More than 1800 detainees are missing after the closure of Alligator Alcatraz. Their families and lawyers can’t find them and they’ve vanished from the ICE database. Feels like this should be a much bigger story www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

Fact-checker @glennkessler.bsky.social takes apart Trump's delusional United Nations speech with, well, facts. open.substack.com/pub/glennkes...

Sadly, it apparently is our policy

I know, I know, but: The president of the US saying, literally, "we're going in" in reference to sending the military to an American city for no reason beyond terrorizing the local population should be the most immediately impeachable shit imaginable

Thrilled that my article with @markpmckenna.bsky.social on "Amazon's Quiet Overhaul of the Trademark System" is now out in the California Law Review @califlrev.bsky.social

Indeed, that is making “cause” mean the same thing as “at will.”

Destroying PhD programs, on purpose

Amazon’s Quiet Overhaul of the Trademark System (with @jeannefromer.bsky.social) is now published in the California Law Review.

Chris Cotropia, @markpmckenna.bsky.social, @jnvictor.bsky.social, @rtushnet.bsky.social & @jeannefromer.bsky.social on "IP Rights as a Signal to Consumers" (a panel well represented on bluesky)

As the U.S. government takes a 10% stake in Intel, Forbes has learned the tech company partnered with sanctioned Chinese surveillance firms Uniview, Hikvision and Cloudwalk.

Other, more serious countries have actual constitutional courts, with judges who don’t violate their oaths of office

Hochul: "This is what I call a legal insurrection ... they know they're going to lose next year. That's the only reason they're engaged in this. It also might be a nice distraction from people asking -- all of the sudden this happens when? When they refuse to release the Epstein files."

He really does like dictatorship in all areas of his life.

Why would anyone ever trust and work with the United States again?

Much of the settlement has nothing to do with antisemitism. As @mbkplus.bsky.social and I discussed on the pod, how can a university cede authority over admissions, hiring, and even locker rooms and still profess a commitment to "core values?" livefromwatthall.transistor.fm/episodes/col...

Only the best people

An utterly insane career bio. Getting a White House appt with this in your record is something else.

"In older people, confabulation is one of the clearest early signs of dementia...Once you have seen that Donald Trump is confabulating, it cannot be unseen — and all sorts of other mildly disturbing incidents suddenly fall into place." thehill.com/opinion/camp...

The sad and fundamental truth is that neither the Obama administration nor the Clinton campaign took Russian electoral interference seriously, meaning that now, a decade on, Russia’s man keeps trying to prove that he’s not. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/u...

I watched the NewsHour for the first time in a long time. It was striking how deep and thoughtful and efficient their broadcast was. I came away much better informed in a non-political way than I do from watching any of the cable news networks. That’s why Trump wants to kill it.

Unquestionably the most dangerous and corrupt attack on the independence of US economic data in American history. Trump is firing the head of the BLS, a longtime civil servant confirmed 86-8 by the Senate, simply because the job numbers came in below his expectations today

NEW: A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze federal funds. Then the harassment began. Pizzas sent to his home in the name of Judge Esther Salas’s murdered son, Daniel. Six credible threats to his life. More than 400 “vile” calls to his chambers—including this voicemail:

Seems DOGE wasn't so efficient after all. In fact, was extraordinarily wasteful, according to a Thursday report by the US Senate's investigations subcommittee. Musk is already known to have wildly exaggerated the amount that his initiative was saving the public. www.rawstory.com/doge-2673797...

For those of us who understand the importance of studying history to inform the present, this erasing of history by an institution of this importance is particularly terrifying.

Restating Copyright: The ALI’s Landmark Project and What It Means for the Law, by @danielgervais.bsky.social, Lydia Loren, R. Anthony Reese, @cjsprigman.bsky.social & @mollysvh.bsky.social on the Kluwer Copyright Blog legalblogs.wolterskluwer.com/copyright-bl...

The whole idea of a "Heritage American" is revisionist BS, and I say that as someone who can trace my own "heritage" in this land back to the 1640s. This country has always been a mish-mosh of peoples coming together to make a better future. "E Pluribus Unum"; out of many, one.

The attacks on law firms have had their desired effect.

"Government oversight of course evaluations" is a recipe for mischief and opens the door government oversight of teaching

So shameful.

JD Vance is suddenly opposed to gerrymandering. Someone tell Greg Abbott.

Between this and the news that Vought has stopped the NIH from issuing any more grants this year — (illegally) refusing to spend money that Congress has allocated — we're getting a glimpse of what could be a really ugly future for higher ed and science / technology in the US. And it's coming fast.

JUST IN: Senate Republicans have confirmed Emil Bove to a lifetime federal judgeship, choosing to ignore credible allegations that Bove had told Justice Department attorneys to defy court orders and say “fuck you” to judges who ruled against them. www.huffpost.com/entry/senate...

The US used to lead the world in research. That is over.

Republicans are going to confirm someone completely uncommitted to the rule of law. This is a new low.

Totally, completely predictable.

The attack by Trump's DOJ on Judge Boasberg is ominous, and merely the first step in what will be a four-year effort to intimidate and discredit any judges who displease the administration, laying the predicate for ignoring or evading their authority. www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...

The world's most prestigious university fails the Lando test: "University officials...concluded months ago that even if they prevailed in their court fight against the government, a deal could help Harvard to avoid more troubles over the course of Mr. Trump’s term." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...

"American democracy promotion is effectively dead," Brian Klaas writes. The world's authoritarians have taken note that they no longer need fear Washington's condemnation when they tighten their grip on power:

The First Amendment continues to take a beating under this administration.

We’ve lost all moral authority on freedom of speech and suppression of political opposition.

I am a political scientist who has studied the political economy of int’l trade & finance for 25 years. I understand all the explanations for why we are where we are now. And I still simply don’t get why this One Special Boy is treated in ways no previous POTUS would ever have gotten away with 🤷‍♂️

DHS has arrested two medical personnel at a surgical center in California for demanding that the officers trespassing in their building identify themselves & provide a warrant, accusing them of another.... wait for it... ASSAULT. The case shows how DHS lies relentlessly to violate the Constitution

The fact that California- the 4th largest economy on Earth whose geography is truly heavenly- is building less housing than the South- an area with half the per capita wealth and enough humidity to make you mad- is a fucking travesty. And it's entirely a policy choice. And we can choose differently.

RFK Jr. has now officially stated that he will dismantle the United States Preventive ServicesTask Force (USPSTF). This is an independent body of expert scientists who volunteer their time to review data and provide guidance to Americans on important things like cancer screenings.

The real reason the WH is raging at "The View" and "South Park" is they know it's lethal for Trump that he's increasingly becoming a diminished, widely mocked figure in the culture, says @amandamarcotte.bsky.social. On the pod we dig deep into the shrinking of Trump: newrepublic.com/article/1984...

The level of investment in new detention centers requires finding ways to fill them. So we will criminalize whatever is necessary to fill them. See also prisons.

Trump and Miller are intent on building an unaccountable domestic secret police force that would be the world's third-biggest security force by funding levels, after the US and China's *militaries*. That kind of funding dwarfs its stated purpose, which tells you what its real purpose will be.