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Un-Handcuffing Loose Cannons, Badges and Other Bedlam
What the ever-loving fuck. With the man-child's megalomania spiraling - rampant troops, despot banners, Ugandan exile, his "Consultational" right to hire and fire (especially black women) and the unctuous gifting of a big boy badge to rule them all - "a lot of people are saying" we've reached the "Mad Cow Dictator" phase. What to do. JB Pritzker on the "arrogant little man": "We are watching, and we are taking names." And humbly, on the curve toward justice of MLK's moral universe: "It doesn't bend on its own."
Having arrived at what Paul Krugman calls "another break-glass moment" - "We are all Lisa Cook" in the regime's weaponizing of government - the shards are everywhere. In brief, "The man is a raving lunatic." His massive, menacing mug now hangs from the Department of Labor, giving off "Strong Chairman Mao vibes"; Gavin Newsom: "THANK YOU, GLORIOUS LEADER!" He declares he has "the Consultational right" to appoint or fire judges, U.S. attorneys, anyone, and Democrats should "go to HELL!" He has turned the FBI and DOJ into "the largest domestic terrorist organizations in the nation," with the alleged power to disappear "animal" Abrego Garcia, convicted of no crime, to Uganda - a judge had to warn they were "absolutely forbidden" to do so - or detain a racially-profiled victim a week after what another judge called "without a doubt the most illegal search I've ever seen in my life." He went on to argue, at this point likely in vain, "Lawlessness cannot come from the government.”
Still, along with delusion and stupidity, it does. James Comer, the House Oversight Committee's own Elmer Fudd, is launching an investigation into "manipulated" crime data based on its "lack of faith in city leadership" to combat D.C.'s non-existent "crime crisis." Similarly, Maryland's Dem Gov. Wes Moore has publicly disputed as "an imaginary conversation" the Mad King's claim he "heaped praise" on him last year as "the greatest president"; in response, the White House sniped "lightweight" Moore is "desperate for attention" and should clean up Baltimore's (also imaginary) "massive crime mess." Having cancelled cancer research, they're also busy spending their obscene new billions on toys for the brownshirts; two shiny rigs, matching Trump's jet, proclaim, "Defend the Homeland." From house painters and landscapers, that is, not disease: Trump and his brainworm-infested death-cult buddy reportedly plan to pull the COVID vaccine off the U.S. market "within months."
Meanwhile, he raves. Windmills kill, so he's halting construction on an almost-completed $4 billion windfarm off the coast of Rhode Island that could light and run hundreds of thousands of homes. Instead, like China, "We're heavily into the world of magnets now." He's going to reduce drug prices "by 1,400, 1,500%." He doesn't like the Department of Defense name: "Department of War sounded better...We won everything." He likes teaching White House history: "McKinley. He was a president. He was the tariff, the most, I guess, since me..." The Alaska fiasco exposed his "idiotic, incoherent, incompetent foreign policy...The man playing at being president has no idea what he is doing"; still, he boasted, the seven European leaders who then visited the White House to support Zelensky actually came from 38 countries - "We've never had a case where 7, plus really 28, essentially 35, well, 38 countries were represented here" - and, "They call me the president of Europe."
On Monday, as usual, he sat behind the Resolute Desk - bruised hand, swollen ankles - as he babbled, lied, signed kingly executive orders to continue his reign of terror. Defying SCOTUS precedent, without any authority to do so, he made it a crime to burn the American flag. Adding to the already-beefy ranks of unfit, ill-educated, 18-year-old, there-for-the-signing-bonus-and-gratuitous-cruelty ICE thugs, he charged Pete Kegseth with creating “specialized units” in the National Guard, aka "random fascist vigilantes," trained to deal with "public order issues," aka help crack down on dissent and free speech. He called them "a quick reaction force" - weirdly, the same name proposed by Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who "seemed particularly pleased by the government's exciting career opportunity." "I'm not a dictator," said the Retribution President, who's mad some people criticize his sending in troops to peaceful cities. "A lot of people are saying, 'Maybe we’d like a dictator.'" (Maybe, "Defend freedom, or learn to goose step.")
