#Trump Containment Zone

1 messages · Page 3 of 1

dusky star
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Not like a secret slang or anything but the whole leaning into the killing debate is quite odd, I'd expect most restauraunt folks dont even know like, that. Nor is it even debated online very much.

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No joke the most coverage I can find of it being used as gang slang, is people on places like Reddit asking if they should be worried about their recently ex-waiter SO who has an 86 tattoo maybe being a gang tat lmfao

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Which even that could be true but the meaning would likely be something else. Like the frequent flip phone number pad - letters where 86 would be T/U/V and M/N/O.

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That's why Hells Angels does 81 for example, it stands for HA (Hells Angels). Miswrote here a tad theirs is number-letter in general not from flipphones, same thing though

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I'm really curious if this is something USSS (or whoever originally) picked up themselves or if they did it based off people reporting it to them

slow spindle
dusky star
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and pretty much all would also rival the idea its gang slang loool

slow spindle
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The willingness to grasp at anything that can give any sort of credence to the connotation of violence is... Something.

dusky star
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187 is still common, "skit" is a new one emerging that can reference a variety of crimes, "slide"/"sliding", "bust", "bashing", "flock" usually references robbing but in some NYC gang slang at least it references shooting & is emerging in that form elsewhere from NYC rap. there's older ones you might get caughty used by older people stuck in the 80s like bumping or knocking off.

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thats pretty much the "everyone uses these" bucket, most of the others get super localized and are probably just present in specific cities (like "flock" was for NYC pre-2020s)

dusky star
west kettle
dusky star
river marten
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Not sure if this is relevant, but apparently in the restaurants it is code for "we run out". So "86 steaks" means: we run out of steaks

dusky star
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I've not worked in a restauraunt and my resturaunt employee interviews on slang severely lack so not sure 100% how the reference dynamics for it work for them though

river marten
dusky star
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A lot of the "killing" references you can find even, actually the only reference you can find to it in root terms, is prohibition era restauraunts ran by mobsters using the term. Some of these provide it as being "to kill" in reference to its definition, but do not actually provide any scenarios of that happening vs it say being 86 in reference to firing employees (of which its still used that way by some restauraunt folks today). Very fair reason there to consider it may have been added that way because "oh its a mobster" and not because they actually noted it being used in reference to murders.

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Nor do I think would that be a strong basis for claiming it as current slang if accurate even. There's very few bits of OC slang that make it into street culture (whats being referenced here) - not the same vice versa though. Speaking theoretically that doesn't make it impossible but does lessen its likelihood greatly.
Especially speaking that old, if we're talking prohibition era mobsters running resturaunts, we're mostly talking about white guys that wouldn't be importing slang from black crime groups they segregate from their own businesses.

rotund escarp
dusky star
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Very interesting to see Hamza Yusuf on here though that's funny and a little bit of fresh air he's pretty solid

somber bone
tepid roost
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Wtf, are you guys seriously trying that hard to etymologize 86?

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Have none of you worked in a restaurant?

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Have none of you worked on stage?

glad fox
# tepid roost Wtf, are you guys seriously trying that hard to etymologize 86?

One thing being in tech for a very long time has proven time and again is that even the things one thinks are the easiest things to know are very often not known by the average person. Not everyone has worked in a restaurant or on a stage. Also, not every country or culture makes use of the term and this place is international in membership.

rare geyser
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yeah this is not an American specific discord

tepid roost
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Like I get that, but also, I haven't seen anyone propose that rather common etymology. Are there no Americans among those above who were discussing the term who could have chimed in?

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Its one thing to discuss at lengths possible meanings, but it's almost more obfuscating to do so

rare geyser
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confusedDog can you say what you want us to know about 86?

tepid roost
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Cause Im seeing like gang explanations, like wut

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Its a term with questionable origin; unsure if it's a rhyme slang with "nix" or it comes from stocking codes from what I recall

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But like, it's an obvious meme. 86. President 46. Its like, baby stuff.

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The simplest explanation etc

rare geyser
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right that was all mentioned above

tepid roost
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Idk, im just trying to sift through everything owl writes and it's just everywhere and it just takes up so much space and it's so utterly confusing all the random connections he's making

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Yeah I finally did see all that. Thank you for pointing it out.

rare geyser
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if you don't like how someone posts you can ignore or block them

dusky star
# tepid roost Idk, im just trying to sift through everything owl writes and it's just everywhe...

You're correct I was laying out the known entymology. I did not present the gang definition as accurate, I countered it (my very first sentence identified it as inaccurate), and provided the restauraunt meaning as its likely root (alongside the more debatable rotary phone example) as you shared.
If you noticed issues with how I wrote, I'm more than open to specific advice on how to make it better, just gotta let me know.

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I also do not appreciate being told I am "obfuscating" the clearly malicious framing attempt by the USSS and others here when I am the one who identified it as inaccurate.

somber bone
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https://fixupx.com/GeauxGabrielle/status/1923456694593421560
https://www.wrkf.org/2025-04-17/trump-admin-rescinds-grants-to-whitney-plantation-but-leaves-open-avenue-for-appeal

Gabrielle A. Perry, MPH (@GeauxGabrielle)

Shoutout to Whitney Plantation, who has always BANNED WEDDINGS at their location and allowed the entire facility and its grounds to be an indoor and outdoor museum. It also houses the genealogical records for over 100,000 enslaved people.
︀︀
︀︀You can search for your loved ones in its archives.

Quoting Farrah Yvette (@farrah_yvette)
︀
A fire is ripping through Nottoway Plantation in White Castle, Louisiana.
︀︀
︀︀Some history:
︀︀-In 1860, John Randolph (who enslaved 150+ people) owned it
︀︀-It is now used as event venue, hotel and museum. It was the largest remaining antebellum mansion in the US

**💬 152 🔁 6.6K ❤️ 58.0K 👁️ 2.32M **

FixupX ·
WRKF
Trump admin rescinds grants to Whitney Plantation, but leaves open ...

The Institute of Museum and Library Services said the grant highlighting Black history and culture “no longer serves the interest of the United States.”

somber bone
somber bone
somber bone
somber bone
somber bone
west kettle
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Does anyone know what the papers are that Trump is holding up? At first I thought maybe some sort of White House print out but they seem to have a headline at the top that doesn't seem like White House to me

marble plover
# west kettle Does anyone know what the papers are that Trump is holding up? At first I though...

They're pics from DRC according to AFP

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-displays-drc-visual-proof-190611025.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFfMIvUOPsJ7Y6D0DTOTqXqYvlkzQCRTzPLJLLmdVhYNkbeCIzB9Cp-df0wnsHMBD41W9Ct1zQM9m5ipmTban2PkokO4KOQenUJBAiHeRD-73_D3ibZ3PfirLsJOnGrKyEnv1slFBaJU_qKlj5-WVmpDzw5h1-tk3wDHxvIXqYf_

Yahoo News
Trump displays DRC visual as proof of South African 'genocide'

US President Donald Trump brandished a stack of printed articles at the White House Wednesday that he claimed documented a genocide taking place against white people in South Africa.Trump and his allies have spread baseless claims of a "genocide" targeting white farmers in South Africa, claims that the government in Pretoria has dismissed as false.

west kettle
# marble plover They're pics from DRC according to AFP https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-display...

Thanks, that's helpful. I've been following some South African media for over a year now. Never expected it to come in handy for anything like this, but what he was holding up didn't match what I usually hear. Sadly, most Americans will likely never hear that those images were of DRC and not South Africa. I understand why President Ramaposa didn't speak up but wish more of the American Media would

midnight oar
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I wish he had fact-checked these lies to stop the far-right noises around "white genocide" instead of silently enduring the Zelensky treatment.

west kettle
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It seems Ramaposa wanted to focus on the trade issue and handle this as a side issue to keep it out of the spotlight. He was very aware of the 'Zelensky treatment' and was prepared to avoid it at all costs as can be heard in the following two news broadcast, the first from South African radio station Jacaranda FM and the second from the BBC (if you have problems with the links let me know as neither leaves their news broadcasts up for more than a few days but I've downloaded copies of both) It can also be heard that he brought along specifically selected people to accompany him to address this issue

https://player.fm/series/jacaranda-fm-news-bulletins/jacarandafm-nuus-4Vhblx1uX8gOLuVG

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w172zwwm5d3ykgw

Jacaranda FM News Bulletins
JacarandaFM Nuus by Jacaranda FM News Bulletins

Here's your latest Jacaranda FM News bulletin. Find more at https://www.jacarandafm.com/news/ More news here

BBC
BBC World Service - BBC News, 21/05/2025 21:01 GMT

The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.

sharp berry
west kettle
midnight oar
dusky star
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That'll be interesting if implemented, that'd make our tariffs on the EU higher than with China overall I think? Tid bit confusing how they structured the deal limiting some of the China tariffs so not sure.

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If EU ends up being higher also that'll be interesting on the supply chain front since there was a good chunk of stuff being reworked out of the EU rather than other places. A lot of those marketplace type apps that operated internationally did/already had things from China brought there before going to the US to limit fees.

grizzled ingot
somber bone
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https://fixupx.com/politico/status/1925973015646396928

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/05/23/hes-a-pro-trump-rapper-and-a-cuban-dissident-the-trump-administration-is-deporting-him-anyway-00367085

POLITICO (@politico)

Cuban rapper Eliéxer Márquez Duany — aka El Funky — has less than 30 days to leave the U.S. or face deportation and likely imprisonment.
︀︀
︀︀But like a vast majority of Cubans living in the U.S., he fully supports Trump.
︀︀www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/05/23/hes-a-pro-trump-rapper-and-a-cuban-dissident-the-trump-administration-is-deporting-him-anyway-00367085

**💬 6 🔁 11 ❤️ 24 👁️ 11.0K **

FixupX ·
somber bone
somber bone
somber bone
shadow raven
somber bone
somber bone
somber bone
shadow raven
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with a most generous of interpretations, he might mean specifically type 2 diabetes and it's a poorly / inaccurately worded attempt to mean that there should be more focus on prevention rather than just treatment

grizzled ingot
somber bone
dusky star
# somber bone https://fixupx.com/PinstripeBungle/status/1927693506480427076

Good intent from the poster here but they coincidentally leave out the paragraphs right below that, that, provide context to what is actually being said there.

They are not saying that bullying is not real. They are saying government employees are expected to be more mature than the average person in handling workplace conflict and first attempt communicating to each other about the issue. The part that person left out entirely finely explains that these incidents can still escalate.

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what they're doing there is basically explaining bullying in a stupidly complex way in the docu, you can still be punished for it none of that has changed. eg its very rare for bullying to be at "peak" on your introduction to a workplace, it escalates over time and at least here in the US when its actually actively happening, pretty much everyone will ignore the lesser stuff besides the person targeted so others basically treat it as an "ordinary tribulation" to which you're overreacting.

vital shore
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What is this all about? According to the image (assuming it is real) the sponsor is Utah biz man Dell Loy Hansen’s Ukrainian mission nonprofit. I’m assuming it’s either to boost support for Ukraine from Trump or there is something else going on. Seems an odd thing to put on a building. https://www.threads.com/@qsysue/post/DKMr0RouuQu

Threads
QsySue (@qsysue) on Threads

Seen in downtown Salt Lake City

grizzled ingot
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Cause he took the 747?

west kettle
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Interesting that I'm only seeing this one photo and only on social media. I don't see a local news report or any other pictures of it which seems odd. Could it be a fake?

obtuse horizon
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There is a digital billboard on that building. Street view from Oct 2022:

image.png
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(Google even caught its installation in Sept 2015)

west kettle
obtuse horizon
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Sushi bar is:
65 E Broadway, Salt Lake City, UT 84111

west kettle
vital shore
west kettle
trim dust
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So basically someone bought advertising space to display a protest message.

west kettle
inner girder
dusky star
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It is a bit of a fair story tbh, we'd be flagging the same if it was in relation to things or actors we dislike.

As to the Q on who it's targeting, yes, the area is "liberal", but I would offer the average person mostly does not actually follow any of this stuff. Even more than just with TAAs, doing reverse-TAAs you really have to step out of your personal shoes, eg, simply being in this community, even if you do not watch the channels, you're already a cut above the average person in knowledge about the conflict and having rooted views for/against certain policy or 'sides' to the conflict. We are also surrounded by those alike to us in that regard so we're not seeing the dynamic or frame X audience sees it as.

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I would wager the TA in this case is either one or a mix of
A) conservatives and republicans without rooted views towards the conflict
B) middle ground conservs and repubs with very loosely rooted views no supportive of Ukraine (but not necessarily anti-Ukraine)
B1) This may or may not be part of B just depends how they'd word the TA, but same group although those with disaffection towards Trumps recent behavior
C) anti-war left wing groups that're both vulnerable to LOPs framed against Trump/his behavior, and/or behave in ways favorable to Russia (intentionally or incidentally)
D) this could maybe split also just depends how they frame it in their plan- but folks not finely aligned as either party, who similar to C) are disaffected with Trumps recent behavior and/or may have negative views towards the conflict or Ukraine but not Russia (excluding folks supporting Russia)

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Procedurally there is the potential also they just did mass bidding in broader locations and this wasn't specifically meant for that billboard, just happened to be in the set. If we wanted to assess likeliness of that though we'd have to figure out who owns the billboard and what their process is (not all do the bidding thing like programmatic advertising does, some owned by those sorts of companies do tho).

inner girder
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I would like to posit the theory that there's no great plan here and it's just a rich dude speaking his mind and sticking it on a billboard because he can. I really don't think it's a lot different or deeper than when people put political yard signs up.

tawny horizon
inner girder
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Are political billboards not a pretty common occurrence?

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Am I missing something here? It's pretty clear that the target audience is.... People driving past the billboard.

dusky star
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Billboard advertising has target audiences too lol

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And no political advertising doesn't have to have some greater nefarious plan behind it. That is no reason to treat communication fields as just "hey he posted X" though - that is not how it works

inner girder
dusky star
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In salt lake city sure, although that wouldn't help explain the exact placement. That could be because he reached out to that company directly to have it placed there, it could have been a larger bidding effort where they were just open spamming bids to companies running billboards in a more programmatic fashion, etc. These all would reflect the actual plan and strategy having very different specifics from one conclusion or the other.

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Discussing that angle of it is important if we're going to ask broader questions about, the content and its placement, and its meaning, and who it's targeting

inner girder
dusky star
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I'm not pointlessly speculating, I'm offering possibilities in response to the literal questions about exactly this from others

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If we're going to put down actual assessments understanding how communication works, let's maybe not ask questions about it then degrade people for doing assessments instead of making assumptive declarations.

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Both of your examples mentioned don't really answer the question either, as both options would require him to either directly approach the company to purchase it or do it through some bidding process. That instead would've been how he became aware of the billboard, which is really only relevant if it was intentionally specifically placed there - which it may not have been and could've just been placed there incidentally through the albiet not as common programmatic type bidding for billboards.

inner girder
dusky star
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Yes, I never mentioned the weird part and countered it, billboards are very normal advertising, so is strategic placement and target audiences. I brought up my points in relation, for example, questioning who the TA might be because SLC leans more liberal. That does not mean it's targeting liberal folks overall, or even liberal folks in general. Assumptively declaring it must be targeting liberals or thus be questionable is a kind of false angle, as if it did have some more negative purpose, it could target anyone not just liberals. To come to the conclusion of any of this, it takes assessing the communication itself and the processes behind it, not just "it looks like X"

west kettle
dusky star
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^^ yup and exactly this, a lot of inner-city billboard placements are explicitly not considering people driving but foot traffic (depends on where tho, hence having to assess)

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the more rural you go and highways, freeways etc tend to be ones more wholly oriented to people driving

inner girder
dusky star
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Sure let's make assumptive declarations then call actual communication assessments "speculating" since it gets into more depth than our assumed conclusion

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I think if you fully read what I was saying you'd realize my conclusion is actually pretty aligned to yours, I am instead taking the time to assess it

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I'm pretty sure everyone in this channel is knowledgable enough to pick up the basic point of a billboard, people asked questions because they were interested in something beyond the basics they already know about billboards

west kettle
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The odd thing to me when I saw that video was the poetic piece chosen in the background. I don't know if that's audio from the billboard or something added by the TikTok poster but it's a Kipling poem 'Boots' about the Boer War, the one where Afrikaners fought with black South Africans. Another political reference related to this Administration but not a direct tie in to Ukraine like Russia is

dusky star
inner girder
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I have no idea why the billboard is there precisely, you have no.idea why the billboard is there exactly, unless you plan on calling them and asking there's no way to know why it's there exactly. What relevance does any of this even have to trump. You're now talking about the value of inner city billboards.

dusky star
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Yes, I'm doing an assessment, you can literally assess this

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If you noted the things I mentioned, I did not say anything was that. I raised potential points based off assessing the content and placement of the billboard, providing more contextual insight into specifics than what was offered before, mostly assumptive declarations that equally aren't as helpful (eg even if its not targeting liberals, that doesn't make it anymore questionable outside personal interest. Ending off there is, very much enabling exactly what you are debating against, while debating against offering insight to counter that from happening)

inner girder
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I've think we've both wasted minutes of our actual human life talking about a billboard in Utah and we should seriously assess that.

dusky star
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Great research brother thanks for your input

inner girder
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You know what fine, I'll keep assessing it. I think it's a rubbish billboard. I do not understand the association between the trump jet and him becoming a king. "Russia is not our friend. Period." Is just a nothing sentence. You'd think they'd at least try to solicit donations for their org, maybe that's on a slide that wasn't on the video. The fact it's pretty sloppy, and it's seemingly just one billboard says to me that very little thought went into it. I also simply cannot imagine a small org doing mass bidding for billboard space for one single billboard. Billboards have advertised rates. You can rent a billboard for a couple hundred dollars. In my opinion, speculating, it's not deliberately targeting any group specifically and is just a group that doesn't like trump or Russia criticizing Trump and Russia because they can. Sometimes people do do things just because they want to. It's important to recognize that that's a possibility

west kettle
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The specific wording 'Russia is not our friend" has me wondering if this billboard could be intended for Ukrainian immigrants of which a considerable number seem to live in Salt Lake County

dusky star
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I guarantee you their billboard has a target audience, and I did recognize it as a possibility and offered others. "Russia is not our friend. Period" is not a "nothing sentance" - this is called the line of persuasion within the content (not the first slide with the king and jet thing).

Billboard advertisements are ran for many reasons besides soliciting donations, the lack of such raises a question we have to assess! If we just declare he did it for fun because they didn't solicit donations, this is a flat out assumption.

Small orgs do mass bidding for billboard space all the time. I think you misunderstand what I said there also. There are some companies that own and manage craploads of billboards as a business, some of these will have people bid for placements overall. Not all of them are ran like you just mentioned. When it comes to those ones, unless you have deep pockets, you'll end up losing most bids. So yes it is actually in professional terms actually wiser to (strategically) mass bid to increase your chances of getting placements at all.

I also identified it is criticizing Trump and Russia, I offered no other reasoning besides this, so, you seem to agree me with 100% on that. It contains no Call to Action that would offer an observable indicator that it intends to affect behavior either whatever it may be.

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The pairing between the jet and the Trump thing, is also a great example of why we need to assess things. You agree this seems kind of weird and can't connect why. The person who made it clearly has some sort of assocation in mind. If we do not assess that, we are just making assumptions. I would also offer on that though the Trump - King association thing is already a thing kind of going around (note the protest flyer above that does it), the plane is probably just playing on that being a recent example of Trump acting like, well, a king he does kinda lean into that himself too.

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Also, to note, HUM has an actual communication staff that runs all this for them. The lady who oversees it is an advertiser by trade and quite reputable at her job. It is pretty likely she is doing her job from its proper frame and not, not doing it.

inner girder
dusky star
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Yes, you can. It depends on the billboard, hence I raised the point of assessing because, figuring out who actually owns the billboard, would let us figure out how they have their process set up.

