democracy

#GiftArticle
🚨Trump plans to create #military reaction force for *civil unrest*

The #Trump admin is evaluating plans that would establish a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force” composed of hundreds of #NationalGuard #troops tasked with rapidly deploying into #US cities facing #protests or other unrest, acc/to internal #Pentagon docs reviewed by WaPo.

#law #PosseComitatusAct #MilitaryState #Autocracy #democracy #FreedomOfAssembly #RightToProtest #FreeSpeech
https://wapo.st/46UGmic

"Loon Star State" is back.

Read more Texas Observer cartoonist Ben Sargent: https://www.texasobserver.org/topics/loon-star-state/

#comics #Texas #politics #USpol #democracy #TXlege #news

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“This is the most massive secrecy grab in #Texas since the adoption of the Public Information Act.”

New today from Michelle Pitcher: A move to "standardize" #police personnel files could have devastating consequences for #transparency. https://www.texasobserver.org/secrecy-g-file-police-records-texas-legislature/

#news #politics #USpol #fascism #TXlege #journalism #HumanRights #news #democracy

A Tarrant County resident who has worked as an election judge criticized the county’s move to cut more than 100 polling sites.

“You’re not saving money,” she said. “You’re sacrificing democracy to save a buck.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/tarrant-county-texas-polling-sites-early-voting-cuts?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #Texas #TarrantCounty #Vote #Elections #Democracy #Voting

#law #Constitution #FirstAmendment

#Trump to sign #ExecutiveOrder directing AG to prosecute flag desecration

Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Monday that directs #US AG #PamBondi to prosecute those who desecrate the American #flag, including by burning, according to a *fact* sheet from the White House.

#FreeSpeech #democracy #authoritarianism #autocracy #dictatorship #tyranny
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-sign-executive-order-directing-ag-prosecute-flag-desecration-2025-08-25/

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The anti-autocracy handbook: how scientists can cope with democratic backsliding. This guide is a call to action, resilience, and collective defence of democracy and academic freedom in the face of mounting authoritarianism.

https://zenodo.org/records/15696097
@EU_Commission

#democracy #acedemicfreedom #authoritarianism

Dozens of towns in Massachusetts, we're coming up to an important election. It can be argued that local government is just as important - and possibly more important - than who sits in the Oval Office. So please make sure you are registered!

https://www.sec.state.ma.us/VoterRegistrationSearch/MyVoterRegStatus.aspx

I hope for everyone's sake that you check NOW, because the deadline is upon us ⬆️

#democracy #election #USA

"Vindman: Trump has ‘every intention’ to undo American democracy if reelected"

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4503490-vindman-trump-intention-undo-american-democracy-if-reelected/

“We might have only one more vote left that really matters,” Vindman said in an interview on MSNBC’s 'The Last Word' with anchor Ali Velshi. “If Trump comes to office, he’s already declared that he intends to be a dictator. The President and the chief executive is invested with broad powers.”

#GOP #Trump #democracy #authoritarianism #Vindman #MSNBC

Will Bunch: “It was McConnell’s rank amorality, in a wetlands where everything and everybody—even justices of the Supreme Court—is up for sale, that caused the utter devastation that burned the pathway for a narcissistic dictator.…He’s smart enough to know he doesn’t want to be seen wandering lost among the smoldering wreckage he created. Somewhere in the darkness, this gambler did not break even. It’s time to run.”
#MitchMcConnell #SCOTUS #democracy
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/mitch-mcconnell-destroyed-america-runs-away-20240303.html

Going to protests works

Contacting your representatives works 📬

Building alternative platforms works

Creating supportive networks works

Advocating on social media works 🗣️

Stop telling people their action doesn't work, and pick one that works for you.

We need all of this and more to win.
Learn to fight together 💚

#HumanRights #Democracy #Protest #NoKings #USpol #UKpol #EUpol #CanPoli

Trump has called his political opponents "vermin" and "lunatics."

Trump declined to call the MN governor after the assassination of Rep. Melissa Hortman in May 2025.

Trump elected not to fly the flag at half staff following the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville in 2017.

Trump pardoned the Jan. 6 insurrectionists whose breach of the Capitol led to at least 5 deaths.

Nothing this man says about the killing of Charlie Kirk holds any moral weight.

#uspol #democracy

"I think we can now just say it. The United States of America is no longer a democracy."

~ Michael Tomasky

#Trump #Republicans #authoritarianism #fascism #democracy #SupremeCourt
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https://newrepublic.com/article/200724/trump-bondi-homan-corruption-democracy

Latest comic on the double-standards surrounding "civility" in the US

Subscription link in bio, on Patreon at jensorensen

#cartoon #comic #uspol #media #authoritarianism #democracy

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Holy freaking hell

#SCOTUS will weigh expanding #Trump #power to shape agencies by overturning 90-year-old ruling

SCOTUS Monday it will consider expanding Trump’s power to shape #independent #FederalAgencies by overturning a nearly century-old decision limiting when presidents can fire board members.

