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About That Shutdown

Published by digby on October 13, 2025

If you can’t bring yourself to read all the boring reporting, think this Punchbowl News summary of what’s happening with the shutdown will catch you up just fine. The House is still in recess and here’s why:

House GOP lawmakers passed a “clean” CR that would keep federal agencies open until Nov. 21. Senate Democrats have repeatedly blocked that measure, which led to this shutdown. Democrats are demanding a vote on their own proposal to permanently extend expiring Obamacare premium credits, a rollback in massive Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the end of unilateral spending rescissions.

Yet the House’s absence makes it easier for the shutdown to continue. Part of what ends shutdowns is anxiety building among the rank-and-file. Members are home, so there’s limited pressure on House GOP leaders to do anything. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and dozens of Democrats have been in D.C. throughout the shutdown.

More importantly, Johnson has emerged as the “face” of the shutdown for House Republicans. He’s doing daily press conferences and more media interviews, putting himself in the center of the fracas. A C-SPAN caller begging Johnson to bring the House back last week went viral. So did Johnson’s hallway confrontation with Arizona Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly over Johnson’s refusal to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, a move that has infuriated Democrats.

Grivalja would be the 218th signature for a discharge petition mandating a floor vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files. House GOP leaders think Trump will be furious if the discharge petition gets that vote, mainly because it will be viewed as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) besting the president. The petition will fail in the Senate and Trump will never sign it. But the symbolism is important.

Johnson sent the House home early in July because of an internal House GOP rebellion over the Epstein case, and months later, it remains a problem for Johnson and the White House.

Here’s something I hadn’t heard before:

The reality is that since the OBBB passed on July 3, the House has been checked out. A virtual non-entity for more than three months. And this is the off-year, when Congress is supposed to be busy.

Since July 3, the House has only been in session for 20 days (out of more than 100 calendar days.) Even accounting for the normal August break — which began early because of the Epstein mess – the House has been AWOL.

There have been just over 90 floor votes during this period. A lot of these were amendment votes or votes on non-controversial suspension bills. Several were partisan FY2026 spending bills that have no chance of passage. All in all, very little of substance has been taken up. But as Johnson will remind you, the House did pass a CR.

[…]

If you see it, don’t say it. House Republicans have done virtually no oversight on the Trump administration, rolling over on a number of issues that their predecessors would have screamed loudly about. It’s true that House Democrats did little or nothing to rein in President Joe Biden when they controlled the House. But Trump has gone far beyond Biden in using executive authority. “Inside the White House, top advisers joke that they are ruling Congress with an ‘iron fist,’” the Wall Street Journal reported.

For an institution that has complained for years about the need to claw back power from the executive branch, it’s a sad state of affairs. And it shows no sign of ending soon.

I don’t know what House Democrats were supposed to do to “rein in” Biden but whatever. Both sides dontcha know. But the rest is quite right.

They aren’t working because they have no job. Trump calls the shots and they march along like the tiny little lemmings they are. It’s not a sad state of affairs. It’s a crisis.

Who Wins A Trade War?

Published by digby on October 13, 2025

This is from the man who won the Nobel Prize for his work on new trade theory and new economic geography, Paul Krugman. I think he knows what he’s talking about:

Six months ago Donald Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs — huge tariffs imposed on just about every nation. As everyone noted, this announcement suddenly brought average tariffs back to 1934 levels. Less widely noted was the fact that the long decline in tariff rates over the previous 90 years had been achieved through many rounds of international negotiations, in which the U.S. and other nations solemnly agreed not to backtrack on past tariff reductions. So Liberation Day was, among other things, a massive betrayal of the world’s trust.

Now Trump is learning, to his obvious shock, that other nations can also play trade hardball. His reaction to China’s new export controls on rare earths, which are crucial to digital technology, would be comical if the stakes weren’t so high:

Krugman dryly quips: “Gosh. Aggressive unilateral trade action is a “moral disgrace.” Who knew?”

And as he points out, China has the upper hand in all this because it’s economy is bigger than the U.S:

He continues:

Furthermore, while our economies are interdependent, America is more vulnerable to a rupture than China is. True, Chinese industry has relied to an important degree on sales to the United States. But the U.S. economy is dependent on China for critical inputs, above all those rare earths. And here’s the thing: China can quickly compensate, at least in part, for the loss of the U.S. export market by stimulating domestic demand. Given time, America could wean itself from dependence on Chinese inputs — but doing so would take years.

