Just the paramilitary secret police manhandling an opposition political candidate.

Rep. Moskowitz asks Kash Patel about Trump's claim that his signature was faked in the Epstein Birthday Book: "Will you be opening up an investigation into the Epstein estate for putting out a fake document with the president's signature linking him to the world's largest pedophile ring?"

This is an archived government report that found that “Since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists.” It existed yesterday and is gone today.

Here is Stephen Miller clearly indicating that we're about to see a McCarthyite campaign of state-sponsored persecution against the liberal-left, all fake-justified by the murder of Charlie Kirk:

Some personal news: I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting. Thread incoming. substack.com/@karenattiah...

“If they’re picking up trash, they’re not here for a security emergency. There’s no clearer metric than that.” @jkdemp.bsky.social

People from all over are showing up for DC. This is not a moment. It’s a movement. We are united in our demands. We are all DC! #FreeDC

I have made a lot of bad predictions about elections over the past nine years or so, but the effects of elections? Not too shabby, alas. saideman.blogspot.com/2025/02/why-... See my scenario for civil war and replace NY/California with Illinois. We may be at the threshold of civil war.

Let's start with the "best" scenario right now: that the US. remains a "competitive authoritarian" system. We have elections that are unfree and unfair, but not total and complete shams. This means that:

1) it will be difficult — but not impossible — for the opposition to win elections; and 2) if the government overtly steals an election, it can be toppled via widespread popular mobilization *if* the security services split or abandon the regime.

So I imagine that folks who insisted it wasn’t ethnic cleansing, land theft, forced removal are lined up to apologize for insisting that this was just about defeating Hamas fighters and the return of the hostages.

This is absolutely catastrophic for U.S. higher education, and for U.S. global leadership. Just the latest in a series of senseless acts of self-sabotage by a malevolent administration bent on making the United States weak and poor.

#NIH is hanging by a thread. The #CDC has been decimated. #RFK Jr. and Russell #Vought are psychopaths--I don't say this frivolously--they are cold, calculating, inflicting violence on millions through public policy. It is where we are right now. These men are not normal. 1/

Caption this

“This case presents a straightforward First Amendment violation,” Judge Sooknanan wrote. She added, “It should alarm all Americans when the government retaliates against individuals or organizations for engaging in constitutionally protected public debate.” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/15/t...

When tariffs were “maybe,” firms waited. The pause is over, and the tariffs are here. So finally, by August, businesses will be pushed to choose—absorb costs, reprice, or re-source. Expect consumers to really start to see price hikes over the next few months as the fog lifts and the invoices arrive.

“Once Israeli leaders realized that they would face no consequences for killing one of the Arab world’s most prominent journalists, who also happened to be a US citizen, is it surprising they would later conclude that they could get away with killing many more?” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The upward redistribution of wealth over the past 50 years has shifted $80 trillion from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%.  That’s $80 trillion that would have gone into the paychecks of the working class. The greatest trick of all is trickle-down economics.

Fill up the rest of your August calendar with fundraisers, workshops, bike rides, and more. Don't forget the noise demonstrations! 51st.news/making-some-...

The only place in DC where crime is up is the White House.

Another humanitarian group – this time, Doctors without Borders – concludes Israel is deliberately killing the very people it has been starving by shooting them as they queue for aid. Its report is titled: "This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing." www.msf.org/not-aid-orch...

GMU President Keeps Job Amid Tensions Faculty members feared @georgemasonu.bsky.social's board would fire its president Friday in the face of ongoing federal investigations they deem politically motivated. The board gave him a raise instead. bit.ly/3ITdDAp #HigherEd #EDUSky #AcademicSky

NEW: The Preventing Maternal Deaths Act pumped tens of millions of dollars a year into a program to help fund state committees that review maternal deaths and identify their causes. It’s now at risk of being cut. By @cassandrajaramillo.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug... “one possible effect of the bad economic news may be to induce MAGA to put the real Project 2025 — the plot to destroy American democracy — on an accelerated schedule.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/m... “community colleges are grappling with disappearing federal grants, shuttered D.E.I. offices, eliminated programs… many of the grants that fund financial aid for low-income students and the staff that support them have been eliminated or threatened”

The Washington Litigation Group is the latest firm to join a coterie of pro bono organizations that have emerged in recent months to challenge the Trump administration, which is already facing about 375 lawsuits.

