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marybentley.bsky.social

@marybentley.bsky.social
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Sailor Michael @sailormichael.bsky.social · 11h
Curtis Flowers, wrongfully imprisoned for more than 22 years, dies www.wlox.com/2026/10/07/c...
wlox.com
Curtis Flowers, wrongfully imprisoned for more than 22 years, dies
Curtis Flowers, the Mississippi man who spent more than 22 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of four murders, has died. He was 56.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 9h
WHOA. This is big news. Mr. Soliman is a 31-year-old gay man from Egypt who came here at 3 with a green card. He lost his green card after a conviction, but an immigration judge found that he would be persecuted in Egypt and barred sending him there. He's locked in a hotel in Equatorial Guinea now.
A federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to return Ahmed Soliman to the United States, five months after he was expelled to Equatorial Guinea, a country where he has no ties, in a decision that could have far-reaching implications for thousands of others subjected to the Trump administration’s third-country removal scheme.

Arizona District Court Judge John C. Hinderaker, a Trump appointee, ruled that DHS violated the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and “must facilitate Plaintiff’s release from custody in Equatorial Guinea and return to the United States and must ensure his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to Equatorial Guinea.”
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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 9h
Today we got access to a smoking gun document from ICE that shows how it is weaponized against progressive groups registering voters while building a voter suppression database.
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STAT @statnews.com · 9h
The Trump administration on Wednesday announced a proposed $70,000 fee for a popular work authorization program meant to give students professional experience. www.statnews.com/2026/10/07/trump-a…
statnews.com
Trump administration proposes $70,000 fee for popular international student work program
The Trump administration has proposed a $70,000 fee for a popular work authorization program meant to give students professional experience
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Julie K. Brown @jkbjournalist.bsky.social · 12h
NEW: Maybe it's time to take a good look at all these deaths in the Epstein-Trump orbit. jkbjournalist.substack.com/p/dead-men-t...
jkbjournalist.substack.com
Dead men tell no Epstein-Trump tales
When witnesses, whistleblowers and accusers die, it’s time to look at whether they have anything in common. Here is a list of some of the recent deaths.
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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 12h
Former @bardcollege.bsky.social President and friend of Jeffrey Epstein, Leon Botstein, has finally resigned all his college positions after emails emerge in which he asked Epstein if a trafficked woman was “for me.” www.nytimes.com/2026/10/07/u...
nytimes.com
Leon Botstein, Former Bard President With Epstein Ties, Resigns From College Positions
Leon Botstein had already retired from the presidency of the liberal arts college this spring, after emails showed he had maintained a longtime friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 12h
Part (but far from all) of what's horrific here is: a woman weighing the consequences of speaking up about being sexually assaulted, because speaking up imposes burdens and costs (and so does not speaking up).
phoenixnewtimes.com
Congressional candidate is raped while repairing her campaign signs
Embarrassed, she initially didn’t want to report attack. Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office's investigation is ongoing. A Phoenix New Times exclusive.
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Cameron 🇺🇸🗽🦅 @cameroncorduroy.bsky.social · 10h
the Vice President of the United States has gone on record citing this man as one of his biggest intellectual influences if you didn't know this, it's probably because for some reason literally no mainstream political media outlets think it's worth mentioning
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Micah @rincewind.run · 10h
Trump: *says horrible thing* the media: he didn’t actually mean it Trump: no I definitely one hundred percent meant it
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marybentley.bsky.social @marybentley.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Per the Baltimore Sun, prosecutors disregarded school records and statements from school officials that placed Bright in class that morning. The ongoing harm to this young man and his family cannot be overstated.
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Mike Ludwig @mludwig.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
See the moment when Border Patrol and militarized police cut down the sacred Grandmother Tree, a more than 200-year-old Cottonwood on private property and Indigenous territory. The tree sitter and many others are have been arrested, according to activists @ Tierra Libre anti-border wall camp
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Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · 06/10/2026
arstechnica.com
Drone strikes, likely Russian, sink ships in NATO countries’ economic zones
Two cargo ships have sunk, one ship was afire, and sailors are dead or missing.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 06/10/2026
Pregnancy is the only condition where Florida courts have ruled that a mentally competent patient can be forced to undergo unwanted treatment, such as a C-section. (Published March)
propublica.org
They Didn’t Want to Have C-Sections. A Judge Would Decide How They Gave Birth.
