For four months, one man decided we were at war. Today, the House said no. We passed a war powers resolution ordering our troops out of Iran unless Congress votes to keep them there. Not the President alone. Congress. The people’s representatives.

What a terrible, ignorant and backward move against all life on our planet as well as future generations. The less we know about our oceans, the harder it is to anticipate and address the effects of the ongoing climate crisis - including depleted fisheries and coastal flooding. (Gift link)

As horrifying as this campaign of premeditated murder is, what might be even more disturbing is the utter indifference of Congress, the public and our allies to such a shocking and unapologetic obliteration of the many laws and norms against targeting civilians. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/31/w...

If the US ends up paying $300 billion rebuilding Iran after all the war damage there, it gives Trump yet another giant sum of money to pour into energy and real estate companies with connections to his friends and family members. All paid for by the American people, who weren't looking for this war.

Just when it seemed DOJ under Trump couldn't sink any lower. (Sigh)

Latest troubling example of MAGA mobilizing globally: US Sec of State Marco Rubio has appointed to the board of the East-West Ctr in Hawaii South Korean far-right organizer Kim Jeong-hyeon, who led supporters of ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol following his 2024 impeachment and failed martial law decree.

More evidence that Trump's immigration policy is mainly about harassing *legal* immigrants doing their best to go through the process correctly. And this change on green cards could have the unintended effect of prompting more people to lapse into undocumented status rather than leave the country.

HUGE. Kilmar Abrego Garcia will not face the inside of a prison cell. It is extremely hard to win a vindictive prosecution motion, but here the evidence was so strong that the judge had almost no choice but to grant it. They are STILL trying to deport him to Africa, though.

"Americans should be cleareyed about what the president is doing. He is taking their money and showering it on criminals... It sends the message that he will use his power not only to shield people who break the law from accountability but also to shower benefits on them." (Gift link)

It’s bullshit for the Washington Post to call this looting of the Treasury a “deal“ and an “agreement.” The Trump regime is self-dealing to create an agreement between Trump and Trump, with no judge allowed to weigh in. It’s a dictator stealing from the people.

Trump's rhetoric at the Beijing summit elevating China to an equal peer to the US - while also canceling this week the deployment of US troops to Poland via NATO - leaves me worried, as ever, that his ideal world is not a league of democracies but one dominated by autocrats: himself, Xi and Putin.

She sounded so extraordinary. Atmospheric sciences major with minors in music and philosophy. Gifted singer. Kind. It wouldn’t have been any less tragic had she been utterly ordinary but my god, what a light that man took from the world. I’m so sorry, Juniper.

Both the arch snd the Trump White House ballroom should be stopped in court. Neither project shows any regard for the history and symbolism of American democracy or the architectural integrity of Washington, D.C.

Excellent thread that rebuts a NYT op-ed this weekend calling for the Democrats to downplay the climate crisis and focus instead on affordability. The point is that both problems are inextricably linked.

Strange to see stock markets in the US and abroad reaching new record highs even as the world economy goes through a severe oil shock. The gap between the euphoria on Wall Street (tech, finance, energy) and the steep inflation and economic distress on Main Street keeps widening in ominous ways.

As extreme politics have normalized, young people have grown up not knowing any other way. For months, I've spent time getting to know 10 college students who literally do not recall a time in America without Trump. My latest for @thewesternedge.bsky.social www.thewesternedge.media/p/the-age-of...

This article on Trump turning against even his few fellow Republicans who still have spines is a reminder that he has nothing of value to offer the American people and the world. As ever, Trump 2.0 is mainly about persecuting perceived enemies, enriching cronies and glorifying himself. (Gift link)

This is the billboard currently on the highway between Mar-a-Lago and West Palm Beach airport. Reporters Without Borders just released its latest World Press Freedom Index, which finds that the United States has dropped to 64th place worldwide in press freedom under Trump. rsf.org/en/index

NEW: SCOTUS guts what remained of the Voting Rights Act before taking on TPS termination case. It was Alito's decision, but Roberts has sought Wednesday's VRA result for more than 40 years. In the arguments over temporary protected status, however, DOJ might have overstepped. Law Dork:

More like North Korea than the United States of America.

Couldn't agree more with @billmckibben.bsky.social this Earth Day that we need a strong response to the climate crisis front and center in our politics, first to counter Trump's slavishness to fossil fuels and ultimately to nourish the democratic renewal in the making.

Social democracy in action! And let's be clear: taxing surplus real estate holdings of the ultra rich doesn't even come close to overturning free market capitalism. It simply tames its excesses.

I doubt that Pope Leo XIV will lose any sleep over this, before he begins his pilgrimage to Africa tomorrow. But the rest of us should. Because it is unhinged, uncharitable and unchristian. Is there no bottom to this moral squalor?

