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Del Shortliffe

@dbshort.bsky.social
486 followers 271 following 406 posts

A retired English teacher, Social Democrat, news junkie, and non-influencer, I left X and have come here to post a little, read a lot, respond often, and celebrate a healthy online community.

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Reposted by Del Shortliffe
The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
“It’s hard to overstate the scale of the crime 🇮🇱 is committing in Gaza… Only public outrage can stop this…” Tucker Carlson on reports Trump plans to spend American taxpayer money to send more giant bombs to Israel, as Americans are crushed by high prices caused by his pointless war.
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Wendell Berry wrote this about bad teachers at a military high school, but we can see its other, immediate applicability. "Take a simpleton and give him power and confront him with intelligence—and you have a tyrant."
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Everywhere we turn the collection of corrupt incompetents in the Trump admin is screwing up something new - Bessent the bond market, Lutnick trade relations, Hegseth the military, RFK Jr public health, Rollins Ag policy - one thing after another systematically wrecking America.
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Ossoff said that Trump "wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar.” Is this salacious, as so many MAGAs (and some Democrats) have insisted? No. It is not. Trump clearly does want "to travel with Natalie."
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Fellow teachers—and everyone else—take not.
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
"If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but, rather, that nobody believes anything any longer. And with such people you can then do what you please." - Hannah Arendt
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
"Totalitarianism replaces all first rate talents with crackpots and fools." - Hannah Arendt
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Oh look, the “fiscal conservatives” are running the government again.
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." - President Eisenhower (1953)
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Budgeting for Fascists & Fat Cats heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-15-20...
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
July 15, 2026
Exactly five years ago, on July 15, 2021, I wrote:
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
www.threads.com/@georgecolev...
threads.com
Gj Shields (@georgecolevet) on Threads
Brilliant
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Reposted by Del Shortliffe
Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Trump’s Board of Peace plans to grant itself sweeping immunity, documents show www.theguardian.com/law/2026/jun...
theguardian.com
Trump’s Board of Peace plans to grant itself sweeping immunity, documents show
Draft resolution seeks to shield board members and security forces from potential prosecution for work in Gaza
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
I have never seen Bob Costa lob up more empty questions or accept more specious, glib answers than in today's CBS Sunday Morning interview with JD Vance. Brought to you, of course, by the Ellison network—the newest MAGA network.
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
This summation of the Trump administration's movement towards a fascist takeover of the country is the most frightening perspective I've seen yet—and it's by two reasonable, moderate veterans of the House of Representatives. robertreich.substack.com/p/warning-tr...
robertreich.substack.com
Warning: Trump's Rolling Coup Is Already Underway
And what must be done to stop it
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
I'm an REI member and, to support the employees' union, have joined in the boycott of the company's 2026 anniversary sale, going on now. If you're also a member, or an REI customer, please do the same. www.ourrei.com/boycott
ourrei.com
Pledge to Boycott REI
Learn why co-op members are boycotting REI after years of broken promises and anti-worker, anti-democratic behavior.
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Reposted by Del Shortliffe
Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Trump isn’t the problem. He is the result of the problem: the racism, ignorance, and selfishness of many people in the United States.
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Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News @froomkin.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Horrific. Every feeling human being should be outraged by what Israel is doing in southern Lebanon, destroying it like Gaza. Instead, with this rare and important exception, it’s not even on the radar. Gift link. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
How Israel Is Using the Same Tactics in Lebanon That It Did in Gaza
Satellite images, photos and videos show the scope of widespread demolitions in southern Lebanon.
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Reposted by Del Shortliffe
Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
by my tally we are now spending ~$2B to companies to NOT build more energy infrastructure. in the middle of an energy crisis
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Unruly guests at New York's Chumley's speakeasy were tossed out the door at 86 Bedford St. Others were "86-ed" out that door when cops raided through the front door. [Wikipedia: Chumley's] None of those customers were killed.
