Eric Lisann

Trump's net approval is now - 21 per the latest YouGov poll (UMass Amherst), as low as his lowest ebb in his first term, and as low as Biden's at the end of Biden's term.

Democrats passed anti-gerrymandering legislation in the House and were on the brink of passing it in the Senate, for Biden to pass into law. They were blocked only by Republicans filibustering, and Sinema and Manchin protecting the filibuster.

"Crucially, what Trump is really waging is mostly a class war against middle- and lower-income Americans rather than a trade war against other countries."

Yet Trump was elected due to his increased share of Latino and Black and Brown voters compared to 2020.

Right after every Vichyist lawyer at Paul, Weiss and Skadden and Latham and Kirkland and A&O and Cadwallader and Milbank and Simpson and Wilkie is similarly expelled.

Everyone has forgotten that Democrats pushed a federal law to make gerrymandering illegal during Biden's first term, but Senate Republicans used the filibuster to block it.

Chief Justice John Roberts enabled Texas’ gambit to gerrymander the state for the GOP | CNN Politics The brazen partisan redistricting underway in Texas, with Republicans attempting to entrench themselves in office and Democrats weighing a counter-offensive in blue states, was greenlit by the US Supr...

Chief Justice Roberts is commonly known as the author of the controversial Citizens Action, and Trump immunity opinions, among others, but fewer know he authored the reversal of the judicial ability to redress partisan gerrymandering, altering electoral politics.
amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/08/...

The most worn-out and destructive political cliche since Trump 1.0 has been that such and such political action, no matter how outrageous or illegal, has been electorally "litigated." Then legacy pundits nod along and mumble that elections have consequences.

The lone exception perhaps are the four firms that successfully defended themselves, with help from a few others, from the Trump orders specifically targeting them. Nine other firms capitulated in advance to such orders or the threat of them.

Never as involved in protecting democracy as it liked to pretend, Big Law has now completely retreated from the arena, unbloodied and bowed.

Reuters examined ongoing dockets for Big Law activity in cases challenging Trump administration illegalities and found what one would suspect - nothing.

The new Director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, John Barron, has revised the jobs numbers for the last three months up from 106,000 jobs to "seventy trillion billion jobs."

The specialized court of international trade has already declared this, and though that decision is on appeal, it can not credibly be reversed. But the longer it lingers the more the notion of taxation without representation must take root.

To save democracy call out and replace the quislings.
It is neither a question of age nor of generation, rather one of integrity, vision, and fortitude.

Have been to conferences where judges talk openly about the effect of MAGA threats and support for it from the WH. It will not stop because it influences decisions, likely at SCOTUS too. The poisonous fruits of rotten enforcement in the previous season are now harvested.

Republican Senators voted unanimously - not a single no vote - to confirm Fox News host Jeannine Pirro to the office of US Attorney. At Fox Pirro had pushed Trump's election denialism, concerning even some of Fox's own producers, which contributed to Fox's agreement to pay legal damages.

The pick to head the Office of Special Counsel must be confirmed by the Senate, which just confirmed Emil Bove to a judgeship in a 50-49 party line vote. Trump fired the previous head, Hampton Dellinger, without cause in contravention of statute in the middle of his 5 year term, for this pick.

Office of Special Counsel launches investigation into ex-Trump prosecutor Jack Smith The investigation comes after GOP Sen. Tom Cotton requested that Smith be investigated for “unprecedented interference in the 2024 election.”

This is why the previous n9n-partisan head of the Office of Special Counsel, Hampton Dellinger, was one of the first officials Trump fired without cause. Republicans are now weaponising the office.

www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

Eric Holder on Why He Reversed Course on Gerrymandering

"Democrats are uncomfortable with the acquisition and use of power in ways that Republicans are not. And that time has got to be over. That doesn’t mean we’re going to do it for billionaires or things that are anti-democracy, anti-science, like the Republicans do."
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/02/u...

Remember when pundits insisted Trump would never pardon Maxwell because he understood that this was supposedly too much for the public to accept?

Exactly how he talked about covid

Wonder what the Times considered to be Trump's supposed "winning streak" that they cite?

Not really, going by net approval, but this is an insightful benchmark. Trump, per YouGov, right now is -15 compared to -13 at this point in his 1st term. Most of his 1st term this - while still negative - was better than it is now.
Biden hit -15 midway through his 3rd year and kept going downhill.

Not really, going by net approval, but this is an insightful benchmark. Trump, per YouGov, right now is -15 compared to -13 at this point in his 1st term. Most of his 1st term this - while still negative - was better than it is now.
Biden hit -15 midway through his 3rd year and kept going downhill.

Seeing Kamala Harris openly say that the system is broken was so powerful.

Just having someone in her position say it so candidly without qualification was beyond powerful.

Former Attorney General and Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals Merrick B. Garland Returns to Arnold & Porter | News | Arnold & Porter Arnold & Porter

He got a lucrative sinecure at his old BigLaw firm.
www.arnoldporter.com/en/perspecti...

Unnoticed Whistle-Blower Document Alarms Justice Department Veterans

How credulous or co-opted must any journalist be to both sides the claim that the Inspector General of the Justice Department simply misplaced evidence that the Deputy Attorney General or his Deputy had incentivized trial attorneys to illegally violate court orders?
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/u...

If only any US official had this gumption.

Of course their opinion will.0lay no role in Trump's decision to pardon. He has broken norms in almost all of his controversial pardons by ignoring victims and standard process.

This makes me wonder just how inefficient his illegal department of government efficiency made our public sector.

Justice Kavanaugh defends Supreme Court’s terse emergency docket orders | CNN Politics Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Thursday defended the way the Supreme Court is handling the flood of emergency cases that has reached its docket during President Donald Trump’s administration, pushing back...

Gotta love the quote here equating Obama and Biden's use of the Supreme Court's emergency docket (also called shadow docket or in this quote "interim orders docket") with Trump's use of it, after Trump just set a record for number of times using it in six months.
www.cnn.com/2025/07/31/p...