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Armed terrorism by the White House escalates - What stage of fascism is it when the fuhrer defies the courts to send in troops anyway? - as does the batshit rhetoric about left-wing "terrorism" to hide their own, the fever dream agitprop to buttress the fantasy, and the deranged push for retribution against dissent, by anyone. "Trump has pardons and tanks - what do you have?" asks one troubled patriot. We the people, righteous judges, Portland's frog, Pritzker's rage, D.C. wiseguys' revived pedo besties - and the facts.
Two months ago, the United States made the Human Rights Watch list for the first time in 249 years; rights advocates cited a nation "sliding deeper into the quicksands of authoritarianism" with peaceful protests met with military force, critics treated as criminals, journalists targeted, and support slashed for civil society. Despite a core principle that America's military not be turned against fellow citizens, they noted, we've seen an invasion of ill-trained, hyped-up ICE thugs - and now presumably more professional National Guard - representing an ominous "line that democratically elected leaders aren’t meant to cross.” Add to that a vengeful, demented manchild raving about "the enemy within" making bad, lethal decisions based on fake tee vee news - "Portland is burning to the ground...All you have to do (is) turn on your television" - and it's clear, says Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, "The only threat we face is to our democracy - and it is being led by President Trump."
That threat got worse Monday as Trump, who's long been keen to sic the troops on us all, suggested he's open to invoking the Insurrection Act "to put down future civil unrest," aka continue inventing fake crises to "bulldoze what's left of constitutional restraints" in an "unhinged despotism" free of pesky democratic guardrails. For now, he and his rabid flunkies - cue Press Barbie vowing he'll "end the radical left reign of terror in Portland once and for all" - settled for embarking on a witless weekend "game of whack-a-mole,” frantically conspiring to send National Guard troops from whatever state they could get away with it to whatever city they decided "needs a little terrorizing," a brazen end-run around the ruling by Trump-appointed Oregon Judge Karin Immergut, who he whined "lost her way" by blocking the deployment of Oregon troops to Portland after arguing his characterization of "a burning hellhole," which he's never visited, was "simply untethered to the facts."
So okay, they figured, we'll send 300 troops from California, a cool two-fer against mouthy Newsom, who swiftly called the move "a breathtaking abuse of the law and power," and sued. Immergut was not amused: "How could bringing in federalized National Guard from California not be in direct contravention to the temporary restraining order I issued yesterday?” she asked, politely noting the move "appears (intended) to circumvent" her ruling. After learning the regime was already looking to send 400 Guard members from Texas (Albania was their next choice), she called bullshit, cited Oregon police reports that protests were small and subdued - "8 to 15 people, mostly sitting in lawn chairs and walking around" - and blocked "deployment, reassignment or relocation" from any state, given "neither the facts on the ground (nor) the claimed legal base for the deployments had changed." Damn, irksome facts again. Still, Stephen Miller called the ruling a "legal insurrection.”
And, really, when you look at the Portland protests, it's understandable. While a handful of people have peaceably gathered - and sometimes done the cha cha cha - on the legal side of a blue line outside the largely tranquil ICE facility since June, their forces often included the terrorist, blow-up Portland Frog, who In one recent tussle was pepper-sprayed in their vent by infuriated ICE agents. Now, the stalwart spicy Frog is back; asked about the assault in an interview, they cheerfully dismissed it with, "I kinda coughed a bit, but that was about it...Just a little pepper - I've tasted spicier." At that point, a phalanx of ICE thugs emerged together and pointlessly fired off clouds of teargas toward the handful of protesters; the Frog danced and sang, "You put your left foot in..." As the troops carefully, ridiculously backed away, the protesters yelled, "Fucking losers" and "We're supposed to love each other." The Frog kept dancing. He also shimmied. Truly a burning hellhole.
Having failed in their attempts to liberate Portland, the regime turned its sights on equally offensively blue Chicago, where 400 Texas National Guard members are being deployed despite the opposition of Gov. JB Pritzker, who vowed, "Illinois will not let the Trump administration continue on their authoritarian march without resisting." The action comes a week after hundreds of ICE agents staged a draconian, jack-booted raid on a South Side apartment building - Pritzker: "They are the ones making it a war zone" - rappelling from Black Hawk helicopters, tossing smoke bombs, busting down doors, zip-tying sleepy residents, including crying naked children and U.S. citizens. Later, ICE Barbie released a histrionic, Call-of-Duty-esque video, martial music pounding, presumably to showcase their heroism in the face of terrified children. Text on one version threatened, "To every criminal illegal alien: Darkness is no longer your ally. We will find you." A second one read, "Chicago, we’re here for you.”
Maybe because even some of the regime's sociopaths have a discomfiting sense they're on the wrong side of history and feel the need to compensate - or because, per Patriot Takes, it's "a complete clown show" - their weird, incendiary agitprop keeps coming. A baffling meme shows race cars on a track that promises, "Victory is within reach. Recapture our national identity." Say what? A collage of Democratic leaders, including Biden, proclaims, “THE PARTY OF HATE, EVIL, AND SATAN.” Oregon Republicans posted a flashy image of rows of police riot shields against a smoke-filled, blood-red night sky to celebrate Trump saving "burning-to-the-ground" Portland with California troops, except he was blocked because it was illegal and didn't, and the image is fabricated, combining two earlier, real-life photographs in South America, nearly a decade apart, of riot police in Ecuador and Brazil respectively.
