Dale

Dale

@dalepoak.bsky.social

Husband, dad, grandpa. Former House Approps Committee & OMB staff. Former Republican. Now retired and cranky. Posting on politics and Maine. https://substack.com/@daleoak?r=9q4gn&utm_medium=ios 🇺🇸🆘 🇺🇦

843 followers348 following2.5K posts

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“The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” - James Madison, Federalist #47, 1788

The Trump Administration is full of crooks who should be prosecuted for using tax money to pursue baseless acts of retribution.

NPR@npr.org

The Trump administration is attempting to prosecute James Comey for what it calls a decade-old leak of classified information. Comey's lawyers immediately dismissed the effort as invalid and outside the time limit. n.pr/4yN4DRo

Dale reposted

There is just so much to unpack here

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Q: Ashley Hinson, who you're campaigning for tonight, says the Ramaswamy ad is 'absolutely terrible' and should be taken down. Why are you defending it? TRUMP: I'm defending it because I know that if that ad was about my mother, you would love every inch of it

“An intertwined Republican network of super PACs and nonprofits has booked about $126 million in ads to reelect U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, with much of it traced to billionaires and donors who will never be named.”

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“Billionaires and donor-shielding nonprofits fund several of them at once. Some groups seem to exist mostly to pass money to others.”

“An intertwined Republican network of super PACs and nonprofits has booked about $126 million in ads to reelect U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, with much of it traced to billionaires and donors who will never be named.”

“The dizzying network is throwing huge sums at a seat that could decide control of the U.S. Senate. Campaign finance reports filed Thursday showed how tightly the groups behind Collins are bound together.”

Dale reposted

In early 2025, I assumed the Trump regime would delete the Department of Justice’s press releases and other statements related to more than 1,000 Jan. 6 cases. So I downloaded them. We’ve now made them available to the public with a search tool. They can’t erase history. jan6memoryproject.org

jan6memoryproject.orgThe January 6 Memory ProjectA public archive of Department of Justice news releases and related court filings concerning prosecutions from the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Only the best, the smartest, people.

Adam Bonin@adambonin.bsky.social

Yep. Defending Main Street PAC—a GOP SuperPAC focused on boosting non-MAGA Republicans—spent $20-25K on digital ads against Troy Jackson in Portland ... OREGON. Receipts: adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/A...

Dale reposted

Me Victoria Toensing Emma Stone Dua Lipa What do we have in common? We’re all members of the Dyed Red Hair Club™️ And now my boss @benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org has agreed to join the Club…..IF we raise 10K for the Greek Chorus Foundation by Oct. 30! ⬇️👇 greekchorusfoundation.org

greekchorusfoundation.orgThe Greek Chorus FoundationBorn of the #DogShirtTV audience, the Greek Chorus Foundation raises money for worthy projects decided on collectively by its community. Current projects: funding graduate education for a young Ukrain...
Benjamin Wittes@benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org

Make me dye my hair red! www.dogshirtdaily.com/p/a-victory-...

Important reporting by @propublica.org Some citizens were detained because of race-based assumptions made by ICE agents. Some were detained as they exercised their 1st Amendment rights. Some were detained because, well, apparently just because…

ProPublica@propublica.org

The government *still* isn’t tracking how often immigration agents detain U.S. citizens. We are. 500+ Americans have been handcuffed, held at gunpoint or held against their will in Trump’s second term. Our tally is almost certainly an undercount. THREAD (content warning: violence) ⬇️

Dale reposted

BREAKING: Following our victory in court against unlawful OMB conditions, the Dept. of Ed. has released almost all the funds meant for education research and support programs ahead of the 9/30 deadline! This is a huge win for students, educators, and researchers. The fight isn't over. 🧵⬇️

Protect Democracy@protectdemocracy.org

VICTORY: A federal judge sided with students & educators in a case we filed against OMB & Dept of Ed, ruling OMB lacked authority to use apportionments to impose politically motivated Executive Order policy directives. Now, DOE is required to make good on promises to spend funds before they expire.

Would love to hear @michael-feinberg.bsky.social’s take on this. Maybe on @dogshirttv.bsky.social?

Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social

BREAKING MS NOW: Two veteran FBI counterterrorism supervisors have been removed from their jobs after a disagreement over an investigation involving alleged harassing phone calls made to Katie Miller, the wife of Stephen Miller, multiple people familiar with the matter told MS NOW.

