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this is kind of killing me

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Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has opened a probe into the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, The New York Times reported on Friday.

James’s office received subpoenas for documents this week, including for information related to her successful civil fraud case against Trump. The president was found liable for fraudulently inflating his net worth and rigging his financial records last year. He was ordered to pay over $300 million, but the case is still on appeal.

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"There is no other option: no one should remain alive in Ukraine"

russian state media reporting on their invasion and genocide in Ukraine. 30th July 2025.

russia says one thing in the Western media and something completely different in their own.

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Roque Planas at The Guardian:

When representative Greg Casar won his election last year, he became the first Latino to represent the Texas capitol city of Austin in Congress. A panel of federal judges had drawn his district’s lines after a prolonged legal battle over racial gerrymandering. But under the map Texas Republicans unveiled last week, Casar would instead live in the modified version of his neighboring district to the west, which would swallow east Austin – a gentrifying but historically working-class area home to Mexican American and Black residents once forced by segregation laws to live on the east side of town. “Even a conservative supreme court said central Texas Latinos deserve a district, and that’s why my district exists,” Casar said. “If Donald Trump is able to suppress Latino voters here in Austin, he’ll try to spread that plan across America.” Texas Republicans took the unusual step of redistricting several years early in an attempt to deliver more congressional seats to Donald Trump ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Democratic state lawmakers fled the state Sunday to try to thwart the GOP redistricting plan by denying state lawmakers a quorum needed to pass it into law. The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, said Monday he would seek to arrest and possibly unseat and replace Democratic lawmakers who do not return.

In majority-minority Texas, where Black and brown voters have traditionally leaned left, the overtly political ploy is teeing up another in a series of legal battles over racial gerrymandering that have erupted repeatedly for more than a decade.

The dramatic reshaping of Casar’s district 35 is one of the most egregious examples cited by civic groups concerned that the new map will dilute Latino voter strength and make it harder for candidates of color to win congressional elections. “The map as proposed clearly violates the Voting Rights Act and is unconstitutional,” said Lydia Camarillo, the president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project. “It’s canceling out districts that are part of the Voting Rights Act … and it’s not giving Latinos the right to represent their voice based on their population growth.” Hispanics are the largest population segment in Texas, at about 40%. Only one-fifth of the state’s 38-member congressional delegation is Hispanic, however.

Since the last census, civic groups like Camarillo’s have contended that the state’s booming Hispanic population growth merits two more Latino-majority congressional districts under the Voting Rights Act – one in Houston and the other in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. A dozen organizations and several individuals are pressing Texas to create the two Latino-majority districts in an ongoing federal lawsuit in El Paso. The new GOP-drawn map not only fails to provide those two Latino-majority districts, but it significantly dilutes the voting strength of the ones that exist, critics say.

[...] Any redrawing of Texas districts is likely to draw the scrutiny of the federal courts, given the state’s long history of voter suppression. The Voting Rights Act, which will celebrate its 60th anniversary on Wednesday, prohibits both diluting a protected groups’ votes across multiple districts and packing voters into a single one. Carrying out such sweeping changes so quickly at the request of the White House may also raise legal questions that go beyond the Voting Rights Act, according Tom Saenz, the director the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which is representing the plaintiffs in the El Paso case.

TX-35, currently held by Rep. Greg Casar (R), is one of the districts set to be axed by the rigged and racist redraw of the Texas Congressional maps. The proposed redraw reduces Black and Latino community input to select a candidate of their choice.

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Big Insurance Uses AI to Quickly Deny Claims, One Man Fights Back with AI App That Quickly Appeals

"The idea that American health insurance companies are using AI to analyze and adjudicate claims for approval or denial sounds terrifying, but one North Carolinian is using AI to fight back.

When Raleigh resident Neal Shah had a claim denied for his wife’s chemotherapy drugs, he thought it was rare, that he was the only one, that it was just bad luck.

Litigating his case on phone calls that lasted for hours changed the husband and father, and he set about creating a sophisticated app that uses artificial intelligence to compare claims denial forms against health insurance contracts, before automatically drafting an appeal letter.

“For a doctor to write this, it’s not rocket science, but it still takes hours,” Shah told ABC News 11, adding that a well-written appeal letter, sent in immediately, can sometimes get denials reversed within days or weeks, but most people either don’t know they can appeal, or don’t know on what grounds they can appeal.

