This couple came legally. They applied for asylum before their visas expired, wanting to do it all by the books. After six months, they applied for work permits to stay afloat, passing background checks. They worked legally and paid taxes while government delay dragged on. Then ICE came for them.

Laura Rodríguez Presa@lauranrodriguez.bsky.social · 13h ago

The couple’s arrest outside Midway Airport aligns with what immigration attorneys across the country have observed in recent months: an increase in ICE arrests at airports of people traveling domestically with expired visas but pending immigration cases. www.chicagotribune.com/2026/08/05/c...

@wyden.senate.gov doing the lord’s work

STAT@statnews.com · 17h ago

Exclusive: Senate inquiry suggests Trump administration softened kratom and tobacco policies in quid pro quo. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is at the center of a new investigation launched by Sen. Ron Wyden. www.statnews.com/2026/08/05/s...

This is a wonderful answer, and echoes the way I have spoken to my Jewish relatives about why they should care about Palestinian children.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 17h ago

El-Sayed: "My commitment to Jewish safety is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters. Because if there is one question of political philosophy that ought to animate us all, it's what would we do if we treated all our kids like they were all of our kids?"

TRUTH NVKE

I remain convinced the only reason Obamacare wasn’t repealed in 2017 is that Collins & Murkowski were certain McCain was a yes vote.

Grudgie the Whale@grudgie.bsky.social · yesterday

Every fucking time.

Underreported in international media: Ben Gvir is building a literal moat with crocodiles around a prison where Palestinian prisoners are held. No that's not a joke. A court put it on hold for now.

Court freezes transfer of crocodiles to prison moat, putting Ben Gvir’s plan on hold

Following petition from animal rights group against move to surround Ketziot Prison with Nile crocodiles, Jerusalem District Court gives state until Wednesday to respond

timesofisrael.com

can’t believe our current all-ages literacy crisis is making me a little nostalgic for the pretentious “we publish experimental poetry chapbooks and have strong opinions on Melville and the 1800s fur trade” Literature Boys of my college years in the late 2000s/early 2010s.

There is rising actual antisemitism and conspiracism surrounding the state of Israel and its place in global affairs. And the organizations that should exist to call that out are wasting all of their credibility refusing to distinguish conspiracies from accurate descriptions of Israeli war crimes.

"Debates over World War II became popular at Heritage, with a lot of “rehashing and going through who was the bad guy and who were the good guys,”" Also, sounds like a lot of anti-Semitism at the Heritage Foundation. Maybe Trump's task force on anti-Semitism could look into this!

MAGA masculinity means declining to publicly criticize the man your daughter has accused of physical abuse, because doing so might prompt a senile 80-year-old man to write mean things about you.

Wajahat Ali@wajali.bsky.social · 6d ago

The man beat his daughter and injured his granddaughter but he's fine with it apparently. www.notus.org/ohio/bernie-...

Among potential 2028 contenders, Newsom seems the most committed in trying to turn Trump's allies into his own allies, hence constantly kissing the assess of the worst people in the country, like this gift for the Ellisons. Bold strategy, Cotton, let's see how the Dem base likes that.

Murshed Zaheed@murshedz.bsky.social · 5d ago

when it comes down to it - @gavinnewsom.bsky.social bends the knee to big money and billionaires. This time he is bending the knee to billionaire monopolists - pushing for a media merger helping the right wing media project.

I think that not only is this good politics, but the stability of American society depends on it. Liberal American normies are out for blood, but *everyone* is in an anti-system mood. If we don't feed that beast some sacrifices, it'll find someone who can, and those sacrifices will be innocent.

Jay Willis@jaywillis.net · 6d ago

Chaperoning a preschool trip to the aquarium and one of the other dads who is vaguely familiar with what I do comes up to me and goes “man I sure hope we get some Nuremberg-style trials at the end of all this”

This raises the question of whether Todd Blanche knew Trump intended to appeal-and was therefore lying to Congress when he testified about it But the more troubling issue is, if the Acting Attorney General committed perjury, who will prosecute him And can you impeach an interim AG

Amee Vanderpool@girlsreallyrule.bsky.social · 5d ago

Trump confirmed today that he will appeal the ruling from a federal judge in Florida who found the president effectively colluded with his own government in bringing a $10 billion suit against the IRS. Trump has no intention of dropping the IRS slush fund which doesn't look good for Todd Blanche.

"WE THE FUCKING JUDGE SON" New York, I love you. I love you so fucking much. Via wali_talks on IG

Personally as a Jewish American I would appreciate if “Protestant unspecified” candidates kept us out of their mouths

The pedophile protector regime wants to force kids to beg for their lives alone in immigration court. Call your Member of Congress, tell them to demand HHS pay what they owe the lawyers representing 20,000 unaccompanied kids & let them keep doing their jobs. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Thousands of immigrant children risk losing lawyers after Trump aid cuts

More than 20,000 unaccompanied children risk going to US immigration court alone after federal funding cuts

theguardian.com

Van Hollen's interview with Peter Beinart was extremely impressive and arguably makes him the most left wing would be candidate on Palestine for 2028.

The Trump admin had a real theory of war: Put on a show of toughness, tell people how manly you are, disdain law, do war crimes, and you win. Earlier losses came from leaders too "weak" to do that. It was a very stupid theory. But they espoused it a lot, really seem to believe it, and acted on it.

Shoe@shoe.bsky.social · 7d ago

President Toddler

A new Emerson College Polling/WLNS/WOODTV survey of the Michigan Democratic Primary for US Senate finds Abdul El-Sayed leading Rep. Haley Stevens, 54% to 39%. emersoncollegepolling.com/michigan-202...

