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Senate Gabe @senategabe.bsky.social · 4h

"I support the military occupation of my own state" is a wild wild thing to say.

Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 9h

Durbin on whether Democrats can use reining in ICE in Chicago as a precondition to rein in the government says “can’t do that. It’s gotta be health care all the way.”

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Ghastreblyansky @yastreblyansky.bsky.social · 6h

Folks, that's no irony. It's the whole point.
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

At the IRS, for example, staff reductions have fallen particularly heavily upon auditors and revenue agents, whose numbers were down by 31 percent in the first three months of this year. (It is no small irony that few government investments offer a higher rate of return than tax audits on upper-income filers, which can yield as much as $12 for every dollar spent.)

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Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 5h

“Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine said Wednesday that he and other members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a classified briefing this week, were denied access to the Pentagon’s legal opinion about whether the boat strikes adhered to U.S. law.”

apnews.com/article/trum...

Trump has yet to provide Congress hard evidence that targeted boats carried drugs, officials say

The Trump administration hasn't provided evidence to lawmakers that recent U.S. military strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats were justified.

apnews.com

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Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 9h

Incredible.

Jack Posobiec references the earliest version of antifa -- the anti-fascists in the Weimar Republic who were opposed to the Nazi Party -- as the bad guys.

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Jared Rizzi @jaredrizzi.bsky.social · 9h

Also sadly Rayman will never be allowed to explore gender expression

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ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · 9h

Ubisoft: "Okay, so in this game you fight the Klan"
Marketers: "You can't sell that in America"
Ubisoft: "Why?"
Marketers: "Umm [gestures broadly]. The Klan fucking won?"
Ubisoft: "Merde."
Marketers: "Yeah, we've asked for the Statue back but they're being dicks about that too."

Stephen Totilo @stephentotilo.bsky.social · 10h

SCOOP: Last year, Ubisoft cancelled an Assassin's Creed game set during Reconstruction. Was to feature a Black Assassin who, among other things, fought the rise of the Klan

Sources: Leadership nixed it over concerns re: U.S. political climate, backlash to Yasuke

www.gamefile.news/p/scoop-ubis...

Scoop: Ubisoft cancelled a post-Civil War Assassin’s Creed last year

Company leadership deemed the project too controversial for the moment, sources tell Game File

www.gamefile.news

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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.bsky.social · 9h

"We took the freedom of speech away," says the president

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 9h

Trump: "We took the freedom of speech away because that's been through the courts and the courts said you have freedom of speech, but what has happened is when they burn a flag it agitates and irritates crowds."

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Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 12h

One of the (many) legal gaps that needs to be filled after this nightmare is over is to prohibit federal law enforcement agencies from using federal funds to create propaganda videos with anyone in custody. This is all about spectacle and content creation, remove the incentive and the means

Tina Smith @smith.senate.gov · 14h

Weird how that didn’t make the cut.

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Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 11h

Really would like people to square this circle with their vocal support for increased policing in Black communities.

Caleb Crain @calebcrain.bsky.social · 1d

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."

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Jared Rizzi @jaredrizzi.bsky.social · 11h

What's the opposite of a class act

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 11h

This is obviously hateful, but for people indifferent to the hate, just a big waste of money. You have the Secretary of Transportation cheering the destruction of functional public infrastructure.

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 14h

Just openly cheering the destruction of any representation of gay people in public space. They think their power is totally unrestricted, and the entire country will support them rolling back society to the 1950s, or maybe the 1850s

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Timothy Burke @bubbaprog.xyz · 11h

i'm not sure how you can claim to cover things fairly and fully when you're using the bootleg name that is officially only a "secondary name" for the department

Jon Passantino @passantino.bsky.social · 11h

CNN is now using the Trump preferred “Department of War” name in its official statements

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Ryan J. Reilly “paints a vivid and urgent portrait of… disarray” @ryanjreilly.com · 11h

FBI fires special agents who worked on Jack Smith's probe into Trump

www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...

FBI fires special agents who worked on Jack Smith's probe into Trump

The three agents were fired after Kash Patel disclosed that Jack Smith's team obtained phone records of members of Congress, which the Smith report itself referenced.

www.nbcnews.com

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 15h

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 15h

if blue state governors and mayors aren't already thinking about the reliability of various police forces nominally under their control, they should start immediately

southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 15h

The situation in America is not great. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

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Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 15h

BREAKING: James Comey pleads not guilty to federal criminal charges, judge sets trial date for Jan. 5

More details TK

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 17h

Good morning from the line outside the courthouse in the Eastern District of Virginia, where former FBI director James Comey is set to be arraigned on federal charges.

