VIDEO OF THE DAY: Trump attorneys scramble as Trump screws them in court
Brian Tyler Cohen and legal expert Marc Elias break down how Trump's big mouth is is derailing his own administration's efforts to keep Kilmar Abrego Garcia wrongfully incarcerated in one of the world's cruellest prisons.
Take Action: End our unconstitutional war in Yemen!
Trump’s latest executive order lays bare his authoritarian ambitions
Thom Hartmann, The New Republic: "The highest form of freedom in a democracy isn’t just the right to vote or protest—it’s the right to speak truth to power. To call out corruption. To challenge lies. To stand firm when the powerful demand silence. This is the freedom that sustains all others. When he signed an executive order directing the Justice Department to investigate Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor—two public servants whose only crime was telling the truth—Trump didn’t just abuse his office. He weaponized the government against honesty itself. This wasn’t law enforcement: It was political vengeance. This wasn’t democracy: It was a warning shot from the edge of autocracy. And if we let this slide—if we treat it as just another Trump headline—we are inviting the next strongman to do the same, only worse. The freedom to speak truth to power is either sacred, or it’s gone. Thus, Donald Trump just moved America miles down the road toward our becoming a police state. There’s no other way to describe it. His E.O. demanding criminal investigations into Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor—and his public statement that Taylor is a “traitor” guilty of “treason”—are nothing short of a blatant assault on the rule of law and a perilous step toward turning America into a dictatorship. This isn’t just about settling personal scores; it’s a calculated move to instill fear, silence dissent, and dismantle the very foundations of our democratic institutions. If we fail to hold Trump accountable for turning the justice system into a tool of revenge, we are not just rewriting the rules—we’re erasing them."
Take Action: Denounce Trump's attempts to criminalize protesting!
Marine veteran answers call to resist Trump
JoAnna Mendoza for Congress: JoAnna Mendoza served our country for twenty years as a drill sergeant in the United States Marines, training the brave men and women who defend our country overseas, and now she’s ready to defend our nation from Donald Trump’s extremism in the halls of Congress. As a lifelong public servant, JoAnna refuses to sit idly by while Donald Trump and Elon dismantle the systems that provide for our veterans after their service and send countless more vets to the unemployment line with their gutting of the federal government. Will you chip in to help Joanna flip this winnable red seat and take back control of Congress from the GOP?
Mahmoud Khalil’s battle is not over
Chip Gibbons, Jacobin: "When Mahmoud Khalil appeared before an immigration judge at the LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, Louisiana, for the second time yesterday, he quoted back to the judge something she had said at his hearing three days prior. '[You told us] that there’s nothing that’s more important to this court than due process rights and fundamental fairness,' the activist and former Columbia University graduate student said. 'Clearly what we witnessed today, neither of these principles were present today or in this whole process.' Khalil’s statement came after immigration judge Jamee E. Comans, a former lawyer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), ruled in favor of the Trump administration’s bid to expel him from the United States. In seeking to do so, the Trump administration has focused not on any criminal activity on Khalil’s part but on his political speech in opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. To achieve this end, the Trump administration has revived an obscure provision of a McCarthy-era law called the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952, which allows the secretary of state to revoke an individual’s legal status if their presence in the United States is deemed to have 'adverse' consequences for US foreign policy. A two-page memo signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and delivered to Comans just two days before the ruling constituted the government’s case against Khalil, a Palestinian citizen of Algeria who grew up in a refugee camp in Syria. While this is a dramatic setback for Khalil — and for free expression in the United States — it is far from the end of the road. While US law gives the State Department broad powers to revoke visas and limits courts’ abilities to entertain challenges to their revocation, on paper it is supposed to be very difficult to revoke someone’s permanent residence status. If the Trump administration succeeds in doing so, it will not only have deported Khalil from the country; it will have achieved a significant expansion of executive power at the expense of free expression and due process rights in the United States. For now, Khalil remains a political prisoner in the United States. And his case remains intertwined with the fate of free speech in this country."
Take Action: Tell Congress: Don't cut Medicaid EVER!
