Rebecca Pilar Buckwalter-Poza (RPBP)

Never forget Alex Acosta’s role in perpetuating the abuse of girls & women 20 years ago.

“Epstein ended up serving 13 months in a private wing of a Palm Beach County jail, where he was chauffeured to and from a luxury office space for 12 hours a day and allowed to receive female visitors.”

Takeaway: Epstein sounds like every dissolute legacy admit I ever met at Harvard or Yale.

“Every time I did manage to drill down into something concrete, some…idea or thought of his, it was a mixture of psychotic Silicon Valley drivel & freshman-year bongwater philosophy, delivered…with…reverence.”

I called everyone in Jeffrey Epstein's little black book. What I learned about rich people, conspiracy, Ghislaine, stand-up comedy, and evil from 2,000 phone calls.

“I was always afraid….And you’re going to think it’s totally crazy, but I bet you he cloned himself, and whoever killed themselves was a clone….He said he had a lab in Mexico, because the Dolly thing got shut down.”

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

A more profound contemporary miscarriage of justice is hard to imagine.

Donald Trump is a rapist and a terrorist yet media and leaders dance around “treason” like outlets refused to use “lie” for years.

The time is now.

Can’t wait to see how we screw it up.

Biden Says He Made the Clemency Decisions That Were Recorded With Autopen

His obsession with the autopen says more about Trump than Biden.

It says a lot—full stop.

Trump conceives of signing things, no matter what they are, as a vital function of office.

Not as chances to make change—just opportunities to emblazon his name on things.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/13/u...

Huh. Maybe Alex Thompson or Jake Tapper could take a moment from their media blitz on how Joe Biden is old to report on the current president having no idea what is going on.

What should be especially dismaying to the president’s supporters ⁠– and especially heartening to the rest of us ⁠– is the administration’s absolute failure to win over the public on the Kilmar Ábrego García case. That battle was probably lost as soon as it was conceded that he was deported by mistake, but it’s notable that none of the efforts to muddy the waters and obfuscate the main issues at hand with lies and character assassination have worked. The escalatory rhetoric ⁠– Ábrego García is not an innocent man but a member of MS-13, not merely a member of MS-13 but one of “the top MS-13 members”, not merely one of “the top MS-13 members” but a terrorist ⁠– has been almost comic. The complaints that the media has been stretching the facts of the case have been pathetic. “Based on the sensationalism of many of the people in this room,” the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, fumed last month, “you would think we deported a candidate for father of the year”.

The administration was surely pleased when the domestic violence claims made by Ábrego García’s wife several years ago, which she dismisses now, began picking up traction in the press. And it is just as surely disappointed that a majority of Americans believe Ábrego García should be returned to America anyway ⁠– which suggests that the principles at stake in the case matter more and matter to more people than cynics might assume. Wholly irrespective of who Ábrego García is ⁠or what he might have done – and there remains no solid evidence at all that he belongs to MS-13 – he is entitled to due process under the law and fair treatment by our government. The fact that many Americans remain committed to this ideal here ⁠– despite the president’s best efforts to render Ábrego García unsympathetic, despite all that’s been done to frame undocumented immigration as an invasion and a society-breaking crisis ⁠– is one of the brightest glimmers of light against the pall Donald Trump and the right have cast over this country.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents supposedly on the prowl for the thugs and thieves who’ve ruined communities and degraded our public infrastructure would be better off kicking down the doors of Congress than smashing the windows of asylum seekers. And, of course, if preserving law and order means that criminals who are sucking our public resources dry and who pose a danger to women ought to be dealt with harshly, we should insist on bringing the convict, grifter, and accused rapist in the White House to justice. The chief priority of his administration is terrorizing people for committing the crime of coming to this country and working harder for it than he ever has. His agenda here is corrosive to our values. It is degrading to our society. It materially profits no one. In important ways, it hurts us all.

I wrote about the Abrego Garcia case and Trump's collapsing standing on immigration. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

But if they really believe they can stay in these two separate lanes, they’re deluding themselves. The more victories the Supreme Court hands out like this one—where it blesses outright violations of the law because they happen to align with how the justices think the Constitution should work—the more Trump is going to think: Hey, I can get away with whatever I want. He illegally fired people, and the Supreme Court just rubber-stamped it! And I think Trump will feel more and more empowered to disregard the law in areas where the Supreme Court doesn’t want him to. And eventually, when the Supreme Court tells him he can’t do something, he might just say: You’ve already given me so much power that I’m going to choose not to respect yours any further.

The Supreme Court keeps letting Trump break the law because he's doing it in a way that aligns with the conservative majority's own agenda.

I think the justices will regret this approach when they tell Trump to stop doing something they don't like and he says "make me." slate.com/news-and-pol...

THIS SUCKS SO BAD.

My mother and I worked too hard to crash the gates we did for either of us to give up. She didn’t and I didn’t.

Now, for the first time, I’m truly proud I went back to Harvard and finished. Yes, it’s privilege that makes it possible for Harvard to resist—but that’s what it should be for.

My mother graduated high school as a Presidential Merit Scholar and went on to Stanford. She met yet more barriers, institutional and cultural, finding 27 years before me the same thing: a university not invested in inclusion and excellence for all.

When the moment came, I turned down the transfer.

When my mother moved from New York to Arizona as a child, the daughter of a single mother from Colombia, they put her in remedial classes because she had a “z” in her name.

It wasn’t easy as a second-generation American, second-generation college student, a graduate of public—not prep—schools. Every day I was reminded that Harvard wasn’t intended for me. Three leaves of absence to work on campaigns. An environment so hostile I applied to transfer.

My father bet me my college tuition, knowing I couldn’t get aid on my own, that I wasn’t smart enough to get into Harvard.

I applied early, got in, put my acceptance in the mail, then told his mother first.

#bookleave #research

The most important election of our lives? It's happening in Rome. Oh, and SCOTUS will be watching.

Is this the Pope we’ve been waiting for? Signs say yes. open.substack.com/pub/rpbp/p/t...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Trump says he's dropping Ed Martin, who defended Jan. 6 rioters, as pick for DC US Attorney after GOP Senate defection.

Hey, Gretch, Hey. Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s actions are the opposite of disqualifying.

Click if you love competence: Hey, Gretch, Hey. open.substack.com/pub/rpbp/p/h...

Six years ago today I survived.

To be fair, it’s working about as well as any of Elon’s enterprises. Which is to say I’m lucky my phone hasn’t exploded.

So is it just my X not working? Everyone’s? Everyone who sued Trump under 1A and won? And called Elon out for 1A shenanigans in @slate.com?

I’ll be back in DC May 1-6. I’d love to meet up with as many of you as feel like gathering in one place for hugs, good humor, and happy hour on May 2. LMK if you’re in, know a place, or love me but have much cooler, fancier things to do. I appreciate you, too.

What does the Pope have to do with the Supreme Court? Read on.

Whether you have a moment for it now or just want to stay up to date, here’s your all access pass to my Substack: rpbp.substack.com/subscribe

The most important election of our lives? It's happening in Rome. Oh, and SCOTUS will be watching.

Latest and greatest on why the papal election may be the most important election of our lifetimes.

The most frustrating part about equivocators and apologists is their refusal to understand the many ways Trump is killing people. Not inadvertently, not unknowingly. And not white people.

Meeting JD Vance killed the Pope, eh?

Millions of Student Loan Borrowers Are Behind on Payments They’re seeing their credit scores drop, which will make it more difficult to buy a car or rent a home. And that has implications for the already slowing economy.

Millions of Student Loan Borrowers Are Behind on Payments, With Major Implications for the U.S. Economy www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/b...