trump heroically protects america from… wind
Artist’s rendering of a terrifying national security threat: some windmills 14 miles offshore and one very angry retiree in Florida.
A Trump-appointed federal judge just had to rescue offshore wind from… the Trump administration. District judge Carl J Nichols ruled that construction on New York’s Empire Wind project can resume while he considers the merits of Trump’s last-minute order to freeze it, noting that the government somehow forgot to respond to key legal arguments about, minor detail, violating proper procedure. Because nothing says “serious national security threat” like an administration that can’t be bothered to file competent paperwork.
Trump’s White House Grievance Center shut down five major East Coast offshore wind projects right before Christmas, under the very official doctrine of "I think wind is ugly and it kills birds" rebranded as "national security." Judges have now let both Empire Wind and Ørsted’s Revolution Wind move forward, repeatedly pointing out that the administration has not actually explained why these nearly-complete, grid-critical projects must be stopped immediately. Kathy Hochul asked the obvious question—if there’s a real threat off New York’s coast, maybe tell the governor?—and, shockingly, the national security wizards had no answer.
Meanwhile, the rest of the planet is sprinting ahead: China is leading global offshore wind, the UK just locked in a record 8.4 GW auction, and nearly all new 2024 power worldwide was renewable. In the US, developers are in court begging judges to let them finish projects that will power hundreds of thousands of homes while Trump’s lawyers compare wind turbines to nuclear weapons, because why not. In other words, the world is building the future, and the United States is stuck litigating whether the president is allowed to kill clean energy on a whim because he finds it ugly.
#killing-democracy#anti-science
coming this summer: world cup meets police state chic
Nothing captures the spirit of global unity like handing out a World Cup trophy while the regime behind you is busy brutalizing people—FIFA tradition, now proudly co-hosted by Trump’s America.
Five months before the World Cup, the world’s biggest sporting event is heading to the United States, where Trump has thoughtfully arranged for armed immigration agents to roam the streets and visa restrictions to be cranked up on foreign visitors. Because nothing says “welcome to the beautiful game” like wondering whether CBP is going to treat your fan group like an invading army. In other words, it’s less “greatest show on Earth” and more “authoritarian pop-up experience, soccer-themed.”
The Guardian politely notes that Iran is in open revolt against its regime, Tunisia is backsliding democratically, Ecuador’s committing ecological crimes, and Saudi Arabia is… still Saudi Arabia. And right in the middle of this rogues’ gallery sits Trump’s America, auditioning to prove that yes, a World Cup host can absolutely combine sportswashing with active state harassment of foreigners. Gianni Infantino calls it a celebration of global unity; Trump hears that as “great opportunity for televised border cosplay and more excuses to deny visas.”
The piece compares this mess to Argentina’s 1978 junta World Cup, where a military dictatorship used football as a PR shield while torturing and disappearing people. Back then, Amnesty International rolled out “Football yes – torture no.” Today, we’re apparently at “Football yes – roaming ICE squads maybe,” and FIFA’s main human-rights innovation is issuing sad press releases and cashing checks on time. But sure, tell us again how sports will bring the world together—just as long as everyone clears secondary screening, survives the paramilitary cosplay, and doesn’t say anything mean about the host regime on social media.
#killing-democracy#fascism
appeals court helps trump deport the wrong kind of grad student
Mahmoud Khalil, learning that in Trump’s America the First Amendment comes with a one-way ticket to immigration court.
The Third Circuit just handed the Trump administration a nice little win in its ongoing campaign to make immigration law a catch‑all weapon against people it doesn’t like. A 2-1 panel reversed a lower court decision that had freed Mahmoud Khalil – a permanent resident and Columbia grad whose big crime is being a prominent pro-Palestinian activist – from ICE detention. The court’s message: sure, you might have a case that the government is acting unlawfully, but you can only complain about it after they finish trying to deport you.
