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Reposted

ProPublica @propublica.org · 8h

Texas AG Ken Paxton hired a former staffer to work on a recent case. As a state employee, her labor would have cost taxpayers $641.

As a private attorney, Paxton allowed her to bill $3,780 an hour, so that day of work cost taxpayers $24,570.

(Published July with @texastribune.org)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Is Outsourcing More of His Office’s Work to Costly Private Lawyers

Despite having an office of hundreds of attorneys, Ken Paxton is frequently opting for private lawyers — many to whom he has personal or political ties — to argue on behalf of Texas. One attorney cost...

www.propublica.org

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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 20h

twice a year the entire U.S. press becomes a marketing extension of a single billionaire-owned retailer, and nobody in any position of editorial power thinks it's weird or gross

photo of Google News search results for Amazon Prime Day (the second this year)

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 1d

The complete and total bullshit about this is that it should have been the FIRST question asked of Johnson. It is a disgrace that he was not asked about this before he ended his press conference. Unbelievable that he continues to get away with this. bsky.app/profile/atru...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Mike Johnson ignores a question about when he'll swear in Rep.-elect Grijalva and walks away

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jeff computers @helldude.bsky.social · 3d

its truly remarkable, you have to really take the measure of it and it's almost hard to comprehend it, but the president of the united states is having texas invade illinois and oregon just to make twitter content

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abbyreisman.bsky.social @abbyreisman.bsky.social · 4d

Agreed! Penn must not capitulate!

Randi Weingarten 🖇️📚✊🇺🇸 @rweingarten.bsky.social · 4d

Taking Trump’s loyalty oath would be a profound betrayal of students, staff, faculty, the public, higher education, & our shared democracy. We urge schools not to capitulate & not to negotiate but to unite now in defense of democracy and higher ed.

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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 5d

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com

Trump’s proposed “compact” with nine major universities “is extortion, plain and simple,” Erwin Chemerinsky writes in a guest essay. “It is not hyperbole to say that the future of higher education in America requires that every university reject it.”

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

There seems to be no limit to the president’s odious attempts to control higher education.

nyti.ms

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 5d

This is why you shouldn’t be chickenshit. You’re not saving anything. You’re dooming everything you claim to love. bsky.app/profile/thef...

LOLGOP ❌👑❌ @thefarce.org · 5d

"Autocrats take over countries when elites — business leaders, media figures, civil society — accommodate rather than resist."

Trump is racing against time

The president's approval rating is closer to Nicolás Maduro's than Vladimir Putin’s

www.gelliottmorris.com

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 6d

Months, and several rounds of authoritarian escalation later, we are still waiting for the urgent, loud, public collective action from university presidents.

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 5d

Universities considering capitulating to the Trump “conditions” should use this real world example to understand they will simply be destroying their own institution. bsky.app/profile/nich...

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 5d

Chris Rufo's disastrous takeover of New College in Florida shows what universities would become if they sign the Trump regime's extortionary "compact."

New College was supposed to model the anti-woke conservative higher-ed Americans crave. Instead, it showed the opposite, and serves as a warning.

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 6d

"This is extortion, plain and simple.... The only solution is solidarity and collective action against this effort at federal control over higher education."

A sobering analysis of the illegality of the administration's "compact" and its stakes for higher ed. 🎁🔗

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

www.nytimes.com

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 6d

By my read, the only way for a university to comply with this compact is to gut their social sciences, arts, and humanities, and a good chunk of their sciences, too.

www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/u...

www.washingtonexaminer.com

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Rex Huppke @rexhuppke.bsky.social · 6d

Show me one corporation, one person, one institution that has willingly caved to the Trump administration's bullying and had things work out for the better. I'll wait.

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abbyreisman.bsky.social @abbyreisman.bsky.social · 6d

Agreed! Penn MUST NOT CAVE IN TO THIS THREAT!

Nelson Flores @nelsonlflores.bsky.social · 6d

Grateful to @aaup-penn.bsky.social speaking out against the Trump administration’s latest attempt to recruit Penn and other universities to sign on to a government takeover of higher education in exchange for a favored status in receiving federal grants.

aaup-penn.org/statement-by...

Statement by the AAUP-Penn Executive Committee on the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education | AAUP–Penn

October 2, 2025 We have received reports that Penn has been “invited” to sign a so-called “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” by the federal government, and that failing to do so wou...

aaup-penn.org

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Nelson Flores @nelsonlflores.bsky.social · 6d

Grateful to @aaup-penn.bsky.social speaking out against the Trump administration’s latest attempt to recruit Penn and other universities to sign on to a government takeover of higher education in exchange for a favored status in receiving federal grants.

aaup-penn.org/statement-by...

