Elected lawmakers aren't just there to carry out bureaucratic technocratic procedures. They are your agents, to stand between you and the force of the state, empowered with the people's "she speaks for us." This is what representative democracy is for, at its best in the face of its worst failures.

Biggest story in the world, told in the mainstream press perfectly well: AP/PBS headline: TRUMP'S MOVES AGAINST MEDIA OUTLETS MIRROR AUTHORITARIAN APPROACHES TO SILENCING DISSENT www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...

Colorado last year became the first state to mandate polling places inside all county jails—and turnout among voters who are held in jails, often pretrial, skyrocketed: It grew by roughly 900% between 2022 and 2024.

Right out of the modern authoritarian playbook www.unpopularfront.news/p/this-is-it

generally speaking, and with the glaring exception of november 2024, the more directly democratic an institution has been, the better it has checked Trump (eg grand and petit juries); the more elite and insular, the less effective (the Senate, the Supreme Court, big business)

What America is going through is not unusual in historical terms. Plenty of examples like it today elsewhere in the world. What makes it unusual is the rapid collapse from a set of widely espoused norms and values that centered on liberty. It is the sacking of the shining city on hill that shocks.

On the toboggan of authoritarian consolidation in the U.S., we've just whizzed past the "regime pressure forces major broadcast figure off the air" marker.

Some see this as an embarrassing blunder. I see it as a message they can do anything they want anytime they want, and face zero consequences.

The family of Demartravion “Trey” Reed is seeking an independent autopsy following the Delta State University student’s death on Monday, when his body was found hanging in a tree on campus. buff.ly/4tv2FgO

Karina Villa protecting her constituents by literally running ICE off the streets in West Chicago and yelling to residents to stay inside their homes.

Bad bad bad for democracy

Minnesota doesn't count because they weren't nationally famous. Pelosi's husband doesn't count because he survived. etc. It's like qualified immunity analysis. If it's not the exact same equivalent facts as Charlie Kirk in every conceivable but not really relevant detail, it doesn't count.

Pay attention. Something dark might be coming. The murder of Charlie Kirk could have united Americans to confront political violence. Instead, Trump and his anti-democratic radicals look to be readying a campaign to destroy dissent. 1/ Here's what's happening.

Read of the day

In this scary moment, it matters for each of us to affirm that political violence is wrong and will destroy our democracy.

Ron DeSantis has done a LOT of things I disagree with, and which I'd argue are callous and soulless. This one might just take the cake. Wow

THREAD: Centering the conversation on crime - which is always too much and terrible and devastating- suggests that violent crime justifies the presidential takeover of an American city. Trump declared a crime “emergency” in Washington, D.C. His power emanates from that declaration. 1/

National Guard x Volo on the mall

The president the United States using armed, masked paramilitaries to intimidate a political rival.

DeSantis deliberately underinvested in the Florida's participation in the national census in 2020. Now, he essentially wants the federal government to take away House seats from other states and give them to Florida flapol.com/4fCvGHm

Keep seeing chatter about Democratic gerrymandering in Massachusetts. But it's not gerrymandering that causes a lack of representation for Massachusetts R's. It's geography.

If you read only one piece today about the gerrymandering wars, I recommend this one.

Today we celebrate the Voting Rights Act's 60th birthday! While the VRA has been dramatically weakened in the past 15 years, it remains among the crown jewels of the Civil Rights Movement. Understanding why it's so vital requires understanding its history and context. Time for a birthday thread...

Gerrymandering or no, the House IS too small. It's impossible to appropriately represent 330 million voices with 435 reps. A bigger House is a necessary component of fair representation. And then we need proportional representation and/or independent redistricting.

Leonardo José Colmenares Solórzano, a 31-year-old Venezuelan, wants the world to know that he was tortured over four months in a Salvadoran prison. He said guards stomped on his hands, poured filthy water into his ears and threatened to beat him.

This is awful. Reliable economic data is a key strength of the US economy. When Argentina and Greece faked economic data it contributed to major crises. I don't think Trump will be able to fake the data given the procedures. But there is now a risk plus an awful appearance.

This + the Smithsonian impeachment exhibit change are, in the last 24 hours alone, remarkably dark authoritarian advances

Donald Trump got 56% of the vote in Texas. This map would give Republicans 79% of seats. What an egregious, chickenshit map from a party clearly afraid to face voters.

Haaretz journalist: "Soldiers arrived at the mourning tent of Odeh Al-Hadaleen and removed journalists, activists, and Palestinians who are not residents of the village, claiming the area had been declared a closed military zone. Later, they also threw stun grenades at journalists on site."

Deals that don’t bind: “Parties thinking they can wheedle their way into a bargain w/ a capricious administration are bringing intuitions from the world of private deals, backstopped by the rule of law, into the very different realm of political bargains with absolutism-adjacent executive branches.”

"Imagine being an employee at a company that has NEVER turned a profit and showing up to work in these shirts." This caption, shared to 122K followers, is intended to mock the WNBA players wearing “PAY US WHAT YOU OWE US” tees.

A baseline, necessary step toward accountability that we absolutely failed to take www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/w...

BREAKING: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has paused a lower court ruling that struck down a key tool for protecting minority voters under the federal Voting Rights Act in Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

I have no words. Everyone prepared for the constitutional crisis of the President defying the SCOTUS. The crisis is the SCOTUS being fully aligned with Trump’s vision of presidential power. So here we are.

This is why I believe, more so than ever, that we need proportional representation with multi-member districts. Politicians should not be able to choose and carve up their voters, especially mid-cycle. PR guards against that

$37.5 billion: annual cost of ICE's supercharged budget as it disappears and mistreats people across the country. $30 billion: estimated cost (conservative) to end homelessness in America. This is all an intentional, devastating choice.

This is the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to rich in American history THAT will strip healthcare from millions AND it supercharges (by a factor of 20) an immigration regime that is actively disappearing people. Calling it shameful doesn't even do it justice

Trump calls for deporting US citizens: "We also have a lot of bad people that have been here for a long time ... many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here too, if you want to know the truth. So maybe that'll be the next job."

Just to underscore--the president is attending the opening of an immigrant tent city that was purposely built (in one week) on an abandoned airfield in the middle of the Florida Everglades because it's surrounded by alligators and pythons to deter people from fleeing, or kill them if they do.

Thousands of people dropped everything to join campaigns, working 80+ hour weeks to try to stop things like this bill from happening. Millions of people may now lose healthcare. And he wants to talk about trips to the beach? What a slap in the face

A man with a scorpion bite. A woman with cholera. A diabetic who needed insulin. A 3-year-old boy. They all died when the U.S. stopped sending medicine to Sudan. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...