Paul Handley
@phand1.bsky.social
DC based recovering journalist: FEER, AFP, lots of bylines elsewhere; Asia (esp Thailand), Saudi, US. Author "The King Never Smiles" bio of Thai King Bhumibol. Clarinet Django/gypsy/manouche, swing, jazz, Takoma Park Community Band. 🇫🇷 🇺🇸
Reposted by Paul Handley
One of the biggest moments of my career:
USCIS canceled my client’s naturalization oath ceremony. We filed a lawsuit, went to trial, and the judge swore him in right there in the courtroom!
USCIS canceled my client’s naturalization oath ceremony. We filed a lawsuit, went to trial, and the judge swore him in right there in the courtroom!
December 16, 2025 at 3:21 PM
One of the biggest moments of my career:
USCIS canceled my client’s naturalization oath ceremony. We filed a lawsuit, went to trial, and the judge swore him in right there in the courtroom!
USCIS canceled my client’s naturalization oath ceremony. We filed a lawsuit, went to trial, and the judge swore him in right there in the courtroom!
Trump is now admitting that the siege of Venezuela has nothing to do with drugs or democracy and is all about seizing the country's oil fields.
December 17, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Trump is now admitting that the siege of Venezuela has nothing to do with drugs or democracy and is all about seizing the country's oil fields.
So we know that Trump world is against things until they can make big bucks from them. Here, Peter Thiel is actually helping Chinese tycoons produce anchor babies through surrogacy, acc to @WSJ . Some tycoons have more than 10 US-born children via surrogates.
December 16, 2025 at 10:00 PM
So we know that Trump world is against things until they can make big bucks from them. Here, Peter Thiel is actually helping Chinese tycoons produce anchor babies through surrogacy, acc to @WSJ . Some tycoons have more than 10 US-born children via surrogates.
Reposted by Paul Handley
Reminder: genocidal murder in Gaza also continues
December 16, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Reminder: genocidal murder in Gaza also continues
Reposted by Paul Handley
Ukraine willing to drop ambitions to join Nato, Zelenskyy says
Ukraine willing to drop ambitions to join Nato, Zelenskyy says
The move marks a major shift for Ukraine, which has fought to join Nato as a safeguard against Russian attacks
Ukraine is willing to drop its ambitions to join Nato in exchange for western security guarantees, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said before talks in Berlin.
The Ukrainian president aired the concession as he flew to the German capital, where he began meetings with Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in efforts to end the war with Russia. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
December 14, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Ukraine willing to drop ambitions to join Nato, Zelenskyy says
Reposted by Paul Handley
Did you know: Omaha, Nebraska, has the largest residential lead cleanup site in the U.S. BUT... this year, the Trump admin tripled the amount of lead that had to be in the soil to warrant a potential cleanup, meaning many families may be out of luck. @chrisbowling.bsky.social
The EPA Was Considering a Massive Lead Cleanup in Omaha. Then Trump Shifted Guidance.
The Trump administration says it will speed cleanups, but residents of the largest residential lead Superfund site worry fewer properties will be remediated.
www.propublica.org
December 11, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Did you know: Omaha, Nebraska, has the largest residential lead cleanup site in the U.S. BUT... this year, the Trump admin tripled the amount of lead that had to be in the soil to warrant a potential cleanup, meaning many families may be out of luck. @chrisbowling.bsky.social
Reposted by Paul Handley
Marjorie Taylor Greene spent today’s Kristi Noem hearing praising Noem, Tom Homan, Trump, and his immigration policies, and giving them credit for making our border “stronger than it’s ever been” - on the off chance you were thinking of giving her credit for … anything.
December 11, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Marjorie Taylor Greene spent today’s Kristi Noem hearing praising Noem, Tom Homan, Trump, and his immigration policies, and giving them credit for making our border “stronger than it’s ever been” - on the off chance you were thinking of giving her credit for … anything.
