Josh Chafetz

With his permission, I'm sharing Dean Treanor's response to Ed Martin's letter:

hear me out

what if we *neither* unconstitutionally accepted jets from a foreign nation *nor* kept throwing the jets we already have in the ocean?

There is simply no plausible argument that the president has the constitutional authority to refuse to spend appropriated funds because he doesn’t like how the money is being spent.

The legality of policy impoundments is just not a close question.

If the president can't constitutionally sign something with an autopen because autopens didn't exist in the eighteenth century, then of course he can't constitutionally sign a bill with a Sharpie, either.

Every now and then I just pause and think that … we could have just elected Kamala Harris, and we’d still have an economy that was the strongest in the world; we’d still have an American-led trans-Atlantic order; we’d be assured that our universities would remain the envy of the world; … (1/x)

1/ This is wildly illegal. That is not a question on which reasonable legally informed folks can disagree.

It doesn't fucking matter that he ran on doing illegal things. They are still illegal.

And striking at Congress's power of the purse is worse than illegal. It's anti-constitutional.

This is a nice move in an interview www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/u...

1/ It's not just that unilaterally paying TSA agents is illegal.

It's that Trump has now repeatedly undermined the core of the congressional power of the purse. He's not spending money that has been appropriated by law (impoundments) and he's spending money that has not been appropriated.

No better way to tamp down the conspiracy theories on Epstein than to fire the Epstein prosecutor

Mike Johnson compellingly making the case for abolishing ICE ...

I'm actually shocked. Good on Dana Bash for asking the question, and I genuinely would not have expected Greene to answer the way she did.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com

BASH: We have seen these attacks from the president at other people. It's not new. And I haven't heard you speak out about it until it was directed at you. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: I think that's fair criticism. And I would like to say, humbly, I'm sorry for taking part in the toxic politics.

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Adam means that she is the daughter of immigrants, but it is worth emphasizing that *every* U.S. citizen who has not been naturalized is a birthright citizen, either by the 14th Amendment or by statute.

Someday, we're gonna find out that the decisionmaking went like this:

Mamdani proposes city-run grocery stores. Conservatives say it'll never work. Mamdani supporters point out that DOD runs a bunch of grocery stores. Hegseth decides to close them to own the libs.

Chicken Puppet 🏳️‍⚧️ @chickenpuppet.online

I know these guys are all dumber than a sack of hammers, but it is fascinating to see the military decide “logistics are gay” in real time

Reply to @joshchafetz.bsky.social

(Not the most important part by any stretch but I *love* that Martin keeps referring to himself as "United States Attorney" and Treanor repeatedly refers to him as "Interim United States Attorney".)

The fact that her reaction is almost certainly opportunistic makes this more, not less, significant.

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social

GOP Sen Lummis says she’s changed her mind after the new Epstein revelations today: “Initially my reaction to all this was, I don’t care. I don’t see what the big deal is. But now I see what the big deal is. The members of Congress who were pushing this were not wrong!”

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Reply to @joshchafetz.bsky.social

The claim that the destruction of essential civilizational institutions is being done in the name of the Jews is itself a form of antisemitism—cultural vandalism carried out in our name.

That, my friends, is rank bullshit.

As someone who has written a little about performance and legislative politics, I am begging people to stop using "performative" pejoratively. Politics *is* performance. All human interaction is performance.

Feels like a statement from a bipartisan group of former first ladies about the destruction of the east wing could capture some attention ...

I will once again remind folks that a very sizable chunk of what looks like Congress not doing anything to push back against the president is in fact a consequence of the Court disabling/destroying all the ways Congress has tried to push back.

1/ I'm sure someone has already pointed this out, but one additional thing about the tariffs being done unilaterally by the president: They can be (and almost certainly will be) reversed by the next Democratic president.

Every few years I feel compelled to post about the best hotel hack ever, because every time I post about it, it turns out to be new to lots of folks …

Reply to @joshchafetz.bsky.social

(4/3) We had the easiest fucking two-answer multiple-choice test in the history of tests, and we managed to fail it. It’s remarkable.

One collateral consequence of the GOP CR shitshow: Senate Dems are taking advantage of the extra time in session to confirm a few more judges than they probably would have otherwise.

yes, how dare a retailer break out taxes from other expenses on the receipt. this sort of thing has never before been seen in America.

Nikki McCann Ramírez @nikkimcr.bsky.social

White House says Amazon's decision to desplay tariff-based price increases on products is a "a hostile and political act by Amazon," who they accuse of working with "a Chinese propaganda arm."

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