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Robert Mackey

@robertmackey.bsky.social

4.1K followers 980 following 360 posts

Report + edit @us.theguardian.com | Previous: The Murder of June Knightly @forensicarchi.bsky.social https://vimeo.com/913426020 | Meet the Riot Squad @theintercept.com https://vimeo.com/935228869 | +2,500 @nytimes.com bylines

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Robert Mackey @robertmackey.bsky.social · Jan 27

vimeo.com/913426020

The Murder of June Knightly

This is "The Murder of June Knightly" by Forensic Architecture on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 7h

This is infuriating. She excuses the orders as "preliminary," but that's an argument for applying settled law or preserving the status quo. Allowing POTUS to disregard Congressional appropriations and fire independent agency heads are neither, they're a radical restructuring of Constitutional order.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11h

Amy Coney Barrett defends heavy use of the shadow docket: "If we wrote a long opinion, it might give the impression that we have finally resolved the issue, and in none of these cases have we finally resolved the issue."

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Julie DiCaro @juliedicaro.bsky.social · 7h

So Kilmer Abrego-Garcia will not challenge a deportation to Costa Rica, who has agreed to for him residency, but DHS won’t agree to send him there because it’s not cruel enough.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

For weeks, Mr. Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who is married to a U.S. citizen, has made clear that he would not challenge his deportation if he were sent to Costa Rica, which has promised him legal residency and guaranteed that he would not be sent back to El Salvador.

But the Trump administration has refused to deport him to Costa Rica, and in an earlier hearing this week, Judge Xinis pressed the administration to consider the option or clarify why it was unacceptable.

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 1d

not the main point, but this guy is such a horrible speaker and so bad with crowds that he pauses and weakly chides the audience in a way that extends the boos and his own misery as much as possible. pretty beautiful.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Witkoff tries to praise Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, but has a hard time finishing his thought because of booing

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Graham Platner for Senate @grahamformaine.bsky.social · 11h

We have armed secret police kidnapping people off the street based on the color of their skin.

When we win: we will haul them before a Senate committee. The masks will come off. There will be consequences.

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 4d

These videos are produced in-house by a small animation cell in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, working mainly in After Effects + Blender

In a TikTok posted after Israel's June attacks on Iran, soldiers describe working weeks under “prime-minister-level secrecy” to prepare visuals

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 4d

One of the earlier and most-viewed examples was an animation of Al Shifa Hospital, published in October 2023.

The “underground command room” was recycled from a 2022 IDF animation of an UNRWA school in Tel Al-Hawa; the street above was built from prefab @kb-3d.bsky.social storefronts

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 4d

These assets have been used in IDF videos as recently as September 5, in an animation of the Mushtaha Tower in Gaza City, which was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes the same day

In this video the ground itself is a patch-work quilt of third-party scans of pavement & parking lots

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 4d

Others assets came from scans made by the Scottish Maritime Museum of their boat-building workshop which was downloaded (via @sketchfab.bsky.social) and reimagined by the IDF adornments for underground missile factories.

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 4d

We traced over 30 unique assets to Washington-based 3D creator Ian Hubert, who makes bespoke models created for his sci-fi project Dynamo Dream, available to his Patreon subscribers.

Scans of parking lots, antennas, and pipes were repurposed as Hamas and Iranian military sites

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 4d

Many of these “illustrations” aren’t based on verified intelligence at all.

Our analysis of 43 official IDF videos found recycled 3D environments, spatial inaccuracies, and assets lifted from unrelated artists and institutions.

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 4d

NEW: Since October 2023, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit has released dozens of 3D animations illustrating alleged Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian sites

The style is now unmistakable: satellite zoom-ins, black & white wireframes, and red-textured houses - a new visual language of war

Reposted by Robert Mackey

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1d

‘I deserve to heal’: freed British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah on his prison ordeal and next steps

‘I deserve to heal’: freed British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah on his prison ordeal and next steps

The campaigner, who spent more than a decade in an Egyptian ‘vortex of incarceration’, wants to join his son in the UK while he reflects on the fight for freedom The British-Egyptian human rights activist and writer, released from more than a decade in continuous detention in Cairo, has said he wants to come to the UK to be with his autistic 14-year-old son. Alaa Abd el-Fattah said he feared his mother might have died on hunger strike during the 12 years he spent in what he described as a “vortex of incarceration”. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 2d

This arrest appears to be in direct violation of a temporary restraining order prohibiting DHS officers from arresting journalists. The officers here may well be subject to contempt of court. protectdemocracy.org/wp-content/u...

It is hereby ORDERED that Defendants,' their officers, agents, assigns, and all
persons acting in concert with them (hereafter referred to as "Federal Agents"), are temporarily
ENJOINED in this judicial district from:
a.
Dispersing, arresting, threatening to arrest, threatening or using physical
force against any person whom they know or reasonably should know is a Journalist, unless Defendants have probable cause to believe that the individual has committed a crime.