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If it's a one off billboard owned by that business, it is unlikely to be that, I've never heard of those doing that (saving it may have happened but I doubt it for a bunch of reasons).

If it's instead owned by a company who proxy-manages or outright owns billboards and offers placements as a service, this increases the likelihood, but not in definite, as plenty of these companies whether by proxy or if they directly own it just do it the normal way with direct rates and placement offers.

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If we can find out who owns the billboard itself figuring this Q out specifically is generally pretty present openly on the page where they describe their services (not some complex thing you have to dig to find out X company does that way, they'll say so)

inner girder
dusky star
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The term for that also if you're curious is a mouthful, programmatic digital out-of-home

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also dumb term cause if you dont know the reference context it makes 0 sense lol

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the companies that run those use systems very similar to the programmatic bidding platforms for things like social media sites

dusky star
# inner girder It reads to me like something you would see on Facebook, where it's basically pr...

And indeed, that may be the goal! I never said what the goal was, I brought up various points we need to assess if we want to answer that question without it being an assumption. Funnily enough this debate doesn't get brought up in the relevant places enough, but belief-layer targeting is actually pretty rare over behavior (which leverages emotion and attitudes so gets confused as being belief-layer targeting a lot). I would actually agree with you that, adjusting it a bit, it is at the least belief-layer targeting based off how they presented the content. I would say though "beyond saying Trump bad" even may be incorrect, I think it's pretty likely the actual LOP is the second slide w/ the Russia reference (if trump bad stuff was part of the plan at all with it, probably not the main part, hence why its more ambigious and less direct).

inner girder
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Man I need to go to bed. I hate this damn billboard.

dusky star
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Wait until you have to bid for them 😭

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Worse than SM placement bidding lol

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Anyways glad we could end off on a bit more of a cordial and constructive note, enjoy your night my friend (or morning if you're across the big pond).

inner girder
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I just got PTSD flashbacks to high school English lit, and just wanted to say sometimes people don't have well thought out reasons for doing something, and that should at least be a consideration.

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I think it's actually one of the biggest mistakes the west made with Putin, assuming he was a rational calculating actor.

dusky star
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Indeed, do note I never discluded it as a consideration, I just do not find it very likely given the context (HUM has an actual communication team and as far as is documentable they don't really just do random stuff - although quality of the content is a diff debate I'd probably agree with some points there).

#

Even on that carveout though its all dependent on their plans hence assessing, one of the biggest mistakes we make when trying to assess any sort of content is short-assessing based off our perception too. One of the reasons so many people came to the conclusion he was a personification of megamind basically was because of that instead of taking the time to properly assess things such as, in that context, his behavior and decision making and related patterns etc.

inner girder
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Source?

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She working in marketing for a different company, and is on the board of HUM. That doesn't say she directs their communications.

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Again, their friggin website is glitching out for me.

dusky star
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Also wrt their site is it just loading odd or not loading at all?

inner girder
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Yes I get that, I just don't see any evidence that she is actively involved in directing marketing for the group.

inner girder
dusky star
inner girder
dusky star
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It's not doing that for me so I dunno what issue you're running into

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What browser are you using?

inner girder
dusky star
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That may be it lol they may just not have a mobile version, that's er, not necessarily an indicator against them following more generic comm practices

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They may just have not hired anyone for that and dunno how themselves. Site design and management like that is a whole diff field, you do have a lot of marketers who learn it but it's usually as an add-on skill (no ones a full swiss army knife idk how to do the web design stuff for example)

red dock
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goodness, that was a lot of overanalyzing of a billboard based on what seems to be very little information 😂

red dock
trim dust
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As for the billboard stuff: after a night (for me it was) of back-and-forth it looks to me like we’re still at “somebody bought some ad space” plus a lot of over-thinking and we’re very likely to stay there with the sources currently available.

So while I bid you all “good morrow!”, let’s now put the subject to bed unless something concrete pops up.

frail ivy
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I've deleted the message above. We cannot link to personal profiles here. Please check the #rules .

somber bone
dusky star
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The May report that nationaldesk links too (not the one linked in the WH presser), does have that number but importantly
"In the long run, with effects gradually building up over the next four years and beyond;" "$6,100 to $11,600 higher wages per worker;"

Does not appear to "promise" a wage boost to 11,600 (rather a range), just reflects the potential for it to raise within that range "in the long run".

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If anyone here knows the sorts of assessments CEA uses for that would love to hear a take on if that even appears to be a legit range too or not? Dunno how to read this economic stuff like that but it seems like CEA doesn't even rigidly offer reasoning for that number, could be because of how they're explaining it though not sure.

somber bone
somber bone
magic salmon
west kettle
somber bone
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https://bsky.app/profile/reichlinmelnick.bsky.social/post/3lqffhdb3uk2l

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social)

In the alleged Land of the Free, your failure to have a social media account, or your decision to keep that account private, can and will be used against you.

No Facebook, Insta, or X account? You're probably hiding something, according to the Trump admin, so maybe no visa for you.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social)
In the alleged Land of the Free, government officials will now painstakingly review social media posts for any noncitizen seeking to travel to the campus of the ruling party’s opponent, and the ban those who speech it determines conflict with the official party line on Israel.

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Bluesky ·
dusky star
#

Good point there on why it was a horrid idea to post publicly about ways to evade your personal social media being checked at the border

#

That's why they're doing that

river marten
#

Also it is targeted at a very particular group. Last I checked that is discrimination and illegal.

dusky star
#

Very relevant OPSEC lesson for folks interested in that term too

#

Now everyone who followed the advice that was publicly posted is now going to be worse off than if they didn't follow it, and it could amplify the potential they face harm or some sort of negative situation from doing so.

#

Note in the memo for example, while this is initiating at Harvard, they're also implementing it as a test case for future generic vetting processes.

#

Since this is so new hard to say how long it'll take but it'll most likely end up expanding to some significant level before the 4 years are over. Could end off in the pilot stage still or not, but we'll inevitably see a larger pool eventually.

#

One thing that might end up a bit ironic with this though, actual actors with malign intent will probably have public profiles already. Especially if we start to talk about more professional ones like foreign intelligence services, it'd actually be weird now to find someone without socials, so they'll actually explicitly make public profiles and etc. This, sadly and hilariously at the same time, could very well cause the folks at State monitoring that to entirely gloss over the actual malign actors because they're spending all the time on the above folks (who as an overall category, are less likely to contain the actual malign actors).

vital shore
#

@dusky star this episode of The Devil in the Deep Blue Sea podcast series about the “Satanic Panic” and its effects today explained in clear terms the rise of the NAR and its role on Jan 6 and current politics. The NAR stuff begins about 1 hour in. The whole podcast series is enlightening esp as someone who grew up in that. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/devil-and-the-deep-blue-sea/id1778512810?i=1000709249351
if anyone is looking for an overview of New Apostolic Reformation, Lance Wallnau, 7 Mountain Theology, Paula White, etc,

Apple Podcasts
Christianity Today
Forgetting What Happened

Podcast Episode · Devil and the Deep Blue Sea · 05/21/2025 · 1h 54m

dusky star
#

Appreciate the link! And earlier era NAR is definitely a bit more interesting to dig into imo in generic interest. I'm sure you've seen it since you followed it but one of the major red flags for me with this group is their whole spiritual warfare thing. It's not as observable now but early NAR was pretty much doing exactly what we'd call malign influence now, just, branded around some form of spiritual warfare rather than what we usually see.

#

I'm insanely curious about their capture strategy for other groups before they got bigger, very hard to follow that with their public content

#

Probably not the channel for this bit either but NAR not being a government is a good example of how weird "counter" influence gets as a topic, since a lot of malign actors wholly view themselves as acting in "counter" to other influence themselves (even when not explicitly termed its what they're thinking of which changes dynamics a bit)

vital shore
# dusky star Probably not the channel for this bit either but NAR not being a government is a...

Yes this podcast episode traces the rise of charismatic church/spiritual warfare to the mapping of demonic influence on to geographic locations and ultimately this battle of good and evil that culminated on Jan 6 in part. It also made me think about the new DC church that Hegseth is repping. One person interviewed had located 60 figures at the Jan 6 event tied to NAR/ adjacent groups

midnight oar
dusky star
# vital shore Yes this podcast episode traces the rise of charismatic church/spiritual warfare...

Yeah that's one of the things I've had difficulty with covering NAR now. Earlier on their way of doing that er, I think it arose more from conspiracism than them actually knowing influence subjects. It's kind of hard to pick the average NAR person now and figure out where they rest on that spectrum, at least if we crank it back a decade we can watch most of the NAR adherents go on conspiratorial rants on youtube channels they spam 5 times a day. The ones that do that now are mostly the same dudes still so not helpful for assessing the average NAR adherent.

somber bone
#

https://bsky.app/profile/annabower.bsky.social/post/3lqo7arvtjs24

Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social)

The United States Justice Department micromanaging how the Harvard Law Review’s internal reprimand of a student editor is insane

Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social)
HLS/HLR folks: If you have any additional details about this “cooperating witness” situation and the apparent investigation into HLR by the Trump administration, please reach out!

I’m on Signal at annabower.24

Email: [email protected]

Happy to speak off the record or on background

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Bluesky ·
somber bone
somber bone
somber bone
grizzled ingot
midnight oar
#

I'm frankly surprised the bromance between two narcissics could last that long.

vital shore
#

The breakup is epic (hope it wakes some ppl up) latest

IMG_7961.png
grizzled ingot
#

This will get dirty

#

Maga world in trouble

plain prawn
#

But i cannot say that its a surprise.

obtuse horizon
#

Couldn't have happened to two nicer people.

tawny horizon
#

A face was eaten today.

west kettle
# grizzled ingot This will get dirty

Not sorry to see the bromance ending (it was inevitable the two could not coexist closely for long) but hoping the damage stays contained within MAGA

dusky star
#

For anyone who's been following those network dynamics more properly framed, now is a very very great time to monitor on what you've got instead of collecting new lines of data. Plenty of other networks, including some that were confused as being Elons, that now have the opportunity for expanded attention since the attention towards Elon and his proposals diminishes. Too early to tell for sure which but there's definitely some that've been positioning to exploit this happening already (eg Thiels network).

vital shore
west kettle
#

If Musk follows through, this will likely save more tax dollars than all his disruptive DOGE activities. I believe the three Starship Rockets he's blown up in 2025 have cost about $300 million

grizzled ingot
vale token
west kettle
vale token
#

Not exactly the channel for it but if they actually decommission Dragon, that's big news. That's the only method the USA currently has for launching crew to the space station.

west kettle
inner girder
somber bone
somber bone
#

https://bsky.app/profile/judah-grunstein.bsky.social/post/3lqzcsxiizc2h

Judah Grunstein (@judah-grunstein.bsky.social)

The other thing about the militarized teams deployed on deportations is that they are increasingly a coalition of the willing that scrambles chains of command across various dept's and agencies (DHS, ICE, FBI, CBP, BOP, etc), creating what amounts to a personalized militia loyal only to Trump.

🧵

Judah Grunstein (@judah-grunstein.bsky.social)
The FBI agents wearing combat uniforms is not just cosplay. It is an effort to intimidate and create fear.

But as @bcfinucane.bsky.social has pointed out, the GWOT aesthetic also helps solidify the Trump admin's false framing of its mass deportation program as a war against dangerous terrorists.

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Bluesky ·
vital shore
dusky star
# somber bone https://bsky.app/profile/judah-grunstein.bsky.social/post/3lqzcsxiizc2h

The point there about 'combat uniforms' and cosplay is a bit, much. Disagreements with the generality aside, that's pretty much a result of those military exchange programs. Then as a worker, you might have 1-2 BDUs for incidents where it's relevant, and you get given one in the color whoever assigns. There's no proof Trump has escalated that specific program, or that Trumps admin specifically views it as a subconcious framing technique.

As for specific uniform styles - the off cases where they're bought, dudes might do that independently to look 'tacticool'. There's also an odd science behind it, for example, full black is something unpreferable since black uniforms generally express things like authority in a more negative light. This isn't relevant as much with cops themselves but is an actual nugget of knowledge related to military uniform patterns and why they're selected. This can be debated as an issue that would hold with LE uniforrms too of any sort not just tactical attire, though not as studied as it is with uniforms in the mil context.
So we do run into an issue there of no good options. Debatably a lot of "police" dark blues are dark enough to confuse as black and create the same issue if relevant.

#

There is also a non-zero chance every uniform we've seen present at any of these incidents was assigned or bought by the officers far before 2025 and have been using it since then. Saving the few cases where participants might literally be new employees or freshly assigned to a team that they just received it from/bought it for.

somber bone
dusky star
#

I think that's a distinctly different debate than what was claimed. That gentlemen presented this is an occurance because of Trump seeing it as a form of subconcious nudging for the officers. They present no materials to back this itself, nor any indirect materials such as the uniforms being new vs old. If the uniforms are all old, and the Trump admin hasn't actually done anything in that regard, it would be misinformation to say the admin is intentionally doing that.

If our point is something else like what you mentioned, but we allow misinformation to be presented to frame the point, that makes it disinformation.

somber bone
somber bone
magic salmon
somber bone
somber bone
glad fox
#

I swear, all government X accounts are run by the same small group of people

azure rain
#

it wouldn't surprise me no

somber bone
#

https://bsky.app/profile/annabower.bsky.social/post/3lrb3w7a4f22l
https://bsky.app/profile/annabower.bsky.social/post/3lrb424xt6c2l

Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social)

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard posted a bizarre video about nuclear bombs on X this morning.

She says we are “closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before…”

(Breaking the video into a 2 part 🧵 bc of video post limits, but watch to the end..it gets weird.)

Part 1:

▶ Play video
Bluesky ·
Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social)

-# ↩ Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social)
Part 2:

▶ Play video
Bluesky ·
tawny horizon
#

sorry, who's the menswear guy?

shadow raven
#

writes columns (and tweets) about menswear, roasts politicians

#

and manosphere influencers

trim dust
# tawny horizon sorry, who's the menswear guy?

This is the tweet that is referred to: https://vxtwitter.com/dieworkwear/status/1931808967363289500

derek guy (@dieworkwear)

I debated whether to share my story on here, but I guess I will.

I think there's an idea out there that millions of violent criminals are pouring across the border, carrying machetes and drugs, looking to harm Americans. Certainly, while some people fall into that category, the vast majority of undocumented immigrants don't.

My family escaped Vietnam after the Tet Offensive and went through an arduous journey that eventually landed them in the Canada. My father worked there for a time as a janitor; my mother, a secretary. When work fell through, my dad was offered to work with his sister in the United States, so he went, as our family needed money. He ended up staying in the US longer than he was supposed to — not knowing immigration laws — and asked my mom to come be with him. Of course, she went and carried me over the border while I was still a baby.

I'm still unsure whether we technically broke an immigration law. The border between Canada and the United States was…

vxTwitter / fixvx ·
dusky star
#

They have large PA teams but generally the content will be spearheaded by one persons decision, sometimes depending on the teams size that may be the person posting it. They reslated the actual leads for those matters across a lot of the agencies the past few weeks.

somber bone
#

https://bsky.app/profile/strategerist.bsky.social/post/3lrbsfnixvs2a
https://bsky.app/profile/strategerist.bsky.social/post/3lrbtc2ndxk2a

Paul M Kearney (@strategerist.bsky.social)

-# ↩ Secretary of Defense Rock (@sodrock.bsky.social)
The end of the nonpartisan military ethic was when commanders felt compelled to ask soldiers to self-report dissent rather than remind them to act professionally as befitting a visit by POTUS

Likes

435

Bluesky ·
Paul M Kearney (@strategerist.bsky.social)

-# ↩ Paul M Kearney (@strategerist.bsky.social)
Just to be clear, this is a submitted screen shot on the Ft Bragg based military group Fancy Fancy Bear. I have no way to verify its authenticity.

I post as an example of civ-mil norms eroding.

Bluesky ·
somber bone
#

https://vxtwitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1932856757832819118

ian bremmer (@ianbremmer)

entire fullbright board resigns citing claims of trump admin interference

saying their legacy depends on “the integrity of the program’s selection process based on merit, not ideology, and its insulation from political interference. that integrity is now undermined.” https://t.co/s6a75Qd3IC

vxTwitter / fixvx ·
#

https://bsky.app/profile/banalplay.bsky.social/post/3lrep3lfblk2w
https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/tlg/d/washington-seat-fillers-needed-june/7857143452.html

L (@banalplay.bsky.social)

Look who's paying people to come to his birthday party

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Bluesky ·
craigslist
Seat Fillers Needed - June 14th - Constitution Avenue - DC - talent...

T-Mellon Events is looking for seat fillers and extras to provide their time for space maximization and attendance perception for an event taking place in Washington DC on June 14th. Extras and Seat...

obtuse horizon
#

Any guess on which cryptocurrency they'd be using? It kinda smells like a basis for a rug pull.

lilac sluice
#

The add says FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT LLC, so probably the $Trump meme coin.

grizzled ingot
#

OMG, the picture haha. Isn't that the Kremlin.

lilac sluice
#

Is it usual for craigs list gig ads to not have any contact information aside from the reply button?

obtuse horizon
#

Relatively common, yes, it allows the poster have a veil of anonymity by having comms go through CL.

coral topaz
somber bone
lilac sluice
grizzled ingot
#

This guy is so swearword stupid

obtuse horizon
vital shore
dusky star
#

Afaik CHIRLA doesnt have any issues so that is unfortunate for them

somber bone
#

it's any and everyone they perceive as adversarial. much like the ICE detentions/renditions

dusky star
#

Good example too that they're absolutely going to try and misframe some of the more like fully legit orgs wiith their net too

dusky star
#

Probably better to frame it as the larger or more well known ones

#

It's unfortunate with PSL because you can tell from these sorts of wide nets they're casting, that the actual foreign influence angle with PSL is either going to be ignored entirely, or they're going to take that nugget with PSL and try to cast it over all these.

somber bone
#

Which is similar to the rhetoric/action of elevating apprehended individuals with unsympathetic backgrounds and projecting that to everyone apprehended as a rationale to increase scope/reach of authority

dusky star
#

Indeed though don't think anyone is specifically coordinting that as a strategy like that

#

Lot of those decisions are very disjointed and happen at relatively low levels

#

Esp this I can see being more of just Hawley doing his bs, just has extra room to push congressional stuff with it cause of the new congress lineup

#

Hawley and the people doing the actual CS stuff I've mentioned coming back for a while now hilariously dont get along very well doubt they're coordinating that to that extent either, ALTHOUGH there is the risk it bubbles over and snags their attention

somber bone
#

I've seen this type of rhetorical tactic in every day debates etc, so it's not particularly novel. I'm sure some lawyers somewhere formulated something that passes a 'legal-glance' and we'll wait to see how much of it holds up in court

dusky star
#

Yeah that's one of those things that naturally happens a lot too. I guarantee most people in this discord have done a form of it in different contexts and likely with not nefarious intents.

#

That's just a specific thing I wouldn't frame as coordinated, Hawley himself naturally does that a lot and the specific groups working around this stuff are hilariously disjointed right now because of the new things they're trying to roll out.

#

They're trying to do the CS thing from an integrative frame, idk the full specifics but however they're trying to do it isn't working out very swell since counterintelligence or counterextremism/CT functions cover most of the same incidents and have their own decision making structures outside the little team they have. That just pulls in LE stuff though not Congress or etc (also not related to the mil outside potential criminal case intersections).

