Chump's war on Iran continues. As Joel Rose (NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED) observed today, "The confrontation between the United States and Iran has flared up again this weekend with tit-for-tat strikes that are becoming a pattern in this conflict. The U.S. says it struck three Iranian oil tankers after Iran launched missiles at two American warships, putting fresh pressure on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and on global oil prices." Yeganeh Torbati and President Donald Trump on Friday said the conflict in Iran is 'small potatoes' as he defended Vice President JD Vance for asserting that months of on-and-off attacks in the Middle East are not a 'war.;"
Chump and his administration can't stop lying.
Turning to Chump's war on immigration, ALJAZEERA reports, "Guyana says that it has received six people deported from the United States, as the administration of President Donald Trump steps up so-called third-country deportations. Guyana’s Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud announced that a group of Cuban and Afghan nationals had arrived in the South American nation on Saturday, after being deported due to immigration issues." Imagine living in Florida and being a Chump supporter from Cuba and now having to face the fact that the person you voted for is deporting Cubans from the US. Chump and the GOP have made clear that Cubans are no longer welcome in the US. Lucia Suarez-Sang and Camilo Montoya-Galvez (CBS NEWS) add, "Human rights activists have denounced the third-country deportations as inhumane and illegal under international law, saying some countries are returning deportees to places they fled because of persecution."
In other news of Cuban detainees, José Olivares (GUARDIAN) reports:
Federal immigration officials quietly received permission from a judge in recent weeks to force-feed a detained Cuban hunger striker inside a Texas detention center, including with the use of a rare, nonconsensual surgical procedure, court records reveal.
The man is likely the 19th hunger striker in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention where the agency has had an application approved to conduct “involuntary medical procedures” since January 2025. The rising number of cases under the second Trump administration has alarmed advocates amid wide-ranging accusations of mistreatment inside facilities nationwide.
Court orders from the southern district of Texas federal court seen by the Guardian suggest ICE followed through with force-feeding via a nasal tube on the Cuban man in August, since agency officials successfully requested this week that the court order be extended. He is currently detained at the Montgomery ICE processing center, a privately-run detention facility near Houston.
Deported and force fed. And a Republican is in the White House? My goodness, Orlando Bosch was considered a terrorist and he didn't get kicked out of the country. WIKIPEDIA notes:
Upon his return to the U.S. in 1988, Bosch was arrested for parole violations. The Justice Department, which considered him a terrorist, sought to deport him. He was allowed to stay, and later granted residency, by U.S. President George H. W. Bush after a widespread lobbying campaign that included Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the president's son Jeb Bush. In his later years Bosch raised money to support resistance to the Cuban government, and died in Miami aged 84. He remains a controversial figure, with former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh describing him as an "unreformed terrorist".[5]
But, again, Bosch didn't get deported. It's a new GOP today.
And it's one that doesn't care about due process. Or the law. From this morning's WEEKEND EDITION (NPR):
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Earlier this week, ICE agents raided a night spot in Memphis that is popular with many Latino residents and detained more than a hundred and twenty people. Officials say they had a warrant to search for drugs and illegal gambling. Erika Konig with the Institute for Public Service Reporting and member station WKNO reports that it was one of the agency's largest mass arrests this year.
ERIKA KONIG, BYLINE: It was close to 1 a.m. Sunday when agents flooded into El Corralon, a restaurant and bar in Berclair, a Hispanic neighborhood.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
KONIG: This employee asked NPR not to use her name because she fears jeopardizing a pending immigration case. She says patrons were told to put their hands up, that they were all being arrested.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
KONIG: "Men and women were screaming, almost fainting and crying," she says.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
KONIG: "The mothers were screaming for their children or praying out loud." Then the questions started.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
KONIG: "One by one, they were asked about their papers and work permits." This employee from Central America keeps immigration documents with her. She and three others were released at the scene. Other patrons were not so fortunate. A relative of this employee was among those arrested.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
KONIG: She's now taking care of that relative's four children, including a 2-year-old, she says. The father was previously deported. The immigrant rights group Vecindarios 901 says the parents of at least 16 children were taken into custody in this raid. Data show this was one of the largest, single-day ICE arrests in the country this year. In a press release, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin is quoted as saying those arrested included child abusers, drug traffickers and violent assailants. So far, the agency identified only five people in custody but was silent about the remaining 116. Community activists, such as Gisela Guerrero, question the need to arrest so many others.
