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Sean's News Network @seanchai313.bsky.social · 1m

So is any house member going to file articles of impeachment?

Bring these actions into focus for people and get lots of news coverage.

Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 1h

Sens. Schumer, Merkley, Murray, and Peters are calling for the resignation of OMB Director Russell Vought.

"By impounding billions of dollars … and aggressively pursuing the illegal use of pocket rescissions, Vought has done everything in his power to gut the federal government piece by piece."

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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 1h

Sens. Schumer, Merkley, Murray, and Peters are calling for the resignation of OMB Director Russell Vought.

"By impounding billions of dollars … and aggressively pursuing the illegal use of pocket rescissions, Vought has done everything in his power to gut the federal government piece by piece."

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 23m

Not sure why it has taken until late 2025 to see this, but this is how you do it. Every time. For every one of these guests.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 48m

STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50k as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. You did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.

VANCE: No, George, I sai--

STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll be right back

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Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 26m

👀 they are really struggling with that $50,000 question.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 48m

STEPHANOPOULOS: Did Tom Homan give the $50,000 back?

VANCE: He did not take a bribe. It's a ridiculous smear

STEPHANOPOULOS: You didn't answer the question

VANCE: Did he accept $50,000? I'm sure that in the course of Homan's life, he's been paid more than $50k for services.

(So, no, he didn't)

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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 16m

I have never been a supporter of Donald Trump, but if Democrats cannot stop him from taking away my healthcare subsidies, I will have no choice but to continue voting for him and/or his anointed offspring in all future elections.

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Rodger Sherman @rodger.bsky.social · 18m

i know what this means but I'm choosing to believe he hit himself in the eye trying to play sousaphone

NFL Daily News @fantasynflnews.bsky.social · 21m

Pelissero: Anthony Richardson inactive for Week 6 after suffering eye injury while doing pregame band work.

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Nola Barrett @nolabarrett.bsky.social · 16m

😬

NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 16m

The Nobel Peace Prize committee says they've awarded this year's honor to María Machado of Venezuela. But an AI video posted on the MAGA MOMS 4 LIBERTY Facebook page clearly shows that the prize was awarded to Donald Trump. For busy MAGA moms for liberty, it can be hard to know who to trust.

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Seth Walder @sethwalder.bsky.social · 15m

Burning a timeout so you can make the wrong 4th down decision <<<<<<<<<

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Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 13m

/2 Plus as a huge nerd I find his ”let’s see how this nerd thing can be interpreted in a wholly subnormal fascist way” vibe to be extremely gross. But it attracts certain subnormal types.

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Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 16m

Every time someone makes me read something Peter Thiel said it’s like “Scrooge McDuck is Jesus Christ and Huey, Dewey, and Louie are Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel and Daisy is Mary Magdalene and that’s why women voting has lowered American sperm count.”

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Sandhya Dirks @audiosand.bsky.social · 13m

this is just the shit dumb teenage boys say when they are stoned.

of course it is.

the idea that wealth and intelligence are linked should be forever defenestrated, but of course it won't be.

power is what allows this barely coherent brain jargle to be worth any note.

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 4h

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse @whitehouse.senate.gov · 2h

Vance flies to Indiana to press for gerrymandering instead of trying to head off Affordable Care hits to 86,000 Indianans.

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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 3h

Attacks on the federal workforce are also attacks on Black workers, who are overrepresented in the public sector.

Black unemployment is 7.5%. I'm reminded of Coates' observation that Black Americans regularly experience conditions that would be considered a crisis if whites faced them.

Black Unemployment Is Surging Again. This Time Is Different.

www.nytimes.com

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2h

WELKER: During the 2019 shutdown when Trump was president, no federal workers were laid off. Why are these firings necessary?

VANCE: Who do we care more about- federal bureaucrats or the troops getting the payment they need?

WELKER: But layoffs are a priority?

VANCE: They have forced us to choose

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Isi Baehr-Breen @isibb.bsky.social · 2d

Thinking about that time I got quoted in the National Review about Bari Weiss

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Denny Carter @dennycarter.bsky.social · 3h

We sure went from “wow this machine can organize my schedule” to “please do all my thinking for me” in a hurry

C. Buckthorn @cbuckthorn.bsky.social · 8h

This is amazing. I laughed out loud www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

As 32-year-old Rich points out, though, "it's not like using ChatGPT guarantees success".
When he met someone in a bar one Friday night and swapped social media handles, he asked AI what his next move should be.
ChatGPT discerned that sending an initial message on Monday midmorning would set the right pace. "Then it gave me some options for what the message could be," says Rich.
"Keep it light, warm, and low-stakes so it reads as genuine interest without urgency," the bot advised. "Something like: Hey Sarah, still laughing about [tiny shared moment/reference if you've got one] - good to meet you!" Rich went back and forth with ChatGPT until he felt they'd hit upon exactly the right message ("Hey Sarah, it was lovely to meet you") but sadly she never replied, he says. "It's been two weeks now."

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 3h

A related problem for Trump/GOP is: "how are those ICE raids working out for you?"

Sure, there are Stephen Millers who thrive on cruelty, but a typical Trump voter is more "I'm okay with cruelty to benefit me."

Y'all got better jobs yet? More food on your table?

Help them see the answer is "no."

Amanda Marcotte @amandamarcotte.bsky.social · 5h

I truly believe the ICE raids upset most people. And for soft Trump voters, it creates an incentive to move left and pretend the never voted for Trump.

Fine if they need a "we didn't know" narrative. But hammering the fuck out of this issue, making it inescapable on social media, is the move.

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davidrlurie @davidrlurie.bsky.social · 3h

Politically obtuse Republicans are waiting, in vain, for Democratic Senators to buckle.
Meanwhile, the non-GOP Senators who voted against the filibuster are actually under pressure to reverse course.

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Ken Burnside @kenburnside.bsky.social · 3h

The US Constitution has no innate defense against lying by public officials and complete shamelessness.

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 4h

No institutional design can overcome a lawbreaking president, a Congress defending lawbreaking and forfeiting its own power, a Supreme Court that pretends legal text doesn’t count to facilitate lawbreaking, and a citizenry that votes for all that.
Need at least one that wants rule of law. Maybe two.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 3h

Vought is a key figure in the world of Trumpism, with a rare – and dangerous – combination of ideological zeal and operative competence, a fully committed extremist causing massive harm to millions of people.

But if you only listened to The Daily, you wouldn’t get any of that.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 3h

About a week ago, the New York Times’ “The Daily” podcast portrayed Russell Vought as a devout Christian, a true “small government” conservative who loves the free market, and a man with a great work ethic. A remarkable combination of credulousness and deliberate whitewashing.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 3h

Sunday reading:

I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves.

This week’s piece:

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly

Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy

steady.page

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Brutalismbot @brutalismbot.com · 4h

The former Armstrong Rubber Company building in New Haven, Connecticut, was designed by architect Marcel Breuer. Completed in 1970. r/brutalism

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 17h

Also, it is terrible for all the people whose careers are being toyed with, now and all year; all those who are being pushed out without cause, lawlessly.
Alongside all in the public who are being harmed by these attacks on our health and science.
Best to everyone.

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 17h

Looks from here like the goal is to create confusion, and focus public attention on a subset of the most outrageous firings — to distract from the other firings.

We shouldn’t be fooled, and should demand that all the illegal shutdown RIFs are made null and void. /end

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