Rep. #MadeleineDean confronted #MikeJohnson on Capitol Hill yesterday. Dean wanted Johnson to condemn #Trump for posting an AI video of Leader #HakeemJeffries. Dean said: “It’s disgraceful. It’s bigoted. It’s racist. You should call it out.”

#Trump described #Democrats, #liberals, and #migrants as the greatest threat to America, while #Hegseth promised to end accountability for soldiers who commit abuses. Together, their messages laid the groundwork for deploying the U.S. military against Americans themselves. -Meidas+

#Trump had hoped the #shutdown would showcase his power. Instead, it highlighted his weakness: a hollow figure rejected by #generals, sabotaging his own party’s messaging, and exposing his unfitness for leadership. -Meidas+

Trump & #Hegseth’s disastrous speeches in front of top military brass: Expecting applause & validation, they were met with silence. Hundreds of senior officers stood at attention without clapping or cheering, even when #Trump begged them to “have fun” & respond. -Meidas+

#Hegseth’s proposals are performative authoritarianism, aimed at reshaping the military into a propaganda showpiece rather than a modern fighting force. -Meidas+

One retired general called #Trump’s words what they were: “Hitleresque, right out of #Nazi Germany.” Another said he hadn’t just crossed the Rubicon, he’d blown it up. These are the assessments of professionals in uniform. And they were insulted, shaken, & furious. -Mary Geddry

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/u... Senators #JohnFetterman, #Democrat of PA; #AngusKing, independent of ME; and #CatherineCortezMasto, Democrat of NV, were the only members of the minority to vote with the #Republicans.

“#Hegseth views the world from the P.O.V. of a not terribly successful major in the National Guard,” said Eliot Cohen, a military historian who served in the State Department under George W. Bush. “For him it’s push-ups, pull-ups and pugil sticks. It’s aggressiveness.” -NYT

Jane Fonda has relaunched the Committee for the First Amendment, a free speech initiative first created by her father Henry Fonda in 1947 during the McCarthy era, saying the federal government is once again trying to silence critics in politics, media, academia, & entertainment.

The #Trump administration has deployed hundreds of federal officers to #Memphis as part of a new crime task force, sparking protests. -Aaron Parnas

The U.S. #economy lost 32,000 private-sector #jobs in September, according to ADP, marking a sharp drop & adding uncertainty as the government #shutdown delays the official jobs report; August’s gains were also revised down to a net loss. -Aaron Parnas

I’m pleading with you: call every veteran you know. Call every military family. Share this message far & wide. Let them know we see them. We support them. And we need them to support us—to support the Constitution over any would-be dictator. This is about the survival of our democracy. -Lev Parnas

Everything I’ve been warning you about is coming to a head right now. Our last line of defense is no longer Congress. It’s no longer the courts. It’s the men and women of our military — our generals, our veterans, our military families. -Lev Parnas

What they want to do with January 6th is exactly what the Chinese regime did with Tiananmen Square — bury it, erase it, and replace it with a propaganda version that claims it was a “deep state Democrat operation” to set up #DonaldTrump, not a #MAGA insurrection. —Lev Parnas

For any dictatorship to take root, it must secure the loyalty of the military. That’s exactly what we’re witnessing now. My sources tell me there is already a list of generals they want gone. This isn’t speculation. This is a purge-in-progress. —Lev Parnas

#Trump to military leaders: I’ve signed an executive order to provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances. This is gonna be a big thing for the people in this room, because it's the ‘enemy from within’ & we have to handle it before it gets out of control.

It's midnight. We are officially in a government shutdown. No clean CR was passed. Congress moves on to negotiating during what could be a protracted closure. Thank you all for calling to let them know that whatever gets negotiated, anti-LGBTQ provisions cannot be in the final appropriations bill.

#Trump has warned once the #shutdown happens, he’ll begin making “irreversible changes”-mass firings, dismantling programs & gutting our institutions. He’s testing the loyalty of our military leadership, to bring them under his control. It’s a coordinated two-front assault. -Lev Parnas #Project2025

TO: PETE'S MOM open.substack.com/pub/closerto...

