Of course the president can’t subvert the Constitution by lying that there’s an emergency. If lying that there’s an emergency is a magic loophole granting the executive branch the powers of Congress, there’s no point to Article I. The fact that this is even a question is a sign of degradation.

Just left the latest hearing in Jim Comey's criminal case. It did not go well for DOJ The magistrate judge scolded them for an "indict first, investigate second" posture and ordered them to turn over reams of material — including all grand jury info — to Comey's team Details TK

I don’t know how many times I’ve watched this video. I don’t know how we’ve gotten to the point where men in full balaclavas can abduct daycare teachers while they’re watching children. But I do know that this isn’t sustainable. Abolish ICE. There is no way to reform this.

National Guard troops patrolling DC made themselves useful this morning: Pushed a dead BMW out of traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue. Not obvious to me however that this needed to be a military function.

Mamdani: "My message to ICE agents & to everyone across this city is that everyone will be held to the same standard of the law. If you violate it, you must be held accountable. There is sadly a sense growing that certain people are allowed to violate that law, whether they be POTUS or ICE agents."

Trump's tariffs face a skeptical SCOTUS. Read the Law Dork report from court today:

This broken woman caused intense and widespread suffering through her hate and everyone should celebrate her loss.

It’s a cliché at this point how eerily relevant Orwell’s dystopian fiction is to our era, but don’t sleep on his (humblingly voluminous!) essays and columns.

I, too, would be panicked if I thought Mamdani was about to implement socialism in NYC, but fortunately, I am not completely detached from reality about the actual powers of a metropolitan mayor. He's going to hike taxes somewhat, and implement a few small beer boondoggles. The city will survive.

Impeachment is the moderate position

As always, it's appalling at the same time it's so cheap, tawdry, and embarrassing. What a pathetic, shabby little gangster.

As far as I can tell, this is attack is entirely rooted in Mamdani's criticism of the government of Israel, which the American electorate appears to be increasingly inclined to agree with.

The way all of these people convinced themselves that Mamdani is antisemitic is a subject far more worthy of media examination than any of the ‘groupthink on campuses!’ thinkpieces we’ve been subjected to

Federal agents pulling a woman out of Rayito Del Sol, a daycare by Lane Tech high school

For the second time in two years, Cato has sued the DOJ and FBI for records on their use—and abuse—of FISA Section 702 surveillance. The public deserves to know whether this program protects Americans or targets them.

The FISA § 702 program is set to expire in late April 2026. The kind of public interest FOIA litigation Cato is engaged in on this case may be the only way the American people get a sense of whether the Trump-controlled FISA apparatus is keeping us safe from terrorists or is being used to target us.

This is absolutely playing in my head in the voice of Orson Welles.

This was horrific to watch. Agents entering a daycare, wrestling with and abducting a teacher in front of small screaming children. I just… what the fuck are we doing here.

it shouldn't be but frankly it's jarring to hear a Republican sound normal and gracious like this

If this were an atheist teacher posting a “God is a Fairytale” sign in a 7th grade classroom, every single person piously insisting it’s a matter of personal religious expression would be screaming themselves hoarse (justly) demanding her firing. www.friendlyatheist.com/p/federal-ju...

Normal People: I wouldn’t normally vote for X but under these circumstances again against these evil opponents they are the only choice: Other Normal People: Let’s work together where we agree Bluesky People: UNACCEPTABLE, I DEMAND YOU EXPLAIN WHY YOU DON’T ALWAYS SUPPORT X

Does it not occur to them how weird and offputting this is to people? And I don’t even mean in the sense of being appalled by the transphobia; in the much more banal sense of “… why is this the one thing you insist on talking about?”

Relieved that voters resoundingly rejected this fascist bullshit. Angry that we still have at least another year of it, probably another three, and that we're by no means in the clear. Livid that it all could have been avoided if we had simply not reelected the asshole who tried a coup.

Normal People Don’t Want This Shit is running away with the vote tonight

Pretty sure “Voter Reform” is a wing of the Ministry of Love.

This is good news in the sense that it’s a break-glass-in-case-of-fascism necessary evil, but if and when we have restored some semblance of sanity I hope we’re scheduling a national conversation about how this isn’t how anything ought to work.

if there was a rich person with the will, you could build the most incredible news organization that has ever existed just from the wreckage of this year alone.

