This is an extremely big deal. It took decades of struggle—and the assassination of a president—to *start* to build a nonpartisan, merit-based civil service. You know what you get when you fire experts and hire political hacks? Vaccines get yanked. FEMA goes under. And the Iran war debacle.

Art of the Deal!

The Trump admin butchered a $42.5 billion infrastructure bill broadband grant program (BEAD), killed all affordability requirements, offloaded a big chunk to Elon Musk, and is trying to steal half the funds to create a new slush fund for god knows what and the press coverage is not great

After a month’s long saga in which the Trump DOJ risked criminal prosecutions with brazenly unlawful efforts to install an interim US attorney for New Jersey, AG Pam Bondi finally stood down, and federal judges named career prosecutor Robert Frazer to the post. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

ah ok, so this FCC router ban is basically a shakedown, requiring foreign router manufacturers (which is pretty much all of them) to obtain "conditional approval" from DHS or DOD, which you can assume involves a fee of some kind

“Here is what Trump expected when he started bombing Iran: its regime would collapse or surrender within 72 hours. “That was Plan A. “Plan B did not exist, which means Trump is scrambling to get back to what existed before Plan A.” Via @edwardluce.bsky.social giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Former CIA Director John Brennan to MSNOW: “I tend to believe Iran more than I do Donald Trump, because he could not acknowledge the truth even when he’s slapped in the face with it repeatedly.”

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has declared a national energy emergency due to the oil shock from the Iran War.

housing is more expensive now, but also a lot safer. this kind of home was considered cream of the crop in the 1980s

The US government collected over $1 billion in immigration fees then refused to process the applications. No denials. No refunds. Just silence. This is the largest fee fraud in the history of the American immigration system. Here's what's happening. 🧵

oh yes, because trying to ID human trafficking by sight has historically gone really well for republicans

Helluva 2026 pic by Megan Varner.

NARRATOR: She was, in fact, making this stuff up.

How it’s all going at LaGuardia this morning: insane lines for unpaid & short-staffed TSA while 20+ ICE agents just hang out and chat.

Iran’s South African embassy trolls Trump for claiming he’s talking to a “top person” in Iran

More profiteering.

Confusion remains over “talks” between the US and Iran which Trump announced and Iran denied. The White House now describes the situation as “fluid”. Oil is back above $100 a barrel. An Iranian missile barrage damaged buildings in Tel Aviv and central Israel.

Just heard a clip of Sam Alito talking about mail in ballots today and he sounds **indistinguishable** from a run of the mill YouTube conspiracy theorist. You can tell his mind is basting in right wing propaganda all day long.

Remember when Trump’s whole thing was how tough he was gonna be on this guy?

again I point out how strange it is that high-level diplomatic negotiations of war and peace are being conducted by freelancers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, both of whom have egregious conflicts of interest, and not the actual secretary of state

Thread 🧵

New tonight: Senators are increasingly optimistic they will soon reach a deal to fund most of DHS including TSA after long lines snarled U.S. airports.

CNN taking a systemic legal violation and reframing it as a disagreement. The Pentagon did not receive a scolding. It was caught breaking the law.

And remember, Paul Manafort reneged on his plea agreement and clammed up, Konstantin Kilimnik is still missing, and Trump repeatedly obstructed justice. So we still don’t know the full extent of their crimes.

And should anyone be inspired, here is a (free!) audio version of the whole thing www.audible.com/pd/The-Muell...

7 years ago, we learned about Bob Mueller’s conclusions. Today, there are a lot of posts on social media claiming it was a farce, or worse, a fraud. But those posts are disinformation. Here is the actual information, with links for those who want to do a deep dive. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

Not one of them has ever stood in a line for 4 hours or more to vote in person. Not one of them has been turned away at the polls because they are suddenly “not on the list.” Not one has had their pay docked b/c they arrived late to work b/c they went to vote in the morning.

NEW: Lawyers seek full Fifth Circuit review of mandatory immigration detention decision. A 2-1 panel of the Fifth Circuit sided with the Trump admin in February — splitting with the vast majority of judges to consider the matter. Now, an attempt to reverse that. Read the document at Law Dork:

I’m sorry, but who among us hasn’t….*cleans glasses*…oh my god…

The No. 1 reason aviation is so safe is that there are at least two of absolutely everything, redundancies on the redundancies. No single human should have ever been expected to perform this perfectly, it isn’t possible and shouldn’t even be legal. We need hearings now.

Reopening the Strait has emerged as the main objective of the war—an issue that was caused by the war.

Trump: I’m going to put ICE in the airports, where they will target and arrest all the illegals, especially Somalis, because I hate the Democrats Headlines: Trump puts ICE officers in airports to ease long lines, provide relief for weary travelers

We’ve told all the casting agents that the Weird Al biopic sequel is currently on hold, but they just keep sending in headshots.

Pilots have raised concerns about miscommunication, air traffic control missteps and other hazards at LaGuardia Airport, according to a CNN review of government records for the past two years.

‘Ohio GOP's drag ban cosponsor was accused of sexual misconduct with minor relative.’ tiffinohio.net/posts/ohio-g...

Something peculiar: Democrats by most accounts seem to have forced Republicans to blink (ie, pass a DHS bill without ICE funding and force them to pass ICE funding via reconciliation). Nevertheless, lots of folks seem to think Democrats caved. As a Republican once told me “take the damn win.”

I have it on good authority that Tom Homan in particular is looking for a paper bag with $50,000

If you’re unable to schedule an MRI later this year, blame Trump. 😡

When DOGE arrived at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the operatives had no real background in nuclear issues. They boxed out experienced hands, forcing resignations and massive exodus of talent. Over 400 people have since left or been forced out. Our full story: https://propub.li/4sxHHmW

We are, once again, in the middle of an oil price shock—one of the many "features" of oil is constant price volatility, with sudden periods of extreme volatility—and the Trump admin is paying a foreign company to shut down domestic wind power generators and instead invest more in oil.

These are the cracks in the wall we’ve been looking for. When Republicans in Congress realize that they, not Trump, will be jobless after the midterms. Time for them to start making decisions in their own self-interest.

The Resistance hacked the crossing signal in Denver. Need sound up.

This may be the most powerful 85 seconds I've ever seen on television.

Robert E. Lee got his ass beat at Gettysburg by a professor of rhetoric and oratory from Bowdoin College and generations of reactionary fantasists have died mad about it.

remember that one time a train derailed in Ohio and literally nobody died but it was a news story for like a full week and Pete Buttigieg had to personally answer for it?

This is a pretty incredible list of things Trump has done since No Kings II.

NEW: Trump now open to funding DHS without funding ICE. This would: 1. Force republicans to fund ICE without any help from democrats via reconciliation 2. Allow Dems to vote to fund TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard, CISA etc www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

Mullin's confirmation doesn't change the fact that Trump's agents executed two Americans in broad daylight—or fix the issues at Trump's DHS. And a pinky promise that ICE and CBP will stop terrorizing our neighborhoods isn't good enough. We need serious reforms passed into law.

I analyzed over 10 years of anti-trans legislation. Over 330 bills have passed, with ~300 of them in just the last 5 years. There is no precedent in American history for so many bills to target one particular minority group like this in such a short timeframe. www.thedissident.news/the-ratchet/

there is a lot of talk about how hard it will be to rebuild the DOJ but I bet you could recruit a whole lot of extremely talented lawyers to form a white collar crime task force without much trouble and that would be my first priority after I form a prosecution squad to go after Trump admin crimes