"It was clear even then that Trump’s rhetoric and planning for his second administration were framed as overthrowing the existing limits on the presidency and the destruction of democratic government itself. He aimed to establish a dictatorship."

The deportation order is based on Vedam’s conviction for murder—a crime he did not actually commit and for which he’s now been wholly exonerated. He entered the US at 9 months old and was a legal permanent resident before his conviction. We are so, so, so far from the light of justice.

How do I make Justice Kavanaugh watch this?

Unsure how many times I have to repeat it, but health care shouldn’t be for-profit.

Red state government declaring open war on blue city governments in Florida. This is the MAGA model: using every tool of the state to punish political opponents, without even a pretense that you are governing "for everyone."

I like this. Since under RFK Jr, Covid shots are now for people with underlying conditions that put them at risk, Michigan’s chief medical executive Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian states that not having the most recent Covid shot constitutes such an underlying condition. www.michigan.gov/mdhhs/inside...

I walked from Uptown through Edgewater up to Devon this afternoon and there was someone with a whistle every few blocks. Cyclists with whistles were patrolling alleys.

Police union leaders defending jan 6 after watching what those cops went through should have been the clarifying moment if nothing else (and there had been plenty before) bsky.app/profile/nota...

Police in the US are comparable to the Iraqi Hashd ash Shaabi/PMU. Ostensibly part of a state security service run by elected civilian leadership, but in practice serve as an independent paramilitary completely unaccountable to civilian democratic control.

"Before their departure dates came and went, they had made preparations to leave — turning over the keys to their apartments, pulling their children from school, shipping their belongings to Venezuela. And they have sunk deeper into poverty as the weeks and months pass"

“It’s a form of resistance that requires us to put aside ego, and the need for personal gratification, to become a node in a living network of care, support, and defense.”

My latest is the story of how my community has rallied to protect and defend our neighbors in recent days, as ICE has targeted the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago. "This is not a story about a moment of victory, but a moment of being reminded of our power."

There's no "regular politics" anymore because you can no longer maintain the idea that we all agree on common goals but we only differ about the means of getting there or whatever. The guys in charge now are plainly amoral, sadistic nihilists. They delight in it! You can't civilly disagree with that

One thing I want you to take from videos like this is the absolute cacophony of whistles and screams of "GET THE FUCK OUT OF OUR NEIGHBORHOOD" from people in the streets and in buildings. And more and more people are at that point every day.

Every day at noon, no matter how busy, Johny Merida Aguilar left his construction job and hurried to his 5-year-old son's school to feed him. His son has brain cancer and generally only accepts food from his father. Merida Aguilar was arrested by ICE in September and faces deportation to Bolivia.

Republicans love to make up conspiracy theories of child trafficking to hide the fact that they are the biggest supporters of child trafficking in the country. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...

I am going to re-up this a third time: Please read this excellent piece by Lincoln Caplan about why John Roberts—more than Mitch McConnell, more than Stephen Miller or Russell Vought, more than anyone else—owns the destruction of Constitutional order. www.harvardmagazine.com/legal/suprem...

So Kilmer Abrego-Garcia will not challenge a deportation to Costa Rica, who has agreed to for him residency, but DHS won’t agree to send him there because it’s not cruel enough. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

ICE kidnapped a 7th-grader with a pending asylum claim and spirited him out of state without notifying his parents, seemingly with the cooperation of the local police in Everett, MA. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...

ICE killed their father. Now they’re in foster care. Silverio Villegas, a single father, was fatally shot by fed agents after he allegedly tried to flee a traffic stop in Franklin Park. His family spoke to the Tribune of their grieve and their fight. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/12/s...

Read this thread about Russell Vought, whose power is comparable to Stephen Miller's. He believes he's "fighting a noble war to defend his 'real America' of white Christian patriarchal rule" by "bending the entire government machine to Trump's will" - while mainstream media whitewashes his evil.

another day of border patrol and ice terrorizing chicago—and of spontaneous community resistance. they tear-gassed community members on a residential street in albany park. they pulled a gun on a rapid responder in rogers park. they abducted people from alleys and parking lots and train stations.

“I … met with the governor, met with the mayor, met with the chief of police, and the superintendent of the highway patrol. They’re all lying, and disingenuous, and dishonest people,” Noem said, because they wouldn’t back up her baseless claims that the streets were overrun with terrorists.

Hypothesis: ICE can't give their identities because ICE is using people who aren't federal law enforcement.

