Fran Donaway

proud Delawarean; happy North Carolinian; lover of dogs and human kindness

[Jesus Freakin Congress @TheJFreakinC]

🚨BREAKING: In the Chicago suburbs, an ICE agent assaults a teenager for filming his vehicle, and pointing out that it illegally has no license plate.

In the video, a U.S. citizen is peacefully filming an ICE vehicle, that is sitting in a parking lot. He walks to the back of the SUV to document that it has no license plate.

That’s when the ICE agent jumps out, screaming, “Get away from my vehicle!” while aggressively charging toward the teenager.

The teenager immediately backs away, but the ICE agent keeps walking at him, tries to trip the teenager , and continues yelling… even though neither of them are anywhere near the vehicle anymore.

Filming government officials performing their duties, in public, is protected by the First Amendment. That protection doesn’t disappear just because the official doesn’t like being recorded.

An officer also can’t lawfully use physical force simply because someone is filming them. Using force, to stop someone from recording, is a violation of that person’s constitutional rights.

And let’s not ignore the reason the ICE agent got out of his car in the first place...

Illinois law requires vehicles, driven on public roads, to display valid registration plates. This ICE vehicle is not following that law.

So, if your first instinct, when someone records your conduct, is to assault them… you’re proving exactly why the public is recording in the first place.

[Bill Madden @maddenifico]

With the Confederate flag being on full display at Trump's godawful Great American State Fair on the National Mall, it's important to educate MAGA bigots about what the flag represents.

The Confederate flag explicitly represented a pro-slavery cause. The flag was created to represent a nation founded on the preservation of chattel slavery.

The Historical Context

• Founding Principles: The Confederate States of America (CSA) formed in 1861 after eleven Southern states seceded from the United States explicitly to protect and expand the institution of slavery. Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens famously stated in his 1861 "Cornerstone Speech" that the new government's "foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition".

• Military Role: What is commonly referred to today as "the Confederate flag" (the blue diagonal cross with white stars on a red background) was never the official national flag of the CSA. It was originally the battle flag of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Because it was flown by the military force fighting to keep the slaveholding republic alive, it was inherently tied to the defense of slavery.

The 20th Century Resurgence

• Anti-Civil Rights Symbol: In the 1940s and 1950s, the flag was resurrected by the "Dixiecrats" (a segregationist political splinter group) and other white supremacists who explicitly used it to protest the American Civil Rights Movement and the integration of Black Americans.

• State Flag Integration: Several Southern states incorporated the battle flag design into their official state flags during this mid-20th-century era as a symbol of resistance to federal desegregation mandates.

Modern Perspectives

• Symbol of Oppression: Opponents, backed by mainstream historical consensus, view it as an explicit emblem of racism, white supremacy, and human bondage. Because of these historical roots, many institutions, corporations, and governments have permanently removed the flag from public displays and official state imagery.

[Daniel Schultz🟧 @DanielS42245695]

@MikeLevin Solutions in search of a problem.

[Peter Baker @peterbakernyt]

Trump ripped up the walkway between the West Wing and the mansion to replace it with polished African granite carved in Italy. "Paid for by me," he claimed. Except that's not true. Taxpayers paid $689,232, per documents obtained by @michaelscherer https://t.co/7l2bkD0MIH

[Lakota Man @LakotaMan1]

America, in a nutshell.

[Fran Donaway @frande2nc]

@marceelias 😡😡😡

[Fran Donaway @frande2nc]

@CinnammmMaria @TheTNHoller This version of Tillis might have gotten my vote. What a shame it took him this long to grow a pair, but late is better than never.

[Jim Acosta @Acosta]

Went looking for the 300 foot “slit” or “slits” in the reflecting pool Trump keeps lying about. Didn’t find any of that. But did find plenty of signs the paint on the bottom of the pool has simply disintegrated. My latest pool report.

[Human☮🇺🇸🇺🇦🇺🇸🌊 @4HumanUnity]

Take a moment to really look at this photo. 👇

That is the White House lawn. The People's House. Sacred ground that has stood for 226 years. Not destroyed by war. Not by disaster. But for one man's pleasure.