Two Florida women had to attend virtual court hearings while in labor to argue for their right to choose their own medical care. As their state pushes to expand some types of medical freedom, it has a...
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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
A day after Trump said his super PAC would pay for those propaganda ads that had been funded by taxpayers, White House officials said the group did *not* plan to reimburse the government for the more than $10 million it had already spent on the ads.
nytimes.com
Trump Does Not Plan to Reimburse Taxpayers for Promotional Ads
A day after the president said his super PAC would pay for the ads, which had drawn bipartisan backlash, officials said that he meant moving forward. A new taxpayer-funded ad aired Tuesday.
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Vituperative Erb @vituperativeerb.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I say again it’s sort of amazing the libs are getting both Great Books and the Protestant Work Ethic in the national divorce
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Whatever else one can say, the let-Trump-be-Trump approach to national politics has to be one of the most rapidly discredited ideas in American political history. The republicans in the Senate want to stem the bleeding, they should (but won't) discipline this administration. Yesterday.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
They hate the immigration policy (around -15), they hate the economic policy and the tariffs (around -30!), they hate the foreign policy (around -25) and they never liked anything else. Immigration is his best issue and votes hate it in a way that would *already* be a problem for anyone else.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
In a sense, this has been a fairly comprehensive test of the MAGA theory of politics: maximum cruelty with maximum visibility on social media, combined by obvious efforts at electoral bribery and relentlessly protectionist trade policies and it just...failed. Americans on the net hate all of it.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I am struck that the political theory of MAGA in Trump 2.0 is the GOP can win without sound or moral government if everyone throws red meat to the cameras as the occasional bribe. You see it with Trump, Patel, Hegseth, all of them. Anyway, Trump's approval is at, like, -23, so...no luck on that.
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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 07/10/2026
Breaking news: DHS sped up training for police officers making immigration arrests by scaling back instruction on the nation’s immigration laws and real world scenarios they might encounter, according to emails reviewed by the Post.
washingtonpost.com
Emails show how ICE trimmed training for deputized officers
Police officers helping ICE arrest unauthorized immigrants were given a shortened training course that scaled back instruction on the nation’s immigration laws.
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Dr Dean Burnett @drdeanburnett.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"By using AI, tasks like essays that used to take hours can be completed in minutes!" Sure, like how if I arrive at the gym and immediately go for a shower, my workout is done in record time. And if I throw my sandwiches straight in the bin, I can finish my lunch in under 10 seconds.
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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
🚨BREAKING: GOP lawyer Cleta Mitchell and convicted election denier Tina Peters are pushing a scheme to have Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick seize voting machines, as part of a broader effort for the Trump administration to interfere with the midterm vote. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
democracydocket.com
Election deniers Cleta Mitchell and Tina Peters want Trump’s commerce secretary to seize voting machines
The problem? No federal official can seize control of election administration from the states and counties, who hold the power run elections under the U.S. Constitution.
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
This strikes me as really fuckin bad
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rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
a little louder for the cheap seats in the back
One of the biggest myths is that men rape by mistake. Like, "Oh, they need consent training." But research is very clear: Sexual violence is not a mistake. It is an intentionally made decision by people who know they don't have consent. They just don't prioritize consent over things like status, power, domination, and sexual gratification.
For my research, I got a certificate of confidentiality from the National Institutes of Health, so my notes couldn't be subpoenaed. One of the reasons I call them perpetrators in my work is because every single person I interviewed confessed in that context. The first question I would ask them was, "When you received that email from Title IX that you were under investigation, did you know what it was about?" Every perpetrator I interviewed said "yes." If sexual assault were a miscommunication, you would be wondering, What have I possibly done wrong? That is not the way that any of them reacted because they knew.
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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Something unprecedented happened during my visit to the Gulf. For the first time in 20 years in Congress, I was denied entry to U.S. military facilities and even meetings with military leaders. An order from Hegseth - that applies to both parties - to hide the cost of the war.
