OCTOBER 16, 2026

US maternity wards face wave of closures as Medicaid cuts kick in
Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ spending cuts will be fully felt next year, but hospitals are already feeling the squeeze

“Maternity wards across the United States are facing a wave of closures as cuts to federal Medicaid funding take effect, experts have warned. According to analysis by the non-profit Protect Our Care, 52 maternity wards have closed since the HR1 bill was announced in July 2025, with a further eight having announced their upcoming closure.The bill, which will fully come into effect in the new year, will result in many adults covered through Medicaid having to meet new work requirements and being subject to more frequent eligibility checks, while there will be less federal funding for states for Medicaid. Hospitals which have already permanently closed their maternity wards include the Centra Southside Community hospital in Virginia, which cited upcoming federal policy changes to Medicaid as a reason. Experts are expecting to see more closures of maternity units in the run-up to and after the federal changes to Medicaid come into effect in the new year.” The Guardian

Deskilling the body

We are, moment by moment, doing less sensing, navigating, remembering, walking, choosing, and attending [and it’s likely that situational awareness via our senses is the dynamic that undergirds and maintains “embodied consciousness,” so….]

“We have fallen into habits that are steadily deskilling the human body, eroding capacities honed by evolution to support our wellbeing as we move through the world. Some of these capacities are weakening through disuse: we have come to rely on our phones, for example, and now, increasingly, on AI, to rapidly do work that would once have required something more physical — like looking around, or asking someone, or going to find and consult a book. Reliance on GPS may weaken both our spatial attention and the fluency of our wayfinding. In surrendering to a quick technological fix, we are, moment by moment, doing less sensing, navigating, remembering, walking, choosing, and attending.” Aeon, tx Semafor

Brazil’s Electoral Disaster Wasn’t Inevitable
An electoral turnaround in the second round of Brazil’s presidential election is possible, however difficult. But the illusion that the left can govern without a long-term project, without confronting the powerful, and without popular mobilization must be left behind

Lula’s third government was a small-bore government. It offered the majorities that elected it neither a clearly better life nor reasons to believe again in politics and its power to transform society. Throughout its four years in office, Lula’s third government was almost invariably associated with the Centrão [“transactional” center-Right]. Here lies its first accommodation: accepting the limits imposed by conservative institutions; avoiding, as much as possible, any attempt to strain those limits through popular pressure; and believing only in the modest changes that could be squeezed through openings in Congress. Labor Politics via Portside

The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Tireless Socialist
A new biography of Eugene Debs makes clear that in the United States, the story of socialism is really the story of opposition to socialism.

What can the history of American socialism tell us about the present and future of democratic politics? The last decade has seen a resurgence of interest in socialism. Shawn Gude’s new book illuminates the forces that shaped America’s foremost socialist evangelist, and the exceptional efforts of his opponents to crush him and his movement. From the beginning of the transformation of the United States into an industrial power, the tycoons, politicians, and judges formed the best-funded union in American history, a cartel that used its bottomless collective pocket to divide and conquer workers. The New Republic via Portside

Remembering Dorothy Healey

Dorothy Healey, a longtime leader of the Communist Party in California, then one of the founders of the New America Movement and of NAM’s merger into DSOC to form DSA, was for many years an active member of DSA in Washington, DC (fondly remembered by all who knew and worked with her). She also had a regular program on WPFW — DC’a Pacifica station. Keep that in mind when reading part one of Chris Kutalik’s article about Dorothy posted in California DSA. 

Mamdani faces pushback on Israel/Palestine policy as he straddles battling factions

Anti-Israel activists post a purity test that even Mamdani can’t pass

“If pro-Palestinian activists had designed a New York City mayor in a political science lab, they would have strained to do much better than Zohran Mamdani. Galvanizing at a microphone and disarming in person, he has helped guide and expand the Democratic Socialists of America as the Palestinian cause has become a defining D.S.A. focus locally and nationally. The plight of Palestinians has doubled as an early test of the wider left’s capacity to corral its agitators, even with an avowed former agitator in charge. It arrives at a moment when the left generally, and the D.S.A. in particular, is grappling more broadly with how to reconcile its rapid ascent into expanded power with a boisterous, largely hierarchy-averse coalition in which dissent is often encouraged and valorized. Segments of the movement are debating in real time how much latitude Mr. Mamdani and other elected leaders deserve in areas as varied as policing, housing and comportment toward the Trump administration. And the answers can diverge sharply, sometimes dividing 30-something organizers — relative pragmatists who helped put socialists into office — and college-aged activists who remain skeptical about involving the D.S.A. in electoral politics at all.” New York Times