"On her second attempt to secure an indictment against a group of protesters who would come to be known as the "Broadview Six," Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg kicked out a grand juror who described the case as a 'crock of ****,' according to grand jury transcripts released on Tuesday. "

Huff Post yahoo.com/news/politics/articl…
#USPolitics #TrumpRegime #ICE

Vengeance Is the Only Thing Trump Has Left

#PoliticalStrategy #USPolitics #PoliticalScoreSettling #Vengeance #Trump

thenation.com/article/politics…

Vengeance Is the Only Thing Trump Has Left | The Nation

Everything else is going wrong. So the president is turning to his favorite project: settling scores with his many enemies.

^{Chris Lehmann (The Nation)}

Always keep in mind that Trump follows, he doesn't lead.

Mainstream conservative commentators have been calling for dismantling of certain agencies because they think they know better, so that's what Trump's going on about here.

Idiots doing armchair quarterbacking want to rearrange government, and Trump dutifully puts in people like Pulte to give his voters what they say they want.

#USPolitics #Trump

My work tracking cryptocurrency and AI industry political spending has only underscored the importance of getting big money out of politics. I recently talked to Tiffany Muller, President of End Citizens United, about what it would take to do that, and how we’re closer than you might think.

Video: youtube.com/watch?v=oZAhNJbsPc…
Transcript: citationneeded.news/end-citize…

#cryptocurrency #crypto #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #CitizensUnited #USpol #USpolitics

End Citizens United’s Tiffany Muller on fighting big money in politics

Tiffany Muller talks to me about what Citizens United enabled, how crypto and AI fit into the bigger picture of money in politics, and what it would actually take to fix this broken system.

^{Molly White (Citation Needed)}

Republicans 'utterly disgusted' by Trump official's push to get son-in-law elected

#MAGA #PoliticalEthics #USPolitics #Wisconsin7th #CongressionalElection

rawstory.com/michael-alfonso-w…

Republicans 'utterly disgusted' by Trump official's push to get son-in-law elected

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has spent the past eight months mounting what critics describe as an unprecedented campaign to install his son-in-law, 26-year-old first-time candidate Michael Alfonso, in a vacant congressional seat — and the back…

^{Travis Gettys (Raw Story)}

The World Cup is a racist, genocide-supporting shitshow latest.

I'm seeing at least three stories a day about this, from withdrawal of countries' ticket allocations, refusing visas or banning match officials.

This is the Senegalese team being searched by CBP *on the tarmac*.

#BoycottWorldCup #Football #Racism #USPolitics

Most voters have no idea any of this is happening. These PACs run ads about jobs and immigration — never mentioning crypto or AI. 73% of voters disapprove of officials having crypto business ties, but 55% didn't even know Trump is personally involved in the industry (per CoinDesk).

But when voters do find out, the spending can backfire. In Illinois, candidates who called out the crypto money against them won their primaries despite being vastly outspent. Transparency is the only counter to this.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #USpol #USpolitics #CitationNeededNewsletter

Crypto and AI companies have also poured $7 billion+ into Trump directly. Afterwards, 21+ SEC cases/investigations against crypto companies were dropped, regulators did a U-turn on crypto policy, and the industry was invited to write their own rules.

influence.citationneeded.news/…

#crypto #cryptocurrency #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #USpol #USpolitics #CitationNeededNewsletter

The crypto industry spent $130 million buying the 2024 elections. Over a dozen pro-crypto Congresspeople were installed, and regulatory destruction followed. Now AI is running the same play, with the same strategists and funders. Following only crypto would be telling half the story.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #USpol #USpolitics #CitationNeededNewsletter

I've been running Follow the Crypto since 2024. Today I'm relaunching it as Tech Influence Watch, expanded to cover AI political spending alongside crypto. They’ve spent more than $400 million this election cycle, and now you can follow it in close to real time.

influence.citationneeded.news/

Here’s the full story behind the Tech Influence Watch launch, including what I found while building it and why it matters now: citationneeded.news/tech-influ…

#crypto #cryptocurrency #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #USpol #USpolitics #CitationNeededNewsletter

I’m launching Tech Influence Watch as AI follows crypto into politics

Most voters don’t know that crypto and AI companies have spent more than $400 million this cycle to buy Congress. Let’s make that spending visible.

^{Molly White (Citation Needed)}

The NYTimes headline is wrong, as is pretty common for shoddy reporting regarding the Court.

As the article itself correctly says, 'The F.C.C. orders “did not create an obligation to pay,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote.'

So THE WHOLE POINT of the ruling is that the FCC doesn't have the power to levy fines. The NY Times and so many others get this downright backwards.

