Why shouldn't Dems lead with Trump's own crime? Why is that not being messaged?
Coverage of American authoritarianism with a focus on legal cases. An American-Irish in Limerick, Ireland. Legendary potty mouth!
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Why shouldn't Dems lead with Trump's own crime? Why is that not being messaged?
this is almost certainly under Title 32 authorities (meaning the TX guard will be nominally under TX state control but on a federal mission), meaning the posse comitatus issues that came up in California will not apply. that said, it raises a whole lot of other legal problems
For those asking what more Pritzker (sp) could do ... it's not clear rhetoric will do more than rally lefties, but this has done more to engage right wingers. www.emptywheel.net/2025/09/02/a...
Reupping: A Tale of Two Governors: Confronting versus Dick-Wagging There's no reason to believe Pritzker will be any more successful at staving off invasion than Newsom. Big Q is on efficacy to raise the costs. www.emptywheel.net/2025/09/02/a...
BREAKING: WaPo is easily duped.
BREAKING: On a 2-1 vote, D.C. Circuit denies the Trump administration's request to let Trump fire a Federal Trade commissioner during appeals. Citing Humphrey's Executor, about the FTC: "To grant a stay would be to defy the Supreme Court's decisions that bind our judgments. That we will not do."
Thus far Priztger's comments have done nothing to stave off invasion. They are what lefties want. But lefties may have a very self-indulgent sense of what is needed.
BREAKING: Gov. JB Pritzker says the Trump administration has sent the Texas National Guard to Great Lakes Naval Base outside Chicago, awaiting orders to deploy to Chicago. Trump administration officials will target Mexican Independence Day (Sept. 16) celebrations. @wttw.bsky.social
Legal issues: 1) Was this strike purportedly carried out in self-defense? 2) Are these supposed "terrorists" deemed combatants subject to status-based targeting? Supposedly directly participating in hostilities? 3) What indicia are used to apply these categories here? 4) Degree of certainty?
The Google monopolization remedy is out and it looks like the judge imposed next to nothing as a penalty. Big disappointment. Trump doesn't even have to intervene and bail Google out. Here is the verdict: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/dsf41...
The serial criminal is the guy in the White House.
Breyer suggests that the Ninth set a standard such that Trump could deploy ICE and use resistance to ICE as his justification to deploy the Guard. Wonder where he came up with that scenario? š¤
Charles Breyer doing something interesting w/Trump v. US here. Not that it'll work, but it gives SCOTUS an out. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
![First, ā[i]t is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.ā Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 177 (1803). Without question this principle applies to cases, like this one, where the Executive is accused of overstepping bounds set out by the Legislature. āIf the President claims authority to act but in fact exercises mere āindividual willā and āauthority without law,ā the courts may say so.ā Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. 593, 608 (2024) (citation omitted).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:bbp2b224lro3bfnzcqwwnkfo/bafkreigw7unwx3hl5xpacc7oatksql53mrgbte6g7yyzt2cmd33nnpe5x4@jpeg "Click to view full size")
It's so weird how Greenwald and Nate Silver and the likeāwho aren't even hereākeep insisting that Bluesky is pro-DNC, when I've yet to see anyone here ever say anything nice about the DNC at all. Also, evaporating? Lol. Bluesky now sends WAY more traffic to @techdirt.com than Twitter *ever* did.
Excellent analysis of the differing approaches by Newsom and Pritzker, reaching different audiences in different ways: āThis is about confronting Trump in a way that undercuts his basis of power, even while embarrassing the press of all stripes to stop normalizing Trumpās authoritarianismā
I say in the post that he gave Dems precisely what they want. But ... that's not going to stave off fascism. That's not enough. Not by a long shot.
From the weekend: A few weeks ago, Scott Bessent suggested Trump wanted delay before SCOTUS rules on tariffs. Now, Trump is wailing about urgency (and lying, on epic scale, about $$). www.emptywheel.net/2025/09/01/i...