#law #ActivistCourt #democracy #authoritarianism #autocracy #dictatorship #fascism #tyranny
https://apnews.com/article/trump-fire-ftc-commissioner-supreme-court-2149d7c3802b3ddea6e157d3a0afd292?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=2025-09-22-Breaking+News

'No Kings Day' - October 18

More than 1,000 Anti Trump Protests and Events (and counting) scheduled across the United States and Europe

Find No Kings events near you >
https://www.nokings.org/?SQF_SOURCE=indivisible#map

#Democracy #FreeSpeech

Daily Beast:
Stars Boycott Disney Premiere in Free Speech Protest

Musicians including Sarah McLachlan and Jewel pulled out of performing at the launch of a new Disney documentary as the fallout spreads from the entertainment giant’s role in the cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/stars-cancel-performance-at-disney-lilith-fair-premiere-in-call-for-free-speech/

#News #Politics #Democracy #Democrats #Trump

I know there's a general "cause fatigue" with the current state of the world, and I feel it too.

But in my years working in privacy,
I don't think I've seen anything as terrifying as this European Chat Control proposal. And I'm not even European.

Everyone needs to pay
much more attention and be much more worried and outraged about this.

This proposal is the most dystopian glimpse into a horrible authoritarian future I have seen so far in the West.

It looks dismal, but we can still stop it
if we all work TOGETHER NOW ✊

There isn't much time left though,
so don't put it to next week.

Democracy dies in silence.

Everyone: Learn more here
Everyone: Spread the word on social media
Europeans 🇪🇺 Contact your local media NOW
Europeans 🇪🇺 Contact your MEPs NOW

The final vote is on October 14th,
but media and representatives need to receive your messages NOW, so they have enough time to act on it.

#ChatControl #Privacy #Democracy #HumanRights #MassSurveillance #StopScanningMe #EUpol #UKpol #USpol #CanPoli

Axios:
Jeffries rules out handshake deal with GOP to avert shutdown

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries... will not accept any type of unwritten agreement...

"They consistently try to undermine bipartisan agreements that they themselves have reached," Jeffries continued.

As such, he said, "any agreement related to protecting the health care of the American has to be ironclad and in legislation."
https://www.axios.com/2025/09/24/hakeem-jeffries-donald-trump-government-shutdown

#News #Politics #Democracy #Democrats #Trump

Civil society is the web of nonprofits, unions, churches and community groups that protect democratic life.

When governments attack or control these groups, it’s a red flag for authoritarianism –– and Americans are noticing.

https://theconversation.com/civil-society-helps-uphold-democracy-and-provides-built-in-resistance-to-authoritarianism-265705 #USPolitics #democracy

Raw Story:
Internet melts down as Trump identified as 'unindicted co-conspirator' in Arizona filing

Trump's own niece, Mary Trump, had this to say about the news from Arizona:

"Good. Now indict the unindicted."
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-unindicted-arizona/

#News #Politics #Trump #Democracy #Democrats

Moldova’s pro-EU party wins clear parliamentary majority

#Moldova, a fmr Soviet republic, has in recent years taken a clear Westward path, becoming a geopolitical battleground between #Russia & #Europe. In the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of #Ukraine in 2022, it applied to join the #EU & was granted candidate status. The election was widely viewed as a choice for Moldovans between a path to the EU or a drift back into Moscow’s fold.

#geopolitics #democracy
https://apnews.com/article/moldova-election-parliament-eu-russia-3c4b0ff91143e129ea3ddb73d11ae93b?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=2025-09-29-Moldova+election

'No Kings' / 'No Dictators'' - October 18

No Kings 2.0 > More than 1,730 peaceful No Kings / Anti Trump Protests & Events across the United States and Europe are scheduled.

Join the Movement, find events near you
> https://www.nokings.org/
> https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/

#Democracy #FreeSpeech #NoKings20

Any Texan, in particular, can cast propaganda aside and simply look around to see that our state is built, maintained, and improved every day by unauthorized workers.

In our magazine, Interim Editor-in-Chief @gusbova asks why #Democrats keep flip-flopping on an issue at the heart of the American experiment. https://www.texasobserver.org/border-immigration-cowardice-democrats-biden-allred/

#immigration #border #MayDay #Texas #WorkersRights #democracy #Biden

Latest comic: The Great Regression

#cartoon #comic #fascism #race #abortion #lgbtq #democracy #uspol

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As Heather Cox Richardson reports, the Supreme Court just signed off on a South Carolina congressional map that dilutes Black votes by gerrymandering.

And Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion. She writes,

"Almost exactly 70 years after the Supreme Court unanimously decided Brown v. Board, it appears that the framed timbers designed to reverse the expansion of minority rights are falling into place."

#SupremeCourt #Alito #corruption #democracy
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https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-23-2024