Statement by the AAUP-Penn Executive Committee on the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education | AAUP–Penn

October 2, 2025 We have received reports that Penn has been “invited” to sign a so-called “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” by the federal government, and that failing to do so wou...

aaup-penn.org

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Brennan Center @brennancenter.org · 6d

The country’s two biggest private prison companies are poised for a major profit windfall, with this summer’s budget bill providing an infusion of funding for immigration detention. Once the increased detention and deportation capacity ramps up, it will be difficult to unwind.

Private Prison Companies’ Enormous Windfall: Who Stands to Gain as ICE Expands

For years private prison companies have been an important partner for ICE as the government carries out its immigration agenda.

www.brennancenter.org

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 8d

The president said, in a televised speech, that he's sending his new, less restrained, more violent military into US cities to practice their brutality on immigrants and minorities, to better train them to apply that brutality to other countries.

He said this out loud.

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Jay Rosen @jayrosen.bsky.social · 9d

If you wondered how many of the major newsrooms covering the Pentagon would give in to Pete Hegseth and sign a new agreement if they wanted to maintain access, it looks like the answer is... none. So far. Via @status.news

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Joanna Schwartz @jcschwartzprof.bsky.social · 10d

Justice Kavanaugh: “If the person is a U. S. citizen or otherwise lawfully
in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.”

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 10d

79. American citizen.

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Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 10d

This is the secret the Trump regime tried so hard to keep about the Dallas ICE shooting

The names of the dead and wounded

Jose Andres Bordones-Molina

Miguel Ángel García-Hernandez

Norlan Guzman-Fuentes

Fight Trump's dehumanization. Say their names. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/dall...

What the Trump regime doesn’t want you to know about Dallas ICE shooting

The Trump regime's refusal to say the names of the Dallas ICE victims exposes the inhumanity of American fascism.

www.inquirer.com

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Adam Rothman enjoys a good sandwich @adamrothman.bsky.social · 13d

Proud of my colleagues! 🗃
www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

Citizen historians document Smithsonian exhibits under White House scrutiny

The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education and research complex. It's a public-private trust that has long operated at arm's length from the White House, but now finds itself...

www.pbs.org

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Education and Work @educationwork.newamerica.org · 12d

"The House budget does something new and scary: it openly targets funding for students in poverty. This is not something that we see ever."

— @zahavastadler.bsky.social, Project Director, New America's Education Funding Equity Initiative

🚨 🚨 🚨

NPR @npr.org · 12d

Education researchers warn budget proposals from the White House and House Republicans would impose steep cuts on some of the nation's most vulnerable students and disadvantaged school communities.

What schools stand to lose in the battle over the next federal education budget

Education researchers warn budget proposals from the White House and House Republicans would impose steep cuts on some of the nation's most vulnerable students and disadvantaged school communities.

n.pr

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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 13d

if you dont stop calling us nazis we will have the secret police disappear you to a slave labor camp

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Autonomy News @autonomynews.co · 14d

We are a two-person worker-owned publication and we broke this major story before any national outlets. Support our paywall-free journalism with a paid membership:
www.autonomynews.co/support/

Autonomy News @autonomynews.co · 14d

EXCLUSIVE: Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin will halt abortions in October in response to the GOP budget "defunding" provision

It's the first known PP affiliate to drop abortion services in the wake of the law:

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin to Halt Abortion Services

Sources say the affiliate isn't scheduling abortion appointments after September 30 in an apparent attempt to avoid Medicaid "defunding."

www.autonomynews.co

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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 14d

a serious, ethical media industry could leverage modern op/ed sections to amplify revolutionary, thought-provoking, under-platformed ideas

instead it's all been converted into lazy, engagement-chasing contrarian trolling by the least remarkable thinkers and writers imaginable

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 14d

DOGE was a failure because its entire premise was flawed, and, on top of that, the people who ran and implemented it were both arrogant and ignorant.

Jamie Gangel @jamiegangel.bsky.social · 14d

New - “Hundreds of federal employees who lost their jobs in Elon Musk’s cost-cutting blitz are being asked to return to work.”

www.cnn.com/2025/09/24/p...

Trump administration rehires hundreds of federal employees laid off by DOGE | CNN Politics

Hundreds of federal employees who lost their jobs in Elon Musk’s cost-cutting blitz are being asked to return to work.

www.cnn.com

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