all good!!

There has been lots of litigation in the states. For example, Common Cause has taken action in 16 states, plus D.C., and judges in five states have dismissed the DOJ’s lawsuits, ending the DOJ’s attempts to seize the data. But this is a coalition effort against the DoJ on the merits

It's illegal for DoJ to grab the info AND it's illegal for the states to give it. The software the feds want to use has already mishandled data.

The feds have no role in state election administration. This is an illegal surveillance.

Here is our complaint protectdemocracy.org/wp-content/u...

Voting rights groups sue DOJ to block national voter surveil-and-purge database The complaint argues that DOJ’s actions are unconstitutional, illegal, and a key component of the Trump Administration’s attempts to subvert the 2026 midterms.

Under Trump, the Dept of Justice is demanding voter file information from all 50 states.

Why? To create a national voter list that Trump operatives can use to purge voters.

We're suing.

protectdemocracy.org/work/voting-...

At Long Last, InfoWars Is Ours Let me tell you a story. When I was a child, I suffered from night terrors. It was always the same dream: I could hear my family and neighbors wailing in the street outside as they were pursued and th...

InfoWars now belongs to The Onion.

theonion.com/at-long-last...

73 Military Veterans, including 17 4-Stars, Defend Sen. Mark Kelly in Legal Fight The list of signatories include Air Force, Army and Navy veterans, 17 of whom are 4-stars.

This is great

www.military.com/daily-news/2...

DOJ demands Detroit-area 2024 ballots, escalating election scrutiny DOJ official Harmeet K. Dhillon wrote that she is seeking ballots to investigate election law compliance. Democratic state officials call the request baseless.

Trump's Dept of Justice has seized ballots in AZ and GA. Bondi's out as AG, but Harmeet Dillion, who wants to replace her, wants to grab MI ballots.

They say it's for review, but we know better.

It's to push conspiracies to deceive voters and deny results they don't like.

wapo.st/4clF3es

The author of this article refused to sign an NDA, giving up severance and healthcare benefits to tell this story.

If you didn't read it already, read it.

Because he refused, we may be able to stop the Kennedy Center from being sold for parts and turned into a gaudy MAGA fundraising warehouse.

To recap:

Trump sued CBS for $10B bc he didn't like the edits of a Harris interview. Paramount settled by paying $16M to the Trump library. Bari Weiss was put in charge of CBS to appease Trump and now...

YAY CELEBRATE FREEDOM at the Institute for Peace that Trump seized as he started war in Iran.

thank you for listening!

DOJ Wants a Redo in Floundering Campaign to Seize Voter Data From the States After facing a series of setbacks and outright dismissals in its legal battle to try to seize sensitive voter data...

Trump wants to seize voter data from the states, but most states have *rightly* refused to comply.

DOJ has sued 30 states for the info & keeps losing in court.

*Because the feds have no claim to the data.*

Now, Harmeet Dhillion is trying her hand w/ the same bad args.

shorturl.at/mKdci

Amanda Carpenter: The Worst President Ever Podcast Episode · The Bulwark Podcast · April 16 · 59m

Today's pod: @amandacarpenter.bsky.social!

An election protection threat assessment, whether Trump & Hegseth think Trump is God, whether the anti-MAGA vibe shift has reached West Virginia, raccoon penis receptacles, Jules Winnfield, and more!

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

Hungarians deserve every congratulations for giving Peter Magyar a bigger margin than Orban has ever gotten in all of his rigged elections - and this within the system that Orban rigged. Magyar now has a constitutional majority to undo Orban's constitutional prison and govern as a democratic leader.

I was not! wow.

but it was probably too brittle!

For whatever reason, I decided to read American Psycho last week.

Imagine my surprise to find that the lead sociopathic character, Patrick Bateman, idolizes Donald Trump.

The book mentions Trump dozens of times.

It was published in 1991.

Our best-case scenario, ATM, is that our autocratic president is a bellicose liar who threatens genocide and war crimes to obtain totally undecipherable objectives.

Best case.

ICE has illegally broken into homes w/ battering rams, pointed guns at children, & needlessly put lives in danger.

These weren't accidents by poorly trained officers. A secret memo told ICE to search homes without a warrant.

These are blatant Fourth Amendment violations.

We're suing. ⬇️

Britt Piper | Author + Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner on Instagram: "The creaking of chairs. It’s a visceral symphony etched into my bones. April 1st, a date that reverberates in duality…my assaul... 895 likes, 35 comments - healwithbritt on April 1, 2026: "The creaking of chairs. It’s a visceral symphony etched into my bones. April 1st, a date that reverberates in duality…my assault anniversary a...

What a way to prove the point.
Three prompts:
-Please stand if you know a victim of sexual assault
-Please stay standing if that person reported it
-Please stay standing if the perpetrator was punished
www.instagram.com/reel/DWl-QGM...

great story thx for writing it

MAGA widely views ICE as a force loyal to POTUS and only accountable to him.

This is a much bigger deal than a funding fight.

Again, he’s moving forces around the country at will to solve his political problems.

Do I need to say the word “midterms”? -end-

The DHS shutdown and TSA backups are political problems POTUS should resolve with Congress.

But Trump is noping out and moving around federal law enforcement officers and maybe the military bc…he can.

This is not their mission or role. It's just doing Trump's bidding.

I feel like a lot of ppl are missing the big picture here with ICE in airports. (1/3)

The President is freely moving federal law enforcement officers—who have shown a willingness to engage in violent behavior with no meaningful accountability—around the country to solve his political problems.

