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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 16h

There is only one defense for the filibuster and it's that Democrats are at a structural disadvantage in the Senate

Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 16h

I'm actually pretty pro-filibuster, but the "founders" did not "create the Senate" that way. There's no filibuster in the Constitution. The Senate's own rules made it possible starting in 1806, but nobody actually exploited it until over 30 years later.

ringwiss @ringwiss.bsky.social · 17h

“And that’s why we nuked it twice in the past month.”

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 16h

They are going to make a bunch of formalistic distinctions to make this work. You and I and anyone who wants a theory will be unsatisfied but it will do what they want it to do, which is leave most of that untouched while letting them strike down new blue state laws that they find offensive

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Reposted by Indiscreet Function

sasha ↙︎↙︎↙︎ 🌹🏴 @2damntrans.bsky.social · 1d

Labour's Britain, where trans women who have fully consensual sex with men will be sent to male prisons where they are at a high risk of sexual assaulted and rape.

UnicornsRockUK @unicornsrockuk.bsky.social · 1d

She's been jailed - to be raped every night.

She's in a male jail. Despite living as female since she was 13.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...

Trans woman jailed after hiding male genitalia during sex with man

Ciara Watkin, 21, concealed she had male genitalia and performed sex acts on a man she had been on a date with - before later texting him 'I'm trans, I'm sorry I didn't tell you'

www.mirror.co.uk

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 18h

Not enough Tylenol in DC

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 18h

Might even be limited to ex ante bans specifying specific prohibited content like this one; possible you can get to a similar place with malpractice and consumer fraud

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 18h

Feels like a minimal demand of Dems in shutdown negotiations is a reversal of the layoffs

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Senator Scott Wiener @scottwiener.bsky.social · 20h

MAJOR NEWS: @GavinNewsom signed SB 79, my bill allowing more housing near public transit — rail, subway, rapid bus.

It’s a huge step for housing in California. It’ll create more homes, strengthen our transit systems & reduce traffic & carbon emissions.

Thank you, Governor!

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 21h

We are all petty and status-obsessed, that's just being human, but you ought to aspire as a morally serious adult to think past the matrix of real and imagined slights to the actual people with real concrete stakes

Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 21h

Same with trans people, you're an oppressed victim for being that Biological Sex is Real and the real power is in the hands of trans kids in Texas whose affirming parents are being investigated for child abuse

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 21h

I find this rhetoric (which is an old right-wing trope) incredibly grating. Abstract away from the actual victims and perpetrators (kids in Gaza being bombed versus the wealthy well-armed superpower-backed apartheid state bombing them) and focus on your intramural disputes about culture institutions

Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 22h

I still stand by my belief that Bari Weiss has wanted to take over CBS since the Coates interview by Dokupil. That and the 60 Minutes segments on Palestine were critical.

Here is how the FP talked about Coates at the time, claiming that his pro-Palestine stance is the "new consensus" of the elite

"The sad truth is that Coates is not speaking truth to power," the Free Press editorialized, in a sweeping indictment both of CBS and of elite liberalism writ large. "He is echoing the new consensus of the powerful. One can find more sophisticated versions of The Message in the course catalogs of Ivy League universities, the editorial pages of leading newspapers, and in the reports of well-funded NGOs. It is journalists like Tony Dokoupil who are an endangered species in legacy news organizations, which are wilting to the pressures of this new elite consensus."

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 21h

Anyone who has ever taken a bus in NYC knows this already

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 23h

Like I said bsky.app/profile/leah...

Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 23h

Machado issues her first statement since being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and makes a thinly-veiled appeal to Trump for US intervention in Venezuela:

María Corina Machado ©
@MariaCorinaYA
Follow
This recognition of the struggle of all Venezuelans is a boost to conclude our task: to conquer Freedom.
We are on the threshold of victory and today, more than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our principal allies to achieve Freedom and democracy.
I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!
8:34 AM • 10/10/25 • 30K Views

Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 23h

I think you are missing about a dozen relevant differences between those cases

Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

Pretty good chance Machado tries to take the sting out by making praise of Trump a centerpiece of her acceptance too

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

I don't think this is right:
- it was totally plausible they would give it to him, there is a widespread international effort to flatter Trump to curry favor
- they chose Machado with Trump in mind, it's not like he had no impact. She's one of the flatterers and someone he has supported before

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 1d

Any news organization that treated "Will Trump Get Nobel?" as a remotely serious question, and not one more indication of his accelerating hallucinatory patterns, has some 'splaining to do.

Looking at you, all major news orgs.

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

I heard that it's part of a secret CCP-Mossad joint operation

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

I hate how people just lie on here

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

Would she oppose invading the country?

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

I am sure that cases like this exist but I find this reporting to be fairly credulous:
- the straight/bi and gay/bi lines are blurry
- some of these people in different-sex relationships are religious conservatives doing it for that reason, whether they want to broadcast that or not

Shane O'Neill @shaneisland.bsky.social · 2d

Head a great time reporting this story!!

Gift link: wapo.st/4o44pjK

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

But like, I don't think it is particularly helpful to have an international network of activists that largely rejects the mutual recognition framework in favor of maximalism pursued through armed struggle, just as some diaspora Irish nationalists were unhelpful players in the peace process there

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

Not anything you haven't heard before but the two other pieces are (a) Palestinian leadership that is strong enough and has enough legitimacy to restrain rejectionist elements and (b) leverage against Israel from meaningful international pressure. In the absence of (b) Israel has made (a) impossible

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

I am a standing pragmatist so I can't be too angry about the justices being standing pragmatists, but it's striking that the Republican appointees suddenly decide to be standing pragmatists to facilitate Republican challenges to voter-friendly rules www.supremecourt.gov/oral_argumen...

www.supremecourt.gov

Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 2d

Full article here www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

The Theory, Born at Harvard, That Could Remake Right-Wing Jurisprudence | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson

Over the past five years, common good constitutionalism has taken tenuous root in elite legal academia. It’s now beginning to find its way into courtrooms. But scholars remain divided on its potential...

www.thecrimson.com

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 2d

"people feared even to mention Christian arguments" ok Adrian which specific ones do you have in mind

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 2d

Not the most important part of this Harvard Crimson article about Vermeule but it seems worth noting that LITERALLY THE SAME DAY OBERGEFELL CAME DOWN President Obama gave a major speech in a church focusing on divine grace and then literally sang "Amazing Grace"

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