He points out that until a year ago we still had some important advantages over China, number one being the fact that our world class universities and research institutions attracted the best talent from all over the world. We also had many allies which China did not. Not anymore.

Krugman goes on to lay out the particulars and the terrible consequences of Trump’s destruction in those areas. He concludes:

So we may be entering into an all-out trade war with China having destroyed the non-trade advantages America used to have in the form of scientific leadership and major allies. As a result, it’s just a question of which nation can do the most damage to the other. And if those are the terms on which a trade war is fought, it’s clear who is in the stronger position. China wants access to the U.S. market, but America needs Chinese rare earths and other inputs. America is going to lose this conflict.

… America will take a bigger hit than China, both to its economy and to its reputation. It’s bad when the world sees you as a bully; it’s worse when the world also sees you as weak. The man who promised to make America great again has probably ended our position of global leadership for the foreseeable future.

For all his strutting around on the world stage today and getting his crown polished by everyone, Trump has done incalculable damage to this country and the world. And he’s just getting started.

All The World’s Trump’s Stage

Published by digby on October 13, 2025

I don’t think anyone can be upset that there is at least the prospect of peace or even a respite in the war in Gaza. The hostages exchange is a godsend. That night mare is over. Good for the Trump administration for doing whatever they did to make it happen. And you have to give Trump credit because his corruption is the key.

Josh Marshal wrote this the other day and I think it’s right:

The key here is Trump’s extremely close relationships with the Gulf princes and his relationship with Israel and the Israeli right, especially Benjamin Netanyahu. The first (the relationship with the princes) is based on a mutual love of authoritarianism and corruption. More generously we might say it’s a shared vision of the future of the global economy and billionairedom — stated succinctly, the billionaires run the world. But for Trump, specifically, it’s about corruption. He and his family have now become genuine high rollers because of those relationships, which are all based on his political power in the United States. He monetized MAGA and made himself the billionaire he always dreamed of being.

That’s all very dark. But for the moment let’s set that aside. Because for present purposes the origins and bases of the relationship matter much less than the reality of it. Trump cares very, very much about what the princes want and what they think. They are also very dependent on the international system and the kind of U.S. government Trump is trying to create. He wants what they want. And they need to want what he wants. Not only was Joe Biden never in anything remotely like this position with the Gulf princes. No previous US president was either. The bond of authoritarianism and corruption was not there. The kind of U.S. government where this could be possible did not exist.

Trump is being as nasty and crude as usual as he struts across the world state today. He’s slamming Obama and Biden calling them stupid and inept for failing to achieve world peace as he has done. (Someone should send a memo to Vlad because he didn’t get it.) But the truth is that they just weren’t rich and corrupt enough to do what Trump has done.

It’s hard to believe that this will work out perfectly in the long run. I suppose you never know. But for today the short run is good enough. Hostages are exchanged, food is coming into Gaza and the bombing and killing has stopped. That’s all that matters. We can deal with the eventual political fallout later.

Humble as always and eager to share the credit, Trump knows that Peace Prize is his next year:

Trump to Israeli Knesset: “As you know, we decisively won World War 1. We decisively won World War 2, decisively, and everything in between and everything before it. We won everything and then they had the brilliant idea of changing the name from ‘war’ to ‘defense.’ And with that went a certain thinking. We fought in a very politically correct way after that. We always had the strongest military and now we have a stronger military than we ever had before. But we have settled 8 wars in 8 months. I’m now including this one, by the way. They may say, ‘Well, that was quick,’ but yesterday I was saying 7 but now I can say 8. The hostages are back.”

Moses Has A Problem

Published by digby on October 13, 2025

Shortly after he was unexpectedly elected speaker of the House in October 2023, Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson appeared before the awards gala of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, a far-right group, and revealed that God had spoken to him personally and called him to be prepared for a “Red Sea moment.”

Johnson said he understood that God would be choosing a new Moses to serve as the new speaker. Because he was an obscure functionary, the lawmaker assumed that he would be an Aaron, Moses’ brother and supporter. But over the course of three weeks, as candidate after candidate was vanquished by the sharply divided Republican caucus, God woke him up in the middle of the night and said, “Wait, wait, wait.” Finally, Johnson was told to “now step forward.”

“Me?” Johnson said. “I’m supposed to be Aaron.” 

“No,” the Lord replied, “step forward.” 

Johnson had presumably been anointed by the man upstairs to be an American Moses — and to lead us to the Promised Land. But two years later, you have to wonder if God has stopped by the speaker’s hideaway office in the Capitol to chat lately and, if so, whether he’s pleased with what his chosen one has done since he assumed the mantle of prophet.

