two bikers walk into a bar. they sit down and the bartender asks them what they want and they say "the full release of the epstein files" and the bartender gives them free drinks
uspolitics
A lawsuit filed Monday mirrors the findings of a ProPublica investigation that made public for the first time details about a program that sent gun owners’ information to political operatives without their consent.
Newsletter: Democratic lawmakers sound corruption alarms while crypto PACs gear up for the midterms
Congratulations to #UCLA for its victory in court against the Trump administration. This is the first step in the reinstatement of approved but unlawfully withheld research grants.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/health/ucla-research-grants.html
PS: No university that has brought such a suit has lost. Harvard and UCLA have both won. There's no reason for other universities in the same boat to capitulate.
#Academia #AcademicMastodon #DefendResearch #Trump #TrumpVResearch #Universities #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics
Civil society is the web of nonprofits, unions, churches and community groups that protect democratic life.
When governments attack or control these groups, it’s a red flag for authoritarianism –– and Americans are noticing.
https://theconversation.com/civil-society-helps-uphold-democracy-and-provides-built-in-resistance-to-authoritarianism-265705 #USPolitics #democracy
The government does not track how often immigration agents hold Americans. So ProPublica did.
We found more than 170 such incidents since the start of the second Trump administration. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And nearly 20 children, two of whom have cancer.
https://www.propublica.org/article/immigration-dhs-american-citizens-arrested-detained-against-will?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
President Joe Biden is marking Earth Day by launching a website for applications for his Climate Corps jobs and training program, a plan that has attracted a lot of interest from young Americans.
NPR reports: "Eventually, the corps will employ more than 20,000 young people."
When U.S. President Trump visited the the U.K., he wanted to give King Charles a sword from the Dwight D Eisenhower Presidential Library. The director, Todd Arrington, refused because the artifact had been accepted as a donation and therefore belongs to the American people. Now he's been forced to resign — and doesn't quite understand why. Here's more from @CBSNews.
"#HowardFrench’s stunning new book, #TheSecondEmancipation, is an epic of the 20th century’s most consequential years with #Africa’s sudden #decolonisation intertwined with the US #civilRightsMovement, through the many layered portrait of #Ghana’s visionary independance leader #KwameNkrumah."
https://afriquexxi.info/Nkumah-s-epic-from-Ghana-to-Harlem
#BlackHistory #UShistory #AfricanHistory #USpol #USpolitics #AfricanPolitics #panafricanism #decolonialStruggles #Nkrumah #decolonization #books @bookstodon
![[rubric] INTERVIEW
Nkrumah's epic from Ghana to Harlem
VICTORIA BRITTAIN
background image (photo): President John F. Kennedy Meets with the President of the Republic of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Washington, 8th of March 1961. ©Abbie Rowe. White House Photographs. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston](/proxy/post_attachment/880907/d390373742.png "[rubric] INTERVIEW
Nkrumah's epic from Ghana to Harlem
VICTORIA BRITTAIN
background image (photo): President John F. Kennedy Meets with the President of the Republic of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Washington, 8th of March 1961. ©Abbie Rowe. White House Photographs. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston")
The team behind Trump's World Liberty Financial project has proposed lifting restrictions on the WLFI "governance token" to make it tradeable. I predicted shortly after its launch that if Trump succeeded in gutting the SEC, he would do this.
This would lift the substantial restrictions on the token (non-US or accredited investors only, locked tokens with no secondary sales) that were aimed at sidestepping attention from the previous SEC, and could be enormously lucrative for Trump.
From the wholesale gutting of federal agencies to the ongoing government shutdown, Russell Vought has drawn the road map for Trump’s second term. Vought has consolidated power to an extent that insiders say they feel like “he is the commander in chief.”
Garrett Graff hopes this weekend's No Kings protests will someday be looked back upon as a turning point. Here's his story for his newsletter, Doomsday Scenario, in which he lists his reasons for hope: Trump's unpopularity, the fact that he can't last forever, and America's historical imperfection. "Today may be dark, but the story of America for 250 years is that — with hard work by good people — tomorrow there is hope it will be better," he writes.
#NoKings #USHistory #USPolitics #USNews #TrumpAdministration #DonaldTrump
The canceling of ICEBlock is more evidence, were any needed, that the Web is the platform of the future, the only platform without a controlling vendor. Anything controversial should be available through a pure browser interface.
Newsletter: Anatomy of a crypto meltdown
October 2025 brought the most dramatic crypto flash crash of all time, but it was only a dress rehearsal for the systemic crisis the industry is building toward.
https://www.citationneeded.news/anatomy-of-a-crypto-meltdown/
Uniparty? Hardly.
Biden and Trump offer worlds-apart contrasts on issues
Here's how the candidates stand on 10 key issues: abortion, climate / energy, democracy, federal government, immigration, Israel / Gaza, LGBTQ issues, NATO / Ukraine, trade, taxes
https://apnews.com/article/biden-trump-rematch-policies-abortion-immigration-gaza-1a904cd70f14581f264b851a5cb2f9e4?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share #USpolitics #Politics #USnews #JoeBiden #Democrats #BidenHarris #Elections #WomensRights #WomensHealth
#GOP #Republicans #DonaldTrump #trumpism #fascism #fascist #SCOTUS
Pritzker pointing out that ICE lies first and immediately, knowing journalists will catch up later if at all.
Coming from a sitting US governor, that’s an amazing breakthrough.
