Taylor Pepper

“I don’t give a sh*t whether there’s a ballroom or not… the point is Trump has no mandate for this.”

In this week’s ‘Ask the Editor,’ Mehdi and Swin discuss how the media is rolling over for Trump in their coverage of the White House ballroom.

Trump to the Poor: Let Them Eat Ballroom Millions of Americans are about to lose food aid from the government, but the man in charge is focused on his ‘MAGA-Saddam,’ multi-million-dollar White House ballroom.

"And as millions face the prospect of starving, the president is obsessed over the fun minutiae of party-planning... Trump has spoken to senior administration officials about the idea of putting his name or image (like a bust) in the ballroom." - @swin24.bsky.social

Assata Shakur, political activist and ex-Black Liberation Army member, has died Assata Shakur “died in Havana, Cuba, as a result of health conditions and her advanced age,” according to Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Assata Shakur has "died in Havana, Cuba, as a result of health conditions and her advanced age."

She was 78.

If you voted for him, you've done this.

Only an administration intent on committing war crimes in the present and future would stoop to calling Wounded Knee a "battle" rather than what it truly was: a massacre of over 250 Lakotas, mainly women, children, and the elderly. 1/

I hope the majority realizes you can't win over the right wing with civility or the old ways. Doesn't work. Its a dangerous, violent, hypocritical cult without shame.

They want power by any illegal means necessary.

Choose your fighters accordingly. The current Dem leadership ain't it.

Media execs have fallen prey to a propaganda and harassment campaign that has completely divorced them from what people actually want right now.

Both their insular information environments (group chats, podcasts) and ambient noise (Twitter reactionaries) have put them in a very stupid bubble.

Critical part of the President's new $100,000 charge for H1-B visas: The Administration can also offer a $100,000 discount to any person, company, or industry that it wants. Replacing rules with arbitrary discretion.

Want visas? You know who to call and who to flatter.

“Perish or Leave”: Hundreds of Thousands Flee as Israeli Military Invades Gaza City Israeli forces are pushing deeper into Gaza City as the full-fledged military ground invasion continues despite mounting international condemnation. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee Gaza City, where nearly 1 million Palestinians ...

"Either you stay and perish, or you leave."

This is Hollywood's McCarthy Moment.

This is the litmus test.

Learn from history.

Who will step up and fight?

Who will bend the knee and be complicit?

History will remember.

Becoming increasingly clear we’re gonna have to build a parallel infrastructure for all the media we really love. The reason all of this is happening under the color of law is hyperconsolidation, dissent being traded straight up for merger approval, or fear of harassment.

ICE Just Bought A Robot That Can Climb Stairs And Open Doors ICE can now deploy a robot capable of letting off smoke grenades and navigating obstacles in its raids.

ICE can now deploy a robot capable of letting off smoke grenades and navigating obstacles in its raids.

The Supreme Court’s Fast Track Needs a Name, and the Justices Are Split

Read your piece @adamliptak.bsky.social. My two cents is that we, in the media, shouldn't give a rat's ass about what the Supreme Court would like us to call the docket.
Our goal should be to inform the people, not repeat what makes the Nine feel comfortable.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...

Washington Post fires their last remaining Black opinion writer @karenattiah.bsky.social over the most benign comments in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's murder...

Meanwhile Fox still has Brian Kilmeade who casually said all homeless people should be killed.

Its all unfair & unbalanced. Wake up.

The free speech activist who built a list of professors he worked to get fired for their speech must be celebrated for his support of free speech, and anyone who quotes his speech accurately in context will be fired and/or face state punishment by the champions of free speech, do I have that right?

After Kirk Murder, Trump and Allies Vow to ‘Destroy’ Progressive Groups Read more here.

🚨BREAKING: President Donald Trump and his allies are intensifying their dangerous and anti-democratic threats to use Charlie Kirk’s murder to suppress progressive political activity. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

This man will not be fired for calling for the murder of American citizens, yet multiple journalists/reporters/teachers lost their job for accurately reporting things Charlie Kirk actually said and stood for.

But it’s the “violent left” that’s the problem

Brian Kilmeade endorses euthanizing homeless people: "Involuntary lethal injection, or something. Just kill them."

To put this into context, the judicial warrant for the search at the Hyundai plant named just four people.

Relying on that warrant, ICE detained nearly 500 people. DHS admitted that included U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and people lawfully here on visas.

#SCOTUS all-but overruled a unanimous, 90-year-old precedent through an unexplained "administrative" stay this morning, and that's only the second-most-problematic thing it did before lunchtime.

The injunction is silent as to the use of force. And it is not necessary for the injunction to address that use-of-force question because the Fourth Amendment’s reasonableness standard continues to govern the officers’ use of force and to prohibit excessive force. To the extent that excessive force has been used, the Fourth Amendment prohibits such action, and remedies should be available in federal court. I agree with the dissent on that point. But to reiterate, this injunction against brief stops for questioning does not address the useof-force issue.

It's not the most important part of the issue but Kavanaugh saying "well they should just sue if they're the victims of excessive force from ICE" when he himself has previously voted to bar lawsuits against federal officers for violations of the 4th Amendment in immigration cases takes chutzpah.

Supreme Court Allows Trump to Fire FTC Commissioner Read more here.

🚨BREAKING: The Supreme Court through an unexplained order Monday allowed Donald Trump to, for now, remove the last Democratic commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission in a decision that represents a grave threat to the independence of federal agencies. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

The only way the Epstein abuse could have gone on for decades is to have the "right people" in place. The right people have always been in place. The right people are STILL in place.

last night was a bleak one for TX legislature history. dan patrick literally denied senate democrats the ability to filibuster redistricting, even though rules allow it. roland gutierrez asked what precedent there was for this. patrick didn't even bother to answer. that's how the map passed.

Donald Trump raided the home of my UN ambassador as punishment for his public criticism. Out of respect for the presidency, I will say nothing and paint another picture of a dog.

by George W. Bush

ICE Is Constantly Using Coast Guard Planes to Move Immigrants Donald Trump’s deportation henchmen appear to have dramatically increased the use of Coast Guard aircraft to transport immigrants.

The Coast Guard works for ICE now.

Coast Guard planes previously used for search and rescue have done hundreds of secret ICE flights in recent weeks, including two I watched from a public parking lot near BWI.

My exclusive for Rolling Stone:

www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

FFS!

HE PARDONED THUGS WHO BEAT DC COPS UNTIL THEY WERE NEAR DEAD AND SPRAYED OTHERS WITH BEAR MACE!

He doesn't give a shit about cops or law & order in DC

This is a dress rehearsal for 2026 when he seizes the Capitol and makes it his Reichstag!

Threats • Intimidation • Insurrection

Ghislaine Maxwell, serving 20 yrs for sex trafficking minors, has been given permission to leave minimum security campus for work assignments, per @muellershewrote.com
www.muellershewrote.com/p/exclusive-...

Dems should fight on every front.

If Texas steals 5 seats, Dem states should redistrict 30 GOP members out of their districts.

We should insist DOJ release the entire Epstein File.

Not only shouldn't we bring knives to a gun fight, if they bring pistols, we should bring machine guns.