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ProPublica @propublica.org · 6h

Russ Vought set out to ensure a second Trump term would not be hampered by checks and balances: “I don’t want President Trump having to lose a moment of time having fights in the Oval Office about whether something is legal or doable or moral.”

By @andykroll.bsky.social, with @newyorker.com

Russell Vought, Trump’s Shadow President

From the wholesale gutting of federal agencies to the ongoing government shutdown, Russell Vought has drawn the road map for Trump’s second term. Vought has consolidated power to an extent that inside...

www.propublica.org

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 13h

Rand Paul: "When you kill someone, if you're not in a declared war, you really need to know someone's name at least. You have to accuse them of something. You have to present evidence. So all of these people have been blown up without any evidence of a crime."

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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 12h

as far as just messaging goes that video is probably the most embarrassing thing any president has done on the world stage in my life

and the fact that the sunday shows wont even describe it? total abdication of their responsibility

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Drew Abides @drewabides.bsky.social · 2d

I’m just sick. One of my students-a sweet, kind freshman came to my office yesterday. Through the sobs she told me how her brother, a 22 year old dreamer, brought to this country from Guatemala when he was a child, was abducted by three men on his way to work. They don’t know where he is.

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jswaneylaw @jswaneylaw.bsky.social · 15h

Trying to share a gift link. I wish they would note that the majority of the alleged Venezuelan gang members weren’t, you know, in any gang but I guess there’s only so much room for the administration’s lies to be corrected.

Rubio promised to betray U.S. informants to get Trump’s El Salvador prison deal

To secure U.S. access to President Nayib Bukele’s notorious CECOT prison, Rubio agreed to turn over several MS-13 leaders central to a long-running Justice Department investigation.

wapo.st

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Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 15h

First Trump administration story in a while that genuinely shocked me:

Rubio promised to betray U.S. informants to get Trump’s El Salvador prison deal

To secure U.S. access to President Nayib Bukele’s notorious CECOT prison, Rubio agreed to turn over several MS-13 leaders central to a long-running Justice Department investigation.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 1d

the whole article could have just been ten pages of “Brilliant Things Eleanor O’Brien Said,” and some gold was left on the cutting room floor, but this is such a banger of a closer and it’s so very much the theme of today

"I want people to know that what's happening in Portland - the creativity, the irreverence, the refusal to be intimidated - that's replicable," she says. "Every city has artists. Every community has weirdos. We just need to find each other and start creating the alternative story. The revolution doesn't have to look like a protest.
Make it weird. When they tell you to cover up, shut up, and comply, the most radical thing you can do is be visible, speak truth, and take up space. With joy. Tap into your creativity. Art isn't a luxury in times like these - it's survival."

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🕯️ Crowley Rae Jepsen 🕯️ @mags.colvett.online · 1d

Something maybe worth noting is that all the frog costumes and signs and good-natured memeing came about because a wide spectrum of Americans saw someone in direct, brave confrontation with ICE—getting pepperballed and standing their ground—and thought “that’s awesome. That person is a hero”

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Jen Bendery @jbendery.bsky.social · 1d

More from the #NoKings coalition:

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Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 1d

this is a tacit admission that the administration is not confident in the legal arguments it would have to make in order to detain them, which should also cast into question the legality of the operation in the first place

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 1d

Those men are super dangerous drug smuggling terrorists, which is why . . . we are letting them go.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/u...

U.S. Is Repatriating Survivors of Its Strike on Suspected Drug Vessel

www.nytimes.com

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Marco Foster @marcofoster.bsky.social · 1d

WOW! Protesters created a HUGE human sign on San Francisco’s Ocean Beach reading “No Kings YES on 50” to support California’s Prop 50 and stand up against Donald Trump’s fascist regime

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Jenn @pastafarianti.bsky.social · 1d

I saw one little carrying a sign that said "I refuse to learn your hate" handwritten in crayons!!! She was shouting "we the people choose love."

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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 1d

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

The antifa terrorist marxists are out

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Jen Bendery @jbendery.bsky.social · 1d

A fraction of the people in DC, about an hour before a massive #NoKings protest here kicks off on the National Mall.

"Tell me what democracy looks like?"

"This is what democracy looks like!"

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MEDxyz @medxyz.bsky.social · 2d

There is a stink emanating from the House of Reps created by the refusal of Johnson to swear in Rep-Elect Adelita Grijalva. Very reminiscent of the stench that rose from the Senate in 2016 when McConnell refused to hold a hearing re Obama’s nominee for Supreme Court.Someone please file a law suit.