Still, nothing approaches the awful - the inhumane, the sadistic, the sick - of Kristi Noem's Homeland Security's obscenities, which keep proliferating. Ever since her grotesque performance before an El Salvador prison cell packed with unfortunates - which led to charges of her "sadistic eroticization of power" - and echoing her famed, makeup-slathered photo-ops - Barbie firefighter, Barbie cow-girl, Barbie-fake-ICE-agent-holding-a-gun-aimed-at-her-colleague's head - she's seemed to revel in the theatrical glitz of a once-pedestrian job, turning every atrocity into a chintzy action movie. In that, shamelessness is her super power: She seems so proud of her Chicago assault on an apartment building of sleeping families she keeps returning to it. One eerie new video mixes scenes from it with other arrests as singers declare, "We''re having an All Night Revival." Another shows multiple heroic thugs seizing their victims with the text, "Bag it. Tag It. Take it down." Yes: human beings.
Then there's the cruel insanity of an AI video using Blue Oyster Cult's “Don’t Fear the Reaper" to portray Project 2025's Russell Vought as the government shutdown's Grim Reaper declaring, "Now their time has come...Here comes the reaper....He wields the pen, the funds, and the brain" as Trump plays cowbell and Vance plays drums in their deathly band. It also features presumably DOGEd or furloughed federal workers - fraud, waste, and abuse all - as zombies hurtling past an unemployment office, and Democrats speaking as so much, "Blah blah blah blah." Veterans of the U.S. national security community, part of The Steady State: "A president posting a video depicting his opponents as prey for the Grim Reaper and zombies outside the unemployment office is the opposite of what we expect in a healthy democracy.” George Conway: "We elected a pathology."
Along with weird cosplay, we also elected a party of brazen, relentless liars. Facing anger over the shutdown and spiking health insurance costs, MAGA Mike announces he'll "look right into the camera" and tell you the GOP is "working around the clock every day to fix health care" when, in fact, he sent the House home until Oct. 14 and they're cutting CHIP and Medicaid. Armed with canned attacks, a bellicose, amnesiac Pam Bondi just lied and blustered through four hours of testimony. Trump told sailors "we will get our service members every last penny" (not) during a shutdown he blamed on Democrats, randomly posted: "JUST OUT: Good news for the holiday season. EARLY PRICES ARE DOWN," though they don't exist, with "NO INFLATION," and told reporters, "You have Black women with MAGA hats on in Chicago. All over the place. They want the Guard to come in."
@independent Donald Trump stars in a Grim Reaper-themed AI-generated video posted to his Truth Social account mocking Democrats. The clip features a cover of Blue Öyster Cult’s "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", with Russell Vought portrayed as the mythological character. It came as the president threatened to use a temporary lapse in government funding to enact permanent cuts to the federal workforce as a way to punish workers at agencies he believes are staffed by people who did not vote for him or his party. Click the link in bio for more 🔗 #DonaldTrump #AI #USNews #news
Elsewhere, America pushes back. In Chicago, Gov. Pritzker declared, “We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion.” Citing armed, "rogue, reckless" goons roaming the city, Mayor Brandon Johnson established "ICE free zones" that forbid them from using city-owned land as staging areas: "If Congress won’t check this administration, Chicago will." On the South Side, residents and passersby honked, hassled, wrestled and ran off - "Get the fuck outta here" - a couple of ICE thugs trying to detain a guy. In New York, the Bar Association vowed to legally pursue regime officials justifying attacks on Venezulean boats that constitute "illegal summary execution," or "murder." In D.C, The Secret Handshake resurrected their prancing Epstein/Trump statue "to stand gloriously on the National Mall"; when a second permit was suddenly, temporarily revoked before they got their third, the group released 3D-printable versions of the statue online.
In a searing, 161-page ruling, District Judge William Young, an 85-year-old Reagan appointee, blasted the regime for violating the 1st Amendment rights of pro-Palestinian and other protesters, charging they targeted a few people for speaking out and then used "the full rigor" of immigration laws to deport those few and silence others; Young specifically slammed "the President’s palpable misunderstanding" that he cannot simply "seek retribution for speech he disdains." Marcy Wheeler reminded listeners that, "The main scene of crime in Washington, D.C. is the White House,” that Vance, Miller, Noem, Patel, Bondi are all "working hard to paint Trump opponents as violent terrorists to distract from the crimes they're committing (as) part of a criminal conspiracy" run by Trump, "a career criminal." At Public Notice, Lisa Needham echoed her: "The terrorism is coming from inside the government." And someone, somewhere, flipping the GOP's florid AI script, made this paean to resistance.
The US Department of Transportation began earlier this month to rescind federal funding for local projects across the country to improve street safety and add pedestrian trails and bike lanes, because they were deemed "hostile" to cars.
A report Monday in Bloomberg cited several examples of multimillion-dollar grants being axed beginning on September 9, all with the same rationale:
A San Diego County road improvement project including bike lanes “appears to reduce lane capacity and a road diet that is hostile to motor vehicles,” a US Department of Transportation official wrote, rescinding a $1.2 million grant it awarded nearly a year ago.
In Fairfield, Alabama, converting street lanes to trail space on Vinesville Road was also deemed “hostile” to cars, and “counter to DOT’s priority of preserving or increasing roadway capacity for motor vehicles.”
Officials in Boston got a similar explanation, as the Trump administration pulled back a previously awarded grant to improve walking, biking, and transit in the city’s Mattapan Square neighborhood in a way that would change the “current auto-centric configuration.” Another grant to improve safety at intersections in the city was terminated, the DOT said, because it could “impede vehicle capacity and speed.”