GISELA GUERRERO: So any person is meant to be innocent until proven guilty. Any person is meant to have a right against illegal search and seizure and detainment, and everybody has a right to due process. And all of those rights are being violated in this case.
KONIG: ICE agents used search warrants from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to enter the bar looking for drugs and gambling equipment. Lucas Cameron-Vaughn with the American Civil Liberties Union says that should not give ICE the power to arrest an entire club full of people.
The ICE terrors are taking place around the country. Frederick, Maryland has seen several days of terror from ICE and that's part of a larger wave in the state. Ahmed Hassan (HOODLINE) explains, "The Frederick standoff comes amid a broader escalation of interior immigration enforcement across the region. Federal officials reported arresting 1,328 people across Maryland and Virginia between August 1 and August 14 as part of a sweep designated Operation Safe Community, according to The Center Square." As for Frederick, Sara Ruberg (BALTIMORE BANNER) reports:
Federal immigration agents violently clashed with protesters in Frederick on Friday night, using their vehicles to clear sidewalks and dragging protesters from the front porch of a home they attempted to enter, city officials said.
The escalation occurred after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents staked out a small neighborhood in the Taskers Chance area for about 40 hours starting at 6 a.m. Thursday. A couple of dozen community members gathered to watch the federal agents as more of them began to pour in and spread across the few streets of the subdivision.
The stakeout confused residents and put many of them on edge, according to activists and local officials. Many residents did not leave their homes, Katie Nash, vice president of Frederick City Council, said, and there were federal agents on every street of what she described as a quiet, small neighborhood.
Friday night, she says things took a turn.
"They turned on all of their lights in their vehicles, and they made an announcement saying everybody needed to disperse, that we were impeding a federal investigation and that we would be arrested if we remained on the scene," Tatiana said.
Video shows some of the people gathered there, linking arms and moving towards the home. Tatiana says things only escalated from there.
"They were pushing people down on the ground. They kicked them, they were beating them with batons," she said. "It was very violent for something that Um, just seemed over the top at that time like it wasn't necessary."
"These people weren't doing anything other than standing in front of this home," she said.
About an hour after that happened, the federal officers left, she shared.
Joseph DeBell (FREDERICK NEWS-POST) notes:
Several people reported injuries during the confrontation, which drew city police back to a neighborhood where ICE agents maintained a presence for much of the previous two days.
Videos provided to The Frederick News-Post show protesters linking arms and moving in front of a home on Stoneybrook Court, near the Taskers Chance neighborhood, as agents approached.
Agents can then be seen pushing through the group. Several appear to strike protesters with batons as an agent orders people to back up.
Another video shows an agent throwing an observer to the ground.
WJZ speaks with witnesses to ICE's actions.
And it's not just Frederick, it's happening around the country. Jesse Kathan (SANTA CRUZ LOCAL) notes:
Federal data released in August shows that immigration enforcement in Santa Cruz County has picked up over the past three months, but has not seen the same staggering increases documented in Northern California as a whole.
Here’s what we know:
- Immigration authorities have arrested at least three people in Santa Cruz County over the past three months, according to federal data.
- Six of seven documented arrests since January 2025 were of people convicted of crimes or with pending criminal charges.
- The number of courtesy notices that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has given local law enforcement agencies to inform them of planned activity has fluctuated since January 2025, and fewer notices were given this year than last. At least two arrests have been made without documented notification.
AP notes, "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 50,000 people during July, the highest single monthly arrest total during the second Trump administration, according to new figures."
And, again, the administration doesn't care. It doesn't care about immigrants, it doesn't care about due process, it doesn't care about the law. Ximena Bustillo and Jenna McLaughlin (NPR) report:
Immigrants are being told last minute about new in-person hearings at previously undisclosed courtroom locations.
That's according to five immigration attorneys who reviewed notices or observed the hearings and spoke to NPR about them.
The last-minute notifications appear to be another tactic in a broader strategy from the Trump administration to short-circuit immigrants' already limited due process options to speed up arrests and deportations.