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 2d

mshale.com/2025/10/09/a...

African visitors to the U.S. to pay $15,000 visa bonds - Mshale

Citizens of seven African nations will need to post a bond of up to $15,000 to apply for a U.S. visitors visa in a new pilot program that runs through Aug. 2026.

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 2d

Trying to scare people. But it won't work. No one looks scared to me anymore. And it's power in numbers. All the TV hits in the world won't change the fact that when Americans see the sheer number of people out there, absolutely no one will believe anything these guys say.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Sen. Roger Marshall: "October 18 is when the protest gets here. This will be a Soros paid-for protest for his professional protesters. The agitators show up. We'll have to get the National Guard out. Hopefully it will be peaceful. I doubt it."

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 2d

It’s very much Not Great to have GOP leadership describe a planned non violent march as being in service a the “terrorist wing”

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Emmer: "This is about one thing and one thing alone -- to score political points with the terrorist wing of their party, which is set to hold a hate America rally in DC next week."

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 3d

What the actual fuck, Ro Khanna? The best you're going to be able to come up with is you didn't know who Ian Carroll is--a very old antisemitic conspiracy theorist; a fascist. (I say that as a fierce critic of Israeli genocide.) What's next, Alex Jones?

Ro Khanna @rokhanna.bsky.social · 3d

I don't take a dime from any PAC or lobbyist, including AIPAC.

I am proud to be one of the handful of Democrats standing up against Big Money.

Reposted by Robert Mackey

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 3d

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 3d

New Yorkers know Attorney General James for who she is: a champion for justice who fights relentlessly for the people. Donald Trump knows her only as an obstacle to his corruption.

My full statement:

New Yorkers know Attorney General James for who she is: a champion for justice who fights relentlessly for the people. Donald Trump knows her only as an obstacle to his corruption.

No one should be surprised that Donald Trump is employing fascist tactics—prosecuting his opponents, weaponizing the federal government, and attacking the very fabric of our democracy. And Trump should not be surprised when millions of Americans stand up to his authoritarianism and his greed.

If Trump wants to leverage baseless charges to visit political retribution on New York’s Attorney General, he’ll have to go through New Yorkers first. The Attorney General has had our back, time and again. We have hers.

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Old White Nepo Hat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 3d

I’ve never seen anything remotely this petty charged as bank fraud.

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 3d

NEW: Here's the two-count indictment against NY AG Letitia James. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

INDICTMENT
October 2025 Term - at Alexandria, Virginia
THE GRAND JURY CHARGES THAT:
GENERAL ALLEGATIONS
At all times relevant to this Indictment:
1. Letitia A. James ("JAMES) was a resident of Brooklyn, New York, and the borrower on a
Fannie Mae-backed mortgage loan for the property located at 3121 Peronne Avenue,
Norfolk, Virginia.
2. OVM Financial (also known as Old Virginia Mortgage / AnnieMac) was a mortgage lending business located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, engaged in the business of originating and underwriting residential mortgage loans, including those backed by the Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae"). OVM Financial qualified as a "financial institution" within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 20(10).
3. Fannie Mae was a federally chartered corporation that purchased and guaranteed mortgages,
operating as a government-sponsored enterprise under the oversight of the Federal Housing

Finance Agency ("FHFA").
4. First Savings Bank was a state-chartered, FDIC-insured financial institution (Certificate
#29961), headquartered in Jeffersonville, Indiana, which acquired mortgage loans through assignment or acquisition. First Savings Bank qualified as a "financial institution" within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 20(1).
5. On or about August 17, 2020, JAMES, as sole borrower, purchased the three (3) bedroom,
(1) bathroom property located at 3121 Peronne Avenue, Norfolk, Virginia 23509 (the
"Peronne Property"), for approximately $137,000, financed with a mortgage loan of approximately $109,600 (Loan #4430025978) backed by Fannie Mae.
6. The loan was originated by OVM Financial under a signed Second Home Rider, which required JAMES, as the sole borrower to occupy and use the property as her secondary residence, and prohibited its use as a timesharing or other shared ownership arrangement or agreement that requires her either to rent the property or give any other person any control over the occupancy or use of the property.
7. Despite these representations, the Peronne Property was not occupied or used by JAMES as a secondary residence and was instead used as a rental investment property, renting the property to a family of (3).
8. This misrepresentation allowed JAMES to obtain favorable loan terms not available for investment properties, including a note rate of 3.000% (avoiding a 0.815% higher
comparable investment property rate of 3.815%, resulting in approximately $17,837 in rate savings over the life of the loan), a seller credit of approximately $3,288 (exceeding the seller credit for investment properties by approximately $1,096), for total ill-gotten gains of approximately $18,933 over the life of the loan.
9. JAMES' Universal Property application for homeowners' insurance indicated "owner-