Judges Thomas Hardiman and Stephanos Bibas serenely explained that Congress’s immigration scheme gives Khalil a “meaningful forum” later on, in a petition for review of a final removal order – because nothing says due process like “sit in detention and wait while we try to throw you out, then maybe you can sue.” They stressed that petitioners get “just one bite at the apple,” which is a cute way of saying that if the government locks you up for your politics, you don’t get courts involved until the deportation machine is done with you.
Khalil helped organize campus protests and encampments calling for a ceasefire and an end to US support for Israel, so naturally the Trump administration responded the way it knows best: immigration detention as a speech-management tool. Civil liberties groups called out the obvious crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech, but the administration now has appellate cover to keep him in the system. In other words, the message from Trump’s America is clear: you can have free speech, as long as you’re ready to exercise it from an ICE facility or another country.
#killing-democracy#anti-immigration
president law & order threatens martial law for minneapolis
Nothing says “immigration enforcement” like turning a U.S. city into a federal gas range so ICE officers can feel like they’re in an action movie.
Trump is once again flirting with his favorite strongman fantasy: sending the U.S. military into American cities because people are mad that federal agents keep shooting them. After an ICE officer in Minneapolis shot a man in the leg, on top of killing Renee Nicole Good earlier this month, protests erupted. Trump’s response? A Truth Social tantrum threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act to crush what he calls “professional agitators and insurrectionists” attacking the “Patriots of I.C.E.” — because nothing says limited government like using 19th-century emergency powers to protect a rogue deportation squad.
The Insurrection Act, which lets a president deploy troops on U.S. soil without Congress, is supposed to be a last-resort, once-in-a-generation emergency tool. Trump, naturally, treats it like a standing promo code for martial law, having already floated using it last year in the name of “safe cities.” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz describes what’s happening more accurately: an “organized brutality” campaign against Minnesotans by their own federal government, and an “occupation” that Trump and Kristi Noem could end at any time — but won’t, because the cruelty and the spectacle are the whole point.
All of this kicked into overdrive after conservative influencers latched onto allegations of daycare fraud involving Somali immigrants and turned it into the latest right-wing panic. The administration responded not with audits or investigations, but with a full-blown ICE crackdown that now has federal agents firing tear gas, pepper balls, and flash-bangs at protesters in Minneapolis streets. In other words, a social media outrage cycle escalated into a federal paramilitary show of force, and the president’s big idea is to federalize the National Guard to protect ICE from the people it’s been terrorizing. But sure, tell us again how this is all about “law and order” and not about crushing dissent.
#killing-democracy#fascism
rfk jr discovers fentanyl crisis is bad optics, temporarily
Robert F Kennedy Jr, moments before learning that openly defunding overdose prevention in the middle of a fentanyl crisis polls slightly worse than lead paint in baby formula.
The Trump administration’s favorite antivax conspiracy theorist turned health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, spent Tuesday casually nuking nearly $2 billion in mental health and substance use funding — including overdose prevention, support for kids, first responders, pregnant women, and recovery programs — because nothing says "Administration for a Healthy America" like pulling the plug on everyone keeping people alive.
Then, after a day of nationwide fury, panic at treatment centers, and first responders planning layoffs instead of saving overdose victims, HHS quietly started un‑canceling the money late Wednesday night. No explanation, no apology, just a classic Trump‑era "we’re restoring what we just set on fire, you’re welcome" move. Lawmakers like Rosa DeLauro and Patty Murray called it exactly what it was: illegal power games with Congress’s purse strings and "absurd, pointless chaos" from Kennedy and Trump.
Experts point out that this isn’t a one‑off mistake; it’s the project. As Dr Sunny Patel notes, the administration is systematically dismantling the behavioral health system, slashing budgets and staff while creating rolling instability that will hammer children’s mental health for years. The tiny good news: public outrage forced a retreat this time. The bad news: the arsonists are still in charge of the fire department and very committed to "reimagining" it as a smoking crater.
#healthcare#killing-democracy#full-stupid
trump discovers the 'raid the journalist' button, finds it well‑worn
FBI agents leaving a journalist’s home with boxes of notebooks and hard drives, bravely protecting America from the mortal threat of people finding out what their government actually did.
