bretcoe.bsky.social

Not good! bsky.app/profile/just...

We are leading this fight in the courts, in Congress, and with our constituents by our side. Unconstitutional power grabs cannot go unchecked.

The Trump Administration has fired the top government ethics official. The independent agency is responsible for preventing ethics violations and conflicts of interest in the Executive Branch. You can’t make this stuff up.

Trump is attempting to cut funding for research to fight cancer, Alzheimer’s, and infectious diseases. As the home of the Mayo Clinic, we know that medical research saves lives. Minnesota Republicans should stand up for the health and wellbeing of our state. abcnews.go.com/Health/billi...

"The enormity of Defendants’ actions cannot be overstated." Please read this paragraph in court case filed on Monday.⬇️ Details the devastating, immediate and far-reaching, real-world impacts of the #USAID funding freeze. From famine to counternarcotics and counter-terrorism programs, more.

Ending the rule of law? These three fascists appear to be killing democracy. #BrokenPost turning the Totalitarian coup into a buddy movie.

When Donald Trump goes after the CFPB, he's really going after people like Sharon Tolbert-Glover. When Sharon got scammed, the CFPB stepped in and helped. It's no surprise Trump is siding with scam artists, but it's still wrong and we can't allow it. youtube.com/shorts/CxbqH...

We're seeing a level of executive overreach that is unprecedented in the US But other countries have defeated autocratic forces before—& Americans can learn from their successes We outlined a pro-democracy blueprint👇-TN www.brookings.edu/articles/dem...

NEW: U.S. Supreme Court schedules oral argument over Louisiana's congressional map for March 24. White voters are claiming that the state's court-ordered plan with two majority-Black congressional districts is racially gerrymandered & should be struck down.

The Trump administration's freeze of foreign funding has begun impacting an international effort to hold Russia responsible for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, according to eight sources, halting dozens of jobs and tens of millions of dollars in aid reut.rs/4gtiV0o 1/6

BREAKING: Rhode Island federal Judge John McConnell says the Trump administration has violated his prior order to block a funding freeze. McConnell orders admin to resume payments for federal programs, including NIH funding. More to come. Order: www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Now more than ever, we need science and scientists. Just turning off all research is a mistake... and dangerous.

Who will enforce these laws?

This energy.

Five Former Treasury Secretaries: Our Democracy Is Under Siege www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/o...

“The Trump administration is not refusing to share power with an opposing party. It is refusing to follow the constitutional limits of a government that its own party controls completely,” Jonathan Chait argues.

Faith-based organizations have long been at the heart of helping the most vulnerable. The Trump administration’s attacks on them aren’t just wrong, they’re a betrayal of core American values. www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...

If these questions are designed to hire people with no grasp on reality, U.S. national security is at significant risk. Was Jan. 6 “an inside job?” Was the 2020 presidential election “stolen?” Who were the “real patriots” on January 6? Who won the 2020 election? Who is your “real boss?”

You snooze. You win. While you were sleeping, a federal judge issued an emergency TRO: ➖ blocks DOGE from accessing Treasury systems ➖ requires DOGE to "immediately destroy" any material already downloaded Case brought by attorneys general of 19 states Added to the Litigation Tracker⬇️

Ketchup On Walls Alert: HIGH

They’ve called armed federal officers to the scene. We aren’t dangerous. We are here to represent our people. To defend public education. This is an authoritarian regime. You cannot block members of Congress from entering the Department of Education.

The Law Of The Jungle. @msnbc.com @nicollewallace.bsky.social

HAPPENING NOW: A hearing is going on in a lawsuit brought by federal employee unions to block the shutdown of USAID. The plaintiffs have requested a judge to at least temporarily block the shutdown before midnight tonight. Read the complaint: www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/u...

BREAKING: we have secured an order that BLOCKS the government from releasing the names of the 6000 FBI agents being illegally targeted by Trump & Bondi for their lawful work on the January 6 cases! A big win by @sddaction.bsky.social & our incredible partners for rule of law & the FBI

Acting DC US Atty Ed Martin MUST be investigated by ethics authorities It looks like he was on both sides of the same 1/6 case! We explain in our letter to the Office of Professional Responsibility 👇 statedemocracydefenders.org/wp-content/u...

I am really frustrated that the press is discussing the destruction of USAID as something that has happened rather than an illegal action that will likely be undone in two weeks when courts tell the world that it was illegal.

The current acting FBI director is doing his best to defend the rule of law against Trump’s DOJ. Makes it all the more imperative not to confirm Patel. With Patel there, let’s not kid ourselves: Trump and Musk will, through Bondi and Patel, directly control the FBI.

How is Trump hoping to improve air safety?!

Joe Rogan’s theory of politics being “I’m just a little podcast man who just asks questions” is starting to ring hollow even for some folks in his audience.

substack.com/@weissmann/n...

youtube.com/shorts/oR-ND...

Not flat!

Hegspeth is confirmed. Now What? He has no idea how to manage the Pentagon. So he is going to be dependent on his direct reports. Most of which require confirmation. The Dems have to use whatever political skills they have to get qualified, rational people in these positions ? Suggestions ?

President Trump and others are spreading false narratives about water and the LA wildfires. These include the notion that the city didn't have enough water to fight the fires.

substack.com/@weissmann/n...

The thing to understand about Trump is like in his first term, he doesn’t want to govern. He doesn’t want to learn. He wants to campaign and look good. Republicans know this. So there are battles going on right now to take control of the actual process of governing.

The fact that NIH grant-making has been switched off so haphazardly, for reasons that remain unclear, and despite the scope of troubles it creates, suggests that higher ed will be profoundly vulnerable during the second Trump era, writes @ibogost.bsky.social:

very excited to see what happens when you make a deeply compromised addict the leader of the department of defense and subordinate to a madman

Donald Trump, the president who built his fan base on isolationism, is pivoting to a kind of imperialism that the U.S. has not seen in decades, Franklin Foer writes. theatln.tc/XGYyQjj9

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and a big effort to protect it, took center stage at the State Capitol on Thursday afternoon.

Costco’s shareholders voted overwhelmingly to reject a proposal from a conservative think tank aimed at getting the company to roll back its diversity hiring practices.

President Trump plans to nominate a conservative critic of the mainstream media, L. Brent Bozell III, to run the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America. By @davidfolkenflik.bsky.social

What's the lag time on needing the results of those studies to protect against bird flu?

A reminder: For all his bravado, and testosterone-themed bluster, Donald Trump remains, at his core, a thin-skinned man-child unable to handle even the mildest of criticisms. charliesykes.substack.com/p/waiting-fo...

I know many are fed up with the NYT, but this piece on Kash Patel is well worth a read covering his prior statements about various FBI investigations. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/23/u...

BREAKING: A federal judge temporarily blocked President Trump’s executive order to severely restrict birthright citizenship, issuing a 14-day nationwide restraining order. The GOP-appointed judge described the order as “blatantly unconstitutional.”

"A spokeswoman for Mr. Patel, Erica Knight, took issue with the basic thrust of this article, while making some further misstatements on his behalf."