It took 21 years and an act of Congress to construct the WWII Memorial on the National Mall.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_W...

Apropos of nothing, resharing this banger from @adambonica.bsky.social about the anti-corruption pathway for Dems…

Because really, who are Americans to question their monarch about matters of state

BREAKING: Judge Illston says she is expanding her TRO blocking shutdown RIFs as to any AFSCME and AFL-CIO members or bargaining units to include NFFE, SEIU, and NAGE union members or bargaining units AND any members/units removed under EO 14251 whose removal is subject to legal dispute.

49%???? Good God.

NYC Public Schools Becomes Latest To Defy Trump Trans Bathroom Ban Demands, Launches Lawsuit “U.S. DOE’s threat to cut off tens of millions of dollars in magnet funding unless we cancelled our protections for transgender and gender expansive students is contrary to |law|"

1. New York City Public Schools has announced that it will defy Trump's demands to ban trans students from bathrooms, funding threats be damned.

Instead, it has launched a lawsuit against the admin and declared it will not throw trans students under the bus.

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Prosecutor Who Rejected Trump’s Pressure to Charge James Is Fired

Two more career prosecutors fired for refusing to indict NY AG Letitia James because they could not find probable cause to charge her. 🎁

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/u...

By my count: Of the 15 Departments of the US Government, 13 launched new BlueSky accounts tonight (all but Justice and HUD), and all 13 have posted explicitly partisan political posts blaming Democrats and/or Chuck Schumer for the government shutdown.

Here are the details and our methodology. Judge for yourself: www.propublica.org/article/immi...

This is not a minor issue: it’s a serious threat to democracy. We’re rapidly transitioning into a world where, as long as you support the president, you can be above the law; if you’re in the opposition, you have a target on your back. Opposition can’t survive under these conditions.

U.S. Detains 2 Survivors of Latest Military Strike in Caribbean

In brief, this is simple:

The military has no authority to detain the survivors of its latest strike for the same reasons it had no authority to target them in the first place:

No armed attack = No viable self defense claim = No targeting or detention authority

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/u...

Rachel Borra, the department's chief human capital officer, said in the Friday filing that the department has stopped work on reductions in force. "Interior had intended on imminently abolishing positions in 68 competitive areas that include plaintiff bargaining unit employees," she said. "Among those streamlining efforts, Interior has been working on potential RIF plans since early this year," Borra wrote. "These planning efforts were begun long before the current lapse in appropriations and had nothing to do with the lapse in appropriations."

As is so often the case, Trump admin statements in court are the polar opposite of what they say publicly.

PUBLICLY, Trump & Vought say they’re firing federal workers because of the shutdown.

IN COURT, they said the firings have nothing to do with the shutdown.

Explaining why he pardoned Santos, Trump openly admits crime is ok if you’re a loyal Republican

For the first time since 1995, a federal shutdown has come for the federal courts. By the terms of the Anti-Deficiency Act I'd argue enough staff should be kept on to ensure timely litigation of habeas petitions filed by ICE detainees, but not hopeful about that

www.uscourts.gov/data-news/ju...

Revealed: how a Russian fight club expanded into the US with the help of American neo-Nazis Members of white supremacist ‘active clubs’ spearheaded a US expansion of a Russian fighting group that has raised money for the Kremlin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine

Fantastic reporting by Wiley D Cope and the @us.theguardian.com staff on ties between a Russian street fighting organization and neo-Nazis in Tennessee. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

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?

Important: Sen Chris Murphy just sent pointed questions to Kristi Noem about DHS's account of shooting of US citizen by Trump's paramilitary forces in Chicago. The official line is imploding. Murphy wants Noem to explain why DHS misled. More like this, Ds.

New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2019...

More partisan “cost-cutting” from Vought — in cities where definitely NO Republicans live, work or spend money. 🤡

A great read! Proposes what I think is the right answer on the grand coalition: fusing the anti-authoritarian and anti-oligarchy resistances

New: The federal judiciary starting on Monday will begin curtailing non-essential functions and furloughing some employees after exhausting what funds it had left to sustain paid court operations during the U.S. government shutdown, according to an internal memo. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Comparative Politics Needs Area Studies, and Area Studies Needs Comparative Politics If you were a graduate student in political science between 1990 and 2010 or so, you probably experienced some heated debates about the future of area studies and its role in the discipline. This w…

One casualty in the Trump administration’s war on higher education is federal funding for area studies. This harms students, scholars, and U.S. national security.

It also comes at a time in which political science and area studies are more compatible than ever before. Read on for new research!

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The Pope tweets: "The poor are not there by chance or by blind and cruel fate. Nor, for most of them, is poverty a choice. Yet, there are those who still presume to make this claim, thus revealing their own blindness and cruelty. #DilexiTe" Someone replies: "I was so hopeful I could be a Catholic again after the disaster that Francis was, guess we just get Francis 2.0 now and I am heartbroken. How do I stay a Catholic now...I don't want to lose faith but I am. You belong to someone else, not God."

heartbroken to learn the pope sympathizes with the poor. how can i continue to believe in god

Leavitt: "The Democrat Party's main constituency is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals."

“If the person is a US citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.”
Brett Kavanaugh

Penn rejects White House proposal for special funding treatment With the decision, Penn becomes the third university to decline the offer.

Penn joins MIT and Brown in saying “no” to Trump extortion move.

"Following the law of armed conflict is not a burden on warriors; it is the very expression of their warrior ethos. It is what separates professional soldiers, airmen, and sailors from criminals."

Former CNO Admiral John Richardson (Ret.)

Amount of OUR money Trump is giving to Argentina vs. cost of extending enhanced ACA tax credits for 1 yr

Crude comparison FWIW.

RFK Jr: We need to stop trusting the experts... Trusting the experts is not a feature of science or democracy, it's a feature of religion and totalitarianism.

There are so many obvious constitutional violations in this story. It is enraging.
There is no war, there is no foreign invasion, there is nothing that justify it. This is a choice to create a military presence that will brutalize residents of cities that do not support the President.

ICE Detains Citizen After Saying She Doesn’t “Look Like” Her Last Name She even had her U.S. passport on her.

ICE agents kidnapped a US citizen in Chicago because she didn’t “look” American to them. She even had her US passport on her. 🤬

It's going up to $40 billion.

USAID's budget last year was $28 billion.