Karl DEFEND DEMOCRACY Bunday 🇺🇸 🗽 🇺🇦 🇹🇼

Feel free to attribute the following to a former OMB General Counsel: The supposed "new legal analysis" is, to use a technical legal term, horseshit. What the law actually says is that when Congress enacts a law ending a lapse, furloughed employees get paid at the earliest date possible. Period.

Her contempt is extraordinary.

Trump thinks he's a king. He believes he's accountable to no one. Not Congress. Not the American people.

And so when his people testify before the Senate, they act like they are bound by no rules and no laws.

I keep waiting for the powers that be in media to grasp the concept of bad faith, realize how often "restore trust in news" and similar statements mean "stop doing journalism, lie more in ways I like," come from people ideologically committed to destroying trust in news, and can never be satisfied.

What's happening in Chicago is not normal.

The arrest of Alderperson Fuentes is just the latest example of how far Noem and Bovino are willing to go to ignore the rule of law. We must all speak up.

Honestly I find the idea of going to the Gulf states on holiday so instinctively repulsive that I forget how many people do. There are so much nicer and cheaper and less morally appalling places in the world!

i'm disappointed in all of you

more and more I am convinced a good share of why Trump 2 is so much worse than before is because of what Elon did to Twitter. it's like those group chats where people gassed themselves up to join ISIS, scaled up a millionfold

the Dubai influencer/manosphere/grift/sex work space is an incredible story that's massively underwritten

Just as a reminder, Bondi’s origin story in Trump world is that she said she was going to investigate Trump University, Trump sent her a $25K check and the investigation disappeared. She later became Trump’s personal defense lawyer. So yeah, don’t challenge her integrity.

Electric bicycles, and shared electric bicycles in particular, are a revolutionary transportation technology. Forward-looking cities should be building out the infrastructure necessary to make cycling safe and convenient for everyone who wants to do it.

The View segment where Whoopi asked how ordinary people could read SCOTUS opinions was revealing.

They're free. They're online. They're much easier to read than legislation. Conquer your imposter's syndrome, you are smart enough to read a decision and know if it's bullshit.

I'm starting to think a good law school exam would be "produce a single draft that accurately reflects the comments you've received" and the question is a single word document with tracked changes from 8 different people at unspecified times interspersed with comment bubbles.

Sen. Kennedy with another set of probing questions about Epstein 👇

KENNEDY: Have you interviewed Secretary Lutnick?

BONDI: No senator

K: Do you plan to?

B: If he wants to talk to the FBI--

K: Don't you think you ought to talk to him after this interview? Maybe we ought to get Lutnick in here

The aspects of Trumpism where he has the upper hand over his own side's policy-demanders and is able to blow them off when he doesn't want to run political risks on their behalf tend to be under-discussed in progressive circles.

OMB deletes reference to law guaranteeing backpay to furloughed feds from shutdown guidance An Office of Management and Budget FAQ document now states that only excepted employees forced to work without pay are guaranteed backpay at the conclusion of a lapse in appropriations.

If you didn't realize this earlier, this latest action by the Administration amply demonstrates it does not have the back of federal workers.

www.govexec.com/pay-benefits...

KLOBUCHAR: Has the DOJ issued any subpoenas to journalists under the updated guidance?

BONDI: ...

KLOBUCHAR: You can respond

BONDI: ... ... I can't comment

Global renewable energy generation surpasses coal for first time Record solar expansion and steady wind growth driving world’s shift away from fossil fuels in 2025, report finds

For the first time in history renewable energy sources are now generating more power than coal worldwide.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Hirono to Bondi: "It's very clear to me that when the president posts something like, that he considers the DOJ to be his law firm and you his lawyer."

COONS: How did you conclude that these strikes on boats in the open ocean are legal?

BONDI: I'm not going to discuss any legal advice that my department may or may not have issued

Mike Johnson ignores a question about when he'll swear in Rep.-elect Grijalva and walks away

I think aligning CBS News' editorial line with what Trump wants was part of a quid pro quo for FCC approval of the Paramount/Skydance merger — there's no "mistake"!

Why you can't trust the media More competition means it’s better than ever, but you hear more about the flaws

“Trust in media” keeps falling because the media environment offers more choice and more competition than ever before and each outlet’s marketing pitch is that it is the only trustworthy source.

Only Slow Boring will tell you that mainstream news is pretty good!

www.slowboring.com/p/why-you-ca...

Opinion | No, Trump Can’t Deploy Troops to Wherever He Wants

The federal government does and should have the authority to deploy troops into our cities—even without local consent—*when the circumstances actually warrant it.*

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com, me on why the real issue in Portland, Chicago, and elsewhere is the missing / contrived factual predicate:

Trump’s Own Tweet on Portland Backfires as Judge Deals Him Harsh Loss As a judge’s blunt ruling blocks Trump from deploying troops in Portland, Oregon’s Attorney General tells us in an interview that Trump’s lawless threats are working against him—and discusses what com...

Trump's tweet that Portland is "war ravaged" just backfired. A Trump-picked judge cited it in blocking National Guard deployment to Portland, declaring him "untethered from facts."

On the pod, Oregon AG Dan Rayfield illuminatingly explains the ruling and what's next:
newrepublic.com/article/2014...

Opinion | Six surgeons general: RFK Jr. is a threat to the health of Americans It was our duty in office to warn of dangers when we found them. We’re doing that again today.

“Secretary Kennedy is entitled to his views. But he is not entitled to put people’s health at risk.”

Six former surgeons general condemn RFK Jr.

As basic question from an ex-police reporter: Can some of our journalists detail the training regimen all these new federal agents receive? The lethal incompetence involving use of force and perameters of the 4A suggests they are just handed guns, masks and badges and told to go fuck people up.

I know it's tiresome to play the "imagine if the parties were reversed" game, but thinking about how Republicans (and right-wing media) would be reacting if a Democratic-controlled House was refusing to swear in a newly elected *Republican* member may be the apotheosis of this particular meme.

This picture is from 1992 in LA and using it in this post and story shows terrible news judgment.

This is awful but the constant leaks and eventual fall will be extremely funny.

Not an expert on this stuff but I have the sense that no one backing Weiss understands that what she has done her whole career, opinion-based news-flavored content, is distinct from news reporting.