The FBI raiding Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s home and jailing her alleged source is being treated like some wild new Trump innovation, but the truth is way darker: he’s just using the same loaded gun every "defender of democracy" helpfully left on the table. From Nixon’s Espionage Act crusade against Daniel Ellsberg to Obama’s record-breaking prosecutions of whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Thomas Drake, and John Kiriakou, both parties spent decades normalizing the idea that revealing government crimes is the real crime.
By the time Trump’s DOJ dragged Julian Assange into an Espionage Act indictment for the act of publishing, the line between "journalism" and "espionage" was already shredded. Biden’s DOJ then lovingly finished the job with a plea deal that formally labels receiving and publishing evidence of US war crimes as a criminal conspiracy. In other words, the bipartisan establishment built the cage; Trump is just enthusiastic about slamming the door on any reporter who annoys him.
Meanwhile, the supposed safeguard against this nonsense—the Privacy Protection Act of 1980—turns out to be less a shield and more a sad suggestion. Cops and feds keep raiding newsrooms and homes anyway, from the Marion County Record raid that literally helped kill the paper’s 98-year-old co-owner, to the FBI trashing journalist Tim Burke’s home office, and now Natanson. Congress, having learned absolutely nothing, is busy subpoenaing reporter Seth Harp for doing journalism, while pretending that reporting on government secrets is illegal "leaking" and naming officials is illegal "doxxing." But sure, tell us again how America is a shining beacon of press freedom.
So when Trump’s people send armed agents into a reporter’s house, it’s not a bug, it’s the long-awaited feature. Decades of "respectable" Democrats and Republicans turned whistleblowers into spies, publishers into criminals, and press protections into punchlines. Trump just took the bipartisan war on journalism, slapped his name on it, and cranked it up to raid-your-living-room mode.
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness
trump doj builds a voter purge database, calls it 'confidence'
Trump’s Justice Department, seen here carefully protecting voting rights by suing states that refuse to hand over millions of voters’ Social Security numbers.
The Trump Justice Department has decided that what American democracy really needs is a massive, unauthorized database of voters’ personal information—because nothing says "free and fair elections" like the federal government demanding your address, full date of birth, and last four of your Social Security number. At least 43 states got the ask; eight obediently handed it over, and 23 states plus DC got sued for having the nerve to care about privacy and state law. And in a wild coincidence, nearly every target just happens to have Democratic election officials. Totally about "integrity," not politics at all.
The DOJ insists it’s just checking for ineligible voters, while quietly shoveling this data to DHS so it can be run through the SAVE immigration database—now upgraded to let them run bulk checks with the last four digits of a Social Security number. Experts say the system is riddled with errors and already falsely flags citizens as non-citizens, but sure, let’s use it to decide who gets to stay on the voter rolls. After running 50 million registrations, DHS has referred about 10,000 people for further investigation: roughly 0.02%. In other words, they’re building an error-prone federal voter surveillance machine to chase statistical rounding errors.
States that try to comply by redacting sensitive data still get sued, because the point isn’t clean rolls, it’s control. As one election lawyer notes, once the feds start deciding who “belongs” on the rolls, they can shape who’s allowed to vote—and then scream fraud whenever Trump-aligned candidates lose. Harmeet Dhillon, now running the DOJ civil rights division in the most ironic job assignment since putting arsonists in charge of the fire department, calls this a "top priority" for public confidence. Nothing boosts confidence like an administration that lost the popular vote twice building a national voter list it has no constitutional authority to create.
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness
the crisis whisperer explains how the adults in the room lost the country
Former Biden officials explaining, with great seriousness, how their meticulously curated policy vibes tragically failed to stop the guy actively dismantling democracy… again.
Adam Tooze logs on to a Brussels panel of Biden-world exiles and, instead of joining the group therapy session about their noble scars, reminds them of a tiny inconvenient fact: they failed at their one job, which was stopping a second Trump term. While Katherine Tai is quoting Martin Sheen and reenacting The West Wing at an EU conference, Trump is back in Washington with his wrecking crew, taking a blowtorch to what’s left of Biden’s agenda and the liberal order. But sure, let’s talk about how hard everyone tried and how many white papers they heroically drafted while American democracy face-planted.