It is beyond pathetic that the ostensibly neutral media can’t state clearly that Donald Trump has ended zero wars in four years and 9 months. I’m guessing that most people think there’s at least some kernel of truth to MAGA’s ludicrous propaganda.

Hi Sally. When Weiss published a supposed expose on the death of George Floyd, a veteran criminal justice reporter showed in deep detail that the piece was not just wrong but filled with falsehoods and misrepresentations. Weiss did not retract the piece. What do you think of that?

Such a ridiculously obvious hit piece.

Listen to the response to this and look how easy it is to say it.

There are a tremendous number of ICE watchers out in Rogers Park this afternoon after some early morning abductions. People are guarding churches and patrolling alleyways. Ran into Alderperson Hadden. First timers tell us they're primed and ready to use their whistles.

“I spent three nights and three days in federal custody. During that time, I was never told what I was charged with, was not allowed to shower despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, had no phone call to my family, and no access to an attorney.” - George Retes, U.S. citizen and veteran.

They cannot talk about the shutdown without lying. There is no connection between troop payments and federal employee layoffs. Zero. They are paying the troops with multiyear R&D allocations within DOD. This is also illegal by the way! But completely disconnected to the layoffs.

There was a goddamn helicopter circling my neighborhood this beautiful fall morning. ICE was snatching people from where there had been a protest yesterday. Yes, we are confrontational when faced with clearly illegal actions. We have an enforcement agreement that Trump is violating.

These watches appear to be ripoffs of famous designs. Likely from some factory that normally produces "homage" watches and they just swapped out the branding.

The Trump administration wants us to believe that they are all-powerful forces who control everything and can be reined in by neither Congress nor the Supreme Court, but if anything goes wrong, it's Mastermind Chuck Schumer's fault.

Again, it's very weird how everyone--Democrats, Republicans, media, everyone--just pretends Republicans can't just eliminate the filibuster and past the CR today.

Sunday reading: I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves. This week’s piece:

NBC News @nbcnews.com can not just reference/state the administration is lying about this war zone crap. Instead linguistic gymnastics to use euphemisms like "defy description" are applied 🙄

Attacks on the federal workforce are also attacks on Black workers, who are overrepresented in the public sector. Black unemployment is 7.5%. I'm reminded of Coates' observation that Black Americans regularly experience conditions that would be considered a crisis if whites faced them.

On top of the endless performative public lying (bsky.app/profile/donm...), this is more of the endlessly offensive/inane “government jobs are not real jobs, except when they’re cops & soldiers” nonsense that every right-wing politician from Ronald Reagan to Scott Walker has been selling for years.

Epstein files giving House Republicans over two months paid vacation and counting.

The firehose of easily disprovable lies from Trump and his allies continues to get worse each month, with one statement after another completely untethered from reality, which is why it is so important for them to take ownership and control of media platforms & intimidate others.

New York Times Executive Editor Joseph Kahn either does kidnap and molest preschoolers or he doesn’t. Does he or does he not? Is there troubling evidence or isn’t there? Have preschoolers shrieked in pain and terror in his office or haven’t they? All of this plus the Brooklyn Book Festival!ghv

The omniforce is accountable only to Trump: they ignore state and local guidance, or court decisions. Forget about knowing the identity of the official. Now you may not know which agency he works for, or even if he is an agent of the state.

EXCLUSIVE: A cell-site simulator, commonly referred to as an IMSI-catcher or "Stingray," may have been used at the ICE facility in Portland. Analysis of cellular signals in the area showed phones receiving abnormal spikes in requests for their unique identifiers. san.com/cc/exclusive...

It’s really important that this story is in People magazine. It’s really important that this representation of ICE violence against a clergy person is in a very “mainstream” outlet that reaches people who may not consume political media.

“We could hear them laughing.” Rev. David Black, the minister of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, speaks to #CNN’s Erin Burnett in his first television interview since he was shot in the head with pepper balls while praying in front of an ICE facility. #OutFrontCNN #News #ICE #Chicago

It would be interesting for someone to run for US president on the platform of firing every one hired to work for ICE over the past 4 years. Firing all of them on day 1.

It's amazing how public officials who willingly go on TV to talk about these issues can claim ignorance about the very things they've come on to talk about, and it's treated like a legitimate answer.

I wrote about the government shutdown—and why this one is different newrepublic.com/post/201612/...

an incontestable fact of the second trump administration is it is actively trying to sicken and kill as many americans as it can