These are just a few of the projects cancelled in recent weeks by the Trump administration. According to StreetsBlog, others included a 44-mile walking trail along the Naugatuck River in Connecticut, which the administration reportedly stripped funding from because it did not "promote vehicular travel," and new miles of rail trail in Albuquerque for which DOT said funding would be reallocated to "'car-focused' projects instead."
The cuts are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to slash discretionary federal grants under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act signed by former President Joe Biden in 2021.
These include the RAISE infrastructure grant and Safe Streets and Roads for All programs, for which Congress has allocated a combined $2.5 billion annually to expand public transportation and address the US's worsening epidemic of pedestrian deaths.
Data published in July by the group Transportation for America revealed that the Trump administration has been implementing funds for safety grants at about 10% of the speed of the Biden administration.
According to a report published in July by the Governors Highway Safety Association, US drivers struck and killed 7,148 pedestrians in 2024, "enough to fill more than 30 Boeing 737 jets at maximum capacity." Though fatalities have decreased slightly from a 40-year peak in 2022, the number of fatalities last year was 20% higher than in 2016.
Research has overwhelmingly shown that adding bicycle and pedestrian lanes to streets can reduce these fatalities. Even the DOT's own Federal Highway Administration website recommends introducing "Road Diets" that reduce four-lane intersections to three lanes, making room for pedestrian refuge islands and bike lanes to serve as a "buffer" between automobile traffic and sidewalks.
According to the website, "studies indicate a 19 to 47% reduction in overall crashes when a Road Diet is installed on a previously four-lane undivided facility as well as a decrease in crashes involving drivers under 35 years of age and over 65 years of age."
Car crash fatalities are also up in general, according to preliminary data from the Department of Transportation: 39,345 were killed in motor accidents in 2024 compared with 32,744 a decade prior, a 20% increase.
Despite this, the Trump administration has made its preference for maximizing car travel abundantly clear. Trump has attempted to block California from constructing a massive new high-speed rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco and has tried to stymie New York's wildly successful congestion pricing program.
Citing isolated cases of subway and train crime, he and other members of the Republican Party often paint public transit as excessively dangerous.
In one interview on Fox News in May, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ranted that, "if you're liberal, they want you to take public transportation." While stating that he was "OK with public transportation," he said, "the problem is that it's dirty. You have criminals. It's homeless shelters. It's insane asylums. It's a work ground for the criminal element of the city to prey upon the good people."
However, data show that between 2007 and 2023, deaths from automobile accidents were 100 times more likely than deaths on buses and 20 times more likely than on passenger trains.
Data: Highway passenger deaths from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data. Railroad passenger deaths from the Federal Railroad Administration. Airline passenger deaths from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Passenger miles estimates from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. All other figures are estimates from the National Safety Council. (Graphic: National Safety Council)
That hostility extends toward efforts to expand bicycle usage. In March, Duffy announced that the department would "review" all grants related to green infrastructure, including bike lanes, which was characterized as an effort to combat the previous president's attempts to reduce US transportation's carbon footprint.
Grant criteria sent to communities for the Safe Streets and Roads for All program explicitly warned communities that if "the applicant included infrastructure [resulting in] reducing lane capacity for vehicles," the application would be "viewed less favorably by the department."
When asked about this decision at a panel the next month, StreetsBlog reported that Duffy "grimaced and grumbled the word 'bikes' like it was an expletive, before repeating a string of corrosive myths about bike lanes that are all too common among people who only get around by car," including that they supposedly increase traffic congestion.
Many of the communities that have lost funding for their projects say they are still going to move ahead with them in some capacity. However, they argue that the government providing funds to improve road safety should be common sense.
Rick Dunne, the executive director of the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments, stated that the effort to build a trail along the river will continue, even without the funding. But he expressed bewilderment at the administration's statement that investing in highway travel would better serve residents' "quality of life."
“Look, if your definition of improving quality of life is promoting vehicular travel, that's just, on its face, bad. Increase vehicle travel, increase pollution, increase safety risks,” Dunne told the CT Post. “Taking this money from this project, putting it into highway travel, is in no way going to increase economic efficiency. I don't see how you argue that it improves the quality of life of Americans, or the residents of this valley.”
With the US government entering the third day of a shutdown Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics didn't release the monthly jobs report as scheduled—but one economic justice group said that even without the official analysis of the labor market, it's clear that President Donald Trump and the Republican Party's policies have "devastated workers and families," with the shutdown making matters worse for millions.
Unrig Our Economy provided its own People's Jobs Report to "fill the gaps" left by Republicans, who have refused to agree to Democrats' demands to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies and reverse Medicaid cuts in a spending bill to keep the government open.
Trump and GOP leaders have falsely claimed that Democrats are demanding "free healthcare" for undocumented immigrants—who are not eligible for government-run healthcare programs like Medicaid. The Democratic Party and experts have warned that the expiration of the ACA subsidies would raise healthcare premiums by 75% for millions of Americans.
Unrig Our Economy noted in its "Jobs Day" report that the expiration of the tax credits could also cost the US economy nearly 300,000 jobs in the next year, including 130,000 jobs lost "because of direct reductions in the provision of hospital, physician, and other ambulatory care as well as reductions in pharmacy-related services."
As the Commonwealth Fund reported in March, 156,000 jobs could be lost next year in sectors including manufacturing, retail, and real estate "as a result of the indirect or induced effects of healthcare funding losses," with rural communities among the hardest-hit areas.
“This ‘People’s Jobs Report’ from Unrig Our Economy shows how destructive Republican policies have been on the economy."