Johnson was little known to the public when he won the speakership after California Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s dramatic defenestration. The Louisiana Republican’s reputation in Washington, D.C., was that of a very pious, ultra conservative Christian culture warrior with an unusually bland personality and a raging ambition; few expected him to be anything more than a placeholder. Many predicted he wouldn’t last long. But for two years he’s managed to do the unthinkable — to keep his notoriously fractious caucus together, despite the razor-thin margins he’s been dealt. As most GOP speakers of the last couple of decades can attest, that is no mean feat.

But it may be about to change. As various factions within the Republican party have begun to chafe under President Donald Trump’s reckless agenda — and have started to consider a post-MAGA future — Johnson’s hold over his caucus may be slipping. On top of that, he has been caught in the cover-up of the worst sex scandal in American political history. 

The power that Johnson wields over House Republicans has largely been due to the fact that he doesn’t really have any power at all. The president is the de facto speaker, just as he is the de facto majority leader in the Senate. Trump would rule Capitol Hill from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with an iron fist if he had to — but he doesn’t, since congressional Republicans have shown themselves to be all too happy to do exactly as he decrees. 

As it happened, Johnson had proven himself to be a loyal Trumper long before he put in his bid for speaker. He vocally supported Trump during both of the president’s impeachments, and he provided legal arguments justifying Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Even though he was out of office, when Johnson’s name finally emerged among House Republicans as an option in October 2023, Trump posted on Truth Social, “My strong SUGGESTION is to go with the leading candidate, Mike Johnson, & GET IT DONE, FAST!” Johnson won the vote the next day.

One might think that Johnson’s loyalty to Trump, a notorious hypocrite who has mocked (and continues to manipulate) Christian evangelicals, would have cast some doubt on the sincerity of his call to be the new Moses. But Johnson, like so many other conservative Christians, is so consumed by his fear and loathing of America’s liberal culture that he gladly embraced the felonious libertine. The enemy of his enemy became his friend, and now Johnson is an eager accomplice to Trump’s agenda.

Does he truly admire Trump though? Not likely, and not because he is affronted by his lies and criminal behavior. It’s because he’s a slick politician for whom all of this is in service to his ambition. Back when he was first elected to the speakership, David Kirkpatrick of the New Yorker interviewed Johnson and shared this anecdote, which illustrates how he operates:

I first met Johnson two years ago, in a small office in the Cannon House Office Building, to ask him about Trump’s claims that enormous fraud had robbed him of victory in 2020. “He believes that to his core today, you know,” Johnson told me then. He sounded sympathetic. But Johnson was also discreetly clarifying that he himself had never fallen for Trump’s outlandish claims.

As vice chair of the House Republican Conference, Johnson led the amicus brief signed by more than 100 House Republicans that sought to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. If he didn’t actually believe that Trump had won the election, our new Moses broke the ninth commandment about bearing false witness (along with several secular laws as well.) 

Until now, all of this has worked out pretty well for Johnson. He proved to be a fast learner; he’s gotten especially good at evading tough questions about all the horrific policies Trump is enacting in his second term. “It’s not in my lane,” he has taken to saying, and “I haven’t seen that tweet.” 

But his evasions are getting harder to maintain. By trying to excuse Republicans’ grotesque assaults on health care and suggesting they are actually trying to preserve it, Johnson is outright lying now. (Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., publicly broke with him last week, complaining to CNN that the party is being “destroyed” on the issue.) But Johnson is really being tied up in knots for his stonewalling over the Jeffrey Epstein files. 

The speaker’s own caucus is starting to rebel over the fact that he adjourned the House during the ongoing federal government shutdown. He has declined to even call members back to vote on some stand-alone bills like pay for the troops and other essential workers. Democrats are furious that Johnson has refused to swear in Adelita Grijalva, the newly elected Democratic representative from Arizona who has pledged to provide the winning vote for the discharge petition to release the Epstein documents — even though he’s gone out of his way to do so for Republicans in similar circumstances. 

Those two issues are tied together. Once he swears in Grijalva and calls the House into session, Johnson knows there will be enough votes to force the release of the Epstein files. It’s clear he is doing everything in his power to prevent that from happening for as long as possible.

Nothing exposes Johnson’s rank hypocrisy more than this one issue, and it’s destroying any shred of credibility he had left. According to a recent Marist Poll, 84% of Democrats, 67% of Republicans and 83% of independents want all of the files released. 

You know the old saying: it’s not the crime, it’s the cover up — and Mike Johnson is right in the middle of it. What would Moses do?

Salon

What Does CBP Teach Their “Cops”?

Published by Tom Sullivan on October 13, 2025

Yesiree, this is profeshunal law enforcement

Chicago: Mutiple ICE agents corner an unarmed man and pull their firearms on him.

Exhibit A from Chicago Tribune investigative reporter, Gregory Royal Pratt:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

These masked men (remember when that meant criminals?) seem not to have been trained to respect the First Amendment. Nor do they seem to know about:

Glik v. Cunniffe, No. 10-1764 (1st Cir. 2011)
Gericke v. Begin, No. 12-2326 (1st Cir. 2014)
Turner v. Driver, No. 16-10312 (5th Cir. 2017)

Chcago sits in the 7th Circuit, so I suppose they believe that makes them free to abuse the First Amendment with abandon.

Independent news site CWBChicago reports on the “Midway Blitz” commander touting the arrest of a rapist who isn’t. He brought his own sketchy Exhibit A.

https://x.com/CWBChicago/status/1976793869485588944

The federal agent leading the government’s intensified immigration enforcement campaign in Chicago has wrongly identified a man detained by ICE agents as a rapist who was set free to roam the city while awaiting trial.

The man shown in a photo accompanying Gregory Bovino’s post — firmly held by agents in one of the feds’ trademark “glamour shots” — has never been accused of raping anyone, except by Bovino.

“Why are we in the greater Chicago area?” Bovino’s post began. “To arrest bad people and bad things.”

He went on to describe the man detained in the accompanying photo as “Exhibit A.”

Only one problem for Bovino’s sensationalized Oct. 7 post:

The case Bovino is referring to involves a man named Alexander Ramos. To the best of our knowledge, we are the only news outlet that reported on Ramos’ arrest, which occurred on August 16, not March 30. But we certainly appreciate being considered “national news.”

March 30 is, however, the date that Ramos allegedly lured a 32-year-old woman into his SUV by posing as a rideshare driver outside the Hangge Uppe nightclub at 14 West Elm Street. Once inside his car, prosecutors said, the victim drifted in and out of consciousness as Ramos drove her around before stopping in the 1100 block of North Lake Shore Drive. She awoke to find him sexually assaulting her, and prosecutors said he continued the attack after she resisted.

“With a lengthy and violent criminal record dating back to 2002, why has he been living free as a bird in the Windy City?” Bovino asked on X. “Because of Chicago’s embrace of sanctuary policies, which hurt rather than help its residents. But no more. Operation Midway Blitz is here to rid Chicago of criminal illegal aliens like him.”

Hang on there, commander. Judge John Hock ordered Ramos detained on August 18, and he has been in the Cook County Jail ever since.

The man Bovino’s ICEmen snatched is an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, “Columbino Ramos, a completely different man who looks somewhat like Alexander Ramos.”

Certainly there are real professionals in CBP doing their jobs professionally, but then why go to such lengths to conceal their identities?

Chicago Sun-Times:

In early October, a black Chevrolet Express van without license plates on the front or the back left a gated federal immigration facility in Broadview and drove through the western suburb.

The passengers wore Army green typical of U.S. Department of Homeland Security officers. The van had an “inventory” decal on the back, but with faces shielded, no badge numbers and no visible license plates, the pair were virtually untraceable — the latest sign, documented by the Chicago Sun-Times, of the ways in which federal immigration agents are shielding themselves from public scrutiny.

The Sun-Times has documented four such unmarked cars on public streets without proper license plates and no other indicators that they are government vehicles, ever since an influx of federal officers sent by the Trump administration began roaming Chicago in early September. One car had no license plates at all; three had only one plate.

Illinois law requires all registered vehicles to display front and back license plates, without exception, according to the Secretary of State’s office. But the greater concern here, a civil rights lawyer says, is a “severe lack of accountability.”

And that’s just it, isn’t it?

* * * * *

Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?

No King’s One Million Rising movement – Next national day of protest Oct. 18
50501 
May Day Strong
Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink 
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense

Free At Last

Published by Tom Sullivan on October 13, 2025

They’re coming home to Israel and headed to who knows where

The remaining Hamas hostages in Gaza are free (Associated Press):

Hamas released all 20 remaining living hostages held in Gaza on Monday, while Israel began releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as part of a ceasefire pausing two years of war that pummeled the territory, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, and had left scores of captives in militant hands.

Cheering crowds greeted buses of prisoners in the West Bank, while families and friends of the hostages gathered in a square in Tel Aviv, Israel, cried out with joy and relief as news arrived that the captives were free.

The hostages, all men, have arrived back in Israel, where they will reunite with family and undergo medical checks. The bodies of the remaining 28 dead hostages are also expected to be handed over as part of the deal, although the exact timing remained unclear.

The Guardian adds:

Emotional footage was shared by Israeli broadcasters to an estimated 65,000 people gathered in front of large screens on “hostages square” in Tel Aviv and to millions more watching the coverage at home.

[…]

The family of Matan Angrest, 22, an Israel Defense Force soldier captured when his tank was attacked by Hamas near the Gaza perimeter fence, who have been critical of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over the continuation of the war, praised Donald Trump.

They said: “We can breathe again. Our Matan is home. Our beloved boy has been returned to us after two complex years, and we are so proud of him … A huge, historic, eternal thank you to the president of the United States and his team who worked with dedication and persistence for the rescue and return of our loved ones.

“The joy in our family is mixed with sadness for those murdered and for those who were not returned alive.”

Donald Trump as I type this is speaking to Israel’s Parliament. But the less said about that the better. We’ll never hear the end of it. He’s saying plenty, and is running behind schedule.

Washington Post:

Knesset lawmakers Ofer Cassif and Ayman Odeh were removed from the chamber after holding up protest signs a few minutes into President Donald Trump’s address. “That was very efficient,” Trump said, as the two men were escorted out. Ahead of Trump’s speech, Cassif said in a statement that it would be “undoubtedly filled with self-aggrandizement and lies” and that the U.S. president “has not an ounce of care for either the Israeli or Palestinian people.”

Meanwhile, Sky News reports that an Israeli military drone has dropped leaflets in Ramallah in the West Bank warning Palestinians that they are under surveillance. Anyone celebrating the Israeli release of Palestinian prisoners will be arrested and face harsh punishment.

@skynews

An Israeli military drone has dropped leaflets outside the military detention facility Ofer Prison in the West Bank, warning Palestinians ahead of the release of almost 2000 Palestinian prisoners. Sky’s Adam Parson reports. #Israel #Palestine #SkyNews

♬ original sound – Sky News

Sky News also reports that the Israeli government has also banned the families of those prisoners from being interviewed.

Somehow it doesn’t portend a long-lasting peace.

Aljazeera reports that some released Palestinians will be forced into exile:

Families of many of the Palestinian prisoners being released by Israel under an exchange deal say their long-awaited freedom is bittersweet after they learned their loved ones would be deported to third countries.

At least 154 Palestinian prisoners being freed on Monday as part of the swap for Israeli captives held in Gaza will be forced into exile by Israel, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office said.

Seventy Palestinian prisoners released in January were deported to Tunisia, Algeria and Turkey.

It’s not clear what any of it means for Gazans. The ceasefire means there is a power vacuum in Gaza already being filled by violence (CNN):

Social media channels affiliated with Hamas reported clashes in the Sabra area of Gaza City between a prominent family and security forces during which Muhammad Imad Aql, the son of a senior Hamas military commander, was killed.

Hamas forces surrounded the Dughmush family’s neighborhood on Friday night. Sources told CNN that several members of the family had been killed, and a large number of masked, armed men had been deployed around the Jordanian hospital in Gaza City.

CNN was told Sunday that clashes continued in the area.

In southern Gaza, a group opposed to Hamas known as the Popular Forces has refused to lay down its arms.

So it goes.

* * * * *

Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?

No King’s One Million Rising movement – Next national day of protest Oct. 18
50501 
May Day Strong
Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink 
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense

Right Wing Cancel Culture

Published by digby on October 12, 2025

I’m just going to leave this gift link for you if you have the stomach. An excerpt.

The Christian mayor:

“Do not miss the weight of this moment,” he wrote to his 1,700 followers, in the first days after Kirk’s death. “We need men and women of faith, courage, and action who will take the fight to the enemy — lawfully, openly, fearlessly.

“We can’t bring out the stocks. We can’t tar and feather them. But we can do the next best thing. Expose them. Call their bosses. Make them famous. Get them fired. And make sure to take screenshots.

“This is war. And this is how we fight back.”

[…]

“There must be economic consequences for this cancerous vitriol,” Arnold wrote to his followers on Facebook, a few days after Kirk’s death. “Share, share, share.”

“All of the sudden I am really enjoying cancel culture.”

