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robingphillips.bsky.social

@robingphillips.bsky.social
226 followers 257 following 140 posts

Filmmaker, model train enthusiast, general eccentric #shootfilm

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The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 14/09/2026
One teen said he informed the ICE agents he was a citizen but was told, “I don’t give a damn.… Your parents can’t help you now.” trib.al/YQTcfYI
trib.al
ICE Attacks Two U.S. Citizen Minors on Their Way to Enlist in Marines
The ICE agents reportedly said they didn’t care after being told the two teenagers were citizens.
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
civilizational collapse, anyone? "Amazon is buying massive quantities of books, scanning them for AI training, and destroying them in the process. "It’s possible to scan these rare books without destroying them, but cutting the spine makes it cheaper and faster..." www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...
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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
You can’t talk about debt without talking about how we got into a bad predicament, and there’s only one correct answer: tax cuts enacted this century
U.S. debt is on track to reach historic levels
Debt held by the public as a percentage of the gross domestic product, 1792-2055
- Historical - • Projected → Without Bush and Trump tax cuts
187.55%
180%
160
140
120|
100
80
99.38%
60
• 47.85%
40
20
0
1800|
1820 1840 1860|
1880
1900 1920 1940|
1960|
1980 2000 2020 2040|
Hover or click to see values.
• Notes:
Source: Authors' calculations using data from the Congressional Budget Office, the Joint Committee on Taxation, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Federal Reserve, the Yale Budget Lab, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. A full list of sources is available here.
Chart: Center for American Progress
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
The challenge, for those of us teaching either Introduction to International Relations or Introduction to American Politics now, is that we have to teach both how the system is <supposed> to work under our constitutional republic & how it <actually> works under competitive authoritarianism.
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Joe Walsh @walshfreedom.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
ICE deported a U.S. citizen. Brian Morales had proof he was born in Denver. Agents refused to see it, threatened him with prison and pressured him into saying he entered illegally. This isn’t law enforcement. If Brian isn’t safe, neither are you. PAXIS.app | Keep it free: GoFundMe.com/PAXIS
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Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Why the hell did this many Dems just vote to confirm a Trump judge this week? Durbin Fetterman Heinrich Hirono Kaine King Peters Rosen Shaheen Slotkin Whitehouse www.senate.gov/legislative/...
senate.gov
U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 119th Congress - 2nd Session
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Mike Nellis @mikenellis.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
variety.com/2026/tv/news...
variety.com
Fired ‘60 Minutes’ Correspondent Says She Was Pushed to Report on Events ‘That Never Happened’ Under Bari Weiss’ Leadership at CBS News
Fired '60 Minutes' correspondent Cecilia Vega said the 'new administration' at CBS News -- indicating Bari Weiss -- asked her to report on events that 'never happened.'
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Bradley P. Moss @bradmossesq.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
If they had sufficient proof of non-citizens fraudulently registering, to say nothing of voting, they would be bringing indictments. Not issuing press releases.
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
This country was one person's vote away this morning from putting any birthright citizen in danger of being deported tomorrow. We are so much closer to the abyss than we think. Man oh man.
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Adam Kinzinger @adamkinzinger.substack.com · 22/06/2026
If the National guard is enforcing laws that don’t exist the commanders who give the order will need to be help accountable
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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
One of Elon Musk's most cryptic posts says this: "Whatever happens, we have got the spaceships, and they do not." We decode this here. It's a serious statement about the future he actually envisions: newrepublic.com/article/2119...
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
This is bombshell stuff.
Together, alongside the mundane fare of a typical thought leadership conference, the documents show an extraordinary convergence of power. The registration records list General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO's supreme allied commander Europe and the head of US European Command, who took the post in July 2025 and is recorded on the leaked list as having attended Dialog gatherings since 2021. The website directory names sitting Trump administration officials, two US senators, six members of the Paypal Mafia, a former Middle East chief of intelligence, and a sitting ambassador to the United States, along with the founders and directors of many of the country's largest surveillance, data-broker, and advertising-data companies.

