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Patrick Schmidt

@pdwschmidt.bsky.social

2.3K followers 3.9K following 1.9K posts

Political scientist @MacalesterCollege: American law, comparative and historical constitutionalism, architecture, and...just curious about everything. Moot Court coach. Rarely refuses an opportunity for a dad joke.

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Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 12h

They conveniently all huddled together in the open for the drone operator.

Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 16h

"Whew, I'm so glad Jared Kushner is here," said no one ever.

Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 16h

Try substituting other futurist technologies, like, "We know this laser guns are ridiculously powerful, but the only way forward is to get them out there in big numbers and figure it out."

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Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 1d

...able to imagine AI as a piece in an anti-democratic, surveillance-oriented, and managerial system requires some gymnastics. Some parts of the project of AI today take their particular shapes from the culture of Silicon Valley.

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Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 1d

Two books that I found useful are Fred Turner, From Counterculture to Cyberculture; and John Markoff, What the Doormouse Said: How the Sixties Counter-culture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry. Understanding how Silicon Valley tech bros can be libertarian techno-utopians and also...

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Reposted by Patrick Schmidt

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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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 1d

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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Laguna Beach Democratic Club @lagunabeachdems.bsky.social · 2d

Sometimes I just have to turn off the news and put on a serial killer documentary so I can relax.

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Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 1d

How long are we going to pretend that this is a functional constitutional order?

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

Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 1d

political cartoon featuring a commander standing in front of troops with a placard, "Operation Circular Reasoning", and a caption underneath: "We're being deployed because of the protests about us being deployed."

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Reposted by Patrick Schmidt

George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 @gtconway.bsky.social · 3d

Chicago priest Father Michael Pfleger: "The state of emergency is in AMERICA, not Chicago. It's birthed from this president and his admin's reign of terror."

( ht: @mikenellis.bsky.social )

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Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 3d

Its worth your time learning about an American infinitely more bad-ass than Pete fucking Hegseth.

Salvor Hardin @destinyguardian.blacksky.app · 5d

Credited to Rene Syler:

"Look at her face.

This is Major General Lorna M. Mahlock, USMC, the first Black woman in Marine Corps history to reach general officer rank. A trailblazer, a warrior, a woman who's earned every credential, medal, and command in her story."

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Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 3d

It won't be long before juries will start hearing defenses of citizens who intervene, being "the defendant reasonably doubted the legality of the abduction". And the burden will shift to the prosecution to show that it was clear.

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Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 3d

Nothing is completely secure, but a federal judgeship is a good bet.

Reposted by Patrick Schmidt

Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 4d

It was clear from the beginning that ICE staffing up was going to be a full employment program for racists, barroom bullies and wife beaters

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Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 3d

Traitors, frauds...and ambitious. They know what rewards exist for the performatively loyal.

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 3d

The specific provision is section 2 of the Calling Forth Act of 1792:

www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...

For more background on the judicial review provision, and on how President Washington expressly relied upon it in putting down the Whiskey Rebellion, see:

www.yalelawjournal.org/pdf/427_pa9s...

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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 4d

A passage from the Debates at the Constitutional Convention quoted by Judge Karin Immergut in her decision blocking Trump's deployment of national guard units in Portland, OR.

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Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 4d

Going without a mask is bold. We need anyone involved with the regime to receive condemnation, to their faces, from neighbors, friends, and family.

Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 4d

What's the big deal. Charlie Kirk never wanted to associate with furries anyway.

Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 4d

The slang that gets me today is the word "aesthetic", as in, "that's so aesthetic". Everything has an aesthetic, and some things may have an appealing aesthetic. Now the word has drifted to replace the word "beauty" itself.

Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 4d

And the theme emanating from my seminar, Constitutionalism, last semester, is that this lesson isn't unique to this time and place, but something that should alter how more people think about constitutions.

Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 4d

My reflection while walking today: The bottom line of the American experience is that the Constitution and Rule of Law have never meaningfully contained racism, because the twin forces of "legal interpretation" and impunity for violent reactionaries have always been capacious enough to protect it.

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Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 5d

But who could have standing to sue, especially with what the Court could do to that question?

Patrick Schmidt @pdwschmidt.bsky.social · 5d

Amplify it until every potential juror knows what happened and why it cannot be tolerated.