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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 6h

Here's the original photo, taken on October 20, 2020 by Andrew Harnik. Miller looks taller, but that was about 20,000 fascist-utterances / thousandth-inches ago, so the math checks out.
conchovalleyhomepage.com/wp-content/u...
www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/news/house-j...

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah, this is just the *change* in debt. An estimate being off by 98% of the *change* isn't that unusual when that's actually an error of just a small fraction of a percent of the total, which is >$18 trillion.
www.newyorkfed.org/microeconomi...

Household Debt and Credit Report

Unique data and insight into the credit conditions and activity of U.S. households

www.newyorkfed.org

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 1d

And what is the word "Revisions" doing? Are some or all of these numbers differences between an initial estimate and a subsequent estimate?

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 1d

Is it really data released by the Federal Reserve, or just a completely unsourced skeet?

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 1d

The Globe's zoomable pdf is here: s3.documentcloud.org/documents/27...

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 1d

For others who don't remember this: the Globe didn't really "run this front page". They ran, on the editorial page on April 9, 2016, an image of this mock-up of a front page for a year later.
www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016...

Editorial: The GOP must stop Donald Trump - The Boston Globe

Trump’s vision for the future of our nation is as deeply disturbing as it is profoundly un-American.

www.bostonglobe.com

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 1d

The alt-text says this a Bluesky post, but I can't find it in search. Is it from some other platform?
I'm wondering if "cab" was intended in the trucking sense (which would fit with the rest of the text), in which case Waymo would not be a counterexample.

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 2d

They say Willis’s office has told them the record is such a huge mess, it will still be another four weeks before they get the whole thing. And they need to review the record to try to find a candidate who isn’t disqualified by any conflicts.

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 3d

Francis continued to cook in the next paragraph.
www.vatican.va/content/dam/...

108. The idea of promoting a different cultural
paradigm and employing technology as a mere
instrument is nowadays inconceivable. The technological paradigm has become so dominant that
it would be difficult to do without its resources
and even more difficult to utilize them without
being dominated by their internal logic. It has become countercultural to choose a lifestyle whose
86 Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 462.
goals are even partly independent of technology,
of its costs and its power to globalize and make
us all the same. Technology tends to absorb
everything into its ironclad logic, and those who
are surrounded with technology “know full well
that it moves forward in the final analysis neither
for profit nor for the well-being of the human
race”, that “in the most radical sense of the term
power is its motive – a lordship over all”.87 As a
result, “man seizes hold of the naked elements
of both nature and human nature”.88 Our capacity for making decisions, a more genuine freedom
and the space for each one’s alternative creativity
are diminished.
(ENCYCLICAL LETTER LAUDATO SI’ OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME, 2015)

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 3d

Here's the wording in the separate TRO: "Defendants [which includes the whole DoD] are temporarily enjoined from implementing Defendants’ September 28, 2025, Memorandum ordering the federalization and deployment of Oregon National Guard service members to Portland."
courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Case 3:25-cv-01756-IM Document 56-1 Filed 10/04/25 Page 1 of 2

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF OREGON
STATE OF OREGON and the
CITY OF PORTLAND,
Plaintiffs,
v.
DONALD TRUMP, in his official capacity as
President of the United States; PETE
HEGSETH, in his official capacity as
Secretary of Defense; U.S. DEPARTMENT
OF DEFENSE; KRISTI NOEM, in her
official capacity as Secretary of Homeland
Security; and U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
HOMELAND SECURITY,
Defendants.
Case No. 3:25-cv-1756-IM
TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER
The Court GRANTS Plaintiffs’ Motion for Temporary Restraining Order, ECF 6, and
ORDERS as follows:
1. Defendants are temporarily enjoined from implementing Defendants’ September
28, 2025, Memorandum ordering the federalization and deployment of Oregon National Guard
service members to Portland.
2. This Temporary Restraining Order expires by its own terms on October 18, 2025,
at 11:59 p.m.