Tooze, the historian of financial crises turned full-time “your faves blew it” explainer, points out that these self-styled guardians of liberalism didn’t just lose; they helped speed up the unraveling by doubling down on great-power confrontation and Biden-branded technocracy. In other words, the people who were supposed to be the last line of defense against authoritarianism were too busy workshopping model negotiating texts and mainlining prestige TV morality tales to notice they were getting steamrolled. They see themselves as scarred warriors; he sees a bunch of sentimental schmucks who lost the country and still think they deserve a panel, a microphone, and a round of applause.
#killing-democracy#full-stupid
making america small again (china sends thank-you card)
Trump stares at a map of the world while China quietly highlights everything now returning its calls.
Turns out when you put an erratic strongman back in the White House and let him run foreign policy like a reality show, the rest of the planet doesn’t respond with awe and gratitude. A 21-country survey for the European Council on Foreign Relations finds that Trump’s big “Make America Great Again” reboot is mostly making China look like the rising adult in the room. Majorities across almost every country polled expect China’s global influence to grow, and they’re largely fine with it—because nothing says strategic genius like driving your allies away while your main rival sells them EVs and solar panels.
In Europe, confidence in the US as a reliable ally has basically fallen through the floor: only 16% of EU citizens now see the US as an ally, while 20% already file it under “rival or enemy.” Ukrainians trust Brussels more than Washington, Russians increasingly see the EU—not the US—as the main adversary, and even Americans don’t really think their own country’s influence is going anywhere but sideways. Meanwhile, in places like South Africa, Brazil, and Russia, comfy majorities see China as either a partner or an ally. In other words, Trump’s “America First” strategy is functionally “America Alone, China in the Fast Lane.”
The poll’s authors delicately conclude that US actions are “boosting China,” citing Trump’s Venezuela antics and Greenland cosplay as signs he’d rather be feared than loved. Mission accomplished: nobody loves the US, and they’re not especially afraid of it either—they’re just quietly rearming, drifting toward China, and treating the EU as the last semi-sane actor in the room. Europeans get that the old order is over and now worry about major war, Russian aggression, and their own irrelevance, while Trump continues to reenact a 1980s power fantasy that mostly ends with Xi Jinping measuring for new curtains in the vacuum Washington left behind. But sure, tell us again how the adults are back in charge.
#killing-democracy#imperialism
senate decides trump absolutely deserves surprise wars now
Donald Trump on Air Force One, presumably explaining that he doesn’t need Congress’s permission for war when he has Marco Rubio’s letterhead and JD Vance’s rubber stamp.
The Senate just voted 51-50 to make sure Donald Trump keeps his favorite toy: the ability to start a war without Congress getting in the way. A bipartisan resolution by Sen. Tim Kaine that would have required Trump to seek congressional approval before striking Venezuela was cruising toward passage—until Trump publicly threatened the Republicans who supported it, and, like clockwork, Josh Hawley and Todd Young folded faster than a Trump casino.
Hawley and Young had already voted to advance the resolution last week, but after Trump raged that the five GOP defectors “should never be elected to office again,” they suddenly discovered new information: letters and “assurances” from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other officials that there are no U.S. troops in Venezuela and, pinky swear, they’ll totally come to Congress first if they ever decide to put some there. In other words: Congress just killed its own constitutional war powers based on a Marco Rubio promise, because nothing says serious oversight like trusting a guy whose geopolitical strategy is mostly Fox News clips and regime-change fan fiction.
The vote deadlocked 50-50, and Vice President JD Vance happily delivered the tiebreaker to sink the measure, cementing the Trump administration’s ability to treat the Caribbean like its personal live-fire sandbox while also “dialing up” threats against Iran and, naturally, Greenland. Chuck Schumer pointed out that the American people don’t want Trump sending troops into harm’s way without debate; Senate Republicans responded by making sure he can do exactly that. So yes, the Constitution technically still exists—but only as long as it doesn’t annoy Donald Trump.
