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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 15h

A distressing number of conservatives these days indistinguishable from fascists.

Politico @politico.com · 23h

EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat.

Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 18h

People want retribution now. Give Trump a few more months and they'll be demanding it.

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 18h

Of course, Dems have to win elections for this to happen. Credibly promising that it will happen will help them win elections. More people hate Donald Trump every day. The prospect of seeing him rot in a jail cell would be attractive to a lot of voters.

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 18h

Bonus points to Congress for legislating into existence special Article III courts to conduct the trial and hear the appeal, with no further appeal to the Supreme Court. A Democratic president can appoint the judges to the court, and a Democratic Senate confirm them.

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 18h

It would be perfectly ok for Congress to overturn the Supreme Court's made-up-from-whole-cloth decision granting Trump immunity, strip courts' jurisdiction to review the legislation, and then prosecute Trump and jail him. The check on abuse is political--either Americans agree or they don't.

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 23h

... ordinary legislation and jurisdiction stripping. None of that requires a super-majority. So ... ?

Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 23h

Not sure what exactly you have in mind a supermajority is required for. Filibuster is just a Senate rule. It can be suspended at any time by a majority vote. I've spent many pages in law reviews and the popular press describing a majoritarian strategy for change that relies on ...

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 23h

Yes. Although “retroactively criminalizing being MAGA” is not at all what I’m proposing.

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 1d

Correct. Social cooperation has broken down. We need a period of tit for tat if we ever hope to restore it.

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 1d

Agreed. That interview where he spat out paragraph after paragraph of focus-group pablum on Gaza was the final straw for me.

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 1d

We need a Nuremberg Tribunal for Trumpism. And new laws that apply retroactively. And whatever legislation and court jurisdiction stripping is required to insulate those new laws from courts filled with GOP partisan judges. /end

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 1d

That would be a terrible outcome. If we want to put a stake through Trumpism, we need a sustained campaign of retribution. Not "justice" as we understand that term under current law and legal institutions. Those have failed. We need new law and a new legal institution targeting Trumpist crimes. 2/

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 1d

This Buttigieg interview is pretty frustrating. Buttigieg says repeatedly that Dems can't simply restore status quo w/r/t gov't institutions, b/c many were not working well even before Trump. But no apparent consequences for GOP wrecking everything. Just kumbaya. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/o...

Opinion | Pete Buttigieg on Rebuilding America After Trump

www.nytimes.com

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 1d

And this is why, despite the disappointments of my Catholic upbringing (including my parish priest sexually abusing several young girls), I remain tied to the Church. The Church's moral voice--however compromised it can be sometimes--remains vital to humanity.

National Catholic Reporter @ncronline.bsky.social · 1d

Pope Leo XIV is clear in his first formal document: The love of money really is the root of all evils.

Pope Leo sides with the poor

In his first apostolic exhortation, Dilexi Te ("I have loved you"), Pope Leo XIV is clear: The love of money really is the root of all evils.

bit.ly

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Reposted by Chris Sprigman

Hannah Walser @hkpmw.bsky.social · 1d

Super fun how we basically don’t have a Fourth Amendment anymore thanks to a shadow docket decision

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 1d

The entire incident is infuriating and terrifying. She’s a Latina woman who was working a service job. On her way home late at night, with her headphones in, she was detained for an hour by masked federal agents who wouldn’t give her their names.

Maria Greeley, 44, had just finished working a double shift at the Beach Bar on Ohio Street
earlier this month when she said she was surrounded by three federal agents who grabbed her, forced her hands behind her back and zip tied her.
Headphones in, Greeley had been focused on getting home to her two dogs for a walk.
Instead, she said she was detained by masked agents who did not answer when she asked for names. They questioned her for an hour, she said.

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Reposted by Chris Sprigman

Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 1d

"Mamdani told me he understands that his success or failure will not be seen as only his own. He is right."

This is true but also tells on itself because The Discourse Gatekeepers do not declare centrism dead because Eric Adams proved to be an incompetent buffoon crook. It only goes one way!

Inside the Improbable, Audacious and (So Far) Unstoppable Rise of Zohran Mamdani

www.nytimes.com

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 1d

The best thing the WaPo could do now is die. That has always been true of the food section.

karl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social · 1d

Lmao WaPo has fewer than 100K circulation now. It turns out “alienate your liberal subscriber base” is not a good strategy when the Republicans also hate you. www.forbes.com/sites/andyme...

The Washington Post Is Running Out Of Readers Willing To Pay

Once a titan of American journalism, The Washington Post now struggles to reach even 100,000 print subscribers most days.

www.forbes.com

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 1d

She'll be 78 in December. She'd be 84 at the end of her first term. Democrats' first priority, as ever, seems to be preserving their gerontocracy.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 1d

Breaking News: Janet Mills, the Democratic governor of Maine, is running for Senate, aiming to unseat Senator Susan Collins, a Republican.

Gov. Janet Mills of Maine to Run for Senate, Aiming at Senator Susan Collins

A two-term Democratic governor, Ms. Mills called herself “battle tested” in an interview. But she faces a Democratic primary before she can challenge the Republican incumbent.

nyti.ms

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Reposted by Chris Sprigman

Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · 1d

Not even canceling. Just rescheduling a talk.

Berin Szóka @berinszoka.bsky.social · 1d

The real problem, says the US Attorney who resigned after Trump blocked her prosecution of Eric Adams, isn't that Trump has turned the DOJ into an arm of his vengeance or favor, depending on his whim, but ... law schools canceling Ilya Shapiro 🤦‍♂️

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 2d

Danielle Sassoon is right to call out universities for using “security” as a convenient justification for shutting down controversial speech. The notion that conservatives are the main victims of this practice is delusional, though. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/o...

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 1d

When the GOP loses power—and it will—we need retribution. Not kumbaya. Not a return to law and legal institutions as we knew them—they have failed to protect us. We need retribution. Or this will happen again.

StrictlyChristo 🇺🇦🌻❌👑 @strictlychristo.bsky.social · 1d

Federal Secret Police and plainclothes ICE agents kidnap multiple people from a neighborhood in Chicago. They then deploy teargas and brutally beat neighbors who come out to express their concern.

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 1d

"Accountability" is a polite word that elites use when they intend to do nothing. We need retribution. I explain here what that means. www.editorialboard.com/under-trump-...

Under Trump, there is no law. The people want payback

Forget accountability, says legal expert. Think retribution.

www.editorialboard.com

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Reposted by Chris Sprigman

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 2d

Police officers who publicly declare that they’ll quit if a mayoral candidate they dislike wins the election are (1) usually bluffing—sure buddy, toss away that paycheck and pension—and (2) exactly the sort of cops cities would be better off without, ones who don’t see themselves as public servants.

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 2d

This is a moment where current legality has failed. We need to establish a new basis for it.

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 2d

But in any event, we are in a different position right now--one which Americans have no memory of. We are confronting a failed constitution. That happened when we replaced Articles of Confederation w/current constitution. We didn't do it according the the processes mandated by the failed document.

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Chris Sprigman @cjsprigman.bsky.social · 2d

Yes. Congress can legislate them away and strip courts' jurisdiction to review. I have written quite a bit on this. Congress should be enforcing its own views of the Constitution's meaning and limits. The pardon power was never meant to empower a criminal president.

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