This is a sickening video of Trump’s last Cabinet meeting. The members of the Cabinet competed to see who could be the most obsequious to Dear Leader.

This is a new twist on the voucher scam. In South Carolina, a state audit revealed that about one-third of the vouchers awarded by the state went to students who returned to their local public school or never left it.

Zack Koeske of The State reported:

More than a third of the nearly 3,000 South Carolina students awarded taxpayer-funded school vouchers last year later withdrew or were removed from the program due to eligibility concerns, S.C. Department of Education data shows.

The department suspended the accounts of 1,229 voucher recipients last school year after they were flagged during enrollment checks conducted to verify that participants had left their zoned school districts, an education department spokesman said.

To be eligible for a voucher last year, a student could not be enrolled full-time in their local district.

About 1 in 5 of the suspended accounts were reinstated after further review confirmed their eligibility. The remaining 1,005 suspended participants, all of whom had already received at least one $1,500 scholarship payment, left the program.

All of the recipients who were removed from the program due to enrollment verification had been enrolled at their zoned public schools, S.C. Department of Education spokesman Jason Raven wrote in an emailed statement.

The department recovered all unused funds that remained in the scholarship accounts of former participants, but did not attempt to recover any scholarship money those participants had already spent…

Launched last year, South Carolina’s school voucher program publicly subsidizes low- and middle-income families that send their K-12 children to private schools or public schools outside their residence area.

Families making no more than twice the federal poverty level, or $62,400 for a family of four, were eligible for $6,000 vouchers last school year.

A horrible school shooting, this time at a Catholic school in Minnesota. A deranged and hate-filled killer, carrying three weapons.

Nothing will change until the GOP abandons its love of guns. Nothing will change unless Democrats regain control of the House and Senate and pass sensible gun control laws.

There will be no safety for anyone until deadly weapons are locked away.

When the party in control of government loves guns more than innocent human life, there will be no change. The carnage continues, abetted by our elected officials. They have no shame.

Marc Elias of Democratic Docket writes about Trump’s brazen indifference to the Constitution and the law, and the mainstream media’s tendency to normalize his statements and behavior. Yesterday, he said, was a day of tyranny in the nation.

Elias, a lawyer for democratic resistance, writes:

Sitting in the Oval Office, flanked by adoring aides standing stiffly at attention, Donald Trump yesterday announced: “A lot of people are saying maybe we’d like a dictator.”

The remark, delivered with his trademark mixture of menace and showmanship, might have been dismissed as yet another provocation — except that Trump immediately reinforced the point by declaring his intention to disregard Congress and federal law.

After musing about renaming the Department of Defense as the “Department of War,” a reporter noted that such a change would require congressional approval. Trump brushed aside the objection: “We are just going to do it,”before adding, “I’m sure Congress will go along if we need that.”

Here, in a single exchange, Trump revealed both his contempt for the rule of law and his calculation that the Republican-controlled Congress will not restrain him. Sadly, on both counts, he is correct.

His administration has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to trample legal and constitutional limits without hesitation. Meanwhile, the Republican Congress has reduced itself to a doormat — incapable or unwilling to challenge him even when its own power is at stake.

What is perhaps most troubling is the muted response from the broader political and media ecosystem. Scanning today’s headlines, I saw only fleeting references to Trump’s brazen comments. No major outlet gave the story front-page treatment. Even more telling, no prominent Republican leaders were pressed to respond. The silence was deafening — and dangerous.

Instead, the political news cycle became consumed with two of Trump’s other announcements: his pledge to expand the deployment of National Guard troops and federal military forces into major U.S. cities, and his unilateral decision to fire a sitting member of the Federal Reserve Board.

On the first, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker mounted a powerful rebuttal. Holding a press event in Chicago, Pritzker effectively demonstrated that Trump’s threats against blue cities were not only politically motivated but also a violation of federalism — the principle of state sovereignty enshrined in the Constitution.

On the second, last night, Trump announced that he had fired Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board. The move was shocking. Presidents lack the legal authority to remove federal governors except under the most extreme circumstances, and Trump had been explicitly warned by the Supreme Court that firing a Fed member would be a step too far. Yet Trump pressed ahead, disregarding both law and the risk that undermining the Fed could destabilize the U.S. economy.

