Ben Haring

Now we are 'Murica - half of our people can't read a long form article (another quarter can but will not) and more than half have no commitment or interest in civic understanding (let alone their duty as a citizen). I'm sure we can podcast our way out of this

We astoundingly elected the one single person in the entire world who is not interested in reading the intelligence in the President’s Daily Brief.

If you’re upset about Trump accepting a kingdom-in-the-sky jet from the Saudi royal family you have to remember that Bill Clinton once said hello to Loretta Lynch before the 2016 election. Corruption on both sides.

Trump administration poised to accept 'palace in the sky' as a gift for Trump from Qatar: Sources President Trump poised to accept "palace in the sky" as a gift from Qatar: Sources

If you’ve ever wondered what the phrase “foreign emolument” means, here is the very definition:

If Congress valued the Constitution, it would impeach Trump for bribery.

The Constitution bans US officials—explicitly including POTUS—from accepting things of value from foreign govts. Ben Franklin famously gave up a gift from France as ambassador.

US institutions now see blatant bribery as ok.

Nice work. We need an addition to the dropdown menu to block the entire list at once

Nazi Germany surrendered in May 1945. For Americans, the Second World War would rage for three more months, until VJ Day in August. But for Russians and those influenced by them, "Victory Day" falls in May. Trump follows the Russian practice, not the American.

this was also true during trump 1.0 and it's only gotten worse: we are ruled by people who literally have high level access to the most extensive information available on the planet and yet choose instead to believe what some rando named Fuckbrain1488 posts on X the Everything App

Using uniformed military as political backdrops causes the public to consider them political forces, a dangerous thing in a free society.

The Attorney General is so unserious.

If you’re a prosecutor who is serious about obtaining a conviction, you don’t go on Fox and talk about the (alleged) facts of the case like this.

Has Bondi read the Justice Manual? Has Bondi heard of pretrial publicity motions? How about bar ethics rules?

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel clip: "Multiple Milwaukee County judges confirmed that the arrest took place at the courthouse. Franklyn Gimbel, a prominent Milwaukee defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, called Dugan’s arrest “outrageous.” “A person who is a judge, who has a residence who has no problem being found, should not be arrested, if you will, like some common criminal,” Gimbel said. “And I'm shocked and surprised that the U.S. Attorney's Office or the FBI would not have invited her to show up and accept process if they're going to charge her with a crime.”

Important point on the arrest of Judge Dugan: when you're going to charge someone who's plainly not a flight or violence risk, you inform them that you're filing the charges and have them come in with their lawyer to do the paperwork. But that's not authoritarian enough to please Patel and Bondi. /1

i feel like trumpcoin, and the fact that we never talk about it, is pretty emblematic of the way the press refuses to grapple with trump.

it exists in order to pay him bribes. it expressly gives you political access. it does not pretend to have a licit motive. it was a one-day scandal.

reporting on this has really got to get better about communicating the magnitude of the breach here. if you read the nyt article with minimal context, you would have no sense that this was watergate-level impeachable misconduct

A frustrated Trump privately concedes he was a moron or a liar.

This, in a nutshell, is why the Justice Department remains independent from the White House when it comes to directing criminal prosecution. A country that fails to take to heart the lessons of Watergate ends up with Trump.

It’s incredible that now the *best case* scenario is basically Trump engaging in a humiliating climb-down, but having already inflicted permanent damage and uncertainty that never be undone.

It doesn't matter what the rest of the sentence says, the opening 10 words in themselves are the scandal:

"President Trump on Thursday directed the Justice Department to investigate ... "

Not just in China’s policy making circles

This is deranged. Jan. 6 defendants were repped by one of the best public defender offices in the U.S. They were more likely to be released pretrial & got comparatively light sentences. SCOTUS threw out a bunch of convictions, which almost never happens. They got gold-plated due process!

Here's Marky Mark on Jan. 6, hiding behind a chair in the Capitol, scared of the rioters who were there because he and his buddies egged them on with lies.

I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or worse, but at least it's relevant...

Read this too @kathleenbelew.bsky.social

This is it. All this ancillary litigation is being caused by the fact that the President is asserting just a complete fake claim and power.

250 years ago tonight: Paul Revere's ride, made famous by Longfellow in 1861 reminding us to fight for freedom.

LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year

Photo of Senator Chris Van Hollen with Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.

Please repeat over and over:

“Bending to the whims of a bully will not end his cruelty. It will only embolden him. The response to authoritarianism isn’t acquiescence. Bullies respond to one thing, and one thing only: a punch in the face.”

—Gov. JB Pritzker

Just so I am keeping everything straight…the government can’t tell you to wear a mask because FREEDOM!!!!, but it can decide you are a “terrorist” and send you to a foreign gulag without due process and throw away the key.

That right?

Even if you (wrongly) believe that some immigrants lack due process rights, what’s to stop the government from claiming that *you* are an undocumented immigrant; removing you to El Salvador; citing an “administrative error”; and refusing to do anything to bring you back?

The answer is due process.