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Chelsea Burns

@burnschelsea.bsky.social
1.9K followers 1.3K following 964 posts

accordionist, music theorist. Austin, TX. I like to ride my bicycle.

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Reposted by Chelsea Burns
Team Talarico @teamtalaricohq.bsky.social · 4h
BREAKING: Willie Nelson endorses James Talarico: “I've gotten to know James Talarico. He's a good man, who will be a good senator for the state of Texas. Please vote and vote for James Talarico.“
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Chelsea Burns @burnschelsea.bsky.social · 18m
Gosh, that's an odd definition.
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Bruno J. Navarro @brunojnavarro.bsky.social · 2h
Republican U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton suggested he would support cuts to federal benefits programs during a private fundraiser with Washington lobbyists last month, according to an audio recording obtained by The Texas Tribune, the fourth leaked clip from the Sept. 24 event.
texastribune.org
Paxton suggests cutting federal benefits in newest leaked audio
In a conversation that has been leaked in pieces to multiple publications, the GOP Senate nominee called for “reasonable cuts to mandatory spending,” which is driven by Social Security, Medicare and M...
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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 3h
The Smithsonian is funded by Congress and heavily intertwined with the federal government, but it's not an executive branch agency. The president is not even nominally their boss. He has absolutely no lawful power to issue orders to them.
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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 4h
⚠️ Aide to Ambassador Mike Huckabee covered up Israeli killings of nine Americans
nytimes.com
How a U.S. Diplomat Suppressed and Altered Reports Critical of Israel (Gift Article)
A top aide to Ambassador Mike Huckabee skewed information to portray the Netanyahu government in a favorable light, according to multiple officials and documents obtained by The Times.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 07/10/2026
who knows if jackson can win this thing but i am glad that he is making clear that susan collins's whole scam is to do everything she can to make life worse for mainers and then take credit for mitigating it in the slightest way possible
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Zach Everson @zacheverson.com · 12/08/2026
NEW: Harmeet Dhillon swore in 100+ new Civil Rights Division lawyers as "civil rights warriors" for "ALL Americans" — then named exactly none of them. So we did. Court filings let us ID 11. At least 5 arrived with records of misconduct, controversy, or hiring irregularities. 1/
citizen.org
Meet the attorneys Harmeet Dhillon installed to turn the Civil Rights Division against its mission - Public Citizen
Introduction  On July 8, 2026, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon tweeted that she had sworn in more than 100 new…
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Chelsea Burns @burnschelsea.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
In addition, I don't quite get it—it sounds like he violated the policies of a private service. I don't quite get where the law-breaking is, but I'm not a lawyer.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 05/10/2026
Holy shit.
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Jacob Kang-Brown @jkangbrown.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
New analysis of ICE detainers and arrests in 2026 with @bson.bsky.social for @prisonpolicy.org shows that law enforcement collusion tends to expand ICE arrests, and that the mass deportation project falters in places that resist. www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2026/10...
prisonpolicy.org
Cooperation with ICE doesn’t stop community arrests: New data on the results of state strategies
The Trump administration has demanded local and state collusion on immigration enforcement, and promised to pull back on community arrests in return. But our analysis ...
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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
During the 1980s anti-apartheid protests on Beinecke Plaza at Yale then university president Benno Schmidt was out there among the students. Today Yale President Maurie McInnis remains in hiding from protesting students, faculty and alums. Come out come out wherever you are! photo: @gregpak.net
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Alexa @alexakoenig.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
And for our full report, with a foreword by a former immigration judge, who became a first-hand witness to the cruelty and potential illegality of this program: humanrights.berkeley.edu/architecture...
humanrights.berkeley.edu
The Architecture of Cruelty — U.S. third-country removal agreements, 2025–2026
