Jas Easterly

If Trump is So Unpopular, Why are Institutions Capitulating? The American people can't stand Trump. His polling is abysmal. And yet private and public institutions capitulate. Why?

Institutions give in to the regime because they're used to keeping their eye on the ball, but right now instead isn't even about the game, but about the whole society that game's played in. What's needed is a zoomed-out perspective, but they're used to thinking only zoomed-in.

The NYC Bar has issued an opinion concluding that the Trump-ordered attacks on Venezuelan fishing boats constitute unlawful summary executions. This is a very big deal. And it explains why the DOD can't find lawyers to say the attacks are lawful. www.nycbar.org/press-releas...

I just watched Bodyguard of Lies. I don’t want to watch a Venezuelan farce in sequel.

For those not familiar, classification by definition, protects information that if released would be harmful to national security.

So the legal rationale or part of it for what appears to be the unlawful killing of apparently civilians on the high seas IS harmful to national security.

Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline People over Papers was removed by Padlet, the platform it was built on, yesterday.

Identifying public officials isn't "doxing." People have the right to know who is working for their government. Nor, for that matter, is it "radical left-wing terrorism." So it's frustrating to see platforms caving to these bad faith characterizations. www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/06/1...

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Old: OLC Torture Memo

New: OLC Murder Memo

It's a pretty big deal that the NYC Bar Association--one of the most prominent and respected bar associations in the country--is accusing the President of ordering the "unlawful summary execution," i.e. murder--of civilians in violation of US and international law. www.nycbar.org/press-releas...

It would be impressive if Ted Cruz could figure out who was President from 2018 to 2020, because he seems to think it was Biden.

He also seems to have difficulty understanding what words mean, because he thinks "monitor and correct" false statements is "censorship."

Watch the Pritzker press conference.

PAY ATTENTION: ICE is filing fake 911 calls in Chicago, weaponizing emergency services to provoke local police.

Ordinary citizens would be charged with a felony. ICE calls it strategy.

From the MAGA bible: Suffer the little [American] children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

No President’s Press Secretary should ever say, “he has the right to do that.”

This footnote to Illinois and Chicago's lawsuit against Trump is an important reminder:

* There is no Department of War or Secretary of War, which are make-believe names for the actual agencies created by Congress.

Doc storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

“When the ambulance bay doors fly open at 3:00 a.m. and the paramedics wheel in a half-dead human being, I don’t ask if they pay taxes, if they crossed a border, or if they voted for Trump. I am not allowed to fucking care, and THAT’S THE WAY IT SHOULD BE.” [emphasis in all caps added]

House of South Carolina Judge Criticized by Trump Administration Set Ablaze Authorities are investigating a fire at the home of a South Carolina judge who had reportedly received death threats in what could be the latest incident of political violence across the country.

Over the weekend, Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller repeatedly attacked judges, calling them part of an "organized terrorist attack" on the US government....

On Saturday, the home of a judge who ruled against Trump, went up in flames

time.com/7323442/sout...

This is a must-read

True, indeed obvious.

Chicago priest Father Michael Pfleger: "The state of emergency is in AMERICA, not Chicago. It's birthed from this president and his admin's reign of terror."

( ht: @mikenellis.bsky.social )

A minority view then, a loser’s view now.

We win. Ad finem. Quocumque modo opus sit.

(Don't Fear) The Reaper by Blue Öyster Cult on Apple Music Song · 1976 · Duration 5:08

music.apple.com/us/album/don... Not a scary song. The Road less taken.

Summum nec metuam diem nec optem. I will neither fear nor wish for the last day.

Proposed reply:

Dear Secretary McMahon,

Our offer is this: Nothing. Not even the fee for the gaming license, which we would appreciate if you’d put up personally.

Sincerely,

Universities

Kristi Noem Says ICE Will Be ‘All Over’ the Super Bowl

The God of my understanding is looking forward to halftime. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/a...

Their parents never got them vaccinated. As young adults, they faced a choice. Falling vaccination rates around the country mean more will grow up without protection from debilitating diseases until they are old enough to decide for themselves, typically at age 18.

wapo.st/4o9hBUN

MORE: Immergut issued a stark warning that the efforts by Trump to make a bad-faith justification to call up the guard risked plunging the country into a form of unconstitutional military rule.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

It’s really up to you.

For me, it’s anyone who stands against the authoritarian threat and for the rule of law.

Ongoing project of messing with images from ICE videos. Chicago this afternoon. The lips. “To see the myth in the natural and the real in magic, to demythologize history and to reenchant its reified representation: that is a first step.” — Michael Taussig on writing about colonialism’s lies.

We are the best and only hope. Not anyone else. Just us.