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Reposted by Chris Curtis

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 1h

A practice that would have been unthinkable under past administrations is becoming normalized: Sending ICE detainees, without due process, to far-flung prisons.

@nlanard.bsky.social takes us inside the "legal black hole" in Eswatini, where Trump is sending detainees.

ICE is sending people to a prison in Africa’s only absolute monarchy

Inside the “legal black hole” in Eswatini where Trump is sending detainees.

www.motherjones.com

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Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 3h

The Speaker's default argument is to plead ignorance about things it's his job to know.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4h

Q: Do you agree that the mayor of Chicago and governor of Illinois should be in prison?

MIKE JOHNSON: Should they be in prison? I'm not the attorney general. I'm not following the day to day on that

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olive consumer's ambulatory skeleton @machete.gay · 2h

The current historical moment has given me obvious cause to go back and read what people wrote during their own interregna.

The through-line to each is that a bias to normalcy, a belief the old world lives as more than a half-dead husk, is the greatest danger of all.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 5h

i think it is cool that a government run by fanatical bigots is on track to plunge the economy into a mountain and cause a food crisis

David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 5h

So this is funny.
The administration just issued a rule slashing foreign agricultural worker wages. And to justify it, in a public filing, Trump's Labor Department alleges that Trump's immigration enforcement has devastated the Ag workforce and caused a "risk of supply shock-induced food shortages."

Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis

In a filing in the Federal Register, the Labor Department argues there are “immediate dangers to the American food supply” due to a lack of migrant agricultural workers.

prospect.org

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Chris Curtis @curtosis.bsky.social · 6h

It’s also fairly par for the course for this regime that they didn’t bother to read to the end of the chapter. “The path to stay in power indefinitely” is very much not the way this has ever ended for dictators who declare war on the populace.

Caleb Crain @calebcrain.bsky.social · 18h

Chilling insight by @barbarafwalter.com: "Once citizens view their own government’s security forces as an occupying army, violence becomes inevitable. Trump’s team knows this… They’re trying to trigger the very unrest that would justify further crackdowns."

via www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...

Screenshot from a NYT article by Thomas Edsall, quoting Barbara Walter of UC-San Diego: "The quickest way to piss people off is to send soldiers into their neighborhoods especially when there’s no reason for them to be there. It’s inherently provocative, and Trump and his team understand this. Research by the political scientist Robert Pape shows that the single most powerful predictor of suicide terrorism is the presence of foreign troops on local soil. People hate, hate, hate that. They hate the humiliation, the powerlessness, the feeling of being occupied.

"Once citizens begin to view their own government’s security forces as an occupying army, violence becomes inevitable. Trump’s team knows this. In fact, that’s the point. They are not trying to restore order; they’re trying to trigger the very unrest that would justify further crackdowns. In the end, violence serves their ultimate end: They want to create the illusion of disorder so they can tighten control and stay in power indefinitely."

Chris Curtis @curtosis.bsky.social · 16h

Clear articulation here of all the ways in which the regime’s claims are unsupported and/or legally insufficient.

Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 20h

I wrote in @justsecurity.org about how the administration is trying to repurpose—cynically and wrongfully—the "war on terror" framing for the lethal strikes in the Caribbean.

There has been no armed attack like 9/11 & US is not engaged in armed conflict. 3/n

www.justsecurity.org/120568/carib...

Asserting a License to Kill: Why the Caribbean Strike is a Dangerous Departure from the “War on Terror”

An absence of credible legal basis for the Caribbean strike suggests the Trump admin is asserting a prerogative to kill outside the law.

www.justsecurity.org

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Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 1d

Very nice piece from my colleague @stevevladeck.bsky.social in today's Times on the illegality of Trump's troop deployments to American cities. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...

Opinion | No, Trump Can’t Deploy Troops to Wherever He Wants

www.nytimes.com

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Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 1d

Can’t stop thinking about this and what it says about a person.

