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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

"Dear Sweet Blessed Little Baby Jesus, please watch over our armed thugs as they turn away the stranger, persecute the foreigner and harm the least of our brothers and sisters."

David S. Bernstein @dbernstein.bsky.social · 1d

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is in Portland meeting with ICE, Border Patrol and DHS officials; Nick Sortor posted video of Noem saying a prayer for the safety of their officers at the start of the meeting.

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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 8h

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

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Matt Saler @mattsaler.bsky.social · 8h

If we get through this, the #1 response alongside the trials, needs to be an absolutely stacked, muscular Congress.

How we get there through the level of anticonstitutional capitulation and collaboration described here, I don't know

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

If appropriations bills are not seen as enforceable contracts, why should any Member of Congress vote to fund any part of the federal government under Donald Trump? You're voting to provide money for lawlessness. 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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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 1d

This whole thing is an example of degenerate Trump thinking. Vought had references to the law deleted from OMB shutdown guidance. It's still the law.

Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · 1d

Let me be clear: backpay for these workers is required under a federal law I wrote with former Senator Cardin — which Trump signed — during the last Trump shutdown.

This is just more fear mongering from a president who wants a blank check for lawlessness. It won't work.

Federal workers not entitled to back pay after shutdown, budget office claims

Federal workers may not be entitled to back pay after the government shutdown ends, the Trump administration’s budget office wrote in a new draft memo obtained by The Washington Post, ratcheting up te...

www.washingtonpost.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

very cool that if you are working on behalf of right-wing culture warriors, you no longer need standing to have your claim adjudicated by the supreme court

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...

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Matt Saler @mattsaler.bsky.social · 20h

Rescissions at least involve Congress. The bigger risk is impoundment, running the clock out on spending windows, and bureaucratic reallocating funds to executive priorities not authorized by Congress

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 22h

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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old uncle BATface @catfacejoe.bsky.social · 1d

tweet screenshot
Matt the outlaw
@cursedgloryhole
Lady behind me at the thing screening last night to her partner "why are they shooting at the dog?" and her partner says very firmly "have you never seen a film before? you watch and information is revealed"

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Matt Saler @mattsaler.bsky.social · 1d

The total and complete collapse of Congress in this age is really incredible. It's absolute and for *Trump*?!

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Johnson: "It's true that in previous shutdowns, many or most furloughed employees have been paid for the time they were furloughed, but there is new legal analysis - I don't know the details, I just saw a headline - but there are some legal analysts saying that might not be appropriate or necessary"

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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 3d

The media trots out the "deplorable" comment from a decade ago to castigate the left. Once a week now Trump implies that the military should destroy democrats, and it is just how things are.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Trump to the Navy: "We have to take care of this little gnat that's on our shoulder called the Democrats."

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The Fig Economy @figgityfigs.bsky.social · 3d

Everybody who says shit like this is implicitly agreeing with Trump that this isn’t just what America *is*, it’s what it *should be* and all it *can be*.

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 3d

People going "America was always fascist" or "it's been like this since the 1980s" or making related claims don't seem to realize it, but they're telling everyone that nothing different is happening, nothing worse than usual, so if you weren't up in arms about eg 2013, you shouldn't be now either.

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 3d

The President of the United States is lying and/or delusional, and it seems like we should be talking about this and nothing else.

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 3d

The protests are on one block. Nothing is burning down. His justification for sending in troops is all based on lies.

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 3d

Miller’s apparent elevation to shadow president and his seeming intent to declare an end to the constitutional order would, in any other administration, be treated as a executive branch meltdown that was immensely embarrassing for the president and requiring Miller’s immediate removal

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Mrs. Detective PikaBOO, Esq. @clapifyoulikeme.favrd.social · 3d

“A Trump appointee” really undersells who this judge is lol. When you’ve lost the Starrlet who deposed Monica…

prosecuted white collar crimes. In 1998, Immergut was a Multnomah County deputy district attorney when she went to work for Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, who was investigating then-President Bill Clinton. 131 Immergut personally questioned Monica Lewinsky in an August 6, 1998, deposition. 51 In 2001, she joined the U.S.

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Mrs. Detective PikaBOO, Esq. @clapifyoulikeme.favrd.social · 3d

Lmao I can’t wait for the Truth Social post about this

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 3d

Judge IMMERGUT, a Trump appointee to the bench, ruled that Trump's call-up was based on false claims about unrest in Portland and that Trump's own statements were "simply untethered to the facts." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Matt Saler @mattsaler.bsky.social · 3d

The first candidate to make it clear Trump pardons will be worth less than toilet paper is going to do numbers.

