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Benj @splatterthought.bsky.social · 26m

Depressing thread considering how our justice & 3rd branch of Govt work...

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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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 49m

Probably the most important thread going right now

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.

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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 10h

By an entire parsec, the Trump administration has undertaken the most illegal set of budget actions in history. This is why we desperately need guardrails to restrain and go after budget malfeasance from the White House.

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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 10h

Taken together with impoundments, this would break everything. The president is claiming the power to not spend money he doesn't want to and now also to spend money where it's not allowed. And SCOTUS might say no one has standing to stop him. That would make him an appropriations king.

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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 10h

And the craziest part is this was needless. Congress would've passed a military pay bill with near unanimous support! Congressional Ds have been begging Rs to bring a bill to pay the military to the floor! But Johnson refuses to gavel in because he doesn't want an Epstein vote.

Johnson wearing a jacket that's photoshopped to say "this has nothing to do with epstein"

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 1h

The Republicans have in effect shut down the legislative branch of the U.S. government and handed those powers to the dictator in the White House. No one cleared this with the American people.

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Benj @splatterthought.bsky.social · 50m

The volume of things not cleared or even ran by the American people is astonishing.

The number things the political press dismisses...

I'm left speechless several times a week when I think about what was campaigned on, what was verbally rejected as policy, what is being careless out.

Benj @splatterthought.bsky.social · 1h

Let 'em.

What else can ya do?

But, vote for the candidates that swear to give a political colonoscopy to anyone & everyone who has fingerprints on any of this administrative warfare that John Roberts has unleashed upon this nation.
Those who fail to buy pardons, that is.

Then pass binding laws.

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Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 2h

Remember when the right wing aided and abetted by Congressional Republicans and the traditional media threw a sh!t fit bc the IRS under Obama admin sent some letters to some tea party groups wondering about their non profit status? www.npr.org/2017/10/27/5...

“IRS Apologizes For Aggressive Scrutiny Of Conservative Groups

OCTOBER 27, 20173:08 PM ET
Peter Overby 2010
Peter Overby

The Justice Department has entered settlements for two cases related to IRS scrutiny of groups seeking tax-exempt status.
Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images”

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Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 3h

“John Roberts is not a fair umpire. He has become what I am calling a “Trumpire,” rewriting the law in ways that aid Trump and restrict our rights in alignment with the right-wing political agenda he whole-heartedly embraced as a pre-MAGA Reagan revolutionary.” 🔥 @thelisagraves.bsky.social

John Roberts Has Positioned the Court to Help Republicans Rig the Midterms and Keep Trump in Control of Congress

Roberts Launched His Legal Career Targeting the Voting Rights Act

open.substack.com

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Benj @splatterthought.bsky.social · 2d

Every word of this...

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 2d

Media framing the Gaza deal and other international affairs around Trump’s quest for the Nobel peace prize highlights how much news and public discourse have become warped around one man’s pathologies.

Whether he gets praise is one of the least important thing about this.

Me, in @msnbc.com:

Opinion | Trump’s Nobel peace prize campaign is the least important part of the Gaza deal

If the ceasefire holds, the administration deserves much credit. But the fixation on Trump getting a prize distracts from things that actually matter.

www.msnbc.com

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 4h

No one in the GOP Hitler chat was a "kid," JD Vance. We checked.

By scanning public records and media reports, Mother Jones determined the ages of eight of the 11 participants in the abhorrent leaked texts from young Republicans that Politico covered on Tuesday: They appear to range from 24 to 35.

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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 7h

If Democrats need to win the popular vote by six points to take the House, then that is neither a free nor fair election. It would, therefore, be unclear to me how anyone could justify elections as the primary method of political change in America moving forward.

Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · 14h

If Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act falls, Democrats might need to win the national popular vote by 5 to 6 points to take control of the House, via Nate Cohn
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 7h

the extent to which media elites treat liberal americans as if they do not count in the body politic is a real problem

Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 8h

I read the piece. You shouldn't. He dismisses the "No Kings" protests as liberals in blue cities. He invokes Rosa Parks, as if rural white people in the 60s loved everything that the movement then was doing. "We need a movement but not this one" is a core centrist tact these days.

Ezra Levin ❌👑 @ezralevin.bsky.social · 9h

Is this a joke. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 8h

Another $20 billion. That is the face you make when you heist the US taxpayers for $40 billion two weeks before your midterm elections from the most corrupt America Last regime in history.

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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 8h

Land of the free, home of the brave

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 9h

UPDATE: Following the firing of the director of the student newspaper, Indiana University has now cut the print edition of the newspaper entirely.

www.idsnews.com/article/2025...

Indiana University cuts IDS print entirely, hours after firing student media director
By IDS staff
Oct 15, 2025 1:23 pm · Updated Oct 15, 2025 1:23 pm

IU previously directed the Indiana Daily Student to stop printing news coverage in our newspaper. Upon pushback, the university fully cut print, including our special editions. The IDS was not involved in the decision.

Media School Dean David Tolchinsky sent the order to IDS leadership in an email responding to its appeal that the school not censor the newspaper. And the dean attributed the decision to “the campus.” He has not yet responded to a message for clarification.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 10h

hey this is fun

Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social · 10h

And congratulations to @jamellebouie.net for winning the American Historical Association's Tikkun Olam Prize for promoting public historical literacy www.historians.org/award-grant/...

Tikkun Olam Prize for Promoting Public Historical Literacy – AHA

The Tikkun Olam Prize for Promoting Public Historical Literacy honors individuals whose work has promoted literacy in public culture.

www.historians.org

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Benj @splatterthought.bsky.social · 9h

Earned and well deserved.

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Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 10h

Feels like every time I read about any major case impacting representative democracy from John Roberts' led MAGA #SCOTUS

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Benj @splatterthought.bsky.social · 10h

Awful.
But the brazenness is the only surprising thing...

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Benj @splatterthought.bsky.social · 10h

Nah, he lost his visa because supremacist pussies who need ideological safespaces run the country.

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 10h

Reminder: the House recess isn't because of the budget, the House adjourned before the shutdown because the GOP doesn't want to hold a vote to release government files on a pedophile because everyone knows those files implicate Trump. Republicans are doing this to protect their pedophile President.

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.

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Benj @splatterthought.bsky.social · 10h

Well, ya.
Mission:
Protect Big Biz
Fuck over🇺🇸ns
Mission accomplished, level complete.

CFPB used to "protect"
🇺🇸ns in innumerable ways.
Including returning $20B a year in fraudulent practices to which this nation has mostly insulated the "people" committing corporate crimes from any accountability.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 10h

Vought has blocked CFPB staff from doing their work, and is also charging CFPB $5 million for his bodyguards. So technically, they are protecting one consumer.
www.govexec.com/management/2...

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 11h

nothing says "america first" and "free markets" like bailing out another country's libertarian failure because (1) the corrupt clown president who caused it says nice things about our own corrupt clown president and (2) our big banks don't know how to do capitalism and are the hook for a lot of it

Argentine Bonds Jump on News US Lining Up $40 Billion in Aid

Argentina’s sovereign bonds jumped Wednesday after media outlets reported that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlined financial aid that would total $40 billion to Javier Milei’s government, dou...

www.bloomberg.com

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