curated citations to news sources
Jay Kuo: The Emperor Has No Claws
Trump is but a paper tiger in the very places he asserts he can act with impunity
On Wednesday, during a cabinet meeting, Donald Trump declared he has the “right to do anything I want” because “I’m the President of the United States.”
It was a telling summary of not only his state of mind but where we find ourselves as a nation: teetering on the brink of autocracy and fascism. Some argue we are already plunged deep into it.
But as many commentators have urged, we must watch what Trump does, and not get sucked into what he says. And when we zoom out a bit and examine strictly what he has tried to do, ignoring his constant lies and bluster, there’s quite a different picture than the monarch who can do anything he wants.
The markets understand that Trump’s word is not worth much. His constant threats and inevitable retreats on tariffs have led to the “TACO” presidency, because Trump really does “always chicken out” in the end.
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Today, I want to discuss four significant constraints upon the man who believes he can do anything simply because he is the President of the United States. These are powerful forces that act every day to limit his options and rein him in. I want to lay them out plainly, not only to give us some basis for hope that we can survive his second term (however long or short it winds up being) but also to highlight where we should focus our own attention and lend our support.
- The law
Trump knows he can’t pass most of his fascist agenda through Congress due to the power of Democrats in the Senate to filibuster any such legislation. (His “One Big Beautiful Bill” was not subject to filibuster under the reconciliation rules.) So he’s trying to accomplish by executive orders what he can’t achieve by normal legislative means.But the President’s ability to change the game on the ground through executive order is nearly always limited by law, and even the Trump White House knows that its actions will have to pass legal muster. When you read these orders, you can quickly find the legal “hook” upon which each of them supposedly hangs.
But here’s the thing: Most of those hooks are terribly brittle, and once challenged, the whole thing may collapse.
… - The Blue States
- The civil service
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In short, the shocking incompetence and inexperience of the President’s cabinet is now compounded by an utter lack of effective administration throughout the government. While this is very bad news for our nation, it has also significantly weakened the regime’s ability to control the U.S. population through a kind of permanent police state.Big projects, such as the regime’s much-touted “Alligator Alcatraz,” have come to humiliating ends. Reports of shoddy construction, lack of basic supplies, and a failure to follow any environmental regulations called a halt to that facility’s operations. Indeed, just yesterday, after a federal judge ordered the center to stop accepting new detainees and to dismantle large parts of its facility, internal communications indicated that it would be shut down with detainees no longer housed there within the coming days.
- The People
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There is also a surprising development we are now seeing spring up in courtrooms in our occupied urban centers. In Los Angeles, grand juries reportedly have been refusing to indict protestors arrested during the ICE protests. That in itself is an incredibly rare thing; grand juries almost always return true bills of indictment in cases brought by law enforcement, given that the standard is simply “probable cause” that a crime has been committed.But as The New Republic reported in July,
[O]ut of the 38 felony cases filed by Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, only seven have resulted in indictments.
In a recent case, the grand jury refused to indict a protester accused of attacking federal law enforcement officials. And Trump’s prosecutor was not happy: The Times described “screaming” that was “audible” from outside the grand jury room coming from Essayli.
If you’re doing the math, that’s a batting average of just 18 percent, when normally around 99 percent of cases brought before grand juries return an indictment.
Los Angeles isn’t the only place this is happening. …
Closer to the Edge: Draining the swamp: Alligator Alcatraz sinks under its own cruelty
Above the Law: Even Antonin Scalia Would Think Donald Trump’s Latest Power Grab Is Tyrannical
Robert Reich: Why I can’t retire
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Trump is 10 days older than I am. If he can cause as much mayhem as he does every day, the least I can do is make a bit of good trouble every day.
We’re in a national emergency. I want you to have the facts, arguments, and analyses you need to take an active role against the Trump regime.
Your active role can be no more than sharing my posts with your friends and colleagues — so they have the facts, arguments, and analyses they need to effectively resist.
(Robert Reich more…)
Fred Wellman: Defeatism is self fulfilling
We have to purge ourselves of doubt and move forward with purpose and action
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WSJ: Inside the Trump Administration’s Vaccine Politics
As President Trump sat with top donors at his New Jersey golf club this month, he made a private admission: He believed the coronavirus vaccine was one of the biggest accomplishments of his presidency, but he couldn’t bask in it.
Your Local Epidemiologist: Courage at CDC
NY Times: Kennedy Sought to Fire C.D.C. Director Over Vaccine Policy
The director, Susan Monarez, declined to fire agency leaders or to accept all recommendations from a vaccine advisory panel made over by Mr. Kennedy, according to people with knowledge of the events.
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Top officials have quit, Dr. Monarez’s future is in doubt and President Trump has yet to publicly back his health secretary.
…Lawyers for Dr. Monarez insisted that, because she had been confirmed by the Senate and served at the pleasure of the president, she would leave only if Mr. Trump personally instructed her to do so. They said she had chosen “protecting the public over serving a political agenda.”
(NY Times more…)emptywheel: CDC Shooting 2.0 – It’s Coming from Inside the House
NY Times: CVS Holds Off on Offering Covid Vaccines in 16 States
The country’s largest pharmacy chain said it needed a C.D.C. panel to recommend the shots before it could offer them nationwide.
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Patricia J Wentzel: The Mental Health System
Part 1: Outpatient Levels of Care
This is an example of a basic feature of the system: it’s a lot easier to step someone down than it is to step them back up. And that fact helps explain why so many people who seem to be doing better go off the rails. …
(Patricia J Wentzel more…)
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Jess Piper: The Boots Theory
A literal interpretation
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I know how lucky our grown children are to have people around them who can help. Many don’t have that resource. Especially now when the price of everything is going up and wages are stagnant.Especially now with the real threat of an authoritarian boot on all of us.
(Jess Piper more…)
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Fox: Russia blames Trump for Iran nuclear crisis, says Europe has turned to ‘diplomacy at the barrel of the gun’
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Raw Story: ‘Stop lying!’ Another House Republican town hall devolves into angry shouting
(Raw Story more…)
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Daily Beast: Republican Storms Out of Back Door After Being Laughed At During Town Hall
MOORE DRAMA
The Alabama congressman headed for the exit as furious voters chanted: “Shame!”
(Daily Beast more…)
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UPI: Judge blocks Trump’s attempt to fire VOA director
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TNR: Trump’s Military Parade Was So Bad That Now He Wants a Redo
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NY Times: Trump Fires Member of Board That Approves Railroad Mergers
The White House moved late Wednesday to terminate Robert E. Primus, a board member of the federal regulator responsible for approving railroad mergers, including one currently under review between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern.Mr. Primus, a Democrat who was nominated for the role by President Trump in 2020, said in an interview that his firing from the Surface Transportation Board had come “completely out of the blue.” He arrived home from an Amtrak event after 5 p.m. on Wednesday to discover that his work phone was locked, he said.
…“As far as I’m concerned, I haven’t received cause for the termination, so I don’t believe it to be valid,” Mr. Primus said. “It’s illegal. The president cannot remove me arbitrarily. There has to be a reason — there has to be cause.”
Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said in statement, “Robert Primus did not align with the president’s America First agenda, and was terminated from his position by the White House.” He added, “The administration intends to nominate new, more qualified members to the Surface Transportation Board in short order.”
(NY Times more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – August 28, 2025
On August 29, 1970, journalist Rubén Salazar died instantly when Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy Thomas Wilson fired an 8-inch bullet-shaped tear gas projectile into the back of his head. Salazar and his colleague Guillermo Restrepo had ducked into the Silver Dollar bar after fighting had broken out between marchers and police officers during the massive National Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam War that drew more than 20,000 people into the streets of East Los Angeles.
Restrepo later recalled that Salazar told him they were being followed, so they slipped into the bar to lose their trackers and use the restroom. The bar had a curtain over the door. An eyewitness recalled that when two sheriffs came to the door, one held back the curtain and the other—Wilson—shot the projectile. Restrepo recalled the gun was aimed directly at their heads.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Allison Gill: Judge Boasberg has GRANTED our Preservation Motion in our DOGE/FOIA Lawsuit
Earlier this year, the First Amendment Coalition (FAC) and my podcast media company MSW Media filed a joint Freedom of Information Act request for records related to DOGE. On March 10th, FAC propounded (added to) that request by moving the court to order DOGE to preserve communications related to the FOIA request on a phone number that Elon Musk gave to some Senators and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. That motion was just granted.
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Marisa Kabas: The extremely online former NFL punter-turned-activist on his run for office
Chris Kluwe looks to take his talents to the California Assembly
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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