occupied non-seasonal use," further misrepresenting the intended use of the property.
10. JAMES filed Schedule E tax forms), under penalties of perjury, treating the Perrone Property as rental real estate, reporting fair rental days, zero personal use days, thousand(s)
of dollars in rents received, and claiming deductions for expenses relating to the property, further contradicting the second home classification.
11. The loan was acquired by or assigned to First Savings Bank by March 2021, exposing it to risks associated with the misrepresented loan.
12. The acts described herein occurred within the Eastern District of Virginia.
COUNT ONE
(Bank Fraud - 18 U.S.C. § 1344)
13. The allegations in paragraphs 1 through 12 are re-alleged and incorporated herein.
14. From on or about August 7, 2020, through at least January 2024, in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, the Defendant, LETITIA A. JAMES, did knowingly execute and attempt to execute a scheme and artifice to defraud OVM Financial and First Savings Bank,
financial institutions, and to obtain moneys, funds, and credits owned by and under the custody and control of OVM Financial and First Savings Bank by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises.
15. The scheme involved falsely representing the Peronne Property as a secondary residence to obtain favorable mortgage terms, while using it as an investment property with no intended
or actual personal occupancy or use by her.
(In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1344).
COUNT TWO
(False Statements to a Financial Institution - 18 U.S.C. § 1014)
16. The allegations in paragraphs 1 through 12 are re-alleged and incorporated herein.

17. From on or about July 28, 2020, through at least August 31, 2020, in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, the Defendant, LETITIA A. JAMES, did knowingly make and cause to be made false statements and reports for the purpose of influencing the action of OVM Financial, a Fannie Mae-backed lender, upon an application for a loan, in that JAMES represented and affirmed in uniform residential loan applications and related documents that
the Peronne Property would be used as a secondary residence, when in truth and fact, as JAMES then knew, the property was intended and used as an investment property with no intended or actual personal occupancy or use by her.
(In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1014).
FORFEITURE NOTICE
Pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32.2(a) and Title 18, U.S.C. §
982(a)(2)(A), upon conviction of the offenses in Counts One and Two, the Defendant, Letitia
A. James, shall forfeit to the United States any property constituting, or derived from, proceeds obtained, directly or indirectly, as a result of such violations, including but not limited to a money judgment in the amount of $18,933.
If any of the property described above, as a result of any act or omission of the Defendant: (a) cannot be located upon the exercise of due diligence; (b) has been transferred or sold to, or deposited with, a third party; (c) has been placed beyond the jurisdiction of the court; (d) has been substantially diminished in value; or (e) has been commingled with other property which cannot be divided without difficulty, the United States shall be entitled to a forfeiture of substitute property pursuant to Title 21, U.S.C. § 853(b), as incorporated by Title
18 U.S.C. § 982(b)(1).
(In accordance with Title 18 U.S.C. § 981(a)(1)(C) and 982(a)(1); Title 28, U.S.C. § 2461(c); and Title 21 U.S.C. § 853(p).)

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 3d

#BREAKING Federal judge in Chicago temporarily blocks the Trump administration from "ordering the federalization and deployment of the National Guard of the United States within Illinois."

Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 3d

Perry says the order will say defendants are "temporarily enjoined from ordering the federalization and deployment of the National Guard of the United States within Illinois."

Robert Mackey @robertmackey.bsky.social · 3d

What if the Nobel committee used its leverage over Trump to make a special announcement on Friday acknowledging his role in the tentative Gaza deal and stating that he will win next year if it leads to actual peace?

geoffrey, 💀 mode @parsnip.bsky.social · 3d

so what do we think he does when the nobel committee does not in fact give him the peace prize tomorrow

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 3d

I believe this is what ICE is calling "a beard being ripped from an officer’s face" by a Chicago protestor x.com/ICEgov/statu...

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 3d

"The views expressed by users @kaioken8026, @mrright8439, and @ZxZNebula ... do not alter the Court’s analysis."

The Court holds, based upon a full consideration of the context in which “Not Like Us” was published, that a reasonable listener could not have concluded that “Not Like Us” was conveying objective facts about Drake. The views expressed by users @kaioken8026, @mrright8439, and @ZxZNebula, and the other YouTube and Instagram commentators quoted in the Complaint, Am. Compl., ¶¶ 73-74, do not alter the Court’s analysis. In a world in which billions of people are active online, support for almost any proposition, no matter how farfetched, fantastical or unreasonable, can be found with little effort in any number of comment sections, chat rooms, and servers. “[T]hat some readers may infer a defamatory meaning from a statement does not necessarily render the inference reasonable under the circumstances.” Jacobus, 51 N.Y.S.3d at 336.

Reposted by Robert Mackey

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 3d

NEW: Federal judge dismisses Drake's defamation case against Kendrick Lamar storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The issue in this case is whether "Not Like Us" can reasonably be understood to convey as a factual matter that Drake is a pedophile or that he has engaged in sexual relations with minors. In light of the overall context in which the statements in the Recording were made, the Court holds that it cannot.