And D.C. is great now, he argues. After years of such rampant crime "no one dared to wear jewelry or carry purses or go to restaurants," he brags, "People are free for the first time ever." And lookit those bulked-up, trash-bag-toting National Guard troops picking up admittedly meager garbage while looking dazed and confused, or walking through a virtually deserted National Mall. They look so great! Which is why he now needs to inflict them on more non-existent, crime-ridden blue cities. Maybe start with Chicago, where the GOP cut more than $800 million in public safety and crime prevention, so no wonder it's "a disaster" and "a killing field" run by that loudmouth, non-complicit "slob" J.B. Pritzker, who had the nerve to point out that 13 of the nation's top 20 cities in homicide rates have GOP governors - and, "None of these cities is Chicago" - and 8 of the top ten states with the highest homicide rates are led by Republicans, and, "None of those states is Illinois."
Pritzker wasn't done. He said he had to "speak plainly about the moment that we are in and the actual crisis, not the manufactured one, that we are facing." "Ringing an alarm," he called Trump's actions unprecedented, unwarranted, illegal, noting the White House didn't even inform him, the mayor or the police of his plans. "This is not about fighting crime," he said. "This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city in a blue state to try and intimidate his political rivals. There is no emergency in Chicago that calls for armed military intervention...In any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is: a dangerous power grab...Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here." Blasting Trump's use of the National Guard as "political props (at) odds with the local communities they seek to serve," he warned, “If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law."
Pritzker's righteous defiance stood in tragic contrast to the groveling farce ending that surreal Oval Office session, wherein U.S. Marshals Service head Gady Serralta gifted America's most easily bought and paid for president with a shiny, big-boy, Cracker Jack, honorary marshal's badge, aka Keystone Cops Memorial Idiocy Badge, for turning D.C. into a fascist police state, aka Make America Gaddafi Again. The handcuff key to the grinning buffoon was for his efforts to "un-handcuff law enforcement agents all over this nation." (Pilot's wings and hobby horse are next.) Not The Onion. One sage: "I'm pretty over living in interesting times." Beyond the dark comedy, Rachel Maddow warns, watch what they do - repurposing and degrading police, military, intelligence, all federal law enforcement to turn them against American people on American soil - not what they say, which is gibberish. Tom Sullivan likewise counsels, "The tide has turned." On the hard history of fascism: "You are here. Let's maybe not vote for it again."
U.S. Declaration of Independence:
- He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
- For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments
- He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
- He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
- He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
- He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
- For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world
- For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent
- For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury
- For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
'Climate Vandalism, Pure and Simple': Defiant BP to Reopen North Sea Oil Field
As the United Kingdom on Monday faced the onset of its fourth heatwave of this summer, climate campaigners continued to call out BP for its decision to plow ahead with reopening the Murlach oil field in the North Sea, despite fossil fuels pushing up global temperatures and the U.K. government's efforts to limit extraction in the region.
"This is climate vandalism, pure and simple," Kate Blagojevic, Europe team lead at the group 350.org, said in a Monday statement. "BP is putting its profit margins above the survival of communities, ecosystems, and future generations. Every barrel of oil from this project pushes us closer to climate breakdown, more floods, more fires, more heatwaves."
"The era of fossil fuels is over, and BP's desperate attempts to wring out the last drops of oil from the North Sea are a reckless betrayal of the public and the planet. They should be winding down, not doubling down," she declared.
Greenpeace U.K. policy director Doug Parr was similarly critical, saying in a statement that "the North Sea is on death's door. Reserves are drying up, and what's left and untapped is barely enough to keep it on life support."
The Telegraph on Sunday noted recent research from the government's North Sea Transition Authority that found there were over 3 billion barrels of oil and gas in fields already in production, 6 billion barrels in known potential developments, and 3.5 billion barrels in identified exploration zones.
According to the newspaper, BP said the Murlach field contains 20 million barrels of recoverable oil and 600 million cubic meters of gas, and is "expected to produce around 20,000 barrels of oil and 17 million cubic feet of gas per day," due to new technologies that weren't around when it was shut down over two decades ago.
Parr said that "3 billion barrels wouldn't last more than a few years at current rates of consumption, and even that assumes it is economic to extract. Whatever the political rhetoric, the oil and gas is pretty much gone, and soon, so too will the jobs of thousands of workers."
"Unless we want to remain dependent on overseas imports and watch an entire industry collapse with no plan for workers," he added, "the only sensible thing to do is to pivot the North Sea to something we have an abundance of, and something that will never run out—wind."
Although the U.K's current Labour Party leaders have pledged to avoid new licensing for fossil fuel projects in the North Sea, "BP won agreement to reopen Murlach, 120 miles east of Aberdeen, under the previous government and has since been installing equipment, with production potentially restarting next month," The Telegraph explained.
