Political news I want to share. 8-19-2026.

Supreme Court asked to hear case on Texas law requiring Ten Commandments in schools

Freedom Writers Collaborative (@fwcollaborative.bsky.social) 2026-08-17T18:00:00Z

Scores of James Talarico donors are exceeding federal donation limits, with regulators at the FEC identifying 143 such donors who exceeded the legal limit, according to a letter they sent to the Texas Democrat campaign this month.

NOTUS (@notus.com) 2026-08-17T14:11:02.278407873Z

AP on Trump's rule by rich people: "The number of people worth at least $100 million whom the Republican president has appointed to his administration is more than four times the combined total under the three previous presidents."

Michael Derby (@michaelsderby.bsky.social) 2026-08-17T15:39:02.719Z

Trump: "The people that are opposing the ballroom are people that in my opinion are very disloyal to our country. Very very disloyal to our country."

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-08-17T18:10:42.193Z

Trump says he's talked with Kim Jong Un since yesterday and demands South Korea pay up

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-08-17T18:06:33.919Z

"I asked for $10 billion" — Trump demands protection payment from South Korea

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-08-17T18:04:24.278Z

hours after threatening military strikes, Trump says he'd "handle Oman very easily"

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-08-17T17:59:47.162Z

If you lost your right to have and use a firearm due to a felony conviction, now, promises Todd Blanche, you can get it back. The right sum paid in crypto to the Trump Bros will insure a prompt decision. http://www.wsj.com/politics/pol…

Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) 2026-08-17T18:45:41.831Z

The U.S. and Iran on Monday missed their 60-day deadline to reach a deal to curtail Iran’s nuclear program under the terms of the cease-fire they agreed to in June, underlining the breakdown of a truce that President Trump promised would end the war. Here's what to know.

The New York Times (@nytimes.com) 2026-08-17T09:25:07.323481Z

Iran decided to shift its policy from defensive to ‘fully offensive’ due to the deadlock in efforts to agree to end to its war with the US, a senior Iranian official told Reuters. Progress towards peace ground to a halt since the conflict began in February reut.rs/4x4EuNZ

Reuters (@reuters.com) 2026-08-17T16:31:37.489Z

At the end of his life, when he stands before God in judgment, J.D. Vance wants to be able to say he did everything he could to help MAGA Rep. Brandon Gill get re-elected. http://www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwat…

Right Wing Watch (@rightwingwatch.bsky.social) 2026-08-17T16:16:32.463Z

Ken Paxton says he's probing widespread noncitizen voting, claiming that tens of thousands voted illegally in a single Texas election. Three have been prosecuted. Of 53 cases referred for investigation, at least five are US citizens. http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ele…

Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur.bsky.social) 2026-08-17T14:18:22.365Z

Trump says he has a good relationship with Kim Jong Un, asks the lifeguard he's honoring to co-sign his attacks on the press, and then snaps at a woman reporter: "Be quiet! Be quiet!"

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-08-17T18:07:39.031Z

Photos like this are the reason why minority people and women who were sexually abused don't trust law enforcement. Look who they cheer for.

Paul Graf (@paulginva.bsky.social) 2026-08-16T21:19:32.066Z

Hasan Piker Threatens Scott Jennings with Defamation Lawsuit Over ‘Lynchings’ Claim

Mediaite (@mediaite.com) 2026-08-17T14:52:41Z

It used to be that once a NIH grant award hit “status 19,” the money was about to go out the door.That’s not the case anymore. The Trump administration has enacted an unprecedented political review process, pushing hundreds of awards into limbo.

NOTUS (@notus.com) 2026-08-17T11:05:58.0452125Z

The number of parents in the U.S. choosing not to vaccinate their children rose dramatically in the last school year, according to data CDC data released Monday. @erikaedwards.bsky.social @nbcnews.com

sara g miller (@saragmiller.bsky.social) 2026-08-17T21:13:06.999Z

Nation’s Largest Reservoirs Are Drying Up, Threatening Life in the Southwest http://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/17/c…

Justin Felder (@justinbluepal.bsky.social) 2026-08-17T21:26:52.463Z

ICE pitches legal insurance to help shield local officers who make immigration arrestsapnews.com/article/ice-…

Dave Shutton (@daveshuttonpbs.bsky.social) 2026-08-17T22:05:15.259Z

Luigi Mangione's September trial is off as defense tries to get state charges dismissed gothamist.com/news/luigi-m…

Gothamist (@gothamist.com) 2026-08-17T20:43:52.308885Z

ICE Kills Woman With Gunshots To The Face

The middle of the video shows the ICE thug not giving the woman time to do as ordered.  She was told to move her car and leave she was trying but got cut off by another auto, the ICE thug grabbed the door handle as she was starting to pull out and he already had his gun out.  He stuck the gun into the open window and shot her point blank.  He was in no danger as he was beside the car not in front of it.  When Ron saw the video as I was watching the show on the kitchen TV while doing dishes and he broke down in tears over it.  I was also very upset.  Gang thugs rampaging in cities with no restraint on what they are allowed to do.  These are gang members, militia members, and Jan 6th insurrectionists.  They are Stephen Millers brownshirts and Gestapo.  You know Miller the guy who said on national TV that the president must never be questioned and is a white supremacist Jewish Nazi.  He has claimed he doesn’t consider him self a Jew but I be the Nazi’s do.   Hugs

Screaming, Indeed!

