Month: July 2025

This description of the little dance the Republicans did all day yesterday may be the most embarrassing display of sycophancy in world history:

One White House official said Mr. Trump had a line he used on many of his phone calls and meetings with wobbly Republicans: “Don’t give the Democrats a win. Don’t play into their hands.” He got the Senate to pass a version of the bill on Tuesday. So Wednesday was spent cajoling, wheedling and coaxing Republican members of the House.

It’s not as though there were just a few holdouts. He needed to convince different kinds of factions with all sorts of demands, fiscal hawks and moderates alike. By the day’s end, it was still unclear whether the bill was going to make it through, but there was some evidence that his methods were proving effective.

A clique of House Freedom Caucus members walked out of the White House in the early afternoon, their attitudes seemingly adjusted. Representative Tim Burchett, Republican of Tennessee, was one of them. He posted a video on social media gushing about the two-hour experience he’d just had with his president.

“The president was wonderful, as always,” Mr. Burchett said in the video. “Informative, funny, he told me he likes seeing me on TV, which was kind of cool.” Representative Byron Donalds, Republican of Florida, is shown in the video, too. “Did you show them what he signed for you?” Mr. Donalds asks Mr. Burchett. “Yeah, he signed a bunch of stuff,” Mr. Burchett said. “It’s cool.”

Mr. Burchett told The New York Times later on that his name had been misspelled on the placard placed in front of his chair for the Cabinet Room meeting (it was missing an “r”) so the president scribbled in the letter, signed both sides of the card and gave it to him as a souvenir. Mr. Burchett said the president also loaded up the son of Representative Chip Roy, Republican of Texas, with souvenirs.

They were always going to vote for the bill. They just seized the chance to receive dispensation from their Dear Leader. It’s enough just to be in his presence and have him acknowledge who they are.

Trump has said he should be pope. To these people, he is.

Philip Bump take a look at that startling chart:

You can understand, then, why sixth-grade teacher Sarah Inama would have been surprised to learn that a banner hanging in her classroom was triggering an outcry. Showing a range of heart-holding hands, each in a different hue, the banner read, “Everyone is welcome here.” It’s an anodyne sentiment, at worst, but also a celebration of multiracial community. And for that reason — and explicitly that reason, as a school official explained in an interview in March — the banner was determined to be unacceptable.

Saying that “everyone is welcome” has become a political statement in the way that “science is real” has become one. Not because these statement themselves are political or even particularly controversial. No, they are now tainted with politics because they reject the right’s rejections of both objectivity and pluralism.

When the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision arrived last month — the decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationally — a chart of poll data from Gallup began to circulate on social media. It showed that most Americans supported marriage access for same-sex couples, as has been the case since shortly before Obergefell. But it also showed that support had slipped slightly in recent years — driven entirely by declining support among Republicans.

How about that chart at the top?

Republicans have gotten 25 percentage points more likely to say that American diversity is threatening to our culture. Among White people, the increase was 16 points.

I don’t think they’ve changed, actually. I think they are just feeling they now have permission to say what they’ve always believed. They are feeling their oats.

Here’s a gift link to the whole piece. It makes me feel sick.

I’m having a hard time even thinking about the 4th of July this year. It’s usually a holiday where I allow myself to celebrate some of the good things about our system and our society and one of them was always the fact that we have always been a pluralistic, immigrant nation. I won’t take that for granted ever again.

We’re building concentration camps for immigrants.

Sound familiar?

Miller is Jewish which makes this all the more grotesque.

Meanwhile, get ready for a replay of one of the 2000s greatest hits— rendition and torture in foreign prisons:

In the new court filing, Abrego described being the first person off an airplane in El Salvador after the Trump administration flew him there with more than 200 men on March 15. He recalled bright lights illuminating the airfield and cameras trained on him while officials forcefully guided him — shackled in chains — to a bus. The next day, Bukele triumphantly circulated cinematically edited videos of the deportees being handed over to Salvadoran authorities.

The officials repeatedly struck Abrego in the head, his lawyers wrote, summarizing his account. He observed a U.S. immigration agent communicating with the Salvadoran officials “to confirm the identities of the Salvadoran nationals on board before the bus departed,” the lawyers continued.

“Upon arrival at CECOT, the detainees were greeted by a prison official who stated, ‘Welcome to CECOT. Whoever enters here doesn’t leave,’” according to the account. “Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was then forced to strip, issued prison clothing, and subjected to physical abuse including being kicked in the legs with boots and struck on his head and arms to make him change clothes faster. His head was shaved with a zero razor, and he was frog-marched to cell 15, being struck with wooden batons along the way.”

