Hard Pass

Only one notch above junk level.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/9003261

By katekomics https://www.instagram.com/p/C3sfJ9Mx5wr/?img_index=2

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/9002626

By https://x.com/rumpdumpler/status/2075605699552231898

Wisconsin Democratic candidate for governor Sara Rodriguez said Monday that she discovered her campaign has hundreds of thousands dollars less cash than she thought after campaign ads slated to run last week did not air because of unpaid invoices.

Rodriguez, the current lieutenant governor, announced late Sunday night that she had fired her campaign manager just a month before the Aug. 11 primary after discovering contributions had been double counted and expenses were undercounted, leading to her campaign having far less money than she thought.

Rodriguez, at a news conference surrounded by supporters, vowed to remain in the race.

“This campaign is going to move forward,” she said in the appearance at her campaign headquarters.

Rodriguez is in a competitive primary for Wisconsin’s open governor’s race against democratic socialist Francesca Hong, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and three others. The winner of the primary will advance to the general election against Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, who faces only token primary opposition.

Last week Rodriguez announced a $1 million television ad campaign buy. But when the ads didn’t start running as she expected, Rodriguez said she began asking questions and discovered the problems in the campaign reports.

“I am hurt, angry and deeply disappointed by someone I trusted to run my campaign,” Rodriguez said of her fired campaign manager, Kara Spencer. “I was continually getting inaccurate reports from my campaign manager.”

Spencer did not return a message seeking comment.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1260166/climate-gov-was-destroyed-open-data-saved-it

She also referred his attorney for possible professional discipline.

The fund was the result of an unprecedented deal that Trump made with himself after he dropped his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service for the unlawful leak of his tax returns in 2019. The honey pot payments were pitched as reparations, paid for by U.S. taxpayers through the Department of Justice, to virtually any right-winger that felt targeted by the previous presidential administration.

“The nature of the suit itself and the conduct of the Parties and counsel from its filing make plain that this was an attempt to use the Court to provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President and to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined in the law,” wrote U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in a 56-page order Monday.

Williams ruled that any entities affiliated with the slush fund settlement—including the president, the Treasury Department, and the IRS—were “prohibited” from using the details of the arrangement in any official capacity. She also referred Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brito, to the Florida bar for possible professional discipline.

She noted that while Trump had the right to pursue legal action over the unauthorized publication of his tax returns, he chose not to do so while he was still a private citizen. Instead, Trump did not bring the charges until he had returned to the White House and subsequently appointed his former lawyer, Todd Blanche, atop the Justice Department.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8995276

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/63725

In a move proponents say will save constituents up to $162.5 million annually, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other New York City officials on Friday unveiled a "click-to-cancel" rule aimed at ensuring people can end online subscriptions as easily as they start them.

Days after entering office in January, Mamdani signed a pair of executive orders, "Combating Hidden Junk Fees" and "Fighting Subscription Tricks and Traps"—his 9th and 10th mayoral edicts—to protect consumers and make it easier "for New Yorkers to know the real price of what they are buying and to stop paying for the services they no longer want."

Following up on the orders, Mamdani and New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) Commissioner Samuel A.A. Levine proposed a rule "requiring transparent, all-in pricing that bans hidden junk fees, alongside a final 'click to cancel' rule that guarantees consumers can cancel subscriptions as easily as they sign up for them."

The landmark proposal is part of Mamdani's affordability agenda, which includes the rent freeze and universal childcare programs he's partially enacted, as well as the free city buses, municipal grocery stores, affordable housing expansion, and redistributive taxation his administration is pursuing.

“For years, companies have built their business model around making it harder for working people to hold onto their money,” Mamdani said during a Friday press conference at Asser Levy Recreational Center in Manhattan's Kips Bay neighborhood. “Whether it’s hidden fees that suddenly appear at checkout or subscriptions that take one click to sign up for and a dozen steps to cancel, the result is the same: Working people pay more while corporations profit. That ends now. If you can sign up with one click, you can cancel with one click.”

Levine said that “these two rules will ensure that the price you see is the price you pay—no hidden charges, no endless subscription services, and no advantages for businesses that cheat. Requiring companies to compete on price will lower costs for all New Yorkers and level the playing field for honest businesses.”

Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su spoke at the press conference, saying, “Every dollar a family loses to a hidden fee or a subscription they couldn’t cancel is a dollar stolen from them, a dollar that could have gone toward rent, groceries, childcare, or anything else."

