Julia Conley, Common Dreams

President Donald Trump's tariff policies, imposing levies as high as 50% on the United States' trading partners, have not proven compatible with his campaign promise to turn the U.S. back into a "manufacturing powerhouse," as Friday's jobs report showed.

The overall analysis was grim, with the economy adding just 22,000 jobs last month, but manufacturing employment in particular has declined since Trump made his April 2 "Liberation Day" announcement of tariffs on countries including Canada and Mexico.

Since then, the president has introduced new rounds of tariffs on imports from countries he claims have treated the U.S. unfairly, and all the while, manufacturers have tightened their belts to cope with the higher cost of supplies and materials.

Overall manufacturing employment has plummeted by 42,000 jobs, while job openings and new hires have declined by 76,000 and 18,000, respectively, according to the Center for American Progress (CAP), which released a jobs report analysis titled "Trump's Trade War Squeezes Middle-Class Manufacturing Employment" on Friday.

"The manufacturing sector is struggling more than the rest of the labor market under Trump's tariffs, and manufacturing workers' wage growth is stagnating," said CAP.

Last month, the sector lost 12,000 jobs, while wages for manufacturing workers stagnated.

In line with other private employees, workers in the sector saw their wages go up just 10 cents from July, earning an average of $35.50 per hour.

"Despite Trump's claims that his policies will reignite the manufacturing industry in the United States, his policies have achieved the opposite," wrote policy analyst Kennedy Andara and economist Sara Estep at CAP.

The findings are in line with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' Texas Manufacturing Survey, which was taken from August 12-20 and found that 72% of manufacturing firms say the tariffs have had a negative impact on their business.

"The argument is: We're all meant to sacrifice a bit, so that tariffs can help rebuild American manufacturing. Let's ask American manufacturers whether they're helping," said University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers on social media, sharing a graph that showed the survey's findings.

As Philip Luck, a former deputy chief economist with the US State Department, told the CBC last month, Trump has been promising "millions and millions of jobs" will result from his tariff regime, but those promises are out of step with the reality of manufacturing in 2025.

"We do [manufacturing] now with very few workers, we do it in a very automated way," Luck told the CBC. "Even if we do increase manufacturing I don't know that we're going to increase jobs along with it."

The outlet noted that while the number of Americans employed in manufacturing peaked in 1979, the value of manufacturing production has continuously trended up since then.

Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, told the CBC that "no treasure trove of jobs" is likely to come out of Trump's tariffs.

The president "walked into an economy that was seeing the largest manufacturing production in American history," Hicks said. "That is really a testament to how productive American workers are, the quality of the technology, and capital investment in manufacturing."

But the rate of hiring at manufacturing firms is far below its 2024 level, said CAP, revealing the negative impact of Trump's tariff regime.

US Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed to nearly 800 workers who lost their jobs in the manufacturing sector this week, including 120 whose company's sawmill closed in Darlington, South Carolina; 101 who worked at an electronics assembly plant for Intervala in Manchester, New Hampshire; and 170 whose sawmill positions were eliminated in Estill, South Carolina.

The US Supreme Court is expected to soon review Trump's tariffs after the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled last week that many of them are illegal.

As a court in Fort Myers, Florida, prepared to hold the first hearing on the legal rights of immigrants detained at "Alligator Alcatraz," the Everglades detention facility that a federal judge ordered to be shut down last month, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday said the Trump administration has found a new prison to house arrested migrants, and boasted that detainees will likely get "a message" from the facility the government selected.

The administration has struck a "historic" deal with the Louisiana state government, said officials on Wednesday, and will begin detaining hundreds of immigrants in a new facility at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly called Angola, and well known for its long history of violence and brutality against inmates as well as inhumane conditions.

Noem said in a press conference Wednesday that the prison, a former slave plantation, has "absolutely" been chosen due to its reputation for brutal working conditions—over which a group of inmates sued last year—use of solitary confinement, including for teenage prisoners; lack of access to clean water, sufficient food, and adequate hygiene; and violence.

"Absolutely, this is a facility that's notorious. It's a facility—Angola prison is legendary—but that's a message that these individuals that are going to be here, that are illegal criminals, need to understand," said Noem.

"Angola has a particularly dark history of abuse and repression that's almost singular in prison history in the United States."

An isolated section of the nation's largest maximum-security prison will house "the worst of the worst" criminal offenders who are immigrants, said Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, after whom the Angola facility has apparently been named. The area where up to 400 immigrants will be held is being called Camp 57, an homage to Landry, who is the state's 57th governor.

Landry issued an emergency declaration in July to expedite repairs in the facility, which hasn't held prisoners since 2018 due to security and safety risks stemming from its deteriorating condition.

"Angola has a particularly dark history of abuse and repression that's almost singular in prison history in the United States," Eunice Cho, senior counsel at the National Prison Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, told The New York Times.

As with Alligator Alcatraz, the administration has come up with a nickname for the detention and deportation center: "Louisiana Lockup."

Landry emphasized Wednesday that "the most violent offenders" will be held in the facility, and said that "if you don't think that they belong in somewhere like this, you've got a problem."

The center, which is being run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contractors, was already housing 51 detainees as of Wednesday and is expected to hold up to 200 by the end of September.

Noem named examples of people convicted of crimes, including murder, sexual assault, battery, and possession of child sexual abuse imagery, who would be sent to the Angola facility.

The administration's comments echoed earlier statements about Alligator Alcatraz, where officials said "the worst of the worst" would be held while they awaited deportation.

The Miami Herald and The Tampa Bay Times reported in July that just a third of about 900 people held at the facility had been convicted of crimes, which ranged from serious offenses to traffic violations. More than 250 people had never been convicted or charged with any crime.

