Aparna Mukherjee

Is this what the Department of Homeland Security calls “approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun”?

John Mitnick @JohnMitnick I helped to establish DHS in 2002 and 2003 and later had the homeland security portfolio as a White House Counsel and served as General Counsel of the Department. I am enraged and embarrassed by DHS’s lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty. Impeach and remove Trump—now. George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway3d The deadly shooting in Minneapolis today was a straight-up execution of a protester by Trump's federal brownshirts. The thugs wrestled him to the ground. They pistol-whipped him, then shot him multiple times. They murdered him.

Beyond helping establish DHS itself in 2003, Mr. Mitnick was a senate-confirmed Trump choice for General Counsel for DHS in his first term. I've talked with him a few times, and he's not a man for hyperbole. So bear that in mind when you see him calling out DHS's "lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty."

Also, may I say that I don’t agree with people saying ICE and CBP need “more training.” They’re doing exactly what this administration has trained them to—impose a reign of fear in blue cities. They don’t need more training. They need to be ripped up root and branch.

Don’t Be So Literal About What Counts as a Military Occupation I want to return to a topic I’ve alluded to in several...

As I explained earlier this month, we're too literal abt what amounts to military occupation. The ICE/CPB operations in Blue cities are the kinds of garrisoning of civilian towns that the founding documents opposed. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/dont-...

204. Accountability After Minneapolis A short post explaining (1) why it's so hard to hold federal officers and/or the federal government liable for violating our rights; and (2) how a one-sentence statute could (and *SHOULD*) fix it.

"Just like the killing of Renée Good, Saturday morning’s shooting once again raises the question of why it is so damned difficult to hold federal officers—and the federal government itself—accountable if and when they violate our rights."

Me on the federal accountability gap—and how to close it:

Hey, the excellent Minneapolis arts and culture magazine Racket took down their paywall for the day, so you can go read their coverage of the occupation unhindered. Start here: racketmn.com/voices-of-th...

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probably marks me as old fashioned but i'm not a fan of politicians cursing like this

MIT's response to the Trump admin's proposed "compact" is excellent and should be a model for other universities. orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

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Deadline: Sept 2 | Late: Sept 16
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As Brazil's largest journalism conference takes off in São Paulo, SEJ celebrates our partnership with the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism @abraji.bsky.social, advancing investigative environmental reporting throughout Latin America (1/2)
congresso.abraji.org.br

The student paper at the college at which I teach reports a "tsunami of takedown requests" from international students terrified of being targeted for innocuous, legitimate op-eds & opinions.. Many ask in person--leave no trace in writing. Reminds me of my father's account of studying in the USSR.

I don’t know why it felt jarring to see Zuckerberg’s post announcing it on FB, given it was bookended by crazily propagandistic dreck: AI-generated posts of Elon Musk as philanthropist, father, etc., now flooding so many of our feeds. I look at FB every few weeks, feels too frequent at this point…

Exclusive: Meta adds Dina Powell, Patrick Collison to board It's part of a broader effort by Meta to expand its board to include more global business experts.

Decent and certainly qualified picks for board seats — also politically astute when it come to Powell — and a sharp contrast to the fetid Dana White www.axios.com/2025/04/11/e...

Am I Still Allowed to Tell the Truth in My Class? Recent orders from the Trump administration run a real risk of muzzling professors like me who teach about the racism of the country’s past.

“Scholars of racism face a peculiar accusation: that studying racism causes racism. As facile as this criticism is—no one thinks that agriculture professors cause world hunger, or that cardiology professors cause heart attacks…this sort of ignorant bullying comes with the territory.”

New Mexico made childcare free. It lifted 120,000 people above the poverty line The state, which has long ranked worst in the US for child wellbeing, became the first and only in the country to offer free childcare to a majority of families

New Mexico made child care free for most families. Believe it or not, the good thing is good.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Three Robinson projection maps showing 2-m air temperature anomalies in March 2025, January 2025 to March 2025, and April 2024 to March 2025 across the globe. Red shading is shown for warmer anomalies, and blue shading is shown for colder anomalies. Most areas are warmer than average. The mean global near-surface air temperature anomaly for each map is also displayed in the upper-left corner. Anomalies are calculated relative to a 1981-2010 baseline. Data is from ERA5 reanalysis using the 2-m air temperature variable.