In fact, according to Shah’s research, 850 million claims denials occur every year, and less than 1% are ever appealed.

That’s where Counterforce Health comes in, a startup that’s created a free-to-use app for claims denials.

It’s all the more critical a service now that health insurance companies, already armed with statewide government-protected pseudo monopolies and duopolies, are using AI to deny claims within seconds of them being filed.

“Before, you used to have a reason you would deny it, and you used to have a doctor review or a nurse review it, but once AI rolled out, they could just have AI deny it,” Shah explained.

For Counterforce Health, Shah brought onboard Riyaa Jadhav, a Jill of all trades who has helped grow and expand the undertaking through her experience in both the business world and working alongside patients at Johns Hopkins University Hospital.

Together, they’ve built Counterforce to the point where it boasts a 70% success rate in appealing claims.

Thousands have already logged on; many going on to use the service.

“Sometimes when enough people get loud, enough people put pressure, then I think all of a sudden society wakes up, so I really feel like it’s really about to click,” Shah said.

-via Good News Network, August 5, 2025

Here's the link to this organization, by the way. According to their numbers, less than 1% of denials in the US are appealed, but 75% of appeals are approved. This could do so much good.

And another source for validity:

-via NBC News, July 18, 2025

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I see a lot of people come back with the "you just don't know how AI/LLMs work!" when people bring up that it steals copyrighted work.

Ignoring the fact that pretty much every AI bro I have ever talked to has no idea how AI actually works....

Multiple AI companies have stated that their systems could not exist without the copyrighted works they use. No amount of nitpicking about the semantics of the word 'stealing' changes the fact that these companies make profit off of a product that could not exist without the large scale scraping of copyrighted material.

A product, mind you, that is made and marketed as direct competition to the copyright holders of the data they have built their, let me stress this again, FOR PROFIT product on.

I do not care what definition you pull out for the word 'stealing'. Y'all AI simps know exactly what we mean when we say it: The taking off our intellectual property against our express will to create profit for large companies.

(And before someone comes in with "But artists do the same thing": No, we don't. How do you think the first people making art on cave walls were able to do that without seeing someone else's art?)

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Aug. 7, 2025, 6:02 AM MST

By Steve Benen

The language of the U.S. Constitution is unambiguous when it comes to the decennial census: The government is responsible for counting “all persons” in the United States as part of a process that’s conducted every “ten years.” There are no asterisks. There is no fine print. The first census was in 1790, and the count has been conducted every 10 years since, including one in 2020.

Donald Trump, however, apparently has a new plan in mind that runs counter to our constitutional system. The president published a three-sentence missive to his social media platform on Thursday morning, which read in its entirety:

"I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024. People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

As is often the case with the Republican’s declarations, it’s an open question whether this is an actual announcement about a policy to be implemented in the real world, or whether Trump simply shared a passing thought that his aides will ignore and that the White House will soon pretend never happened.

President Donald Trump on Thursday demanded work begin on a new census as redistricting battles are spreading across the country.

In a social media post, Trump announced he directed the Commerce Department to "immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024."

"People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS," Trump added.

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You should be able to open this. The fact that shocked me the most is the anticipated increase (huge) in health insurance premiums on health insurance purchased under the Affordable Care Act. I think this is called "death by a thousand cuts."

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Canadians' electronic health records need more protections to prevent foreign entities from accessing patient data, according to commentary in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. "Canadian privacy law is badly outdated," said Michael Geist, law professor and Canada Research Chair in internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa and co-author of the commentary. "We're now talking about decades since the last major change." Geist says electronic medical records systems from clinics and hospitals — containing patients' personal health information — are often controlled by U.S. companies. The data is encrypted and primarily stored on cloud servers in Canada, but because those are owned by American companies, they are subject to American laws.

