The President of the United States is declaring WAR on an AMERICAN city
PhD, Religion. Non-Resident Scholar, Baker Institute. Adjunct Lecturer, TCU, Brite. Byline @TexasObserver, others. RT =/= endorse. Ravenclaw. drdrbrockman@gmail.com He/his
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The President of the United States is declaring WAR on an AMERICAN city
President Trump threatened 'WAR' on Chicago in a social media post Saturday as his administration’s large-scale immigration raids loomed over the city. “This is not a joke,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wrote in response to Trump’s post. “This is not normal.”
The Trump administration's embrace of Christian nationalism threatens Americans' religious liberty
Live scene from the Dept of War youtu.be/UzSMv02xPyI?...
NEW: Did you know the Trump Administration has been demanding that states hand over ALL of your voter data? “It's literally everything that you would need to steal someone's identity,” says one expert. More on what’s at stake:
So much efficiency!
This OR GOP activist who is cheering on Trump’s plan to have the military “clear out” protesters in Portland was charged with felonies in relation to his actions on January 6, 2021 when he was one of thousands of people who violently stormed the US Capitol to try to overthrow the government.
It's obviously murder. We're not at war with Venezuela. The US has no jurisdiction to kill people in international waters for maybe committing crimes or being on the boats of people who might be committing crimes.
Lina Hidalgo also said an announcement around her decision of whether to run for reelection is coming "very, very, very, very soon." bit.ly/3HIuZQg
Sheesh
Trump signed an executive order rebranding the Department of Defense as the Department of War, a more bellicose alternative that echoes the agency's 18th-century name.
The Founders knew people like Dusty Deevers would try to hijack government to impose their religion—that’s why they built a wall between church & state. Of course he sees it as an obstacle. That’s exactly the point.
With the news that President Trump has taken a sudden interest in renaming the Department of Defense the “Department of War,” one has to wonder: Was the U.S. military really in need of some kind of hypermuscular rebrand? New @indigoolivier.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/2000...
“The immigration operation brought construction to a halt at the battery plant” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/u...
Things just keep getting worse and worse on the reproductive rights front here in Texas
While Texas already bans abortion, with HB 7 Republicans aim to halt the flow of abortion medication from out of state, one of the only remaining avenues for Texans to still access care. The bill now moves to the Gov's desk. My latest for @texasobserver.org: www.texasobserver.org/texas-legisl...
Looking forward to a swift injunction to halt the implementation of this shameful law
From @marytuma.bsky.social, House Bill 7 attacks one of the last remaining options for reproductive care in Texas and declares legal war on blue states: www.texasobserver.org/texas-legisl... #txlege
You know it’s bad when Trump is posting about Epstein to distract from the jobs report.
www.liberalcurrents.com/half-the-ans... Talking with @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social and @trentrichardnelson.bsky.social at @liberalcurrents.com about, you know, stuff.
Excellent suggestion! 😄
Responding to the bad jobs numbers in the 9 a.m. hour: Kevin Hassett told Fox News that it is a function of survey response rates and will be revised upward. Lori Chavez-DeRemer told Fox Business that bad numbers are Jerome Powell's fault for not cutting rates. Can't be both!
We have now reached the point where the Department of Housing and Urban Development is sponsoring Christian nationalist worship services led by right-wing activist Sean Feucht on the National Mall. www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwat...
The Social Security Administration’s acting inspector general has opened a review of the agency’s call center wait times and its ability to deliver services to Americans. The investigation was requested by Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren: https://cnn.it/468v9bI
Barring Kennedy's resignation, the letter calls on Congress and President Donald Trump to appoint a new HHS secretary "whose qualifications and experience ensure that health policy is informed by independent and unbiased peer-reviewed science."
The last two months in which American economy lost jobs were June 2025 and December 2020 -- both while Donald Trump was president. Never happened under Biden.
My latest at @missouriindependent.com on efforts to depict partisan redistricting as a Christian effort: "Missouri Republicans Invoke Christian Values to Gerrymander Out a Methodist Minister" missouriindependent.com/2025/09/05/m...
"Numbers tend to benefit the left." That's because the Right builds its narratives on lies; and lies are disproven with facts. Vaccines save lives. Tariffs are taxes on consumers. America was NOT founded as a Christian nation. Election results reflect the votes cast. Jan 6 was a failed coup. Etc.
So: what official gets fired this time?
Job growth stalls: US economy added just 22,000 jobs in August, unemployment at highest in nearly four years - @cnn.com www.cnn.com/2025/09/05/e...
Jobs report expected to show weakness in labor market www.nbcnews.com/business/eco...
