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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 1h

"a memorandum expanding his administration’s authority"

The phrasing you're looking for is that he's suspending parts of the Constitution by decree.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 1h

President Trump on Wednesday signed a memorandum expanding his administration’s authority to repurpose unspent federal funds to pay members of the military during the government shutdown, escalating his challenge to the authority of Congress on spending matters.

Trump Signs Memo Expanding His Authority to Spend Federal Money

The president gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wide authority to repurpose funds to pay members of the military without approval from Congress, which has the sole constitutional authority to decide federal spending.

nyti.ms

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 3h

That’s $5 billion more than the entire annual USAID budget. All to one country. To rescue one friend of the president’s.

Ilhan Omar @ilhanmn.bsky.social · 3h

Trump found another $20 BILLION to give to Argentina, totaling their bailout to $40 BILLION.

Yet we can’t afford to prevent millions of Americans from losing their healthcare.

Shame.

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 1h

They've been arguing in court repeatedly that there are no plans for a shutdown and that they will honor all statutory obligations.
Not sure what a legal system does with a government that simply isn't credible.

Reuters @reuters.com · 6h

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers reut.rs/4qjMIyT

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers

White House budget director Russell Vought said he wants to close the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and expects to do so within the next two to three months.

reut.rs

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 1h

Illegal on a statutory basis and more fundamentally unconstitutional.

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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 1h

So this is just facially illegal right?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidef...

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 1h

When this regime is over and buried, I don't want to hear about oh it's not worth the money or it's too petty to worry about. The order to bulldoze this illegal and unconstitutional monstrosity should be signed on Day 1.

The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 3h

Exclusive: More than three dozen organizations and individuals are expected to attend a dinner with Trump on Wednesday after opening their checkbooks to support a $250 million White House ballroom.

Trump Invites Ballroom Donors to Glitzy White House Dinner

The dinner is set to include representatives from Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Alphabet’s Google, Amazon and Palantir Technologies.

on.wsj.com

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Ben K. @benjaminkabak.com · 6h

Fossilized Northeast Democratic machines running sclerotic candidates is going to be the death of America

City Nolan @ndhapple.bsky.social · 6h

"NJ Governor's Race: Sherrill 50%, Ciattarelli 44%, Quinnipiac University New Jersey Poll Finds; Ciattarelli Holds Edge On Enthusiasm" -- poll.qu.edu/poll-release...

NJ Governor's Race: Sherrill 50%, Ciattarelli 44%, Quinnipiac University New Jersey Poll Finds; Ciattarelli Holds Edge On Enthusiasm | Quinnipiac University Poll

"While Jack Ciattarelli holds a fairly solid eleven percentage point lead among male voters, Mikie Sherrill has nearly double that lead with female voters," said Quinnipiac University Polling Analys...

poll.qu.edu

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Stephen Wolf @stephenwolf.bsky.social · 2h

This is a reason why we should ditch the Electoral College & Senate & adopt proportional representation for the House so every voter counts equally no matter where they live.

Our system insulates the governing party from electoral blowback in uncompetitive states & districts if it screws them over

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 10h

Trump is upfront in saying he will use the shutdown to punish Democrats, and here are the receipts. About $27.2 billion cut from Dem districts compared to about $0.7 billion in GOP districts.
We all complain about the media, but need this type of in-depth journalism.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Trump Halts Billions in Grants for Democratic Districts During Shutdown (Gift Article)

The Trump administration has frozen or canceled nearly $28 billion primarily located in Democratic-led districts, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

www.nytimes.com

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Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 2h

🧵 This reporting confirms my suspicion on why, based on reporting last week, the CIA's Deputy Director, Michael Ellis, installed himself as the agency's general counsel. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

Trump Administration Authorizes Covert C.I.A. Action in Venezuela

www.nytimes.com

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Ari Berman @ariberman.bsky.social · 2h

SCOTUS decision killing what’s left of Voting Rights Act could cost Dems 19 House seats, eliminate every majority-minority district in South, eviscerate 14th/15th Amendments & fulfill John Roberts 40-year crusade against country’s most important civil rights law www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Republican justices appear poised to destroy what’s left of the Voting Rights Act

The results will be "catastrophic."

www.motherjones.com

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Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 2h

The Roberts #SCOTUS sure appears to be working to do their part to help Trump/Republicans lock in a de facto Congressional majority (unless there is a overwhelming blue wave). The Q is why are Dem leaders silent about this MAGA subservient Court?

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Melissa Chan @melissakchan.bsky.social · 2h

🇨🇦🇺🇸 “America is a bus going off a cliff,” says Canadian writer Stephen Marche. Does Canada want to stay on the bus? Spicy beginning to @migsinstitute.bsky.social’s Montreal International Security Summit. Marche also says we’re in an era of regional power warlordism (US, Russia, China).