NPR has learned that over the past few weeks, immigrants who were scheduled to appear in coming months for hearings out of the Hyattsville and Baltimore immigration courts in Maryland and the Sterling court in Virginia have instead been rescheduled to two other buildings: one in Washington, D.C., and another in Falls Church, Va. Neither of these buildings currently has an immigration court that's set up for in-person hearings. The D.C. location has no listed affiliation with the Justice Department. Instead, the building is listed as being occupied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to one source familiar with the project who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Immigrants were notified about the change in location within days of the newly scheduled appointments — or were not notified at all, in at least two cases identified by NPR.
Kel White, an officer of the D.C. chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, attended one such hearing this week. "The most unusual thing I've ever seen" in her more than 15 years of practicing the law is how she described having an immigrant appear in person at the unusual location before a judge and prosecutor who were remote-only.
She also said the last-minute changes and lack of notice violates regulations as set by the Justice Department, which oversees all such immigration courts.
"People need to receive at least ten days' notice in order for there to be a response," White said. She cited a policy manual that indicates immigrants should get ample notice of a new hearing date.
This nightmare war on immigrants is such a joke to Chump, that his administration turned it into a video game. Edith Olmsted (THE NEW REPUBLIC) explains:
Donald Trump’s administration has made a game of the president’s deadly crackdown on immigrants.
The White House launched a new arcade website Thursday that hosts a series of retro-style video games touting the administration’s policy priorities—including one where players can detain undocumented immigrants crossing the border.
In “Rio Run,” players are directed to “pick up every crosser in the lot.” An avatar of a balding white man dressed in a suit and tie collects stationary bodies, and adds them to a growing line of orange-jumpsuited figures floating behind him. The snake-style game evokes the horrific images of chained immigrants boarding planes to foreign countries.
If you thought that was callous and dehumanizing, just wait: In a Tetris-style game called “Build the Wall,” players are directed to stack bricks in order to stave off a “border zombie siege.” It has never felt more clear that the Trump administration is made up entirely of terminally online right-wing trolls desperate to appease deportation fanboys.
The economy? Chump's destroyed it. This despite his campaign promises. AP reports:
The combination over his second term of a drop-off in hiring and higher prices has dogged Trump and his pledge to instantly unleash historic levels of growth. “When I win the election, we will immediately begin a brand new Trump economic boom,” Trump said at an August 2024 rally in North Carolina. But so far, the economy has grown at roughly 2% annually, slower than the gains during the Biden administration.
[. . .]
As the promised growth has yet to materialize, the president has lost some of the public’s trust in his ability to steer the world’s largest economy. His own policies have enabled, in part, the inflation and high interest rates that he wishes to blame on others.
“The administration’s credibility on growth, inflation, rates, debt and deficit dynamics have taken a hit given the outsized predictions that are not aligned with economic reality,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at the consultancy RSM US.
And then there's the cost of diesel. From Friday's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED (NPR):
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Five dollars and eighty-five cents a gallon - on average, that's how much diesel in the U.S. costs now. It is an all-time high. NPR energy reporter Willa Rubin explains why and what that means for the price of, well, everything.
WILLA RUBIN, BYLINE: Much of the economy runs on diesel - trucks, tractors, nearly 90% of school buses. Jaime Brito is the head of Dow Jones Energy, and he does not mince words about why diesel matters.
JAIME BRITO: Diesel is the blood of the economy, is the engine in which you move goods, food, agricultural goods from the farm to the supermarket.
RUBIN: And when the price of diesel goes up, it hurts. It's gone up by more than $2 a gallon on average over the past year, according to AAA. The last time prices were this high, it was 2022 after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And when I asked Brito about what's behind these record-high diesel prices, he asked...
BRITO: How much time do you have? I mean, the diesel story, I would title it, you know, "Everything Everywhere All At Once."
RUBIN: In other words, it's not one factor driving up the price. It's all of them. Factor one, the Strait of Hormuz - because of the war in Iran, not much oil is getting through it. Factor two - refineries around the world, like in China, have scaled back their exports so they can meet their own needs. Factor three, jet fuel - the war drove up the price of jet fuel and consequently airfare.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Alex Padilla:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, led eleven colleagues in condemning the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s refusal to seek immediate appellate relief from a recent district court decision striking down key regulatory requirements of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA).