White House official Kevin Hassett: "This jobs number was certainly a little bit of a disappointment."
"NUMBERS ALWAYS TEND TO BENEFIT THE LEFT"
This is in response to a question about the accuracy of the BLS job numbers, so presumably the people being taken out are the BLS statisticians
Cabinet secretaries, lying on the record
❤️🐶
"maybe" is doing a lot of work here
Breaking News: The Justice Department is investigating Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve governor, elevating claims that President Trump cited to try to oust her.
He may be understanding the basic fabric of something, but not the universe
Breaking News: The energy giant behind a nearly finished wind farm off Rhode Island sued the Trump administration for halting the $6 billion project.
Something rare—maybe unprecedented—is unfolding in D.C.: Grand juries are refusing to indict Trump opponents whose minor acts of defiance have been inflated into felony charges. Washingtonians have few tools to resist the occupation of their city. This is one of them. slate.com/news-and-pol...
😬
Having the same problem in my religion & politics course, which focuses on the U.S. I told students up front that we would not cover anything past last November's election, because the picture since Trump's second inauguration is so unclear
New from Special Correspondent @marytuma.bsky.social: House Bill 7 attacks one of the last remaining options for reproductive care in Texas and declares legal war on blue states.
"Texas is, like, like six different states with a whole bunch of different cultures in it. That diversity is what has not only made Texas this fascinating endeavor, but it’s also what has made Texas so successful. You build successful, robust economies with diversity."
Senator Barrasso coming out that hard against RFK Jr...could the tide be turning?
Breaking news: D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued President Trump over the deployment of the National Guard in the nation’s capital, describing it as an illegal “military occupation” that has turned domestic troops into local police.
Barrasso: "Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then I've grown deeply concerned. The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership in the NIH questioning use of mRNA vaccines, the CDC director fired ... "
On the Republican side, both Cassidy and Barrasso have challenged RFK Jr. Cornyn did embarrassing cover for RFK Jr. Grassley mostly asked about agriculture.
RFK on Trump’s big beautiful bill: “There are no cuts to Medicaid.” *It contains nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid spending relative to current law, which are used to partially pay for the provisions in the legislation.
Rules Chair: Republicans won’t turn off Massie’s Epstein discharge effort in committee www.politico.com/live-updates...
I maintain the wildest thing about Operation Warp Speed is that, in virtually any other point in U.S. history, it’d be heralded as a legacy-defining achievement for a president and associated with them forever. But Trump is unwilling — or unable — to claim it as such because of how his base moved.
Massie, a libertarian Republican from Kentucky, says he is facing "$2.5 million of ads run against me by three billionaires who are mega-donors to the Republican Party. And one of them is actually, I’m not going to say on Epstein’s list, but he’s in Epstein’s black book." trib.al/UwOMtZn
House Bill 7 gives private citizens the right to sue health providers for mailing, prescribing or providing abortion medication to patients in the state of Texas; providers sued under the bill risk penalties of at least $100,000.
New in PN: Judge steps up to block ICE's kidnapping of Guatemalan kids "It’s a strong rebuke to doomers who say that the law doesn’t matter. It mattered this weekend for the children pulled off those planes, and it continues to matter as courts step in to check Trump's worst, cruelest excesses."
If you have thoughts on this or how what’s happening with the IMLS is impacting your work, message me here or on Signal (rstauff.20). Trying to dig into some potential related reporting and would love to hear from folks who are working in these fields/are impacted.
Must-read article — and absolutely remarkable that 10 judges find the problem urgent enough to air their concerns (even if anonymously) to the press.
The Supreme Court runs on public legitimacy and generally we think about that in terms of the general public - but (increasingly?) it seems that the legitimacy of SCOTUS in the eyes of the lower courts is under threat as well.
China has hacked into U.S. power grids and companies for decades. But a sweeping cyberattack by a group known as Salt Typhoon is China’s most ambitious yet, experts have concluded. It may have stolen information from nearly every American, officials said.
You watch: There will be uniformed, armed personnel at polling stations in 2026 and again in 2028. Citing “safety,” Trump will dispatch them to curiously—but not randomly—selected precincts and counties: mostly urban, maybe select minority suburban/rural areas. Hope I’m wrong, but mark my words.
Under the measure, Texas residents could sue those who manufacture, transport or provide abortion-inducing drugs to anyone in Texas for up to $100,000. https://cnn.it/3I4ZoIw
🤔
PULTE: Public officials shouldn't be exempt from scrutiny SORKIN: Speaking of that, Ken Paxton has at least 3 examples of alleged mortgage fraud. Are you looking at that? PULTE: Unless it's been made public, I'm not going to comment on any specific situation S: Why wouldn't you make it public?
