Sludge

Though they are sunsetting their platform, there were a bunch of high quality newsrooms on Civil which can be supported via donations. I recommend checking out https://readsludge.com/ & https://popula.com/, for local news Block Club Chicago, FAQ NYC, Gotham Gazette, The Colorado Sun. https://civil.co/registry/approved

> There is also the damage done by the Supreme Court ending the Voting Rights Act that is true, but > Kamalah would have won by a landslide im not so sure. after a great start she sudenly veered off and campaigned by appealing to disaffected republicans (eg. touring with liz cheney, militaristic posturing (in her words 'the most leathal') military etc) and ignoring/downplaying the gaza issue which affected voting trends [0] in the battleground states just enough to loose there... also the prolonged conflict in ukraine didn't help things with many voters either (eg. lie or not he said he'd end the wars immediately) and aside from some bread-crumbs like paid leave, she was very silent in economic issues that affected many minorities... her campaign was in la-la land [1] [0] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/kamala-harris-… [1] https://readsludge.com/2024/11/18/the-corporate-consultants-behind-har…

Yeah, it feels like it could be related to various propaganda effects on social media networks, stuff like this: https://readsludge.com/2025/09/15/democratic-pr-firm-to-run-bot-army-f…

Do you mean the ban, or the removal of the ban? I'm confused. Because I'm pretty sure the ban is at least in part supported by Zuck, and that's why he gave $300M+ to elect a vegetable in 2020, and that's why Meta is spending more than ever on lobbying: https://readsludge.com/2024/04/23/meta-shatters-lobbying-record-as-hou…

Meta spent a record $7.6 million on lobbying the federal government in the first quarter of 2024, which is the same time Congress was advancing legislation that could ban TikTok. Although Meta's disclosure doesn't explicitly mention the TikTok ban, it does mention lobbying on topics like cybersecurity, data security, and platform integrity, which are all relevant to the concerns surrounding TikTok. So...yeah. https://readsludge.com/2024/04/23/meta-shatters-lobbying-record-as-hou…

Perhaps it's all about training and the culture of "killology" that's seeping into our police forces [1]. Or maybe it's the fact that corporations pay police to "protect and serve" them instead of the general public [2]. Or it's the "perceived" danger from the cops' point of view? [1] https://www.insider.com/bulletproof-dave-grossman-police-trainer-teach… [2] https://readsludge.com/2020/06/19/corporate-backers-of-the-blue-how-co…

Look at net neutrality, the official corporate statement is of course they support and free and open internet. However "According to lobbying disclosures filed with the U.S. Senate and reviewed by Sludge, Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and their largest trade groups, the Internet and Television Association (NCTA) and CTIA, have spent $190.3 million on lobbying the FCC and other government bodies, much of it to reverse net neutrality, since the 2015 rules were passed." Source: https://readsludge.com/2018/06/11/today-net-neutrality-officially-dies…

they're both grounded in fearmongering that's led to cultural panics and utilize the rhetoric of 'protecting children' as the sell https://www.law.georgetown.edu/gender-journal/wp-content/uploads/sites… "Overwhelmingly, state legislators behind recent anti-trans legislation have argued that they were introducing these bills with the intent to protect children – whether that be “protecting children” from “profoundly unethical and morally wrong” medical practices" https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/eff-gov-pritzker-veto-illinois-h… "Much of H.B. 5511 is modeled after controversial legislation passed in California (A.B. 1043) and New York’s Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act" there's also the rampant astroturfing https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/30/christian-hate-group-fun… "The surge in funding to the ADF, which has been termed an “anti-LGBTQ hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, saw it record revenue of $104.5m in 2021, according to filings with the Internal Revenue Service." ADF's main funders being the Servant Foundation or a single billionaire family's pet foundation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_Foundation) and the National Christian Foundation which receives large donations from multiple extremely wealthy individuals like David Green, co-founder of Hobby Lobby…

> So far you have made four posts in this thread and provided no evidence. Four opportunities to provide data on what you _feel_. Four chances to share links or reports. You realize that what you just posted was aiding for supporting corrupt insider trading activities in congress such as [0] and [1] in both parties? Why do you think a bi-partisan total ban on stocks for all politicians never goes forward? [2] [3] Because at least for (some) congress-people they already know that insider trading and front-running on key information can and does indeed happen. Which is something you would be against given the Pelosis' and others directly benefitting from this loophole, like the Nvidia [1] and Google trades [3] all timed in connection to key decisions from the government. > As such, it is doubly clear, as described above, (baseless) that you are insider trading (citation needed). I hope that you are prosecuted to the fullest extent. (no case) Except I didn't copy or trade on anything. You admitted to what you are (baselessly) accusing me of. Also... It's extremely more likely that you (not any congress-person) as a retail trader would be investigated and prosecuted (and jailed) for insider trading than any other congress-person, if you knew someone with political insider information and traded on that. But please continue to defend your politicians front-running you with their insider advantage. [0]…

On concrete policies along these lines many poll in the majority. They don’t get implemented not because the American people are against them (they’re often for them) but because powerful interests are against them. (Corporations and some portion of the very wealthy.) Just as a recent example of the influence of money here, there was a vote to reduce defense budget (which is at record highs) by 10% and reallocate that money. It was voted down. But those that voted against the reduction got 3.4x as much money from the defense industry as those that voted for the cut. The same dynamic plays out on issues like single payer health care, with those against it getting major contributions from health insurance lobbyists who want to defend the status quo even while the policy has a large majority approval across both democrats and republicans (and a whopping 88% approval among Democrats). [1] https://readsludge.com/2020/07/22/dems-voting-against-pentagon-cuts-go…