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Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 1d

“Who was president in 2020?” is the question of our time

Senator Jim Banks V
@SenatorBanks
Follow g..
The 2020 Census was a fraud. The Biden admin used a shady "privacy" formula that scrambled the data and miscounted 14 states.
It included illegal immigrants and handed
Democrats extra seats. Americans deserve a fair count and l'm fighting to fix it.
Zinited Statcs SScnate
MASHNORON DEYNN
October 6, 2025
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Socretary
U.S. Department of Commerce Washington, DXC 20230
Dear Secretary Lutaick:
I urge you to investigate and correct erroes from the 2020 Census that handed disproportionntd political power to Democrats and illogal alicns. The Census Burcau adoptod a now and opaque
voting districts. As preparod by the Biden administration, the 2020 Censas roports miscountod the population of fourteen states, ' wrongly allocating six congressional scats aod Electoral
xx conwuu tmora uy, toc taroro tu mot đoo tnn Cunu lc pung t imber of votine districts. And the reoorts de aniovety inchaded ilecnl nhens widhout track those aliens' citiz enship status, If left uncorrected, these erroes will coetinue diluting the political power of American citizens.
Consus data plays a crucial role in allocating political roprescntation and goverment funding
Under the Constitution, cach state gets Congressional represcotutives and Electoeal College votes- based on "the whole number of persons" within the state." The number of persoes is in
tum clabaabod by a consttubocalty-mandalcd dcccacaal ccavas. Pcual agcco nely on census data to allocate billions of dollars in federal funding, much of which hinges ee opulation. And states use consus data to deaw congrossicnal and voting districts, »hich the
The it eiy of tie soaren alie n tor dur at ce hor inc ae oam toy ee n
nght wilbout statsica ly signilicant ciroo.
Diffcrcntial privacy is opaque and liable to mistakcn count totals. Sure cnough, the 2020 Ccnsus ovarocunted the noculation in cicht states and undercounted it in six." Tihe most extrcmi andercount was Arkansas, at 5.04%, and the larg…

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Pat Bagley @bagleycartoons.bsky.social · 1d

Thugs

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🇵🇸Martin “Doomsday” Pfeiffer🖖🏳️‍🌈 @nuclearanthro.bsky.social · 1d

Together is the only way we build liveable todays and tomorrows.

Congress can end this tomorrow: contact them as part of diversity of tactics.

Mass protest remains necessary.

We must smash ICE & destroy fascism.

Most of the most effective things you can do are with other people.

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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 1d

How do you find a compromise budget that reflects the priorities of 535 members of the House and Senate when Trump will just withhold any money he doesn't want to spend? A representative democracy cannot function as Trump has broken the US system this year. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/there-is-n...

There is no budget "deal" to be made

President Trump has so broken the constitutional framework as to make joint normal, responsible government impossible.

www.doomsdayscenario.co

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Dr. William Horne @wihorne.bsky.social · 1d

We really need to be thinking abt the current regime through the lens of the Second Klan, which helped to nationalize systems of Jim Crow state & vigilante violence & exploitation while creating an explicitly white nationalist immigration system. They even paraded down Pennsylvania Ave.

A 1926 klan parade marching down Pennsylvania Ave. The front of the column holds banners that read Connecticut & Rhode Island. Original available via the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2001706338/

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 1d

It's not just that they're going to strike down a law against conversion therapy, it's that they're going to do it on behalf of made-up claims from a straw plaintiff who can't honestly show the law affected her at all

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 1d

One thing about American's widespread distrust and disapproval of the Supreme Court is that mainstream news coverage mostly doesn't dwell on stuff like standing, so people don't even begin to grasp how rigged the Court truly is www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

Supreme Court Live Updates: Justices Seem Set to Rule Against Colorado’s Ban on Conversion Therapy

www.nytimes.com

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

Just as a reminder, Bondi’s origin story in Trump world is that she said she was going to investigate Trump University, Trump sent her a $25K check and the investigation disappeared. She later became Trump’s personal defense lawyer. So yeah, don’t challenge her integrity.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Bondi to Blumenthal: "You lied. How dare you? I'm a career prosecutor. Don't you ever challenge my integrity. Do not question my ability to be fair and impartial."

