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Christine Brandt

@wordbourne.bsky.social
865 followers 954 following 331 posts

Lawyer. Writer. Sports Fan. Democrat Activist in the Deep South. Tea, History, and Books Enthusiast. From New Orleans. (Formerly LavishTantrums).

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Christine Brandt
Ellie Leonard @redpencilscript.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Tomorrow we toss our tea. #nokings
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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
Breaking on MSNBC: Two top criminal lawyers in the Eastern District of Virginia have been fired: Elizabeth Yusi, the criminal chief, and her deputy Kristin Bird. Both had been involved with Letitia James case and were skeptical of it.
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Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
The Santos commutation is a prelude to a Ghislaine Maxwell pardon. Mark my words.
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Christine Brandt @wordbourne.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
🚨 ICE is reportedly launching “Freaky Friday” tomorrow, a plan to target migrant children. Who: Children 14+ but could be 10+ What: Threat letters to children to urge them to give up their rights under TVPRA or self-deport for $2,500. If they refuse, they risk: imprisonment, parents arrested.
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Great column by @tressiemcphd.bsky.social (gift link)
nytimes.com
Opinion | Mourn, or Else
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shauna @goldengateblond.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
all the right people are mad about this (gift link)
nytimes.com
F.D.A. Approves a New Generic Abortion Pill
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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 02/10/2025
Negotiations have stalled. Trump keeps changing his policies. Ukrainians, backed by Europeans, are taking matters into their own hands, @anneapplebaum.bsky.social writes:
bit.ly
Ukraine’s Plan to Starve the Russian War Machine
Negotiations have stalled. Trump keeps changing his policies. Ukrainians, backed by Europeans, are taking matters into their own hands. ​​​
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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
No need to be scared of him. The trend is clear - everyone outside of his hard base is abandoning him.
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Hemry, Local Bartender @bartenderhemry.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
"What you fail to see Mr Pope" is gonna haunt me forever
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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Judge Sooknanan has some problems with recent “prosecutorial machinations” in Washington, D.C., cataloguing a list of abuses and excesses she says have exploded in recent weeks ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
This is a VERY well crafted lawsuit. 1) Plaintiff is natural born. 2) He was detained 2X in a fast-growing part of Alabama, not in a city that Brett Kavanaugh could be easily duped into believing was all migrants. 3) Unwarranted detentions were on private property. 4) He showed Real ID both times.
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
REQUEST: If anyone has the memo in question, pushing such prosecutions, apparently sent from a lawyer in Blanche's office to "U.S. attorney’s offices in California, New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Detroit and Maryland, among others," please send it my way. Signal: crg.32
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Ken Jennings @kenjennings.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
I miss my 50-year streak of not knowing who the Secretary of Health is or anything about them.
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Adam Klasfeld @klasfeldreports.com · 24/09/2025
BREAKING A federal judge found it "appears ... that multiple employees of the Department of Justice may have violated" local rules in SDNY guaranteeing Luigi Mangione's right to a fair trial. Full order here storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 24/09/2025
“With the federal government in retreat, vaccine wars have shifted to the states.” @dhruvkhullar.bsky.social writes about how states are abiding by, enforcing, or fighting against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,’s vaccine-policy rollbacks.
newyorker.com
A New Era of Vaccine Federalism
As confidence in the C.D.C. wanes, states are asserting more control over their vaccine policies, creating a fragmented public-health system.
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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Why is @nytimes.com claiming to know that FCC chair Brendan Carr's motives for state censorship of liberals are authentically felt, as opposed to an invented pretext? NYT headline writers can't see into Carr's mind.
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Heidi Li Feldman @heidilifeldman.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Oklahoma promoting Hitler-Youth-like Turning Point U.S.A. clubs in public schools. State government joining with Charlie Kirk’s organization to indoctrinate high school students into Republican Fascism. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
Turning Point chapters at Oklahoma high schools will counter ‘woke indoctrination’, official says
Superintendent says all high schools in state will have chapters of the conservative youth group following Charlie Kirk’s killing
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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 24/09/2025
a new mRNA therapy apparently can cut the rate of Huntington's disease progression by ~75%. yet more miracle shit www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time
One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.
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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
It’s #MythBustingTuesday. Today’s target: “Natural immunity is always better than vaccine-induced immunity.” I hear this all the time. Although it sounds appealing, it’s dangerously misleading. 🧵
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 24/09/2025
Newsom: "I fear that we will not have an election in 2028 -- I really mean that in the core of my soul -- unless we wake up to the code red, what's happening in this country, and we wake up soberly to how serious this moment is."
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 24/09/2025
to me, the “column” is less a form than an opportunity (and a challenge). you’re telling me i have as much space as i’d like to make an argument about anything i’d like to an audience inclined to pay close attention? well let’s see if they’ll read 2000 words on democratic legitimacy. (gift link)
