Geoffrey Ax

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

Today’s Supreme Court decision effectively guts a key pillar of the Voting Rights Act, freeing state legislatures to gerrymander legislative districts to systematically dilute and weaken the voting power of racial minorities - so long as they do it under the guise of “partisanship” rather than explicit “racial bias.” And it serves as just one more example of how a majority of the current Court seems intent on abandoning its vital role in ensuring equal participation in our democracy and protecting the rights of minority groups against majority overreach.

The good news is that such setbacks can be overcome. But that will only happen if citizens across the country who cherish our democratic ideals continue to mobilize and vote in record numbers - not just in the upcoming midterms or in high profile races, but in every election and every level.

[The Daily Show @TheDailyShow]

A. Mechele Dickerson (@amdickerson), author of "The Middle-Class New Deal," on the inequities harming America’s middle class:

"We're subsidizing the housing expenses of rich people."

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: Trump threatens to DEPORT Robert De Niro in unhinged tirade after State of the Union.

In a late-night meltdown that stunned even longtime observers, President Donald Trump launched a furious attack on Hollywood icon Robert De Niro — and floated the idea of deporting him.

Yes. Deporting him. An American citizen.

After facing heckling during his State of the Union address, Trump took to Truth Social to unload on critics, lumping De Niro in with Democratic lawmakers Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, and calling the Oscar-winning actor “sick,” “demented,” and “seriously CRIMINAL.” He then suggested De Niro and others should “get on a boat” and leave the country.

Let’s pause there.

Robert De Niro — born in Manhattan, raised in New York City, one of the most celebrated American actors of all time — was just threatened with exile by a sitting president for criticizing him.

Trump mocked De Niro for becoming emotional and claimed some of the actor’s statements were “seriously criminal,” though he offered no evidence of any crime. Instead, the post read like a stream-of-consciousness rant, filled with insults, name-calling, and baseless accusations.

This wasn’t policy. It wasn’t debate. It was pure grievance politics.

And the target wasn’t some anonymous online critic — it was a Hollywood legend who has spent decades shaping American culture.

Trump’s comments follow a familiar pattern: when challenged, escalate. When criticized, threaten. From attacking members of Congress to now fantasizing about deporting a U.S.-born actor, the rhetoric keeps getting darker.

Legal experts have long warned that labeling political criticism as “criminal” is a dangerous line to cross. Free speech doesn’t disappear because it hurts the president’s feelings. But in Trump’s world, dissent equals disloyalty.

The irony? De Niro’s “crime” appears to be publicly opposing Trump’s policies.

That’s not criminal. That’s democracy.

And if speaking out against power now earns you a ticket “on a boat,” the question isn’t what De Niro did wrong. It’s how far this rhetoric is willing to go.

Please like and share to spread the news!

[Olena Rohoza @OlenaRohoza]

🇮🇹 The speech that all of Italy heard. And that the world must hear.
In a country that will host the Olympic Games, Italian Senator and Vice President of the Human Rights Commission Filippo Sensi took the floor and said what should have been said out loud long ago.
He called it a disgrace that the International Olympic Committee disqualified Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych.
Not for doping.
Not for violating fair play.
But for… memory.
For a helmet bearing the faces of Ukrainian athletes — his friends, colleagues, champions — killed by Russia.
The IOC stated that the helmet “did not comply with regulations.”
And then Sensi asked a question that brought silence to the chamber:
Does aggressive war comply with regulations?
Is there a separate technical protocol for it?
The correct angle of a missile strike?
The permissible size of a crater?
An athlete prepares for the Olympics for years.
A Ukrainian athlete trains between air raid sirens, in shelters, under news of the dead.
He overcomes fear, exhaustion, and loss.
And he steps to the start line not only for a medal — but for the right to exist.
And he is suspended… for remembering.
Because memory is the most dangerous substance. It is hard to add to a prohibited list. But apparently, someone would very much like to.
The senator named names. Just a few among more than 650 Ukrainian athletes killed by Russia:
▪️ Yevhenii Malyshev, 19, biathlete — killed in Kharkiv.
▪️ Mariia Lebid, 15 — missile strike in Dnipro.
▪️ Dmytro Sharpar, 25, figure skater — killed in Bakhmut.
▪️ Volodymyr Androsiuk, 22, track and field athlete — also Bakhmut.
▪️ Daria Kurdel, 20 — missile strike in Kharkiv.
▪️ Alina Perehutova, 14 — standing in line for water with her mother in Mariupol.
▪️ Maksym Halinichev, 22, boxer — killed defending Luhansk region.
▪️ Viktoriia Ivashko, 9, judoka — missile strike in Kyiv.
▪️ Kateryna Diachenko, 11, gymnast — airstrike on Mariupol.
▪️ Karina Bakur, 17, world kickboxing champion — shielded her father with her body.
These were the faces Heraskevych wanted to carry with him to the start line.
So that they would “compete” alongside him.
So that their dream would not die with them.
And for that, he was punished.
Because it turns out that the faces of murdered athletes violate regulations.
But their absence on the track does not.
In his speech, Sensi said the most important thing:
The Olympic Committee did not lose an athlete.
It lost its most valuable medal — its conscience.
Sport without memory is just a show.
Sport without humanity is just decoration.
Sport that fears truth is not about peace.
The Olympic movement was born from the ideals of honor, dignity, and unity.
Yet today Ukrainian athletes must prove not only their strength — but their right to remember their fallen.
And if memory becomes a violation of regulations — then the problem is not the helmet.
The world must hear this.
Because silence is also a position.
And indifference is also a choice.
Memory cannot be disqualified.
And conscience cannot be added to a prohibited list.
🇺🇦 We remember every one of them.
And we will not allow their names to be erased.

