Stephen Saltzman

Pragmatic progressive; U of Oregon, Portland Thorns, & Portland Timbers fan; advisor to startups run by people I like; volunteer EmComm radio operator.

[Stephen Saltzman @StephenSaltzman]

Nothing like hiking around #Oregon to recharge your batteries. This was my first time hiking #SmithRock -- definitely won't be my last!

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

Jennifer Welch: “Boycott every fucking thing on CBS News. From the morning all the way through to the evening. These are the same people that fired Stephen Colbert because Trump got his feelings hurt by a comedian. These people are the biggest bunch of pussies that masquerade with these grandstanding letters like they’re such badasses. These people don’t care about the truth, they don’t care about journalism, they don’t care about the Constitution, they don’t care about a free press. It’s just absolutely devastating what these oligarchs have done to our country”

[Ford News @FordJohnathan5]

BREAKINGNEWS: Secretary Marco Rubio stated during a congressional hearing that the war with Iran is over. Here is Iran bombing US bases in Kuwait just hours later. We are being led by idiots and liars. 🚨

[POLITICOEurope @POLITICOEurope]

EXCLUSIVE: Hungary has signaled it will drop its long-standing opposition to Ukraine’s bid for EU membership, allowing it and Moldova to begin formal negotiations to join the bloc in the coming days, four diplomats told POLITICO. https://t.co/B4jaW4lByv

[Amber Woods @AmberWoods100]

Today, Trump appointed Bill Pulte as Director of National Intelligence.

I’ve spent nearly a year investigating the Epstein files.

When I saw the announcement, I went back into my records and searched one word:

Pulte. 🔥🧵

[Matt Royer @royermattw]

Every time the shadow docket has touched a contested map, the outcome favors Republicans.

Texas gerrymander: allowed.

New York Democratic flip: blocked.

Louisiana: VRA gutted.

Virginia Democratic map: refused to save it.

Alabama: a Black district erased.

Same direction every time.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Ossoff on SCOTUS Alabama ruling: 61 years after President Johnson signed the voting rights act, as if they'd been lying in wait since the ink from his pen dried, as soon as section two of the VRA was eviscerated, they've leapt into action to try to remove Black elected officials, not by defeating them at the polls, but by manipulating maps to dilute minority power. 

But the fact that they're launching these attacks in the American south, the fact that they launched that ballot raid in Fulton county is awakening in people a determination to vote like they have never voted before, to rebuke these abuses and defend voting rights

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

Devastating footage of rain of burning phosphorus falling over Kostiantynivka.

​Russians are scorching the earth, wiping out every living thing in the Donetsk region.

[Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski]

He deleted it. Not very MAGA to cave to the Woke Mob. ❄️

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

Sen. Hassan: "Mr. Secretary, how does the president's requested billion-dollar ballroom or all of these other vanity products lower costs for American families or help constrain spending?"

Bessent: "…It is a national security matter."

Sen. Hassan: "That's ridiculous, and I think you know it."

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

CORTEZ MASTO: Do you intend to give the 400,000 taxpayers who also had their information leaked the same immunity as President Trump and his family received?

BESSENT: I'm unable to provide any additional information

CORTEZ MASTO: It's very clear you're dodging this. It's just outrageous.

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

Yes - this is our constitutional crisis in a nutshell. Mullin says he will pick and choose which court orders to follow based on whether he likes them or not.

That's a reciple for the total destruction of our democracy. That's totalitarianism.

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

Sen. Warner: "Mr. Pulte has had a record of not respecting confidential information... and the idea that he's going to suddenly be given the keys to the most classified secrets that keep our country safe. I just would have wished that someone in the White House would have gone to the emperor and said, 'On this one, you've got no clothes.'"

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

BLANCHE: Who the president chooses to pardon is not a problem, period

IVEY: What's the legal basis for that statement?

BLANCHE: The Constitution

IVEY: The Constitution does not give him the authority to pardon in exchange for payments. It does not permit bribery

[Mor Edge Insight @MorEdge_Insight]

So the flotilla activists were rightly and justly held by Israel, though for just half a day, then released and deported. And the world went into complete meltdown. Outrage went to delirious levels.

Now the same flotilla activists have been detained and imprisoned in Libya for the past 10 days, and that prison term has been extended significantly.

And the reaction from the world?

Total silence. Not a peep.

Weird huh? 🤔

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

The Trump administration just put a convicted January 6th rioter inside a Pentagon office that runs hostage rescues, embassy security, and our most sensitive special operations.

This is a sickening betrayal of everyone who wears the uniform and everyone we trust with our nation’s secrets.

A man who stormed the Capitol during the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War now sits in a job that demands top-secret clearance and split-second, life-or-death judgment.

This is totally and completely unacceptable. These positions are not political party favors. They are not rewards for loyalty to a mob.

What a disgrace.

https://t.co/4T1AWbayhv

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

More of CNN's false equivalence language. Ukraine is not targeting St. Petersburg, but striking military installations, Russian warships, and oil refineries. It's the Russian terror state that strikes cities and targets civilians. https://t.co/Cy7DgqtkuT

[Epstein File Search @epsteinsearchin]

At least 40 minors gave sworn statements to the FBI that Jeffrey Epstein raped and trafficked them. The line prosecutor wrote an 82-page memo recommending charges.

Alex Acosta declined and signed a non-prosecution deal.

He was later confirmed as Labor Secretary.

[Seth Abramson @SethAbramson]

Trying to understand how it’s legal for a POTUS to tell voters he’ll ensure their state receives funding if they vote like he tells them to while promising they won’t receive the said funding if they disobey his orders on who to vote for

Thought we fought a revolution over this?

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

New reports reveal GOP Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp sold 3 lakefront properties shortly after he became governor.

The properties had been listed for over a decade, and the people who bought the properties were later given valuable government contracts and appointed to high-ranking positions.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

Rubio once again complains US-led negotiations between Ukraine and Russia were "unfruitful":

"We invested tremendous amount of high-level time in that conflict over last year. Neither side is prepared to make concessions necessary to reach agreement."

Once again, it is necessary to point out the obvious: when you have a nation trying to murder its neighbors to steal their land, and people just trying to survive, there is no middle ground.

Ukrainians, as the victims of this unprovoked attack, cannot just agree to die under Russian occupation, rot in FSB torture chambers, and be thrown into unmarked mass graves to never be found.

We simply want to live. There is zero room for concessions. As for Russia, they can be forced to stop killing us.

You could bring them to that breaking point much faster than we can do without you, if you finally stopped this disgusting bothsidesism, stopped endless sanctions waivers, seized their shadow fleet, and armed Ukraine to the teeth.