VIDEO OF THE DAY: Trump pulls insane stunt in court, immediately fails
Brian Tyler Cohen breaks down Trump's vindictive attempt to lock up Kilmar Abrego Garcia AGAIN...and how a judge immediately shut it down.
Take Action: Ban guns on college campuses nationwide!
Beware Trump’s two-pronged strategy undermining democracy
David Cole, The Guardian: "This month, we learned that, in the course of bombing a boat of suspected drug smugglers, the US military intentionally killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage after its initial air assault. In addition, Donald Trump said it was seditious for Democratic members of Congress to inform members of the military that they can, and indeed, must, resist patently illegal orders, and the FBI and Pentagon are reportedly investigating the members’ speech. Those related developments – the murder of civilians and an attack on free speech – exemplify two of Trump’s principal tactics in his second term. The first involves the assertion of extraordinary emergency powers in the absence of any actual emergency. The second seeks to suppress dissent by punishing those who dare to raise their voices. Both moves have been replicated time and time again since January 2025. How courts and the public respond will determine the future of constitutional democracy in the United States. Nothing is more essential to a liberal democracy than the rule of law – that is, the notion that a democratic government is guided by laws, not discretionary whims; that the laws respect basic liberties for all; and that independent courts have the authority to hold political officials accountable when they violate those laws. These principles, forged in the United Kingdom, adopted and revised by the United States, are the bedrock of constitutional democracy. But they depend on courts being willing and able to check government abuse, and citizens exercising their rights to speak out in defense of the fundamental values when those values are under attack. Trump, who evidently prefers 'the rule of Trump' to the rule of law, has launched a two-pronged attack on these principles. The campaign against alleged drug smugglers is an example of the first tactic: declare a nonexistent emergency and invoke extraordinary authorities that would be unacceptable in ordinary times. The second prong of Trump’s strategy is to neutralize the opposition. The rule of law cannot rely on courts alone. It depends as well on citizens standing up and speaking out, through the institutions of civil society – from non-profit advocacy groups like the ACLU to universities, the media and the professions. Trump has systematically targeted them all. And if citizens duck and cover in the face of Trump’s assault, the courts will not be able to save us. Civil society institutions have been buoyed over the years by federal government support. Now that the government has turned against them, they can stand for freedom and the rule of law, or capitulate to illegal pressure. The choice should be clear."
Take Action: Stop Trump from helping Wall Street prey on retirement funds!
Freshman Democrat under ATTACK for standing up to the GOP
Nellie Pou for Congress: Nellie Pou has only been in Congress a few months, but she’s already facing a barrage of GOP attacks for voting against their destructive budget bill that would hand out huge tax breaks to the wealthy while RAISING taxes on working families. Just a few days ago, the NRCC issued an error-filled press release written by Big Business lobbyists that falsely smeared her with lies. She’s one of the few Democrats to win her seat in a county that voted for Trump; she’s going to need all the help she can get if we want to protect the MUST-HOLD seat and retake Congress. Will you chip in to thank her for doing the right thing and helping her weather the storm against GOP attacks?