Lawrence Hurley @lawrencehurley.bsky.social · 4d

Stephen Miller again lashes out at the judiciary, suggesting federal judges are aiding and abetting domestic terrorism:

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Matt Saler @mattsaler.bsky.social · 4d

Where did we lose the concept that the executive, you know, executes, carries out, or enforces The Law and replace it with the concept that the executive just decides what The Law is?

Eric Lipton NYT @ericlipton.nytimes.com · 4d

It is not clear that Mr. Trump’s image can be featured on a coin. An 1866 law enshrined a tradition that only deceased people could appear on U.S. currency to avoid the appearance that America was a monarchy. Trump admin is planning to do it anyway.
By Alan Rappeport

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/b...

Treasury Plans to Mint $1 Commemorative Trump Coin

www.nytimes.com

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 4d

A statute may "enshrine a tradition," but that is not the only thing it does. A statute codifies law, just the same as statutes criminalizing homicide and bank robbery, and it is just as "clear" that violating the statute is unlawful.

Eric Lipton NYT @ericlipton.nytimes.com · 4d

It is not clear that Mr. Trump’s image can be featured on a coin. An 1866 law enshrined a tradition that only deceased people could appear on U.S. currency to avoid the appearance that America was a monarchy. Trump admin is planning to do it anyway.
By Alan Rappeport

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/b...

Treasury Plans to Mint $1 Commemorative Trump Coin

www.nytimes.com

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Matt Saler @mattsaler.bsky.social · 4d

Just means they'll put Grok or whatever on it, which is going to do wonders for its accuracy and fairness, already an uphill battle given the parameters and the ideology driving this—doubleplusnightmare material

Matt Saler @mattsaler.bsky.social · 5d

Your original of this post had my childhood-KJV-church brain confused for a beat or two

screenshot of "any kine of taylor posting is just inherently cringe but on the balance anti-taylor posting is more embarrassing than swiftie posting. "i can't believe she was mean to charli xcx in a song!" listen to yourself."

depiction of Pharoah's dream about kine in the book of Genesis

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Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 5d

It's almost as though all he did last year was brazenly lie, and it should have always been covered as brazen lying. apnews.com/article/trum...

Trump no longer distancing himself from Project 2025 as he uses shutdown to further pursue its goals

President Donald Trump is now openly embracing the conservative blueprint he desperately tried to distance himself from during the 2024 campaign.

apnews.com

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Matt Saler @mattsaler.bsky.social · 5d

Fuck.

Techmeme @techmeme.com · 5d

Apple removes ICEBlock, an app for anonymously reporting ICE official sightings, from the App Store; AG Pam Bondi says the DOJ requested its removal (Ashley Oliver/Fox Business)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 6d

You could not more perfectly invert the whole point of the power of the purse than this false notion the legislature cutting off appropriations means the executive gets more power.

Shipwreck @shipwreck75.bsky.social · 6d

President Trump says he is meeting today with Russ Vought, OMB director and "of PROJECT 2025 Fame," to discuss cuts to "Democrat Agencies."

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T. Greg "Antifa General Counsel" Doucette @gregdoucette.bsky.social · 6d

Also: it makes zero sense to do a "deal" on any spending when Trump has already proven he will impound appropriated money at any time for any reason and SCOTUS has said repeatedly that him doing so is fine

Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 6d

In another era, a group of Republican Senators like Tillis, Cassidy, Collins and Murkowski would join with a handful of Democrats to iron out a deal to extend ACA subsidies and end the shutdown. But in a Trumpified GOP, there is little incentive to do that.
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Buckle up — Republicans and Democrats appear dug in for a long government shutdown

Republicans say Democrats ‘don't have the high ground in this situation,’ Eric Garcia writes. But Democrats are unintimidated by threats from the Trump administration to target their states

www.independent.co.uk

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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 7d

Anyone with critical thinking skills or a memory of past shutdowns should be aware that this isn’t how it works. The president doesn’t gain new powers because Congress hasn’t sent over the money for the executive branch.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 7d

Mike Johnson on the shutdown: "It can provide an opportunity to downside the scope and scale of government, which is something that we've always wanted to do. So in a way Chuck Schumer has now handed the keys to the kingdom the executive branch under President Trump."

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