Isaac Chotiner has done bang-up interviews. I don’t see what the fuss about this one is. Cass Sunstein seems to have wanted to discuss political philosophy, while Chotiner came armed to refight battles from the 1970s and ‘80s. They talked right past one another. Link via @melissagiragrant.com

Thread. I think I understand the question @brianbeutler.bsky.social is asking here. I’m not sure it’s the right one. One reason is because I take for granted that the rise of Trumpism was primarily a reaction to developments among Republicans, not Democrats. 🧵

The Secret Service said it found over 300 SIM servers, 100,000 SIM cards and other illicit materials in multiple sites surrounding New York City ahead of the U.N. General Assembly.

ABCNews is reporting that the 14 African migrants DHS deported to Ghana have now all been forwarded to the home countries from whom US immigration judges had granted them protection due to credible fears of persecution, torture, or death. abcnews.go.com/amp/Internat...

Wait, it gets worse. The team of economists and researchers responsible for the USDA survey that measures food insecurity and hunger were put on indefinite paid leave today. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Good brief summary of the legal issues behind lethal US bombings of boats in international waters by @bcfinucane.bsky.social, interviewed by @gregsargent.bsky.social. Trump claimed the boats were carrying drugs, though we don’t know this, & would like to do more. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Ongoing incident involving drones in vicinity of major airports at Oslo and Copenhagen, being tracked by @shipwreck75.bsky.social

Just in case it finally disappears, the CDC page I've been obsessively refreshing for months is currently still there, confirming that vaccines do not cause autism

breaking from me: the trump administration just suffered its first major loss in court over its onslaught on offshore wind the revolution wind project can now resume construction after a federal judge found its developer orsted was likely to win against the trump order to stop work @heatmap.news

Acting on the unified Republican executive theory of governance, Republicans on the Supreme Court have ruled a Republican President can fire a non-Republican FTC Commissioner without cause. Long-standing precedent forbidding this will be ignored, as this is an emergency. Via @marcelias.bsky.social

A cynical person might suspect eviscerating the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department was a sign Trump’s administration wanted to preempt prosecutions of corrupt Republican politicians, while making it easier to bring bogus prosecutions against Democrats. www.notus.org/courts/doj-p...

Good brief summary of the legal issues behind lethal US bombings of boats in international waters by @bcfinucane.bsky.social, interviewed by @gregsargent.bsky.social. Trump claimed the boats were carrying drugs, though we don’t know this, & would like to do more. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

There is value in occasionally reminding ourselves of the obvious. Donald Trump is very old. His impulse control has diminished. His attention span is shorter. His need for constant affirmation is greater. Throughout his second administration are now people who are anxious only to please him.

Latest projection suggests that more than 505,000 adults and kids have died due to USAID's illegal dismantling by Musk, Rubio, and Lewin Source: www.impactcounter.com/dashboard?vi...

There is value in occasionally reminding ourselves of the obvious. Donald Trump is very old. His impulse control has diminished. His attention span is shorter. His need for constant affirmation is greater. Throughout his second administration are now people who are anxious only to please him.

Deeply reported story by @carolleonnig.bsky.social & @kendilanian-nbc.bsky.social on a corruption investigation of Tom Homan, Trump white-right immigration czar. One question left unanswered: does Homan still have the cash he’s said to have accepted on camera? www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

I’ve seen it called The Great Procrastination. By not facing climate change mitigation squarely a generation ago, we were free to indulge in Iraq, a housing bubble, major tax cuts and bungling the government’s response to a lethal pandemic. Alas, all such pleasures come with a price.

Weekend listen: Former NOAA chief scientist Sarah Kapnick, now at J. P. Morgan, discusses the global energy transition with @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social. Lots of good stuff here, particularly on value in transition projects not dependent on policy. On Shift Key podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

I had wondered that myself. Five cops shot, three killed in a deliberate ambush of police, by a stalker who even killed his former girlfriend’s dog. How is that not a national news story? Would the guy have to have said mean things about Trump? Via @jessicaluther.bsky.social

Deeply reported story by @carolleonnig.bsky.social & @kendilanian-nbc.bsky.social on a corruption investigation of Tom Homan, Trump white-right immigration czar. One question left unanswered: does Homan still have the cash he’s said to have accepted on camera? www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

You should read this @chicago.suntimes.com report on yesterday’s ICE riot in a Chicago suburb, but take “clashes” with a grain of salt. Protesters seem to have shouted and chanted slogans, while being periodically attacked by ICE personnel with chemical agents. chicago.suntimes.com/news/2025/09...

Meanwhile, in Gaza….this is after two years of war. The Israeli government on whose watch the October 7 disaster happened is still flailing about, nominally resolved to destroy Hamas but dropping most of its bombs on civilians. Summary of Friday developments via @dropsitenews.com

This week’s Friday news dump from the Trump administration contained a lot of stories about the Defense Department. Here is a list.

Weekend listen: Former NOAA chief scientist Sarah Kapnick, now at J. P. Morgan, discusses the global energy transition with @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social. Lots of good stuff here, particularly on value in transition projects not dependent on policy. On Shift Key podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

The Trump administration often uses Friday evenings to release news of its least creditable actions. Via @bcfinucane.bsky.social, here is another one, a US attack on what may have been a fishing boat. Trump, who lies about everything, asserts it belonged to a terrorist group & was carrying drugs.

