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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 41m

🚨WOW. A unanimous per curiam (meaning no named author) panel of the 7th Circuit, made up of a Bush appointee, an Obama appointee, and a Trump appointee, decline to step in and block a lower court order barring the deployment of the National Guard in Chicago!

Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 56m

#BREAKING The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refuses to undo an order blocking deployment of National Guard troops within Illinois.

"We conclude that the district court's factual findings … were not clearly erroneous, and that the facts do not justify the President's actions in Illinois."

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Colin Campbell @raleighreporter.bsky.social · 44m

Newly proposed #ncga Congressional redistricting map just dropped. Looks like it swaps a few counties in the east to make NC-1 into a district where Trump got 55% last year, while moving Rep. Don Davis' home county into GOP Rep. Greg Murphy's district #ncpol

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Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 56m

#BREAKING The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refuses to undo an order blocking deployment of National Guard troops within Illinois.

"We conclude that the district court's factual findings … were not clearly erroneous, and that the facts do not justify the President's actions in Illinois."

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1h

Chris Murphy: "This is a country that's falling apart because Trump is in the middle of an authoritarian takeover. We're not on the verge of an authoritarian takeover. We're in the middle of it ... I have no moral obligation to vote for a budget that literally funds the destruction of our democracy"

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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 19h

Here's the transcript of Trump's disclosures of CIA allegedly covert actions in Venezuela. These actions are no longer covert as a result of Trump's disclosure. At this point the entire program of activities in Venezuela needs to be reported in full to Congress to comply with the War Powers Act.

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Dr. William Horne @wihorne.bsky.social · 7h

So very tired of this nonsense.

Variant of the “is this a pigeon “ meme. “Americans” sees “fascism” and asks “is this communism?”
Meme background: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/is-this-a-pigeon

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1h

Jeffries: "All of these crisis events stem from Republican policies that are colliding at the same time, which is why Republicans are hiding, refusing to come back to Capitol Hill."

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Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 2h

Between this and major media orgs rejecting the new rules for covering the Pentagon, we are finally seeing resistance and more importantly COLLECTIVE RESISTANCE from elite organizations. Should have happened January-June, but better later than never.

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 3h

Penn joins MIT and Brown in saying “no” to Trump extortion move.

Penn rejects White House proposal for special funding treatment

With the decision, Penn becomes the third university to decline the offer.

www.thedp.com

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McKenzie Funk @mckenziefunk.com · 2h

The reality of Kavanaugh stops: American citizens dragged, tackled, beaten, tased, and shot by immigration agents. Citizens held in the rain while in their underwear. A pregnant citizen's door blown off while Kristi Noem watched. Important story by @nicolefoy.bsky.social of @propublica.org

Screenshot of the article by Nicole Foy of ProPublica:
"When the Supreme Court recently allowed immigration agents in the Los Angeles area to take race into consideration during sweeps, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that citizens shouldn’t be concerned.

“If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States,” Kavanaugh wrote, “they promptly let the individual go.”

But that is far from the reality many citizens have experienced. Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched.

About two dozen Americans have said they were held for more than a day without being able to phone lawyers or loved ones."

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Eric Klinenberg @ericklinenberg.bsky.social · 4h

For those of you keeping score, 18-22 year-old students calling for an end to slaughter in Gaza are so racist they need to be expelled or deported, but 24-35 year-olds celebrating Hitler, rape, and, um, racism are just kids being kids so chill.

Also, racism is over so no need for Voting Right Act.

JD Vance brushes off racist texts by adults in Republican group chat as ‘what kids do’

Vice-president downplays messages such as ‘I love Hitler’ in chat by 24 to 35-year-olds to ‘stupid jokes’

www.theguardian.com

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Democracy North Carolina @democracync.bsky.social · 4h

#NCGOP leadership has confirmed they plan to rig the 2026 midterm elections by further gerrymandering Congressional District 1, the state's historic Black Belt district. This would give Republicans control of nearly 80% of North Carolina's Congressional delegation in a purple state. #NCpol

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Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 4h

BREAKING: Mayor Brandon Johnson called Thursday for more than $617 million in new taxes on the wealthiest Chicagoans and largest firms in order to blunt cuts imposed by the Trump administration while avoiding drastic cuts in city services and thousands of layoffs. @wttw.bsky.social

Mayor Brandon Johnson Calls for $617M in New Taxes to Close Budget Gap, Avoid Layoffs

“The line to draw here is that we either are going to protect working people in Chicago from Trump’s cuts, or we are going to open up the floodgates and allow these individuals to be hurt and harmed f...

news.wttw.com

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Columbia Journalism Review @columjournreview.bsky.social · 5h

Pulitzer-winning natsec reporter James Risen calls the Pentagon press corps' eviction "an opportunity to be more adversarial. You've got to write tough stories to convince people to take you seriously." Read Ivan L. Nagy. www.cjr.org/news/the-pen...