A spokesperson for Ed Miliband, U.K. secretary of state for energy security and net zero, said Sunday that "we are committed to delivering the manifesto commitment to not issue new licences to explore new fields because they will not take a penny off bills, cannot make us energy secure, and will only accelerate the worsening climate crisis."
"We are delivering a fair and orderly transition in the North Sea, with the biggest ever investment in offshore wind and two first-of-a-kind carbon capture and storage clusters," the spokesperson added.
Miliband in June announced new guidance for environmental impact assessments of proposed oil and gas projects in licensed fields, which came in response to last year's landmark U.K. Supreme Court ruling. After that decision, Judge Andrew Stewart of Scotland's Court of Session ruled in January that Equinor and Shell, which are respectively behind the Rosebank oil and gas field and the Jackdaw gas project, can't move ahead with extraction.
The June guidance means offshore developers can now submit applications for extractions in fields that are already licensed, including Rosebank and Jackdaw. In response to that development earlier this year, Mel Evans, Greenpeace U.K.'s head of climate, said that "it's only right for the government to take into account the emissions from burning oil and gas when deciding whether to approve fossil fuel projects currently pending."
"Since Rosebank and other drilling sites will pump out a lot of carbon while providing little benefit to the economy and no help to bill payers, they should fail the criteria ministers have just set out," Evans added. "Real energy security and future-proofed jobs for energy workers can only come through homegrown, cheap renewable energy, and that's what ministers should focus on."
Congressional Report Warns Trump Tariffs Could Stymie US Manufacturing for 'Years to Come'
US President Donald Trump's tariff whiplash has already harmed domestic manufacturing and could continue to do so through at least the end of this decade to the tune of nearly half a trillion dollars, a report published Monday by congressional Democrats on a key economic committee warned.
The Joint Economic Committee (JEC)-Minority said that recent data belied Trump's claim that his global trade war would boost domestic manufacturing, pointing to the 37,000 manufacturing jobs lost since the president announced his so-called "Liberation Day" tariffs in April.
"Hiring in the manufacturing sector has dropped to its lowest level in nearly a decade," the Democrats on the committee wrote. "In addition, many experts have noted that in and of itself, the uncertainty created by the administration so far could significantly damage the broader economy long-term."
"Based on both US business investment projections and economic analyses of the UK in the aftermath of Brexit, the Joint Economic Committee-Minority calculates that a similarly prolonged period of uncertainty in the US could result in an average of 13% less manufacturing investment per year, amounting to approximately $490 billion in foregone investment by 2029," the report states.
"The uncertainty created by the administration so far could significantly damage the broader economy long-term."
"Although businesses have received additional clarity on reciprocal tariff rates in recent days, uncertainty over outstanding negotiations is likely to continue to delay long-term investments and pricing decisions," the publication adds. "Furthermore, even if the uncertainty about the US economy were to end tomorrow, evidence suggests that the uncertainty that businesses have already faced in recent months would still have long-term consequences for the manufacturing sector."
According to the JEC Democrats, the Trump administration has made nearly 100 different tariff policy decisions since April—"including threats, delays, and reversals"—creating uncertainty and insecurity in markets and economies around the world. It's not just manufacturing and markets—economic data released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that businesses in some sectors are passing the costs of Trump's tariffs on to consumers.
As the new JEC minority report notes:
As independent research has shown, businesses are less likely to make long-term investments when they face high uncertainty about future policies and economic conditions. For manufacturers, decisions to expand production—which often entail major, irreversible investments in equipment and new facilities that typically take years to complete—require an especially high degree of confidence that these expenses will pay off. This barrier, along with other factors, makes manufacturing the sector most likely to see its growth affected by trade policy uncertainty, as noted recently by analysts at Goldman Sachs.
"Strengthening American manufacturing is critical to the future of our economy and our national security," Joint Economic Committee Ranking Member Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) said in a statement Monday. "While President Trump promised that he would expand our manufacturing sector, this report shows that, instead, the chaos and uncertainty created by his tariffs has placed a burden on American manufacturers that could weigh our country down for years to come."
'We'd Rather Be a Free Country': Bernie Sanders Shreds Trump for Latest 'Dictator' Rant
'10 Years in the Making': DNC Passes Resolution to Limit Dark Money in Primaries
Following years of pressure from progressive advocates, the Democratic National Committee's resolutions panel on Tuesday unanimously approved a measure aimed at limiting dark money—undisclosed independent campaign contributions—in presidential primary elections.
