Spent the day with family and friends as we said goodbye to yet another summer.

A federal appeals court partially reinstated Trump’s authority over the Illinois National Guard, while maintaining restrictions that prevent him from deploying troops within the state. https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/appeals-court-allows-trump-to-keep-control-of-illinois-national-guard-but-bars-deployment/

Every Manny for Himself (Apologies for the delay, Macron ran out my work day, went into my Saturday, but damn it, this is still France) After a mean girl spat, in which the leader of the ever-more-trending-hard-right Le Republicans, Retailleau, said he can’t be in a government with that bitch Bruno Le Maire, Lecournu  gave […]

Another bad day at the CDC

More than 5,000 federal employees have received layoff notices. We’re working to ensure that the administration isn’t using state voter rolls to target registered Democrats for termination. More details soon.

Haitian immigrants moved to Colorado on the promise of a good job and a place to stay—only to be mistreated. Now, they could be deported.

Brian Lehrer leads the conversation about what matters most now in local and national politics, our own communities and our lives.

Federal employees across the government are now receiving layoff notices, a devastating outcome of Trump’s political games. It’s outrageous that he would use people’s livelihoods as pawns to “score political points”.

Plus, when did claret get so good and why did Shackleton's ship Endurance sink? Historical updates aplenty.

Regulators crack the monopoly code, the DOD goes DIY, homeownership gets sweeter, and a health care crisis is healed.

In a new book, Michael Mann and Peter Hotez examine the risks posed by entrenched beliefs, corporate greed, and regressive governments.

They were largely "unopposed," proponents say—except by powerful utilities.

In which we admit to being confused

Unless prosecutors find a way to make the Jim Comey prosecution go away, in nine days, we'll get details (in the Vindictive and Selective Prosecution motion) of the efforts Trump has already made to prosecute Jim Comey, and how those efforts failed until the moment he unlawfully installed his own defense attorney as US Attorney at EDVA. 

All of President Donald J.

Finally! Judge Paula Xinis of the U.S. District Court in Maryland has signaled she is inclined to release Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man wrongfully deported and later brought back by the Trump administration.

The Washington Roundtable discusses the President’s use of the military for political ends, and the “almost unlimited” powers he would unlock by invoking the Insurrection Act, with Kori Schake, the director of foreign-and-defense-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Donald Trump’s decisions—sending the National Guard into American cities over the objections of local leaders and firing Judge Advocate General’s Corps lawyers who help determine if an order is legal—send a message to the historically apolitical armed forces. “What he’s trying to do is circumvent the disciplined senior leadership and appeal for personal loyalty to the younger, noncommissioned and enlisted soldiers,” Schake says. “The pressure from this Administration—there’s been nothing like it since at least the constitutional crisis of 1866-68.” Schake is the author of the forthcoming book “The State and the Soldier: A History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States.” This week’s reading: “Trump, the Self-Styled ‘President of PEACE’ Abroad, Makes War at Home,” by Susan B. Glasser “Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, and the ‘War from Within,’ ” by Benjamin Wallace-Wells “Nixon Now Looks Restrained,” by Ruth Marcus “Hope and Grief in Israel After the Gaza Ceasefire Deal,” by Ruth Margalit “The Volunteers Tracking ICE in Los Angeles,” by Oren Peleg Tune in wherever you get your podcasts.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Looking for the PJP team? Say hi to @yukarikane.bsky.social, @profpasha.bsky.social, @lyneka.bsky.social, @austinlukasik.bsky.social, @carlacanning.bsky.social

WNYC’s weekly investigation into how the media shapes our worldview. 

The Supreme Court on Friday afternoon added another case to its oral argument docket for the 2025-26 term. The justices agreed to take up the case of Munson Hunter, a […]

Even if there is no external meaning to the universe, we still have to go to work tomorrow.

CNN: Do you have confidence in the impartiality of Trump's Justice Department right now? GOP Rep. Bacon: If he's making demands and then indictments occur, it undermines the perception of fair justice.

Trump has begun dismissing federal workers, with furloughed staff at the Department of Health and Human Services now facing permanent layoffs. The cuts are hitting the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention especially hard.