#

They're not making an agency or operational team or anything for it either so it rests on the other functions (and they use their own related knowledge not CS knowledge - basically just those guys coordinate things out of FBI, paper pushing type role not out and doing stuff.

somber bone
somber bone
somber bone
silver crane
west kettle
#

To the best of my knowledge there's only one company in the United States that makes their phones completely in this country. I believe there's somewhere in the Southwest. I heard the owner interviewed on a Tech podcast. I'll try to dig that info up and post it. I believe the owner said they started making the phones in the US because they wanted to be able to get contracts with the government that required secure phones

obtuse horizon
glad fox
west kettle
#

One more dubious claim in the Trump mobile promo is "top tier connectivity" you don't get top tier connectivity when you are leasing space on other companies Towers. I personally experienced this as a T-Mobile customer sitting next to a Boost Mobile customer in a restaurant when one of the T-Mobile towers went down. My call was routed elsewhere as a top tier customer while my Boost Mobile companion couldn't get his cell phone to send a call through. I've talked to T-Mobile and confirmed that it is indeed the case that when there is a malfunction or a disaster those paying directly to the company have priority on the towers. It may seem like a little thing but if we're looking honestly at this Trump mobile venture I thought it worth noting

glad fox
#

Boost Mobile used to be an MVNO and primarily resold other carriers' service, but my understanding is they've been funneling people to their own towers and MNO service, so that experience might not be universal.

Mint Mobile is an MVNO of T-Mobile, and I have friends on it who have mixed reviews vs others I know on T-Mobile

west kettle
#

It just so happens in the last week I was on the phone with T-Mobile discussing potential add-on services and I asked if Tower priority still applied, they said yes. I'm not sure what contract they have with mint mobile and how that would fit in but I have strong doubts that they could be using towers of all three major carriers and have some sort of exclusive Tower priority, at least not without some sort of presidential involvement which would contradict other statements Trump mobile has made

glad fox
obtuse horizon
glad fox
#

This one's a bit concerning for what you get with trump mobile considering the sensitivity and cost of such services (who's paying out? how much data is traded in contravention to norms and HIPPA?):

Telehealth services, including virtual medical care, mental health support, and easy ordering and delivery for prescription medications

dusky star
#

They fancily set it up in a way where "we dont see that data" but its on their device/platform so it's inherently collected by their systems, unless it's deleted, which we tend to find out they do not do.

runic pagoda
# glad fox

"27/7 access to doctors, and mental health support, all from homw."

runic pagoda
silver crane
covert flume
runic pagoda
marble plover
#

Trump's Truth Social is hella unhinged today

rare geyser
#

Having a normal one

vital shore
trim dust
somber bone
#

🧵 https://skywriter.blue/pages/kyledcheney.bsky.social/post/3lrqm36h2fx2r
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/16/judge-rebuke-trump-nih-cuts-00409095

‘My duty is to call it out’: Judge accuses Trump administration of discrimination against minorities
The Reagan-appointed judge ordered the NIH to restore funds for research related to racial minorities and LGBTQ+ people.

Page by Kyle Cheney | @kyledcheney.bsky.social

YOUNG: "I am hesitant to draw this conclusion, but I have an unflinching obligation to draw it – that this represents racial discrimination. And discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community. That’...

covert flume
glad fox
#

My professionalism is actively at war with all the snarky things I want to say about that.

I’ll settle on this: He wants to modify everything to include something he can point to and say, “I did that. I forever altered how photographs and B-rolls of the White House look.”

obtuse horizon
vital shore
feral crane
vital shore
#

Do we know if all the tanks have left DC?

grizzled ingot
west kettle
#

Is this the fourth or fifth one he's blown up in 2025?

somber bone
elder igloo
#

is this an actual Truth Social post?

bafkreialb6lsn26ce4fw3t6imh2z23u2hushqwqos2rsgaav4bszr7f22qjpeg.png
covert summit
rare geyser
#

If anyone is looking for discussion of Trump's announcement that the Iranian nuclear sites were bombed, we're in here #1228798424875270196 message

somber bone
midnight oar
#

That's a flip flop from the "no regime change" a few days ago.
And a serious deterioration from the "no new adventure in Middle East" which was the only positive of his first term.

grizzled ingot
covert flume
feral crane
somber bone
#

https://fxbsky.app/profile/keptsimple.bsky.social/post/3lscptyo2ws27

m (@keptsimple.bsky.social)

trump falsely claimed throughout his campaign that biden's fema couldn't afford to help north carolina hurricane victims because the money was spent on immigration

Quoting Nathan Kalman-Lamb ("Marxist-Islamist") (@nkalamb.bsky.social)
︀
The DHS Secretary says Florida will receive funds from FEMA to build immigration prisons.
︀︀
︀︀Depraved af.

**🔁 192 ❤️ 562 **

FxBluesky ·
feral crane
#

https://bsky.app/profile/newseye.bsky.social/post/3lscr763n2s24

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/middle-east/live-blog/live-updates-iran-top-diplomat-meets-putin-us-braces-retaliation-rcna214428/rcrd83424?canonicalCard=true

News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social)

NEW: Trump tells NBC News that the ceasefire between Israel and Iran will last “forever”.

He says: “I don't believe they will ever be shooting at each other again."

Bluesky ·
NBC News
EXCLUSIVE: Trump says he expects ceasefire to last 'forever'

In an exclusive phone interview with NBC News tonight, Trump called the ceasefire with Iran and Israel “a wonderful day for the world, in my opinion.” “It’s a

grizzled ingot
somber bone
azure rain
elder igloo
#

https://bsky.app/profile/dfriedman.bsky.social/post/3lshiggggpk2q

Dan Friedman (@dfriedman.bsky.social)

“Over the past few months, Paramount leaders have been wrestling with how to pay to settle the lawsuit without exposing directors and officers to liability in potential future shareholder litigation or to criminal charges for bribing a public official.” www.wsj.com/business/med...

-# Exclusive | Mediator Proposes $20 Million Settlement in Trump’s CBS Suit
The potential package would include a donation, legal costs and public service announcements.

Likes

138

Bluesky ·
somber bone
magic salmon
obtuse horizon
#

(Eighth Amendment, in case you weren't sure which part of the Constitution prohibits this)

somber bone
#

https://bsky.app/profile/jamellebouie.net/post/3lske33vdkc2z
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/us/politics/university-of-virginia-president-trump.html

jamelle (@jamellebouie.net)

they want to force UVA’s president to resign because he thinks it would be bad if the university reverted to being a lily-white finishing school for the failsons of the old guard southern elite www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/u...

-# University of Virginia President Under Pressure From Trump’s D.O.J. to Resign

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Bluesky ·
The New York Times
By Michael S. Schmidt and Michael C. Bender
Trump Justice Dept. Pressuring University of Virginia President to ...

The Justice Department has demanded that James E. Ryan step down to help resolve a civil rights investigation into the school, three people familiar with the matter said.

somber bone
fading pine
#

Most shaving waivers are for soldiers diagnosed with pseudofolliculitis barbae, or PFB, a condition in which hairs curl back into the skin after shaving and cause irritation.
…
"Of course, this is racially motivated," one senior noncommissioned officer familiar with the plans told Military.com on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. "There's no tactical reason; you can look professional with facial hair."
In March, the Marine Corps rolled out a similar program allowing troops to be separated if the genetic skin condition persists, also raising concerns of racial discrimination.
The Army has been in a prolonged recruiting slump since the high-water mark of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan …
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/06/27/new-army-shaving-policy-will-allow-soldiers-skin-condition-affects-mostly-black-men-be-kicked-out.html
(archived https://archive.ph/ycWec)

Military.com
New Army Shaving Policy Will Allow Soldiers with Skin Condition tha...

The Army is preparing to roll out a new policy that could lead to soldiers diagnosed with a chronic skin condition that causes painful razor bumps and scarring to be kicked out of the service -- an issue that disproportionately affects Black men.

fading pine
silver crane
vital shore
west kettle
magic salmon
vital shore
somber bone
somber bone
somber bone
fading pine
#

Since Wednesday, agents believed to be with Immigration and Customs Enforcement have staked out Greenwood Place, and neighboring blocks like West Delavan Avenue, in unmarked vehicles seeking to arrest [an Iranian man with a pending asylum case] should he set foot on the sidewalk or other public property.
…
The man said he was involved in protests against the Iranian government and fled the country after being imprisoned. Iran in late 2022 and early 2023 experienced an uprising, marked by public demonstrations, boycotts and a general strike, set off by the death of a woman who was jailed for not wearing a hijab properly. The government ultimately put down the protests with force, resulting in hundreds killed and thousands jailed.
Before he escaped, the man said he lost his job and was “tortured” by the government. Should ICE deport him, he said, Iranian officials will “either execute me or they’ll put me in jail for 30 years,” he said.
https://www.investigativepost.org/2025/07/01/ice-targets-iranian-family-in-buffalo-here-legally/
(archived https://archive.ph/O2H4l)

Investigative Post
J. Dale Shoemaker
ICE targets Iranian man living legally in Buffalo

ICE is apparently targeting an Iranian family in Buffalo who is in the United States legally. Neighbors have rallied to his defense.

azure rain
#

Can't link truth social itself as its giving me the "no truths found" error

silver crane
fading pine
fading pine
magic salmon
fading pine
somber bone
somber bone
feral crane
fading pine
#

https://www.apha.org/news-and-media/news-releases/apha-news-releases/apha-joins-others-to-sue-hhs,-robert-f-kennedy,-jr-for-unlawful,-unilateral-vaccine-changes
(archived https://archive.ph/3BGbU)

APHA Joins Others to Sue HHS, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for Unlawful, ...

Today, the  American Public Health Association (APHA) joins the   American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American College of Physicians (ACP), Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), Massachusetts Public Health Alliance (MPHA), Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM), and a pregnant physician, filed suit in American Academy of Ped...

feral crane
magic salmon
fading pine
vital shore
fading pine
vital shore
west kettle
silver crane
#

James Comey tracked by secret service after posting “86 47” on social media https://archive.is/wfw7j from the Times: “Mr. Comey and his wife, Patrice, were tailed by the authorities as they drove from the North Carolina coast, where they had been vacationing, through Virginia to their home in the Washington area, the officials said, describing the details of the surveillance on condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a federal investigation.”

unique aspen
vital shore
#

A modest proposal

grizzled ingot
obtuse horizon
#

Header is a bit vague, but Trump is waiving executive privilege that would normally shield Biden's staff from contempt of Congress or criminal charges if they don't respond to congressional investigation.

In this context, investigating Biden's health in his last year of office.
https://bsky.app/profile/kyledcheney.bsky.social/post/3ltnb7aouqd2x

Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney.bsky.social)

NEW: Donald Trump once said Joe Biden's decision help the Jan. 6 committee pierce Trump's inner circle would unleash a cycle of retribution that would damage the presidency.

Now he's waiving Biden's executive privilege too.

w/ @Hailey_Fuchs

www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

Likes

239

Bluesky ·
somber bone
#

https://bsky.app/profile/zacheverson.com/post/3ltnm6bvce223

Zach Everson (@zacheverson.com)

Apologies for yelling, but—

A CHINESE BILLIONAIRE BATTLING US CIVIL FRAUD CHARGES SAID HE'S HELPING THE US PRESIDENT RAKE IN FOREIGN MONEY OFF A MEMECOIN.

-# Zach Everson (@zacheverson.com)
🚨Tron was linked to more illicit crypto activity than any other blockchain last year—58%, per a report.

Donald Trump just expanded his partnership with it.

My story for @forbes.com

1/

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Bluesky ·
vital shore
vital shore
vital shore
grizzled ingot
#

https://bsky.app/profile/reuters.com/post/3ltrsw572om24

Reuters (@reuters.com)

Trump threatens to revoke Rosie O'Donnell's U.S. citizenship reut.rs/44Om7Qw

-# Trump threatens to revoke Rosie O'Donnell's U.S. citizenship
U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said he might revoke talk show host Rosie O'Donnell's U.S. citizenship after she criticized his administration's handling of weather forecasting agencies in the wake of the deadly Texas floods, the latest salvo in a years-long feud the two have waged over social media.

Bluesky ·
somber bone
near terrace
near terrace
near terrace
#

Is this GMaxwell's madame book? end://

near terrace
severe pollen
#

there is this old thread being passed along on more direct financial links between Trump and Epstein, with Bear Stearns seemingly behind a lot of it :https://x.com/LincolnsBible/status/1147934688423497728

Stephanie "LB" 🟧 (@LincolnsBible)

Let's f*cking do this, shall we?

There is a direct financial connection between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein that is at the root of their relationship. A name that few mention.
And I'm not talking about Mogilevich.

"FOLLOW THE DAMN MONEY."
- Thread -

X ·
vale token
#

Is it possible to see that without a twitter account?

plain prawn
magic salmon
#

https://bsky.app/profile/washingtonpost.com/post/3ltspqpsxyc2o

The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com)

Breaking news: Federal immigration officers may deport immigrants with as little as six hours’ notice to countries other than their own, even without assurances that the arrivals will be safe from persecution or torture, a top official said.

-# ICE memo outlines plan to deport migrants to countries where they are not citizens
The dramatic shift in policy could result in thousands of immigrants being deported to places where they lack family ties or even a common language.

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Bluesky ·
somber bone
#

https://bsky.app/profile/samd.bsky.social/post/3ltuyn5l5j22k
https://bsky.app/profile/samd.bsky.social/post/3ltuyxv3s5s2k

Sam (@samd.bsky.social)

very interesting thing just happened: EWR had a complete ground stop due to “thunderstorms” despite no storms in a 200 mile radius. The only flight to leave from EWR in that window? Air Force One.

sure looks like Donald Trump just shut down EWR for 4 hours so he could watch a soccer game!

-# AirportStatusBot (@airportstatusbot.bsky.social)
Inbound aircraft to Newark Liberty International #Airport (#EWR) are currently being held at their origin #airport due to #thunderstorms. Operations are expected to resume at 6:00 PM. #AirportStatusBot

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Bluesky ·
Sam (@samd.bsky.social)

-# ↩ Sam (@samd.bsky.social)
Update: apparently airport employees are telling travelers that the thunderstorm excuse is fake and Trump is the real reason the airport was shut down for 4 hours

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Bluesky ·
somber bone
fading pine
somber bone
somber bone
fading pine
bitter fractal
fading pine
grizzled ingot
vital shore
vital shore
vital shore
west kettle
#

It's a good idea to look at Musk's government contracts over his personal relationship with the Administration. Follow the money not the drama

It's also important to remember that all of these AI companies with these big government contracts are scooping up our data (often overtaxing power grids and raising rates as well) to 'train' their currently very flawed models for surveillance and critical goverment tasks.

https://fortune.com/2025/07/14/elon-musk-doge-cuts-federal-contracts-xai-grok-for-government-200-million-contract-defense-department/

Fortune
Elon Musk spent months slashing federal contracts — Now his AI co...

xAI says that it wants to start servicing federal, local, state, and national security customers.

grizzled ingot
#

https://bsky.app/profile/paleofuture.bsky.social/post/3ltzouco7nk2g 🤪

Matt Novak (@paleofuture.bsky.social)

-# ↩ Matt Novak (@paleofuture.bsky.social)
"Do you know who Kaczynski was? There's very little difference between a madman and a genius. But Kaczynski... I said, what kind of a student was he, Uncle John, Dr. John Trump? [...] He said, seriously, good. He said he'd go around correcting everybody, but it didn't work out too well for him."

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▶ Play video
Bluesky ·
somber bone
vital shore
grizzled ingot
#

if uncle john could, he would

vital shore
grizzled ingot
#

Weaklings. Lol.

vital shore
midnight oar
#

I've been wondering how the Q crowd reacted to this flip flop on the Epstein list.
What happens if suddenly there is no pedosatanic cabal ?

vital shore
# midnight oar I've been wondering how the Q crowd reacted to this flip flop on the Epstein lis...

They are not taking it well. Here’s the thing—he is trying to make himself a victim in this (which usually works with his base) but this time they see themselves as defenders of the truth and he is on the wrong side. I don’t think anything will ultimately break him but this is the most likely to drive a schism. Thread of posts https://www.threads.com/@lizzywithanax/post/DMLpdj4gY01

Threads
Liz Herriage (@lizzywithanax) on Threads

More MAGA Meltdown. 🤡

near terrace
# near terrace Diligent Denizen on X hosting multi-day spaces, inc. right now, realtime strateg...

https://x.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1945572141509804179
https://t.co/V5oDI6YNEJ

Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie)

Americans deserve transparency and victims deserve justice.

Thank you
@RepEliCrane
@RepBoebert
@Congressman_JVD
@RepMTG
@RepTimBurchett
@RepEricBurlison

for cosponsoring legislation to release the Epstein files. Here’s a link to the text as filed: https://t.co/V5oDI6YNEJ

X ·
near terrace
fading pine
near terrace
vital shore
fading pine
vital shore
fading pine
#

Washington DC

The Juvenile Curfew Emergency Amendment Act of 2025 gives MPD Chief Pamela A. Smith the authority to order a Juvenile Curfew Zone in an area where large groups of youths are gathering or intend to gather in a manner that poses a risk of substantial harm to public safety.
…
The Juvenile Curfew Zone went into effect at 8:00 p.m. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings. During that time, people 17 and younger are prohibited from gathering in groups of nine or more within the Juvenile Curfew Zone, including public areas or private establishments, unless:
…
• Standing on a sidewalk that joins their residence or the residence of a next-door neighbor, if the neighbor did not complain to police
…
• Exercising their First Amendment rights protected by the US Constitution, including the free exercise of speech, religion, and right of assembly.
(emphases mine)
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/curfew-violations-first-weekend-of-navy-yard-juvenile-curfew-zone/65-6d0c677e-e849-4e77-8de0-87ea70f1e700
(archived https://web.archive.org/web/20250717195751/https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/dc/curfew-violations-first-weekend-of-navy-yard-juvenile-curfew-zone/65-6d0c677e-e849-4e77-8de0-87ea70f1e700#6d0c677e-e849-4e77-8de0-87ea70f1e700)

west kettle
#

These teen takeovers organized on social media have become more frequent and violent/destructive in recent months. The curfew is a direct response to the incident in the video above and prior incidents

fading pine
# west kettle These teen takeovers organized on social media have become more frequent and vio...

huh I can't find much about the DC teen mobs & what I can is mostly tv news, do you know of any good print writeups about them?
DC, April https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/community/local-leaders-search-for-solutions-after-teen-gatherings-turn-chaotic-dc/65-f31a6f8d-0485-4aea-a69c-ec3b071620df
DC, May
https://wjla.com/news/local/navy-yard-juvenile-takeover-dc-southeast-weekend-violence-fights-disturbance-concerns-metropolitan-police-apartment-cvs-commissioner-neighborhood-kids-mayor-council-public-safety-actions
I did find this about a similar phenomenon in Chicago, which speaks to the original organizer there:
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-teen-takeovers-downtown-new-path/3618211/

vital shore
west kettle
# fading pine huh I can't find much about the DC teen mobs & what I can is mostly tv news, do ...

While not referred to in the headline, this article contains some details

D.C. mayor pushes youth curfew as council advances public safety bills

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/06/17/youth-curfew-dc-bowser-crime/

The Washington Post
D.C. mayor pushes youth curfew as council advances public safety bills

The D.C. Council also debated a separate public safety bill introduced by Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) that would permanently expand pretrial detention and relax college credit requirements for police officers.

vital shore
west kettle
# fading pine huh I can't find much about the DC teen mobs & what I can is mostly tv news, do ...

This has more detail

Bowser promises emergency bill to expand D.C. youth curfew

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/05/23/bowser-dc-stricter-youth-curfew/

The Washington Post
Bowser promises emergency bill to expand D.C. youth curfew

Large groups of unruly teenagers have swarmed some neighborhoods in recent weeks, notably the city’s Wharf area, causing disruptions and angering business owners

elder igloo
#

I don't believe there's any more to the "Epstein conspiracy" than a bad guy committing suicide because prolonged isolation is terrible for you. But Trump sure is behaving like there's more to the story than that

silver crane
#

honest question.

elder igloo
#

I don't know and anything I say would be speculation. I know it's normal to hold back evidence if you're debating bringing more charges later/to other people but in this case, I have no idea what the thinking was.

vale token
# elder igloo I don't believe there's any more to the "Epstein conspiracy" than a bad guy comm...

