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Reposted by Joel Ellingson

Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 9h

Feels quaint, almost cliché, to say this about a Trump action, but just for the record:

This is all illegal, the President can't simply disregard the laws passed and agencies created by Congress, and both Vought & Trump would be impeached if the Constitution or the rule of law mattered to the GOP.

Reuters @reuters.com · 15h

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers reut.rs/4qjMIyT

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers

White House budget director Russell Vought said he wants to close the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and expects to do so within the next two to three months.

reut.rs

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Joel Ellingson @blackshoe96.bsky.social · 9h

Am I the only person wondering if part of keeping the gov’t shutdown going is to normalize the Executive spending and recision without regard to actual appropriations?

Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 14h

Trump's mechanism to pay the troops during the shutdown is by far the most illegal budgetary action he's taken as POTUS, potentially setting the stage to break everything.

It's also needless because Congress would easily pass a troop pay bill if Johnson were willing to gavel in.

Long thread.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/10/national-security-presidential-memorandum-nspm-8/

Joel Ellingson @blackshoe96.bsky.social · 9h

Again, I ask, “what is the source of the funds?”

What spending authority authorizes this?

The Lincoln Project @lincolnproject.us · 9h

MAGA thought they elected Trump to save America, but instead he’s saving Argentina. $40 billion now going to Trump’s buddy Javier Milei, while Americans can’t afford groceries, gas, or basic healthcare.

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Chris Mirasola @chrismirasola.bsky.social · 9h

I can’t overstate how entirely untethered to the constitution and past practice this unilateral move to repurpose funds to pay for military pay is. The commander-in-chief clause has precisely 0 bearing on the ability to expend funds. Here’s a list of authorities that do:

National Security Presidential Memorandum/NSPM-8

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF WAR THE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET SUBJECT: Use of

www.whitehouse.gov

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Reposted by Joel Ellingson

Jon @jonvw4.bsky.social · 10h

Jon @jonvw4.bsky.social · 12h

Question reporters should be asking speaker Johnson "Now that you've ceded the last bit of Congressional authority to Trump, what do you plan to do in retirement after Trump disbands Congress?"

Follow up "Do you plan to be as ineffective in that as you were as speaker of the house?"

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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 10h

That said, this post highlights the illegal actions taken by Trump. We believe all illegal actions must be called out and held accountable.

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 16h

We got $20 billion for Argentina though.

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Joel Ellingson @blackshoe96.bsky.social · 16h

Just to be clear, this is LEGAL, First Amendment-protected activity.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 17h

Ron Johnson on the No Kings protest: "One of the things I hope Kash Patel and Pam Bondi are looking into is the funding of these groups. Who pays for the busses to bus a lot of these folks in?"

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Reposted by Joel Ellingson

Tess Bridgeman @tessbridgeman.bsky.social · 1d

The President is announcing more extrajudicial killings today.

A reminder that the administration has provided no limiting principles and these killings are completely untethered from the law (there was no "armed attack," there's no "armed conflict," and these aren't "unlawful combatants").

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 1d

Again, this is not what needs to be done. "Why are you breaking the law & violating the Constitution & your oath of office?" is the question. When he doesn't answer it, the next journalist needs to ask it, & then the next one, & the one after that. Stop giving him & John Thune free passes every day.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

FOX: You said last week that you would swear in Grijalva whenever she wants. She has written a letter to your office. You have not sworn her in. Doesn't your resistance add fuel to the fire that this is about Epstein?

MIKE JOHNSON: No. This is another partisan manufactured thing

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 1d

The inherent corollary of "this is murder" is that we prosecute and punish people who commit murder.

Senator Ed Markey @markey.senate.gov · 1d

Trump just bombed six more people in the Caribbean, for a total of 27 civilians who have been killed so far by the US military. It’s illegal for the military to target civilians who do not pose an immediate threat. This is murder.

U.S. Military Kills Another 6 People in 5th Caribbean Strike, Trump Says
In a social media post, the president said the people aboard a boat were suspected of smuggling drugs for an unspecified group his team had labeled terrorists.

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Reposted by Joel Ellingson

Anthony Edwards @edwardsanthonyb.bsky.social · 1d

“How big of a difference the missing balloon data made, though, may never be known. The best way to determine that would be to run computer models with weather balloon data fed into them and without it, in what is known as a data denial experiment — impossible to do without the data itself.”

Lack of weather data due to Trump’s budget cuts impacted forecast for deadly Alaska storm | CNN

The forecast for the powerful and deadly storm that battered small communities in western Alaska over the weekend was likely made worse by a lack of weather data triggered by the Trump administration’...

www.cnn.com

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Joel Ellingson @blackshoe96.bsky.social · 1d

Every accusation is a confession…

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Emmer: "These guys are playing to the most radical, small, and violent base in the country. You'll see them on Saturday on the Mall. They just do not love this country."

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Joel Ellingson @blackshoe96.bsky.social · 1d

Certainly a bunch of guys who miss “casual misogyny” being acceptable. Some are hoorah-macho-alpha male types — unapologetic about their misogyny. Many don’t think of themselves as biased, & therefore don’t realize how caustic and corrosive that kind of thinking is to overall force readiness, etc.

