Stacey Burling

No matter what you think of the Senate budget vote, the shutdown has been a useful lesson on why we need a functioning government. If the House passes the budget, Republicans will own the pain millions will feel, plus the resentment special treatment of the privileged will cause.

A blaring red warning signal for the rule of law; a President declaring “we’re just gonna kill people” without a trial or even a shred of due process.

Reminder that DOGE was a rounding error - did a ton of damage, saved little in the scope of the federal budget. Better understood as a mechanism for undermining the administrative state and pursuing ideological objectives than as a way of reducing federal spending.

When Donald Trump Razed the Bonwit Teller Building, He Promised the Met Its Art Deco Friezes. A New Book Details How He Pulverized Them Instead | Artnet News Read an excerpt from the book 'Art and Crime: The Fight Against Looters, Forgers, and Fraudsters in the High-Stakes Art World.'

Posting for no reason

news.artnet.com/art-world/do...

Trump Administration Live Updates: White House Changes Course and Will Demolish Entire East Wing

Trump Lied and Will Now Demolish Entire East Wing www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

“Once you elect or appoint someone who has no moral core — who then appoints people with no moral core and fires those who do — nothing else in the system of checks-and-balances turns out to matter.”

Michael Days, pioneering journalist who led the Philadelphia Daily News during its 2010 Pulitzer Prize win for investigative reporting, has died at 72 Days was a mentor to countless young journalists and was president of the National Association of Black Journalists-Philadelphia.

Michael Days, a pillar of Philadelphia journalism who championed young Black journalists and was beloved among reporters who worked for him at the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer, died suddenly on Saturday at the age of 72 in Trenton.

Anyone who speaks like this HATES the First Amendment.
They do not deserve to have this kind of power.
They are trying to destroy democracy. Full stop.

While Trump blusters about "law & order," his regime has dropped or halted nearly 165 investigations into corporate wrongdoing. And Trump himself has pardoned dozens of his supporters, including Jan 6 rioters and others convicted of crimes like money laundering and bribery.

By the time you get to the point where the Transportation Secretary is complaining about political protests, you know the administration is truly scared of the public backlash.

I’m sure. He’s will be with his pal Rush Limbaugh in a different place. Also, for someone who is supposedly in great shape he sure is talking a lot about death lately. bsky.app/profile/atru...

Trump: "Portland, I mean -- every time I look at that place it's burning down. There are fires all over the place. When a store -- there are very few of them left -- but when a store owner rebuilds a store they build it out of plywood. They don't put up storefronts anymore. They just put wood up."

And yes, they're trying to intimidate us but Pritzker's right -- everyone needs to be out in numbers at these events.

It’s very much Not Great to have GOP leadership describe a planned non violent march as being in service a the “terrorist wing”

Take heart Like ol' Tug McGraw once preached: In trying times, ya gotta believe

Take heart
open.substack.com/pub/chrissat...

That got dark quickly.

Trump: "We took the freedom of speech away because that's been through the courts and the courts said you have freedom of speech, but what has happened is when they burn a flag it agitates and irritates crowds."

💯Today’s must-read

How Trump Is Using the Justice Department to Target His Enemies President Trump has long spoken of seeking vengeance against his political enemies. Here’s a list of whom he is targeting.

They are not Trump's enemies. They are critics and opponents. He sees them as enemies, because that's how autocrats perceive their critics. NYT should not repeat and normalize authoritarian discourse.

How Trump Is Using the Justice Department to Target His Enemies www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Stalinism and Stephen Miller (video) Cause for concern

Stalinism and Stephen Miller (video)
open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...

A screenshot of an X post by Gavin Newsom (@GavinNe ..., 1 day ago) listing the last three government shutdowns: October 1, 2025 under President Trump, December 22, 2018 under President Trump, and January 20, 2018 under President Trump, with the comment "Almost like there is a pattern here." The post includes a profile picture of Gavin Newsom speaking.

Gavin Newsom with the receipts!

Project 2025: Taking on the Constitution Another Saturday night in America.

Trump’s efforts to militarize ICE & send federalized Nat'l Guard troops onto American streets, firing government employees during the shutdown, it's all part of Project 2025, which he disavowed all knowledge of during the campaign because it was so unpopular.

joycevance.substack.com/p/project-20...

Tim Walz: "My god, we've got the White House threatening investigations and jail time because an escalator stopped? Walk up the damn stairs!"

Surreal moment for America. Needless to say, if the normal police ever pulled something like this — pulling every single person out of an apartment building and handcuffing them to run warrant checks — they would be sued into oblivion.

Yet ICE is going to get away with it entirely.

Raskin: "It's not lost on anyone that shutting the government down allows them not swear in our new colleague, Ms Grijalva from Arizona, who would be the 218th signature to discharge the Epstein files and to put a vote on that on the House floor."

A screenshot of an X post by @harryjsisson commenting on the first government shutdown in 7 years occurring under Donald Trump, noting that the last one also happened during Trump's first term. The post sarcastically mentions Trump calling himself a "master negotiator."

This didn’t happen under Biden because he believed government should actually function on behalf of the people, not actively work against them in order to benefit the wealthy.

Do we say a man is sane when he calls in the military to fight a war when there is no war? If such a man is not sane, do we have a solution to stop the madness if he’s in the White House?

A ‘brazen’ Jeffrey Yass-backed mailer suggests the Pa. Supreme Court created the congressional map it actually threw out “It’s probably the most shameless political ad I’ve ever seen,” said Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht in a rare interview.

"A GOP-affiliated PAC is sending PA voters a mailer warning that the state Supreme Court 'gerrymandered our congressional districts to help Democrats win.' The issue? The pictured map was not drawn by the Court; it was drawn by legislative Republicans and thrown as an unconstitutional gerrymander."

When the President uses federal law enforcement for his personal revenge, it puts all of us in danger.