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Please consider a donation to The Southern Poverty Law Center, which needs help fighting Trump's illegitimate Department of Justice. joycevance.substack.com/p/whats-wron...
joycevance.substack.com
What’s Wrong With The SPLC Indictment
DOJ's indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center is a critical moment in the administration's war on democracy
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Time to get serious about boycotting Amazon. robertreich.substack.com/p/the-worst-...
robertreich.substack.com
The Worst Neo Robber Baron of Them All
Hint: He's even worse than Musk
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
The Horrifying Totality of Trump www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The United States is destroying itself | Rebecca Solnit
The daily news can’t adequately convey the administration’s sabotaging of our government, economy, alliances and environment
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Yonaton Youval in the NYT: “The more technologically sophisticated war becomes, the more dangerous it is to place it in the hands of people untrained in irony, contingency and the darker constants of human nature...
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
The new White House App the Trump admin just rolled out got a Community Note.
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Zach Everson @zacheverson.com · 28/03/2026
“Parliament had turned over its constitutional authority to Hitler and thereby committed suicide, though its body lingered on in an embalmed state.” Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (p. 331)
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
media.tenor.com
a cartoon character from the movie the incredibles says you sly dog
Alt: Syndrome from incredibles says “you sly dog, you caught me monologuing!”
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Trump has a 15-point peace plan for Iran, but no journalist I can find knows what those points are, only that Iran has rejected them all. And Trump has said a ban on Iran's developing nuclear weapons is "point 1, or really points 1, 2, and 3." More bullshitty gibberish from the idiot king.
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Bishop Marianne Budde reminds us that "we do well to remember the richer and more accurate understanding of politics: our collective moral and civic responsibility for tending to our common life for the common good."
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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Here's Thom Tillis' whole 10-minute rant against Kristi Noem at a hearing today. A classic.
youtube.com
ABSOLUTELY BRUTAL: Thom Tillis Tells Kristi Noem To Her Face Why He Is Calling For Her Resignation
YouTube video by Forbes Breaking News
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Steve Postman 🇨🇦 @steve1970peng.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Eisenhower
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Dave Wenning @rxdavid.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
This too…
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
See a news program cover the Guthrie kidnapping? Ask yourself how quickly the story could have been updated. Ask yourself what neglected stories could have been at least touched on in those 4 minutes. Then ask how many other covered stories don't deserve their priority status.
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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
"The US secretary of state delivered what can only be described as a 22-minute ode to empire. A love letter to conquest and colonialism. A proud defense of the west’s territorial expansion." My Guardian column on Marco Rubio's disturbing "MEGA" speech in Munich at the weekend.
theguardian.com
Forget Maga. Welcome to Mega: Make Empire Great Again | Mehdi Hasan
Marco Rubio arrived at the Munich security conference with a disturbing message for European governments: empire is great
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
A fairer sharing of the pie doesn’t happen because of noblesse oblige from the top. It requires an organized working class and politicians willing to defy the wishes of the wealthy. - Jeet Heer in The Nation, 2/6/2026
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Mary L Trump @maryltrump.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Every American needs to watch this:
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Even if you don't have time to read all 83 pages of Judge Reyes's opinion barring the Trump administration from rescinding Temporary Protected Status for 350,000+ Haitians, please at least check out the four-page introduction. It's a tour de force: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
"On December 2, 1783, then-Commander-in-Chief George Washington penned: “America is open to receive not only the Opulent & respected Stranger, but the oppressed & persecuted of all Nations & Religions.”1
 More than two centuries later, Congress reaffirmed President Washington’s vision by establishing the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program. See 8 U.S.C. § 1254a (TPS statute). It provides humanitarian relief to foreign nationals in the United States who come from disaster-stricken countries. It also brings in substantial revenue, with TPS holders generating $5.2 billion in taxes annually. See Part VI.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem has a different take. [screenshot of tweet].So says the official responsible for overseeing the TPS program. And one of those (her word) “damn” countries is Haiti. Relevant here, three days before making the above post, Secretary Noem announced she would terminate Haiti’s TPS designation as of February 3, 2026. See 90
Fed. Reg. 54733 (Nov. 28, 2025) (Termination).