#killing-democracy#imperialism#lawlessness
california responds to trump’s texas rigging with artisanal, farm-to-table gerrymander
California’s legendary independent redistricting commission, watching voters enthusiastically replace it with a limited-time partisan cheat code "to save democracy."
California voters passed Prop 50, a ballot initiative that lets the state temporarily toss its vaunted independent maps in the trash and replace them with very partisan ones designed to flip five GOP House seats—explicitly as a response to Trump-backed Texas Republicans carving their own congressional playground. Because nothing says "defending democracy" like answering one state’s gerrymander with your own, but with better branding and a coastal zip code.
Republicans sued, claiming the new maps were an illegal racial gerrymander meant to advantage Latino and Hispanic voters. A 2–1 federal appeals panel basically replied: nice try, but you didn’t prove racist intent, just nakedly partisan intent, which the Supreme Court has already ruled is totally fine and absolutely none of the judiciary’s business. In other words, as long as you’re discriminating based on party and not race, you’re good to go in America’s advanced constitutional gerrymander simulator.
Democrats leaned on an independent analysis showing no increase in Latino-majority districts and loudly insisted that the real goal was to offset Trump’s Texas rigging, not to target voters by race. Two Democratic-appointed judges nodded along; Trump appointee Kenneth K. Lee dissented, accusing Dems of trying to keep Latinos from "drifting away" from the party—translation: this is my team’s gerrymander turf, get your own. The maps will now govern the 2026, 2028, and 2030 elections, while California’s much-celebrated independent redistricting commission sits in the corner, learning in real time that in Trump’s America, the only truly bipartisan principle is: if they cheat, we cheat back.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness
make school lunches great again (with extra fat)
Donald Trump proudly sporting a staged milk mustache while federal nutrition policy quietly gets rewritten to match a dairy industry wish list.
Trump has signed the "Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act," a bill that does exactly what it sounds like: brings whole and 2% milk back to school cafeterias while taking a victory lap over Michelle Obama’s nutrition standards. Because nothing says serious governance like centering federal policy around getting revenge on the woman who tried to make your kid eat a vegetable. The law lets schools pour full-fat dairy for the roughly 30 million kids in the National School Lunch Program and, in a helpful twist for the dairy lobby, exempts milk fat from counting toward saturated fat limits. Science, meet tractor.
The administration is selling this as a bipartisan health triumph—Trump literally posed with a “milk mustache” and declared, “Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, whole milk is a great thing,” which is definitely how evidence-based nutrition guidelines work now. Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins dutifully framed this as a “long-overdue correction” and a fix to Michelle Obama’s “short-sighted campaign,” while the new Dietary Guidelines conveniently pivot to praising full-fat dairy just in time. Some experts do argue that whole milk isn’t the villain it was made out to be, others point out that Obama-era rules actually helped slow childhood obesity, but the law simply sidesteps the debate by rewriting the rules so milk fat doesn’t count.
In other words, it’s the perfect Trump-era compromise: gesture at science, ignore the inconvenient parts, give an industry exactly what it’s been lobbying for, and package it as a populist crusade for “healthy kids.” But sure, this is all about the children, not about torching Obama’s legacy and handing the dairy industry a federally mandated customer base with a side of culture-war whipped cream.
#killing-democracy#full-stupid#forever-grifting
ice to america: background checks are for losers
ICE recruiters bravely proving that the real border crisis is between "hired" and "actually filled out the paperwork."
Laura Jedeed, a Slate reporter who literally describes herself as anti-ICE, went to an ICE career fair to see what the recruitment process was like and accidentally discovered the answer: there basically isn’t one. After a "job interview" that could generously be described as "five and a half minutes of vibes" — no signatures, no background check authorization, no domestic violence affidavit, not even full ID info — she walked away, did none of the follow-up paperwork, and still ended up in the system as “Entered on Duty.” Because nothing says "elite law enforcement agency" like hiring people who never actually applied.
