‘Vance Is a Dirtbag’: Troy Jackson Responds to VP Downplaying ICE Killing in Maine

Vice President JD Vance

Vice President JD Vance speaks at CompoTech headquarters on August 24, 2026 in Brewer, Maine. 

(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“To come here and say, ‘Have some perspective’? You ought to have some damn perspective,” Jackson said in a video reply to the vice president.

Jake Johnson

Aug 25, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)

Troy Jackson, the Democratic US Senate nominee for a critical seat in Maine, denounced Vice President JD Vance on Monday for downplaying the killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national who was killed by a federal immigration agent last month in Biddeford.

During a visit to Maine on Monday, Vance told residents who are “so worried about that situation” to “have a little bit of perspective.” Vance added that “we can absolutely investigate every shooting and we will, but we can also secure our border and ensure that that poison stops coming into our country.” (The legal representative for Durán Guerrero’s family said no federal agencies have reached out as part of any investigation into the killing.)

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Jackson, the former president of Maine’s Senate who is running to unseat Republican US Sen. Susan Collins, responded to the vice president in a video message posted to social media.

“JD Vance is a dirtbag,” said Jackson. “There was a young man who had a Social Security number, he had a job, I mean, he had a life. He had a family. To come here and say, ‘Have some perspective’? You ought to have some damn perspective. I mean, you don’t even know what the hell’s goin’ on. You got a rogue agency that’s going around, pulling people out of homes.”

Jackson then turned his attention to Collins, who recently voted for legislation that included around $70 billion in funding for US immigration agencies, including nearly $40 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). After an ICE agent killed Durán Guerrero last month, Collins refused to say she regretted her vote to boost the agency’s funding.

“I want to know: What are you doing about it, Susan?” Jackson asked. “She gave them an additional $70 billion to pull this shit off. We lost a person that JD Vance seems to not give a shit about. And that should piss us all off. So I want to know: Do you agree with JD Vance dismissing the killing of this young man? Because I tell you what, ‘concerns’ and all that does nothing for all of us, does nothing for that family, and I’m sick of your ‘concerns.’”

During his remarks in Brewer, Maine on Monday, Vance said Collins is “doing an amazing job” and characterized her as “the most independent member of the United States Senate,” even though she votes with President Donald Trump around 96% of the time.

Misha Linnehan, a spokesperson for the Maine Democratic Party, said in response to the vice president’s remarks that “Susan Collins voted to give Donald Trump and JD Vance $70 billion to send armed ICE agents into Maine with no guardrails.”

“Now that a man has been killed,” said Linnehan, “JD Vance thinks Mainers need to ‘have a little bit of perspective’ about children losing their father and a wife losing her husband—does Susan Collins agree?”

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Jake Johnson

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

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Robert Reich’s speech to the Democratic Leadership Council in 1994

On November 22, 1994, then-U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich delivered a famously prescient speech titled “A New Middle Class” to the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). Coming just two weeks after the Democrats lost control of Congress in the 1994 midterm elections, Reich used the platform to warn that growing economic inequality was actively threatening American democracy. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Watch Robert Reich’s address to the Democratic Leadership Council analyzing the economic frustrations of the American middle class:

Link to C-SPAN full video: https://www.c-span.org/program/public-affairs-event/a-new-middle-class/47469

Key Themes and Takeaways

  • The “Two-Tiered Society”: Reich explicitly warned that the United States was transitioning into a “two-tiered society”. This structure was sharply divided between a few wealthy winners and a vast majority of left-behind working-class Americans. [1, 2]
  • Rise of Demagoguery and Populist Rage: He accurately predicted that an eroding middle class would harbor deep disillusionment and anger. He warned that this mass resentment would be easily manipulated by political demagogues. This would divert blame away from structural economic issues and target marginalized groups. [1, 2]
  • Critique of “Corporate Welfare”: Reich urged the Clinton administration and Democratic leadership to cut government subsidies for corporations. He argued that taxpayer money should instead be reallocated toward public worker retraining programs and education. [1]
  • The Broken Economic Bargain: He emphasized that the “old American bargain”—which promised that hard work would lead to economic security—was fundamentally broken. This occurred because the economic recovery of the 1990s was bypassing average workers. [1, 2]

