Ken Hughes
@fatalpolitics.bsky.social
210 followers 400 following 640 posts
Author of Chasing Shadows and Fatal Politics. Bylines: @NYTimes @WashingtonPost @ConversationUS
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fatalpolitics.bsky.social
If someone says you have to choose between fighting fascists and reining in economic royalists . . . smile. You can do both.
fatalpolitics.bsky.social
"In Portland, Ore., however, a Trump appointee said no. She refused to play Trump’s game and instead held him accountable for his words. There is no deference due to a president who refuses to operate in good faith."
Read free:
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/o...
Opinion | How a Trump Judge Exposed the Trump Con
www.nytimes.com
fatalpolitics.bsky.social
Good morning, #FirstAmendmentPeople.

"The means of defence [against] foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home."
—James Madison, Notes on the Constitutional Convention

#FreeSpeech
#FreePress
#FreeAssembly
#FreedomOfReligion
#PeacefulRedress
Reposted by Ken Hughes
Reposted by Ken Hughes
bynum.house.gov
I surveyed over 300,000 of my constituents, and most of the respondents said they don’t approve of the National Guard being deployed to Portland. 

As I’ve said: we don’t need this, and we don’t want this.
Reposted by Ken Hughes
thegodpodcast.com
Peaceful assembly isn’t an insurrection.

Storming the Capitol to hang your own vice-president and end democracy is.
Reposted by Ken Hughes
peterbakernyt.bsky.social
When Trump team pushed to investigate Soros, it cited a watchdog group report. But the group's own leader says "we actually did not make either of those claims that a prosecutor would need to make.” @fahrenthold.bsky.social @aduehren.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...
Report on Soros Cited by Justice Dept. Does Not Show Funding for Terrorism
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Ken Hughes
thebulwark.com
Trump didn’t just instruct his cronies to look into Letitia James to see what they could rustle up. Instead, he twisted the entire federal government into a shape designed to produce the criminal indictment he demanded. www.thebulwark.com/p/insidious-...
The Insidious Effort To Rationalize Trump’s Lawfare
This is not a president justified in going after those who went after him. It’s a person making a mockery of our justice system.
www.thebulwark.com
Reposted by Ken Hughes
thebulwark.com
"His 1955 story 'The Crooked Man,' which imagines a world where homosexuality is the norm, and the shame and casting out from society is suffered by heterosexuals, precedes Martin Amis’s similar 'Straight Fiction' by forty years." www.thebulwark.com/p/hopeless-h...
The Hopeless Horror of Charles Beaumont
The writer died before his fortieth birthday—but left behind an influential catalogue of stories and unforgettable Twilight Zone episodes.
www.thebulwark.com
Reposted by Ken Hughes
thebulwark.com
The Gilded Age may have revealed the excesses of an unchecked oligarchy, but at least it left behind centers of learning, culture, and philanthropy. Today’s roster of plutocrats seems uninterested in that. www.thebulwark.com/p/why-our-te...
Why Our Tech Overlords Took a Hard Right Turn
A new book tells the story of how Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs became angry admirers of authoritarianism.
www.thebulwark.com
Reposted by Ken Hughes
thebulwark.com
George was just trying to get to work.

ICE pepper-sprayed him, dragged him from his car, locked him in a detention center, and placed him on suicide watch. He even missed his young daughter’s birthday in the process.

This man is a veteran and American citizen. Don't look away.
thebulwark.com
"They put me on suicide watch and they put me in the cell, I'm naked, in like a hospital dress and just a concrete bed with like a mattress, like a thin mattress and, they leave the light on 24/7."

@timmiller.bsky.social talked to a veteran who ICE wrongly detained and brutalized
Reposted by Ken Hughes
thebulwark.com
"To focus on the 'woke left' as a threat to liberalism in America in late 2025 while soft-pedaling the threat from the authoritarian/populist right that now holds the levers of power is a sign of either extraordinary myopia or bad faith."
Bari Weiss, CBS News, and the Triumph of Faux Balance
The record of the Free Press shows her journey from independent to MAGA fellow traveler.
www.thebulwark.com
Reposted by Ken Hughes
thebulwark.com
When Trump came along—a fellow oligarch, looking to use the power of the American presidency to enrich himself and his cronies as much as possible—these figures jumped at the chance to share in the spoils. www.thebulwark.com/p/why-our-te...
Why Our Tech Overlords Took a Hard Right Turn
A new book tells the story of how Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs became angry admirers of authoritarianism.
www.thebulwark.com
fatalpolitics.bsky.social
Trump administration says immigration enforcement threatens higher food prices

In an unusual acknowledgement, the Labor Department said that tougher immigration enforcement is hurting farmers and the food supply.