I know it is a conspiracy, and this place is for facts. But reading the Wikipedia page for his death raises a lot of flags.

There is questions about the autopsy, guards not checking the cell as they should have, 2 guards falling asleep, cameras malfunctioning.

And then newer bits like them releasing a video of the cell which had been edited to remove 3 minutes of footage.

Obviously it remains a conspiracy, but as conspiracies go, I feel like this one has a decent amount of credibility.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jeffrey_Epstein

Death of Jeffrey Epstein

The death of the American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein occurred on August 10, 2019; guards found Epstein unresponsive in his jail cell at 6:30 am at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, hanging off the side of his cell's bed, where he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. After prison guards per...

inner girder
silver crane
#

it’s the story in WSJ Trump wanted to kill

#

Jeffrey Epstein’s Friends Sent Him Bawdy Letters for a 50th Birthday Album. One Was From Donald Trump.

#

or at least I assume

vital shore
fading pine
#

column calling out tech startups and investors for their suppoort of US fascism.
it coddles tech "founders" / "entrepreneurs" (and treats musk gently), but I suppose it's hard to persuade a haughty demographic by reading them for filth, however deserved that would be. it does seem like it's trying to pry some of these people off the fascist coalition
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/17/fascism-for-first-time-founders/
(archived https://archive.ph/gh6mY)

Techdirt
Mike Masnick
Fascism For First Time Founders

Over the last year or so I’ve seen a disturbing tendency in tech/startup/VC worlds to buy into the neoreactionary view that for startups to be successful they need to get on board the Trump t…

urban oasis
sinful jungle
#

This is related to why there was a delay.

#

Essentially the white house was not in possession of these additional files per above letter as they were kept in the NY FBI Field Office. So if the Biden Admin didn't request them (or know they even existed and could) they wouldn't have had anything.

silver crane
sinful jungle
# silver crane I’m also curious, could this be a lie? I realize that the government can also be...

It wouldn't be unreasonable for additional files to have been stored in a different office especially if that was under the jurisdiction that facilitated any prosecution (as Epstein was also held in a Manhattan prison).
The interest in obtaining the files was brought back to public awareness due to it being one of Trump's own campaign promises. It was not one of Biden's or had any additional interests during his term I believe. Certainly not beyond what was already publicly available.
It would make sense (smidge speculation) that Emil Bove had involvement especially due to the measure passed last night wherein Dems walked out and Sen. Cory Booker attempted a filibuster move to resolve the conflict. (Something he has some training in at least and fortunately for an admirable reason)

urban oasis
# fading pine column calling out tech startups and investors for their suppoort of US fascism....

this isn't bad however there are several ways it could be better written and presented and also dodge the hyperbolic rhetoric concerns.
Trumpism is authoritarian populism wherein the populism element is manipulation through crowd psychology. This is how tech bros. and proud boys are able to overlap despite having very different backgrounds; they are attempting to stomp out a threat, real or imagined.

The other part, and I wish this wasn't left out as much as it is since it applies to much, much more than reversing progress pertaining to diversity and opportunity. When thinking/hearing "anti-woke" its more than likely meaning "anti-DEI" or rather "anti-DEIA". The latter is important to recognize because it identifies a still very potent, but often times unintended, discriminatory practice or mindset lacking awareness of accessibility. Even the most well intentioned people, institutions, and organizations leave this out entirely but not deliberately. Others, however, make use of this element being disregarded already and effortlessly so due to the nuance meant by "accessibility".

trim dust
#

So this is 66 minutes long. Exactly what about it do you want to point out to us?

silver crane
trim dust
#

Can you point out in max a couple of paragraphs what it is that is interesting about it and roughly where people should look for this?

silver crane
#

https://youtu.be/Rzh2c0ACk0o?si=SZrTRq4bWmogWUZB&t=1361

Not surprising, but starting at 22:41, an admission from an exec that pressure/ Trump calling for Colbert to be fired is what cancelled Colbert

I was talking to a TV executive right before we came to record to record this podcast and they they here I'll just read you what they said to me. They said, "Make no mistake, the cancellation of Colbert is about politics. Finances perhaps are a factor, but late night is never about money. This is about Colbert at the center of the resistance and moving CBS in a different direction."

YouTube
Status
Trump vs. WSJ, Colbert's Forced Exit & The AI News Revolution

In this week’s loaded episode of "Power Lines," Oliver and Jon cover:

A Wall Street Journal Bombshell & Trump's Fury: Status reports that Donald Trump attempted to suppress a Wall Street Journal story about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, even going so far as to personally call the editor-in-chief. Despite his efforts, the story came o...

▶ Play video
mellow dirge
magic salmon
#

Trump Says ‘I Absolutely Love’ That Stephen Colbert Got ‘Fired’ and ‘I Hear Jimmy Kimmel Is Next’

elder igloo
fading pine
# elder igloo Trump is seemingly actually going to sue Rubert Murdoch https://www.reuters.com/...

didn't he retire from controlling news corp in 2023? (the stories on this are mostly from Sep 2023 and say he’s “to retire”, so maybe rumors of his retirement were exaggereated at the time. eg. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/21/business/media/rupert-murdoch-fox-retire.html)
not that I'd be surprised if trump had just said "sue rupert murdoch!! how dare he" and everyone in trumpworld just went with that

silver crane
#

I guess it doesn’t explicitly say “or he would sue”

fading pine
fading pine
elder igloo
#

I'm no lawyer. Is this how these things are normally phrased?

image.png image.png
fading pine
#

ianal but this reads as unusually loopy to me:

  1. Within hours of its publication, the Article went viral on television, internet, social media, and all other modes of communication.
  2. The Article was also widely republished and discussed on the internet’s watering hole: X.com.
    … a bunch of descriptions of how much engagement a bunch of people who shared the article got …
  3. All the above-referenced articles, posts, and false statements have resulted in overwhelming financial and reputational damages to President Trump, expected to be in the billions of dollars, due to the direct and implicit defamatory statements paraded throughout the Article.
    billions of dollars! all from this Article
elder igloo
#

this is... how an exclusive article works?

image.png
fading pine
#

only the WSJ itself was meant to read that article. brutal for him 😔

urban oasis
urban oasis
# elder igloo I'm no lawyer. Is this how these things are normally phrased?

from my experience of working with a handful of attorneys and reading A LOT of case law this looks written by AI. there's unusual usage of dashes and claims/statements should be brief, short, and to the point. usually with the exception in certain circumstances to convey things where creative liberty would benefit the client would this be wise to utilize. again that's not common (see The Onion's amicus brief submission to the court using satire in it's own brief)

urban oasis
# elder igloo I'm no lawyer. Is this how these things are normally phrased?

also defamation cases cannot happen that quickly especially regarding a public figure. defamation falls under civil tort law and seeks compensatory damages. in order to prove damage from defamation as a public figure you must calculate and prove damages lost and what was the source.

for non-public figures the standard is defamation per se which means that certain statements (like implying that the private figure did something criminal or equally damaging claims certain to harm one's reputation) would be certain to occur.

for a public figure its defamation per quod

urban oasis
west kettle
urban oasis
#

In short he would make any and every argument he could if that's what it took to win.

#

@west kettle @elder igloo if yall dont mind and have it almost accessible mind sending me the complaint and ill go over it and give a summary?

west kettle
inner girder
# elder igloo this is... how an exclusive article works?

Part of a defamation lawsuit is saying how the defamation hurt you. If you only told Ted down the pub it's still defamation, but you aren't massively hurt by it. Showing how much reach and influence the article had isnvery important for assessing damages, if.found liable

west kettle
# inner girder Part of a defamation lawsuit is saying how the defamation hurt you. If you only ...

How easy or hard will it be to prove the article did damage to his reputation when his own supporters are angry at him because they believe he's hiding something because of the way he's handling the Epstein files not because of the article? How much of the public really cares that he sent Jeffrey Epstein a birthday card aside from whether that means there's something in the Epstein files he doesn't want everyone to see?

inner girder
#

But that really isn't the point, it is a slapp suit. It's to scare other journalists into not reporting on him. It's probably going to cost a hell of a lot for them to defend it in court, and that's if the Murdoch's don't decide to force them to settle.

west kettle
#

Personally, the part about this that interests me the most is not his connection or lack thereof to Jeffrey Epstein, it's watching how, from Elon Musk's original comment on x to this article something that was intended for weaponization against Biden and the left has taken a whole new turn with, at least to me, unexpected force. Having grown up in the right wing mentality that currently embraces Trump, I don't expect it to totally unravel his base, but I do believe that many who are on the fringe will pull away from MAGA groupthink mindset . Realizing that this, more than deportations and 'Alligator Alcatraz' is what has created this schism is something I can only sit back and watch to see where it will lead. It's not a matter of joy as much as curiosity knowing what it takes to get those in that mindset to break ranks and begin to consider that what they believe may not be the truth they thought it was

inner girder
#

I think one things that's really being missed here is this letter was apparently in the possession of the DOJ. So this is a part of the files that aren't released. It's pretty clear that there is a lot more damaging info in there, and that's why it's not being released. Trump never campaigned on it and actually said he wouldn't release it, but everyone seems to think he did, because all the maga people were into it.

#

I mean the doj was hiding a letter from the president to the worlds most notorious pedophile saying they share a lot in common, a secret that never ages. It is about as damaging a thing as you can possibly imagine.

silver crane
#

I missed this yesterday, but interesting to add, Washington Post says it did its own investigation into Trump and Epstein and said, “But no credible allegation has emerged to connect Trump to any of Epstein’s crimes. If the full file is ever released, we are confident that no connection would be found.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/17/trump-epstein-relationship-records/

The Washington Post
Analysis | Trump and Epstein had a relationship, but there’s no e...

A year ago, we scrubbed the public record. Here are our updated findings.

inner girder
silver crane
#

Curious, with WaPo’s leadership changing and the timing of this publication.

inner girder
#

It's just the plausible deniability is gone now.

west kettle
# inner girder Before this the most damning thing was trump said Epstein was a great guy who li...

Yes, but what I'm wondering is can you disentangle the impact this is having from the fact he didn't release the files as the damaging aspect to his reputation. Had he released even an incomplete version of the files and maybe a 'Client List' (Who would know whether they were complete or not if they were well doctored) would the WSJ article have done any significant damage? Can you really say the article by itself did the damage and not his own decision to deny there was any further information?

inner girder
# west kettle Yes, but what I'm wondering is can you disentangle the impact this is having fro...

Yes. There's a reasonable argument that the whole thing would have just died down after a while, the right wing media stopped mentioning Epstein at all. It was effectively dead, because nothing was going to come out. And the release of the letter, in combination with Trump's very sus behavior on the whole thing iust makes everything worse. If it was a fake there will obviously be damages. But I think there's almost no chance it is a fake, so it's just a slapp suit

elder igloo
silver crane
# inner girder I think one things that's really being missed here is this letter was apparently...

He said he would consider releasing it: https://www.wral.com/story/epstein-files-a-timeline-of-what-the-trump-administration-has-said-about-releasing-a-list/22083027/

“Trump shared multiple times during the 2024 campaign that he would "probably" declassify Epstein files if elected.”

WRAL.com
Epstein files: A timeline of what the Trump administration has said...

Many of President Donald Trump's most ardent supporters are expressing outrage this week after his administration reversed course on the "Epstein files."

orchid portal
# inner girder Before this the most damning thing was trump said Epstein was a great guy who li...

He said, "I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."

Source: https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/n_7912/

New York Magazine
Jeffrey Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery

“Terrific guy,” Donald Trump booms from a speakerphone. “He’s a lot of fun to be with.”

fading pine
orchid portal
fading pine
silver crane
obtuse horizon
#

More of a "huh" than anything significant, but I just realized it's been six months since the inauguration. A bit surprised the news hasn't done any retrospective lookback on what has or has not taken place.

silver crane
#

But yeah I agree

azure rain
fading pine
orchid portal
#

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/trump-thinks-canadians-nasty-for-avoiding-us-travel-banning-booze-ambassador/
“Canadians avoiding travel to the United States and banning American alcohol are among the reasons U.S. President Donald Trump thinks they are “nasty” to deal with, the U.S. ambassador to Canada said Monday.”

[B.C Premier] “Eby said in a statement that Hoekstra’s remarks show Canadians’ efforts to stand up to Trump are “having an impact,” and he encouraged people to “keep it up.””

CTVNews
Trump thinks Canadians ‘nasty’ for avoiding U.S. travel, bannin...

The United States ambassador to Canada says Canadians avoiding U.S. travel and banning American alcohol are among the reasons Donald Trump thinks they are “nasty” to deal with.

orchid portal
orchid portal
somber bone
#

https://bsky.app/profile/newsjennifer.bsky.social/post/3lujjfjnhvk2i

@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) (@newsjennifer.bsky.social)

Each one of these news outlets fell hard for some Steve Bannon spin. How embarrassing.

-# Ben Mathis-Lilley (@benmathislilley.bsky.social)
The Times, Post, CNN, and Politico all ran stories this weekend or this morning about Trump getting his base back behind him on Epstein. The most prominent source cited to justify this claim _in all four publications_ was Steve Bannon. slate.com/news-and-pol...

Likes

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Bluesky ·
fading pine
rotund escarp
silver crane
vital shore
#

Epstein breaking through. But Congress ran away.

fading pine
somber bone
#

https://x.com/newshour/status/1947687847336497323

PBS News (@NewsHour)

The U.S. Department of Labor is aiming to rewrite or repeal more than 60 “obsolete” workplace regulations, ranging from minimum wage requirements for home health care workers and people with disabilities to standards governing exposure to harmful substances.

X ·
grizzled ingot
#

Maybe an Epstein thread will be relevant soon

#

Gift link

silver crane
silver crane
grizzled ingot
#

I will try to fix that

grizzled ingot
west kettle
silver crane
#

Thank you!

coral topaz
#

The National Park Service has taken down an exhibit at Muir Woods National Monument, a 544-acre forest site protecting old-growth coast redwood, that aimed to tell a more complete history of the site. https://www.sfgate.com/california-parks/article/muir-woods-national-monument-history-erased-20781301.php?link_source=ta_bluesky_link&taid=688046db04821f00011576a9&utm_campaign=trueanthem%2B3984&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky

SFGATE
Muir Woods exhibit is first casualty of White House directive to er...

"In order to know your role in history, you need to see yourself in it."

orchid portal
#

Mother Jones reminded their Bluesky followers yesterday about their 2019 interview with Stuart Pivar and his friendship with Epstein: https://bsky.app/profile/motherjones.com/post/3lunjczxk6g2p

The article details the long and rambling conversation, which often makes zero sense. One odd thing that stood out to me was this quote, "I can’t—oh, Jeffrey once told me that he studied math with the Unabomber. Did you know that?"

Which reminded me of this, a few weeks ago, where Trump bragged about ties to the same person : https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/16/politics/fact-check-trump-uncle-unabomber

What struck me as odd was a- who brags about knowing Kaczynski, and b- confusing or conflating accounts is a sign of several worrying mental health issues (speaking from personal experience).

Mother Jones (@motherjones.com)

Donald Trump isn't the only man of prominence to have once enjoyed a close bond with Jeffrey Epstein, only to fall out years later.

In 2019, we spoke to Stuart Pivar about his "very, very, very sick" pal.

"Everybody knows what a nymphomaniac is. There are men who are like that."

-# Jeffrey Epstein, my very, very sick pal
A very weird interview with Stuart Pivar about Epstein, his science parties, his "pathology," and the industrial scale of it all.

Likes

203

Bluesky ·
CNN
Fact check: Trump tells fictional story about his uncle and the Una...

President Donald Trump likes to boast about the brilliance of his late uncle John Trump, who spent decades as a professor of electrical engineering at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). And when speaking about all manner of subjects, the president likes to make up stories filled with dramatic but fictional details.

silver crane
orchid portal
silver crane
silver crane
rugged dew
orchid portal
#

South Park creators have posted a PSA on their YouTube account, after accepting 1.5 billion dollar contract from Paramount. https://www.reuters.com/en/south-park-creators-reach-15-billion-streaming-deal-with-paramount-la-times-2025-07-22/

related: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/business/media/trump-south-park-colbert-stewart.html

Reuters
'South Park' creators reach $1.5 billion streaming deal with Paramo...

"South Park," the animated comedy featuring foul-mouthed children, has reached a $1.5 billion streaming deal with Paramount , the LA Times reported on Monday.

The New York Times
By John Koblin and Derrick Bryson Taylor
‘South Park’ and Other Paramount Shows Skewer Trump After Settl...

“South Park,” Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have all been critical of their own company and President Trump this week.

rare geyser
#

Hi all, previously we asked that posts about Epstein et al were placed in this forum post. However, as a method of harm reduction for the community (since the news continues to break), we have created a dedicated forum post for this discussion that survivors or anyone who does not wish to see this content can mute. All Epstein posts outside of this new forum post will be deleted. Please read the first post for discussion guidelines. https://discord.com/channels/709752884257882135/1398107483519582269

rare geyser
silver crane
# orchid portal I'm really not sure, I can't speak to the workings of someone else's brain. It j...

Good piece in the Atlantic that speculates on Trump’s mental health:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/07/trump-weird-posts-truth-social-epstein/683627/

archived: https://archive.is/MesHh

The last sentence: “Trump’s posts, instead of influencing reality, suggest that the president is retreating from it entirely.”

I also found this: https://futurism.com/donald-trump-falling-ai-slop

Possible that Trump is having a mental health issue related to AI use. There are some articles that speculate about his mental health/possible dementia, but I couldn’t find anything new or from a reputable source.

The Atlantic
The Desperation of Donald Trump’s Posts

Trump’s social-media habits are different when he can’t control the narrative.

Futurism
Gullible Donald Trump Thinks an AI Slop Car Is a Real One

President Donald Trump keeps falling for incredibly obvious AI-generated slop on his Truth Social platform.

tawny horizon
#

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jul/25/were-terribly-sorry-south-park-creators-respond-with-humour-to-white-house-anger-over-naked-donald-trump "Stone added that the team decided to put eyes on the penis, which would make it a character: “If we put eyes on the penis, we won’t blur it. That was a whole conversation with grown-up people for four fucking days.”" -- so that's the trick.

the Guardian
‘We’re terribly sorry’: South Park creators respond with humo...

Speaking at Comic-Con on Thursday, Trey Parker and Matt Stone revealed they spent days negotiating with producers to show the US president’s genitals

west kettle
#

I hope it's okay to post this here. If not let me know where it should be. I was just looking up a PubMed article and saw this notice. While it doesn't say anything will be removed or altered, considering the Administration's statements and actions regarding health, gender, Etc, I thought I'd post here in case anybody can think of anything that needs to be archived. It's past the time maintenance was supposed to start but I was just there and the page I was looking for was still functioning.

https://ncbiinsights.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2025/07/08/ncbi-website-maintenance-july-26th/

NCBI Insights
NCBI Website Maintenance - Beginning July 25th - NCBI Insights

On Friday, July 25th, starting at 9:00 PM EDT, we’ll be performing essential maintenance on the NLM data center. This upgrade is critical to ensure the continued reliability and stability of our services. We anticipate this planned outage will last 24 hours or more. During this time, users may experience interrupted access or degraded performa...

orchid portal
#

"Policing for Trump’s four-day visit to the U.K. in 2018 cost more than 14 million pounds ($19 million), according to Freedom of Information figures. That included more than 3 million pounds ($4 million) spent for his two-day golf trip to Turnberry, the historic course and hotel in southwest Scotland that he bought in 2014. " https://apnews.com/article/scotland-trump-security-golf-protest-police-cd2431a5ef8729be68567243f4435880

AP News
'Why isn't he paying?' Trump's golf visit to cost Scottish taxpayers

U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to his Scottish golf resorts has prompted a major police operation.

orchid portal
# orchid portal "Policing for Trump’s four-day visit to the U.K. in 2018 cost more than 14 milli...

