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wpears.bsky.social
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@wpears.bsky.social
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They are trying to cover it up.
WOW: The DOJ has DELETED an image from its release of the Epstein files that shows photos of Trump in a drawer.

Yesterday, we noted that this image — file 468 — likely slipped through the cracks while officials were attempting to hide materials pertaining to Trump.

Now, it’s gone.
December 20, 2025 at 7:18 PM
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We need to rapidly increase state capacity and fix what MAGA broke, all while instituting democratic accountability. At the same time, we need to recognize that simply restoring previous accountability mechanisms won't work; their weakness led us here in the first place.
New, from me: Recently Marc Dunkelman wrote "What the Left Could Learn From Trump’s Brutal Efficiency" in the Times.
I respond here, not to dunk on Dunkelman, but because it represents a mistaken view of governance that progressives are tempted to embrace. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/democrats-...
Democrats need a theory of power, but democracies need a theory of accountability
No, the Trump administration is not a model for how to get things done
donmoynihan.substack.com
December 17, 2025 at 7:16 PM
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NEW: Without USAID funding to help buy food for refugees, the World Food Program rushed to prioritize families based on need, determining that only half the population would get food.

Refugees learned which half they were in from a number stamped on the back of their ration card.
After Trump Officials Cut Food Aid to Kenya, Children Starved to Death
“Brutal and traumatizing”: Interviews and a trove of internal documents show government officials and aid workers desperately tried to warn Trump advisers about impending disaster and death.
www.propublica.org
December 17, 2025 at 12:00 PM
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An absolute bedrock institution for understanding how the planet works, just civilization-scaled vandalism by the most incurious morons on Earth
December 17, 2025 at 2:52 AM
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Unbelievable. This would be a terrible blow to American science, writ large. It would decimate not only climate research, but also the kind of weather, wildfire, and disaster research that has underpinned half a century of progress in prediction, early warning, and increased resilience.
Exclusive: The Trump administration is moving to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, according to a senior White House official, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
Trump moves to dismantle major US climate research center in Colorado
The Trump administration is breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
bit.ly
December 17, 2025 at 2:49 AM
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Under Trump, the SEC has eased up on more than 60% of the crypto cases that were ongoing when he took office in January.

Many of the firms that benefited from the leniency had financial ties to the Trump family.

The SEC is no longer pursuing any cases against crypto firms with Trump ties.
The S.E.C. Was Tough on Crypto. It Pulled Back After Trump Returned to Office.
www.nytimes.com
December 14, 2025 at 7:48 PM
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'Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas being transported to Fossanova Abbey.'
Photograph by Daniel Ibanez
December 10, 2025 at 8:31 AM
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Writing this out, and doing the research to fill in my blanks, was interesting for my own thinking.

Makes me realize the depth of the failure in the US right now, where both modes have broken down. No one is keeping law abreast with society right now. Article III is unwilling, and II incapable.
December 8, 2025 at 5:36 PM
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The death rate among children under 5 is expected to grow this year for the first time in the 21st century, researchers say. A key factor, they say, is cuts to U.S. and other foreign aid

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...
Child deaths under 5 believed to be rising for first time in decades
Cuts to development aid from several countries is a key factor, researchers said.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 7, 2025 at 10:25 PM
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Good thread about the birthright citizenship case & worth connecting it to the hypothetical 22nd amendment convos. Either the Rs on SCOTUS affirms the clear text of these amendments & the decades/centuries of context theyve existed in or we're in a space where the constitution is de facto suspended
so much of the conservative legal revolution seems to outright reject the idea that democratic publics legitimately constituted can fix the meaning of the constitution without formal amendment.
December 7, 2025 at 7:37 PM
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Anniversary of halifax explosion so obligatory

"Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbour making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye boys."
- Vincent Coleman

saved like 300 people on a train, and started the emergency response. Died for it
December 6, 2025 at 11:12 PM
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The US government is summarily executing people on a weekly basis without telling the American people any of their names or presenting any proof of their guilt, for alleged crimes that do not carry the death penalty in the US.
December 6, 2025 at 2:17 PM
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“As a matter of plain reality, an unarmed speedboat, even if it is carrying cocaine, is not a warship. And none of the 11 people aboard — not merely the two initial survivors, but also the nine people the U.S. military killed in its first strike — were fighting anyone.”
December 6, 2025 at 1:02 AM
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NEW info on shipwreck attack. It gets worse.

The 2 survivors climbed atop wreckage and waved to overhead.

"Some of the people viewing the video thought ... could have been an attempt to surrender"

Others "said the most logical explanation was ... signaling for a rescue."

1/
December 5, 2025 at 7:50 PM
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its also, crucially, made all of us worse. some of us by a lot, others by just a little. but a piece of all of us has rotted away by necessity of having to accept this in order to go on with our lives, or by refusing to accept it and bearing the strain of that
December 5, 2025 at 3:16 AM
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the reason why those "the left made me do ___" things ring so hollow is that Trump has been, since 2015, the primary actor in US politics. everything, in some shape or form, has been a reaction to his assault on the sanctity of the US constitutional order
2020-2021 was a particularly bad time but as long as Trump kept upping the ante the polarization was going to happen anyway
December 5, 2025 at 3:09 AM
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The Supreme Court majority has decided that they are the fact-finders, and the facts are what they want them to be, and quite frankly if District Courts disagree, they can pound sand because they're not the ones in charge.

They're right about the last part. But the damage they're doing is longterm.
December 4, 2025 at 11:09 PM
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They're not even trying to appear nonpartisan anymore.
#BREAKING: Over dissents from the three democratic appointees, #SCOTUS puts Texas's new House maps back into effect for (and, presumably, through) the 2026 midterms.

The three Democratic appointees, in an opinion by Justice Kagan, dissent.

I'll post the ruling shortly.
December 4, 2025 at 11:05 PM
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At this point anyone doing what Northwestern did is doing it because they agree with it
November 29, 2025 at 5:29 AM
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Difficult to overstate how profound a failure DOGE was. Spending in FY2025 was not only than in FY2024 – but higher than it was projected to be when Trump first took office.*

The little bit of spending DOGE cut has already killed hundreds of thousands and will eventually lead to millions of deaths.
Bye bye, “DOGE”.

It no longer exists as a “centralized entity”, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/world/us/dog...
November 23, 2025 at 2:02 PM
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Some incredible details in this piece
*one DOGE faction was planning the future of the US government at a venture capital firm
*illegally communicating on Signal to avoid transparency laws was deeply embedded into organizational culture to be taken for granted
November 22, 2025 at 8:15 PM
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March 7, 2025 at 12:37 AM
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“Oh damn, the president ordered the murder of his political opponents” is super bad and to a large extent so is “nobody under him lifted one single finger toward that goal” because who is exercising the power of the presidency at that point?
November 20, 2025 at 7:10 PM
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one thing about this is that in the wake of all of this kirk is basically forgotten. he was barely cold in the ground before his allies — before his *wife* — started scheming over what they could take for themselves. a real life parable.
New: Reuters has tallied job losses, suspensions and investigations stemming from the reaction to Charlie Kirk's Sept. 10 assassination. Its findings: More than 600 Americans have been punished, and the figure is likely to be an under-count.

www.reuters.com/investigatio...
November 19, 2025 at 3:38 PM
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"defense attorneys are telling us they can’t get their clients to take good or reasonable plea offers because they felt they’re better off spending their money on a political donation, drawing Trump’s attention, and getting the case dismissed or going to trial and getting a pardon."
November 17, 2025 at 2:05 PM