Matthew Cunningham-Cook
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matthewccook5.bsky.social
Matthew Cunningham-Cook
@matthewccook5.bsky.social
580 followers 230 following 320 posts
reporting ‪at the Center for Media and Democracy, organizing in the labor movement
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matthewccook5.bsky.social
Matthew Cunningham-Cook @matthewccook5.bsky.social · May 3
my first byline in Rolling Stone (!) edited by the amazing @andrewperez.bsky.social. How exactly does Musk's privately held empire run? on the backs of retired teachers, firefighters, cops and bus drivers www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Elon Musk and His DOGE Bro Have Cashed In on Americans' Retirement Savings
Antonio Gracias is helping Musk gut the government and the Social Security program at DOGE, as they benefit from Americans’ retirement savings.
www.rollingstone.com
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
bencollins.bsky.social
Originally posted this as "Leavitt's sister-in-law," but there's some strained language in there that makes it pretty pretty clear they're estranged, which could make this story even gnarlier. Either way, this woman appears to be the mom of Karoline Leavitt's nephew.
November 26, 2025 at 4:09 AM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
bencollins.bsky.social
"A woman with a family connection to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Revere, Massachusetts."

www.wcvb.com/article/karo...
REVERE, Mass. — A woman with a family connection to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Revere, Massachusetts. The woman, Bruna Ferreira, has an 11-year-old son with Michael Leavitt, Karoline Leavitt's brother. Ferreira migrated with her family to the United States from Brazil as a child and is currently in custody at an ICE facility in southern Louisiana. Michael Leavitt released a statement, saying that his "only concern has always been the safety, well-being, and privacy of [his] son."
November 26, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
andylevy.net
i’m not sure how but this is real antipolygraph.org/blog/2025/10...
a photo of DHS acting Chief Security Officer whose name is Iwona B. Horyn
November 26, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
dropsitenews.com
⚡️NEW: U.S. Mercenary Firm Tied to Notorious Aid Scheme Is Recruiting for New Gaza Deployment

UG Solutions, which provided security for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been interviewing ex-soldiers for “robust security” operations.

By Sharif Abdel Kouddous

www.dropsitenews.com/p/gaza-ghf-u...
U.S. Mercenary Firm Tied to Notorious Aid Scheme Is Recruiting for New Gaza Deployment
UG Solutions, which provided security for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has been interviewing ex-soldiers for potential “robust security” operations.
www.dropsitenews.com
November 19, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
acrecampaigns.bsky.social
ACRE executive director @saqibbhatti.bsky.social shares how we're dangerously close to repeating history if we don't "fight like hell to make sure the richest people in the world aren’t rescued yet again while the rest of us are left to clean up their mess." bit.ly/4ivl5PJ
When the AI Bubble Bursts, Working Families Will Pay the Price | Common Dreams
When the housing bubble burst, approximately 10 million Americans lost their homes. What will we lose this time?
bit.ly
November 25, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
armiak.bsky.social
SCOOP: Billionaire Charles Koch's astroturf operation Americans for Prosperity raised $223.7 mil in 2024, according to its latest IRS filing obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy. This is a 20% increase over 2023! AFP spent $201.4 mil of it in 2024.
www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
Americans for Prosperity 2024 990
www.documentcloud.org
November 25, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
samnelson752.bsky.social
Subscribe to 51st everyone!

If you’re in DC or the region: great reporting, human stories, worker owned.

If you’re not in DC: get to learn about all the stuff that goes on here that’s not directly federal related (though certainly inflicted a lot)
51st.news The 51st @51st.news · 6h
When DCist was shut down, it had 70,000+ subscribers.
The 51st is proud to carry forward the spirit with which DCist served our city.