Related: a protester in Scotland holds up a sign while seemingly high fiving a police officer. Strong language on the sign, thought I'd better err on the side of caution just in case. || https://bsky.app/profile/adamparkhomenko.bsky.social/post/3luuo5aya4c2x ||

Adam Parkhomenko (@adamparkhomenko.bsky.social)

Scotland

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Bluesky ·
grizzled ingot
#

She passed away a few months ago. Janey Godley.

plain prawn
#

I had to check and this is indeed legit.

image.png
unique aspen
#

Not sure if this is fitting for this channel or what, but, yikes... https://vxtwitter.com/auschwitzmuseum/status/1949047961729577114

Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum)

The instrumentalization of the tragedy of all those imprisoned and murdered in the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz for political messaging is a profound moral failure. Auschwitz is not a prop. @KyleLangfordCA, your post is an affront to the dignity of the victims and a disturbing display of insensitivity and disregard to horryfying human history.

vxTwitter / fixvx ·
rotund escarp
rotund escarp
plain prawn
rotund escarp
obtuse horizon
#

It's a non-zero chance that the President is reposting memes from Russian troll farms. Not saying this one is one, but just the odds any of them originate from there are higher than they probably should be.

rare geyser
#

Hey, check this out please. Thanks! #1330709161385922650 message

silver crane
somber bone
rugged dew
#

Oh shoot, didn;t realize, will move

rare geyser
#

Hey, check this out please. Thanks! #1330709161385922650 message

somber bone
orchid portal
west kettle
# orchid portal https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lvbqhiao6y2u

Leavitt's quote is a textbook example of how the Trump World works. Take a true statement like
"President Trump has brokered on average about one FAILED/INCOMPLETE peace deal or ceasefire per month during his 6 months in office." And remove just a word or two and you have a statement his followers will buy because it sounds good to them. Even just a hint of Truth can make a successful statement in the world of MAGA (it doesn't hurt that many of his followers are primed to this type of statement from their time in right-wing mega churches where this is also a common practice)

somber bone
fading pine
#

[Senate Majority Leader John] Thune isn’t ruling out the idea of opening the way for recess appointments as the Senate faces a huge backlog of 161 nominees, mostly lower-level positions that in past years would have been filled by voice votes or unanimous consent agreements on the floor.
…
Thune would need to get at least 50 Republicans to vote for the recess, and already two GOP senators have raised concerns about doing that …
…
the House would also have to agree to a longer-term adjournment resolution to opt out of pro forma sessions that block the president from making recess appointments.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) hasn’t given any indication that he plans to call his members back to Washington to approve an adjournment resolution …
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5430214-thune-senate-trump-recess-appointments/
(archived https://archive.ph/f2wat)

balmy dock
midnight oar
azure rain
#

they're really pushing for that nobel thing aren't they

west kettle
azure rain
#

not too surprising

#

going by trend.. I thought it peculiar it suddenly pops up that much again

cEFhrFN.png
#

ah, that's when people nomited Trump in 2020

west kettle
orchid portal
balmy dock
west kettle
fading pine
west kettle
vital shore
#

President Trump wants to ensure our military is the greatest and most lethal fighting force in history, which is why he meets with four-star-general nominees directly to ensure they are war fighters first — not bureaucrats,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement to multiple outlets.

west kettle
river marten
#

There is this one if anyone cares to add it

trim dust
#

You can ask, here: #server-discussion

vital shore
fading pine
orchid portal
vital shore
#

Thread about FBI redactions https://www.threads.com/@annepmitchellesq/post/DM8qj06yf7G?xmt=AQF0NZfNl7ulSj0S-VLRXR4ycfkjkJAikXcEa1sEfbw2wQ

Threads
Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. (@annepmitchellesq) on Threads

NOTES FROM THE FRONT: FBI ADMITS BLACKING OUT TRUMP'S NAME FROM EPSTEIN DOCUMENTS, SAYS IT'S JUST DOING ITS JOB

As the corner into which both Trump and Bondi are being backed gets increasingly tight, the FBI has acknowledged that it blacked out (redacted) Trump’s name from the Epstein documents in their possession, along with the names of ot...

fading pine
somber bone
somber bone
#

https://bsky.app/profile/ashtonpittman.bsky.social/post/3lvnulavwok2m

Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman.bsky.social)

Trump says undocumented immigrants do farm work "naturally" because "they don't get a bad back."

Mississippi's Declaration of Secession similarly said slavery must be protected because "by an impervious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun."

-# Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)
Trump on undocumented farm workers: "People that live in the inner city are not doing that work. They've tried, we've tried, everybody tried. They don't do it. These people do it naturally. Naturally ... they don't get a bad back, because if they get a bad back, they die."

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112

Bluesky ·
trim dust
#

He was on the roof of the White House briefing room.

https://bsky.app/profile/drewharwell.com/post/3lvnyeedeek2l

Drew Harwell (@drewharwell.com)

-# ↩ Drew Harwell (@drewharwell.com)
Reporters shouted to ask what he was doing up there and he said he was "taking a little walk." He said something about the White House ballroom and made some gestures but it's not really making a ton of sense yet. Normal stuff

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▶ Play video
Bluesky ·
fading pine
#

three NYT op-ed people discussing collaboration with the Trump regime

today, a Columbia or a Harvard is not in a position to say: We don’t want to deal with you anymore. They are beholden to the federal government. They work in many respects for the federal government, and they found themselves over the barrel because the federal government … is now taking an adversarial view of … how they should be operating.
…
it just seems to me that in a long-term legal battle between the Trump administration and universities, universities are likely to lose, or at least lose a lot…
…
I think it’s great that Brown was able to get a better deal, but I think Columbia was in a very difficult position…
There is an argument to be made if you’re Columbia that your interest is in getting that funding back online as soon as possible. Even if there is some cost to your independence.
…
I’m sympathetic to the argument from conservatives that there is now a law that says schools can’t use the old version of affirmative action, and I think many conservatives suspect that schools are cheating. Maybe it’s not just conservatives who suspect that. I think many people suspect that. And so I’m sympathetic to the idea that schools should have to release more information so that the public, which finances these universities through large subsidies, can think about this issue.
…
Let me bring up the other issue here: There’s one world in which they agree to these deals and the Trump administration essentially follows them. There’s another world — and critics of the deal have pointed this out — in which they agree to these deals and the Trump administration turns around three months from now and imposes new penalties on them. That to me feels like a very different situation
(emphasis mine)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/opinion/trump-havard-brown-universities.html
(archived https://archive.ph/a5RFW)

The New York Times
By David Leonhardt, Binyamin Appelbaum, Emily Bazelon and Jillian Weinberger
Opinion | Is There a Smart Way to Cede Power to Donald Trump?

Three Opinion writers debate whether universities should make a deal with the administration.

feral crane
feral crane
grizzled ingot
fading pine
# feral crane https://bsky.app/profile/awalkerinla.bsky.social/post/3lvonksw7wc2y

Posse Comitatus trial about legality of military use in California is going ahead:

Defendants’ [Donald J. Trump et.al.] Corrected Supplemental Opposition to Plaintiffs’ [Gavin Newsom et.al.] Motion for a Preliminary Injunction asserts that because Plaintiffs’ Posse Comitatus Act claim fails as a matter of law, “next week’s trial should be cancelled and Plaintiffs’ motion denied.” … Next week’s trial is not cancelled. The Court expects to hear evidence beginning on Monday. …the presentation of evidence shall proceed efficiently: “[f]ailure to have the next witness ready or to be prepared to proceed with the evidence will usually constitute resting.” … Following the presentation of evidence, the Court expects to hear the parties’ legal arguments beginning on Tuesday.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.450934/gov.uscourts.cand.450934.137.0_1.pdf
(archived http://web.archive.org/web/20250806204852/https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.450934/gov.uscourts.cand.450934.137.0_1.pdf)

magic salmon
#

Constitution Sections on Due Process and Foreign Gifts Just Vanished from Congress' Website

somber bone
magic salmon
fading pine
silver crane
tawny horizon
orchid portal
#

Might only be viewable if logged in. It's a video of Trump saying things like "look at this, all new numbers ", and a commentary on that video saying a squatter living on the roof calls a press conference to announce imaginary numbers. https://bsky.app/profile/datadrivenmd.social/post/3lvu36kysec2w

Jorge A. Caballero (@datadrivenmd.social)

Florida man recently found roaming on the roof of the house he's squatting at holds press conference to announce imaginary numbers

-# Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)
Trump: "This one chart really says it better than anything, if you look at this. This is great. But this chart is pretty amazing. Right here. All new numbers."

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Bluesky ·
west kettle
vital shore
vital shore
orchid portal
# vital shore https://www.threads.com/@kristal_calderonkc/post/DNGYKHhRof2

This immediately made me think of the Charbonneau Commission in the province of Quebec in 2014. Nutshell, organized crime infiltrated the construction industry, including multiple levels of government. There's a French language documentary on Crave that details the real world soap opera that the province went through during the televised commission.

Today, Le Devoir released an interview, in French, of an author (Alain Roy) that has written in French about Trump and was part of the commission. Translated roughly:
"There's a certain parallel to make with Trump because the Charbonneau commission, it was, among other things, the infiltration of organized crime into the construction industry. With Trump, what happened was organized crime worked for him. And then there were all the money laundering strategies used in the condo sales. The theoretical baggage that I've assimilated from the Charbonneau commission, I can also find chez Trump. It makes me think a lot of the bandits that I watched parade through the Commission."
The article below is well worth a read.
"If Trump had a talent, it would as an imposter"
https://www.ledevoir.com/monde/864985/si-trump-talent-c-est-celui-imposture?

Le Devoir
«Si Trump a un talent, c’est celui de l’imposture»

L’auteur Alain Roy lève le voile sur des aspects méconnus de la personnalité du président américain.

vital shore
orchid portal
# orchid portal This immediately made me think of the Charbonneau Commission in the province of ...

More from this article, translated roughly : "Psychoanalyst Justin Frank and psychiatrist John Gartner describe Donald Trump's narcissistic flight of fancy. But narcissism always ends badly, with the death of Narcissus."

"The progression of his dementia could also hasten his downfall. Several specialists have already diagnosed signs of dementia in him. His father suffered from Alzheimer's disease, and he himself has confided to those close to him that he fears he might be a victim. There are videos circulating online of a rally where he is seen making obscene gestures that reflect a disinhibition linked to this disease."

humble current
silver crane
#

“What we see are the classic signs of dementia, which is gross deterioration from someone’s baseline and function,” John Gartner, a psychologist and author who spent 28 years as an assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, said in June.

“If you go back and look at film from the 1980s, [Trump] actually was extremely articulate. He was still a jerk, but he was able to express himself in polished paragraphs, and now he really has trouble completing a thought and that is a huge deterioration.”

Gartner, who during Trump’s first term co-founded Duty to Warn, a group of mental health professionals who believed Trump had the personality disorder malignant narcissism, warned: “I predicted before the election that he would probably fall off the cliff before the end of his term. And at the rate he is deteriorating, you know … we’ll see.

“But the point is that it’s going to get worse. That’s my prediction.”

vital shore
west kettle
#

Agencies are now required to make at least 25% of an SES performance evaluation a review of how well a senior executive is aligning with “faithful administration of the law and the President’s policies.”

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/ses/2025/08/opm-launches-radically-different-training-program-for-federal-executives/

Federal News Network
Drew Friedman
OPM launches ‘radically different’ training program for federal...

A new OPM training series aligns with the Trump administration’s expectations for the SES, like creating efficiencies and showing “merit and competence.”

fading pine
fading pine
fading pine
#

A federal appeals court panel shot down a Trump administration bid to make secret a public database of federal spending that researchers say is crucial to ensure the administration is not flouting Congress’ power of the purse.
In an order issued Saturday evening, the three-judge D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel voted unanimously to give the administration until Friday to put the data back online.
Two of the three appeals judges assigned to the matter also signed onto a forceful opinion declaring that the administration’s bid to conceal the data was an affront to Congress’ authority over government spending, one that threatened the separation of powers and defied centuries of evidence that public disclosure is necessary for the public good.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/09/appeals-court-rules-trump-clamp-down-on-spending-data-defies-congress-authority-00501348
(archived https://archive.ph/zLvLA)

orchid portal
#

"President Trump pushed bills to make it easier to pad his net worth by billions through dubious crypto schemes,” Caroline Ciccone, the head of Accountable, said. “The more the President’s wealth depends on anonymous investors around the world with hidden agendas, the greater the risk to the interests of everyday Americans and our national security.”" https://bsky.app/profile/theintercept.com/post/3lw2umpyvvw2i

The Intercept (@theintercept.com)

Nearly 73% of Trump’s wealth — $11.6 billion of an estimated $15.9 billion — comes from crypto holdings that he built at record pace by misusing his office, the group claims. bit.ly/3JegGmF

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Bluesky ·
fading pine
#

#1336481827833118754 message possibly the inciting incident / pretext for this:

Trump on Sunday compared forthcoming action against D.C. crime to his administration’s aggressive crackdown against illegal immigration at the southern border, saying that he plans to “immediately clear out the city’s homeless population and take swift action against crime.”
“Be prepared! There will be no ‘MR. NICE GUY.’ We want our Capital BACK,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social social media platform.
…
A spokesperson for D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s office said the White House had not briefed the Bowser administration on any plans to deploy the National Guard to the city. Spokespeople for the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In recent days, the administration has authorized up to 120 agents, largely from the FBI’s Washington Field Office, to work overnight shifts for at least one week alongside D.C. police and other federal law enforcement officers in the nation’s capital
…
Last week, Trump ordered federal law enforcement agents from several agencies to be deployed on city streets and called for more juveniles to be charged in the adult justice system.
…
The FBI also is dispatching agents from outside D.C., including Philadelphia, to help with the surge of federal law enforcement in the District, according to multiple people familiar with the plans.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/08/10/dc-crime-trump-crackdown/

The Washington Post
FBI dispatching agents to D.C. streets as Trump weighs calling Nati...

The unusual move comes as President Donald Trump threatens a federal takeover of the nation’s capital.

fading pine
# fading pine https://discord.com/channels/709752884257882135/1336481827833118754/140247266776...

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/violent-crime-dc-hits-30-year-low
(archived https://archive.ph/pc70z)

Violent Crime in D.C. Hits 30 Year Low

Total violent crime for 2024 in the District of Columbia is down 35% from 2023 and is the lowest it has been in over 30 years, according to data collected by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and announced by United States Attorney Matthew M. Graves. A breakdown of the data is available here.

fading pine
orchid portal
#

https://bsky.app/profile/justinbaragona.bsky.social/post/3lw5lls77cc2i

Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social)

“I would say that this is, from at least a political point of view, quickly turning into a dud of a story,” Harry enten said of the Epstein files. "The American people‘s interest in this story – it‘s quickly becoming something of a nothingburger!”

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

-# Epstein story has become a ‘nothingburger,’ data expert says
CNN’s Harry Enten also claimed that Donald Trump’s aggregated approval rating of 44 percent is ‘pretty gosh darn good for him’ while praising the president’s ‘political instincts.’

Bluesky ·
midnight oar
#

He's already slamming Zelensky for refusing a 1938 Munich-style deal...

fading pine
#

We are now past the point of crisis. Trump has long dreamed of presiding over a police state. He has openly admired and been reluctant to criticize foreign leaders who helm one. He has now appointed people who have expressed their willingness to help him achieve one to the very positions with the power to make one happen. And both he and his highest-ranking advisors have both openly spoken about and written out their plans to implement one.
https://theintercept.com/2025/08/11/trump-washington-dc-federalization-national-guard-troops/
(archived https://archive.ph/oP40R)

The Intercept
Ben Muessig
Trump's Trial Run for a Police State

President Trump’s "federalization" of Washington D.C. is a test of the limits of his power -- and by extension of our democracy.

vital shore
azure rain
west kettle
somber bone
west kettle
#

This clip from yesterday's press conference is where Trump talks about "getting rid of the slums" and I wanted to add some context. The areas he's referring to are predominantly Wards 7 and 8 of Washington DC which are predominantly low income black and minority in demographics. He's not talking about replacing their housing with better housing he's talking about getting rid of the housing. In addition to removing the current homeless from the streets he wants to make the residents of these 'slums' homeless as well and remove them. The vision he's presenting for a 'clean and beautiful' DC is one that doesn't have low income people living in it but is exclusively housing for the well off. I don't know how much of that people caught who are watching from outside of DC, but it's very clear to many of us for whom this is a local issue

https://youtu.be/9a1vD5y9Sx8

YouTube
LOCAL 12
Trump on 'getting rid of the slums': Police can do 'whatever the he...

President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet held a press conference at the White House on Monday to announce that his administration had taken control of local law enforcement in Washington, D.C. He also said the National Guard would be deployed to the city.

Stay up to date with our social media:

WKRC on Facebook: https:/...

▶ Play video
fading pine
somber bone
orchid portal
#

Malevolent vs. benevolent dispositions and conservative political ideology in the Trump era https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0092656625000704

As reported by ZME Science (https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/this-study-finds-a-chilling-link-between-personality-type-and-trump-support) "The study analyzed responses from over 9,000 U.S. adults in two large surveys conducted before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants completed questionnaires that assessed their political beliefs, empathy levels, and personality traits. The results consistently showed a pattern: the more favorably someone rated Trump, the more likely they were to display traits like narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy—traits grouped under what researchers call a malevolent disposition."

ZME Science
This Study Finds a Chilling Link Between Personality Type and Trump...

Malevolent traits and reduced empathy go hand in hand.

fading pine
fading pine
#

Col. Dave Butler, an Army spokesperson, said the troops were called on to help local law enforcement with logistics support, transportation and administration duties, as well as being visible around the National Mall.
"That's part of our assignment – to go to the national monuments and be present," he told ABC News.
…
It was not immediately clear why the presence of U.S. troops along the National Mall was needed, other than to put Trump's orders on display. The area, marked by museums, monuments and long stretches of grass, is known as a relatively safe part of the city that attracts mostly tourists and school groups.
…
Earlier on Tuesday, an Army spokesperson said the Guard troops had not been given a mission yet other than to support law enforcement.
…
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the activated Guard troops will have “broad latitude” under existing authorities, but “they're not going to be involved in law enforcement functions.”
(my emphases)
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/guard-members-waiting-orders-begin-gather-dc/story?id=124587539
(archived https://archive.ph/KB6HT)

ABC News
National Guard troops told to maintain presence near National Mall ...

National Guard troops called on to active-duty by President Donald Trump arrived on the footsteps of the Washington Monument on Tuesday.

midnight oar
silver crane
fading pine
#

Mayor Muriel Bowser pledged to work alongside the federal officials Trump has tasked with overseeing the city’s law enforcement, while insisting the police chief remained in charge of the department and its officers.
“How we got here or what we think about the circumstances — right now we have more police, and we want to make sure we use them,” she told reporters.
…
About 850 officers and agents fanned out across Washington on Monday and arrested 23 people overnight, [press secretary Karoline] Leavitt said. The charges, she said, included homicide, drunk driving, gun and drug crimes and subway fare evasion. She didn’t immediately provide further information on the arrests.
…
Trump is the first president to use the law’s Section 740 to take over Washington’s police for up to 30 days during times of emergencies.
…
Trump’s declaration of a state of emergency fits the general pattern of his second term in office. He has declared states of emergency on issues ranging from border protection to economic tariffs, enabling him to essentially rule via executive order. In many cases, he has moved forward while the courts sorted them out.
…
Washington native Sheina Taylor said the troops are putting her on edge. “It’s more fearful now because even though you’re a law abiding citizen, here in D.C., you don’t know, especially because I’m African-American,” she said.
Trump’s newly confirmed top federal prosecutor for Washington, onetime judge and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, argued that violent crime remains high…
https://apnews.com/article/washington-dc-takeover-trump-mayor-crime-48b8c936a19531cacf6bfb75e2f32231
(archived https://archive.ph/zKsPT)

AP News
Trump's takeover of Washington law enforcement begins as National G...