Those projected losses would compound "some of the most alarming economic developments" under the Republican-controlled government, said Unrig Our Economy.
The group cited an ADP report which found that while official statistics can't be reported as long as the BLS is closed, US companies shed an estimated 32,000 jobs in September.
About 13,000 jobs were lost in June, the group noted—the first time the economy lost jobs since 2020. The unemployment rate in last month's BLS report stood at 4.3%—the highest it's been since 2021.
Unemployment claims also rose to nearly 2 million in August—the highest since 2021—while Trump's tariff policies have "caused chaos for employers" including small businesses, where employment has dropped by 26,700 since the president took office for his second term in January.
"In tariff-related industries, payrolls fell by 90,100 jobs, including 42,000 jobs in manufacturing," said Unrig Our Economy. "Wholesale trade jobs fell by more than 26,000 since January and mining and logging jobs fell by 12,000 during the same period."
The group released its report a day after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called on the federal government to move forward with releasing the official jobs report despite the government shut down. Democrats have warned that the Trump administration has kept Americans in the dark about the true state of the economy, including when the president demanded the firing of Erika McEntarfer, who until August was the commissioner of the BLS.
McEntarfer was dismissed after the agency released a jobs report that showed the economy had added only 73,000 jobs in July—data that Trump baselessly claimed had been falsified to harm him politically. Her departure, however, didn't stop the flow of negative news about the economy under Republican leadership; the jobs report released in early September showed only 22,000 jobs created the previous month.
“Donald Trump’s economic agenda is inflicting massive pain on our economy and to add to the economic uncertainty, he’s shut down the government rather than save healthcare for millions of Americans," said Warren on Thursday. "But let’s be clear: The jobs data scheduled to come out this Friday has undoubtedly been collected and the president must release it. Without it, the Federal Reserve will not have the full picture it needs to make decisions this month about interest rates that will impact every family across the country. Donald Trump has the power to make sure the federal government can continue producing and releasing this critical information on Friday and beyond during his shutdown.”
William Beach, a former commissioner of the BLS, said this week that the September jobs data has been collected.
"Trump stopped the Bureau of Labor Statistics from releasing its monthly jobs report because Americans are struggling, and the numbers are disastrous," said Alexandra De Luca of American Bridge 21st Century. "But people deserve to know just how bad Trump's economy is."
A Bloomberg poll of economists found that employers likely added 53,000 jobs last month—fewer than the average of 64,000 added over the previous six months—and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago estimated that the unemployment rate has remained at 4.3%.
“Working people deserve a government that lowers their healthcare costs and creates good-paying jobs,” said Leor Tal, Unrig Our Economy campaign director Leor Tal. “This People’s Jobs Report from Unrig Our Economy shows how destructive Republican policies have been on the economy. Not only are Republicans in Congress tanking the economy by raising costs on families and cutting essential programs that help them make ends meet, but they’re destroying jobs too—all while giving billionaires massive tax breaks.”
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar said Tuesday that "reality" was finally starting to hit some Republicans in Congress about the catastrophic results of reopening the government without a plan to extend tax credits that help tens of millions of Americans afford healthcare.
The government shut down this past Wednesday after Democrats refused to vote for a GOP funding bill that did not extend Biden-era subsidies for the more than 24 million Americans who purchase health insurance on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace.
Republicans did not vote to extend the subsidies in July's One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). And if they are allowed to expire at the end of 2025, KFF estimates that the average recipient's insurance premiums will more than double, from $888 to $1,906 per year, which will result in about 4 million people losing their insurance due to unaffordability, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
This is on top of the roughly 10 million expected to lose insurance coverage due to the GOP's massive cuts to Medicaid and other ACA marketplace spending in the Republican budget law.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have maintained that they would not negotiate on extending the subsidies unless Democrats vote to reopen the government, thereby sacrificing their main point of leverage.
But while many Republicans have hoped to divert attention from the wildly unpopular subsidy cuts to instead push the false narrative that Democrats are pushing for "free healthcare for illegal aliens," one of the most outspoken members of the MAGA coalition put her own party's leaders on blast Monday for their apparent willingness to let millions face higher healthcare costs.
In a blistering post on X, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said that while she was "not a fan" of the ACA and blamed it for "skyrocketing premiums," she was "going to go against everyone on this issue because when the tax credits expire this year my own adult children's insurance premiums for 2026 are going to DOUBLE, along with all the wonderful families and hardworking people in my district."
"No, I'm not [toeing] the party line on this, or playing loyalty games," Greene continued. "I'm carving my own lane. And I'm absolutely disgusted that health insurance premiums will DOUBLE if the tax credits expire this year."
Greene lamented that "not a single Republican in leadership talked to us about this or has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING!!!"
She then turned her attention to the tens of billions of dollars worth of military aid sent to Israel and Ukraine in recent years: "All our country does is fund foreign countries and foreign wars, and never does anything to help the American people!!!"
Johnson brushed off Greene's attack, noting that she "does not serve on the committees of jurisdiction to deal with those specialized issues, and she’s probably not read that in on some of that, because it’s still been sort of in their silos of the people who specialize in those issues."
But Casar described Greene's post as evidence that Republicans were beginning to recognize the hardship their policy may have wrought.
"Mike Johnson hasn't picked a fight with Democrats—he's picked a fight with reality," Casar said. "Here's reality breaking through."