The resolution, which was introduced by Chair Ken Martin, was approved during the DNC's summer meeting in Minneapolis. The measure calls for creating a panel tasked with pursuing "real, enforceable steps the DNC can take to eliminate unlimited corporate and dark money in its 2028 presidential primary process."
Tuesday's move stands in stark contrast with the DNC resolutions committee's past refusals to allow a vote on a dark money ban.
Larry Cohen, a leading campaigner against dark money and board member of Our Revolution, an offshoot of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign, told Common Dreams Tuesday that "corporate money has been a disaster for progressive nominees."
"Crypto money and AIPAC knocked out at least three or four people we were all supporting," Cohen noted, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which along with its United Democracy Project (UDP) super PAC spent more than $100 million during the 2024 election cycle. AIPAC's largesse played a key role in helping pro-Israel Democrats defeat former progressive Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.)—two of Congress' most vocal critics of Israel's genocide in Gaza—in Democratic primary contests.
"If this party blocks corporate money in the nominating process and blocks dark money, those are two great steps," Cohen said, noting that the measure which passed Tuesday is "just a resolution of intent," not an actual change to the party's platform or a policy shift.
"The next step is [that] there will be a committee named that will talk about how we implement this for the 2028 presidential election, and that committee has to report back by the [DNC] meeting a year from now with specific implementation points," Cohen explained.
"That could mean that every potential Democratic candidate for president must sign the People's Pledge," he said, referring to the agreement between then-US Sen. Scott Brown (D-Mass.) and challenger Elizabeth Warren in 2012 requiring candidates to offset spending by outside groups on their behalf.
"So if a candidate says, 'well I had nothing to do with this, but the money got spent,' in the People's Pledge, the candidate who benefited, Scott Brown, had to make a charitable donation of the same amount of money," Cohen said. "That would be an example of an implementation point."
As for possible legislative solutions like the DISCLOSE Act—a campaign finance reform bill repeatedly torpedoed in Congress—Cohen said that he "wouldn't give that too much weight because you have to change Congress."
"We came close," he said, but then-Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Az.) "blocked a rules change that would have put that bill on the floor with 50 supporters instead of 60… and now you have to imagine getting back to a time when [Democrats] will have 50 again."
"So that's in the resolution, there should be legislative change," Cohen added, "but also in the resolution is that all elected Democratic officials should look at what they can do," including at the state, county, and municipal levels.
"They can adopt rules to limit or eliminate the effectiveness of corporate, dark, and other independent expenditures, like Elon Musk money," Cohen said in a nod of infamy to the world's richest person, who spent upward of $290 million supporting President Donald Trump and other Republicans in 2024.
The US Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which allowed unlimited independent financial contributions to support political campaigns, unleashed a tsunami of dark money that has been used by billionaires and corporate interests to sideline progressive candidates and buy elections.
Since Citizens United, nearly $20 billion has been spent on US presidential elections and more than $53 billion on congressional races, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets. Spending on 2024 congressional races was double 2010 levels, while presidential campaign contributions were more than 50% higher in 2024 than in 2008, the last election before Citizens United.
The DNC's action on dark money was overshadowed by its rejection of another resolution calling for a suspension of US military aid to Israel.
"This party keeps digging its own grave," said attorney and organizer Asma Nizami. "And it's owned by AIPAC."
'Most Illegal Search I've Ever Seen': Trump's DC Crackdown Results in Stream of Abuses
US President Donald Trump has attempted to portray his deployment of National Guard troops and other federal agents in Washington, DC as a boon for public safety.
Inside DC courtrooms, however, judges and defense attorneys have expressed alarm at the tactics being used by law enforcement officers to unfairly charge local residents with serious crimes that carry lengthy prison sentences.
NPR reports that US Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui expressed incredulity on Monday while dismissing weapons charges against a Maryland resident named Torez Riley, who was subjected to what the judge described as "without a doubt the most illegal search I've ever seen in my life."
While reviewing the case, the judge said that law enforcement officials seem to have targeted Riley for a search simply because he was a Black man carrying what appeared to be a heavy backpack.
"I'm absolutely flabbergasted at what has happened," Faruqui said. "A high school student would know this was an illegal search."
