A 14-word replacement for most op-eds, substacks, etc about this moment. The GOP could stop ALL of this, right now—if a handful of Sens or Reps could step outside the cult. It would take four in the Senate, four (maybe five) in the House, to change history. Until then, they're all to blame.

2/ What got my and our reader's attention though are the posters in support of it.

One year ago

> "a September contingency plan, since deleted from the USDA’s website...said Congress intended 'that SNAP’s operations should continue' and that contingency funds 'are also available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs [mid-fiscal year]'" www.huffpost.com/entry/govern...

The New York Post is owned by Lachlan Murdoch, solely because his daddy bought it and passed it on to him. And it's backing Andrew Cuomo, a meathead whose whole career in politics stems from his daddy being good at it. But *Mamdani* is the nepo baby, because his mom was a filmmaker? Sure.

The Trump Administration’s assertion that it can't use SNAP’s contingency reserves for SNAP benefits is contrary to: ▪️The plain language of the law ▪️Their own (now deleted) shutdown plan ▪️Guidance from prior Administrations We have the receipts:

Guillermo del Toro on wealth: "a wealthy man is a man who has enough, not a man that needs more. If you have enough to invite someone for a beer? You're rich. If you have a yacht, planes, islands, and you still need more? You're not rich."

Honestly the full-body disgust and horror I felt the first time I saw a post from that man, went to block who I had assumed was a random racist asshole of no consequence, and saw he was a former Gorsuch clerk and Grassley's Chief Counsel for nominations and now advises Trump on judicial nominations

There’s a feedback loop sometimes called “sado-populism” that Trump has so far excelled at. He says, “things are bad & I alone can fix it.” Gets elected. Makes things worse. Says “things are bad & I alone can fix it.”

I made an image of all the art posted by US DOL on X since approximately Labor Day

it's very hard to distinguish between Trump's cognitive decline and his cognitive never-having-inclined

the point of the ballroom obvs has nothing to do with aesthetics. it's to create an architectural structure to honor the patronage networks that currently dominate US politics. previous WH venues hosted maybe a couple of hundred people; this hosts nearly 1,000 rich donors.

So they didn’t like the ad. Let’s just post Reagan’s 5 min speech against tariffs as it appears on YouTube. Over and over. On all platforms (some of y’all are still on X). *1981 Sherrilyn horrified by 2025 Sherrilyn saying “let’s post Reagan’s speech.” youtu.be/5t5QK03KXPc

One thing that’s become very clear is that corporations understand the Trump administration’s willingness to vindictively punish noncompliance, and view capitulation as pure upside. Which means consumers need to be very, very aggressive about punishing compliance to balance that.

This seems to be the Youtube link. Note it is eight years old. This is not AI. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t5Q...

The old rulebook is gone. It's not coming back and we all need to accept that. The DOJ is weaponized. the GOP is rigging elections. Trump is literally bulldozing the White House. Democrats need to operate under this new reality, fight hard, and play by the same rules.

They don’t GAF about the Constitution, and they’ll do whatever it takes to keep Trump breathing long enough to seize a third term. So when you start thinking your vote doesn’t matter, remember this: they know it does. That’s why they’re trying to take it from you. This isn’t going to end well.

Here's the full radio address from Reagan in 1987. He talks a little about how he needs to impose tariffs on semiconductors from Japan but it's clear he's singling them out as something that should be rarely used. The Reagan Foundation suggesting they might sue over the ad is hilarious.

It is of course by turns absurd and obscene that this is what’s being touted as a corruption case against the NY AG when the President of the United States is pardoning crypto billionaires and building his Bribe Palace on the ruins of the East Wing of the White House.

Over the past week, the president said the DOJ should pay him a quarter billion dollars, bulldozed half the White House to build himself a gaudy ballroom, bragged about murdering civilians in international waters, pardoned some more criminals, directed federal prosecutors to indict his opponents ...

This country is allowed to have tariffs. You just have to convince Congress that they're a good idea. The President can hold tariff powers instead of Congress, if you can convince voters to amend the Constitution. If you can't convince anyone of anything, rethink your ideas.

