game recognize game.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 12h ago

Q: Any comment on Rep. Max Miller? TRUMP: I hope he's able to work it out. I feel badly for him.

"I feel badly for him."

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 12h ago

Q: Any comment on Rep. Max Miller? TRUMP: I hope he's able to work it out. I feel badly for him.

"Reluctantly," a federal judge dismisses the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy cases. Trump DOJ "excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy—the peaceful transfer of presidential power—to buckle." "The court cannot write a different ending," he adds. buff.ly/NvVKnaW

One year $150M contract to a small Texas firm that lacks immigration law experience

Politico@politico.com · 18h ago

26-employee Texas law firm gets $150M to represent 24,000 children in immigration court

THE $168 BILLION WAS TAKEN ILLEGALLY AND THE GOVERNMENT DIDN’T WANT TO GIVE IT BACK. Kill me I’ve wasted my life.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 17h ago

Bessent: "Here at the Treasury, I had $168 billion of tariff revenues that we're gonna have to refund. So when the Democrats scream, "Oh, the refunds should go back to the American people!', well, the American people had it, it was in the Treasury and it was paying down the debt."

You could grow a spine and do your damn jobs.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Cornyn: "There's nothing we could do to rein in the president"

🧵 The Founders simply could not imagine men so uninterested in maintaining & exercising their own political power that they would allow other men - even those of their own party or faction - to steal their constitutional power in broad daylight & play out The Madness of King George.

Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 23h ago

Federalist 51: “ambition must be made to counteract ambition.” That made for a system of checks and balances that mostly worked. Until some politicians with ambition to overthrow the Constitution met up with politicians whose highest ambition is attention on social media and a pat on the head.

Wow. If this isn’t the mentality of Trump’s party in a sound bite I don’t know what is.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Cornyn: "There's nothing we could do to rein in the president"

the intentional abdication by Congress of nearly all of its constitutional responsibilities is at the core of most of our problems as a nation

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Cornyn: "There's nothing we could do to rein in the president"

Trump can defeat or abuse you, but he can't take your dignity. To lose your dignity to Trump, you must give it to him voluntarily, which so many have been willing to do.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Cornyn: "There's nothing we could do to rein in the president"

Federalist 51: “ambition must be made to counteract ambition.” That made for a system of checks and balances that mostly worked. Until some politicians with ambition to overthrow the Constitution met up with politicians whose highest ambition is attention on social media and a pat on the head.

Once again, the Founders anticipated the possibility of a tyrannical president. What they didn’t anticipate is a majority of the members of Congress choosing subservience—not that they’d all be good people, but most should have egos and ambition, enough to object if someone tried taking their power.

Founders: We made the legislature Article I on purpose. The Constitution gives Congress oversight powers and requires the president to faithfully execute laws. And Congress is the only one with power to override or remove officials from other branches. Cornyn: What I presuppose is… maybe it doesn’t

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Cornyn: "There's nothing we could do to rein in the president"

I'd never read this, fuckin haunting piece. first published in 1950 it seems

Helen Kennedy@helenkennedy.com · yesterday

Read it here if you haven't yet. Today is the very best day of all days to read it for the first time. short-stories.co/@raybradbury...

Exclusive: Sen. Rand Paul published Anthony Fauci's diary entries without redacting the names or medical details of over 20 people, including people with cancer, Ebola or HIV. www.notus.org/health-scien...

Rand Paul’s Fauci Diary Dump Exposed Peoples’ Medical Histories

The Republican senator’s office published over 20 individuals’ health information without redaction.

notus.org

I just cannot understand people who go through all it takes to become a member of Congress and still have absolutely no self-respect like this.

David Ryan Miller@davidryanmiller.com · yesterday

Of course, Cornyn and Tillis know this. They know you can't trust Trump and Blanche's words as far as you can throw them. But even now, after Trump has run them both out of public life and they will phase out of their seats at year's end, they lack the courage to stand up to his authoritarianism.

Academic salaries run from literally pitiable to scandalous

After this ordeal, it feels like Trump views the entire federal budget as this “thug fund.” He’s turning it all into a payoffs, pet projects, pardons, and payback machine.