Judge Pillard's dissent slams "spurious" criminal probes by Trump administration and pressure campaign that led Citibank to freeze climate funds that had already been awarded -- which she calls "sabotage of Congress' law." s3.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
I've come to like her writing more and more as time goes on. also agree with her that people are taking the wrong idea from this article. It's not about 2028. We have SO much to survive until then. Instead this is about learning and understanding tactics! What's working, what undercuts and why!
These pleas for money have become routine, unfortunately, but the bottom line is that Meduza needs nearly to double its support base over the next few months, or it will cease to exist as it has for a decade. Without this dramatic donation growth, the Meduza you know goes away.
I want EVERYONE to stop thinking about 2028. Way too early. Let's stop the advance of fascism instead.
That's interesting. Do you also have a time machine? Bc Newsom was trolling in earnest in June (and the piece says that). www.emptywheel.net/2025/06/20/g...
āThis is about confronting Trump in a way that undercuts his basis of power, even while embarrassing the press of all stripes to stop normalizing Trumpās authoritarianism.ā
So you like Pritzker not speaking into a void?
A Tale of Two Governors: Confronting versus Dick-Wagging www.emptywheel.net/2025/09/02/a...
NOW: Judge Breyer finds President Trump violated the Posse Comitatus Act with deployment in LA. Enjoins further use: Ruling: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Add in that the MN shooter might have been preventable if FBI and DHS hadn't refocused their domestic terrorism policing, and FBI didn't even MENTION the terrorist attack at CDC.
Weāve spent more time talking about nonexistent crime in šŗšø cities in the last month, even as weāve totally erased actual political violence from the National Conversationā¢ļø. Hard to overstate how disheartening & deeply unserious this has been.
[Which is to say, you might ask Popehat separately, w/o a link to my post, which he won't see.]
Popehat blocks me, but I'm very interested in what he has to say about it. Abrego has such great lawyers, and this is such a blatant case of retaliation.
Iām glad @emptywheel.bsky.social wrote this. Iāve been watching Noem in recent weeks and wondering if Kilmar Abrego had an actionable slander claim against her? It seems like she has no proof for any of her slurs.
Trump World Liberty Financialās token is down 16% on day 1 of trading. www.coingecko.com/en/coins/wor...
Kristi Noem's Non-Stop Slander Invites Congress to Ask Melania about Her Close Ties to Jeffrey Epstein www.emptywheel.net/2025/09/02/k...
He also has really problematic rationalizations for publishing the Steele dossier the way he did, which carry over to ignorant beliefs about the hard drive referred to as the Hunter Biden laptop.
Generous and gracious. How refreshing.
The context of this makes it even worse. 1) Darcy: What will your new access journalism column achieve? Ben: Access. 2) Darcy: Is democracy under threat? Ben: radically transparent blah blah blah. 3) Darcy: Is Semafor looking for new oligarch funders? Ben: Ask Justin Smith.
Here's the govt bid to get him detained. I think they try to misrepresent photos for body cam. Why is there body cam of the gun, but not the alleged assault? storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
And then they compare w/Jan6 release (earlier they cite Munchel, the precedent for those cases).
Here's the response from Paul Bryant, the Black veteran and lawyer whom the govt arrested in part bc he had a legal weapon in DC, to USG attempt to get him detained. It leans heavily into the lack of Body Cam proving he shoulder checked some Guardsmen. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Oh.
Trump now routinely barks orders to the Opus Dei Court and they do whatever he commands of them.
My theory is that Trump wants Roberts to act now because if the stonks crash before it gets to them, his argument for getting the MAGA 6 to ignore the law (IT MADE US GREAT AGAIN!) will evaporate.
In Batshit Rant Trump Seems to Beg John Roberts to Rule before Full Brunt of His Tariffs Hits www.emptywheel.net/2025/09/01/i...
The LGML case came very close to being JGG redux. But just before the hearing began, the judge decided not to wait. She entered a TRO barring removal of all the children. That made all the difference: DHS already had the kids loaded on planes. One plane even took off (then turned around).