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:dps5knuqjkybgklyaixbptsq/post/3m2hhfzm3i223
#chicago #news #illinois #uspol #uspolitics #ice #fascism #politics #FuckICE #AbolishICE
Edited 37d ago
#USPolitics picks of the day:
➡️ @jensorensen - Award-winning cartoonist on politics & social issues
➡️ @heidilifeldman - Law professor at the Georgetown Univ
➡️ @QasimRashid - Human rights lawyer
➡️ @indivisibleteam - Progressive political org formed to resist Trumpism
➡️ @dennycarter - Blog on politicians trying to normalise fascism
➡️ @z_everson - Investigative journalist tracking Trump's profiteering
➡️ @rbreich - US political commentator, lawyer, former cabinet member
🧵 1/5
"Terminated #NIH grants are being reinstated almost entirely in blue states."
https://www.statnews.com/2025/07/03/nih-cuts-grant-restoration-complicated-by-limits-to-court-order-trump-dei-restrictions/
(#paywalled)
PS: It's not that #Trump officials feel more lenient toward blue-state scientists. It's that blue-state Attorneys General fight back in court. Sometimes resistance works.
#Censorship #DefendResearch #Funding #Medicine #Trump #TrumpVResearch #USPol #USPolitics
Edited 129d ago
a few weeks ago the #MAGA harpie running the federal civil rights division at #DOJ (Harmeet Dhillon) called out a so-called "liberal judge" Diane Goodstein for ruling against the trump administration, after which that judge received all kinds of threats from MAGA chuds.
#StephenMiller also weighed in on Judge Goodstein's decision in typically calm and restrained fashion, basically calling her a defender of #terrorism.
that judge's house just burned to the ground and her husband is in the hospital.
coincidence?
(oh, and she also happens to be jewish, which isn't super popular with the MAGA chud voting bloc these days since half of them blame israel for the death of charlie kirk (yes really))
#violence #trump #uspol #uspolitics #antisemitism #SouthCarolina #HarmeetDhillon #civilRights #scpol #DianeGoodstein #JudgeGoodstein #goodstein #fascism #fascists #fascist
![Izzy Gardon & Io]
A few weeks ago, one of Trump’s top DOJ officials publicly targeted this
judge.
Today, the judge’s home is on fire.
AAGHarmeetDhillon & ® X.com
@AAGDhillon
&@ 8 @ This @T! pt’s @ will
not stand for a state court judge’s hasty nullification
of our federal voting laws. | will allow nothing to
stand in the way of our mandate to maintain clean
voter rolls.
One Citizen, One Vote! &)](/proxy/post_attachment/871145/240c6c7e42.png "Izzy Gardon & Io]
A few weeks ago, one of Trump’s top DOJ officials publicly targeted this
judge.
Today, the judge’s home is on fire.
AAGHarmeetDhillon & ® X.com
@AAGDhillon
&@ 8 @ This @T! pt’s @ will
not stand for a state court judge’s hasty nullification
of our federal voting laws. | will allow nothing to
stand in the way of our mandate to maintain clean
voter rolls.
One Citizen, One Vote! &)")
Edited 37d ago
“Alito doesn’t deny the flag was flying upside down, doesn’t deny its meaning, doesn’t express any disapproval for it and doesn’t disavow it.”
This wasn’t a random period of time. It was AFTER January 6 and BEFORE the inauguration.
ITS A SYMBOL OF INSURRECTION.
A Justice has never made a more persuasive case for the Legislature to kick them out on their ass for bad behavior than has Alito.
#uspol #politics #uspolitics #law #lawfedi #legal #SCOTUS #SupremeCourt
Trump’s DHS appointees have dismantled civil rights guardrails, protected agents’ anonymity and encouraged them to wear masks, threatened groups that stood in their way and overwhelmed challenges to their arrests.
Thirty Bob Ross paintings will be auctioned over the next few months, with proceeds going to small and rural public stations across the United States that have had their funding cut off. Congress has eliminated $1.1 billion allocated to public broadcasting, leading to many stations making programming cuts and laying off staff. Most of the paintings of mountain vistas and lake scenes were created on air, in under 30 minutes. Ross "dedicated his life to making art accessible to everyone,” said Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross Inc. “This auction ensures his legacy continues to support the very medium that brought his joy and creativity into American homes for decades.” Here's more from @AssociatedPress.
#BobRoss #Art #Auction #USPolitics #PublicRadio #PublicTelevision #TrumpAdministration #NPR #PBS
Edited 35d ago
Trump keeps promising he would enact the largest domestic deportation operation in American history, exceeding 'Operation Wetback' in the 50s, which deported hundreds of thousands of Mexicans.
It's a disturbing and misleading proposal, says a migration scholar:
https://theconversation.com/trump-promises-to-deport-all-undocumented-immigrants-resurrecting-a-1950s-strategy-but-it-didnt-work-then-and-is-less-likely-to-do-so-now-226943
AOC can mock Stephen Miller’s height (and anything else) she wants as far as I’m concerned. The “We go high when they go low” thing helped get us into this whole dystopian mess. Modern politics isn’t a queensbury rules boxing match, it’s a knock-down, drag out brawl in a mud pit. Stop acting like it isn’t. #USPolitics
Newsletter: Trump is still corrupt, a core developer warns bitcoin won’t survive an upcoming code change, and crypto lenders are ratcheting up leverage like it’s 2022.