Historical Legacy and Backlash

The speech was highly controversial at the time and caused significant friction within the Clinton administration. By directly challenging corporate subsidies and urging the party to aggressively protect the working class, Reich clashed with the DLC’s business-friendly, “Third Way” centrist philosophy. [1, 2]

Decades later, the address is widely viewed by political scientists as remarkably prophetic. It anticipated the exact economic anxieties, intense political polarization, and right-wing populist movements that shaped modern American politics. [1]

Pentagon Spokesperson Admits There’s a Secret Blacklist of Journalists

When pressed about the Iran war, a CENTCOM press official threatened to put an Intercept reporter on a “list of people to disregard.”

Nick Turse

August 24 2026 (TheIntercept.com)

This Feb. 6, 2017 file photo shows the U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla.

The U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., on Feb. 6, 2017. Photo: Susan Walsh/AP File

U.S. Central Command maintains a secret directory of journalists who have been blacklisted by the press office, according to an official with CENTCOM public affairs. The disclosure comes amid a failed war in Iran, a “cover-up” of U.S. casualties from that conflict, and repeated refusals by CENTCOM to address questions about civilian deaths in Iran, including the killing of a family recently disclosed by The Intercept.

The CENTCOM official who revealed the existence of the list threatened that this reporter could be added to it for calling the command too often.

“You’ll be put on a list of people to disregard,” Richard Allee, an executive assistant with CENTCOM public affairs told this reporter. When asked for clarification — “You have a list of people to disregard?” — he confirmed it with an emphatic: “Yes.” When asked which reporters or outlets were currently on the list, he replied: “I’m not privy to give you that information.” 

Under self-styled War Secretary Pete Hegseth, the U.S. military has mounted the most aggressive assault on press freedom in memory, from an effort to outlaw “unauthorized” questions from reporters to imposing unconstitutional restrictions on journalists’ access to the Pentagon. Hegseth has compared reporters to “Pharisees,” who in the Bible call Jesus’s teachings into question, while the secretary’s minions regularly hurl insults at reporters. This is part of a broader war on press freedoms by the Trump administration, that includes demonizing journalists; filing so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs, to intimidate and silence criticism through expensive legal proceedings; and employing grand jury subpoenas and search warrants to intimidate reporters. 

“Threatening journalists with placement on a blacklist in retaliation for reporting the government doesn’t like is as unconstitutional as it gets,” said Seth Stern, the director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation. “This should put to rest the Pentagon’s prior claims that it’s anti-press policies — like its infamous requirement that reporters sign pledges to only print authorized information — are somehow content neutral.”

Related

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Allee revealed the existence of the blacklist after this reporter was left on hold for more than two hours and complained about a long-standing lack of transparency by the command. In calls earlier that morning, Maj. Emma Thompson, CENTCOM’s media operations chief, repeatedly refused to answer questions about Iranian attacks on U.S. bases across the Middle East, disparate U.S. casualty counts, and medical evacuation flights: “Nothing for you,” “Don’t have anything for you,” “No comment.” Thompson then hung up on this reporter mid-question.

The Intercept called back multiple times until Allee picked up the phone. “They’re not going to answer your call if you just keep calling and calling,” he told this reporter.

Allee chastised this reporter to be more respectful. He said a “less accusatory attitude towards the personnel here would go a lot further than badgering them when you don’t get something you want, when you want it.”

Allee then revealed the existence of the blacklist. He declined to provide additional details about the list but said, “It’s not a list that we publicize.” He also hung up on this reporter.

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The Mossad Suffers a Crushing Defeat Entirely of Its Own Making

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President Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping while leaving after a visit to the Zhongnanhai Garden in Beijing, Friday, May 15, 2026.

The Dawn of a New Cold War

John Feffer

The command’s press office responded in an email to additional questions about the journalists who have run afoul of the command. “CENTCOM does not have a ‘blacklist,’” the agency wrote.

A U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that Hegseth’s office had a standing order not to engage with this reporter and would deny it if challenged.

“None of it has anything to do with security, all of it has everything to do with censorship and intimidation,” Stern told The Intercept. “CENTCOM needs to stop blacklisting journalists and tell the public who is on the blacklist and why they were placed there. Whoever was behind the blacklist should be blacklisted from government employment.” 