But we can’t stop thinking about how most of those subscribers — our neighbors and friends — are just no longer receiving the kind of local news they signed up for.
November 25, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
legalhackette.bsky.social
EXCLUSIVE: Jury trials to be scrapped in most cases to tackle court backlog - in @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/uk/law/artic...
Jury trials to be scrapped in most cases to tackle court backlog
David Lammy, the justice secretary, is proposing that judges hear cases alone for crimes that could result in a sentence of up to five years
www.thetimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
prophetcassandra.bsky.social
what the fuck
Lammy’s reforms would cover all prosecutions, including those brought by the Serious Fraud Office and the Environment Agency. It is anticipated that the government will also remove the automatic right to appeal against convictions. Magistrates are set to have their sentencing powers significantly increased from the maximum prison term of six months to 24 months. Under the heading “what do these proposals mean for your department?”, Lammy told government departments that the plans would not compromise suspects’ rights and suggested that “there is no right to trial by jury”. The move marks a departure from Lammy’s past views. In a social media comment posted five years ago, he said: “Trials are a fundamental part of our democratic settlement. Criminal trials without juries are a bad idea.”
November 25, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
sarahlazare.bsky.social
Baristas at 95 Starbucks stores in 65 cities are currently on OPEN-ENDED STRIKE over unfair labor practices.

It's day 13 of the strike. This is the longest ULP strike in the company's history.

Workers are asking customers everywhere to show solidarity by boycotting Starbucks.
November 25, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
revolvingdoordc.bsky.social
NEW: Revolving Door Project responds to DOJ’s settlement with RealPage:
The Department of Justice yesterday announced a settlement for its lawsuit against RealPage, which allegedly created software which enabled landlords to collude to raise rents via algorithmic pricing schemes. In response to the Department of Justice’s announcement, Revolving Door Project Assistant Director Andrea Beaty said: “The DOJ’s lawsuit against RealPage was brought by the trustbusters of the Biden administration, who sought to ‘end their practice of putting profits over people and make housing more affordable for millions of people across the country.’ Now Trump’s appointees have negotiated a settlement which requires restrictions on RealPage’s use of nonpublic rental data and current lease information, but appears to stop short of financial penalty or admission of wrongdoing.” “This settlement is far from the consequences that RealPage’s alleged rental price fixing called for.” In the 2024 presidential election, the cost of housing was consistently ranked a top issue for swing state voters and polling indicated voters wanted to see more of the Biden-Harris crackdown on RealPage. Yet an extremely effective Harris ad promising the administration would go after landlords and price gouging had “virtually never been aired.” Instead of capitalizing on the anti-rent gouging message, the Harris campaign dialed back on populist positions. “This settlement further underscores the vast gulf between Americans’ appetite for holding price gouging corporations accountable and the Trump administration’s pay-to-play approach to justice. Price gouging was a policy area in which the Biden administration made significant strides but Vice President Harris opted not to lean into. With affordability still top-of-mind to voters, that contrast has only gotten more important. Trump’s critics should be emphasizing how his administration is not only cracking down on political opponents, but looking away as rapacious elites allegedly immiserate hardworking Americans.”
November 25, 2025 at 5:46 PM
matthewccook5.bsky.social
The content here is very high quality.
bdlimm.bsky.social Bright D Limm 임대중 @bdlimm.bsky.social · 12h
We door-knocked + phone-banked a million votes to—
👉 freeze the RENT
👉 make buses fast and FREE
👉 deliver universal CHILDCARE

