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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 9h

Not being even vaguely sarcastic:

At some point, a journalist needs to ask Johnson “you regularly claim you have no idea what your own government is doing. If we take you at your word, how are you so poorly informed, and do you this level of ignorance should disqualify you as speaker?”

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 20h

Q: What's your message to the 170 US citizens who have been detained by ICE? About 20 of them are children

MIKE JOHNSON: I don't know what you're talking about with the children. I haven't seen that so I'm not going to comment on it.

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The Questionable Authority @questauthority.bsky.social · 8h

Hey, @safety.bsky.app - do the illegal content rules apply to everyone equally?

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Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 9h

Also, ayo @jay.bsky.team and the BlueSky team, if you’re gonna permaban Link and Palestinian aid accounts, it’s not a good look if you also don’t ban government accounts engaged in obvious violations of the Hatch Act, which is an actual federal law.

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The Questionable Authority @questauthority.bsky.social · 10h

I mean, on the one hand, if you're gonna die on that hill you really need to lean all the way in, and sounds like DOJ is leaning all the way in.

On the other, "I'm not prepared to discuss the merits" is probably not the hill you want to die on ever.

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 11h

In tonight’s hearing, Illston reiterated a question that raised eyebrows earlier in the week.

“Are you still unwilling to discuss the merits today?” Illston asked the DOJ lawyer.

“I’m not prepared to discuss the merits,” the lawyer, Elizabeth Hedges, replied.

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The Samuelation @samuelation.bsky.social · 11h

Ah, the lawyer Hedges. A classic move for Elizabeth.

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The Samuelation @samuelation.bsky.social · 11h

Checked manually just in case by searching whitehouse, and someone is doing good work already.

Screenshot of an account parodying the whitehouse-47 official account. But it's Hatsune Miku themed

The Samuelation @samuelation.bsky.social · 11h

Pretty sure they want to try to farm enough ragebait with engagement from people here to try to get their cult followers to flood the place.

Bound to see a *lot* of targeted harassment directed by the government of accounts that annoy them in their replies, I expect

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The Samuelation @samuelation.bsky.social · 11h

This was mostly tongue in cheek - I think the answer is the list is basically nonexistent

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The Samuelation @samuelation.bsky.social · 12h

Just checking, how long is the list of pardons or clemency given to Democratic congressmen for, say, all Democratic presidents ever put together?

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The Samuelation @samuelation.bsky.social · 14h

It is wild how much they want that to read as having no real threshold.

Hot weather making agents work slower?
Traffic from construction?
Call up the Guard!

Like, I know they aren't really arguing anything like that in court (just repeatedly saying deference or Art 2) but clearly that's the goal.

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Senate Judiciary Democrats 🇺🇸 @judiciarydems.senate.gov · 18h

The Kavanaugh Stop is now happening.

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Seventh Circuit rejects Trump admin's request to deploy National Guard in Illinois while litigation over the effort continues, holding Trump likely did not follow the law for doing so. The unanimous ruling keeps a TRO in place blocking deployment but allows troops to remain federalized.

The administration argues that the President's federalization of the Guard under § 12406 is not judicially reviewable at all. Alternatively, it contends that the factual predicates of
§ 12406(2) and (3) are satisfied in light of the deference due the President's decision to federalize the Guard. We conclude, at this preliminary stage and given the district court's factual
ase: 25-2798 Document: 26
Filed: 10/16/2025 Pages: 1€
10
No. 25-2798
findings, that the federal government does not appear likely to succeed on either argument.

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The Samuelation @samuelation.bsky.social · 1d

It appears they are training people how to use violence and terror to control people by visiting violence and terror on people that are incarcerated but posing no threat.

A safe but realistic learning environment for those being trained.

A hellscape of sudden trauma for the prisoners.

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Tristan Lee @tristanl.ee · 1d

Wow strong language in this indictment. Is there any evidence the suspects actually identified as "Antifa"?

Screenshot from indictment
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.410489/gov.uscourts.txnd.410489.79.0.pdf

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Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 1d

Good morning to everyone, but especially women who don’t like the vehicle

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The Samuelation @samuelation.bsky.social · 1d

I'm sure at least one person with a Patreon has said bad things about Nazis.

Thus, Antifa has been funded at levels requiring immediate involvement of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, at minimum.

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The Samuelation @samuelation.bsky.social · 1d

It's easy:

If a company allows liberals to make money, its funding antifa so should be investigated and "fined" (preferably by a private lawsuit settlement to Trump)

If they allow Nazis to make money, they are just supporting free speech and viewpoint diversity, and must be protected at all costs.

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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 2d

‼️ this is one of the reasons why the Musk shutdown of USAID broke me, like

Congress said 'we're allocating these funds to save lives'

a random asshole with too much money and unresolved bitterness about the end of Apartheid said 'no you're not'

so the funding disappeared??

and people are dying??

Hunter @hunterub.bsky.social · 2d

There's literally no reason for Congress to exist if any random freak in the presidential orbit can nullify laws and seize federal funds. All of this is plainly illegal, but Mike Johnson leads the most corrupt Congress in US history (and by a wide margin.)

Reuters @reuters.com · 2d

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers reut.rs/4qjMIyT

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Greg Giroux @greggiroux.bsky.social · 2d

US House Special Elections, 1957-present:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Includes, for the past 20 years, the number of days between a special election victory and the winner's House swearing-in

U.S. House Special Elections, 1957-present (Greg Giroux)

docs.google.com

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

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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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 2d

I was telling one of my homegirls earlier today that it's cliche to say "this isn't normal" but also folks wouldn't say it so much if mainstream media and the powers that be weren't normalizing all the time

Anyway,

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 2d

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

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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 2d

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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The Samuelation @samuelation.bsky.social · 2d

As long as you end that chart in 99, that sounds ok.

Don't look too far past that though. There weren't any downsides to be worried about, trust me.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Bessent: "When I look at economic cycles, I think the most analogous period to what we're seeing now is the 1990s."

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 7d

Can you think of a single movie in which there is a video from the government denouncing its political opponents playing on a loop in public spaces in which that government was the good guy?

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 7d

A new Noem video is being played at airports trashing Democrats.

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The Samuelation @samuelation.bsky.social · 3d

The sleeper line here is "at least she's intelligent, unlike some others that are low IQ"

Couldn't recall off the top of my head who the mayor of Boston was, but the Trump speak translation is "at least she isn't black/brown" and calling out her intelligence means she must be Asian.

He's so racist

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Trump on moving World Cup games from Boston: "We could take them away. Your mayor is not good."