“Shame is not revenge. Shunning is not cruelty. These are the thorns God places on the path to drive men back to the way of truth.”

The bisexual firefighter:

“I will not be guilted into feeling sorry,” Meyers wrote back, but by then her post was beginning to generate a steady number of replies, and even if she didn’t regret her message, she didn’t want to deal with any more blowback or harassment. Forty-seven minutes after posting, she went back onto Facebook and cleared it off her page.

“Fine. I deleted it,” she told a friend. “It’s done.”

[…]

But by the time Meyers got back to the firehouse, friends were sending her screenshots of her post as it spread all over the internet. It had been shared by a local hunting guide, reposted by an old Tea Party group and amplified by a right-wing comedian with hundreds of thousands of followers. When Meyers sat down for her lunch break, she searched for her name online and saw thousands of posts totaling millions of views.

“I know where she works,” one poster wrote, sharing a photo of Meyers and a link to the Canyon Lake Fire Department.

“Revoke her license,” another person responded. “She cannot be trusted to have life in her hands.”

“Getting ‘fired’ won’t even be enough punishment.”

“Hopefully God takes away someone she adores. Hopefully he makes her choke.”

“Find out what she drives and her home address.”

[…]

She left the firehouse to drive home, but one of her colleagues said she could stay at his house. He was a conservative who thought Meyers’s post was horrific, but he hid her car behind his house and offered her a bedroom for the next few days. He insisted on following her everywhere for protection, including back to the chief’s office for another disciplinary meeting, where she was fired for “unacceptable conduct.”

She packed her belongings at the firehouse and noticed a message on her phone. It was from a number in New York, and a voice she didn’t recognize. “What a shitty little green house and a red Jeep,” the caller said, and she wondered if he was watching her.

She packed a suitcase of clothes, loaded her dog into the car and stopped at her mother’s house. Her mother mistook her distress for regret, but Meyers said she wasn’t sorry for what she’d written. If anything, she was angrier, but she also needed to find someplace that felt safe in a country increasingly on edge. She didn’t know where she was going yet — just that she needed to leave.

“Everything is collapsing,” she said.

The mayor:

He saw a story online about the firefighter in Comal County who’d just been terminated and shared it on his page. “I am thinking all of these people that have rendered themselves unemployable like this should probably go ahead and self deport,” he wrote. “We don’t want them here anyway.”

They want them (us) to leave the country. If I were younger I would certainly be thinking about it. I lived overseas for a good part of my life and could easily do it again. But I figure I should stay and do what I can since I don’t have all that much time left compared to the youngs.

And for anyone who thinks this is all a sad consequence of liberal cancel culture coming back to bite us in the ass, think again. This piece by historian Nicole Hemmer is worth reading to remind us of who really invented this nonsense. (The right has never really believed in free speech so this is nothing new.)

“It’s the idea that the illiberalism that has swallowed the progressive left — what we often refer to as wokeness — has come for the right,” The Free Press’s Bari Weiss explained in the introduction to a podcast on the subject. And while conservatives are split over whether this is a positive development or a negative one, they all seem to agree on one point: The right learned its vengeance politics from the left. “Turnabout is fair play,” the conservative activist Christopher Rufo posted on X. Right-wing cancel culture was simply “an effective, strategic tit-for-tat.”

That argument rests on a flawed premise: that the right had been devoted to open debate and restrained government power, only reluctantly abandoning these principles to counter left-wing illiberalism. But the right did not learn cancel culture from the left; the modern right in America emerged as a censorious movement. It took decades for its free-speech faction to develop, and even then, it has only ever been a minority part of the coalition.

She ties it to the conservative movement starting back in the bad old days of the HUAC and McCarthy. But that mayor who went on the jihad against anyone who said something rude about Charlie Kirk is a very Big Christian and I think we can trace our “censorious right” all the way back to the puritans in New England. For some reason these people have a very hard time remembering what Jesus was actually all about.

I don’t think we know how many lives have been disrupted or destroyed by this self-righteous bullshit over Kirk but I suspect the number will surprise us. It was mass hysteria and it exposed a whole lot of people as exactly the archetypes we all learned about in The Crucible. in high school.

Americans in 2025 believed they had the right to speak their opinion, whatever it was. But that’s never been true and more often than not it’s conservative mob mentality that’s brought the hammer down. Today they have the full backing of the federal government.

Sadism R Us

Published by digby on October 12, 2025
Max Beckman 1918

This is just horrifying on so many levels I hardly know what to say:

On the morning of Oct. 3, 2025, Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam walked out of Huntingdon State Correctional Institution, the Pennsylvania prison that had confined him for more than four decades. The 64-year-old had spent nearly his entire adult life behind bars for a murder he did not commit.