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Steve Randy Waldman @interfluidity.com · 1d

“We have been committed to nothing so much as not producing anything.” @ddayen.bsky.social prospect.org/world/2025-1...

Why China Can Collapse the U.S. With One Decree

China holds a virtual monopoly over a product needed to produce the only thing holding up our economy right now. And it’s preparing to use that leverage.

prospect.org

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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 2d

Not being even vaguely sarcastic:

At some point, a journalist needs to ask Johnson “you regularly claim you have no idea what your own government is doing. If we take you at your word, how are you so poorly informed, and do you this level of ignorance should disqualify you as speaker?”

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Q: What's your message to the 170 US citizens who have been detained by ICE? About 20 of them are children

MIKE JOHNSON: I don't know what you're talking about with the children. I haven't seen that so I'm not going to comment on it.

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Adam Cohen (My Personal Views Only) @axidentaliberal.bsky.social · 2d

Attorneys are taught that precedent is our foundation

When we bring a case, this is our roadmap, and our bible-so if we stray from stare decisis, there’d better be an extraordinary reason why

Then the MAGA Supreme Court started overturning bedrock rulings

And now the rule of law is crumbling

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

New in PN: How the Supreme Court taught Trump to rewrite history

"If you’re wondering where Trump learned the trick of recasting American history as uniquely belonging to him, look no further than the current Supreme Court’s manipulation of the core legal principle of stare decisis."

How the Supreme Court taught Trump to rewrite history

"He who controls the present controls the past."

www.publicnotice.co

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Jessica Ritchey @jmritchey.bsky.social · 3d

If I had explain American history in one sentence, I could do worse than "John Brown was hung for treason, but Robert E. Lee was not."

Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 3d

John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry began on this day in 1859.

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jswaneylaw @jswaneylaw.bsky.social · 2d

Long but worthwhile read to understand how the destruction of our government is proceeding. Vought is breaking the law on a daily basis and it seems no one can stop him. A few court decisions have slowed things but he just keeps pushing.

LOLGOP ❌👑❌ @thefarce.org · 2d

You could say this is a consequence of his age or decline, but I'd argue the thing Trump has gotten way better at is picking people who will execute his stab at dictatorship and letting them rip.

Russell Vought, Trump’s Shadow President

From the wholesale gutting of federal agencies to the ongoing government shutdown, Russell Vought has drawn the road map for Trump’s second term. Vought has consolidated power to an extent that inside...

www.propublica.org

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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 3d

The president of the United States has said *multiole times* that he hates Americans who are democrats. That is a FUCKING HUGE SCANDAL. Nobody will treat it as one.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 3d

this white house actively treats a large swath of americans as disloyal and outside the political community and it doesn’t merit so much as a peep from the political press

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Leavitt: "The Democrat Party's main constituency is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals."

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Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein.bsky.social · 3d

Extraordinary NEW story: We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. @nicolefoy.bsky.social w/ photos by @sbmaneyphoto.bsky.social

More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.

The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...

www.propublica.org

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Robyn Swirling @rswirling.bsky.social · 5d

Once again: this is also happening in DC. Still.

It feels like we’ve been forgotten, maybe because there aren’t huge confrontations to run photos of. But our neighbors are still being taken every day. Routine traffic stops are now done by 12+ feds alongside local police.

Please talk about us too.

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 6d

"Residents in Chicago and Portland are living in a police state where masked armed forces kidnap who they want to kidnap, where they have to listen to public officials routinely lie about what is happening in their neighborhoods." donmoynihan.substack.com/p/purge-merg...

StrictlyChristo 🇺🇦🌻🚫👑 @strictlychristo.bsky.social · 6d

Federal Secret Police and plainclothes ICE agents kidnap multiple people from a neighborhood in Chicago. They then deploy teargas and brutally beat neighbors who come out to express their concern.

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David Nir @davidnir.com · 3d

Man, this freaking guy.

"I have no staff ... The phones don't work. There's no computer," Grijalva says from her sparsely furnished office on Capitol Hill. "We don't have a government email." www.npr.org/2025/10/16/g...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Johnson: "Grijalva should be working for her constituents right now. I don't know what she's doing. I keep seeing their political stunt videos. She should be in her office. She should be working or in the district for her constituents" (Grijalva is not in fact a Rep. b/c Johnson refuses to seat her)

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