Caro Swan

We have come to expect a dose of political theater in the political branches, drama designed to rally the base or to rile or intimidate political opponents. We also may expect there a measure of bending sometimes breaking the truth. By design of the Founders, the judicial branch stands apart. We rule on facts, not on supposition or conjecture, and certainly not on fabrication or propaganda. I urge my colleagues on this court to act swiftly to vacate the majority's order before the illegal deployment of troops under false pretenses can occur. Above all, I ask those who are watching this case unfold to retain faith in our judicial system for just a little longer.

Divided Ninth Circuit panel stays injunction against President Trump’s federalization of National Guard troops in Portland:

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Judge Graber, who is no firebrand, wrote quite a dissent—encouraging en banc review and some patience on the part of the public:

America is being run by people whose social media presence would see them getting fired from a part time job stacking shelves.
If you worked at Aldi and posted a video of you pouring shit all over Aldi customers, you wouldn't work at Aldi.

Screenshot of a map of North America labeled “Bald Eagle range map by ABC” that shows bald eagle ranges for breeding, wintering, and residency. There’s a distinctive hole or gap exactly mirroring the borders of the U.S. state of Nevada

Why do bald eagles hate Nevada

Vance spokesperson: “Gavin Newsom wants people to think this exercise is dangerous.”

<shrapnel hits Vance’s motorcade>

Vance spokesperson: No comment.

Police focus on ladder placed against the side of the Louvre Andrew Harding Paris correspondent, at the scene

Sorry but this is the funniest headline I will read all year

Dogs are so amazing. I am constantly time-blind and running late but my dog always gives me his no-tech doggy dinner time reminder at 5 of. Incredible punctuality.

Also the civility policing!

Trump’s fantasy of having one of his apparently uncontrollable liquid shits land on the American flag

I guess if I *had* to pick my favorite part of the video the president posted where he’s a big boy pilot and he pew pew pews his poop all over everyone, it would be the part where he shits on the American flag?

I just keep thinking about the first guy to put on the frog costume reading the news today and seeing frogs literally all over the world

what a fucking thing, man

that 25 year old did more for the country in a week than most of the NYT op-ed section in a lifetime

Waking up my husband on a Saturday morning with a "hey sweetie, you were in artillery for a few years, is this safe and I'm overthinking it or is this as insane as it sounds?" and him just staring at me in horror

Interview from the Titan submarine investigation. The witness name is blacked out. The first line is "Well, I'm sure you're familiar with my film Titanic."

Great moments in redaction history.

On police procedurals the internal affairs detective is always some vendetta-driven asshole trying to take down a good cop and in real life the internal affairs detective is like "in conclusion, the baby was probably reaching for the officer's sidearm."

How do they drink it?

Nuclear weapons safety oversight in decline with Trump, Biden inaction SEATTLE — The lone independent federal agency responsible for ensuring safety at U.S. nuclear weapons sites will lose its ability to issue recommendations for safer work by January if the Trump admini

SEATTLE — The lone independent federal agency responsible for ensuring safety at U.S. nuclear weapons sites will lose its ability to issue recommendations for safer work by January if the Trump administration doesn’t replenish its board, which this month dwindles to one member.

we are not having a lot of luck with institutional pushback - everyone who does is fired and replaced

we are definitely not having any luck with “norms”

what we are having luck with is ordinary people looking at the incompetent bullshit put in front of them and going “absolutely not”

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Several cases against people arrested by Portland police at the ICE building reference what authorities call “Confidential Reliable Sources.”
https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/10/portland-police-deploy-informants-within-ice-protest-crowds-to-aid-in-arrests-documents-reveal.html

Museum display explaining how the Mount St. Helens eruption affected sound waves.

Maybe not the volume right at the site! I just recently learned that the Mount St. Helens eruption was powerful enough to blow the sound waves up, creating a zone of silence.

Philadelphia!

But wait, turns out that Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach and Baldwin are independent municipalities. So, it’s only almost the whole county.

According to my grandpa, Jacksonville, FL, is the biggest city in the US because the city limits are all of Duval County.

#animalcrime

remote work is like birth control or UBI atp where there’s overwhelming research consensus they improve quality of life for people they apply to, yet access is impeded or blocked by the ruling class because the thought of marginalized ppl having rich full lives makes steam come out their ears

doing journalism

It’s difficult to overstate how important this milestone is in the Hanford cleanup effort. Thousands of Washingtonians worked for decades to bring us to this moment. They deserve recognition for this achievement.

Again, it is a full-blown federal felony crime for anyone in the White House or Executive Office of the President to order tax investigations into anyone.

And it's not just a crime to DO it, it's even a federal crime for an employee not to REPORT such an order to the Treasury Inspector General.

Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System That Would Favor White People

The headline & text of this piece don’t do enough to describe the Trump regime’s extreme immigration agenda.

It’s called white nationalism. Or white Christian nationalism. Or Christian nationalism. Pick one. Only one quote in the piece starts to describe it.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

Chocolate chip cookies and other lies Notes on food origin stories, which are usually not true

I guess we can add pumpkin spice lattes to the long list of food origin stories that are completely wrong

snackstack.net/2022/06/24/c...

Starbucks began developing the pumpkin spice latte in January 2003, following the success of winter beverages such as the peppermint mocha and eggnog latte. Peter Dukes, the company's Director of Espresso for the Americas, explained that developers recognized the appeal of pumpkin flavor, noting, "there wasn't anything around pumpkin at the time."[5] During development, Starbucks' team collaborated with food scientists to create four potential seasonal beverages...

Add for Stellar Coffee in Portland, published in The Oregonian, Dec. 13, 2001. Celebrate the Holidays with one of our specialty drinks $1 OFF 16 or 20 oz. Egg Nog Lattes, Pumpkin Spice Lattes or Hot Buttered Rum Lattes Mention this ad. Expires 12/31/01

So uhh...I just impulsively decided to fact-check the official origin story for the pumpkin spice latte and it is A LIE or at least incorrect.

Starbucks claims to have invented it in 2003

But a coffee shop in Portland was selling them in 2001 (the earliest mention I can find)

At a raid on the drop-off line at a local elementary school, hundreds of parents had ICE surrounded within three minutes. ICE gave up and fled.