His conviction had been vacated weeks earlier after a court found that prosecutors had concealed evidence that would have dismantled the state’s case. The Centre County district attorney formally withdrew all charges a day before his expected release. But Subu never made it home.

As he stood on the threshold of freedom, officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were waiting. Acting on a decades-old deportation order, they detained him and transferred him to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, an ICE detention facility in central Pennsylvania. His family, who had prepared to welcome him home, instead learned that Subu would remain in custody — not as a prisoner of the state, but as a detainee of the federal government.

“To our disappointment, Subu was transferred to ICE custody and is currently being held at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center,” the family said in a statement posted on a website dedicated to building support for Vedam’s case. “This immigration issue is a remnant of Subu’s original case. Since that wrongful conviction has now been officially vacated and all charges against Subu have been dismissed, we have asked the immigration court to reopen the case and consider the fact that Subu has been exonerated. Our family continues to wait — and long for the day we can finally be together with him again.”

Subu’s legal odyssey began in 1982, when he was arrested for the 1980 murder of his friend, 19-year-old Thomas Kinser, in Centre County. Prosecutors argued that Subu had shot Kinser with a .25-caliber pistol — a weapon that was never recovered — and based their case largely on circumstantial evidence. He was initially arrested in 1982 and convicted the following year, being finally sentenced to life without parole.

For the next 42 years, Subu maintained his innocence. His appeals were repeatedly denied, and his case languished until the Pennsylvania Innocence Project joined his defense team. In 2022, the project’s attorneys discovered previously undisclosed evidence in the files of the Centre County District Attorney’s Office — including an FBI report and handwritten notes suggesting that the bullet wound in Kinser’s skull was too small to have been caused by a .25-caliber bullet. That revelation undermined the entire prosecution theory.

In August 2025, Judge Jonathan Grine of the Centre County Court of Common Pleas ruled that the concealed evidence represented a constitutional violation of due process. “Had that evidence been available at the time,” Grine wrote, “there would have been a reasonable probability that the jury’s judgment would have been affected.” One month later, District Attorney Bernie Cantorna dismissed the murder charge, saying a retrial would be both impossible and unjust.

By then, Subu had become the longest-serving exoneree in Pennsylvania history — and one of the longest-serving in the United States. Freedom, however, came with a new peril. ICE cited a “legacy deportation order” dating back to the 1980s, tied not only to the murder charge but also to an earlier drug conviction from Subu’s youth.

Before his arrest for murder, he had pleaded guilty at age 19 to intent to distribute LSD — a charge his family describes as a youthful mistake. Although that conviction carried its own immigration consequences, Subu, who was born in India but arrived in the United States when he was 9 months old, was never deported because he was serving a life sentence. Now, after his exoneration, ICE has revived the decades-old order.

What the hell have we become? My God.

This man is 64 years old and has not been to India since he was 9. He was wrongfully imprisoned for 42 years and now they want to send him back because of a minor infraction when he was 19 — before we imprisoned him for a crime he didn’t commit.

Joe Rogan has been saying that people who have a heart will not stand for all the cruelty but as the saying goes, that’s the point. Maybe someone should tell him about this one.

Update — Get a load of this. Kilmar Obrego Garcia is still in limbo and appearing in court everyone other day while the government insists that he has to be deported. The latest:

For weeks, Mr. Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who is married to a U.S. citizen, has made clear that he would not challenge his deportation if he were sent to Costa Rica, which has promised him legal residency and guaranteed that he would not be sent back to El Salvador.

But the Trump administration has refused to deport him to Costa Rica, and in an earlier hearing this week, Judge Xinis pressed the administration to consider the option or clarify why it was unacceptable.

She did not get the clarity she was seeking. Mr. Schultz not only could not explain why the administration had refused to consider Costa Rica but also said he had been unaware that Costa Rica had provided such assurances to Mr. Abrego Garcia.

Bullshit. They just want to send him someplace where he will be a total fish out of water with no way to make a living and where he might be tortured or sent back to El Salvador, which is what they really want.

Government officials had presented Eswatini, a tiny nation in southern Africa, as the leading option for Mr. Abrego Garcia at a hearing on Monday. But Mr. Schultz said the State Department requested that Eswatini take Mr. Abrego Garcia on Wednesday, two days later. Mr. Schultz learned a few hours before the hearing on Friday that Eswatini had refused, he said.

