Ashley Nowicki

Biden Justice Department slow-walked key decisions in Trump legal probes The picture of a hesitant Justice Department runs contrary to the GOP allegation that the indictments of Trump were the product of a Democrat-led plot.

the worst chickenshit in American history www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

Senator Schumer and the Senate Democrats ask Sec. Kennedy a great question: How Many Families Will be Pushed into Medical Debt-Induced Bankruptcy By Trump's Health Care Cuts?

www.banking.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

Why Trump Expects the Justice Department to Cut Him a Quarter-Billion-Dollar Check What Trump’s Justice Department loyalists understand is that the law is a tool they can manipulate to give their boss what he wants.

Trump's (probably correct) belief that his Justice Department will give him a quarter-billion dollars in public resources is the product of a Justice Department controlled by Trump loyalists who understand their jobs to be "using the law to do whatever the boss wants"

basically all this shit is Roberts' fault, because the immunity made Trump feel like he could break the law as much as he wants without consequences. bsky.app/profile/jayw...

Surprised and disappointed to learn that a national policy of allowing anyone at any time to instantly wager on sports via smartphone app might have had some negative consequences

“Coverage of this mass sports gambling arrest is brought to you by DraftKings“

A pardon "following months of efforts by Zhao to boost the Trump family’s own crypto company." Unprecedented corruption.

Microsoft is doing what the FTC warned it would do if it was able to acquire Activision-Blizzard — pushing up prices, cancelling games, and restricting content in an effort to capture well above average profit margins in gaming.

economicpopulist.substack.com/p/as-microso...

Microsoft Pushes Xbox Division to Hit Higher Profit Margins Management’s goal of 30% profit margins for gaming has led to job losses, canceled projects

SCOOP: For the last two years, Microsoft has pushed Xbox to hit profit margins of 30%, an ambitious target that's far higher than the industry average.

This chase for profit has led Xbox to raise prices, cut thousands of jobs, and rethink everything.

Story: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

President Trump is demanding that the Justice Department pay him about $230 million in compensation for the federal investigations into him.

Whether he gets paid will ultimately be up to DOJ's second-in-command, who was recently his personal lawyer.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/u...

Millionaire Tax That Inspired Mamdani Fuels $5.7 Billion Haul in Massachusetts A millionaire levy in Massachusetts that New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani holds up as a model for taxing the rich has generated $3 billion more in revenue than expected without forcing...

WELL HOW ABOUT THAT

"A millionaire levy in Massachusetts has generated $3 billion more in revenue than expected without forcing significant high-profile departures from the state."

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Trump Said to Demand Justice Dept. Pay Him $230 Million for Past Cases

Trump Said to Demand That You Pay Him $230 Million for Past Cases
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/u...

Unprecedented corruption. Watergate every day.

RIFs can’t be done without agency leadership so this is RFK Jr extending his purge of CDC scientists to help Vought’s shutdown agenda. Genuine public health risks created by aggrieved men.

Shutdown hostage taking Russ Vought's threatens more mass firings; SCOTUS blesses his de facto impoundment

Re-upping this piece on news that Vought is firing federal employees:
*Vought lying that shutdowns compel layoffs, never have before.
*Layoffs are a choice, the shutdown is an excuse.
*Comes on top of existing RIFs, will make restoring govt services harder post-shutdown.
substack.com/home/post/p-...

Which judge will be the first to cite and quote: "We took the freedom of speech away"

'RIFs have begun.' Vought announces start of mass firings during government shutdown The White House budget office said Friday that mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.

Russell Vought has announced that "mass firings [RIFs] have begun."

Lawless. The RIFs in the spring were illegal, as Judge Illston outlined. Yes, the conservative SCOTUS supermajority lawlessly signed off. But the Calvinball Court is not doing law.

Congress can stop this. A thread: 1/

As Microsoft Once Again Hikes XBox Prices, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley Goes in the Judicial Hall of Shame Since her dismissal of Lina Khan's Microsoft-Activision merger challenge, monopoly abuses have piled up.

Read the full post here: economicpopulist.substack.com/p/as-microso...

NEW: For The Economic Populist, @ashleynowicki.bsky.social takes stock of how gamers have fared since a judge dismissed
@linamkhan.bsky.social's challenge to the Microsoft-Activision merger.

A good political message for Dems is that Republicans say they are unwilling to hold Trump/Vought accountable, so elect someone who is.

“I have no idea what Project 2025 is.”
- Trump, October 31, 2024

Why Is This Democratic Senator Voting to Confirm a Trump Judicial Nominee? If you really think Trump poses an existential threat to democracy, the bar for affirmatively supporting one of his nominees has to be higher than “I don’t know, he seems fine.”

Six Democratic senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee (Durbin, Schiff, Whitehouse, Klobuchar, Coons, and Welch) voted yes on two Trump district court nominees this morning, and my question remains, why do senior members of this party keep voluntarily ceding political capital to Donald Trump

Impressive how one political party can control the White House, the House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court, but not bear responsibility for whether the federal government functions. Neat trick.

Federal Workers Are Being Told to Blame Democrats for the Shutdown Workers at one agency were given unhinged, partisan language to use when setting out-of-office replies.

SCOOP: At 9:35am on Wednesday, the first morning of the US government shutdown, employees at the Small Business Administration (SBA) received a template from human resources for their suggested “out of office” email. They were advised to blame the Democrats.

So now, both Trump and GOP Congressional leaders have endorsed Russ Vought's agenda of using the shutdown to engineer back-door impoundments.

This comes the same day Hegseth told the military to pursue "the enemy within" and not to worry about war crimes. They want to embed the ethos of ICE into the military.

Breaking: HHS, Commerce, Probably Other Agencies Send Entire Staff Email Blaming Democrats for Shutdown Please forgive the multiple editions in one day — occasionally I'll send breaking news out such as this. On Tuesday afternoon, employees at the Department for Health and Human Services and the Depart...

My guess is this was coordinated across the entire executive branch, like a Hands Across the Hatch Act Violation event or something

crazy, how could he get an idea like that www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

It is important to see this sort of straight talking, precisely because of the executive order last week that conflated criticism of the government with terrorism.