James Downie
@jamescdownie.bsky.social
9K followers 700 following 2.3K posts
Columnist and editor at MSNBC Daily and WGAE member. Formerly Washington Post Opinions. DC born and raised. D.C. United and Montreal Canadiens fan. [email protected]; jdow.92 on Signal
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Reposted by James Downie
razzball.bsky.social
Someone in the crowd: “Go Cubs!”

Pope Leo XIV: “Han perdido! They lost!”
Reposted by James Downie
hollyanderson.bsky.social
you fucked around and now the Episcopalians are doing memes. are you happy now. are you
Screenshot of a Facebook post featuring three of the Portland protesters wearing inflatable frog costumes with the following text:

Episcopalians on Facebook
Elizabeth Rose Elrod • 22h •
Exodus 8:2-6
"But if you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs...
The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your officials."
Reposted by James Downie
jwmason.bsky.social
As it happens, this is almost exactly the same as Nintendo’s annual revenue. Which seems like the right comparison- a successful producer of electronic toys. on.ft.com/4nMkP0B
OpenAI books about $13bn in annual recurring revenue, 70 per cent of which comes from consumers using ChatGPT, which costs $20 for a standard subscription, according to people familiar with the company’s finances.
jamescdownie.bsky.social
This is indistinguishable from Ben Shapiro et. al. losing their minds when Barack Obama didn't magically declare the end of racism.
elienyc.bsky.social
Kavanaugh looking to find the "end point" when the Court no longer has to worry about the intentional use of race to create black districts.
I'd say "WHEN WHITE FOLKS STOP INTENTIONALLY USING RACE TO DECREASE BLACK VOTING POWER" but he thinks white people doing that is cool.
Reposted by James Downie
ryanlcooper.com
arguably quite a bit worse than anything Charles I did, at least in terms of how things are supposed to work
atrupar.com
Trump and Bessent clarify that they will only help out Argentina as long as Milei is in power. Trump adds that the same thing goes with NYC, where the White House will hold up funds if Mamdani wins.
Reposted by James Downie
mattielubchansky.com
weird phenomenon i keep encountering where “writers” correctly identify the soul-sucking danger that large language models pose to their craft, but for some reason have no problem using generative AI to make images. like….are you stupid!!!!
jamescdownie.bsky.social
This is especially hilarious coming from a guy whose hedge fund lost 90% of its assets. If anyone's gotten "picked up" after disaster, it's Bessent himself.

(source: www.rawstory.com/scott-bessen...)
fintwitter.bsky.social
BESSENT: AS FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT COMES DOWN, THE PRIVATE SECTOR WILL PICK UP THOSE PEOPLE
Reposted by James Downie
jacobsoboroff.bsky.social
here’s more context to the videos DHS is putting out from Chicago.
Reposted by James Downie
jamescdownie.bsky.social
– Visits to thrift stores are up 40% since 2019
– Hamburger Helper sales are up ~15% this year
– Sales of heavy trucks (semis, etc) were down 15% in Aug. versus 2024

Consumer spending and the stock market may be holding, but all is not well in the economy:

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Recession warning signs to watch: Goodbye lipstick, hello Hamburger Helper
Recession indicators have been satirized online. Here are actual recession warning signs to look out for.
www.washingtonpost.com
Reposted by James Downie
faineg.bsky.social
“This heckin’ pupperino fucking hates La Migra,” to paraphrase from @weratedogs.com
Rate Dogs & • Follow
...
2h •
This is Chop. He was shot and killed by masked assailants in plain clothes who go by ICE. They showed up at his door "looking for migrants after receiving a tip." The son of the family asked if they could wait before entering the home while he put Chop away in the bathroom, as the dog can be aggressive with strangers.
According to the family, it is at this point that the son went to his pickup truck to retrieve his ID and a Border Patrol agent entered the home, opened the bathroom door, and shot Chop. None of the agents helped the family, who desperately tried to render aid to Chop, as he bled to death on the kitchen floor. Unsurprisingly, the agent who shot their dog then hid from them and refused to give his name. Even more unsurprising, they did not find any evidence of the migrants they were there to terrorize in the first place.
Do not open your door for these fucking losers. Rest easy Chop
14/10
CBP Office of Professional Responsibility:
202-344-1808
JointIntake@cbp.dhs.gov
El Paso Border Patrol Sector:
915-834-8400
fpfelpaso@cbp.dhs.gov
Rep. Veronica Escobar (El Paso):
915-541-1400
veronica.escobar@mail.house.gov
https://kfoxtv.com/news/local/el-paso-family-claims-border-patrol-killed-their-dog-during-search-cbp-
Reposted by James Downie
diplomatofnight.com
On MSNBC, Kamala Harris was asked if she agreed that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians.

“I will tell you that when you look at the number of children that have been killed [...] the refusal to give aid, we should all step back and ask this question and be honest about it, yeah.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris held back from labeling Israel's actions in Gaza a "genocide" on Sunday but said it was an appropriate question.
"A lot of folks in your party have called what's happening in Gaza a genocide. Do you agree with that?" correspondent Eugene Daniels asked Harris during an interview on MSNBC's "The Weekend."
"Listen, it is a term of law that a court will decide," Harris responded. "But I will tell you that when you look at the number of children that have been killed, the number of innocent civilians that have been
killed, the refusal to give aid and support, we should all step back and ask this question and be honest about it, yeah."
Reposted by James Downie
cwarzel.bsky.social
this is really the key insight. it's why the best attacks against them highlight that these violent, sadistic racists are not really able to coexist in society - they aren't just offensive, they're deeply off-putting: weirdos, creeps, etc. bsky.app/profile/junl...
junlper.beer
these people know how extreme they are
jamescdownie.bsky.social
In 1948, the GOP-controlled Congress spent 109 days in session, a post-WW2 low. They lost both chambers that fall.