The Department of Justice had agreed to drop the charges after body camera footage of Riley's arrest showed officers searching him without probable cause, but Faruqui said that was cold comfort for a defendant who had already spent the last week behind bars.
"We don't just charge people criminally and then say, 'Oops, my bad,'" the judge said. "I'm at a loss how the US Attorney's office thought this was an appropriate charge in any court, let alone the federal court."
Faruqui also noted that judges in his court "on multiple occasions" in recent weeks had taken the highly unusual step of moving to suppress search warrants used against suspects, which makes them inadmissible to use in court.
NPR's report echoes an article in The New York Times earlier this week that detailed some of the difficulties the government is having in making some of its charges stick in the wake of Trump's DC crackdown.
In its report, the Times focused the arrest of 28-year-old Amazon delivery driver named Mark Bigelow, who was hit with federal felony charges for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officials who were attempting to detain him over a misdemeanor offense of possessing an open container of alcohol.
"As he was placed in a vehicle, the handcuffed Mr. Bigelow became belligerent, twisting his body and yelling, 'Get off me! Y'all too little, bro!' at an ICE agent, according to a court filing, which described how Mr. Bigelow made 'physical contact' by kicking an agent in the hand and another in the leg," reported the Times. "As a result, Mr. Bigelow was charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding a federal officer, an offense that carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison."
Federal public defender Elizabeth Mullin said in court last week that Bigelow would never have been charged with a federal felony were it not for the president's decision to send federal agents swarming the streets of the nation's capital.
"He was caught up in this federal occupation of DC," she said. "This was a case created by federal law enforcement."
The Times also reported on Monday that federal prosecutors had reduced charges against a woman named Sidney Lori Reid, who was accused of assaulting an FBI agent during a protest against Trump's immigration policies last month. The decision to refile Reid's case as a misdemeanor came after prosecutors failed on three separate occasions to convince a grand jury to charge her with felony offenses.
Attorneys Tezira Abe and Eugene Ohm, who have been representing Reid, said that the grand juries' refusal to indict their client on three separate occasions indicated fatal weaknesses in the government's case.
"The US attorney can try to concoct crimes to quiet the people, but in our criminal justice system, the citizens have the last word," they said. "We are anxious to present the misdemeanor case to a jury and to quickly clear Ms. Reid's name."
As Press Freedom Groups Decry Latest 'Murder' of Journalists by Israel, Fury Grows Over Impunity
Israel is drawing harsh criticism after it launched a pair of strikes at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza on Monday that left at least 20 people dead, including journalists and healthcare workers.
As reported by CNN, Israel launched "back-to-back strikes on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis" that were "separated by only a matter of minutes." The second strike killed some emergency crew members who had rushed to the scene in the wake of the first strike.
The strikes drew immediate condemnation from press freedom groups who accused Israel of intentionally attacking reporters in Gaza and dismissed claims by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the strikes were a "tragic mishap."
Thibaut Bruttin, the director general of Reporters Without Borders, said Israel attacked the journalists in an attempt to prevent them from delivering news about the famine in Gaza.
"How far will the Israeli armed forces go in their gradual effort to eliminate information coming from Gaza?" he asked. "How long will they continue to defy international humanitarian law? The protection of journalists is guaranteed by international law, yet more than 200 of them have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza over the past two years."
He then called upon the United Nations Security Council to set an emergency meeting to enact "concrete measures... to end impunity for crimes against journalists, protect Palestinian journalists, and open access to the Gaza Strip to all reporters."
Sara Qudah, regional director at the Committee to Protect Journalists, called out the international community for letting Israel get away with launching military strikes against reporters.
"Israel's broadcasted killing of journalists in Gaza continues while the world watches and fails to act firmly on the most horrific attacks the press has ever faced in recent history," she said. "These murders must end now. The perpetrators must no longer be allowed to act with impunity."
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) accused Israel of "silencing the last remaining voices reporting about children dying silently amid famine" in Gaza, while charging the international community with reacting with "indifference and inaction."
"This cannot be our future new norm," said UNRWA. "Compassion must prevail. Let us undo this man-made famine by opening the gates without restrictions [and] protecting journalists, humanitarian and health workers. Time for political will. Not tomorrow, now."
Former New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan said that her fellow journalists needed to hold the Israeli government to account for its actions.
"Journalists everywhere need to stand in solidarity on this killing spree and resulting news blackout," she wrote on Bluesky.
And Drop Site News' Ryan Grim ripped into Netanyahu's claim that his government "deeply regrets the tragic mishap" that occurred at the hospital.
