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pennycohen.bsky.social
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A month ago i sat on hold with social security. Estimated time: 2 hours Actual time: 4.5 hours I can't even imagine what a 50% reduction will do.

NEW: I just asked Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett if she had a message to Elon Musk. What would she say to him? Here was her answer: “Fuck off.”

Putin planned to take Kyiv in three days, but he couldn't take Kyiv in three years. The only way Putin wins now—the only way he finally succeeds in destroying Ukraine’s sovereignty—is by persuading Ukraine’s allies to abandon Ukraine. www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

@petebuttigieg.bsky.social DO THIS!

Trump’s U-turn on the Ukraine war and his, frankly suspicious, aim of saving Putin from this self-inflicted quagmire, is splitting the populist Right in Europe. Johnson, Truss, Farage, Meloni Bardella et al are squirming like never before but will eventually have to choose. Trump or Ukraine. Simple.

THIS IS HUGE! Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center say results of a Phase I trial of an mRNA vaccine aimed at preventing pancreatic cancer show promise. The vaccine PREVENTED the cancer from coming back in patients who had already received treatment for MORE THAN three years. 🧪🧵⬇️

Damn. Hurts to watch this. x.com/arun_richard...

Trump Sick And Tired Of Mainstream Media Always Trying To Put His Words Into Some Sort Of Context theonion.com/trump-s...

Our look at how the Trump administration is systematically dismantling the government teams that have stopped Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and others from meddling in US elections: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/b... With @julianbarnes.bsky.social @stevenleemyers.bsky.social

BREAKING: USAID contractors/aid recipients say Secretary Rubio and USAID leader Peter Marocco should be held in civil contempt for violating a court order to lift spending freeze.

Democratic leaders: I think it's abundantly clear at this point that simply going along to get along ain't gonna work. Trying to negotiate ain't gonna work. Being collegial ain't gonna work. What you're doing right now isn't working. Take your gloves off and punch back. Hard.

I've noted some of the procedural things Democrats could be doing in Congress, but this point from @edgeofsports.bsky.social's great piece in the Nation deserves emphasis. This is basic politics, and it's baffling that every Democrat isn't doing it every day. www.thenation.com/article/poli...

If you wanted to cut waste, fraud, and abuse, you would empower the inspectors general. If you wanted more waste, fraud, and abuse, you would fire them.

I am not making this up: Republicans have introduced legislation… to increase your bank fees.

Planes didn't crash when this guy ran things.

Tomorrow in the NYT: Nothing emphasizes the elderly and out-of-touch character of Democratic Party leadership than their reluctance to allow a new generation of white nationalist 19-year-olds to have access to everyone's tax records

Letters went out to federal workers this morning stating they were fired due to poor performance. However, all employees had been rated as “exceptional” performers by their supervisors. Please keep these records and pursue wrongful termination claims. Let the lawsuits begin.

Important note by @schatz.bsky.social on another platform: “Just a reminder that on Tuesday we are voting on a new FBI Director and if four Republicans decide they don’t like the slashing of law enforcement or the pardoning of cop killers they can express that through the voting part of their job.”

As Gabriel Allon would say, “Moscow Rules” “Russia’s spy services have a shadowy new unit taking aim at the West with covert attacks across Europe and elsewhere” www.wsj.com/world/europe...

BREAKING:14 states sue to remove ⁦‪⁦‪Musk‬⁩ from our politics 🍾✅🇺🇸

President Zelenskyy: “At the Munich Security Conference, I emphasized that European policy must not just be promising — it must make America want to stand with a strong Europe. Europe must decide its own future with confidence in its strength so that others have no choice but to respect its power.”

Team Trump’s incompetent performance and stance on Ukraine at the Munich Security Conference aren’t surprising but must be a huge wake-up call to European leaders who’ve been in denial about them. Sadly a big schism with the US is now likely but it’s unclear if we have the leadership to manage it.

You might have missed it, but Amazon warehouse workers in Raleigh, NC are voting this week on whether to form a union. If they win, they'll be the first unionized Amazon facility in the South. Remember that we can always find hope in the labor movement.