Jedeed, a veteran and vocal Trump critic, reasonably wondered what else ICE might be missing if they can’t catch "didn’t fill out forms" or "publicly anti-ICE journalist". Maybe things like domestic abusers, or people with white supremacist ties who really, really want a government gun and a badge to "hit the streets" and "indiscriminately target minorities," as she put it. The deportation officer she spoke to confirmed the mission: put as many guns and badges out in the field as possible. Public safety, meet the shredder.
The Department of Homeland Security, in peak Trump-era damage-control style, hopped on X to call the whole thing a “lazy lie,” insisting it was just a harmless "Tentative Selection Letter" and definitely not a job offer. Unfortunately for them, Jedeed brought receipts: video of her USAJobs portal showing a final offer and onboarding date. Slate backed her up, saying she’d clearly advanced well beyond the tentative stage. DHS’s response boils down to: "Who are you going to believe, our PR account or your own lying screenshots?"
All of this shines a lovely harsh light on ICE’s Trump-era recruitment overhaul, which loosened hiring and training standards in the name of speed and "toughness." The result: an agency with massive power over people’s lives apparently running a "click here to get a gun" pipeline through USAJobs. But sure, tell us again how militarized immigration cops with almost no vetting are what keeps America safe.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness
fbi raids reporter’s house to protect government from embarrassment
Pictured: American press freedom, right before the FBI asks it to step outside for a ‘quick chat’ with a warrant.
The FBI has reportedly searched the home of a Washington Post reporter as part of an investigation into a contractor leak, because nothing says "land of the free" like federal agents rummaging through a journalist’s stuff to figure out who told the public what their government is actually doing.
In classic modern American fashion, the target isn’t the people who might have abused power, wasted money, or lied to the public, but the people who talked about it. The message to sources and reporters is clear: if you expose inconvenient truths, we’ll bring a battering ram to your First Amendment. But sure, let’s keep lecturing other countries about press freedom while we turn leak investigations into a full-contact sport.
So now, contractors know they risk prosecution, journalists know they risk raids, and the only thing truly safe is the government’s ability to operate in the dark. In other words: a huge win for secrecy, intimidation, and the ongoing project of killing any remaining illusion of a free and independent press.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness#fascism
little marco completes full spine-removal surgery
Marco Rubio, pictured here in his natural habitat: standing behind Trump, nodding vigorously, and pretending this is all totally fine.
Marco Rubio once said Trump was a 'con artist.' Now he’s his Secretary of State and professional character witness, because nothing says 'deeply held principles' like immediately torching them for a Cabinet seat.
According to Dexter Filkins, Rubio’s journey from Trump critic to Trump champion is less a 'political evolution' and more a live-action demonstration of how fast a Republican can shed a conscience when there’s an office, a motorcade, and proximity to power on the line. The man who warned America about Trump now spends his days defending the same behavior he used to call dangerous—but don’t worry, he insists it’s all very serious and patriotic.
In other words, the former anti-Trump crusader has rebranded as the regime’s hype man abroad, laundering Trump’s image on the world stage while pretending this is all normal diplomacy and not an ongoing experiment in soft authoritarianism. Rubio didn’t change Trump; Trump changed Rubio—right into the kind of ambitious, pliable loyalist you want when you’re busy testing how far you can push the boundaries of democracy.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump probes senator for the crime of reading the constitution out loud
Elissa Slotkin, seen here committing the unspeakable crime of reminding U.S. troops they answer to the Constitution, not Donald Trump’s latest tantrum.
Michigan senator Elissa Slotkin says she’s under federal investigation for the high crime of… telling U.S. troops they have a duty to refuse illegal orders, which is a basic principle of U.S. military law, international law, and the constitution. In other words, she’s being probed for saying the quiet legal part out loud. Trump immediately branded the video “seditious behavior by traitors” that’s “punishable by death,” because nothing says normal democratic president like casually fantasizing about executing members of Congress on social media, then having the White House clarify that, no, he doesn’t actually want to kill them, he just wants them “held accountable.” Totally reassuring.
