I had forgotten how history sometimes hits you like a gut punch. Today, I hit a dead end on finding the origins of a formerly enslaved man born in Phillips County, Arkansas in 1855. The 1860 slave register shows 706 five-year-old boys held in slavery. Seven hundred and six

Trump has claimed 50% of U.S. presidents have invoked the Insurrection Act. We broke it down:

This video from Portland is a metaphor for what is going on in America. ICE trying so hard to get Americans to cross a line and if they don't, dragging them across the line and violently attacking.

This is how Trump does everything. Reporting from reliable sources says he’s going to do something outrageous/ridiculous. He immediately claims it’s fake news. Then a few days or weeks later he does exactly what was originally reported.

Trump’s America: Thousands of furloughed federal workers in Hyattsville, Maryland waiting in line for food.

“In general, you may not spend money that has been donated because the Constitution and the Anti-Deficiency Act say that you can’t spend money unless you have an appropriation to make it happen,” said Bobby Kogan at the Center for American Progress. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Peggy Noonan is worried now www.wsj.com/opinion/a-re...

“Tricia McLaughlin said protesters “shot at agents” with fireworks and threw objects at agents [and] Agents...gave protesters multiple warnings. The video of the incident does not show protesters throwing rocks or fireworks at agents, nor can agents be heard warning protesters.”

Video from witness here from the moment CBP gassed neighbors who had gathered outside after the kidnapping. Agent rolls a canister at the crowd out of the window of their car as they reverse away from people with whistles and bikes.

I wrote a much longer piece about my own thoughts on this paper as well. I liked it. The authors quantified the train wreck that is the current anti-vax ACIP's performance across 7 indicators of advisory group maturity. rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/evidence-b...

This is their playbook for the midterms. Intimidation and harassment - if we are lucky it will only be that. Because their full playbook is most likely much worse but this is the warmup act.

"The utmost refined ugliness has become the beauty ideal" Adolf Ziegler, President of the Third Reich Chamber for Fine Arts and plenipotentiary for ‘Degenerate Art’ 1936. Nazis blamed the "weak" Weimar leaders for promoting "so-called modern art," "so-called" so much they called it Entartete

For the record, on this day and every day I’m a proud Block Club reader. blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/24/f...

Trump: "I don't think we're necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war, I think we're just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. We're going to kill them. They're going to be, like dead."

34 people killed in 50 days. Their guilt or innocence unknown, for an alleged crime that doesn't carry a death sentence. That's a lot of death. adamisacson.com/boat-strikes/

“Did pardoning him have anything to do with his involvement with your family’s crypto business?” Trump pretends to be unclear about who @kaitlancollins is talking about, then attacks her. (Spoiler: of course it did)

Q: On the pardon of Changpeng Zhao, Binance has significant business interests with World Liberty Financial, the president family's crypto company. How do you respond to criticisms that this is a corrupt act? LEAVITT: I would respond and say the president is exercising his constitutional authority

Trump: "I look the other night, Saturday night, Portland is burning to the ground and these people are saying it's just friendly stuff. The whole place is burning to the ground. So we'll take care of that one. That's like an insurrection more than it is anything else. Portland is crazy."

ABC News pulled the satellite imagery of the White House comparing Sept. 26 to today. abcnews.go.com/Politics/new...

Seriously, Dems should make an ad out of that clip. Several ads, really. Show people really being hurt by his policies and then that clip. Show grocery store prices folks can't pay, or people losing their insurance and then Karoline saying, "The ballroom is really the president's main priority."

Pour one out for Portland, for it is only a heap of ash now. Trump: "I looked the other night, Saturday night, Portland is like burning to the ground, and these people are saying it’s just friendly stuff. The whole place is burning to the ground!"

NEW: The Ninth Circuit votes AGAINST an en banc rehearing of the case on the deployment of the California National Guard to LA, leaving the panel decision permitting the deployment intact. Eleven judges file a dissent. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

My thoughts: When we didn't get the ruling on the stay pending appeal en banc request ruling in the California case before the merits hearing, the vote outcome was clear. From the Berzon statement, we see that she is at least hoping a later, merits en banc vote would be different, if needed.

