rschafler.bsky.social
@rschafler.bsky.social
Please take the time to read this, and ask yourself how we got here and how we can begin to come back to our humanity as a nation.
July 17, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted
One of my favorite annual @democracynow.org traditions is that we always play this video of James Earl Jones reading Frederick Douglass's speech "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?"

If you've never read or heard the speech, it's well worth your time.
James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass Speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?"
YouTube video by Democracy Now!
youtu.be
July 4, 2025 at 3:29 PM
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There will now be 10,000 new ICE agents & 100,000 new detention beds--and few safeguards protecting people from constitutional violations by the feds.

Time for states to pass laws allowing people to sue fed agents. Read about it these "converse-1983" statutes here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
July 3, 2025 at 8:15 PM
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This is Ken Calvert (R-CA). If he votes for this bill,
39,687 of his constituents would lose access to their healthcare.
30,709 of his constituents could lose access to their food assistance.
271 energy jobs in his district could be lost.
July 2, 2025 at 7:38 PM
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This is David Valadao (R-CA). If he votes for this bill,
65,140 of his constituents would lose access to their healthcare.
60,580 of his constituents could lose access to their food assistance.
3,612 energy jobs in his district could be lost.
July 2, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Reposted
This is Young Kim (R-CA). If she votes for this bill,
31,315 of her constituents would lose access to their healthcare.
14,993 of her constituents could lose access to their food assistance.
July 2, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Reposted
In a country characterized by the rule of law, some regulation of immigration is a legitimate function of government. In a lawless, expressly bigoted, and expressly corrupt regime, it is not. Download IceBlock and defy this administration.
July 1, 2025 at 7:41 PM
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this is the level of funding where all the possibilities for American politics that have been described as hyperbolic over the past decades - the comparisons to Nazi Germany and other nightmares of the 20th century - become logistically possible and politically likely
If the GOP reconciliation bill passes, ICE gets through FY2029:

- $45 billion for detention, on top of the current annual budget of $3.4 billion
- $14.4 billion for transportation and removal, on top of the current annual budget of $750 million
- $8 billion for hiring/retention
- Billions more.
‼️‼️
June 29, 2025 at 10:54 AM
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Ever since Tim McVeigh, US leaders have pretended all this right-wing domestic terrorism is made up of “lone wolves." They’re not. They’re foot soldiers. Violence like the Minnesota shooting is what Trump wants—he wants an opposition too scared to stop him. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/there-s-no...
There's no such thing as a right-wing "lone wolf"
Let's be clear: The Trump administration wants political violence in America
www.doomsdayscenario.co
June 18, 2025 at 6:12 PM
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🚨 There’s a lot of horrific news out of Washington right now—but you might have missed this: Senate Republicans just introduced a plan to sell off 120 million acres of our public lands.

Let me break down what’s in the bill and why it’s a full-scale land grab. 🧵
June 16, 2025 at 9:13 PM
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Every major Dem politician needs to realize that, in this environment, they can schedule a "speech to the nation," like Newsom did, and get tons of media coverage.

Just do it.
June 11, 2025 at 4:12 AM
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NEW: I analyzed nearly 300 federal cases involving the Trump administration. Federal judges—across the political spectrum—are using language I’ve never seen before. One called government actions “unconscionable.” Another quoted Kafka. They’re begging us to pay attention.
Federal Judges Are Begging Us to Pay Attention
A Data-Driven Analysis of nearly 300 Federal Cases Reveals Judges Quoting Kafka and Warning of Democracy in Peril
open.substack.com
June 8, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Putting aside everything else awful about the current Republican House, they literally cannot govern. Like they can’t do the job. They’re just there for their fake outrage tweets, the pathetic faux celebrity they get, and the insider stock trading. They do not give a shit about anything else.
June 4, 2025 at 12:01 AM
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The flood of encomiums and morality tales about Elon's turn in Washington cldn't be more predictable, vapid & sickening. If you want a story, get me the story about the crisis comms team directing this. He ran anti-constitutional blitzkrieg thru the federal government, did massive harm, violated ...
May 29, 2025 at 10:57 PM
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In a sense, putting the absurdity of the Senate on full display can hasten its demise. But that only works if both sides are willing to be absurd. Protecting millions from losing health care and food benefits to fund tax cuts for the rich is a good reason for absurdity. prospect.org/politics/202...
Senate Democrats Have Been Handed a Tool to Stop the Big Beautiful Bill
Thanks to a Republican vote to stop California from setting its own auto emissions, Democrats can challenge virtually any Trump administration action, and eat up time on the Senate floor.
prospect.org
May 28, 2025 at 1:39 PM
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Neguse was grilling Jim Jordan so hard this morning over language in the reconciliation bill to restrict federal judges' ability to enforce court penalties that Jordan had to consult with his lawyers
May 21, 2025 at 3:01 PM
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Tucked deep in the thousand-plus pages of the GOP’s multitrillion-dollar budget bill is a paragraph curtailing a court’s greatest tool for forcing the government to obey its rulings: the power to enforce contempt findings.

We are a country NO ONE can rely on.

🟥🟥🟥
May 19, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Maybe one real piece of evidence that the Trump regime does not plan on leaving in 2028 is that their arguments about nationwide injunctions in front of the Supreme Court- if adopted by the conservative majority- really could bite Republicans in the ass if we ever get a Democratic president again.
May 15, 2025 at 10:39 PM