The Diminishable Returns of MAGAt Mobs

If the MAGAt reacts too strongly to Thom Tillis' announcement he won't support Ed Martin, they may undercut the power of their own mob.

The IC (with an Assist from Journalism) Liberates the IC's Debunking of Trump's Alien Enemies Act

Spooks keep finding way to debunk the core lie on which Stephen Miller has launched an effort to chip away at due process.

Introduction To Yarvin's Formalism

The goal of formalism is to end violence. Then we can worry about poverty, climate brekdown and moral decay.

Fridays with Nicole Sandler

We talked about how the GOP budget negotiations will crash into Trump's tariff disaster.

Today's Difficult Budget Negotiations Will Be Far More Difficult as Shelves Go Bare

Even if nothing changed, Republican negotiations over cutting spending and retroactively sanctioning the disasters Elon Musk caused would be difficult enough. But something is about to change. The pain of Trump's self-imposed tariff catastrophe will start to hit as negotiations go forward.
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Despite Pete Hegseth, Signal is Good

Why you should use Signal (But maybe ditch Whatsapp?) Pete Hegseth is Bad at His Job The Secretary of Defense and Fox Host Pete Hegseth keeps using Signal to talk about war plans with people he's not supposed to be talking with at his day…

Stephen Miller's Snowballing Deportation Deceptions

Stephen Miller has been building the lies about migrants that are falling apart under legal scrutiny for years. That's why Trump has to force journalists to affirm his false claims about Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

How Trump Knuckles Journalists to Parrot His Doctrine

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emptywheel
When Trump demanded that Terry Moran parrot his false claims that proof of Kilmar Albrego Garcia's evil can be read in his knuckle tattoos, he wasn't displaying dementia. He was bullying a journalist to accept his false claims like he has for years.

Three Coequal Timelines of Government

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emptywheel
The timeline for the Republican Congress to pass a budget codifying Trump's policies is slipping, now as late as July. That means it is increasingly likely that as Trump seeks near-unanimous Republican support for his agenda in the coming months, the economy will be in a trade war induced meltdown.

100 Days, a Trillion Dollars: DOGE's Costs Keep Adding Up

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emptywheel
Elon Musk came in promising (at various times) to save a trillion dollars. Instead, a hundred days in, and we're already a trillion in the hole.

Mr. Art of the Deal Struggles to Spin Three Failed Negotiations

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emptywheel
As Trump experiences one after another humiliating failed negotiation, he will have a psychological and political need to find some other way to look strong.

And then the Russian Apologists Left, Complaining about TDS

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emptywheel
The most newsworthy detail of a Ben Smith story about Marc Andreessen's Signal chat habit is that two important Russian apologists -- David Sacks and Tucker Carlson -- left the chat amid disputes about Trump's destruction of the global economy.

Some Thoughts on the Arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan

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emptywheel
Before Kash Patel's FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan based on charges that she corruptly obstructed the immigration arrest of a defendant before her, FBI never bothered to look for proof that she had that corrupt intent.

Pam Bondi Reverses Media Protections to Cover Up Her Complicity in Unlawful Renditions

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emptywheel
By reversing Merrick Garland's media policy so she can pursue leaks proving that Trump's Alien Enemies Act is based on false claims, Pam Bondi is covering up her own role in unlawful renditions.

Fridays with Nicole Sandler

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emptywheel
We talked about Pete Hegseth and Trump's losses in court.

The ActBlue Targeting Is a Perfect Opportunity to Flip Trump's EOs on His Head

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emptywheel
On her first day on the job, Bondi said she wasn't going to investigate foreign influence in elections anymore, a move that was undoubtedly done to shelter Trump's own misconduct. But, in the guise of targeting ActBlue, now Trump has ordered her to do just that. 

Whiskey Pete's Dirty Desktop

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emptywheel
Between new disclosures about Pete Hegseth's Signal use, we know he accessed Signal from both a cell phone that DOD searched as well as a desktop in his office connected to the public Internet. What we don't know is how he accessed Signal from both.

16 House Dems Ask Law Firms that Capitulated to Trump If They've Thought about Their Bribery Exposure

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emptywheel
16 Democratic House members asked the law firms that capitulated to Trump if they've thought about their bribery exposure.

Todd Blanche Fails Effort to Force SDNY AUSAs to Frame Themselves

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emptywheel
DOJ has been trying to frame the Eric Adams prosecutors for over two months. Yesterday, the last three resigned rather than be party to that effort.
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