I am proposing a very simple deal to reopen the government:

- Include a one-year clean extension of the current health care tax credits to immediately address Americans’ rising costs.
- Create a bipartisan committee that will continue negotiations on reforms ahead of next year’s enrollment period

2. Those troops arrived in the District in August 2025, after President Trump decided to flood D.C. neighborhoods with National Guard members from around the country. A few weeks passed, and yet the troops remained. Given the roughly 200-year-old tradition of civilian law enforcement in the United States, Mr. O’Hara was deeply concerned about the normalization of troops patrolling D.C. neighborhoods. And so, he began protesting the Guard members’ presence by walking several feet behind them when he saw them in the community. Using his phone and sometimes a small speaker, he played The Imperial March as he walked, keeping the music at a volume that was audible but not blaring. Mr. O’Hara recorded the encounters and posted the videos on his TikTok account, where millions of people have viewed them. 3. Ohio National Guard member Sgt. Devon Beck was not amused by this satire. On September 11, 2025, Mr. O’Hara saw Sgt. Beck, along with several other Guard members, walking in uniform in the Logan Circle neighborhood, near the intersection of 14th and R Streets NW. Mr. O’Hara calmly walked behind the Guard members, began playing The Imperial March aloud on his phone, and started recording. In less than two minutes, Sgt. Beck turned around and threatened to call D.C. police officers to “handle” Mr. O’Hara if he persisted. Mr. O’Hara continued recording and playing the music. Sgt. Beck contacted the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). Defendant MPD Officers Brown, Campbell, Reyes-Benigno, and Lopez Martinez came to the scene and, in essence, did what Sgt. Beck had threatened, putting Mr. O’Hara in handcuffs and preventing him from continuing his peaceful protest. 4. The law might have tolerated government conduct of this sort a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. But in the here and now, the First Amendment bars government officials from shutting down peaceful protests, and the Fourth Amendment (along with the District’s prohibition on false arrest) bars groundless s…

ACLU is suing an OH Guard and some MPD cops for detaining him for playing the Imperial March behind the OH Guard.

They're claiming battery against the DC cops who detained the plaintiff.

www.acludc.org/app/uploads/...

YouTube video by emptywheel Stephen Miller's Fever Dreams

How Chicago managed to defeat Stephen Miller's propaganda, at least so far.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYlv...

U.S. District Judge April Perry says it comes down to a "credibility determination."

"I simply cannot credit [the Trump administration's] declarations to the extent they contradict state and local law enforcement. … DHS' perception of events are simply unreliable."

U.S. District Judge April Perry is now questioning DOJ lawyer Eric Hamilton about the National Guard deployment. She starts by noting the 14 CA troops, 200 TX troops and 300 IL troops.

But she asks if those numbers could increase, and whether the troops could go elsewhere in Illinois.

Stephen Miller Implies He Intended for Trump's Nutjobs to Kill Democrats - emptywheel Stephen Miller just confessed on Fox News that when he uses dehumanizing language -- when he calls Democrats "fascists" or "Marxists" or "radical" -- he intends it as a message to "all the crazies and...

Stephen Miller Implies He Intended for Trump's Nutjobs to Kill Democrats

www.emptywheel.net/2025/10/02/s...

From me, a list of Trump supporters who killed, or tried to kill, Democrats and opponents of Trump in recent years (since the right are now claiming all the political violence is from the left!)

Receipts:
zeteo.com/p/charlie-ki...

In rare interviews, federal judges criticize Supreme Court's handling of Trump cases Ten judges tell NBC News the Supreme Court needs to explain its rulings better, with some urging Chief Justice John Roberts to do more to defend the judiciary against external criticism.

🚨EXCLUSIVE:

Federal judges tell NBC News the Supreme Court has got to do a better job of explaining emergency rulings, with frequent decisions in favor of Trump at least appearing to validate harsh criticism of the judiciary at a time of rising threats:

www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup...

Yeah Gavin, shut up and dribble. Lol.

Actually I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States with my hand on @bpl.boston.gov’s 1782 edition Aitken Bible—also known as the Bible of the Revolution.

How Gavin Newsom trolled his way to the top of social media Inside the MAGA-parodying strategy that has rocketed the California governor to algorithmic dominance — while annoying leading Republicans.

With an inescapable, smashmouth, all-caps-laden and meme-filled X account, Newsom is holding a mirror up to MAGA — and MAGA doesn’t like what it sees.

Here's a YouTube of the people Trump was complaining about, who spit on cops.

Trump pardoned all of them.

Video shows Department of Justice official urging Jan. 6 rioters to 'kill' cops The Department of Justice hired a former Jan. 6 defendant who was caught on tape urging rioters to "kill" police. The department calls him a "valued member" of the administration.

On Jan. 6, Jared Wise urged rioters to "kill" cops.

"You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo," Wise yelled.

Trump dismissed Wise's Jan. 6 case, and the DOJ hired him as a senior adviser.

We got the bodycam video showing Wise on Jan. 6.

www.npr.org/2025/08/07/n...

Every GOP member should be asked if they would vote to impeach Trump if he pardons the sex trafficker.

