Philip Hackney

But Trump gets a ballroom and Argentina gets a $40 billion bailout

Trump says academic freedom is ‘not absolute.’ Three Pittsburgh scholars say it’s essential. Scholars at Pitt, CMU and Carlow University share their perspectives on the state of academic freedom federal pressures mount for U.S. campuses.

Beyond funding cuts, layoffs and shuttered departments — trepidation and worry plague academics as federal pressures continue to weigh on university campuses. buff.ly/8MPj1cQ

I have an essay in here arguing for the necessary critical merit of academic freedom. Let me know what you think.

Wells Fargo scammed millions of people by opening fake accounts. The Trump Administration just reduced a former Wells Fargo exec's $10 million fine to $0.

Trump is making life more affordable for Wall Street executives — and more expensive for everyone else.

Exclusive | Trump Administration in Talks to Take Equity Stakes in Quantum-Computing Firms The discussions signal Washington’s wider involvement in critical parts of the economy.

something something means of production www.wsj.com/business/ent...

Trump Says He Will Not Seek Authorization for Cartel Strikes

What is the Times doing calling this extrajudicial murder spree “cartel strikes”? On what evidence do they ape the killers’ propaganda?

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/u...

SNAP benefits expire in one week.

Pregnant women describe miscarrying and bleeding out while in ICE custody, advocates say The ACLU and other groups are pressing for ICE to identify and release all pregnant women in custody and to stop detaining anyone known to be pregnant, postpartum or nursing.

“Medical staff did not give her any food, water, or pain medication for several hours. Much later that evening, after a significant loss of blood, Lucia was transported to an emergency room approximately an hour away, with her arms and legs shackled.” www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

GOP leaders eye a spending punt into 2026 With a Nov. 21 stopgap getting stale, lawmakers are now eyeing a longer-term patch to end the shutdown.

Current discourse not capturing level of GOP disarray on the 2026 budget:
- It did not pass on Sept 30, as required by law
- They failed to pass a "CR" to buy more time
- Few appropriations bills are done, House AWOL
- Convos now are on CR/punt, not budget itself 👇
www.politico.com/live-updates...

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...

Just not the Trump Foundation “charity” — which was dissolved under court order after he “repeatedly used Foundation money for his own personal, business, and political interests.”

ag.ny.gov/press-releas...

A fun byproduct of unitary executive theory—if the president controls everyone under him, he can demand they transfer hundreds of millions in tax dollars into his bank account

Pardoned Capitol rioter charged with threatening to kill Hakeem Jeffries at NYC event this week A pardoned Capitol rioter was arrested last weekend for allegedly threatening to kill the top House Democrat.

This is the asymmetry in our politics and media. If this was the other way around, Biden had pardoned someone then charged with trying to kill Trump, it would be the biggest story in America and every Republican commentator, congressman, news outlet, would be screaming about it in unison.

Well, That Was Fast: Trump Tax Law’s New Corporate Breaks are Already Worsening the Deficit Corporate income taxes for the fiscal year that ended in September are $77 billion lower than in the previous year, a 15 percent drop.

Corporate income taxes were $77 billion lower this year.

The companies enjoying the biggest tax breaks include some of the multinational corporations that were already paying close to zero before more tax cuts were passed this summer. itep.org/trump-tax-la...

Has anyone noted yet that the part of the White House getting torn down is the part that traditionally houses the First Lady's office and staff?

A rickety dictatorship Trump's hand of cards is weaker than it appears.

New in PN: A rickety dictatorship

"Trump’s increasingly desperate attempts to incite a civil war in advance of the midterms and the rejection of his party’s healthcare evisceration each demonstrate growing vulnerabilities of the nascent MAGA tyranny."

shocked to learn that the president lied about this and also this is a horrible defacing of a building that belongs to the people of the United States, not donald trump

The district court’s factual findings, which the government does not challenge on appeal, and which are not clearly erroneous in any event, fully resolve this issue. In the two weeks leading up to the President’s September 27 social media post, there had not been a single incident of protesters’ disrupting the execution of the laws. Oregon, 2025 WL 2817646, at *10. I repeat: not a single incident for two weeks. Here are summaries from police reports for the five days preceding the President’s social media post. September 22: Approx. 7-10 people. No calls. September 23: Few people. No activity. September 24: Approx. 10 people. No calls. September 25: Approx. 20 people. No calls. September 26: Approx. 15 people. Energy low, minimal activity. No incidents. A police officer’s report from September 26 stated: “Throughout the day we observed approximately 8-15 people at any given time out front of ICE. Mostly sitting in lawn chairs and walking around.” It is hard to understand how a tiny protest causing no disruptions could possibly satisfy the standard that the President is unable to execute the laws.

