Sophia Bush

#SAGAftraStrong #WGAstrong @iamavoter_ + @fashionkind_ 🎙 @workinprogress_ podcast 🎙@dramaqueensoth podcast❤️‍🔥

[Sophia Bush @SophiaBush]

Aww thanks y’all!! I’m so excited for the book tour! You can pre-order copies here: https://t.co/4iG8RvE7ds 🩷📚

[ale 🪸 @apegobush]

@SophiaBush 👀 we may have a few more tour requests for you… 😂🌎📖❤️

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

The presidential pardon power is absolutely out of control.

Trump hasn’t just abused the pardon power. He’s created a market around it, and people are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars just for the promise of getting in the door.

The criminals who do get the bang for their buck and handed a pardon? Not only do they get their convictions wipe away, but in case after case, Trump is also wiping away the money they were ordered to pay back.

This isn’t up for debate. We need to limit the presidential pardon power once and for all.

[theleahfiles @leahfiles]

Based on my Cornell follow the money findings, and with a daughter applying to colleges right now, I wanted to look across more universities to understand how far this goes. So I built Behind the Ivory Walls, a model that ranks America’s 31 richest universities on who controls their police, how many sexual assaults they never count, what they have already been caught failing to stop and how much they have paid to settle abuse claims.

I scored every school on 10 criteria. They come down to three questions: who controls the police, how many assaults never get counted, and how much the school has already paid for abuse it was warned about.

The 10 criteria: who employs the campus police, who those police answer to, whether city police are required to lead sex crime cases, whether the public can see the records, whether anyone outside oversees the department, how many assaults never make the official count, how many victims tell no one at the school, the school’s documented failures, the money it has paid for abuse, and pending lawsuits.

Highlights of findings:

(1) USC, Cornell and Columbia stand apart from the rest. Each one has paid or agreed to pay ~ $1 billion or more for abuse by a doctor the institution had been told about.

(2) 21 of the 31 schools have no rule that requires anyone outside the university to see a sexual assault report before it reaches a prosecutor. Only seven have a written rule that hands sex crime cases to city police.

(3) Only about 1 in 15 of the assaults students describe in their own schools’ surveys shows up in the official federal count.

(4) 28 of the 31 run their own police force with arrest powers, and 28 have no independent oversight of those police at all.

(5) 16 keep their police records completely closed to the public. At nine, the police report up to the university’s finance or legal office. At the University of Chicago, the department is overseen by the general counsel, the school’s top lawyer.

(6) At 19 of these schools, students’ own survey answers point to about 7,600 sexual assaults a year. Those same schools reported about 510 to the federal government. At the University of Chicago, the federal count captures 1.9% of what its own students report.

(7) At Penn, victims told no campus office at all in about three out of four incidents involving women.

If you have a child applying to college this fall or attending one right now, all 31 schools are in the article. Public universities are next, so let me know what other schools you want run next!

Full article is up on my Substack now (link in bio and it's free).

[Senator Dick Durbin @SenatorDurbin]

Today, I called on the Inspector General at DOJ to investigate why the FBI modified its hiring standards to allow those who stole from an employer, paid for sex, and engaged in bestiality to work for the Bureau.

If Kash Patel won’t give us answers on these hiring changes, we need someone who will.

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

Ken Paxton has traveled to the following destinations with taxpayer money:

— England
— Italy
— Mexico
— Australia
— Aruba
— Costa Rica
— Taiwan
— Estonia
— Finland
— St. George, Utah
— Ocala, Florida
— the Czech Republic
— the Dominican Republic
— Durango, Colorado
— Greece
— Salt Lake City, Utah
— Woodstock, Maine
— Eden, Utah
— Dunedin, Florida
— Broken Bow, Oklahoma
— Hungary
— Vail, Colorado
— Malta
— Albania
— Poland
— South Africa
— Idabel, Oklahoma
— Park City, Utah
— Gunnison, Colorado

[Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie]

Every Republican accusation is a confession, example 1 million:

Trump’s DOJ lists anti-Trump speech as indicators of domestic terrorism — and they’ve built an AI-powered mass surveillance apparatus to track activists and everyday Americans using their private personal data.

[Lorraine E-Van-Off @LorraineEvanoff]

How is this fucking legal!!!!!

"Something stinks.

Astoria is one of my favorites on the Oregon coast, a small town of around 9,000 people with great restaurants and crafts shops.

Two of them, a coffee shop and ceramics studio, are owned by a small businessperson, Audrey Long, who’s mailed herself five postcards since August to test the mail.

The results have been grim, particularly since Oregon is a 100% vote-by-mail state.

So far, only two of the postcards have arrived, and the first one took more than a month (and Oregon doesn’t even send out ballots until next Wednesday).

