It's the day after the #NoKings rallies and marches and WOW! 7 million people showed up, protested peacefully, and made liars like Karoline Leavitt look like the fools they are. And Portland, thank you for the inflatable frogs and other characters! What a joy it was to see all the frogs and roosters and even penguins! It was a total street party vibe, causing Tyrannical Trump to shrug and say "So what?" I was in Ventura on a beautiful warm fall day, carrying a giant upside-down flag. It was fun, but there was certainly an undercurrent of gravity. After all, ICE is very active out here and we are committed to protecting our Latino neighbors and friends however we need to. Did you go to a march yesterday? What did you see? Here's some of the sights from mine. Credit: Karoli Kuns read more

Donald Trump late Saturday night dropped a new Artificial Intelligence video in which "King Trump" is shown flying a jet in a crown and dumping what appears to be feces on purported "No Kings" protesters. Protesters over the weekend enjoyed what some analysts have called one of the largest demonstrations of its kind, taking place in small towns and big cities across the country, but Trump didn't appear to be happy with the protests of what critics say are his authoritarian tendencies. Once the protests were all wrapped up, at 9:32 PM Eastern, Trump posted a video of himself dumping sewage on those who protested. You can see the original video here.

Is the U.S. military already in the early stages of a Trump-led coup against our Constitution? Inside the Pentagon, loyalty is being elevated above law as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth quietly removes senior military lawyers, the very officials meant to uphold legality and restraint, and replaces them with loyalists. The purge has also happened to senior military leadership. On Thursday, the New York Times reported that Adm. Alvin Holsey, the head of U.S. Southern Command, which has overseen the strikes against boats off the coast of Venezuela, is stepping down. While Adm. Holsey has not said why he’s leaving, it may well be a continuation of the troubling trend of purges of highly qualified senior military officials who may have been inclined to restrain Trump’s illegal and fascistic impulses. The recent purge of military attorneys, in particular, isn’t routine bureaucracy; it’s the deliberate dismantling of the safeguards that prevent America’s armed forces from becoming a political weapon against America’s citizens and democracy. It’s hard to overstate the significance of what’s happening right now inside the Pentagon. At the Washington Post, David Ignatius asks why the military has not spoken out against Trump’s attacks on boats off the coast of Venezuela and what I characterize as his unconstitutional deployments of troops against American civilians. Ignatius answers his own question in the article’s second paragraph:“One chilling answer is that the Trump team has gutted the JAGs — judge advocate generals — who are supposed to advise commanders on the rule of law, including whether presidential orders are legal. Without these independent military lawyers backing them up, commanders have no recourse other than to comply or resign.” Judge Advocate Generals, or JAGs, are the institutional safeguard against unlawful orders: they advise commanders on rules of engagement, the Geneva Conventions, and the limits of presidential authority. When an administration starts purging them, we’re not looking at a routine personnel shuffle. We’re seeing the careful dismantling of the guardrails that prevent America’s military from being weaponized against the American people. This purge began with Hegseth’s February firing of the top lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force. He claimed they simply weren’t “well suited” to provide recommendations on lawful orders. But no criminal charges were alleged, no ethics complaints cited; he simply removed them wholesale. The message is clear: loyalty trumps legal judgment. Just like in Third World dictatorships. Just like in Putin’s Russia, which increasingly appears to be Donald Trump‘s role model. Once the old guard was removed, Hegseth quietly moved to remake the JAG corps itself. According to reporting in the Guardian, his office is pushing an overhaul to retrain military lawyers in ways that give commanders more leeway and produce more permissive legal