in the year 3403 AD, crime is legal and cops are illegal: it's the APRIL 2025 US POLITICS THREAD

idk I was getting annoyed that nobody started one yet

big Supreme Court election in WI tonight, would be the first real sign of where things stand electorally right now, also Elon has poured tons of money into this so I guess it'll speak to his ability to straight up purchase the country

Thanks WmC and Mr. Snowy

The Republican in the race is named Brad Schimel, but his supporters have signs that say "Just Call Him Brad" presumably because Schimel is too close to Schlemiel?

I firmly believe that "Schimel" is too hard for many of them to spell

is there any sense of who is likely to win that race?

Money.

Obviously hope Wisconsin comes thru. If the Dems win that and cut the margin in the Florida district race by half or more, that will look like a bad night for Trump.

Yeah, I predict the disgusting Randy Fine will win in his district but not by double digits.

Fine's disliked by many Republicans, not for noble reasons either: insufficient loyalty to DeSantis, a loathsome human being, etc.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/us/politics/maryland-man-deportation-error-el-salvador.html

Cool cool, just the DOJ admitting they deported a man by mistake but claiming they have no legal ability to bring him back.

Sounds like a Kingston Trio song

https://www.wired.com/story/doge-takes-control-usip-office-building/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_brand=wired&utm_social-type=owned

DOGE Is Trying to Gift Itself a $500 Million Building, Court Filings Show
The documents reveal a DOGE affiliate is attempting to transfer the headquarters of an independent think tank, the United States Institute of Peace, to the government at no cost.

https://media3.giphy.com/media/ALvdHigd2gBqw/giphy.gif?cid=6c09b952j1tfjihrae6ahxcr0yrcs0ij5ja2jttr4xs5alzq&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

"oopsie"

just a loathsome administration

At the Food and Drug Administration, senior leaders were pushed out and offices focused on food, drug and medical device policy were hit with deep staff reductions amounting to about 3,500 agency staff members. Some workers said that they discovered they were fired when they attempted to scan their badge to get into the building early Tuesday.

10,000 laid off at HHS agencies

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/us/politics/trump-federal-layoffs-health-food.html

https://bsky.app/profile/marisakabas.bsky.social/post/3llr5yw4tvk2t

Bluesky post says -
Institute of Museum and Library Sciences employees were allowed back in the building this morning to gather belongings after all being put on admin leave by DOGE yesterday. Supporters have gathered in front of the building and staffers inside have posted a visible sign that says "SOS IMLS."

is there any sense of who is likely to win that race?

― fluffy tufts university (f. hazel), Tuesday, April 1, 2025 10:00 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

idk how accurate polling is in a race like this but an "A+" pollster has Crawford up 7. even one of the heavy R-leaning pollsters didn't show Schimel being ahead. also Protasiewicz won a couple years ago by 10 so it would be kind of a surprise if she lost. that said Elon is pouring millions and millions of dollars into this, one would think that might have an effect

i mean he has also poured millions into things that explode before they reach their intended destination

Corey Booker and some other Senate Dems finally doing a talking filibuster on Senate floor that started yesterday.

Elon will probably put devices into his judges that will blow them up if they make a decision he doesn't like.

the last talking filibuster I remember was by some socialist from Vermont

aiui this is not actually a filibuster?

E coli just biding its time now, what with those HHS cuts.

sleeve, that is also my understanding, Booker called it a "vigil" since they aren't actually holding anything up

hmmm

‪Aaron Huertas‬ ✧@aaronhuer✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
·
1h
Sen. Booker is crossing the performance / obstruction Rubicon -- if he eats up a legislative day and Republicans have to reschedule the nomination for tomorrow or later, it's a clear example of what advocates have been asking for, in line with using up debate time on Vought

Yep.

In a court filing this evening, the Trump administration said that it had mistakenly deported a Maryland father to a notorious Salvadoran prison due to an "administrative error."

But Leavitt: "The error you're referring to was a clerical error. It was an administrative error. The administration maintains the position that this individual, who was deported to El Salvador and will not be returning to our country, was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang

the important question is, are the made up people in Schumer's head getting mad at Booker yet

I'm going to get my Michael Schenker Group tattoo removed just in case

the important question is, are the made up people in Schumer's head getting mad at Booker yet

― frogbs, Tuesday, April 1, 2025

lol

Ballistic: Bailey vs. Booker

the Baileys of Massapequa have never trusted guys from New Jersey

The fallout from all these cuts and subsequent brain drain will be felt for generations. It’s not like the average American will feel them right away, but our grandkids will still be dealing with the fallout.

do you mean nuclear fallout

if we're lucky

I should have used the word “fallout” a third time in there somewhere.

