Shawn Painter

When a president brags about gold accessories as proof of “success,” it projects not leadership but authoritarian pageantry.

A traditional Native American ceremony is held at the Broadview.
ICE Facility In Chicago, featuring a spiritual round dance of healing.

Turning Powerful Post 9-11 Counterterrorism Tools Onto Domestic Policy Targets | Enforcement Edge | Blogs | Arnold & Porter Arnold & Porter

A useful introduction to NSPM-7, focused on the threats to non-profits. But it's worth noting that the threat extends beyond them to many other organizations, and to citizens acting together or individually, in ways of which the Trump administration disapproves.

www.arnoldporter.com/en/perspecti...

Hitler’s rise was enabled by exploiting assumptions of good-faith leadership.

Emergency powers and constitutional loopholes—intended for crisis management—were used to dismantle democratic institutions from within.

JUST TELL THE TRUTH AND STOP FIRING THE TRUTH TELLERS

"Telling the truth about Charlie Kirk was prohibited from the moment the shot that killed him rang out. MSNBC led the way by dropping political analyst Matthew Dowd for daring to mention the context — the provocative nature of Kirk’s rhetoric." -- Frank Wrinn

open.substack.com/pub/theoutpo...

Trump just ordered the military into Portland, and he’s giving them the green light to use lethal force on American citizens.

Authoritarianism is an abstract concept but Trump is making its impacts real and tangible. Let’s be real about it: This is the beginning of dictatorship in America.

The image is a screenshot of an X post from the account @Re... (Really American) dated 11 hours ago, claiming that Speaker Johnson has refused to swear in newly-elected Democratic Rep. Grijalva, who is described as the decisive 218th vote needed for a discharge petition to release the Epstein files. The post questions the reason for the delay. The image also includes a video still labeled "EXCLUSIVE" from Meidastouch Network, featuring Rep.-elect Grijalva, with text stating she is ready to sign the discharge petition. The background shows campaign materials with her name and slogans like "Se hizo historia!"

They are so afraid of this they won’t seat a newly elected Congresswoman from AZ to keep it from happening.

{ gift link } www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...

NORTH CAROLINA… “someone on a boat coming up Cape Fear opened fire on the American Fish Company, an outdoor bar venue… The boat then proceeded up the Intracoastal Waterway…”

Every damn day. 🇺🇸
abcnews.go.com/US/3-dead-8-...

This is dangerous.

Trump’s taking cues from Laura Loomer, an extremist conspiracy theory-pushing racist, to pressure a major publicly traded company — a direct threat to corporate independence.

What’s even more alarming is she’s aware of her power.

Trump tonight appears to have pushed the false "medbed" conspiracy theory, which has spread in the far-right internet over the years. www.yahoo.com/news/qanon-c...

This aged well

Arduous and Unequal: The Fight to Get FEMA Housing Assistance After Helene An analysis by ProPublica and The Assembly of the more rural counties in North Carolina hardest hit by Helene shows that the households that got the most aid tended to have the highest incomes.

NEW: Income isn’t supposed to play a role in how much housing assistance FEMA gives families.

But in some North Carolina counties, the highest-income homeowners received two to three times as much money after Hurricane Helene as those with lower incomes.

With @theassemblync.bsky.social

Someone knows who this ICE agent is. He assaulted a woman who posed no threat to him. #Shame

BREAKING: Trump posted your FIRED pointing to Jerome Powell.

What an imbecile. If he did THIS rates will rise because of a lack in confidence in the independence of the FED.

Harleen Grewal is a pediatric dentist. Meaning this monster does surgery on kids.

She said it was "a joke."

She needs to have her license revoked.

WATCH:

#Resist

theonecalledjai
John Schwarz
thepeoplesunionusa.com

"Discrediting science and scientists is thus an essential first step for authoritarian regimes to then discredit any other types of learning and truth and destabilize their societies."

Sept 27th. Bibi briefs US influencers on the importance of "owning" TikTok #greenscreen TikTok video by The Inconvenient Truth

Netanyahu staying openly that they need to gain control of tiktok.

For anyone who wasn’t aware this was always the plan

www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMYxPAxG/

There are nearly 2,000 peaceful protests planned on October 18. Within days, we expect to have more protests planned in October than we did back in June.

Trump wants to lock up people who desecrate the flag. Here he is violating the flag code by signing his name on it with a marker.

ICE released this Mass. mom with no phone, 30 miles from home in the rain after detainment for a sealed marijuana conviction Federal authorities refused to tell the Canton woman's husband or lawyer on what grounds she was being detained until shortly before her release.

“He said, ‘We’ll notify next of kin if she dies.’ And at that moment, I knew that I was no longer dealing with humans.” www.masslive.com/news/2025/08...

Why Trump built a staff of incompetent sycophants | Robert Reich Leaders who value loyalty above all else have a symbiotic relationship with those unable to succeed on their own merits

I haven’t even mentioned the towering ineptitude of Trump’s cabinet picks, such as Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Robert F Kennedy Jr and Kristi Noem.

How to explain the rise of so many incompetent and unprincipled people?

#Pinks
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Despotism at the Door The thread that ties John Bolton and Kilmar Abrego Garcia is clear: We have a president who wants to operate outside the law.

“What we are seeing is not merely a “slide toward authoritarianism.” It’s a march toward despotism. And it’s a march whose pace is accelerating.”

www.thebulwark.com/p/despotism-...