Our elected leaders’ decisions are morally obscene.

This is how democracy dies, a spiral of antidemocratic lurches as one side changes the rigged rules & the other reciprocates, making an already awful electoral system even worse.

“The Journal found that [Paxton] went from being a middle-class lawyer to a multimillionaire during two decades on a public official’s salary.” Any further questions?🤔

Remembering the Weight of Life and Death in a Profane Age Donald Trump is unrelenting in his boastful indulgence in the ugliest facets of the human personality. There is another way.

I’m new to @liberalcurrents.com, but this meditation on life & death in a profane age by @gawattia.bsky.social is a fine introduction.

www.liberalcurrents.com/remembering-...

Beautiful.

Shld not have taken a leak to see court’s dubious reasoning—not here & not ever in any court. That shld be takeaway for everyone, left or right. Most of all a blow to Roberts’ credibility: Steve Vladeck rightly describes him (twice) as a hypocrite—rank partisan dressed in reasonable man robes. smh

Cook’s embrace of fascism will be his epitaph.

Part of me wants desperately to mock this buffoon. But that wld ignore the role played by the Roberts Court in normalizing Islamophobia, by upholding Trump’s odious Muslim Ban: virulent bigotry is a group effort. Good job, team—including plenty of Dems who also contribute.👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

This is a mugger showing up in court & asking the mugging victim to compensate him.

Nothing says “Yeehaw — freedom fries!” like state legislators deciding what universities may teach, perfectly timed for our nation’s 250th.👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

That Schumer has no primary opponent is just appalling.

a man in a suit and tie is making a funny face while sitting at a table with his eyes closed . ALT: a man in a suit and tie is making a funny face while sitting at a table with his eyes closed .

Gas prices: not 180 innocent children, thousands of civilians, destruction of billions in infrastructure, US as global laughingstock/menace, risk of nuclear war, etc etc. Nope: gas prices.

Earnest thought: do DOJ/FBI officials directing these sham actions face criminal exposure under our federal theft of gov services laws, obstruction of justice laws, conspiracy laws, or other laws? They better be thinking of this bc next admin shld prosecute all involved if criminal elements are met.

The problem for the roughly three-quarters of U.S. college students in public universities and community colleges is that since the so-called "Reagan revolution" of the 1980s, state tax-dollar support for higher education has plummeted - by a whopping 42% here in my home state of Pennsylvania. The difference is largely made up in tuition paid by families who borrow heavily when told there is no future without a diploma.

This is an absolute shame. (Very thoughtful piece, thank you.)

“The Ten Most Bizarre Grammar Mistake In History”

The bible will fly from his hands.

Can you imagine how many ppl around the world are scrutinizing these bizarre tweets to try to discern their meaning & gauge whether they portend of cataclysmic upheaval or global war? The whole world is held hostage by a US paralyzed political system that allows a deranged person to stay in power.

Not quite presenting a client with options: telling a client no, a word some clients have never heard. Those clients often find new lawyers who won’t say no—& those lawyers end up sued, disbarred, or criminally charged—or all three: the trifecta. Trump’s lawyers hit the trifecta in record numbers.

He’s completely unhinged. This is a slow-moving freight & our nation is paralyzed & unable to get off the tracks—he’s going to destroy the planet.

Whenever I read “kinetic strike” I nearly lose my mind…

PM Dawn - Set Adrift On Memory Bliss 1991 (Official Music Video) Remastered YouTube video by 80's 90's Music Video's Remastered @Videos80s

Don’t hate me but I’m in just to be reminded of Set Adrift On Memory Bliss! youtu.be/BtK_y1n2ERk?...

Just sobbed hardest I have since my mom died in 2020.

She missed these trials by a few months.

One of most ruthless cancers. Hard to fathom that maybe she'd still be here.

I feel such a hole inside.

In case you're wondering if we should fund mRNA research instead of another stupid war ... yes.

He’s also looking outside the record presented to the court to issue the ruling, a kind of fact-finding, which is improper in & of itself: how do comments to the BBC enter the equation? In contrast, none of the justices even considered climate catastrophe as an equitable factor.

How can an elected official block a journalist or any citizen for that matter? Is that even lawful? Anyway what a punk…

A few months later, on the morning of April 1, Mis. Ross-Mahé was arrested by U.S. immigration officials and removed from her home in Anniston, dressed only in her nightgown, robe and underwear. She was taken to an immigration detention center hundreds of miles away, in Louisiana.

2/2 This is the kicker. Also, although malicious prosecution cases are rare in arrests, the two punk sons, Tony Ross & Gary Ross, who deserve infamy, may have met the criteria here: I hope Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé gets able counsel on this.

French Widow Detained by ICE in Alabama Is Released After 16 Days

1/2 The competition for 1st prize in reprehensible ICE conduct is fierce, but this arrest of 85YO widow in bathrobe & nightgown for no good reason may be winner. (No paywall, bc everyone needs to remember these abuses by ICE pariahs when Trump eventually falls.)
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/u...

U.S. Installs a Trump Loyalist to Lead ‘Grand Conspiracy’ Case Into Trump Foes

We’re observing real time evisceration of rule of law. Cycling prosecutors in & out, steering proceedings to cringeworthy-level fawning judge, hand-picking 81YO partisan “prosecutor” to “investigate” what’s already investigated to death: democracy loses. (No paywall.)
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...

In horrific Gaza travesty, this also takes its place at back of long, long line of indefensible, from 20K children killed & elderly grannies gunned down in cold blood to forced starvation & mass marches mirroring unspeakable past atrocities. But yes, it is indefensible—as is all complicit silence.

Over just five days, the justices had decided the issue. 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, conservative or liberal, mentioned the dangers of a warming planet as one of the possible harms the court should consider.

The chief justice cited an unusual source for that last point, one that would not ordinarily figure in a Supreme Court opinion: an interview with the BBC in which the E.P.A. administrator at the time, Gina McCarthy, had said "we are baking" the Clean Power Plan "into the system." "The comments of the E.P.A. administrator herself indicate that without immediate action from this court, this rule will become functionally irreversible." Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

2/2 Two things blew me away:

One, no one considered climate catastrophe in weighing equitable factors? WTH?

Two, Justice Balls & Strikes *was looking outside court record* to reach startling conclusion; i.e., our planet burning up? Nothing to see here! BBC statement by EPA chief? Sound the alarm!🤦🏻‍♂️

The Inside Story of Five Days That Remade the Supreme Court

1/2 No-paywall version of Kantor/Liptak piece on origin of now run-amok shadow docket. Pls read w/o prejudging: rich (& maddening to anyone who’s dealt w wafer-thin rulings of any kind in any court but especially in vital matters).

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...