While hardly toning down her conspiracy theorizing or her attacks on immigrants and transgender people, Greene has taken some notable stands against her party, as well as President Donald Trump, on some key issues in recent months. These have included opposing additional weapons aid for Israel's war in Gaza, which she has described as a "genocide," and the full release of the Epstein files, which Trump and other Republicans have seemed intent on burying.
But she may not be the only Republican for whom the reality of the GOP's healthcare cuts is "breaking through." On Monday, Trump told reporters gathered at the Oval Office: "We have a negotiation going on with the Democrats that could lead to good things... And I'm talking about good things with regard to healthcare."
Asked if he'd be willing to extend the expiring subsidies, Trump said: "If we made the right deal, I'd make a deal. Sure," adding that "we're talking to the Democrats."
The top House and Senate Democrats denied talking to Trump, and the president did not specify which party members he's allegedly talking to. But it nevertheless marked a notable shift in tone from the week before, when Trump responded to Democrats' healthcare demands with derisive, artificially generated sombrero memes and top congressional Republicans swore off any negotiations unless Democrats agreed to fund the government first.
Other Republicans have joined calls for the subsidies to be extended, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who told reporters: "You've got to do something to make sure the premiums don't essentially double, which they will in my state for private insurance. I mean, we just can't allow that to happen. That's a lot of Missourians who will not be able to afford healthcare."
Hawley notably raised similar concerns about the OBBBA's cuts to Medicaid earlier this year but ultimately voted for the legislation.
Nevertheless, the rhetorical change from some Republicans may have something to do with public opinion on the tax credits.
A poll released Friday by KFF found that 78% of Americans want Congress to extend the credits, compared to just 22% of Americans who want to let the credits expire. These majorities extend across the political spectrum, including 92% of Democrats, 82% of independents, and even 57% of Republicans who identify themselves as part of Trump's MAGA movement.
The same poll found that if the tax credits are not extended, about 4 in 10 adults would blame Trump, while another 4 in 10 would blame Republicans in Congress. Just 2 in 10 would blame Democrats.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said Tuesday that waiting to extend the subsidies until after the shutdown ends is not an option.
"Mike Johnson wants to kick the can down the road when it comes to addressing skyrocketing premiums—but this is a crisis right now," Jayapal said. "Now is the time to negotiate to lower costs—not after millions have been kicked off their healthcare."
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker issued a new warning on Wednesday about President Donald Trump's efforts to deploy the American military in US cities against the wishes of local elected officials.
Hours after Trump called for Pritzker's imprisonment in a Wednesday morning Truth Social post, the Illinois governor claimed in an interview with MSNBC that the president's ultimate goal with sending troops into US cities was to control the outcomes of future elections.
"He wants to militarize major cities across the United States, especially blue cities in blue states, because he wants us to get used to the idea of military on the streets," he said. "2026 elections, I believe he's going to post people outside ballot boxes and polling places, and, if he needs to in order to control those elections, he'll assume control of the ballot boxes and count the votes himself."
Pritzker pointed out that Trump considered ordering the military to seize ballot boxes after he lost the 2020 presidential election, but he was met with resistance from officials in his own administration.
However, Pritzker said that "I believe he would do it in 2026" to help Republicans maintain control of Congress.
Pritzker: "He wants to militarize major cities across the US, especially blue cities in blue states, because he wants us to get used to the idea of troops on the streets. I believe he's gonna post people outside of ballot boxes and polling places and if he needs to in order to… pic.twitter.com/hIyz41tsAb
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 8, 2025
Pritzker also struck a defiant tone when asked about Trump's call to imprison him.
"This guy's a convicted felon who's threatening to jail me!" he exclaimed. "This guy is unhinged. He's insecure. He's a wannabe dictator. And there's one thing I really want to say to Donald Trump: If you come for my people, you come through me. So come and get me."
Pritzker: "This guy is unhinged. He's insecure. He's a wannabe dictator. And there's one thing I really want to say to Donald Trump. If you come for my people, you come through me. So come and get me." pic.twitter.com/3QBrovBpZs
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 8, 2025
Pritzker's remarks come as Trump and his administration have deployed Texas National Guard soldiers to Chicago over the objections of both Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. The state and city are challenging the deployment in court.
Federal immigration officials have been employing increasingly aggressive and violent tactics in the Chicago area in recent weeks, including attacking a journalist and a protesting priest with pepper balls outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility; slamming a congressional candidate to the ground; dragging US citizens, including children, out of their homes during a raid in the middle of the night; and fatally shooting a man during a traffic stop.
As Israel's genocide in Gaza enters its third year, human rights defenders around the world on Tuesday condemned what one United Nations official called the "unspeakable suffering" of the Palestinian people and the complicity of the United States and other countries, while urging an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages held by both sides.
"Today marks two years since the deadly Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel, during which at least 1,200 Israelis and other nationals—mostly civilians—were killed and 251 people were taken hostage, 20 are still alive and held in Gaza," Amnesty International said on social media.
"Today marks two years since Israel began its brutal onslaught against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip," Amnesty continued. "Over 67,000 Palestinians—mostly civilians—have been killed. 90% of homes have been destroyed or damaged. Most of the population has been forcibly displaced, starved and subjected deliberately to conditions of life calculated to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. This is genocide."
"Stop the genocide. Now."
"This horror has been made possible with the support of the US and other allies and the tightening of Israel’s 18-year-long illegal blockade that has inflicted unimaginable suffering," the group added. "This must end now. Humanity cannot bear this any more."
Numerous United Nations agencies and officials also marked the second anniversary of the start of the Gaza genocide with calls for less cruelty and more relief.