Somebody Is Shooting — Strike That — *Killing* Minnesota’s Democratic Lawmakers, Dressed As A Cop by Rebecca Schoenkopf

Well, here is some fucking news. Read on Substack

Melissa Hortman has died. John Hoffman and his wife have survived surgery.

Here is a fast post before I take a breath, make my signs, and go outside to scream my head off.

Someone or someones dressed as law enforcement — or law enforcement! with ICE covering their faces, there’s really no way to know anymore who is who! — has gone and shot Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota. The Minnesota House is split 67-67, and the Minnesota Senate has a plus-one majority for Democratic-Farm-Labor. These are targeted assassinations.

Sen. John Hoffman (DFL-Champlin) and Minnesota House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman of Brooklyn Park are reportedly in grave condition. Reportedly, both of their spouses were shot too. Update 10:50 eastern: KSTP is reporting that Hortman and her husband Mark have died.

Update 11:00 eastern: Per an officer at the press conference above, officers responding to the shooting at Hoffman’s house asked Brooklyn Park officers to go check Hortman’s house — out of a vague foreboding. Those officers found the fake cop coming out of her house, when he immediately shot at them and went back inside.

Update 11:30 eastern: NOWHERE in this CNN story on the “politically motivated assassination” does it tell its readers that the victims were Democrats. Why do you suppose that is?

Everything is escalating. Nothing is all right.

The last time someone tried to kill Democrats, it was a lunatic who bashed Nancy Pelosi’s octogenarian husband in the head with a hammer. This was considered very hilarious by our president, Donald Trump.

Here is Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz a day ago.

https://embed.bsky.app/embed/did:plc:kkowgxq2se4x5lo4zyipch6a/app.bsky.feed.post/3lriop3puf22w?id=18887764160362552

Jesus Fucking Christ.

“Is the Cold-Blooded UnitedHealthcare CEO KillerGetting This Much Love Because He’s a White Man?

There’s just no damn way a Black man would get the same treatment.

(This is a valid POV. Also, if you go ahead and click the links, you’ll get simply the embed you clicked on. If you click the link above, you can see the whole story with the embeds. The whole story is here, with the embed links.)

By Lawrence Ware

The response to UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson being shot and killed in Manhattan last week has been…interesting, to say the least. Dude, whose identity remains unknown and is probably somewhere cooling in Istanbul while the Feds and everyone else continue searching for him, has turned into a something of a pop culture icon.

The online reactions of Black folks to the killer and Thompson himself have run the gamut, from outright hostility, like this guy…

…to intellectually nuanced and dense articulations of why they are unmoved about the killing of this white man who theoretically became rich off the back of the misfortunes of the sick. (Let’s call this intellectual hostility.)

What’s most surprising is the amount of love this hoodie wearing, N95-masked gentleman who used a silencers to kill a man in broad daylight in the heart of New York City is receiving. There has not been this much adoration for a white man since Channing Tatum took his clothes off dancing off beat in Magic Mike. I mean, there’s already been a lookalike competition:

https://www.theroot.com/embed/inset/iframe?id=tiktok-7445767917418876190&autosize=1

There are even folks thirsting over this dude like they have been walking though the Mojave desert and homie is a glass of water with some liquid IV:

But let’s be clear. Even though the NYPD (shockingly) said here that the killer is “light skinned:”

…ain’t no damn way a Black man would get this kind of love if he pulled the trigger. I’m quite positive that there are white people in the sundown town of Cullman, Ala. who are fine with a white man doing this crime but would pull out their big ass trucks with a Confederate flag on the front to find the perpetrator if he was Black.

Denzel Washington could have pulled the trigger, and folks would have thanked him for the years of joy he brought to their lives and thrown his ass under the jail.

The response to this murder (I refuse to call it an “assassination” because Thompson could have caught some lead for something as simple as sleeping with the nanny and her boyfriend pulling out the .44 on him.) is at once expected in our society and, well, pretty nonsensical.

And like all things that make no sense anymore, I blame this on Donald Trump…and that dude hasn’t even moved into the White House yet. I’m just glad the killer wasn’t a Black man, because we’d all be face-down in handcuffs getting profiled throughout the damn country.

Another food aid worker in Gaza murdered by Israeli military