iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Trump wants to do something illegal with taxpayer money, like not spend it for an appropriated purpose, withhold it from blue states, or spend it for a non-appropriated purpose, who does he turn to? Russ Vought and OMB General Counsel Mark Paoletta, who raid the DHS piggybank.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Notice how they also brag about the number of naturalizations having plummeted; a sign of how much they detest legal immigration. /also, the removals number is largely fake. The actual number is 650-700k.

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Razzball @razzball.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Announcing the merger with Titanic footage is an incredible bit

David Ellison • @ellisonskyd... 2h
What once was the peak, is now just the beginning.
Paramount and Warner Bros. shaped over a century of culture. By combining them, we aren't rewriting history — we're equipping these iconic studios with a more powerful engine. Together, we are Skydance: a creative-first ho Show

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Really good piece from @jamesgoodwin.bsky.social and Wendy Wagner on Suncor and the importance of federalism -- and state-court litigation -- to democracy's fight against authoritarianism. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

lawfaremedia.org

The Next Anti-democratic Threat From the Supreme Court

Industry-backed preemption arguments in the climate deception case threaten the federalism safeguards that check an imperial presidency.

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Russell Vought: Ignoring Congress on Appropriations “ultimately leads to a partisan coalition rather than a bipartisan coalition.” It is not a coalition: an unelected bureaucrat is ignoring Congressional directive on appropriations. That’s all: no legitimacy or democratic coalition involved.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Rare you get live visuals of state capture.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

For a long time, I've been convinced that Todd Rundgren both makes terrific music and has absolutely shit views of others' music.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Maybe not the headline Trump wants a month before the midterms? www.nytimes.com/live/2026/10...

nytimes.com

Live Updates: Job Growth Cools and Unemployment Ticks Higher

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Really important post by @datahistorian.bsky.social about the Trump Administration's threat (once again) to the census. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-2030-c...

donmoynihan.substack.com

The 2030 Census is in Trouble

Trump wants to add a citizenship question and ban questions on race

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This John Halpin piece underscores my view that a meaningful public option is going to be table stakes for Dems in health care as we move toward 2028. I’d argue we need to do more, but that’s gonna be the baseline. open.substack.com/pub/freeagen...

open.substack.com

The Biggest Hole in the American Health Care System

The options are unaffordable and unattractive for those without employer-sponsored or government-provided coverage.

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Whitney Curry Wimbish @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This is part of the regime's attempt to crush organized labor and replace unionized TSA workers with contractors. They tried to eliminate workers bargaining rights last year, then forced them to work through the shutdown w/o pay for more than a month, and now this.

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Christine Kexel Chabot @kexelchabot.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Trump v. Slaughter rests on a deeply flawed theory of democracy and demonstrably erroneous history. Nor is there a workable limit for the bright line rule articulated in the case. See Trump v. Cook. Trump v. Slaughter should be read as narrowly as possible and ultimately overruled.

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Christine Kexel Chabot @kexelchabot.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Since when is it anti-democratic for a President to abide by the terms of a federal statute? @leahlitman.bsky.social @profmmurray.bsky.social @kateshaw.bsky.social have an important new paper highlighting slippery slope problems presented by the strong form of UET: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

papers.ssrn.com

Is the Unitary Executive Democratic or Autocratic Governance?

This essay examines whether the unitary executive theory provides for democratic or autocratic governance. It argues that the unitary executive theory's underly

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Nice to see key Senate Dems introducing a bill to punish Trump for violating the prohibition on using government funds for propaganda. The bill would cut OMB's budget by $20M for each violation found by GAO. Soon to ride on an approps bill near you? www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

appropriations.senate.gov

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

America today is a country where regulators won't allow private companies to air interviews of the opposition on TV, but declare that taxpayer funded propaganda is fine.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Just tore through Gouged by @lindsayowens.bsky.social . If you care about affordability, you should read this book to see a whole bunch of ways businesses scheme to charge you more and pay you less. Some of it's already illegal, lots of it should be. bookshop.org/p/books/goug...

bookshop.org

Gouged: The End of a Fair Price--and What That Means for Your Wallet

“A thrilling true crime story about how the largest corporate monopolies in America have hatched a scheme to pick our pockets. Gouged is the book corporate America does not want you to read.”—Robert B...

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Public Administration @journalpa.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"From Civic Tech to DOGE: The Role of Tech Movements in the American Administrative State," by Donald Moynihan argues that civic tech and DOGE represent contrasting approaches to technology-driven government reform. doi.org/10.1111%2Fpa...

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Not only do I know the answer to this, but I used to live on the same block he once lived on in St. Louis. (He lived there way before my time!) (Trivia question from the New Republic's indispensable Blue Book newsletter.)

An actually smart Missouri senator, a Democrat, was known as a vocal foe of Joseph McCarthy; was the first secretary of the Air Force; and refused to speak to segregated audiences in the Southern U.S. during a brief presidential run in 1960. Who was he?

