CAPS WIN

Capitals at Blue Jackets Recap: Caps Silence Columbus Cannons with 5-1 Win

New: The Pentagon confirms to CNN it will funnel $130M from an anonymous Trump “friend” toward military pay. Asked about the donor’s identity and any foreign or domestic entanglements, the WH referred questions to DoD. DoD then referred questions back to the WH www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/p...

OK. *deep sigh* If we’re really doing this … If anyone has information about this alleged $130 million “donation” — including the identity of the “donor,” if such a person or corporation exists, and any legal opinions purporting to authorize this — please send it my way. I am at crg.32 on Signal.

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “Trump, with his thirst for money and power, has in one fell swoop both exposed and embraced the corruption at the heart of digital currencies — a corruption inherited from the libertarian ideals that created them,” Finn Brunton writes.

Read more: www.newsweek.com/donald-trump... A Virginia couple is suing to stop Trump’s $300 million White House ballroom, calling it unlawful and historically reckless.

I fully agree w Rick. But I want to note something important: Miller’s dream is 100K new ICE agents. They have fewer than 2 applicants for every position. First Trump administration acceptance rate for armed law enforcement was <5%. If they increased the acceptance rate 10x they’d still fall short/1

For the sake of posterity I thought I'd do a thread on all the epically stupid things Trump has done in recent days. 1) Let them eat ballroom www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Here's the list of donors paying for Trump's new White House ballroom www.nbcnews.com/politics/whi...

Reagan 1987 address was defence of free but fair trade reut.rs/3Jau7Vb

"The dumbest trade war in history." -- Wall Street Journal editorial board apnews.com/article/trum...

SNAP recipients told to buy shelf-stable food or go to food banks as funding deadline looms www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Can someone like @davidpriess.bsky.social @tim-weiner.bsky.social explain what it will take to securely rebuild Presidential bunker, so we can understand what it's going to take to do 2X--this time, when Trump rebuilds *that kind* of bunker, & then again when President @aoc.bsky.social replaces it?

Also can we talk about the cultural significance of someone who was JUST exposed with having a proud Nazi in the WH, someone who is (as JD Vance called Trump) America's Hitler, dumping a lot of military contractor cash to build a cozier BUNKER? "America's Hitler builds himself a cozier bunker" 👀

It occurred to me that, with his demolition of the White House's East Wing, Trump has orchestrated attacks on the symbolic homes of two out of three branches of the federal government. Is One First Street next?

Leavitt: "At this moment in time, of course, the ballroom is really the president's main priority."

The new right groans under the weight of its nostalgia for a nation that did not exist. And in writing about a false enemy that destroyed a fake past, Andrews and the many other architects of the right-wing gender wars are committing the very sins they attribute to the enemies they detest.

Trump is turning the presidency into a massive Bribe Delivery System, or BDS. He's creating many new avenues for media companies, law firms, universities, etc to channel tribute payments as he directs. Feeding the BDS is the cost of doing business in Trump's America. newrepublic.com/article/2021...

Dems should push a bill banning such administrative claim payments to presidents even if claims predated their service. Republicans will block vote on it. Let them. Then hammer away at that to voters. Push media to cover GOP complicity in Trump's theft of taxpayer $. newrepublic.com/article/2021...

Critical angle: Trump's accomplices are surely counting on pardons, which only makes them more beholden to him. Todd Blanche must think hard about saying "no" to Trump's demand for the $230 million. Raskin and I discuss this here. It's something Dems could say more: newrepublic.com/article/2021...

“Are we going to have presidents from here on in just shaking down DOJ or other parts of the US government for money to put in their pockets?” Raskin says. He also says he'll push this when Judiciary Committee meets next, challenging Rs on the $230 million payoff: newrepublic.com/article/2021...

“We’re looking for any correspondence, memoranda, or records of conversations between WH and DOJ" about the $230 million payoff, Raskin says, including all comms involving Deputy AG Todd Blanche. This previews what Dems will seek w/subpoena power if they win House: newrepublic.com/article/2021...

Good: Jamie Raskin tells me he's formally demanding any/all internal communications between WH and DOJ on Trump's $230 million payoff. More Dems should talk this way about Trump's criming. He's turning the presidency into a massive Bribe Delivery System. New piece: newrepublic.com/article/2021...