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The Conversation U.S. @us.theconversation.com · 06/10/2026
The U.S. is deporting migrants to Liberia, a nation shaped by 19th-century American efforts to remove free Black people from the country. Here’s how history is rhyming:
theconversation.com
US migrant flights to Liberia evoke troubling history of sending people deemed unwanted to the West African nation
In the 1800s, West Africa became a focal point for efforts to remove Black people from America. The arrival of free people later gave the country its name.
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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 06/10/2026
ICE has detained more than 500 U.S. citizens.
projects.propublica.org
More Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — ProPublica
The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administrati...
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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The IceCube neutrino detector has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in physics. The Trump administration has proposed slashing its budget in half in 2027.
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Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
“The coin in question was listed for sale on eBay and is branded “U.S. ERO Yuma ICE.” Along with a snarling wolf-like creature, the coin, which is in the shape of a police badge, features two twisted mottoes. “There is no hunting like the hunting of man,” it says.”
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
NEW: Rep. Beatty is challenging the Kennedy Center's invocation of the qualified "presidential communications privilege" in refusing to turn over a vast array of communications with Trump & even documents "touching on" Trump communications during discovery. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
When Defendants filed their motion to vacate the preliminary injunction and for summary
judgment, they initially relied on evidence of what Trump told Defendant Matthew Floca. See,
e.g., Defs.'s Mem. in Supp. of Mot. 4, ECF 88-1; Defs.'s Statement of Undisputed Material Facts 14, ECF No. 89-2; see also Suppl. Decl. Charles Matthew Floca 1 6, ECF No. 29-3. But after
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Case 1:25-cv-04480-CRC Document 96
Filed 10/05/26
Page 2 of 25
Plaintiff served written discovery, the Department of Justice pivoted to a sweeping claim of
presidential communications privilege to bar any inquiry into those communications, or indeed
into any inputs and instructions the Kennedy Center's staff received from its board chair. The
Department now refuses to provide any documents held by the Kennedy Center even touching on
communications between the Chairman and management and intends to block all inquiry into those
communications in depositions. Plaintiff does not bring this motion lightly. The Department's sweeping assertion of privilege, however, appears to be unprecedented. Donald Trump is the chair of a non-profit corporation's board, and his decisions and directions lie at the heart of that board's
actions which, in turn, are the subject matter of this case. Allowing Defendants to hide behind this unwarranted assertion of privilege would obstruct the search for the truth, frustrate the Court's discovery order, and undermine public confidence in these important proceedings.Having appointed himself to the Kennedy Center's board and having assumed the office
of Chair, Donald Trump undertook the obligations placed on him by the Center's organic statute
to safeguard and protect this sacred memorial to a fallen President. Trustee and board chair are
not roles that must be performed by the President of the United States and, indeed, never have been
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Case 1:25-cv-04480-CRC Document 96 Filed 10/05/26
Page 5 of 25
in the Center's history before now. Nor are the staff at the Kennedy Center anything like the close presidential advisers whose conversations executive privilege protects. The Court should not
permit Defendants to evade accountability as trustees by abusing a privilege constructed for other
purposes, not the chairmanship of this non-profit entity. Plaintiff therefore respectfully requests the Court compel the production of responsive documents and written production Defendants improperly withheld.
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Saying he'd be cool with Iran nuking my home city is pretty bad but not quite as bad as when Hillary said some trump supporters were deplorable so I can see why the media turned the latter into a major scandal and not the former
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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The photo sits atop a story about how he’s blatantly exploiting his office for personal gain, corrupting the federal government to an unprecedented degree, and no one is even slowing him down anymore. And this is his only response.
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Sam “The Great Pumpkin” Thielman @samthielman.com · 06/10/2026
As American a figure as Joseph Smith or PT Barnum
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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Even Trump judges see the lawless secret police for what they are. And, guys, none of this fascist ethnic cleansing stopped after Minneapolis
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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 06/10/2026
BREAKING: For the first time in 10 months, the U.S. admitted a refugee who is not a white South African. In September, the U.S. admitted 3,386 white South Africans and two Afghans (in D.C.) In FY 2026, the U.S. has admitted a total of 16,287 white South Africans, five Afghans, and nobody else.
rpc.state.gov
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Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · 05/10/2026
Your state and local health departments are a critical source for outbreak and other health-related information, especially now that federal data are being compromised. Look up your health departments by state and county for more info.
