Trump's Iran quagmire is getting worse. Striking pattern: *Leavitt/Hegseth berating media for making Trump "look bad" *Rs privately say they don't want ownership of Iran attack *GOP avoiding using word "war" On the pod @teotten1.bsky.social and I dig into all of it: newrepublic.com/article/2074...

Trump Press Sec Tirade Takes Truly Weird Turn as GOP Iran Angst Spikes

As Karoline Leavitt snaps amid tough questioning on Iran, the author of a piece on White House social media strategy explains how Trumpworld’s messaging is trivializing the war, making things worse fo...

newrepublic.com

This is the type of hater energy that will fuel us in the years ahead.

Miami DSA@miamidsa.org · 8mo ago

Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷

The White House social media account is currently one of the most hateful things I've seen in my lifetime and I can't believe we have to pretend it's normal

The IDF surrounded, beat, and choked US labor leader Chris Smalls after boarding an aid ship. "Smalls was the only Black person on the flotilla and was punished much more severely than any of the other 20 members," @malcolmferguson.bsky.social writes for @newrepublic.com tinyurl.com/wxt9h3yv

Israel Detains and Beats Up Amazon Union Leader Chris Smalls

Meanwhile, there’s not a peep from mainstream media in the U.S.

tinyurl.com

Forcing the Black woman who painted the portrait of the Obamas to cancel for NOT erasing Black Transgender people …..

ACLU@aclu.org · last yr.

No artists should face censorship for their creativity, vision, and commitment to transgender people's freedom. Erasing our art and our stories won't erase us.

oh my gosh

Democrats@democrats.org · last yr.

With fuel prices exorbitant and road travel treacherous in war-battered Gaza, AFP video journalist Youssef Hassouna has to walk for hours in the searing heat every day to document the news: "This morning, I walked about a 25-kilometre round trip in search of information." ➡️ u.afp.com/Sgin

"We've learned from their brief messages that they can't hold on much longer, and their courage, dedicated for many months to informing the whole world, won't help them survive."

I don't mean to sound hysterical but there are some pretty clear historical examples of "force the urban-dwellers to the farms," and none of them are great.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last yr.

Brooke Rollins on farm laborers: "There will be no amnesty. The mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way. And we move the workforce toward automation and 100% American participation, which with 34 million able-bodied on Medicaid we should be able to do fairly quickly."

from “student debt forgiveness is tyranny” to “the president is allowed to point at someone and have them summarily executed on the spot” in 2 years

If the Supreme Court thinks universal injunctions are unconstitutional, to wait until *now* to say that, in this of all cases, with this of all presidents, is a devastating indictment of both its impartiality and its prudence.

wow a concentration camp with showers?

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last yr.

Ron DeSantis on his new camp for migrants: "We've got showers. There you see the shower and bath facilities."

I want to reiterate that countless conservative judges issued universal injunctions against the Biden administration, and the Supreme Court never halted the practice. Now, barely five months into Trump's second term, the court puts an end to these injunctions. A brazen double standard.

The Supreme Court's conservative supermajority just took away lower courts' single most powerful tool for reining in the Trump administration's lawless excesses, stripping them of authority to issue universal injunctions that block illegal policies nationwide. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

Christ it's bad. NO UNIVERSAL INJUCTIONS.

Kimberly Robinson@kimberlyrobinsn.bsky.social · last yr.

1st #SCOTUS opinion in birthright citizenship case, No 24A884 Trump v. CASA. Background: news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Love this totally legitimate and real functioning democracy, where every June our nine wizard-kings descend from the mountain to tell us which laws aren’t real anymore

The freakout about the Zohran government possibly opening some groceries store in food deserts is fascinating because the simplest way for capital to route around it would be for businesses just open up there and obviate the need but they appear unwilling/uninterested in doing so, so govt steps in.

Short read on today at SCOTUS: Good day for inmates. Immigrants stay losing always. Worst day for women since Dobbs.

Punchbowl reports Robert Garcia wins handily, defeating Stephen Lynch 150-63. Robert Garcia will be the top House Dem on the Oversight Committee

Aaron Fritschner@fritschner.bsky.social · last yr.

They're giving introductions ahead of the vote now, with @beyer.house.gov leading off for Team Robert Garcia. Vote soon

An act of war weeks in planning but unauthorized by Congress against a country that Trump's own director of intelligence testified under oath was not close to getting a nuclear weapon.

Axios@axios.com · last yr.

BREAKING: U.S. strikes Iran's nuclear facilities

Judge Farbiarz finds there are extraordinary circumstances here, and no flight risk or danger to community. Also the punishment claim is substantial enough to justify release. He orders Mahmoud Khalil RELEASED ON BAIL.

Hey Chuck, this decision rips health care away from Americans

It's not hyperbole to say that corpses have more rights than pregnant women in many US states. Liz Bruenig really said "brain dead people are incubators too"

"Three dozen horses, 28 Abrams tanks, 6,700 soldiers, and millions of taxpayer dollars later, and Donald Trump’s military birthday parade was still a flop at best." tinyurl.com/3mdybh3y by @malcolmferguson.bsky.social for @newrepublic.com

Trump’s Military Parade Was a Pathetic Event for a Pathetic President

The turnout wasn’t anything like what he wanted—and not everyone who showed up was even a fan of his.

tinyurl.com

Everyone saw Grand Park's hot pink benches being stacked into a barricade on Sunday. What an exceptional statement from RIOS, the benches' designers instagram.com/rios.imagines "These pieces were designed to move, adapt, welcome, connect — and now protect"

Yesterday I met Assane II, so-called "King of the Corniche," the main highway here in Dakar. "Noble, imposing and perfectly built," he's rumored to be the most expensive ram (2.5 mn XOF / $4,350) ahead of Tabaski (Eid al-Adha), when the animals are sacrificed for a family feast

Missouri voters secured a historic victory for abortion rights in November. The state Supreme Court just ripped it away. tinyurl.com/m26t63nu by @melissagiragrant.com for @newrepublic.com

Missouri’s Historic Abortion Victory Is Crumbling Before Our Eyes

The state Supreme Court effectively restored an abortion ban voters believed they’d defeated just months ago. The reversal ​points up the risks of relying on ballot measures to ensure abortion access.

tinyurl.com

By far my favorite part of South Korean elections: election night graphics. SBS television station kills it EVERY. TIME. They play these clips all night and they get more and more unhinged and creative as the night goes on.

happy for Khalil of course but i must say, "lawful permanent resident not charged with any crimes, imprisoned by president's stormtroopers for having forbidden opinions about US-abetted genocide, briefly allowed to touch his child" is a hell of a thing to find oneself feeling joy and relief about

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman.com · last yr.

A HAPPY UPDATE! Mahmoud Khalil was allowed a "contact" visit—without plexiglass divider—with his wife and newborn son this morning before his immigration hearing, ACLU tells me, so I think we can safely assume that he was finally able to hold his child for the first time.

Anyway just poping in to note that the budget bill that will kick millions off of their health care and food assistance programs managed to pass the House today by a margin of 215-214. A margin that would have been impossible if three Democrats had chosen to retire instead of dying at their desks.