We need to recognize how often people rely on reporting that get the story backwards so we can stop trusting them until they improve.

#SCOTUS #USPolitics #NYTimes

MAGA Freaks Out After Trump Ally Registers as Foreign Agent
It looks like Michael Flynn isn’t all that America First.

newrepublic.com/post/211218/ma…

#news #politics #uspol #uspolitics #GOPCult #trump #ethics #corruption #maga

MAGA Freaks Out After Trump Ally Registers as Foreign Agent

^{The New Republic}

I mean... Trump likes that kind of attention, and his more competent PR folks use it to his advantage.

So many of the No Kings folk don't realize they're playing into his game, actually helping the guy. Their methods are counterproductive, and stuff like this helped get him reelected.

#USPolitics #nokings #protest #Trump

Chilling free speech “is the closest thing to a consistent governing strategy in Trump’s second term.”

Researchers say fear of arrests, deportations and retaliation is creating a “chilling effect” that’s keeping many students from protesting — even as young Americans sour on Trump.

theconversation.com/chilling-e…
#USPolitics

Chilling effects of Trump’s war on free speech extend far beyond campus walls – and that’s the point

A persistent government strategy to sow fear through punitive measures has corroded freedom and democracy.

^{The Conversation}

This should be the only thing anyone says in response to Stephen Miller until his miserable death.

(yes, it is real instagram.com/p/DY2cnf9iUWZ/?u…)

Hey Texas, try not to fuck this up. For once.

#vote #uspolitics #uspol

Protesters outside the Hilton hotel in Manhattan yesterday, where a property expo attended by mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Lion was taking place.

#FreePalestine #SettlerColonialism #USPolitics

Emily Waldorf faced a life-threatening miscarriage.

Even after she met the hospital’s CEO, called the governor and hired a lawyer, she couldn’t get care in the country’s “most pro-life state.”
propublica.org/article/arkansa…

#News #Arkansas #Women #Health #Law #Abortion #Medicine #USPolitics

She Faced a Life-Threatening Miscarriage. Under Arkansas’ Abortion Ban, Even Calls to the Governor’s Office Didn’t Help.

Her case shows how abortion bans have left hospital lawyers, not doctors, deciding who gets care — and how lawmakers and regulators have failed to change that.

^{shoshana.gordon@propublica.org (ProPublica)}

As usual Krugman gets a lot wrong here, most importantly by giving Trump too much credit.

Firstly, it assumes coherence on Trump's part. What is a win to him? It is a loss because X and Y conditions weren't met. But no, Trump is a wet noodle without such basic standards and goals. He's been unable to lay out a win or loss condition.

Then there's this: "It’s far more likely that Hegseth and Trump have also been receiving false, optimistic reports"

Well that alone is Krugman pretty much undermining the rest of his piece. If they don't know what's going on, well, that's that. The rest of it comes to nothing.

It needs to be consistently pointed out that #Trump is such a loser incapable of managing much of anything. Here Krugman almost suggests that Trump is a fine manager with misguided goals.

He has no goals.

#USPolitics #Iran #war

@dbcurren.bsky.social

Stephen Colbert didn’t just change late-night comedy — he changed how Americans talk about politics, and that puts him among the all-time greats.

As the “Late Show” comes to a close, a Penn State comedy scholar looks back at how Colbert used satire to explain complex topics while still making us laugh.

The best satirists don’t just make people laugh. They help people understand power. And with that in mind, Colbert is among the best.

theconversation.com/5-reasons-…
#USpolitics #Colbert #satire

most importantly, it looked like Paxton was going to win.

So, as he often does, Trump hitched his wagon to the side that was already going to win so he could claim the win for himself.

#Trump doesn't really care about all of that other stuff. He's spineless and oblivious to anything of substance.

He just wants the superficial chance to proclaim himself a winner again in front of his adoring crowd, and all of that factual stuff is just irrelevant annoyance.

#USPolitics

The NAACP is calling on Black student-athletes to boycott Southern colleges after the Supreme Court decision that weakened the Voting Rights Act. “The NAACP will not watch the same institutions that depend on Black athletic prowess to fill their stadiums and their bank accounts remain silent while their states strip Black communities of their voice,” NAACP National President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement. Here's more from NBC.

flip.it/mAqpg8

#USPolitics #CollegeSports #BlackMastodon

NAACP urges Black student-athletes to boycott Southern schools after Voting Rights Act decision

The NAACP is urging Black student-athletes to withhold their college commitments in states where new congressional maps could be drawn.

^{Bracey Harris (NBC News)}