Slotkin says she learned of the investigation from the office of Trump loyalist and D.C. U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro, who wants to question her over the 90-second clip. She calls it what it is: an authoritarian president weaponizing the federal government to intimidate critics into silence. The video, featuring Slotkin, Mark Kelly, Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, Chris Deluzio, and Maggie Goodlander, dared to note that “threats to our constitution” are coming from “right here at home” and that service members “must refuse illegal orders” — all while Trump was busy ordering deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean. For this unforgivable act of quoting the law, Slotkin and Crow were buried in death threats, Slotkin got 24/7 Capitol Police protection, her house got a bomb threat, and her father got swatted. But sure, the real problem is a 90-second civics lesson.
Over at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — Fox News turned Defense chief, because of course — called the video “despicable, reckless and false” and launched an investigation into Senator Mark Kelly. Hegseth then tried to reduce Kelly’s rank and pension as punishment for the radical statement that troops should, wait for it, follow the law. Kelly is now suing to stop this “unconstitutional crusade,” warning that Hegseth’s message to veterans is clear: speak out against the president and you risk demotion, financial punishment, or prosecution, even years after you retire. Because nothing says “land of the free” like telling retired officers their benefits depend on how enthusiastically they praise Dear Leader.
Slotkin, a former CIA officer who used to study authoritarian regimes abroad, now gets to live the fun twist where she recognizes the playbook being run at home. Legal intimidation, physical intimidation, weaponized investigations, threats to livelihood — all aimed at punishing elected officials for encouraging the military to obey the law instead of the president. The administration’s position is clear: illegal orders are fine; reminding people they’re illegal is the real sedition.
#killing-democracy#fascism#lawlessness
supreme court invents ‘candidate feelings’ clause to attack mail-in voting
The Supreme Court building, where "elections have consequences" now means candidates get to sue if counting all the votes is inconvenient for their campaign schedule.
The Supreme Court just handed Trump-world a shiny new weapon, ruling 7-2 that Illinois Republican congressman Mike Bost can sue to stop mail-in ballots from being counted if they arrive after Election Day, even when they’re properly postmarked on time. In other words, if your ballot got slowed down by the DeJoy Memorial Sabotaged Postal Service, that’s your problem, because Mike Bost’s campaign staff might have to work an extra week and that’s now a constitutional injury.
Chief Justice John Roberts, doing his usual "I’m very serious about democracy" cosplay, announced that candidates have a "concrete and particularized" interest in the rules for counting votes and thus get special standing to attack them. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Sonia Sotomayor, pointed out the obvious: the Court just carved out a bespoke VIP lane for politicians to sue whenever they don’t like how votes are counted, destabilizing both standing law and elections. But sure, this is all about the "integrity" of the process, not giving sore losers a pretext to drag every close race into federal court.
This all plugs neatly into Trump’s ongoing crusade against mail-in voting, backed by his executive order instructing the attorney general to "take all necessary action" against states that count ballots received after Election Day. Sixteen states plus DC and several territories do exactly that, but the administration’s position is clear: if it makes voting easier or counting more accurate, it’s suspicious and probably illegal. Now, with the Court’s help, every Republican candidate who doesn’t like the scoreboard gets to claim hurt feelings and legal standing, because nothing says "free and fair elections" like empowering the people on the ballot to sue to stop ballots from being counted.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness
trump’s ‘department of war’ raids a reporter’s house, because freedom
FBI agents leave a reporter’s house with her devices, her watch, and whatever was left of the First Amendment stuffed in an evidence bag.
The Trump administration’s lovingly rebranded “department of war” just did what every wannabe strongman dreams of: sent the FBI to raid a Washington Post reporter’s home at dawn. Agents tore through Hannah Natanson’s Virginia house, scooping up her phone, her laptop, even her Garmin watch—because nothing says serious national security threat like a journalist’s step count.