advice. His personal — not military — lawyer who defended him against sexual abuse allegations, Tim Parlatore, has been involved in this process, wielding influence over how rules of engagement are interpreted and how internal discipline is handled. At the same time, the Secretary has transformed Pentagon press controls. This week, the Washington Post exposed how Hegseth used Parlatore to help draft sweeping restrictions on journalist access and movement within the Department of Defense. Under the new rules, similar to the way the Kremlin operates, reporters are required to sign pledges stating they won’t gather or use unauthorized material (even unclassified), or risk losing their Pentagon credentials if they stray. The policy also limits reporter mobility within the Pentagon and curtails direct contact with military personnel unless escorted. The reaction was swift. Dozens of media organizations — Reuters, the Times, the Post, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR, the Atlantic — refused to sign Hegseth’s pledge, citing constitutional concerns and the chilling effects of such controls. Only the far-right One America News agreed. Meanwhile, the Pentagon Press Association declined to sign and warned that these rules constitute “a disturbing situation” intended to limit leaks and suppress accountability. Put these moves together and a frightening pattern emerges: purge independent legal advisers who might say “no,” and gag the press before the damage can be exposed. Combine that with increasingly aggressive, unilateral action by the military abroad, and you have the outlines of a strategy for bypassing democratic oversight. A Trump-forced coup, in other words. Wednesday, the U.S. Navy again struck what Trump claims was a drug-trafficking vessel off Venezuela, reportedly killing six people. There was no clear congressional authorization, and the legal justification remains opaque. When you remove internal legal dissent and public scrutiny, the threshold to use force becomes dangerously low. The domestic implications are equally chilling. Trump has publicly said that he wants to use U.S. cities as training grounds for troops, and openly declared he would fire any general who fails to show total loyalty. A wannabe dictator can’t deploy troops into American neighborhoods if he still has JAGs saying “that’s not legal,” or a press corps reporting on where they go. First he has to make sure there are no internal brakes and no public witnesses. That’s how coups are built. Defenders will argue this is about “efficiency,” about correcting an overly cautious JAG culture, or about closing leaks. But that’s clearly a lie: real reform would emphasize transparent standards, not loyalty tests. If the JAG corps must be reformed, it should be done by independent committees, not by one political operator calling shots. If press controls must be tightened for security, those rules should be public, constrained by constitutional guardrails, and open to judicial review, not enforced behind closed doors. Make no mistake: this is not abstract. JAG officers are a bulwark against unlawful war, war crimes, and misuse of force at home. Silencing and replacing them is not the act of a healthy republic: it’s the early work of authoritarian takeover. Combine that with gag orders and the purge of senior military leadership that might resist Trump’s illegal moves, and we’re watching the architecture of strongman autocracy being assembled piece by piece. A military coup doesn’t typically happen in one dramatic moment, even though it appears that way when it reaches a climax. It begins through personnel decisions, institutional erosion, secrecy, and incremental normalization of power. The moment the legal counsel corps stops buffering against rash orders, the moment the press is muzzled, the path darkens. We’re closer to that moment than many — including across our media — realize or are willing to acknowledge. So the question now is whether there are still Republicans in Congress who will demand hearings, whether military leaders will raise alarms, and whether citizens will recognize the stakes. Saturday's “No Kings Day” wasn’t just a slogan. It was a literal call to defend the republic. The time to act is before the tanks roll, not after. Because what’s happening right now may not look like a coup to the average American, but it is unmistakably the preparation for one.