The Pentagon press corps is gone.

As reporters for major news outlets turn in their government-issued press badges rather than accept new restrictions, some argue that the best military journalism is yet to come.

www.cjr.org

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Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein.bsky.social · 4h

Extraordinary NEW story: We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. @nicolefoy.bsky.social w/ photos by @sbmaneyphoto.bsky.social

More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.

The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...

www.propublica.org

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97.9 The Hill WCHL & Chapelboro.com @wchlchapelboro.bsky.social · 4h

Decade-long political quarrels over legislative and executive powers in N.C. advanced Wednesday as a state appeals court permitted the Republican-controlled General Assembly to chip away at the Democratic governor’s appointment authority.

Via @apnews.com.

North Carolina Court: GOP Can Narrow Governor’s Appointment Powers on Some Boards - Chapelboro.com

An appeals court permitted the Republican-controlled legislature to further chip away at the Democratic governor's appointment authority.

chapelboro.com

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David Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 4h

A US citizen in Chicago was kidnapped by Border Patrol and dumped on the streets half a mile away. EVEN THOUGH HE WAS FILMING IT. They do not care about getting caught. They have no fear of accountability.

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David Simon @audacityofdespair.bsky.social · 4h

"House slave."
Think about this for a brief moment. Think of just how fecal and vicious a man has to use such a term in this context. This is leadership by the absolute worst of us, the most vile trash that we could scrape from the gutter and elevate to govern a nation.

Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 18h

😡😡😡😡

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Will Warren @statsbywill.bsky.social · 5h

This story is horrific. Kudos to the kids for fighting back. Read today's issue of the Indiana Daily Student online, complete with redacted advertising space and a killer opening statement. issuu.com/idsnews/docs...

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Democracy Now! @democracynow.org · 4h

Why Is Trump Bailing Out Argentina’s President Milei While Firing Thousands of Workers in U.S.?

Why Is Trump Bailing Out Argentina’s President Javier Milei?

We speak to Argentine journalist Pablo Calvi about the U.S. government’s multibillion-dollar bailout for Argentina, which could grow from $20 billion to $40 billion as Argentina is rocked by an ongoin...

www.democracynow.org

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 6h

A terrific AFP fact check uses reverse image searches to expose how a White House video took scenes from Florida, Texas, South Carolina and Nebraska and lied that they showed "Chicago is in chaos."
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....

Post from WH about Chicago "in chaos," showing scene from another state.

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 5h

Where we stand, in long arc of history:

-Story on left, adding race as a factor when that favors white people.

-Story on right, banning race as a factor when that favors non-whites.

I often complain about NYT headlines and story-play. But these are strong. Including "If Court Guts 1965 Law."

Two headlines on front page of NYT.

First is "Trump Weighs Transforming Refugee Policy. White People Would be Given Preference."

Second is "Justices May Ban Race as a Factor in District Maps. Nation's Political Balance Could Shift If Court Guts 1964 Law."

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 8h

Mike Johnson has now had the House adjourned for 73 out of the last 85 days.

Epstein Shutdown.

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Shawn Musgrave @shawnmusgrave.bsky.social · 6h

The perfect coda to this story: after publication, the State Department's press office responded to my questions about the legal basis for revoking visas based on speech. Their response, in full (we were NOT off-record).

Good afternoon,

Off the record, we refer you to the following tweet: https://x.com/StateDept/status/1978218112882266594

Regards,
State Department Press Office

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 8h

The Supreme Court and the Republicans in Congress have helplessly stood by and failed to exercise their ambition to protect the American people. Literally, today, Congress could into session and assign Russell Vought a 1 dollar or impeach him. We are about enter into a self-induced Long Parliament.

Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 1d

Trump and Vought are now breaking both sides of spending law. They’re illegally not spending where the law requires them to spend, and they’re illegally spending where they don’t have the money to spend.

What we have is an appropriations king.

Spending “deals” are meaningless under that setup.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 17h

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
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(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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