Some of the 800 National Guard members deployed by the Trump administration to assist with law enforcement have begun arriving in Washington, D.C.

#

(my emphasis)

silver crane
#

This is a Substack essay by a professor who wrote How Civil Wars Start, also linking her bio for context.

“Donald Trump is doing what every would-be autocrat does: building the machinery of repression before it’s needed. In the 21st century, the most common way a dictator loses power is through mass protest; Trump knows the greatest threat to his permanent rule is Americans in the streets.”

https://barbarafwalter.substack.com/p/the-thing-that-scares-me-the-most

https://gps.ucsd.edu/faculty-directory/barbara-walter.html

The Thing That Scares Me The Most

The thing that scares me most about America’s future isn’t the next election, the Supreme Court, or even the possibility of political violence although all of them scare me.

river marten
stone chasm
fading pine
somber bone
somber bone
fading pine
#

that park policeman just flicks out his expandable baton as he rushes at and menace a nearby citizen filming whatever they're doing. probably thinks he's got impunity b/c his superiors won't discipline him

fading pine
#

[Attorney general Pam Bondi said] “Not only is he FIRED, he has been charged with a felony. This is an example of the Deep State we have been up against for seven months as we work to refocus DOJ. You will NOT work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement.”
Kash Patel bragged on social media about the FBI being behind the arrest Wednesday evening.
“The @FBI arrested this individual last night,” the agency’s boss boasted in an X post Thursday, sharing a clip of the incident. “He has been charged with felony assault on a federal officer.”
…
[U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said] that her office was “going to back the police to the hilt,” ending her video with a message for the man: “So there! Stick your Subway sandwich somewhere else!”
The man, a 37-year-old D.C. resident, was charged with “assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers and employees of the United States,” The Washington Post reports. A police complaint named the man as Sean Charles Dunn.
After his arrest, Dunn reportedly confessed to one of the officers, “I did it. I threw a sandwich,” according to the Post.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/doj-staffer-canned-after-hurling-sandwich-at-cop/
(archived https://archive.ph/nmgjH)

The Daily Beast
Hoagie Hurling Bro Outed as DOJ Staffer

The foot-long flinger was arrested and charged as President Donald Trump cracks down on crime in Washington D.C.

orchid portal
#

https://bsky.app/profile/joshtpm.bsky.social/post/3lwf63ygjvc2r

Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social)

I've seen people either saying, Oh corny. Or, oh he's just running for President. And my thought is, AWESOME. Let the 2028 Dem Prez primary be about who can fight against Trump and for our democracy and our rights the most effectively and aggressively and let it begin today.

-# Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)
Newsom on ICE action outside his presser: "It's pretty sick & pathetic. It's everything you know about Trump's America & the authoritarian tendencies of the president. Wake up, America. You will not have a country if he rigs this election. You will a president running for a third term. Mark my word"

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Bluesky ·
orchid portal
orchid portal
#

https://bsky.app/profile/klasfeldreports.com/post/3lwc7qd5icu2b

Adam Klasfeld (@klasfeldreports.com)

The final day of the Posse Comitatus Act trial against the Trump admin is underway.

Recap a general's damaging — then walked back — testimony against the admin on @Allrisenews.com.

Inside: A video breakdown with @legalafmtn.bsky.social @meidastouch.com

www.allrisenews.com/p/general-sc...

-# General commanding troops in LA delivers, then revises, damaging testimony to Trump
Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman said no one at the Pentagon called the LA protests a "rebellion"—until he walked back that and other testimony the next day.

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333

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737

Bluesky ·
azure rain
somber bone
elder igloo
magic salmon
river marten
silver crane
#

Any details why it was privated?

river marten
feral crane
grizzled ingot
orchid portal
midnight oar
somber bone
silver crane
dusky ferry
orchid portal
orchid portal
# orchid portal https://bsky.app/profile/helenkennedy.bsky.social/post/3lwowtcdqb223

Related: https://bsky.app/profile/ndrew.bsky.social/post/3lwtghurews2f

Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew.bsky.social)

2 hours after hannity asks about the 2020 election being rigged these court documents come out on his co-worker

-# Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)
Hannity asks Gabbard if the intelligence community rigged the 2020 election for Biden

(Trump in fact was president in 2020)

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167

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559

Bluesky ·
silver crane
# orchid portal https://bsky.app/profile/helenkennedy.bsky.social/post/3lwowtcdqb223

Also related:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/us/politics/trump-security-clearances.html

archived: https://archive.is/tH88Y

“President Trump revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former national security officials, many of whom worked on Russia analysis or foreign threats to U.S. elections, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.”

The New York Times
By Julian E. Barnes and Maggie Haberman
Trump Revokes Security Clearances of 37 Former and Current Officials

The move is the latest effort by the Trump administration to shift the public’s attention to the 2016 election.

orchid portal
#

https://bsky.app/profile/47merc.bsky.social/post/3lwsbvc5srk26

47merc (@47merc.bsky.social)

Congress needs to assert its rightful control. Now. Before it’s too late. Republicans, it’s time to step out of trump’s shadow and do what your constituents elected you to do.

-# Do Not Obey. We are Democracy. (@zangerliberia.bsky.social)
How can anyone negotiate with the party of chaos, corruption, cruelty knowing that the king & jesters will do what they want anyway?
Budget negotiations start soon.

#Project2025
#StopGOPLies
#TrumpCorruption
#BalanceOfPower

#USDemocracy
#voices4victory

Gifted Article:
wapo.st/41MO9Lp

Bluesky ·
orchid portal
magic salmon
#

Trump slams Smithsonian for focusing on ‘how bad slavery was’, threatens funding

fading pine
#

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission now putting out press releases using Trump regime’s ideological language
https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-Releases/2025/CPSC-Withdraws-Rules-That-Are-Outdated-Fail-to-Advance-Safety-New-Leadership-Focuses-on-Hazards-That-Pose-Real-Risks
(archived https://archive.ph/IBlnS)

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
CPSC Withdraws Rules That Are Outdated, Fail to Advance Safety; New...

CPSC Withdraws Rules That Are Outdated, Fail to Advance Safety; New Leadership Focuses on Hazards That Pose Real Risks

unique aspen
#

https://bsky.app/profile/reichlinmelnick.bsky.social/post/3lwuvyhzdas26 Caption is a big hyperbolic but nonetheless, it's just bizarre given the gravity of the topic. I suppose the format is meant to appeal to those familiar with tiktok/youtube content delivery? 🤷‍♂️

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social)

-# ↩ Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social)
The tone of this video is completely wild. It's filmed like a high school media class project. It looks like it too; the presentation and graphics are amateurish. And yet it's chilling, because she's a real government spokesperson dismissing reports of abuses in detention with finger quotes.

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▶ Play video
Bluesky ·
feral crane
fading pine
fading pine
#

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton criticized ongoing diplomatic efforts between Russia and Ukraine in a tweet this morning ahead of the announcement of his home raid, asserting that Moscow's core objective remains unchanged: absorbing Ukraine into a revived Russian empire.
"Russia has not changed its goal," Bolton wrote on X. "Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede territory it already holds and the remainder of Donetsk, which it has been unable to conquer. Zelensky will never do so."
Bolton added, "Meetings will continue because Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize," he added, "but I don't see these talks making any progress."
…
The search comes amid renewed scrutiny of Bolton's past disclosures, including his 2020 memoir, which previously drew accusations of revealing sensitive information. The Justice Department dropped its case against him in 2021.
Earlier this year, Trump revoked the security clearances of dozens of former intelligence officials, including Bolton, and canceled his protective detail. The FBI has not commented publicly on the scope or origin of the current investigation.
https://www.newsweek.com/john-bolton-fbi-raid-home-live-updates-2117655
(getting live updates, archived as of 8:15am Eastern https://archive.ph/8TQmU)

Newsweek
John Bolton's home raided by FBI: Live updates

Ambassador John Bolton reported to be the target of an FBI raid on his home. Follow Newsweek for live updates.

fading pine
#

Trump saying “after we do this [the DC federalization] we'll go to another location and we’ll make it safe”, specifically mentions Chicago
https://bskye.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lwyxrm7iep2r

bskye - 💬 124 🔁 105 ❤️ 291
Trump on DC: "We haven't had to bring in the regular military, which we're willing to do if we have to. And after we do this, we'll go to another location and we'll make it safe also ... Chicago is a mess. And we'll straighte
Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)
▶ Play video
fading pine
#

What historians say is at risk if Trump expands his culture war beyond Smithsonian

…
The Smithsonian is not a federal agency under control of the president, according to the institution.
• It's an independent institution, governed by a Board of Regents, which is composed of seventeen members, including the Vice President.
• Trump has no authority over private museums.
…
The Trump administration has taken aggressive action to reduce the staffing and funding available for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS,) the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
… IMLS's acting director testified in court that the administration cancelled roughly 92% of the agency's Grants to States.
(my emphasis)
https://www.axios.com/2025/08/21/trump-smithsonian-woke-museums-culture-war
(archived https://archive.ph/tnwig)

silver crane
magic salmon
silver crane
red dock
silver crane
#

was just about to type that it seems to be down for me right now?

fading pine
fading pine
fading pine
# fading pine > ### What historians say is at risk if Trump expands his culture war beyond Smi...

very paranoid / conspiratorial tone from a white house ed-op style pronouncement supporting Trump’s anti-Smithsonian stuff. it's so defensive about “white qualities rooted in racism” that it comes off as white pride type racism. it also attacks all the usual targets for the regime (LGBT+, immigration, etc.)
https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/08/president-trump-is-right-about-the-smithsonian/
(archived https://web.archive.org/web/20250823121257/https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/08/president-trump-is-right-about-the-smithsonian/)

The White House
President Trump Is Right About the Smithsonian

The National Museum of African American History and Culture debuted a series to educate people on “a society that privileges white people and whiteness” —

fading pine
west kettle
celest lark
orchid portal
celest lark
# orchid portal This looks like a bandage to cover either bruising and/or an IV- I was given som...

It has his skin texture so I do not believe it is a bandage. He also knows it does not look good. https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lx3hflv3es24

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)

It’s very conspicuous rewatching this that Trump is desperately trying to hide the back of his right hand from the camera

-# Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)
Trump on the Oval Office: "You see the way this is looking. I can't tell you how much that gold costs. A lot of money. This beautiful office needed it."

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Bluesky ·
orchid portal
celest lark
#

There are some people online speculating that he's got CHF based on the bruising, the fact that he has preferred media appearances while seated recently, and his odd thanatopsis including "they tell me I'm not doing so well"

fading pine
#

VP J.D. Vance claimed WW2 ended in negotiation on Meet the Press #disinfo-and-propaganda message

west kettle
fading pine
fading pine
feral crane
# fading pine https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/national-guard-troops-dc-begin-ca...

https://bsky.app/profile/publius24.bsky.social/post/3lx6mm2aolk2d
https://bsky.app/profile/publius24.bsky.social/post/3lx6n7u5bz22s

John Q. Public (@publius24.bsky.social)

As of tonight, the National Guard have been given firearms in D.C.

Just spotted these gentlemen at Union Station. They’re only carrying pistols as of now, no rifles.

#Resist #ResistFascism #FreeDC

Bluesky ·
John Q. Public (@publius24.bsky.social)

-# ↩ John Q. Public (@publius24.bsky.social)
I take that back. Rifles have now been spotted in Southwest D.C. (photo not mine).

Bluesky ·
celest lark
vital shore
#

Another 1997 article which touches on Trumps key features with a bonus mention of Ghislane Maxwell and her dad on his jet. https://www.threads.com/@_stillwerise/post/DNw294iXHWl?xmt=AQF0c6iYeZTBDC-whcQgoJHbZ-ahg-t3sC3HMwP10z5pfA&slof=1

Threads
Still We Rise (@_stillwerise) on Threads

😳 “Evidently, Trump’s philosophy of wellness is rooted in a belief that prolonged exposure to exceptionally attractive young female spa attendants will instill in the male clientele a will to live.” • link to article in our stories @newyorkermag og post by @jasmine.lorimer

obtuse horizon
magic salmon
west kettle
#

This opens the door for right wing 'citizen militia' groups to 'help' with patrolling DC (where these guns are illegal)

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/dc-prosecutors-instructed-not-to-seek-felony-charges-for-carrying-rifles-shotguns/3977451/

NBC4 Washington
Andrea Swalec
DC prosecutors instructed not to seek felony charges for carrying r...

Federal prosecutors in D.C. were instructed not to seek felony charges against people carrying rifles or shotguns in the city, the U.S. attorney’s office confirmed to NBC News. It marks a dramatic shift from previous policy.

west kettle
#

Looking at this change and its implications along with Trump saying he wants to end mail-in voting, I wouldn't be surprised if in 2026 (and 2028) in DC there will be 'citizen militia' at the polling places that voters will have to pass by in order to vote.

silver crane
feral crane
#

And I thought the topic of the meeting was going to be around trade and security... not whatever this was
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lxajw344v52g
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-south-korea-trade-lee-jae-myung-f80efa062dcc1b2430bbe3f12d6d1b6e

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)

Trump: "The whole issue of the women. Comfort women. Very specifically. We talked and that was a very big problem for Korea, not for Japan. Japan was, wanted to go, they want to get on. But Korea was very stuck on that."

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Bluesky ·
AP News
President Donald Trump claims 'Purge or Revolution' in South Korea ...

President Donald Trump has greeted South Korea's new president, Lee Jae Myung, by claiming a “Purge or Revolution” is happening there while threatening to stop doing business with Seoul.

humble bloom
west kettle
glad fox
obtuse horizon
rare geyser
#

Yeah let's not get into speculation, it's not what people come to the discord for

somber bone
#

https://www.instagramez.com/p/DNzMVepYj8r/

kyla scanlon (@kylascan)

💬 123 🔁 0 👀 38.2K

“The fate of the country rests on the shoulders of the international bond market and like 3.5 supreme court justices” - Jason Harrison

Trump has moved to fire Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve Governor. It is not legal. However, it will be a test of the law.

▶ Play video
EmbedEZ • 1 - 1 of 1 ·
somber bone
magic salmon
feral crane
magic salmon
#

https://cphpost.dk/2025-08-27/news/politics/u-s-is-infiltrating-greenland-media-report-new-diplomatic-crisis-for-u-s-denmark-relations/

The Copenhagen Post
TheCopenhagenPost
“U.S. is infiltrating Greenland,” media report. New diplomatic ...

If diplomatic relations between Denmark and the U.S. seemed to finally relax after the very turbulent months, things now appear to be on the verge of a new crisis. According to DR, the Danish national broadcaster, multiple men, supposedly linked to U.S. President Donald J. Trump, have been seen several times in the Greenlandic capital, […]

fading pine
# fading pine > [Attorney general Pam Bondi said] “Not only is he FIRED, he has been charged w...

The grand jury’s rejection of the felony charge was a remarkable failure by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington and the second time in recent days that a majority of grand jurors refused to vote to indict a person accused of felony assault on a federal agent. It also amounted to a sharp rebuke by a panel of ordinary citizens against the prosecutors assigned to bring charges against people arrested after President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and federal agents to fight crime and patrol the city’s streets.
The rejection by grand jurors was particularly noteworthy given the attention paid to the case of the man who threw the sandwich, Sean C. Dunn. Video of the episode went viral on social media, senior officials talked about the case, and the administration posted footage of a large group of heavily armed law enforcement officers going to Mr. Dunn’s apartment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/us/politics/trump-sandwich-assault-indictment-justice-department.html
(archived https://archive.ph/kZCmx)

The New York Times
By Alan Feuer, Devlin Barrett and William K. Rashbaum
Prosecutors Fail to Secure Indictment Against Man Who Threw Sandwic...

It was a sharp rebuke to the prosecutors who were assigned to bring charges against those arrested after President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and federal agents to Washington.

stone chasm
#

I've seen multiple commenters on legal bsky point out that failure to get an indictment through a grand jury is extremely uncommon

west kettle
inner girder
obtuse horizon
#

That's partly due to the requirements for an indictment: a majority of the grand jury has to agree that it's probable that a crime happened. One of the requirements for felony assault of an officer is that the officer is injured. If DOJ doesn't have any evidence of an injury the grand jury should reject the charge.

zenith nimbus
fading pine
#

Since 1978, foreign students, or F visa holders, could stay in the U.S. for their “duration of status,” meaning as long as they were enrolled as a full-time student. The proposed rule set to publish Thursday would allow for foreign students and exchange visitors to stay up to the duration of the program they are participating in, not to exceed a 4-year period.
DHS officials said the rule is to correct a system in which foreign students have “taken advantage of U.S. generosity” by becoming “forever students.”
…
If finalized, the rule would require foreign students to be regularly assessed by DHS to remain in the U.S. for a longer period.
https://politico.com/news/2025/08/27/dhs-aims-to-limit-how-long-foreign-students-can-study-in-the-u-s-00532433
(archived https://archive.ph/1hHkg)

orchid portal
pulsar monolith
silver crane
shadow raven
#

Isn't that what the literal job description of vice president is?

obtuse horizon
#

It's more coded than that. The 25nd Amendment to the constitution has provisions for removing a sitting President if they are unable to execute the office. JD Vance could initiate a vote of the cabinet in January 2027 to find the President unfit and take over as President. This would allow him to hold the office until the next election and be eligible for re-election for the next two cyles (just under ten years).

silver crane
#

my less-coded thought is that Trump’s health is getting to a point where he’d have to announce that (while simultaneously saying that Trump is in good health)

trim dust
#

Thank goodness we don't have to worry about speculation here.

fading pine
#

Atul Gawande, a physician who helped oversee the Biden administration’s global health strategy, asked on social media why the Trump administration had again selected a non-physician to run the nation’s premier public health agency. Monarez was the first non-physician to head the CDC since 1953.
“Has America run out of actual health practitioners with demonstrated experience improving public health outcomes?”
…
Democrats in those hearings said they were skeptical that O’Neill would serve as a check on Kennedy, noting his praise for Kennedy’s controversial response to a measles outbreak and other parts of Kennedy’s agenda. … lawmakers who pressed O’Neill to explain how he would advise Kennedy dismissed his answers as vague and evasive.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/08/28/cdc-director-jim-oneill/
(archived https://archive.ph/hcxF7)

background on O'Neill

Jim O’Neill, a former official at the Health and Human Services Department … is an associate of the Silicon Valley billionaire and Trump supporter Peter Thiel. Mr. O’Neill has argued that companies should not have to prove that their drugs work in clinical trials before selling them to consumers.
…
He is a managing director of Mithril Capital Management, an investment firm Mr. Thiel co-founded, and previously led the Thiel Foundation, Mr. Thiel’s philanthropic organization. During the George W. Bush administration, Mr. O’Neill held a series of roles in [HHS]
…
Mr. O’Neill is a libertarian who is on the board of the SENS Research Foundation, a charity that funds anti-aging research, and until recently served on the board of the Seasteading Institute, an effort to create new societies at sea.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/health/with-fda-vacancy-trump-sees-chance-to-speed-drugs-to-the-market.html
(archived https://archive.ph/quH1g)

on previous CDC director’s (ongoing ?)“departure” #usa-canada message

The Washington Post
White House taps top RFK Jr. deputy as acting CDC director

The decision comes a day after Trump fired Susan Monarez, the Senate-confirmed CDC director, prompting a series of resignations of other top officials at the agency.

The New York Times
By Katie Thomas
Trump’s F.D.A. Pick Could Undo Decades of Drug Safeguards (Publis...

