baxterpolitics.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

“These are the times that try men souls: the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country. But he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered,” The Crisis, Thomas Paine

submitted 1 day ago • 100 comments

Good morning. I was always somewhat skeptical about the “chilling effects” of anti-speech laws and the Court’s bending of normal jurisdictional and other rules to address the chill. Now I understand. Brrrrrrrrr.

submitted 2 hours ago • 0 comments

Really important post from my colleague @pamherd.bsky.social I'll add that there are good arguments to reform how NIH makes grant decisions. But this absolute destruction of what's been a crucial engine of progress is not, in any sense, the way. open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

submitted 3 hours ago • 1 comment

NEW: In October, we published secret recordings of Russell Vought discussing plans to eviscerate entire agencies and decimate the morale of federal workers if Trump won a second term. It's hard to imagine a more prescient piece of journalism, our editor-in-chief @sengelberg.bsky.social writes.

submitted 4 hours ago • 90 comments

Paging @thetattooedprof.bsky.social and @kevinmkruse.bsky.social Hoping you aren’t the end of the video just yet.

submitted 17 hours ago • 30 comments

This is the top law enforcement officer in the country actually telling the American people that a federal judge has no right to do what the Constitution of the United States obligates that judge to do. The Trump administration is at war with the rule of law. Well done America.

submitted 17 hours ago • 36 comments

This is called bribery.

submitted 17 hours ago • 69 comments

My dear friend’s niece, who in October developed sepsis when a Georgia hospital refused her a D&C after a miscarriage, will be taken off life support tomorrow. I don’t know the names of the countless others who have suffered and will suffered because of anti-abortion laws. But her name was Haley.

submitted 1 day ago • 289 comments

The wildest part of the JFK files is when Justice Earl Warren writes, "If you are reading this, it means your rights are being shredded by a treasonous autocrat and he is distracting you with bullshit while his oligarchal buddies rob you blind."

submitted 1 day ago • 11 comments

Imagine negotiating with Putin and then coming out and telling everyone what bastards the Canadians are. Imagine having a brain so broken that this sequence of events is even thinkable.

submitted 1 day ago • 165 comments

A senior IRS HR staffer said in a sworn affidavit that her office “did not review or consider” any probationary employees’ job performance or conduct. Nor did the Treasury Department. “I know this because this fact was discussed openly in meetings.” New, @propublica.org @andykroll.bsky.social

submitted 1 day ago • 13 comments

BREAKING: U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang finds that Elon Musk’s efforts to dismantle USAID likely violated the Constitution. Musk and DOGE have therefore been been ORDERED to restore nearly all USAID operations. In a 68-page opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Theodore Chuang,…

submitted 1 day ago • 138 comments

We are shocked and saddened to see that the #NavajoCodeTalkers have been removed from military websites following Trump's executive order ending federal DEI initiatives. The Navajo Code Talkers, known for using native languages to send messages, were instrumental in winning WWII. (1/4)

submitted 1 day ago • 4 comments

Joe Gallina: If you could speak directly to Donald Trump, what would you tell him? Gov. JB Pritzker: What does Vladimir Putin have on you?

submitted 1 day ago • 600 comments

Exactly

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Just so we’re all clear, the Supreme Court expressly ruled that the president cannot fire FTC commissioners without cause in 1935’s Humphrey’s Executor. Trump’s action here is brazenly illegal under any interpretation of the law as it stands. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

submitted 1 day ago • 164 comments

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Fair point

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Chief Justice Roberts weighs in on Trump wanting to impeach a judge he disagrees with. How soon until Trump attacks Roberts ….

submitted 1 day ago • 103 comments

No kings.

submitted 3 days ago • 210 comments

Trump has a new hobbyhorse: That his predecessor, Joe Biden, didn’t legally grant pardons to people Trump wants to harass because the pardons were signed with an autopen, rather than by hand. @pemalevy.bsky.social walks us through the absurdity:

submitted 2 days ago • 33 comments

Ozymandias

submitted 2 days ago • 702 comments

This is not even a government agency, but DC police let the DOGE boys and their armed guards in anyway.

submitted 2 days ago • 12 comments

I am ashamed of my state.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

The unitary executive theory is really just a way to cloak the morphing of a democratically elected president into a dictator with the appearance of legality. joycevance.substack.com/p/the-week-a...

submitted 3 days ago • 391 comments

If the executive (president or prime minister) doesn’t obey rule of law and ignores court orders, the country stops being a democracy. It’s not a difficult call. And the US is very, very quickly heading that direction, if Trump’s behavior continues unconstrained.

submitted 3 days ago • 42 comments

mRNA is at the forefront of cancer research, as well as vaccines National Institutes of Health officials have now told scientists to remove all references to mRNA vaccines from their grant applications. This means that all research in the field will be stopped and abandoned.

submitted 3 days ago • 72 comments

The number of applicants to the nation’s nearly 200 law schools is up 20.5% compared with last year. Georgetown law alone received 14,000 applications to fill 650 spots, while the University of Michigan Law School now has more applications than at any point in its 166 years of existence.

submitted 3 days ago • 57 comments

Scientists have just cured pancreatic cancer in some patients with personalized mRNA vaccines. Pancreatic cancer. And this Trump administration wants to throw it all away. They’re throwing away a cure for cancer.

submitted 3 days ago • 615 comments

If Trump refuses to follow court orders with impunity, we are no longer a constitutional democracy.

submitted 3 days ago • 254 comments

To reiterate: your government is participating in the coverup of child abductions. May God have mercy on our souls.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

"I knew they were cracking down. I guess I didn’t know how it was going down." A man in Wisconsin (!) voted for Donald Trump. Now his wife has been detained by ICE and 'money the couple saved for a down payment...has evaporated into attorneys fees'. We warned him. www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...

submitted 3 days ago • 21 comments

open.substack.com/pub/anneappl...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

open.substack.com/pub/heatherc.... Come for the history lesson, stay for a message of hope for American democracy.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

What kind of world? 😢

submitted 4 days ago • 37 comments

abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-...

submitted 4 days ago • 5 comments

Holy crap. The DOJ is arguing that the President can unilaterally deport anyone he wants without ANY statutory authority, just on his inherent authority as President over national security. That is a terrifying claim to make and not one that has ever been recognized before in US history.

submitted 4 days ago • 435 comments

New, from me: Trump is whitewashing American history, removing not just people, but also the stories, images, and values to anyone who does not conform to his impoverished vision of America. Here is a partial inventory. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/whitewashi...

submitted 4 days ago • 93 comments

I’ve said this before (from experience). When you cut federal workers you don’t save money, you instead spend more on contractors. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/b...

submitted 5 days ago • 42 comments

submitted 6 days ago • 31 comments

The administration is aiding the cover-up of hundreds of child abductions. “Disgusting” and “shameful” just aren’t adequate words.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments