Author | Lightnews

Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 20h

This is, after all, the same Republican conference that rubber-stamped, without question, cuts from Elon Musk’s lawless DOGE rampage through the federal government earlier this year.

More here ⤵️

Some GOPers Are Queasy About Trump Lawlessly Moving Money Around During Shutdown

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 20h

While it is significant that a few Republicans are at least vocalizing that something about how the Trump administration is handling the shutdown is maybe probably perhaps not legal, it’s unlikely to change anything.

Some GOPers Are Queasy About Trump Lawlessly Moving Money Around During Shutdown

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 1d

My colleague @hunterw.bsky.social in tonight's Where Things Stand:

"The '3.5 Percent Rule' refers to the idea that no government has survived a challenge against it from a nonviolent mass movement that brought together at least 3.5 percent of the population during a 'peak event.'"

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Donald Trump, ‘No Kings,’ and the ‘3.5 Percent Rule’

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 5d

The Trump administration is stepping into legal gray areas, finding ways to move money around to keep the things it wants to keep operating operating — whether that is to score rhetorical points against Democrats or to keep their policy agenda creeping forward.

The Trump Admin’s Very Telling Decisions About Which Government Programs to Fund

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wherethingsstand.talkingpointsmemo.com

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 6d

Trump allies have used Kirk's death as a springboard for acting on Trump's longtime vows of retribution against his political foes. Charlie Kirk’s podcast is the forum they’re using to broadcast those schemes.

Charlie Kirk’s Show Is Now the Trump Admin’s Forum for Detailing How It Wants To Target the Left

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 6d

the article itself actually gets into how NC GOP has been salivating for a chance to do this for some time!

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 7d

So the fact that they have fully caved to Trump’s demands on gerrymandering is not terribly surprising. It was a question of when, not if.

More here:

Trump’s Midcycle Gerrymandering Disease Spreads to North Carolina

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 7d

These are, of course, the same guys who, in the waning days of their supermajority in 2024, voted to strip power over election administration from the state’s then-newly elected Democratic Gov. Josh Stein.

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 7d

In 2023, NC GOP created a U.S. House map that took a sledgehammer to the seven-to-seven seat split between Democrats and Republicans in the state that had been in place in 2022. Their new map passed in 2023 resulted in Republicans winning 10 of North Carolina’s 14 seats in the U.S. House in 2024.

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 7d

The North Carolina GOP is notorious for ratfuckery:

Trump’s Midcycle Gerrymandering Disease Spreads to North Carolina

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 19d

It’s all bluster and lies.

More here 🙃

In Shutdown Spin, Republicans Are Pretending They Care About Mothers on WIC Now

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 19d

While WIC was ultimately not cut in the final Senate version of Trump’s budget bill, some of the cuts to nutrition assistance and health care programs included in the legislation have made it “harder for families to access essential programs like WIC,” according to the National WIC Association.

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 19d

In fact, the original House version of the “big, beautiful” bill put forth by Republicans included cuts to WIC which would’ve resulted in $1.3 billion in fruit and vegetable benefits being taken from some 5.2 million women and children who participate in the program.

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 19d

Republicans have developed a newfound interest in mothers who rely on federal nutrient assistance programs like WIC to feed their children — the types of social safety net services and programs that Democrats champion and that Republicans have been hellbent on gutting for decades.

In Shutdown Spin, Republicans Are Pretending They Care About Mothers on WIC Now

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wherethingsstand.talkingpointsmemo.com

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 20d

Republicans are pretending they care about mothers on WIC after including cuts that make the program less accessible to women and children in the "big, beautiful" bs earlier this year.

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White House Uses Shutdown to Carry Out Trump’s Retribution Agenda

The government is shut down and the Trump administration has begun its...

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 20d

There are a few Trump II retribution threads converging today in the hours since the government shut down after the fiscal year ended at midnight Wednesday.

No Money for NYC With or Without Zohran!

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 21d

Threatening to send the military into blue cities for “training,” while characterizing both immigrants and the people who live in the U.S., but who maybe didn’t vote for him, as “no different from a foreign enemy” is an escalation of Trump’s authoritarian vision on both fronts.

Trump Tells Generals to Prepare for War on Dem-Controlled Cities

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 21d

This flexing has mostly taken the form of threatening to pull federal funding from any blue cities that ensure sanctuary protections for undocumented immigrants, as well as sending the National Guard into blue cities he doesn’t like under the guise of some massive crackdown on crime.

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 21d

Additionally, Trump’s been looking for ways to flex power over his political enemies and the people who didn’t vote for him who live in places “run by the radical-left Democrats,” as he described them on Tuesday.

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 21d

Trump’s retribution plans for his political foes have swelled in recent weeks, as his allies assert that the usual sprawling, nebulous blob of supposed radical leftists that have been a bête noire in right-wing media is actually supposedly now responsible for all political violence in America.

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 21d

These remarks nod at a few things we’ve been tracking for some time.

Trump Tells Generals to Prepare for War on Dem-Controlled Cities

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 22d

Making it about the NYC mayoral race just gives him another chance to pile on to the Republican Party’s ongoing demonization of a popular and energizing leftist political candidate.

More here:

Trump Tries to Convince New York That He’ll Do Some Extra Retribution If It Elects Mamdani

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 22d

In threatening to strip New York City of its federal funding if Mamdani wins, Trump is simply trying to repackage something that his administration is already actively looking to do.

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 22d

It’s all a cover to punish parts of the country that didn’t vote for him and to show their Democratic leaders who is actually in charge. That’s also what his ongoing deployment of National Guard troops to U.S. cities run by Democrats is all about, despite the claims of a a tough-on-crime crackdown.

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Nicole LaFond @nicolelafond.bsky.social · 22d

Trump has been looking for ways to withhold federal funding from NYC and blue cities since he came back into office. He’s been doing it under the guise of a clampdown on municipalities that have sanctuary protections in place that might interfere with his mass detention and deportation campaign.

Trump Tries to Convince New York That He’ll Do Some Extra Retribution If It Elects Mamdani

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wherethingsstand.talkingpointsmemo.com

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