“None of it has anything to do with security, all of it has everything to do with censorship and intimidation.”

Under Hegseth, the Pentagon has mounted an unrelenting assault on press freedom despite the fact that the secretary began his tenure by sharing secret information on airstrikes in Yemen, hours before the actual attacks occurred, on a Signal group chat that inadvertently included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic.

As part of his war on the press, Hegseth evicted the New York Times, NPR, and other outlets from their long-held desks in the Pentagon and replaced them with sycophantic fellow-travelers like the One America News Network, the New York Post, and Breitbart.

In May 2025, Hegseth issued a memo barring credentialed reporters from most of the Pentagon without an escort. (Last month, a federal appeals court said that the Pentagon can continue doing so.) The Pentagon later introduced a policy requiring journalists to pledge not to even gather, at the risk of their credentials, unclassified information unless the government authorized its release. (This drove nearly the entire Pentagon press corps to surrender their badges.) After the Times sued and a federal judge struck the policy down in March 2026 as unconstitutional, Hegseth shuttered a decades-old Pentagon pressroom and began conducting polygraph tests to prevent leaks.

Related

Kash Patel Is Using MAGA’s Favorite Tool to Muzzle the Free Press

For his part, Trump has long cast reporters as the “ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE,” a riff on a phrase employed by both Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels (to refer to Jews) and Soviet tyrant Joseph Stalin (in reference to dissenters). The administration defied a court order and blocked The Associated Press from presidential events over its refusal to use the Trumpian term “Gulf of America” instead of Gulf of Mexico; moved to strip NPR and PBS of more than $1 billion in federal funding; utilized Federal Communications Commission merger approvals and “news distortion” investigations against ABC, NBC, and CBS; subpoenaed the phone records of multiple New York Times reporters and their relatives; and launched an official media “hall of shame” to discredit disfavored outlets.

Trump also filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit after the Wall Street Journal reported on a letter sent from him to convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein; he also banned WSJ reporters from flying aboard Air Force One. This year, Trump also told journalists to give up a source “or go to jail,” threatened the press with “Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information,” and praised FCC chief Brendan Carr for threatening “the licenses of some of these Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations.” (The Intercept is currently suing Trump for restricting First Amendment-protected information in a scheme to enrich himself.)

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While Trump and Hegseth have waged a pitched campaign to dismantle the free press, they are merely building upon decades of efforts by the government to curtail accountability journalism.

Military commands have regularly led this reporter on with promises of information only to renege months later; ignored calls and emails; feigned failing phone lines to end calls; hung up, lost Freedom of Information Act requests; and once even burned documents in lieu of releasing them.

This reporter was blacklisted in 2018 by U.S. Africa Command after exposing the torture of prisoners at a remote military base in Cameroon for The Intercept. “Nick, we’re not going to respond to any of your questions” then-Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Falvo, the head of U.S. Africa Command’s Public Affairs Branch, told me by phone. Asked if he believed AFRICOM didn’t need to address questions from the press in general, or just this reporter in particular, Falvo replied: “No, just you. We don’t consider you a legitimate journalist, really.”

The anonymous U.S. official said that sentiment extends to this day across multiple commands, as well as Hegseth’s office.

This reporter has unanswered questions pending with CENTCOM that date back to at least 2013 and extend to this week. For example, in July 2015, a CENTCOM spokesperson responded to an inquiry with this statement: “We will provide you response as quickly as possible.” Eleven years later, this reporter is still waiting.

IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.

What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government. 

This is not hyperbole.

Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.

Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.” 

The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.

We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?

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Contact the author:

Nick Tursenick.turse@theintercept.com@nickturseon X

Book: “Born Sick in the USA: Improving the Health of a Nation”

Born Sick in the USA: Improving the Health of a Nation

Stephen Bezruchka

How healthy you are is dependent on where you live. Americans suffer more cancers, heart disease, mental illness, and other chronic diseases than those who live in other wealthy nations, despite having the most expensive healthcare system in the world. Why? Embark on a journey to unravel the profound impact of public policies on American health from before birth in Born Sick in the Improving the Health of a Nation. Delve into the intricate web where economic inequality weaves a tapestry of sickness stemming from a highly stressed society. This compelling read illuminates the need for transformative change in social safety nets and public policies to uplift national health and well-being. Through vivid storytelling, the book unveils the symptoms, diagnosis, and ‘medicine’ required to steer the nation toward a healthier future. Join the movement for a healthier America by embracing the insightful revelations and empowering calls to action presented within the pages of this eye-opening book.