nytimes.com
Opinion | This Is About So Much More Than Lisa Cook
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Mark Hamill @markhamillofficial.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
All hail VICTOR!!! He's a real-life hero whose selflessness & courage is an inspiration to us all. Wishing you a complete & speedy recovery. I salute you, sir! 🫡
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Dev Petty @devpetty.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
This guy doesn’t know anything. I’m so jealous.
A delightful, fluffy orange cat sleeps peacefully.
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NBC News @nbcnews.com · 12/09/2025
An officer fatally shot a person who injured an ICE agent during an immigration arrest in the Chicago area, according to federal immigration officials.
nbcnews.to
A person is killed and an ICE agent injured at an immigration arrest near Chicago
A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said officers were conducting a vehicle stop as part of a "targeted law enforcement activity" on Friday morning.
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Christine Brandt @wordbourne.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
🚨 Why is right-wing extremist and white supremacist Proud Boy Ben Bergquam doing ride-alongs with ICE?
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Steven Mazie @stevenmazie.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in a college applicant's file is blatantly unconstitutional ALSO SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in targeting whom to detain and deport is cool cool cool
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
It's not the most important part of the issue but Kavanaugh saying "well they should just sue if they're the victims of excessive force from ICE" when he himself has previously voted to bar lawsuits against federal officers for violations of the 4th Amendment in immigration cases takes chutzpah.
The injunction is silent as to the use
of force. And it is not necessary for the injunction to address
that use-of-force question because the Fourth Amendment’s
reasonableness standard continues to govern the officers’
use of force and to prohibit excessive force.
To the extent that excessive force has been used, the
Fourth Amendment prohibits such action, and remedies
should be available in federal court. I agree with the
dissent on that point. But to reiterate, this injunction
against brief stops for questioning does not address the useof-force issue.
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Sahil Kapur @sahilkapur.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chair of the Intelligence Committee, says he was denied a meeting with career intelligence workers because Laura Loomer objected.
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Christine Brandt @wordbourne.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
🚨 DeSantis and Ladapo plan to “end all vaccine mandates in Florida law.” Vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives in the last 50 years (WHO). The vast majority of lives saved were infants. Ladapo compared vaccine mandates to “slavery.” www.yahoo.com/news/article...
yahoo.com
DeSantis and Ladapo to ‘end all vaccine mandates in Florida law’
Florida is set to end all state vaccine mandates, state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced at a news conference Wednesday. For decades, the state has required numerous vaccines for kids attending...
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Walker Bragman @walkerbragman.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
Some background—or important context—on this. www.importantcontext.news/p/the-great-...
importantcontext.news
“The Great Birdington Declaration”: The Origins of Kennedy’s Avian Flu Herd Immunity Plan Explained
The idea of letting a dangerous pathogen rip for herd immunity emerged out of right-wing efforts to reopen the economy at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 29/08/2025
there is no question in my mind that rfk jr is the most dangerous person in this administration and that his eugenicist ideology threatens the lives of millions of people www.advocate.com/politics/dem...
advocate.com
RFK Jr.’s damage to the CDC is ‘past the point of no return,’ Dr. Demetre Daskalakis warns
“The CDC you knew is over,” the infectious diseases doctor told The Advocate. “Unless someone takes radical action, there is nothing there that can be salvaged.”
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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
“The incident took place after several migrants held there began shouting for ‘freedom’ after one received news a relative had died… A team of guards then rushed in and began beating individuals indiscriminately with batons, and fired teargas at them, the detainees said.”
theguardian.com
Detainees report alleged uprising at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’: ‘A lot of people have bled’
Reports of incident were denied by Florida and Ice officials as detainees say they were beat and teargas was fired
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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
The CDC shaped my career and saved countless lives around the world. To see it hollowed out and replaced by ideology is devastating. In my latest essay, I share my own CDC story and why its unraveling matters for all of us. open.substack.com/pub/bktitanj...
open.substack.com
What Becomes of the CDC Now?
From shaping global health policy to guiding my own path in medicine, the CDC’s legacy is too important to abandon.
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Aaron Schaffer @aaronschaffer.com · 27/08/2025
Before Trump’s Alaska summit, a top CIA expert worked grueling hours to make sure Trump + team were briefed. Four days later, she was told she lost her clearance despite expecting a prestigious assignment. In a span of minutes, her 29-yr career in public service was essentially over. wapo.st/3JVtsXq
wapo.st
Trump, Gabbard purged top CIA Russia expert days after Alaska summit
Days after the Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump ordered the security clearance revocation of a top CIA official and Russia expert.
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Clay Ranck @clayranck.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
wtf is this nonsense? He thinks he can understand kid’s “mitochondrial challenges” just by looking at them? This is an insane person.
Acyn
@Acyn
X.com
RFK JR: I'm looking at kids as I walk through the airports today...and I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, inflammation-you can tell from their faces, movements, and lack of social connection

