onfocus

Waltz, who invited Goldberg into the Signal chat, said yesterday that he was investigating “how the heck he got into this room.”

We’re all looking for the guy who did this.

There's almost no precedent for the heads of Defense, State, Intelligence and National Security to be sharing such sensitive military intelligence in a forum that was known to be unsecured.

Bad boys don't play by the rules. Operational security is for sheeple.

This all goes to the fundamental point Trump has never been able to accept: that the US government is the property of the American people and it persists over time with individual officeholders merely temporary occupants charged with administering an entity they don’t own or possess.

If there's no record, there's no crime.

How much poop is in our water? The Supreme Court says “not enough.”

I really enjoy the 5-4 Podcast about Supreme Court decisions and this latest episode is a great example. Maybe "enjoy" is the wrong word. I guess I appreciate some gallows humor with my legal analysis.

Reference to due process first appeared in a statutory rendition of clause 39 in 1354 thus: "No man of what state or condition he be, shall be put out of his lands or tenements nor taken, nor disinherited, nor put to death, without he be brought to answer by due process of law."

People have been working to curb our worst human impulses for a long time. Let’s learn from history and keep that going instead of continually rediscovering why people have been working on it.

"The American people are saying loud and clear, we will not accept an oligarchic form of society," Sanders said, according to Colorado Public Radio. "We will not accept the richest guy in the world running all over Washington, making cuts to the Social Security Administration, cuts to the Veterans Administration, almost destroying the Department of Education—all so that they could give over a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the wealthiest 1%."

34,000 people for an off-season rally is pretty surprising. Seeing pictures from this event is a relief, highly recommended.

Instead of admonishing Trump for directly violating a court order, Roberts invoked the “normal appellate review process.” It may sound like Roberts was saying that Trump should litigate his disagreements with Judge Boasberg in the normal way, but what he’s really saying is that Trump should feel free to ignore lower-court orders until the Supreme Court has a chance to weigh in.

Chilling read on the Roberts letter to Trump. Elie Mystal sees less of a rebuke and more of a, "just send it my way."

He twisted himself in knots to argue that this wasn't Trump's fault, insisting, "He didn't create the system, but he does have an opportunity to improve it. Hopefully, all this attention will bring to light how broken it is." This is, of course, delusional.

If only Stalin knew how much the people are suffering, surely he would help them.

France’s research minister said a French scientist was denied entry to the US this month after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration.

I guess the US is a medieval city now where you can be rejected at the gate if the guard hears you badmouthing the king. This is not how adults behave. Is everyone in this weird cult?

These billionaires, Duran argued, “are fully in control of Trump’s MAGA party,” but their ambitions go beyond that. “The Republican Party is simply a host organism for the parasite of tech fascism,” Duran wrote, but “it’s not just the Republican Party that’s lost its soul. The tech authoritarians are also moving to co-opt leaders in the Democratic Party.”

Some rare mainstream analysis of the American oligarchy. We should be creating, using, and promoting alternative networks and services when we can. Having a thriving distributed infrastructure is more resilient than a handful of centralized points of failure.

Federal officials told the university it must immediately place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under “academic receivership for a minimum of five years.” The demand was among several described as conditions for receiving federal funding, including $400 million already pulled over allegations of antisemitism.

The federal government telling a university which specific academic programs they have to give up control of is disturbing. This response from scholars at Columbia Law explains why this is an unconstitutional request: A Title VI Demand Letter That Itself Violates Title VI (and the Constitution).

“Just to see Senate Democrats even consider acquiescing to Elon Musk, I think is a huge slap in the face. And I think there is a wide sense of betrayal if things proceed as currently planned.”

Yep, feeling betrayed by the party. I have really been appreciating AOC who seems like the only person representing my views.