A top candidate to head the agency, Jim O’Neill, advocates “progressive” approval, in which drugs proved safe could be sold to consumers even if not yet proved effective.

fading pine
# fading pine > Atul Gawande, a physician who helped oversee the Biden administration’s global...

some wild stuff from O'Neill in this thread, his pro-paid-organ-donation stance is a highlight
https://bskye.app/profile/jsweetli.bsky.social/post/3lxijrtsmzs26

bskye - 💬 356 🔁 586 ❤️ 1.4K
New acting director of CDC Jim O'Neill expressed being pro paid organ donation. "There are plenty of healthy spare kidneys walking around, unused."
Jacqueline Sweet (@jsweetli.bsky.social)
▶ Play video
azure rain
#

Tarrifs are illegal but you get 6 weeks to get your supreme court to make them legal is how this reads.

ivory turtle
grizzled ingot
ivory turtle
grizzled ingot
#

then its most likely paywalled

ivory turtle
obtuse horizon
#

That sounds like something from the Steele Dossier. I wouldn't be surprised if it was rescinded.

ivory turtle
sharp berry
river marten
obtuse horizon
#

Yeah, most of the internet has been quite silly for the past eight hours.

spark marten
marble plover
#

It's all rumours

#

So, no, IMO no good reason to think he's dead

spark marten
#

What would be distinct signs he died, short of an official announcement ?

#

Died, or sick enough he can't perform official anymore

trim dust
#

Making public appearances and performing his duties - or not - are observable facts. However, speculation about why is just that, speculation, and has no value here.

spark marten
#

All right

rare geyser
#

Vance is not in DC. He's in Cincinnati

#

If Trump had died he would be in DC

#

How you can verify through open source if Vance is in town:

#

Verify on Google Maps traffic that the closures remain

#

Vance will go back to DC for things like bombing Iran - he canceled his Cincinnati trip for that, and the city issued a statement and the roads opened up - and will certainly go to DC in the event of Trump's death

spark marten
silver crane
plain prawn
#

For my amusement i have decided that Trump indeed is dead and that anyone looking like him is a doppelganger/AI.

trim dust
plain prawn
#

It was a joke. sorry.

fading pine
fading pine
#

these people are crypto- and "AI'-pilled to a really pathological degree. even if cynical-but-realistic opportunists drew up this gaza plan, whatever people in the regime they're trying to sell on it sure seem to be

A postwar plan for Gaza circulating within the Trump administration, modeled on President Donald Trump’s vow to “take over” the enclave, would turn it into a trusteeship administered by the United States for at least 10 years …
The [prospectus] envisions at least a temporary relocation of all of Gaza’s more than 2 million population, either through what it calls “voluntary” departures to another country or into restricted, secured zones inside the enclave during reconstruction.
Those who own land would be offered a digital token by the trust in exchange for rights to redevelop their property, to be used to finance a new life elsewhere or eventually redeemed for an apartment in one of six to eight new “AI-powered, smart cities” to be built in Gaza. Each Palestinian who chooses to leave would be given a $5,000 cash payment and subsidies to cover four years of rent elsewhere, as well as a year of food.
(my emphases)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/08/31/trump-gaza-plan-riviera-relocation/
(archived https://archive.ph/Kv4L8)

The Washington Post
Gaza postwar plan envisions ‘voluntary’ relocation of entire po...

President Donald Trump and international partners are discussing plans to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” on the rubble of Gaza. One would establish U.S. control and pay Palestinians to leave.

west kettle
river marten
#

People in social media are saying that Trump posted this on his social media (https://ca.news.yahoo.com/trump-shares-qanon-posts-other-180129796.html), but the image itself seems to be nothing new. The image was first posted at least 24 days ago and he seems to have first boosted it for the first time at least that many days ago. The original poster seems to be someone with the handle SpiritualStreetfighter. (the post below is in German but I summarised the information)
https://www.reddit.com/r/misc/comments/1mkmn7r/trump_retruthed_this_pic_is_he_the_devil_because/?tl=de

Yahoo News
Trump Shares QAnon Posts And Other Particularly Unhinged Social Med...

A campaign spokesperson has been trying to redirect focus away from Trump's alarming reposting binge.

Reddit
From the misc community on Reddit: Trump hat dieses Bild "ge-Retrut...

Explore this post and more from the misc community

celest lark
#

https://bsky.app/profile/luigithirty.bsky.social/post/3lxpivi5k3k2s

Katherine the Sixth (@luigithirty.bsky.social)

www.rawstory.com/trump-infuri...

lmao they’re activating them for 29 days over and over so they don’t get full active duty pay

-# 'It infuriates us': Veterans rage at 'abusive' Trump over reports of him stiffing soldiers
Donald Trump has reportedly gone out of his way to avoid paying national guard troops sent in to Washington, D.C., resulting in outrage from veterans.The reports started earlier in the summer that Tru...

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146

Bluesky ·
rotund escarp
stray stirrup
azure rain
# 
the use of the U.S. military to execute domestic law. Nearly 140 years later, Defendants—
President Trump, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, and the Department of Defense—
deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, ostensibly to quell a rebellion 
and ensure that federal immigration law was enforced. There were indeed protests in Los 
Angeles, and some individuals engaged in violence. Yet there was no rebellion, nor was 
civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law.
Nevertheless, at Defendants’ orders and contrary to Congress’s explicit instruction, 
federal troops executed the laws. The evidence at trial established that Defendants
systematically used armed soldiers (whose identity was often obscured by protective 
armor) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage 
in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los 
Angeles. In short, Defendants violated the Posse Comitatus Act.```
dense fox
azure rain
#

I know, I just didn't for this one

#

thought it was less text tbh :)

fading pine
celest lark
fading pine
#

The “[Trump’s] goal” and “Democrats argue” type language here strikes me as a both-sides normalization framing
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/03/politics/trump-congress-spending-shutdown-recissions
(archived https://archive.ph/CWLR6)

CNN
Trump escalates battle to take control of spending away from Congre...

Just over seven months into his second term, President Donald Trump has made significant headway toward his goal of weakening Congress’ centuries-old power of the purse — pushing the boundaries of executive authority and blocking what Democrats argue amounts to nearly a half-trillion dollars the administration is legally required to spend.

fading pine
fading pine
willow anchor
#

Is information about the Venezuela boat strike still sparing or questionable? Have seen in passing that there is a potential that the boat was human-smuggling rather for drugs, and that altogether the video itself of the strike was AI-generated which feels very ugly because the justification for the strike is rather weak since it did not follow good procedure and that statement from the government is not all that trustworthy. Sorry if irrelevant to the channel.

marble plover
plain prawn
fading pine
fading pine
#

Big Tech elite lavish praise on Trump at White House dinner

Zuckerberg, seated next to Trump at the dinner, thanked him for arranging the event and said that all present were making "huge investments" in the U.S. "to build out data centers and infrastructure to power the next wave of innovation," with Meta committing to at least $600 billion through 2028.
Gates, who was seated next to first lady Melania Trump, thanked the president "for setting the tone such that we could make a major investment in the United States and have some key manufacturing, advanced manufacturing here."
Altman thanked Trump "for being such a pro-business, pro-innovation president," adding: "It's a very refreshing change. ... I think it's going to set us up for a long period of leading the world, and that wouldn't be happening without your leadership."
…
All the big names of tech attended the dinner except for Trump's former senior adviser Elon Musk.
https://www.axios.com/2025/09/05/trump-tech-dinner-ceo-zuckerberg-musk
(archived https://archive.ph/hbjln)

somber bone
fading pine
#

The Intercept, Pentagon Official: Trump Boat Strike Was a Criminal Attack on Civilians #maritime message

somber bone
#

https://fxbsky.app/profile/stevekovach.bsky.social/post/3ly3muw7gcc2n

Steve Kovach (@stevekovach.bsky.social)

Once again, Republicans (and Trump himself) struggle to remember who was president in 2020.
︀︀
︀︀(The DOJ filed its antitrust case against Google in October 2020.)

Quoting Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social)
︀
“.. Trump interrupted Pichai’s Thursday evening response to say ‘Biden was the one who prosecuted that lawsuit, you know that right?’ Trump said, referring to the search monopoly case.
︀︀
︀︀“.. Pichai did not correct him.” 🤡
︀︀
︀︀$GOOGL
︀︀www.cnbc.com/2025/09/04/g...

**🔁 20 ❤️ 78 **

FxBluesky ·
fading pine
silver crane
somber bone
fading pine
vital shore
vital shore
somber bone
vital shore
#

Former Trump Special Counsel Ty Cobb unleashes on Trump and the danger he poses https://www.threads.com/@annepmitchellesq/post/DORH9Pcjlv0

Threads
Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. (@annepmitchellesq) on Threads

I HAVE SPOKEN WITH TY COBB, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPECIAL COUNSEL IN TRUMP 1, AND HERE IS WHAT HE HAS TO SAY ABOUT TRUMP

Last night I spoke with my colleague Ty Cobb, who was White House Special Counsel during Trump 1, and I have confirmed with him that the below are his words, and that I have permission to share them.

fading pine
somber bone
vital shore
willow anchor
fading pine
# willow anchor https://www.benrothenberg.com/p/us-open-donald-trump-mens-final-attendance-visit...

really curious about who made this call & the decisionmaking behind it.
the US Tennis Association ultimately runs the US Open but it's not obvious if their usual leadership team is driving this decision, if a dedicated US Open management team did it, etc.
this is the best reference I've found to the US Open's current leadership
https://fortune.com/2025/09/06/tennis-exec-us-open-500-million-revenue-interview/
(archived https://archive.ph/pONaw)
this is the USTA leadership page
https://www.usta.com/en/home/about-usta/usta-leadership/national/usta-executive-staff.html
(archived https://archive.ph/VjnQl)

Fortune
Meet the tennis exec in charge of the U.S. Open's teams earning ove...

Kirsten Corio oversees commercial operations for the USTA and shares her keys to success.

willow anchor
# fading pine really curious about who made this call & the decisionmaking behind it. the US T...

"Lots of moving parts" and all. As noted by the same writer in a previous post, Rolex invited Trump as a guest to this upcoming game. In that post, it has a vested interested in bribing Trump to have better trade agreements regarding Switzerland, and the company itself has a strong sponsor relationship with the tennis world.
https://www.benrothenberg.com/p/donald-trump-us-open-sinner-alcaraz-2025-rolex-suite

Why Donald Trump is Returning to the U.S. Open

A decade after he was booed out of the U.S. Open, Bounces can report who has invited Trump back courtside.

willow anchor
vital shore
somber bone
azure rain
#

And the bending of knees continues

somber bone
fading pine
#

Feb 6 2025 executive order, Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias #far-right-monitoring message

vital shore
vital shore
fading pine
silver crane
somber bone
covert flume
west kettle
obtuse horizon
#

(The only constant is the hypocrisy)

vital shore
vital shore
tepid roost
#

https://fxtwitter.com/FoxNews/status/1965944227465920865

https://youtu.be/-q1N6Akpz9c

https://youtu.be/3lTrpsxvSwc

Fox News (@FoxNews)

"I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk."
︀︀
︀︀"Because of this heinous act, Charlie's voice has become bigger and grander than ever before."
︀︀
︀︀President Trump releases a statement reacting to the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

**💬 92 🔁 151 ❤️ 922 👁️ 35.3K **

▶ Play video
FxTwitter ·
YouTube
The White House
President Trump Delivers Remarks on Charlie Kirk
▶ Play video
YouTube
ABC10
President Trump's Oval Office coronavirus address

President Trump's Oval Office coronavirus address (March 11, 2020)

▶ Play video
#

Posted Trump video re Kirk shooting. First is the one posted to social media, second is the version posted to YT, third is a video from 5 years ago of DJT addressing the nation in the same setting re Coronavirus for comparison.

#

Keeping it away from #1415412232686403735

bitter fractal
#

https://i.imgur.com/qIKxFd6.mp4
This moment of the video made me believe it was AI generated but some details in the reflections behind him along the rest of the video make me believe they just used ai to edit specific parts of a real video. mea culpa

Imgur
tepid roost
#

So trump blinks on, like a ten second or so cycle in the recent vid.

#

In the one from five years ago, you have sporadic blinks every few seconds or so natural to his body movement.

rare geyser
tepid roost
#

Not to mention the permanent trump scowl

#

The upturn lip is an affect that im fairly sure he cant maintain for a solid five minute, breathless rant.

rare geyser
bitter fractal
#

im thinking this could be something like stitching videos together, the abrupt linear movement make me think of the models that interpolate between two pictures

tepid roost
#

Yeah my first inclination was to say this was just heavily edited. But edited to what? There is a total of one body motion for normally so animated a guy, and the pacing is altogether to energetic to be his current patter

#

This would have been a comparably longer video otherwise

tepid roost
#

The audio quality has different "shine" (im not an audio engineer) a different Tenor and clarity. Some sections have this wierd fuzz, and then the next sentence it's like the mic is turned into place, and then it gets fuzzy again.

#

The part where Trump is talking about finding whomever did this, for example, is of a distinctly different audio sharpness then the preceding and succeeding sections.

bitter fractal
#

the whole frame also shifts slightly

dusky ferry
willow anchor
#

Regarding AI edits, I think the last major time there was some talk about his communications team attempting that during the first term on the year of the pandemic outbreak.

2020/10/03: At 1:04 mark, when he said the word "therapeutics", some said his coughs were edited out. I think he is just suppressing it.
https://fxtwitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1312525833505058816

2020/10/08: Some saw the White House yard behind him as strange and thought of a green screen. News fact checkers said it could have been Twitter's video compression.
https://fxtwitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1314252606110412806

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

**💬 87.0K 🔁 90.2K ❤️ 520.1K **

▶ Play video
FxTwitter ·
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

TO MY FAVORITE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!

**💬 40.4K 🔁 31.6K ❤️ 166.6K **

▶ Play video
FxTwitter ·
west kettle
silver crane
#

nvm the paywall wont let me

vital shore
vital shore
marble plover
#

he looked OK when he was giving the speech (maybe a bit low energy)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1XoPsqYzT4

YouTube
WCNC
Full speech: President Trump 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon

President Donald Trump delivers remarks from the Pentagon on the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Every day, WCNC Charlotte is streaming the latest news, weather, traffic and more that impacts you on its streaming platform WCNC+. Download WCNC+ on your TV and watch for free today on your preferred streaming platform like Roku, Am...

▶ Play video
vital shore
marble plover
#

ya ive only seens pics of him looking like that, not video

#

maybe he was getting something out of his teeth with his tongue and looked like that for a second

vital shore
magic salmon
#

https://phpc.social/@ramsey/115204040015862020

Ben Ramsey (@[email protected])

HR 3860 allows the Secretary of State to revoke the US passport of anyone “whom the Secretary determines has knowingly aided, assisted, abetted, or otherwise provided material support to an organization the Secretary has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.”

There’s no due process, and the only way to overturn it is to “request a hearing to appeal such denial or revocation not later than 60 days after receiving notice of such denial or revocation.”

congress.gov/bill/119th-congre…

PHP Community on Mastodon ·
orchid portal
azure rain
#

When Foreign Companies who are building extremely complex products, machines, and various other “things,” come into the United States with massive Investments, I want them to bring their people of expertise for a period of time to teach and train our people how to make these very unique and complex products, as they phase out of our Country, and back into their land. If we didn’t do this, all of that massive Investment will never come in the first place — Chips, Semiconductors, Computers, Ships, Trains, and so many other products that we have to learn from others how to make, or, in many cases, relearn, because we used to be great at it, but not anymore. For example, Shipbuilding, where we used to build a Ship a day and now, we barely build a Ship a year. I don’t want to frighten off or disincentivize Investment into America by outside Countries or Companies. We welcome them, we welcome their employees, and we are willing to proudly say we will learn from them, and do even better than them at their own “game,” sometime into the not too distant future!

fading pine
fading pine
somber bone
pallid relic
fading pine
#

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-file-15-billion-defamation-libel-lawsuit-against-new-york-times-2025-09-16/
(archived https://archive.ph/Jg5SC)

the complaint:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flmd.447437/gov.uscourts.flmd.447437.1.0.pdf
(archived https://web.archive.org/web/20250916041412/https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flmd.447437/gov.uscourts.flmd.447437.1.0.pdf)

Reuters
Trump sues New York Times for defamation and libel, seeks $15 billion

U.S. President Donald Trump sued the New York Times, four of its reporters and publisher Penguin Random House for at least $15 billion on Monday, claiming defamation and libel and citing reputational damage, a Florida court filing showed.

fading pine
#

Intercept, Trump Sanctions Palestinian Human Rights Groups for Doing Their Job. Anybody Could Be Next. #1168282793495765022 message
(describes politicized sanctions for legal activity)

sharp berry
#

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/four-arrested-after-trump-epstein-images-projected-onto-britains-windsor-castle-2025-09-16/?link_source=ta_bluesky_link&taid=68c9f426e0996900012a4c98&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky

Reuters
Four arrested after Trump, Epstein images projected onto Britain's ...

Four people were arrested on Tuesday following a projection of images of Donald Trump alongside sex offender Jeffrey Epstein onto the royal Windsor Castle, where the U.S. President is set to be hosted by King Charles during his state visit to Britain.

fading pine
# somber bone https://www.instagramez.com/p/DNzMVepYj8r/

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent once agreed to occupy two different houses as his “principal residence” at the same time, mortgage documents show — the same kind of contradictory pledges that President Donald Trump has been using to try to oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
Bessent’s conflicting agreements obligated him to occupy homes in New York and Massachusetts as his main residence at the same time in 2007. But there’s no sign of any wrongdoing on his part, mortgage experts say. Rather, his case demonstrates that an incongruity in home-loan filings isn’t necessarily proof of fraud.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-17/bessent-like-fed-governor-made-contradictory-mortgage-pledges
(archived https://archive.ph/ZMd6l)

covert flume
# fading pine > US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent once agreed to occupy two different houses...

Worth noting that Bloomberg's framing is ignoring the story that broke 4 days ago -- that Cook did NOT have "contradictory pledges":

(https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fed-governor-cook-declared-her-atlanta-property-vacation-home-documents-show-2025-09-13/)

Reuters
Exclusive: Fed Governor Cook declared her Atlanta property as “va...

Cook, who remains at the Federal Reserve, has sued the president to resist her dismissal.

magic salmon
somber bone
#

not twitter....

silver crane
#

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/health/usaid-contraceptives-destroyed-trump.html
(Archived: https://archive.is/5qLLC)

“On Thursday, a spokeswoman for U.S.A.I.D. — which is now being wound down by Russell Vought, the head of the White House Office of Management and Budget — said in a statement to The Times that the contraceptives had been destroyed, and falsely suggested that they induced abortion.

“President Trump is committed to protecting the lives of unborn children all around the world,” the statement said. “The administration will no longer supply abortifacient birth control under the guise of foreign aid.”

The New York Times
By Stephanie Nolen, Jeanna Smialek and Edward Wong
$10 Million in Contraceptives Have Been Destroyed on Orders From Tr...

The birth control pills, IUDs and hormonal implants were purchased by U.S.A.I.D. for women in low-income countries. They had been in limbo in a Belgian warehouse after the U.S. cut much of its foreign aid.

west kettle
#

Posting this because it seems FCC pressure on Disney/ABC is the reason for the decision. Not quite the same thing as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert but in the same ballpark

(The link is from a news app but should work with browsers)

https://www.wusa9.com/mobile/article/news/nation-world/jimmy-kimmel-suspended-charlie-kirk/507-57dd4cae-0a8d-4234-82ce-7881295d91af

wusa9.com
Jimmy Kimmel's show pulled amid backlash over comments on Charlie Kirk

The late-night talk show will be preempted indefinitely, ABC said.

pallid relic
west kettle
silver crane
pallid relic
somber bone
orchid portal
#

https://bsky.app/profile/propublica.org/post/3lz52ddlu5q2i

ProPublica (@propublica.org)

Before his MAGA conversion, the head of Trump’s antisemitism task force racked up a list of financial troubles, including nearly $400K in unpaid federal taxes, a personal bankruptcy filing, and a trail of court judgments and liens brought by small businesses that worked for him.

