Theodore Mayer

This evening, President Trump is ordering 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployments to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the United States. No officials from the federal government called me directly to discuss or coordinate. We must now start calling this what it is: Trump's Invasion. It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state's military troops. I call on Governor Abbott to immediately withdraw any support for this decision and refuse to coordinate. There is no reason a President should send military troops into a sovereign state without their knowledge, consent, or cooperation. The brave men and women who serve in our national guards must not be used as political props. This is a moment where every American must speak up and help stop this madness.

Statement from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker

Portland never stops being Portland.

If it isn’t a “red herring,” why hasn’t Johnson seated the new congresswoman already?

Dem Congressman James Walkinshaw (VA) won a special election September 9, 2025; he was seated Sept 10.

Adelita S. Grijalva (AZ) won her special election Sept 23, 2025 but has yet to be seated.

Nobody cares and nothing will happen but this is classically, paradigmatically fascist language. Comparing opponents to vermin and pests is straight out of the textbook.

Late tonight, a federal judge issued a sweeping new order prohibiting the president from deploying any National Guard forces—from any state or DC—to Oregon.

The president cannot keep playing whack-a-mole with different states’ Guard units to get around court orders and the rule of law.

Good thread about Vance.

In JDV rant shown below, he treats Joy Reid as if she is in US on contingent basis. Should be "grateful" for its generosity.

Reid was *born* in New York. Grew up there and Denver. Undergrad at Harvard.

Hmmm, why might JDV view her as needing to show special 'gratitude'??

Partisan gerrymanders may be legal, but only because SCOTUS said so. They are anti-democratic measures used by a party that fears losing power to hold onto control, a mechanism that lets parties choose their voters instead of letting voters choose who will represent them.

“They asked for a sword, and we said, ‘Well, we do have swords, but we can’t give them away because they’re museum artifacts,’” said Todd Arrington, forced to resign as head of Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library.”

Full solidarity with the flotilla, which represents the very best of humanity.

And eternal shame to the European states who refused to protect it from Israeli assault and establish a corridor for aid to Gaza.

You are not seeing this slaughter live-streamed to your devices because Israel has murdered most of Gaza’s most prominent journalists in targeted assassinations.

Email text: National Nurses United and UE call for end to military operations, blockade in Palestine Unions demand U.S. recognize Palestine’s sovereignty and demand that Israeli government end violence, starvation, and injustices on Palestinian people National Nurses United (NNU), the country’s largest union and professional association of registered nurses, and the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) — together representing over a quarter million union members — sent a letter today to President Trump to demand that “the Israeli government permanently end its military operations and blockade in Palestine, and that the United States immediately recognize the sovereignty of Palestine.” “Our unions concur with the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, which found that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” stated the letter. “The United States must intervene immediately to put an end to the violence, starvation, and injustices being inflicted on the Palestinian people.

Email text continued: The attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023 was an atrocity. But Israel’s collective punishment of millions of Palestinians and destruction of Gaza over two years constitute a crime against humanity,” the letter continued. “More than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed, including nearly 20,000 children, while 1.9 million have been displaced and countless others have been severely injured and have lost their family members since October 2023. The death toll includes many of our union siblings, including hundreds of health care workers, media workers, engineers, and civil servants killed on the job.” The letter concluded with a demand for “urgent action to immediately halt military aid to Israel; secure a permanent and immediate ceasefire that ensures an end to the mass killing and starvation of innocent Palestinian civilians; ensure that the remaining hostages in Gaza and political prisoners in Israel are safely returned home; and recognize Palestinian sovereignty and restore the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.”

NEWS: Major unions @nationalnurses.bsky.social and @ueunion.org are publicly demanding that the U.S. immediately halt military aid to Israel, recognize Palestinian sovereignty, and intervene “to put an end to the violence, starvation, and injustices being inflicted on the Palestinian people.”

This is good.

Pope Leo hits out at critics of global warming In his first major statement on climate change, the pontiff criticises those who minimise climate change.

"God will ask us if we have cultivated and cared for the world that he created for the benefit of all and for future generations, and if we have taken care of our brothers and sisters - what will be our answer, my dear friends?"

⭕️ Gaza:

Israel has killed at least 65 Palestinians across the Strip since dawn on Thursday. Among them, at least eight were killed while searching for food. Nineteen people were killed in the northern Gaza Strip, 17 in the central area, and 29 in the south.

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

"This is extortion, plain and simple.... The only solution is solidarity and collective action against this effort at federal control over higher education."

A sobering analysis of the illegality of the administration's "compact" and its stakes for higher ed. 🎁🔗

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

“To us, masks are associated with cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan. In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police.”

- Judge William Young, September 30, 2025

AOC is right. And it's nice to see a prominent Democratic officeholder explain the duality so directly.

www.arcdigital.media/p/kimmel-and...

RIP Aaron Swartz 🥺

Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe in front of a slide that quotes Sara Peach: “The goal of the conversation is not to tell people about climate change. It's to expand the number of people in the conversation.”

“I practice hope like an Olympic sport.” –Katharine Hayhoe at @amnh.org during New York Climate Week

So exhausting..

So far today, Chuck Schumer has said his strategy for preventing Trump sending troops into blue cities is to win over Republican senators (!) while Hakeem Jeffries praised Eric Adams's courage and authenticity (!!) while refusing to endorse Mamdani. Again.

These two gotta go.

stone. cold. and we love to see it.

Cry, Heart, But Never Break: A Remarkable Illustrated Meditation on Loss and Life “Who would enjoy the sun if it never rained? Who would yearn for the day if there were no night?”

Cry, Heart, but Never Break – a remarkable Danish illustrated meditation on loss and life www.themarginalian.org/2016/03/08/c...

Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change. Air pollution fell substantially as the city restricted car traffic and made way for parks and bike lanes.

“Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic and made way for parks, people-streets and bike-lanes.”

Better for the climate, better for health, better for livability & quality of life.

Common sense.

Such a no-brainer, it’s remarkable that more cities HAVEN’T done the same.

Taken just a few minutes ago outside the ICE facility in Portland that Trump claims is under siege. My message to Donald Trump is this: we don’t need you here. Stay the hell out of our city.

Diversity of tactics. Push your local legislators on this.

News | UEFA is moving toward a vote to suspend Israel from European football competitions over its genocidal violence in Gaza, with a majority of its 20-member executive committee expected to back the move, AP reports.

Suspension would bar Israeli national and club teams from UEFA tournaments and…

“The time of…Benjamin Netanyahu coming to this city and then making military decisions from this city to kill civilians…has to come to an end.”

I asked @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social if he still plans to arrest Netanyahu if he comes to New York.

Full interview: zeteo.com/p/exclusive-...

I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)

If only Pete Hegseth's military shaving crusade was just stupid Hegseth knows damn well who he's pushing out: Black troops.

Pete Hegseth’s new grooming policy practically guarantees an unfathomable wave of terminations, with Black service members likely to face the brunt. Does the secretary know who mainly benefits from the waivers?

There’s almost no way he doesn’t.