Don Zeko
@donzeko.bsky.social
4.2K followers 310 following 5.8K posts
Public defender in the South, politics obsessive, nerd stuff enthusiast. Also a dad, although I'm trying to respect the privacy of my increasingly feral children.
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Reposted by Don Zeko
I am going to take the radical position that Democratic politicians are deeply ambitious people who desire to gain political power and influence, and that if there were actually a simple rhetorical trick to easily win elections they would, in fact, be doing it.
Reposted by Don Zeko
The president of the United States has said *multiole times* that he hates Americans who are democrats. That is a FUCKING HUGE SCANDAL. Nobody will treat it as one.
this white house actively treats a large swath of americans as disloyal and outside the political community and it doesn’t merit so much as a peep from the political press
Leavitt: "The Democrat Party's main constituency is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals."
Reposted by Don Zeko
office jobs are good. workplaces that focus on intellectual skills and social relationships are good. spending your working life in them and then trying to pose as some kind of icon of traditional machismo is a sign of being a baby loser - or, as usual, it's another whine about #MeToo.
Reposted by Don Zeko
i mean, i don't think it's a mystery NYT
The military commander overseeing the Pentagon’s escalating attacks against boats in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration says are smuggling drugs is stepping down, two U.S. officials said on Thursday.

The officer, Adm. Alvin Holsey, is leaving his job as head of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees all operations in Central and South America, even as the Pentagon has rapidly built up some 10,000 forces in the region in what it says is a major counterdrug and counterterrorism mission.

It was unclear why Admiral Holsey is leaving now, less than a year into his tenure, and in the midst of the biggest operation in his 37-year career.
Reposted by Don Zeko
roberts’s constitution allows for racial discrimination as long as you don’t say you’re racially discriminating, because in a classic bit of racecraft, roberts’s constitution forbids acknowledging race but has no particular issue with racism.
Reposted by Don Zeko
The entire Republican Party strategy for achieving what are comprehensively & wildly unpopular policy objectives now consists entirely of bypassing Article I of the Constitution through wildly illegal abuses of both Article II and Article III.
Whatever you think about CFPB, it was created by Congress (as part of the Dodd-Frank Act) and can only be abolished by Congress, not by the President acting as a dictator.
White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers reut.rs/4qjMIyT
Reposted by Don Zeko
The whole point isn’t *not wanting to get in trouble*, it’s showing that we have done nothing to provoke state repression, and yet we will be repressed regardless
Reposted by Don Zeko
Aside from losing many Democratic seats, Black representation in Congress will probably drop from around 14% of seats (nationally representative) to maybe 7 or 8% (not representative)?

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...
The Supreme Court Case That Could Hand the House to Republicans
www.nytimes.com
No Kings is a good slogan but if we're being pedantic then it seems important that Trump is claiming much more expansive powers than any English king ever had.
This is almost literally what the English Civil War was fought over.
President Trump on Wednesday signed a memorandum expanding his administration’s authority to repurpose unspent federal funds to pay members of the military during the government shutdown, escalating his challenge to the authority of Congress on spending matters.
Trump Signs Memo Expanding His Authority to Spend Federal Money
The president gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wide authority to repurpose funds to pay members of the military without approval from Congress, which has the sole constitutional authority to decide federal spending.
nyti.ms
Pelosi probably wishes she phrased that differently but you really have to be obtuse to miss what she was trying to say: we need both major parties to believe in liberal democracy and keep out the factions that don't.
If you are going to a protest where you think you might get arrested (and certainly do this if you intend deliberate civil disobedience) make a plan for this stuff in advance. It might just be writing some phone numbers on your arm or hand
It is also super duper common for the cops to confiscate your phone when they arrest you because they want to dump it for evidence. If this happens you probably won't get it back for months (if you get it back at all)
Fortunately it's not super common, but I definitely get clients who tell me they can't post bond because they can't call their families without getting the number from their phone, which they can't access while incarcerated
not that I'm trying to put anyone on blast here, but an employee of mine at my last job caught a DUI last year. he found out the hard way what all young people need to know: if you don't have any phone numbers memorized, you literally have no way to get in touch with ANYONE while you're in jail.
if you are ever arrested or on your way to the ICU or operating room, you are going to need to have someone's phone number memorized if you want someone to know and/or need emergency help!
Reposted by Don Zeko
How W. E. B. Du Bois responded to government policing of "anti-American" sentiment during the 1910s:

"I took great satisfaction in being able to sit back in my chair and answer blandly, 'We are seeking to have the Constitution of the United States thoroughly and completely enforced.' ”
Federal agents invaded even the offices of The Crisis and the National Association for the advancement of colored people and asked searching questions: " just what, after all, were our objects and activities?” I took great satisfaction in being able to sit back in my chair and answer blandly, “We are seeking to have the constitution of the United states thoroughly and completely enforced.” It took some ingenuity, even for Southerners, to make treason out of that.
Reposted by Don Zeko
Whatever one thinks of Dem tactics, the core of the issue was that Republicans - including those who voted to convict Trump and others who condemned him but claimed he couldn't be impeached after leaving office - did *zilch* to follow up their votes with action.
Reposted by Don Zeko
I have identified the cops always telling conservative tabloid reporters that they'll quit if the election doesn't go their way
Detective Patrick Mahon...useless cop on loan to the task force from Property Crimes. THE WIRE S1 Detective Augustus "Augie" Polk. Drunk useless detective on loan to the task force from Property Crimes. THE WIRE S1.
Reposted by Don Zeko
one thing that has been obvious for a while is this aspect of the authoritarian internationale: they recognize that their allies abroad are not *countries* but *political movements* within foreign countries.

time we liberals woke up and recognized this--because it's the truth.
Or maybe, just maybe, what was obvious in 2024 was correct: Netanyahu fully backed Trump and would not deal with Biden because Trump would give him a free hand to escalate the starvation, bombing, and do full ethnic cleansing. Which he then did, until Netanyahu embarrassed him by bombing Qatar.
I have no idea what he means by this but it would be hilarious if Trump blew up Israel's strategic ambiguity policy about their nuclear program
Trump on Iran: "If we didn't hit them on the nuclear, I don't think we would've been able to have this incredible deal."
Reposted by Don Zeko
Resetting the "years since Republican party coordinates with foreign country to manufacture crisis for incumbent Democrat" sign to zero, for the fourth (?!) time
You can understand the minds of politicians by looking at their behavior, not by listening to the things they say about themselves to justify that behavior. I know it sounds crazy but it's true.
If your spouse keeps telling you that they only have eyes for you but then you catch them cheating six times, you're not going to take it at face value when they keep telling you that. If John Roberts says he's an Originalist and you're a Supreme Court reporter, on the other hand....
Originalism has coherence as an abstract legal theory.

In practice in the Roberts court, it means BS to get to a policy outcome, distorting and ignoring the text and contemporary explanations as needed.

So I’ll believe “conservative lawyer makes strong originalist argument” matters when I see it.
Originalist ‘Bombshell’ Complicates Case on Trump’s Power to Fire Officials
www.nytimes.com
It is entirely possible that this all comes down to what happens when a bunch of Texas NG guys or US Marines get ordered to open fire on a crowd. We want that crowd to be full of people that they don't want to shoot.
protests against this government should include white Boomer grandmothers who meet for pilates class, get a pitcher of mimosas & walk together to the public space

we need people in the street who think everyone can talk their way out of a speeding ticket, they're key to winning
Reposted by Don Zeko
Seeing dudes try to step to the menswear guy makes me understand better the mentality of the regular Street Punks who keep hassling Kiryu in Act 3 of every Yakuza game when hes got all the abilities unlocked
The only way I can explain it is if you can't distinguish the movies from reality and therefore think there's a list of designated Bad Guys who are only at large because the cops can't win a firefight with them.