California moved tonight to intervene in the en banc rehearing request at the Ninth Circuit in the Oregon National Guard case.

If the National Guard is really in D.C. to protect federal property, they should probably have been at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. two days ago

Finally: If Trump is hinting or outright demanding that DOJ give him $230 million in claims, how can any official who might be needing a pardon later say no to him? Reinforces the picture of all this as a kind of criminal syndicate. Raskin is strong on this here: newrepublic.com/article/2021...

Chris Murphy: "There's a lot of history that has taken place in the East Wing & it was just destroyed without any conversation in the public, without any consent of Congress. It's absolutely illegal. That visual is powerful b/c you're watching destruction of the rule of law as those walls come down"

The same people who lost their minds over renovations to Cracker Barrel are totally fine with the White House getting bulldozed

New on MSNBC: The entire East Wing of the White House will be demolished "within days." Trump said in July his project "won't interfere with the current building."

Let’s call it what it is: murder

This is heartbreaking. Any comments from congress now?

My tweet about Pete Hegseth's Russian flag tie definitely bothered some people in The White House.

christ almighty what is this guy doing www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Raskin details how he tried to get unanimous consent today to force Johnson to swear in Adelita Grijalva, but the Acting Speaker Haridopolos "scurried out of the room"

💬 Zelenskyy: "As soon as the issue of long-range capabilities became a little further away for us—for Ukraine—Russia almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy."

I’m sorry, what now? Also and again, Republicans in Congress are demonstrably okay with everything that’s happening

Ignore all laws about altering historic properties ✅ Pave over Rose Garden for tacky Mar-A-Lardo Patio ✅ Demolish East Wing after lying that "It won't interfere with the current building. It'll be near it but not touching it" ✅ Build gaudy $250M Ballroom as public struggles financially ✅ #Ugh🤢✅

Trump is demolishing parts of the White House: It looks like he intends to remodel it as his Presidential Palace. Dictators, who don't ever plan to leave office, do this kind of thing. Good luck with those midterms, America.

Mike Johnson on Adelita Grijalva, who he refuses to swear in: "Instead of doing TikTok videos, she should be serving her constituents."

Two Trump judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit allow Donald Trump to deploy the National Guard in Oregon. One of them writes separately to note that judges have no authority to even hear these cases. Judge Susan Graber, a Clinton appointee, calls on the full court to reverse:

And if Trump may tear down part of the White House without congressional approval, I don't see an argument against his authority to tear down the entire White House at his whim.

In 2024, Charlie Kirk assigned his podcast co-host Blake Neff the task of taking MLK down a peg in the public's estimation. Neff is most well known for having been fired by Tucker Carlson in 2020 for being exposed as a white nationalist. www.wired.com/story/charli...

Saturday: Posts AI video of himself as King dumping diarrhea all over protesting Americans from a fighter jet Monday: Rips facade off East Wing of White House (without permission) to begin construction of a personal vanity project Mike Johnson: Nothing to see here, folks! Just democracy in motion!

TRUMP BEGINS DEMOLISHING THE WHITE HOUSE He said they wouldn’t touch the existing building as they begin tearing down the East Wing section that will link to a new ballroom set to cost $250 million. God knows how many corporate ’sponsors’ and backhanders are involved. I suspect a new gold paint

“I can’t imagine why anybody would want their music used or associated with something created with the sole purpose of dividing us."

The general in charge of National Guard troops currently deployed to D.C. instructed those under his command to “winterize” and prepare for a “long term persistent presence” in the District. www.notus.org/defense/gene...

The dissent does an excellent job making the majority look like fools. cst.brightspotcdn.com/d9/44/ff61b3...

“Instead, the district court substituted its own assessment of the facts for the President’s assessment of the facts,” Nelson and Bade wrote. Wait, isn’t this what judges do? Or now the judges have to give weight to the defendant’s “interpretation of facts”? We’re so fucked.

🚨BREAKING: A federal appeals court Monday all but cleared the way for President Donald Trump to deploy National Guard troops into Portland, Oregon. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...