not a single news org signed. that's what it takes. stand together. everywhere, every time.

"This is the only map...to stop the Democrats." Utah GOP email urges members to flood public comments supporting "Option C"-the redistricting map proposal that analysis shows would give Democrats a less than 10% chance of winning any district. Full story: champ.ly/VdIACrYI

We edge closer and closer to some of the worst atrocities we've seen in history

Trump's higher ed ransom note is here - everyone would have to acquiesce to their unprecedented demands or not be "given priority for grants," plus they can demand "reimbursement" for "violations" www.wsj.com/us-news/educ... A mechanism to enforce fealty. An attack on academic freedom and democracy

Every few months now I re-read this "Who Goes Nazi?" piece from 1941 and am blown away by how it captures the people we are dealing with 80 years later. harpers.org/archive/1941...

This is a warrior. He marched across France, and as a German-speaker, translated for Nazi POWs caught defending the Third Reich. Then he came home, went to Alabama Polytechnic Institute on the GI Bill, and met my other grandma. Forget your lust for the rich man’s gold. All you need is in your soul

Wrote about some failures of major media orgs to meet this moment with a few recent truly head-scratching examples.

Corruption

The accompanying editorial tells the sad truth that is largely being ignored www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Young’s opinion, which rules that the Trump admin illegally targeted pro-Palestinian students for deportation, is absolutely scathing. “In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police…ICE brings indelible obloquy to this administration and everyone who works in it.”

Judge Young: "This case ... squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally 'yes, they do.' 'No law' means 'no law.'"

This is grounds for Congress to remove Trump today.

"ICE tactics inflame tensions" is exactly the correct way to report on this. It's not Gavin Newsom calling the admin authoritarian that are radicalizing people against ICE, it's their own actions, which are being met with fear and horror.

Bring on the war crimes

so much for ethics, rule of law, or basic human decency - could we please impeach and otherwise begin to staunch the horror of this administration

The vast percentage of roles in the modern US military are *not* in combat. Who cares if your mechanic can do 100 pushups? If your cook can run a sub-6 minute mile? If your intelligence analyst can deadlift 300 pounds? And who cares if your Sec of Defense is great at PT if he cannot think or lead?

Any mention of the law?

Quite the call to military "professionalism" where the Secretary of Defense drops some light cursing and the commander in chief can't show up on time.

While this admin is certainly dangerous, its clear TV personalities like Hegseth don't understand power. Preaching at your flag officers isn't going to do to your principal-agent problem what you think its going to do

Generals...thank you for coming to my Ted Talk

As fewer children get their flu shots, cases of a rare, severe complication are rising. Last season, the U.S. experienced the highest number of pediatric flu deaths in 15 years. spr.ly/63323AdiWd

It's not just bribery. He's now using personal litigation, backed by state extortion, to extract "settlements" which he then puts into an account he created to spend on government work, all entirely outside of Congress taxing or appropriating. It's full Charles I illegal taxation and spending.

Pritzker: "In any other country, if federal agents fired upon journalists & protesters when unprovoked what would we call it? If officials marched down streets harassing civilians & demanding their papers, what would we say? I don't think we'd have trouble calling it what it is: authoritarianism"

Say it often, say it loud: "Overall, research has not supported the common-sense presumption that digital approaches to schooling are better than non-digital alternatives. At the broadest level, widespread computer use in education has been found to be associated with lower student achievement."

I’ve been asked to speak many times about gun violence over the last decade….and here are some thoughts on my experience @wbur.org @cogwbur.bsky.social www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

It was a true honor to talk to legendary political scientist Adam Przeworski about how he understands the present crisis, what he learned from Chile and Poland, and how to move forward from here www.dissentmagazine.org/article/how-...

Upon reflection the problem is that an interlocking system of subsidies means it is possible to hit the middle, for about 30 years, in a new-build American exurb. Then reality (deteriorating & inappropriate infrastructure, pensions) kicks in. But then you go to a new exurb and absorb new subsidies.

Here's my column on how shutdowns work. It's my best attempt at explaining what keeps going, what keeps going only for a short period of time, and what stops immediately. Shutdowns are complicated, but I tried my best here. www.americanprogress.org/article/what...

The battle of our day is no longer about Democrats versus Republicans or left versus right. The choice right now is democracy or dictatorship. And we're sliding faster than I ever thought possible into the latter. Everyone must choose which side they’re on.

Who decides what is democratic?

I went to the ICE facility Trump claims is "under siege" by antifascists and "other domestic terrorists." There were four protesters there, one a thoughtful young man in a chicken costume www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Driving didn’t “naturally” become inevitable. We designed a society that make driving inevitable in most places. We can design something different

Kennedy timed his retirement to make sure Trump got an extra pick on the court. It is not "partisanship" that is threatening American democracy. It is people who do not believe in democracy.

Why do headlines say "norms shattered" when what is meant is "laws broken" or "Constitution violated"?

Well said by Karl Jacoby, this has been much on my mind, need to think about the absurd meeting of generals in this light

Another example of the pettiness and threat of the Trump administration's censorship and deletion of science: USEPA used to have tools and training for #water utilities to build system resilience in the face of extreme weather, including #climatechange. That website is gone. Poof. www.epa.gov/crwu

Yes

Wiranto, the chief of Indonesia's military, refused to use this same power that Suharto gave him, leading to Suharto's resignation after 30 years in power. Because he knew it would rip Indonesia apart.

Ezra Klein has been speaking a lot on red states and rural Democrats and here’s the thing…he shouldn’t. He has no idea what he’s talking about.

I have also reached out to colleagues in “war-ravaged Portland”’s largest ICUs, who describe the scene on the ground as “peaceful and lovely”

Troops. In an American city. Using full force. Your now-regular reminder that Republican members of Congress are letting this happen.

Trump is ordering the military to use “full force” against an American city, while the Supreme Court declares him the Sun King and Congress hides under a pile of coats. The checks and balances only work when the institutions aren’t run by utter cowards and the complicit

"Having already attacked judges, lawyers, media companies and universities, Trump now sets his sights on civil society." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Kagan: The so-called irreparable harm that the Trump administration says it suffers is merely "the price of living under a Constitution that gives Congress the power to make spending decisions through the enactment of appropriations laws...a frustration any President must bear."

"As medical care evaporates, it is moms who die in childbirth. As food disappears and babies cry from hunger, some overwhelmed husbands abandon their wives and children." from @nickkristof.bsky.social, on the damage done by the "pro-life" Americans who elected Trump www.nytimes.com/2025/09/27/o...

This sounds crazy but it’s literally just a plain, accurate description. Again, like all the rest of the lawless authoritarianism, this Article III constitutional crisis is really an Article I constitutional crisis. Congress could end this nonsense at literally any time. bsky.app/profile/mcop...

"The effect is a line-item veto for the president over spending... Once again, the rules magically change when Trump is in office... This is not behavior that a healthy democracy tolerates from its judiciary. It is the kind of constitutional rot that precedes the rule of law’s collapse."

I agree! So assert your rights as a citizen of a functioning democracy. Engage. Participate. Speak up. Vote. Donate. Volunteer. And stop huddling behind a keyboard and mythologizing a failed real estate developer as Mussolini, Hitler, or Pol Pot. People who believe in democracy are the majority.

One of many problems with SCOTUS being captured by a partisan Republican supermajority is that they abuse power so frequently their legal reasoning skills atrophy. If these people went back to law school they would get bad grades.

There should be more love songs for, like, libraries. And cheese. And people who stay calm when bad things happen.