Sign in

Michael

@m1kl.bsky.social
168 followers 182 following 50 posts
PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Michael
Dara Lind @daralind.bsky.social · 8h
This is such a scoop. For many reasons, including: Trump had made a couple of comments about Omar in the first term, but neither she nor Somali Americans were a Trump obsession at that time. (But Somalis _were_ a Miller obsession.) www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
washingtonpost.com
Trump officials scrutinized Omar in 2019. They didn’t find citizenship issues.
The earlier review of Omar’s immigration records looked at many of the same issues being investigated now.
141379415
Reposted by Michael
Defector @defector.com · 08/10/2026
A blue wave won't mean shit if the chumps get their way: defector.com/a-blue-wave-...
defector.com
A Blue Wave Won’t Mean Shit If The Chumps Get Their Way | Defector
Drew Magary’s Thursday Afternoon NFL Dick Joke Jamboroo runs every Thursday at Defector during the NFL season. Got something you wanna contribute? Email the Roo. You can also read Drew over…
51636111
Reposted by Michael
The Washington Sun @washingtonsun.com · 26/09/2026
The administration is using a rare and contested power to ax funding for immigrant services and diversity-focused initiatives. www.washingtonsun.com/whitehouse/tr…
washingtonsun.com
Trump Claws Back Nearly $1 Billion In Congressionally Appropriated Funding
The administration is using a rare and contested power to ax funding for immigrant services and diversity-focused initiatives.
106653
Reposted by Michael
Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
List of CDC information that appears to have been taken down so far: 1. CDC Atlas 2. CDC Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System 3. HRSA Target 4. Language removed for LGBT work 5. CDC Social Vulnerability Index
771585590
Reposted by Michael
Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 25/09/2026
Imagine if instead of regulating drone risks the normal way (which we did), we instead paid weird bloggers lots of money to worry about superintelligent dogs sprouting thumbs and using drones to kill us. This is pretty much how the US is approaching AI risks and regulations. My latest:
little-flying-robots.ghost.io
Why We Can't Let Enormous Weirdos Regulate AI
Imagine if instead of regulating drones via the standard lengthy, boring, and bureaucratic process - which we did - we instead decided, in the name of fostering all-important American drone innovation...
271060316
Reposted by Michael
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
In July, a new ICE agent with a history of domestic violence and mental illness killed a man in Maine who even ICE admits posed no threat to him. Now we know that internal whistleblowers at ICE were sounding the alarm about the agency utterly disregarding normal hiring rules.
In the wake of a hiring surge last summer, an official in charge of evaluating new recruits to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a dire warning.

The Trump administration, he wrote in a memo, was cutting corners, violating the law and fast-tracking unqualified, “improperly vetted” candidates into ICE’s ranks, part of a dangerous move that exposed the agency — and its law enforcement operations — to “grave national security risks.”

Citing an “unprecedented lowering of standards,” the career ICE official said that “systemic breakdowns” had allowed applicants to receive job offers before they had passed basic fingerprint, identity or credit checks in a preliminary vetting process. Political appointees had unjustly skirted background investigations and received national security eligibility.
501554717
Reposted by Michael
Ken Tremendous @kentremendous.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Arte Moreno bought the Angels in 2003 (the year after they won the Series) for $184 million. He then spent 23 years running them into the ground, let the stadium decay, wasted Trout and Ohtani, and sold for $4 billion. And the owners are crying poverty and threatening to kill baseball next year.
382130586
Reposted by Michael
Whitney Curry Wimbish @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
💔
A Vietnamese man was beaten on the tarmac in Fort Worth when he refused to get on the plane. Another man, who was shouting, “This is not right!” and “political things” during the flight, was knocked against his seat, dragged to the back of the plane, and put into the full-body straitjacket known as “the WRAP.” Guards stood over him and laughed. He doesn’t know when the man was let out of the WRAP, but he saw that he was back in his shackles by the time they got to Ghana. (All adult passengers on ICE flights are shackled and the ankles and wrists tied to a waist chain.)

