Tom Clark
@tomsclark.bsky.social
Political scientist at Stanford University studying law, courts, policing, public safety. Go birds. www.tomclarkphd.com https://tomsclark.substack.com
Yeah, if I were him I would want to try to define this as someone else's legacy also.
Sara Gaiser@akrazia.bsky.social · 7h agoSen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) on Wednesday said the nation’s worst measles outbreak in the United States in 35 years is “going to be a terrible legacy for this administration,” citing recent deaths in Pennsylvania.
It's among the most American things that we have built a massive surveillance state but done it via private companies that the government now pays for access to the information. www.404media.co/hackers-stol...
Hackers Stole Flock’s Camera Software, Revealing How the Company Tracks Cars and People
While people around the U.S. are tearing down Flock cameras, one group of hackers went a step further: extracting the camera's software too.
404media.co
The courts are unlikely to let people use Bivens widely, but they should. This is how it should work if the executive branch is going to countenance or encourage abusive behavior.
The Marshall Project@themarshallproject.org · 11h agoIn 1971, the Supreme Court opened a small legal window to sue federal law enforcement in the case of Bivens v. Six Unknown Federal Narcotics Agents. www.themarshallproject.org/2026/09/08/m...
"If the person is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter," Oracle/Justice Kavanaugh
Gabe Ortíz@tusk81.bsky.social · 12h ago“And when one of them told an ICE agent that he was a US citizen, one of them allegedly said, ‘I don’t care, your parents can’t help you now.’” Susan Collins stole our tax dollars to fund this terrorism across our communities.
Once again, sing along with me, under any normal circumstances this would be an impeachable offense. Facilitating the destruction of a national monument to extract a personal vanity is exactly the kind of thing the framers had in mind. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/a...
Trump Fights Back After Judge Says Name Must Stay Off Kennedy Center
President Trump threatened to cancel a $257 million renovation of the performing arts venue if the judge’s ban was not overturned.
nytimes.com
Why did the Supreme Court decline to override the Constitution to help Trump rig the November elections? Because it became too woke.
There's a lot to say about the fact that 2 justices want to let Trump disrupt the election. I think the most important thing is how Alito is willing ti invert the burden of proof. He says anything that the states might be wrong about is enough for Trump to win. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
supremecourt.gov
“This should be unthinkable for the son of the president. End of story.” A Russian oligarch close to Putin bankrolled Don Jr.’s wedding. www.propublica.org/article/dona...
Donald Trump Jr.’s Wedding Bankrolled by Putin-Linked Russian Oligarch
The oligarch, Umar Kremlev, spent hundreds of thousands on expenses like renting out a private island. He appears to have met Trump Jr. only recently, but he attended the intimate wedding with a large...
propublica.org
The depravity and inhumanity never ceases to shock me. Where is our national conscience? www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/u...
‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Used Small Cages as ‘Calming Areas,’ Report Says
The Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog provided new details about conditions at the now-shuttered Florida detention center.
nytimes.com
This is, in fact, an impeachable offense and he shouldn't be president
There is a real, live constitutional crisis brewing in Missouri.
Chris Geidner@chrisgeidner.bsky.social · last wk.UPDATE: Judge Clark orders a response to be filed by the intervenors by 5p CT today to Hoskins's request that Clark enjoin the Missouri Supreme Court: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Trump's claim to have made hundreds of billion dollars on insider trading raises new questions about the high prices of Hunter Biden's paintings.
If the democrats take control of the House, expect lots of (ultimately unproductive) oversight hearings on this.
Steve Benen@stevebenen.com · 2w agoAhead of the midterms, Trump isn’t even being subtle about his brazen politicization of federal disaster relief aid, explicitly tying approvals to campaign endorsements and election results. It’s one of the underappreciated scandals of his second term. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
Trump has been determined to disprove every argument that Electoral College proponents have made. No, it doesn’t compel candidates to pay attention to the interests of voters all over the country. It shields a tyrant from electoral blowback when he tells states that voted against him to drop dead
Steve Benen@stevebenen.com · 2w agoAhead of the midterms, Trump isn’t even being subtle about his brazen politicization of federal disaster relief aid, explicitly tying approvals to campaign endorsements and election results. It’s one of the underappreciated scandals of his second term. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
When asked about Hegseth’s purge of military leaders, he said “I’m really not qualified to address” them. So, the Speaker of the House says he’s unqualified to do even the most basic oversight. Seems like maybe he’s in the wrong line of work.
