Opinion | Trump’s Strikes on Iran Were Unlawful. Here’s Why That Matters.

The strikes on Iran are blatantly illegal. I explained in June why the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities were unlawful under US and international law. Everything I wrote then is true today, but this is a far larger assault with far graver consequences.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/o...

The day before starting a war with Iran, the Secretary of Defense was focused on removing trans scouters from the Boy Scouts.

This aged well. Note the author.

FBI agents assigned to Musk concluded he was systematically avoiding conduct standards imposed on those holding high-level clearances. FBI management concluded it could do nothing about this because of Musk's ties to Trump and the GOP.

After Charlie Kirk's death, teachers and professors nationwide fired or disciplined over social media posts At least a dozen faculty and staff have faced fallout over insensitive comments online.

I am having a hard time reconciling "Charlie Kirk was a fierce advocate of open dialogue and free expression" with "we must identify and persecute everyone who is insufficiently mournful"

The RFK hearing is a remarkable example of someone in real-time being informed about where they are on the Dunning-Kruger curve.

We put a lot of muscle—reporting, editing, fact checking, designing, engineering—into this very deep dive on Wikipedia, which is now threatened by Trump, tech billionaires, and AI

[cite_start]A screenshot of the first page of a court document from the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts[cite: 3]. [cite_start]The document is titled "MEMORANDUM AND ORDER" [cite: 43] [cite_start]and was filed on September 3, 2025[cite: 1]. The document lists two related civil actions: * [cite_start]**Civil Action No. 25-cv-11048-ADB**: President and Fellows of Harvard College, et al., Plaintiffs, v. United States Department of Health and Human Services, et al., Defendants[cite: 4, 5, 14, 17, 21]. * [cite_start]**Civil Action No. 25-cv-10910-ADB**: American Association of University Professors - Harvard Chapter, et al., Plaintiffs, v. United States Department of Justice, et al., Defendants[cite: 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 36]. [cite_start]The order is from Judge Burroughs, D.J.[cite: 44]. [cite_start]The text begins by identifying the plaintiffs in the consolidated cases[cite: 45].

A screenshot of pages 81 and 82 from a court order, detailing the judge's rulings and the relief granted. **Rulings:** * **For Harvard's case:** The court grants Harvard's motion for summary judgment on several counts, including violations of the First Amendment and Title VI. It grants in part Harvard's motion regarding the "Freeze Orders" and grants in part the defendants' motion regarding the "Termination Letters," citing a lack of jurisdiction. * **For the Organizational Plaintiffs' case:** The court grants the plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment on their First Amendment claims and denies the defendants' cross-motion on several counts. The ruling on the "Freeze Orders" and "Termination Letters" mirrors the one in Harvard's case. **Ordered Relief:** 1. The court vacates and sets aside the Freeze Orders as arbitrary and capricious. 2. The court vacates and sets aside the Freeze Orders and Termination Letters as violations of the First Amendment. 3. The court vacates and sets aside the Termination Letters as violations of Title VI. 4. The court permanently enjoins the defendants from implementing the Freeze Orders, Termination Letters, and their unconstitutional conditions.

JUST IN: Harvard won summary judgment against the Trump administration with the court finding that the admin violated Harvard's 1st amend. rights. The court has vacated the funding freeze orders and termination letters and issued a permanent injunction.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/c...

Again:Journalists are not stenographers. We are to get information, report and verify the facts, and then report the reality not the talking point. What Trump is doing in DC and threatening in cities is NOT a crime crack down because he says it is. Don’t regurgitate. Report the truth not propaganda.

Mr. Orwoll recently gave The New York Times a limited tour, allowing entry to the property through a gate that had a lock. He sat on a folding chair in his office, housed in an insulated shed with air-conditioning and fiber internet, two pianos and shelves full of philosophy texts. Before a photographer could snap pictures, he pulled a copy of “Mein Kampf” from a bookshelf and turned it around to hide its spine.

like ....... what

The CDC shooting was public health’s Jan. 6 “In RFK Jr.’s America, it will never be safe to practice public health or medicine," write an epidemiologist and a former CDC staffer.

