Hooper

This video of Chicagoans intervening to save a man from being abducted off the streets by ICE is making the rounds on Instagram.

Community action works.

Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...

As bad as this headline is, the details are worse. Russel Vought is trying to roll back SS for the elderly, the disabled, the widowed and orphaned and FURTHER cut food stamps. Make sure to read and share this gift link: wapo.st/4qa8yoq

FACT FOCUS: Democrats did not shut down the government to give health care to 'illegal immigrants' This is false. Democrats say they are pushing for the inclusion of key health care provisions in the next congressional spending package.

FACT FOCUS: Democrats did not shut down the government to give health care to illegal immigrants.

UT-Austin considering offer to adopt Trump priorities for funding advantages The funding deal would reportedly ask the university to adopt a stricter definition of gender and a tuition freeze, among other conditions.

www.texastribune.org/2025/10/02/u... shameful that this was not immediately rejected. I’m disgusted with my grad school Alma mater leadership.

You.
Are.
Allowed.
To.
Insult.
The.
Police.

It’s a core First Amendment principle. This is utterly lawless behavior, for which there will be no (short-term) consequences.

That he does it so casually, as they are walking away, in front of cameras.

Rightly confident in his impunity.

Turning Point USA Hosts Campus Event Pushing Death Penalty for Abortion Patients 10.3.25

At the newsletter right now:

One of Turning Point USA’s first campus events since the murder of Charlie Kirk will be a panel with leaders of the abortion ‘abolition’ movement - extremists who lobby for abortion patients to get the death penalty

jessica.substack.com/p/turning-po...

What I think is most different about music-driven popular culture now — though not wholly unprecedented — is the gamification of everything. My friend, the scholar and critic Eric Harvey, put this thought in my mind the day after Swift announced Showgirl, when he posted a response to fellow arts writer Sam Adams' bitter Bluesky comment about the dwindling of the critic's role in mainstream publications. "For decades now, people have been conditioned to view popular culture as something to 'solve' and the answer keys are on Reddit and YouTube," Harvey wrote. "So why pay critics to essentially give people homework to do?" That rang a bell in my brain. The idea that criticism or any kind of "expert" commentary might distract fans from their enjoyment of their favorite music, rather than illuminating it, made me think about what it means when we turn art appreciation into a game with a desired outcome, whether it's picking up the most easter eggs or, as in museums who provide children with placards that direct them through galleries, identifies the biggest number of preselected details within designated masterpieces. The never-ending egg hunt is a big part of what non-Swifties find exhausting about her rollouts — it takes up an enormous amount of space in the public consciousness. It does something else, too: It trains fans to appreciate art in a particular way. Loving Showgirl, for some fans, is all about deciphering its signals in predictable ways, with the outcome being a solution rather than a surprise. Art becomes something you master, rather than something that affects and potentially changes you.

I'm usually very "let them" about major cultural events (including that let them book) but I DO think there are certain things about TS album rollout and launch that feel bad and this graph about the "gamification" of culture from Ann Powers for NPR music puts a pin directly on it.

Banned Books List 2025 What books are banned in 2025? Thousands of titles have been removed from public schools across the country.

What was the most #bannedbook in U.S. schools in the 2024-25 school year?

Topping the list, after being banned in 23 school districts, is a 1962 novel that Time magazine named one of 100 best books of all time in 2010.

These are the 15 most-banned books in America: pen.org/banned-books...

Kristi Noem’s message to the NFL for selecting Bad Bunny for the halftime show:

“The NFL sucks and we’ll win and God will bless us and we’ll stand and be proud of ourselves at the end of the day and they won’t be able to sleep at night because they don’t know what they believe…”

Again and again this is the logic: Trump will suffer some vague harm if he is not allowed to destroy the lives of as many people as possible even before the case is decided. The human misery that predictably follows is of no consequence, requires no urgency.

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...

