brett

give me what i want and give it to me now

[brett @_brecious_]

once more with feeling

[Mike Young @micyoung75]

Benjamin Franklin said it at the Constitutional Convention in June 1787, debating what powers to give the chief executive: "The first man put at the helm will be a good one. Nobody knows what sort may come afterwards. The Executive will be always increasing here, as elsewhere, till it ends in a Monarchy."

The Supreme Court is scheduled to rule any week now on Trump v. Slaughter - the case deciding whether the president can fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies without cause. The Court's right-wing majority signaled at oral argument that Humphrey's Executor, the 90-year-old precedent protecting independent agencies, is likely headed for the trash heap. If it goes, the president can fire anyone in the executive branch at will.

The unitary executive theory driving this has a serious-sounding name but no serious founding-era pedigree. It was invented in the Reagan Justice Department in the 1980s by hungry young staffers including a 20-something John Roberts, designed to give Republicans a weapon against an administrative state they believed had been captured by Democrats. One leading originalist - a former Clarence Thomas clerk - published a piece before oral arguments saying the theory was unsupported by the actual text and history of Article II and would give the president more power than any member of the founding generation could have anticipated.

The same Court that invented presidential immunity from criminal prosecution in 2024 is now being asked to invent unlimited firing power over every independent regulator in the executive branch. The same week Trump converted 8,000 civil servants to political appointments. The same week he nominated his personal defense attorney as permanent attorney general. The same week he announced the Fannie Mae chairman would run national intelligence.

Franklin saw it coming 239 years ago. The question is whether the republic he helped build can survive the confirmation of his prediction.

[Damin Toell @damintoell]

No one had even heard of this nobody that...polled higher than Pratt in the last major poll before the election!

[Blaze James @blzjames]

It's truly shocking that one of the most liberal cities in the most liberal state in the country doesn't want some Trump-endorsed reality tv star as its mayor. Must be rigged.

[Tommy Vietor @TVietor08]

Hmmm wonder if that’s because there’s a massive right wing disinformation campaign to spread this bullshit

[Suppressed News. @SuppressedNws1]

Trump today claimed he “didn’t promise anything” about NO NEW WARS.

So here’s a second compilation showing FIFTY times during his campaign where he PROMISED exactly that.

[Pedro L. Gonzalez @emeriticus]

Karen Bass rigged the election in Los Angeles so that she could face a more threatening challenger from the left in an overwhelmingly liberal city rather than a challenger from the right at a time when MAGA is the most toxic political brand. Very astute analysis here.

[Stephen Richer @stephen_richer]

Sigh. Why won't anyone do research before posting?

Responding to your six points.

1. Yes. It is legal. States have different laws.

Still has to come from a registered voter, has to be returned in the return envelope assigned to that voter, there is no evidence of mass mail theft, and it has to have the voter's signature, which is checked (part of why it takes a long time).

2. California verifies identity through return envelope barcode and signature verification -- as is done for many financial and legal instruments.

This is the same way it's done in Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, etc.

3. Unattended drop boxes. You do realize that every USPS box is an "unattended drop box," right?

That's why it's nice that all Californians can track their mail ballots. And so too can the election officials.

4. Homeless regularly paid to vote. I'll settle for 5 proven examples in recent elections. Also, homeless are allowed to register and vote.

5. You're just pointing out that California is an "all mail" state and that almost everyone votes by mail as a result. Yes. And that's part of why it takes so long.

California does voter list maintenance. Otherwise it would have a laundry list of lawsuits under the NVRA.

And, for better or worse, you can't remove somebody from voter rolls just because he doesn't vote. So if you, e.g., move out of an apartment, but don't tell the registrar, and don't fill out change of address with USPS, then a mail ballot is still showing up to your address. And if the new resident simply throws it in the trash, then you're not taken off the voter rolls just because you didn't return a ballot.

Now, if you're suggesting that states should share information with each other, such that they know when somebody registers in a different state, then I agree with you.

That's why California should join ERIC. And it's why it's a shame that some states have left ERIC in recent years. That's bad for voter list maintenance.

