Brandishing is a legal term that means to display all or part of a firearm, or otherwise make its presence known to another person to intimidate them, regardless of whether it's directly visible to that person. Given the video, that's not what Alex Pretti was doing when he was shot & killed.

Worse than Kent State, really than any episode I can think of probably dating back to Reconstruc & earlier b/c 1. continuing, not 1 off. 2. organized, not individual ofcrs losing it 3. literally at hand of federal government, which is 4. immediately lying & circling the wagons to prevent inves.

We all know the poem, and there is no shade of white that will save you from this murderous regime.

Nothing threatens authoritarian regimes more than act of nonviolent protest — people standing together, choosing empathy and courage, and refusing to be afraid.

Mississippi’s largest synagogue was set on fire before dawn Saturday. Fire department ruled it arson, and a suspect has been arrested. It is the same synagogue that the Ku Klux Klan bombed in 1967 because the rabbi supported civil rights. mississippitoday.org/2026/01/10/f...

The revenge docket strikes again: Fed’l Prosecutors open a criminal investigation into Fed Chair Powell & whether he lied to Congress about building renovations. (Gutsy, coming from they guy who tore down the East Wing) www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/u...

Listen to Powell here. www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...

Tomorrow on my live podcast "History Matters" The Power of Turning Points: January 3, 6, 7...& More Turning points are a chance to rewrite the narrative of history for better & worse. Sometimes...much worse. Join us to discuss the power of NOW. Friday 10AM ET www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl6m...

Senate News: Republicans are trying to sneak a provision into their latest government funding bill that would make it easier to sell off public lands and national parks, and may have the votes to do it. If you care about protecting your public lands, now’s the time to make it known.

Unavoidable conclusion: SCOTUS has put 1 man in America above the law & created a king. Not the first time a case has been decided wrong. The fix for democracy lies, as it did in Dred Scott, with fixing a broken decision. Hopefully this one won’t require a civil war. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...

Yesterday, the Trump admin opened up all 1.6 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Reguge's Coastal Plain to oil and gas drilling. This land has never been developed. It's sacred wilderness.

Got a news tip about the Census Bureau or Postal Service? I'm a @npr.org correspondent who can be reached on Signal at hansi.01 (please use a nonwork device), and here’s my latest article:

President Donald Trump’s administration has terminated $352 million in grants and contracts this year to the Research Triangle Institute, the United States’s third largest independent research organization, a report estimates.

My statement with @markwarner.bsky.social on the Trump Administration’s malicious prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James:

bsky.app/profile/govp... Life during wartime. Chicago is now occupied territory.

Hey folks: Many of you have been asking for a syllabus for "America at 250" -- the lecture course I'm teaching with David Blight and Beverly Gage. Here you go (scroll down to the bottom): president.yale.edu/committees-p...

This is where we are. Say it plain. He's trying to become a dictator. Turning the military against Americans who oppose him is a pretty sure sign, folks.

Very illegal.

NEW: Far-right sheriffs and election deniers are teaming up to police elections and sow doubt about their integrity. From seizing voting machines to patrolling ballot boxes, their tactics offer a glimpse into how Trump could use them to subvert elections, @jesspish.bsky.social writes.

Trump is pledging to stand by NATO, but his Defense Department is cutting all security assistance funding for European countries, including the Baltics. And Trump is criticizing Putin, but he still hasn’t imposed any new sanctions on Russia. He even exempted Russia from his tariffs. wapo.st/4gOO40a

“Three things made the US a rich and powerful nation: the rule of law, its science & innovation system, and openness to foreign talent. Remarkable how Trump has taken a sledgehammer to all three. No enemy of this country could do more.” From the archives:

States are now running info on millions of U.S. voters through the upgraded SAVE system to check citizenship, etc. 33 million voter records have been shared so far — 26M since Aug. 15. That’s even as concerns persist about data accuracy and security. www.npr.org/2025/09/10/n...

Russia murders pensioners kyivindependent.com/russian-air-...

A professor at Texas A&M taught… something related to gender that offended a student, who secretly filmed herself objecting. That video is picked up by TX legislators, who demand her firing, and now the dean and dept head have been fired. www.kbtx.com/2025/09/09/a...

“The deference and latitude that Congress and the Supreme Court have granted the executive will not necessarily snap back as soon as a new president is in office; dismantled institutions and discarded habits will not magically reconstitute themselves.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/o...

Read this, by @jamellebouie.net. These are the stakes. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/o...

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. ... History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” ―Orwell, 1984

They know that they’re a minority. They can’t win a fair election.

Luttig is communicating vastly more clearly and honestly about Roberts and Scotus than most Democratic officials are. It’s absolutely flabbergasting.

Donald Trump has personally incited more crime in Washington DC than perhaps anyone else living. He pardoned violent criminals who attacked our Capitol and put them back in American communities. He even made a man who was filmed urging the crowd to kill DC police officers a senior adviser at DOJ.

Tyrants throughout history have used promises of law and order to strip away fundamental human rights and start using the tools of the state to go after their opponents. That's what we saw today with Trump's illegal seizure of control of the DC police. www.thedailybeast.com/why-trumps-c...

He went after LA. He's going after DC. Then he is coming for the rest of America's Democrat-leaning big cities. One goal is power. One goal is racist. And one is to be able to influence future elections. My latest. www.thedailybeast.com/why-trumps-c...

NEW: Voter ID laws don’t solve the problem of voter fraud — they solve the “problem” of high voter turnout. Learn more about how voter ID laws are used to undermine our democracy and you’ll never call voter ID “common sense” again. From: @yuniorarivas.bsky.social

First, Donald Trump used the Marines and the National Guard to support his mass deportation agenda in Los Angeles. Now, he's using similar tactics in D.C. like a tinpot dictator. Don't look away. Don't stay silent. If you do, don't be surprised if it's your city next.

Our new explainer breaks down the history of birthright citizenship in the United States — and the consequences of ending it. bit.ly/44Tm6Mn

It seems unhelpful to me that whenever someone says “Trump proposal X would be clearly illegal” a thousand people all chorus in to say “yes but SCOTUS is in the bag, it doesn’t matter.” Sure, the corrupt majority might sign off on anything. But we need to ACT like the law still matters.

UPDATE: Workers at FOUR of the most important US science agencies have now filed letters of dissent against their leadership. After initially delaying their letter due to fears of retaliation, NSF workers have gone ahead anyway, and joined their colleagues at NIH, EPA, and NASA in speaking up.

State Department to burn almost $10 million of contraceptives for poor countries

‘1984’ is upon us If you think cutting $1 trillion from medicaid won’t cost people insurance and make things more expensive you don’t understand how things work

If you think I've forgotten about the hurricane satellites, think again. The Navy is permanently unplugging them this week, on the brink of the busiest stretch of the season. There's so much more to this story, and I have the latest scoop. ⬇️

Those of us in the pro-democracy camp can no longer afford to play by the traditional rules. www.democracydocket.com/opinion/the-...

Just to reiterate: What this administration is doing right now is orders of magnitude more dangerous for academic freedom and free speech than anything the right has spent the last 30 years complaining about.

Donald Trump may be election denialism’s spiritual leader — but Mike Whatley is its chief architect. The NC lawyer and RNC chair has done more in the last year to undermine voting rights than any single individual. Now, he wants a Senate seat. Get to know the name:

LA Times - Several communities in Los Angeles County have called off or postponed their previously scheduled Independence Day and July events, citing resident safety amid ongoing immigration enforcement raids.

(2/2) "hurricanes form and intensify so rapidly that forecasters need near real-time information, which requires as many satellites as possible [...]. Without the Defense Department data, there will be bigger gaps in time when forecasters will not know the current conditions inside a storm."

(1/2) "The satellites and instruments are still functional, and the Department of Defense will continue to use them even as it cuts off access for scientists. "It's not an issue of funding cuts," says Mark Serreze [...] "There are cybersecurity concerns. That's what we're being told."

On the state of American democracy and historical comparisons and lessons, this conversation between historian @hcrichardson.bsky.social and @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social is just outstanding. And yes, it’s even kind of optimistic. Highly recommend ✌️

"Universities across Europe...are offering grants and the promise of #academicfreedom to U.S. scholars." (Gift link) www.wsj.com/world/europe...

Take a minute to look at these increases to the ICE budget in the GOP mega bill. Take another minute to let it sink in. They're preparing a police state that will far exceed rounding up Spanish-speaking brown people.