The Monday Politics Thread Just Got Their Absentee Ballot

Why Trump and Vance’s strategy is ‘say anything, make up anything’

But Vance’s willingness to “create stories” to grab attention before the November’s election hinted at a new frontier in post-truth America, where a lie is no longer slyly distributed but rather brazenly flaunted as a tactic to win political support and stir up social chaos.

The Guardian

Climate change leaves some migrating birds ‘out of sync’ and hungry

Spring – with its “pulse of food and pulse of life” – arrives earlier than it used to, driven by warmer temperatures, said Ellen Robertson, who co-authored a recent bird migration study while doing post-doctoral research at Oklahoma State University. The study found a mismatch between earlier spring green up and the timing of migration for some long-distance travelers, leaving birds such as the black-throated blue, “out of sync.” For example, they might arrive in their spring nesting locations after the peak period for insects to emerge.

USA Today

‘Why they gotta threaten the kids?’: Under the national spotlight, Springfield schools cower

Plagued by daily threats, schools in Springfield, Ohio, hunkered down as law enforcement deployed dogs, troopers and watchtowers to stand guard.

Politico

Background checks blocked thousands of gun sales to youth, domestic abusers, White House says

Enhanced background checks have blocked thousands of gun sales to people under the age of 21 and those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes in the past year, the White House said on Sunday, a year after President Joe Biden set up a new office to accelerate work on preventing gun violence.

Reuters

Show me where the immigrants hurt you

We are at a moment of anti-immigrant frenzy in this country — another anti-immigrant frenzy, as common as dirt in American history, almost like saying “Today is a day ending in a ‘Y.’” A good time to take a breath and assess the facts.

Chicago Sun Times

Indigenous Peoples Are Key to Navigating the Climate Crisis. We Deserve a Seat at the Table

As the clock ticks down on the time we have left to redirect our Earth toward a more sustainable future, it is now more important than ever that Indigenous Peoples have a bigger seat at the table.

Time

‘I Don’t Want to Die.’ He needed mental health care. He found a ghost network

Ravi didn’t know it, but he, like millions of Americans, was trapped in a “ghost network.” As some of those people have discovered, the providers listed in an insurer’s network have either retired or died. Many other providers have stopped accepting insurance — often because the companies made it excessively difficult for them to do so. Some just aren’t taking new patients. Insurers are often slow to remove them from directories, if they do so at all. It adds up to a bait and switch by insurance companies that leads customers to believe there are more options for care than actually exist.

NPR

US city of Flint still reeling from water crisis, 10 years on

Today, a strong musty smell lingers. Residents of the American city of Flint are still suffering the consequences of a historic water crisis, which is fuelling a lively rejection of politics — and, by extension, the White House race.

AFP

‘A break from the heat’: Americans most affected by climate crisis head midwest

“The climate has gotten so bad – every hurricane season was worse than the last,” she said recently. The insurance companies “couldn’t afford [to operate in Florida] any more”.

Miami has been dubbed “ground zero” for climate risk and sea levels along Florida’s coast have already risen by as much as 8in (20cm) since 1950.

The Guardian

America’s looming election crisis, explained in 3 charts

The pervasiveness of Trump’s lies about the election seems to have also contributed to Republican fears about the future of democracy, which polling suggests are more acute than among Democrats. Republicans were much more likely to say American democracy isn’t working and that it would end in their lifetimes than Democrats in a March Quinnipiac poll.

Vox

Euphoric two years ago, US anti-abortion movement is now divided and worried as election nears

Just two years ago, leading anti-abortion activists were euphoric as the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, thus ending the nationwide right to abortion.

Now, with a presidential election fast approaching, their movement is disunited and worried. Within their own ranks, there is second-guessing and finger-pointing, plus trepidation that Election Day might provide new proof that their cause is broadly unpopular.

AP News

Republican Policies Are Making It Harder For Trans People To Vote — And Do Everyday Life

Republican-led states are increasingly making it difficult for trans people to update their gender marker on state-issued documents.

Huffpost

‘Don’t sleep on Florida this election cycle.’ LGBTQ+ Democrats and allies open South Florida voter mobilization office

“What do you think about this election so far? Not enough work is getting done,” said Wilton Manors Mayor Scott Newton.

South Florida Sun Sentinel

The False Idea Behind Project 2025’s Plans for LGBTQ Rights

Project 2025’s anti-queer proposals are largely based on a single simple and destructive idea: that the LGBTQ+ community is dangerous to children. This claim is nothing new. For almost a century, the idea that the government needed to protect children from queer adults has formed the cornerstone of anti-LGBTQ+ initiatives. Project 2025’s invocation of child protection undermines the basic premise on which America’s LGBTQ+ rights advances were built. 

Time