PAGE 2 – TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER

3. Plaintiffs are ORDERED to post a nominal bond of $100 within 48 hours. The
bond shall be filed in the Clerk’s Office and be deposited into the registry of the Court.
4. Defendants’ Request to Stay or Administratively Stay the Temporary Restraining
Order, see Defendants’ Opposition to Plaintiffs’ Motion for Temporary Restraining Order, ECF
35 at 41, is DENIED.
5. The Court Clerk will contact the parties to schedule a telephone hearing on
October 17, 2025, to address whether this Temporary Restraining Order should be extended for
another 14 days.
6. Any motion for a Preliminary Injunction shall be filed no later than October 17,
2025; Defendants’ opposition shall be due no later than October 23, 2025, and Plaintiffs’ reply
shall be due on October 27, 2025.
7. A combined hearing on the preliminary injunction motion and a trial on the merits
under Rule 65(a)(2) is set for October 29, 2025, before the Honorable Judge Karin J. Immergut,
in Courtroom 13A, beginning at 9:00 a.m.
IT IS SO ORDERED
DATED this 4th day of October, 2025 at 3:40 p.m. pacific daylight time.
/s/ Karin J. Immergut
Karin J. Immergut
United States District Judge

Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 3d

It's entirely justified, but isn't "enjoin[ing] [the CiC's] Memorandum ordering the federalization and deployment of Oregon National Guard service members" overriding a presidential command to the military?
Are you saying the military is free to disregard the TRO and comply with Trump's memo?

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ord.189270/gov.uscourts.ord.189270.56.0_1.pdf

For the above reasons, this Court GRANTS Plaintiffs’ Motion for Temporary Restraining
Order, ECF 6, and temporarily enjoins Defendants’ September 28, 2025, Memorandum ordering
the federalization and deployment of Oregon National Guard service members to Portland. The
TRO expires in fourteen days on October 18, 2025, and the parties are ORDERED to comply
with the attached TRO. The Defendants’ request to stay or administratively stay the Temporary
Restraining Order, see Defendants’ Opposition to Plaintiffs’ Motion for Temporary Restraining
Order, ECF 35 at 41, is DENIED.
IT IS SO ORDERED
DATED this 4th day of October, 2025 at 3:40 p.m. pacific daylight time.
/s/ Karin J. Immergut
Karin J. Immergut
United States District Judge
Case 3:25-cv-01756-IM Document 56 Filed 10/04/25 Page 31 of 31

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 4d

When I was there in the 80s, both the signs and the stickers on the cars just said "NL permit" (and everybody knew what it meant). Parking on-campus is *very* sparse, and it was always fun telling visitors that the easiest way to get a parking spot is to win a Nobel prize.

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Reposted by Virgil Abt

Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 4d

Yes, re: the Trump coin, people are citing laws that (a) are applicable only to paper currency or (b) are about specific series of coins.
It's still unclear to me that a Trump dollar coin would be illegal.
bsky.app/profile/abtn...

Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 5d

For the main circulating dollar coin, all the law seems to require is that "The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Congress, shall select appropriate designs for the obverse and reverse sides of the dollar coin." (31 USC 5112(d)(1)).
www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...

(d)(1) United States coins shall have the inscription ‘‘In God We Trust’’. The obverse side of
each coin shall have the inscription ‘‘Liberty’’.
The reverse side of each coin shall have the inscriptions ‘‘United States of America’’ and ‘‘E
Pluribus Unum’’ and a designation of the value
of the coin. The design on the reverse side of the
dollar, half dollar, and quarter dollar is an
eagle. Subject to other provisions of this subsection, the obverse of any 5-cent coin issued
after December 31, 2005, shall bear the likeness
of Thomas Jefferson and the reverse of any such
5-cent coin shall bear an image of the home of
Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. The Secretary
of the Treasury, in consultation with the Congress, shall select appropriate designs for the obverse and reverse sides of the dollar coin. The
coins have an inscription of the year of minting
or issuance. However, to prevent or alleviate a
shortage of a denomination, the Secretary may
inscribe coins of the denomination with the year
that was last inscribed on coins of the denomination.

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 4d

His easiest option may be to make it a semiquincentennial coin, which may have a living person on the front (but not the back). All he would have to do is make a bullshit argument that he's "emblematic" to the nation's anniversary and go through some processes controlled by the executive branch.

31 USC 5112(y)(1)(C)
(C) DOLLARS.—The Secretary may, in addition to the coins produced under subsections (r) and (w), mint for issuance during the one-year period beginning January 1, 2026, $1 dollar [sic] coins with designs emblematic of the United States semiquincentennial.

