Every time Putin does something horrific, every time he resists peace or justice, Trump rewards him. His words may suggest something else, so look at his actions.
We are contumacious diodes with mercurial biases, and we are transfixed by our borealis.
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Every time Putin does something horrific, every time he resists peace or justice, Trump rewards him. His words may suggest something else, so look at his actions.
Donald's "disappointment with Putin" manifests...
Paxton is Texas AG, listed 3 homes as primary residence.
Strong reporting here from ProPublica, which found that three Trump Cabinet members -- at Labor, Transportation and EPA -- call multiple homes their primary residence on mortgages. That's the same move that led Trump to fire Lisa Cook from her job at the Fed. bit.ly/466yMyI
I didn't know that humans suspected of or being in possession of drugs in international waters was a violation ofšŗšø law or that presidents could whimsically order executions over it. I knew Roberts made it so presidents couldn't be held liable for it & pardons can be sold to murderers, but...
Another pro-Russia, anti-NATO, anti-US national interest move. Ignore the "peacemaking" b.s. Trump is advancing the Kremlin's agenda. You can debate why until the cows come home. But the damage he is doing is undeniable.
This is incredible work. In a just world it would win some major reporting awards. Iām saying that now bc I donāt think it will. Thereās a particular kind of scoop you only get by being a really effing good beat reporter for a long time who sources trust. Investigative reporting doesnāt prize that.
This is wild...
Extraordinary that 12 sitting federal judges would be willing to talk to a reporter like this, even anonymously. A common take: "The Supreme Court is effectively assisting the Trump administration in 'undermining the lower courts,' leaving district and appeals court judges 'thrown under the bus.'ā
Even if it is true that it is "less necessary", why are they stopping people who want it from getting it?
Good point. Who outside of the Trump regime gets the same "pay no attention to the wildly inaccurate thing he said that's relevant to this topic, that doesn't matter, focus on giving him credit for other things" treatment from the New York Times, or US media more generally?
Wild when New York Times reporters are or are not allowed to opine. If you think antivax lunatic RFK Jr. "makes good points" about COVID and vaccination, you can say so. If you think the Trump administration's egregious rights violations are bad, you keep that out of the paper, don't be biased.
Appropriate follow-ups Is it your testimony that she answered that exact question w those exact words? Was it an unprompted question or in context to an ongoing or previous conversation? Where were you when this occurred? Was anyone else present? Was the conversation memorialized in any way?
The Epstein files are still not public because hundreds of House Republicans are obstructing their release at the request of Trump
I read this and it reminds me of when the tobacco industry denied that it caused cancer. Up till the late 80s they denied it.
A Vox exclusive reports that RFK Jr. and the White House buried a study linking alcohol with cancer. As @smencimer.bsky.social reported in 2018, the research linking alcohol to breast cancer is deadly solid: Alcohol, regardless of whether itās in Everclear or a vintage Bordeaux, is carcinogenic.
The "from my cold dead hands" crowd wants to ban people from owning guns
*most of it, anyway. It's a really, really great piece, tho. Why Dem party leaders haven't hired Stuart to run most of their work is beyond me.
*most of this. Wanna throw more LE money at gang, RICO, drug & publicly obnoxious criminal activity? Go for it But selling investment & returns isn't that hard And spending $ on preventative services has very high returns Being honest while deliberate about rate of return is what has been missing
Exactly. We know it's the wrong play _because it's been tried before_. Extending ACA subsidies after millions have received warnings of them going away ā and doing so while Republicans maintain vise-tight control of the media environment ā will only help Trump.
āHelping Republicans remain in total power in Washington, DC.. in exchange for momentary relief is not the answer.ā Congressional Dems would rather stick to modest harm reduction than face the moment of choice between being either the authors of systemic political change, or its subjects.
RFKj: Are we actually improving people's health by prohibiting naturally occurring crop critter carcasses in their food? Or are we preventing their immune systems from developing resilience to natural illnesses and disease and making them more susceptible to mitochondrial challenges?
Trumpās latest move to use military judges in immigration hearings is illegal, of course. But it should wake people up to the fact that the entire process is broken. Trump didnāt break it. Heās just weaponizing what weāve refused to fix. My latest in @thenation.com
Great piece I, too, prefer functional legal plumbing > bridges of exceptions over troubled waters & pipedreams to nowhere Who's got the chops to draw plans for comprehensive legislation that has the necessary structure, framework, operational levers & proper control points for the future?
If anyone needs a refresher on RFK Jr.'s plans for people on antidepressants. From 2024:
Dems' plan is to help the GOP win the midterms (including State elections) by delaying ACA cuts until just after the midterms, when the ACA will be gutted just the same and the GOP will still control everything and wreak more havoc. Dems aren't even asking for anything beyond that. What a disgrace.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They want to crush their own blue cities without taking the blame for it. Having Trump federalize the units allows them to place responsibility on the White House.
Always stepping up to bat forā¦big corporations.
