McBean
americanvagabond.bsky.social
McBean
@americanvagabond.bsky.social
World traveler I Producer I Ally I Optimist I Reformed Twitter User
Here for Orange Menace + Elmo Snark
Reposted by McBean
🎯 CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYER @oliverma2026.bsky.social: “The detention centers are run by private prison companies (like @CoreCivic) — they make millions PER PERSON… that’s why they’re looking for anybody brown, so they can keep stealing from taxpayers.”

*THIS IS NOT TALKED ABOUT ENOUGH*
December 13, 2025 at 4:19 PM
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NPR: “Head Start early childhood programs are being told to remove a list of ~200 words and phrases from their funding applications or they could be denied— "accessible," "belong," "Black," "disability," "female," "minority," "trauma," "tribal" "women…” www.npr.org/2025/12/11/n...
December 13, 2025 at 5:11 AM
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Reposted by McBean
Lawless, criminal behavior
December 13, 2025 at 7:39 AM
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www.npr.org/2025/09/19/n... Carr has waged war against the free speech of those who have reported on criticized or satirized the president. And Carr has the president's ear according to a person who knows both men and requested anonymity because they did not have authorization to speak to the media.
Jimmy Kimmel's suspension shows power of FCC's Brendan Carr
In the eight months since becoming chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr has waged war against the free speech of those who have reported on, criticized, or satirized the presid...
www.npr.org
December 13, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by McBean
Who invented non-reflective glass?

American physicist & chemist Katharine Burr Blodgett in 1938.

It revolutionized optics--& led to the coatings used today in everything from eyeglasses to phone screens. She was the first woman to earn a PhD in #physics from Cambridge, 1926. #WomenInSTEM #inventor
December 12, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Reposted by McBean
Update: DOJ haw now sued 18 states.

My law firm has already filed to intervene to defend voters in 13 of the first 14 cases. We are working on the remains 5.

This is an insane effort by DOJ and we are a small firm. But we are committed to protecting free and fair elections in 2026.

More soon.
DOJ has sued Maine, Oregon, California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Washington, Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Vermont for access to its most sensitive voter data.

My firm has moved to intervene in 10 of those cases. We are working on the last 4.
December 13, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Reposted by McBean
Bovino, the man overseeing mass deportations, publicly declared that we must all have our papers on us, at all times, or we could be stopped, harassed, kidnapped, and detained, as they did with the man in this case, who is a US citizen.
December 13, 2025 at 2:32 PM
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U.S. pals:
Do. Not. Donate. To. Salvation. Army.

There are better charities out there. Much better.
December 12, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by McBean
The US voted with Russia, China and N. Korea against most of the civilized world. This is where we are at.
December 12, 2025 at 1:19 AM
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How Trump surrendered control of the Pentagon and its massive budget to the tech bros, presented in a series of charts. And note how Congress has ignored everything that happened, not even conducting oversight hearings into any of it (indeed, oversight of military appropriations has stopped).
The Authoritarian Stack
How Tech Billionaires Are Building a Post-Democratic America — And Why Europe Is Next
www.authoritarian-stack.info
December 12, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Reposted by McBean
btw, David Sanger should cover all Trump speeches - the best write up I've seen from the NYT to convey the lies and insanity. This is how it's done folks.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/u...
Trump Says Americans Are Doing Great, Even as Views on the Economy Sour
www.nytimes.com
December 12, 2025 at 3:01 PM
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Trump ran in 2016, 2020 and 2024 on a platform complaining about the disastrous Iraq war, and an "America First" platform to avoid international interventions.

Seems the MAGA base won't like starting new wars, such as the one in Venezuela.
WATCH: U.S. forces seize oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela
December 12, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Reposted by McBean
We live in a wealthy nation. No one should be unhoused.

People are trying to survive in this warped form of late-stage capitalism and extreme greed.

And then the state and its power destroys the little someone has.

Meaning. Memories. A sense of self.

Or, dehumanization.

🧵
...
ProPublica spoke to about 150 people who had lived in homeless encampments when cities cleared them out in “sweeps.”

We distributed notecards so people could tell us about the toll in their own words.

➡️ This is what they wrote: https://propub.li/3MTlm33
December 12, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Reposted by McBean
Leaked files ‘show US wants to persuade four nations to leave EU’
The countries seen as targets to follow Brexit are Austria, Hungary, Italy and Poland, according to leaked details of the US national security strategy www.thetimes.com/us/american-...
Leaked files ‘show US wants to persuade four nations to leave EU’
The countries seen as targets to follow Brexit are Austria, Hungary, Italy and Poland, according to leaked details of the US national security strategy
www.thetimes.com
December 12, 2025 at 1:45 PM
I legit love this idea. Helps with critical thinking and analysis.
December 12, 2025 at 3:43 PM
This is fantastic. Timeline cleanse.
THREAD.

The definitive list of the absolute best interdimensional portals I have photographed on walks in the British countryside.

1. Gateway To The Land Of Leaping Dogs.
December 12, 2025 at 3:39 PM
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NATO chief Rutte: "Russia has brought war back to Europe, and we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents and great-grandparents endured." 😳
December 11, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by McBean
WOW; a DEEPLY corrupt move by the immigration courts; clear collaboration with Trump admin officials to produce a specific result with zero notice to the party and ALSO in a situation where the judge facially lacks jurisdiction; the judge had denied a motion to reopen and the case is on appeal.
Judge Xinis ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s release in part bc ICE could not produce a final “order of removal” to deport him. So last night, they went out and got an immigration judge to issue one.

Now, Abrego is urging Xinis to block his redetention. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
December 12, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Reposted by McBean
Son-in-Law Watch:

".. Kushner has been acting as one of America’s most powerful diplomats .. And the deals Kushner is negotiating .. overlap with his business interests, with little consequence since he is operating as a private citizen."

@theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Jared Kushner – and three Arab monarchies – are at the heart of the Paramount-WBD bid | Mohamad Bazzi
The president’s son-in-law is once again at the center of an international business deal that will require administration approval
www.theguardian.com
December 12, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by McBean
This is monstrous.

Abolishing immigration courts by removing them completely from the Executive branch should be a top policy priority for the next Democratic administration.
A federal judge ruled Thu morning that no order of removal for Abrego Garcia had ever existed. By Thu evening, an immigration judge had conjured a “Immigration Court’s Sua Sponte Order Correcting Scrivener’s Error," Abrego Garcia's lawyers tell the judge in the emergency overnight filing:
December 12, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by McBean
Buttigieg on Indiana: "The big part of how Trumpism works is to make you feel totally disempowered. To make him feel inevitable. And yet the clear takeaway from this is he is not unstoppable and you are not without power."
December 12, 2025 at 1:22 AM
The dark money group Heritage Action says Trump threatened to strip all federal funding from Indiana if state senate rejects 9-0 gerrymandered map today. This is height of autocracy. Trump & his allies using political and economic terrorism to force state legislature to vote for rigged map
December 11, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Reposted by McBean
Significant development in the last 24 hours. Vulnerable Republicans have avoided the discharge petition all year to extend ACA money. But now, with Speaker Johnson digging in against this, a group of Rs are defying him by threatening to team up with Dems and force it to a vote.
December 11, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Thanedar to Noem: "You lied to me under oath"
December 11, 2025 at 4:55 PM