No justification, no authorization from Congress, and no clear objective. But none of that matters to Donald Trump — and apparently neither do the safety and lives of American service members.

Today’s military strikes on Iran — carried out by the United States and Israel — mark a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression. Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war.

As Trump gets less popular and less powerful, he leans into presidential prerogative powers were his powers have few real limits. Trump's character predicts it. It's a form of compensation and presidential self-care.

My statement on President Trump’s combat operations in Iran⬇️

In the meantime, the Senate must immediately vote on Senator Kaine’s War Powers Resolution to block this illegal military campaign.

Illinois friends, here is your next senator, I hope. (Especially since her opponent is a crypto-bro-financed squishy centrist who's trying to hide his pro-ICE voting record)

“UCLA neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf has shown that deep reading, defined as sustained immersion in a text, builds the cognitive circuits required for critical analysis, empathy and perspective-taking in ways that skimming, scrolling and short-form video simply cannot.”

I promise you that the government that murdered Alex Pretti and Renee Good does not give a flying fuck about the protests in Iran.

I can't fucking believe we're doing this again.

I'm begging my fellow politicians, Illinoisans, and Americans to realize that right now, we aren't fighting over policy or political party. We're fighting over whether we're going to be a country rooted in empathy and kindness — or one rooted in cruelty and rage.

White House stalls release of approved US science budgets: The administration has not yet released funding Congress allocated to multiple research agencies, so they cannot provide it to funded entities/people - including NIH and NASA. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

New — I spoke to eight trans people in Kansas about the new state law that invalidated their driver’s licenses overnight, what’s it’s like to live there right now, plus details of two DMV emails exclusively obtained by The Handbasket that shed light on the law’s chaotic and cruel rollout:

NEW: Any Lucia López Belloza, a freshman at Babson College, was deported by mistake, in violation of a judicial order. A judge ordered her return by Friday. Now the Trump administration has said it will deport her again if she comes back. Free gift link >>> www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/u...

People claiming Gavin Newsom is a front runner need to just stop.

I know, I know the wealthy protect the wealthy etc. But if some super rich lefty wants to be a damn hero - there's a absolute GLUT of good reporters looking for jobs in investigative journalism right now.

Academics who risk everything by speaking out against the Regime, under the very real threat of being defunded or fired for speaking out against them, are way more patriotic than these corrupt authoritarians who wrap themselves in the flag while robbing our freedom and future.

Former surgeon general Jerome Adams, MD: The Senate must not approve someone who can’t practice medicine as the nation’s top doctor via @statnews.com www.statnews.com/2026/02/27/c...

I love this song.

Every anti-vaxxer I encounter seems to love weird unregulated supplements. They hate Big Pharma but they love Little Pharma, Big Pharma’s younger sibling who grew up without any adult supervision.

The National Science Foundation is systematically being converted to the National AI and Quantum Research Foundation. “I see it as the administration exerting political control over what has traditionally been NSF’s ability to fund the best science.”

Dr. William Carter Jenkins was an epidemiologist at the CDC who fought tirelessly for ending discrimination and structural racism in science and healthcare. He led early efforts to end the Tuskegee Experiment. He is a public health hero

Many of y’all asked how you can support and donate to our female athletes and the celebrations,,, so I created a Go Fund Me. I’m hopeful this can have an impact beyond the weekend and help those that represent the best of the US gofund.me/140322128

Dropping off a partially crippled & mostly blind man who didn't speak the local language, before a locked coffee shop, with the expectation he'd to freeze to death (which is what happened)... it's hard to get lower than that Epstein-level loathsomeness.

Now that CNN and WBD are set to become state media in a sale to Paramount/Oracle/TikTok, it is especially important to support independent media. Off the top of my head: www.thehandbasket.co 404media.co www.garbageday.email Add your favorites in the replies. Fuck state-backed media monopolies.