About the author

Stephen Bezruchka

Stephen Bezruchka began his journey as a Harvard mathematics graduate who fell in love with the mountains of Nepal. There, he wrote the country’s first trekking guidebook before returning to the U.S. to study medicine at Stanford University. In the mid-1970s, he went back to the Himalayas to establish a community health project in a remote valley, far from any roads. This experience shaped a unique career where he alternated between working as an emergency physician in the U.S. and teaching medicine to local doctors in the most isolated regions of Nepal.

Through his travels, Stephen noticed a puzzling gap between America’s vast wealth and its actual health outcomes. This realization led him to earn a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University to study the social and political factors that drive health. Today, he views the country itself as a “patient” in need of treatment. He focuses on educating the public about the root causes of health through the Population Health Forum, which he founded in 1998, and his leadership roles with organizations like Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Currently, Stephen is an Associate Teaching Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, where he has received numerous awards for his teaching and community service. As an author, his works include popular titles such as A Guide to Trekking in Nepal, The Pocket Doctor, and Altitude Illness, many of which have been translated into multiple languages. When he isn’t busy as an academic or economic inequality activist, he continues to pursue his passion for mountaineering, having explored the highest peaks of North America, Pakistan, and China.

Your weekly to-dos

  1. Next Wednesday, September 2, join our GENERAL ELECTION KICKOFF call feat. Ezra Levin to learn how YOU can be part of Indivisible’s plans to flip the House and Senate and hold this corrupt regime accountable (8pm ET/5pm PT). Our primary program comes to a close next Tuesday, and we aren’t wasting any time as we switch gears to organize to win Democratic majorities in Congress. Winning these races — and protecting the results — will take commitment from each and every one of us as we approach Election Day on November 3. While we can’t share all of our general election target races just yet (you’ll have to join us next Wednesday for that!), we promise this is a call you won’t want to miss.
  2. THIS Wednesday, August 26, join the second Hands Off Our Vote election protection training to learn how to defend the vote and take action to block election interference from Trump and his Big Lie cronies (8pm ET/5pm PT). In this training, we’ll focus on hands-on tools for rapid response and sustained mobilization that you can deploy in your communities when the regime tries their dirty tricks. We’ll be joined by guest speaker Cliff Albright, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Black Voters Matter, and we’ll also carve out dedicated time to discuss Trump’s threat to send ICE to the polls and how we can protect our neighbors and loved ones. Nearly 6,000 Indivisibles joined last week’s training — don’t miss out!
  3. Join our FINAL Immigrant Justice Summer training call this Thursday, August 27 to learn how to use Signal for rapid response organizing when ICE surges in your community (8pm ET/5pm PT). Together, we’ll explore how to build a nimble communication infrastructure that will enable you to activate on the ground as soon as ICE shows up in our neighborhoods. We’ll discuss what makes Signal the right tool for these moments and examine how organizers used it during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis to coordinate in real time.
  4. This Friday, August 28, join the King family and Rev. Al Sharpton in Washington, DC to defend the sacred right to vote and honor the 63rd anniversary of the March on Washington (the program begins at 9 AM ET at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, and we recommend arriving at 8 AM). As civil and voting rights erode before our eyes, we are called to carry the torch of justice forward to fight for our vote, our families, and our communities. March on Washington: Defend the Vote is co-convened by our partners at the National Action Network and the Drum Major Institute. (If you plan to attend and want to deepen your involvement with the march, sign up to volunteer here.)
  5. TODAY, Monday, August 24: With just over a week until his primary, phone bank for Indivisible-endorsed candidate Patrick Roath (MA-08) (5:30pm ET/2:30pm PT). Roath is facing thirteen-term incumbent Stephen Lynch, whose MAGA-aligned voting record (including voting to thank ICE for its service and for the Laken Riley Act, which turbocharged Trump’s detention and deportation machine) is wildly out of step with his constituents in MA-08. In sharp contrast to Lynch, Roath will bring his experience as a pro-democracy lawyer and advocate to Congress to fight for all working families. We need a strong showing of people power to get him across the finish line. Paid for by Indivisible Action. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.
  6. And speaking of phone banks, sign up to receive our general election volunteer digest for additional opportunities to canvass, phone bank, and more as we approach Election Day in November. Every other week, we’ll send you a roundup of Indivisible’s priority actions to help elect midterm candidates. Whether you have an hour to give or can help out every week, you can play a vital role in securing wins across the country for progressive fighters.

