Los Angeles has just declared a state of emergency. Not because of wildfires. Not because of riots. But because of an invasion by federal government troops. We can see where this is going.

"Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes." "Families are torn apart; men, women, and children are separated." - Anne Frank, 1943

Rep. Moulton is challenging incumbent Sen. Ed Markey, saying it's time for a new generation of leadership in the Democratic party.

Again, this is not what needs to be done. "Why are you breaking the law & violating the Constitution & your oath of office?" is the question. When he doesn't answer it, the next journalist needs to ask it, & then the next one, & the one after that. Stop giving him & John Thune free passes every day.

Guys in masks with no badges who refuse to identify themselves aren't law enforcement.

The deportation order derives from the crime of which he has now been exonerated. www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

i think "TACO" now is actually totally wrong. it's not that Trump chickens out. it's that maintaining a tariff regime requires object permanence

In other news Charlie Redmayne, the long serving CEO of HC in the UK, resigned yesterday.

"We took the freedom of speech away," says the president

The federal government as ordained and established by the Constitution has ceased to function, and what has replaced it isn't our government under our Constitution. That's not flippant rhetorical hyperbole, I don't say it insensitive to what the consequences are. But it's the grim reality we face.

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

Horrific reporting from the AP on the Myanmar families watching their kids starve to death from Trump and Musk’s aid cuts apnews.com/article/myan...

It's striking to me that while these Bishops are speaking out, no one has discussed the possibility of denying Vance communion, as Bishops have frequently done with Democratic politicians who support abortion rights.

It's time to start talking about legitimacy: when do we stop pretending that ICE is an arm of a democratic republic, rather than the thug squad of an aspiring fascist dictatorship? What deference is owed to organized criminals?

BREAKING NEWS: We just secured a court order blocking the president’s order to deploy federalized National Guard troops to Portland when a federal judge granted our request for a Temporary Restraining Order. Read our statement. #orpol #nationalguard #portland #portlandoregon

If you like yelling about misuse of the passive voice, THIS IS IT.

In Between Past and Future, Hannah Arendt makes the point that leisure time as originally conceived was time away not just from labor, but from politics. In that sense, Trump has robbed us all of our leisure time.

There’s no rule of journalistic neutrality that requires you to say something is “unclear” when that is objectively untrue. It would be illegal. There’s absolutely zero ambiguity about that fact. Saying it’s unclear is making a false statement in your reporting.

"How dare this former National Guard major" my god

This is simultaneously not an especially radical theological belief and, politically speaking (especially in the U.S. context), quite a thing for Pope Leo to say. www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/266859/...

People of Illinois, we need your help. Get your cell phones out – record what you see. Put it on social media. Peacefully ask for badge numbers and identification. Speak up for your neighbors. We need to let the world know this is happening – and that we won’t stand for it.

My thesis is that no matter how doomer you were in Nov. 2024, we're probably past your worst-case scenario for the first 9 months of this administration. It's very strange for me to realize I wasn't pessimistic enough. www.thebulwark.com/p/we-are-in-...

Court-watchers confirm this cruel ICE agent has been reinstated. Last week, in the briefest moment of decency, violently throwing a woman to the floor was “beneath the men and women of ICE.” This week, it’s back to business as usual. The cruelty, after all, is the point.

Meth.

Democrats inside and outside of Congress erupted in fury over a proposal circulated among Senate Democrats to reopen the government for seven to 10 days if a shutdown happens.

RIP Aaron Swartz 🥺

I have been haunted by this statement all day www.kgw.com/article/news...

Justice Kavanaugh: “If the person is a U. S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.”

The human is the failure component in a car crash. Human failure is what kills humans. An automobile is merely a medium engineered to compensate for it. And, by the way cars are rated, you could say it is in fact their most important trait. Not transportation of human. But compensation for them.

BREAKING NYT:   Trump just fired a U.S. attorney who insisted on following a court order.   Michele Beckwith, the top federal prosecutor in Sacramento, was fired hours after she reminded a Border Patrol chief to abide by court-ordered restrictions on immigration raids.

Lawlessness is contagious. It is spreading throughout Trump's Justice Department. This is what authoritarianism looks like. It's most potent enemy is the rule of law.

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...

Nothing to see here just the conservative majority using the shadow docket to destroy the idea the founders' principle that Congress holds the power of the purse.

Why would Democrats agree to any budget deal when all of it can be overturned by executive fiat?

I hear the President has decreed that it is possibly a crime to refer to Americans as "fascists," but "fascism" is a word that has a relatively clear meaning that's worth understanding. Here's how an official publication of the US Army defined "fascism" in 1945.

Hegseth orders rare, urgent meeting of hundreds of generals, admirals—- Very strange. Never has previously happened in history. The global community will be alarmed. Need security and communications personnel. They are on duty 24/7. The Armed Forces are an apolitical organization.

Not gonna lie: I’ve got the chills. And I’ve been reporting on this stuff decades. I don’t chill so easy. But keep in mind, I’m no lawyer. I read it as a student of meaning-making on the right. There is much in this memo that would have been impossibly fringe even a decade ago. 2/

Bitter pill for JD - this punitive upholstered furniture tax.

If ICE is *illegally* disapearing people, preventing them from doing that can't be "obstructing the rule of law".

You couldn’t make Raiders of the Lost Ark today, because of the woke right.

Kamala Harris on Mamdani: Look, as far as I'm concerned, he's the democratic nominee and he should be supported.

this is the intellectual conservative two-step: pretend that because they are raising an issue where people of good faith with broadly shared principles could disagree, that we have to pretend the actually existing conservative movement consists of those people. no. we don't.

Executive orders cannot supersede federal law or the constitution. Federal law sets visa fees, including for H-1B visas. And the maximum fee is $4,500, according to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 (Public Law 114-113). Current State Dept. site: travel.state.gov/content/trav...

“We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.” — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation

Donald John hates it when people make fun of him.

My god, yes. This exactly. The goal is to activate those who are not paying attention. Not to persuade the far right minority. Schumer and Jeffries pretending all is normal is terrible because it prevents activating those who are not paying attentio.

Trump criticizes Pam Bondi for not charging his adversaries quickly enough, in a Truth Social post that looks a lot like a DM. truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT...

The FBI used hidden cameras to record Tom Homan taking a $50,000 bribe (in cold, hard cash) last year from undercover agents posing as business executives who Homan promised government contracts in a new Trump administration. The Trump DOJ has now shut down the probe. www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...