The thing about partisan gerrymanders is that if you cut them too close, a wave election for the other party flips almost all those seats. 👇🏻

Pains me to say it but I think this is true. Some of my colleagues in the media who’ve stayed on X don’t even realize how badly its noxious algorithm is skewing their perception of politics and reality. Also, that place seems designed to make you miserable unless you’re a Nazi. It’s just wretched.

The factional grifters will hate this, but the Mamdani-Spanberger-Sherrill axis actually suggests the outlines of a broad, emerging Dem coalition organized around both anti-Trump *and* affordability politics, not a party bitterly divided against itself.

"If Republicans want a return to political influence in America's dynamic economic and cultural powerhouses, they're going to have to learn how to appeal to the complex folkways of urban dwellers"

Apparently all you needed to do to predict the NYC election results was read that one N.K. Jemisin novel.

Just let me get the leak of what the NYPD group chats post about Zohran

I spent some time spelunking in the footnotes of the Oregon National Guard litigation and came to the horrible conclusion that we're watching the record decay in real time under the weight of a right-wing influencer circus www.theverge.com/policy/81340...

whatever you think of Spanberger, the fact that her opponent ran a campaign based almost entirely on transphobia and is on track to eat shit in the biggest blowout the state has seen since 2009 is unambiguously a huge win

Every single county in Virginia shifted Blue.

This is giving me flashbacks to DOGE, where I repeatedly talked to policy experts who were very much in favor or cutting program X or department Y, but pretty uniformy recoiled and said “yeah, but obviously not LIKE THIS” (meaning not abruptly & haphazardly with no transition plan)

“Jobs are booming” is Treasury Secretary-speak for “most-announced-job-cuts-for-a-full-year-since-2020.” “Inflation is falling” is Treasury Secretary-speak for “inflation-is-at-an-eight-month-high.”

Trump and Vance have xenophobia’d their way into Christian persecution

BREAKING: After ICE refuses to allow detained migrants to receive the Eucharist, Pope Leo calls on Trump and Vance to respect migrants‘ dignity and religious liberty. “They must allow ministers to assist with their needs. They've been separated from their families and no one knows what happens.”

Conservatives 2016-2024: dumb libs think words are violence Conservatives in 2025: mean words are literally violence bsky.app/profile/robe...

Mamdani's opponents have been so ostentatiously, unnecessarily loathsome that they have succeeded in making me much, much more sympathetic to him than I otherwise would be, and I can't be the only one in that boat.

Of course, this is precisely why we expect law enforcement to wear badges and uniforms and show identification. Anyone could have foreseen (and many of us did) that this would be a serious side-effect of ICE's insistence on behaving like unaccountable thugs.

New: The FBI is quietly urging ICE agents to properly ID themselves in the field. In a bulletin to law enforcement last month, it warned of criminals posing as ICE to rob, rape, kidnap—a problem it says now demands national coordination to confront. By me & @carolinehaskins.bsky.social:

I mean, the fundamental problem here is that “teaching eighth grade algebra is racist” is ALREADY not a thing any significant faction of elected Dems are saying. But you cannot realistically ensure no local Dem official anywhere will have a crackpot idea, and turn into RW media’s kook of the week.

All day, many of you have been asking for a Cheney obituary from me. Get ready:

Fourteen years later, I *still* think one of the best ways for us to repudiate Cheney's legacy of torture would be to recognize and honor the courageous soldiers and public servants who exposed the torture policies and tried to end them. www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/o...

New, from me: DHS says immigration enforcement employees like ICE are facing unprecedented threats and 1000% increase in assaults. But the data does not add up. Look at the details, and we see state agents using excessive force, and then lying about it. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/whos-threa...

Overnight court filings seem to be giving us a peek at what U.S. Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino said in his deposition so far (it apparently continues today):

The 60 Minutes interview of Donald Trump was grotesquely manipulated and unprofessionally conducted and marks an astonishing betrayal of journalistic values by CBS. This is Bari Weiss setting the new tone for America's formerly most respected newsroom. www.faz.net/aktuell/feui...