Since January 2025 the United States has concluded third-country removal and asylum-cooperation agreements with 35 countries. A Berkeley Human Rights Center investigation into what the paperwork says ...
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Gabriel Malor @gabrielmalor.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Also, Trump DOJ is gonna Trump DOJ. They didn't even submit the correct IJ decision.
3.5 Petitioner’s Request to Strike Respondents’ Brief Is Denied as Moot Petitioner requests that the Court strike Respondents’ brief because it is sloppy, riddled with errors, and unclear if it is even arguing the appropriate case at times. ECF No. 28 at 1, 3–4. Though the Court is troubled by Respondents’ numerous errors, including submitting an immigration judge’s decision from a different case, ECF No. 27 (immigration judge’s decision for Dorance Mosquera-Jara), the Court declines to strike Respondents’ brief as moot because it has resolved this case on the merits.
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Gabriel Malor @gabrielmalor.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Fed. judge grants a habeas petition for immediate release (after 13 months) of an LPR who ICE was holding w/o bond bc even after ordering a hearing "Petitioner’s uncontested evidence on the systematic bias of the immigration judges is compelling." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
When an individual is at risk of indefinite detention, due process requires at least more than skimming the record for the first time at a twenty-eight minute hearing. However, as Petitioner does not press this argument, the Court need not base its decision on this issue. Therefore, this Court holds that the immigration judge’s decision failed to comply with this Court’s previous order and due process. The evidence before the immigration judge on both the flight risk and dangerousness determinations was plainly deficient of standard for clear and convincing evidence. 3.4 Petitioner’s Case Warrants Immediate Release Petitioner argues that he should be released because “[r]emand for a second bond hearing . . . would not adequately remedy the government’s constitutional violation” and “credible evidence suggests that the immigration court system across the country is systematically rigging bond hearings against noncitizen detainees.” ECF No. 24 at 19–20.  Respondents do not argue regarding the specific remedy proposed.  Because Petitioner’s uncontested evidence on the systematic bias of the immigration judges is compelling, the Court agrees. Therefore, the Court will order that Petitioner be immediately released.
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Just a reminder: Tillis persuaded the woman Hegseth allegedly raped to come forward with her story, and told her that if she did, it would sink the nomination. She did. At great risk to herself. Tillis then cast the deciding vote for Hegseth. Because he’s a goddamned coward.
ms.now
Outgoing Sen. Tillis regrets pivotal vote for Hegseth: ‘He’s an actor. He’s not a manager’
Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis spoke to MS NOW about regretting his vote to confirm Pete Hegseth and his strained relationship with Trump.
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Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
ICE took two more people from my local courthouse today. The wife of one of the guys who was taken showed up shortly after. She just had surgery. She was worried about paying rent and feeding her kids. This is happening *every day* in Massachusetts. Lives are being destroyed every single day.
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Ernie Smith @ernie.tedium.co · 05/10/2026
oof, yeah this ain’t gonna work
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Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 02/10/2026
Governor Greg Abbott has promised to use his deep campaign war chest to turn Harris County "deep red." A blue wave could sweep out even Abbott's GOP favorites. In her newest, @michellepitcher.bsky.social looks at what this could mean for prisons, bail reform and the rights of the accused:
texasobserver.org
A Blue Wave Could Sweep Greg Abbott's Handpicked Houston Judges Out of Office
But experts say that, as Harris County judicial seats have swung with the political tides, it’s not partisanship that matters for criminal defendants.
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Rep. Robert Garcia @robertgarcia.house.gov · 05/10/2026
Trump and Stephen Miller’s ICE is out of control. Alex Pretti, a brave American and nurse, was protecting his community when ICE agents shot and killed him. Stephen Miller then tried to smear his name and lie about his death. What else is he lying about?
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I Scare You Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 05/10/2026