[BigBlueWaveUSA2026® 🇺🇸🌊🇺🇦 @BigBlueWaveUSA]

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl (for the non Spanish speaking)

“I watched Bad Bunny deliver the most American halftime show I have ever seen. Then I came home and watched it again. And I am not OK. In the best possible way.

He sang every single word in Spanish. Every. Single. Word. He danced through sugarcane fields built on a football field in California while the President of the United States sat somewhere calling it “disgusting.” Lady Gaga came out and did the salsa. Ricky Martin lit up the night. A couple got married on the field. He handed his Grammy, the one he won eight days ago for Album of the Year, to a little boy who looked up at him the way every child looks up when they dare to believe the world has a place for them.

And then this man, this son of a truck driver and a schoolteacher from Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, stood on the biggest stage on the planet and said “God bless America.”

And then he started naming them.

Chile. Argentina. Uruguay. Paraguay. Bolivia. Peru. Ecuador. Brazil. Colombia. Venezuela. Panama. Costa Rica. Nicaragua. Honduras. El Salvador. Guatemala. Mexico. Cuba. Dominican Republic. Jamaica. The United States. Canada. And then, his voice breaking with everything he carries, “Mi patria, Puerto Rico. Seguimos aquí.” My homeland, Puerto Rico. We are still here.

The flags came. Every single one of them. Carried across that field by dancers and musicians while the jumbotron lit up with the only words that mattered: “THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE.”

I teared up. I’m not ashamed to say it. I sat on my couch and I wept because THAT is the America I believe in. That is the American story, not the sanitized, gated, English-only version that small and frightened people try to sell us. The REAL one. The messy, beautiful, multilingual, multicolored, courageous one. The one that has always been built by hands that speak every language and pray in every tongue and come from every corner of this hemisphere.

That is the America I want Jack and Charlotte to know. That when the moment came, when the whole world was watching, a Puerto Rican kid who grew up to become the most-streamed artist on Earth stood in front of 100 million people, sang in his mother’s language, blessed every nation in the Americas, and spiked a football that read “Together, we are America” into the ground. Not with anger. With joy. With love so big it made hate look exactly as small as it is.

And what did the President do? He called it “absolutely terrible.” He said “nobody understands a word this guy is saying.” He called it “a slap in the face to our Country.” The leader of the free world watched a celebration of love, culture, and everything this hemisphere has given to the world, and all he could see was something foreign. Something threatening. Something disgusting.

Let that sink into your bones.

The man who is supposed to represent all of us looked at the flags of our neighbors, heard the language of 500 million Americans across this hemisphere, and felt attacked. That’s not strength. That’s not patriotism. That is poverty of the soul.

And then there was the Turning Point show. Kid Rock in a college arena in North Dakota. Three million viewers watching a man who once wrote a song about sex with underage girls perform as the “family-friendly” alternative to a Puerto Rican artist celebrating love. They called it the “All-American Halftime Show”, as if America has a velvet rope. As if this country belongs to some of us and not all of us. As if you need to sing in English to count.