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The Lawrence Times @lawrencekstimes.com · 2h

Former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody probably committed a felony crime when he told a witness to delete text messages they exchanged before, during and after he led raids on a newspaper office and the publisher’s home, a district judge ruled.
Via @kansasreflector.com:
lawrenceks.news/4oo9fZv

Judge orders ex-police chief who led raid on Kansas newspaper to stand trial for deleted texts

Former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody probably committed a felony crime when he told a witness to delete text messages they exchanged before, during and after he led raids on a newspaper office and t...

lawrenceks.news

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Santiago Mayer @santiagomayer.com · 3h

It’s time to abandon the idea of chasing after “swing voters.”

We gotta start targeting the angry. Those who have been failed by the system. Those who are being screwed every day despite giving it their all.

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David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 3h

This guy was a clerk for Justice Gorsuch. Anyone want to argue this is not a racist (and damn stupid) taunt?

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2h

would love to know where vought got the authority to shutdown a government agency established by statute

Reuters @reuters.com · 6h

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers reut.rs/4qjMIyT

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers

White House budget director Russell Vought said he wants to close the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and expects to do so within the next two to three months.

reut.rs

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2h

“the protests don’t count if they happen in blue cities.” so, what, they aren’t americans? their voices don’t matter?

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2h

the extent to which media elites treat liberal americans as if they do not count in the body politic is a real problem

Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 3h

I read the piece. You shouldn't. He dismisses the "No Kings" protests as liberals in blue cities. He invokes Rosa Parks, as if rural white people in the 60s loved everything that the movement then was doing. "We need a movement but not this one" is a core centrist tact these days.

Ezra Levin ❌👑 @ezralevin.bsky.social · 4h

Is this a joke. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

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m2c4 @thesoundings.bsky.social · 3h

Brooks bears a heavy burden of responsibility for where we are today. No reason whatsoever to believe hos "solutions" will do anything but exacerbate our problems. It's his life's work and he not only doesn't like the results but also refuses to apologize for his role in it.

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Sergio Perez @sergioperez.bsky.social · 4h

The Trump Administration is illegally arresting, jailing, & deporting immigrant survivors of serious & violent crimes, trampling legal protections that safeguard their safety & our communities.

Our @chrclla.bsky.social team & co-counsel filed a class action suit today to vindicate their rights.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 4h

Thread of the illegality of Trump's paying the military with R&D money.
The fact that it is also entirely needless signals a GOP preference for the military to be dependent on Trump's lawbreaking rather than bipartisan lawful actions.
bsky.app/profile/bbko...

Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 5h

Trump's mechanism to pay the troops during the shutdown is by far the most illegal budgetary action he's taken as POTUS, potentially setting the stage to break everything.

It's also needless because Congress would easily pass a troop pay bill if Johnson were willing to gavel in.

Long thread.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/10/national-security-presidential-memorandum-nspm-8/

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 7h

I put way too much stuff into this post, but look, when do I have a chance to drop a @patrickwyman.bsky.social reference? donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-shutdo...

It also just feels like late-stage-empire stuff. A huge headache for leaders historically has been ensuring that troops get paid, to ensure they don’t things like sack your cities. (See Patrick Wyman’s excellent The Verge, for examples). Stable and rich democracies solve this problem by making such payments routine and predictable, and in doing so reduce the risk of anti-democratic military actions. The fact that the White House is coming up with an inventive and possibly illegal way to pay the military feels like the sort of anecdote some future historian will use to illustrate how the wheels were coming off the American empire.

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Tom Joscelyn @tomjoscelyn.bsky.social · 5h

Hakeem Jeffries posted pictures of two Rep. Members posing with “Young Republicans” who were part of a racist text thread (as reported by Politico).

In response, Mike Davis (well-connected in Trump World & on the Hill) called Jeffries a “house slave” for George Soros - proving Jeffries’ point.

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Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 4h

“As the agent was processing us, as my children were sobbing, he said to us, ‘Do you know why you’re here? Because you are a criminal,’” Ms. Merlos said. “So many people are afraid to speak up. I’m not going to be quiet. I am not a criminal.”

Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 4h

Plaintiff Jackie Merlos “raised her four U.S. citizen children and built a family business. After being held at gunpoint and reporting her assailant, she applied for a U Visa and was granted permission to remain in the U.S. In violation of the law, ICE has now jailed her for months.”

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 4h

"but that were negotiated in" i.e. programs created by Congress. Laws. That is what they are terminating. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-shutdo...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4h

Trump: "We're getting rid of problems that we didn't like but that were negotiated in but we didn't like. We're terminating those programs. And they're gonna be terminated on a permanent basis."

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