What the Laquan McDonald cover-up guy advocating against holding people accountable for doing things like wantonly killing people under the auspices of public safety?!
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Rachel Rothschild @profrrothschild.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
After listening to oral arguments in Suncor v. Boulder just now, I hope someone will give Justice Kavanaugh my @yalelawjournal.bsky.social Essay on the case. It provides a detailed history of Ouellette & the other precedents invoked in Suncor. These cases do not say what Justice Kavanaugh asserted.
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sakura christmas @prof-christmas.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The UT-Austin Core Curriculum Task Force is requiring that Gen Ed courses draw 50% of their readings from this list of 50. Unfortunately, it seems to think that the “Great Questions of Human Life” can only be explored through the canon of Western civ (token exception: Confucius).
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Searchlight Institute @searchlightinstitute.org · 05/10/2026
🚨 New Searchlight research, shared first with @mollytaft.com and WIRED, finds MORE THAN 100 planned data centers in rural America will be eligible for new tax benefits starting next year. www.wired.com/story/rural-...
wired.com
Rural Data Centers Are in for a Big Federal Tax Break
Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,  data center projects in rural areas could be eligible for major tax benefits starting next year. Some hyperscalers do not seem eager to take the free cash.
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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I also asked her what misconceptions the kids she talked to had. She said she talked to a 9th grade class recently and asked them what percentage of sexual assault allegations were false. They put it at 80%
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 05/10/2026
NEW: Remember when John Oliver opened a church to expose how easy it was to get tax exemptions? This year, ProPublica reporters set out to establish private schools to test if, truly, anyone could open one. We founded two. Here’s how.
propublica.org
How ProPublica Reporters Became Private School Owners in 24 Hours
The reporting experiment demonstrates how easy it can be to open private schools that might then access public money. No credentials or background checks required.
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Adam Isacson @adamisacson.com · 05/10/2026
New boat strike tonight. Yes, they're still happening. The death toll now stands at 238. x.com/Southcom/sta...
Known Lethal U.S. Attacks on Civilian Vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific
238 reported people killed (including 23 unrecovered survivors).
68 reported attack events.
72 reported boats struck.
3 reported survivors recovered.
45 reported events in the Eastern Pacific. 21 reported events in the Caribbean. 2 reported events in unspecified locations.
32 events ordered by Southern Command Commander Gen. Francis Donovan (101 reported killed). 19 events ordered by President Donald Trump (76 reported killed). 14 events ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (50 reported killed). 3 events listed as “under the direction of U.S. Southern Command” (11 reported killed).
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Hoodlum 🇺🇸 @nothoodlum.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The corruption is so blatant. US-Russia discussions now include a multibillion-dollar purchase of Russian energy giant Lukoil’s global assets,to enrich Mid East businesses with ties to Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, who are leading the negotiations. Gift link. 👇 www.nytimes.com/2026/10/03/u...
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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
We should find the person who has caused the multiple scandals that Ken Paxton has “weathered”?
Over his more than 20 years in elected office, Mr. Paxton has weathered multiple scandals, including a fraud indictment, accusations of one other affair, and impeachment on bribery and abuse of office charge.
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Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 03/10/2026
Correct -- look at the huge drop in VMT here in WA over the last 30 years, a period in which the state's population nearly doubled. People want to drive less. They clamor for it and will pay a premium for it. frontiergroup.org/resources/wh...
Chart showing change in VMT per capita from 1994 to 2024
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Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
A police search of Flock producing 50 individual records of a woman's whereabouts across the country for an entire month violated her Fourth Amendment rights, Judge Sara E. Hill of Oklahoma's Northern District ruled yesterday. "Why is it the government’s business where everyone goes all the time?"