In a single day, Trump managed to promote dictatorship, disregard Congress, trample federalism and defy the Supreme Court. It would almost be impressive if it weren’t so horrifying. This is the cold bleak reality of American democracy just seven months into his new term.

However, don’t lose sight of hope quite yet. There were still bright spots in the opposition movement. Pritzker’s speech was a tour de force of how to stand up to Trump. It was smart, forceful and powerfully delivered. 

The speech was all the better because Trump is clearly intimidated by Pritzker. Pritzker is everything Trump is not. His and his family’s wealth is the result of building great businesses and smart investments, not grifts and crypto schemes. Pritzker has used his advantages in life to benefit the people he serves, while Trump preys on his supporters — bilking them for money while cutting their government services. Most importantly, Pritzker is at ease with himself and others. He is admired as someone who is articulate, warm and kind. Trump is always performing an act that makes him the object of scorn and mockery.

One passage of Pritzker’s speech really stood out as both factually correct and important for everyone in the pro-democracy movement to absorb:

“This is about the President of the United States and his complicit lackey, Stephen Miller, searching for ways to lay the groundwork to circumvent our democracy, militarize our cities, and end elections.”

This statement is not hyperbole. It is an unvarnished description of the authoritarian project unfolding before our eyes.

Pritzker also offered important words of caution for the media.

“To the members of the press who are assembled here today, and listening across the country, I am asking for your courage to tell it like it is. This is not a time to pretend here that there are two sides to this story. This is not a time to fall back into the reflexive crouch that I so often see, where the authoritarian creep by this administration is ignored in favor of some horse race piece on who will be helped politically by the president’s actions.”

The governor correctly points out that the danger is not just Trump himself but the normalization of his behavior. Each time he disregards the law and faces little pushback, the boundaries of what is tolerated shift. Each time the press downplays his authoritarian statements as “just rhetoric,” or Republican leaders remain silent, the line between democracy and strongman rule erodes further.

It is tempting to hope that institutions — the courts, Congress, the press — will act as guardrails. Yet institutions are only as strong as the people who inhabit them. If lawmakers cower, if journalists flinch, if judges equivocate, then the institutions collapse under the weight of cowardice.

Trump’s declaration that America might “like a dictator” should have been headline news across the country. Instead, it was met with shrugs and silence — a chilling sign of how desensitized we have become.

The danger is real. A president who flouts Congress, defies the Supreme Court and threatens states with military force is not joking. He is testing the limits of our democracy, probing for weakness.

History teaches that democracies rarely fall in a single dramatic moment; they decay gradually, through a series of small surrenders. Each time we excuse, ignore or minimize authoritarian behavior, we make the next step easier. The path back from that erosion is long and uncertain.

The question now is whether enough Americans will recognize the peril in time. Will Congress find its backbone? Will the press rediscover its watchdog role? Will citizens demand accountability? The future of our republic depends on the answer.

For a change, good news from Texas. Needless to say, the good news comes a judge, not the odious legislature, which is firmly controlled by Governor Greg Abbott. Judge Fred Biery blocked a law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in every classroom. State Attorney General Ken Paxton urged schools to ignore Judge Biery’s decision. The Appeals Court for the Fifth Circuit has already knocked down a similar law from Louisiana.

A federal judge has issued a temporary injunction blocking a Texas law that would have mandated the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom across the state.

In his ruling on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio temporarily prohibited 11 Texas school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments. 

The Clinton appointee said a lawsuit filed by a coalition of Dallas-area families, faith leaders and civil liberties advocates raised questions about the constitutionality of Senate Bill 10, which would have required the displays in schools statewide starting September 1.

The decision marks the third time a federal court has struck down such a state-level requirement, following similar rulings in Louisiana and Kentucky.

Biery’s 55-page ruling emphasized the potential impact on students and teachers, noting that “even though the Ten Commandments would not be affirmatively taught, the captive audience of students likely would have questions, which teachers would feel compelled to answer. That is what they do.”