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Charlotte @charley50.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
“Rape is the logical endpoint of the way men are socialized to understand their own sexuality - as domineering, as eroticizing violence, as taking gratification in the humiliation of women…All men are indocrinated into this culture which valorizes rape as an expression of masculinity.” Moira D 👏👏👏
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Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) @hcrichardson.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The white evangelical movement split in the 1970s so those who hated civil rights, especially for women, could boost right-wing Republicans. Talarico is reclaiming the movement for the others, and it is a very different thing indeed. Jimmy Carter v. Jerry Falwell.
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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Much like after the 2020 election, Trump’s attempts to manipulate his way to victory will depend on whether or not he can get enough people in enough positions of influence to go along with his schemes. We must not help him by perpetuating the Trumpist assertions of dominance and inevitability.
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Andrew Egger on the moral depravity of Trump: "They buried Pierre Damas Bel on Saturday. That night, Donald Trump came to town to take a victory lap on the policies that killed him."
thebulwark.com
A Death. A Funeral. And the Trump Rally Down the Block.
On the day Springfield held a funeral for Pierre Damas Bel, the president held a rally 25 miles away. We went to both.
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Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I know some folks won't read a Substack, so here's her same coverage at The Addison Independent: www.addisonindependent.com/2026/10/01/t...
addisonindependent.com
Terror in the Backyard: ICE’s shadow surges in Vermont
Liza Cochran, author of Brave Little Voices, delves deep into the Aug. 8 ICE raid of Mary Richards’s home in Cornwall.
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Newshound411 @newshound411.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It’s corruption on steroids in plain sight. He doesn’t even try to hide that he’s looting US and cashing in on insider trading. He’s the most corrupt president in American history.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
With this monopolized media empire comes not just size but unprecedented power. The power to throw workers under the bus. The power to price-gouge because consumers have few alternatives. The power to decide which stories get told, but more importantly, which stories DON'T get told.
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Nancy Levine Stearns @nancylevinestearns.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
🚨NEW by me: New ICE facility for unaccompanied migrant kids is about to open in Louisiana. While ICE is sanitizing optics, calling it the "Alexandria Family Staging Center," lawmakers and child advocates are raising the roof warning of child trafficking risks. www.thequeenzone.com/new-ice-faci...
thequeenzone.com
New ICE Facility for Migrant Children Raises Alarm Over Trafficking Risks
A new ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) facility for unaccompanied children, families, and single women is set to...
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Mark T. Sneed @marktsneed.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
In the history of all the things that never happened, this never happened the most. SMH. Politicians lie. These politicians lie so often it seems like breathing.
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Endless corruption.
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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
🚨BREAKING: In a win for voters, the Kansas Court of Appeals Friday denied Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s (R) latest request to revive a GOP-backed law that would throw out mail-in ballots received after Election Day, even if they were cast on time. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
democracydocket.com
GOP bid to scrap Kansas mail ballot grace period fails again
The ruling means Kansas election officials must continue counting ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within the following three days, including in the upcoming November elections.
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Everyone involved in this process — including the Palantir employees — have to be investigated and probably go to jail.
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Rep. Robert Garcia @robertgarcia.house.gov · 02/10/2026
This corruption must be investigated.
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Clayton Tucker @claytontuckertx.com · 02/10/2026
🚨 BREAKING NEWS: A federal judge just HALTED the destruction of Big Bend. This is a massive victory for the landowners, local communities, and everyday Texans who stood up to protect one of our state's greatest treasures. The fight isn't over, but today, the people won.
Graphic from the Center for Biological Diversity over a scenic view of Big Bend. Large text reads, “MASSIVE WIN FOR BIG BEND.” Below, it says a federal judge has frozen all destruction throughout the Big Bend region until the project’s legality can be determined in court. The graphic adds that the Center will continue fighting to save Big Bend and asks supporters to join them.
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