Most of the guards were drinking alcohol from red and blue cups and laughing at the detainees. (Another passenger on the flight who did not want to be identified confirmed this.) If anyone stood up to use the lavatory, the guards swarmed them and shouted at them, “Get down now!” An older guard who was not drinking said this was going to be his last ICE flight, because he was going to quit.

The flight medic was repeatedly summoned to check on a man from Maryland, who had gotten a concussion a few days earlier when the driver of an ICE vehicle braked suddenly. The man kept passing out. He was shaking uncontrollably and saying his head hurt. The flight medic told him there wasn’t much he could do.
3360190
Reposted by Michael
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 06/08/2026
In July, on ABC, CBS, and NBC, there were 194 segments on the extreme heat waves rolling across the US. Number that mentioned climate change: 0.
mediamatters.org
ABC, CBS, and NBC aired nearly 200 segments about three U.S. heat events without mentioning climate change
From late June through July, successive heat waves swept across large portions of the United States, breaking temperature records and placing more than 100 million people at a time under heat alerts. ...
541551708
Reposted by Michael
Pascal Sabino @pascalsabino.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Missouri's GOP legislature keeps losing to voters at the ballot box — marijuana, minimum wage, Medicaid expansion, abortion rights all passed by referendum despite their Republican supermajority Their response is a measure on today's ballot that would gut the referendum process
boltsmag.org
Under this August Measure, All of Missouri’s Recent Popular Initiatives Would Have Failed - Bolts
Republicans have dominated Missouri’s legislature for over two decades, but they haven’t entirely controlled state lawmaking, in large part because Missouri empowers citizens to petition for ballot re...
37931
Reposted by Michael
Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Not only did they absolutely beg for this, they made it so that “merit” was synonymous with being white so now you’re stuck with precisely the kind of moron who believes that. www.politico.com/news/magazin...
Everyone knows what the problem is: The organizations that bring young staffers to Washington, D.C. have spent the last decade prioritizing blind ideological loyalty instead of competence or intelligence,” said a senior GOP congressional staffer, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel issues. “We have a generation of rabid, incompetent idiots.”
295114772682
Reposted by Michael
Bolts @boltsmag.org · 31/07/2026
The Portland Press Herald reports on the red flag-riddled background of the ICE officer who killed an immigrant in Maine this month:
pressherald.com
ICE agent in Biddeford shooting had ‘too many red flags’ to become local cop
Reports that David Brouillette shot and killed a man while working for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have pushed concerns about his past into a national spotlight. 
18635
Reposted by Michael
Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
“Trump has rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47-year history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” Right now people in blue states are basically paying federal taxes as if they’re colonized territories of red states. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...
Trump has denied most disaster requests from Democratic-led states

A graph  showing Presidential approval rates for disaster requests from Democratic-led states and Republican-led states