An ICE riot in Chicago, reported by @ckubzansky.bsky.social. Evidently enraged by signs and chanted slogans, masked federal personnel in combat gear bombarded a crowd of perhaps 100 people with chemical agents. The photos are striking.

Thread. Steven Merryday is a senior judge on the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida, first appointed by George H. W. Bush. So, he’s seen a lot of complaints. @questauthority.bsky.social has highlights of his exasperated reaction to Trump’s complaint against The New York Times.

Thread. The Biden administration tried to accelerate America’s energy transition before the Trumpers put the brakes on. But China was already ahead, with its foot on the gas. The American government is responding by abusing migrants & guest workers. By @adamtooze.bsky.social via @ryanlcooper.com

Remember this? Trump got a couple of press hits off it a couple of weeks ago, & Marco Rubio used it to sound tough. Well, he tried, anyway. But we still don’t know why Trump ordered people — Venezuelans, apparently — killed on the high seas. @bcfinucane.bsky.social thinks it sounds like murder.

Thread. @rparloff.bsky.social on yet another defeat for Trump’s administration in an immigration case. Judge Tim Kelly of the DC Circuit was on to the Trumpers’ game in a case about their attempt to sneak unaccompanied Guatemalan children out of the country after midnight on Labor Day weekend.

1500 followers. Cool.

Remember this? Trump got a couple of press hits off it a couple of weeks ago, & Marco Rubio used it to sound tough. Well, he tried, anyway. But we still don’t know why Trump ordered people — Venezuelans, apparently — killed on the high seas. @bcfinucane.bsky.social thinks it sounds like murder.

Thread. @rparloff.bsky.social on yet another defeat for Trump’s administration in an immigration case. Judge Tim Kelly of the DC Circuit was on to the Trumpers’ game in a case about their attempt to sneak unaccompanied Guatemalan children out of the country after midnight on Labor Day weekend.

🎉 BOOM: House & Senate Dems introduce THEIR budget bill to avoid a shutdown, and I'm happy to say... acasignups.net/25/09/18/boo...

BREAKING: Judge issues preliminary injunction barring Trump administration from returning unaccompanied minors to Guatemala. Trump appointee Timothy Kelly says administration's 'explanation crumbled like a house of cards.' Doc: ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

Fascinating thread about what is happening in energy and geopolitics worldwide, from @kellyhereid.bsky.social. As unreliable as the American government’s leadership has become under Trump, private sources may become essential for the most accurate information as to what is going on.

Another mass shooting, this one in Pennsylvania. The victims were apparently all cops, the shooting said to be related to an ongoing investigation. [gift link] wapo.st/3VUPaO5

This is what @jimmykimmel.com said a week ago about Charlie Kirk’s murder. He evidently said something later, about how the murder was being used by Trump and his Republicans, and that was what got his show taken off the air. I don’t think Kimmel even said anything about Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.

A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say. This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand. All elected officials need to speak up and push back on this undemocratic act.

Fascinating thread about what is happening in energy and geopolitics worldwide, from @kellyhereid.bsky.social. As unreliable as the American government’s leadership has become under Trump, private sources may become essential for the most accurate information as to what is going on.

I’ll be following this story today while trying to organize a COVID booster. Clip via @atrupar.com

As Israel launches another offensive into Gaza, imagine Israelis being told in mid-October 2023 that two years later Gaza would look like this; most Israeli hostages would be dead or still captive; and Hamas would still not be defeated. In what world is this success? (Via @wesleymorgan.bsky.social

Important thread. @chriso-wiki.bsky.social draws from South Korean sources to report on gathering outrage there over the Trump administration’s abuse of Korean workers in Georgia. A pro forma statement of “regrets” from a deputy Secretary of State seems not to have smoothed things over.

As Israel launches another offensive into Gaza, imagine Israelis being told in mid-October 2023 that two years later Gaza would look like this; most Israeli hostages would be dead or still captive; and Hamas would still not be defeated. In what world is this success? (Via @wesleymorgan.bsky.social

Breaking: First new sections of Trump border wall are going up in the San Rafael Valley. This is an ecological catastrophe for the Arizona-Sonora borderlands, especially for the endangered jaguars and ocelots that move across the border here. READ: biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press...

Important thread. @chriso-wiki.bsky.social draws from South Korean sources to report on gathering outrage there over the Trump administration’s abuse of Korean workers in Georgia. A pro forma statement of “regrets” from a deputy Secretary of State seems not to have smoothed things over.

Thread by Civil War historian @civilwarmemory.bsky.social. There are a lot of Trump Republicans committed to being “for the white, against the colored” — it’s less a political principle than a badge of identity. It would still be helpful to know which Trump officials demanded these changes.

Sen. Schumer clinging to those old talking points with the determination of a drowning man clinging to a piece of driftwood — perhaps a kitchen table swept away by the flood, via @sahilkapur.bsky.social 1/2

It’s useful sometimes to consider the details of politics. Note that in this clip, @govpritzker.illinois.gov uses language that is plausibly his, and definitely not Donald Trump’s. Democrats (or their speechwriters) have long thought it clever to riff on Trump catchphrases. “Nyah, Nyah, Nyah…

Sen. Schumer clinging to those old talking points with the determination of a drowning man clinging to a piece of driftwood — perhaps a kitchen table swept away by the flood, via @sahilkapur.bsky.social 1/2