A blaring red warning signal for the rule of law; a President declaring “we’re just gonna kill people” without a trial or even a shred of due process.

will there be any followup to this fascinating story by the president of the united states that a friend of his sent him a check for $130 million dollars and the president is going to give the money to the military because i for one am fascinated about the details tbh

Q: On the pardon of Changpeng Zhao, Binance has significant business interests with World Liberty Financial, the president family's crypto company. How do you respond to criticisms that this is a corrupt act? LEAVITT: I would respond and say the president is exercising his constitutional authority

The East Wing is totally gone. I can’t believe it

God it's so gross. I wish I had something more sophisticated to say about it. It's just so fucking gross.

basically all this shit is Roberts' fault, because the immunity made Trump feel like he could break the law as much as he wants without consequences. bsky.app/profile/jayw...

see the control on pardons is supposed to be "if the president blatantly pardons a criminal ally, he gets impeached" all of this comes back to the failure of the Republican Party and Congress to have even a modicum of public decency.

Yup. It's really the perfect metaphor for all his crimes: Abuse of process Open corruption Destruction of the notion of "public" Bad taste All during a government shutdown necessitated by tax cut for some of the zillionaires who paid for the ball room.

Updating my LEGO White House

"It won't interfere with the current building. It'll be near it but not touching it." - Donald Trump in July This is a reminder that the demolition of half the White House is another Trump lie and unilateral action. www.snopes.com/fact-check/t...

I am kind of astonished at how muted the reaction has been so far in a country were people try to get, like, gas stations declared as historic landmarks. Can we at least get Mike Johnson on camera claiming he hasn’t seen these pictures? Or doesn’t know where or what the White House is?

He is literally not paying for it. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

WELL HOW ABOUT THAT "A millionaire levy in Massachusetts has generated $3 billion more in revenue than expected without forcing significant high-profile departures from the state." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Many state and local police agencies are signing up to be part of the 287(g) immigration task forces. Not in Arizona. Why Arizona Police Agencies Are Opting Out of Immigration Enforcement Program, w/ @azluminaria.org

How many GOP Senators or Representatives will say a word about this profane destruction of American heritage? My guess: Zero. (Not counting "concern" from Susan Collins, "haven't seen it" from Mike Johnson, etc.)

Nominee to be the Office of Special Counsel, ie., the guy federal employees must appeal to if they think they have been treated unfairly

Meet Theresa. Her twin boys depend on Medicaid to receive the care they need. Unlike Republicans, House Democrats are fighting to save health care and protect families like Theresa’s.

“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” -Article 1, Section 8, US Constitution Not a "norm" violation. A legal and constitutional violation.

Even if he did, which I'd bet is likelier than not, none of this is true. The Insurrection Act is not a declaration of martial law. It doesn't close the courts. It doesn't suspend habeas corpus. It means you can use the military to enforce federal laws, but the laws themselves remain the same.

Reminder: We spent YEARS reading thousands and thousands of articles on the Tea Party and how it was a true expression of the American people's will, and it never mounted anything nearly as big as Saturday's No Kings rallies. [1/3]

Trump on No Kings: "It's a joke. I looked at the people. They are not representative of this country. And I looked at all the brand new signs I guess paid for by Soros and other radical left lunatics. We're checking it out. The demonstrations were very small. And the people were whacked out."

Those with sharp eyes might detect a subtle difference in NYT play last month of an event in one city, w 100,000+ attendees, versus play this morning of some 2500+ events w many millions of attendees, in all 50 states. See if you can spot it! /s Then you can find today's story on p A23

one interesting thing is the collapse of mass support for trump before he took office. his in-person events were sparsely attended. his conventional fundraising (donations in the dollar to thousand dollar range) was more or less nonexistent. Trump I was a grassroots phenomenon. Trump II was elite.

Not a single mention of this across the Sunday shows as far as I could tell

I know it's cliche to yell about it at this point, but it remains true that the asymmetries in how the parties are treated by US political & media institutions is at the root of everything. Dems have standards so they are held to standards. Rs don't, so they aren't.

Large scale nonviolent demonstrations are a powerful tool and the regime is incredibly sad that they didn’t get the riots they were hoping for