The dissent does an excellent job making the majority look like fools. cst.brightspotcdn.com/d9/44/ff61b3...

I wrote this about the decline of bipartisanship in disability policy back in 2017. It's much worse now. www.reuters.com/article/us-b...

“We found over 35 cases in which the judges have specifically said what the government is providing…false information. It might be intentionally false information, including false sworn declarations time and again," says Ryan Goodman, law professor at New York University.

Mike Johnson: "We're fighting for healthcare as well. Not just in word but in deed. We put in the one big beautiful bill, real reforms to Medicaid to make it work better."

(The bill in fact cuts nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid.)

When someone uses this emoji 🤣 they are more mad than they have ever been in their entire life

The Trump shit video is basically this, but I will reiterate that if a Dem is critical of conservative voters it’s a generational scandal and when Republican pols literally post themselves shitting on their opposition virtually the entire elite politics and media class treats it as fine and normal

An image of a list of the 27 grievances against King George III in the Declaration of Independence. Donald Trump's regime has committed at least 20 of them in whole or in part, condensed into the list below: 1. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. 2. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation … 3. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing … his invasions on the rights of the people. 4. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; … obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners … 5. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice … 6. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices … 7. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. 8. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. 9. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. 10. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution … giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: 11. For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: 12. For protecting them … from punishment for any Murders which they should commit … 13. For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: 14. For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: 15. For depriving us … of the benefits of Trial by Jury: 16. For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: 17. For … abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: 18. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. 19. He has … destroyed the lives of our people. 20. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us …

The Declaration of Independence specifies 27 grievances with King George III and Britain.

Donald Trump and his regime have committed at least 20 of those same offenses highlighted in yellow.
#NoKings

Tariff costs to companies this year to hit $1.2 trillion, with consumers taking most of the hit, S&P says The firm said its estimate of additional expenses for companies is probably conservative.

Tariff costs to companies this year to hit $1.2 trillion, with consumers taking most of the hit, S&P says.

www.cnbc.com/2025/10/16/t...

#Tariffs #Consumers #Economy #Business #Bills

Trump’s Secret Police Shot a Citizen. Then Damning New Info Emerged. As the official Trump administration line about the shooting of a Chicago woman crumbles, Senator Chris Murphy is asking pointed questions about what really happened here. Will we ever get answers?

Trump's federal agents shot Marimar Martinez, a US citizen, multiple times for allegedly menacing them with her car in Chicago. Only hours later, Kristi Noem and DHS started spreading disinformation about the shooting.

Now the official line is crumbling. 1/

(link)
newrepublic.com/article/2019...

Special needs students pay as Trump guts Department of Education Employees tell reporter Eric Garcia that they fear that students with disabilities will go without vital services after Trump’s recent layoffs in the federal government

NEW from me: Employees at the Department of Education express fear that their layoffs will mean nobody will be able to enforce the rights of students with disabilities or make sure they have IEPs.
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Los Angeles County declares state of emergency over immigration raids Los Angeles County officials voted on Tuesday to declare a state of emergency over ongoing federal immigration raids.

To be clear:

LA County has declared a state of emergency BECAUSE OF the federal government.

The Feds, LA County is (correctly) saying, have CAUSED the emergency.

This is a striking political moment of internal collapse. Local govts feeling compelled to protect their ppl from … their own govt.

Wow. Trump's masked federal agents tear-gassed a crowd in Chicago and ended up gassing a bunch of local Chicago cops who were there to *deescalate tensions.* One local cop was captured on film washing out his eyes with a hose:

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Unless and until some kind of compelling legal and moral argument is presented as to why this is a legitimate use of deadly force, this is just…mass murder.