Peggy Noonan on Hegsmith: "some pumped-up drama queen who makes everything more jarring and fevered" “What would it look like if Captain Queeg took Adderall?” "a strutting, gelled bantam" The Embarrassing Pete Hegseth by @Peggynoonannyc www.wsj.com/opinion/the-... via @WSJopinion

Hunter Biden: Wait, this was an option?

The consolidation of US media ownership by right-wing oligarchs is much like the consolidation of control of Russian media under Vladimir Putin. Larry Ellison a major stakeholder in CBS/Paramount, possibly soon also CNN, HBO & TikTok. Musk/Twitter-X. NXSTR. Sinclair. Murdoch/Fox.

For the first time, one country out of the UN's 193 members -- the United States -- has refused to participate in the periodic review of its human rights record. Even the worst rights violators regularly submit to this process, and the US now sets a terrible example. thehill.com/opinion/inte...

"Charlie Kirk called Britain a “totalitarian third world hellhole”. Among Maga influencers it's common to talk of the UK's coming civil war. By all means Britain should deliver fruits to the Trumpian volcano. But it would be wise not to live in its shadow." My column. www.ft.com/content/37b4...

Celebrating Jerry Nadler’s long progressive service in the NY Assembly and the US Congress. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/n.... Congratulations to Jerry on his retirement and making way for next gen progressives to run for his seat.

The international community should not accept U.S. sanctions on leading ICC figures, writes @dchovell.bsky.social. She offers 3 nuanced imperatives to fight the attempted coercion of the Court’s independence: legal, reputational, & commercial. www.justsecurity.org/119583/raisi... #ICC #Sanctions

“ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have long been the most rogue, renegade and certainly pro-Trump police agencies in the federal government.”

The full 12 minutes of @govpritzker.illinois.gov speech today, which was superb. (Via Nicole Wallace / @msnbc.com segment.) www.msnbc.com/deadline-whi...

Excellent analysis on Trump's effort to obstruct renewable energy and force allies to buy more US oil & gas. Trump’s Global War on Decarbonization by Mark Blyth, et al @ProSyn prosyn.org/RE8I5Ix

Judge J Michael Luttig: “The chief justice is presiding over the end of the rule of law in America” The court is “acquiescing in and accommodating the president’s lawlessness. And doing so without briefing, without argument, without deliberation – and without even a single word of explanation”

The Permanent Stain open.substack.com/pub/andrewsu...

Blistering statement by FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez on the bribe paid to Trump to gain FCC approval of the Paramount merger along with agreeing to government monitoring of CBS news content.

Knight Institute: "The settlement is an astonishing transfer of autonomy and authority to ... an administration whose disdain for the values of the academy is demonstrated anew every day. It will have far-reaching implications for free speech and academic freedom at Columbia"

Knight Institute: "The settlement is an astonishing transfer of autonomy and authority to ... an administration whose disdain for the values of the academy is demonstrated anew every day. It will have far-reaching implications for free speech and academic freedom at Columbia"

When you’re so busy crowing about your political motivations that you forget to pretend you did it for the Jews.

Congress & ordinary Americans are expected to watch as our unhinged President seeks to break another nation b/c he was super-friends with their corrupt leader? This is Trump’s version of international pardon power. He’ll use U.S. power - OUR power - to eliminate accountability for other autocrats.

Encouraging article on @ZohranMamdani ‘s thoughtful and activist work ti improve rhe MTA nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/07/02/h...

Billionaire tax cuts are a policy choice. Cutting healthcare for millions is a policy choice. Cutting food assistance for children is a policy choice. Taking from the poor and giving to the rich is a policy choice. Make no mistake: Trump and the GOP are choosing to do this.

The US attack on Iran is a gross violation of both the fundamental principles of international law (article 2(4) of the United Nations charter), and of US domestic law (the constitution of the United States and the war powers act). www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/o...

That Nixon resigned in disgrace repudiated his methods and ushered in a period of greater transparency and less corruption in US politics. Important that Trump be impeached, convicted and disgraced to thoroughly repudiate his grotesque corruption. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

How Israel deceived the United States about its nuclear weapons program “If Iran has followed a playbook of nuclear deception, it was written by Israel.”

Israeli Strikes Risk Driving Iran Toward Nuclear Weapons at www.justsecurity.org/114515/israe...