Plaintiffs are five Haitian TPS holders. They are not, it emerges, “killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies.” They are instead: Fritz Emmanuel Lesly Miot, a neuroscientist researching Alzheimer’s disease, Dkt. 90 (Second Am. Compl. (SAC)) ¶ 1; Rudolph Civil, a software engineer at a national bank, id. ¶ 2; Marlene Gail Noble, a laboratory assistant in a toxicology department, id. ¶ 3; Marica Merline Laguerre, a college economics major, id. ¶ 4; and Vilbrun Dorsainvil, a full-time registered nurse, id. ¶ 5. They claim that Secretary Noem’s decision violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. § 706(2), and the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Government counters that the Court does not have jurisdiction, and, in any case, the Secretary did not violate the law.

Plaintiffs seek to stay the Secretary’s decision under 5 U.S.C. § 705 pending the outcome of this litigation. See Dkt. 81 (§ 705 Mot.). To decide their motion, the Court considers first whether it has  jurisdiction. It does. See Part II. It then considers: whether Plaintiffs have a substantial likelihood of success on the merits; whether they will be irreparably harmed absent a stay; and whether a merged balance of the equities and public interest analysis favors a stay. See Part III. Each element favors Plaintiffs. See Parts IV, V, and VI.

Plaintiffs charge that Secretary Noem preordained her termination decision and did so because of hostility to nonwhite immigrants. This seems substantially likely. Secretary Noem has terminated every TPS country designation to have reached her desk—twelve countries up,
twelve countries down. See Section IV.A.2. Her conclusion that Haiti (a majority nonwhite
country) faces merely “concerning” conditions cannot be squared with the “perfect storm of
suffering” and “staggering” “humanitarian toll” described in page-after-page of the Certified
Administrative Record (CAR). See Section IV.A.3.a. She ignored Congress’s requirement that
she “review the conditions” in Haiti only “after” consulting “with appropriate agencies.” 8
U.S.C. § 1254a(b)(3)(A); see Section IV.A.1. Indeed, she did not consult other agencies at all.
See id. Her “national interest” analysis focuses on Haitians outside the United States or here
illegally, ignoring that Haitian TPS holders already live here, and legally so. See Section
IV.A.3.b. And though she states that the analysis must include “economic considerations,” she
ignores altogether the billions Haitian TPS holders contribute to the economy. See id.
The Government’s primary response is that the TPS statute gives the Secretary
unbounded discretion to make whatever determination she wants, any way she wants. And, yes,
the statute does grant her some discretion. But not unbounded discretion. To the contrary,
Congress passed the TPS statute to standardize the then ad hoc temporary protection system—to
replace executive whim with statutory predictability. See Section I.A.
As to irreparable harm, the Government contends that, at most, the harms to Haitian TPS
holders are speculative. But the Department of State (State) warns [screenshot]Dkt. 100 (§ 705 Reply) at 20–21.4 “Do not travel to Haiti for any reason” does not exactly
scream, as Secretary Noem concluded, suitable for return. And so, the Government studiously
does not argue that Plaintiffs will suffer no harm if removed to Haiti. Instead, it argues Plaintiffs
will not certainly suffer irreparable harm because DHS might not remove them. But this fails to
take Secretary Noem at her word: “WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.” See Section
IV.B.2.b.
Finally, the balance of equities and public interest favor a stay. The Government does not
cite any reason termination must occur post haste. Secretary Noem complains of strains
unlawful immigrants place on our immigration-enforcement system. Her answer? Turn 352,959
lawful immigrants into unlawful immigrants overnight. She complains of strains to our
economy. Her answer? Turn employed lawful immigrants who contribute billions in taxes into
the legally unemployable. She complains of strains to our healthcare system. Her answer? Turn
the insured into the uninsured. This approach is many things—in the public interest is not one of
them.
For the reasons below, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs’ Renewed Motion for a Stay Under
5 U.S.C. § 705, Dkt. 81.
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Andrew M. | Founder & Advisor 🇬🇷 🇺🇸 @andrewmfounder.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
😂😂😂
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Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
I'm attending No Kings's event, “Eyes on ICE: Document and Record” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...
mobilize.us
Eyes on ICE: Document and Record · No Kings
On Saturday, federal agents horrifically shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who cared for veterans, in the Eat Street neighborhood of south Minneapolis after brutally beating him in...
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
From The New Republic Seven Democrats voting for ICE funding: Representatives Henry Cuellar (Texas), Tom Suozzi (New York), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Laura Gillen (New York), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Washington), Jared Golden (Maine), and Don Davis (North Carolina).
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Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
Please SHARE if you agree!
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Trump's Last Decade: A Summation of the Horrors heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-5-...
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
January 5, 2026 (Monday)
Five years ago, on January 6, 2021, more than 2,000 rioters stormed the U.S.
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Anne Lutz Fernandez @lutzfernandez.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
"Once you factor in New York’s relatively low number of auto accidents per capita — because so many people take public transit, which is much safer — it becomes clear that New York has a lower rate of violent death than almost anywhere else in America." paulkrugman.substack.com/p/notes-on-n...
That’s right: Murders are down to 1950s levels. Because the city’s population has grown, the murder rate per 100,000 people is even lower than it was in the 50s.

Once you factor in New York’s relatively low number of auto accidents per capita — because so many people take public transit, which is much safer — it becomes clear that New York has a lower rate of violent death than almost anywhere else in America.
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James Vincent @jjvincent.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 22/12/2025
did a video a few days ago making the case for supreme court expansion www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjB_...
youtube.com
Why Democrats need to expand the Supreme Court
YouTube video by Takes™ by Jamelle Bouie
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Simon Rosenberg @simonrosenberg.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
What Mark said. Foreign tourists staying out of the US is not just a sensible personal decision. It's also an act of solidarity with the American resistance.
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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
I used to call Trump a “would-be dictator.” I now call him a dictator. His masked thugs are terrorizing cities. He‘s trying to jail his enemies. He’s starting a war on a whim. He’s taking control of news media. The Institute of Peace is now “the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.” He’s a dictator.
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 07/12/2025
Trump—who didn’t spend a minute behind bars—is about to swindle about 50 percent more than the total amount of money paid to the 97 innocent people who were incarcerated for more than 1,200 years in Texas.
motherjones.com
Donald Trump’s restitution scheme is among the greatest heists in US history
Bogus claims of malicious prosecution could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions.
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Del Shortliffe @dbshort.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Vote with your purchasing power. Join Boycotts. heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-2...
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
November 25, 2025
Last week, a poll conducted for Global EV Alliance, made up of electric vehicle driver associations around the world, found that 52% of Americans would avoid buying a Tesla for political reasons.
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