One analysis in June found that nearly two-thirds of migrants who had been rounded up by ICE in the first months of Trump's second term did not have criminal convictions.

Following President Donald Trump's declaration that "we're going on" with a deployment of federal agents to Chicago, the nation's third-largest city and a frequent target of fearmongering by the president, Rep. Delia Ramirez led Democratic lawmakers in condemning the White House's threat to militarize federal troops in cities across the country.

Trump's persistent, baseless claims that large cities like Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles are facing violent crime waves are part of an attempt, suggested Ramirez (D-Ill.), to distract from the fact that his administration and Republicans in Congress are slashing funding that millions of people rely on.

"We have less than 30 days to pass a spending budget," said Ramirez, who represents parts of Chicago. "And yet here we are, the president is attempting to send the National Guard and terrorize cities instead of actually funding the government. See, we don't need Trump's troops on our streets. What we need and what our constituents continue to say is that we need an investment in our neighborhoods. We need an investment in food for our tables, healthcare for our families, and safety that is rooted in justice and opportunity."

Trump's comments about Chicago came on Tuesday and followed plans to deploy 200 Homeland Security officials to the city and use a nearby naval base as a staging area, as part of his nationwide anti-immigration crackdown.

The White House has said it's overseen the arrests of more than 65,000 people by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since Trump took office in January, but the Cato Institute found in June that 65% of people rounded up by the agency had no criminal conviction, while 93% had no conviction for violent offenses.

Trump's threat against Chicago also came as a federal judge ruled that his use of federal troops in Los Angeles was illegal. The president deployed Marine and National Guard soldiers to the city more than two months ago, and about 300 members of the National Guard remain there to crack down on protests against ICE raids and "ensure that federal immigration law was enforced."

Last month, the president sent the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and federalized the police force of the nation's capital, claiming he planned to rid the city of "slums" and ordering the destruction of encampments inhabited by homeless people.

Since that deployment, law enforcement agents have subjected local residents to illegal searches and unfairly charged them with serious crimes, threatening them with lengthy prison sentences.

On Wednesday, Ramirez noted that, as with ICE raids that are targeting people without criminal records despite Trump's claims to the contrary, the president is threatening to send troops to cities, including Chicago, to crack down on crime waves that aren't happening.

Thanks to investments in communities across Chicago, said Ramirez, "violent crime rates have fallen 22% today. Homicides are down more than 33% in the past year, while shootings are down by 38%."

Trump's actions in Washington, D.C., and his threats against Chicago, added the congresswoman, "are not just about one city."

"When armed troops are sent into American communities to suppress protests, to target civil society leaders, or to facilitate the disappearance of our neighbors, it is not just a local issue," said Ramirez. "It strikes at the core of our very own democracy... This moment demands courage. It demands that we understand that we must obstruct and do everything we can to oppose any of these authoritarians against our cities."

Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) also spoke at the press conference, warning that Trump's threat against Chicago is a "dangerous sign that the president is signaling to turn American troops on American citizens on American soil."

Ramirez said legislative action, legal challenges, and organizing on the ground are needed to fight back against Trump's attacks on cities.

At the press conference, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said she was introducing two bills to give Washington, D.C., full control over the National Guard and its police department, and renewed her call for the passage of legislation that would grant statehood to the nation's capital.

"Our local police force should not be subject to federalization, an action that wouldn't be possible for any other police department in the country," said Norton. "Although D.C.'s lack of statehood makes it more vulnerable to the president's abuses of power, he has frequently made it known that his authoritarian ambitions do not end with D.C."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday moved to rescind a conservation policy dating back nearly 25 years that has protected more than 45 million acres of pristine public lands, as the Trump administration announced a public comment period of just three weeks regarding the rollback of the "Roadless Rule."

The rule, officially called the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, has protected against the building of roads for logging and oil and gas drilling in forest lands, including Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the nation's largest national woodland.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in June as she announced her intention of repealing the rule that the administration aims to "get more logs on trucks," in accordance with President Donald Trump's executive order calling for expanded logging in the nation's forests. The president has asserted more trees must be cut down to protect from wildfires, a claim that's been rejected by environmental groups that note fires are more likely to be ignited in areas where vehicles travel.

The public comment period on rescinding the Roadless Rule is set to open this week and end Sept. 19.

The environmental legal firm Earthjustice, which has fought to defend the Roadless Rule for years, including when Trump moved to exempt the Tongass from the regulation during his first term, noted that roadless forests provide vulnerable and endangered wildlife "with needed habitat, offer people a wide range of recreational activities, and protect the headwaters of major rivers, which are vital for maintaining clean, mountain-fed drinking water nationwide."

"If the Roadless Rule is rescinded nationally, logging and other destructive, extractive development is set to increase in public forests that currently function as intact ecosystems that benefit wildlife and people alike," said the group.

Gloria Burns, president of the Ketchikan Indian Community, said the people of her tribe "are the Tongass."

"This is an attack on Tribes and our people who depend on the land to eat," said Burns. "The federal government must act and provide us the safeguards we need or leave our home roadless. We are not willing to risk the destruction of our homelands when no effort has been made to ensure our future is the one our ancestors envisioned for us. Without our lungs (the Tongass) we cannot breathe life into our future generations."

Garett Rose, senior attorney at the Natural Defenses Resource Council, said Rollins and Trump have declared "open season on America's forests."

"For decades, the Roadless Rule has stood as one of America's most important conservation safeguards, protecting the public's wildest forests from the bulldozer and chainsaw," said Rose. "The Trump administration's move to gut this bedrock protection is nothing more than a handout to logging interests at the expense of clean water, wildlife, and local communities. But we're not backing down and will continue to defend these unparalleled wild forests from attacks, just as we have done for decades."