NEW: When anti-ICE protesters disrupted a church service, the Trump administration vowed to stop at nothing to protect religious liberty. But congregations across the country who welcome immigrants say ICE has been violating their rights on a mass scale. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

Breaking news: A federal judge found that the IRS violated federal law “approximately 42,695 times” when it shared confidential taxpayer addresses with immigration enforcement officials last summer.

Hillary Clinton: “You have held zero public hearings, refused to allow the media to attend them, including today, despite espousing the need for transparency on dozens of occasions. You have made little effort to call the people who show up most prominently in the Epstein files.“

'IT ENDS TODAY': A federal judge in NJ says the Trump admin has continued to violate court orders in immigration cases and says he's prepared to haul in DOJ and DHS officials under oath. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Rightwing media is now just MeToo Welfare.

This summer is ten years. Ten years since my best friends became missing faces. Since groupchats became disconnected numbers. Since a man turned our night out for drinks into 49 funerals. Ten years and Florida politicians keep looking for new ways to inflict pain.

This whole effort is nuts, but also is another insight into Hegseth's obsession with gender. He initially said the Boy Scouts was failing to uphold "masculine values" after admitting girls. After pushback, his bottom line is excluding trans kids.

Gee, you wouldn’t know that from the (non) media coverage of his mental decline. But we all remember what they did with Biden. www.cnn.com/2026/02/26/p...

Saving these for descriptions of the Republican Party's electoral health after the midterms.

takes 30 seconds

🧵 Happening in every state where the GOP is in power. This was WI under Scott Walker, & we are but one gubernatorial election away from it being so again. You can’t govern when you hate public goods & public institutions & think voters in your big cities aren’t real people worthy of representation.

"He’s continued to lie to the American people," Adrian Aviles told CNN.

When Democrats take Congress back and restore its proper role as an independent branch with the delegated powers of determining where money is spent, deciding to go to war or levy tariffs, and conducting general oversight, there's going to be grumbling about how they're "going too far." Nope.

Watergate is an overused benchmark, but it's the one most Americans are familiar with. That scandal involved a president trying to cover up a crime that was basically breaking and entering by his subordinates, a misdemeanor in most places. This one, meanwhile ...

ICYMI: A popular right-wing account that called a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes "a masterpiece" appears to be run by a White House staffer, according to records reviewed by WIRED. www.wired.com/story/a-whit...

By itself, this should be considered utterly disqualifying for confirmation.

In the REAL ID era, this can also prevent people from flying.

They beat a blind refugee who speaks no English for failing to obey police commands he could not understand. Then instead of apologizing, they charged him with possession of a “weapon”—HIS WALKING STICK. Then they dumped him miles from home without notifying anyone, after which he was found dead.

If I'm Pritzker, I'm calling everyone to join me in Chicago to discuss coordinated action.

The Constitution clearly gives Congress the power to spend taxpayer funds, and no law allows the president to halt if he feels some US states aren’t being “good stewards” of the money. In case there’s any confusion on this, the Impoundment Control Act forbids it. Taxation without representation.

Important insight. ALSO, I have no patience (and I mean ZERO) with people who say "they won't ban birth control." They will eventually try BECAUSE WHAT THEY WANT IS TO CONTROL YOUR BODILY AUTONOMY. We need to be proactive about BODILY AUTONOMY IN GENERAL.

Abortion was phase I, trans healthcare was phase II, birth control is phase III

If the Trump administration needs help bringing them all back, I’ve got receipts. gillianbrockell.ghost.io/tracking-all...

A bill that would impose fines or jail time on homeless people living or and storing property on public property is on its way to a vote in the West Virginia House of Delegates, reports @lorikerseywv.bsky.social.

A key political “mastermind” behind the rise of Orban in Hungary and Netanyahu in Israel is Arthur Finkelstein, an American political consultant who got his start with Goldwater, moved on to Reagan and beyond. truestoryaward.org/story/230

So, that seems pretty damning. But wait! There's more! Draft Kings understands that gambling is a bipartisan issue. So on the same day that they created American Future, they also put 500K into another new PAC: American Conservative Fund. www.fec.gov/data/disburs...