Happy Obama Appreciation Day

Trump’s Wildly Unconstitutional Plot to Banish U.S. Citizens to Gulags His plan to send American citizens to foreign prisons is the latest in a long series of affronts to the American constitutional order.

Among the Declaration of Independence’s grievances against the Crown was “transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences.”

What do these corporations have in common?

Netflix
Ford
Tesla
T-Mobile
Duke Energy
DISH Network
Metlife
Dominion Energy
United States Steel

In recent years, they all paid their execs more than they paid in taxes.

This is what a corporate-rigged system looks like.

1/4. On the White House’s theory, if they abduct you, get you on a helicopter, get to international waters, shoot you in the head, and drop your corpse into the ocean, that is legal, because it is the conduct of foreign affairs.

An artist’s impression of a magnetar, which is a special type of neutron star with an incredibly strong magnetic field. The neutron star at the center of the image is illustrated as a mottled blue-white sphere with a bright edge and streamers looping off it. Concentric blue lines wrap around the neutron star, like a cage, from upper right to lower left to symbolize the intense magnetic field the star possesses. The words “artist’s concept” are at bottom right.

Hubble has uncovered a magnetar—a neutron star with a very strong magnetic field—traversing our galaxy. Mysteriously, the runaway magnetar was not formed from a supernova explosion as initially thought: bit.ly/3FKcNEr 🔭 🧪

State Terror A brief guide for Americans

"the president defied a Supreme Court ruling to return a man mistakenly sent to a gulag... and spoke of sending Americans to foreign concentration camps.
This is the beginning of an American policy of state terror, and it has to be identified as such to be stopped"
snyder.substack.com/p/state-terror

DOGE is a criminal conspiracy to defraud the people of the United States

'Dazed and confused': Trump Cabinet member battered for making administration chaos worse According to the editor-in-chief of the conservative National Review, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has done nothing but sow chaos of his own as he struggles to calm the public and the markets in ...

'His level of incoherence ... has been off the charts"

The Right-Wing Media Machine Is What’s Saving Donald Trump—for Now The president isn’t governing as if he wants to be popular, but he’s getting help sweeping his wreckage under the rug.

"Eventually, the facts of his incompetence will overwhelm even the vast propaganda network that defends him. I just hope the economy doesn’t have to collapse for that to happen."

#booksky

AOC Calls Out Suspicious Stock Trades in Congress Amid Tariff Fiasco Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is using Trump’s tariffs whiplash to call for an end to insider trading in Congress.

AOC is accusing Trump of manipulating the market to insiders' benefit.

Elizabeth Warren has called for an investigation into Trump’s volatile change of course and Adam Schiff warned against the "dangerous opportunities for insider trading.”

The stock portfolios of more than two dozen members of Congress outperformed the market in 2024.

This isn't due to luck or skill.

Lawmakers can use privileged information to trade stocks while they’re supposed to be working for you.

Make no mistake, it’s legalized corruption.

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Twenty Lessons, read by John Lithgow Key selections from On Tyranny, for viewing and sharing

"On Tyranny" is a #1 NYT bestseller again. I wish the moment were different. But I’m glad the book is useful. And grateful for all the kind words about putting the 20 lessons to work.
snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-les...

Trump signs order aiming to eliminate 'anti-American ideology' from Smithsonian institutions President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order directing Vice President JD Vance - a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents - to eliminate "improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology" from Smithsonian museums, education and research centers and the National Zoo, the White House said.

Here we go—going after the intellectuals (another characteristic of Fascism). Heaven forbid that divisibility or truth-telling occurs. Makes you wonder what will happen to the Library of Congress.From Reuters: www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

What people in every part of higher education need to understand is that Republicans now want to do to universities what they’ve tried to do to labor unions: erase them from the institutional landscape. The question is how much you want to collaborate in your own destruction.

Former Fort Carson Iraq war veteran gives up the fight to stay in the US

Jose Barco, a decorated U.S. Army veteran once based out of Fort Carson who served 2 tours in Iraq, was taken into custody last month by ICE because his citizenship papers, which were supposed to be processed while he was in the Army, were lost.

Read his story:

Elon Musk’s DOGE Website Is Already Getting Hacked The DOGE.gov website is such a coding disaster that pretty much anyone can take over.

Two coders have already infiltrated the DOGE website and left their own messages on it at the time of 404’s reporting on Thursday evening: “THis is a joke of a .gov site,” said one, and “THESE ‘EXPERTS’ LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN -roro” said another.

Real Americans—not Nazi-loving, Putin-appeasing types like JD Vance, Trump & Musk—stand with our European allies.

Episcopal Church, interfaith partners challenge Trump’s ICE enforcement actions in court [Episcopal News Service] More than two dozen Christian and Jewish organizations, including The Episcopal Church, sued the Trump administration on Feb. 11 for allowing immigration officers to target…

The Episcopal Church has challenged ICE in Court for violating First Amendment Rights of the practice of one's religion by photographing and harassing people at church food banks, services, phone/zoom calls, and congregate meetings.
episcopalnewsservice.org/2025/02/11/e...

Not good!

bsky.app/profile/just...