Yeah, there were more VAERS reports after the covid vaccine ā¦ because it became a way for Republicans to amplify the idea that the vaccine was dangerous! Yes, the vaccine targeted the virus ā¦ but it wasnāt āperfectly matchedā until the virus mutated ā it was mutating all along! Lunacy.
RFK JR: It's going to have a it's going to it's going to be the biggest infusion of federal dollars into rural health care in American history. SANDERS: You know why? Because you're cutting $150 billion for rural hospitals. You're putting $50 billion back. That's not an infusion.
The scale and scope of graft are nearing their apex and nearly immeasurable. While congressional, agency, and legal oversight are at their nadir. ā¬ļø It's really worth a read...
...and these are the days of our lives...
Just gonnaā leave this here. radleybalko.substack.com/p/profiles-i...
Kennedy's vaccine crusade is about Kennedy's ego. He made his conclusions long ago based on his own incomplete and incompetent understandings. Trump appointed him because his ignorance would naturally sow chaos. But Kennedy would be just as happy if he could run it into the ground w/o the chaos.
Follow the money on this scam. Miles and miles of prime oceanfront real estate between SD and LA. Iām surprised it took him this long to cook up something on it.
A lesson for us all on why you should not promise the impossible to the terminally insane
Lavrov: "For lasting peace, new territorial realities must be recognized under international law." They want international recognition of Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories. If that happens, that will mean completely destruction of existing international law and order.
It really doesn't seem irrational or hyperbolic to think an effective & entirely possible scenario to suppress voting would be to have a heavy federal presence & a controlled false flag event... Election officials in blue districts should prepare to provide courts with some options.
This tactic - pressuring corporations financially until they put a regime friendly voice in charge - is exactly how OrbƔn took over the free press in Hungary
A radioactive train wreck...
Not sure whatās most alarming fact, that the administration doesnāt appear to know what the boat it blew up was carrying or where it was headed, that they havenāt identified a legal authority for the action, or that itās the first in a series of planned attacks. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/u...
"Pentagon officials were still working Wednesday on what legal authority they would tell the public was used to back up the extraordinary strike in international waters." So it was a lawless strike killing 11 individuals then?
In fewer than five years, Bari Weiss managed to parlay her resignation as an NYT columnist into a massive platform on Substack and then into editorial control of CBS News--making a vast fortune along the way--all off the absurd claim she's being silenced. First ballot hall-of-fame grifter.
Make your headline more honest by dropping one word
Jesus
It was predictable... bsky.app/profile/spla...
It was never about the victims for these right-wing grifters.
We've got William Young, a Reagan appointee, sounding like Colbert with mock sarcastic apologies directed at SCOTUS justices. We're watching the Supreme Court's legitimacy evaporate in real time.
www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
In this dark timeline, Bryan Cranston bloopers help. With Keegan-Michael Key. š
Heās wanted to have a murder excuse for awhile.
āEpstein clearly had access to enormous financing to operate his sex trafficking network and the details on how he got the cash to pay for it are sitting in a Treasury Department filing cabinet.ā @wyden.senate.gov @gregsargent.bsky.social details Senator Wydenās roadmap for DOJ to follow the money:
The entire federal government is being mobilized to destroy the American wind energy industry. Why? Because the toddler king didn't like seeing windmills from a golf course, so he decided he hates wind power and now that's the policy of the United States. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/c...
it is genuinely wild that Trumpās top domestic policy guy is basically a monarchist who has all but written that he thinks Trump should rule as a dictator
...yikes, that's kinda creepy
This guy also basically does not believe that Congress should exist, so this tracks www.axios.com/2025/09/03/r...
Remarkable: Trump's losses in court are suddenly piling up in a big way. *court just invalidated his nixing of Harvard funds *use of Alien Enemies Act blocked *tariffs ruled illegal What's really becoming clear is that his entire agenda rests on extraordinary abuses of power.
In term 1, trump policy failed the constitutional test in court 94% of the time. 6% survival rate (WaPo). Presidential average survival rate is 70% with 30% policy failing the constitutional test. bsky.app/profile/spla...
Average rate of presidential policy being found constitutional in courts: 70% Trump term 1: 6% bsky.app/profile/spla...
I wrote last November about the threat of the US as a rogue state in a second Trump administration. "Rogue actions on the part of America have already been replicated around the world, in the language and programs used by Russia and China to suppress civilian populations in the name of terrorism."
If coke is to be considered a weapon, or, "arms," then the 2ndA should apply and result in its immediate deregulation!
Donald Trump's message to Epstein survivors: "Enough." On Wednesday, survivors spoke about their experiences at Capitol Hill to support a bipartisan bill that would release their files. When asked about it in the Oval Office, Trump decried it as a "Democrat hoax" and said "I think it's enough."
What if they were trafficking drugs & kids? Would we just say they're using them as human shields and acceptable collateral damage? What would that cost be? Interdiction, de-escalation, strong principles, high standards, honor, duty, they're all frowned upon.
Ouch SCOTUS
Follows, has been all over the media black hole on this story since the beginning. bsky.app/profile/jfal...