Across the street from one of her shops the town’s City Hall isn’t getting its mail reliably, either, and the same is true for the tenants of a 40-unit apartment building next door, according to reporting by Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Oregon Senator @SenJeffMerkley is looking into it, his office telling OPB’s reporter, “The timing of these issues is especially concerning.”

Raw Story’s Alexandria Jacobson reports that nearly 1,000 armed private security guards have been deployed to at least 55 postal facilities in places with lots of Democrats like Atlanta, Phoenix, Denver, and Chicago.

Instead of using the Post Office’s own police force, Trump’s people have hired Prosegur, a Spanish multinational armed mercenary force that Norway’s sovereign wealth fund blacklisted in 2024 over what its ethics council called “an unacceptable risk that the company is contributing to serious human rights abuses.”

The company’s also been accused of intimidating union organizers across Latin America, which may be why Frank Albergo of the Postal Police Officers Association worries out loud that nobody from the Postal Service seems to be supervising them. He described the result as “private contractors in and around ballots without any federal control.”

In other words, we’re already partway there: armed men who answer to a foreign contractor and Trump instead of to the public, with no transparency and no clear reason for their being there, are overseeing the buildings our ballots pass through this month."

Trump Is Building an Election Trap, and Millions of Americans May Not See It Until It's Too Late https://t.co/mA3Kr6epTa

[Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) @adamscochran]

This woman is the very definition of an American hero and patriot.

Trump and his cronies are using this as a scare tactic.

It’s a warning to those who may turn on him in the future that he wants revenge.

A Democratic Congress will not allow him to silence you.

[Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie]

Their “savings,” are your denied claims and care.

[Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie]

Your periodic reminder:

ICE is a for-profit industry — and the companies profiting from it are huge donors to the politicians who continue to fund and protect it.

It’s not about immigration, it’s about corporate greed and finding additional revenue streams for companies profiting from others pain.

Abolish ICE.
Abolish corporate and dark money in politics.

[Amy Siskind @Amy_Siskind]

There's always a catch with Trump! I wrote earlier in the week that the Trump regime had unilaterally signed up tens of millions of children for Trump accounts, even if parents did not want the accounts.

But what are they getting now?

"The catch? Children and their parents can’t pick the stocks or reject donated shares, and they can’t sell for five years.

Before last week, Trump Accounts were a novel, optional index-fund investment for children with about seven million sign-ups. The government was seeding newborns’ accounts with $1,000. Employers were pledging contributions to workers’ children. Philanthropists such as Michael and Susan Dell were making cash donations.

Now, after the Treasury Department turned on auto-enrollment and enabled stock donations, Trump Accounts look entirely different."

https://t.co/BLYP8fkqd9

[Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie]

If you or I did this, we could face up to 25 years in prison.

But when Donald Trump uses the presidency for insider trading, Republicans just say, “well, he’s a businessman.”

The most corrupt president ever, and it’s not even close.

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

The more you unravel this story, the louder the alarm bells sound.

Need I remind everyone that Jared Kushner is NOT A GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE?

He’s a non-government employee responsible for negotiating deals in the Middle East and the Ukraine-Russia War, and he has this position because he’s the President’s son-in-law.

He’s also the textbook definition of conflict of interest.

Kushner’s private equity firm is backed by BILLIONS from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, at the same time that he’s the Saudi point man. He has contractual responsibilities to deliver for his donors in the Middle East, but he’s responsible for U.S. diplomacy there?

The New Yorker also obtained a document from European intelligence suggesting that business deals benefiting Trump’s circle were on the table during negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.

How can the Trump Administration insist that Kushner’s private businesses and diplomatic work do not conflict with each other when he is asking foreign governments for private equity money while negotiating with them at the same time?

Kushner is not a career diplomat. He’s not on the payroll. What, in the world, is he doing negotiating some of the world’s front-most conflicts?
https://t.co/vLSufScaHm

[Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie]

Amazon laid off over 30,000 workers over the last year.

[Sophia Bush @SophiaBush]

Hey @SenSusanCollins … ectopic pregnancy deaths have DOUBLED since Kavanaugh DID overturn Roe V. Wade. All of those dead mothers? They’re your fault. Shame on you.

[Acyn @Acyn]

CNN airing a clip from 2018:

Bash: You’re 100% certain that Kavanaugh will not overturn Roe V Wade?

Collins: I do not believe that Kavanaugh will overturn Roe V Wade.

Bash: Precedents are overturned all the time.

Collins: They aren't overturned all the time.

