13) I think Dem leadership still suffers from frame drag. They think it's the 90s. Trump is dismantling the powers of Congress. They have to rise to that moment and demand big things.

Vought is expanding the playing field to thinks off the table. Dems need to do the same.

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12) With the way the CR/minibus fight ended, real doubts about whether the Dems are smart... at least their leadership. Republicans negotiated good cop, bad cop, crazy cop.

What was the Dem ldrship negotiating strategy? Pretend to be one way to the public and another in private. Not good.

4) Senate Dems did get something out of the negotiations w/r/t power of the purse. They protected the legislative branch, notably GAO. But it's something they already had that was under threat, not something they won. Same is true with the RIFs. Same is true with SNAP.

3. Republicans were playing good cop, bad cop, crazy cop.

Good cop: Senate Republicans
Bad cop: House Republicans (Johnson)
Crazy cop: Russ Vought + Trump

Vought's plan was always to use impoundment/rescissions/starving people + firing feds to force Dems to surrender on the power of the purse.

As part of their war on Black history and purging all evidence of any accomplishment by anyone who wasn’t a white man, Pete Hegseth has removed a two-panel memorial from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, S. Limburg, after complaints by the Heritage Foundation.

I'm also in love with the promo image created for STO's version of Moopsy by one of our UI Artists (who is not on bluesky near as I can tell!)

in chicago’s austin neighborhood around 8 am:

this horrific video posted to social media shows at least four feds open a person’s car door, then handcuff and abduct them from laramie avenue.

At this point that feels like the entire Republican philosophy.