"And just as important, the hours spent trying to cancel a subscription or membership you no longer want is stolen time," the former acting US labor secretary added. “That’s what affordability means in practice—closing the small holes that drain people’s paychecks and their time month after month. These rules put New Yorkers back in control.”

Former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan—who implemented a similar rule while serving in the role during the Biden administration before it was killed after President Donald Trump returned to office—also spoke Friday, arguing that “nobody should be trapped in subscriptions they can’t escape or stuck paying junk fees they can’t avoid."

“These predatory tactics cheat people out of billions of dollars each year," she added. "With today’s rules, Commissioner Levine and DCWP are cracking down on corporate ripoffs, protecting families and honest businesses alike. The Mamdani administration’s work to tackle the affordability crisis and promote economic fairness continues to set a new standard nationwide, modeling effective governance and a relentless focus on using all of the city’s levers to improve life for New Yorkers.”

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

Paywall? https://removepaywalls.com/3/https://www.heise.de/en/news/S-P-downgrades-Oracle-to-BBB-only-one-notch-above-junk-level-11363472.html

TLDR: The r/selfhosted subreddit has a Discord server. The owner's account got hacked leaving the server in a precarious state. They submitted a support ticket, but Discord has not taken action in weeks and probably won't at all, so they are considering starting a new Discord server.

quote take from this interview:

https://resumen-english.org/2026/07/elian-gonzalez-however-tired-the-cuban-people-may-be-they-know-where-the-evil-lies/

Elián says, "I can drink American beer but Americans cannot drink Cuban rum. Who is free?"

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/61459841

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8921489

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/58249

Daniel Herrera Carbajal
ICT

The Tohono O’odham Nation has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security over its plans to construct a border wall on the tribe’s lands.

The suit was filed Tuesday as DHS plans to award contracts in the coming weeks to construct the border wall, according to a press release from Tohono O’odham.

“We do not believe, and we know that Customs and Border Protection has no legal authority to take any of our reservation land nor use it without permission,” said Tohono O’odham Chairman Verlon M. Jose in a speech Wednesday at a National Congress of American Indians event in Memphis, Tennessee.

About 62 miles of the Tohono O’odham Nations land are contiguous with the US-Mexico border.

“To build these walls, (Customs and Border Protection) will have to diminish the size of the Tohono O’odham Nation. … There is no good reason to steal even more tribal land or destroy tribal land” Jose said.

The Tohono O’odham Nation has said building a wall on its reservation would be illegal and DHS and other contracting personnel who enter the nation would be trespassing.

The tribe’s ancestral homelands lie adjacent but on opposite sides of the US-Mexico border. The Gadsden Purchase of 1854 divided the nation’s lands and separated families.

According to the Tohono O’odham Nation, there are more than 3,000 enrolled members who live in the tribe’s ancestral lands in the Mexican state of Sonora.

“The United States-Mexican border was drawn through the heart of our traditional territory, making it more difficult for us to visit our families, our cemeteries, our sacred places, our ceremonies,” Jose said.

The Tohono O’odham Nation has strongly opposed the construction of a border wall on its lands while strongly supporting border-security measures. The tribal nation spends millions of dollars a year on border security and has its own tactical patrol unit under the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency called the “Shadow Wolves” – an all-Native patrol unit whose mission is to delay, disrupt and interdict illicit trafficking, according to ICE.

“We believe in border security, to protect our people and to protect the United States,” Jose said.

The post Tohono O’odham Nation fights back against border wall on its lands appeared first on ICT.

From ICT via This RSS Feed.

The sister of US Senator Lindsey Graham will serve as his temporary replacement after the South Carolina lawmaker died from an aortic tear on Saturday.

Darline Graham Nordone was formally chosen by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster on Monday, who introduced her as Graham's "little sister" who would "finish his work for him now".

"It is such an honour. Lindsey has always been there for me and now I will be there for him," Nordone said.
The announcement came after officials including President Donald Trump calling for Nordone to serve as his replacement in a "tribute" to the senator, who never married and had no children.

Graham was close with his sister, who he legally adopted after their parents died while they were young.
McMaster said she would serve out the remainder of Graham's term, which is set to end in 2027.

"Lindsey took care of his little sister," McMaster said. "It's my honor to ask his little sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to finish his work for him now."

Nordone said she believed "this is what Lindsey would have wanted and I plan to honour him in this way".

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/shit/p/1260208/college-professor-watching-you-kiss-the-girl-he-likes