Temperature anomalies over the last month (left), 3 months (center), and 12 months (right) around our planet...

Data from doi.org/10.24381/cds...

Trump's obsession with bilateral makes no sense, and it's the responsibility of his economic team to explain that to him. (I don't know if they're failing, or not even trying.)

DOGE takes over federal grants website, wresting control of billions A DOGE engineer removed users’ access to grants.gov, threatening to further slow the process of awarding thousands of federal grants per year.

Scoop: DOGE now controls how grant opportunities get posted across government.

DOGE engineer removed users’ permissions to post to Grants-dot-gov without telling them. Now requests flow thru DOGE-controlled mailbox.

with @carolynyjohnson.bsky.social + @hannahnatanson.bsky.social

‘One million.’ The private goal driving Trump’s push for mass deportations. Immigration officers and analysts are increasingly skeptical the Trump administration can deport that many immigrants in a single year.

Exclusive: Trump officials have the private goal of deporting at least 1 million immigrants this year. Analysts say that's unrealistic.

Why Trump's executive order targeting state climate laws is probably illegal President Donald Trump continues dismantling climate policy with a move of questionable legality that benefits fossil fuels. States are sure to sue.

“This executive order parrots some of the arguments that we’ve seen from companies like Exxon Mobil, as they’ve sought to have climate cases removed from federal court and then dismissed in the state courts,” @ucsusa.bsky.social's Mulvey says.

grist.org/politics/why...

I know this will surprise folks who bought cars based on promises they'll be self-driving "next year," but he's now admitting that DOGE will only deliver on 7.5% of the promised $2,000b, and even that is only coming "next year."
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/u...

11 SERVICE JOURNALISM Honors magazine journalism that addresses readers’ needs and aspirations while providing instruction and advice Heatmap News Nico Lauricella, Editor in Chief Edited by Jillian Goodman “Decarbonize Your Life,” September 23

I’m thrilled to share that Heatmap News — just in time for its second birthday — has won a NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARD!

Our project “Decarbonize Your Life” has been received the 2025 award for service journalism!

You can find it here: heatmap.news/decarbonize-...

asme.memberclicks.net/american-soc...

Exclusive: US NIH scientists barred from attending conferences on their own time and dime Researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health have been told they cannot attend scientific conferences and meetings without official permission, even if they pay their own way and go during time off, three current and former NIH scientists told Reuters.

Exclusive: Researchers at the US National Institutes of Health were told they can't attend scientific conferences and meetings without official permission, even if they pay their way and go during time off, current and former NIH scientists told Reuters reut.rs/4j7rFLT

‘People Are Going Silent’: Fearing Retribution, Trump Critics Muzzle Themselves (Gift Article) People say they are intimidated by online attacks from the president, concerned about harm to their businesses or worried about the safety of their families.

My NYT colleague Elisabeth Bumiller has already written an outstanding piece on this exact point. I am just noting that I am encoutering this again and again, almost every day. Here is Elisabeth's piece from last month.

nyti.ms/3R9xkon

NEW | Fossil fuels fall below 50% of US electricity for the first month on record 🇺🇸

Among all the turmoil, some positive news from the latest @ember-energy.org data for March 2025:

🏆↘️ The share of fossil fuels fell to a record low of 49.2%

🏆↗️ Wind and solar power hit a new record high of 24.4%

NIH freezes all research grants to Columbia University Amid negotiations with Trump, the university could risk losing nearly $700 million

Exclusive: Weeks after President Donald Trump’s administration ordered NIH to pull $250 million in biomedical research grants to Columbia University, the agency is freezing all remaining grant money owed to the university until further notice. scim.ag/4if5Rg1

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5. Recession risks are still with us. According to prediction markets the chances of a 2025 recession fell from 68% this morning to 53% this afternoon.

That's a big risk.