Bearded Bleacher Bum

More big news: the Senate just passed my bipartisan resolution to end Trump's global tariffs. This is a huge win and shows how unpopular Trump's tariffs really are. Now it's time for Mike Johnson to abandon his 6 week vacation and get this passed in the House.

Melania Trump doesn't want people talking about her relationship with Epstein or the fact that he alleged that the first time she & Donald had sex was on his private jet.

Michael Wolff is suing Melania, and he wants answers.

Give this conversation a listen!

open.substack.com/pub/thelefth...

Pennsylvania has an important Supreme Court race coming up on Tuesday, November 4. If you live in the Keystone State, or know someone who does, vote YES to retain three justices who will protect your fundamental rights and freedoms.

Firing an entire federal arts commission to clear the path for your own triumphal arch? It’s a textbook indicator of authoritarian executive overreach — the exact trend we warned about in our assessment.

#authoritarianism #DemocraticDecline #SteadyStateAssessment

One year ago

A core feature of our unprecedented Article I constitutional crisis is that the Speaker of the House is permitted to performatively lie in public with impunity from the podium every day & the assembled media in front of him offer approximately no pushback at all on the lies.

I have never been a supporter of Donald Trump, but if Democrats don't end the shutdown, I will have no choice but to vote for him for the fourth time.

They aren’t elected to govern. They are elected to do the bidding of their donors.

3 Scandals in 4 Days That Would Define Any Other Presidency During the second Trump administration, corruption scandals that would typically define a presidency receive a day or two of coverage.

1. Last week, there were 3 Trump corruption scandals in 4 days that would define any other presidency.

Most people are probably not even AWARE of all three scandals.

🧵

The reclusive plutocrat who became the biggest political donor of 2024 The largest donor of the 2024 presidential campaign, by far, is Timothy Mellon, the reclusive billionaire and heir to the Mellon banking fortune.

1. Here are some facts about the guy, Timothy Mellon, who donated $130 million so Trump could pay the troops during the government shutdown.

🧵

Trump is screwing over American farmers.

Again.

If they don’t see it by now, then when will they ever?

CNN: Mike Johnson says Republicans have proposals to address healthcare subsidies and they can have them ready immediately. Over 400k people in Missouri are enrolled in the marketplace. Have you seen those proposals?

REP. MARK ALFORD: No. I would like to.

Mike Johnson and Republicans spent the entire day yesterday melting down about Katherine Clark’s comments that a shutdown is the only thing available to Dems to give them leverage to save healthcare for tens of millions. Now here is Johnson withholding funds to leverage Schumer.

I made a feed, it's an ongoing collection of things Mike Johnson haven't seen or heard about.

bsky.app/profile/numb...

Based on great clips posted by @atrupar.com

Trump Said to Demand Justice Dept. Pay Him $230 Million for Past Cases

This isn't complicated, he's just straight up extorting the Justice Deparment and looting taxpayers to put $230 million in his own pocket. Don't hold your breath waiting for any Republicans in the party to speak up about this either. https://nyti.ms/4oxtpQW

Wow that’s crazy release the files

See the issue is that Trump ran on releasing on the Epstein files, and Bondi said she had them sitting on her desk ready to go, and then Elon Musk tweeted that Trump was in them and they were suddenly deemed a hoax and Ghislaine was moved to a spa prison, so you can understand the fresh intrigue

"Anna, Lindsey Halligan Here." Anna Bower Monday, October 20, 2025, 5:40 PM Share On: f X inK My Signal exchange with the interim U.S. attorney about the Letitia James grand jury.

EXCLUSIVE: One Saturday afternoon in October, my phone lit up with a notification.

I glanced down at the message.

“Anna, Lindsey Halligan here,” it began.

So began my text exchange with the woman who is prosecuting the president's perceived political enemies.

www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...

She alleged in the past that it was former Israeli PM Ehud Barak but we can’t know that for sure because Trump, Bondi, Patel and Johnson are hiding this person’s identity from the public by blocking release of the Epstein files.

Whoever it is.

For some reason.

No Kings protesters in NJ & VA get to take all that energy to the polls now in very important elections in their states 2 weeks from now. Make your voices heard in the streets & at the ballot box. Vote against all Trump allies/enablers & send a message to the rest of them for us.

MSNBC Grandmas in Skechers seamlessly reclaiming the frog from 4chan Nazis in about six weeks has gotta be the political upset of the century.

Love this story so much.
Student journalists ftw 💪

No Kings
Kansas City, MO

No Kings
Kansas City, MO

I am sounding the alarm that the GOP is engaged in an all out attack voting rights and free and fair elections. Voter suppression, gerrymandering, and troops in blue cities are just some of the ways they are using to try to rig the rules to keep power in 2026 and beyond.

Pay attention and act!

How bout all them wild text messages from the Young Republicans?!

Currently on a flight to Japan watching a Pentagon Assistant Press Secretary (Riley Podleski) work on a document in the open on her laptop. She spent the last hour copy and pasting headlines from articles critical of the Administration’s hostility toward the 1st amendment.

Trump is saying the quiet part out loud: he sent a $20B taxpayer-financed bailout to help his far-right buddy Milei cling to power.

Meanwhile our government is shut down, public servants aren't getting paid & we're barreling toward a Trump-made health care crisis. Sounds like Argentina First to me.

Senate is back in session today.

1/ So a quick 🧵on where things are at on the shutdown.

You get a lot of propaganda and spin thrown at you, so I want to give you the real, behind-the-scenes tea.

Quid Pro Presidency Nations that have bestowed lavish gifts to President Trump — or enriched Trump and his family by striking business deals with Trump-connected companies — have later received extraordinary benefits…

1. Nations that have bestowed lavish gifts to President Trump — or enriched Trump and his family by striking business deals with Trump-connected companies — have later received extraordinary benefits from the Trump administration.