Continue reading

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

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Chloe Simon and Gideon Taaffe at MMFA:

As world health experts warn that Gaza is experiencing the “worst-case scenario of famine,” right-wing media figures’ reactions have fallen into three broad buckets: Deny the existence of a famine, pin the blame on Hamas and the United Nations in Israel’s defense, or — in a few cases — acknowledge the reality on ground.  Figures like right-wing podcaster Laura Loomer flat-out claimed there’s “no starvation in Gaza,” and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk called images of malnourished children “propaganda,” saying it’s “emotional, visual, optical warfare.”  Others, like Fox News personalities Katie Pavlich and Mark Levin and Newsweek’s Josh Hammer have blamed the United Nations and Hamas for starvation in Gaza, claiming they’re “obstructing aid from entering” and “purposely starving the population as a PR strategy against Israel.”  There has also been a small group of right-wing media personalities who have acknowledged the unfolding famine in Gaza. However, some of them have strong antisemitic beliefs, such as white nationalist Nick Fuentes and far-right commentator Candace Owens. 

Palestinians in Gaza are starving largely due to Israel’s restrictions on food entering the region — even Trump has acknowledged “real starvation”

The Israeli military campaign in Gaza and its restrictions on the aid entering the enclave have created “mass starvation,” and the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip,” according to the World Health Organization and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. The Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health documented at least 101 hunger‑related deaths in the week leading up to July 22, including 80 children. “Nearly 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and a third of Gaza’s population is going days without eating,” PBS reported, attributing the information to a director at the U.N. World Food Program. [The Guardian, 7/23/25, 7/29/25; The Washington Post, 7/24/25; United Nations, 7/22/25; PBS, 7/22/25]

President Donald Trump publicly acknowledged that there's “real starvation” in Gaza, contradicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claim that “there is no starvation in Gaza.” During a visit to Scotland, Trump urged Israel to permit “every ounce of food” into Gaza and claimed that the U.S. is “going to set up food centers.” [Reuters, 7/28/25; The Guardian, 7/28/25] 

Israel has accused the UN of failing to deliver food to Palestinians and Hamas of stealing aid, but reports contradict those accusations

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of stealing the aid provided by humanitarian agencies. According to The New York Times, “The government has used that claim as its main rationale for restricting food from entering Gaza. But the Israeli military never found proof that the Palestinian militant group had systematically stolen aid from the United Nations, the biggest supplier of emergency assistance to Gaza for most of the war, according to two senior Israeli military officials and two other Israelis involved in the matter. In fact, the Israeli military officials said, the U.N. aid delivery system, which Israel derided and undermined, was largely effective in providing food to Gaza’s desperate and hungry population.” [The New York Times, 7/26/25]

An internal USAID analysis reviewed 156 reported cases of U.S.-funded humanitarian aid theft or loss in Gaza between October 2023 and May 2025 — and found “no reports” that Hamas benefited from U.S.-funded supplies. None of the incidents could be directly attributed to Hamas, and at least 44 incidents where aid was “reported stolen or lost” were linked, directly or indirectly, to Israeli military actions. According to Reuters, there was a “limitation” on the study because “Palestinians who receive aid cannot be vetted, [so] it was possible that U.S.-funded supplies went to administrative officials of Hamas.” Reuters also acknowledged that just because there were no reports of widespread aid diversion by Hamas, it “does not mean that diversion has not occurred.” But while the U.S. State Department continues to assert there is video evidence of Hamas looting aid, it has not released any footage supporting these claims. [Reuters, 7/25/25]  

Israel has also blamed the U.N. for being uncooperative and refusing to deliver aid to Gaza, but “the U.N. says it is hampered by Israeli military restrictions on its movements and incidents of criminal looting.” As The Associated Press reported, “Large crowds of desperate people, as well as criminal gangs, overwhelm trucks as they enter and strip off the supplies. Witnesses say Israeli troops regularly open fire on the crowds, causing deaths and injuries.” The report quoted a spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, who said, “Taken together, these factors have put people and humanitarian staff at grave risk and forced aid agencies on many occasions to pause the collection of cargo from crossings controlled by the Israeli authorities.” As the nonpartisan think tank the Atlantic Council noted, “Israel has systematically denied the entry of aid, created roadblocks to ensure that the little that does get in is not safely accessible, and perpetuated false narratives intended to discredit the humanitarian community and justify its blocking of aid.” [The Associated Press, 7/25/25; ABC News, 7/28/25; The Atlantic Council, 7/29/25]

Right-wing media are responding in various ways to the Gaza famine crisis, with most reacting like complete ghouls… but a few showing surprising compassion.