Trump’s bullying must stop but the true costs of globalisation will remain
Richard Partington, The Guardian: "Fundamentally wrong, brutal and paranoid. A preacher of voodoo economics, attacking the US’s allies and enemies alike. Condemnation of Donald Trump in the chaos since his 'liberation day' has been swift. For most people the self-inflicted damage makes no sense, and rightly so. However, it would be wrong to revel in the backlash for too long. Trump’s tariff madness is not a unique moment. The forces underpinning his political project – if the chaos can be dignified with such a label – have been long in the making, and will require more than a rout in the bond markets to suppress. Trump is a symptom of a global sickness, not the cause. The events of the past week are only the tip of a much deeper crisis in globalised, free-market capitalism that has roots stretching back decades. In the long march of globalisation – advanced with the most zeal, ironically, from Washington – it is well documented that winners and losers have been created within rich countries. Yes, consumers broadly benefited from access to cheaply produced goods, supporting living standards. But it has not been entirely cost-free. That became patently clearer after the 2008 crash, and in the devastating years of austerity economics that followed. When announcing his tariff plan Trump pointed to data showing that, between 1997 and 2024, the US lost 5m manufacturing jobs in one of the largest drops in industrial employment in history. This ought not to excuse the president’s flawed and reckless policy: the US was not “looted” by other countries. The pillaging was directed, ironically, by US-based corporates, backed up by Washington Consensus economic policy. However, it at least helps to go some way to understanding the backlash. Employment rates for working-class men, in particular, have fallen sharply, while wages have stagnated. Inequality research by the UK’s Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that US male hourly wages, after accounting for inflation, are worth less today than in 1975, despite the vast accumulation of wealth at the top of the pile. Across other western economies, including the UK, Germany and France, a similar hollowing-out has taken place; made worse by the weak, uneven economic growth of the past 15 years since the 2008 crash. Politically, the years of economic disappointment and the sense of being 'left behind' for many voters have created fertile ground for snake-oil salesmen such as Trump to exploit. Globalisation cannot be entirely unpicked, nor would it be desirable to do so, especially at a time when countries around the world face collective challenges; from existential climate breakdown, to war and poverty. Any coalition of the willing must, however, face up to the problems with the old Washington Consensus. While it is clear Trump’s bullying and intimidation must be stopped, it should not involve rebuilding the pre-liberation day world exactly as it was."
Take Action: Demand Congress revoke Trump's economy-crashing tariffs ASAP!
Trump blinks on tariffs in face of GOP resistance — but hasn't given up his cult-leader dreams
Amanda Marcotte, Salon: "History's most famous cults are known primarily for their final suicidal acts: the mass poisoning at Jonestown, the self-immolation of the Branch Davidians, the self-asphyxiations of Heaven's Gate. We know these things happen, but it's still a mystery to most of us how cult members get to this point. Why didn't they hit the eject button sooner, as their leader descended further into incoherent megalomania? Why did they stick by him even as it became increasingly clear he was putting the whole community on a pathway to self-destruction? Why didn't more people voice doubts or even confront the cult leader before things got this bad? We're getting a compelling illustration on the national stage of how a cult leader can induce his followers to stick by him, even as he loses his mind and his behavior becomes too erratic and dangerous to defend. Almost every Republican on Capitol Hill knows that Donald Trump's tariff plan is political suicide, but few are willing to admit that Dear Leader fully intends to see this idiocy to the very end. Instead, most resemble the residents of Jonestown, many of whom hoped Jim Jones was testing their faith with all this poison-Kool-Aid talk, which allowed them to play along until it was too late to save themselves. But while the Republican Party acts very much like Trump's cult, there are still some obstacles between Trump and his Jim Jones fantasies. He doesn't have congressional Republicans geographically isolated, which is key to maintaining control over the flock. Their connections to the outside world, especially to constituents who frantic about rising prices and evaporating savings, are pulling them away. Many Republican politicians aren't true believers, anyway, but more like cynical operators whose "loyalty" to Trump only lasts as far as their perceived self-interest. As a result, a small but growing number of Republicans in both the House and the Senate started to back bills to roll back Trump's tariff powers. For now, the pressure is working. On Wednesday, Trump agreed to a 90-day "pause" on most tariffs, while escalating the trade war with China. Republicans would be foolish to treat this 90-day pause as a victory big enough to justify scurrying back to their holes, to hide from the wrath of Dear Leader. He is spiraling. He sees these tariffs as the final proving ground of his total conquest of the GOP. He'll keep going back to that well — which means more economic tumult, more stock market crashes and more panicked constituents — unless this tariff nonsense is put to bed entirely. Republicans need to realize (not to return to the commie lingo!) that this is a moment to "hang together or hang separately." If enough of them join with Democrats to pass a veto-proof bill stripping Trump of his power to pass tariffs, there's nothing he can do but stand down. The irony is that they'd be saving Trump from himself. Honestly, that might be a price worth paying to save the rest of us, including their own corrupt and corroded party, in the process.
Food for thought
The Sunday Round-up
Hope...
Share 
Tweet