W/ @chronicle.com

-# The Leader of Trump’s Assault on Higher Education Has a Troubled Legal and Financial History
Leo Terrell’s past is at odds with Trump’s description of an “incredibly successful” attorney. Documents obtained by ProPublica and The Chronicle of Higher Education reveal a trail of legal disputes a...

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109

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253

Bluesky ·
#

https://bsky.app/profile/aclu.org/post/3lz4wdxndzw2b

ACLU (@aclu.org)

President Trump is hellbent on targeting real or perceived political opponents based on their constitutionally-protected beliefs and speech, but he has no legal authority to designate U.S. groups or individuals as "terrorists."

This latest threat jeopardizes all of our First Amendment rights.

-# Trump Gives Antifa Confusing New Designation
Donald Trump’s latest attack makes no sense.

Reposts

114

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371

Bluesky ·
west kettle
fading pine
west kettle
#

I was wrong. Kimmel's suspension is the same as Colbert's cancellation—occurring around a merger deal that requires FCC approval

https://latenighter.com/news/jimmy-kimmels-removal-comes-amid-a-pending-merger-for-nexstar/

LateNighter
Nick Riccardo
Jimmy Kimmel's Removal Comes Amid a Pending Merger for Nexstar - La...

Much like fellow late-night host Stephen Colbert, the circumstances surrounding Jimmy Kimmel’s removal from the airwaves involve a company in the midst of a merger and under scrutiny from the FCC.

fading pine
flint tundra
#

https://youtu.be/7UXYxs6ZmzA?t=77 Chris Hayes said the chairman said "we can do this the easy way or the hard way" sounds a reference or coincidence to 1989's Back to the Future 2 Biff casino https://youtu.be/JpuMScdND-U?t=237 https://youtu.be/4r58DQ9IMD8?t=2

YouTube
MSNBC
‘Chilling’: Hayes reacts to Jimmy Kimmel suspension following T...

ABC has “indefinitely” pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air after Trump’s FCC chair criticized the host’s Charlie Kirk comments. “This is just the latest chapter in Donald Trump's ongoing campaign to crack down on free speech, dominate the media, and essentially render the First Amendment meaningless” says Chris Hayes.

Our ne...

▶ Play video
YouTube
Screen Bites
Biff's Nightmare World | Back To The Future II (1989) | Screen Bites

Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travels back to 1985 but things are different... Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) has taken over Hill Valley created an alternative future, and a nightmarish world.

Getting back was only the beginning as the most spectacular time-travel adventure ever continues in Back to the Future Part II - the sequel that proves t...

▶ Play video
YouTube
Top Clips
Back to the Future - The Easy Way
▶ Play video
fading pine
# west kettle I was wrong. Kimmel's suspension is the same as Colbert's cancellation—occurring...

more on Nexstar & Sinclair’s possible regulatory incentives for collaborating with the regime

The right wing affiliate owner of many ABC networks that was first to fold under threats from FCC boss Brendan Carr, Nexstar (who also owns the feckless DC gossip rag The Hill), is currently looking for FCC approval for their $6.2 billion merger with Tegna.
After that deal gets approved, I strongly suspect Nexstar will look to merge with Sinclair Broadcasting, another right wing company that has spent decades dressing up propaganda as local news
…
Their goal really is to consolidate national media as well as what’s left of local broadcast “news” under the ownership of one right wing company.
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/18/jimmy-kimmels-firing-comes-as-feckless-tv-networks-lobby-trump-to-destroy-remaining-media-consolidation-limits/
(archived https://archive.ph/cpKtH)

Techdirt
Karl Bode
Jimmy Kimmel’s Firing Comes As Feckless TV Networks Lobby Trump T...

As Mike just got done noting, our major media companies continue to respond to authoritarianism by being pathetic and feckless little shitweasels. First with the ABC and CBS bribery payments to our…

west kettle
# fading pine more on Nexstar & Sinclair’s possible regulatory incentives for collaborating wi...

The news station whose app I posted the first story from, USA9, is currently Tegna affiliated. I would hate to see them become Nexstar for a number of reasons but it looks like things are headed that way. Right now, their focus is on local news and the news anchors have obvious liberal personal leanings while being careful not to show bias. The team tries to give a family feel to the news and community and it's likely much of that would be lost with a merger of this kind.

red dock
fading pine
shadow raven
orchid portal
#

Blurring the link and details because it's about a pro-Trump rapper that created a racist album / title. I want people to be able to choose to view the vulgarity || https://bsky.app/profile/meidastouch.com/post/3lz7mmoldxc2g ||

MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com)

NEWS: A pro-Trump rapper who performed at the RNC has released an album called 'Make America White Again.' On the album, he refers to himself as a “white [n-word].”

Read more: meidasnews.com/news/maga-ra...

Likes

281

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139

Bluesky ·
fading pine
vital shore
vital shore
midnight oar
#

It appears he believes asylum seekers are mental health institution escapees.

Asylum.jpg
covert summit
#

Correct. He doesn't understand that there are 2 different meanings for asylum.

vital shore
bitter fractal
midnight oar
#

He already bragged about solving the Albania-Aberbaijan conflict earlier this week.
And not one reporter to ask him to list the "seven wars" he ended, that would be fun.

balmy dock
orchid portal
#

https://bsky.app/profile/motherjones.com/post/3lzeeloyjyh27

Mother Jones (@motherjones.com)

As the Trump administration removes Black historical images and markers from national parks and museums, @garrisonhayes.bsky.social raises an important question:

Where are those Black MAGA voters now that Trump is wiping this history from the books?

-# Where's Black MAGA while Trump wipes Black history?
The president once hailed himself as "the best president for the Black population."

Likes

160

Bluesky ·
#

https://bsky.app/profile/muellershewrote.com/post/3lzeablamps2x

Mueller, She Wrote (@muellershewrote.com)

There’s a simple answer. “Democrats won’t vote to fund this regime as is. It’s up to the republicans if they want to shut down the government. They’re in the majority.”

-# The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social)
SCHUMER: “I hope and pray Trump will sit down with us.”

BASH: “And if he doesn’t Dems will vote no?”

@schumer.senate.gov : *suddenly seems to lose his hearing*

He “hopes and prays”, y’all. 🤔
Hard to watch.

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284

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1227

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Bluesky ·
vital shore
silver crane
fading pine
azure rain
silver crane
fading pine
#

regime describing a strawman “Antifa” group, designating it as a “Domestic Terrorist Organization” (the existance of a formal “Antifa” group and the presidential authority to unilaterally sanction a “Domestic Terrorist Organization” are highly questionable)
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/designating-antifa-as-a-domestic-terrorist-organization/
(archived https://archive.ph/S5OS7)

The White House
Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization

Section 1.  Antifa as a Terrorist Threat.  Antifa is a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States

vital shore
fading pine
orchid portal
#

https://bsky.app/profile/propublica.org/post/3lzhvq4tjoi2q

ProPublica (@propublica.org)

These Project 2025 videos were intended to train a second Trump administration’s political appointees "to be ready on day one."

Last August, ProPublica & @documented.net obtained 14 hours of the videos, which covered everything from passing new regulations to rooting out left-wing language:

-# Watch: 14 Hours of Never-Before-Published Videos From Project 2025’s Presidential Administration Academy
The videos are part of an ongoing effort to recruit and train thousands of future conservative appointees. Despite Donald Trump’s efforts to disavow Project 2025, most of the speakers in the videos ha...

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406

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705

Bluesky ·
grizzled ingot
river marten
inner girder
shadow raven
#

Tylenol is the brandname, the generic name is acetaminophen, which is used in US instead of paracetamol, but it refers to the same thing

#

the full systematic name is N-acetyl-para-aminophenol, which isn't used in commercial use for understandable reasons

river marten
#

I meant as a name. Thank you both for the explanations

vital shore
#

The “Presidential Walk of Fame” or, you know, just the presidents coming soon to a Rose Garden Club near you

IMG_9240.png
vital shore
fading pine
grim ravine
vital shore
dusky ferry
vital shore
celest lark
somber bone
#

not sure if it's a legitmate reason. Trump has a habit of basically screwing up his legal actions by making increminating posts

fading pine
# vital shore https://www.threads.com/@meidastouch/post/DO-ACZ7kY-e?xmt=AQF0l9QRcjkpahv085pOGU...

writeup covering this w/ some history of past kimmel/trump relations https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/donald-trump-jimmy-kimmel-return-sue-abc-1235434071/
(archived https://archive.ph/DhRGA)

Rolling Stone
Emily Zemler
Donald Trump Threatens to Sue 'ABC Fake News' Over Jimmy Kimmel's R...

Donald Trump responded to the return of 'Jimmy Kimmel Live,' threatening to sue "ABC Fake News."

#

Tuesday morning, the statue depicting the president and the late disgraced financier and sex offender holding hands and skipping showed up on the National Mall. The statue's plaque said, "In honor of friendship month, we celebrate the long-standing bond between President Donald J. Trump and his closest friend Jeffrey Epstein.”
But Wednesday morning, U.S. Park Police removed the statue around 5:30 a.m. Reddit user Are-you-a-vegetable caught the act in a video posted to the Washington, D.C. subreddit.
A permit for the statue said it is allowed to remain on the mall until 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28. Park Police told WUSA9 that it was removed for not being in compliance with the permit, but they did not explain how it violated the permit.
The permit does include a clause that it can be revoked at any time as long as the permittee was notified of the reason at least 24 hours in advance.
According to the permit, the statue also had full-time security.
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/politics/trump-epstein-statue-removed-national-mall/65-f509c666-6627-447e-9726-e8886b843123
(archived https://archive.ph/NZa4o)

wusa9.com
Trump-Epstein 'friendship' statue removed from National Mall one da...

A statue of Trump and Epstein was removed from the National Mall by U.S. Park Police, despite a permit allowing it to remain until Sept. 28.

vital shore
orchid portal
#

https://bsky.app/profile/motherjones.com/post/3lzlx76og5q2h

Mother Jones (@motherjones.com)

As the US Marshals Service prepared for Donald Trump’s expected pardon of January 6 defendants, officials went to unusual lengths to facilitate the defendants’ travel home from the DC jail, newly obtained records show.

-# US Marshals' efforts around Trump's January 6 pardons were “highly unusual"
“It seems like an extraordinary bending over backward” for the Capitol ransackers.

Likes

147

Bluesky ·
#

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lzlsrv6r322d

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)

OLD: Trump deserves the Nobel
NEW: Trump deserves the Climate Hero Award

-# Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)
Wright: "I predict in a few years President Trump will win the climate hero award because his policies, which are pro-natural gas & pro-nuclear, those are the only two needle-movers we have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He's not doing it for that reason. That's nowhere near our biggest issue"

Likes

493

Bluesky ·
west kettle
vital shore
west kettle
pallid mica
midnight oar
#

Never blame malice when it could be incompetence, especially with this administration.

fading pine
#

new “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence” executive order
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/enforcing-the-death-penalty-laws-in-the-district-of-columbia-to-deter-and-punish-the-most-heinous-crimes/
(archived https://archive.ph/FP5dr)

The White House
Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence

NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM/NSPM-7 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE                THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

obtuse horizon
#

(The URL preserves what would have been the original title of the EO)

vital shore
grizzled ingot
pulsar monolith
#

What does that mean?

grizzled ingot
pulsar monolith
#

Ah

orchid portal
fading pine
# obtuse horizon (The URL preserves what would have been the original title of the EO)

they changed it back to the original EO title!
it looks like they changed it from

Enforcing the Death Penalty Laws in the District of Columbia to Deter and Punish the Most Heinous Crimes
to
Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence
between 9:34pm & 10:07pm Sep 25, then changed it back between 4:16am & 1:18pm Sep 26
(all times U.S. Eastern time)
this is the current version as of 3pm Sep 26, https://archive.ph/rMg47
(I'm getting the times from the archive.today saved versions at https://archive.ph/https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/enforcing-the-death-penalty-laws-in-the-district-of-columbia-to-deter-and-punish-the-most-heinous-crimes/, a screenshot of that's attached)

Shot_Sep_26_2025_30525pm.jpeg
fading pine
fading pine
#

This seems clearly illegal under Posse Comitatus (not that that means it won’t happen if people go along)
but also interesting to see how much press is respecting the regime’s various performative renamings (Dept. of Defense → Dept. of War, in this case)

“At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” the president wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary,” Trump added. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The Hill has reached out to the Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security for further comment.
(my emphases)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5524964-trump-sends-troops-portland-ice-antifa/
(archived https://archive.ph/HL9vS)

fading pine
# fading pine This seems clearly illegal under Posse Comitatus (not that that means it won’t h...

This is hardly a legal analysis (the source for this text is wikipedia) but it sounds like the only branch that could legally do this is the Coast Guard, moved onto land

The Posse Comitatus Act … limits the powers of the federal government and any other government entities such as county sheriffs and justices of the peace that are authorized to form a posse comitatus in the use of federal military personnel to execute the law within the United States.
…
The Act originally applied only to the United States Army, but a subsequent amendment in 1956 expanded its scope to the United States Air Force. In 2021, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 further expanded the scope of the Act to cover the United States Navy, Marine Corps, and Space Force.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act

Posse Comitatus Act

The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385, original at 20 Stat. 152) signed on June 18, 1878, by President Rutherford B. Hayes that limits the powers of the federal government and any other government entities such as county sheriffs and justices of the peace that are authorized to form a posse comitatus in the us...

fading pine
# fading pine regime describing a strawman “Antifa” group, designating it as a “Domestic Terro...

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/09/trump-antifa-interview-national-security-state-left-crackdown-speech-silencing-dissent-chip-gibbons-laura-loomer/
(archived https://archive.ph/jR2us)

Mother Jones
Schuyler Mitchell
"Extremely disturbing": What does Trump's "antifa" executive order ...

"The national security state is a wonderful tool for a skilled authoritarian to crush American democracy."

fading pine
#

In NSPM-7, “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” President Trump directs the Justice Department, the FBI, and other national security agencies and departments to fight his version of political violence in America, retooling a network of Joint Terrorism Task Forces to focus on “leftist” political violence in America. This vast counterterrorism army, made up of federal, state, and local agents would, as Trump aide Stephen Miller said, form “the central hub of that effort.”
NSPM-7 directs a new national strategy to “disrupt” any individual or groups “that foment political violence,” including “before they result in violent political acts.”
In other words, they’re targeting pre-crime, to reference Minority Report.
The Trump administration isn’t only targeting organizations or groups but even individuals and “entities” whom NSPM-7 says can be identified by any of the following “indica” (indicators) of violence:

  • anti-Americanism,
  • anti-capitalism,
  • anti-Christianity,
  • support for the overthrow of the United States Government,
  • extremism on migration,
  • extremism on race,
  • extremism on gender
  • hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family,
  • hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on religion, and
  • hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on morality.
    “The United States requires a national strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts,” the directive states (emphasis mine).
    https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-nspm-7-labels-common-beliefs
    (archived https://archive.ph/hxqrs)
Trump’s NSPM-7 Labels Common Beliefs As Terrorism “Indicators”

New order targets “anti-Christian,” “anti-American,” and “anti-capitalism” opinions

silver crane
orchid portal
#

https://bsky.app/profile/bluedotin.bsky.social/post/3lztvixhiok2q

Blue Dot in Red State (@bluedotin.bsky.social)

(Politico) The thin-skinned and retribution-focused Trump and his reasons to send troops to Portland, Oregon. He says "crime"; UNTRUE. Portland has an amazingly low crime rate—the real reason: their protests against Trump in 2020.
www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

-# Trump never forgot Portland’s 2020 protests. Now he says the military can use ‘full force’ in an American city.
Portland is the latest American city Trump said he’ll send the military to. But his fixation on Oregon is different.

Bluesky ·
#

https://bsky.app/profile/sifill.bsky.social/post/3lztapwd5uk2x

Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social)

Can we get some focus on the perfidy of Speaker Mike Johnson?

So much of Trump’s excesses are made possible because Johnson has disabled the House as a check on the President. He has handed Trump his gavel symbolically and in reality.

We need to focus on Trump’s enablers.

-# Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social)
Grijalva: I was looking at the example of now-Representative Walkinshaw from Virginia, who was elected two weeks ago Tuesday. The following Wednesday—less than 24 hours later—he was sworn in, with unofficial results.

So for me, apparently the rules have now changed in just two weeks.

Reposts

525

Likes

1688

Bluesky ·
hollow pike
willow anchor
# hollow pike Trump is pushing medbeds on truth social? https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTr...

Someone shared this X post with me. A quick look online shows that no news outlet has mentioned this for the past three hours. Just Alex Kaplan from Media Matters for America. Not sure if he himself realizes he posted AI-generated content of himself and his daughter-in-law.
https://fxtwitter.com/AlKapDC/status/1972138253861208550

Alex Kaplan (@AlKapDC)

Trump tonight appears to have pushed the false "medbed" conspiracy theory, which has spread in the far-right internet over the years. www.yahoo.com/news/qanon-conspiracy-involves-magical-bed-084947430.html

**💬 1 🔁 60 ❤️ 248 👁️ 74.3K **

▶ Play video
FxTwitter ·
pulsar monolith
#

First news coverage I;ve seen

fading pine
fading pine
pulsar monolith
somber bone
fading pine
#

The Intercept, Unnamed Pentagon Officials Ridicule Hegseth’s Plan to Stop War Department Leaks #disinfo-and-propaganda message

orchid portal
#

https://bsky.app/profile/atticus59914029.bsky.social/post/3lzvtpkc2ak2a

Atticus Finch (of Georgia) (@atticus59914029.bsky.social)

One of Trump’s own former attorneys….

-# Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)
Ty Cobb: "The simple theme is rewriting history. Trump wants to rewrite history so the next generation may not know that he incited a violent insurrection... America needs to learn from the mistakes that we've had. And one of the biggest mistakes that America ever had was reelecting President Trump"

Reposts

313

Likes

1163

Bluesky ·
#

https://bsky.app/profile/motherjones.com/post/3lzvssul66r27

Mother Jones (@motherjones.com)

The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division sued six states for failing to hand over their full, unredacted voter registration lists.

The lawsuits may seem unrelated to Comey’s indictment, but both developments show how the DOJ has been weaponized in an unprecedented way to target Trump’s political opponents.

-# The Justice Department is ramping up Trump’s election-rigging efforts
DOJ officials have sued six more states to demand sensitive voter data.

Reposts

110

Likes

219

Bluesky ·
fading pine
# fading pine https://apnews.com/article/trump-federal-troops-portland-oregon-f8659de72f28289e...

early report but very interesting if it stands up, a possible breach b/t how trump-as-president-in-term-2 has been getting info and what he learns by talking to people
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/trump-seems-to-back-off-portland-military-plan/283-e9c6bdfb-92d6-4881-bb74-09bb325a5270
(archived https://archive.ph/YasrM)

kgw.com
Trump questioned perception of Portland before approving military p...

President Trump had said he will send troops to Portland to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, which he said were "under attack."

willow anchor
rugged dew
glass oracle
fading pine
# fading pine https://apnews.com/article/trump-federal-troops-portland-oregon-f8659de72f28289e...

“When the president and I spoke yesterday, I told him in very plain language there is no insurrection or threat to public safety that necessitates military intervention in Portland or any other city in our state,” Kotek said. “Putting our own military on our streets is an abuse of power ... Local law enforcement has this under control.”
“It’s actually un-American, if you think about it, to use the military against our own citizens but that’s exactly what’s happening right now, across our country,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, a Democrat, told the press conference. He said his office plans to file within the next day for a temporary restraining order against the deployment.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/28/oregon-sues-block-trump-national-guard-portland-00583937
(archived https://archive.ph/d9iUX)

somber bone
west kettle
terse sapphire