In a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Senators expressed serious concerns about DOJ’s failure to vigorously defend the NFA, a foundational federal gun violence prevention law that regulates some of the most dangerous concealable weapons in the country.
“For months, DOJ has defended the NFA in court against legal challenges brought by the firearms industry, certain state attorneys general, and the gun lobby. But less than one week after you were confirmed as Attorney General, the Department appears to have reversed course,” wrote the Senators. “The Department’s failure to immediately pursue an appeal in support of the NFA calls into question statements you made to the United States Senate during your confirmation process and raises serious doubts about your willingness—and ability—to keep Americans safe.”
Last month, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas held unconstitutional the NFA’s regulatory requirements for certain highly dangerous weapons. Although the court temporarily stayed its order to give DOJ time to seek immediate appellate relief, DOJ declined to do so, opting instead to let the court’s injunction take effect.
“DOJ’s failure to seek immediate relief is profoundly concerning—for the integrity of the Department, the rule of law, and the public’s safety,” the Senators explained. “The Department has long recognized its ‘duty to defend the constitutionality of an Act of Congress whenever a reasonable argument can be made in its support.’ During your confirmation proceedings, you reiterated this precise principle—including in the specific context of the NFA.” The Senators went on to note that DOJ’s sudden retreat appeared to be the result of a substantial pressure campaign by gun rights lobbyists and a group of Republican lawmakers.
The Senators demanded answers about DOJ’s justification for not seeking immediate relief and called on DOJ to appeal the district court’s decision.
“As a result of DOJ’s refusal to seek a stay of the District Court’s order, some of the most dangerous concealable weapons in the country—including those that have been used in several mass shootings—can now be (and have been) bought and sold outside the NFA’s heightened regulatory framework for the first time in nearly 100 years,” concluded the Senators. “We urge the Department to resume its vigorous defense of the NFA and fulfill the promises you made to defend the constitutionality of laws passed by Congress and keep Americans safe.”
In addition to Padilla and Welch, the letter was signed by Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
Padilla has been a longtime advocate for commonsense, lifesaving gun safety measures. Last month, Padilla co-sponsored the Lori Jackson-Nicolette Elias Domestic Violence Survivor Protection Act, bicameral legislation to close a dangerous loophole that allows domestic abusers to legally obtain weapons. Last year, Padilla and Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.-08) introduced a bicameral bill to prevent federal contracts with gun dealers whose firearms are consistently linked to violent crime.
Full letter is available here and below:
Dear Attorney General Blanche:
We write to express our serious concern that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has chosen to abandon enforcement of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA)—one of our nation’s foundational federal gun violence prevention laws. For months, DOJ has defended the NFA in court against legal challenges brought by the firearms industry, certain state attorneys general, and the gun lobby. But less than one week after you were confirmed as Attorney General, the Department appears to have reversed course. The Department’s failure to immediately pursue an appeal in support of the NFA calls into question statements you made to the United States Senate during your confirmation process and raises serious doubts about your willingness—and ability—to keep Americans safe.
The NFA regulates some of the most dangerous concealable firearms and devices in the country, including short-barreled shotguns, short-barreled rifles, and silencers. Enacted to address the “growing frequency of crimes of violence in which people are killed or injured by the use of dangerous weapons,” the NFA imposes (among other things) application, registration, and recordkeeping requirements for the importation, manufacturing, possession, and transfer of covered weapons. Since the NFA’s enactment, these requirements have played a critical role in reducing the number of crimes involving these highly destructive weapons.
On August 5, 2026, however, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas struck down the NFA’s regulatory requirements for certain firearms and devices as unconstitutional in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF. The court stayed its order for seven days to give DOJ time to seek a further stay from the Fifth Circuit. But rather than pursue immediate appellate relief—and continue to vigorously defend the NFA as it had throughout the litigation —DOJ stepped aside and let the court’s injunction take effect.