Under Mike Johnson, the House has been in session just 20 days of the last 103. And staying home isn't working any better for him. My latest for MSNBC: www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Concerns about Congress’ shrinking role in running the country long predate Johnson and the rest of this generation of congressional leaders, on both sides. But just 20 days in session in more than three months is an astonishingly small number — a rate of less than 80 days in session in a calendar year. The lowest since World War II, for comparison, was the 80th Congress, which had 109 days in session in 1948. But unlike this 119th Congress, the “Do Nothing” Congress (as President Harry Truman famously deemed it) had two excuses. First, it was in opposition to the sitting president, limiting the chances for legislation. Second, 1948 was an election year, and Congress typically spends less time in session when its members are campaigning. Just as the White House has been sending mixed messages — alternating between blaming Democrats for the shutdown and using it to fire thousands of federal employees — Johnson’s “stay home” approach has undercut his talking points. It’s difficult to argue that he is serious about swiftly reopening the government when his caucus is spread out around the country. Instead, Democrats seem to be winning the messaging war. The Washington Post reports, “The White House and a growing number of congressional Republicans are worried that Democrats’ demand to boost Obamacare as part of any bill to reopen the government is proving salient with voters — including their own.” Speaking of Obamacare, by keeping the House away, Johnson has hurt efforts to deal with expiring subsidies for plans on the Affordable Care Act marketplace. “That’s a Dec. 31 issue,” Johnson insisted last week. But that timeline is misleading. “While the enhanced premium tax credits are set to expire at the end of 2025, the start of open enrollment is around the corner on Nov. 1,” says Miranda Yaver of the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. If lawmakers don’t agree on a fix before the end of the year, it will be weeks after “marketplace insurers have submitted their initial premium rate proposals, suggesting dramatic premium increases faced by marketplace enrollees.” Without a fix to the subsidies soon, millions of people will be deciding in November whether to pay more next year or forgo coverage altogether. For them, a Dec. 31 deal would come far too late. As for the Epstein files, Johnson’s effort here seems especially futile. Clearly, neither the White House nor Republicans in Congress want a vote on releasing the files (though even if the bill passes the House, it will certainly die in the Senate). But efforts to derail the discharge petition seem to have failed, and at some point — whether for the ACA subsidies or some other legislation — the House will have to come back. By delaying Grijalva’s swearing-in, Johnson only deepens suspicions that the White House is hiding something.
Reposted by James Downie
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...
Reposted by James Downie
lyz.bsky.social
It’s time, beyond time, really, I’m leaving Substack. I didn’t do it before because I had no other income to rely on. I don’t think abandoning spaces is always the right answer but sometimes it’s necessary www.patreon.com/posts/why-i-...
Why I am leaving Substack | Men Yell at Me by Lyz Lenz
Get more from Men Yell at Me by Lyz Lenz on Patreon
www.patreon.com
Reposted by James Downie
jilldlawrence.bsky.social
Good discussion with @gregsargent.bsky.social on No Kings and the right to protest: "They’re trying to turn it into something really evil. But that’s because they’re scared of it, and they know it turns public opinion... I think they should be worried, because nothing they’re doing is popular."
Reposted by James Downie
tanvi.bsky.social
his summer, I went to Panama and met Jharana, a 33-year-old from Nepal who had been deported there in a group of 300 others — the 1st group to be sent to a third country. I wrote about what happened to her and others over the year for
@nymag.com -->

nymag.com/intelligence...
What Happened to The Migrants The U.S. Dumped In Panama?
Nearly 300 people were sent to a country they’d never lived in. The journey didn’t end there.
nymag.com
Reposted by James Downie
newsguy.bsky.social
WaPo joins NYT, CNN, The Atlantic, Guardian and others, according to @ScottNover, in announcing it won't sign the Pentagon's controversial new press policy.
Reposted by James Downie
jamellebouie.net
obviously john roberts and the trump majority aren't going a little thing like "history" or "the written text of the constitution" get in the way of their ideological drive to remake the (republican) presidency as an elected dictatorship.
Originalist ‘Bombshell’ Complicates Case on Trump’s Power to Fire Officials
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by James Downie
rswirling.bsky.social
++ people in DC. Still. It’s still happening here I had feds in the alley behind my house 3 days ago. 7 people (that I know of) have been taken from my block alone.
bomtellino.bsky.social
It’s been said but it bears repeating: in addition to the people being abducted, all Chicagoans are being psychologically terrorized. Seeing feds driving/walking around and videos of violent attacks in places you know and love will fuck you up. Get ready, it’s coming to all of America soon.
jamescdownie.bsky.social
Mike Johnson: It's Obama's fault that we can't repeal Obamacare.
Jake Sherman: "JOHNSON this AM: 'Can we completely repeal and replace Obamacare? Many of us are skeptical about that now, because the roots are so deep, it was really sinister, the way it was created. I believe Obamacare was created to implode upon itself, to collapse upon itself.'”
jamescdownie.bsky.social
"On Tuesday dozens of miners and their families will be...protesting the Trump administration outside the Labor Department building, arguing it has failed to protect them from black lung disease, an incurable illness caused by inhaling coal and silica dust." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/c...
Coal Miners With Black Lung Say They Are ‘Cast Aside to Die’ Under Trump
www.nytimes.com