John Adams
@libertariandiary.com
Lawyer • Blogger • Bleeding-Heart Libertarian • Cat Guy • Web: https://libertariandiary.com & https://freewhitewater.com • Alum: Penn, William & Mary, Cornell Law • Never Trump Before Never Trump
Honestly, most of Rogers's friends are probably imaginary: "When Rogers tells the story, he often presents it as a recent revelation—a conversation he had just a “couple of weeks ago” or “the other day,” even though he’s told the story at least 31 times over the past year and a half." #Michigan
Mike Rogers May Have an Imaginary Friend Who Loves Tariffs
The GOP Senate candidate keeps changing the same old story.
open.substack.com
"Did they think the balance of political power would never shift? Did they believe there would never be congressional accountability for the past two years, or that anti-corruption laws would never be enforced again? That we were doomed to be a failed state?" #Accountability
Companies That Cozied Up to Trump Brace for a Reckoning
The question is, why were they so shortsighted about appeasing him?
open.substack.com
Yes, Trump is definitely at 104% approval rating. People who haven't been born yet are saying, with tears in their eyes, "Sir, there has never been a better president in the history of everything!"
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d agoTrump on his approval rating: "42%?! You mean times 2, and add 20."
The power of the purse is Congress’s strongest check on the president. If a president can both spend money Congress refused to give him and refuse to spend money Congress ordered him to spend, Congress no longer has the spending power.
Why You Must Care About the Ballroom
Trump is defying Congress and robbing the American people to build it.
lnk.thebulwark.com
In Opinion “Donald Trump is not the first president to break the law,” Jamelle Bouie writes. “He is not even the first president to insist that his actions cannot, on some deep ontological level, be illegal. But he may be the first president to abandon the pretense that the law matters at all.”
Opinion | Trump Cannot Be the End of the Story
Trump has no use for pretense and he’s not interested in playing along.
nyti.ms
fascinating way to announce to the world that you're an idiot
The Detroit News@detroitnews.com · 3d agoJason Turkish, a Democratic mega donor, described his decision to back Republican Mike Rogers over Abdul El-Sayed as "putting country before party."
BREAKING: An unprecedented leak of DHS records has exposed details of more than 41,000 employees and contractors, including workers’ cellphone numbers, ICE and CBP facility locations, and members of groups tied to wiretap programs, Palantir software, and xAI’s Grok chatbot.
Massive Leak Exposes 41,000 Homeland Security Workers—Including Undercover ICE Agents
The leaked records include the locations of ICE and CBP facilities, workers' cellphone numbers, and the members of groups tied to wiretap programs, Palantir software, and xAI’s Grok chatbot.
wired.com
"We are engaged in an ongoing contest, and one that seems pretty evenly matched. A couple of days ago I quoted James Madison on “the great struggle of the Epoch between liberty and despotism.” It was the struggle of Madison’s epoch. It will be the struggle of ours, as well." #America #Liberalism
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Elon Musk?
Maybe he’s the villain Democrats needed.
open.substack.com
Victory! Court Rules OPM Data Disclosure to DOGE Is Unlawful #DOGE
Victory! Court Rules OPM Data Disclosure to DOGE Is Unlawful
A federal court in New York definitively ruled that the Office of Personnel Management violated the law when it disclosed millions of federal employee records to DOGE agents. The court will decide the...
eff.org
“Even with President Trump holding back on restarting major combat operations, at least for now, the Pentagon still incurred about $3.5 billion in additional costs in the roughly six weeks since the Pentagon shared estimates with lawmakers last month.” #IranWar #AndCounting
Iran War Cost Rises to $47.1 Billion, Pentagon Told Lawmakers (Gift Article)
The estimate through Oct. 16 shows that bombs, missiles and other munitions accounted for more than 60 percent of expenses.
nytimes.com
Trump laments animals being fried to death on solar panels, gushes once again about Jon Husted's ass (but disses Ken Paxton's), and brags about "making an absolute fortune" off the Iran War during an uninhibited even by his standards rally in Lubbock Supercut:
Trump's affordability message: "You could even come to Mar-a-Lago. You'll be my guest. The problem is that for $5,000 the most you'll be able to buy is a hamburger and maybe a small dessert. I'm not even sure you could buy that! No, don't go there. It's not a good place if you're price conscious."
