENTION. More than 100 immigration judges have been fired nationwide since Trump took office. 21 in San Francisco alone, many without explanation. Why? Because they provided due process under U.S. law. The Trump administration doesn’t want hearings or fairness. It wants arrests, detention, and pressure tactics that force people to give up their cases. The result is more chaos, more delay, and a court system that’s being deliberately broken.

NYU law professor Ryan Goodman and his nonpartisan team compiled a review that found more than 35 federal judges had explicitly stated that the Trump’s Justice Department lawyers were providing false, highly misleading, or intentionally inaccurate information in cases.

Stephen Schwartz, the composer of 'Wicked,' says he'll no longer host a gala at the Kennedy Center — becoming one of the most high-profile artists to criticize the changes under Trump. "It no longer represents the apolitical place for free artistic expression it was founded to be,l Schwartz said. "There's no way I would set foot in it now." newsday.com/entertainment/th…