Reposted by Paul Handley
December 11, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Paul Handley
I don't know if it's possible for Democrats to make a federal judge a mainstream issue in the 2026 midterms. But if anything like this is ever going to work, it's "Emil Bove is a corrupt war crimes enthusiast who attends Trump rallies for fun, and we will impeach him on our first days in office"
Emil Bove Will Always Be a Trump Rallygoer First
Trump demands loyalty from his judicial nominees. As Emil Bove demonstrated on Tuesday, his nominees are very comfortable with displaying that loyalty in public.
ballsandstrikes.org
December 11, 2025 at 2:57 AM
I don't know if it's possible for Democrats to make a federal judge a mainstream issue in the 2026 midterms. But if anything like this is ever going to work, it's "Emil Bove is a corrupt war crimes enthusiast who attends Trump rallies for fun, and we will impeach him on our first days in office"
Reposted by Paul Handley
Feels like the US has spent the last 5+ years on the verge of some kind of secular moral revival that keeps getting channeled into weirdo lifestyle puritanism
Cafes across the U.S. are embracing the low- and no-caffeine lifestyle, with options that are a far cry from dusty tea bags and rewarmed decaf. nyti.ms/3XKlqoj
December 10, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Feels like the US has spent the last 5+ years on the verge of some kind of secular moral revival that keeps getting channeled into weirdo lifestyle puritanism
Reposted by Paul Handley
it is actually kind of bananas how unitary executive theorists have taken a straightforward clause requiring the president to "faithfully execute the laws" and transformed it into a grant for the exercise of limitless unenumerated power.
The Take Care Clause was a byproduct of the lessons learned from the Glorious Revolution that the executive should not be able to dispense with the law promulgated by the legislature. It was not a constitutional provision to empower the executive branch— but to constrain it!
December 9, 2025 at 2:20 PM
it is actually kind of bananas how unitary executive theorists have taken a straightforward clause requiring the president to "faithfully execute the laws" and transformed it into a grant for the exercise of limitless unenumerated power.
Grocers and Instacart changes the prices depending on who they think your are:
www.consumerreports.org/money/questi...
www.consumerreports.org/money/questi...
Instacart’s AI-Enabled Pricing Experiments May Be Inflating Your Grocery Bill, CR and Groundwork Collaborative Investigation Finds - Consumer Reports
Exclusive: Instacart’s AI pricing may be inflating your grocery bill.
www.consumerreports.org
December 9, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Grocers and Instacart changes the prices depending on who they think your are:
www.consumerreports.org/money/questi...
www.consumerreports.org/money/questi...
Reposted by Paul Handley
This blood transfusion brought to you by the leeches I placed on your testicles
Trump on his farm bailout: "This money would not be possible without tariffs ... because of tariffs, this is possible."
December 8, 2025 at 10:24 PM
This blood transfusion brought to you by the leeches I placed on your testicles
Reposted by Paul Handley
Breaking: Kushner and Saudi Arabia are part of Paramount’s hostile bid for Warner Bros. This could give them control of CNN and more: www.axios.com/2025/12/08/j...
Jared Kushner is part of Paramount's hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery
Paramount is telling WBD shareholders that it has a smoother path to regulatory approval than does Netflix.
www.axios.com
December 8, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Breaking: Kushner and Saudi Arabia are part of Paramount’s hostile bid for Warner Bros. This could give them control of CNN and more: www.axios.com/2025/12/08/j...
Reposted by Paul Handley
The Judges are performing their constitutional duty & following the law. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same thing about the Justice Department in this regard.
December 8, 2025 at 6:10 PM
The Judges are performing their constitutional duty & following the law. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same thing about the Justice Department in this regard.
Reposted by Paul Handley
Read this: www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...
December 7, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Read this: www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...
There's the new Trump-Vance-Miller National Security Strategy, and then there's this to fill it out (h/t empty wheel)
authoritarian-stack.info
authoritarian-stack.info
The Authoritarian Stack
How Tech Billionaires Are Building a Post-Democratic America — And Why Europe Is Next
authoritarian-stack.info
December 6, 2025 at 4:46 PM
There's the new Trump-Vance-Miller National Security Strategy, and then there's this to fill it out (h/t empty wheel)
authoritarian-stack.info
authoritarian-stack.info
Reposted by Paul Handley
FT has a piece on how particularly poisonous the Juan Orlando Hernández pardon was (but is a good overview and unlikely many pieces did note that Roger Stone himself needed a pardon).
www.ft.com/content/1dc4...
www.ft.com/content/1dc4...