“By the following day, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia had visible bruises and lumps all over his body,” his lawyers continued.

Abrego said he shared a cell with 20 other people, who were forced to kneel overnight, “with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion.”

“During this time, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was denied bathroom access and soiled himself,” according to the account. “The detainees were confined to metal bunks with no mattresses in an overcrowded cell with no windows, bright lights that remained on 24 hours a day, and minimal access to sanitation.”

His lawyers also described “psychological torture,” with prison officials telling Abrego he would be moved to cells with gang members. Abrego indicated he witnessed violence among inmates in those cells, with prison guards declining to intervene.

That’s from a court filing by Kilmar Abrego Garcia and it’s harrowing. The sick DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, called this a “sob story.”

Look, we’ve been here before. In the Global War On Terror, we kidnapped people and sent them to black sites and foreign prisons to be tortured. It was ostensibly to get “intelligence” but really it was designed to terrorize Muslims. It was one of the most shameful recent episodes in our history. (There have been so many in the past…)

There is no doubt in my mind that the huge concentration camp industry we will build with this massive warchest will produce torture and death of prisoners. It’s what they are designed for. And they will produce the results they are looking for: terrorizing the population into total capitulation.

If you build it they will use it.

Unqualified, unvetted, heavily armed and trigger-happy

You’ve been wondering where ICE finds the plainclothes goons it has terrorizing Latinos, Asians, Haitian and African immigrants? Maybe the same place the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation finds its security contractors:

BEERSHEBA, Israel (AP) — American contractors guarding aid distribution sites in Gaza are using live ammunition and stun grenades as hungry Palestinians scramble for food, according to accounts and videos obtained by The Associated Press.

Two U.S. contractors, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were revealing their employers’ internal operations, said they were coming forward because they were disturbed by what they considered dangerous and irresponsible practices. They said the security staff hired were often unqualified, unvetted, heavily armed and seemed to have an open license to do whatever they wished.

They said their colleagues regularly lobbed stun grenades and pepper spray in the direction of the Palestinians. One contractor said bullets were fired in all directions — in the air, into the ground and at times toward the Palestinians, recalling at least one instance where he thought someone had been hit.

“There are innocent people being hurt. Badly. Needlessly,” the contractor said.

AP cannot verify the contractors’ stories, explaining that its journalists “have been unable to access the GHF sites, located in Israeli military-controlled zones.“

But hey, tired of stomping abound in the brambles training with your militia buddies on weekends? Want to put your 2nd Amendment skills to work? Want to travel to exotic places, meet interesting people and kill them? No need to join the military anymore.

Dial 1-800-HENCHMEN today.

* * * * *

Have you fought dictatorship today?

Good Trouble Lives On (July 17, in memory of John Lewis)
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense

Would smell as foul

Jonathan Chait’s old friend grew indignant when Chait referred to Donald Trump as an authoritarian. Trump had not cancelled elections or sent brownshirts into the street, etc., right?

No, but with his ICE goons, Trump bypasses any reluctance from Pentagon professionals about deploying troops against civilians. Since DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has tricked out ICE as soldiers, it’s like deploying soldiers without that bothersome Uniform Code of Military Justice or the restrictions of Posse Comitatus.

But I digress.

People like his friend, Chait writes,

… fail to see the administration’s slow-moving efforts to break down the norms and institutional barriers that otherwise inhibit the ruling party from asphyxiating its opposition. Political scientists who study democracy have a term that clarifies the phenomenon: democratic backsliding. Backslide far enough, and you end up in something called “competitive authoritarianism.” 

We’d still have elections, but they’d be meaningless.

Chait cites six events from one day this week that suggest that the backslide is accelerating. They range from threatening to deport New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani because he doesn’t like him, to threatening to sue CNN over a story he doesn’t like, to musing about using his office to punish Elon Musk financially over their virtual slap fight.

What came up after Chait published is the account Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia gives of beatings, sleep deprivation and psychological torture he suffered after Trump officials mistakenly deported the Maryland man to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). *

This is not new. The democratic backsliding we see accelerating today did not begin with Trump. It began with the Bush II administration after the September 11 attacks that spawned DHS and ICE.

I published an op-ed on April 9, 2005, condemning in detail U.S.-sponsored practices so heinous that my editor felt obliged to include a statement that I could back up my account:

Gulfstream’s executive jets are popular with U.S. intelligence agencies, and luxurious. More luxurious than destinations their manacled and diapered passengers disappear to, thanks to “extraordinary rendition,” also known as “outsourcing torture.”

