Democratic Underground: Forums for U.S. Liberals and Democrats

Unease grows at the Justice Department as Trump's threats get even more blunt

(NPR) President Trump is openly directing the Justice Department to go after his political adversaries, adding to a sense of unease inside the department about job security and ethical obligations. The Justice Department has traditionally operated with some measure of distance from the White House on criminal investigations. But that distance seems to have closed this year in a way that feels different to longtime observers. During the presidency of Richard Nixon, public servants at the DOJ felt squeezed between what the president wanted and what the law required. But even Nixon was not as clear and open as Trump is now about what he wanted to happen.

BumRushDaShow

White House quickly changes its story after Tom Homan bribery revelations

(Raw Story) The White House is changing its story around "border czar" Tom Homan accepting a $50,000 bribe as Donald Trump's administration was coming into office. Reporting for MSNBC, Ken Dilanian and Carol Leonnig wrote over the weekend that Homan, whose official title is the executive associate director for Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), was caught by special agents in Texas soliciting bribes. The undercover operation had agents posing as business executives trying to influence government contracts. Homan accepted $50,000 in cash and indicated he would help them get the contract, according to the report.

Dulcinea

Tuesday's special election in Arizona set to deliver a decisive US House vote for Epstein files release

(CNN) A special election in Arizona on Tuesday is expected to deliver the decisive signature to the push for a vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein case files. The race in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District will determine who will fill the seat vacated by the late Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva, who died from cancer in March. Grijalva’s daughter, Adelita Grijalva, is looking to follow in her father’s footsteps. She is heavily favored against Republican Daniel Butierez, who ran for the seat against the elder Grijalva in 2024, losing the race by 26 points.

BumRushDaShow

'We've regressed so horribly': Autism groups respond to Trump administration's Tylenol claims

(USA Today) The oversimplification of a complex developmental difference that exists on a spectrum of many different abilities and experiences is dehumanizing at best and dangerous at its worst, autism experts, advocacy groups and members of the community told USA TODAY. "The claim that Tylenol causes autism has been shown to be false by actual scientific research ... Autism is a very complex neurodevelopmental condition," said Dr. Sara Rodrigues, Executive Director of Balanced Learning Center, a nonprofit providing services, coaching, advocacy and therapy for autistic and neurodivergent people.

babylonsister

UK Tells Patients 'Don't Pay Attention' to Trump

(Political Wire) “UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting told British patients to ignore Donald Trump’s call for pregnant women to avoid Tylenol, known in Britain as paracetamol, in a rare instance of a British minister overtly criticizing the US president,” Bloomberg reports.

babylonsister

The Sleeping Giant Is Awakening

(Robert Reich) Maybe I’m being too optimistic, but I’ve seen a lot. I know the signs. The sleeping giant always remains asleep until some venality becomes so noxious, some action so disrespectful of the common good, some brutality so noisy, that he has no choice but to awaken. And when he does, the good sense of the American people causes him to put an end to whatever it was that awakened him.

BumRushDaShow

Zohran Mamdani agrees to ABC town hall after Kimmel reinstated

(The Guardian) Zohran Mamdani, the New York Democratic mayoral candidate, said on Monday evening he was willing to appear at a town hall hosted by a local ABC station after the national network said it would reinstate Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show. Mamdani had announced his withdrawal from the televised town hall hosted by a local ABC station in protest of the network’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s talkshow.

totodeinhere

Sinclair Won't Air Jimmy Kimmel's Return on Its 38 ABC Stations

(Hollywood Reporter) Jimmy Kimmel may be returning to ABC Tuesday night, but his show will remain dark in a large swath of the U.S., with Sinclair Broadcast Group saying that it will preempt the show. “Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming,” the company said in a statement Monday. “Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.” The Walt Disney Co. said Monday that Kimmel would return to the air after his nearly week-long suspension.

riversedge

ICE agents held 5-year-old girl outside Leominster home to get father to surrender

(NBC 10 Boston) A Guatemalan family from Leominster, Massachusetts, says federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained their 5-year-old daughter outside their home to pressure her father to surrender. In a recording obtained by Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra, the family's anguished screams can be heard as they try to recover the girl. "They took my daughter, she's 5 years old. She has autism spectrum," the woman says in the video. "Give me my daughter back."

B.See

A Criminal Conspiracy: Elena Kagan Tears Into Supreme Court for Letting Trump Run Amok

(The New Republic) Justice Elena Kagan slammed the Supreme Court’s conservative majority Monday for handing “full control” of independent agencies to... Donald Trump by allowing him to fire anyone he wants “for any reason or no reason at all.” The Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines approving Trump’s emergency request to remove Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission. The court also announced that it would hear arguments for the case in December.

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Powell signals Federal Reserve to move slowly on interest rate cuts

18 min ago - Updated 2:37 PM EDT, September 23, 2025 WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday signaled a cautious approach to future interest rate cuts, in sharp contrast with other Fed officials this week who have called for a more u ... (AP)

Claudia Cardinale, star of Federico Fellini's '8,' dies at 87

23 min ago - Claudia Cardinale, star of Federico Fellini's '8,' dies at 87 FILE - Italian actress Claudia Cardinale appears at the Prix Lumieres awards ceremony in Paris on Jan. 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Zacharie Scheurer, File) By VICTOR L. SIMPSON UPDATED: September ... (Chicago Tribune)

Trump DOJ targets FBI agent who testified in Sandy Hook families' case against Alex Jones

1 hr ago - September 23, 2025 3:33PM ET The Justice Department prosecutor assigned to targeting President Donald Trump's foes is now apparently going after those who testified against Alex Jones in the Sandy Hook civil case. Jones posted a letter on X in which ... (Raw Story)

