Shambling Corpse of Randy Herman

Good morning all, at 9:30 ET I will be live-posting the DC Circuit oral arguments in JGG v. Trump. The question is whether Venezuelans sent to CECOT under the Alien Enemies Act are entitled to a hearing.

Safer: These witnesses were not sworn, right? Witt: Correct Safer: But in your affidavit you said they were, right? And that's a false statement? Witt: It wasn't an intentionally false statement

Todd Blanche—the President’s personal lawyer—went to a prison to arrange hush money to be given to a sexual predator and place it on the record, because he knew that the Republicans, who control Congress, would nominate him to be AG anyway.

DOJ asks for clarity, and MJ says that he will not rubber stamp second complaint as DOJ has suggested. He won't sign it unless he has time to review and make probable cause finding...So for now we're going to move forward with preliminary hearing on basis of first complaint.

the future liberals want

Dohrmann continues: Whether incompetence or simply cruelty, it's inexcusable to comply with the most basic requirement that complaint be sworn....Raises serious concerns about credibility of the government's case.

Faruqui says never had a situation like this in his career as a magistrate... But notes that even if there is no probable cause on complaint...DOJ could still go to grand jury at any time. We've never had complaints filed on the record unsigned while waiting for judge to make PC finding, he says.

this is just insanely damning stuff when you lay it all out democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su...

Spicy events expected in this thread

If you're a D or D-adjacent voter in NC and haven't voted yet, you have the chance to help deliver truly historic curb-stomping to the R supermajorities in the NCGA Please go vote 😄

Former Miss Switzerland Accuses Trump of Rape. Now you get why Trump has to support the vile Vivek ad calling Amy Acton a liar about being raped as a child. Trump is always protecting himself so he smears all rape victims as liars. www.mediaite.com/media/news/f...

If I am reading the calendar right, the next hearing in the California voter intervention case is at 1:00 pm California time before Judge Carter. Can anyone confirm?

New Epstein report from the House Judiciary Committee and a reminder that Blanche and Trump are still withholding a TON of information that is almost certainly damning on them, and definitely not exculpatory. democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su...

NEW: An army of volunteers and activists across the US have been training for months to face down ICE at the polls on election day. The message they have for the Trump administration? "We're ready" 1/ www.wired.com/story/massiv...

There it is "Republican legislative leaders probably “were not anticipating just how unpopular President Donald Trump would be, and how much that would weigh down their party's fortunes,” said Greene, the political scientist"

(Reuters) - Americans have paid more for their gasoline and diesel at the pump on average during President Donald Trump's second term than they did under his Democratic predecessor, Joe ​Biden, according to the AAA. ⛽️ @reuters.com www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

If one runs a normal election, without all the illegal cheating, then win or lose one doesn't have to worry about going to jail at the end of it. Just saying.

Astonishing: Maxwell was willing to tell Blanche about some of Trump's rapes, and he ordered her not to. "Let's not talk about inviduals." WTF were they there to talk about? There's EVIDENCE on this.

Big if we can do it because the NC GOP control the statehouse through pretty wild gerrymanders that normally give them super-majorities when the state is evenly split. If you break those permanently, NC government gets really competitive, really fast in a way that will be good for the state.

It's really damning. The accusations are numerous and well-supported. But I was really struck by the descriptions of Trump's behavior -- the name dropping, strong-arming, and attempts to buy off silence. His gross rivalry with Epstein. It's all so familiar. It's shit he's been doing his entire life.

I know there's a lot going on but I feel it should probably be more of an above-the-fold story that members of Congress released a thoroughly documented report directly accusing the president of the United States of being a serial rapist.

Spoke to a Democratic member of the NC House. The caucus is very much aware of the possibility that they might flip the house and have a long list of legislative priorities. Republicans are hoping their voters show up on Election Day.

this might rank as one of the most important outcomes of the night if it happens. would give dems the ability to begin to make north carolina a democracy

Look it's 2026 and I know "the president is a rapist" is already baked in to everyone's opinion but the president of the United States is a fucking rapist and I would really appreciate it if the media would treat this like the major earth-shattering scandal that it should be.

the biggest presidential scandal in history but the political media largely acts as if it's not happening. hasan piker has received more mainstream political media coverage over the last 6 months than trump's connections with epstein has

Should we all just go ahead and take next Wednesday off? Nobody's getting any work done, right?

Vote like he's on the ballot

NEW: "Donald Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women during the mid-to-late 1990s," per new House Judiciary Dem report. Report has new allegation that Trump raped a 24-year-old and then promised the victim a visa & NYU admission, demanding she stay quiet.

We pretty clearly need some kind of governmental framework that's global in scope for at least some issues; what exactly the scope and powers are can be debated, but the necessity is obvious at this point.

This report is really good and should be widely read. Among other things, it makes the point that by shielding Trump, DOJ is also allowing many other perpetrators to get away.

Trump and Co. will try to steal the midterms. They're already trying. Gerrymandering, bad faith lawsuits, voter intimidation, and a whole lot of lies. But they don't have a genius secret plan. They're already doing whatever they can think of. And it's beatable. Shouldn't have to, but here we are.

I don't know that there is a definitive line to cross that makes you say, "I live in a police state now" but when masked gunmen can routinely brutalize the public, citizen or immigrant alike, with impunity, you have reached that point.

I found this fascinating and very helpful in understanding the Israel situation

So is Lula going to take action against the American agents that tried to influence the election?

Brazil’s results tonight are a big endorsement for the idea that every country should have a second “are you you sure about that” election a couple weeks after the first one for the important stuff

I love politics. fuck yes

Goddamn, it really seems like he’s done it 🫪 Congrats to my Brazilian oomfs, so thrilled for you Bolsonaro and Vucic losing on the same day, incredible

Some Serbian-Brazilian family is having the best day of their life

turns out that voting is a very good way to kick right wing authoritarians out of power

JS: Can you think of any instance in where the federal government intervened in how a state administers it election DOJ: I'm sorry, I don't JB: If we dismiss this on jurisdiction, does jurisdiction go back to the district court? DOJ: yes 77/

NEW: DOJ just admitted in court that their lawsuit against California is not about outcome determinative issues, it's simply saying that a single non-citizen voting causes the government irreparable harm. That's bananapants.

look, nothing is simple and i have no parsimonious explanation for anything here, but a student protest movement, focused on corruption & authoritarianism, just won a major european election. a big deal.

Liberal democracy remains a towering achievement of humanity and it is worth fighting for.