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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 2h

It's also not lost on me that Trump's signature frequently looks like the signature toothbrush mustache.

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 2h

Like, its actually super weird how much like Hitler he looks with that simple detail added.

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 2h

TIME didn't have the WILL to do the full Leni Riefenstahl for their cover, so I fixed it.

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 2h

I mean, they're both bullshit factories, so he's not wrong!

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 2h

It's possible for both to be true. I use shortcuts a lot and I know I work faster than lots of my colleagues. It also means that because I know something will take me less time I may put it off and get other things done. So the task may "take" longer than for someone who has to focus solely on it.

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 3h

This is real and a combination of two things:

1. A decades long crusade by conservatives on school boards to eliminate critical thinking development from curriculum.

2. The invention of the internet and the democratization of "news."

Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · 3h

I don't see how we can have a democracy when about one-third of our country's population is COMPLETELY psychotic and detached from reality. I mean that literally and in reference to many of my family members: they flat-out reject the real world and the very concept of evidence.

Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 13h

Federal employees are paid in arrears. Feds got a paycheck on October 10 that covered their pay from September 21-30 (and would have covered October 1-4 as well, had the government been funded). So most got about a ~70 percent paycheck.

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 13h

So the reports of money hitting accounts may just be due to the fact that feds are paid in arrears. Federal employees got paycheck last Friday (October 10) that covered the pay period from September 21 - October 4 (but they were only paid the portion through September 30).

Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 13h

since there's reports on social media of money hitting accounts worth reiterating that this is illegal and unconstitutional as shit, it's not a close question, and while I don't expect anyone on H/SASC or H/SAC will do anything, anyone performing this 'reprogramming' should face criminal penalties

Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 1d

It's also worth reiterating that absent this reprogramming authority being written into law it would be not just illegal but flatly unconstitutional for DoD to expend money in any fashion not explicitly specified (by both type/use and quantity) by Congress in an appropriations bill

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 13h

If you're making a propaganda poster, do you want the shiny looking ship or the one with tons of rust? Obviously the former. but US ships have tons of rust on them because they're constantly being used at sea. They work fine, they just kinda look like shit.

Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 13h

OK, so I have a theory about this. Russian planes and ships often look sleeker and newer (less wear and tear/rust). That makes a good image.

But the reason they look new is because Russia cant afford to continuously use equipment w/constant maintenance, so ships stay docked, planes stay grounded.

Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 20h

Why the hell does Trump’s Department of War keep using RUSSIAN military images? This is by no mean the first time this has happened.

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 17h

The Truth and Reconciliation Commissions that are going to have to take place after all this are going to be overloaded.

StrictlyChristo 🇺🇦🌻❌👑 @strictlychristo.bsky.social · 21h

Federal Secret Police and plainclothes ICE agents kidnap multiple people from a neighborhood in Chicago. They then deploy teargas and brutally beat neighbors who come out to express their concern.

Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 1d

What, and I cannot stress this enough, the fuck.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Bessent: "No Kings means no paychecks. No paychecks and no government."

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 1d

Look I mean yeah but chihuahuas and bullmastifs are both dogs. Small genetic differences can lead to big differences in appearance!

Doug Mack @douglasmack.bsky.social · 1d

i'm sorry WHAT

Wikipedia screenshot

Brassica oleracea, also known as wild cabbage in its uncultivated form, is a plant of the family Brassicaceae. The species originated from feral populations of related plants in the Eastern Mediterranean, where it was most likely first cultivated. It has many common cultivars used as vegetables, including cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, romanesco, kale, Brussels sprout, collard, Savoy cabbage, kohlrabi, and gai lan.

Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 1d

Campbell should have gone for the 4th and 14.

Lions are down 10 with 8 mins left in the game. If they punt, they lose. If they miss the conversion, they lose. Only way to win was to convert on 4th and long.

Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 1d

Also sure, the Jedi were prominent, but I think it's stated in the prequels that the order is only like 10,000 strong or something like that. 10,000 for a galaxy of trillions. What are the odds that the average person would ever run into a Jedi in their lifetime, if they didn't live on Coruscant?

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 1d

I think the idea is to show how merciless propaganda can be. In the span of like half that time Hitler and the Nazis convinced the vast majority of Germans that Jews were vermin to be exterminated. It was a widely held belief in, say, 1944. People literally memory holed their neighbors.

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 2d

He's literally doing the @internethippo.bsky.social meme

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 2d

Brennan does not challenge Vance when he says the government MUST lay people off.

The correct question there is to push him: Why?

There is zero requirement for the government to lay anyone off during a shutdown. The government has not laid people off during previous shutdowns.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

BRENNAN: CBS confirmed the Trump administration rescinded the layoffs of CDC scientists. Some were involved with the federal measles response. How does a mistake like this happen?

VANCE: The govt shutdown inevitably leads to some chaos. It happened because of Schumer

B: But this was a WH decision

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 2d

And it is even more important when it comes to paying soldiers. If the executive can just decide to pay the troops, irrespective of Congress, the executive both controls deployment of the military and the power to fund it. That makes the military wholly accountable to one person.

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 2d

I don't think people really understand the idea that Congress controls the purse strings and how important it is to the Constitutional order. It literally prevents the executive from doing anything without Congress providing the money. This is a power Congress has VERY closely guarded.

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 2d

No.

"And in no case where the item for which funds are requested has been denied by Congress."

This sentence is key. It says that DoD cannot transfer funds to a program Congress has denied appropriation to. Congress has not passed a bill to pay the troops. That's why there's a shutdown.

eric gonzalez juenke @egojunk.bsky.social · 2d

The DoD is allowed to transfer this money per statute apparently (though this is outside of my area). The CR in March upped it to 8 billion.

Of course it has. It always does. Sec 8005 of DOD Appropriations, for starters…

That one provision now allows for $8b in transfers, per March’s full year CR:

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 2d

To be clear, this is almost certainly a violation of federal law, specifically the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits the executive from authorizing an expenditure that has not be appropriated by Congress.

CNN @cnn.com · 2d

Breaking News
Trump says his administration has "identified funds" to pay military troops next week as the government shutdown continues. https://cnn.it/46MWQIz

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 2d

"Tylenol causes kids to have autism and we don't want to teach them" is certainly a hell of a platform.

Leah 🐸 McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 2d

⚠️ USAToday reporter confirms the office in charge of special education funding has been “decimated”:

Zach Schermele
Follow
@ZachSchermele
NEW: The Education Dept. layoffs continued overnight, w/ the main office in charge of special ed funding being
"decimated," as one person described.
"They cut just about everyone that works with IDEA funding," said another.
"I'm not sure how these programs exist moving forward."
10:21 AM • 10/11/25 • 2.1K Views

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Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 3d

Hat, they made a woman who murdered her dog the head of all this.

Old White Nepo Hat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 4d

Wen should direct more attention to incidents like these because Americans are more likely to respond to brutality to pets than to brutality to human beings.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 4d

EL PASO — a family says ICE showed up at their house looking for migrants and shot and KILLED THEIR DOG, then didn’t help them as the agent ran away and was not identified.

kfoxtv.com/news/local/e...

Matt Separa @mattsepara.bsky.social · 3d

If a Democratic President was married to an immigrant from a former Chinese satellite state who said she had an open channel of communication with Xi, Republicans would be crying Manchurian candidate while burning down the fucking White House with them inside.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4d

Melania Trump: "President Putin and I have had an open channel of communication."

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