The Death of the Mind

When jurors aren’t involved, rulings are less public − and private interests have more influence over outcomes. ftwitty/E+ via Getty ImagesThe right to trial by jury in criminal and civil cases is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. It’s also a critically important way in which citizens can participate in democracy. The French thinker Alexis de Tocqueville observed early American juries at work. He noted in “Democracy in America” in 1831 that trial by jury “places the real direction of society in the hands of the governed, or of a portion of the governed, instead of leaving it under the authority of the Government.” Yet, in a change with profound implications, juries now decide only…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://theconversation.com/jury-trials-a-critical-part-of-democracy-are-disappearing-262471

The gerrymandering tit-for-tat between Democrats and Republicans signals the decomposition of American democracy, as both parties dismantle democratic norms, leaving the future of the 2026 elections in doubt.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/08/26/dgzj-a26.html

National Guard members arrive at the Guard’s headquarters at D.C. Armory on Aug. 12, 2025 in Washington. Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesWith his Aug. 11, 2025, announcement that he was sending the National Guard – along with federal law enforcement – into Washington, D.C. to fight crime, President Donald Trump edged U.S. troops closer to the kind of military-civilian confrontations that can cross ethical and legal lines. Indeed, since Trump returned to office, many of his actions have alarmed international human rights observers. His administration has deported immigrants without due process, held detainees in inhumane conditions, threatened the forcible removal of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and deployed both the National Guard and federal military troops to…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://theconversation.com/4-out-of-5-us-troops-surveyed-understand-the-duty-to-disobey-illegal-orders-261929

In one of the biggest displays of labor organizing against anti-Palestinian racism, the National Education Association’s (NEA) policymaking body voted on July 5 to cut all ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The vote was a product of years of grassroots organizing within the NEA. This activity within the union was bolstered by the growth of the Drop The ADL campaign, an initiative by a wide range of progressive organizations to educate communities about the ADL’s anti-Palestinian bias and opposition to free speech in schools.

The post NEA Leadership Rejects Member Vote To Sever Ties With ADL appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://popularresistance.org/nea-leadership-rejects-member-vote-to-sever-ties-with-adl/

Maintainers struggle to handle growing flow of low-quality bug reports written by bots

Daniel Stenberg, founder and lead developer of the open-source curl command line utility, just wants the AI slop to stop.…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/07/15/curl_creator_mulls_nixing_bug/

Internet service providers BT, Virgin Media, Sky, TalkTalk, EE, and Plusnet account for the majority of the UK’s residential internet market and as a result, blocking injunctions previously obtained at the High Court often list these companies as respondents.
These so-called “no fault’ injunctions stopped being adversarial a long time ago; ISPs indicate in advance they won’t contest a blocking order against various pirate sites, and typically that’s good enough for the Court to issue an order with which they subsequently comply.
For more than 15 years, this has led to blocking being carried out as close to users as possible, with ISPs’ individual blocking measures doing the heavy lifting. A new wave of blocking targeting around…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-starts-blocking-pirate-sites-for-uk-users-thats-a-pretty-big-deal-250715/

On Thursday, literally the day before flash flooding devastated Texas, the Texas Observer published an article warning that “Trump’s DOGE Cuts Are a Texas-Sized Disaster,” explaining how cuts to both the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would likely lead to disaster for Texas.
Twenty-four hours later, those predictions came true with horrifying precision. And as with so many tragic situations, rather than examining how their own policies contributed to the death toll, Republican politicians are talking about prayers, as if that’s the only thing that can be done. Texas’s Governor Abbott announced a day of prayer, claiming that “prayer works.” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson claimed that “all…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/07/doge-cuts-turned-a-predicted-disaster-into-a-deadly-reality-in-texas/