On April 13th, the Department of Education published its new priorities for AI in schools. Despite acknowledging concerns about mental health and privacy McMahon chose to prioritize “AI literacy” over children’s safety.
The leaked memos confirm what we all knew: Big Oil effectively has the conservative Justices on retainer. This casts a disturbing pall over future cases affecting oil industry interests, including, most notably, Suncor.
When John Roberts agrees with a Republican policy he will "conclude ... as a matter of law" he has "a solemn obligation to preserve it." If he doesn't like (most likely a Democratic) policy he will "conclude ... as a matter of law" that he needs to "stuff it in the garbage."
He pitches & hits.
This month alone, the Trump admin has voted unanimously to exempt the oil and gas industry from Endangered Species Act requirements in the Gulf of Mexico, canceled a program helping farmers pursue conservation efforts, announced an Arctic drilling lease sale, and more. We're tracking these harms ⬇
Last week's hearings were just one step in holding Russell Vought accountable. The opposition needs to build on the most notable moments and ensure the constituents most harmed by Vought's actions hear his damning testimony.
Speaking for myself only - as one of the many attorneys who took depos from grandmas in tears bc they might have mistakenly voted for Pat Buchanan - from the Court that gave us Bush v Gore … I didn’t find today’s reporting shocking. Just confirmed what we have seen now for last couple of decades.
There's a *lot* going on here, but I'm struck by the irony of Roberts taking umbrage at EPA officials' public statements.
Just 2 years later, in upholding Trump's Muslim travel ban in Trump v Hawaii, Roberts wrote that Trump's bigoted public statements weren't relevant to the rule's validity.
Learn whatever you want about "law," it doesn't matter because GOP Justices blew up the entire process of deciding cases based on chats with rich friends and stuff they watched on TV. That was the entire basis on which SCOTUS switched to the shadow docket.
“The New York Times has obtained those papers and is now publishing them, bringing the origins of the Supreme Court’s shadow docket into the light. The 16 pages of memos, exchanged in a five-day dash, provide an extraordinarily rare window into the court, showing how the justices talk to one another outside of public view. A Breakdown of Five Days of Secret Supreme Court Memos April 18, 2026 Writing on formal letterhead, but addressing one another by their first names and signing off with their initials, they sound notes of irritation, air grievances and plead for more time. In addition to the usual legal materials, they cite a blog post and, twice, a television interview. They sometimes engage with one another’s arguments. But they often simply talk past each other.”
A reasonable bet that these days the very online Kavanaugh and co are rubber stamping Trump regime’s decisions via secretive shadow dockets based on content they are taking in through not just through right wing cable tv but its massive conspiracy filled online media. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...
and another thing: don't put in the newspaper that I created an entirely new form of appellate procedure because I'm mad
i was just saying to a friend a few days ago that trump's public opinion collapse opens up the field of possibilities in ways that are truly unpredictable. it is one thing for a president to be this popular at the *end* of their turn, but not even two years in?
The article frequently mentions the Republican justices’ urgency to protect the fossil fuel industry…without ever mentioning that multiple Republican justices have deep ties to the fossil fuel industry
Its legal basis was open to question. The agency said it was authorized by a seldom-used provision of an old law, the Clean Air Act of 1970. Critics responded that it was unlikely that Congress would have authorized a sweeping overhaul of the nation's power supply in such an obscure provision.
The Clean Air Act is one of the most important and most frequently used laws in America, a country where centuries-old laws are still important, and where these same Justices pretend to read the minds of people who lived in the 1780s
True, Chief Justice Roberts had cast the decisive vote in 2012 to save the centerpiece of the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Obama's signature legislative achievement. But that was approved by Congress.
Roberts also voted to strike down part of Obamacare in that same case, denying Medicaid to millions of people
opposition to the weak." Four years later, the two men managed to botch the simple task of reciting the presidential oath at Mr. Obama's first inauguration.
The “two men”, Roberts and Obama, did not botch the presidential oath. Roberts botched it. Obama even gave him a chance to correct it in the moment.
This is both
(1) some of the most important SCOTUS reporting ever, and
(2) far too generous to the Republican justices in framing of many pieces and omissions of Trump-era developments
"Even as they debated the Obama plan’s possible burden on the power industry, in the entire chain of correspondence obtained by The Times, not a single justice … mentioned the dangers of a warming planet as one of the possible harms the court should consider.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...
Genuinely funny that Sonia Sotomayor issued a public apology today for her mild criticism of a conservative colleague on a specific, substantive issue, and then a few hours later Clarence Thomas picked up a mic and was like ALL LIBERALS ARE AMERICA-HATING COWARDS
🤨 1/2
It's obvious Tech Bros have chosen evil & greed, & tries to sell AI to gullible, malleable masses as part of a belief system...for good.
Meanwhile, they bed down w/the worst people imaginable (or buy off/eliminate "obstacles") to ensure their supremacy.
We were warned.
🧾 is.gd/zjI9wz
It's the "Sillicon Valley cash" - that's the only "momentum" Mahan and his flacks can claim. They've got nothing else for what looks like AI generate candidate equipped to run a campaign from the 1990s. And ofc POLITICOs of the world keep pumping this guy up bc of access to the valley $.
Pathetic.
Lee Zeldin's EPA named its new scientific advisory board today. On the list:
- 6 people from chemical, fertilizer, and oil companies
- 1 climate change skeptic
- 1 clean air skeptic
Chemours used research from one of the newly-named advisors to lobby against PFOA regulation.
Trump and his right hand are gearing up to eliminate the Office of Financial Research once and for all.
The likely consequence? Flying blind into a financial crisis possibly even worse than the Great Recession. More today on RDP’s Watchdog Weekly:
revolvingdoorproject.substack.com/p/right-wing...
Politico screenshot "Jared Polis sits while speaking at event. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. | Allison Robbert/AP FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: PRAGMATIC PALS — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis will today endorse Matt Mahan in the race for governor, a top endorsement as Mahan tries to ride a surge in fundraising and improving polling after Swalwell’s exit. Polis and Mahan are both adherents of the Abundance and YIMBY (Yes in My Back Yard) movements within Democratic politics, including a pragmatic focus on making it easier and cheaper to build market-rate housing in blue states. The governor said he supports Mahan because he “understands a simple truth: California will not be more affordable until it builds a lot more housing.”"
Matt Mahan has no momentum except for infusion of cash from big donors.
At this point Mahan is nothing more than a de facto rat f*cking project of Big Tech/Big Business in their attempt to divide up Democratic votes to get two Republicans on CA ballot.
Needs to gtfo of the race.
The projection from Abundance advocates (recall that Derek Thompson aptly called @mattyglesias.bsky.social the "OG" of Abundance) about "popularism" is off the charts.
Hating AI is popular, hating corporate greed is popular. People like Mahan are not, despite his Silicon Valley cash.
“They (OMB under Vought's leadership_ absolutely impounded. He just lied to America.” Sen. @merkley.senate.gov (D-OR)
Democrats need to keep all the receipts to ensure there is full accountability for the pain and suffering inflicted on millions on Americans.
Important!
Besides President Stephen Miller, Russell Vought may be the most dangerous official in the Trump regime.
His policy positions and arguments are not serious.