31 USC 5112(aa)
(aa) STANDARDS AND GENERAL PROVISIONS FOR
CIRCULATING COLLECTIBLE COINS UNDER SUBSECTIONS (X), (Y), AND (Z).—
(1) PROHIBITION ON CERTAIN REPRESENTATIONS.—No head and shoulders portrait or bust of any person, living or dead, and no portrait
of a living person may be included in the design on the reverse of any coin under subsections (x), (y), and (z).

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 4d

Yes, re: the Trump coin, people are citing laws that (a) are applicable only to paper currency or (b) are about specific series of coins.
It's still unclear to me that a Trump dollar coin would be illegal.
bsky.app/profile/abtn...

Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 5d

For the main circulating dollar coin, all the law seems to require is that "The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Congress, shall select appropriate designs for the obverse and reverse sides of the dollar coin." (31 USC 5112(d)(1)).
www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...

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Reposted by Virgil Abt

Col. Boozy Badger @boozybadger.lawyersandliquor.com · May 14

Epic handshake meme with the left arm reading “Tops” and the right arm reading “
Folks online being aggressively wrong about the law”. The handshake is labeled “IANAL but”

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 4d

Ah, I see the FBI agent was reportedly fired for refusing to participate back before they asked for a summons.
I wonder if CBS is just confusing the timeline in the part about a bizarro post-summons-arrest plan. The Reuters story doesn't mention anything like that.
www.reuters.com/world/us/fbi...

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 4d

But, as Anna points out, trying to somehow do a perp walk *after* you opted for a summons would not be routine law enforcement bad behavior. It would be new-fangled bizarro Trumpism.
bsky.app/profile/anna...

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 4d

I don’t understand the supposed legal basis for this.

DOJ requested a summons—*not* an arrest warrant—under Rule 9 of the FRCrP.

Are they going to go back to the magistrate and ask for a warrant, even though Comey hasn’t failed to appear? If not, what’s the exigency for a warrantless arrest?

The FBI is now actively working to put together a team to arrest Comey between now and his court appearance on Thursday, but other FBI supervisors have also refused to cooperate, said a source knowledgeable about the conversations and a law enforcement source familiar with the situation. The expectation is that the FBI will eventually find somebody.
CBS News has reached out to the FBI for comment. Comey's lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, declined to comment to CBS
News.
Reuters was first to report that an FBI agent was sidelined for refusing to help with a perp walk.

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 5d

I'm not sure what "in consultation with the Congress" requires. Sounds weaker than "with Congressional assent".

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 5d

For the main circulating dollar coin, all the law seems to require is that "The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Congress, shall select appropriate designs for the obverse and reverse sides of the dollar coin." (31 USC 5112(d)(1)).
www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 5d

Thanks, both of you.
Both of those laws only apply to particular special series of coins (the 2007-2016 presidential dollars, and the 2026 semiquincentennial coins).

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 5d

I'm not sure it's really against the law, unfortunately.

Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 5d

Aren't the cited statute and the Treasury web page both explicitly talking about paper currency, not minted coins? I'm not seeing where putting a living person on a dollar coin is prohibited by law.

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 5d

Aren't the cited statute and the Treasury web page both explicitly talking about paper currency, not minted coins? I'm not seeing where putting a living person on a dollar coin is prohibited by law.

Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 6d

I do think it a little odd he explicitly said "so let's have a trial". From anyone else, I'd assume either he was loosely referring to a trial-and/or-dismissal-motion-hearing, or he really meant trial but counsel would soon talk him out of it. But isn't Comey a guy who carefully says what he means?

James Comey @jamescomey.bsky.social · 12d

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Virgil Abt @abtnatural.bsky.social · 6d

The counterterrorism-chief / ball-guard.

At a time of both international and domestic turmoil, the Justice Department has lost a significant number of experts in counterterrorism since the beginning of the Trump administration. In addition to the departures, the chief of the Justice Department’s counterterrorism section, Matt Blue, had been on leave since August. As a member of the National Guard, he has been patrolling the streets of Washington as part of Trump’s deployment after a DOGE staffer nicknamed “Big Balls” was assaulted during a late-night attempted carjacking.

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