This is what politicization of the Justice Department results in.

Political violence rises when grievance and hopelessness converge; these forces are present and intensifying in the United States today. But Kat Armas says despair is not the only path.

"We are fast becoming a banana republic, with two standards of justice. If you oppose the leader, you go to jail just for speech. If you're a loyalist, you get immunity for your crimes. That's what happens in Iran - not the United States. This is a decision moment for America." Sen. Chris Murphy

Death be not proud. Or dignified.

I'm not generally a big Nate Silver fan, but he's on the money here www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/o... If the Dems push a shutdown, it should be over Trump's abuse of tariff authority.

4th deadly US strike on a boat in the Caribbean. As with the others: -in area US military operates freely -arrest low risk -no legal rationale -violates international law -no evidence of who US hit If really traffickers—very much an if—the move is interdiction. Would get evidence and intelligence.

Happy 21st of September.

had a ton of fun working on this poll with @today.yougov.com about the songs that everybody knows the lyrics to, the generational anthems are super neat www.numlock.com/p/numlock-su...

Student visas dropped to a four year low. Trump also cuts spending on research by hundreds of billions on college campuses. This is how you end American exceptionalism. I gifted this article so you can read it www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Police state. apnews.com/article/trum...

The @washingtonpost.com story on Tylenol & autism leaves out a MAJOR 2.5M sibling-controlled study of children in Denmark, which "found no evidence that acetaminophen use during pregnancy was associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability." jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Note: Stealth NYT edit. (Thanks to the eagle-eyed reader who saw that!)

bsky corp is crypto bros, i'm sure they'll have no problem with dead Charlie Kirk meme coins www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

"I have spent the last few weeks addressing and preparing for a military invasion by the President of the United States. No, I’m not a soldier or a foreign adversary. I’m the Governor of Illinois"

Got sucked into the side of TikTok commenting on the trend in American evangelicalism right now—where there’s a growing belief that that the rapture will happen this Tuesday—September 23rd This is due to a of set of things happening in Israel interpreted through a tangled "Left Behind" theology+

Oh.

Again I ask - Sunday shows why?

This is unconscionable @nytimes.com. An abdication of journalistic responsibility and judgment.

Disappearing people, the way good countries on the right side of history do.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller at the Kirk memorial: “You have no idea the dragon you have awakaned. “We will save this civilization and the West.”

You guys, I’m not an economist I didn’t even graduate from college, though I do have an advanced degree (but not a fancy one) and even I know this is not a good sign

When the President calls for the DOJ to target his political opponents—AND publicly—that’s a sign we’re heading for increasing authoritarian behavior. We’re going to have to fight like hell to protect our democracy.

Rumors aren't facts. But last fall the Finance/DC corridor was awash in chatter that bribes and cash payments were flying fast and furious. Given the nature of this crew, essentially zero chance Homan was alone in this.

If they were all documented, it's hard to imagine how this isn't another example of ICE using workplace as a proxy for determining who to bully and harass. I'm just glad Brett Kavanaugh thinks this is all above board.

In Naperville, IL on Wednesday, ICE surrounded a group of documented workers replacing a residential roof. ICE agents reportedly kicked over the ladders and forced the workers to jump. The episode involved a chase with guns drawn.

Selective prosecution is an inordinately difficult defense to make. But a finding of inadequate evidence, followed by a firing of the US attorney who made that finding, followed by a presidential command to the Attorney General to prosecute his enemies is the strongest possible footing. Look for it.

We are fast becoming a banana republic, with two standards of justice. If you oppose the leader, you go to jail just for speech. If you're a loyalist, you get immunity for your crimes. That's what happens in Iran - not the United States. This is a decision moment for America.

Imagine if Richard Nixon had just tweeted out the Watergate scandal rather than putting it on secret tapes. That’s what this is.

They want to get rid of reporting all together.

John Roberts's "there's no such thing as corruption" and "the president has the right to use the DOJ as his personal law firm" jurisprudence is really working out well for us.

Trump aide Homan accepted $50,000 in bribery sting operation, sources say reut.rs/3W4qfrm

Insanity. AKA, official editorial position of the WaPo. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

The problem with the Ezra Klein view of the world is it's based on the existence of a centre-right and centre-left willing to find common ground. Authoritarians aren't interested in common ground, just power.

Orwell seems prescient lately. It’s interesting to go back to that time—during and after WWII—and look at his peers. Sinclair Lewis wrote “It Can’t Happen Here” about a slimy Senator who sounds familiar

👀⚖️ Wow. Trump was deplatformed while Trump was president. Not when Biden was president. Jeez Louise, get the basic facts straight.👇🏾 #firstamendment www.cnn.com/2021/01/08/t...

NEW: Air Force jets are doing ICE flights to Africa with transponders turned off, making them nearly un-trackable. This includes the third-country removal to Ghana and another secret flight. We figured out where it landed. From me for @rollingstone.com: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Josh Shapiro: "I was on a Spanish language radio program in the Allentown area and the host said something really chilling to me -- that he now has to think about what topics he's going to discuss because he's fearful he might offend federal regulators of the president."

Earlier this year, ProPublica found that the sepsis rate in second-trimester pregnancy loss hospitalizations increased by more than 50% under Texas’ abortion ban. Here’s how we did our analysis. (Published Feb. 2025)

Even if you take the most lenient possible interpretation -- that SCOTUS has made it increasingly hard to prosecute bribery and corruption -- you still have to ask what kind of crooked-ass administration hires a guy who just took $50k cash.

Someone once said to me that it's best to assume that you have immediately lost control of any photo that you post online. These companies are horrendous and we should all be very careful about what we give to them www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

im having a harder time with politics than i ever have in my life, including the iraq war and the recession. we're in a full blown fascism explosion and the so-called opposition party has never been weaker. everything we've stood for as americans is being eroded, with a whimper.

So we are at the satchels of cash stage of corruption I see.

🚨 FCC Chief Brendan Carr, author of Project 2025 chapter about the FCC, cheers collapse of American journalism. The article Carr posted celebrates Trump banning AP from the White House.

3rd deadly US strike on a boat in the Caribbean. As with the others: -in area US military operates freely -where arrest has relatively low risk, and greater strategic value -no US legal rationale, or even attempt to offer one -blatant violation of international law -no evidence US knew who they hit

Raskin: "He wants to condition the public to the idea that it's completely legitimate for the president not only to be ordering prosecutions of particular people over the objections of prosecutors, but he wants to condition the public to accepting the idea he can do that in public, openly."

On Charlotte transit and voting on a sales tax increase: a couple of links to help people choose in November: charlotteledger.substack.com/p/transit-pl... On its money for biking: charlotteledger.substack.com/p/charlotte-...

I don’t know how ICE agents sleep at night, but this right here is absolutely heartless! They detained two parents and their 22-year-old son outside Chicago while the family was on their way to celebrate their 10-year-old’s birthday.

So Trump gets DOJ to drop an obvious bribery case against Tom Homan, then fires the US Attorney who found insufficient evidence to prosecute Letitia James, then threatens to fire Pam Bondi and replace her with dunce Lindsey Halligan unless she immediately indicts his enemies.

From publicly demanding that Pam Bondi go after his political enemies to the reported decision to close a Tom Homan bribery case, the Justice Department is basically Donald Trump's personal law firm now.