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(C)all (M)e "Shirley" or don't, I don't care @realcinematik.bsky.social · 1h

Shame is like terrorism. You don't attack your target, you attack around them: shame their friends, their relatives, their acquaintances, their kids, their parents, their neighbors, even their friggin' mailman until the very idea of association with the person costs money, reputation, or both.

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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 10h

Under the Constitution and under the ADA, it is illegal to spend money without funding for that purpose. The president may not spend money to do something unless there's actually money to carry it out and that action is expressly allowed.

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S9-C7-1/ALDE_00001095/

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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 10h

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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ghost malone ergo propter malone @proptermalone.bsky.social · 10h

we're going to have to prosecute this stuff

Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 10h

The mechanism through which Trump is paying the troops is the most blatant large Antideficiency Act (ADA) violation in US history. It's also clearly willful. No one has been charged under the ADA before, but violations carry a two-year jail term. The statute of limitations is five years.

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ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 1h

while a lot of admin’s wrongs are described by the Declaration of Independence’s complaints, its worth noting that Trump is seeking powers far beyond even those wielded by George III

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 5h

This is almost literally what the English Civil War was fought over.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 5h

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.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 2h

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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(C)all (M)e "Shirley" or don't, I don't care @realcinematik.bsky.social · 2h

Their good ducks, Bob

Three yellow ducklings swimming in a bathtub.

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Matt Ortega @mattortega.com · 9h

Can Democrats be more explicit about the fact that the masked ICE raids, restrictive immigration policies, targeting of nonwhite employment, anti-DEI hysteria, and importation of overtly racist white people from Europe is about engineering white supremacist dominance?

Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 10h

So Nazis. They want to give refugee status to Nazis.

OK, maybe not JUST Nazis. Also certain other white people who hate non-white immigration. But Nazis can definitely come.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

The proposals also advise Mr. Trump to prioritize Europeans who have been “targeted for peaceful expression of views online such as opposition to mass migration or support for ‘populist’ political parties.”

That appeared to be a reference to the European far-right political party Alternative for Germany, whose leaders have trivialized the Holocaust, revived Nazi slogans and denigrated foreigners. Vice President JD Vance has criticized Germany for trying to suppress the views of the group, which is known as the AfD.

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Annie Abrams @annieabrams.bsky.social · 10h

this is, in fact, what's happening

Ayo Hirschman @contextproblem.bsky.social · 10h

The bad scenario I see people talking about (MT Sweeney on here e.g.) is a real face to face liberal arts education for the children of the elite and intellectuals, religious/patriotic charter schools for the middle class, and basically kid jail/work programs for the poor kids

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Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 10h

I just want to be very clear here. This is the Vice President of the United States saying it’s a regular practice among white people to enthusiastically endorse slavery, Hitler, and rape.

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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 10h

With the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, Israel & the United States enabled U.S. security contractors to participate in war crimes alongside the IDF against Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The US could and should prosecute citizen perpetrators under the War Crimes Act internationalpolicy.org/publications...

Enforce the War Crimes Act Against Americans Who Committed Them In Gaza - CIP

While federal level action is unlikely under the Trump administration, members of Congress, civil society, and groups leading strategic litigation should press to use U.S. law to hold both the Israeli...

internationalpolicy.org

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(C)all (M)e "Shirley" or don't, I don't care @realcinematik.bsky.social · 10h

SCOTUS & Republicans have declared legal rebellion against the Constitution & the people of the United States as dangerous as the rebellion instigated by their Confederate forbears & this rebellion must be put down immediately before it devolves into open war.

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(C)all (M)e "Shirley" or don't, I don't care @realcinematik.bsky.social · 10h

This is literally why the Reconstruction Founders amended the Constitution, so legal hacks like Barrett & the rest of the illegitimate Roberts Six could not deny the plain letter or meaning of the Constitution without completely upending the compact between the states, the people, & the government.

Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 15h

Barrett is now suggesting that the Voting Rights Act may be BEYOND CONGRESS’S POWER TO ENFORCE THE RECONSTRUCTION AMENDMENTS.

Neoconfederate stuff here.

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onion person @junlper.beer · 10h

we love edgy jokes about gas chambers and rape unless it’s jokes about charlie kirk dying, which if you do that, you’ll be punished and deported and free speech revoked

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the abbot of unreason (an archaeologist) @merovingians.bsky.social · 1d

George W Bush and his party were ravenous war criminals and ardent reactionaries. They were not Nazis. *these guys* are Nazis

the abbot of unreason (an archaeologist) @merovingians.bsky.social · 1d

again, the problem with rhetorical maximalism (all Republicans since Barry fucking Goldwater were Nazis) is that you end up believing it and saying absolutely unhinged shit thinking it's normal

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(C)all (M)e "Shirley" or don't, I don't care @realcinematik.bsky.social · 12h

OpenAI has begged the market to continue to keep their stock inflated.