TEXAS "MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN" LEGISLATION
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.
Health & Human Services Secretary
0:12
From CSPAN
C-SPANG*
15:04 • 8/27/25
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Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Revisiting America’s Dark History of Internment open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...
open.substack.com
Revisiting America’s Dark History of Internment
“The objective of this contract is to obtain all infrastructure, including temporary housing structures, physical plant, staffing, resources, services, and supplies necessary to house aliens in the cu...
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
In a functional government, this would be a five alarm fire where Congress calls in Kennedy and asks him what the fuck is going on
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Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
We are in very dark times. It’ll take an entire political/social movement, an overwhelming rebuke at the polls, and a new vision of governance to unstick this country from whatever this collapse is.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
"Bustillo-Chinchilla moved to North Carolina from Honduras when she was 8 years old. She graduated from Crest High School in Shelby and earned a scholarship to attend Gardner-Webb University, with hopes of becoming a nurse." What is the sense in imprisoning and expelling this person?
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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
The CDC has discontinued its surveillance program or food borne dz caused by As you friendly infectious disease physician, I regret to inform you that this decision is bad news for your food safety. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
nbcnews.com
The CDC quietly scaled back a surveillance program for foodborne illnesses
As of July 1, a critical surveillance program is monitoring for only two pathogens instead of the usual eight.
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Mark Zaid, Esq @markzaidesq.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Abbe Lowell and I represent CDC Director #SusanMonarez. Contrary to govt statements, Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor yet been fired. She will not resign. We have issued the following statement:
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Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
area man beats sandwich crime charge, will not be sub-poenaed
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 27/08/2025
I said this in February (On Facebook but not over here apparently?)
Damien Patrick Williams
February 6
If the injunctions are rigorously enforced we can stanch the most immediate and egregious of the damage, and we can re-do the systems, but like… everyone is going to need new social security numbers and new bank account numbers.
And I know that when I say this out loud to most people, they're going to look at me like I've grown a second head. 😅 🫠 😅 🫠

In reply to
Damien Patrick Williams
February 5
It is genuinely absurd how few people I see really thinking through the implications of a bunch of teenagers and 20-somethings with an elon musk fixation having access to and private copies of all of our PII and financial data 😅 😅😅
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Your Internet Friend Tom Tomorrow @tomtomorrow.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
So the sandwich guy ... beat the wrap
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Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Krasner: So, if what you have is a group of ICE agents, or even the military, coming into Philadelphia and committing crimes—assaults that are illegal, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, obstruction of the administration of justice—they can be prosecuted.
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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Another hopeful and inspiring story. Reporting on the first HIV cure study conducting on the African continent. So far one woman was remained in longterm remission two years after the study. While not a home run the FRESH study brings hope that there is progress. www.npr.org/sections/goa...
npr.org
Whatever happened to ... the race to cure HIV? There's promising news
At the International AIDS Society meeting this year, a young woman from South Africa spoke. She is the first Black woman from Africa to be potentially cured of HIV.
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Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 25/08/2025
Judge Xinis: Your clients are *absolutely forbidden* from removing Mr. Abrego from the continental United States. You understand this? DOJ: Yes.
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