Sign in

purmanter.bsky.social

@purmanter.bsky.social
207 followers 76 following 10 posts
PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Alex Rikleen formerly for Senate @rikleen.bsky.social · 12h
That means changing the composition of the Court. That happens through retirements, deaths, impeachments, or expansion. Only the latter 2 are under control of Congress. Of those 2, expansion takes fewer votes. So that's the starting point.
161
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Micah @rincewind.run · 14h
4. this is the key issue - the reason we go for expansion over any other reform is that it's a) fast and b) constitutional this court will rule against any other restriction on its power, like term limits, and any delayed reform will be repealed by republicans this breaks their power immediately
1367479
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 14h
The denaturalization push against Ilhan Omar is so much worse than even previous abuses of federal authority and investigative power. It’s not just that it’s a targeted investigation, but that it’s an effort to achieve something that could NEVER possibly be legitimate.
855987
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Noah Berlatsky @nberlat.bsky.social · 12h
yep. this is the unanswerable argument. the court will block any effort to reform it short of changing the composition of the court, which it can't block. expansion is the only way forward.
03813
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 17h
They took Ilhan’s PASSPORT?! Um
362489600
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 17h
“The federal legal apparatus is working to strip the citizenship of a member of Congress and then deport her, because she’s from an ethnic group the president and his top aide despises,” is open executive-branch authoritarianism with no parallel in US history
6483148
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 13/10/2026
Remembering that time when some big name accounts were arguing that X is all good now and the algorithm has been de-Elon'd. Wait, that was yesterday. The same time this was happening.
3235561069
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
One very easy fix here: if you worked for DOGE, you are immediately barred from working on any federal contracts, www.acquisition.gov/far/subpart-....
acquisition.gov
Subpart 9.4 - Debarment, Suspension, and Ineligibility | Acquisition.GOV
22771185
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Joe Stieb @joestieb.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Actually the death penalty is illegal or never enforced in virtually every Democratic run state and liberals are uniformly outraged by hegseth’s barbarism.
371323152
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
At some point we also have to deal with the fact that one of the two parties is openly hostile to democracy. If you have to win big every election or else the country falls into despotism we're all just playing Russian roulette every few years
614132741
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
this is why you have to retaliate
5631119
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Bradley P. Moss @bradmossesq.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Conservatives have been screaming bloody murder that Jack Smith lawfully collected call data on Trump allies in 2023 and 2024. But executing a search warrant on Omar’s house a few weeks before the election is totally cool.
22860196
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Why are so many Americans in positions of authority like naive children? Where’ve you been the last two years? Last decade, really? How do you not recognize bad faith, especially when you see it repeatedly? Or did you recognize it but give them benefit of the doubt anyway? Why would you do that?
1123547
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
This story makes it sound like the major problem is that the Trump Admin did this w/in 60 days of an election. Yes, that's a real abuse. But the major problem is they're basically threatening to denaturalize an opposition legislator, based on racist insinuations. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/12/u...
nytimes.com
Federal Agents Search Home of Rep. Ilhan Omar (Gift Article)
The search takes place within the 60-day window of the midterm elections, when the Justice Department has historically avoided such investigative steps related to political candidates.
573003855
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Jonathan Ladd @jonathanmladd.com · 11/10/2026
The anti-anti-Trump movement has been as damaging to he country as the pro-Trump movement. The basic idea of the anti-anti-Trump faction is that they themselves criticize Trump sometimes, but any political or legal figure who tries to stop Trump is always going too far or not doing it the right way.
934861
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
gamera obscura october edition @ohrobin.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I think what frightens me most is that the sheer volume of things to be horrified by has become its own kind of protection for the people responsible. Nothing has to be explained or resolved becuase a story or a scandal or a tragedy only has to survive until the next thing happens in five minutes.
14631172
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 11/10/2026
Adding: this will be *doubly* true if Dems win big in 2028 and are in a position to impose some accountability. The whole RW media blob, the NYT, the Atlantic, all the Very Serious outlets filled with Very Serious People will be scolding them to calm down, don't dwell on the past, look forward, etc.
101147152
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Right-wing nationalist populist movement led by charismatic demagogue, failed in coup attempt but later got some power electorally and illegally seized more, deployed secret police to put minorities in concentration camps, and launched aggressive war, but do not compare to the Nazis, that’d be rude.
1034888
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
The "Party of Reagan" has the United States siding with Russian aggression against NATO allies and a brutal war on a European democratic US partner. Yes, the whole party. If they didn't, they would impeach and remove the president who is blatantly breaking US law to help fund Russia's war effort.
652691764
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
It's already illegal. Congress banned it near-unanimously in 2022. That law allows the ban to be lifted only if Russia withdraws from Ukraine. He's simply breaking the law that's already on the books.
5447521459
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Holy shit FOUR members of the ethics committee in Denmark that gave the green light to allow the widely-condemned RFK Jr-funded trial to proceed in Guinea-Bissau have now resigned in protest This quote is 🔥 Great reporting by @melodyschreiber.com www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
Stig Børsen Hansen, a founding member who was one of two reviewers who presented the study to the Danish committee, resigned from the group in protest on Friday, citing major ethical issues with the study.