Supreme Court Hands Trump Temporary Win on Mail Ballots, More Legal Action to Come

SF Politics/Jay Barmann

Published Aug 24, 2026 · SFist.com

Supreme Court Hands Trump Temporary Win on Mail Ballots, More Legal Action to Come
Photo by Fine Photographics / Unsplash

California and a group of other states have lost one skirmish with the Trump administration on the Supreme Court’s shadow docket regarding ballots by mail, with the court essentially saying the states can’t sue because they haven’t been harmed yet.

President Trump issued an executive order in March directing the Department of Homeland Security to compile a list for each state of who in that state is eligible to vote, and directing the Justice Department to prioritize the prosecution of state election officials who send mail-in ballots to ineligible individuals.

Trump was, of course, trying to fix a nonexistent problem and sow further distrust in US election ahead of what’s likely to be a midterm season that will be disastrous for Republicans. And a Boston-based federal judge, US Judge Indira Talwani, issued an injunction in June to stop Trump’s order from taking effect, saying that Trump had overstepped in infringing on the states’ constitutional powers to organize and administer elections.

Separately, Judge Talwani issued another injunction in August that blocks the US Postal Service from implementing the demands of Trump’s order, saying that with less than 90 days before the November election, the administration could not begin changing the rules for how elections are run.

On Monday, the Supreme Court issued an unsigned ruling responding only to the first injunction, and the Justice Department’s request that it be stayed. The court’s conservative majority said, essentially, that the states lack standing to prevent a subordinate agency to the president from carrying out his order, because they can not document harm — the harm they cite is merely theoretical until DHS actually begins issuing its own voter rolls, if, for instance, they don’t match states’ own records of eligible voting adults.

“The Executive Order makes no demand of the States, so staying the District Court’s injunction will not concretely harm them,” the majority says. “That is why this suit was not justiciable in the first place.”

The majority adds, “The court’s disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the government to implement the order will necessarily be lawful. On that score, time will tell.”

Justices Kagan and Sotomayor joined in a dissent penned by Sotomayor, in which the justice says that “today’s decision merely postpones adjudication of those challenges” by the states, which are sure to come.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, as has become her style, penned her own more vociferous dissent, saying today’s ruling “needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections.” And, she adds that while the court has previously ruled against election challenges that come too late, “today’s revelation is that such claims can also come too early — never mind that an election is looming and related harms are presently occurring.”

A further challenge from the federal court in Massachusetts may arrive as soon as tomorrow, CNN reports.

“The ruling is a win for Trump for the moment, but it doesn’t fully clear the way for his effort to limit mail-in ballots to go into effect,” says CNN Supreme Court analyst Steve Vladeck.

Today’s win for Trump comes less than two months after a loss at the Supreme Court on this same issue. The court ruled 5-4 in June on the issue of late-arriving mail-in ballots, saying that they can and should be counted based on state rules regarding postmarks, so long as the ballots are cast by Election Day. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the three liberals in that majority, in a show of support for the legality of voting by mail.

Related: Tens of Thousands of June Mail-In Ballots Tossed, Many Due to USPS’s New Postmark Policy

S.F. League of Pissed Off Voters November 2026 Endorsements

(Image from Spotify.com)

November 2026 Endorsements

posted by SF League of Pissed-Off Voters | 379sc
August 25, 2026

Our membership voted to endorse the following candidates and ballot measures for the November 2026 election.