Those executives appear side by side with senior US officials overseeing their industries. Auren Hoffman, Dialog’s chairman, founded the location-data broker SafeGraph and the identity-resolution firm LiveRamp, two of the most important suppliers in the consumer data economy. He appears in the directory alongside Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, whose department writes the rules on financial data, and Senator Ted Cruz, chairman of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, which oversees the Federal Trade Commission and its data-privacy authority.

Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale, whose software runs case management for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and data fusion for the Pentagon and intelligence community, is listed in the same society as Army secretary Dan Driscoll and Representative Jim Himes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, which oversees agencies Palantir contracts with.
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
We’ve got the Onion Newsvan circling the cursed UFC fight outside the White House.
Onion can: FBI Agents Watch in Silence as Kash Patel Gets Ass Kicked by UFC Fighter
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Angry @angrystaffer.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
The administration’s rapid response account is… mad at the Weather Channel. For reporting the weather.
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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
It's hard to fathom how deeply evil this is, and that we have people running our country who get sick pleasure from sending women fleeing violence in Iran to an African country in the middle of a brutal civil war.
nytimes.com
Women Who Fled Iran Are to Be Deported to Central African Republic, Lawyers Say
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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 12/06/2026
This is why they want to pass FISA Section 702 without reforms.
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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Trump and his apparatchiks are working to weaponize the entire federal government on behalf of election subversion. www.yahoo.com/news/politic...
yahoo.com
Postal Service won’t deliver mail ballots for states that don’t hand over voter lists, under plan for Trump directive
State election officials could soon face a stark choice: hand over voter lists to the Trump administration or risk losing Postal Service delivery for mail-in ballots.
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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 08/06/2026
I thought people were kidding, turns out Elon really did axe the screwworm containment program back in March 25. fucking imbecile www.agri-pulse.com/articles/226...
agri-pulse.com
Bird flu, screwworm monitoring among foreign aid programs killed by Trump
Among the more than 5,300 grants and programs killed as a result of the Trump administration’s USAID cuts are a slate of U.S.-funded programs at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, including eff...
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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
The Purcell principle now officially just means “Republicans win.” For the reasons Sotomayor lays out here, SCOTUS’s eleventh hour intervention for Alabama Republicans is indefensible. It’s going to unleash massive chaos on the ground for both voters and election administrators. What a disaster.
First, the Court's decision will cause havoc. The so-called
"Purcell principle" "generally holds that, because late-breaking changes to election procedures can cause chaos, federal courts should hesitate before exercising their equitable discretion to alter state election laws close to an elec-tion." Malliotakis v. Williams, 607 U. S. _, —
(2026)
(SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting) (slip op., at 10). Today's decision tramples on that principle of restraint.
As the District Court explained, the path of least change in Alabama is keeping the District Court's remedial plan in place. According to Alabama Director of Elections Jeff El-rod, all voters in Alabama are currently assigned in county-level voter rolls to congressional districts based on the remedial map that the District Court previously ordered and that the State used for the 2024 election cycle. 2 App. 135.
To run an election using the remedial map, then, the State need not make any changes to its voter rolls or change the status quo.
To switch to the 2023 Redistricting Plan now, however, county elections officials will have to reassign hundreds of thousands of voters across the State to new congressional districts. Three of Alabama's counties will be particularly hard hit because they are split across two congressional dis-tricts. 2 App. 121-122. These counties have about 600,000registered voters between them (roughly 15% of the State's total number of registered voters).2
Elrod testified below that county elections officials would have to reassign those 600,000 voters manually. "The sys-tem," he explained, "is not automatic" and "requires manual input" from elections officials who must "physically manually interface with the system." Id., at 146. Reassigning voters in precincts split across two districts is particularly complicated, he continued, as it "cannot be done with a simple click" and instead requires officials to check street-level data to determine how to assign individual voters. Id., at 156-157. Worse yet, Elrod warned that reassigning voters requires using complicated computer software that officials must be trained to use, as "most of the counties' registrars are not tech savvy" and "registrars are the only ones who can make the changes ... to a voter's record." Id., at 147-
148. This process also requires many prechecks and backend quality control steps, all of which add to its time-inten-sive nature. Id., at 140.