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 1d

One reason former Republicans have been better at opposing Trump than many progressives is because they correctly understand that the GOP’s descent into fascism represents a dramatic shift, and is therefore scarier, where the latter groups feel the need to argue it’s just a continuation of trend

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Nora Reed (they/them ze/hir) @nora.zone · 1d

it's hard to talk about this without sounding braggy but you can get pretty far as a business with sincerity and trust, mostly because so many goddamn businesses burn up that kind of intangible resource as soon as they get it, and everything is so dire right now that people are hungry for trust

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 1d

I keep waiting for the powers that be in media to grasp the concept of bad faith, realize how often "restore trust in news" and similar statements mean "stop doing journalism, lie more in ways I like," come from people ideologically committed to destroying trust in news, and can never be satisfied.

Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 1d

I too am keen to "restore trust in news" by turning a major broadcast network into a 24/7 slurry of right wing culture war propaganda and engagement trolling

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 1d

Bari Weiss introduced herself to CBS News staff today on the network's 9AM call, saying she wants to "win," which requires restoring trust to CBS. She also said she was excited for staff to get to know the Free Press, and ended her remarks by saying: "Let's do the fucking news."

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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 1d

An enterprising journalist that could prove that his aides and advisors are showing Trump fake shit that led to him signing EOs and making policy decisions would be a huge deal. Maybe the biggest story in the history of the Presidency? Bigger than Nixon. Too bad the newspapers quit being newspapers

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

“.. On closer inspection, however, it turned out that the image was not a photograph of a real event in Portland, but instead a fabrication created by combining two photographs of scenes that unfolded in South America nearly a decade apart ..”

@theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 1d

The thing about Iran-Contra and Watergate was that they WEREN’T flagrant: they had to be exposed.Trump literally does stuff five times worse than Watergate every day, and then tweets an openly neo-Nazi meme about it from the official White House account. It’s a difference in kind, not just degree.

Emcee Hammerpants @emceehammerpants.bsky.social · 1d

I dunno, man. Iran-Contra and Watergate were pretty flagrant. I have a hard time believing they haven’t been heading down this road where the executive is all-powerful and power is the end, not the means, for a long, long time. Whether that alone qualifies as fascist I don’t know for sure.

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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 1d

the Dubai influencer/manosphere/grift/sex work space is an incredible story that's massively underwritten

rattatatouille @rattatatouille.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah, there's a reason all those Instagram influencers get flown out to the Gulf states, and it's not just pictorials.

(This is also why I thought "Dubai chocolate" was a euphemism for something until recently)

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Chris Curtis @curtosis.bsky.social · 1d

Zero actual immediate threat, made a conscious choice to shift gear *before* acting, physical force wildly disproportionate.

Daniel Connerton @lordnad.bsky.social · 3d

@govpritzker.illinois.gov

37 and Kedzie, East Garfield, Illinois.

This is assault.

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Karl (sad trombone noise enthusiast) @brainnotonyet.bsky.social · 1d

Looks more and more like the raid in Chicago was more than just a fascist terror raid but the use of federal violence to help a bank empty a building they held in receivership.

flipinidaho @flipinidaho.bsky.social · 1d

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

The building is in a 27 million dollar foreclosure filed by Wells Fargo. The next day, Wells Fargo filed an emergency motion for receivership. The fascist regime kindly emptied the building for donor Wells Fargo.

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

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Chris Curtis @curtosis.bsky.social · 1d

It also feels like *someone* would have thought about maybe keeping the people who are only on your side because of the money might actually like to be paid.

Chris Curtis @curtosis.bsky.social · 1d

Appalling levels of corruption of federal forces in service of private capital.

I mean, it’s back to Pinkertons here.

flipinidaho @flipinidaho.bsky.social · 1d

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

The building is in a 27 million dollar foreclosure filed by Wells Fargo. The next day, Wells Fargo filed an emergency motion for receivership. The fascist regime kindly emptied the building for donor Wells Fargo.

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

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