Heather Renwick

George Retes is an American citizen and Army veteran who served in Iraq.

He was jailed by ICE and held for three days. He was never given a phone call — much less an explanation for why was detained by ICE.

He shared his story of abuse by the Trump administration to
@timmiller.bsky.social:

Pope Leo calls for news agencies to stand as bulwark against "post-truths," lies and manipulation Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the "ancient art of lying" and manipulation.

Pope Leo quotes Hannah Arendt:

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist."

www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...

Chicago is officially one of the top 10 happiest cities in the world The Windy City is all smiles in 2025

Greatest city on this goddamn planet. ✊

a man stands in front of a sign that says it 's a great day ALT: a man stands in front of a sign that says it 's a great day

Just realized that Judge Perry is a Northwestern law alum.

I was looking at this graph again today, and I honestly don't know how a democracy can function with this magnitude of a gap when it comes to perceptions of reality.

Inside the Justice Department Where the President Calls the Shots The president has executed a wholesale transformation of the Justice Department, taking control in ways he could have only dreamed of in his first term.

WSJ is reporting that the Truth Social post where Trump told Pam Bondi to prosecute Comey *really was supposed to be a private message*

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Normalize just saying the Administration is breaking the law, even if there is no one to stop them from doing so.

NEW: Reuters took a closer look at violent crime in D.C. after President Trump began a show of force here. Despite the big investment of federal resources, it's really hard at this point to see any dramatic changes.

www.reuters.com/world/us/did...

ICE officers stopped a family at gunpoint and smashed the car window on top of the newborn baby. “I was screaming that there was a baby,” cried the mother. “But they didn’t care,” and covered the baby with their bodies, fearing that the glass would hurt him.

U.S. deports journalist Mario Guevara to El Salvador, family says Mario Guevara, an independent journalist, was arrested while covering a protest of the Trump administration in a case that has alarmed free speech groups.

Mario Guevara, an Emmy-award winning reporter, was deported to El Salvador — a nation he fled more than two decades ago. He was arrested while covering a protest of the Trump administration in a case that has alarmed free speech groups.

I am just so fucking proud of her.

I view today's decision as yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket. This Court should have stayed its hand. Having opted instead to join the fray, the Court plainly mis- judges the irreparable harm and balance-of-the-equities factors by privileging the bald assertion of unconstrained executive power over countless families’ pleas for the sta- bility our Government has promised them. Because, re- spectfully, I cannot abide our repeated, gratuitous, and harmful interference with cases pending in the lower courts while lives hang in the balance, I dissent.

NEW: By a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to cancel Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan migrants.

KBJ, dissenting, says she "cannot abide our repeated, gratuitous, and harmful interference" while "lives hang in the balance."
www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Four more people were killed this morning.

To repeat:

- If it can happen at sea, it can happen anywhere

- Trump has offered no definition or limiting principle for who can be labeled a "terrorist" and summarily killed

- And no plausible legal theory for why an armed conflict exists

bangs. "They was terrified. The kids was crying. People was screaming. They looked very distraught. I was out there crying when I seen the little girl come around the corner, because they was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other," Watson said. "That's all I kept asking. What is the morality? Where's the human? One of them literally laughed. He was standing right here. He said, 'f*** them kids.'" Watson said trucks and military-style vans were used to separate parents from their children. Other neighbors said agents destroyed property to get in the building. "They had a big, 15-inch chainsaw with round blade on it, cutting this fence down," said witness Darrell Ballard. "We're under siege. We're being invaded by our own military."

“Fuck them kids.”

That’s literally what an ICE agent said when ICE, the FBI et al. raided an apartment in Chicago, including with a Blackhawk helicopter, separated children from their parents, and zip-tied them to each other.

abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chi...

Former FBI Director James Comey indicted days after Trump demanded his DOJ move 'now' to prosecute enemies Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted just days after President Trump issued a public demand for the DOJ to act "now" to prosecute him, sources say.

Background:

* "Domestic terrorism" memo: www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

* Comey indictment report: abcnews.go.com/US/former-fb...

If a government tells you that you can’t call it authoritarian, it’s authoritarian.

The Bulwark (@thebulwark) @Sarah Longwell and @Benjamin Wittes discuss the likely charges DOJ will bring against former head of the FBI James Comey.

NEW: Short video in which our pal Ben Wittes gives the background you need on the charges against Comey.

@benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org talks to @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social

substack.com/@thebulwark/...

Unbelievable dreck. At some point, you have to accept that Douthat’s anti-anti antics (“there will be coup!”) simply amount to support for authoritarianism.

Fearing Violent Threats, CDC Medical Experts Are Scared To Talk About Vaccine Safety "I have many that won't speak about vaccines now and have removed their names off of papers," said former CDC chief medical officer Debra Houry.

We've reached the point where CDC medical experts are declining to speak publicly about vaccine safety because they’re afraid of being violently targeted by anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists. www.huffpost.com/entry/cdc-ex...

The War on Truth Heats Up (just in time for Constitution Day) Hannah Arendt famously wrote, “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the real...

Kirk's murder is being weaponized to corral us into a smaller and smaller arena of speech, and it is our job to refuse to be confined, to keep speaking out, to keep making irreverent jokes, supporting progressive voices, chastising the high-profile cowards, and talking among ourselves.

President Trump warns an Australian reporter that he’s hurting Australia because he asked him about his business activity: You are hurting Australia very much right now. They want to get along with me. Your leader is coming to see me soon, I'm going to tell him about you.

National Guard is now tasked with picking up garbage in DC

Pritzker: Trump looked at the cameras and asked for me personally to say, Mr. President, can you do us the honor of protecting our city? Instead, I say, Mr. President, do not come to Chicago.

Your remarks about this effort have betrayed a continuing slip in your mental faculties

Gov. Pritzker:

“To any federal official who would come to Chicago and try to incite my people into violence as a pretext for something darker and more dangerous, we are watching, and we are taking names.”

DEVELOPING: FBI Raids John Bolton’s House In a dawn operation, FBI agents descended on the home of Trump’s former national security advisor.

www.thebulwark.com/p/developing...

You can tell yourself we are not living under a personalist authoritarian regime or you can listen to the spokesperson for that regime

DeWine: Ohio National Guard troops to be sent to Washington, D.C. to help with city policing efforts Governor Mike DeWine says that Ohio National Guard troops will be deployed to Washington, D.C.

Ohio can't afford school busses, but it can afford this www.wlwt.com/article/ohio...

3 states sending 700 National Guard troops to DC At least 700 National Guard troops will be sent to Washington, D.C., nearly doubling the number of Guardsmen active in the capital.

Updated this story @taskandpurpose.com. Ohio and South Carolina are joining West Virginia in sending National Guard troops in DC. That brings the number of Guardsmen activated for this to ~1,500. taskandpurpose.com/news/west-vi...

If you’re under any illusions about what an authoritarian personality cult the GOP has become, they’re not hiding it:

So if a group of men -- all of them wearing masks, with no uniforms or badges visible, driving unmarked cars -- approach anyone on the streets of DC, they're just supposed to submit?