Source: POLITICO's E&E News analysis of FEMA records
16154692514
Reposted by Michael
Sergio olmos @sergioolmos.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
‘Pretty sure he’s wet:’ Immigration agents used racial slurs during LA sweeps, court records show. “Yeah, just plug us in wherever you see some tonks and we’ll jump out.” “tonks everywhere selling food.”  W/ @wendyfry.bsky.social calmatters.org/justice/2026...
calmatters.org
‘Pretty sure he’s wet:’ Immigration agents used racial slurs during LA sweeps, court records show
Records released as part of a lawsuit challenging racial profiling show that immigration agents used slurs to refer to Latino targets.
1227491
Reposted by Michael
Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 27/07/2026
People who are suddenly deported to countries they haven’t been to for years — or, in some cases, have NEVER been to — are incredibly vulnerable. We are going to be reading stories like this for years. God have mercy on their three little girls.
829381161
Reposted by Michael
Mark Gongloff @markgongloff.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Trump's whole-of-government assault on clean energy isn't just a disaster for the planet, it's a catastrophe for the whole economy, with effects that will grow exponentially Gift link to my column for @opinion.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
bloomberg.com
Quashed Cleantech Opportunities Are Costing Us Billions
Ever wonder about the financial implications of your life choices? Taking one job over another, spending Christmas with your nephew instead of working through it at your financial firm, that time Bitc...
38744
Reposted by Michael
The American Prospect @prospect.org · 16/07/2026
One hopes that the voting public is learning a hard—or I should say watery—lesson about how important good government is. prospect.org?p=141052
Hand of farmers carrying wooden tray full of freshly picked vegetables
55518
Reposted by Michael
Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
ICE actually took a step to reduce the likelihood officers kill someone—not enough, doesn’t address other problems, but a step in the right direction—and Trump intervened to reverse it. Killing innocent people isn’t a problem the White House seeks to avoid, it’s apparently a goal of their policy.
cnn.com
Furious Trump overturns suspension of ICE traffic stops amid MAGA criticism | CNN
President Donald Trump was furious over the pause on most vehicle stops conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the blowback from his base, according to two sources familiar with the matt...
28686220
Reposted by Michael
Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
It took DHS 12 hours to come up with this statement, And the best they could come up with is that ICE shot and killed an unarmed man who didn’t present a threat to the agents. They know they fucked this one up. And it’ll be up to state and local prosecutors—not the feds—to make the case
461053265
Reposted by Michael
Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
"I tried to stop," said the immigrant shot in the head and bleeding to death This is the new "I can't breathe" www.pressherald.com/2026/07/13/b...
pressherald.com
Biddeford witness saw gunshot victim bleeding from head
One resident who saw the shooting said he heard the man who died say 'I tried to stop.'
16736354
Reposted by Michael
Sen. Adam Schiff @schiff.senate.gov · 10/07/2026
Once again, ICE shot and killed someone in broad daylight. This time, a loving father and husband, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. This latest tragedy is a reminder of why we’ve been fighting for real reforms of DHS and an end to this administration’s cruel and dangerous immigration agenda.
54637162
Reposted by Michael
Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 09/07/2026
I wrote about Lorenzo Salgado Araujo—who is now the tenth person federal immigration agents have shot and killed during Trump's second term.
newrepublic.com
ICE Is Hoping You Won’t Notice the Man Agents Killed In Texas
The administration may have changed its P.R. strategy for Trump’s mass deportation campaign. The violence hasn’t changed at all.
21026450
Reposted by Michael
Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · 08/07/2026
NEW: He was picking up a work crew to take them to construction site at 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning. ICE showed up. And now this small business owner, the father of three American citizens, is dead. www.thebulwark.com/p/he-lived-h...
thebulwark.com
He Lived Here for 35 Years. Put Three Kids in College. ICE Killed Him.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was picking up a crew for a construction project when ICE shot him. It now claims he was the aggressor.
11045332481
Reposted by Michael
Drew Magary @drewmagary.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
God I fucking hate this ad. defector.com/dana-white-s...
defector.com
Dana White Stars In History's Worst Truck Ad | Defector
Vanity pickup trucks: I fucking hate these things, and so you do. The second I see a Dodge Ram SuperUltraMegaSoldierDuty on the highway, I already know that it’ll have a Blue Lives Matter decal splash...
2432732
Reposted by Michael
dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
NEW: The ICE office that customarily probes employee misconduct is being refocused to investigate ICE critics, opening hundreds of "doxing and threat" cases and subpoenaing tech companies to unmask anonymous posters. Detention facility inspections, meanwhile, are plummeting. by @regret.bsky.social
wired.com
ICE’s Internal Watchdog Is Now Investigating Online Critics
The Office of Professional Responsibility has opened more than 100 cases over what ICE officials call “incidents of doxing and threats” against ICE employees.
5819781171
Reposted by Michael
Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
"Members of the group Patriot Front ride the metro as a commuter looks on, during the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 4, 2026. REUTERS/Cheney Orr"
"Members of the group Patriot Front ride the metro as a commuter looks on, during the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 4, 2026. REUTERS/Cheney Orr"