“ #ICE goes masked for a single reason - to terrorize Americans into quiescence. In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police. To us, masks are associated with cowardly desperados and the despised #KuKluxKlan.” -Judge William Young

An #ICE officer pushed a photojournalist to the ground today at immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza in NYC. The photojournalist couldn’t get up afterwards, and EMS was called. -The Gothamist

Today, Trump declared war on his own citizens, calling for US cities to be used as “training grounds” for troops to confront an “invasion from within.” Thankfully, our military has not embraced this rhetoric, & hopefully Congress and the Supreme Court will soon find their spines. -Alt Nat P Service

Combat-deployed soldiers who experience hazing are statistically more likely to experience mental health problems and thoughts of suicide. #Hegseth plans to remove safeguards preventing trainees from targeted violence from their superiors. -TNR

Secretary #PeteHegseth announced Tuesday that he plans to reduce mandatory training, and use #hazing to get his soldiers ready for a fight.

The #Democratic Party has clearly decided that immigration, crime, and policing are issues where Trump is fairly strong—so it is not leaping to the defense of those affected by #ICE raids and #NationalGuard deployments. We are in many ways on our own. -TNR

I feel like this needs to be said, as I don’t feel many Americans get this: THIS IS NOT NORMAL!!! No, not even for authoritarian leaders in nominally democratic regimes. In Hungary, Poland, even Turkey*, authoritarian leaders do/did not regularly send the military into its peaceful cities!

#Project2025 lays out exactly this strategy: • Replace career public servants with partisan loyalists. • Collapse independent oversight. • Merge military, law enforcement, & political control. The shutdown is not a bug in the system—it’s the feature. -Lev Parnas

Don’t listen to the speeches. Watch the actions. #Trump, #Miller, and #Vought are already framing the narrative: #Democrats caused this shutdown. Meanwhile, Democratic leadership isn’t on offense. They’re defending a crisis of Trump’s own making. -Lev Parnas

#Hegseth, confronted with the reality of over 8,000 #sexualassault complaints in the #military in 2024 alone, did not answer with reform or accountability. His answer was chilling: “No more anonymous complaints … no more walking on eggshells.” -Lev Parnas

#Trump suggested to the group of 800+ generals and leaders that they use #Democratic-led cities as “training grounds” for the military. He is openly suggesting that U.S. troops be deployed against American citizens—treating our own communities like hostile territory. -Lev Parnas

What you’re watching unfold is #Project2025 in real time, engineered by #StephenMiller & #RussellVought. #Trump isn’t waiting until 2026. He is running the playbook now, using the #shutdown as a weapon to weaken the system, purge dissenters & install loyalists. -Lev Parnas

#Racist deep-fake video #Trump posted of Jeffries & Schumer: This is not how a responsible adult governs. This is how a spiteful child acts. “I’ll show you, here’s a video of you looking like a stupid poopy-head.” It’s all so fucking embarrassing. -Jeff Tiedrich

Chuck Schumer tells reporters at White House that #Trump seemed completely oblivious to impending increase in health insurance rates and closing of rural hospitals: ‘By his face and by the way he looked, I think he heard about them for the first time.’”

Just hours after meeting with Democratic leaders at the White House, President #Trump inflamed tensions by posting a vulgar AI-generated deepfake mocking #ChuckSchumer and #HakeemJeffries. -Aaron Parnas

Really? He’s going to meet with all 800? Ahead of today’s meeting with top #military leaders, #Trump confirmed that it will be a loyalty test to him stating: “I’ll be meeting with generals, admirals & leaders & if I don’t like somebody, I’ll fire them right on the spot.’”

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.”

Meidas Health: H-1B Visas and The Future of American Medicine open.substack.com/pub/meidasto...

In any other country, if federal agents fired upon journalists when unprovoked — what would we call it? If federal agents marched down streets demanding papers — what would we say? Authoritarianism — let’s not pretend it’s something else when it happens in our American cities.

When We Lose Health Care, We All Pay the Price open.substack.com/pub/meidasto...

The Deputy Chief of Staff... is in charge of military strikes? Do we even have a president?

Utilities, groceries, health care premiums all going sky high, and he’s blabbering on like he’s Louis XIV in Versailles.

Again: Why isn’t the media reporting on Trump’s growing dementia? open.substack.com/pub/robertre...