"Israel deeply regrets the tragic mishap of striking a hospital and then waiting 17 minutes until rescue workers gathered and striking it again," Grim commented sarcastically on X.
Israel has previously claimed that attacks on so-called "safe zones" and on aid workers were mistakes.
As Trump Eyes Chicago Takeover, Progressives Say 'We Must Fight Back'
"This is not about fighting crime," said Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. "This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city, in a blue state, to try and intimidate his political rivals."
Progressive voices and Democratic leaders this week are letting it be known they will not take President Donald Trump's threat to target the city of Chicago for his next federal takeover and deployment of federal troops lying down.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday, alongside Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and US Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), held a press conference to let Trump know that Chicago residents want no part of his plan to deploy the military into their city.
"The last thing that Chicagoans want is someone from the outside of our city, who doesn't know our city, trying to dictate and tell us what our city needs," said Johnson. "As the mayor of this city, I can tell you that Chicagoans are not calling for military occupation."
Pritzker, meanwhile, bluntly warned Trump against sending troops to his state's largest city.
"This is not about fighting crime," Pritzker said of Trump's plans to deploy the military in Chicago. "This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city, in a blue state, to try and intimidate his political rivals."
Illinois politicians weren't the only ones who are vowing to resist Trump's designs on Chicago, as Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) warned that the president had ambitions to deploy troops to all major American cities.
"First it was LA, then DC, and now Chicago," she wrote in a social media post Tuesday. "None of us are safe from Trump's authoritarian rule. We must fight back against this takeover of our cities."
Progressive organization Our Revolution, has started circulating a petition demanding that Congress vote against any Trump request to extend his control over the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department beyond the legally allowed period of 30 days.
Progressives' vows of defiance come as The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting new details about Trump's designs on the Windy City. According to the paper, the administration is planning to use a suburban naval base just outside the city to house federal immigration officials and potentially National Guard troops starting in September.
An email sent this week by US Navy Cpt. Stephen Yargosz obtained by The Chicago Sun-Times claimed that the deployment will be focused on "downtown Chicago," despite the fact that the downtown area is not where most violent crimes in the city occur.
Yargosz also said in his email that there are "not many details" right now about deploying the National Guard in Chicago, but "mainly a lot of concerns and questions."
The Chicago Sun-Times report also noted that all of these plans are being done without any input from or consultation with local officials, who have said that they are completely in the dark about what the president is plotting.
Denmark Summons Trump Diplomat Over Report of Covert Operations in Greenland
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen noted that the US has so far not denied the reports by Denmark's public broadcaster.
The top US official in Denmark arrived at the country's foreign ministry Wednesday after being summoned for talks about a recent report that US citizens with ties to the Trump White House have carried out a covert "influence" campaign in Greenland.
Denmark's foreign minister on Wednesday called upon Mark Stroh, the charge d'affaires in Denmark, after the main Danish public broadcaster reported that at least three people have been attempting to sow discord between Denmark and Greenland, an autonomous territory that is part of the Danish kingdom.
President Donald Trump has long expressed a desire to take control of Greenland, and has suggested he could use military force even though Denmark is a close ally and fellow member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Danish officials and Greenlanders have dismissed the idea, with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warning the US that it "cannot annex another country."
"We want to be independent. So we are not for sale," resident Karen Cortsen told NPR earlier this year as the outlet reported that 85% of people in Greenland and Denmark opposed the president's push to "get" the vast, mineral-rich Arctic island.
According to the main Danish public broadcaster, the Trump administration has sought to reverse widespread public opposition to his plan, with at least three people connected to his administration carrying out covert operations to "foment dissent" in Greenland.
The broadcast network, DR, reported that eight government and security sources believe the individuals are working to weaken relations between Greenland and Denmark, compiling lists of Greenlandic citizens who support and oppose Trump's plans, and trying "to cultivate contacts with politicians, businesspeople, and citizens, and the sources' concern is that these contacts could secretly be used to support Donald Trump's desire to take over Greenland."
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a statement that "any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the kingdom will of course be unacceptable."
"We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark," Rasmussen said, adding that he had "asked the ministry of foreign affairs to summon the US charge d'affaires for a meeting at the ministry."
Trump has not yet confirmed an ambassador to Denmark. PayPal cofounder Kenneth Howery, a close friend of Trump megadonor Elon Musk, has been named as his nominee for the position.