I’m here for @lawfaremedia.org.

Follow along for updates ⬇️

Federal courthouse in EDVA, with line of people out front and a guy holding a “show trial” sign

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rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 14h

if your perspective is being challenged by the rantings and ravings of bari weiss then you might just be fucking stupid i’m sorry you had to find out this way

Amy Westervelt @amywestervelt.bsky.social · 15h

There are too many rich white people who've had no challenges in life working in media...is a thought I had when one of them was saying recently they appreciate how Bari Weiss challenges their perspective. Babe, most folks don't need that, it doesn't make you open-minded and intellectually curious.

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Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 15h

For one, the federal government cannot constitutionally commandeer state officials to do its bidding.

But more importantly, the president does not see his political opposition as legitimate but rather as a target for a carceral and militaristic state. It is deeply undemocratic and authoritarian.

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 15h

I will not back down.

Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power.

What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?

Donald Trump Truth Social Post: Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also.

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David Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 16h

“voters will side with the rule of law over authoritarian dictatorship—IF they are presented with this as a clear choice.” Too bad Democrats in leadership positions don’t want to fight authoritarianism

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 17h

JB Pritzker and Gavin Newsom are doing something new and important: They understand Stephen Miller's theory of fascist power politics, and they've developed a theory on how to combat it. More Dems need to reckon with Miller's understanding of the moment.

New from me:
newrepublic.com/article/2014...

Inside Stephen Miller’s Secret Plan to Normalize Trump’s Dictator Rule

He wants to supercharge searing civil tensions to get low-information voters to embrace their inner authoritarian. Exactly two Democrats appear to fully grasp this.

newrepublic.com

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Jared Rizzi @jaredrizzi.bsky.social · 16h

The entire piece is excellent, and strikes the tone that is so crucial for this moment. But I'm most intrigued by Meredith's question near the middle: "Who is served by pretending we live in an America different from this one?"

Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 17h

Bridging my current life in Chicago and my past life in D.C., I argue today at @newrepublic.com that Democrats should ~never~ vote to fund this government. Make John Thune blow up Senate rules and Republicans wholly own the U.S. extra-military military doing war crimes against us, funded by us.

The Case for the Forever Shutdown

Senate Democrats actually allowing the GOP to stop funding the government is only the first step. Now they have to make the case that Trump’s government is illegitimate.

newrepublic.com

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Jared Rizzi @jaredrizzi.bsky.social · 1d

Collab with Wynton Marsalis when

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 1d

Libs of Tiktok, Elon Musk, and Robbie Starbuck put everything they had into trying to push a boycott of Netflix over LGBTQ characters in their shows.

Netflix ignored them and the stock is back up. Turns out bots don't actually cancel accounts.

Screenshot of Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) stock summary on October 7. The closing price is $1,191.06 USD, up +27.75 (2.39%) for the day. The day’s trading range shows a low of $1,177.46 and a high of $1,201.36. Previous close was $1,163.31. Market cap is $506.11B, P/E ratio is 50.75, with no dividend yield. The 52-week high is $1,341.15 and the 52-week low is $677.88. A line graph shows intraday stock price movement, peaking above $1,190 before settling at the closing price.

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 1d

Latest: I have a feature story charting the brief but insane history of Florida’s Everglades detention camp reason.com/2025/10/07/a...

Alligator Alcatraz was built on secrecy, expansive emergency powers, and an unprecedented state power grab

Shadowy deals and unilateral powers created Florida's notorious immigration detention camp.

reason.com

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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 1d

“No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”

George Pearkes @peark.es · 1d

Well that's not how appropriations work at all

*WHITE HOUSE TO TRANSFER TARIFF REVENUE TO FUND WIC: LEAVITT

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Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 1d

I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that all these data centers are going into communities that have been historically targeted for exploitation and have the least amount of civic power wielded by the people living there.

wordinblack.com/2025/09/alab...

Why Are Plans for This Alabama Data Center So Hush-Hush?

Officials in Bessemer, Alabama, are mum on Project Marvel, a proposed data center the size of 18 Walmart Supercenters.

wordinblack.com

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