Given these complexities, the process for reassigning voters typically takes months. Alabama knows (or at least knew) this. In 2021, at the first preliminary-injunction stage in these cases, Alabama filed a declaration from El-rod's predecessor representing that voter reassignment
"can take a county's Board of Registrars 3 to 4 months to accomplish." ECF Doc. 82-7, p. 4.3 For example, after the Alabama Legislature redrew its state legislative districts in 2017 following litigation, "local election officials struggled to complete the district assignment process in up to 4 months." Ibid.
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Merlin Mann @hotdogsladies.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Still my favorite Onion video. "𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐞'𝐬 𝐊𝐚𝐟𝐤𝐚 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐢𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭" Please watch every cubic inch of everything on-screen. www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEyF...
youtube.com
Prague's Kafka International Named Most Alienating Airport
YouTube video by The Onion
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
New from me: Some of Donald Trump’s favorite world leaders have been scoundrels, bullies, and dictators. The China summit showed, yet again, that such men can both intimidate and flatter Trump into taking their side, even against the United States. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
Why Does Donald Trump Refuse to Defend America?
The president has long articulated a moral equivalence between the country’s interests and those of dictatorships.
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Mimi Rocah @mimirocah1.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Please understand the depth of corruption - agrees to drop bogus lawsuit, because he controls govt, we pay him 1.7 billion to do that & $ goes to people like J6ers under false claim they were wrongly prosecuted. And his DOJ facilitates and promotes all of this.
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Live Updates: $1.8 Billion Fund Could Funnel Money to Trump Allies
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
"Neither former President Barack Obama nor Joe Biden traded stocks or bonds while in office..." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Trump’s More Than 3,700 Trades Provoke Wall Street Astonishment
President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosures show that he or his investment advisers made more than 3,700 trades in the first quarter, a flurry totaling tens of millions of dollars and involv...
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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
A point that the great @donmoyn.bsky.social often makes is that the handing out of governing spoils is a signpost on the road to authoritarianism. I think this quote captures this very well, and it's an exclamation point on this madness. 6/6 newrepublic.com/article/2105...
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
In Louisiana and likely Alabama, actual, cast votes are going to be tossed out as officials speed ahead with new (or previously enjoined) maps. This is such an extreme use case for the Purcell principle that the court ignoring it here signifies that it was always a made-up toy, not law.
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Ari Berman @ariberman.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
This is absolutely outrageous. SCOTUS reinstated Texas gerrymander 15 weeks before primary because they claimed it was too close to election to block it but now allowing Alabama to gerrymander one week before primary after trial court found map was intentionally discriminatory against Black voters
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Madhusudan 🦉 Katti @leafwarbler.myatproto.social · 09/05/2026
“officials discovered two industrial-scale water hookups feeding a data center campus located 20 miles south of downtown Atlanta. One water connection had been installed without the utility’s knowledge, and the other was not linked to the company’s account and therefore wasn’t being billed.”
apple.news
A data center drained 30M gallons of water unnoticed — until residents complained about low water pressure — POLITICO
Residents in Fayetteville, Georgia, noticed low water pressure last year. The utility discovered two unaccounted-for water connections at one of the nation’s largest data center campuses.
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Angry Staff Officer @pptsapper.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
The VRA was part of a response - a very successful response - to halt violence against Black Americans exercising the franchise or simply existing as equals. Erasing it cuts away at the suffering and sacrifice of generations of Black and White Americans alike, fighting for equality
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Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
SCOOP: Two weeks ago, the head of the CDC delayed publication of a report showing covid vaccine cut likelihood of ER visits and hospitalizations by half. Now that report is no longer allowed to be published in CDC’s flagship scientific journal. My latest. 1/2 www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...
washingtonpost.com
CDC won’t publish report showing covid shots cut likelihood of hospital visits
The report, which had cleared the agency’s scientific-review process, had been delayed. It now won’t be published at all, people familiar with the decision told The Post.
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Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
The Justice Dept’s theory of the case— that the group that single-handedly disassembled the Ku Klux Klan defrauded its donors by concealing that it was using paid informant to do that work and more— has about as much merit as the now-dismissed charges against Jim Comey.
