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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 14h

The period of "full democracy" lasted from 1965 to 2026 - the passage of the Voting Rights Act and its destruction by John Roberts' SCOTUS. What's at stake now with this election: consolidation of "competitive authoritarianism" or an opening to "unconsolidated democracy" muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

An antidote to much of what ails us these days. Also: read the book (you'll have to scroll to the end to get to the "free shipping" pitch

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Billionaires against California's Prop 40: How much they're spending. And who they are. www.sfchronicle.com/politics/art...

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

How California real estate investors have totally gamed the affordable housing racket, thanks to nonenforcement by key state agencies. Outstanding reporting from Kate Talerico in today's @sfchronicle.com www.sfchronicle.com/projects/202...

sfchronicle.com

Real estate investors are profiting off a California tax break

The welfare exemption has become a strategy for landlords to save money on taxes without necessarily giving tenants a discount on rent, a Chronicle investigation found.

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Reposted by Steve Katz

ashley fairbanks @ziibiing.com · 05/10/2026

this is my favorite example ever of an interactive clearly, creatively illustrated concept

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Darryl Holliday tees up the theoretical case for why "Local" is the deep keyword for the future, and shows how the future is already happening. California's $200 million commitment to journalism through AB222 shows where it can go. www.amacad.org/daedalus/civ...

amacad.org

Civic Media in the Second Gilded Age

Platform monopolies have concentrated wealth and power over civic discourse at levels not seen since the first Gilded Age—and the public media system built to counter that concentration has never been...

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Murphy does it again. Great profile.

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

One family's story. They were planning to move to Canada and safety, they hoped. ICE disappeared their mom, a frontline nurse during the pandemic. More great reporting from @raheemfh.bsky.social for the San Francisco Chronicle. www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

sfchronicle.com

A Bay Area nurse tried to relocate her family to Canada. ICE stopped them

A nurse treated Bay Area residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Trump administration made her disappear.

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Jeez Louise, Nils, as if teh Sunday scaries weren't enough to deal with.

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

And not just (or primarily) at the level of national politics. Small town life is permeated with this as well.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

As @davidcorn.bsky.social reports, Putin's trolls are again messing with US elections on behalf of Trump and the GOP, now by creating deepfake videos branded as coming from legit news outlets, including @motherjones.com. Be careful what you ingest, people. If something seems off, it probably is.

motherjones.com

How Russia is attacking the midterms with a Mother Jones deepfake.

Putin's trolls are again looking to help Donald Trump and the GOP.

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

So the Russian election disinfo campaign have poked the wrong bear. Clearly they have never had to deal w @clarajeffery.bsky.social when she is pissed. They are about to find out. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

motherjones.com

How Russia is attacking the midterms with a Mother Jones deepfake.

Putin's trolls are again looking to help Donald Trump and the GOP.

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Bart⚓️ @bartgonnissen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The Facial Expressions of Tethys by artist Julius von Bismarck. A suspended high-sea buoy that moves in real time. Sensors on a twin buoy out in the Atlantic Ocean send live satellite data to motors inside the museum. This makes the indoor buoy copy the exact, real-time movements of the ocean waves.

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Not a bad day to re-read Article II of the Genocide Convention. Just in case you need to say something about it. www.un.org/en/genocide-... And then read Philippe Sands' East West Street to understand its origins. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/227917...

penguinrandomhouse.com

East West Street by Philippe Sands: 9780525433729 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

A profound, important book, a moving personal detective story and an uncovering of secret pasts, set in Europe’s center, the city of bright colors—Lviv, Ukraine, dividing east from west, north...

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Put up a trailcam on Cascade Creek behind our house. We’ve had a few visitors. #FairfaxCA

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

43 days til Election Day. Immigration, Islamaphobia, ICE. To mobilize Evangelicals. All they have left. Homan's speech, ICE shooting in Austin, ICE beating of a US citizen in Evanston, Steven Miller resurfacing again looking evil as usual. talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/homan-s...

talkingpointsmemo.com

Homan Stumps for Georgia GOPers by Promoting ICE Brutality in Speech to Evangelicals

In Church, Merch, and State, Sarah Posner writes about the intersection of religion and...

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The 14th Amendment Center @the14thcenter.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Wilber Rafael Garces Perez. Shot in Austin. Taken into ICE custody with a bullet still in his back. His family kept in the dark, and his lawyer prevented from checking on his condition. The Constitution is clear on who due process protects: any person. Not citizens only. Any person. Settled law.

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Last night my film won the Ashfield Film Festival’s natural world category 🏆🥂 "The Storm" chronicles #wildlife movement forced by a major nor-easter that dumped 5" of rain on our region Here’s what I captured via #trailcam on a beaver dam, which animals use like a bridge over rising water:

youtu.be

The Storm

YouTube video by ErikHoffner

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

A lovely read about an unexpectedly lovely place (Freshkills, aka Robert Moses' Staten Island solution to NYC's 20th century garbage problem. Now a new kind of nature. And a buried memorial. (h/t @jwomack.bsky.social) fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/in-the-bur...

fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com

In the Burial Mounds of Eghquhous

No. 201

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Jesus F Christ opening up a 2nd front we know how that works out

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

So is this gonna be a DC version of The Battle for People's Park?

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

@msifry.bsky.social on the AI crazy happening right now. "LLMs are real. AI is fake." A powerful but unregulated and hence dangerous tool. The six factions fighting over the shape of the public debate. Why it's about money and power not just tech. theconnector.substack.com?utm_source=n...

theconnector.substack.com

The Connector | Substack

A newsletter on democracy, organizing, movements and tech. Click to read The Connector, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Finally read @gregbarber.bsky.social's story on the lovely partnership between 92-year old Joan Barber and 15-year old Vasudha Bharathram that led to their mathematics breakthrough. It warmed my soul to see Vasudha listed as first author. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/s...

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David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

25 years.🥺 most years i read tom junod's falling man out of respect/grief for the victims. my memories of the day are mixed with sadness/anger for what our govt did after, parts which i know too well. this is well known but worth remembering, i think

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I mean, Mamdani's taking a page from an old politlcal playbook imo c.f. Greg Mitchell's The Campaign of the Century about Hollywood's attack on Upton Sinclair's run for California governor. The difference this time? The Times et al are on the outs. www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

“I want to give the citizens in Saxony-Anhalt their good, old, secure Germany back,” Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s candidate to govern the state and a TikTok star, told us in an interview. This didn’t work out so well the last time, no? www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/w...

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Tom - my pleasure. So glad to have discovered your writing here. Question for you: your writing styles are very (very) different but I wonder if you’ve ever come across the US poet/author Wendell Berry? Like you, his writing is rooted in a specific place; in a way it’s his main character.

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Fellow North Americans, you’re gonna want to read this book. Let’s fight for #2!!

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

An enemy/bad guy helps focus one’s attention, too, though. Both/and. Politics as a morality play (and not saying that in a negative way)

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Bird and cloud doing something I’ve never seen before.

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

TIme to switch to…Mapquest?

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Young valley oaks are getting settled in. 20 years to maturity. 600 years to live. Marin Water thinking in long time.

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Steve Katz @stevenkatz.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Great work Matt! So cool to see how things have been built, one step at a time. Wasn’t easy that’s for sure!

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