“So can you vote for him?” followed up Smith. “No. I mean, an apology might have had a chance, but he’s had several chances. I talked to him privately and he referred to it that we had political differences. And today he said we should set aside our political differences. Well, political differences would be, I’m against the refugee welfare program and I’ve told him he’s for it. That’s a political difference. But if I wished violence on his family, that wouldn’t be acceptable. And if he says the violence that happened to me, where I had six ribs broken, my lung damaged, part of my lung removed, two pneumonias. If he thinks that’s justifiable and he can readily understand it, he can completely understand it. I think that makes him unacceptable and unfit to hold office,” said Paul.

Paul drilled down on the point further a few moments later: I asked him about Charles Sumner, the famous abolitionist who was bludgeoned nearly to death. He’s unconscious, laying on the ground, blood coming out of his ear, blood coming out of his mouth. He is unconscious, and the thug from South Carolina kept beating him. He could have been dead for all he knew, and there was another representative from South Carolina with a gun holding everyone back so they couldn’t help him. And somehow Markwayne Mullin thinks that’s a good example of when men were men and that’s the way we could settle our differences man to man. Well, that’s crazy! Nobody believes that. I didn’t think in the modern world, even in 1860, they thought it was terrible what happened to Charles Sumner. And if he can’t see that or empathize with people who have suffered from political violence, boy, I think he really precludes himself from this kind of job.

Yep. Support for political violence is not a "political difference."

It's thuggery.

www.mediaite.com/media/tv/tha...

all good, Sarah! Your comment made me think about it more so I highlighted the Giffords callback in the thread above

Extremely powerful for Rand to bring up that he came into the Senate the same year Giffords was shot. Again, read the whole thing above. Media outlets are acting like this is some grudge but Rand is making a much bigger and more important point.

I don't think it's a spiteful grudge at all! It's obviously problematic for someone who harbors these thoughts to lead DHS. Totally valid. And also, it's abhorrent how people dismiss the attack on Rand Paul

RAND PAUL: I entered the Senate the same year that Representative Gabby Giffords was shot. I knew then that the state of political rhetoric was encouraging violence. I think it’s imperative now more than ever that the leaders in our country disavow violence and lead by example. Through the years, I’ve personally been exposed multiple times to political violence. I was in the right field batting cage when the crazed shooter unleashed nearly 200 shots at our congressional baseball practice. I’ll never forget Steve Scalise valiantly trying to drag his body away as the gunman continued.

Later that year, a Trump-hating felon attacked me from behind in my yard. I was just straightening up from picking up a tree limb. I was wearing noise cancelation headphones. Never saw him coming. Running pell-mell down the hill, I was struck in the back. The force of the blow sent us through the air nearly 10 feet down the hill until his shoulder impaled me as we hit the ground. Six of my ribs were broken. Three of the ribs were completely separated such that for weeks, the ends of the rib would grind upon each other. My lung was damaged. For weeks, I could inhale but not have the rib strength to exhale. I developed two pneumonias. The pain was such that I could only sit up in bed by tying a rope to the foot of the bed and pulling myself up. But even then, the pain was that of a thousand knives. Over the year of recovery, I began to cough up blood. I underwent removal of part of my lung. Complications led to an infection in the space between my lung and chest wall. I spent a week in the hospital having the infection lavaged every six hours through a chest tube.

Recently, Senator Mullin, if you have time to listen, you were confronted by constituents that were angry because you voted against my amendment to stop all funding for refugee welfare programs. Instead of explaining your vote to continue these welfare programs for refugees, you decided to transfer the blame. You told the media that I was a freaking snake, and that you completely understood why I had been assaulted. I was shocked that you would justify and celebrate this violent assault that caused me so much pain, and my family so much pain. I just wonder if someone who applauds violence against their political opponents is the right person to lead an agency that has struggled to accept limits to the proper use of force. You might argue you were mad and upset about being confronted by your constituents.

But Senator Mullin, your constituents are justifiably upset with you. By now, most of America knows that the Somali welfare fraud in Minnesota stole over $9 billion. But instead of defending your vote, you took to continue-, the vote to continue these refugee welfare programs, you chose to lash out at me. You went on to brag that you’d already told me, to my face, that you completely understood and approved of the assault. Well, that’s a lie. You got a chance today. You can either continue to lie, or you can correct the record. You have never had the courage to look me in the eye and tell me that the assault was justified. So today, you’ll have your chance. Today, I’ll give you that chance to clear the record. Tell it to my face, if that’s what you believe, tell it me today. Tell the world why you believe I deserve to be assaulted from behind, have six ribs broken and a damaged lung. Tell me to my face why you think I deserved it. And while you’re at it, explain to the American public why they should trust a man with anger issues to set the proper example for ICE and Border Patrol agents. Explain to the American public how a man who has no regrets about brawling in a Senate committee can set a proper example for over 250,000 men and women who work at the Department of Homeland Security.

Here are screenshots of Paul's full statement, which are well worth your time.

Addressing Mullin’s claim last month that he told Paul “to his face” he deserved the assault against him, Paul accused his colleague of lying about the encounter. “You have never had the courage to look me in the eye and tell me that the assault was justified, so today you’ll have your chance,” Paul declared. “Today, I’ll give you that chance to clear the record. Tell it to my face, if that’s what you believe. Tell it to me today. Tell the world why you believe I deserve to be assaulted from behind, have six ribs broken, and a damaged lung. Tell me to my face why you think I deserved it.” He concluded, “And while you’re at it, explain to the American public why they should trust a man with anger issues to set the proper example for ICE and Border Patrol agents.”

Excellent.

www.mediaite.com/politics/tel...

There's a good opportunity for independent outlets to distinguish themselves with a public code of ethics explaining how writers/editors are held to a higher standard than this.

No outside payments. Real editorial rigor and standards.

In other words...journalism.