The Alaska Wilderness League (AWL) noted that 15 million acres of intact temperate rain forest, including the Tongass and the Chugach, would be impacted by the rulemaking, as would taxpayers who would be burdened by the need to maintain even more roads run by the US Forest Service.

The service currently maintains more than 380,000 miles of road—a system larger than the US Interstate Highway System—with a "maintenance backlog that has ballooned to billions in needed repairs," said AWL.

"More roads mean more taxpayer liability, more wildfire risk, and more damage to salmon streams and clean water sources," added the group.

"No public lands are safe from the Trump administration, not even Alaska's globally significant forests," said Andy Moderow, senior director of policy at AWL. "Rolling back the Roadless Rule means bulldozing taxpayer-funded roads into irreplaceable old growth forest, and favoring short-term industry profits over long-term, sustainable forest uses. The Roadless Rule is one of the most effective, commonsense conservation protections in U.S. history. Scrapping it would sacrifice Alaska's public lands to the highest bidder."

Drew Caputo, vice president of litigation for lands, wildlife, and oceans at Earthjustice, emphasized that the group "has successfully defended the Roadless Rule in court for decades."

"Nothing will stop us," he said, "from taking up that fight again."

The top US official in Denmark arrived at the country's foreign ministry on Wednesday after being summoned for talks about a recent report that US citizens with ties to the Trump White House have carried out a covert "influence" campaign in Greenland.

Denmark's foreign minister called upon Mark Stroh, the charge d'affaires in Denmark, on Wednesday, after the main Danish public broadcaster reported that at least three people have been attempting to sow discord between Denmark and Greenland, an autonomous territory that is part of the Danish kingdom.

President Donald Trump has long expressed a desire to take control of Greenland, and has suggested he could use military force even though Denmark is a close ally and fellow member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Danish officials and Greenlanders have dismissed the idea, with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warning the US that it "cannot annex another country."

"We want to be independent. So we are not for sale," resident Karen Cortsen told NPR earlier this year as the outlet reported that 85% of people in Greenland and Denmark opposed the president's push to "get" the vast, mineral-rich Arctic island.

According to the main Danish public broadcaster, the Trump administration has sought to reverse widespread public opposition to his plan, with at least three people connected to his administration carrying out covert operations to "foment dissent" in Greenland.

The broadcast network, DR, reported that eight government and security sources believe the individuals are working to weaken relations between Greenland and Denmark, compiling lists of Greenlandic citizens who support and oppose Trump's plans, and trying "to cultivate contacts with politicians, businesspeople, and citizens, and the sources' concern is that these contacts could secretly be used to support Donald Trump's desire to take over Greenland."

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a statement that "any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the kingdom will of course be unacceptable."

"We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark," Rasmussen said, adding that he had "asked the ministry of foreign affairs to summon the US charge d'affaires for a meeting at the ministry."

Trump has not yet confirmed an ambassador to Denmark. PayPal cofounder Kenneth Howery, a close friend of Trump megadonor Elon Musk, has been named as his nominee for the position.

Frederiksen told Danish media that "the Americans are not clearly denying the information presented by DR today, and of course that is serious."

"We have made it very clear that this is unacceptable," said the prime minister. "And it is something we will raise directly with our colleagues in the United States—who, if this were untrue, could very easily dismiss the claims."

Detailing the widening gap between outrageously high CEO compensation and the median wages of employees at some of the world's largest and most profitable companies, a progressive think tank on Thursday warned executives will continue to enrich themselves at the expense of their lowest-paid workers unless policies are adopted to curb such corporate greed.

"Across the political spectrum, Americans are fed up with overpaid CEOs," said Sarah Anderson, program director at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and author of a new report out Thursday. "Policymakers should take long overdue action to push Corporate America in a more equitable direction."

The report, Executive Excess 2025, finds that absent federal policies forcing corporations to rein in their spending on stock buybacks and exorbitant CEO pay packages, the average CEO-to-worker pay gap widened by 12.9% last year at what IPS calls the "Low-Wage 100"—the 100 S&P 500 companies with the lowest median worker pay.

The average gap between executive and worker pay now stands at 632-to-1 at these firms, up from 560-to-1 in 2023.

Between 2019-24, the average CEO at a Low-Wage 100 company saw their pay rise 34.7%, unadjusted for inflation, while the average median worker pay rose just 16.3%.

CEO compensation increased by 22.6% over the time period, far outpacing inflation. Meanwhile, wage hikes by these same companies didn't even match inflation, including for warehouse workers at software company Aptiv, where the CEO-to-worker pay gap was 2,072-to-1 last year, or cashiers at Ross Stores, where the gap was 1,770-to-1.

"We can curb this runaway source of inequality by taxing corporate greed."

Aptiv CEO Kevin Clark was paid $18.8 million last year while the median worker at the firm made just $9,052. Ross Stores' pay ratio was similar, with CEO Barbara Rentler taking home $17 million compared to the company's median worker, who made just $9,602.

Starbucks, which has made headlines in recent years both for its store employees' fight to unionize across the United States and for its executives' illegal union-busting tactics, had far-and-away the largest gap between CEO and median worker pay in 2024, with CEO Brian Niccol taking home $95.8 million and the median employee earning just $14,674.

That makes the wage gap 6,666-to-1 at the coffee chain.

The largest Muslim civil rights group in the U.S. on Tuesday was among those condemning the latest attacks from the Anti-Defamation League on New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, whom ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt this week accused of not reaching out to the city's Jewish population.

On CNBC Monday, Greenblatt claimed Mamdani, a Democratic state assembly member who stunned former Gov. Andrew Cuomo by winning the primary in June by nearly eight points, has not visited "a single synagogue... one Jewish neighborhood" or "any of the mainstream Jewish institutions."

A number of observers pointed to several instances in which Mamdani has visited Jewish centers and places of worship during his campaign, including attending Shabbat services in Brooklyn in February, taking part in a town hall with the Jewish Community Relations Council in May with the United Jewish Appeal Federation, and attending candidate forums at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in June.

Greenblatt later published a post about the interview on the social media platform X, saying this time that Mamdani had not visited Jewish synagogues or other communities since the primary in June—but Peter Beinart, editor-at-large of Jewish Currents, suggested the head of the ADL attacks Mamdani not for things he has or hasn't done, but because many Jewish people have embraced him as their candidate of choice.

"Of course Mamdani has visited synagogues and Jewish communities," said Beinart. "What angers Greenblatt is that Mamdani isn't courting HIM. By winning the bulk of the young Jewish vote while condemning Israel, Mamdani is exposing how out of touch Greenblatt is with many of the people he claims to represent. That's what makes Mamdani a threat."

As Common Dreams reported last month, Mamdani led Cuomo — who is running in the general election as an independent following his primary loss—by five points in a poll by Zenith Research. More than two-thirds of likely Jewish voters between the ages of 18 and 44 said they planned to vote for Mamdani, who has condemned Israel's apartheid policies and its US-backed bombardment and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.

Beinart added that while Greenblatt may be "unaware" of Mamdani's relationship with Jewish voters, "his unawareness says nothing about reality. It says a lot about him."

In the interview, Greenblatt also doubled down on attacks that began in June regarding Mamdani's refusal to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada," which pro-Israel groups have claimed denotes support for violent attacks by militants against Israel—but which the mayoral candidate pointed out in a podcast interview is to many people "a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights."

"Why won't he condemn 'globalize the intifada?' Because he believes it?" said Greenblatt, adding that the phrase suggests support for attacks by Palestinian militants who have "killed people simply because they were Jewish."

The Arabic word "intifada" means "struggle" or "uprising" and is associated by Palestinian rights advocates with Palestinians' fight for self-determination and freedom from Israel's occupation—which took the form of numerous non-violent protests including boycotts, labor strikes, and marches, as well as armed resistance, during the First and Second Intifadas.

Jasmine El-Gamal, a foreign policy analyst and host of the podcast "The View From Here," noted that "not one of the presenters corrected Greenblatt when he lied and said the intifada was a violent uprising that 'killed people simply because they were Jewish.'"

"The intifada was an uprising against an occupation," said El-Gamal. "Whether or not you agree with the concept of violent resistance, the fact is, Greenblatt blatantly lied and no one batted an eyelash."

Mamdani has never publicly used the phrase "globalize the intifada," and has said he would "discourage" others from doing so.

At the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), national deputy executive director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said Greenblatt's "dishonest and bigoted attacks on Assemblymember Mamdani represent the latest sign that the ADL director is an increasingly unhinged anti-Muslim bigot masquerading as a civil rights leader."

Referring to Greenblatt's refusal to condemn an apparent Nazi salute by former Trump administration adviser Elon Musk in January, Mitchell said Greenblatt "will bend over backwards to give real antisemites a pass so long as they support Israel's genocide while he goes out of the way to lie about and smear Muslim public officials if they dare to oppose Israel's genocide."

"Mr. Greenblatt's top priority is protecting the Israeli government from criticism," said Mitchell, "and no one should take his claim about American Muslim leaders seriously."

Basim Elkarra, executive director of CAIR-Action, said Greenblatt's comments "are not only misleading—they risk stoking division at a time when New Yorkers need unity."

"Subjecting Muslim elected officials to such bigotry is dishonest, dangerous, and diverts attention from substantive policy issues," said Elkarra. "We urge all public figures to condemn Jonathan Greenblatt and others who attempt to inflame bigotry against American Muslims engaged in politics."

Launching a US Senate run to unseat five-term Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, oyster farmer Graham Platner on Tuesday made clear in his inaugural ad that beating the "fake" moderate also means taking on the power-hungry billionaire class that has helped keep her in power all these years.

The enemy that the vast majority of Americans and Mainers have in common, said Platner, "is the oligarchy."

"It's the billionaires who pay for it," he added. "The politicians who sell us out. And yeah, that means politicians like Susan Collins."

Platner, who told The New York Times political organizers recruited him to enter the race, spoke in the ad about how Maine has "become unlivable for working people."

"Nobody I know around here can afford a house," said Platner. "Healthcare is a disaster, hospitals are closing. We have watched all of that get ripped away from us, and everyone's just trying to keep it all together."

Maine has the 11th-highest cost of living in the country, and according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Living Wage Calculator, the state's minimum wage of $14.65 doesn't qualify as a living wage for single adults, married couples, or parents—even if both parents work full time.

The fact that many Mainers have to "work two or three different jobs" to survive—as nearly 8% of workers do in the state—"makes me deeply angry," said Platner.

The oyster farmer and local planning board chair is a veteran of both the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, and his campaign platform includes calls for ending homelessness among veterans and fully funding job training and healthcare for those who have served in the armed forces.

But Platner's tone in his opening campaign video contrasted with that other veterans who have been recruited by Democrats to run for public office, like former Kentucky Senate candidate Amy McGrath and a number of former service members who the party is currently pushing to run in 2026 in the hopes that they'll be seen as "politically moderate."

"There is a very tired playbook that the Democrats have run for a while where DC chooses establishment candidates that they base upon their fundraising capacity, and in 2020... they just got battered, and Susan Collins held the seat," Platner told Zeteo, referring to Democrats' decision to run state House Speaker Sara Gideon, who lost by nearly nine points despite vastly outraising Collins. "So in my opinion, we need to be doing something else. I mean, clearly that is a failed strategy."

Platner explicitly called for far-reaching, progressive policies that would serve all Americans—those that are frequently lambasted as dangerous "socialist" ideas by conservatives and dismissed as "unrealistic" by centrist Democrats.

"Why can't we have universal healthcare like every other first-world country?" asked Platner. "Why are we funding endless wars and bombing children? Why are CEOs more powerful than unions? We've fought three different wars since the last time we raised the minimum wage."

On his campaign website, Platner added that he would "be a strong supporter of a Medicare for All system, moving away from the for-profit insurance system that has brought us nothing but grief," protect Social Security, push for a "billionaire minimum tax," "fight for urgent action on climate change," and strengthen legislation to ensure that "enforcement against massive polluters and repeat offenders does not depend upon the whims of whoever happens to be president."

In an interview with Politico, Platner said that if elected, he would not support Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) as the party's leader in the Senate, saying that "the next leader needs to be one of vision and also somebody who is willing to fight."

Along with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Schumer has angered progressives and self-described moderate Democrats alike by voting with Republicans to advance the GOP's spending bill—claiming doing so was necessary to stop a government shutdown—and refusing to endorse New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who like Platner has centered affordability in his campaign.

Platner has hired Morris Katz, a top strategist for Mamdani, and his campaign so far carries echoes of the mayoral candidate. In addition to unapologetically calling for policies to further economic justice, Platner told Zeteo that Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza, which was a flashpoint in New York City's Democratic primary, is "the ultimate moral test of our time."

Since Mamdani's primary victory in June, Democrats, including Jeffries and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, have claimed the mayoral candidate has not yet proven that his progressive platform has broad appeal.

"I think a lot of people are focused on the leftism, the ideological leftism, that I think we shouldn't be so surprised that prevailed in a New York Democratic Party primary," Buttigieg told NPR last month. "But I think if my party wants to learn lessons from Mamdani's success that are portable to a place like Michigan, where I live, it's less about the ideology and more about the message discipline of focusing on what people care about and the tactical wisdom of getting out there and talking to everybody."

Platner, who is one of six declared Democratic primary candidates in a race that could also soon include Gov. Janet Mills, appears intent on proving that defeating the oligarchy and the billionaires who have outsized influence on US politics and fighting for policies aimed at improving all Americans' lives are winning ideas even in the largely rural state of Maine.

"While my platform spans many issues, I view most of my job as a US senator as to do two things," reads Platner's website. "One, to ban billionaires buying elections; two, to dismantle the 'billionaire economy' in favor of an economy that works for the American worker, for small business, for the vast majority of Americans."

"I will be a senator," the platform reads, "for all those who can't buy senators."

Congressman Rob Bresnahan, a Republican who campaigned on banning stock trading by lawmakers only to make at least 626 stock trades since taking office in January, was under scrutiny Monday for a particular sale he made just before he voted for the largest Medicaid cut in US history.

Soon after a report showed that 10 rural hospitals in Bresnahan's state of Pennsylvania were at risk of being shut down, the congressman sold between $100,001 and $250,000 in bonds issued by the Allegheny County Hospital Development Authority for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

The New York Times reported on the sale a month after it was revealed that Bresnahan sold up to $15,000 of stock he held in Centene Corporation, the largest Medicaid provider in the country. When President Donald Trump signed the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law last month, Centene's stock plummeted by 40%.

Bresnahan repeatedly said he would not vote to cut the safety net before he voted in favor of the bill.

The law is expected to cut $1 trillion from Medicaid over the next decade, with 10-15 million people projected to lose health coverage through the safety net program, according to one recent analysis. More than 700 hospitals, particularly those in rural areas, are likely to close due to a loss of Medicaid funding.

"His prolific stock trading is more than just a broken promise," said Eli Cousin, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "It's political malpractice and a scandal of his own making."

The economic justice group Unrig the Economy said that despite Bresnahan's introduction of a bill in May to bar members of Congress from buying and selling stocks—with the caveat that they could keep stocks they held before starting their terms in a blind trust—the congressman is "the one doing the selling... out of Pennsylvania hospitals."

"Congressman Bresnahan didn't just vote to gut Pennsylvania hospitals. He looked out for his own bottom line before doing it," said Unrig Our Economy campaign director Leor Tal. "Hospitals across Pennsylvania could close thanks to his vote, forcing families to drive long distances and experience longer wait times for critical care."

"Not everyone has a secret helicopter they can use whenever they want," added Tal, referring to recent reports that the multi-millionaire congressman owns a helicopter worth as much as $1.5 million, which he purchased through a limited liability company he set up.

Cousin told the Times that Bresnahan's stock trading "will define his time in Washington and be a major reason why he will lose his seat."

"His prolific stock trading is more than just a broken promise," said Cousin. "It's political malpractice and a scandal of his own making."

The Trump administration's push for Americans to have more children has been well documented, from Vice President JD Vance's insults aimed at "childless cat ladies" to officials' meetings with "pronatalist" advocates who want to boost U.S. birth rates, which have been declining since 2007.

But a report released by the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) on Wednesday details how the methods the White House have reportedly considered to convince Americans to procreate more may be described by the far right as "pro-family," but are actually being pushed by a eugenicist, misogynist movement that has little interest in making it any easier to raise a family in the United States.

The proposals include bestowing a "National Medal of Motherhood" on women who have more than six children, giving a $5,000 "baby bonus" to new parents, and prioritizing federal projects in areas with high birth rates.

"Underneath shiny motherhood medals and promises of baby bonuses is a movement intent on elevating white supremacist ideology and forcing women out of the workplace," said Emily Martin, chief program officer of the National Women's Law Center.

The report describes how "Silicon Valley tech elites" and traditional conservatives who oppose abortion rights and even a woman's right to work outside the home have converged to push for "preserving the traditional family structure while encouraging women to have a lot of children."

With pronatalists often referring to "declining genetic quality" in the U.S. and promoting the idea that Americans must produce "good quality children," in the words of evolutionary psychologist Diana Fleischman, the pronatalist movement "is built on racist, sexist, and anti-immigrant ideologies."

If conservatives are concerned about population loss in the U.S., the report points out, they would "make it easier for immigrants to come to the United States to live and work. More immigrants mean more workers, which would address some of the economic concerns raised by declining birth rates."

But pronatalists "only want to see certain populations increase (i.e., white people), and there are many immigrants who don't fit into that narrow qualification."

The report, titled "Baby Bonuses and Motherhood Medals: Why We Shouldn't Trust the Pronatalist Movement," describes how President Donald Trump has enlisted a "pronatalist army" that's been instrumental both in pushing a virulently anti-immigrant, mass deportation agenda and in demanding that more straight couples should marry and have children, as the right-wing policy playbook Project 2025 demands.

Trump's former adviser and benefactor, billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, has spoken frequently about the need to prevent a collapse of U.S. society and civilization by raising birth rates, and has pushed misinformation and fearmongering about birth control.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy proposed rewarding areas with high birth rates by prioritizing infrastructure projects, and like Vance has lobbed insults at single women while also deriding the use of contraception.

The report was released days after CNN detailed the close ties the Trump administration has with self-described Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson, who heads the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, preaches that women should not vote, and suggested in an interview with correspondent Pamela Brown that women's primary function is birthing children, saying they are "the kind of people that people come out of."

Wilson has ties to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose children attend schools founded by the pastor and who shared the video online with the tagline of Wilson's church, "All of Christ for All of Life."

But the NWLC noted, no amount of haranguing women over their relationship status, plans for childbearing, or insistence that they are primarily meant to stay at home with "four or five children," as Wilson said, can reverse the impact the Trump administration's policies have had on families.

"While the Trump administration claims to be pursuing a pro-baby agenda, their actions tell a different story," the report notes. "Rather than advancing policies that would actually support families—like lowering costs, expanding access to housing and food, or investing in child care—they've prioritized dismantling basic need supports, rolling back longstanding civil rights protections, and ripping away people's bodily autonomy."

The report was published weeks after Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law—making pregnancy more expensive and more dangerous for millions of low-income women by slashing Medicaid funding and "endangering the 42 million women and children" who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for their daily meals.

While demanding that women have more children, said the NWLC, Trump has pushed an "anti-women, anti-family agenda."

Martin said that unlike the pronatalist movement, "a real pro-family agenda would include protecting reproductive healthcare, investing in childcare as a public good, promoting workplace policies that enable parents to succeed, and ensuring that all children have the resources that they need to thrive not just at birth, but throughout their lives."

"The administration's deep hostility toward these pro-family policies," said Martin, "tells you all that you need to know about pronatalists' true motives.”

When officials in Starr County, Texas, arrested Lizelle Gonzalez in 2022 and charged her with murder for having a medication abortion—despite state law clearly prohibiting the prosecution of women for abortion care—she spent three days in jail, away from her children, and the highly publicized arrest was "deeply traumatizing."

Now, said her lawyers at the ACLU in court filings on Tuesday, officials in the county sheriff's and district attorney's offices must be held accountable for knowingly subjecting Gonzalez to wrongful prosecution.

Starr County District Attorney Gocha Ramirez ultimately dismissed the charge against Gonzalez, said the ACLU, but the Texas bar's investigation into Ramirez—which found multiple instances of misconduct related to Gonzalez's homicide charge—resulted in only minor punishment. Ramirez had to pay a small fine of $1,250 and was given one year of probated suspension.

"Without real accountability, Starr County's district attorney—and any other law enforcement actor—will not be deterred from abusing their power to unlawfully target people because of their personal beliefs, rather than the law," said the ACLU.

The state bar found that Ramirez allowed Gonzalez's indictment to go forward despite the fact that her homicide charge was "known not to be supported by probable cause."

Ramirez had denied that he was briefed on the facts of the case before it was prosecuted by his office, but the state bar "determined he was consulted by a prosecutor in his office beforehand and permitted it to go forward."

"Without real accountability, Starr County's district attorney—and any other law enforcement actor—will not be deterred from abusing their power to unlawfully target people because of their personal beliefs, rather than the law."

Sarah Corning, an attorney at the ACLU of Texas, said the prosecutors and law enforcement officers "ignored Texas law when they wrongfully arrested Lizelle Gonzalez for ending her pregnancy."

"They shattered her life in South Texas, violated her rights, and abused the power they swore to uphold," said Corning. "Texas law is clear: A pregnant person cannot be arrested and prosecuted for getting an abortion. No one is above the law, including officials entrusted with enforcing it."

The district attorney's office sought to have the ACLU's case dismissed in July 2024, raising claims of legal immunity.

A court denied Ramirez's motion, and the ACLU's discovery process that followed revealed "a coordinated effort between the Starr County sheriff's office and district attorney's office to violate Ms. Gonzalez's rights."

The officials' "wanton disregard for the rule of law and erroneous belief of their own invincibility is a frightening deviation from the offices' purposes: to seek justice," said Cecilia Garza, a partner at the law firm Garza Martinez, who is joining the ACLU in representing Gonzalez. "I am proud to represent Ms. Gonzalez in her fight for justice and redemption, and our team will not allow these abuses to continue in Starr County or any other county in the state of Texas."

Gonzalez's fight for justice comes as a wrongful death case in Texas—filed by an "anti-abortion legal terrorist" on behalf of a man whose girlfriend used medication from another state to end her pregnancy—moves forward, potentially jeopardizing access to abortion pills across the country.

The families of transgender service members in the U.S. Air Force could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in denied retirement benefits due to a memo sent by the military branch this week.

As Reuters reported Thursday, an official at the Air Force informed transgender members with 15-18 years of military service that they would not be eligible for early retirement and would instead be forced to leave the Air Force without retirement benefits. Some transgender troops had previously been told they could retire early.

"After careful consideration of the individual applications, I am disapproving all Temporary Early Retirement Authority (TERA) exception to policy requests in Tabs 1 and 2 for members with 15-18 years of service," wrote Brian Scarlett, the acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs.

The memo means that many service members whose applications for early retirement had already been approved will have those approvals rescinded.

The decision follows the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in June that cleared the way for the U.S. Department of Defense to ban openly transgender Americans from serving in the military. President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year to impose such a ban.

Last week, in a court filing related to transgender service members' lawsuit against the administration, the Department of Justice denied that the plaintiffs are transgender, instead calling them "trans-identifying individuals."

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said there would be "no more pronouns" and "no more dudes in dresses" permitted in the military at a press conference in May, and transgender service members have recently reported facing bigotry as they've departed the service.

Military.com reported last month that one 20-year transgender veteran of the Army was told by an instructor of a mandatory pre-retirement course that she and her classmates should cross out the words "pronoun, gender, diversity, and inclusion" from their workbooks.

The incident, she said, was "yet another reminder that it doesn't matter how much they say, 'Thank you for all the effort you put in and that your contributions are valuable'... because at the end of the day, they're having us manually go in and remove our own contributions from all the documentation."

The attempted "removal" of any record of transgender people's service now extends to their retirement benefits, according to the memo sent Aug. 4, with service members who have served for close to two decades being given the option to quit or be forced out, with lump-sum payments instead of benefits.

Shannon Minter of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights told Reuters the memo was "devastating."

"This is just betrayal of a direct commitment made to these service members," said Minter.

Reuters reported that the memo included a question-and-answer section, with one question reading, "How do I tell family we're not getting retirement benefits?"

The Air Force suggested long-serving transgender members tell their loved ones to "focus on the benefits you do retain," such as Department of Veterans Affairs benefits and "experience," and to seek counseling services.

"The Air Force told transgender service members to prepare for early retirement—then changed course and is now forcing them out with no benefits at all," said U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). "Trans people have served this country with honor. They deserve dignity—not betrayal. We must speak out and fight back, always."

On Labor Day this year, unions and workers' rights groups are calling on advocates to forgo the traditional barbecues and picnics known for ending the summer season, and to instead hold thousands of nationwide rallies "to expose the billionaire agenda" that's harming working families and fueling U.S. President Donald Trump's authoritarian rise.

Unions representing teachers and other workers are joining with other advocacy organizations to turn Labor Day 2025 on September 1 into "a day of protest and recruitment," and an opportunity to fortify their national campaigns against Trump's attacks on healthcare, Social Security, and other safety net programs.

With the Trump administration overseeing mass firings in the federal government and gutting worker protections and social services in the interest of transferring more than $1 trillion in tax breaks to the richest 1% of Americans, groups including Public Citizen and Popular Democracy will spend the holiday "connecting with 30 million workers, training thousands of new leaders to create 'strike ready' cities and states, and supporting each others' local fights to stop abuses in the workplace," according to the former group.

"The Trump regime is perpetrating the most anti-union, anti-worker agenda in modern American history," said Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen. "Trump's union-busting efforts are an order of magnitude greater than [former President Ronald] Reagan's attack on the air traffic employee union; he is working to destroy the independence of the [National Labor Relations Board] and he has perpetrated possibly the largest ever transfer of wealth from working people to the super rich. This Labor Day, Americans are joining together to reject Trump's authoritarian anti-worker agenda and demanding the society we want and need."

"On Labor Day, workers of every race and every corner of this country will stand together to show them, stop their agenda, and push forward a democracy that actually puts working people's needs first."

The groups are building on nationwide actions that have already taken place in thousands of cities and towns as part of the Hands Off, No Kings, and Good Trouble Lives On mobilizations, where demonstrators have spoken out against Trump's mass deportation agenda, attacks on voting rights through the administration's mass collection of voter data, and his assault on federal agencies through the Department of Government Efficiency's cuts.

"Since May Day, we've see the onslaught of attacks on our communities escalating, [and] our organizing has to escalate with it," said Neidi Dominguez, executive director of Organized Power in Numbers, which participated in nationwide protests on May Day. "We know that billionaires are making record profits while we are losing people every day. And we are facing the moment, through mobilizations, conversations, and training. There's more of us than there are of them. We just have to organize ourselves together."

The rallies will "center the conversation on the impact on working people specifically," and will demand a unifying platform of:

• Stopping the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration;
• Protecting and defending Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs for working people;
• Fully funding schools, healthcare, and housing for all;
• Stopping the attacks on immigrants, Black, Indigenous, trans people, and all our communities; and
• Investing in people not wars.

"The only thing to stop billionaires like Trump or [tech mogul] Peter Thiel from bulldozing working families' economic security and the safety nets we've built to take care of each other is people power," said Analilia Mejia, co-director of Popular Democracy. "They attack our democracy in order to get away with stealing our schools, our healthcare, and our futures. On Labor Day, workers of every race and every corner of this country will stand together to show them, stop their agenda, and push forward a democracy that actually puts working people's needs first."

In a separate action, the AFL-CIO is organizing nationwide rallies, picnics, and parades as part of its Workers' Labor Day, following a Workers Deserve Labor Day week of action.

The union has spent two months crisscrossing the country on a bus tour, highlighting workers' organizing efforts and fights to win fair contracts and working conditions.

Despite Trump's deregulatory attacks on workers, the AFL-CIO noted that more than 70% of Americans and nearly 90% of people under 30 support unions.

"The fight for freedom, fairness, and security has never been more popular," said the union.

Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, said that despite Republicans' efforts to divide Americans, "working people are more united than ever to restore our fundamental freedoms and spark an organizing renaissance that sets our country on a new course."

"The CEOs and billionaires are scared of us. That's why they're attacking us," said Redmond. "I've got a message for those who are assaulting our rights: You're right to be scared. Working people are the backbone of this country, and when we join together in solidarity, nothing can stop us."

"Entirely unhinged" was how one constitutional law expert described a letter U.S. Sen. John Cornyn sent to the FBI Tuesday, demanding that the top federal law enforcement agency intervene "to locate or arrest potential lawbreakers who have fled" Texas—meaning the Democratic state legislators who left the state this week to prevent Republicans from advancing a congressional map that would likely net the GOP five more U.S. House seats.

Cornyn (R-Texas) didn't mention the Republican Party's redistricting effort, which has been backed by the Trump administration and is aimed at changing district lines that formed districts with Black and Latino majorities, in his letter to FBI Director Kash Patel. Instead, he claimed the dozens of Democratic state lawmakers who left Texas on Sunday were stopping the state House from addressing proposed disaster relief following deadly floods last month.

Republicans had added the redistricting efforts to the legislative agenda of a special session, making the flood relief a lesser priority—and angering state Democrats who have been in states including Illinois and New York since leaving Sunday, with Democratic Govs. JB Pritzker and Kathy Hochul providing protection against GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's threat to arrest them.

Cornyn claimed in his letter to Patel that the Texas Department of Public Safety may need the FBI's help in locating and arresting the "fleeing lawmakers," and accused the state Democrats of potentially running afoul of anti-bribery laws by accepting the support of Prtizker, Hochul, and other out-of-state officials who have helped them since they left Texas.

"I am concerned that legislators who solicited or accepted funds to aid in their efforts to avoid their legislative duties may be guilty of bribery or other public corruption offenses," wrote Cornyn. "These legislators have committed potential criminal acts in their rush to avoid their constitutional responsibilities and must be fully investigated and held accountable."

Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University, said Cornyn's plea for help from Patel amounted to "police state hogwash from a guy who should know better."

"There is no reasonable basis that arresting Texas legislators will prevent the commission of a federal crime," he said. "This is simply John Cornyn asking for unconstitutional, lawless, and arbitrary federal power."

As Common Dreams reported Monday, Texas state House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-83) signed civil arrest warrants for the more than 50 Democrats who left the state to deny the chamber a quorum, but one expert said the warrants would not be enforceable outside Texas.

Under legislative rules the state House members face $500 daily fines for each day they miss of the session, and they could be formally reprimanded, censured, and expelled if two-thirds of the chamber vote in support of those measures—but legal experts have said Abbott and other Republican leaders in Texas would have a difficult time proving the lawmakers have committed any civil or criminal offenses.

"They have not committed a crime. They are not fugitives," said Kreis. "There's no offense against the United States."

Pressing the Trump administration to explain its rationale for allowing federal agents to don masks and drive unmarked vehicles when carrying out immigration raids and arrests, two Democratic members of Congress on Friday pointed to numerous times in recent months when authorities working under President Donald Trump have eroded "public trust and fundamental constitutional rights" by concealing their identities.

"In Los Angeles, agents were photographed in June 2025 wearing face covers during residential raids," wrote Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Summer Lee (D-Pa.) in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. "In Chicago, witnesses reported masked agents detaining individuals without identification. Similarly, in New York City, then-mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested by masked federal agents."

The two progressive lawmakers sit on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, with Garcia serving as ranking member and Lee serving as ranking member of the Federal Law Enforcement Subcommittee. They reminded Noem that the panel has "broad authority to investigate 'any matter' at 'any time' under House Rule X" as they requested documents regarding Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protocols "governing agent identification and accountability during operations in civilian settings."

DHS, said Garcia and Lee, has been "in direct violation" of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution as it has allowed ICE and other federal agents to conceal their identities and the agencies they work for while raiding workplaces and residential neighborhoods, and waiting outside courtrooms and daycare centers to arrest immigrants.

"This causes a dangerous erosion of public trust, due process, and transparency in law enforcement. It also makes it nearly impossible for individuals to determine whether they are being detained by legitimate law enforcement agents or unlawfully abducted," wrote Garcia and Lee. "These tactics contradict long-standing democratic principles such as the public's right to accountability from those who enforce the law and pave the way for increased crime, making our communities less safe."

The lawmakers noted that federal agents' use of masks and unmarked cars has allowed some people to leverage "the opacity and fear surrounding immigration operations to commit serious crimes," such as an armed man who entered an auto repair shop in Philadelphia wearing a tactical vest labeled "Security Enforcement Agent" and restrained a female employee before stealing $1,000. Another man in Houston recently claimed to be an ICE agent as he used his vehicle to block another driver's car and stole $1,800 and a Guatemalan ID from the victim.

"These cases starkly illustrate how the use of masks, unmarked vehicles, and minimal identification by actual ICE agents does not just erode trust—it effectively hands bad actors a roadmap to exploit vulnerable communities," said Lee and Garcia.

In a statement, Lee accused federal agents, with the Trump administration's approval, of "cowardly concealing their identities behind masks."

"Federal agents under the Trump administration are operating like a secret police force on U.S. soil. These agents must identify themselves," said Lee. "Every person—regardless of immigration status—has a constitutional right to due process and protection from unlawful searches and seizures. These state-sanctioned fear tactics are opening the door for vulnerable communities to be abused and must not become the norm."

Lee and Garcia also noted that lawyers representing ICE and the Trump administration have begun concealing their identities by refusing to give their names when appearing in court to argue immigration cases.

The lawmakers quoted one immigration law expert who told The Intercept last week, "Not identifying an attorney for the government means if there are unethical or professional concerns regarding [DHS], the individual cannot be held accountable."