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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2h

roberts thinks it is an affront that a community of upstanding citizens can not do as it chooses when it comes to voting. if that means that they might discriminate against a racial minority, he has no problem with that either as long as it is facially neutral.

Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 23h

Everything about John Roberts's approach to the Voting Rights Act makes sense when you remember that John Roberts has has always been hostile to the Voting Rights Act, never believed it was appropriate, and has spent most of his 45-year legal career working to hollow it out.

One of the Biggest Cases of the Supreme Court’s Term Is John Roberts’ Decadeslong Pet Project

If there’s one thing the Roberts court has been consistent on, it’s this.

slate.com

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Matinee Mode @matineemode.bsky.social · 3h

The iconic art deco movie poster designed by John Mattos was cited by Disney as a key issue in the marketing for THE ROCKETEER (1991) as it was a mysterious image that didn’t showcase the cast enough. Funny enough, this is exactly what made me want to see the film originally.

Original art deco movie poster for THE ROCKETEER (1991)

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Quinn Yeargain @yeargain.bsky.social · 2h

In 2018, Utahns adopted an initiated statute to create a redistricting commission. The legislature repealed it, and after a long legal battle, a judge ruled that the legislature's repeal was unconstitutional. Republicans are trying again—and I think they're violating the Utah Constitution again.

Utah attorney general backs GOP initiative to repeal redistricting laws

The Utah Republican Party has one month to collect over 150,000 signatures.

www.deseret.com

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Kevin Morris @kevintmorris.bsky.social · 2h

I've been calling this the Rucho–Alexander two-step. In very short order go from "partisan gerrymandering is lamentable but not addressable by the Court" to "if it COULD be partisan gerrymandering, it MUST be partisan gerrymandering"

Jerry Edwards @jerryedwards.bsky.social · 2h

They also explicitly greenlighted this sophistry last year in Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. Alito argued there that racial discrimination isn't racial discrimination if Republicans target Black voters for political reasons.

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davidrlurie @davidrlurie.bsky.social · 2h

Trumpers are deeply frustrated that their violence is being met with nonviolence.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2h

New in PN: Scenes from Portland's imaginary insurrection

"I’ve been taking images that are nowhere near this one conflict driveway — ones of puppies & kids playing, & families having picnics — b/c the idea that Portland is burned down & a war zone is just preposterous" — @timdickinson.bsky.social

Scenes from Portland's imaginary insurrection

"It would be funny if it wasn’t so f**king serious," Tim Dickinson says.

www.publicnotice.co

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 1h

It's one of those cases where nobody wants to be the plaintiff so you can get away with it.
But there will definitely be future actions where you won't want this lurking as a precedent that you said nothing about.

Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 20h

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/

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Michael P. Breen @mpbreen21.bsky.social · 3d

Once American democracy made it possible for a Black man to be elected president, American conservatives decided that it had to be destroyed

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 4d

While Vought traces the “leftwing revolution” back a hundred years, to the progressive era, there is no question that the election of Barack Obama was a radicalizing moment for him and many key thinkers on the radical Right - as were the multiracial protests in the summer of 2020.

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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 1h

Jonathan Chait: The idea Trump is just doing to Democrats what they did to him, or even that the legal system treated Trump unfairly, is nonsense www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Don’t Blame the Democrats for Trump’s Revenge Tour

Defending Trump’s lawfare as just deserts misremembers what actually happened.

www.theatlantic.com

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Meredith Shiner @meredithshiner.com · 1h

Supreme Court justices are inherently political and the important thing to recognize is that John Roberts is not being presented with a country that could hypothetically be fascist without the VRA. We live here now, and he is still going to choose to finish this project. He wants ~this~.

Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 23h

Everything about John Roberts's approach to the Voting Rights Act makes sense when you remember that John Roberts has has always been hostile to the Voting Rights Act, never believed it was appropriate, and has spent most of his 45-year legal career working to hollow it out.

One of the Biggest Cases of the Supreme Court’s Term Is John Roberts’ Decadeslong Pet Project

If there’s one thing the Roberts court has been consistent on, it’s this.

slate.com

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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 1h

The Trump admin is preparing sweeping changes at the IRS that would allow the agency to pursue criminal inquiries of left-leaning groups more easily.

A senior IRS official involved in the effort has drawn up a list of potential targets that includes major Democratic donors.

Exclusive | Trump Team Plans IRS Overhaul to Enable Pursuit of Left-Leaning Groups

The effort would install a Trump ally at the IRS’s criminal unit who has drawn up a list of investigative targets.

www.wsj.com

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Adam Weinstein @adamweinstein.bsky.social · 1h

Glenn Beck has been targeting these same groups for so long that a viewer of his attempted to murder people at the Tides Foundation in SF *a decade and a half ago* (and settled for a shoutout with cops on 580) www.democracynow.org/2010/10/12/p...

"Progressive Hunter": Gunman Cites Listening to Glenn Beck and Others as Inspiration for Armed Plot Against ACLU & Tides

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Rachel Maddow @maddow.msnbc.com · 16h

"In unison."

Amen.

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Reporters leave Pentagon en masse after refusing to sign on to new rules

After turning in their press credentials, journalists covering the Defense Department walked out rather than comply with its restrictive new policies.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Dan Davis @bindlestiff.bsky.social · 13h

Reuters reporting this blatant crime as if it’s a lunch date is a prime example of the kind of careless, aloof normalization in journalism that has greased the skids of this catastrophic authoritarian power grab.