🍿🍿 🍿 www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

Bloomberg catalogs the most corrupt self-dealing administration in American history. www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

Sometimes I do feel like messaging is a lot simpler than people make it out to be.

Bruce Springsteen: America "is in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration." youtu.be/6ZHWIYHlXOs?...

"Until Trump exits public life altogether, it cannot be said either that America is a thriving democracy or that it has a government 'of laws, not of men.'” Retired federal circuit judge Michael Luttig, a renowned conservative, catalogs Trump's many crimes. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

I’m unable to get over the fact that the President of the United States today, in his personal accounts, and the White House in its official accounts, broadcast an AI-generated picture of the President as the Pope. This is not normal.

Lawyers and allies of the rule of law: Come join the protest at 1 PM in Foley Square in NYC to support judicial independence and our constitutional democracy. Remembering the 2007 protests of Pakistani lawyers against the unconstitutional suspension of Justice Chaudhry, perhaps wear a black suit

An absolute must-read from @stevevladeck.bsky.social this morning: “Just before 1:00 a.m., the justices (aggressively) stepped back into the Alien Enemy Act litigation—in a decision suggesting that a majority understands that these are no longer normal circumstances.”

Good morning from … {checks notes} … the Supreme Court of the United States

The US State Department is editing out entire areas of fundamental human rights from its annual human rights reports to be released in May, especially regarding authoritarian countries allied with the Trump administration (e.g. El Salvador & Hungary). www.npr.org/2025/04/18/n...

Important NYC Bar Association event on April 21 for mobilizing in defense of the rule of law: services.nycbar.org/EventDetail?...

Four R senators and four R House members could announce they're caucusing with the Dems for now, and will vote for Schumer for Majority Leader and Jeffries for Speaker, because the threat to the rule of law is dire. Meanwhile, they'll work with Democrats to construct guardrails against dictatorship.

Our extreme inequality: the richest 10% of Americans hold nearly 70% of the nation’s wealth – while the bottom 50% hold just 3%. SNL nails it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAKz...

Grosteque corruption: Binance crypto exchange seeks Treasury loosening oversight of its criminal money laundering and a pardon for its founders while Trump family seeks to buy in and list its crypto. www.wsj.com/finance/regu...

“Ms. Loomer, who has floated the baseless conspiracy theory that the Sept. 11 attacks were an “inside job” and is viewed as extreme even by … Mr. Trump’s far-right allies, was apparently wielding more influence over the staff of the National Security Council than Mr. Waltz, who runs the agency.”

New York's crooked mayor won't be held accountable for likely criminal violations because the U.S.'s crooked president tried to leverage that accountability to do his own crooked shit and a court had to intervene. Democracy at its finest.

"We reject the repeated efforts to impeach...judges because the government does not agree with the decision. We condemn attacks on lawyers and law firms f...We defend law firms and organizations who are being attacked." www.americanbar.org/news/abanews...

“It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” Marks wrote in a resignation letter referring to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. www.wsj.com/politics/top...

FT: The law firms and universities which are capitulating to Donald Trump are creating a dark, menacing future for generations to come. They represent the shallow men who quickly trade an illusive short term prospect of gain for a long-term nightmare that is steadily engulfing their country.

Trump is 0-3 in cases brought by law firms he has targeted with illegal executive orders. Yet the cowards at two other law firms -- Paul Weiss and Skadden -- shamefully capitulated without putting up a fight.

Given the likelihood of torture of the Venezuelans in the notorious El Salvador prison to which they are being delivered, their deportation violates the non-refoulment provisions of the Convention Against Torture to which the US is a state party. www.justsecurity.org/109284/non-r...

Twenty leading constitutional law scholars decry the Trump assault against Columbia University. Now let's decry Columbia's shameful capitulation. www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

Under Trump's EO on birthright citizenship, which Marco Rubio defends, Rubio is not a US citizen. His parents left Cuba under Batista (not Castro), went back many times, never had US citizenship through naturalization and were not citizens when Rubio was born. He is a colossal hypocrite.

An important piece by two leading experts. Explainer on First Amendment and Due Process Issues in Deportation of Pro-Palestinian Student Activist(s) By Ahilan Arulanantham (@ahilantoolong.bsky.social) and Adam Cox (@adambcox.bsky.social)

Maybe the US should become the 11th Province of #Canada. Our leadership would improve immeasurably. Full speech: Mark Carney elected Canadian prime minister youtu.be/tLMOwYXKTRI?si… via @YouTube