There was also discussion of Ghana at the hearing, but Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana’s foreign minister, said on social media on Friday that the country was “not accepting Abrego Garcia,” a position that he said the Ghanian government “directly and unambiguously conveyed to U.S. authorities.” Mr. Abrego Garcia objected to being deported to Uganda, expressing fear for his safety in the country, an argument that Trump officials have yet to challenge.

Why not North Korea? I’m sure Kim would be happy to do Trump a solid.

JD Vance Is A Piece Of Work On ABC

Published by digby on October 12, 2025

You have to read the transcript:

STEPHANOPOULOS: The White House border czar, Tom Homan, was recorded on an FBI surveillance tape in September 2024 accepting $50,000 in cash. Did he keep that money or give it back?

VANCE: George, you’ve covered this story ad nauseam. Tom Homan did not take a bribe. It’s a ridiculous smear. And the reason you guys are going after Tom Homan so aggressively is because he’s doing the job of enforcing the law. I think it’s really preposterous. I know Tom. I think that he’s a good man. He gets death threats, he gets attacked, he gets constantly threatened by people because he has the audacity to want to enforce the country’s immigration laws.

I think that it would be a much more interesting story about why is it that Tom Homan, who is simply enforcing America’s immigration laws, is constantly harassed and threatened to the point of death threats. That’s a much more interesting question that I think journalists should focus on. We can agree to disagree on that question.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But, wait, you said he didn’t take a bribe. But I’m not sure you answered the question. Are you saying that he did not accept the $50,000?

VANCE: George, this story has been covered ad nauseam. He did not take a bribe. Did he accept $50,000? I am sure that in the course of Tom Homan’s life he has been paid more than $50,000 for services. The question is, did he do something illegal, and there is absolutely no evidence that Tom Homan has ever taken a bribe or done anything illegal.

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: No, I’m asking — I’m asking a different question. I’m asking you did he accept —

VANCE: Which is why he’s working in the administration.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I’m asking you, did he accept the $50,000 that was caught on the surveillance tape? Did he accept that $50,000 or not?

VANCE: George, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Did he accept $50,000 for what?

STEPHANOPOULOS: He was recorded on an audiotape in September of 2024, an FBI surveillance tape, accepting $50,000 in cash. Did he keep that money?

VANCE: Accepting $50,000 for doing what, George? I am not even sure I understand the question. Is it illegal to take a payment for doing services? The FBI has not prosecuted him. I have never seen any evidence that he’s engaged in criminal wrongdoing. Nobody has accused Tom of violating a crime, even the far-left media like yourself. So I’m actually not sure what the precise question is. Did he accept $50,000? Honestly, George, I don’t know the answer to that question. What I do know is that he didn’t violate a crime.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you don’t — what was caught on the tape, you’re saying right now, you don’t know whether or not he kept that money?

VANCE: I don’t know what tape you’re referring to, George. I saw media reports that Tom Homan accepted a bribe. There is no evidence of that. And here’s, George, why fewer and fewer people watch your program and why you’re losing credibility, because you’re talking for now five minutes with the vice president of the United States about this story regarding Tom Homan, a story that I have read about, but I don’t even know the video that you’re talking about.

Meanwhile, low-income women can’t get food because the Democrats and Chuck Schumer have shut down the government. Right now, we’re trying to figure out how to pay our troops because Chuck Schumer has shut down the government. You’re focused on a bogus story, you’re insinuating criminal wrongdoing against a guy who has done nothing wrong, instead of focusing on the fact that our country is struggling because our government shut down.

Let’s talk about the real issues, George. I think the American people would benefit much more from that than from you going down some weird left-wing rabbit hole where the facts clearly show that Tom Homan didn’t engage in any criminal wrongdoing.

STEPHANOPOULOS: It’s not a weird left-wing rabbit hole. I didn’t insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50,000 as was heard on an audiotape recorded by the FBI in September 2024, and you did not answer the question.

Thank you for your time this morning.

VANCE: No, George, I said that I don’t —

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: — is up next.

We’ll be right back.

I suppose the MAGA horde thinks this is very clever. Blatantly avoiding the question with bullshit like this is a snotty bitch mainstay and the GOP is full of them. It’s the Ted Cruz, Tucker Carlson act. But I have to give it to JD. There’s nobody more obnoxious than he is. I’m sure he got a big “attaboy” from the White House.

The big question is whether ABC will force Stephanopoulos to apologize. Anyone want to make a bet?