Dale reposted

So who are the snipers supposed to be targeting? DC commuters or tourists and veterans visiting Arlington Cemetery? And drones? Why? There aren’t already military facilities in DC where drones could be stationed if needed? This has to be the dumbest (that’s dumbest with a “b”) thing ever.

The picture doesn’t do the scene justice, but the blueberry barrens in Maine are turning into a beautiful shade of red. #Maine

“The highest calling of any figure in Trump world is to refuse any concessions to reality when Trump commands it, and the surest ticket to oblivion is to speak the truth.”

The Atlantic@theatlantic.com

Karoline Leavitt performed perfectly well the job of press secretary, as defined by an administration in which everybody’s main priority is to lie on television, @jonathanbchait.bsky.social argues.

Our government is violating basic human and legal rights.

Eric Umansky@ericumansky.bsky.social

Trump has been banishing people to one of the world's worst dictatorships Including: a Phoenix man whose family fled Egypt at 4 yrs old a woman who came to the U.S. at 5 yr old They're now imprisoned, & report being handcuffed and assaulted They've committed no crime tucson.com/news/local/b...

I have a rosier view of last week’s thunderstorm now that I’m in the middle of a category 5 hurricane.

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com

Democrats have a rosier view of the state of American democracy during President Trump’s first term today than they did at the time, according to a new report.

I’m sick and tired of masked government thugs in military uniform threatening and harassing innocent people. But which government am I referring to?

Is this MAGA math or MAGA logic?

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Kevin Hassett on Fox News argues that if you exclude the sectors that lost hundreds of thousands of jobs, "you actually had a number that was about plus 100,000" 🙃

The only person who should be held in contempt in this matter is Sen. Rand Paul.

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com

Breaking news: A Senate committee voted to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after he declined to answer questions under his Fifth Amendment right and accused the committee chairman, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), of trying to wrongly entrap him.

The pro-Susan Collins ads and attack ads targeting Troy Jackson are already in overdrive here in Maine. I’ve seen very few pro-Troy Jackson ads so far. It’s going to be hard for him to match her advertising budget. 1/3

One of the Susan Collins ads lauds her work after 9/11 to “enact historic bipartisan national security reforms.” That would include legislation to create the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, as well as to create the Office of the Director of National intelligence. 2/3

All of which Trump, Kristi Noem, Todd Lyons, Tulsi Gabbard, and Bill Pulte have use to imperil our Constitutional rights. Troy Jackson should make sure everyone knows that. 3/3

I’ve been involved in many CR battles. A CR to Dec 11 is like most other election year CRs. - By Dec 11 we will know (hopefully) who controls the next Congress. This informs the funding fight that will happen in Dec. It doesn’t necessarily mean GOP gets another bite at the apple. 1/3

Bill Kristol@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social

Q's on Senate Dem leadership embrace of CR. Why now? Why let GOP senators go home for recess taking credit for a bipartisan deal? Why does it run until Dec. 11? Why give a lame duck GOP Congress a final bite at the apple with ability to pressure Dems with threat of pre-Xmas shut down?

- NOBODY wants a pre-election govt shutdown. The effect on voters is too unpredictable. - A CR into Dec gives appropriators a chance to finish some regular funding bills. - CRs are bad but better than shutdowns; unless there’s a clear political objective and an end game to a shutdown. 2/3

The most likely outcome IMO is another CR funding most or all of government into January or February next year. This could be preceded by another shutdown, but a decisive Democratic win in November lowers the chances of a shutdown. A close or unclear election result raises chances. 3/3

Dale reposted

Replying to @therealjackhopkins.bsky.social

Through Dr. Fauci’s private diary, Congress has discovered that he is guilty of the heinous crime of having a big ego. As such, there are 535 members of Congress who should be brought before their colleagues to be yelled at and who also should be investigated.

“The Washington Post’s journalism strategy is working. Its opinions strategy is either dumb as a rock or deeply malevolent.”

Washington Post Opinions@postopinions.bsky.social

“Like Lucy and the football, Trump keeps getting told that this time the Iranians are finally ready to make a deal — only to be set up for failure yet again,” Marc A. Thiessen writes.

DOJ: “We indicted innocent people for vandalism that was, in fact, shoddy work, and we made inflammatory, public accusations accusing these innocent people, but you see ackshually it was the Department of the Interior’s fault.”

Film you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli.

Alan Elrod@aselrod.bsky.social

Film you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli.