Matthew Lansburgh

White House Uses Shutdown to Maximize Pain and Punish Political Foes

NEW: The Trump admin took steps on Wednesday to maximize the pain of the government shutdown, halting billions of dollars in green energy and infrastructure funds for Democratic-led states while readying a plan to lay off federal workers, perhaps in next day or two www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/u...

UPDATE: Tyler Robinson is a WHITE male; not a trans individual, woman, or POC.

Charlie Kirk incessantly dehumanized every group that wasn’t a White, Christian male, and yet his fate was decided by someone he would’ve revered.

Think about that.

The guy who they believe killed Charlie Kirk is a 22 year old white Christian guy from Utah named Tyler Robinson. Reports say he's Mormon.

Will MAGA demand we round up all young white men? Will we have to make Mormonism illegal? Will the Christians be sent to camps?

Hey Folks, Future King of Healthcare here! The radical left recently leaked REAL footage of a date I went on! Frankly, I think I look fantastic, and I agree with everything said! Take a look!

#RFKJR #MAHA #MakeAmericaHealthyAgain #MAGA #Trump #MakeAmericaGreatAgain

What You Need to Know About "Alligator Alcatraz" A secretive, immigration detention camp in the Everglades is drawing national outrage for violating our constitutional rights, for its inhumane conditions, and significant environmental risks.

The Trump administration can't circumvent constitutional protections by sending people away to ICE detention centers in remote places like the Florida Everglades wetlands.

We'll see the administration in court.

"Instead of being worried about the fingers he was missing, 16 years old, he kept pointing to his mouth & telling me to feed him. He had no fingers left on his hands, that had been blown away."

A US doctor talked to me from Gaza City about starvation. Shocking testimony.
zeteo.com/p/bombs-go-o...

Finding Voice to Give Voice: Q&A with Lori Ostlund – ZYZZYVA The title of Lori Ostlund’s new story collection, Are You Happy? (272 pages; Astra House), suggests the quandary of whether Ostlund is interrogating the

Thank you to Evelyn Ch'ien at @zyzzyvamag.bsky.social for these insightful questions.

Our Advanced Fiction Workshop with @matthewlansburgh.bsky.social returns this October! Applications close August 3rd. Learn more here: bit.ly/44EkiWb

i think it should be a bigger story that the president held a meeting with a foreign head of state where he ranted about the most gutter white supremacist propaganda you can find on the internet

Democrats push GOP toward Medicare ‘upcoding’ instead of Medicaid cuts Democratic lawmakers are asking GOP leadership to reject Medicaid cuts in favor of going after Medicare Advantage “upcoding” as a way of saving federal dollars and addressing waste, fra…

Instead of ripping away health care from millions of people, Republicans should crack down on waste in Medicare Advantage.

Tactics like "upcoding"—when for-profit insurance companies exaggerate medical problems to pad their profits—cost taxpayers billions. That’s real waste.

Elena Kagan once refused to accept a gift basket of bagels and lox from Russ & Daughters.

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

Trump is so addicted to tacky opulence—and so in thrall to his ego—that he is willing to debase the presidency and the country by accepting this wildly inappropriately opulent bribe from Qatar’s royal family.

You're the servant of the people, man. Not their king.

Opinion | Donald Trump, You’re No Franklin Roosevelt Autocratic intent does not translate automatically into autocratic success.

The brilliant @jamellebouie.net www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/o...

If anyone out there was undecided on whether Trump is operationalizing a precise, coordinated plan to destroy our democracy so he can rule until he dies, the move to shut down Act Blue, the primary way Democrats’ campaigns are funded, should be the final proof point.

Trump has set up a new club where CEOs, tech bros, and foreign oligarchs can pay $500,000 to join in order to get access to the Trump Cabinet who will all be there regularly.

Just because the grift is all public doesn’t mean this isn’t the most corrupt White House in history.

(Bloomberg) - Insiders including Meta Platforms Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle Corp.’s Safra Catz and JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon cashed out shares worth billions of dollars before President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements roiled markets.

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

Social Security website keeps crashing, as DOGE demands cuts to IT staff The worsening problems come as Elon Musk’s DOGE team pushes for more cuts at the agency, including in the department that oversees the website.

The Social Security system is crashing, locking senior citizens out for long stretches nearly every day. And Trump's solution is to lay off 1000 more workers and slash the IT budget by 50%.

Start asking if the purpose is to crash our economy and society. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Earnest post, but: a thing I like here is it’s okay to have moments of happiness in public without being broadly scolded, and I believe that sustaining this kind of humanity will be very important as we resist fascism.

We have to sustain each other. Making joy isn’t denial, it’s how we will survive

#awp25 Today!

Trump isn’t cutting waste and abuse. He’s cutting programs that help regular people - like Medicaid - to fund tax cuts for billionaires and corporations. He only closes agencies that were stopping his rich friends bilk consumers.

Trade deficit is up.
Stock market is crashing.
Gas prices are rising.
Consumer confidence is down.
Grocery costs are soaring.

Trump is terrible at managing the economy.

Why? Because all he cares about is the billionaires. Not us.

Trump’s Biggest Corruption is Flying Under the Radar The scale of corruption in Trump’s White House has been stunning and unprecedented.

I wrote a short explainer for my Substack of the biggest (but strangely under the radar) corruption of the Trump White House: the Trump crypto coin. A conduit for secret, shameless bribery of the President. www.chrismurphyct.com/p/trumps-big...

broke: the Gulf of Mexico

woke: the Gulf of America

bespoke: the Gulf of Exploding Starships

Lesotho ‘shocked and embarrassed’ by mockery in Trump’s Congress speech, says foreign minister Lejone Mpotjoane says behaviour is unexpected from head of state, after Trump claimed ‘nobody has ever heard of’ the country Lesotho was taken aback by US President Donald Trump’s mockery of the southern African nation, its foreign minister has said,…

Lesotho ‘shocked and embarrassed’ by mockery in Trump’s Congress speech, says foreign minister

Musk’s Purges Suddenly Take a Horrific Turn—and Wreck an Ugly MAGA Lie We can now be depressingly confident that their mass cuts are killing people.

Horrific: One of the USAID programs Trump just terminated was set to deliver lifesaving treatment to hundreds of thousands of starving kids abroad. Much of it is now sitting in a Georgia warehouse.

Rubio's promise to preserve urgent assistance was a lie.

New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/1921...

The CFPB drops its lawsuit against Capital One, marking a major reversal The consumer protection agency also dropped cases against four other companies including Rocket Homes.

The corporations and billionaires who run them are taking over our government.

Five major financial institutions were all under federal investigation for fraud. All five cases were just dropped by Trump and Musk.

It's now legal to cheat consumers. www.npr.org/2025/02/27/n...