He maintained that such displays could lead to unintended religious discussions, placing educators in the difficult position of navigating complex theological issues in a public school setting, potentially infringing on students’ rights to a secular education.

As an example, the judge offered a fictional account of a similar law in Hamtramck, Michigan, where the majority Muslim community “decreed” that the Quran should be taught in public schools. As part of the example, Biery quoted directly from the Quran.

“While ‘We the people’ rule by a majority, the Bill of Rights protects the minority Christians in Hamtramck and those 33 percent of Texans who do not adhere to any of the Christian denominations,” the judge wrote. 

He also cited the biblical accounts of Abraham leaving the land of Ur to proclaim, as the judge wrote in quotations, “the one true God.” Naming Moses, Jesus and Mohammed as the “triad of the ‘desert religions,'” the judge said elsewhere other belief systems were formed, including “those which have come to exist in the American experience.”

Claiming that humans “evolved over several million years to be the only species which knows it will die,” Biery attributed the rise of human religion to people “not wanting their existence to end.”

Quoting everything from Stephen Hawking to Sonny and Cher, the judge also quoted from John 11:35, saying Jesus — who he called the “cousin” of Moses and Mohammed — would have wept if he saw the “blood spilled by their followers against each other.” 

Writing that SB 10 “officially favors Christian dominations over others” and “crosses the line from exposure to coercion,” Biery expressed concern that public displays of the Ten Commandments “are likely to send an exclusionary and spiritually burdensome message” that would identify the plaintiff families as “the other.”

“The displays are likely to pressure the child-Plaintiffs into religious observance, meditation on, veneration, and adoption of the State’s favored religious scripture, and into suppressing expression of their own religious or nonreligious backgrounds and beliefs while at school,” the judge wrote.

In his closing statement, Biery — a 77-year-old known for using puns and colorful language in his rulings — appeared to suggest Christians might resort to violence in response to his ruling. He offered a “prayer” using the New Testament phrase “grace and peace” and concluding with “Amen.”

“For those who disagree with the Court’s decision and who would do so with threats, vulgarities, and violence, Grace and Peace unto you,” he wrote. “May humankind of all faiths, beliefs and non-beliefs be reconciled one to another. Amen.”

The suit names 11 of some of the state’s biggest school districts, including Houston ISD, Austin ISD, and Plano ISD, but notably excludes Dallas ISD. The plaintiffs contend that the law passed by the Texas Legislature in 2024 violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which ensures the separation of church and state, and the Free Exercise Clause, which protects individuals’ rights to practice their religion freely.

The case is expected to move to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled against a similar Louisiana law in June, before potentially advancing to the Supreme Court, where a 6-3 conservative majority could redefine the boundaries of church-state separation. 

Two important local elections produced great news for the Democratic Party.

In Iowa, a special election was held for a state Senate seat in a solidly Republican district that Trump won by 11.5 points in 2024. Democrat Caitlin Drey won, overturning a Republican supermajority in the state senate. Drey won by more than 10%. There was a 20-point swing to the Democrats.

In a ruby red district in Georgia, seven candidates vied for a state Senate seat. Democrat Debra Shirley came in first with 39% of the vote. There will be a runoff on September 23 and she will oppose the top-scoring Republican, who won 17% of the vote.

Andy Borowitz was a humorist for The New Yorker. He now has his own blog on Substack. Needless to say, this post is satirical.

Trump with his new Attorney General and two other associates. (Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In what experts are calling one of the most remarkable comebacks for a convicted sex offender in recent memory, on Friday Donald J. Trump announced that he was replacing Attorney General Pam Bondi with Ghislaine Maxwell.

Explaining his decision, Trump said, “Pam said there’s a client list, and Ghislaine said there isn’t. So I have decided Ghislaine would be better at this job than Pam.” 

In another stunning reversal of fortune, Trump announced that Bondi would be taking Maxwell’s place in prison, adding, “I wish her well.”

He said he was confident that Maxwell would receive speedy confirmation by Senate Republicans, noting, “If they confirmed Hegseth they’ll confirm anyone.”