Booker called it a "vigil" since they aren't actually holding anything up

― better than ezra collective soul asylum (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, April 1, 2025 11:39 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

#resist

this seems good, 9 Republicans joined the Democrats on this

https://bsky.app/profile/jbendery.bsky.social/post/3llrhwshuek23

Incredible. This sucker is doing down, just as one Dem was predicting to me.

Means GOP has to go back to the House Rules Committee and pass a new rule for taking up the SAVE Act -- this time without a separate provision that kills GOP Rep. Luna's bill to accommodate new parents in Congress.

Maryland father being sent to El Salvador due to clerical error is too Brazil for comfort.

David Dayen‬ ✧@dda✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
·
7m
Really wild situation in the House. Johnson lost a vote attacking expectant and new mothers in his workplace, and is so whiny about it he shut down the whole chamber for a week.

https://bsky.app/profile/ositanwanevu.bsky.social/post/3llrdsdf45k2u

lol

what does that say

Osita Nwanevu

Follow
I'm not really a fan of Booker's, but the kind of theatre he's doing now should be a basic competency for major Democratic figures — something people do even if they're not running for president in the next cycle.

even better:

Kevin M. Kruse‬ ✧@kevinmkr✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
·
3h
This pointless stunt by Cory Booker is accomplishing nothing but drawing attention to the Trump administration’s wrongdoing and delaying the work of the Senate and energizing the Democratic base and, wait, hang on, let me come in again

something like 60K viewers total right now?

I mentioned Bernie's filibuster earlier--that was basically what made him a national figure and began his movement. Weird that more people haven't tried it.

and guess what -- your fundraising goes up

in related news, I donated to the Kat Abu campaign

I see people on local news FB posts saying government shouldn't spend money on Narcan because it just lets addicts keep living and using and drives up demand.

You have to accept the consequences of your actions. Do the crime, do the time. You got pregnant? Well you’re having that baby whether you like it or not

I've been wanting a writer as smart as Bouie to compare FDR and Trump's use of executive actions. I've seen haw-haw-hawing from conservatives on social media all like, "Yeah, but Roosevelt wrote a series of executive orders." And they don't acknowledge (a) the Depression (b) Congress gave him legislation (that he'd pushed) to sign (c) WWII (d) 12 years in office. Link: https://archive.ph/kbXBm

a major part of what prompts “it’s too early to tell” punditry is that the true effects of the tariffs and the push for mass deportations have barely showed up in any of the indicators that people feel and understand, like price increases, shortages, and unemployment. a much lesser, but real, part of that caution about proclaiming what's coming at us is that since April 2 Trump has already announced a ton of major changes to the tariffs and hinted at many major changes to come, so who knows what the landscape will look like by June 1. He's too erratic to make confident predictions about the day after tomorrow, let alone months from now.

Meanwhile on my drive home from visiting mom, while passing the Tesla plant, my ipod was playing “Guillotine” by Death Grips. It felt good, albeit pointless.

other bad things happening -

Slate writer Mark Joseph Stern on Bluesky regarding Supreme Court oral arguments this morning-

It appears very likely that the Supreme Court will force Oklahoma to approve and fund a Catholic charter school that reserves the right to indoctrinate students in Catholicism, force them to attend mass, and discriminate against non-Catholics. The three liberals sound increasingly exasperated.

...It doesn't sound like the conservative justices accept the validity of the Establishment Clause, which requires separation of church & state. They're wielding the Free Exercise Clause to abolish church-state separation and compel Americans to fund religious education that violates their own beliefs.

"They did sign up for it, actually" for May thread title.

Free!

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/30/mohsen-mahdawi-released-immigration-detention

they're really pushing hard on the Gulf of MEXICO thing, lots of new hats around

Meanwhile on my drive home from visiting mom, while passing the Tesla plant, my ipod was playing “Guillotine” by Death Grips. It felt good, albeit pointless.

― sarahell,

and a lil voice inside your head said
don't look back
you can never look back

we fired our guns but the British kept a-comin'
there weren't quite as many as there were a while ago
we fired once more and they commenced to runnin'
down the mississippi to the gulf of AMERICA

To President Trump and his cabinet: I am not afraid of you.”