San Francisco Offices

US House, Congressional District 11: Connie Chan
US House, Congressional District 15: No Endorsement

Board of Supervisors, District 2: No Endorsement
Board of Supervisors, District 4: No Endorsement
Board of Supervisors, District 6: No Endorsement
Board of Supervisors, District 8:  #1 Gary McCoy, #2 Michael Nguyen (Ranked endorse)
Board of Supervisors, District 10: Dion-Jay “DJ” Brookter and JR Eppler (Non-ranked dual endorse)

SFUSD Board of Education: Virginia Cheung, Ryan Hazelton, Reina Tello
City College Board of Trustees: Leah LaCroix, Bunny McFadden
City College Board of Trustees, Partial Term: No Endorsement

Assessor-Recorder: Joaquín Torres
Public Defender: Mano Raju

State Assembly, District 17: No Endorsement
State Assembly, District 19: No Endorsement

Local Propositions

Prop A: Charter reform limit oversight committees: Hell No!
Prop B: Public bank: Hell Yes!
Prop C: Housing trust fund: Yes
Prop D: Charter reform limit ballot measure submissions: Hell No!
Prop E: Charter reform limit contracting oversight: Hell No!
Prop F: Charter reform expand mayor’s power: Hell No!
Prop G: Great Highway compromise: No Endorsement 
Prop H: Parcel tax to fund Muni: Yes
Prop I: Affordable housing guarantee act: Hell Yes!
Prop J: Remove foreclosure exemption from property transfer tax: Yes
Prop RTM: Regional Transit Sales Tax: Yes

State Propositions

Prop 1: Affordable housing bond: Yes
Prop 2: Budget stabilization and expand rainy day fund: No position
Prop 3: Extend high income tax for schools and healthcare: Yes
Prop 4: Legalize public campaign financing: Yes
Prop 5: State recall reform: Yes
Prop 37: $25B bond for new home buyers: No position
Prop 38: $8.4B bond for immunology research: No
Prop 39: Require ID to vote: Hell No!
Prop 40: Billionaire wealth tax: Hell Yes!
Prop 41: Require pre-election audit for voter-passed taxes: No
Prop 42: Limit state ability to raise taxes: No
Prop 43: Limit local voters’ ability to pass local taxes: No
Prop 44: Require health clinics to spend 90% of revenue on services: No
Prop 45: Limit CEQA review: No

Statewide Offices

Governor: No Endorsement
Lieutenant Governor: No Endorsement
Secretary of State: Shirley Weber
State Controller: No Endorsement
State Treasurer: No Endorsement
Attorney General: Rob Bonta
Insurance Commissioner: Jane Kim
State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Richard Barrera
Board of Equalization, District 2: Sally Lieber

Judges

CA Supreme Court: Retain all (Groban, Evans)
First Court of Appeals: Retaina all (Smiley, Banke, Wilson, Desautels, Stewart, Fujisaki, Petrou, Simons, Chou, Burns)

We’ll be back in a few weeks with the full Pissed Off Voter Guide. We can’t wait to share it with you!

Paid for by the San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters. Financial disclosures available at sfethics.org.

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They don’t want
you to vote.

They’re doing it in broad daylight, in your face.

Your own government has come up with six new ways to stop you from voting. Watch our short videos. We tell you how they do it and we tell you what you can do about it.

America is in a new Jim Crow Reloaded matrix. We can escape and fight it. Here’s how.

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Eight-Part Documentary Series

Jim Crow Reloaded

Listen up! Edward Ward is laying out the new ways they are trying to Jim Crow your vote.

Hosted by Edward Ward, Chicago voting rights warrior. Fellow of the Transformative Justice Coalition and the Palast Investigative Fund.

Never heard of “Crosscheck”? Well, they’ve heard of YOU and they want to cancel your registration. That’s just one way they’ll rip off your vote.

There’s also a prove-you’re-a-citizen scam, and the Big Purge and half a dozen other gotcha tricks to remove voters — especially if you’re young, a voter of color or a woman — in other words, if you’re an American.

Watch the videos. Protect yourself. And, for democracy’s sake, join us to stop this cyber-terror cross burning.

