Ben Barber

The most precious commodity you have is your attention. You don’t have to waste it on poor-faith debates or arguments with strangers if you don’t think they’ll be productive. You can prioritize the things that matter to you and make your life richer.

'We won’t let democracy die on our watch’: Gene Nichol on fighting authoritarianism in NC Facing South talks with author and scholar Gene Nichol about his new book and the path ahead for defending and expanding democracy.

Great to talk with UNC law prof & anti-poverty advocate Gene Nichol about his new book, the growing assault on democratic norms in NC and beyond, why hope matters in crisis, and how everyday people can push back to build a more progressive future.

www.facingsouth.org/2025/11/we-w...

Acton: I’m running against a guy, Vivek Ramaswamy, who has said that people are struggling in Ohio because they’re lazy, they’re mediocre, they’re not working hard enough. And I can absolutely tell you that is not the Ohioans I know or see. I think he’s completely out of touch.

Starbucks’ CEO makes 6,666x what the average @sbworkersunited.org barista does. It would take less than one day of sales to finalize a fair contract.

Baristas at Starbucks corporate stores nationwide are on strike to fight this corporate greed and get the fair contract they deserve.

Caving on a deal that doesn’t fix health care is, and always has been, a giant betrayal of the American people.

Hold the line. Save health care. I’m a NO on anything that doesn’t extend ACA subsidies.

In the 2 weeks after Mamdani won in June, 10k ppl signed up with @runforsomething.net to consider a run for local office - our biggest surge *ever*. Like it or not (& I do!!) he's shaping the future of the Democratic Party.

If you want something different, get other people to run.

Billboards outside US Southern Command urge troops not to 'break the law’ in Caribbean strikes “Don’t let them make you break the law,” reads a billboard along the road to U.S. Southern Command, one of several set up by veterans.

"The new billboards are designed to inform troops of legal resources … 'The [Southern Command] strikes … represent the most blatantly illegal act that this administration has had the military carry out.'"

taskandpurpose.com/news/vet-group-billboards-caribbean-strikes/

Pritzker: "Imagine it. Children who woke up that morning, expectant with joy & excitement to put on their costumes & celebrate with their neighbors in what they thought was a safe place at their homes. Armed, masked agents, terrorizing innocent people, especially children, is unconscionable."

Wow. Based on the comments, a lot of people saw me on Maddow tonight!

To everyone asking me how they can help Democracy Docket fulfill its critical pro-democracy mission while receiving critical information ands analysis, it's easy. Sign-up now! hubs.ly/Q03M8rql0

this is exactly what's happening

Pastor David Black was shot in the head with pepper balls while attempting to pray for and comfort ICE detainees in Chicago.

I asked him why he feels called in this dark hour to stand up for immigrants.

Please listen to his response. Especially you, Speaker Johnson.

Voting Rights Act: SCOTUS Poised to Gut Law & Weaken Electoral Power of Black Americans The Supreme Court appears ready to strike down Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, threatening the equal representation of Black voters, and potentially greenlighting Republican gerrymandering ah...

“We have a wretched history of racial discrimination in voting in this country,” which the Voting Rights Act was intended to rectify, says ACLU attorney Megan Keenan. But the Supreme Court now seems poised to gut the landmark law.

The Supreme Court has chipped away at the Voting Rights Act for years. Will this case be the final blow? The case centers on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the key provision of the law that broadly prohibits discrimination in voting practices on the basis of race or creed.

Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that could gut the Voting Rights Act by barring states from considering race when drawing district lines — an outcome that stands to upend next year's midterms.

Pope Leo blasts economy that marginalizes poor while wealthy live in bubble of luxury Pope Leo XIV has blasted how wealthy people live in a “bubble of comfort and luxury” while the poor suffer.

Pope Leo XIV has blasted how wealthy people live in a “bubble of comfort and luxury” while the poor suffer. In his first teaching document Thursday, Leo confirms that he is in perfect lockstep with Pope Francis on matters of social injustice.

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused apnews.com/article/myan...

Still waiting for it to trickle down...

Text card: Listen for dangerous words. Be alert to the use of the words extremism and terrorism. Be alive to the fatal notions of emergency and exception. Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary. #OnTyranny

One of the lessons I discuss in "On Tyranny":
Listen for dangerous words.

Keep taking videos of what ICE is doing. @govpritzker.illinois.gov is right, document what’s happening. This is why they hate journalists so much.

🗳️Democracy is strongest when everyone has a voice.

Last month we released the Blueprint for a Stronger Democracy — a bold plan to defend and expand democracy in NC.

40+ bipartisan policies to protect voting rights & ensure every voice counts.

Learn more: www.southernstudies.org/2025Blueprint

I’m horrified by Trump’s order to send 300 National Guard troops to Chicago. We’re only nine months into a four year term and already the president is trying to invade an American city. If you’re in the Guard, you can and should refuse these orders.

Who could ever have imagined when I played a fictional rebel who joined the Resistance to oppose a criminal Authoritarian & wannabe King, it would be happening in real-life?

#TwentyfiveFortyseven

Amidst Violent Immigration Raids, DHS Turns to Big Tech to Silence Dissent | TechPolicy.Press Free Press advocacy director Jenna Ruddock says the Trump administration is targeting anyone monitoring its expanding immigration enforcement operations.

the Trump admin just deported an award-winning journalist known for his reporting on ICE and got Apple to block ICE-spotter apps — all while churning out highly-produced social media content from violent ICE raids in Chicago. it’s their media or no media. www.techpolicy.press/amidst-viole...

One thing that comes through awfully clearly in these ICE videos is how many of these goons gravitated toward the job because being able to assault people with impunity is a big thrill for them.

BREAKING: We're suing ICE for refusing to comply with our FOIA request for information about the agency's plans for expanding immigration detention in the D.C. region.

We have a right to know how our taxpayer dollars are being used to fund ICE's abusive detention machine.

Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated' The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.

My god.

“Watson said she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans. Kids were separated from their mothers…’It was heartbreaking to watch…seeing kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers, it was horrible.’”

No Dollars for Dictatorship Americans must stand against Trump’s shutdown agenda.

"Trump wanted this shutdown. This isn’t speculation — it’s strategy... Russ Vought, has openly embraced using a shutdown to permanently fire tens if not hundreds of thousands of public servants". Read @joetrippi.bsky.social on why this shutdown is different: www.lincolnsquare.media/p/no-dollars...

Raskin: "It's not lost on anyone that shutting the government down allows them not swear in our new colleague, Ms Grijalva from Arizona, who would be the 218th signature to discharge the Epstein files and to put a vote on that on the House floor."

Today marks the first day in public media’s history without federal funding. And we’re not going anywhere.

Listeners like you keep our mission alive. Protect one of the last places where America comes together to hear itself.

Stand with us today. Donate at this link: n.pr/46wamAj

From defamation to detention and assault, Trump administration threatens journalism Friends of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker:The Tracker team is working to verify and document around a dozen aggressions against …

Lawsuits against the media + ICE agent assaults = Journalism under attack.

And much more in this month’s Tracker newsletter from Managing Editor @kamccudden.bsky.social:

ICE Just Detained the Superintendent of Iowa’s Largest School District It’s still not clear why Dr. Ian Roberts was detained—or where he currently is.

Superintendent Ian Roberts of Des Moines Public Schools was detained Friday by federal agents. The reason for his detention was not clear, according to the school district.

Roberts’ whereabouts are also, alarmingly, unclear. trib.al/ifiCl4B