Rev. William Barber arrested in Capitol Rotunda after praying against Republican-led budget (RNS) — While arrests of protesters at the Capitol is not unusual, the response to Barber’s prayer was unusually dramatic: After issuing verbal warnings, dozens of officers expelled everyone in the Ro...

For example: pastors were arrested multiple while praying in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda *in the past month.*

But they were praying *in opposition* to the budget bill Johnson just narrowly pushed through the House.

To my knowledge, Johnson has never mentioned it. religionnews.com/2025/04/28/w...

Hopefully the silver lining in this is that they’re all voted out. Craven liars.

Asked on CNN about Trump's controversial crypto dinner this week, US House Speaker Mike Johnson said:

"...I'm not going to comment on something I haven't even heard about. I'm not sure who was there or what the purpose was..."

Ask yourself: If the President so easily falls for photoshopped pictures he sees on Truth Social, what other complete falsehoods is he relying on when he makes decisions? How else is he being manipulated?

That wasn’t funny. It was scary.

Deranged Trump fully believed a badly photoshopped picture of Abrego Garcia’s knuckles displaying “MS13” was real and got very angry at an interviewer for exposing the lie.

@realDonaldTrump is very dumb

Incredibly telling moment. Trump is completely sure he is right here.
We have a president that is pickled in his information bubble, high on his own supply, can't tell his administration's propaganda from reality.
Next the White House will insist Trump is right!

The ActBlue Targeting Is a Perfect Opportunity to Flip Trump's EOs on His Head - emptywheel On her first day on the job, Bondi said she wasn't going to investigate foreign influence in elections anymore, a move that was undoubtedly done to shelter Trump's own misconduct. But, in the guise of...

The ActBlue Targeting Is a Perfect Opportunity to Flip Trump's EOs on His Head

www.emptywheel.net/2025/04/25/t...

Check out how the anchors of CBS Evening News ended their broadcast tonight:

Trump Announces Seal Team 6 Killed U.S. Protester In Daring Overnight Raid

The Executive possesses enormous powers to prosecute and to deport, but with powers come restraints. If today the Executive claims the right to deport without due process and in disregard of court orders, what assurance will there be tomorrow that it will not deport American citizens and then disclaim responsibility to bring them home?* And what assurance shall there be that the Executive will not train its broad discretionary powers upon its political enemies? The threat, even if not the actuality, would always be present, and the Executive's obligation to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed" would lose its meaning. U.S. CONST. art. II, § 3; see also id. art. II, § 1, cl. 8. Today, both the United States and the El Salvadoran governments disclaim any authority and/or responsibility to return Abrego Garcia. See President Trump Participates in a Bilateral Meeting with the President of El Salvador, WHITE HOUSE (Apr. 14, 2025). We are told that neither government has the power to act. The result will be to leave matters generally and Abrego Garcia specifically in an interminable limbo without recourse to law of any sort. The basic differences between the branches mandate a serious effort at mutual respect. The respect that courts must accord the Executive must be reciprocated by the Executive's respect for the courts. Too often today this has not been the case, as calls for impeachment of judges for decisions the Executive disfavors and exhortations to disregard court orders sadly illustrate. * See, e.g., Michelle Stoddart, 'Homegrowns

The opinion by Wilkinson—a Reagan appointee—is a scorcher.

“If today the Executive claims the right to deport without due process and in disregard of court orders, what assurance will there be tomorrow that it will not deport American citizens and then disclaim responsibility to bring them home?”

“[The government] claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear..”

Now the branches come too close to grinding irrevocably against one another in a conflict that promises to diminish both. This is a losing proposition all around. The Judiciary will lose much from the constant intimations of its illegitimacy, to which by dent of custom and detachment we can only sparingly reply. The Executive will lose much from a public perception of its lawlessness and all of its attendant contagions. The Executive may succeed for a time in weakening the courts, but over time history will script the tragic gap between what was and all that might have been, and law in time will sign its epitaph. It is, as we have noted, all too possible to see in this case an incipient crisis, but it may present an opportunity as well. We yet cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos. This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time. In sum, and for the reasons foregoing, we deny the motion for the stay pending appeal and the writ of mandamus in this case. It is so ordered. For the Court Is/ Nwamaka Anowi, Clerk

Damn, this conclusion:

“We yet cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital... This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time.”

YouTube video by Senator Chris Van Hollen Just landed in El Salvador to discuss release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia

I just landed in San Salvador a little while ago, and I look forward to meeting with the team at the U.S. embassy to discuss the release of Mr. Abrego Garcia.

I also hope to meet with Salvadoran officials and with Kilmar himself. He was illegally abducted and needs to come home.

YouTube video by Senator Chris Van Hollen I've been in El Salvador all day fighting for the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia

I've been in El Salvador all day fighting for the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia.

The Trump Administration can lie all they want, but the Court said they failed to show he was part of MS-13. This is about bringing home a man they ADMIT should never have been abducted. I won't rest until then.

YouTube video by Senator Chris Van Hollen Van Hollen denied entry to CECOT, notorious El Salvador prison where Abrego Garcia is illegally held

We were just denied entry into CECOT — the notorious prison in El Salvador where Mr. Abrego Garcia is being illegally held.

We were there for one simple reason: to check on his well-being, which his family and lawyers have not been allowed to do. We won’t stop fighting.

MIT following Harvard's lead here