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TPM @talkingpointsmemo.com · 01/10/2026

In order to execute their illegal pocket rescission scheme, the Trump White House is breaking federal laws, “openly saying that they did illegal activities to get here,” experts tell TPM.

talkingpointsmemo.com

Russ Vought Insists He Has a Neat Trick to Override Congress. It’s More ‘a Confession,’ Experts Say

Following a failed bid by Senate Democrats to block it, President Donald...

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

My non-legal, non-political thought for the day: People don't talk enough about what a great drummer Mitch Mitchell was.

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 01/10/2026

New in PN: Scenes from a personality cult "The ads are unambiguously illegal — & that’s the point. Again & again, this regime has broken the law not just to accomplish some immediate goal, but as a dominance display to say to everyone: Donald Trump does whatever he wants, & nobody can stop him."

publicnotice.co

Scenes from a personality cult

Trump’s taxpayer-funded agitprop is clearly illegal — and that’s the point.

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Dave Weigel @daveweigel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I think a lot about Biden/Garland keeping David Weiss on as US Attorney, because they didn't want to meddle with the Hunter probe. And then Garland elevating Weiss to special counsel so he could convict Hunter. And this having ZERO IMPACT on the GOP certainty that Biden was rigging the DOJ

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"It was odd to hear Kennedy complain about 'perverse incentives' at the end of a summit that amounted to one big shakedown of corporations seeking favorable government treatment." Nice piece by @danamilbank.bsky.social www.washingtonsun.com/perspectives...

washingtonsun.com

RFK Jr. Just Exposed a Fraudster — And It Is Him

He said he would end “corporate capture.” Now his MAHA movement is for sale.

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Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Not a great sign when your 12-person private fundraiser includes someone who hates you enough to leak damaging audio

The audio of Mr. Paxton was shared with The Times by an attendee who recorded him speaking at a private fund-raiser in Washington attended by roughly a dozen people. The person, who opposes Mr. Paxton’s campaign and provided the recording to The Times, was granted anonymity because Mr. Paxton’s remarks were private.

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Matt Cameron @mattcameron.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

also not getting enough attention: these texts are between one of the lawyers on Jack Smith's team and a US Marshall tasked with keeping people fueled by Republican conspiracy theories from murdering Jack Smith in public because he tried to prosecute the president for crimes that he did

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Lauren 🎃'Neal @laurenoneal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I was told there was nothing more sacred to these people than women's sports.

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Brett "Solidarity 2026" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 29/09/2026

If we can auto enroll every child into Trump accounts we can auto enroll every child into Medicare is the easiest layup of 2029.

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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Gobsmacked by the elite levels of not knowing ball in the Senate today, thinking an NBA team is called the Hawkeyes then, refusing to Google it, then accusing a guy of treason because you didn’t know the Iowa Lady Hawkeyes aren’t in the NBA. Somehow I don’t trust these people to Save Girls Sports.

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

omg. yes, they actually have video of him at the game. when does marshall mcluhan walk out and dunk on sen schmitt?

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Hannah Walser @hkpmw.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

If “irreparable harm” means anything, it means being sent to a country you’ve never seen, where you may well be imprisoned, tortured, or killed, under a policy that (the cert grant implicitly acknowledges!) may well be illegal

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David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

reminder that we are talking about this

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David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

it's evidently too much to ask the rw justices to consider the irreparable harm to individuals treated to such inhumanity. they are complicit in this criminality. shame on all six of them. and shame on us for having a system that allows this illegality.

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Walking home, listening to someone blasting Main Street by Bob Seger. Ann Arbor, man.

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Rebecca Dean @rmdean.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This and Klobuchar's (honestly, pretty funny) follow-up is, indeed, "extremely weird shit"

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

My god, this thread. This is like the "I see you wear glasses" scene from My Cousin Vinny. (Yes, I'm old.)

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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 29/09/2026

Wrote about the decline and fall of SCOTUSblog, which used to be the single best resource for Supreme Court stuff, and (thanks to some intervening crimes committed by its co-founder) is now a weird platform for conservative pundits to talk about what a good job the conservative justices are doing

slate.com

It Was the Essential Home of Supreme Court News. Now It’s a Joke. What Happened?

How high-stakes poker brought down a pillar of Supreme Court coverage.

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Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Trump now argues that “his supporters will be deterred from contributing to the [Kennedy] Center if his name is removed.” This is the good stuff: pure, unadulterated horseshit.

Plaintiff's alleged harms pale in comparison to the real harms on the other
side of the ledger. For one, the absence of a recognition to President Trump
threatens to impede the Center's fundraising efforts and contribute to the financial decline of the Center. As the Center's Executive Director explained, the President has been a central force in the Center's current fundraising efforts,
but his supporters will be deterred from contributing to the Center if his name is removed. See ECF No. 47-1 at 2. This loss of fundraising time and potential is also definitionally irreparable, and the public interest weighs in favor of an
economically viable Center.
Again, the district court erred in concluding
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