67660562137
Reposted by Michael
The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 04/07/2026
“The Reflecting Pool is a metaphor so perfect, it feels almost valedictory, as though symbolism as a whole gave up and decided to sign off,” @petridishes.bsky.social writes:
bit.ly
One Metaphor to End Them All
The Reflecting Pool is an image so perfect, it feels as though symbolism as a whole gave up and decided to sign off.
727760
Reposted by Michael
Defector @defector.com · 02/07/2026
Unlike the defendants, one of the Prarieland judges is part of an organized cell of extremists: defector.com/unlike-the-d...
defector.com
Unlike The Defendants, One Of The Prairieland Judges Is Part Of An Organized Cell of Extremists | Defector
Whether you remember his name or not, you’ve probably been reading about Judge Reed O’Connor and his judicial malevolence for years. O’Connor is making headlines again for being one of two judges to…
011332
Reposted by Michael
Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
It‘s just insane to me that a sitting president has made MORE THAN A BILLION DOLLARS peddling fucking fairy dust with no intrinsic value beyond his stature and power AS president, and it’s not treated as the biggest corruption scandal in American history.
1745201475
Reposted by Michael
Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · 29/06/2026
The Supreme Court Gives Donald Trump Full Control Over the Executive Branch, Except the Part of It that Impacts Their Retirement Portfolios
3740191074
Reposted by Michael
Jamal Greene @jamalgreene.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
The Court’s equal protection analysis would itself raise an inference of discrimination under standard antidiscrimination law analysis.
225359
Reposted by Michael
joocifer @joocifer.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Anthropic just turned off Fable for everyone because the gov wanted it turned off for just foreign nationals which is impossible. Also, the gov freaked about a jailbreak any frontier model can do rn.
152
Reposted by Michael
Drew Magary @drewmagary.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
The plot twist at 1:18 floored me
1126845
Reposted by Michael
The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
WATCH — Trump’s ‘Meet the Press’ Tantrum (longer version, with context) When Welker pushes back on his unhinged lies about the election and grills him on the $1.776 BILLION fund for seditionists who attacked the Capitol he still won’t say is dead, Trump loses it and leaves.
1851581584
Reposted by Michael
Kevin Morris @kevintmorris.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Last night, the Supreme Court ruled that the VRA cannot protect even against *intentionally* discriminatory voting policies When we say there is no federal statute remaining the enforce the 15th Amendment, this is what we mean
4937331148
Reposted by Michael
James Hell Brooks @kleinman.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
It really feels like John Roberts just wants to torch democracy for the insurance money right now
413026
Michael @m1kl.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/w...
nytimes.com
Hospitals See Diseases Resurge as Vaccinations Decline
000
Reposted by Michael
Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
This answer alone should destroy this administration. This conversation is essentially: “people are hurting.” “ceos are fine.”
5842351178
Reposted by Michael
G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 31/05/2026
“Government stats say incomes after adjusting for inflation are now declining YoY. What do you say to that?” “Yeah, well, we are also starving people and kicking them off health care”
591454368
Reposted by Michael
Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
tl,dr; Scientists no longer allowed to use federal funding to publish, attend meetings, or talk to the public. They cannot collaborate internationally. Grants can be cancelled for any reason, at any time, political appointees have a final say over what gets funded, and who gets funded.
17044952553
Reposted by Michael
Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
“The call came from the White House: We have to get this done,” the person said.  About three months before the Pentagon announced plans to lend money to Vulcan Elements, Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm took an undisclosed stake in the company. @robert-faturechi.bsky.social
propublica.org
The White House Intervened to Get a $620 Million Deal for a Company Tied to Donald Trump Jr.
About three months before the Pentagon announced plans to lend money to Vulcan Elements, Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm took an undisclosed stake in the company.
10022491136
Reposted by Michael
Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Coming back to the video below two months later: www.politico.com/news/2026/05...
"The average price of gas ticked up again Thursday to $4.56, up about 50 cents from one month ago and more than $1.50 since the war began. Summer driving season, which kicks off this weekend with Memorial Day, is expected to send prices even higher."
331040271
Reposted by Michael
mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
its funny both left wing reporters like chad loder and far right terrorists like tarrio agree that the slush fund is designed to buy arms for right wing terror orgs. the media is still framing the objections as "rewarding people who assaulted our beloved cops." like its actually much worse!
201495469
Reposted by Michael
Literal Ham @literalham.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
HOLY FUCKING SHIT
Parente, who was a federal prosecutor for 15 years, said he had never heard of anything as bad as the conduct in the Broadview Six grand jury sessions. He said that while he has not yet been able to review the unredacted transcripts, Judge April Perry gave a summary in court of her impressions. She said she had reviewed thousands of pages of grand jury transcripts in her career and had never seen anything worse than what she saw in these pages.