MEMORANDUM OPINION By way of context, a federal prosecutor is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all. The obligation to govern impartially concerns, above all, the state’s exercise of coercive power—meaning its power to deprive its subjects of life, liberty, or property . . . As a representative of the state, a prosecutor’s exercise of coercive power must be impartial . . . [in] that prosecutorial power may not be exercised vindictively—meaning that the prosecutor may not punish a defendant for exercising a protected statutory or constitutional right. United States v. Zakhari, 85 F.4th 367, 384–85 (6th Cir. 2023) (Kethledge, J., concurring) (citations and quotations omitted). This context frames review of Defendant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s (“Abrego”) motion to dismiss his indictment for vindictive and selective prosecution. (Doc. Nos. 104–05). The Government opposes the motion (Doc. No. 121), and Abrego has replied (Doc. No. 127). Abrego’s motion is not ripe for decision because he seeks discovery and an evidentiary hearing because there is some evidence of vindictiveness here. For the reasons that follow, the Court holds that the totality of events creates a sufficient evidentiary basis to conclude that there is a “realistic likelihood of vindictiveness” that entitles Abrego to discovery and requires an evidentiary hearing before the Court decides his motion. United States v. Andrews, 633 F.2d 449, 457 (6th Cir. 1980) (en banc), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 927 (1981).

BREAKING: Federal judge in Kilmar Abrego Garcia's criminal case finds that "there is a 'realistic likelihood of vindictiveness' that entitles Abrego to discovery" in response to his motion to dismiss the case for vindictive or selective prosecution. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Authoritarian personality cult. Plain as day.

Apple has removed an ICE tracking app that allows users to report ICE activity nearby from its App Store.

The removal came after a direct demand from Trump’s DOJ.

Once again, Big Tech is bending the knee to our tyrant-in-chief to protect its bottom line.

The government is in full shutdown and the Republicans are refusing to call the House back into session.

Want to know why?

Because we have secured the final vote on releasing the Epstein Files and they don’t want it out.

Call GOP and tell them to swear in @adelitaforcongress.bsky.social.

As many of us are learning in real time, it's very difficult to challenge & overturn a legal system of repression *legally*.

University of Virginia faculty senate passes a resolution to delay the search for Provost until the tenth President of the University is in place. 59 in favor; 6 opposed. Tons of students in the room.

And the University of Virginia faculty senate passes a resolution opposing the “Compact” sent to our interim president by the Department of Education. Lots of students in the room with signs opposing the compact (like “protect free speech”). 60 in favor; 2 opposed.

Treasury Department Has Plans To Mint Dollar Coin Featuring Donald Trump's Likeness | Defector The United States Department of the Treasury has developed, to the brink of production, a dollar coin that features the face and likeness of President Donald Trump, according to a source within the Tr...

a person at Treasury gave Defector a rundown of how this process—which appears to be against the law—was expedited in order to avoid public scrutiny

defector.com/treasury-dep...

Full statement by Prof. Dixon is here: www.instagram.com/p/DPWh4DiEcfc/

Speaker Johnson refuses to swear in Adelita Grijalva, who won her special election WEEKS ago. Why? Because her signature means we could force a vote on releasing the Epstein files.

We're calling on him to stop dragging his feet and swear her in.

$100K fee H-1B visa creates confusion for visa holders and businesses in the Triangle. Here's what we know so far The recent proclamation from the White House to charge a $100K fee to employers seeking to hire foreign skilled workers through the H-1B visa program has generated confusion about who the fee will app...

When the White House announced the $100K fee for H-1B visas, it created confusion among businesses and foreign nationals who work in NC.

Immigration lawyers say the fee will hurt small businesses especially and impact international students who want to work in the U.S.

www.wunc.org/term/news/20...

Whyyyyyy Josh Stein

Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived. ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the administration’s cut...

Eye-opening data visualization and story: Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived, by Ruth Talbot and @nicolesantacruz.bsky.social

This is an occupying force that is operating without restrictions, oversight, or perceived possible consequences.

We're looking for TWO postdoctoral scholars in African American history and history of the Civil War era. Fellowships are for two years, and the anticipated start date is July 1, 2026. The deadline to apply is NOVEMBER 1!

Links in the replies below.

Bicentennial Coins and Medals The U.S. Mint issued Bicentennial Quarters, Bicentennial Half Dollars, and Bicentennial Dollars to celebrate the Nation's 250th anniversary in 1976. In addition, the Mint produced the National Bicente...

For comparison, the bicentennial coins featured people and iconography like George Washington, JFK, Eisenhower, a revolutionary soldier and the moon.

Treasury Department considers minting a $1 Trump coin The draft design of the coin, which was overseen by the Office of the U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, features Trump’s profile on one side of the coin.

Treasury Department considers minting a $1 Trump coin www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Imagine of Obama or Biden put themselves on money?