Here’s what I want to say to everyone who posted about that show tonight, who shared it proudly, who turned away from Bad Bunny’s celebration because it was in Spanish and the flags weren’t only red, white, and blue: (continued ⬇️)

[Maria Shriver @mariashriver]

The Kennedy Center was named after my uncle, President John F Kennedy. It was named in his honor. He was a man who was interested in the arts, interested in culture, interested in education, language, history. He brought the arts into the White House, and he and my Aunt Jackie amplified the arts, celebrated the arts, stood up for the arts and artists.

It is beyond comprehension that this sitting president has sought to rename this great memorial dedicated to President Kennedy. It is beyond wild that he would think adding his name in front of President Kennedy’s name is acceptable. It is not.

Next thing perhaps he will want to rename JFK Airport, rename the Lincoln Memorial, the Trump Lincoln Memorial. The Trump Jefferson Memorial. The Trump Smithsonian. The list goes on.

Can we not see what is happening here? C’mon, my fellow Americans! Wake up! This is not dignified. This is not funny. This is way beneath the stature of the job. It’s downright weird. It’s obsessive in a weird way. Just when you think somone can’t stoop any lower, down they go…

[Maria Shriver @mariashriver]

Adding your name to a memorial already named in honor of a great man doesn’t make you a great man. Quite the contrary. Putting your name on top of someone else’s doesn’t mean that people will speak of you in the same breath as the other man. Putting your name above another man’s name on his existing memorial… What is that about? Truly? What’s that about? Do you want people to speak the names as one? Dig down deep. What are you trying to say? I’m really interested. There is no other president who would do this. None. Zero. In fact, it’s not even legal. Congress named the performing arts center as a living memorial in 1964, and only congress can change that law.

This will always be the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Art. A great man would have said to his hand picked board, “Thank you, but the building already has its name. Let it stand. Let it be. I don’t need that.” But then again…

[Cory Booker @CoryBooker]

Important questions.

[Brian Krassenstein @krassenstein]

BREAKING: 7 million people took part in NO KINGS protests across 2,700+ U.S. cities TODAY.

The tides are turning.

[Brian Krassenstein @krassenstein]

HOLY CRAP!

Look at Chicago right now. Chicago is really mad at the king wannabe.

NO KINGS!

[Mark D. Levine @MarkLevineNYC]

You can’t see it here but I am in this march and there are many American flags. It’s totally peaceful. These are people who love our country and are willing to fight for it.

Republicans are telling you we are terrorists. But we are the real patriots.

[Morgan J. Freeman @mjfree]

BREAKING: Analysts are calling this the biggest protest in American history!!!

[Brian Krassenstein @krassenstein]

BREAKING: This is in Trump's back yard. Washington DC No Kings Day Protest. This is just the start of the day.

It is absolutely unbelievable how many people are turning out for this. I love how everyone is staying peaceful. It's exactly what Trump doesn't want.

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

People are constantly asking me — what can I do? Here are five, practical next steps you can take to make a difference.

[BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ @mmpadellan]

Good morning and Happy Saturday to everyone who is ready to show up NEXT WEEK, Saturday, Oct. 18th, for No Kings Day marches everywhere, in DEFIANCE of trump's attempts to be King.

We don't have "Kings" in America.
We have a Constitution.

SPREAD THE WORD.

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

As we resist tyranny, America gains solidarity.

As we gain solidarity, we build courage.

As we feel courageous and stand up to Trump, we weaken him and his regime.

Let's continue to build solidarity by peacefully opposing our tyrant-in-chief at No Kings Day 2.0 on October 18.

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

Let's continue to build solidarity by peacefully opposing our tyrant-in-chief at No Kings Day 2.0 on October 18. There are currently over 2,000 events planned nationwide. More details here: https://t.co/PJsdlBJWbD

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

Actor Robert De Niro: “Now we have a would-be king — King Donald the First. Fuck that. I’m Robert De Niro and I’m asking you to stand up and be counted in the nationwide No Kings protest on October 18th”

[Mark Warner @MarkWarner]

These lies are pissing me off. This isn’t about health care for undocumented immigrants – that’s already against the law. It’s about the fact that Republicans are intentionally skyrocketing your premiums.

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

🚨MAJOR BREAKING: Speaker Pelosi fires back after Trump says “he listened to Democrats’ sh*t and they can go f** themselves.”

Pelosi: When Trump calls Democrats “unserious” or “ridiculous,” he’s projecting. “Those are exactly words that apply to him.” 🔥

#DonaldTrumpsShutdown