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 14h

OpenAI has pledged to spend $1 trillion in the next five years.

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Anna Phylaxis @quatoria.bsky.social · 16h

What you see here is the political consciousness of the ICE agents.

They see their mission the same way the Trump administration sees it - as a state of war, not against immigrants, but against cities.

They correctly understand themselves to be at war against Chicago and all who live in her.

Jessica Kant @jessdkant.bsky.social · 16h

Agent lobs a gas canister into a residential neighborhood in Illinois for no discernible reason, gassing dozens of neighbors including a baby. The comfort with which they deploy weapons of war is unreal.

Source: www.reddit.com/r/illinois/s...

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(C)all (M)e "Shirley" or don't, I don't care @realcinematik.bsky.social · 13h

Every blue state independent redistricting commission should be dissolved and replaced with hardcore progressive Democratic partisans until the National Popular Vote Compact is in effect.

Daniel Gilmore @gilmored85.bsky.social · 13h

The second cardinal sin is thinking that agency only goes one way. "We'll get to gerrymander our states to lock out our opponents!" works both ways and there are a lot of GOP seats in firmly blue states that will get nuked too if they want to go down that path.

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Daniel Gilmore @gilmored85.bsky.social · 13h

re: Republicans, SCOTUS, & gerrymandering, one of the cardinal sins you can make in politics is assuming that your political coalition--& the general balance of politics in the US--is static. They all seem really intent on leaning in on that bc their hubris wont allow them to consider the downsides

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(C)all (M)e "Shirley" or don't, I don't care @realcinematik.bsky.social · 13h

No joke, this kind of social ostracism and shaming is exactly what we need much MUCH more of and her former friends and colleagues deserve applause for holding her socially accountable for her shitty views and professional choices.

Don't be friends with fascists.

Kurtbert Barlowko @albertburneko.bsky.social · 13h

"disliking me is persecution" describes so incredibly many people's entire outlook these days defector.com/free-press-r...

Free Press Reporter Discovers That Being An Amoral Dickhead Can Cost You Friends | Defector

It can be hard to maintain friendships as an adult. People move to new cities, start families, and experience all sorts of other life events that make it difficult to keep in touch. Sometimes, you end...

defector.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 13h

“the constitution forbids race conscious remedies” would be news to the people who wrote the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments

Michael Li (李之樸) @mcpli.bsky.social · 13h

Griem goes there, arguing in response to Justice Jackson that there can be no race-conscious remedy absent a finding of intentional discrimination.

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onion person @junlper.beer · 13h

very annoying that we had to endure about a month of these people going “calling us nazis hurts our feelings” to then immediately be revealed saying nazi shit and going “yup, we want gas chambers. so what libs”

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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 14h

It's somehow both wildly underreported and just out in the open that the vice president is either a neo-Nazi or, at a bare minimum, a neo-Nazi fellow traveler.

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 15h

Fascinating. Politico notes that when notified of the texts, many state-level Republicans fired or condemned these cretins. Now Vance emerges to excuse the racism, and calls the reaction to it "pearl clutching."

He seems determined to purge the party of its last enclaves of decency.

‘College Group Chat’: JD Vance Dismisses ‘Pearl Clutching’ Over Young Republicans Leak to Attack Jay Jones

Liberals hit back at Vance's blunt dismissal of racist, antisemitic and misogynistic messages leaked from a Young Republicans group chat.

www.mediaite.com

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(C)all (M)e "Shirley" or don't, I don't care @realcinematik.bsky.social · 14h

Liars gonna lie. Maybe CNN's coverage should reflect the fact that the president is a corrupt, illegitimate thief cosplaying at governance while he steals and grifts to the tune of billions of dollars and every red cent must be clawed back by the American people.

(C)all (M)e "Shirley" or don't, I don't care @realcinematik.bsky.social · 14h

Democrats' posture must be that every single one of these SCOTUS moves is illegitimate & the first order of business after overthrowing the fascists will be to make the six fascist justices irrelevant as we will pack the Court, strip their jurisdiction, & reverse of all of their precedents.

Democracy Docket @democracydocket.com · 15h

HAPPENING SOON: SCOTUS will hear arguments in a case that could end one of the last safeguards against racial gerrymanders, and lock in GOP control of the U.S. House for generations to come. We’ll be providing real-time court updates at the blog below👇

LIVE BLOG: Supreme Court Hears Case That Could Gut the Voting Rights Act