Senate is back in session today.

1/ So a quick 🧵on where things are at on the shutdown.

You get a lot of propaganda and spin thrown at you, so I want to give you the real, behind-the-scenes tea.

Amazing photo. Thanks for sharing

Who thinks today would be a great day to open the government, swear in Adelita Grijalva, and release the Epstein files?

So @hcrichardson.bsky.social has encouraged us to record or write what it means to us to live in a democracy. So today I spent some writing things I want from a democratic government.
We had these things as recently as last year, 2024. And that gives me hope that we can/will have these again.

Ross Douthat has about never been my favorite read, but after watching him toe to toe with Doug Wilson, I have gained a good deal of respect. I don't usually find time for hour+ podcasts, but I'm glad I did. (The NYT also has an edited transcript.)
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/o...

One embedded link to "View Rule" at an OMB sub-office; claims "No" to six categories of affected/required; almost no substance. Date 12/00/2025 [sic]

Nearly impenetrable bureaucratic cover. Appreciate what the Urban Institute did here. www.urban.org/research/pub...

"When everyday rhythms of payment, research, or disaster relief are turned into instruments of compliance, government ceases to be a shared institution and becomes a tool of domination."

He alone can fix it. He broke it on purpose, to show us that. With no intention of fixing anything.
2/2

An anthropologist looks at the authoritarianism we're soaking in. 1/2

"Structural violence is plain in how vulnerability is distributed along familiar lines of race, class, and geography....

"The aim is obedience, not efficiency."
open.substack.com/pub/jamesbgr...

I can’t help but think today about how many young people were savaged on social media, branded as anti-semites and abandoned by their schools for daring to call for a ceasefire. I remember saying that it was the first time I can remember that calling for ceasefire was regarded as a hostile demand.

RIP, Diane. 😩

This sadly demented man doesn't realize *he* was president on Jan 6, 2021. Get him in an assisted living facility ASAP.

A correction within the next 6 months to two years?

Not exactly breaking news, but ok. Ima predict some snow in the mountains within the next the months

Congratulations to new Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado for her courageous struggle to bring democracy to Venezuela.

I've heard they're eating the pets

In the Bizarro World of credibility. Steve Scalise. And so many of the MAGA quislings

JB Pritzker has also been emphatically placing Trump's mental decline squarely on the agenda. On our pod, he adds a new element: People around Trump are using his decline to manipulate him, so they're less likely to intervene. More Dems should say this. 1/

newrepublic.com/article/2016...

Life imitates art. A little too well in our present instance.

Quite a pointed message:

What Letitia James said:
"This is the time for leaders on both sides of the aisle to speak out against this blatant perversion of our system of justice."

Standing by for crickets from Idaho's sorry quartet.

Our president is a felon. And a perverter.
open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

Ah, $89B / 1M = $89,000 apiece?

New York Attorney General Letitia James has issued her first statement in the aftermath of being indicted by President Trump’s DOJ.

Are you looking for a job in his administration? This has real sycophant feels

Stephen Miller is murdering Venezuelans and Colombians in cold blood bc he believes it helps his propaganda campaign to paint Latinos as dangerous.

www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

I did check to see if they had one particular tree I know that stands clear of the surrounding forest and casts a shadow at times on a ski run. Their model/data isn't *that* specific.