NEW: A week or so ago, one federal agent kept popping up in videos from Trump's violent DC crackdownāso @jsweetli.bsky.social and I investigated. Turns out he's a 26-year-old US Parks Police officer, a lesser known law enforcement unit currently championed by Interior Sec. Doug Burnum. Our report:
Ty
We have a decades of scholarship on how pro-democracy forces win in competitive authoritarian systems: they form a united opposition that brings together people with otherwise profound political disagreements.
Ty
As a national poll of whatās a two-round system per district, itās hard to project. But hereās what the poll shows: The leading far-right party at 31%. The Left Blocās two halves at 16.5% & at 10%. Macronās party at just 13.5%. And the traditional conservatives at 10%.
I really hope this becomes the black eye it deserves to be www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
I can
They didn't. This is an indictment approved by a GJ.
Here's the decision in VOS Selection, the tariff case. Before yesterday, we knew it was headed to SCOTUS. It's still headed to SCOTUS (but will go into effect in October if SCOTUS doesn't act by then). storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Here's the indictment of Adrian Martinez, the kid who was brutally assaulted by agents after calling out their kidnapping of a guy he worked with. They left out his 1A speech and the assault, among other things. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
As @emptywheel.bsky.social has explained very clearly, at a minimum, Putin knows exactly how and how much Russia conspired with Trump for his 2016 election win, something Trump has been furiously trying to distract from ever since. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
Isnāt it the case that Ernstās quitting makes it more likely the GOP keeps the seat?
DOJ has also dismissed another case brought by federal agents after the D.C. surge began, this one involving a man who police said was found asleep in his car. The police searched the car and found a handgun; the driver had a felony record.
In a two week period: Trump fired 7 of the 8 members who do independent federal oversight on nuclear waste. Peter Thiel (Palantir) is found to be backing the first privately developed uranium enrichment facility in the US.
Today is Friday, Aug 29. Good morning ā¤ļø eat take your meds hydrate tell your people you love them let them love you back We are here. This is real. Let's build a home for each other and fight like hell.
Narrative buster: NYT finds that DC arrests were up only 13% over the previous two weeks and that the biggest change has been more arrests for minor infractions like smoking weed in a public place. (This does not include immigration abductions.) (Gift link.) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/u...
1/DC occupation/Trump policies causing a sudden stop to regional economy. These policies are not creating a sense of safety but far reaching harm to families, workers, and the nation. www.dcnewsnow.com/news/local-n...
I had the same question.
Trump's trying to help those targeting Kamala Harris. edition.cnn.com/2025/08/29/p...
5 so-called journalists, none seems to know that the LAST TIME Kash Patel and John Ratcliffe used emails stolen from foreign spies to predicate an investigation, John Durham chased Russian disinformation for four years.
Speaking of NYT failures: The other day NYT (led by right wing propagandist Devlin Barrett) went thru hoops to normalize the investigation of John Bolton. www.emptywheel.net/2025/08/28/k...
ICE kidnapping a mother as her child begs the officers not to take her. Heartbreaking š š¢
I would like to remind people Trump literally posted Obamaās personal address and a lunatic follower of his showed up there the next day armed to the teeth. You might not have heard about it because places like the NYT never reported it (they reported the gunman but not the Trump part at all!)
Among the links in @courtwatch.bsky.social today: Alexis Wilkins' lawsuit against Kyle Seraphin, for claiming she's an Israeli agent put up to honey trap Kash Patel. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
I guess if I "have nothing in the fight," then you really don't believe what you say about fascism. Glad we've got that straight. The Senate is only useful if you can find 4 GOP defectors. That's it. Otherwise you need to find a different venue to be effective.
IT DOESN'T HELP THEM. What part of a 53-vote GOP majority do you not understand?
You're weeping bc I explained basic math to you, the basic math you should have done before you adopted a theory of change that guaranteed you would be impotent.
The 47 votes in a 100-vote majority vote chamber do not count, no. Imagining they do is the most impotent kind of activism.
It's totally weird to have people believe this is fascism (it is!) and yet believe I'm safe in Ireland. Am I privileged to be here? Yep. Safe? Nope. And that was made clear to me in the same time you claim you made Schumer your feckless target.