"In Gaza, for two long years people have known nothing but destruction, displacement, bombardment, fear, death, and hunger," Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said on social media. At least 370 UNRWA personnel have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023.
Lazzarini called for the "release of all hostages and Palestinian detainees," an "immediate ceasefire," as well as "the unfettered delivery of basic humanitarian supplies at scale to Gaza" and "accountability and justice to hold all those accountable for atrocities committed on and after October 7."
"There is no other way out of this abyss and mayhem," he added.
Israel’s war on #Gaza has dragged on far too long. Over the past two years, Israeli forces have killed over 66,000 people, including 15 of our staff. We call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire, an end to the siege and access for independent humanitarian aid at scale.
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— Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (@msf.ca) October 6, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Ricardo Pires, the communications manager and deputy spokesperson for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), asserted that Israel’s “disproportionate response” to the Hamas attack has left children suffering “in their bodies and minds for way too long."
Pires lamented that at least 61,000 Palestinian children have been killed or maimed in Gaza, which UNICEF has called "the world's most dangerous place to be a child," condemning that toll as an "unacceptable, staggering figure."
UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said in a statement: "Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed. Hundreds of thousands endure starvation and displacement. So we renew the call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, for all civilians to be protected, and for humanitarian aid to flow freely at the scale needed."
Fletcher also said that he's "seen and heard from... the survivors and the families" of Israelis and others abducted by Hamas-led resistance fighters on October 7, 2023.
"The pain is indescribable," he said. "Today, I renew my call for the unconditional, immediate release of all the hostages—and until then, they must be treated humanely."
As US President Donald Trump leads efforts to end the war by forcing both Israel and Hamas into major concessions, Human Rights Watch Israel and Palestine director Omar Shakir said Tuesday that "the two years since October 7, 2023 have brought a seemingly endless stream of atrocities against civilians."
"Governments should not wait for the adoption of Trump's 20-part plan or any other peace plan to take action to prevent further harm," he added.
Peace plans cannot solely be relied on to address grave abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. 30+ years of escalating repression of Palestinians as "peace processes" played out made that clear.Trump's plan is no substitute for urgent action in Gaza.
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— Human Rights Watch (@hrw.org) October 6, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Although Trump told Israel to "immediately stop" bombing Gaza after Hamas conditionally agreed last week to his plan, Israeli forces have continued bombing and invading the strip with the goal of conquering, occupying, and ethnically cleansing the Palestinian exclave. More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in over 130 Israeli strikes since Trump's Friday exhortation, according to Gaza officials.
"The killing in Gaza continues," the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said ahead of Tuesday's anniversary, slamming Israel's use of the October 2023 attack as a "trigger for genocide" and "an escalation rooted in decades of apartheid and occupation."
B'Tselem had a simple message as the Gaza slaughter entered its third year: "Stop the genocide. Now."
"Trump and congressional Republicans have driven America headfirst into a government shutdown," said one campaigner. "It is poor women and children who will feel the impacts first and worst."
A federal food program serving vulnerable women and children could run out of money next week due to the Republican government shutdown, a prospect that on Thursday spurred calls for Congress to pass a bipartisan funding bill that protects nutritional assistance for needy Americans.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides free staples including fresh produce, milk, and formula vouchers for nearly 7 million pregnant and breastfeeding parents and children under the age of 5. The program currently benefits more than 1 in 4 young US children.
“We will have babies being born to low-income women who will not have any breastfeeding support, and they will have no way to get infant formula if they’re not breastfeeding,” Nicole Flateboe, executive director of Nutrition First, Washington state’s WIC association, recently told the Washington State Standard, calling the specter of defunding a "disaster."
The Trump shutdown is threatening to force kids to go hungry. We need, at the very least, a bipartisan spending bill that protects access to food and clean water.
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— Food & Water Watch (@foodandwater.bsky.social) October 9, 2025 at 7:58 AM
In Puerto Rico, 76% of children under age 5 rely upon WIC. In California, that figure is 38%, followed by 35% in New York and 34% in Delaware and North Carolina.
"WIC is a lifeline that helps new parents keep their babies fed. But thanks to Republicans' government shutdown, WIC funds could run out in a matter of weeks," Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said Thursday on social media. "Republicans must reopen the government NOW and stop playing with people's lives."
Food & Water Watch warned Thursday that over 5 million US children stand to lose food assistance, with many likely to go hungry, if the government shutdown is not resolved.
“Trump and congressional Republicans have driven America headfirst into a government shutdown," Food & Water Watch managing director of policy and litigation Mitch Jones said in a statement Thursday. "It is poor women and children who will feel the impacts first and worst."
Democrats in Congress have introduced a short-term appropriations bill that would fully fund WIC, a proposal that stands in stark contrast with Republican legislation that would maintain current funding levels for the program. The GOP proposal is the equivalent of a $600 million cut, due to inflation and price pressures, according to Food & Water Watch.
Making matters worse, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) signed by President Donald Trump in July stripped Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits from more than 2 million people. The legislation contains the deepest cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in history while slashing billions from other essential social programs to fund massive tax breaks for billionaires and corporations.
The OBBBA ends health coverage and food assistance for millions of people at a time when more than 47 million Americans—including 1 in 5 US children—are living in food insecure households.
The Trump administration's staffing and funding cuts at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which administers SNAP, have also hamstrung the government's ability to provide assistance to those in need.
“It’s a big mess,” Flateboe said. “We don’t have a lot of trust that the USDA is going to handle this real seamlessly.”
While Trump said this week that he would use tariff revenues to temporarily fund WIC, it is unclear how he could do so absent an act of Congress.