Democratic voters are clamoring for AI regulation. Their leaders aren’t interested
Henry Burke, The American Prospect: "Last month, Democrats in New Jersey, Virginia, and Georgia surged to victory on the back of an affordability message that took aim at soaring energy costs fueled by the proliferation of power-hungry data centers. In New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill pledged to declare a state of emergency and freeze utility rates, while in Georgia, two Democrats won statewide elections by over 20 percent, with their campaigns fueled by popular resentment of artificial intelligence’s soaring energy costs. But not every Democrat is excited about the public’s revolt against the AI industry’s infrastructure demands. On Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced the creation of the “House Democratic Commission on AI and the Innovation Economy,” which is supposed to steer the Democratic caucus’s thinking on the thorny issues of AI regulation. To lead this, Jeffries selected Reps. Ted Lieu (D-CA), Valerie Foushee (D-NC), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). Together, these five members are expected to 'develop policy expertise'” in AI and forge relationships with the ascendent AI industry, which Jeffries euphemistically terms 'the innovation community.' But the choice of these specific members speaks more to the true intention of this project: reconciliation with the Silicon Valley oligarchs who backed Donald Trump in 2024. Unlike the Democratic base, which seems eager for a crackdown on AI, data centers, and the rising electricity costs associated with them, Jeffries’s hand-picked commission members have a history of supporting Big Tech. Lofgren, who represents a portion of Silicon Valley, has been a longtime ally of the technology platforms and among the top recipients of Big Tech campaign donations. In 2021, Lofgren bucked her own party’s efforts to pass regulatory restrictions on Big Tech at the outset of the Biden administration, speaking candidly about the large campaign donations she received from them. Perhaps the most vocal supporter of business interests on the commission is Josh Gottheimer. He is among the most aggressively pro-corporate members of Congress from either party, and has co-sponsored industry-backed legislation that would exempt financial services companies from regulations, including civil rights laws and consumer protection laws, in the pursuit of AI 'innovation.' By appointing these five members to the commission, Jeffries is signaling to the AI industry that he is open to their demands. But this has done little to dislodge the hold the Trump administration has over the industry. AI giants like Google, Meta, and Microsoft have poured money into Trump’s privately funded White House ballroom project. The Republican Party is fundamentally opposed to restraining corporate power, using regulation only as a threat to extort firms for bribes. The AI industry knows this. As Democrats try to regain power in Washington, any competing offer from Jeffries cannot match Trump’s shamelessness. Attempts to do so will only further tilt policy toward the untethered demands of AI oligarchs."
Take Action: Take action to protect our Social Security offices!
Sleepy Donald snoozes, America loses
Jeet Heer, The Nation: "One of Donald Trump’s most successful political tactics has been labeling his opponents as too physically enervated to handle the job of the presidency. In 2016, Trump immortally smeared Jeb Bush as “low energy” (a charge that doomed Bush’s campaign) and framed Hillary Clinton as lacking in 'stamina' (a jibe supercharged with sexism). In 2019, Trump coined the nickname 'Sleepy Joe' for Joe Biden. Initially, this insult failed to resonate with the electorate, who handed Biden a resounding victory over Trump in 2020. Unfortunately, Biden himself lent credence to the 'Sleepy Joe' taunt as he became visibly more timeworn during his presidency—a decline that culminated in the stammering, incoherent performance that destroyed his reelection chances for good in 2024. Biden’s embarrassing decrepitude couldn’t have been luckier for Trump. Not only did it lead to the end of his reelection bid—it also helped Trump look vigorous and healthy by comparison. But now, a year into his second term, there is no Biden to distract the public from the obvious truth—that Trump is at least as low-energy and sleepy as any of his rivals. In his speeches and press conferences, Trump frequently digresses into chaotic verbal nonsense. But talking disjointedly at least keeps Trump, who has a narcissistic love of being at the center of attention, alert. Yet, as a string of recent videos has shown, when Trump has to listen to other people speak, his brain tends to lapse into a default mode of somnolence. But Trump gives the lie to the idea that a president who tunes out is good for the country. In Trump’s case, there is little relief in the fact that he himself is checked out and prefers to spend his dotage garishly remaking the White House and accepting gifts that are transparently bribes. That’s because, while Trump may be inactive, his minions certainly aren’t. He’s surrounded himself with a crew of extremists, notably Stephen Miller, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Pete Hegseth, and Marco Rubio. These underlings have been empowered by Trump’s lack of interest in government. It’s allowed them to pursue harsh policies of immigration restriction, deregulation, and militarism. With his fading mind and lack of interest in governance, Trump has been able to ignore criticism of these policies. Far from being a benign personal foible, Trump’s tiredness is a major reason his second term is shaping up to be an even bigger disaster than his first."
Food for thought
The Sunday wrap-up
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