Michigan 2026 Poll: Abdul El-Sayed Leads Haley Stevens for Democratic US Senate Nomination - Emerson Polling

John James Leads Perry Johnson in GOP Governor Primary A new Emerson College Polling/WLNS/WOODTV survey…Full Release & Results

emersoncollegepolling.com

An under-remarked point — not here on the intelligentsia's finest website, but elsewhere in the discourse — is that in the scenario where Dems get to clean up after (*gestures around*), they're going to have no money.

Steven T. Dennis@steventdennis.bsky.social · last wk.

Bad news: The 30-year Treasury yield hit a 19-year high today. 🚨🚨🚨 America's going to have to pay more for its colossal debt, which will soon hit $40 trillion. Interest already tops $1T a year and is growing rapidly. Latest GOP/WH plans would increase the deficit. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

This is a good reminder that some "voluntary" departures people sign while detained by ICE are the product of coercion. The worst incidents I've heard of over the years involve agents grabbing a person's hands and forcing them to sign a piece of paper they can't read; it's a "voluntary" removal.

Senator Patty Murray@murray.senate.gov · last wk.

ICE agents threatened to beat up a Seattle small business owner, married to a citizen, with NO criminal record unless he signed a "voluntary" departure. I'm told there were cameras in the room. I'm demanding any video and that Eduardo be brought home immediately.

spacex fan boys lost their minds at me when I predicted exactly this btw blog.esghound.com/p/spacexs-te...

SpaceX's Texas Rocket is Going To Cause A Lot More Damage Than Anyone Thinks

On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a license for SpaceX to launch the first orbital test of Starship, the largest rocket in human history, as soon as this Monday, April 17th.

blog.esghound.com

coyotebroad (Jayne Cravens)@coyotebroad.bsky.social · last wk.

SpaceX rocket that exploded shortly after takeoff destroyed land & wildlife: Concrete chunks had left craters a foot deep & were strewn across tidal flats, almost four acres of state park burned, 7 bobwhite quail eggs & a collection of blue land crabs incinerated. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Beshear is good at politics.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last wk.

Beshear: "There's an argument that August 3 is a date where I could not later call a special. Those that are really pushing this are under the impression a Dem might be able to win. It's been since '92 that we had a Dem senator in KY ... not having McConnell show up isn't necessarily a bad thing"

Israel is giving Trump's former campaign manager millions of dollars to fill the internet with pro-Israel articles written by AI, not so that anyone will actually read them, but so that *LLMs will train on them* & regurgitate their perspective. This is the future of the information environment.

Israel Is Paying Millions to Train AI Chatbots How to Talk About Gaza. It's Working.

Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale is overseeing an operation posting hundreds of blog posts on behalf of Israel, with the goal of infiltrating artificial intelligence.

dropsitenews.com

more broadly it’s just a classic two step where you say “of course i’m against netanyahu” and then anytime someone says “then let’s do something about it” come up with an explanation for how actually, going against Bibi will help him, so the “anti-bibi” course is to do nothing

#StupidSuez@diplomatofnight.com · last wk.

Do the people who write this argument, that Mamdani's threat to enforce the international arrest warrant on Netanyahu actually "helps Netanyahu at home", not get what this implicitly says about the Israeli Jewish electorate?

I think it's perfectly fine that Israeli Jews believe that their Prime Minister should be exempted from the rules but it is not clear to me why American statecraft should ever be crafted around the domestic considerations of another country.

#StupidSuez@diplomatofnight.com · last wk.

Do the people who write this argument, that Mamdani's threat to enforce the international arrest warrant on Netanyahu actually "helps Netanyahu at home", not get what this implicitly says about the Israeli Jewish electorate?

one of the most frustrating things about what Rowling has turned into is how hard it is to explain to offline people that she’s not just another author who has turned out to have shitty views - her entire life and fortune is dedicated to destroying trans people

Alejandra Caraballo@esqueer.net · last wk.

Projection so powerful, you could screen the Odyssey in 70MM IMAX from it.

Stephen Miller said just the other day that all asylum claims are "fake." A couple deported from the U.S. to Guatemala were gagged, bound, and shot dead. Their 14-month old found crying next to their mother's body. People like Miller don't care though because this is the point: ethnic cleansing.

Overland couple shot dead in Guatemala after local ICE stop led to deportations

The couple’s 14-month-old daughter was found crying beside her mother’s body in a sugarcane field last week, according to Guatemalan authorities and media.

stlpr.org

As one of the two people on Bluesky who look at these polls professionally I remain vindicated in my assertion that Black voters are more Israel-skeptical than whites, contra the media narrative

Prem Thakker ツ@premthakker.bsky.social · last wk.

New poll: Americans believe the U.S. should arrest Benjamin Netanyahu by a +22 margin Total: 49-27 Black: 53-13 Hispanic: 52-15 Ages 18-29: 58-17 Harris voters: 74-10 Independents: 55-20 23% of Trump voters agree as well Economist/YouGov:

People who are suddenly deported to countries they haven’t been to for years — or, in some cases, have NEVER been to — are incredibly vulnerable. We are going to be reading stories like this for years. God have mercy on their three little girls.

Adam Sawyer@adamjst.bsky.social · last wk.

“If immigration hadn't picked up my brother, my sister-in-law would still be alive, and the children wouldn't be going through this sorrow,” he said. “Unfortunately, immigration — the [U.S.] government — doesn't see that. It makes no difference to them.” www.stlpr.org/law-order/20...