Northeastern Blot

6/ “When I arrived every night I cried and now I don’t sleep well, I felt that being here was my fault and I only wanted to be on vacation like a normal family.” 9-year-old Maria Antonia Guerra Montoya, detained on her way to Disney World, spent 113+ days at Dilley.

After becoming a congressional leader, a politician’s stock portfolio beats out those of peers by 47 (!!!) percentage points a year through trades timed around bills and firms that later get government contracts www.nber.org/papers/w34524 via @florianederer.bsky.social

Rep. Salazar on Venezuela: "We're about to go in ... we need to go in ... Venezuela for the American oil companies will be a field day"

they're saying there's a spectre haunting europe and it's very nice, we're looking into it strongly, it's beautiful, we love it and we think it means well

Harming trans kids - using art to capture the impacts of the Sussex ICB investigation on trans adolescents and families. Please read and share. The art is not mine - the artist wishes to remain anonymous. growinguptransgender.com/2025/11/19/h...

if we tax them more, how will they pay for all the blood cleansing, cell rejuvenation, and transcranial magnetic stimulation they need? www.wsj.com/lifestyle/tr...

I think tonight shows why “moderate to win elections” is a real risk the big divide in the Dem caucus, as many have noted, has been less moderate vs progressive than fight versus don’t fight but it’s not a coincidence that basically everyone in the “don’t fight” camp is a moderate

good morning specifically to the FBI agent who introduced Mamdani’s dad to Marx

I think the disconnect between the far left and centrists right now is that the far right's least popular dreams swiftly became the dominant political reality so "you're outside the mainstream and no one agrees with you" isn't the deterrent it might have been.

in 1967, senators rfk and joseph clark took a tour of the mississippi delta. they were horrified by the sheer scale of poverty, malnutrition, and neglect. their report caused a national scandal. the scenes haunted kennedy; he considered it the worst thing he'd seen in his life.

Among all the terrible stuff in this bill, some good news: we successfully got Republicans to back off their provision to strip gender-affirming care in their budget bill. It's not included in the final text, and will not be voted on.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights exists for just this purpose.

Alright everyone. Republicans are going to force a vote on their gender affirming care provision even though it violates Senate rules. They’ll need 60 votes to keep it in. Now is the time to make your voice heard and ask your Senators to stand on the side of health care freedom.

"The bill directs what is likely the largest single sale of national public lands in modern history to help cut taxes for the richest people in the country....all without hearings, debate or public input." wilderness.org/articles/med...

The last time a Supreme Court decision made me cry this hard in my office was Obergefell but those were a different type of tears.

My Statement on the Supreme Court's Ruling in United States v. Skrmetti to Restrict Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth.

It's honestly impossible to express the depths of despair of having hope for equality, having it almost in our hands, and seeing it torn away. The Skrmetti decision will destroy so many lives. I feel like I can see my opportunities in life shrinking. I'm devastated. 🏳️‍⚧️

the full might and authority of the state should be exclusively reserved for park rangers, the postmaster general, and fish & game wardens

BREAKING: Judge Breyer orders Trump to return control of the National Guard back to California, saying the call-up was illegal. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

"Mass deportation" is the excuse and trigger for authoritarianism. As it was always intended to be.

I'm sure I'll take shit for saying this, but this passage from Glenn Loury's Chronicle interview perfectly captures for me the civilizational necessity of a relatively autonomous academic sphere. www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

This is definitely my skeleton key to understanding post-Obama politics worldwide. Low social trust people were always a silent majority whose low social trust provided a significant barrier to organizing into a coherent political movement until we got recommender algorithms

i just want democrats to hate republicans as much I hate them and as much as they hate us

Theoretically the Court of Appeals could put it before the Court under 28 U.S.C. § 1254(2) by certification, but the Supreme Court has made clear its disdain for certified questions.

It strikes me that the prohibition on advisory opinions, while probably constitutionally right (unlike the government in this case) is incredibly imprudent for just this reason. Many questions that SCOTUS addresses are pure law with no individual characteristics needed.

The most infuriating part of this might be the pretense it is being done for safety. I went to court when I was 16 to get a judicial bypass for a medication abortion w/o parental consent. Here is what I went through before I figured out how to navigate all that: (cw re: thread) 1/

It’s time to reconsolidate a counterculture and politics against this shit. Science, art, medicine, poetry, philosophy as the beautiful life, the fullness of human civilization, that they want to destroy. Humanism, not cynicism, not slop, not tech “””nerd””” culture

It is so depressing to me how often it seems that the courts have no interest in protecting people. Their constant deference to the government in administrative stays and deferrals of rulings make a mockery of due process.

And now, a note on Bill Owens who, until this past week, was the executive producer of 60 Minutes. We’ll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes.

I'm shocked, shocked! That the group chats included transphobia.

Turns out you can shape the agenda with dramatic action and maybe even shift public opinion. Crazy.

JUST IN: A federal judge has ruled the Trump administration’s policy eliminating nonbinary option for passport holders is likely an equal protection violation — but provides relief for only six plaintiffs, not nationwide. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

I don't really care what the "political consequences" are of fighting for the proposition that *everyone* is entitled to due process before they are removed from the United States and sent to a Salvadoran prison. It's not really a principle if you only adhere to it when it's politically expedient.

I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.

Me when I see a bird

I’m about to board my flight to El Salvador, where I hope to meet with senior government officials to discuss the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. I also hope to see Kilmar and check on his condition — and remind him that we won’t stop fighting until he’s home.

Mr. Abrego Garcia was illegally abducted by the Trump Admin and, by their own admission, wrongly deported to El Salvador. He shouldn’t have to spend another second away from his family. I'm flying to El Salvador tomorrow morning to check on his condition and discuss his return.

I've been clear: if President Bukele doesn't want to meet here in D.C., then I intend to go to El Salvador this week to check on Kilmar Abrego Garcia's condition and discuss his release. Kilmar was illegally ABDUCTED and deported by the Trump Admin. He must be brought home NOW.

They're such fucking sore losers.

One of hundreds of people abducted by ICE and sold to slavery in El Salvador was a 19 year old with no criminal record in the US or Venezuela and no tattoos of any kind. An ICE kidnapper who grabbed him outside his house said, "He's not the one." The other said, "Take him anyway." So they did.