Sam G. Howard
@samghoward.riliberator.com
2.2K followers 930 following 5.4K posts
Rhode Islander, education union data organizer and Democratic ward committee member. Recovering comms pro, RI's leading vexillologist (probably). Occasionally blogs at riliberator.com
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Reposted by Sam G. Howard
qjurecic.bsky.social
incredibly, bleakly funny that trump is going after christopher wray, who spent his entire tenure at the fbi with his head down desperately trying to avoid trump's attention and did nothing to protect the bureau from trump's attacks www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
Other prosecutors are investigating former CIA director John Brennan, another prominent Trump critic, and former FBI director Christopher Wray, who was originally appointed by Trump but enraged conservatives who came to believe he had wielded the bureau’s powers against them. Former officials have received subpoenas in recent days in the Wray inquiry, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
karlbode.com
twice a year the entire U.S. press becomes a marketing extension of a single billionaire-owned retailer, and nobody in any position of editorial power thinks it's weird or gross
photo of Google News search results for Amazon Prime Day (the second this year)
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
sethcotlar.bsky.social
Two big GOP activists from Oregon were in DC last month for meetings with Trump admin officials. On their podcast they talk about a plan they discussed to nullify the results of Oregon's 2026 federal elections. Pass federal voter ID law, then refuse to seat OR delegation because OR didn't comply.
Ep. 18: September to Remember
October 6 • S1 E18 • 44 min
Also, we proposed a idea how to do a end run on vote by mail. Concept is based on what Trump proposed. When you vote, you check everyone's citizenship as well as voter ID.
In a vote by mail state, you might be able to check citizenship during voter registration. You can send copies of your passport and your birth certificate in.
How in the world are you going to check our voters?
Voter ID, right? Vote by mail. So that creates a problem for Oregon.
But if federal government new requirement is to check both, and if Oregon can comply with the requirements, what would happen to our election result? I'm talking about the entire federal delegation.
For federal elections, we're talking about only federal elections.
COMMON SENSE
Vascluar Ep. 18: September to Remember
October 6 • S1 E18 • 44 min
So entire federal delegation, congressmen and senators could be challenged, could be unseated because you didn't follow federal requirements to elect them. So I said the trade-off is worth it. You know why?
Democrats control two Senate seats out of six congressional seats. We only control one. They control five.
You talk about trade-off, right?
COMMON SENSE
Sanctuany
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
paleofuture.bsky.social
John Fetterman, ladies and gentlemen
jonathancohn.bsky.social
Trump has been illegally bombing boats off the coast of Venezuela.

Tim Kaine and Adam Schiff forced a vote on reasserting Congress's role over war powers and ending this reckless
warmongering.

It failed 48-51.

Murkowski and Paul voted yes.

Fetterman voted no.
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
kjhealy.co
Maybe beginning to feel news coverage that either ignores this sort of blather or balances it with a polite “Some experts disagree with the assessment that Portland is a burned-out hellscape under the rule of Antifa warlords” doesn’t really cut it.
atrupar.com
Trump: "I don't know what could be worse than Portland. You don't even have stores anymore. They don't even put glass up. They put plywood on their windows."
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
figgityfigs.bsky.social
This is absolutely enraging. They can and will beat and detain US citizens for the crime of being Hispanic and then they’ll dump them unceremoniously hours later with no recompense.
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
aelkus.bsky.social
If you look at the sheer insanity of what government officials and agencies openly post on XShitter, it becomes abundantly obvious how much the press is complicit. If Dems did even a fraction of this poasting it would be saturated in news coverage.
laurajedeed.bsky.social
More propaganda with painfully normal people zip-tied at the side of the road please, this will for sure convince the American people that you're the good guys
Homeland Security @DHSgov

We're having an All Night Revival

Still frame from a video: Painfully normal people zip tied on the side of the road, sitting on a guardrail in a row

14:30 07 Oct 25 2.1M Views

5 Reposts

940 Quotes 42.2K

2,584 Bookmarks
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
dieworkwear.bsky.social
“A second inflatable frog has now been spotted wiggling through Portland.”
Marco Rubio whispers into Donald Trump's ear.
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
pecunium.bsky.social
A recurrent attempt to blame people for corporate action (this news gets repeated every few years).

HFAs in inhalers = ~2.4million tons a year.

Total CO2 last year was 37.8 GIGAtons.

Inhalers are less than a rounding error.
cnn.com
CNN @cnn.com · 2d
The people who are most vulnerable to the hard-to-breathe air that comes with climate change may inadvertently be adding to the problem, new research finds. https://cnn.it/4pWQMoh
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
tyleraking.com
The literal reading of this statement is Pam Bondi is planning extrajudicial executions of random protesters.
premthakker.bsky.social
My gosh. After the US bombed multiple boats in the middle of the ocean, murdering people on grounds that they were allegedly "carrying drugs," the US Attorney General says "Just like we did with cartels, we're going to take the same approach, President Trump, with Antifa."
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
jonathanbernstein.bsky.social
It's sort of like the Gulf of Tonkin incident except with as many camera crews as we want to show that the president is just making things up.
tjnawrocki.bsky.social
This is really the story at this point, or should be. "Delusional Trump Imagines a Boarded-Up Portland" should be the headline on every newspaper and website.
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
ddayen.bsky.social
Interesting dynamic in NYC where Zohran Mamdani is blunting opposition from patrol officers by taking their poor job conditions seriously. Bob Kuttner has this one:
prospect.org/blogs-and-ne...
Mamdani Courts the Cops
He is doing a lot better than you might think.
prospect.org
samghoward.riliberator.com
I, personally, find two spaces after a period kinda annoying (particularly if it’s inconsistently more than two), but I understand it’s an old printing practice (older than the typewriter).

I don’t care for the Oxford comma.

But I would never form an opinion about the writer from these choices!
samghoward.riliberator.com
I cannot imagine having an opinion on punctuation like this.
And many writers use em dashes as an alternative to semicolons — they seem less pretentious.
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
bbkogan.bsky.social
Elon Musk said he was going to cut spending by $2 trillion dollars, but instead spending is higher this year than we thought it would be before Trump took office. Truly incredible stuff.
bbkogan.bsky.social
CBO fy2025 projections for deficit/spending/etc are out

Some issues make simple comparisons apples-to-oranges, so I'll do apples-to-apples & explain in the thread

Relative to pre-Trump projections:
-Primary deficits ⬆️ $34 bn
-program spending ⬆️ $97 bn
-revenues ⬆️ $63 bn
www.cbo.gov/publication/...
	2025 (January estimate, adjusted to fix issues)	2025 CBO estimate (remove student loan one-time revaluation)		2025 (adjusted for student loans) vs. 2025 projection (adjusted to fix issues)
Spending	7061	7166		105
Program spending	6108	6205		97
Interest	953	961		9
Revenue	5163	5226		63
Primary deficit	945	979		34
Total deficit	1898	1940		42
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
whstancil.bsky.social
This is absolutely happening to the Trump admin, the problem is that the exact same dynamic has brainwashed the media and the Democrats, who are in the same bubbles. If institutions were reacting appropriately to Trump’s authoritarian excesses and demagogic lunacy, he’d be even more unpopular
audreyii.bsky.social
I might be wrong, but I think their X bubbles have led them to overestimate their own popularity and how much power over the public they've actually consolidated
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
whstancil.bsky.social
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
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
sarahposner.bsky.social
Watch the video. It's very good. More, please.
heinrich.senate.gov
So Trump thinks we should give a $20B bailout to the right wing government in Argentina, but we can’t afford to keep your healthcare from going up by $1000s of dollars a year? Bullshit.
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
jamellebouie.net
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
ddayen.bsky.social
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
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
explaintrade.com
There was certainly something recently which monopolised all public debate and paralysed all policy initiative in the UK for the better part of a decade, and I dont think it was trans rights.
rmcunliffe.bsky.social
"While Britain was redefining what a woman is, China was building five nuclear reactors," says Kemi Badenoch.

I cannot be the only person curious about how these two things are related
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
taniel.bsky.social
JUST IN: The Republican Mayor of Fairbanks, Alaska’s second biggest city, lost re-election last night to a Democrat.

Mayor David Pruhs is a conservative who fought protections for LGBTQ+ residents; he made comments this year drew condemnation this year from Alaska Natives. He lost to Mindy O'Neall.
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
davejorgenson.bsky.social
The Post laid off seemingly the remaining of their liberal-leaning staff members on Opinion last Thursday, when some of them were observing Yom Kippur.

from @oliverdarcy.bsky.social for Status
status.news/p/washington-post-opinion-cuts-adam-oneal
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
ketanjoshi.co
- Grim that media barons are buying up mainstream media and making them fascism-enabling propaganda engines

- ULTAGRIM that so many of the big-name journalists escaping that fire are voluntarily leaping directly into a completely separate newsletter website trap set by the same fascists
Substack’s “Nazi problem” won’t go away after push notification apology
Substack may be legitimizing neo-Nazis as “thought leaders,” researcher warns.
arstechnica.com
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
joshtpm.bsky.social
Boston Globe. “Longstanding policy” is federal law passed in 2019. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/07/n...