Grab your popcorn and start watching!! Watch Now →

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Newsom signs immigrant protection bill derided by GOP as the ‘Stop Nick Shirley Act’

By Sarah Brager, Staff Writer Aug 22, 2026

Gift Article (SFChronicle.com)

Assembly Member Mia Bonta attends a press conference alongside Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Johnson on March 2.Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle

Immigration nonprofit workers gained state protections from doxxing and targeted harassment after Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday signed a bill that expanded California’s Safe at Home program to include them. 

Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2624 into law after months of vitriolic attacks from Republicans in California and Washington falsely claimed the legislation would obstruct journalists from uncovering fraud. Assembly Member Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, an outspoken conservative lawmaker, nicknamed the bill the “Stop Nick Shirley Act,” a claim the right-wing online provocateur and other Republicans quickly seized on.

Assembly Member Mia Bonta, D-Alameda, introduced the bill in February after hearing reports of increased threats and harassment against immigration services providers. Newsom said in early February that Somali daycare providers in San Diego were “under siege” following Shirley’s arrival in the community to shoot content after viral videos he’d produced about Minnesota went viral.

The bill cleared the state Senate on Tuesday and passed the Assembly on Wednesday. 

Effective Oct. 1, 2027, the new law expands a decades-long state program that shields the addresses of domestic violence survivors, elder abuse victims, and reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare workers. 

“Our immigrant service providers are living in fear because of extremists looking to demonize the work that they do and the populations they serve,” Bonta said in a statement Saturday. “That is an intolerable consequence of the anti-immigrant rhetoric that exists right now.” 

The Safe at Home program, in place since 1999, offers substitute mailing addresses to individuals who are particularly vulnerable to targeted attacks and violent threats. Saturday’s signing narrowly expands eligibility to include employees at nonprofits that serve people navigating the immigration system. 

In April, testimony before the Assembly Privacy Committee revealed a surge of threats against the nonprofit workers, including hate calls and stalking. 

“They were looking for me and ended up in my mother’s home,” Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, told the committee. “There’s so many of my colleagues where individuals have shown up to their home, who have been threatened, and this is not just our organization, but many others.”

Bonta’s bill was considered uncontroversial until early April when DeMaio claimed it would intimidate people “trying to shine light on bad behavior,” referring to Shirley, a prominent YouTuber whose content includes following immigrant workers in blue cities and accusing them of committing fraud. 

The bill even garnered attention in the U.S. Senate last month when Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., referenced the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” in California, saying it should be called the “Protect Fraudsters Act.” 

Bonta said in her statement Saturday the law does not conflate the press with the doxxing targeted by the Safe at Home program. 

Individuals who are eligible for the Safe at Home program must apply through the secretary of state and document that they — or the organization they work for — have faced threats, harassment or violence within the past year. Once certified, the participants receive a substitute address that state and local agencies must accept in place of their real home, school or place of work, according to Bonta’s office. 

Immigration nonprofits are eligible to apply beginning next October. 

“I’m proud that with the signing of this bill California is rejecting that, even when people try to make us feel that the political cost of supporting immigrant communities is too high,” she added.

Aug 22, 2026

Sarah Brager

Staff Writer

Sarah Brager is a Hearst Fellow covering breaking news. Prior to joining the San Francisco Chronicle, she spent a year reporting hyperlocal news in Houston for Community Impact. Originally from the Austin area, her work has appeared in Texas Monthly, the Austin American-Statesman and on the radio for the Texas Standard/KUT News. Sarah graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied journalism and public policy. 

How to reach Sarah

Email Sarah.Brager@hearst.com

Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette, Narrated by Ben Wikler

Heather Cox Richardson Aug 17, 2026 an American political organizer and New York Times best-selling author who served as the chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin from July 2019 to July 2025. Ben’s latest book This Is The Plan: How to End America’s Meltdown and Save Democracy is now available. Wikler profiles Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette, the Wisconsin reformer who battled corporate power and drove some of the Progressive Movement’s greatest victories. 250 to 250 From the time of our country’s founding 250 years ago, the story of America has been one of the constant efforts of Americans—from all races, ethnicities, genders, and abilities—to make real the belief that we are all created equal and have a right to have a say in our democracy. We will be telling their stories over the next several weeks because now, as ever, “We Are America.”