"Among Ms. Hutchinson’s disclosures was how Mr. Trump, despite knowing that the crowd assembled on the National Mall might have been armed and violent, encouraged people to march toward the Capitol." #DOJ #Trump
Grand Jury Declines to Bring Charges Against Cassidy Hutchinson (Gift Article)
The rejection of the indictment was the latest extraordinary setback in President Trump’s wide-ranging campaign to go after his political opponents.
nytimes.com
There are no countries in the Middle East with names that are difficult to pronounce or confusingly spelled in English. They're all pretty simple. Several are only four or five letters.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4d agoJD Vance says of the Middle East that it's "a region of the world made up of countries whose name I couldn't even pronounce"
"The consideration of more sanctions relief for Russia, which has not been previously reported, shows how the Kremlin is using a recent flurry of diplomacy over the war in Ukraine to advance an agenda that appears to have little to do with securing peace." #Trump #Russia #Putin
Trump Explores Lifting Sanctions on Russia’s Flagship Investment Fund (Gift Article)
The move would be the latest U.S. concession to Moscow as President Trump pursues economic incentives he hopes will secure an end to war in Ukraine.
nytimes.com
"Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee released a 52-page report (PDF) titled “We Have Certain Things in Common, Jeffrey: The Case Against Donald Trump Emerging in the Epstein Files and DOJ’s Desperate Efforts to Cover It Up.” #Trump #SexualAssault
Donald Trump’s Hundredth Smoking Gun
His criminal abusiveness hangs in the open over an American election yet again.
liberalcurrents.com
Trump and Co. will try to steal the midterms. They're already trying. Gerrymandering, bad faith lawsuits, voter intimidation, and a whole lot of lies. But they don't have a genius secret plan. They're already doing whatever they can think of. And it's beatable. Shouldn't have to, but here we are.
The US is not about to have a free and fair election. The state has put its thumb on the scale to favor the ruling party in multiple ways. It's a mostly free, somewhat unfair election. But still one where the ruling party can be overwhelmed by numbers. Hence the term "competitive authoritarianism."
Asawin Suebsaeng@swin24.bsky.social · 5d agoIt is atrocious we have to operate under this constant credible and explicit threat from one political party, the fact we keep calling it a “free and fair election” needs some light revising
Elon Musk has spent more money on American elections in the last two years than George Soros has in his entire life.
He's such a phony. His wife's name was Usha Chilukuri when they met. His in-laws names are Radhakrishna and Lakshmi Chilukuri. He was married in a Hindu ceremony presided over by a Hindu priest.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4d agoJD Vance says of the Middle East that it's "a region of the world made up of countries whose name I couldn't even pronounce"
"Woodward writes that the billionaire owner’s sweeping staff cuts, reorientation of the editorial page and personal ingratiation to the president have betrayed the legacy of a newspaper known for courageous coverage." #Trump #Press #Bezos
Bob Woodward Criticizes Jeff Bezos in New Memoir
Six takeaways from a new memoir by Mr. Woodward, the star Washington Post reporter, including his disappointment with the newspaper’s billionaire owner.
nytimes.com
"The findings suggest that a cursory investigation, lax oversight, and possibly a refusal to admit a mistake may have ensnared a U.S. citizen for nearly all of 2026 as the Trump administration rushes to deport large numbers of people suspected of being in the country illegally." #ICE #USCitizen
AP investigation: Documents support claim ICE has detained a mentally ill US citizen since January
An Associated Press review has found that for nearly a year immigration authorities have detained and sought to deport a mentally ill man whose mother, lawyers and public records say was born in the U...
apnews.com
"October has brought more attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz than any month since tracking began, with Reuters counting at least twenty-eight. Traffic is falling again...and more than thirty supertankers have now been damaged." #IranWar #ForeverWar #Trump
Donald Trump Has a Problem: Iran Is Attacking Ships in the Strait of Hormuz Now at Record Levels
October is already the worst month on record for attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, and weekend crossings have nearly dried up.
nationalsecurityjournal.org
"This year, they are teaching poll workers what to do if immigration enforcement officers show up. They are drilling them about the statute that bars federal agents from voting places. They are running through the limits of what federal monitors may and may not do on Election Day." #Elections
Election Officials Fear Trump Administration’s Interference in Midterms Voting (Gift Article)
State and local plans for Election Day include how to react to potential ICE raids, misbehavior by federal election monitors and attempts to seize votes or machines.
nytimes.com