A prominent national‑security lawyer has cautioned that a high‑profile prosecution could become a case study in unequal justice under America’s classification laws. In an article for Salon published Sunday, attorney Jesselyn Radack argued that the indictment of former United Nations ambassador and national security adviser John Bolton — who faces 18 counts under the Espionage Act of 1917 for allegedly mishandling classified information — highlights a dangerous double standard in how U.S. government prosecutions of national‑security related disclosures are pursued. Radack, who represents Edward Snowden and several other individuals charged under the Espionage Act, noted that Bolton’s count total is more than three times that of comparable Espionage Act cases over the past 15 years and traces his past statements attacking whistleblowers such as Chelsea Manning and Snowden to underscore his credibility for rule‑following. She wrote that what complicates the prosecution in Bolton’s case is not just the severity of the charges but the potential for successful defense motions arguing selective and vindictive prosecution — a challenge she says may be unusually strong here given public statements by President Donald Trump denouncing Bolton and proclaiming he should “go to jail” for disclosure of classified information. “Bolton’s case, however, might be the rare instance in which a selective and vindictive motion is successful. Trump’s public statements about Bolton have been numerous, vociferous and laced with antipathy. I’m not talking about the president’s pot-kettling insults in which he called Bolton 'dumb,' a 'wacko' or 'a disgruntled boring fool.' I’m talking about Trump’s own words when he learned Bolton had written a tell-all book, describing Bolton as 'treasonous' and calling for his imprisonment," she wrote. Radack further argues that Bolton is benefiting — at least in the rhetorical sense — from precedent showing lenient treatment for far more serious leaks by senior officials, such as David Petraeus and Sandy Berger, both of whom received probation and fines rather than lengthy prison terms despite far more sensitive disclosures. She contended this two‑tiered justice system undermines the integrity of the rule of law when power and status influence whether the government treats a leak as a crime or as a public interest issue. Radack argued that even someone like Bolton, whose politics and style she clearly finds unappealing, “deserves a fair shake” if the legal system is meaningful. She stated that if the American democracy is worth defending then the same standards must apply to all defendants in cases of classified‑information disclosure, regardless of whether the individual is a whistleblower, a critic of government policy, or a former senior official.

Last month, Donald Trump signed an Executive Order formally designating “antifa” a domestic terrorist organization. Vowing to unleash the full might of unrestrained federal firepower against its members, organizers and funders, the president declared: “Antifa is a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law.” In follow up, last week Trump held an “antifa roundtable” at the White House to “brainstorm” for Fox News cameras about how Trump could use armed forces to bring “antifa” down. Trump invited right-wing media influencers to the meeting, including Andy Ngo, Jack Posobiec, Nick Sortor, and Brandi Kruse, to infuse them with manufactured outrage, knowing they would dutifully spread “antifa” panic among their millions of online followers. The session’s rollcall readout reflects trademark sycophancy. After Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem thanked Trump for “focusing on Antifa and the terrorists that they are,” she told the influencers: “These individuals do not just want to threaten our law enforcement officers, threaten our journalists and the citizens of this country, they want to kill them.” FBI Director Kash Patel, not to be outdone, vowed “to bring down this network of organized criminal thugs, gangbangers and, yes, domestic terrorists because that's what they are.” Multiple members of Trump’s Dear Leader cabinet amplified these claims in turn, each upping the fear and drama from the speaker before. A construct, not an organization The problem with Trump’s EO and roundtable is that none of it was true. It’s time for someone to let Trump in on a little secret: most Americans know that Trump knows that we know there’s no such thing as “antifa,” and that what Trump is really trying to do is outlaw his political opposition. Experts and security analysts from PBS, the Associated Press, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and the Anti-Defamation League have all confirmed that “antifa” is not an organization. It is, instead, a decentralized ideology based on anti-fascist principles. There is no organization called “antifa.” There are no headquarters, membership rosters, dues, press releases, or rules. There is no leader, unless you count Aunt Tifa, who, in fairness to Trump, could be intimidating in her “Passion for knitting, cats, and taking down the patriarchy.” Aunt Tifa has 162 followers on Facebook, and admittedly, 162 pairs of knitting needles — or 