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cbgalligan.bsky.social
@cbgalligan.bsky.social
330 followers 740 following 5 posts
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energy9086.bsky.social
36 MINUTES AGO: the Trump administration submitted arguments to the Supreme Court claiming that no court — including the Supreme Court — can question Trump's decision to deploy military troops against US cities.
We are watching what the six fascist Republican SCOTUS members do.
Edmond Bertrand (@vilniusschoolmaster)
36 MINUTES AGO: the Trump administration submitted arguments to the Supreme Court claiming that no court — including the Supreme Court — can question Trump's decision to deploy military troops against...
substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:52 PM
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davidho.bsky.social
Re-reading Daniel Epps and Ganesh Sitaraman's Yale Law Journal article on how to reform SCOTUS for no particular reason.

yalelawjournal.org/pdf/EppsSita...
THE YALE LAW JOURNAL DANIEL EPPS & GANESH SITARAMAN How to Save the Supreme Court ABSTRACT. The consequences of Justice Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation are seismic. Justice Kavanaugh, replacing Justice Anthony Kennedy, completes a new conservative majority and represents a stunning Republican victory after decades of increasingly partisan battles over control of the Court. The result is a Supreme Court whose Justices are likely to vote along party lines more consistently than ever before in American history. That development gravely threatens the Court's legitimacy. If in the future roughly half of Americans lack confidence in the Supreme Court's ability to render impartial justice, the Court's power to settle important questions of law will be in serious jeopardy. Moreover, many Democrats are already calling for changes like court-packing to prevent the new conservative majority from blocking progressive reforms. Even if justified, such moves could provoke further escalation that would leave the Court's image and the rule of law badly damaged. The coming crisis can be stopped. But saving the Court's legitimacy as an institution above politics will require a radical rethinking of how the Court has operated for more than two centu-ries. In this Feature, we outline a new framework for Supreme Court reform. Specifically, we argue for reforms that are plausibly constitutional (and thus implementable by statute) and that are capable of creating a stable equilibrium even if initially implemented using "hardball" tactics. Under this framework, we evaluate existing proposals and offer two of our own: the Supreme Court Lottery and the Balanced Bench. Whether policymakers adopt these precise proposals or not, our framework can guide their much-needed search for reform. We can save what is good about the Court- but only if we are willing to transform the Court.
December 8, 2025 at 6:43 PM
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kylegriffin1.bsky.social
Trump's own mortgages match his description of mortgage fraud, records reveal:

The Trump admin has argued Fed governor Lisa Cook may have committed fraud by declaring more than one primary residence. ProPublica found Trump once did that very thing he called "deceitful and potentially criminal."
Trump’s Own Mortgages Match His Description of Mortgage Fraud, Records Reveal
The Trump administration has argued that Fed board member Lisa Cook may have committed mortgage fraud by declaring more than one primary residence on her loans. We found Trump once did the very thing ...
www.propublica.org
December 8, 2025 at 5:40 PM
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gregsargent.bsky.social
Sadism is the lifeblood of MAGA, and US government agencies are sanctioning this as an operating principle on a daily basis:
December 8, 2025 at 5:46 PM
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weatherwest.bsky.social
It appears that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has, within the past week, scrubbed a large amount of climate change content from its official website, as well as *removed human-caused warming* from the discussion on its "causes of climate change" page.
Snapshot of US EPA's "causes of climate change" webpage as of 12/8/2025. Human causes are no longer mentioned anywhere on the page.
December 8, 2025 at 5:50 PM
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lebassett.bsky.social
Texts from my mom
December 8, 2025 at 5:55 PM
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thetnholler.bsky.social
🎯
December 6, 2025 at 3:40 AM
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brendannyhan.bsky.social
The open disregard for judicial decisions and orders is being normalized more every day
December 6, 2025 at 3:50 AM
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dieworkwear.bsky.social
The Nobel Prize committee should announce the World Cup winner tomorrow
December 6, 2025 at 4:29 AM
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bencollins.bsky.social
Can't believe our tax dollars are going to be spent settling the upcoming exorbitant defamation suit with Sabrina Carpenter, but maybe this is just how public arts funding is going to work now.
annabower.bsky.social Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 3d
Sabrina Carpenter ratioed the White House after it used her song in an ICE video.