6. This is just comparing apples to oranges. And you can easily Google the differences in the two systems.

But first, as a factual predicate, you might want to be more careful. I'd suggest you start with this New York Times article: "Why Do Elections in India Take So Long?"

https://t.co/FxLClkvYrv

[gianmarco @GianmarcoSoresi]

I really believe if New Yorkers try their damnedest that they can boo him into leaving Madison square garden tomorrow

[Thomas Fazi @battleforeurope]

Crazy that this is getting barely any coverage. This year’s European Press Prize was just awarded to an investigative report by the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant. It is entitled “What the Wounds Tell” and in it the journalists Maud Effting and Willem Feenstra document the cases of 114 children in Gaza under the age of 15 who were struck by a single bullet to the head or chest. Almost all of them died or were left severely disabled. They chose to document only the cases of boys and girls under the age of 15 (though often much younger: aged 3, 4 or 7) because these are children who can be immediately identified as such. “A single bullet in these parts of the body is a clear indication that these children were deliberately targeted“, the two journalists write.

This is the article: https://t.co/YkZrpqBWBQ

[brett @_brecious_]

@weidansilva so like hi 👋🏻

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

Trump: "I didn't guarantee no war."

Trump guaranteeing no more wars:

[Turnbull @cturnbull1968]

Here is Leo Terrell, who was appointed by Trump to the DOJ, threatening TV networks on behalf of the president.

Since when does the DOJ represent the President, as a private citizen, on civil litigation matters?

[cameron @IngmarBagman]

Gay ppl be like do you wanna come hang out with an immigration lawyer and a pornstar

[Alex Kirshner @alex_kirshner]

This is a national tragedy. It was inevitable after 2020 and Megyn's probably lying here, but if you get to the point where you can't believe Rs finished third in jungle primaries in a deep blue state in a year the R president's favorability is minus a billion, nothing's real

[anth*ny @oomfpit]

would you pee on me if we were both hotdogs on a grill🥺?

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

Hi @patrickbetdavid ,

Last year, you lamented that US companies have shipped their manufacturing abroad, taking advantage of low-cost labor in other countries. This, you suggested, is why we need tariffs.

I happen to know where your shoes are made, as you showed clips of the Tuscan factory in your video. I was surprised to see that you're retailing them for $600. That's a handsome mark-up!

As you may know, many companies offer full-grain leather sneakers made in Tuscany for a fraction of the price. I've attached a screenshot of some from Gustin ($199). These are also made with a stitched-on cup sole, like the ones you're selling. Gustin's prices are uniquely low because of their pre-order business model, which allows them to cut waste. But lots of companies use the same factory as you and charge considerably less than $600.

Curious, why not make the sneakers in the United States? There are many factories still here, such as Opie in North Carolina. They retail their US-made sneakers for $428. Their business model allows third parties to work with them while maintaining a healthy profit margin. Faherty, for instance, made a leather deck shoe with them this season with a stitched-on cup sole. Their retail price is $398 — $30 less than Opie's direct-to-consumer price.

In a 2023 interview with DJ Vlad, you said that you're worth $450 million. That was three years ago, so perhaps you're worth more today. Yet all your merch is made abroad, including in South American countries such as Nicaragua and El Salvador. Even your Tuscan factory is cheaper than a comparable US factory.

On your show, you often lament how greedy executives have screwed American workers, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Would you be interested in moving all of your sneaker production to the United States and charging a fairer price? This will create jobs for US workers and allow consumers to get a fairer value.

[Sarah Ironside 💙 @SarahIronside6]

Hey, Lisa Murkowski, was selling your soul and selling out Alaska worth it?

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

The Department of Homeland Security has awarded more than $16.3 billion in contracts in the past six months — compared with $2.1 billion from 2016 to 2024.

Most of it has gone to two firms that have ties to the White House and the Republican Party. https://t.co/47WT3tNfSF

[Unrig LA @UnrigLA]

So many people are screaming that Pratt got zero votes in a ballot drop when in reality he actually got 21,870 in that drop.

They are just reposting the same inaccurate info from NBC News site (left). Receipts from official county registrar’s site on right.

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

Here is every Senate Republican voting NO on a measure to build 7,000,000 housing units nationwide.