Reminder that all the "pardons" granted to Jan6ers whose convictions were still pending were auto-pen pardons.

Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Trump claims “any document” signed by Joe Biden is “hereby terminated.” He calls out executive orders later but obviously “any document” would be much broader and include legislation. (He can’t legally do that but, as always, we get to watch how far he can push this without repercussions)

Somehow, we're already celebrating The Downballot's first anniversary today! It's been *quite* the year, and our fiercely loyal readers have made it all possible. We're also marking the occasion with a special 25% off sale! If you haven't upgraded yet, check out all the perks you'll unlock →→

Morning Digest: The Downballot rings in its first anniversary today!

We're celebrating with a special 25% off sale for our readers

the-downballot.com

The media lost its MIND when Obama tried to make some small changes to the press pool system. Now Trump is quite openly rendering it into a North Korea-esque state-media system and ... has a single journalist or outlet stood up to protest?

@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze)@newsjennifer.bsky.social · 12mo ago

an interesting side note to this oval office thing:

Dane County Judge Susan Crawford has defeated former state Attorney General Brad Schimel in Tuesday's pivotal election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, ensuring that liberals will retain the majority they first won two years ago.

Liberals keep grip on Wisconsin Supreme Court despite Musk onslaught

Susan Crawford's win ensures a 4-3 majority for at least three years

the-downballot.com

HOW IT HAPPENED: James Andrew Malone, the mayor of a town of 5,000, ran on education, abortion rights, and opposing Elon Musk—in a district that had *never* voted Democratic. Until tonight. Our complete write-through of his astonishing special election win in Lancaster County →

Democrats flip deep-red Pennsylvania district in special election shocker

No Democrat had ever won this ancestrally Republican seat, but it's now the second Democratic pickup of the year.

the-downballot.com

This is especially true because it flies in the face of the roughly 39 million fundraising texts and emails I've received since 1/20. Every one tells me they need my money to "fight Trump."

a man in a white shirt stands in front of a crowd wearing a hat that says ' sx ' on it

ALT: a man in a white shirt stands in front of a crowd wearing a hat that says ' sx ' on it

media.tenor.com

David Nir@davidnir.com · last yr.

Democrats in Congress need to stop talking about what they *can't* do and start talking about what they *can* do, even if it's only small things! www.latimes.com/politics/sto...

First fucking thing they teach you as a law student in Contracts is that a contract made under duress is not valid, and this here fancy-ass law firm is like, “Sign us up!”

Hugo Lowell@hugolowell.bsky.social · last yr.

New: Trump rescinds order targeting the law firm Paul Weiss after it agreed to “dedicate the equivalent of $40m in pro bono legal services over the course of President Trump’s term to support the admin’s initiatives” AND “acknowledged the wrongdoing of Mark Pomerantz”

These are the members of the Senate Democratic caucus who just voted to pass the GOP's Trump-backed budget bill, along with the year that they next go before voters—including primary voters.

If it’s illegal, then they weren’t fired. (To be clear: I do not take issue with the QT at all, I’m grateful that she shared this news. But workers affected by these illegal actions should go to court, stat.)

Rachel Gordon@rachelgo.bsky.social · 2y ago

600+ USAID employees were just fired (at 10pm on Sunday night). To all of you: I'm so, so sorry. It's horrifying and utterly illegal and you do not deserve this.

They are just pouring water out of a reservoir for no goddamn reason other than Trump thinks that there's a magic valve that was stopping California from fighting wildfires.

In writing about Trump in the first term I kept coming back to the idea of trying to talk a drunk driver out of the keys. It's maybe not the best metaphor, although it's not wrong. Anyway he is most definitely not just driving but doing 75 in a 35 now. Feels like there are fewer options now.

Peter Gleick@petergleick.bsky.social · 2y ago

For a photo op & a bragging media post, Trump minions at the USACoE have thrown away millions of gals of #water farmers were relying on for later this year. This water will not be captured, will not be useful for cities or farms or firefighting. It is now lost. www.latimes.com/environment/...

The throughline that I keep returning to is: -they collectively decided that Musk’s takeover of Twitter went *great*. -so they’ve taking that same approach to the entire federal bureaucracy. -instead of server crashes and error messages, medicaid breaks and a plane full of kids crashes.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2y ago

REPORTER: Is there an acting FAA director? DUFFY: *walks away* (The FAA director resigned on the day of Trump's inauguration under pressure from Elon Musk)

RFK Jr even getting a hearing for this job is failed state shit

Gosh I’m stunned.

Trump deported 200 Colombians. None were criminals, Colombian officials say.

Among the deportees who arrived back home Tuesday in Colombia were two pregnant women and more than 20 children.

washingtonpost.com

Brutal exchange between RFK Jr. and Sen. Bennet: Bennet: Did you say Lyme disease is a highly likely militarily engineered bioweapon? Kennedy: I probably did say that.