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Joel Ellingson @blackshoe96.bsky.social · 1d

I was on active duty for 25 years (retired in 2017.)

I personally think he’s a clown, and don’t think he displays anything an adult would want/expect of a SECDEF.

Unfortunately, I see a lot of support in my social media feed from friends still on active duty.

I find it baffling.

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Joel Ellingson @blackshoe96.bsky.social · 1d

It’s pretty much all they care about, so this tracks…

Adam Weinstein @adamweinstein.bsky.social · 2d

A consistent thing about Trumpists in power is how they want everyone else to believe that people only do things for money

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Sean Duffy: "The No Kings protest, Maria, really frustrating. This is part of antifa, paid protesters. It begs the question who's funding it."

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Reposted by Joel Ellingson

Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 2d

Pretty sure I say this every Columbus Day, but getting hauled back to Spain for excessive brutality in 1500, just as the Inquisition was really getting fired up, is some genuinely Evil Guys Hall of Infamy material

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Joel Ellingson @blackshoe96.bsky.social · 2d

Is there any real violence directed at the “masked, armed gunmen”?

If there is anything but isolated incidents, I haven’t seen it.

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Charlie Sykes @sykescharlie.bsky.social · 2d

The Seal Team Six President?
charliesykes.substack.com/p/the-seal-t...

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Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 3d

The idea that world events and life-or-death political decisions should turn on what one elderly US citizen sees on a TV sounds like the premise for a 1970s dystopian satire written by the most hysterical Marxist novelist seeking to magnify the moral rot and decadence of a declining American empire…

Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 3d

“One former senior Trump administration official from the first term tells Zeteo that…when Trump was publicly dangling the idea of attacking Iranian cultural sites…the president indeed… asked…aides what they thought of striking the specific targets offered up by the likes of Hegseth &…Sean Hannity.”

Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 3d

For my piece today at @zeteo.com i wanted to truly underscore how punishingly stupid american fascism is now. Like, my original proposed headline for this was:

Our Democracy Is Imperiled Because One Old Man Won’t Stop ‘Yelling’ At His TV. zeteo.com/p/trump-addi...

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Reposted by Joel Ellingson

Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 2d

"How did America's reign as a superpower end?"

"They decided to just keep chanting 'USA! USA!' over and over until the world finally stopped taking them seriously."

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Joel Ellingson @blackshoe96.bsky.social · 2d

I am begging someone to just ask, “do you honestly believe that transparent bullshit?”

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 2d

Sean Duffy says the No Kings protests this Saturday are “really frustrating” because they are all paid Antifa people.

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Molly Knight @mollyknight.bsky.social · 3d

Whistling when ICE is about to kidnap someone for no reason is incredibly effective. They know what they are doing is wrong and will scatter in the wind when too many witnesses gather.

FORM A CROWD
STAY LOUD
PROTECT EACH OTHER
CODE I:
ICE NEARBY
BLOW QUICKLY IN A BROKEN RHYTHM:
PRE-PRE-PRE!
→ ALERTS THE COMMUNITY THAT ICE AGENTS ARE IN THE AREA.
ROGERS PARK WHISTLE PROTOCOLS
WHY A WHISTLE? ON THE STREETS
• A SIMPLE TOOL FOR FAST ALERTS.
• LOUD.
RECOGNIZABLE.
IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE.
• OUR VOICES ARE
STRONGER TOGETHER.
WHISTLES GUIDE
PEOPLE TO:
• FOLLOW ICE CARAVANS
• CATCH UP WITH THE CROWD
• ALERT NEIGHBORS
TO JOIN IN
NOISE = VISIBILITY.
CODE 2:
CODE RED
BLOW THREE LONG BLASTS:
PREEEE-PREEEE-PREEEE!
→ ICE IS DETAINING SOMEONE.
FORM A CROWD, STAY LOUD.
DON'T STAY SILENT. STAY NONVIOLENT.
WHY IT WORKS
• INSTANT ALERT
SYSTEM
• FASTER THAN SOCIAL MEDIA
• TURNS SILENCE INTO COMMUNITY
ACTION
ORIGINAL FLYER CREATED BY:
WHAT YOU CAN DO
• WEAR YOUR WHISTLE AROUND YOUR NECK
TEACH FAMILY
EIGHBORS TH
CODES
• USE IT WHEN ICE IS
SPOTTED
• PROTECT EACH OTHER, ALWAYS
TOGETHER, WE KEEP OUR COMMUNITY SAFE.
FORM A CROWD, STAY LOUD.
THIS FLYER DISTRIBUTED BY:
PROTECT RP
• @PROTECTRP_

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Reposted by Joel Ellingson

Joe Walsh @walshfreedom.bsky.social · 3d

One more time: As it’s not “weaponization of justice” for law enforcement to prosecute someone who committed crimes trying to rob a bank, it’s also not weaponization of justice for law enforcement to prosecute someone who committed crimes trying to overthrow an American election.

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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 4d

Per CDC source: At internal leadership meeting this afternoon, it was shared that 1,257 people were RIF'd at CDC. Number may not be final. Apparently, chief of staff was unaware that RIFs were going to occur so not clear who is making decisions. (Short 🧵)

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