Just in case some of you did not see Gov. JB Pritzker Monday, I wanted to share this with you. He gives me hope! There are a few democrats who seem to know how to fight Trump, and for my money he’s on the top of the list. I hope others follow his lead. Pritzker said many wonderful things in his talk, but I think my favorite is that he told the people who are aiding and abetting Trump that “we are watching and we are taking names…If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me, not time or political circumstance, from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law.” I have not heard anyone make it clear to the enablers that there is a downside for what they are doing.
My plan is to rewatch this whenever I’m feeling a little hopeless. Hope you like it too!
How stripping diversity, equity and inclusion from health care may make Americans sicker
Here is a very concerning analysis of how medical research and public health reporting are being stripped of the ability to assess health disparities by race …
The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU has done a lot of excellent long-view and just-in-time online programming around actions undertaken by the Trump administration and others. They pull together great panels, and Barb and I have learned a lot from their constitutional, legal and political analyses. You can check out the center and sign up for their newsletter here: https://www.brennancenter.org/
Here is Center director Michael Waldman’s briefing today on Trump’s National Guard threat for Chicago:
President Trump has threatened to send troops to Chicago to “straighten that one out.” New York City, he says, might be next.
Already, armed National Guard regiments are patrolling the streets of Washington, DC. All this on top of the deployment of troops to Los Angeles earlier in the summer. The deployment of out-of-state troops to occupy cities cannot plausibly promote public order. It’s blunt force, a brutal power grab. It runs afoul of the Constitution and the proper role for states. I write history books and consider myself an expert on the presidency. I can think of few analogies — not in this country, anyway — for such a move by a chief executive. Why is this particular turn so alarming? After all, public safety is important, and fighting crime is a worthy goal. My colleague Liza Goitein explains the legal and constitutional issues: ————————————————————
Trump is on even thinner legal ice with this plan than he is in Los Angeles and DC. Unlike in the capital, the president doesn’t command the Illinois National Guard unless he calls them into federal service (i.e., “federalizes” them). There are various laws that authorize him to federalize the Guard, but none of them would apply here.
In Los Angeles, Trump is relying on a law (Section 12406 of Title 10 of the U.S. Code) that authorizes federalization when “the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States,” meaning federal law. Immigration law is federal law. Trump claimed that the protests rendered him “unable . . . to execute” ICE raids. Although dozens of raids happened during the protests and the administration did not cite a single raid that was thwarted, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals deferred to Trump’s assessment.
But that law simply wouldn’t apply to the type of crime Trump has cited in Chicago — essentially, violent street crime. The laws that are implicated are largely those of Illinois and Chicago, not the “laws of the United States.”
Even under the Insurrection Act — which is the main exception to the law barring deployment of the military for domestic law enforcement — the president may deploy troops to execute the law only in situations involving either federal laws or those state laws designed to protect the constitutional rights of classes of people (basically, civil rights laws).
Nor can Trump ask other states’ governors to send their Guard forces into Chicago, as he did in DC under a law known as Section 502(f), which authorizes governors to voluntarily use their Guard forces for missions requested by the president or secretary of defense. Under this law, presidents have asked governors to deploy Guard forces within their own states, in other states that consent, or (as only Trump has done) in DC without local consent. No governor has sent Guard troops into another state that did not consent, as would be the case here. That’s because Guard forces deployed under this law remain state officers as a legal matter. And under the Constitution, states are sovereign entities vis-à-vis one another. That means one state cannot invade another, even at the president’s request.
If the president wants to send one state’s National Guard forces into an unwilling state, he must federalize them first. But to federalize them, he needs statutory authority. And there is no statutory authority to federalize the Guard to police local crime.
The Pentagon reportedly sees its planned military deployment in Chicago as a model for other cities. And of course, the other cities Trump has name-checked in this context are governed by Democrats: Baltimore, Los Angeles, New York, and Oakland.
Flooding “blue” cities with soldiers on the pretext of fighting crime would be an unprecedented abuse of power that would violate states’ rights and threaten our most fundamental liberties. The plan is profoundly un-American. And it is illegal. ————————————————————
Public safety matters greatly. But facts belie the (ever shifting) rationale. New York, for example, remains one of the nation’s safest large cities. As Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told Attorney General Pam Bondi yesterday, crime has dropped dramatically, even this year. Fighting crime is not a rationale — it’s a pretext.
The cities targeted so far have two things in common: a Black mayor and a fusillade of presidential rhetoric denouncing them as “hellholes.” Bill Kristol, founder of The Bulwark and a longtime prominent Republican, surveyed the past week and put it this way: “What we are seeing is not merely a ‘slide toward authoritarianism.’ It’s a march toward despotism. And it’s a march whose pace is accelerating.”
What can be done to push back? Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker warned federal forces, “Do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here.” Trump, in turn, mused, “They say . . . ‘He’s a dictator. He’s a dictator.’ A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we’d like a dictator.’” He added, “I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator.” (As presidential quotations go, it’s about as reassuring as Richard Nixon’s “I am not a crook.”)
Pritzker and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul can play pivotal roles. States and cities can go to court — an epic legal battle. They can rally the public in their states and around the country. They can monitor and document the conduct of deployed forces.
We must all speak out when our Constitution is under threat.
Get some rest this Labor Day. It’s going to be a busy fall.
I sent this to MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning. I’ve decided it’s as important to get after the media as our representatives.
Hi Joe and Mika,
You sometimes do a good job and I appreciate that your job is difficult–bringing unbiased news to the people.
Lately you have both been very disappointing in this goal. You are normalizing and sometimes legitimizing Trump. I cannot think of a worse thing to do at this time in our nation’s history.
Mika–you talked about there truly being a crime problem in DC when Trump moved guards into the city.
Joe–you talk about the 2026 election like it is a given that we will have it and that it will be fair and that the results will be honored.
Why do you let Trump set the ground rules of the discussion????
Trump putting troops in DC has NOTHING to do with crime in DC. If it did, among other things, they would not be located where they are.
This and so much else he is doing has to do with stealing the 2026 election. THAT should be your focus. When you make people believe that the next election will fix this, you take away their need to mobilize and take action NOW. You normalize Trump and his minions at the nation’s peril.
PLEASE STOP IT. You know better, or at least you should. Actually I can tell that you do know because you have in the past addressed that exact issue, so you are clearly aware of the problem. Now act like it all the time, not just some of the time. It matters to our survival as a democracy! You should be better than this. If you listen to Gov. Pritzker’s latest talk every single day, it will inform you as you inform us. And that will be a strong step in favor of our democracy, so we can keep it.
It’s very interesting to learn that the Confessing Church is still active, ninety years after its founding in Germany in opposition to Hitler. Here is a bit of background and its relationship to Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pivotal leader in the Confessing Church, a German resistance movement against the Nazi regime’s attempts to nazify the Evangelical Church and align it with state ideology. Along with Martin Niemöller and others, Bonhoeffer co-founded the Confessing Church in 1934, which issued the Barmen Confession, rejecting Nazi authority and upholding biblical truth. The group’s commitment to these principles led to repression, imprisonment, and the execution of leaders.
There is a link in the sidebar to some of its work today on documenting ICE arrests against immigrant men, women, and children.
As you’ve likely seen, Maryland governor Wes Moore is in a fracas with Trump. Moore invited Trump to walk the streets of Baltimore with him, to see how real public safety work is done. Baltimore’s crime rate is at a 50-year low. Trump’s reaction was predictably hysterical, lie-filled, and over the top — and he threatens sending in the National Guard as well as withholding funding for repair of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Here’s the Washington Post on this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/08/24/trump-baltimore-troops-wes-moore/
So, in sources of hope, I include Wes Moore. Maybe a little competition among blue state governors for the 2028 Dem pres nomination will help galvanize the movement!?!
We are a small group of friends and neighbors who reject the turn to authoritarianism, racism, and lawlessness shown by the current Federal government. This site will serve as a hub for sharing stories and discussions about the realities facing our country and our many communities.
We support a just and equal multicultural democracy, governed by law and constitution, and we want to work together to return our country to these values. In Rousseau’s words, we support a “free community of equals”.
We have many thoughts and fears about the policies and actions of our government today. We do not have a shared credo, but we are united in our love of freedom, equality, constitution, mutual respect, and civil community.
In particular, many of us notice many of the same things:
We condemn the assault on immigrants and the cruel and lawless enforcement regime the Federal government has enacted.
We are horrified at the assault on Medicaid and the likely effects these policy changes will have on millions of people in our country.
We reject the administration’s attack on scientific and medical research, universities, and academic freedom across the country.
We fear for the future of our country when we consider the ongoing assault on medical research and sound public health planning.
We condemn the current administration for its lawlessness and its contempt for both Constitution and the Federal judiciary.
We abhor the administration’s efforts to censor and dictate the museums, libraries, parks, and collections that document our country’s history and share its art, music, and literature.
We are ashamed of our government’s desertion of Ukraine and the president’s embrace of a bloody-handed dictator, Vladimir Putin.
We reject utterly the administration’s lawless use of unjustified military force to compel nations in the western hemisphere to comply with the new imperialism envisioned by the president, including the illegal invasion of Venezuela and the threats of similar military action against Columbia, Mexico, Cuba, and Greenland.
We are horrified at the embrace of white supremacy and racial resentment that is encouraged by the current government.
We reject the government’s war on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, with full awareness of how far our society must go in order to achieve real justice.
Readers are encouraged to find their own ways of supporting peaceful protest and advocacy in support of our shared democratic values and institutions. There is power in collective protest and shared support for our constitutional system.
Comments and guest posts are invited.
Gary Krenz and Dan Little will serve as co-editors of the site.
Affirming Democracy, Gathering Resistance 