NEW 🚨 The violence is the point. Elected Dems must call for widespread resignations (RFK, Bhattacharya, Prasad) in response to the CDC shooting. Public health must demand this of them, and the public must demand that of us. With @publichealthguy1.bsky.social in STAT: www.statnews.com/2025/08/15/c...

It's a bizarre and frankly alienating feeling realizing that if you know the basic fact that the murder rate has gone down significantly since 1990 you're in the ~90th+ percentile of fact-knowers

Foreign-born residents and workers around Wells have reacted to the ICE threat by trying to stay out of sight. Many are scared, said a woman from southern Africa who lives near Wells and helps connect asylum seekers with social services and jobs, including in tourism businesses. The woman, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, asked to remain anonymous out of concern for her safety. She said that following the revelation that Wells police officers were working with ICE, some local immigrants would only attend church online and are keeping their children from school.

We've reached the point where a naturalized citizen won't speak on the record "out of concern for her safety."

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/t...

Gazans Are Dying of Starvation

Gazans Are Dying of Starvation www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/w...

MEMORANDUM OPINION After "ha[ving] lived safely in the United States with his family for a decade and ha[ving] never been charged with a crime[I" Noem v. Abrego Garcia, 604 U.S. ----, 145 S. Ct. 1017, 1018 (2025), Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia ("Abrego") returned to the United States of America from his involuntary and "improper]" stay in El Salvador. Id. The United States District Court of Maryland issued an order requiring the United States Secretary of Homeland Security, the Attorney General of the United States, the United States Secretary of State, the Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE"), the Acting Executive Associate Director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, and the Director of ICE's Baltimore Field Office to "facilitate" Abrego's return. See Abrego Garcia v. Noem, 2025 WL 1024654, at *1 (D. Md. Apr. 4, 2025); amended, 2025 WL 1085601 (D. Md. Apr. 10, 2025); see also Abrego Garcia v. Noem, 2025 WL 1014261 (D. Md. Apr. 6, 2025) (Memorandum Opinion in support of April 4, 2025 order). The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit did not disturb the lower court's order, denying the Government's motion to stay the district court's order pending appeal. See Abrego Garcia v. Noem, 2025 WL 1021113, at *1 (4th Cir. Apr. 7, 2025). Yet, Abrego remained in El Salvador. Even after the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the district court's Case 3:25-cr-00115 Document 95 Filed 07/23/25 Page 1 of 37 PagelD #: 1054

instruction that the Government "facilitate" Abrego's "release from custody in El Salvador, Abrego continued to wait to return home. Abrego Garcia, 145 S. Ct. at 1018. In the meantime, the Government presented its criminal case against Abrego to a grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee. On May 21, 2025, the grand jury filed a two-count Indictment against Abrego. When an arrest warrant for Abrego issued, the Government effectuated his return, arrested him on June 6, 2025, and brought him to Tennessee.. The Magistrate Judge has ordered Abrego's release. The Government disagrees and has filed a Motion for Revocation of Release Order (Doc. No. 45), which has been fully briefed (Doc. Nos. 70, 79, 89). The Court held an evidentiary hearing on July 16, 2025. Based on the June 13, 2025 and July 16, 2025 evidentiary hearings, the Court will deny the Government's Motion. (Doc. No. 45). Abrego should be released under conditions to be set by the Magistrate Judge. I. BACKGROUND' At the time the Court issued its Memorandum Opinion and Order denying the Government's Motion to Stay the decision of the Magistrate Judge (Doc. Nos. 55, 56), it only considered the issue of whether the Government was entitled to a detention hearing. Following the Court's ruling, the Magistrate Judge informed the parties at the June 25, 2025 hearing about the conditions of Abrego's release (see Doc. No. 62). The parties have now briefed whether there are conditions for Abrego's release alongside Government's appeal challenging the Magistrate Judge's release order (see Doc. Nos. 70, 79). Accordingly, the record is now complete for the Court to consider both (1) whether the Government is entitled to a detention hearing, and (2) if so, whether there are no set of conditions that warrant Abrego's release pending trial. ' The Court need not extensively recite the background of the instant motion, which has been set forth aptly in the Magistrate Judge's June 22, 2025 Memorandum Opinion and this Court'…

NEW: Judge Waverly Crenshaw orders that Kilmar Abrego Garcia be released from criminal custody.