Love these lines in ruling by federal Judge Burroughs, waving away pretext of fighting antisemitism as reason to cut funding to Harvard. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... H/t @klasfeldreports.com Reminder: Nonstop NYT unsourced stories that Harvard was about to cave.
So, Republicans can offer nothing to help Epstein survivors, but they will litigate Jan 6 to help the insurrectionists? Got it. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
ššššš Elie out here trying to get the Cracker Barrel to change its logo...
ššššš Elie out here trying to get the Cracker Barrel to change its logo...
Yes. Consistent with a long legacy of republican abuses of power. Or, Weaponization of Government, as they like to put it. Bring it. May witnesses give them the same courtesy trump did in US courts. May there be spectacles. Let us revisit the collapse of all executive branch function & betrayal.
Our political lenses are shaded pretty differently and they occupy different positions, and our policy differences are even further apart, but you're a good and decent man with good intentions, dignity, and integrity. Florida would be lucky to have you as Governor.
Ah yes. Oz. bsky.app/profile/numb...
reminder that something like 232,000 (per a peer reviewed study) of the US Covid deaths were Delta-wave vaccine refusers. These dupes were sacrificial pawns the conservative movement weaponized in order to sustain the pandemic and try to damage the Biden economy in 2021:
Yes, it was carefully hidden in the New England Journal of Medicine. Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1... ) 1/2
Trump on RFK Jr., the CDC, and vaccines (a translation). He seems to be saying that he was shown data about COVID19 vaccines being safe and effective, but that the pharma companies didnāt show those amazing data to anyone else, like RFK Jr. He thinks this is why there is a āmessā at CDC.
He demands that Pfizer and other companies show their vaccine data (which he calls drugs) to the CDC to show them how good they are. What does this tell us? That the outrage against RFK Jr. is having an effect and we need to push even harder to force this wedge.
This is a great piece. Ps May we all and our kids have self-defense instructors like Andrea.
Just remembered that Florida's surgeon general (in the news today for revoking the state's public-school vaccine mandate) appeared on the podcast of fringe-right anti-Semite Stew Peters. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/c...
Of all the things to prioritize as a broad spectrum threat... The Unsuitables The Unsuitable States of America
š¤·āāļøOld $ But the present threat/bribe to them would be extraordinary, for sure. Find them. Allow the victims an opportunity to speak to them. Pieces will fall where they may, but their presence alone still tell another part of the story on the path to preventative measures & urgent & just, justice.
The next 3.5 years will be a race to see which feature of Trumpism will triumph--incompetence or malevolence.
"This is an encroachment on everything we signed up for, and it feels like a violation." Buddy, let me tell you about the Iraq War and what it was like dodging snipers and roadside bombs for nonexistent "weapons of mass destruction." Republicans have treated the military this way for decades.
Media also just has a "the customer is always right" philosophy that tacks away from seeing the electorate as a legitimate political subject, or conversations that might indict, impune, or upset them or might result in backlash, crippled further by kid glove coverage of "shocking" things in general.
Only about a 3m read, but, damn...
The fucking Hamburgler is a more controversial figure than Hitler. The Joker Dr. No His favorite book out of 75 was Mein Kampf? He had already sworn off books written by women by the time he hit college? Working at the DOJ, to ostensibly bring justice?
Yeah, I dont ever want any of these fucks on my team. The GOP just keep exposing themselves for who they truly are & their decades of exploitation and vacant values.
This will, obviously and straightforwardly, impair the ability of the organization to do its job. As such, it is a good representation of the effects of the Trump admin on public services: they will undermine state capacity to pursue their pet hates.
This is so fucked up, my god.
š§µā¬ļø Seriously All of this directly refutes official statements made by the "small Govt" folks who insist Big Govt is lying to u & evil, who now run all of federal Big Govt... Moving forward means dealing w/the past. My god, this is so fucked up. "Protect the children"= little white Christian girls
/2 ā¦focus on ākitchen tableā issues like the threat of trans people in college sports. Moreover the Bluesky attitude of making Guatemalan children a big deal, and not acknowledging the wisdom of experts who advocate ignoring this issue, alienates median voters.
The fact is the median voter does not care about the administration attempting to deport large groups of Guatemalan children secretly in the middle of the night. Democrats must learn to take a centrist position that does not focus on unpopular issues like the humanity of children and insteadā¦/1
Trump is rejecting the pleas of Epstein's victims, but he did find room in his heart to move Epstein's child rape co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell to a nicer prison.
so according to the GOP, getting justice for sexual abuse and rape victims is a āvery hostile act.ā got it. very on brand.
"Meanwhile, unions that have been more supportive of Trump, such as the Teamsters, have been exempted. Shamefully, courts are happy to go along with the fiction that this is an issue of national security, rather than Trump targeting organizations perceived as political opponents." Plausible power
You can read the letter here: www.savehhs.org The scale of public dissent from federal employees is extraordinary, even as the threats against them are unprecedented. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/your-gover...