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John Russell at LGBTQ Nation:

While the number of reported hate crimes and the overall number of violent crimes in the U.S. decreased last year, advocates say the number of hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ Americans remains troublingly high. On Tuesday, August 5, the FBI released its annual report on crime statistics in the U.S., which showed that violent crime decreased by about 4.5% last year compared to 2023. Similarly, reported hate crimes were down by about 1.5% in 2024 compared to the previous year.

That slight decrease, however, follows a record number of hate crimes reported in 2023. As Axios notes, the 2024 total is the second-highest since the FBI began tracking data on hate crimes. Similarly, reported incidents of hate crimes based on sexual orientation bias and gender identity bias only saw a slight drop in 2024. Of the 11,323 incidents of single-bias motivated crimes reported last year, 17.2% (1,950) were motivated by sexual-orientation bias. That’s down just under 1 percent from 2023. The drop in incidents motivated solely by gender identity bias was even less, from 492 (4.3%) reported in 2023 to 463 (4.1%) in 2024. Of the 2,278 single-bias hate crime offenses based on sexual orientation reported last year, over half (51.8%) were classified as involving anti-gay male bias. While the overall number of sexual orientation-based hate crime offenses was down slightly from 2023’s total of 2,402, the number of offenses involving anti-gay male bias was up from 49 percent in 2023. Offenses based on gender identity dropped only slightly as well, from 547 reported in 2023 to 527 in 2024. The number of anti-transgender offenses decreased from 401 to 382, while the number of offenses targeting gender-nonconforming people remained about the same. The 2024 numbers are based on data collected from 16,419 law enforcement agencies that participated in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s Hate Crime Statistics Data Collection. Of those agencies, only 19 percent reported incidents of hate crimes occurring in their jurisdictions in 2024. But as anti-violence advocates have long noted, police departments often significantly undercount the number of hate crimes due to bias or underreporting by queer people who may distrust law enforcement.

Per the 2024 FBI crime statistics report, even as crime rates have declined, anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime rates remain high.

See Also:

The Advocate: FBI report: Despite overall crime drop, anti-LGBTQ+ violence remains alarmingly high

Uncloseted Media: The FBI's Crime Report: 5 New Findings About Anti-LGBTQ Hate

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[TW: Child Rape, Rape]

Sarah K. Burris at Raw Story:

The Republican president of Utah's Senate managed to change consent laws after a relative was accused of raping a 13-year-old. Newsweek reported a Salt Lake City Tribune piece that Senate President J. Stuart Adams suggested that the Utah Legislature change the law that would change the child rape laws. "Previously, as adults, 18-year-old high school students who had sex with a 13-year-old could face a charge of child rape, a first-degree felony," said the Tribune. "A conviction on that charge generally requires registration as a sex offender, while a conviction on the newly created lesser charge does not." The law was changed to offer a new option for prosecutors dealing with 13-year-old victims of child rape.

"Seventeen-year-olds who have sex with 13-year-olds face a third-degree felony charge of unlawful sexual activity; the new law now allows prosecutors to file that same charge against an 18-year-old — if they are an enrolled high school student," said the report. Adams swore that his involvement and familial relationship had nothing to do with the legislation. [...] Under Utah law, anyone under 14 cannot consent.

Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams (R) grotesquely changed the state’s age of consent law all because a relative of his raped a 13-year-old.

See Also:

TNR: GOP Lawmaker Changes Law to Help Relative Facing Child Rape Charges

LGBTQ Nation: GOP senator who said trans people put girls at “risk” just helped a relative who raped a 13-year-old

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it really is starting to look like the western world's lurch towards fascism is, for a not insignificant number of people, revenge for taking away their right to say the r slur

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It's really something that the posts on antisemitism that go Tumblr viral are ones relating to fictional antisemitism and not the ones about, say, Jews peacefully gathering getting molotov cocktails thrown at them. Or a synagogue vandalized with Torah scrolls ripped up and the police saying it's not a hate crime. Or another synagogue almost set on fire while people were inside it for Shabbat services. Or the hundreds of other incidents that have happened in the past two years.

Nope. Just the fictional antisemitism. That's apparently the bigger concern.