Jenn (she/her)

Happy Empty Tomb Day!

We're Past the Tipping Point “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced...

Monday newsletter:

Trump may sit upon a throne of bullshit. But it is a throne.

open.substack.com/pub/charlies...
open.substack.com/pub/charlies...

initial reports made this sound like a minor failed attempt

Just disgusting. All of them. Garcia is not a terrorist. Innocent people were put in that El Salvador prison. What a disgrace Trump is turning America into.

If Trump can claim a "national emergency" to disappear legal residents without due process, what’s to stop him from doing the same to U.S. citizens who oppose him?

No one is safe — not even people legally in the country, possibly not even American citizens.

Fascism is here.

The Quislings and Cowards of Big Law An open letter to Skadden & Arps. [LANGUAGE WARNING]

Actually, no “strong-arming,” was required at all, was it?. You didn’t wait for an executive order. You didn’t join with your fellow lawyers in fighting back. You didn’t stand on any principle. You embraced your ignominy. You pathetic Vichy flunkies.
charliesykes.substack.com/p/the-quisli...

Leavitt is straight up lying. She says “it’s not true” that just a tattoo & a clothing brand can get you sent to El Salvador.

But here is the document filed in court by Homeland Security. It clearly states that a tattoo (4pts) & dress (4pts) adds up to 8pts needed to be declared a TDA “terrorist”.

The image is a screenshot of a social media post by Aaron Rupar (@atrupar ), posted 12 hours ago. The post reads: "Peter Navarro goes full Orwell on Fox News Sunday: 'The message is that tariffs are tax cuts.'" Below the post, there is a Fox News broadcast graphic with the headline: "NAVARRO ON IMPACT OF TRUMP TARIFFS ON U.S. CONSUMERS." The broadcast is labeled as "FOX NEWS SUNDAY WITH SHANNON BREAM" and is marked as "EXCLUSIVE." The background features an image of the U.S. Capitol building.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Tariffs are tax cuts.

Two headlines, one saying that inflation was a blow for Joe Biden, another saying that Trump bets Americans will swallow higher prices.

Hey journalism school students! And profs!

Here's fodder for essay-question analyses.

Both headlines from same paper, 11 months apart. Apr 2024 on left, March 2025 on right.

Inflation rate same both times (2.9%)

Any subtle difference you see?

(I no longer think this "matters" but still)

Tell me you have not taken a single course in American history, or world economic history, without telling me...

1. Fed Gov has had public debt as a tool since Hamilton's days as SecTreas treasurydirect.gov/government/h...

2 Debt up way more under Trump than Biden. www.crfb.org/papers/trump...

The image is a screenshot of a post on X by a user named Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg ). The post reads: "So, which is it? If this info wasn’t classified, that in itself would be a scandalous screw-up that must be explained. And if it was classified, then the Trump admin lied to Congress and to the American people."

We now know it was the latter.

Even if you accept the premise and decision, which I absolutely do not, it is the simplest thing to phone the visa holder, tell them their visa is revoked and say they have a month to leave the country. Accosting someone on the street like a kidnapping is just a spectacle of terror.

Trump Is Still Obsessed With the Hunter Biden Laptop Letter But it doesn’t seem like he or his supporters actually know what we said.

"Was it unreasonable to suspect Russia might exploit Giuliani’s desperation? To the contrary: If Russian intelligence ignored such an opportunity, it would have been professional negligence." The context of the Hunter Biden letter, and what it really said:

The image is a screenshot of a post on X by a user named Karina Vinnikova (@KarinaVinnikova ), followed by a reply from Moxie Marlinspike (@moxie ). Karina Vinnikova's post reads: "The founder of Signal, ladies and gentlemen." There is a "Follow back" button visible next to the username. Moxie Marlinspike's reply reads: "There are so many great reasons to be on Signal. Now including the opportunity for the vice president of America to randomly add you to a group chat for coordination of sensitive military operations. Don’t sleep on this opportunity…."

Never miss a golden promo oppy.

YouTube video by LegalEagle Texting War Plans = Illegal

@legaleagle.tv unwisely asked me for thoughts.

How a party loses its soul:

Respectable Republican Condi Rice visits Kristi Noem.

Noem stages a sick photo-op in El Salvador with deportees as props. Some of them were law-abiding U.S. immigrants, now imprisoned in that hellhole.

No respectable Republican criticizes Noem.

This Is the Land of Wolves Now Masked agents snatching people off the street. Government officials using caged prisoners for propaganda videos. We are the villains.

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

All I keep thinking about is how Pete Hegseth raised questions of the competency of a Black four-star general and Air Force fighter pilot who was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Hegseth asked did he get the job “because of his skin color? Or his skill? We’ll never know, but always doubt.”

Troll level expert. 10/10 no notes. 🤣

Very Well Said and Accurate….

The devil's offer to give Jesus dominion over the nations for a bit of obeisance was the temptation to conquer the world. The lure of empire is the temptation to bow down to the devil.

Sermon for the first Sunday in Lent: "The Grand Inquisitor"

I don't know, y'all. Maybe we need to revive the whole sackcloth and ashes thing as an expression of grief....

I got laid off today, with the rest of 18F.

18F was an elite federal software shop. We made gov't websites work better, more efficiently for the American people. We saved taxpayers from getting screwed over by contractors. And were fired for it.

We made this website to tell our story:
18f.org

"History will remember this day— when an American President and Vice President abandoned all we stand for."

When you realize you sold your principles for a mess of pottage.

I figured out who Trump and Vance remind me of:

Congrats