This is so smart. @petebuttigieg.bsky.social , thoughts ? And if you see this. A reminder. This is not Twitter. You can engage here and have thoughtful discussions ! We all look forward to reading your thoughts

NEW: Donald Trump fired a bunch of veterans today while simultaneously hindering care for veterans. In a month or so, republicans in Congress will cut food stamps so these veterans won’t be able to feed themselves or their families. I wonder how many of them voted for Trump.

Manhattan federal prosecutors were about to bring a new bombshell indictment charging Mayor Eric Adams with destroying evidence and telling people to lie to the FBI. That’s per a letter sent by Danielle Sassoon, who resigned rather than obey an order from Trump’s Justice Department to kill the case.

Do people not understand what’s happening with the Eric Adams thing? The memo instructing the prosecution to be dropped explicitly said it was because he was carrying out the president’s agenda. It was “you’re working for me, so we’re letting you go.” It was an explicitly corrupt bargain

If she can show this sort of courage lawmakers can manage to take tough votes, agency heads can manage to refuse illegal orders. Bravery is contagious.

DOJ leadership has put all Public Integrity Section lawyers into a room with 1 hour to decide who will dismiss Adams indictment or else all will be fired. Sending them strength to stand by their oath, which is to support the Constitution, not the president’s political agenda. 🇺🇸

Eventually the Adams case will trickle down to someone who will just follow orders and dismiss it. Make that person historically infamous. (Recall it was Robert Bork who eventually followed Nixon’s order to fire Archibald Cox)

This is just sheer brazen criminality by DOJ. Adams gets federal corruption charges dropped not because there isn’t overwhelming evidence, but because he agrees to help Homan round up migrants. And Homan says the charges will be refiled if Adams doesn’t “come through.”

“Forget the myths the media's created about the White House. The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.”

AUSA Hagan Scotten, former clerk for John Roberts, really put some mustard on his resignation letter.

REPOST if you support our federal workforce and know how dedicated they are to their jobs. Show them you appreciate them!

I organize online, but I show up in person. We can’t just throw hot takes out on social media. We have to call, write, testify, and march if we can. Show up and they’ll know the resistance is real.

Having passed up the opportunity years ago to run DOJ’s Civil Division, I’ve never run a large organization, let alone at DOJ. So I’m no expert. But I’m gonna spitball that if hundreds of your subordinates want to tell you to “go fuck yourself,” you might, perhaps, have a management problem.

“Mass terminations of probationary workers also swept through the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-autonomous agency within the Energy Department that oversees the nation's nuclear weapons.” www.npr.org/2025/02/13/n...

ATTN FEDERAL WORKERS: I’ll say this again: download all your SF-50s, performance evals, and your eOPF. Now. Print hard copies. And make sure you file an informal grievance with your supervisor within 15 days of any adverse action. Here is a template: www.muellershewrote.com/p/informal-g...

One of our supporters shared this with us—people are getting creative tonight!

Heartbreaking news… Tonight, many of our friends were let go, and tomorrow, even more will follow. Word is that all probationary employees at NPS will be let go. 😭

One thing Democratic leadership could do right now is to name an alternate HHS secretary--someone to provide ongoing public updates and health information. And do it for other departments too. Start showing voters what a Democratic government would look like--press conferences, speeches, all of it.

BREAKING: Inspired by Elon Musk’s “Fork” emails, new HHS Director Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has sent several hundred million Americans emails offering them a buy-out opportunity to die earlier.

open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

Hey, here’s some of what @thedemocraticparty.bsky.social did today 👋🏽

Yup. If the President can unilaterally stop Congressional appropriations, then we're past any 'guardrails.' Congress is now an advisory body; it does not control the power of the purse.

A federal judge today, for the second time, told the Trump administration it can’t cut off grant and loan payments, after several Democratic-led states complained that the administration wasn’t obeying previous court orders and was still withholding federal funds from some groups.

BREAKING! HUGE VICTORY FOR LABOR UNIONS!!! A judge extended an order blocking the Trump administration’s deferred resignation/buyout offer to 2 million federal employees who had faced a midnight deadline to accept it.

🔥🔥🔥 What if we all stopped paying taxes until we get our country back? What if we became as lawless as them? It’s kind of the honor system anyway. Death and taxes. Don’t we pay everybody’s salary? Congress. FBI? They're firing all of them! NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!