Paul Semenza
paulsemenza.bsky.social
Paul Semenza
@paulsemenza.bsky.social
320 followers 690 following 2.2K posts
Professor, consultant. Interested in technology, policy, business.
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Otherwise, why bother?
Instead of asking the Speaker of the House if he has a view on <critical separation-of-powers QOTD>, maybe reporters should start asking him if he reads any newspapers or otherwise informs himself on those matters to which we might think the Speaker of the House ought to be paying attention?
RAJU: Last week you were very critical of Biden's use of the autopen. But Trump admitted on 60 Minutes to not knowing he pardoned a crypto billionaire who pleaded guilty to money laundering. Does that also concern you?

MIKE JOHNSON: I don't know anything about that. I didn't see it. I'm not sure.
Reposted by Paul Semenza
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) actually told the press that Democrats would be the ones hurt most by losing SNAP.

To be fair, since he lives in Florida instead of the state he represents, maybe he doesn’t realize 752,000 Alabamians rely on SNAP—14.6% of the state’s population.
The word you are looking for is 'violating'
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We’re not brutalizing grandmas in Chicago enough but I just pardoned the guy who helped fund Hamas because Don Jr. put his name on the bribe list.
O'DONNELL: Why did you pardon Changpeng Zhao?

TRUMP: Are you ready? I don't know who he is

O'DONNELL: His crypto exchange Binance helped facilitate a $2b purchase of World Liberty Financial's stablecoin. And they you pardoned him.

TRUMP: Here's the thing -- I know nothing about it
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Editing crime spree continues.
Rwanda Shows How Hateful Speech Leads to Violence - The Atlantic share.google/tMEs7tvAadvD...
Sick fucks
The USDA sent an email to grocery stores telling them they are prohibited from offering special discounts to customers affected by the SNAP funding lapse.
I'm aware of at least 2 stores that had offered struggling customers a discount, then withdrew it after receiving this email
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someone invited people magazine to the kitchen and they brought their own knives
Is ICE chasing any of them?
Interesting piece by @noamscheiber.bsky.social but it's odd that the only example he used to back up an assertion that @aarongreenspan.com can sound like a conspiracy theorist is this
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/b...
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Beginning to wonder if the Nobel Peace Prize can ever recover from this.
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Confirmation from TV entertainer and inexplicably Secretary of War/Defense/whatevs Pete Hegseth.
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the one part of this awful video I found inspiring is the moment when the cam pans back and you see an array of upstanding Americans with their smartphones out filming these gutter thugs. that's really the symbol of the opposition. the smartphone and its embedded video cam.
Here’s a disturbing video from Evanston of a federal agent hitting a man on the ground as people yell that he can’t breathe.
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Note: while not unprecedented, it’s actually pretty rare for a sitting Catholic bishop to participate in a demonstration. It’s just not generally what Catholic bishops do.

Thus: Getting the hierarchy involved in this protest outside an ICE facility is no small thing.
Chicago Auxiliary Bishop José María Garcia-Maldonado at ICE detention facility: “Being here is an act of holiness…soon we will seek access to the facility to bring the Eucharist to our brothers and sisters; if they say no again, we will keep praying.”
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Out: Voice of America broadcasts the words of Ronald Reagan to puncture the propaganda of foreign authoritarians.

In: A neighboring democracy apologizes to America’s authoritarian president for puncturing his propaganda by broadcasting the words of Ronald Reagan. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/w...
Carney Says He Apologized to Trump Over Ad Reviving Reagan’s Tariff Criticism
www.nytimes.com
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Last night, the National Guard chased children who were out enjoying Halloween in Navy Yard.

There is no valid reason for armed soldiers to terrorize children like this. End Trump’s occupation of DC. National Guard out NOW.
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These seem to be the three legs to the Trump regime's political stool, if you consider Trump, Vought, and Miller as the three centers of power:

Corruption (Trump)
Extreme conservative ideology (Vought)
Fascism (Miller)
"Dictatorship to protect corruption" is a plausible master narrative for Trump; it squares well with J6 in particular.

But it's not the same story for Vought, who supports dictatorship to deliver on a hideously unpopular conservative ideological agenda, or Miller, who wants it to do legit fascism.
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The assumption appears to be that ordinary voters will be cowed, obsequious, and unwilling to challenge autocracy, just like the billionaires, business leaders, media executives, and other leading institutions of civil society, which have decided that fighting back is “not worth the hassle.”
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My office captured several stills from today’s
@dhsgov.govmirrors.com video supporting Gregory Bovino. The imagery is deeply troubling; it evokes another era when masked government agents rounded up so-called “undesirables" (I’m sure that’s just a coincidence).