John Halpin

2025 has been a year unlike anything we've seen in the US.

In the second Trump administration, attacks on journalists are no longer sporadic. They're systematic.

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Revolutionary ghosts are always helpful.

So I turned to the Surrealists for tips on fighting fascism.

Stay for the ending about @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social surrealist campaigning...

Enjoy!

[OPINION] Kenton County’s $50 Lesson in Press Freedom Even after dropping charges, Kenton County can’t undo the damage caused by prosecuting journalists who were simply covering a protest, despite clear legal protections for the press.

The county "drew condemnation from civil liberties advocates across the country, sacrificed any credibility it had when it comes to valuing transparency and respecting First Amendment rights — and all to recover a grand total of $50," writes @seth-stern.bsky.social in @citybeatcincy.bsky.social.

Invitation to FPF event about ICE's targeting of pro-Palestinian journalists.

🔔 Join us for a conversation about ICE's targeting of pro-Palestinian journalists, featuring Hassan Ahmad 韓安山, Chris Godshall-Bennett, Samantha C. Hamilton, Sam Judy, Marium Uddin, and moderated by FPF's Seth Stern.

🗓️ Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2 p.m. EST

RSVP: http://freedom.press/targeted-by-ice

If you’ve read my reporting from Palestine you’ve almost certainly read about the people of Umm al Khair. Last week the Israeli military issued demolition orders that would erase the entire village.

ACLU of KY Secures Dismissal of Charges Against CityBeat Reporter The ACLU of Kentucky obtained dismissal of the remaining charges against CityBeat reporter Madeline Fening, who was arrested while covering a protest in Northern Kentucky.

The ACLU of Kentucky obtained dismissal of the remaining charges against CityBeat reporter Madeline Fening, who was arrested while covering a protest in Northern Kentucky.

I'll take this seriously if she calls on Schumer to resign.

We cannot afford a divided and weak opposition party when an authoritarian is invading our cities, terrorizing our communities, and corruptly self-enriching at the expense of the rest of us. We want to celebrate a Democratic Party that fights back. But after this latest surrender, the next step is primaries and new leadership. We get the party we demand, and we intend to demand one that fights.

Zohran Mamdani was the first mayoral candidate and Democratic official to stand up to the Trump administration over the arrest and disappearance of Mahmoud Khalil, which he saw as a violation of the First Amendment.

Bill Ackman gotta be on the third draft of a tweet longer than Middlemarch right now

When does Cuomo leave for Florida?

Somebody check on debra messing

thanks for the great reporting this year. hope you all can get some rest soon. :)

Zohran standing amidst a crowd in winter clothing

Zohran at the rally for trans youth on february 8 ❣️ he was polling single digits.

Once more, for old times’ sake

Love my hometown!

When you see Mamdani looking all normal doing normal person things—petting bodega cats, riding public transport—you realize just how bizarre and estranged our average candidate for public office is. Rich martians in flesh suits

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What’s scarier than a government that operates in the dark? Not much.

As we hit 250 FOIA requests filed this year and five active FOIA lawsuits, consider supporting @freedom.press.

Your donation helps us fight monsters like the Glomar Ghost, haunted b(1) exemptions, and Vampire Regulations. 👻

Sara Whitmer • • • 1h • 8 I'm sure many of you have heard by now that earlier this week, IU k*lled the print edition of its student paper, the IDS. The issue that was supposed to print this week contained criticism of the Whitten regime and IUs further slide into scist control, and they couldn't allow that to happen during Homecoming, when all the rich alumni are in town. Enter Purdue! The Purdue student paper, The Exponent, owns its own presses. Yesterday, in an act of tremendous solidarity with their biggest rival school, they printed the forbidden issue of the IDS. They then drove it to Bloomington overnight and stocked all of the IDS boxes on campus, just in time for Homecoming. Solidarity is what makes us stronger, and solidarity will be what ultimately allows us to triumph, if we can ever truly get it together. I hope everyone has a fun, safe day if they're going out today, and I hope we can think about what acts of solidarity we can begin taking to really make this movement MOVE - beyond a permitted expression of upset into more active resistance. 75 12 comments

Purdue to the rescue of IU student newspaper, whose institution was attempting censorship. Details in alt!

Neon signs in a museum.

If you're ever in Cincinnati you have to visit the American Sign Museum there. Neon for miles.

There is an actual life-changing conflict between WFH being cheaper and more efficient, an entire layer of middle managers who need to have meetings to feel alive, and the commercial real estate cabal that runs all cities. It’s going to get so fucking weird.

Jesus fucking christ there are details in this that are so fucking unhinged it beggars belief. Like they have a picture of her suitcase the Israelis wrote whore Greta on and drew a dick next to the fucking Star of David

Moreover, ICE must be destroyed

Beating, kicking, and threats of being gassed in cages. Greta Thunberg and several others from the flotilla are now sharing details about their five days in Israeli captivity - and how Swedish Foreign Ministry staff left them without help. Aftonbladet's investigation shows how the Foreign Ministry downplayed the abuse in its communications. Her red suitcase lies in the hall. "Whore Greta" someone has written in large black letters. Around the text: an Israeli flag and an erect penis. The bag was confiscated by the Israeli military from the boat - and returned to her like this. She laughs. - They're like five-year-olds!

- They dragged me to the opposite side from where the others were sitting, and I had the flag around me the whole time. They hit and kicked me. Greta laughs. - Then they ripped off my frog hat, threw it on the ground, stomped and kicked it, and kind of threw a tantrum. - They moved me very brutally to a corner that I was turned towards. 'A special place for a special lady', they said. And then they had learned 'Lilla hora' (Little whore) and 'Hora Greta' (Whore Greta) in Swedish, which they repeated all the time.

Greta Thunberg was beaten and tortured by the Israelis. They learned how to call her a whore in Swedish, and forced her to wear the Israeli flag.

The Swedish foreign ministry abandoned its citizens in Israel, and downplayed what they went through.

www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/25...

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

I visited the apartment building ICE raided on Tuesday today. Story to come, but you can walk right in. Half of the apartments have no doors on them. Children's stuff abandoned in some flats. *Citizen* residents told me they were arrested and held for hours in zipties. This is America

Griffith was found guilty of failure to disperse and fined $50.

That's unconstitutional -- even the DOJ recognizes journalists' right to cover how law enforcement disperses protesters.

But it also shows what a giant waste of taxpayer funds it is to prosecute journalists for doing their jobs.

When news organizations decide to engage in advocacy, they’re actually very good at it, said @trevortimm.bsky.social at @columbiajournalism.bsky.social, urging media outlets to speak out on 200+ journalists killed in Gaza.

“The mass killing of journalists … seems like a great place to start.”