White House Posts Video of ICE Arrests Set to Pokemon Theme Song

1 hr ago - For several months now, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been posting ghoulish social media videos celebrating the agency’s ramped-up immigration raid efforts. For its latest propaganda, ICE is appealing to a younger audience by ... (Consequence)

White House's director of 250th celebration fired by bipartisan commission

1 hr ago - 09/23/25 10:35 AM ET The nation’s 250th birthday celebration will go on without the help of a White House-appointed director who was removed from planning efforts after allegedly making unapproved posts and financial decisions. Ariel Abergel, a ... (The Hill)

Nightmare bacteria' cases are increasing in the US

1 hr ago - NEW YORK (AP) — Infection rates from drug-resistant “nightmare bacteria” rose almost 70% between 2019 and 2023, according to a new report from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists. Bacteria that are difficult to treat ... (AP)

Trump settles on downtown Miami for his presidential library

1 hr ago - Sept. 23, 2025, 1:12 PM EDT Donald Trump's future presidential library will be housed in downtown Miami at a location selected, in part, because of its proximity to the Freedom Tower, a landmark that played a significant role in helping Cuban refugee ... (NBC News)

Trump's H-1B visa move comes after congressional inaction

2 hrs ago - Posted September 23, 2025 at 12:40pm President Donald Trump’s proclamation creating a $100,000 fee for the hiring of foreign workers through the H-1B visa program came after years of congressional inaction on the immigration system, a move some ... (Roll Call)

Melania Trump establishes the Fostering the Future Together initiative

2 hrs ago - The first lady said she’s establishing the initiative to “ensure that every child can flourish in the digital era.” She announced the initiative in New York on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly session. Queen Rania of J ... (Associated Press)

International health agencies hit back against Trump's claims about Tylenol and autism

2 hrs ago - Updated Sep 23, 2025, 12:03 PM ET PUBLISHED Sep 23, 2025, 10:40 AM ET London — Backlash has been swift and forceful as other parts of the world woke up to US President Donald Trump’s comments blaming – without solid evidence – ac ... (CNN World)

Live updates: Trump says he now believes Ukraine can win back all territory lost to Russia

3 hrs ago - Edited By BRIDGET BROWN, BERNARD MCGHEE and CURTIS YEE Updated 12:26 PM PDT, September 23, 2025 President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Ukraine can win back all territory lost to Russia, a dramatic shift from the U.S. leader’s call on Kyiv to ... (Associated Press)

Trump FCC Chair Brendan Carr Accuses Dems of 'Projection and Distortion' in First Remarks Since Jimmy Kimmel Reinstated

3 hrs ago - Sep 23rd, 2025, 10:36 am FCC honcho Brendan Carr accused Democrats of being “engaged in nothing more than Projection and Distortion” in his first remarks since the announcement of Jimmy Kimmel’s return to television. Posting to his X ... (MEDIAite)

Stan Lee Resuscitated for AI-Powered Hologram at Comic Con

3 hrs ago - Stan Lee, the great Marvel comic book impresario, died back in 2018 at the age of 95, but that’s not stopping ghouls from digging up his grave and propping up his corpse for profit — digitally, that is, in the form of a life-size AI avatar. ... (Futurism)

MacKenzie Scott donates $70M to UNCF to bolster HBCUs

3 hrs ago - by Ashleigh Fields - 09/23/25 10:47 AM ET Billionaire philanthropist Mackenzie Scott on Tuesday donated $70 million to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), the largest private supplier of scholarships to historically Black colleges and universities ... (The Hill)

Ryan Routh found guilty of 2024 attempted assassination of Trump in Florida

3 hrs ago - Tue 23 Sep 2025 14.39 EDT Last modified on Tue 23 Sep 2025 14.42 EDT The man accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on his West Palm Beach golf course two months before clinching his second presidency in the 2024 White House election has been ... (The Guardian)

Biggest rail union joins others in endorsing Union Pacific merger but some still have reservations

3 hrs ago - JOSH FUNK Associated Press 28 mins ago The nation's largest railroad union joined the list of companies endorsing Union Pacific's proposed $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern Monday after securing promises to protect jobs, but other unions an ... (Omaha World Herald-AP)

West Point accused of suppressing faculty speech in new lawsuit

4 hrs ago - Posted 6:42 AM, Sep 23, 2025 The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is banning opinions by professors in the classroom and some books and courses in a crackdown that violates the First Amendment, a law professor at the military school said in a laws ... (Scripps News/AP)

Kennedy memoir sheds light on former center of Supreme Court gay rights, abortion rulings

5 hrs ago - Sept. 23. 2025, 5:07 a.m. ET WASHINGTON − When then-Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinions in a series of major gay rights cases, he was surprised – and disappointed − by the vehemence of the opposition from some of ... (USA Today)

Student Loan Update: DOJ Issues Major Lawsuit Over Forgiveness

6 hrs ago - Published Sep 22, 2025 at 3:01 PM EDT | Updated Sep 23, 2025 at 3:24 AM EDT The Department of Justice has sued the Providence Public School District and the Rhode Island Department of Education, accusing them of "blatant race discrimination" over a l ... (Newsweek)

Russia and Ukraine fire drones, missiles and bombs as Zelenskyy seeks help at UN

6 hrs ago - By ILLIA NOVIKOV Updated 8:05 AM CDT, September 23, 2025 KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia said that it shot down three dozen Ukrainian drones heading toward Moscow while Ukraine said that Russian missiles, drones and bombs killed at least two civilia ... (AP)