Frederiksen told Danish media that "the Americans are not clearly denying the information presented by DR today, and of course that is serious."
"We have made it very clear that this is unacceptable," said the prime minister. "And it is something we will raise directly with our colleagues in the United States—who, if this were untrue, could very easily dismiss the claims."
Dems Break GOP Supermajority in Iowa Statehouse with 20-Point Swing in Trump District
In a race that bodes well for Democrats' hopes in 2026, Catelin Drey won by championing "affordable housing, childcare, and healthcare, strong public schools, and bodily autonomy," wrote one progressive Iowa journalist.
Democrats have broken the GOP stranglehold over Iowa's statehouse with a resounding win in a special election for the state Senate on Tuesday.
In the Sioux City-area district that Donald Trump carried by more than 11 points in 2024 and which had been won by Republicans for 13 consecutive years, Democrat Catelin Drey is projected to have won a convincing 55% of the vote over her Republican opponent, Christopher Prosch.
By taking the vacant seat, Democrats not only added to the mounting evidence for a coming anti-Trump backlash in the midterms, but also ended the Republican supermajority in Iowa's state Senate, which has allowed the GOP to spend the past three years curtailing abortion rights, stripping civil rights protections from transgender people, and chipping away at public education.
Additionally, the Democrats have thrown up a barrier to Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who needs a supermajority to confirm appointments and will now require some measure of bipartisan approval.
Like other successful Democratic candidates, Drey's message focused on affordability, with a special emphasis on the cost of living for families. Her slogan was "Iowa's Senate needs more moms."
"She has highlighted issues of particular importance to young parents," wrote Laura Belin for the progressive Iowa politics site Bleeding Heartland. "Affordable housing, childcare, and healthcare, strong public schools, and bodily autonomy."
Drey seized on outrage toward Republican attempts to defund public schools. Teachers, she said in one ad, "shouldn't have to rely on GoFundMes just to do their jobs."
"One takeaway from the Iowa special election: don't listen to centrist Democrats on education," said Jennifer Berkshire, an education writer for The Nation and the New Republic. "Catelin Drey made defending and funding public schools a focal point of her campaign and called for rolling back Iowa's controversial school voucher program."
Drey's victory adds to the already mounting pile of evidence that backlash towards President Donald Trump, whose approval ratings have skidded to near-record lows in recent weeks, will manifest at the ballot box next November.
G. Elliott Morris, a political data journalist, wrote Wednesday in his Strength in Numbers newsletter that "there have been plenty of special elections" this year, with "all of them suggesting a pretty sizable leftward shift in the electoral environment since November 2024."
Citing data from The Downballot's special election tracker, Morris wrote:
On average in 2025, Democratic candidates in special elections are running about 16 percentage points ahead of Kamala Harris’s margin versus Donald Trump in last year’s presidential election. That is 5-6 points higher than the average Democratic overperformance in 2017.
These crushing results, Democratic strategists say, are the reason behind Republicans' frantic efforts to ratchet up gerrymandering in states like Texas, where they control the state legislature.
"If you're wondering why Republicans are gerrymandering the fuck out of red states," said Democratic fundraiser Mike Nellis, "Democrats just flipped a Trump [+11] Iowa Senate seat. That's what they're afraid of."
With Drey's victory, Iowa Democrats have now won four consecutive special elections held in the state, flipping two other Republican-held seats. Riding that wave of optimism, they now have their sights set on a greater target: Iowa's two-term senator Joni Ernst, who comes up for reelection in 2026.
Defeating Ernst would be a significant boost to Democrats' efforts to regain control of the Senate in 2026. That effort may have been helped along by Ernst herself, who responded to questions at a town hall earlier this year about her support for savage cuts to healthcare in the GOP's One Big Beautiful Bill Act by callously remarking, "Well, we are all going to die."
An internal poll published Tuesday showed Democratic state senator Zach Wahls, one of many Democrats vying for the party's nomination, edging Ernst out in a hypothetical general election. Other polls show the race to be within the margin of error.
In a video posted to X, Wahls said Tuesday's Democratic victory is further evidence that "the state is in play," after not having elected a Democratic senator since 2008.
"Iowans are sick of the inability of the current administration and politicians like Joni Ernst to deal with rising costs. They are sick of the corruption, and they are ready for change," Wahls said. "We are going to flip this US Senate seat, the exact same way that Catelin Drey flipped her state Senate seat."