We are 13 days away from our 250th birthday as a nation, and our president spent $14 million ripping out the Reflection Pool to build himself a swamp. Another $600 million turning the East Wing into rubble. Rose Garden destroyed. And $60 million for his own birthday party that tore up the lawn.

226 years it stood strong. This man destroyed it in a year and a half.

One photo that screams exactly what he's done to this great nation.

[Decoding Fox News @DecodingFoxNews]

A Trump quote without his voice or face - Trump without Trump. This quote is unedited and 100% accurate. It is from a press gaggle Trump had outside the Lincoln Memorial on May 7, 2026. The Eagles are up!

[Decoding Fox News @DecodingFoxNews]

Taxpayers didn't pay for Obama's library.

[Bill Madden @maddenifico]

Obama's Presidential Center is a reflection of how a secure and confident, emotionally intelligent leader conducts himself.

[Fran Donaway @frande2nc]

@Gnrctix @jeff_gluck They are screwing him over...4 laps down 😠

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

This should be on the front page of every newspaper in America.   

Trump’s DOJ just shut down a federal investigation into a coal company owned by Sen. Jim Justice, one of his closest allies, after it racked up tens of thousands of alleged violations for dumping dangerous chemicals into our waterways. A veteran federal prosecutor with 24 years on the job said he had never seen anything like it.  

The man who killed the case was Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal defense lawyer and current Acting Attorney General. This is the same guy who just gave Trump, his family, and his companies permanent immunity from IRS audits. Now Trump wants the Senate to make Blanche’s appointment permanent too.  

Equal justice under law was never supposed to come with exceptions for the President’s friends.  

The pattern isn’t subtle: protect Trump’s friends, prosecute his critics, and get rewarded with more power. That is corruption, plain and simple. Todd Blanche must not be confirmed.
https://t.co/95K8zIySPz

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

ICE spent over $1 billion buying 11 warehouses to cage human beings. Now it’s quietly trying to sell or give away seven of them, more than $700 million gone, with not a single facility open and an inspector general investigation hanging over the whole mess.

This is the waste they swore they were elected to root out.

The fraud, the abuse, the blank check spent without a plan.

They bought industrial buildings at up to $145 million apiece, before renovations, with no environmental review, no community buy-in, and no real strategy for what came next. Even Republican officials told them to stop. Taxpayers are left holding the bill for warehouses that detained no one and accomplished nothing but fear.

It’s total hypocrisy.

An administration that lectured the country about efficiency lit $700 million on fire as part of Stephen Miller’s cruel fantasy of mass detention. Imagine what that money could have done for veterans waiting on housing, for families crushed by costs, for the working people they claim to serve.

I’m glad this plan is dying. It was inhumane from the first day, designed to warehouse people far from the rule of law and basic decency. But being glad it failed does not erase how it failed, recklessly and expensively. We must have full accountability for the officials who pushed it.

https://t.co/5nryYka2vq

[John Fanta @John_Fanta]

NEW: Went 1-on-1 with Jay Wright to talk all things Nova Knicks.

Jay on where he was when New York won it all Saturday night, what makes Jalen Brunson different from everybody else, some fun Josh Hart Villanova practice stories, how he's seen Mikal Bridges grow the most & more:

[BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ @mmpadellan]

Good morning and Happy Friday to everyone who noticed that, while even MILLI VANILLI bailed on trump's birthday, EVERYONE showed up for President Obama, including all the living Presidents, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, John Legend, Jennifer Hudson, Common, Eddie Vedder, Tom Hanks, Stephen Spielberg...

People showed up for the REAL ones.

Michael Steele: "This is a moment that can be about the country. And I think a lot of people are looking at it that way."🙏💪

[Fran Donaway @frande2nc]

@WilliamByron @Canes I'm a Flyers fan first, but the Canes are my second fave, mainly because of the Brind'Amour connection. Super happy for the Canes!

[KnicksMuse @KnicksMuse]

The ultimate team player.

Champ.

[Villanova MBB @NovaMBB]

The Nova Knicks are NBA CHAMPS! 👏🏆