So happy for all Hungarians, but especially for my husband’s family in Budapest, and for family members who had to leave Hungary to finish their education after Orban shut down their university. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Appalling and absolutely un-American for Trump to threaten genocide against Iran and to claim absolute power to destroy "a whole civilization." Impeachment and removal from power are long overdue.

Came across this sign today in Bologna. Always good to see the "No Kings" movement is global in scope!

I'm in Britain attending a conference, and much of the public here is furious that King Charles will soon visit Washington even as Trump keeps hurling insults at the UK and its military. One TV news anchor said Trump seems oblivious to British sacrifices in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A win for the rule of law, for our nation's capital, and for all historic buildings that belong to the American people, not the president. Congress must also do its part and prevent Trump's ballroom from going forward. A building similar to the demolished East Wing should go there instead.

No ICE. No war. No Kings. #nokings

Give your key defenses and fortress cities to Russia which has been unable to take them in 12 years of fighting, and then we who are acting to strengthen Russia will pretend to help you protect the rest of your country. This is shameful, rotten, and stinks of corruption.

Happening all at once: insider trading on Trump's Iran war, desecration of our nation's capital, plotting to use ICE to disrupt elections, pressuring Congress to pass a voter suppression law, paying off an energy company to drop wind power. Never become numb to the massive corruption and malfeasance

Breaking: Democrat Emily Gregory has flipped a deep red district in Florida that contains Mar-a-Lago. Trump will now be represented by a Democrat.

A New Mexico jury rules that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is harmful to children’s mental health, enables child exploitation and in violation of state consumer protection law and has ordered them to pay a $375M penalty. Good but not nearly enough.

So much of domestic news in the US since last January is just reporting on the consequences of drastic policy shifts reverberating through complex systems with terrible first, second, and third order effects.

Here's a great anthem for the upcoming "No Kings" protests in the United States - and "No Tyrants" protests overseas - written and recorded by my political theory colleague @luiscabrera-prof.bsky.social

The goal of the war is now something that could have been achieved by not starting the war.

* Abolish ICE. * Close the concentration camps. * Hold DHS and its past and present officials fully accountable for the growing number of wrongful deaths. * Redo immigration policy to open up more pathways for more people to receive full US citizenship.

Where we are: Former DHS secretary’s sidepiece/unofficial staffer allegedly demanded bribes from for-profit prison operator for federal ethnic-cleansing contracts. Explosive (if not surprising) reporting from NBC

Dylan Lopez Contreras has finally been released and can return home to his family. But ICE never should have taken him or cruelly kept him from his family, school, and community for nearly a year. Students belong in school and at home. We need ICE out of our communities, now.

All life on our planet will pay the price of Trump's war in Iran: global carbon emissions and air pollution are set to increase, at least in the short term, as countries across Asia turn to coal, with oil and gas supplies disrupted. What we really need is a full-scale shift ASAP to renewable energy.

According to a new assessment by V-Dem, democracy is back at 1978 levels for the average global citizen. The gains of the third wave of democratization since the mid-1970s are almost eradicated. The U.S. is downgraded from liberal to electoral democracy. www.democracywithoutborders.org/41651/

Terry Moran on how "psychological surrender" to the whims of Trump signals deep trouble in American democracy: "When a free people can be moved from “no more wars” to “our war” by a presidential tweet, and when their elected guardians choose to look the other way, something precious is being lost."

No oil means no electricity. No electricity means no water pumps. No running water means no sanitation. No power for hospitals. No fuel for ambulances. No refrigeration for drugs. Mass death soon follows. This is a crime against humanity.

Majority of Canadians say it’s better to depend on China than on the US under Trump. In other key allies - Germany, UK, France - a plurality say the same. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

This cry for help from Trump puts US allies in a terrible position. None of them asked him or Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu to start a war against Iran; none would have advised it. Now, like a spoiled child, Trump is begging allies to put their militaries at risk to deal with a problem he created.

I enjoyed this recent @mattpolprof.bsky.social piece on Habermas, which makes the sympathetic observation that Habermas *wanted* philosophy to be dull and difficult, if by that you mean modest and respectful of the arguments of others www.liberalcurrents.com/also-a-revie...

New: A federal ​judge in Boston has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending legal protections next week that have allowed nearly 1,100 ​Somalis to live and work in ​the United States. www.reuters.com/world/us-jud...

✋ Former USG war crimes lawyer here. Apropos of SecDef's remarks this morning: Denial of quarter—even the declaration of no quarter—is a war crime. And recognized as such by the US Government. From DoD's Manual for Military Commissions.

"We have long known that American dependence on oil is a national security threat... Energy sources that our adversaries can blockade, or that require naval escorts and expensive insurance to deliver, are not reliable. Solar and wind power, on the other hand, generate power cheaply on U.S. soil."

I really wanted to know more about Renee Good, killed by ICE in January. Fortunately, my editor allowed me to take some time to do a deep dive into who she was before she died. Read and listen to what I found out about her from her Colorado tribe here: www.cpr.org/2026/03/11/r...