Read free:
wapo.st/48Iuil5
Trump administration says immigration enforcement threatens higher food prices
U.S. farmers face labor shortages and potential food price hikes due to Trump’s immigration policy, the administration acknowledged in a Federal Registry document.
wapo.st
fatalpolitics.bsky.social
Attorney General Letitia James of New York purchased the $137,000 home for a grandniece who needed tranquillity. Trump administration prosecutors say it is an impermissible investment property.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...
In the Eye of a Political Storm, a Tiny Yellow House in Norfolk, Va.
www.nytimes.com
fatalpolitics.bsky.social
Good morning, #FirstAmendmentPeople.

#FreeSpeech
#FreePress
#FreeAssembly
#FreedomOfReligion
#PeacefulRedress

bsky.app/profile/theb...
thebulwark.com
George was just trying to get to work.

ICE pepper-sprayed him, dragged him from his car, locked him in a detention center, and placed him on suicide watch. He even missed his young daughter’s birthday in the process.

This man is a veteran and American citizen. Don't look away.
thebulwark.com
"They put me on suicide watch and they put me in the cell, I'm naked, in like a hospital dress and just a concrete bed with like a mattress, like a thin mattress and, they leave the light on 24/7."

@timmiller.bsky.social talked to a veteran who ICE wrongly detained and brutalized
Reposted by Ken Hughes
thetnholler.bsky.social
COHEN: “Federal workers earned that pay, and the law makes it clear they’re entitled to it.”

US Rep. Steve Cohen rips into Trump for threatening to withhold back pay from federal employees who are working through the #republicanshutdown
Reposted by Ken Hughes
axios.com
Speaker Mike Johnson told Axios today that "of course" Congress will ensure furloughed federal workers get back pay once the government reopens.
Mike Johnson: "Of course" we'd give back pay to federal workers
The White House has made clear that back pay isn't a guarantee.
www.axios.com
Reposted by Ken Hughes
warren.senate.gov
Donald Trump has been illegally shutting down the parts of government he doesn't like and firing tens of thousands of federal workers since Day One.

Republicans’ shutdown doesn't give him any more power to create chaos.

It’s workers and the American people who will suffer.
Vought sounds layoff siren: ‘The RIFs have begun’
At least nine agencies appear to be affected.
www.politico.com
Reposted by Ken Hughes
thebulwark.com
Gov. Wes Moore: "Trump yesterday threatened to withhold back pay for our federal workers. I want to be clear, those comments are reckless, those comments are  irresponsible, and importantly, those comments are illegal. To our federal workers, I'm sorry."
Reposted by Ken Hughes
gregsargent.bsky.social
Trump just threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act if governors/judges act *lawfully* within the constitutional system in ways that displease him.

Miller's statements reveal their real position: Trump's power to invent pretexts for emergency actions is limitless.

newrepublic.com/article/2014...
Reposted by Ken Hughes
gregsargent.bsky.social
This is good, from Hakeem Jeffries. More of this please, in every conceivable forum:

"Sycophants who aid and abet the President’s vengeful schemes will not be able to hide from the serious legal consequences of their behavior. They will be held accountable."
Reposted by Ken Hughes
donmoyn.bsky.social
This is the genius of the Portland protests - they make the claims of lawlessness look not just wrong, but comical
thedailyshow.com
The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.
Reposted by Ken Hughes
brendannyhan.bsky.social
It's almost as if this is another bogus case cooked up by an unqualified insurance lawyer appointed to do the president's bidding...
brendannyhan.bsky.social
Brown M&Ms. Mirrors the screwups in the Comey filing. They can't even get basic information right. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...