For terror suspects en route to exotic prisons in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Uzbekistan, the tranquilizing suppositories are complimentary. (Note: extensive documentation for the information here is available by contacting Sullivan).

The Gulfstream V, tail number N379P (changed to N8068V, then N44982), Gulfstream N85VM (aka N227SV), and the Gulfstream III, number N829MG, have logged flights around the globe since September 11. Also, a white Boeing 737, number N313P. Many flights originated in Smithfield, North Carolina.

Allegedly, they’re used for extra-judicial “rendering,” a limited practice under Presidents Reagan and Clinton that’s become an expansive dragnet under a classified directive from President Bush. Apprehended (or abducted) “ghost detainees” are held in secret and off the record in a network of prisons from Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan. Some go to third countries known for abusing prisoners, where, we’re assured with a wink, they won’t be tortured.

The usually Bush-friendly Washington Times has condemned the administration’s “torture doublespeak” and violations of U.S. and international laws signed by presidents and approved by Congress. Nat Hentoff writes, “One of the CIA’s jets transporting suspected terrorists made 10 trips to Uzbekistan,” where according to Craig Murray, its former British ambassador, ” ‘drowning and suffocation, rape was used… also the insertion of limbs in boiling liquid… it’s quite common.’ Mr. Murray also … received photos of one prisoner who was actually boiled to death.” (The deceased, a Mr. Azavof, was apparently not a CIA rendition.)

German prosecutors have confirmed parts of Khaled Masri’s story. Detained in December 2003 at the Macedonian border, the German citizen was flown to Afghanistan, stripped, beaten and interrogated until May, then released without charge. He may have been mistaken for Khalid Masri, an al-Qaida operative. Flight records show that Boeing N313P visited Skopje, Macedonia en route to Kabul at the time.

Canadian engineer, Maher Arar, was detained while changing planes at JFK airport. Delivered to Syria, he endured 10 months of beatings, then was released without charge. Another Canadian, Ahmad Abou El-Maati, named Arar after two years of torture in Syria for possible al-Qaida connections. According to The Guardian (London), El Maati eventually “reeled off the names of everyone he knew in Montreal,” including Arar. Concurrent records show a Gulfstream, number N829MG, logged a flight along the route Arar’s lawsuit describes.

Italian police investigating the kidnapping of an Islamic militant in Milan have sought flight records for Gulfstream N379P. Italian and German prosecutors have not ruled out criminal charges against those involved in violations of human rights and local sovereignty.

Eight men have filed suit in U.S. District Court against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over their detentions in Iraq and Afghanistan. All were subjected to “torture and other cruel and degrading treatment,” which included “repeated beatings, cutting with knives, sexual humiliation and assault, mock executions, death threats, and restraint in contorted and excruciating positions,” according to the complaint filed by the ACLU and Human Rights First.

The Washington Times quotes Human Rights First co-counsel, retired Rear Adm. John D. Huston, former Judge Advocate General of the Navy, “One of the greatest strengths of the U.S. military throughout our history has been strong civilian leadership at the top of the chain of command. Unfortunately, Secretary Rumsfeld has failed to live up to that tradition. In the end, that imperils our troops and undermines the war effort.”

And it betrays those who serve honorably.

The U.S. House overwhelmingly passed an amendment by Democrat Edward Markey of Massachusetts denying Iraq supplemental funds for extraordinary renditions. Markey notes, “The war against terrorism is a war against those who engage in torture. If we fight our enemy using the same inhumane and morally bankrupt techniques that we are trying to stop, we will simply become what we have beheld.”

It may take Abu Ghraib-like photos before leaders who bloviate about not needing “permission slips” stop these abominations in defense of inalienable rights.

How many of the prison network’s estimated 10,000 detainees were terrorists before being imprisoned is unclear. What is clear is that people from Hong Kong to London, including the Islamic world, are reading about these “torture flights” and wondering, are Bush and company fighting terrorists, breeding them, or becoming them?

There is an almost Nuremberg rally darkness to the Trump administration more disturbing than the reactionary cruelty that Bush II attempted to conceal. Trump et al. celebrate and reward cruelty. They are on their way to making the past prologue and the United States of America a cheap knockoff of itself. How very Trump.

*The Atlantic‘s Nick Miroff delves into the contortions Trump 2.0 has twisted itself to avoid admitting its mistake.

* * * * *

Have you fought dictatorship today?