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https://www.ft.com/content/1dc4124e-6bd3-4b2b-9628-1ff43583f28c?utm_social_handle_id=18949452&utm_social_post_id=615514481
The Hernández pardon created “a tremendous disincentive for [overseas] prosecutors, police, judges and governments to take on the risk of investigating and assisting the extradition of officials who may be released arbitrarily by the US president”, said Ricardo Zúñiga, a former senior US state department official who focuses on Latin America.
“The US was seen as a place where justice would be done . . . it really undermines faith in the US justice system.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:bbp2b224lro3bfnzcqwwnkfo/bafkreicyrhntrhmeqvtgwwccd7mnqezzudjvz7grtujunjymvitzvolddm@jpeg)
December 6, 2025 at 12:30 PM
FT has a piece on how particularly poisonous the Juan Orlando Hernández pardon was (but is a good overview and unlikely many pieces did note that Roger Stone himself needed a pardon).
www.ft.com/content/1dc4...
www.ft.com/content/1dc4...
Reposted by Paul Handley
The mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew was reportedly engaged in a nasty years-long custody battle with the White House press secretary’s brother before she was detained by Immigration and Customs enforcement last month. trib.al/QrdO7XA
Karoline Leavitt’s Brother Had Grim Custody Fight With ICE-Arrested Ex
ICE arrested Bruna Ferreira, the mother of Leavitt’s nephew, in November.
trib.al
December 5, 2025 at 11:15 PM
The mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew was reportedly engaged in a nasty years-long custody battle with the White House press secretary’s brother before she was detained by Immigration and Customs enforcement last month. trib.al/QrdO7XA
Reposted by Paul Handley
The White House deleted their shitpost on X in defeat after suffering the biggest ratio in social media history at the hands of Sabrina Carpenter.
December 5, 2025 at 10:30 PM
The White House deleted their shitpost on X in defeat after suffering the biggest ratio in social media history at the hands of Sabrina Carpenter.
He’s definitely getting a pardon now:
@cnn.com
During interviews with the FBI, the suspect arrested in the pipe bomb probe told investigators that he believed the 2020 election was stolen
@cnn.com
During interviews with the FBI, the suspect arrested in the pipe bomb probe told investigators that he believed the 2020 election was stolen
December 5, 2025 at 6:18 PM
He’s definitely getting a pardon now:
@cnn.com
During interviews with the FBI, the suspect arrested in the pipe bomb probe told investigators that he believed the 2020 election was stolen
@cnn.com
During interviews with the FBI, the suspect arrested in the pipe bomb probe told investigators that he believed the 2020 election was stolen
Reposted by Paul Handley
Racism as an excuse to abandon NATO
December 5, 2025 at 3:51 AM
Racism as an excuse to abandon NATO
Reposted by Paul Handley
NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY DROPPED
There is a LOT here, but omg NATO allies are going to seethe at this paragraph
www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...
There is a LOT here, but omg NATO allies are going to seethe at this paragraph
www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...
December 5, 2025 at 3:26 AM
NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY DROPPED
There is a LOT here, but omg NATO allies are going to seethe at this paragraph
www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...
There is a LOT here, but omg NATO allies are going to seethe at this paragraph
www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...
Reposted by Paul Handley
I'm satisfied that the have PC against Brian Cole, though I think IF THIS IS ALL it is a lower standard of certainty than on most Jan6 cases.
But IF THIS IS ALL the case is going to be VERYYY susceptible to 4A challenge on the cell dumps.
www.emptywheel.net/2025/12/04/w...
But IF THIS IS ALL the case is going to be VERYYY susceptible to 4A challenge on the cell dumps.
www.emptywheel.net/2025/12/04/w...
What's Not Being Said about the Alleged Pipe Bomber - emptywheel
The arrest affidavit for Brian Cole, now accused of laying the pipe bombs discovered on January 6, includes only purchase records and location information. There's not a single data point between the ...
www.emptywheel.net
December 5, 2025 at 12:16 AM
I'm satisfied that the have PC against Brian Cole, though I think IF THIS IS ALL it is a lower standard of certainty than on most Jan6 cases.
But IF THIS IS ALL the case is going to be VERYYY susceptible to 4A challenge on the cell dumps.
www.emptywheel.net/2025/12/04/w...
But IF THIS IS ALL the case is going to be VERYYY susceptible to 4A challenge on the cell dumps.
www.emptywheel.net/2025/12/04/w...