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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
"Dear America" letters from people who work at the besieged US Department of Housing and Urban Development: dearamericaletters.org
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WIRED @wired.com · 17/04/2026
Famously vengeful Knicks owner Jim Dolan has long spied on people at his iconic arenas. WIRED goes deep inside the operation that allegedly tracked a trans woman, lawyers, protesters, and more. www.wired.com/story/madiso...
wired.com
The Shocking Secrets of Madison Square Garden's Surveillance Machine
Famously vengeful Knicks owner Jim Dolan has long spied on people at his iconic arenas. WIRED goes deep inside the operation that allegedly tracked a trans woman, lawyers, protesters, and more.
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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
"The arch is what happens when a powerful and deeply insecure man looks at hallowed ground and sees another opportunity for a monument to himself. The fallen buried at Arlington deserve better than to spend eternity in the shadow of someone else’s ambition." open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...
open.substack.com
An Arch Too Far: Trump's Vanity Monument and the Dishonoring of Arlington National Cemetery
How the President's Arch Turns Hallowed Ground Into a Backdrop
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Aaron van Dorn @aaronvandorn.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
The fact that the ask is "joint control" and not "freedom of navigation" tells you everything you need to about the thugs running the US atm.
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
I am, and it is, and no, they don't
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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
To conservatives who’ve objected when some of us have suggested Trump is a fascist, and who’ve complained when some us point out that much of real existing American conservatism has devolved into fascism, if you’re silent about Trump’s threat of genocide you’re proving the point you’ve objected to.
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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
This is why I try to protect words for when they are needed to convey the immediacy and threat they represent. What Trump is threatening in Iran is *genocide*, pure and simple. Of course, that word doesn't land the way it used to.
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SisterSue @sistasue.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Meanwhile Prof Tim Snyder is also issuing warnings about the same.
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Michael Feinberg @michael-feinberg.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
This was entirely foreseeable, and many of us warned that if the Department abandoned all of its principles, the decent public servants in its ranks would abandon the Department.
news.bloomberglaw.com
DOJ Admits ‘Unprecedented’ National Security Staffing Challenges
The Justice Department acknowledged facing “unprecedented” national security workforce constraints due to high turnover compounded by rising overseas threats and new responsibilities, according to a d...
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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 03/04/2026
“Dumping the Army chief of staff in the middle of a war, without explanation, is a reckless move even by Hegseth’s standards,” @RadioFreeTom argues: theatln.tc/u4Lw54Ut
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Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 03/04/2026
According to the Times:
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Adil Haque @adhaque.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
It seems we just bombed some residential buildings in an attempt to kill a former diplomat who was trying to facilitate negotiations. A civilian trying to *end* hostilities, surrounded by other civilians in their homes. We are completely lost.
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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Hegseth's repeated moves to purge the military of anyone not judged a Trump loyalist should set off major alarms. But, because Hegseth presents as such a buffoon, his role in Trump's authoritarian project is underrated. wapo.st/3OfHHck
wapo.st
Hegseth forces out Army’s top general
Gen. Randy George’s ouster is the latest in a series of clashes between the Pentagon chief and the service’s senior leadership, and comes amid the ongoing war in Iran.
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Wajahat Ali @wajali.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/...
washingtonpost.com
Higher social media use linked to lower support for democracy, poll shows
The more people use social media, the less likely they are to believe democracy is the best form of government, the survey of over 20,000 Americans found.
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National Security Counselors 🕵 @nationalsecuritylaw.org · 02/04/2026
Watership Down gave me PTSD Doc.
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C. Robert Cargill @crobertcargill.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
You know you've made some peak new tech when you have the exact same fine print disclaimers as Miss Cleo.
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Jennifer N. Victor @jenvictor.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
This is what authoritarian control and lack of political accountability look like. When government employees cannot report bad behavior, bad behavior proliferates, and all of society suffers.
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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 28/03/2026
An army of fans bent on broadening the white supremacist Nick Fuentes's audience are using social-media algorithms to amplify his message and to help him gain a following on the left, Amogh Dimri reports:
bit.ly
Nick Fuentes’s Strategy is Working
Viral clips of the far-right white supremacist are growing his audience.
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Katie Phang @katiephang.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
“[Pete Hegseth’s Chief of Staff] Buria told [Army Secretary] Driscoll that President Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events.” Not shocked, not surprised. The racism is a feature, not a bug, with these lowlifes. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/27/u...
nytimes.com
Hegseth Strikes Two Black and Two Female Officers From Promotion List
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