Good Trouble Lives On (July 17, in memory of John Lewis)
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense

They are terrorizing Latinos, legal or not, also Asians, Haitian and African immigrants. See how terrified they are of the armed, masked men everyone can see are abducting people as they go about their daily lives. It is grotesque.

ICE detains father in front of wife & 3 kids—they had the wrong man.

"They mistook him for another man. They were going to separate him from his family. The trauma is done."

Dozens of agents—in ski masks, hats, sunglasses & body armor—stalked the hallways after court hearings… pic.twitter.com/ScaoSjUqPg

— LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 (@LongTimeHistory) July 2, 2025

ICE detains father in front of wife & 3 kids—they had the wrong man. “They mistook him for another man. They were going to separate him from his family. The trauma is done.”

Dozens of agents—in ski masks, hats, sunglasses & body armor—stalked the hallways after court hearings at 26 Federal Plaza in New York City. Eventually, the agents let him leave with his family and admit, “Sorry, it wasn’t him.”

But it was too late—video footage ends as elevator doors closed on his traumatized child weeping uncontrollably.

I have limited patience with the endless discussion about “messaging” as if it’s something you can just focus group to death and come up with a magic formula. It matters but it isn’t everything.

Be that as it may, there is one message that the Democrats need to pound home in every state starting right now. They need to buy ads and billboards everywhere telling people about the Medicaid cuts and they need to be tailored to what the individual states calls the program. Many people don’t know they’re on medicaid because it’s not called that!

Here’s a list of the various names they go by:

This is super important. There’s no doubt that

. @dodgers are being sued by Stephen Miller’s law group, America First Legal, in what appears to be a retaliatory effort for “publicly opposing federal immigration enforcement” on June 19th. The legal group is going after Dodgers DEI policies. @el_tragon_de_LA breaks it down. pic.twitter.com/etCJSTGjJb

— L.A. TACO🌴🌮 (@LATACO) July 2, 2025

Here’s the story:

A conservative legal group co-founded by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has filed a federal civil rights complaint accusing the Los Angeles Dodgers of “apparently engaging in unlawful discrimination under the guise of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.’”

The complaint was filed Monday with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by America First Legal, less than two weeks after the Dodgers said they denied federal immigration authorities access to Dodger Stadium parking lots.

The Dodgers declined to comment Wednesday about the complaint, which also named their ownership group, Guggenheim Partners. The EEOC also declined to comment.

Miller is seen as the architect of Trump’s immigration policy, which has involved the detaining and deporting of tens of thousands of immigrants and attempting to end birthright citizenship.

While the civil rights complaint focuses on diversity efforts, America First Legal mentioned the situation between the Dodgers and federal immigration officials in its news release about the complaint.

Look for the DOJ to get into this too. They would love to make the Dodgers bend the knee to Donald Trump and betray their fans and their players. So much winning.

I’ve been wondering when they’d come after sports. Baseball in particular is a multi-national sport (soccer too) and it repudiates the idea that immigrants are bad since they so obviously showcasing the fact that diversity is a strength. Miller must howl with frustration whenever he sees someone like Shohei Otani or Juan Soto at the top of their game being worshipped by white dudes.

The foreign nationals are all here on special visas but they could certainly be revoked if they have the temerity to think they have first amendment rights. It’s quite clear that foreigners do not. But I would sure love to see the Trump administration try to do to some of these sports heroes what they’re doing to scientists, students and tourists. Let’s see how much the manosphere likes that.

This appears to be the bottom line on the Big Beautiful Boondoggle and I’ll be shocked if it doesn’t pass today or tomorrow without any changes.

$3.3 trillion added to debt
$4 trillion in tax cuts


$153 billion added to defense
$150 billion added to immigration enforcement
$930 billion in cuts to medicaid
$170 billion in cuts to medicare
$85 billion in cuts to food assistance for the poor

$488 billion in cuts to clean energy credits
$10 billion for Mars

$761 million in new taxes on university endowments
$52 million in cuts to Planned Parenthood

$40 million for Trump’s National Garden of Heroes, partially funded by canceled federal grants.

None of this counts the DOGE cuts to scientific research, vital programs and the firing of federal workers.

The formula is obvious. Huge tax cuts, massive spending on defense and ICE and monumental cuts to health care, food assistance, clean energy and anything the right wing doesn’t like. These are not trade-offs since the deficit explodes anyway. It’s just a GOP wish list. If they could have completely destroyed the entire safety net they would have. But they have three years to go. Plenty of time.