4 years ago, we had our mail temporarily forwarded while on sabbatical. When we returned home, we found several boxes of mail that had been delivered over the previous months, including tax forms, credit card statements, and birthday cards. There is no chance the USPS can be trusted to do this.
Bill Grueskin@bgrueskin.bsky.social · 2w agoI recently had my mail forwarded from NY to Utah for a few months, and then back to NY, and it took multiple emails, and 7 phone calls (w/ hold times of up to an hour), til the USPS finally got it straight. The odds that this ballot scheme would actually work are somewhere between zero and nil.
John Roberts dissented from the decision to allow Trump to build a ballroom. He writes that the 5 justices were allowing likely infringement of the Legislature’s power....Today’s decision is no victory for the separation of powers." Maybe he should't have already decided Trump was above the law.
The very small group of Americans who can’t get vaccinated (for medical or, even rarer, valid religious reasons) have long benefitted from the rest of us getting vaccinated. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/w...
In Pennsylvania, 2 Measles Deaths Are Reported
The deaths, which one doctor called “extremely rare in the modern era,” are the first in the United States in 2026.
nytimes.com
Like Elvis playing “Hound Dog” in ’77. All the magic is gone, but he keeps trying the hits.
<<Taps sign>>> This is an unconstitutional impoundment, violating both Congress' Article I spending authority and the 1974 Impoundment Control act, and if we had even a minimally functioning Congress Trump would have already been impeached for it.
tomwellborn3rd@wellborn.net · 3w agoCongress funded the CDC's Alzheimer's work, the sickle cell and epilepsy data programs and a rape prevention unit, and Vought simply will not release the money. Grassley told him to his face he lacks the authority. The pocket rescission alone took 4.9 billion.
A member of Trump’s cabinet thinks that Canada doesn’t have a military.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3w agoSean Duffy on Canada: "It's a country that doesn't have a military ... they have record high euthanasia rates. And so to think that they're gonna go to war with Donald Trump and actually win that war with the US, I think it's foolish on their part."
We live in a weird country where a bunch of Christian religious people exercise extreme influence on the government, but our policies suggest we sre willing to force the poor into starvation in order to precent anyone from getting a free meal. apnews.com/article/snap...
Enrollment in SNAP grocery aid is dropping faster than expected as work requirements kick in
The number of people receiving SNAP food aid has fallen more than 13% in a year as changes to the biggest U.S. food aid program start to kick in.
apnews.com
This is exactly right and why I keep saying that we’re out of our minds to think the courts will save us from whatever the hell is going in here.
Nathan Kalmoe (he/him)@nathankalmoe.bsky.social · 4w agoAt the risk of stating the obvious, there functionally are no laws that bind the president in a system where the they can get away with violating the law for months or years before a court gets around to saying “you can’t do that.”
Among other reforms, it cannot stand that the President can sue everyone all the time but never face any lawsuits or criminal charges himself because he’s president. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/u...
Trump Threatens Defamation Suit Over National Guard Report, Aiming to Intimidate a Critic (Gift Article)
It was the latest example of President Trump’s bid to use the legal system against those who voice unflattering facts and opinions generally protected by the First Amendment.
nytimes.com
If Trump is going to abuse US banking power for political objectives, shouldn't the world re-orient itself? www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/w...
Japan’s U.S. Ties Could Not Save a Top Judge From Trump’s I.C.C. Sanctions
Japan had tried to dissuade the U.S. from imposing sanctions on Tomoko Akane, president of the International Criminal Court, but the White House pressed ahead.
nytimes.com
Turning our truly amazing Census Bureau into a blog site for conspiracy theorists.
Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)@hansilowang.bsky.social · 4w agoNEW: For the second day, the Census Bureau's homepage, census.gov, features an unauthored report with analysis that @npr.org found was conducted not by career civil servants, but a team that included individuals affiliated with a President Trump-aligned think tank, the America First Policy Institute