Serious 'Quiet Part Loud' shit

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lo2dloetgk2l

Note also the inherent misogyny of using 'dolls' as an example.

he's kinda right about the ships loaded up with shit we probably don't need, but that's how the american economy functions

lol, i love these laissez-faire far-right economic policies...

Ngl im interested to see how my neighbors with the online shopping addiction handle all of this

lol.. I love the smell of GOP infighting in the morning

Conservative media personality Ann Coulter on Wednesday slammed President Trump’s latest Cabinet meeting, saying that it featured “Kim Jong il-style tributes.”

“Would it be possible to have a cabinet meeting without the Kim Jong il-style tributes?” Coulter wrote in a post on the social platform X, comparing the Wednesday meeting to that of the former North Korean dictator.

She’s always opposed Trump from the right and nobody cares about her now

Today is a good day where I live — the Montana legislature has adjourned. They did some good things, they tried and failed to do some bad things, but best of all, they won't be back in session until 2027.

they're skipping 2026??

Yeah, the Montana state constitution says the legislature meets for no more than 90 days in each odd-numbered year.

are there elections between now and then?

(state elections, I mean)

Probably. I know Steve Daines is up for reelection in 2026.

Discipline

When asked directly if he trusted Putin, Trump deflected: “I don’t trust you. I don’t trust a lot of people. I don’t trust you,” before adding that Putin “respects me”.

xpost honestly some entire years are bullshit anyway

Ngl im interested to see how my neighbors with the online shopping addiction handle all of this

already saw people freaking out on reddit about Temu prices

jesus christ he's cooked

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lo33at56fu2d

okay sure he's senile but WHY THE FUCK IS STEPHEN A SMITH INTERVIEWING A PRESIDENT

Is Skip Bayless going to moderate one of the 2028 debates?

An aide sitting in must have held up a handwritten note about 40 seconds in that said "HARVARD not Harlem". So, old media pro that he is, Trump (ahem) smoothly segues to how much Blacks agree with him about Harvard.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-trump-100-days-tariffs/

70% of MAGA Republicans think the economy is getting better vs. 28% of all other respondents. Total flat earth levels of delusion.

lol @ that NYT open letter to Trump. So sober and strategic.

Link?

Careful, it'll singe your eyes:

https://archive.ph/c9Fzx

I had trouble reading past this paragraph:

The building of this coalition should start with an acknowledgment that Mr. Trump is the legitimate president and many of his actions are legal. Some may even prove effective. He won the presidency fairly last year, by a narrow margin in the popular vote and a comfortable margin in the Electoral College. On several key issues, his views were closer to public opinion than those of Democrats. Since taking office, he has largely closed the southern border, and many of his immigration policies are both legal and popular. He has reoriented federal programs to focus less on race, which many voters support. He has pressured Western Europe to stop billing American taxpayers for its defense. Among these policies are many that we strongly oppose — such as pardoning Jan. 6 rioters, cozying up to Vladimir Putin of Russia and undermining Ukraine — but that a president has the authority to enact. Elections have consequences.

Grotesque PR bullshit. "Reoriented federal programs" GTFO.

lol what cringing toadies

Sir, you’re doing great, we have a few minor reservations, but you’re doing 👍🏻 please don’t kill us

Still operating from this fantasy of some grand nonpartisan (non-left-wing) anti-Trump coalition.

What the fuck is that “many of his actions are legal” sentence?? It’s the “think of all the women Bill Cosby didnt rape” argument

Also it's like, you can fight like hell against them even if they're legal. Being "legal" doesn't mean everyone should just calm down and take it.

it's the usual 'wrong lesson from the discussion', like obviously the most abhorrent shit that Trump is doing isn't JUST bad because it's illegal, it's bad because it's also terrible on TOP of being illegal, and our message isn't "find a way to do it legally and now we have no problem".

xpost

"We are working with other countries to say ‘We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries.”

- marco rubio, yesterday

- Emma Lazarus

lol

"They did sign up for it, actually...": US POLITICS, MAY 2025

tb slightly f to the nyt after the elections have consequences like they do say “Mr. Trump nonetheless deserves criticism on these issues, and Congress members and grass-roots organizers should look for legal ways to thwart him.”

line, not like