“You are now enrolling newborns in a lottery to test a hypothesis,” Hansen said. The children who are randomly selected not to receive the birth dose of the vaccine, those who “lost the lottery”, face in their earliest days the risk of contracting hepatitis B, which can cause irreversible lifelong damage. “They contract hepatitis B in the context of being part of a research project,” Hansen said, which made their infection happen, in effect, “by design”.

Three other members of the committee have also resigned in protest.
311279630
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Maggie McNeill @maggiemcneill.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The term everyone is dancing around is "secret police", a hallmark of totalitarian regimes.
337621341
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Scott Lemieux @lemieuxlgm.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
When I grow up, I'm going to Non Sequitur University
921330
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
"Kennedy would never be able to do the trial in the US because of its significant ethical concerns, Offit added. “He’s taking advantage of a developing country … Is it because children in Africa are more expendable than children here?”" Yes. That is evident. That and the fact "Bobby" is an evil man.
426686
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Ellison family consolidates dozens of media outlets: Cool, no problem, go ahead guys. Media coordinates to protest Trump's first amendment violations: Oh, that's antitrust! www.nytimes.com/2026/10/10/b...
nytimes.com
Justice Dept. Is Investigating TV Networks Over Trump Pool Coverage (Gift Article)
Major TV networks were notified on Friday that the department was examining whether they violated antitrust laws when they suspended pool coverage of President Trump.
19838204
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
every senate democrat voted to confirm marco rubio.
361401349
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℍ𝕚𝕤𝕥🎃𝕣𝕪 𝕠𝕗 ℂ𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕒 ℙ💀𝕕𝕔𝕒𝕤𝕥 @thoc.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
absolutely terrible, stupid framing. DOGE could have *only* been a "missed opportunity" if it had been conceived, planned, & implemented exactly opposite of how it was, by people who did not think like they did, for goals antithetical to their actual goals.
319947
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 09/10/2026
Gosh. What a surprise that Brendan Carr is a fucking coward. Comedians making jokes on late night TV requires an investigation into the "public interest" standard, but a literal execution is "not my job, go talk to Hegseth who is doing a great job."
A livestream falls outside of the FCC’s regulatory power, but the Pentagon feed is something that, absent restrictions, broadcasters could pick up. The FCC’s obscenity, indecency and profanity guidelines do not directly address executions, but under his tenure, Carr has launched investigations of networks on the grounds that they may not be meeting their public interest obligations. FCC guidance earlier this year emphasized, among other things, that stations must air programming that is “responsive to the needs of their local communities.”

