Michael Flynn, DOJ in Settlement Talks Over $50 Million Claim The Justice Department has been discussing settlements with two former officials from Donald Trump’s first term who — like the president — claim they’re owed major payouts from the US government as vi...

The formula is set. Any crony who committed crimes in the past sues the government now, then DOJ “settles” with a vast payout.

Result: limitless payments straight from Treasury to cronies.

Breathtaking corruption poisons us. It steals money from every Conservative and Liberal American taxpayer.

Flynn pled guilty!!!

This is a better answer than I gave on The Source to @kaitlancollins.bsky.social last night.

Important to understand the Epstein stuff and the fascism and the corruption are, in a lot of ways, really all the same story from different angles: powerful men who can and do abuse vulnerable people around them because they can, and because systems of elite accountability catastrophically failed

there's a moment in PARADISE LOST where Satan arrives in Eden and realizes Hell isn't a place; it's a thing he carries within him and it'll follow him wherever he goes. and i think about that when i see these awful rich men whose monstrous wealth has enriched them not at all

This is so insightful:

this is literally never not accurate

"A topography of silence and absences" -- @qjurecic.bsky.social on what "The Third Red Scare" is doing to us.

Sheesh
zeteo.com/p/senate-dem...

Remember when they said the reason they caved in March was so they could get a better deal in September lmao

This is why this surrender isn't just about this narrow issue but is rather the whole constitutional ballgame:

Democrats are affirmatively signaling they do not want political power at the same time Trump is transitioning the political system into an autocratic one wherein they're denied it forever

Cowards die many times before their deaths,
The valiant never taste of death but once.

MSNBC reported Schumer's office felt that the longer that shutdown went on, the more likely it was that people would start to blame the Dems.

My kingdom for Democrats that don't govern out of fear. I've said it before and I'll say it again: The American people are far braver than their reps.

They caved in March so they could get a better deal now. They’re caving now so they can get a better deal in some indeterminate future. The better deal is always just beyond their reach, but continuing to cave will get them there. And if you don’t agree with that, you don’t understand Politics,

My family has been without half our income for 40 days. It has been.. very hard.

We are willing to feel that pain so people can have health care next year, or to undo these illegal recissions.

We are not willing to have been put through this for NOTHING.

Shutting down the government is a big deal. People have been hurt in big ways as a result of the decision. To have that suffering be for nothing—to re-open the government without actually having protected people’s health insurance and economic well-being—is unconscionable.

I’m going to play this for white noise when I’m writing. Hearing him get booed so vigorously is soothing.

These guys were cheering for Thanos

BREAKING: Mark Wolf, appointed to the federal bench by Ronald Reagan, writes that he is resigning as a judge to have the freedom to speak out against the president's assault on the rule of law.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️

Aspects of our political system which are currently failing and long overdue for reform:

- The two-party system
- The US Senate
- An all-powerful, stand-alone presidency
- A politicized Supreme Court with full veto power over Congress and the executive

Two panels commemorating the contribution of Black American soldiers towards the liberation of the Netherlands in World War Two have been quietly removed from a cemetery in Limburg. It follows a complaint by right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission.

Elections in democracies determine who administers the government; they do not alter whom the government is for. Under any administration, Republican or Democratic, the United States government exists to serve the people of the United States, regardless of their partisan affiliation. Besides, Americans are not as easily divided as Trump might think. Millions of Republican voters live in New York, just as millions of Democrats live in Texas. He cannot tell whom he is punishing by glancing at an electoral map. But even if he could, Trump’s acts of extortion have no place in a democracy. They belong in a protection racket: If you support Trump, you are protected; if you do not, you are vulnerable. If you donate enough cash to Trump, you may receive favorable treatment, including immunity from the law. If you oppose Trump, you may be prosecuted.

This is not how a representative government works. It is how the Mafia works.

Went back to the history of the Sicilian Mafia to illustrate something obvious but worth stating explicitly: The Trump administration behaves like an organized crime syndicate running a protection racket, not a representative government www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Let’s hear more of the dangers of democratic socialism under Mamdani

(Bloomberg) - US companies announced the most job cuts for any October in more than two decades as artificial intelligence reshapes industries and cost-cutting accelerates ..

@bloomberg.com #Challenger
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

A twist on an old Wide Awakes poster celebrating Lincoln's victory in the 1860 election, but with all instances of Lincoln and Douglas replaced with Mamdani and Cuomo, respectively

I pass out early because of a week of newborn related insomnia, and I wake up to a blessed TL 🙏

I hope future generations recognize how quickly and strangely the contours of what counts as a political scandal changed for this president.

• Pardoned the "Camp Auschwitz" guy.
• Dined with Holocaust deniers.
• Said Jews who vote Democrat "hate their religion."
• Silent when young Republicans "love Hitler."
• Silent when Heritage backs Carlson/Fuentes.

It's not a coincidence. It's a culture.

More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...

Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents.

They’ve had their necks kneeled on.

They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear.

At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them.