It's bad enough that Trump is literally minting billions on the basis of his public office through thinly-disguised pyramid schemes or influence-buying. He also wants us to pay him $230 million

This thread is a pocket master class on the art of the insidious reframe. Read it.

Just wondering if there is another way of describing the actions of a leader in a constitutional democracy who disregards the courts, Congress, and the public?

Beyond the risible claim, repeated as fact but contradicted by decades of evidence, that “the president plans to contribute his own money,” the idea that he and his friends have the right to dismantle the WH as if it is a tear-down in a residential neighborhood with no zoning requirements is nuts.

Skepticism is in order here, given Trump’s long record of lying, the fact that he only announced this after the destruction was a fact accompli, and the fact that he has sought to project autocratic power ever since his return to the White House. What is the evidence of “further evaluation”?

The fourth paragraph is politically obtuse, framing this as a battle between Trump’s heartfelt desire to put an “imprint” on the White House versus “the sensibilities of many in Washington.” NO! This is an attack upon the citizenry at large and upon the basic principles of republican governance.

The third paragraph is, if anything, even worse, calling this act of wanton and autocratic destruction Trump’s “passion project,” and then quoting Trump’s claims about why it was necessary. Whether it was a “passion project” of not Is irrelevant to the issue at the heart of the story.

But, in any case, WHO CARES? This is a story about Trump’s wanton destruction of one of the symbols of the country, the residence of the president, a structure that is a public good, the possession of the people, not his personal palace. His supposed feelings are irrelevant to the big story./3

It has become very on brand for the @nytimes.com (in this case, Luke Broadwater) to center Trump’s putative emotions, as he does here in the second paragraph of the story. LB presumes to describe Trump’s feelings (”was unsentimental”) rather than observing that he “appeared unsentimental.”/2

It is shocking that Trump is quickly tearing down a portion of the White House. But isn’t the bigger story that this action is of a piece with his autocratic presumption that he can unilaterally destroy public goods without any public consultation or explanation? www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/u...

Because of course he did.

That’s a trillion dollar increase in two months.

It’s hard to convey just how much Chicagoans are mobilizing against ICE. Don’t want to downplay the harm, or make it seem like a fair fight. But in neighborhoods across this city, ICE is getting chased by people blowing whistles and shouting. People are running TOWARD ICE to protect their neighbors.

Reported today: Health insurance sticker shock begins as shutdown battle over subsidies rages www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

The 2020 election was free and fair, its result was legitimate, and this person’s conspiracy theories about it were universally thrown out of court because they were fabricated. Conservative and Liberal Americans treasure our constitutional system, and we reject authoritarian rule.

Trump does not believe in public goods. He views the federal treasury as his private purse; public employees are to be his personal advocates, or they get fired; public property (like the White House) his to do what he wants, even if it means gutting the East Wing without permission./1

Kash's "lockbox in a vault...in a cyber place where no one can see or search these files" www.emptywheel.net/2025/10/22/k...

The agent should be fired and the agency abolished, but also Rep. Huynh is doing *exactly* what all elected officials should be doing right now. Right on. It would be oh so wonderful if it wasn’t only reps most at risk of ICE violence who are willing to do it. chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

I want more people to care that SNAP benefits are being cut off on November 1. 40% of SNAP beneficiaries are children. This is callous and vile.

If Republicans were hoping that No Kings was just a one-day event, we’ve got some bad news: Last night’s call was the largest that we’ve ever done. No matter where you live, we’re organizing the pro-democracy majority to reclaim its power: groups.indivisible.org

Very squarely violates it.

okay, why does building a white house ballroom with private funds not violate the anti deficiency act. what am I missing here

I know that law is fake lol whatever, I am interested in the actual substantive question of whether this violates the letter of the law as it appears to

This week felt like someone ran a blacklight over the hotel bedspread of politics and it all came up smeary swastikas

who is the administrator of DOGE who is the administrator of DOGE who is the administrator of DOGE who is the administrator of DOGE who is the administrator of DOGE who is the administrator of DOGE who is the administrator of DOGE WHO IS THE ADMINISTRATOR OF DOGE???????

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Lindsey Halligan says I’m not a journalist. But if you think I am, and you value our our non-profit legal news and analysis, you can support our work here: givebutter.com/journalism/a... You can also follow me on Substack: annabower.substack.com/about