"Congressional Republicans need to put food back on the table for struggling families by passing a bipartisan spending bill that protects food access," Jones said.
Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) said on social media: "Families shouldn’t pay the price for GOP dysfunction. We must protect WIC and the people who rely on it."
"This much-needed and welcomed ceasefire does not change the simple fact that Israel has just committed a genocide in Gaza," wrote the co-founder of European Jews for Palestine.
After two years of destruction in the Gaza Strip, Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Hamas on Thursday that is expected to take effect within the next day. But even as the world reacts with jubilation that the nonstop death and destruction may soon abate, skepticism abounds about whether the agreement will result in a just and lasting peace.
Israel is expected to withdraw troops to an agreed-upon line and to allow an influx of aid into Gaza, along with releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages. Already, signs have emerged that the Israeli government may seek to collapse the fragile agreement, as happened earlier this year.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, pointed out that within hours after the deal was announced by US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Israeli tanks were filmed firing at civilians attempting to return to their homes in Gaza City.
Middle East Eye reported: "Heavy airstrikes and artillery shelling were reported in Gaza City and Khan Younis overnight, according to local media. Israeli quadcopters were also reported to have dropped bombs on civilians in Gaza City. At least nine people were killed in the attacks since dawn, health officials said."
Albanese said: "Just hours after the deal—as in January—Israel shoots at Palestinians waiting to return home. Before any next step, member states must ensure that Israel honors the ceasefire."
Whether the ceasefire will even be finalized remains an open question, as two leading far-right figures in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government—Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir—have come out in opposition to the deal's ratification and suggested that their parties may defect from Netanyahu's government if they don't get their way, which could be enough to collaose his narrow governing majority.
In a video at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Jerusalem's Temple Mount on Wednesday, Ben-Gvir said Israel must pursue "full victory in Gaza," a move seen as deeply provocative by the Arab world outside one of Islam's holiest sites, made only more so by his declaration that "we [Jewish Israelis] are the owners of [the] Temple Mount."
In recent months, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have said this goal of "total victory" includes carrying out the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza so they can be replaced with Israeli settlers.
Even if this ceasefire proves more durable than previous ones, human rights advocates say that simply halting the violence is not enough.
"We can breathe again, in relief for the end of the daily killing, the starvation, the human suffering beyond imagination, beyond words," wrote Yoav Shemer-Kunz, the co-founder of European Jews for Palestine in EUObserver. "This much-needed and welcomed ceasefire does not change the simple fact that Israel has just committed a genocide in Gaza."
Over the past two years, more than 10% of Gaza's population has been the casualties of Israeli attacks: At least 67,000 people—including over 20,000 children—have been killed, while at least 169,000 people have been injured, many with life-altering wounds, according to official estimates from the Gaza Health Ministry. Other studies suggest the death toll may be even higher when the effects of disease and starvation are taken into account.
Craig Mokhiber, a former United Nations human rights official, said that while Israel and the US had agreed to end the "military component of [the] genocide... they have not yet ended the food and medical components of the genocide."
Nearly 78% of the buildings, including over 9 in 10 homes, in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, leaving its medical, water, and sanitation infrastructure in ruins.
And as a result of Israel's near-total blockade on humanitarian aid, Gaza is now the center of a historic famine. According to the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), nearly a third of the population—641,000 people—is estimated to face catastrophic conditions of hunger, while 1 in 4 children suffers from acute malnutrition.
"A temporary pause or reduction in the scale of attacks and allowing a trickle of humanitarian aid into Gaza is not enough," said Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International.
"There must be a full cessation of hostilities and a total lifting of the blockade," she said. "Israel must allow the unhindered flow of basic supplies, including food, medicine, fuel, and reconstruction material, into all parts of the occupied Gaza Strip, as well as the restoration of essential services, to ensure the survival of a population reeling from starvation, repeated waves of mass forced displacement, and a campaign of annihilation."
Though the deal signed Thursday calls for 400 aid trucks to begin entering the strip each day, marking a massive surge from previous levels, it is still fewer than the 600 per day that were allowed to enter during January's ceasefire, which occurred when starvation was at a less critical point.
Though the ceasefire will require the withdrawal of some troops, Israel has said it will still control 53% of the Gaza Strip after it goes into effect and the prisoner exchange ends.
"This fragile ceasefire must be the beginning of a sustained and principled effort that leads to ending Israel's unlawful occupation and blockade," said Oxfam International. "It must be focused on restoring rights and rebuilding lives. Any political or reconstruction plan must not entrench the occupation or further undermine Palestinian sovereignty."
Others emphasized the importance not just of remedies to the suffering of Palestinians, but legal accountability for those in Israel's government, including Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, for whom the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for crimes against humanity.
"The current plan—the so-called 'Trump peace plan'—falls woefully short in this," said Callamard. "It fails to demand justice and reparations for victims of atrocity crimes or accountability for perpetrators. Stopping the cycle of suffering and atrocities requires an end to longstanding impunity at the heart of recurring violations in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. States must uphold their obligations under international law to bring to justice those responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide."
Mokhiber said: "We must keep the pressure on until all perpetrators and complicit actors are held accountable for the genocide, the apartheid regime is dismantled, and Palestine is free."
"Will your bank choose to be part of the cover-up for this massive, international sex trafficking ring that victimized more than 1,000 women and girls?"
US House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin on Wednesday sent letters to four major banks demanding records related to more than $1.5 billion in "suspicious" financial transactions tied to Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking ring.
