Sean CastenThe legal justification the WH gave us for attacking Venezuelan boats in int’l waters without Congressional approval was weak, and exposes the WH and military staff to domestic and international criminal prosecution. They have not even sought to justify strikes within Venezuela.
1. Their justification - dutifully repeated by every sycophantic member of the House GOP was that some drugs kill Americans so any international actor who sells or traffics drugs is engaged in war against America. You can drive a bus through that logic, as I noted last month https://x.com/seancasten/status/2001356117109248353?s=61
2. Before we left Washington last month we were given a classified briefing by Hegseth and Rubio about Venezuela that contained no classified information other than details on the location of certain military assets that were irrelevant to the question at hand.
3. That presentation was disrespectful of Congressional time and power at best. Diversionary at worst. Moreover, as my friend Senator Kim notes, they explicitly denied this was about regime change. They lied.
https://x.com/senatorandykim/status/2007399987596906501?s=61
https://x.com/senatorandykim/status/2007399987596906501?s=61
Senator Andy Kim (@SenatorAndyKim) on X
Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn’t about regime change. I didn’t trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress. Trump rejected our Constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict
5. I have no respect for Donald Trump. He diminishes everything he touches. But focusing on him right now is like being bitten by your neighbor’s unleashed, unfenced rabid dog and focusing on the dog. If we don’t hold his enablers to account we’re going to keep getting bit.
6. This doesn’t happen if McConnell didn’t press the Republican Senators to ignore January 6 and vote not to remove Trump from office in spite of House impeachment. If they had any shred of patriotism, Trump wouldn’t have been able to run again.
7. This doesn’t happen if SCOTUS doesn’t expressly grant a convicted felon and proven malignant narcissist with near complete immunity for any crimes he commits while President. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf
8. This doesn’t happen if Republican Senators don’t confirm every grossly unqualified nominee - RFK Jr., Hegseth, Gabbard, etc. Those Senators knew their spines were being tested in those early days, because if they folded for them, they could be relied on to fold for anything.
9. This doesn’t happen if SCOTUS doesn’t decide that they have the unilateral power to amend the Constitution by gutting Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and allow someone who had engaged in insurrection against the United States to hold federal office. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-719_19m2.pdf
10. And of course, this doesn’t happen if the House GOP took their oversight responsibilities seriously. From recissions to tariffs to Epstein, a House majority that allowed oversight would have checked an out of control executive long ago.
11. None of which is to ignore or tolerate the rabid dog. It is only to remind us all that we don’t have a monarchy; but we risk devolving into one if SCOTUS, Johnson and Thune continue to believe it is more important to cower before a felon than to stand up for the Constitution.
12. Congress will be back in session Tuesday. Johnson and Thune control what comes to the floor in both chambers. I hope they will focus on redeeming their character instead of voting on shower head regulations this week. https://x.com/seancasten/status/2007236088889524676?s=61
Sean Casten (@SeanCasten) on X
ACA tax credits expired on 12/31. Trump is not complying w Epstein release but what's come out is damning. Dead bodies in the Caribbean. Fragile peace in UKR & the Middle East. So House floor time next week will prioritize rolling back shower head and energy efficiency standards.
13. Because if they don’t fulfill their obligation to act as a check, we are left - per James Madison - depending on the virtue not of our rulers, but of those who choose them come November.
14. I hope we don’t have to wait that long, and will do everything in my power to ensure we don’t. But take some optimism in the fact that this White House fears that public virtue just as much as they fear the rule of law. We are better than this. /fin
Armchair Epistemologist@SeanCasten thank for this Congressman. In the last line you say "We are better than this." What keeps me up at night is my fear that we are not.
Emily Vale, Gendermancer@rcriii @SeanCasten sadly, we are not. Read a history book, though you'll want to avoid most American ones. We could be, though! I hope we make it. As discussed throughout this thread, there were failures upon failures upon failures.
Conservatism is a cancer that enables failure to ripple through so many people that it can corrupt an entire government so quickly. Sure, there were decades of corruption infrastructure laid to help enable the specific crimes that are happening now, but the America that's "better then this" clearly didn't and doesn't exist if this is possible. We're just fallible cowards, like everyone else.
su_liam@sillyCoelophysis @rcriii @SeanCasten Conservatism is a cancer that grows on all the worst attributes of this country’s founding. It’s not a foreign virus, it’s the country’s original sin.
Huntn00@sillyCoelophysis @rcriii @SeanCasten Conservatism = usually, hanging onto what I stole, and claiming that’s normal, that’s the status quo, it would be a shame to disrupt tradition, wouldn’t it? 🤔
@Huntn00 @rcriii @SeanCasten this is exactly why I get uncomfortable when I hear words like tradition and heritage. Neither really means "my great aunt's pecan pie recipe." Tradition is generational theft, heritage is racism and domination.
@sillyCoelophysis @rcriii @SeanCasten …in other words a sales job for self advantage most easily and lately directed at weak minded racists too stupid to realize who is actually robbing them. “But at least I’m one step above those brown people.” 🤔
@Huntn00 @sillyCoelophysis @SeanCasten It is convenient that the conservative/MAGA have (mostly) sorted into one big easily recognized group. But the rot is deeper. For example, why did half the Dems senators in this thread have to add condemnation of Maduro and discussion of how trump is doing it wrong (as if the kidnapping would be ok if he just had a better plan)?