I did write. www.lawdork.com/p/the-dc-cir...
The Pentagon is restoring a portrait of Gen. Robert E. Lee, which includes a slave guiding the Confederate generalās horse in the background, to the West Point library three years after a congressionally mandated commission ordered it removed, officials said. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/u...
Federal Reserve independence reflects at least the minimal common sense to put the marshmallows in another room. The kind of choice it was possible to make in an era before indoor plumbing and reading without moving your lips became āelitist.ā
That Rubio vote may have saved Ukraine. And the fetish about how people vote on nominations that they won't affect is the worst kind of activist fecklessness.
No. Pretty much people don't give Schumer credit bc they decided months ago, largely based on CR that in retrospect was a far better decision than people care to evaluate, that he was the enemy. The opposition to Schumer is 100% as feckless as Schumer is.
Hi Thanks for confessing you don't know what his job is and don't fucking care bc you need someone to hold your hand and decided for some INSANE reason it has to be him.
New "How to Report ICE" zines up today for free printable download! California (by county/area) Chicago Colorado DC Metro Area (DMV) Massachusetts North Carolina Triangle Area NYC Philly Pittsburgh Portland, OR St. Louis Metro Area Washington State Please share! drive.google.com/drive/folder...
The party line vote w/Monarez will be interesting background given claims that GOPers plan to exercise SOME oversight over public health monster RFK Jr next week. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
That was when GOPers were furious about Schumer holding up so many nominations (for which Dems On Here give him zero credit). www.politico.com/live-updates...
Had an insomnia moment about the value of Dems not ALWAYS voting against Trump nominees. Only to learn that Susan Monarez, who was allegedly fired yesterday, WAS confirmed on a strict party line vote (w/Hagerty and Sullivan NV) on July 29. www.senate.gov/legislative/...
In any other era, Congress would have opened an investigation into this. The corruption that we are witnessing is staggering. This is Ben Aliās level of corruption and abuse of power.
It's really shocking that the NYT and WaPo have forgotten that Trump is a criminal who freed hundreds of violent cop assailants on his first day on the job. Every Single Story About Crime should lead with that.
Clown stuff. There are more hoops to jump thru before he could even run, and the view on his rape verdict is a lot less permissive than TRump's sexual assaults. That said, there's a shocking lack of a serious candidate.
They charged Sean Dunn--the sandwich hero--w/a misdemeanor after getting no-billed by a grand jury for a felony assault charge. The Chief of the Criminal section at DC USAO is prosecuting submarine warfare. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
What was that saying about glass houses?
This effort involves 9 Senators and 50 Reps. I'm sure certain pundits will claim in 4 months time it never happened.
I understand that certain pundits have created that belief in people who don't track things themselves.
Letās Talk About the Tariff-Induced Embargo on the US
No. I'm saying that in both 2008 & 2020, GOPers set aside their partisanship, however briefly, because they badly needed competent help. I think Dems need to think ahead of time what they do when/if a big catrastrophe hits, especially if, for example, it's an area where GOPers are opposed now.
Yup. But he's not on the ballot again. I think it CAN be made into an issue in the Gubernatorial, where Amy Acton should at least be competitive, even assuming no big Blue Wave.
Yes. I'd have to look but it seems some other GOP govs rejected it as well. But VT did first.
That's my worry. W/MN they're attempting to stoke violence against trans people RATHER than looking at the cultivation of the culprit or the guns.
TY for the links. I agree that the BIG question is whether Trump can be held accountable. There was a terrorist attack at CDC. Everyone ignored it. FBI could have prevented the MN shooting. No one is saying that. Trump's redeployment of FBI is leading to increased NatSec crime. No discussion of it
research at the intersection of hybrid consolidation and disaster response is fairly new, and pretty complex. on the one hand, autocratic regimes can seize on natural disasters to further consolidate autocratic power and suppress opposition: theconversation.com/disaster-aut...
That's super interesting. Publicly?
VT GOvernor Phil Scott refused to cooperate. Did you miss that news?
Absolutely bonkers personalist regime stuff www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