"Can Bank of America help Congress understand how Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their co-conspirators were able to use your bank and others to conduct more than $1.5 billion in suspicious financial transactions to operate their international sex trafficking ring for years without ever being caught?" Raskin (D-Md.) wrote to the bank's CEO, Brian Moynihan.
The congressman began his letters to Bank of New York Mellon CEO Robin Vince, Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing, and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon the same way.
Epstein, a financier and convicted sex offender, was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while facing federal charges for sex trafficking. His death was ruled a suicide, but that has been met with deep skepticism. Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year federal sentence for her related crimes.
The US Department of Justice has refused to release all of its files on Epstein, heightening public, media, and congressional attention on his friendship with President Donald Trump in the 1990s until their alleged falling out in the early 2000s.
"In September, at a hearing with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel, it became clear that the FBI has failed to 'follow the money' with regard to more than $1.5 billion in suspicious transactions related to Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking ring," Raskin wrote Wednesday.
"In light of this startling information, House Judiciary Committee Democrats moved to subpoena financial records related to Jeffrey Epstein from these four banks, but Republicans, with the exception of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), blocked these efforts," he explained, urging the institutions to willingly work with the panel.
"For over 15 years, JPMorgan turned a blind eye to evidence of Jeffrey Epstein's child sex trafficking."
Under the Bank Secrecy Act, institutions must implement anti-money laundering policies, which include requiring compliance officers, often in consultation with executives, to file a suspicious activity report (SAR) within 60 days of noticing an activity that raises a red flag, "so federal authorities can be alerted to the potential criminal activity and investigate," the letters stress.
"Despite the public nature of Mr. Epstein's crimes, and the hundreds of millions of his funds flowing through your bank, it appears Bank of America filed only two significantly delayed SARs relating to his conduct—covering $170 million in transactions between Mr. Epstein and billionaire investor Leon Black," Raskin wrote to Moynihan.
The letter to Vince says that "while reports indicate that you filed SARs covering $378 million in payments to and from Mr. Epstein's accounts, these SARs were reportedly filed years after Mr. Epstein's death, well beyond when was statutorily required and when the opportunity to intervene and prevent his conduct had passed."
Raskin's letter to Dimon is particularly scathing, stating: "For over 15 years, JPMorgan turned a blind eye to evidence of Jeffrey Epstein's child sex trafficking. Senior executives at your bank helped Mr. Epstein open 134 accounts and processed over $1 billion in transactions for Mr. Epstein, including after his 2008 conviction for soliciting minors."
"Mr. Epstein had an extensive pattern of suspicious transactions with JPMorgan, including a $175,000 cash withdrawal in 2003 that was used to pay child victims, a series of enormous cash withdrawals totaling more than $1.7 million in 2004 and 2005, and a slew of requests for credit cards and bank accounts for teenagers and young women," he detailed.
Raskin continued:
Despite the flagrant nature of Mr. Epstein’s activities, JPMorgan did not file a single SAR during that time It was only after Mr. Epstein's death that JPMorgan retroactively conducted a review of Mr. Epstein's transactions and filed its first SARs, covering a staggering 4,700 transactions totaling $1.1 billion. Many of these SARs were filed over a decade later than statutorily required.
Documents further show that Mr. Epstein repeatedly communicated with the chief executive of the investment bank at JPMorgan, who alerted Mr. Epstein to the bank's sensitivity about his constant cash withdrawals, and offered him the opportunity to alter his tactics to avoid detection. The JPMorgan executive also repeatedly intervened to ensure that JPMorgan's compliance functions would not interfere with Mr. Epstein's activities. Even more disturbing, in 2010, after Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty to engaging in sex with a minor, the same JPMorgan executive visited Mr. Epstein's properties in New Mexico, New York, and the Caribbean.
In his letter to Sewing, Raskin pointed out that "in 2013, Mr. Epstein moved his financial accounts from JPMorgan to Deutsche Bank."
"Despite news reports indicating Mr. Epstein's serious crimes, Deutsche Bank appeared focused on the potential profitability of its relationship," he wrote. "Deutsche Bank memos advocating opening an account for Mr. Epstein emphasized how lucrative his business would be."
The congressman accused Deutsche Bank of failing to report a "stream of red flags," called out compliance officers for accepting Epstein and his lawyers' "farfetched answers that these transfers were for 'tuition' or 'rent' for Mr. Epstein's 'friends,'" and noted that his attorney "made 100 cash withdrawals totaling over $800,000 in four years, often in amounts just below the $10,000 federal reporting threshold."
"So, Mr. Sewing, we ask: Is Deutsche Bank willing to put its past behind it and help reveal the truth about Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their co-conspirators? Or will your bank choose to be part of the cover-up for this massive, international sex trafficking ring that victimized more than 1,000 women and girls?" he inquired, asking the same questions of the other CEOs.
Raskin also provided each bank with a list of specific requests for documents and information to send to the panel by October 22.
JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank have each paid hundreds of millions of dollars for claims related to Epstein. Asked about Raskin's letter, Deutsche Bank said in a statement to CNBC that it "takes its legal obligations seriously, including appropriately responding to authorized investigations and proceedings."
Bank of America and BNY Mellon did not respond to CNBC's requests for comment, while JPMorgan declined to comment.
The letters come as the federal government is shut down and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has held off on swearing in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the key 218th signature on a discharge petition to force a vote on legislation that would require the Justice Department to release the Epstein files. Johnson claimed earlier this week that her position on the matter was not the reason for the delay, but many Democrats in Congress and other critics are not buying that.