Now, to realize them all, we will do the work to—
🤜 tax the RICH

The Tax the Rich campaign's field op launches on Sat, Dec 13. Get in on the ground floor. taxtherichny.com
Tax The Rich - New York - Home
Together, we can Tax the Rich in New York State and create a better future for everyone, not just the ultra-wealthy. Join our movement.
taxtherichny.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
ddayen.bsky.social
We also have a deep dive into credit unions, which began as an alternative to increase community lending and now have behemoths that act more like big banks, including by purchasing banks wholesale and making them tax-exempt.
This is from freelance writer Adam Willems:
prospect.org/2025/11/25/c...
Credit Unions Go Large and Go Rogue - The American Prospect
Intended to bolster local access to lending, large credit unions today are swallowing up community banks. A Trump purge has reduced their oversight.
prospect.org
November 25, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
rweingarten.bsky.social
Can't believe I have to say this, but: Nursing IS a profession. By classifying it as "not professional," Trump is making it more expensive & difficult for students to study nursing. This adds to the affordability crisis & makes staffing shortages worse. @wsna.bsky.social www.wsna.org/news/2025/ws...
WSNA opposes excluding nursing from “professional degree” programs
Without access to sufficient loans, the impact on the nursing workforce, including the work of preparing new nurses to enter the workforce, can be severe.
www.wsna.org
November 25, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
followtheh.bsky.social
Dude who just got the SV Bank bailout two years ago is back banging the cup. It’s a tell.
November 24, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
jeffhauser.bsky.social
There is no greater need on the center-left and in the center than unity against AI (or crypto) bailouts.

If Trump does it, he has to do it alone with his oligarch pals, no Democratic support ala Pelosi/Obama in 2008 or Biden & Larry Summers in 2023 (SVB).
November 24, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
ddayen.bsky.social
DOJ settles the RealPage case.
Some legitimate changes to its business practices but nobody's getting convicted for price fixing.
nypost.com/2025/11/24/b...
Exclusive | DOJ settles case accusing real estate tech firm RealPage of enabling landlords to collude on sky-high rents
The Justice Department has settled its case against real estate tech firm RealPage, which faced bombshell allegations of building algorithms that allowed landlords to illegally collude to jack up r…
nypost.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
theguardian.com
Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican reggae singer, actor and cultural icon, dies aged 81
Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican reggae singer, actor and cultural icon, dies aged 81
Star of The Harder They Come had hits including You Can Get It If You Really Want and I Can See Clearly Now
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
kenklippenstein.bsky.social
The Mamdani - Trump meeting wasn't just smiles
www.kenklippenstein.com/p/mamdani-tr...
Mamdani, Trump Meeting Wasn’t Just Smiles
Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump met in the White House on Friday and demonstrated a new kind of politics that actually stuck to policy.
www.kenklippenstein.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
ahjohnson.bsky.social
I wrote a book about US media’s complicity in the Gaza genocide. It's available for pre-order. It’s a data-driven and, I hope, thorough account of how center-left media sold the American public on mass death in Gaza.

Out 4/21. 100% of royalties go to @mecaforpeace.bsky.social.
How to Sell a Genocide - Pluto Press
A gripping exposé of how the corporate media fuelled genocide in Gaza
www.plutobooks.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
ddayen.bsky.social
The 2008 crisis was the most deeply scarring event ever to befall housing, people keep trying to find some other explanation and there isn't one, thanks @deanbaker13.bsky.social
cepr.net/publications...
Ezra Klein Needs to Look More Closely at His Housing Chart
A look at why today’s housing shortage stems less from zoning and more from the long shadow of the 2008 housing bubble and its collapse.
cepr.net
November 24, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
djbyrnes1.bsky.social
Moments ago: tenants of the South Shore apartment building that federal immigration agents raided at the end of September held a presser to announce they're forming a tenants union.

They're demanding, among other things, sewage removal and heat and electricity restroration.

More updates TK.
November 24, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
PUNCHBOWL: “.. GOP members messaged us over the weekend saying that they, too, are considering retiring in the middle of the term. Here’s one particularly exercised senior House Republican:

@punchbowlnews.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Reposted by Matthew Cunningham-Cook
ddayen.bsky.social
While Josh Shapiro is ditching the Northeast climate agreement, Abigail Spanberger (no radical liberal) is preparing to join it. @gurleygg.bsky.social explains why.
prospect.org/2025/11/24/j...
Josh Shapiro Ditched the Same Climate Pact That Abigail Spanberger Is Joining - The American Prospect
To seal a state budget deal, Pennsylvania is departing the RGGI emissions control program, but Virginia is jumping back in.
prospect.org
November 24, 2025 at 3:00 PM