He refers Abrego’s request to pause the issuance of any release order for 30 days to the magistrate judge

An Accuser’s Story Suggests How Trump Might Appear in the Epstein Files

New: Epstein victim urged FBI to investigate Trump and his relationship with Epstein during interviews with agency in 1996 and 2006. Records of these interviews could be in FBI files that Trump admin now refuses to release. @mikebaker.bsky.social 🎁🔗 www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/u...

Having just spent a few months reading accounts of CBS’ grotesque cowardice during the 1950s McCarthy-era blacklist, it’s nice to see that The Tiffany Network respects its traditions

Trump administration sued by 20 states over FEMA disaster program cancelation The administration acted unlawfully in "unilaterally shutting down FEMA's flagship pre-disaster mitigation program," suit says.

Trump administration sued by 20 states over FEMA funding cuts www.axios.com/2025/07/17/f...

At a press conference last month, the Attorney General of the United States publicized the claim that Abrego played a role in the murder of a rival gang member’s mother.

Today, more than a month later, the government’s own witness admitted that they haven’t been able to corroborate that allegation.

And yet overall approval basically unchanged. Once you get down to the low 40’s people’s approval isn’t really being driven by issues.

This AM, I reported an Indiana public media chief's warning the elimination of federal funds would be close to "catastrophic" for his station.

This afternoon, my chat with Cato's Jeffrey Miron - he argues that Congress should not pay a penny toward it.

Coming up at 4.39/6.39p on NPR

Whistleblower Emails Expose Fresh Trump Abuses in Abrego Garcia Case Newly released communications show the lengths the Trump administration went to in order to label Kilmar Abrego Garcia an MS-13 leader.

BREAKING: Emails given to Congress by DOJ whistleblower reveal new details about the Abrego Garcia fiasco. They show how Trump officials searched for ways to paint him as a dangerous criminal and gang "leader" and couldn't find any. But smears continued.

New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/1977...

people on here aren’t gonna like hearing this, but a sympathetic former ICE agent cutting ads about being forced to drop investigations into child pornographers to arrest gardeners would probably be pretty effective messaging.

Elon Musk's Grok Chatbot Goes Full Nazi, Calls Itself 'MechaHitler' Elon Musk's Grok chatbot has unleashed a slew of antisemitic commentary and praised Hitler after apparent change allowed to be 'politically incorrect'

xAI has disabled Grok, deleted a slew of its antisemitic and neo-Nazi posts, posted a statement, and are evidently rolling back the prompt that made it identify as "MechaHitler," but this new low for Elon Musk's chatbot will live in internet infamy:

"We need the American press to be at its best right now. But it's not. Not even close." - @sulliview.bsky.social

by this metric non-newsworthy stories can become newsworthy if they generate enough outrage for being not newsworthy. also by this metric you could print an uncensored human asshole on the front page of the New York Times.

trump’s big beautiful bill is designed to family annihilate the united states

A Trans Pilot Was Falsely Blamed for a Plane Crash. Now She’s Fighting the Right-Wing Disinfo Machine National Guard pilot Jo Ellis is suing a right-wing influencer for falsely blaming her for a DC crash that killed 67 people. A WIRED review reveals 12 similar incidents of scapegoating trans people.

New: Jo Ellis, a National Guard pilot and trans woman was blamed for the DC plane crash that killed 67 people. After being doxed, with her legal name revealed, she was flooded with death threats. Now she's suing the right-wing influencer who amplified the rumors: www.wired.com/story/a-tran...