Opinion | This Is What Autocrats Dread

gift link - no paywall.

very much worth reading:

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

NEW: Rachel Maddow drops unseen bodycam footage of feds coordinating the arrest of Newark Mayor Baraka.

I REPEAT: the feds ordered his arrest even though he wasn’t breaking any laws.

Federal agent: “We are arresting the mayor right now per the Deputy Attorney General of the United States.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/u...

A statue of Trump and Epstein holding hands in D.C. is removed as fast as it appeared The statue of Trump and Epstein holding hands mid-frolic wasn't the first anti-Trump artwork on the National Mall in recent months. But it was the first to be removed, despite having a permit.

The statue of Trump and Epstein holding hands mid-frolic wasn't the first anti-Trump artwork on the National Mall in recent months. But it was the first to be removed, despite having a permit.

Same

As evidenced by his emulating the “plastic hair” look.

Nothing sums up America under Republican rule like turning a place of history and strength into a strip mall food court.

No solidarity. Reporters let Trump talk this way to a woman reporter and then clamor to get their own question answered. He used to do it to April Ryan, Yamiche Alcindor and Abby Phillip.

And that’s why he controls media. No solidarity.

No one. And actually a lot of people are instead saying “release the Epstein files”.

Who did this?

How rare was D.C.’s 12 days homicide-free? Not as rare as Trump says. Trump touted the homicide-free streak as “the first time that’s taken place in years”, but the District went 16 days without a killing stretch earlier this year.

President Trump and his administration have touted D.C.’s 12-day stretch without a homicide as “the first time that’s taken place in years."

That's false. Here's the data:

The Nineteenth Amendment Yesterday, I intended to write about the Nineteenth Amendment prohibiting states from denying women the right to vote because today is the anniversary of the amendment’s certification in 1920.

A video about the Nineteenth Amendment.

Um actually, many people say that they’d rather have the fully released Epstein files.

Paxton tells Texas schools to follow Ten Commandments law despite court ruling Attorney General Ken Paxton's guidance comes days after U.S. District Judge Fred Biery sided with 16 families who sued their school districts to stop the law from going into effect.

My current favorite bit of right-wing Christian hypocrisy is Ken Paxton, a man whose wife is divorcing him for adultery, forcing Texas schools to unconstitutionally post "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery."
www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...

So then her credibility is not a question. She has no credibility. Period.

Why the Huge Conflicts of Interest Among Trump’s Epstein Team Matter His former personal lawyers are overseeing the Department of Justice.

The very idea that Trump’s former personal lawyers would play a role, much less a potentially decisive role, in determining whether he was complicit in any of Epstein’s misdeeds is an insult to our criminal justice system. New from Philip Rotner:

Can confirm this email is authentic — and about nothing in it is true.

Social Security income is still taxed. This bill does nothing to change that.

It’s willful disinformation on the part of SSA. It’s a lie.

I received this email from the SSA as well. It is a complete lie. Social Security income is still taxed — the Big, Ugly Bill did NOTHING to change that.

Welcome to 1984, folks.

Ahead of 2026, Georgia Republicans Are Quietly Installing Election Conspiracy Theorists on Local Boards Read more here.

Republicans are already laying the foundation to undermine a fair 2026 midterm election in Georgia, where they’re working to install voting skeptics on local election boards. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Cries of Defiance and Songs of Joy in Los Angeles The protesters are being called unspeakably violent by the Trump administration. I mostly saw clergy sit-ins and Tejano bands.

This took a while to get done, but I've chronicled my day among the protesters in Los Angeles, and the idea that this is anything but a celebration of cultural heritage and a firm, nonviolent demand to protect family, friends and neighbors is totally ridiculous.
prospect.org/justice/crie...

“If something is beautiful, you don’t do it after midnight.” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voices his opposition to the domestic policy bill

Just FYI because evidently Fox or OAN or whatever is pushing the lie that America accepted the Statue of Liberty and that’s equivalent to the plane.

Congress VOTED to approve receiving the statue. So congress should vote on the jet

April 29, 2025 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt popularized the idea that the first 100 days of a presidency established an administration’s direction.

April 29, 2025

Anti-Trump protesters in the US might look to the Czech Republic: ‘We are an example’ Massive, sustained protests led to the 2021 downfall of billionaire oligarch Andrej Babiš, dubbed ‘the Czech Trump’

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Anti-Trump protesters in the US might look to the Czech Republic: ‘We are an example’ Massive, sustained protests led to the 2021 downfall of billionaire oligarch Andrej Babiš, dubbed ‘the Czech Trump’

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

April 13, 2025 This evening, lawyers for the Department of Justice told a federal court that the administration does not believe it has a legal obligation to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States,...

open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

Ordering Miles Taylor’s book. Let’s boost its sales in honor of first amendment rights.

YouTube video by MeidasTouch Trump Pulls MOST DANGEROUS Stunt Yet in Oval Office

youtu.be/2VZunf6Us1g

Trump’s budget plan eviscerates weather and climate research, and it could be enacted immediately | CNN The cuts could cripple US industries — including agriculture — that depend on free, accurate weather and climate data and expert analysis. It could also halt research on deadly weather, including seve...

Trump is destroying US weather forecasting and research because he dislikes the word "climate":

"While the phrase 'climate change' refers to manmade influence on climate via planet-warming pollution, 'climate' in NOAA parlance is simply weather observed over time..."

www.cnn.com/2025/04/11/c...

My family got these payments when my dad died at 34 years old after serving in the Navy for a decade from what he had paid in. I was five. Jeanine is an incurious ignoramus. Thanks @jessicatarlov.bsky.social for correcting her, which is God’s work.