Parente said during the grand jury sessions, prosecutors used vouching, which he called a "101 no-no for any prosecutor," kicked out grand jury members who disagreed with them, did not disclose that a No True Bill – which indicates no indictment – had been returned to either the defense or the public. Parente also said that after receiving the No True Bill from one grand jury, they re-presented their case after excluding grand jurors who disagreed with them. The grand jury then returned a True Bill to indict the "Broadview Six."
9352321189
Reposted by Michael
Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Years ago Scalia provoked gasps in the gallery when he called the Voting Rights Act a “racial entitlement.” But turning American democracy back into a white racial entitlement, as it was for most of American history, is exactly what the Roberts Court is doing. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
The Court decided in Shelby County’s favor; in her dissent, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that Section 5 had “worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes.” Nullifying it, she warned, is “like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”

The deluge is enough to refill America’s whites-only pools. The vaunted “progress” the justices cite at every opportunity to justify gutting the VRA was a result of the law effectively neutralizing racial discrimination, not an absence of the desire or intent to discriminate. Scalia’s remark that the VRA was a “racial entitlement” is illuminating in the way that statements from many ideologues are, in that they express their own motives rather than those of their targets. Until 1965, democracy itself was a “racial entitlement” in America. Much of the Republican Party is trying to make that true once again.
352839846
Reposted by Michael
Chad Loder @chadloder.dev · 19/05/2026
The Trump $1.776 billion slush fund is not mere corruption. Trump is giving his brownshirts money for recruiting, logistics, AR-15's and tactical gear. Nobody in the national media seems to be talking about this, or about how the Paycheck Protection Program played a central role in funding Jan 6
452588937
Reposted by Michael
Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
A true fact about Trump's stock trading- I ran the numbers and Trump traded up to ~$700 million in stock in Q1 of 2026. All 535 Members of Congress made a total of ~$635 million worth of trades in 2025. So Trump bought and sold more stock in 3 months than all of Congress put together did last year
321720683
Reposted by Michael
David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Every sport has gotten better since I was a kid, which makes sense because I am old. But the NBA occasionally just rolls out whole new types of guys. Wemby and Holmgren are totally new, but also Dylan Harper is a wider/faster type of guy. Alex Caruso is an old type of guy, but does new stuff.
2469540
Reposted by Michael
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 15/05/2026
COLLINS: But if someone was paying $2.98 a gallon before the war, and now they're paying $4.53, saying 'that's life' might not make them feel better JIM JORDAN: Those are your words, not mine COLLINS: You said that just now. I quoted you.
1272108852994
Reposted by Michael
ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 14/05/2026
none of these people actually want to be doing the job. they want to be celebrities
1183652702