“My understanding is it’s not on broadcast TV, so I don’t think there’s a role for the FCC one way or the other there,” Carr said on CNBC. “But I trust Secretary Hegseth. I mean, he’s implementing the laws and regulations that are relevant to the Department of War, and I think he’s doing a great job, and I trust that he’s making the right call on these issues.”
833786
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
a trivial but public and humiliating thing that you make a lot of powerful people do to show strength. everyone knows what it is, but also no one is going to pick a huge battle over the integrity of the term "artificial intelligence", so they acquiesce and become a little bit more pot committed
337019
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I don't believe that Americans won't work certain jobs, but the reality is that the domestic labor supply largely does NOT want to do backbreaking farm labor; and the wages required to fill the positions could be so high they'd bankrupt farms competing in a global market.
1220638
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
"Trump has moved the ethical line" drives me crazy. It pretends there are no other actors with agency in 🇺🇸 politics or the media. You could have treated this as a nonstop five-alarm scandal & crisis for democracy. You didn't do that. You did for EMAIL & BIDEN OLD. Other choices were right there.
nytimes.com
An Outrage in 2019. No Problem in 2026. Trump Has Moved the Ethical Line.
The president’s decision to hold an international summit at his own private golf club, an idea rejected in his first term, illustrates how much he has shattered norms.
12524112
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
anti-trust anti-trust Anti-Trust Anti-Trust ANTI-TrUST ANTI-TRUST ANTITRUST ANTITRUST ANTITRUST When the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 banned mergers that threaten to significantly reduce competition, this is the sort of thing they had in mind.
36993327
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
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
107106261803
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
this is all a joke to them because far-right conservatives think that rape is good, and that high status men should be entitled to rape any women around them who are not also already attached to other high-status men. this is their actual ideology
301279262
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Lafayette Square isn't "a historic protest site." It's a fucking park. And it's packed on nice days. Calling it a protest site is White House framing. They're closing a popular public park to create a presidential palace Saddam Hussein would love.
nytimes.com
Inside Trump's Plan to Fence Off a Historic Protest Site (Gift Article)
The president’s proposal to enclose a park in Washington could alter how the space has been used for generations.
152485728
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 06/10/2026
i’m still chuckling about this. imagine being a pair of professional shitstains and then crying like this in public about a joke at your expense
1484398265
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Too many people in the media give Trump props for "transparency" because he talks to reporters frequently. But he lies most of the time and often ignores questions. A day after he talked about letting Iran destroy Los Angeles and San Diego, he won't even explain what he meant.
39442122
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Cool, cool, Thom, just checking real quick, but uh, who voted to confirm all of his advisors? And who nominated them for confirmation? Like, classic good tsar, bad boyars nonsense, but c'mon, seriously. You're leaving the Senate anyway, have some damn dignity on the way out.
827129
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
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
423365711
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Where in the law does it say that Constitutionality depends on whether a Supreme Court Justice feels an established right has or has not “engendered reliance interests” in other people?
3041679
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Think about the core tenets of American conservatism: a government serving 300 million people and leading the world should be “small” and that we should orient all policy around servicing the rich so that they throw us gruel. It’s fucking stupid and we should say so.
16896220
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The problem has never really been that conservative voters are reluctant to criticize Trump. The problem is a relentless right-wing media apparatus that tells them Democrats are worse.
16957138
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Spooky Back From The Dead Lazarus @jlazarus.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Second, what Wolfers is proposing runs counter to everything we know about political persuasion. To be blunt *it won't work.* We have two models of persuasion, and both of them depend on strength in numbers. One person can't do it alone, especially not a casual acquatance.
19415
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Mike Fahey @mikefahey218.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
“Are elections about who will hold office or a post-material avenue for self-expression?” Is a question Americans need to ask themselves.
1668
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Stephen Wolf @stephenwolf.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
1) Alito revealing this now is an attempt to rally Republicans in Trump states where Dems lead for Senate. 2) He’s the most partisan R on the court—highly likely he steps down in the lame duck if Dems take the Senate. 3) Doing number 2) makes court expansion even more likely if Dems win in 2028
44823234
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
fundamentally Trump going unpunished is an outcrop of an entire culture of elite impunity, from white collar crime to the Iraq war to the #MeToo backlash; the idea that the powerful (largely white men) can never and should never face consequences lest others of their caste might too.
317531
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Exposing Trump's scheme to illegally withhold aid to coerce Ukraine into lying to help Trump's reelection got the aid released. Important point. I don't know how some Dems talked themselves into thinking the best way to counter criminality is to let it slide, rather than investigate and expose it.
18824198
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The problem with this entire “talking across difference” approach to politics is that it assumes a shared consensus about democracy that no longer exists b/w the 2 main 🇺🇸 political parties. You don’t need to have lunch with people who don’t believe in free elections, equal rights, & the rule of law.
Przeworski, Democracy and the marketDemocracy is a system in which parties lose elections
31700141
Reposted by @purmanter.bsky.social
Noah Berlatsky @nberlat.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
"I want cultural cohesion" at this point is a dogwhistle for "I want genocide."
35812