“Life comes at you fast. Eight years ago today, Senator Susan Collins was the deciding vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh. The following day, she insisted right here on CNN that the new justice would not vote to overturn a woman's right to an abortion”

[The Tennessee Holler @TheTNHoller]

TEXAS — @jamestalarico: “Why do we have a trillionaire when veterans are sleeping on the streets? The reason poverty exists is not because we can’t feed the poor, it’s because we can’t satisfy the rich.” (From @TeamTalaricoHQ)

[Sophia Bush @SophiaBush]

Every single person in this administration is a grifter or a criminal or both. It’s maddening.

[Rebecca Ballhaus @rebeccaballhaus]

Kimberly Guilfoyle was preparing for her congressional hearing to become U.S. ambassador to Greece when she reached out to a Trump donor with an urgent request: She needed $100,000 that she said she owed American Express—in a way that wouldn’t leave a paper trail.

“It won’t show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express,” she wrote on Signal, according to messages reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “Please.”

w/@DanaMattioli @drewhinshaw @JoeWSJ

https://t.co/VTY1PhgEZQ

[Sophia Bush @SophiaBush]

This is a crime. Where the hell is Congress!?

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

🚨BREAKING: GOP lawyer Cleta Mitchell and convicted election denier Tina Peters are pushing a scheme to have Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick seize voting machines, as part of a broader effort for the Trump administration to interfere with the midterms. https://t.co/hSnA0EU6zM

[Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie]

The maximum amount an individual can donate to a candidate is $3500.

Elon Musk has spent $380 million on the 2024 and the 2026 midterms — so far.

Billionaires shouldn’t be allowed to buy elections.

Overturn Citizens United.

[Oversight Dems @OversightDems]

🚨 ProPublica released a bombshell investigation finding that ICE has detained HUNDREDS of US citizens, despite repeatedly denying they have done so. Some of their findings include:

—More than 100 Americans were held after agents questioned their citizenship. Nearly all were people of color.
—At least 70 children and teens were detained, and 20 who were handcuffed or zip-tied.
—DHS agents detained more than 120 citizens in Illinois during Operation Midway Blitz, despite DHS claiming that there were "no administrative arrests of U.S. citizens."
—A 15-year-old with disabilities was handcuffed outside a Los Angeles school after agents allegedly mistook him for a gang member.
—Aliya Rahman, an autistic citizen recovering from a traumatic brain injury, was stuck amid protestors in Minneapolis. Agents broke her window and dragged her out of the car while she screamed, then detained her for hours without allowing her to contact her family or lawyers. She was released without being charged.
—More than a dozen American children were detained in a raid on an Idaho horse track.
—Roughly a dozen citizens, mostly children, were deported.
—Brian Morales Garcia, a U.S. citizen, was detained for four days without being able to call a lawyer or family, then deported to Mexico.
—Agents allegedly broke into a Minnesota family's home without a judicial warrant, taking the phone of a 20-year-old citizen who was legally trying to record the break-in.
—Agents shot pepper balls at and tackled two workers at an Illinois cemetery. One was taken to the hospital handcuffed, with agents standing over his bed. No one was charged.
—A 17-year-old in Oregon shouted "I'm a U.S. citizen" as agents broke his car window. An agent responded, "I don't care."
—36 Americans were held for at least a day without access to a lawyer or their family.
—An American in Baltimore was held for 25 days, unable to see her 5-year-old son over Christmas.
—More than 300 citizens were detained for allegedly assaulting or obstructing agents. Fewer than half were charged in federal court, and nearly half of those charges were dropped or dismissed.
—At least 63 citizens were detained while recording agents.
—Three siblings in Brownsville, Texas, including a 14-year-old, were detained after stopping to film an immigration arrest.
—Last month, an Illinois man was injured and detained by agents who mistook him for someone else.
—Two citizens who are enrolled members of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe were detained in Bemidji, Minnesota, during a worksite raid.
—A citizen documenting ICE activity in Ventura, California, was tackled and tasered while he was already pinned to the ground.
—Fernando Vasquez, an 18-year-old citizen, was chased and handcuffed by agents, then put in their truck. After realizing their mistake, the agents abandoned him in the woods with no way to get home, then threw his ID out of the truck.

Most alarmingly, this is certainly an undercount. ICE and DHS are completely out of control. When we’re in the majority, we will hold them accountable.

[Amy Siskind @Amy_Siskind]

I gifted this article about Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent which details his bullying, his erratic behavior, and temper.

He has lost an unusually high number of treasury employees in his first 20 months, including many he brought in that were Senate confirmed. He has already churned through three chiefs of staff. His staff is so afraid of his volatile behavior that they try to gage his mood before showing up to meetings, and celebrate when he is out of the office.

This is a long read, but you also have the option to listen to it.

https://t.co/yrN7wbUDDv