DOJ’s failure to seek immediate relief is profoundly concerning—for the integrity of the Department, the rule of law, and the public’s safety. The Department has long recognized its “duty to defend the constitutionality of an Act of Congress whenever a reasonable argument can be made in its support.” During your confirmation proceedings, you reiterated this precise principle—including in the specific context of the NFA. You explained that “[t]he Department’s duty is to defend the constitutionality of the laws passed by [Congress],” and “[t]o that end, the Department is presently defending the NFA against constitutional challenges.” You further recognized that whether the NFA should be repealed is a policy question for Congress’s “measured judgment.”
The Department’s apparent abdication of its responsibility to defend the NFA—just four days after your confirmation—is impossible to reconcile with your statements to Congress. The Department has not identified any reason to believe that the legal arguments it has made to date in support of the NFA have somehow become unreasonable. To the contrary, the only explanation for the Department’s about-face appears to be a substantial pressure campaign by gun rights lobbyists and a group of Republican lawmakers to dismantle longstanding gun laws they dislike. For example, just one day after Representative Andrew Clyde led a letter urging DOJ not to seek appellate relief, he purportedly “received confirmation from the Trump Administration that the DOJ will NOT appeal our historic court victory against the NFA,” and thanked you and President Trump for “delivering the most significant Second Amendment win in OVER 90 YEARS.” As you previously acknowledged, however, whether to repeal the NFA is a policy decision left to Congress. DOJ’s role is to independently and impartially enforce the law as written. It is not to help favored groups effectively achieve through litigation what they failed to achieve through legislation.
The Department’s decision has, and will continue to have, substantial repercussions for Americans’ safety. The NFA’s regulatory requirements help ensure that covered weapons are possessed only by law-abiding citizens and deter these weapons’ criminal misuse. As a result of DOJ’s refusal to seek a stay of the District Court’s order, some of the most dangerous concealable weapons in the country—including those that have been used in several mass shootings—can now be (and have been) bought and sold outside the NFA’s heightened regulatory framework for the first time in nearly 100 years. Even if DOJ were to eventually appeal the District Court’s decision and succeed, the potential damage from weapons made and transferred outside the NFA in the interim cannot easily be undone.
In light of these serious concerns, we request written responses to the following questions no later than September 11:
- What “confirmation” did DOJ provide Representative Clyde? Was it limited to not seeking a stay from the Fifth Circuit or did it also extend to not appealing the decision on the merits?
- Does DOJ still commit to defending the constitutionality of an Act of Congress so long as a reasonable argument can be made in its support? If not, what standard are you using to determine whether to defend the constitutionality of federal laws?
- What was the Department’s justification for declining to seek immediate relief in Silencer Shop? Please provide all communications with advocacy groups, Republican lawmakers, and the White House concerning this decision.
- Will the Department commit to enforcing the challenged NFA provisions against individuals and entities who are not covered by the Silencer Shop injunction?
- Will the Department commit to enforcing related firearms provisions—such as 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(4)—that were not within the scope of the Silencer Shop injunction, including against any individuals or entities that may have violated these provisions in the wake of the District Court’s decision?
- Will the Department continue to defend the NFA in ongoing litigation in other jurisdictions, including Brown v. ATF, No. 4:25-CV-01162 (E.D. Mo.) and Roberts v. ATF, No. 26-CV-00091 (E.D. Ky.)?
- Has the Department determined whether to appeal the Silencer Shop decision?
- If so, please explain the specific justification for any such determination and provide all communication with advocacy groups, Republican lawmakers, and the White House concerning this conclusion.
- If not, when does the Department plan to reach a decision? As a reminder, 28 U.SC. § 530D requires you to inform Congress of any decision not to appeal a judicial determination “adversely affecting the constitutionality” of a federal statute “within such time as will reasonably enable the House of Representatives and the Senate to take action, separately or jointly, to intervene in timely fashion in the proceeding, but in no event later than 30 days after the making of [such] determination.”
The NFA has helped protect Americans’ safety for almost a century. And as DOJ explained earlier this year, the NFA’s regulatory requirements “fit[] squarely within Congress’s constitutional authority.” We urge the Department to resume its vigorous defense of the NFA and fulfill the promises you made to defend the constitutionality of laws passed by Congress and keep Americans safe.
Sincerely,
###
The following sites updated:
