New IRS proposal threatens universities' tax-exempt status over diversity programs - POLITICO

“Weaponizing the IRS to attack colleges and universities that uphold and expand civil rights is outrageous,” Todd Wolfson, the group’s president, said in a statement. “This is blatantly racist political coercion intended to deny minority students reparative opportunities to further their education.” 

Mike Gavin, head of the Alliance for Higher Education, said the “administration’s latest rules changes are its most blatant attack to keep working class Americans and people of color from accessing higher education and a better life.”…

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/03/irs-universities-tax-exempt-status-01063478 

White House pushes companies to ditch Macron’s space summit - POLITICO

The White House pressured U.S. space companies to skip French President Emmanuel Macron’s space summit in Paris next week — a surprise move that left company executives confused about what they should do...

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/02/space-summit-france-white-house-01062483 

'Bizarre strategic disaster': 4-star general says Iran 'will be a nuclear power because of this war.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbfwnzoVX3s 

 

Senators Sound Alarm on Voter Intimidation in Nursing Homes – Mother Jones

The new guidance removes suggestions of specific ways nursing home staff can help residents vote—providing transportation to polling places, for example—and instead threatens staff with fraud investigations if they “engage in inappropriate coercion or other violations of residents’ rights.”…

 https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/08/senators-sound-alarm-on-voter-intimidation-in-nursing-homes/

 

Preventing religious harm

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CHZ1XAPVAPM

Anti-abortion groups have a new strategy to end telehealth abortion

Though few studies look at how often people are coerced into having abortions, existing data indicate the situation is quite rare — and certainly less common than the opposite phenomenon of patients being forced to stay pregnant against their will. 

Abortion opponents, however, say the problem of coercion is ubiquitous, so much so that laws and courts should target the health care providers making medication available through telehealth. In a legislative hearing for a Texas anti-abortion bill, activist Mark Lee Dickson argued that the threat of coerced abortions — and telehealth's role in facilitating them — justified specific laws going after medical providers, such as a bill making its way through the legislature that would let private citizens sue anyone who mails abortion pills into the state...

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/9/1/2341201/-Anti-abortion-groups-have-a-new-strategy-to-end-telehealth-abortion

How Conservatives Were Convinced to Undermine Their Own Future #shorts

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/yLAFg7tRdMs

“It’s An Easy Fix” (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast)(It’s in the Code ep 144)

“It’s an easy fix.” That’s what the proponents of high control religion often say in response to those who ask hard questions or level pointed critiques. 

But is it an “easy fix”? 

If not, what is the strategy behind suggesting that it is? How does the assertion that high-control religion can “easily” be modified actually work to maintain it? Why should we recognize that this response aims to coerce and maintain control over would-be faith deconstructors? 

Join Dan in this episode as he explores these questions and issues.

Interview: 

https://www.straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/episodes/its-in-the-code-ep-144-its-an-easy-fix/

“Don’t Throw Out the Baby” (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast) It’s in the Code ep #143

Advocates of high-control Christianity often admonish those undergoing faith deconstruction not to “throw out the baby with the bath water” as they level their critiques against high-control religion. The suggestion here is that, no matter what it’s faults might be, high-control Christianity offers something so important to its adherents that the cost of giving it up is simply too high consider. 

What is it that high-control Christianity is thought to offer its adherents? 

And how do partisans of high-control Christianity leverage this to coerce individuals into remaining within the high-control fold? Check out this week’s episode to find out!

Interview: 

https://www.straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/episodes/its-in-the-code-ep-143-dont-throw-out-the-baby/

“You’re Confusing Christians With Christianity” (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast) (It’s in the Code Ep 137)

“You’re confusing Christians with Christianity.” 

This is another response that those undergoing “faith deconstruction” often receive when engaging with the partisans of high-control religion. 

This response reflects widespread cultural understandings of religion, so it has a ring of plausibility. But is it? Listen to this week’s episode as Dan discusses why this response is not only implausible, but is weaponized by the partisans of high-control religion to coerce and control those who would challenge it.

Interview: 

https://www.straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/episodes/its-in-the-code-ep-137-youre-confusing-christians-with-christianity/

Catastrophic TRUTH Of Supreme Court Fallout Uncovered In Horrific Revelations

A new report spotlights the connection between access to abortion care and domestic violence with reproductive coercion surging since the catastrophic Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade. John Iadarola and Sharon Reed break it down on The Damage Report.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPmi96OFh7I

Co-defendant in Georgia says false electors met at Trump’s ‘direction’ - POLITICO

"Mr. Still, as a presidential elector, was also acting at the direction of the incumbent president of the United States," his attorney Thomas Bever argued Thursday in a court filing seeking to transfer the case against him to federal court. "The president's attorneys instructed Mr. Still and the other contingent electors that they had to meet and cast their ballots on Dec. 14, 2020."…

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/24/co-defendant-georgia-trump-indictment-00112932

Twitter's own lawyers refute Elon Musk's claim that the 'Twitter Files' exposed US government censorship | CNN Business

The communications unearthed as part of the Twitter Files do not show coercion, Twitter's lawyers wrote, "because they do not contain a specific government demand to remove content—let alone one backed by the threat of government sanction."

"Instead," the filing continued, the communications "show that the [FBI] issued general updates about their efforts to combat foreign interference in the 2020 election." …

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/06/tech/twitter-files-lawyers/index.html

Biden DOL Praised for Historic Suit Over Using Debt Threat to Stop Workers From Quitting

Workers' rights advocates are applauding the Biden administration this week for filing a historic lawsuit against a Brooklyn-based healthcare staffing agency for coercive contracts that allegedly violate federal labor law…

https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-labor-advanced-care-staffing

Interview with Andrew Seidel, author of "American Crusade" (Hemant Mehta; Friendly Atheist podcast, episode 444)

Hemant spoke with Andrew Seidel about Christian Nationalism, how to fight back against the Supreme Court, and the Court's current legitimacy crisis.

Andrew Seidel is the Vice President of Strategic Communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the author of "The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American." He's written and spoken extensively about these issues in a variety of online and print publications, and on several news shows.

His latest book, out this month, is called "American Crusade: How the Supreme Court is Weaponizing Religious Freedom."

0:00 Intro
1:08 How did you write a book about the Supreme Court when the Court kept issuing new, harmful rulings? (An update to the book can be found here: https://andrewlseidel.com/moreac/)
3:24 What church/state barriers are next to fall?
8:09 Is the Federalist Society a Christian organization?
13:37 Why isn't there a liberal equivalent to the Federalist Society?
15:14 SPONSOR: https://www.expressvpn.com/friendlyatheist
16:34 Is the Supreme Court helping or hurting the country?
18:40 Is there one justice whose presence is ultra-crusade-y?
21:04 Should we care about the details of Amy Coney Barrett's faith?
24:16 What impact will Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson have on this Court?
25:45 What would be the best way to fight back against this activist Court?
33:45 What does success mean for you when it comes to readers of "American Crusade"?
42:10 What do you say to future lawyers who care about church/state issues?
Interview: 

https://audioboom.com/posts/8158683-ep-444-interview-with-andrew-seidel-author-of-american-crusade

GOP and Fox News rush to turn vaccine door-knockers into terrifying straw men - The Washington Post

…Republican members of Congress and conservative talkers have wrongly pitched the effort as forced vaccination — even repeatedly invoking the Nazis — and lodged baseless suggestions that it would be done using illegally obtained medical information. Others have suggested it's something akin to government coercion or even a precursor to gun confiscation…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/09/gop-fox-news-rush-turn-vaccine-door-knockers-into-terrifying-straw-men/

Kentucky abortion law affirmed by the Supreme Court disguises coercion as 'informed consent'

Conservative lawmakers are purposefully cloaking anti-abortion legislation in legitimate-sounding medical terminology.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/kentucky-abortion-law-affirmed-supreme-court-disguises-coercion-informed-consent-ncna1100746