162 cats for that matter — could intimidate ICE goons when they aren’t busy body slamming peaceful protesters. “Antifa” is a concept, an idea, a decentralized belief that fascism is wrong. Hitler was a fascist. Benito Mussolini was a fascist. The murderous sycophants surrounding them, enabling their blood lust, were fascists. In 1945, the world reeled from unspeakable horrors they orchestrated. Millions upon millions of people perished in WWII — 15 million soldiers were smeared across battlefields; 45 million civilians were killed, including 11 million Jews, gay people and other minorities who drew their last breath in Hitler’s death camps. Together, Hitler and Mussolini devised the most sinister means of slaughtering humans the world has ever seen. In World War II, every soldier, sailor and pilot who fought on the side of the Allies — and every woman who stayed behind to work in the munitions factories — fought to defeat Hitler’s fascist machine. That means my grandfather, your grandfather, and everyone who fought against Axis powers in WWII was aligned with “antifa.” Every man, woman and child who emerged from the carnage committed to a collective global defense to avoid Hitlers of the future was “antifa.” The North Atlantic Treaty that established NATO and gave teeth to a free world order against fascism and governed by the rule of law? “Antifa.” Prized for its armed deterrence, NATO delivered the somber recognition that although Hitler was gone, the power-lust, brutality and villainy that drives evil men like him would remain. To Trump, ‘Antifa’ means opposition For world leaders who pushed the NATO alliance, the question wasn’t if Hitler-caliber evil would reappear on the world stage, but when. Small wonder Trump is antagonistic toward NATO. Small wonder groups fighting fascism today scare Trump so much he needed a label to vilify them. It should be clear by now that “antifa,” to Trump, means anyone who opposes him politically. Trump’s chief henchman Stephen Miller said as much on Fox when he said the Democratic Party is “an entity devoted exclusively to the defense of hardened criminals, gang-bangers, and illegal, alien killers and terrorists. The Democrat Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization.” Miller called “Democrats” a domestic terrorist organization back in August, before the White House hatched the “antifa” plan in September. Trump and Noem, aided by Fox News, are spreading panic and fear about “antifa” preparing to “kill” as a political strategy. If the public truly believes “antifa” threatens them, they will support Trump’s unwarranted aggression in rounding people up. If they truly believe “antifa” wants to kill them, they will be supportive when ICE and the National Guard start killing protestors. Noem hit it home at the roundtable, telling the influencers: “This network of Antifa is just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TDA, as ISIS, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of them. They are just as dangerous. They have an agenda to destroy us just like the other terrorists.” “Antifa” is Trump’s rallying cry. When he calls Democrat-run cities a “war zone” before he invades them with occupying forces, understand that he is planning to turn them into one. Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

rAs I was finally kicking my feet up and settling into a football game Monday night, to get lost in some meaningless diversion from the relentless madness overrunning America, my phone buzzed. Good God, what now, I thought? When I grudgingly reached for the overheated troublemaker, this is what confronted me. Collapse imminent? Desperate call? Emergency sirens? What the …? THIS is what I am being accosted with at 10 p.m., while trying to wind down from another insane day? I slapped my phone down, and went into a slow boil … To be honest, I had a lousy Monday, so maybe this message set me off more than it should have, but when I woke up this morning from a semi-sleepless night, I found I was still in a mood, and figured at least this much needed writing: STOP IT WITH THESE LOADED MESSAGES, DEMOCRATS Anybody who cares enough to pay attention to what is happening in (and to) the United States is to the point of being scared to death right now. Not an hour goes by that Trump and his nauseating Republicans aren’t terrorizing America. We are dealing with a lot. Preying on our emotions like this late at night by sending urgent missives designed to empty our pockets is insensitive at best, and abusive at worst. Too often, it’s even worse than that, because a lot of the crap in all these damn messages — and last night’s in particular — is just plain nonsense. That makes them insulting, and dangerous, because there are already more than enough political lies and misinformation destabilizing America. To start, this election in Pennsylvania is nothing like what went down in Georgia, four-plus years ago. In fact, this election on Nov. 4, is like few others anywhere, and many Pennsylvanians don’t even know that. Here’s what they do need to know: Vote YES to retain the three Supreme Court justices currently on the bench. You’d think a loud, obnoxious message like the one I was bombarded with above would