Attorney General Pam Bondi bragged on X that DOJ and the FBI acted at the Pentagon’s request to go after a Post reporter who was reporting on classified leaks from a government contractor now behind bars. Press freedom groups, who still remember what the First Amendment is, called it a “tremendous intrusion” and a “tremendous escalation,” which is polite-lawyer-speak for “this is what illiberal regimes do right before things go fully off the rails.”
Natanson’s beat? The federal workforce—and how Trump’s second-term wrecking crew is rewriting workplace policies, firing civil servants, and gutting agency missions. In other words, she’s been documenting the slow-motion demolition of the government, and the government has responded by showing up at her front door with a warrant. Guidelines meant to protect journalists from this kind of state harassment were already weakened by Bondi, but sure, this is totally about “protecting national security” and not about intimidating 1,169 current and former federal employees who trusted her with their stories.
As legal experts gently note that “searches of newsrooms and journalists are hallmarks of illiberal regimes,” the Trump team is busy normalizing exactly that—turning leak investigations into a convenient tool for killing democracy one raid at a time. But don’t worry, they insist, if you’re not leaking, you have nothing to fear—unless you’re reporting, reading, talking to a reporter, or thinking about it.
#killing-democracy#fascism
trump fires the race referees, then quietly rehires them
DOJ officials staring at a sign that says "America’s Peacemaker" and wondering how fast they can replace it with "America’s Culture War Department".
The Trump DOJ tried to quietly kill the Community Relations Service — a 1960s-era "America’s peacemaker" created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — by firing basically everyone and giving it zero dollars in Trump’s budget. Because nothing says "healing racial tensions" like defunding the tiny agency whose literal job is to stop racial conflict from exploding.
Unfortunately for the White House demolition crew, civil rights groups (including the Ethical Society of Police and local NAACP branches) sued and pointed out that wiping out almost all CRS staff looked an awful lot like an unlawful attempt to dismantle a congressionally created civil-rights agency. A federal judge all but said, "yeah, you’re probably going to win" — and suddenly the DOJ discovered the magic of "administrative discretion" and rescinded the layoff notices.
But don’t worry, the gaslighting is still on schedule: the DOJ told the court it’s reinstating the 13 employees, but carefully avoided saying whether they’ll actually be allowed to do CRS work again. In other words, they might get their badges back, but not their mission. Meanwhile, a bipartisan spending bill in Congress is trying to give the agency $20 million, while Trump’s budget pretends it doesn’t exist at all. So yes, the administration tried to bury a civil-rights peacekeeping agency alive — and when the judge started shoveling the dirt back out, they claimed it was all just a little HR misunderstanding.
#killing-democracy#lawlessness#racism
trump declares 'absolute immunity' for federal bullets
ICE and DOJ, seen here workshopping new ways to spell 'accountability' as 'absolute immunity.'
An ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old American mother Renee Good in Minneapolis, and within hours the Trump administration decided that was plenty of time to finish the investigation forever. Donald Trump hopped on Truth Social to brand her a "professional agitator" who "viciously" ran over the officer, while DHS Secretary Kristi Noem helpfully upgraded it to "domestic terrorism"—because nothing says fact-finding like smearing the dead before the body is cold.
Vice-president JD Vance then wandered onto TV to announce that the ICE shooter had "absolute immunity" from state prosecution, apparently having confused the Constitution with a Fox News chyron. The FBI, doing its best impression of a mob lawyer, proceeded to shut state investigators out of the case, while DOJ’s once-expert civil rights division has been systematically gutted and pointedly excluded from the investigation. Veteran prosecutors in Minnesota and in what’s left of the division are reportedly quitting over the sham.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department has been quietly ignoring a growing pile of alleged federal brutality cases—from Chicago to Portland to D.C.—where federal agents have been busy gassing clergy, journalists, and peaceful protesters. In other words, the federal government has decided its officers can shoot, gas, and beat people with no real oversight, and if states try to step in, the feds slam the door. But sure, tell us more about how this crowd is "restoring law and order" while they build a system where federal badges come with a license to kill and a presidential PR team on call.
#lawlessness#fascism