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2026/01/the-dem-reaction
The Dem Reaction - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Where are the Democrats right now? Friend of the blog Jamie Mayerfeld has done the research: I saw someone write on Facebook: “Only a short matter of time before we see establishment liberals falling all over themselves to praise this action.” I don’t think this is correct. Here is Pete Buttigieg: “It’s an old and […]
@rcriii @SeanCasten Too many of us aren’t. And yeah, that keeps me up at night.
Lightfighter@SeanCasten I'm afraid there is little hope the system will save us from the system.
Erin Jonaitis@SeanCasten Thanks for this thread. I’m curious, what actually is in your power to do here? What strategies are you trying? That’s what I’ve found most confounding about the present situation — there is an awful lot of energy out there to fight for our ideals but it’s not clear how to put it to good use.
You S Blues@SeanCasten The American people elected this traitorous asshole in spite of all the clear and obvious evidence in their faces. Let’s not skip placing the blame squarely where it lies. We are reaping what we sowed.
@patmikemid @SeanCasten 70m elected him, a few less resisted, and some number had better things to do than keep a criminal out of office or they were so disillusioned with the system they said fuck it, in essence fuck me. So be it, we’re in for a rough ride at this point, as best I can tell. 😔
James Wells@patmikemid
Yes, it lies squarely on the shoulders of the people who chose not to vote. Make no mistake, Chump's "49%" is only 49% of the people who actually chose to vote, so roughly 30% of the electorate, the same number of people who voted for the Orange Shitgibbon is 2020 and only slightly more than voted for him on 2016.
@SeanCasten
Yes, it lies squarely on the shoulders of the people who chose not to vote. Make no mistake, Chump's "49%" is only 49% of the people who actually chose to vote, so roughly 30% of the electorate, the same number of people who voted for the Orange Shitgibbon is 2020 and only slightly more than voted for him on 2016.
@SeanCasten
Me 🐶@SeanCasten yet this is who we are until we start doing better. The only better time to act than now is yesterday.
Isaac Ji Kuo@SeanCasten Thank you very much for correctly casting blame on the Republicans particularly in the SCOTUS and Congress who have enabled this.
And thank you very much for NOT being one of the many many many people going out of their way to blame the Democrats for this.
Democracy Matters 
Thanks for this. Very good thread and summation of where we are.
AnneTheWriter@SeanCasten
I would be interested to read your links and would like to share them, but like many people on #Mastodon , I no longer use or visit the #Xitter platform. You will have better sharing and social media metrics if you link to an open-source blogsite or some other non-Xitter source, like WordPress or Substack. Best wishes.
I would be interested to read your links and would like to share them, but like many people on #Mastodon , I no longer use or visit the #Xitter platform. You will have better sharing and social media metrics if you link to an open-source blogsite or some other non-Xitter source, like WordPress or Substack. Best wishes.
Display Name@SeanCasten they cannot. The ones that did received a call from the FBI that says there are "credible threats to them and their families' lives" and they changed their votes. Did we stand by them? No. The Mafia threatens one by one and controls people. We don't notice one missing then there's no one left to do anything.
Mitt Romney, Tillis, many judges were left alone and they bowed. That's how it works. The Democratic party doesn't have a counter strategy for this. It is not politics, yes. But you have to have a solution other than asking them to be crushed and made an example of to prove they have a spine.
Mitt Romney, Tillis, many judges were left alone and they bowed. That's how it works. The Democratic party doesn't have a counter strategy for this. It is not politics, yes. But you have to have a solution other than asking them to be crushed and made an example of to prove they have a spine.
@alper @SeanCasten A paramilitary wing to political parties is one of the lesser evils that could be left over from this administration.
@SeanCasten this needs to happen sooner! Session should be called immediately and this illegal act and what actions to take should be the only topic.
@SeanCasten There maybe some cowering, but this is also a power-play, reaching for the impossible brass ring that will reshape the country into “always getting it my way”.🤔
@SeanCasten EXACTLY-recognize it for what it is orchestrated, treason and insurrection on behalf of a major political party in the US.
@SeanCasten The tragedy unfolds, arguably the predestined conclusion do this orchestrated tragic failure of human judgment. Will this be the species destiny? Unknown at this point…
⁂ Kaleb@SeanCasten when can we expect articles of impeachment to be introduced?
@kaleb @SeanCasten Don’t hold your breath, for your own sake.🤔
@SeanCasten SCOTUS-enthusiastic co-conspirators.
Tom DB 🦣@SeanCasten Totally true, but they don't seem to give a sh$t. And holding them accountable, even after Trump's presidency seems unlikely. Very sad to witness all of this.
Flaming Cheeto@SeanCasten and Cruz, Hawley, and Cotton are solidly behind Vance, some constitutional chicanery, and DJT Jr for '28 R candidacy.
Unpatriotic Idiots.
Congrats on your podcast
@SeanCasten MAGA- in on it and complicit in the overthrow.
Miss GayleAmericans just aren't willing to inconvenience themselves enough to boycott the companies funding the coup.
@SeanCasten EVERYTHING HE TOUCHES WITHERS AND DIES, but he’s he always made off with the loot. This is his genius. Such an inspiration for National DeathWish Leadership enabled by lil’racist MAGA and millionaire/billionaire Corpo enablers. Such a fine kettle of stinking fish will be the legacy of this nation.