The WH deleted the post…but now it’s back with a new ICE video, this time using an altered clip from Carpenter’s SNL monologue.
December 6, 2025 at 4:30 AM
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brunojnavarro.bsky.social
icymi
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d
"When there’s no war, you aren’t committing war crimes when you kill people indiscriminately. You’re just a straight-up murderer."
A war criminal without a war
It's just murder.
www.publicnotice.co
December 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM
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gtconway.bsky.social
December 6, 2025 at 6:55 AM
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anneapplebaum.bsky.social
European reaction to the new American national strategy document
rikefranke.bsky.social Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.bsky.social · 3d
The headline, the main takeaway from a European viewpoint is this:

The transatlantic relationship as we know it is over. Yes, we kinda knew this. But this is now official US White House policy. Not a sppech, not a statement. The West as it used to be no longer exists.
December 5, 2025 at 11:47 AM
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rikefranke.bsky.social
A few thoughts on the new US national security strategy that was released today.
🧵

www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...
December 5, 2025 at 9:49 AM
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peterhagedoorn.bsky.social
So Europe should conclude this open and clear and should take the required measures for independency from US. In defence, in IT services, in intelligence services. US can not be longer trusted as an ally.
December 5, 2025 at 10:41 AM
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rikefranke.bsky.social
What struck me most on Europe wasn’t the focus on value, freedom of speech etc - again, very similar to Vance’s Munich speech - but how activist it is. This is about directly trying to influence what is going on in Europe:
American diplomacy should continue to stand up for genuine democracy, freedom of expression, and unapologetic celebrations of European nations' individual character and history. America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism. Our goal should be to help Europe correct its current trajectory. We will need a strong Europe to help us successfully compete, and to work in concert with us to prevent any adversary from dominating Europe. America is, understandably, sentimentally attached to the European continent— and, of course, to Britain and Ireland. The character of these countries is also strategically important because we count upon creative, capable, confident, democratic allies to establish conditions of stability and security. We want to work with aligned countries that want to restore their former greatness.
December 5, 2025 at 10:17 AM
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rikefranke.bsky.social
Pages 25 to 27 are most relevant here and should be read in their entirety
December 5, 2025 at 10:01 AM
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rikefranke.bsky.social
What about Europe? It is mentioned quite a bit, with one primary focus: European identity and the alleged elites and minority governments that restrict core liberties and democratic processes. This is extremely close to JD Vance’s Munich speech.
We want to support our allies in preserving the freedom and security of Europe, while restoring Europe's civilizational self-confidence and Western identity: Regarding countries that share, or say they share, these principles, the United States will advocate strongly that they be upheld in letter and spirit. We will oppose elite-driven, anti-democratic restrictions on core liberties in Europe, the Anglosphere, and the rest of the democratic world, especially among our allies. The Trump Administration finds itself at odds with European officials who hold unrealistic expectations for the war perched in unstable minority governments, many of which trample on basic principles of democracy to suppress opposition.
December 5, 2025 at 9:59 AM
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rikefranke.bsky.social
And domestically
December 5, 2025 at 9:54 AM
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rikefranke.bsky.social
Let’s look at those priorities:

. “the affairs of other countries are our concern only if their activities directly threaten our interests”
. Focus on Western Hemisphere
. nations should prioritize their interests
. “days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over”
After the end of the Cold War, American foreign policy elites convinced themselves that permanent American domination of the entire world was in the best interests of our country. Yet the affairs of other countries are our concern only if their activities directly threaten our interests. Our elites badly miscalculated America's willingness to shoulder forever global burdens to which the American people saw no connection to the national interest. They overestimated America's ability to fund, simultaneously, a massive welfare-regulatory-administrative state alongside a massive military, diplomatic, intelligence, and foreign aid complex. They placed hugely misguided and destructive bets on globalism and so-called "free trade" that hollowed out the very middle class and industrial base on which American economic and military preeminence depend. They allowed allies and partners to offload the cost of their defense onto the American people, and sometimes to suck us into conflicts and controversies central to their interests but peripheral or irrelevant to our own. • We want to ensure that the Western Hemisphere remains reasonably stable and well-governed enough to prevent and disco...age mass migration to the United States; we want a Hemisphere whose governments cooperate with us against narco-terrorists, cartels, and other transnational criminal organizations; we want a Hemisphere that remains free of hostile foreign incursion or ownership of key assets, and that supports critical supply chains; and we want to ensure our continued access to key strategic locations. In other words, we will assert and enforce a "Trump Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine; Primacy of Nations - The world's fundamental political unit is and will remain the nation-state. It is natural and j that all nations put their interests first and guard their sovereignty. The world works best when nations prioritize their interests. The United States will put our own interests first and, in our relations with er nations, encourage them to prioritize their own interests as well. We stand for the sovereign rights of nations, against the sovereignty-sapping incursions of the most intrusive transnational organizations, and for reforming those institutions so that they assist rather than hinder individual sovereignty and further American interests. 9 The days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over.
December 5, 2025 at 9:49 AM
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rikefranke.bsky.social
The headline, the main takeaway from a European viewpoint is this:

The transatlantic relationship as we know it is over. Yes, we kinda knew this. But this is now official US White House policy. Not a sppech, not a statement. The West as it used to be no longer exists.
December 5, 2025 at 9:49 AM
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rikefranke.bsky.social
I’ll go through it in order, but what all Europeans need to read are pages 25-27 on “Promoting European Greatness”.
December 5, 2025 at 9:49 AM
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rikefranke.bsky.social
But first:
This is really a strategy which prioritises. They also say so openly, and definitely have a point on this 👇
A strategy must evaluate, sort, and prioritize. Not every country, region, issue, or cause however worthy— can be the focus of American strategy. The purpose of foreign policy is the protection of core national interests; that is the sole focus of this strategy. American strategies since the end of the Cold War have fallen short-they have been laundry lists of wishes or desired end states; have not clearly defined what we want but instead stated vague platitudes; and have often misjudged what we should want. Focused Definition of the National Interest - Since at least the end of the Cold War, administrations have often published National Security Strategies that seek to expand the definition of America's "national interest" such that that almost no issue or endeavor is considered outside its scope. But to focus on everything is to focus on nothing. It has become customary for documents such as this to mention every part of the world and issue, on the assumption that any oversight signifies a blind spot or a snub. As a result, such documents become bloated and unfocused-the opposite of what a strategy should be.
December 5, 2025 at 9:49 AM
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swin24.bsky.social
Unclear of exact circumstance or who is woman is, but it reminds me of a broader issue:

The GOP basically had one cosmetic job; have their violent fun with ethnic cleansing but do it in a way with just a shred of plausible deniability so that enough Hispanic voters didn’t see what is so clearly…
premthakker.bsky.social Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 5d
Agents in Key Largo, Florida ripped this woman wearing medical scrubs out of her car as she screamed she is a US citizen. Agents cuffed her and put her in one of their cars.

She was eventually let go, per David Goodhue of the Miami Herald, who also took this footage:
December 4, 2025 at 3:03 AM
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joshuaerlich.bsky.social
Trump is gonna take so much egg
propublica.org ProPublica @propublica.org · 5d
Egg producers suspect bird flu is traveling through the air.

After a disastrous Midwestern outbreak early this year, we tested that theory and found that where the wind blew, the virus followed.

Vaccines could help, but the USDA hasn’t approved them.
What the U.S. Government Is Dismissing That Could Seed a Bird Flu Pandemic
Egg producers suspect bird flu is traveling through the air. After a disastrous Midwestern outbreak early this year, we tested that theory and found that where the wind blew, the virus followed. Vacci...
www.propublica.org
December 4, 2025 at 2:35 AM