The Top 1% of U.S. earners now have more wealth than the entire middle class

A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.

"Beyond being the 24th consecutive grant of emergency relief to the Trump administration, the cryptic ruling in Orr is a reminder of just how bankrupt the Court’s proffered justifications are in these cases—both legally and in other ways, too." Me on today's ugly #SCOTUS ruling in Trump v. Orr:

#BREAKING: #SCOTUS grants yet another stay to the Trump administration, putting back into place a new State Department policy requiring passports to display their bearers' biological sex at birth. Justice Jackson (joined by Justices Sotomayor and Kagan) once again dissents.

Hero jury saves hoagie hurler from legal grinder www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/u...

The Trump administration’s military strikes on alleged drug boats are “blatantly unlawful as a matter of U.S. domestic law—and a quickly spreading stain on whatever is left of the executive branch’s commitment to the rule of law.” Me on “extrajudicial killings” in the latest issue of “One First”:

* Most October layoffs since 2003 * Most Q4 layoffs since 2008 * Most YTD layoffs since 2020 * Least YTD hiring since 2011 * Least holiday seasonal hiring since 2012 The labor market has a problem. www.axios.com/2025/11/06/l...

Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design. news.sky.com/story/the-x-...

This really hasn’t gotten enough attention this week. @wired.com #ICE www.wired.com/story/fbi-wa...

New — I wrote about Zohran's victory, the challenge of celebrating wins in a broken world, and reconciling the competing realities of profound hope and festering fear:

this morning, ICE went into a Spanish language immersion daycare and took a teacher from the building in front of screaming and crying kids and parents at dropoff and the daycare had to shut down for the day (near Lane Tech, where they were yesterday). Really hoping today's "theme" is not "daycare."

No..no it doesn’t

Raids inside day cares had been off limits until this year, when, on his first day in office, President Donald Trump removed that protection. The arrest reportedly took place in front of children. 19thnews.org/2025/11/chil...

oops here is the gift link

Tonight’s election results are proof that Americans are demanding change. Texans want access to affordable health care, lower costs, public schools, and good jobs. When Texans finally have a governor who prioritizes our needs, we’ll deliver real results for working families across the state.

WOW. A federal judge says he's going to issue a Temporary Restraining Order requiring ICE to make changes at the Broadview facility in Chicago, a facility that until January was only for stays under 12 hours "absent exceptional circumstances," but has become, in Judge Gettleman's words, "a prison."

NEW: The notorious 287(g) task force program has finally reached the Texas Department of Public Safety, raising fears of widespread racial profiling. In other words: Texas is deputizing some of its state officers to act as roving ICE agents. www.texasobserver.org/texas-dps-28...

A Border Patrol agent was caught on video telling another to throw tear gas “for fun,” according to a court filing. They also mocked protesters and residents who were getting gassed.

New: The Trump administration is moving forward with plans to build a border wall “along the entire southern border,” including in the city of Laredo, Mayor Victor D. Treviño announced Monday.

New from 404 Media: CBP has quietly launched a facial recognition app for local cops to do immigration enforcement. Scans their face, tells cops whether to contact ICE about this person or not. A truly rapid expansion of ICE's facial recognition app to local cops www.404media.co/cbp-quietly-...

When you book a flight through major travel sites, a data broker owned by U.S. airlines will sell details about your flight—your name, credit card used, and where you’re flying to the government. We found out how to opt-out of ARC selling your travel data. A guide: www.404media.co/how-to-opt-o...

“Seizing the means of production,” you say? 🤡 (via @samsteindc.bsky.social)

NEW — The TRiiBE obtained audio of a 911 call made by a Border Patrol agent to report a crash injuring a 49-year-old Black woman in Chicago. In the aftermath of the crash, a federal agent was captured on witness video apparently placing a Black man in a chokehold. thetriibe.com/2025/11/list...

NEW: DHS used to only have information on immigrants who’d had contact with the agency. Under a new data-sharing agreement, the system added information — including full Social Security numbers — on millions of Americans not in DHS databases.

In Chicago, a woman was driving to get coffee when a DHS vehicle fleeing an angry crowd crashed into her car. Armed agents jumped out of the vehicle, yanked her door open, pulled her by the legs out of her car at gunpoint, held her incommunicado for hours, then released her with no charges.

A majority of Americans do not believe President Trump is committed to protecting freedom of speech, ensuring a fair criminal justice system or preserving free and fair elections, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll.

We've got you 👍

Trump's average disapproval rating has hit 56% in our tracker at fiftyplusone.news. He is now just a point off his (then historically low) net approval rating at this point in 2017, and nearly meeting the high point of Joe Biden's disapproval rating in 2022/late 2024 (57.3%).

Today's "One First" dives into the question #SCOTUS is now asking in the Illinois National Guard case—and why "regular forces" *does* mean only the military; why the Trump administration should therefore *lose*; and why that *won't* necessarily provide a justification to invoke the Insurrection Act:

Trump is holding a Great Gatsby/Roaring 20s-themed party at his private club in Palm Beach tonight as he tries to withhold SNAP and health care subsidies from millions of Americans. (via Kellie Meyer)

note how the messaging has shifting from "we're targeting criminals" to "we're deporting everyone"

Here’s a disturbing video from Evanston of a federal agent hitting a man on the ground as people yell that he can’t breathe.

Can Sec. Noem look at Goerge Retes, Lenardo Vanegas, and 170+ U.S. citizens in the eye and lie to their face? We’ve read the reports, heard the stories, and seen the videos. Americans citizens, including children, are being illegally detained. This is the racial profiling dragnet we warned about.

On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.

But going as themselves they were in fact pretty ghoulish

Children tear-gassed. Teenagers tackled to the ground. Bellingcat analysed footage of clashes between federal officers and civilians after a judge issued a restraining order on crowd-control tactics in Illinois: www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/10...

Where have all the libertarians gone

SCOOP: The Trump administration acknowledged they don’t know the identities of the people they’re killing; can’t meet the evidentiary burden to prosecute survivors; and consider those survivors to be “unprivileged belligerents." theintercept.com/2025/10/31/t...

🚨 EXPLOSIVE NEW investigation: We uncovered previously undisclosed details about an 18-month money laundering investigation into Jeffrey Epstein that took place alongside the 2007 sex crimes probe, according to emails obtained from Epstein's personal Yahoo account 🎁 www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

In October, when Aryn Melton Backus received a layoff notice, it wasn’t the first time she’d been fired from the CDC by email, nor the second. Backus has been terminated and then reinstated three times this year. My latest on the tumult and inefficiencies at CDC: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

NEW: you can't refuse to be scanned by ICE's new facial recognition app, according to internal DHS document 404 Media obtained. Photos taken by the app are stored for 15 years, including of U.S. citizens. We've published the full document here: www.404media.co/you-cant-ref...

On the occasion of Halloween, @newrepublic.com asked me to write about what’s going on in Chicago and I wanted you all to know what randomized terror feels like. And also that as the federal government fails our kids, everyday Chicagoans are showing the courage of trying to protect them.

Can always count on the times for some hard hitting analysis

In 2018, the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy tore thousands of children from their parents. Years later, many remain separated. Our report highlights new government records and the struggle to end a troubling immigration policy, shedding light on a dark chapter in U.S. history.

No there isn’t and the “obstacle” is the constitution itself 

One question I haven’t seen raised is, if we’re to believe these boats are carrying drugs, how many drugs have been prevented from allegedly entering the country?