64 nations.

New pro bono law firm aims to bring appellate expertise to very beginning of a client’s case, to improve odds of making a successful argument before SCOTUS. It’s a game plan straight out of the Big Law playbook. But many large firms receded from this type of work to avoid drawing Trump’s wrath

The US could see a 30-40% decline in new international student enrollment, resulting in nearly $7 billion in lost revenue and more than 60,000 fewer American jobs. https://www.nafsa.org/fall-2025-international-student-enrollment-outlook-and-economic-impact

What happens next is basically an iron law of dictatorships. Fearing the consequences of passing bad news to the dictator, bureaucrats pass entirely false but good news. His ego baloons. Government announcements quickly become unreliable as the difference between fact and propaganda disappears.

This is a fantastic oped about why universities must not continue toadying to Trump www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

The most corrupt White House in history. Here is an account of what people are paying, directly to a PAC called MAGA Inc, in order to meet the president, get pardons, change policy www.nytimes.com/2025/08/02/u...

The end result of this is that a bunch of cis women athletes are going to find out they're intersex.

I made an event timeline to try to make sense of all the federal overreach at @georgemasonu.bsky.social and whoo boy. When you lay it out like this, the executive over reach comes into focus. open.substack.com/pub/misofact...

Firing the BLS Commissioner — the wonk in charge of the statisticians who track economic reality — is an authoritarian four alarm fire. It will also backfire: You can't bend economic reality, but you can break the trust of markets. And biased data yields worse policy.

NEW: New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan (R) has declined a request from the U.S. Department of Justice to turn over the state’s full statewide voter registration list, citing state law and cybersecurity concerns. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Records obtained by ProPublica show the Trump administration is preparing to shut down seven major investigations of alleged housing discrimination and segregation, including some where HUD already found civil rights violations had occurred. By @jessecoburn.bsky.social

As a graduate of Duke law and graduate school, I hope they tell Trump to fuck off.

Yet another excellent piece today.

‘There is nothing to buy’: Gaza’s descent into mass starvation https://on.ft.com/4o5I46b

Trump is closing all four climate observatory stations in Alaska, Hawaii, American Samoa, and Antartica. Because you can't have high CO2 levels if you don't *measure* CO2 levels. roll_safe.gif

OCHA provides critical support in conflict & disaster zones. In warzones, it coordinates info that helps streamline NGO response & deconfliction (so aid orgs didn't get targeted as hostile). The network through which search & rescue teams deploy internationally to earthquakes & floods is under OCHA.

The IRS is building a computer program that will share CONFIDENTIAL tax data with ICE to expedite deportations. My latest video on the outrageous violations of privacy by this new system & why this is just the tip of the iceberg of the damage DOGE has done. youtu.be/I0e2NzGo3kQ?...

NIH advisory councils are being gutted - reviewers were ousted before starting. NIH staff were told to nominate Trump-loyal scientists, and warned that even those could be replaced by handpicked cronies. What’s happening at Trump’s NIH is a hostile takeover of science. zurl.co/WQS6B

I wrote about the disappearance of Andry José Hernández Romero, who hasn’t been seen or heard from in more than four months. www.salon.com/2025/07/16/t...

Half of the administration was grown in Florida, and most of project 2025 was tested there.

The Appalachian region in Ohio and elsewhere is bracing for a big hit as President Donald Trump proposed a 93% cut to funding for the Appalachian Regional Commission. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/07/15/t...