To be sure, ALPR technology does not provide the same precision in
location information as cell phones. But it could still reveal a lot about a
person’s whereabouts, and it is easy to imagine the kinds of sensitive
information it collects. It could track and log a couple struggling to start a family at the fertility clinic. It could show how often someone visits a liquor store or casino. It could show which doctor someone goes to or what lawyer’s office someone visits. It also collects mundane information about people’s commutes, but it collects a tremendous amount of such information all the time. It is possible that a dedicated team of law enforcement officers could

Case 4:26-cr-00189-SEH Document 62 Filed in USDC ND/OK on 10/01/26 Page 36 of 38

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constitutionally collect this information about one car—and its driver—by following that vehicle on public roadways over a month. But this leaves the question of why is it the government’s business where everyone goes all the time? The government cannot go snooping through our personal lives and business without an adequate basis to do so. That is what the Supreme Court has said since its decision in Katz through its decision in Chatrie this year, nearly sixty years later. It is not too much to draw the line at indiscriminate mass surveillance.
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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
You can read Jamal’s work here. It was the honor of my life to have been his editor at the Washington Post. Rest in peace, Jamal. And I’m sorry the Washington Post opinions page ended up betraying what we both stood for. www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-...
washingtonpost.com
Opinion | Read Jamal Khashoggi’s columns for The Washington Post
Jamal Khashoggi, a veteran Saudi journalist who Turkish officials say was killed in Istanbul after walking into the consulate of Saudi Arabia, had been writing a column for The Post since last year.
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Chelsea Burns @burnschelsea.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The old Rand McNally in the car. Also, more attention to road signs for directions.
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This is huge: a judge ruled a Flock search was 'indiscriminate mass surveillance' and unconstitutional. Says the search by a cop, who did it because a passing car had a plate from a different state, violated the driver's rights. Meaning, Flock should require a warrant www.404media.co/federal-judg...
404media.co
Federal Judge Rules a Flock Search Was ‘Indiscriminate Mass Surveillance’ and Unconstitutional
Flock’s nationwide network is quickly “approaching dragnet-type law enforcement practice” and the cop should have got a warrant, the judge wrote.
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Totally Valid Handle @azgict.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Jesus, Columbia.
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Chelsea Burns @burnschelsea.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Weirdly, "vote" isn't on here?
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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
They wanted us to share tactics we’ve used. But when anything that might cost the university any money came up, it was “we’ll definitely ask about that!” And especially when questions about the contradictions of university investment in AI came up, it was clear we’d met their limit.
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Chelsea Burns @burnschelsea.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It's hard not to feel that we're really heading into some Paisley/Cool J "Accidental Racist"-level material here.
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Robert Downen @robertdownen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
UPDATE: Texas officials knew about this issue since at least March, when it was flagged by a state lawmaker.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This will be one of the most important immigration cases in a generation. The Trump admin claims that a 1996 law mandates the detention of millions of people without any right to a bond hearing; every person who entered illegally, no matter how long in the past. If they win, it's a nightmare.
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hammancheez but spooky @hammancheez.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
we're investing millions to make it easier to have your passports stolen before delivery follow me for more process improvement life hacks
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Will Craft @wcraft.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The next in @us.theguardian.com's series on Ice this summer. Three deaths, three states, 24 hours: one day in ICE’s quiet but ‘gruesome’ surge www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Three deaths, three states, 24 hours: one day in ICE’s quiet but ‘gruesome’ surge
These men in Maine, Georgia and Florida shared no ties – until they became casualties in Trump’s anti-immigration campaign
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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
ONLY EIGHT PLAYERS GOT A WATER BREAK AT AN ARIZONA WORKOUT IN AUGUST???? This is literally criminal.
Rund’s report said Powers directed a water break roughly 20 minutes into the workout. The players said otherwise: Their only water break came 35 to 45 minutes into the roughly 75-minute workout, after a grueling bear crawl, and lasted just seconds. The only players who got water during the break — about eight — were the first finishers of the drill.

“The first of us to finish had a few seconds at the bottles before being ordered back while others, including Matthew, were still crawling,” players wrote. “This was the only water break.”
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Joe Dunman @joedunman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com
Judges Warn That AI-Generated Lawslop Is Getting So Bad It’s Threatening Courts' Ability to Function
A panel of three Florida state district court judges blasted a family attorney for using AI to generate "frivolous, scattershot arguments."
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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I mean, the pretense of thinking that a "hearing" is some sort of legit legal practice when it forces a two year to argue his or her own case is just preposterous. As is calling at-will employees of the executive "judges," tho that's more Orwell than Kafka. Just speed-running dystopias here.
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
When they get back in power, Democrats need to go all-in on higher education. We need a campaign of reinvestment in public universities across the country that makes the Morrill Land-Grant Act look like nothing by comparison *and* a GI Bill of Rights-style program of tuition grants.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
the cornell case has me thinking about christine blasey ford and how she so bravely testified in 2018 about how future supreme court justice brett kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her. i'm thinking about what i wrote at the time and how nothing has changed:
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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Did Anthropic's Claude discover something new in biotech? Well, just like with those recent alleged math proofs, it looks like it was given the answers in advance from real humans doing actual research. (gift: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/27/s...)
Dr. Mestre and his colleagues have yet to publish their findings. But for the past three years, they have regularly used Anthropic’s A.I. models as they have written code, drafted manuscripts and performed other tasks.

In doing so, Dr. Mestre said he and colleagues shared key findings about the enzymes with Anthropic.Anthropic said that Claude’s key contribution was identifying an array of RNA molecules and a protein associated with reverse transcriptase in a system. But Dr. Mestre said that he and his colleagues had made that discovery over a year ago.
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
WSJ wrote a 1,300-word article abt the MS Senate race w/o mentioning Callais once. Definitely worth reading it--it's far better than that Axios ragebait abt MI you're all whining about. But they don't even talk abt how much Trump has fucked over farmers. www.wsj.com/politics/ele...
wsj.com
Why Are Democratic Donors Putting Money Into a Long-Shot Mississippi Senate Race?
George Soros and other big Democratic donors have an eye on a seat the GOP has safely held for decades.
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mivven @ghostsghouls.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
It cannot be overstated how much Bret does not make an argument in this column. He does not list a single worthy book he thinks was excluded. He clearly has not read the vast majority of the books. His entire critique is just “these books are written by women and minorities, which is bad”.
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Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Cardinal McElroy at Mass for World Day of Migrants and Refugees: “Most deeply, we remember the undocumented, whose time on the cross stretches onward. They know the peril, the fear, the overwhelming sadness that dawns upon them because of the policies of our government.”
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