Why, why, oh holy fuck WHY does the American MAGA right insist on using the least masculine dudes on earth to be their voices for masculinity? For fucks sake, Matt Walsh could get his ass kicked by a middle schooler.

Bluegal Fran Langum #NoKings@bluegal.bsky.social · 2y ago

I've got nothing nice to say about Nancy Mace here, but Matt Walsh says the military and related institutions have "very good reason to be uniquely masculine and exclusively male." He can suck my dick. www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/m...

Seems like some mistakes were made along the path that brought us here, I'm saying.

Greg Greene (he/him/his)@greene.haus · 2y ago

Among the last acts in his first term was a coup against the Constitution, and he's spent the first week of his second picking up where he left off — rejecting settled constitutional law _and_ settling scores with the people tasked with investigating his coup attempt.

Our guest this week on The Downballot podcast is PA Lt. Gov. Austin Davis (@lgaustindavis.bsky.social), who's also the new chair of the @demlgs.org. We dive deep into the importance of the LG job and Davis' efforts to elect more Democrats like him. Listen here!

PA's Austin Davis on electing more LG's like him

Listen now | And Virginia Democrats advance amendments to protect abortion, marriage, and voting rights

the-downballot.com

The sanewashing and corruption washing and Nazi washing define why legacy media will not survive this era.

Status@status.news · 2y ago

Ahead of Inauguration Day, CNN chief Mark Thompson convened his top anchors for a meeting in which he provided guidance about how he wanted the affair covered. Among the things Thompson signaled he didn't want to see: A focus on Trump's scandalous past. Details: www.status.news/p/mark-thomp...

What an adorbs and funny way for Trump to say that Stephen Miller is a white supremacist. That he has empowered. Huh. Odd, that.

Sam Stein@samsteindc.bsky.social · 2y ago

"Mr. Trump said that if it was up to [Stephen] Miller there would be only 100 million people in this country, and they would all look like Mr. Miller, according to a person with knowledge of the comment. Karoline Leavitt, Mr. Trump’s spokeswoman, denied the account." www.nytimes.com/2025/01/16/u...

Burning down the pentagon is a weird goal for the guy who runs the pentagon

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2y ago

Rep. Ronny Jackson on Hegseth: "They fear him because he's gonna go in there and burn the place down."

Sober is the new Woke

Justin Baragona@justinbaragona.bsky.social · 2y ago

Fox News anchor John Roberts with his first takeaway from the Hegseth hearing: "What secretary of defense does not have a bottle of bourbon or whiskey in his office?!"

It’s funny Zuck says “I started building social media to give people a voice” when in fact, he started building social media to publicly rate the hotness of undergrads.

There are still some votes to be counted, but right now, NoVA Dems are running slightly ahead of Harris while a Republican in a safe red seat is running well behind Trump in tonight's special elections docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

When speech online is just endless cacophony and only the oligarchs have agency and opinions that matter to affect the political process, the freedom of speech these so called beneficent overlords granted us is shown for what it is, a fool's freedom.

Meta is not "bending the knee." They're seizing an opportunity.

ME: oh, cool, so you’ll stop classifying any LGBTQ content as ‘sexual’ and throttling it. FB: oh not those restrictions. ME: what restrictions, then? FB: oh, you know the ones.

Brian Stelter@brianstelter.bsky.social · 2y ago

Facebook will also "get rid of a bunch of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are just out of touch with mainstream discourse," Zuckerberg says. And the U.S.-based content review teams will be based in Texas, not California, going forward

Streaming in 2010: You can watch an entire catalog of amazing movies and TV shows for a reasonable monthly fee Streaming in 2025: our library is Batman movies and 28 seasons of a Tim Allen sitcom, it costs $159/month. We just destroyed the last piece of evidence that Mister Rogers ever existed

Oliver Darcy@oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 2y ago

Scoop: Warner Bros. Discovery has quietly pulled "The West Wing" from its Max streamer as part of a cost-cutting move following a ROI evaluation. Details in @status.news: link.status.news/3C72V5Z

NEW: California is growing again. Reason to cheer, or yawn? Talk of a mass “exodus” was always overblown, rooted in partisan animus. Will the population bump be taken as validation of the California Way? Nah. But at least it might quiet the haters for a little bit. www.latimes.com/politics/sto...

Column: California is growing again. Hurrah! Or ho-hum?

The state's recent population growth comes with caveats, but hopefully will put an end to the premature death notices and hyperbolic takeaways. At the least, it should end the groundless talk of mass ...

latimes.com

Scott Van Pelt has some thoughts on Russell Wilson's post-game comments 👀