The Bulwark@thebulwark.com · yesterday

Sen. Blumenthal on Blanche’s rescission of anti-weaponization fund: “This document itself is a sham...Blanche himself says that that agreement is an enforceable document…Tomorrow Donald Trump’s counsel can go to court and seek to establish that trust fund, that thug fund…if he chooses to do so.”

Thank goodness Article I isn't alive to see this

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Cornyn: "There's nothing we could do to rein in the president"

In political science-ese, the problem is that the Senate has few "ex post" mechanisms to force Blanche to live up to his word Confirmation is the key means of oversight the Senate has over appointees Once they are installed, unless you impeach them or block funding you lack power over them

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Cornyn: "As to the idea it could be revived in the future, I think it's highly unlikely that could happen without the cooperation of the DOJ. And I think Mr Blanche gave us the assurances that it was dead and would not be revived and in this case we have no alternative but to take his word" 🙃

Genuinely a choice to give the son of a billionaire column space to argue for him to further consolidate the media, especially given the pretty abysmal track record of on journalism he has already implemented at CBS

it’s actually crazy how every Republican who claims they will stand up to Trump is just a total cuck with a humiliation fetish

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Tillis admits Trump is weaponizing the DOJ during his speech announcing he'll vote for Todd Blanche: "Maybe it's a little bit more intense in this administration than the last one ... I'm going to support Mr Blanche's nomination"

At this point, Thom Tillis has nothing left to lose but his principles, so he made sure to toss them overboard too.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Tillis admits Trump is weaponizing the DOJ during his speech announcing he'll vote for Todd Blanche: "Maybe it's a little bit more intense in this administration than the last one ... I'm going to support Mr Blanche's nomination"

"The critics are wrong about my political opinions, which for some reason I really really don't want to specify" LOL This is like when you're talking to somebody you just met and politics comes up and they laugh nervously and say, "Oh I just like to tune all that stuff out"

Mark Harris@markharris.bsky.social · yesterday

"Unfortunately, I can't give anyone a view into my heart and mind." Why? Are you unfamiliar with them? Ellison's whole "I'm not allowed to express my specific political opinions here, but trust me" approach is transparent nonsense. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/o...

👇🎯 What is journalism, anyway? That would be journalism. What is this? More shameful stuff from NYT.

Jeff (Gutenberg Parenthesis) Jarvis@jeffjarvis.bsky.social · yesterday

Shameful: The #BrokenTimes hands David Ellison op-ed space rather than challenging his bullshit pap and propaganda about journalism with the receipts he has already delivered at CBS. That would be journalism. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/o...

Whitehouse: "The last Q I'm left with is what's left of this committee? What's left when we don't demand straight answers? How many times has this DOJ been asked what became of the $50k the FBI reported it handed to Homan? ... our Republican colleagues see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil"

This, except Cornyn (and Tillis) know Lucy will pull the football away and are fine with being made to look like fools later.

Charley Brown's Missed Football Kick

ALT: Charley Brown's Missed Football Kick

static.klipy.com

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Cornyn: "Given this agreement with Mr Blanche, I expect the DOJ to live up to this in future litigation and I will vote to advance him out of the committee today"

Tillis and Cornyn have caved to Trump’s $100 million IRS immunity, but that’s just one reason to reject him as AG. Here are many more:

Barb McQuade@barbmcquade.bsky.social · 4d ago

Blanche should be blocked for IRS/slush fund AND - targeting Comey, James, Hearn, Powell, Walz, Frey, MOCs - Epstein - payouts to Flynn, Page, Babbitt, Vaughn - rejecting ethics advice to recuse from Trump cases - “war” on judiciary - “cleaning house” of DOJ personnel who worked on Trump cases

Whitehouse: "Next we get to this crooked slush fund Trump family tax amnesty scam. We've got these two new pieces of paper. One signed only by Blanche, one not signed by anybody. Neither of which has any legal effect whatsoever. They are decorative. Can you trust Todd Blanche? I do not."

America First has become Blame America First. Minnesota did not attack its own water supply network. For @theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Trump Blames America First

The president would rather condemn Minnesota than Iran.

theatlantic.com