Reuters @reuters.com · 20h

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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City Nolan @ndhapple.bsky.social · 13h

Putting teeth in the Hatch Act should be high on the to-do list for whenever Congress remembers it’s Article 1.

“Legal experts say Kristi Noem's airport video breaks the law. Penalties are unlikely” — www.npr.org/2025/10/14/n...

Legal experts say Kristi Noem's airport video breaks the law. Penalties are unlikely

In a Department of Homeland Security video, Kristi Noem blames Democrats for the government shutdown. Law and ethics experts say it violates the Hatch Act, but there are rarely serious consequences.

www.npr.org

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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 13h

A Florida judge has temporarily blocked the planned transfer of prime downtown Miami land for Trump's future presidential library.

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Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 14h

On the record, I think sneering at these people that they’re somehow *bad* because they stayed on Twitter for this long is incredibly counterproductive

it’s great that more people have escaped the Mussolini Piss Hole and come to Bluesky actually, their numbers shall strengthen us

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 14h

judging from what I’m seeing right now, a large-scale Twitter Exodus Event is 100% what’s happening

good!

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Ari Berman @ariberman.bsky.social · 16h

SCOTUS decision killing what’s left of Voting Rights Act could cost Dems 19 House seats, eliminate every majority-minority district in South, eviscerate 14th/15th Amendments & fulfill John Roberts 40-year crusade against country’s most important civil rights law www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Republican justices appear poised to destroy what’s left of the Voting Rights Act

The results will be "catastrophic."

www.motherjones.com

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Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 17h

🧵 This reporting confirms my suspicion on why, based on reporting last week, the CIA's Deputy Director, Michael Ellis, installed himself as the agency's general counsel. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

Trump Administration Authorizes Covert C.I.A. Action in Venezuela

www.nytimes.com

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David Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 22h

You have to understand that there is NO accountability for ICE even in theory. You can't sue an ICE agent. They won't be criminally prosecuted for violating your rights. They won't be fired. THE ONLY WAY TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM ICE IS TO RUN FROM ICE.

David Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 22h

Here's another Kavanaugh stop in action. Agent says: "Why are you running?" Admitting that he had no cause to stop and tackle this boy.

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 15h

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 · 20h

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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Omri Marian @omrimarian.bsky.social · 12h

Every authoritarian uses the tax administrations to bankrupt political enemies. Putin did it. Erdugan did it. Orban did it. Now Trump is doing it.
I'm writing about it.

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 12h

"The Trump administration is preparing sweeping changes at the Internal Revenue Service that would allow the agency to pursue criminal inquiries of left-leaning groups more easily, according to people familiar with the matter."

Exclusive | Trump Team Plans IRS Overhaul to Enable Pursuit of Left-Leaning Groups

The effort would install a Trump ally at the IRS’s criminal unit who has drawn up a list of investigative targets.

www.wsj.com

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Betcy Jose @betcy.bsky.social · 17h

"The dearth of military pushback... begs the question of how effectively Trump & Hegseth have cleaned house, rooting out those who might disagree with them. It is unclear if there are senior officers still objecting behind closed doors, or if everyone is keeping silent in order to save their jobs."

The Dilemma of Duty Under Trump

What his assault on the U.S. military means for America.

www.foreignaffairs.com

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PoliticalGamer @politicalgamer.bsky.social · 11h

I had a friend who once visited France. The best advice I heard is that if you speak even a little of the native language, people will open up and act much more warmly to you.

Jay Allen @gaiaslastlaugh.bsky.social · 12h

Tourists to Japan are always like "I'll just use my phone to translate and talk with people" and so far every person I've talked to in Japanese service industry/nightlife has said they find this the most annoying thing ever

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 12h

Shorter Mike Johnson:

Beating up a woman isn’t “really serious.”

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Q: This has been reported for a while. Cory Mills was accused of beating a girlfriend in his DC apt. Are you concerned about these allegations?

JOHNSON: You have to ask Rep. Mills about that. He's been a faithful colleague. I don't know the details. Let's talk about things that are really serious

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 12h

Again, it is a full-blown federal felony crime for anyone in the White House or Executive Office of the President to order tax investigations into anyone.

And it's not just a crime to DO it, it's even a federal crime for an employee not to REPORT such an order to the Treasury Inspector General.

26 U.S. Code § 7217 - Prohibition on executive branch influence over taxpayer audits and other investigations
U.S. Code
Notes
prev | next
(a)Prohibition
It shall be unlawful for any applicable person to request, directly or indirectly, any officer or employee of the Internal Revenue Service to conduct or terminate an audit or other investigation of any particular taxpayer with respect to the tax liability of such taxpayer.

(b)Reporting requirement
Any officer or employee of the Internal Revenue Service receiving any request prohibited by subsection (a) shall report the receipt of such request to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

(c)Exceptions
Subsection (a) shall not apply to any written request made—
(1)to an applicable person by or on behalf of the taxpayer and forwarded by such applicable person to the Internal Revenue Service;
(2)by an applicable person for disclosure of return or return information under section 6103 if such request is made in accordance with the requirements of such section; or
(3)by the Secretary of the Treasury as a consequence of the implementation of a change in tax policy.
(d)Penalty
Any person who willfully violates subsection (a) or fails to report under subsection (b) shall be punished upon conviction by a fine in any amount not exceeding $5,000, or imprisonment of not more than 5 years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution.

(e)Applicable person
For purposes of this section, the term “applicable person” means—
(1)the President, the Vice President, any employee of the executive office of the President, and any employee of the executive office of the Vice President; and
(2)any individual (other than the Attorney General of the United States) serving in a position specified in section 5312 of title 5, United States Code.

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