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EDITORS’ BLOG

Critical Read About the BBB, Federalism and the Future of American Democracy

TPM Reader TS (Harvard sociologist/political scientist Theda Skocpol) and I often compared notes on the news of the day and I am always particularly attentive to her thoughts on state structure and power. So I asked her to write out her comments in response to Josh Kovensky’s piece on the vast expansion of ICE funded in the new budget bill. I really strongly recommend you read this, especially in you’re a government worker or elected official in state or local government.

The Trump monster bill’s huge upward rewarding tax cuts and punitive shrinking of health and food benefits are crucial, but you are right Josh that massive militarization of ICE is the real heart of this law – didn’t J. D. Vance say just that a little while ago?

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Norms, Shnorms

Late this afternoon, the Social Security Administration sent out an email, seemingly to all recipients, cheering the passage of the President’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”

Your Taxpayer Dollars at Work—on Trump Campaign Ads

 Member Newsletter
Your Taxpayer Dollars at Work—on Trump Campaign Ads

AdImpact is the canonical source that many journalists use to track political ad spending, where ads are running, the ability to see the actual ads and so forth. A few times I’ve considering subscribing for TPM during the peak of the big election cycles. (These are very high-dollar price points.) So I’m on their mailing list for the data overviews that are basically teasers for subscribing. I got one of those today and something immediately jumped out at me. The top political advertiser by spend this cycle is the Department of Homeland Security.

DOJ in Exile

I continue to get requests for updates about the DOJ-in-Exile project. The update is that while I got a lot of inquiries from people who were interested in being involved and a number of people who were interested in making large (5- or 6-figure contributions), I was not able to find someone or some entity to run it. Or I haven’t yet. And here I mean someone to organize and run it as opposed to do the actual work, which needs to be done at least mostly by people with experience as prosecutors. To be fair, it’s not like I’ve spent all my time on this. I have TPM; I have what I write each day; I have a book project. But a lot of people are scared. Possibly more so than I realized. And leerier as you go forward. But as things have developed over the last couple months I think the whole thing is more important now than I did at the outset. So I will continue to look and consider other possibilities including possibly launching and running it myself, at least at the outset. That’s the update. Remain very open to suggestions. This really needs to happen.


Critical Read About the BBB, Federalism and the Future of American Democracy

TPM Reader TS (Harvard sociologist/political scientist Theda Skocpol) and I often compared notes on the news of the day and I am always particularly attentive to her thoughts on state structure and power. So I asked her to write out her comments in response to Josh Kovensky’s piece on the vast expansion of ICE funded in the new budget bill. I really strongly recommend you read this, especially in you’re a government worker or elected official in state or local government.

The Trump monster bill’s huge upward rewarding tax cuts and punitive shrinking of health and food benefits are crucial, but you are right Josh that massive militarization of ICE is the real heart of this law – didn’t J. D. Vance say just that a little while ago?

Read More 

Norms, Shnorms

Late this afternoon, the Social Security Administration sent out an email, seemingly to all recipients, cheering the passage of the President’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”

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  • A look at what is required to remove people en masse — and where the money for that effort is really going — suggests that we’re wrong to call this “mass deportations.”
  • A look at two Miami socialites who run a construction company and health programs, including a “med spa,” in the city, and who also happen to have played a part in helping Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis build his dehumanizing “Alligator Alcatraz” to detain immigrants.
  • At least one rural hospital in Nebraska has already shut down in anticipation of Trump’s big, beautiful Medicaid cuts. We take a closer look at the on-the-ground impacts of the bill.

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Bill Moyers Saw What Was Coming

For decades, Bill Moyers warned about our current crisis of democracy as it gradually drew nearer. And he saw the path through to the other side — should we choose to take it.

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