Because it’s a disingenuous political move. But we all knew that, didn’t we?
The Texas Legislature ended another legislative overtime round without banning or further regulating most THC products after a monthslong fight between lawmakers to rein in the exploding hemp industry.
NEW: In rare interviews, federal judges criticize Supreme Court's handling of Trump cases. “It is inexcusable,” a judge said of the Supreme Court justices. “They don’t have our backs.”
A national free speech group is suing to block a new Texas law limiting on-campus protests.
Breaking News: U.S. imports and exports rose in July after months of sluggish trade, as companies brought in products before new tariffs went into effect.
🙄
BREAKING: In a shocking revolt, over 1,000 current and former Health and Human Services employees have released a letter calling for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign. trib.al/mXSGNop
JUST IN: A federal judge gave Harvard University a landmark victory in its fight against the Trump administration, siding with the Ivy League school in its effort to restore more than $2 billion in federal funding for research frozen by the White House. https://cnn.it/4nhK5va
JUST RELEASED: From our new CBS News polling =====>
New: GOP Senate leader Thune keeps door open to extending expiring Obamacare tax credits Trump-linked pollsters are raising alarms that MAGA voters will punish Republicans in 2026 if premiums go up. Dems want the money extended in gov’t fund or another vehicle. www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...
oh my god
Bounty hunting. Shameful
"A review of the administrative record makes it difficult to conclude anything other than that Defendants used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities."
Will SCOTUS tell us the president is allowed to break the law?
The governors of California, Washington and Oregon announced they will form a West Coast Health Alliance to begin coordinating public health guidelines separate from the CDC. https://cnn.it/41BLxzZ
Very good news
Breaking news: President Trump’s Justice Department recently sought access to voting equipment used by two Republican clerks in Missouri during the 2020 election, an unusual request as Trump said he would lead a movement to get rid of voting machines.
Right-wing pastor Ralph Drollinger brags that congressional members of his Bible study inserted a work requirement for Medicaid provision into the GOP spending bill to reflect the biblical teaching that "if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat." www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwat...
Raskin: "When private comments made by federal employees are scrutinized for anti-Trump bias and they can lose their jobs because of it, then we've entered the realm not just of Vladimir Putin but Joseph Stalin."
Nigel Farage looks uncomfortable as Jamie Raskin uses his opening statement to absolutely demolish him
I wonder whom the president will fire this time
In a further sign of a slowing labor market, the number of available jobs in the US dipped to an estimated 7.18 million at the end of July, according to new data. https://cnn.it/3UVfbfV
😄
Trump attorney Christina Bobb says the court ruling striking down Trump's tariffs is wrong because "if the president doesn't have the authority to make and change tariffs, who does?" Um, Congress, as explicitly spelled out in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution?
New declaration filed in the case brought by unaccompanied migrant children appears to confirm that at least one of the planes carrying minors took off shortly before or during Judge Sooknanan’s hearing on whether to block the flights
According to the Met DC Police dept, crime is not down 100 percent. Overall crime down 8%, violent crime down 27%, property crime down 5%. But who's counting, right? mpdc.dc.gov
👀
wow, zero crime. incredible. that’s probably a world record
Donald Trump prides himself on giving Huntsville, AL the cool nickname of "Rocket City." This article is from the The Huntsville Times of 13 May 1953, when Donald Trump was six years old.
It really is
Reporter’s notebook: At NatCon’s “Islamism” panel yesterday, a speaker mentioned Jewish Voice for Peace, a pro-Palestinian org, and voiced befuddlement it exists. I was one of the only reporters to cover JVP’s conference this year. Hard to be precise, but it felt as big, if not bigger, than NatCon.
Trump: "We've taken in almost $17 trillion of investment." (That would be more than half the entire US GDP, so no.)
Sheesh
"The Republican officials who flanked Trump looked wound as tight as springs. "The intense makeup couldn’t hide the swelling around his eyes. "He’s not dead, but his appearance failed to persuade anyone outside of MAGA diehards that he’s doing well." www.salon.com/2025/09/03/t...
Trump’s long weekend of humiliation, mocked by Americans and foreign leaders, is a great thing. He needs the illusion of strength. So keep on talking about how frail he’s looking — and what he is hiding. www.salon.com/2025/09/03/t...
ICYMI, last night a panel of the 5th Circuit joined over a dozen other federal judges to rule that the Alien Enemies Act — adopted during the Quasi-War of 1798 and only ever previously used during times of declared war — is in fact a wartime authority and can’t be used against a criminal gang.
The restaurant near the Zoo has a new owner but the same menu and many of the same staffers.