at least say that much. By voting to retain the three justices in this election, liberals will hold onto a 5-2 majority on that court, and protect Pennsylvanians from the evil machinations of the no-good Republicans in that battleground state. If you want more, I encourage you to have a look at this tremendous article I found from Spotlight PA that gets into the particulars of the race: Pa. election 2025: What is judicial retention, and why does it matter for Supreme Court balance? Among other things, it does a thorough job of breaking down how Pennsylvania conducts its whacky Supreme Court elections. (NOTE: I sent this piece, along with a few of my own choice words, to the devils at ActBlue, who accosted me with their fundraising message. They either have no idea how these elections are run, or worse, really don’t give a damn just as long as they can scare the hell out of everybody by screaming about some damn fictional, “imminent collapse.”) The Spotlight PA write is lengthy, but I encourage you to read it. For now, though, here are some important bits I extracted from the piece, with passages I highlighted for emphasis: * These yes-or-no retention elections are a big deal, and if Republicans succeed in their stated goal of getting Pennsylvanians to vote “no,” they could set the stage for a total remaking of the court. But the process is also very different from a traditional election, and Republicans won’t automatically win a majority even if they get “no” votes. * Retention elections are not partisan, so when a judge appears on the ballot to be retained, their name won’t have a party next to it. These elections also don’t involve an opposing candidate. Voters are simply asked to say yes or no to giving a judge another decade on the bench. If the vote is yes, the judge stays on. If it is no, the governor can appoint a temporary replacement subject to the approval of the state Senate. An election for a replacement to serve a full 10-year term is then held in the next odd year, which means that if a judge isn’t retained this year, voters won’t pick a long-term replacement until 2027. The judges appointed as replacements traditionally don’t stand for full-term elections, though nothing actually prevents them from doing so. * Is a ‘no’ vote on retention the norm? Nope. It’s extremely unusual. Most judges up for retention win new terms by comfortable margins. Just one statewide judge has lost retention since 1968, when the state constitution was last updated — Supreme Court Justice Russell Nigro. OK, me again. From an historical standpoint, things look pretty good for the Left-leaning justices in this race. I should also add that recent polling has “yes” leading by double-digits. Democrats have also spent more than three times as much money as Republicans on the race according to the tracking service AdImpact. All that, despite the bombastic claims in that loud fundraising message designed to get your heart beating and your head screaming. Look, the Supreme Court race in Pennsylvania is important as hell. EVERY election in the United States of America is as important as hell, and should be treated as such. From now until Nov. 4, we should all do what we can within reason to help our fellow patriots in Pennsylvania prevail at the voting booth. We do that by spreading the truth, and offering a hand up, not a punch in the face with late-night scare tactics. I believe this constant assault on our senses is having a negative effect on voters right now. I believe we are in danger of burning people out who have been running hot for the better part of a decade trying to stand up for Democrats by putting down this Republican fascism that is overrunning this country. Since last November’s nightmare, Democrats have fared incredibly well in elections all over the country, including the battleground state of Wisconsin, where the liberal justice running for that Supreme Court won by a whopping 10 points in April. You’ll remember that election because it is the one the grotesque Elon Musk used to bribe voters with all his blood money. Turns out, it takes more than just money to win elections ... I’ve had enough of all this repellent fundraising, and these offensive scare tactics. I say we could stand a pat on the back, instead of a kick in the ass. I say we give each other a break, before we are broken for good. I say thank you for all you are doing. D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.

Behind yesterday's NO KINGS DAY 2.0 is a question of strategy and power. Marching is fine, but it’s hardly enough. I keep hearing from Democrats that they have to “fight fire with fire” in meeting the Republicans’ authoritarian assault on American democracy. But what does this actually entail, and what’s the downside? Consider, for example, California governor Gavin Newsom’s intent to redistrict California to elicit five new Democratic seats — the same number as Texas governor Greg Abbott has eked out for Republicans by redistricting Texas. Newsom calls this “fighting fire with fire,” but some critics worry he’s unleashing a race to the bottom. (Btw, I’m in favor of Newsom’s move and plan to vote “yes” on Proposition 50.) Or think about the government shutdown, now well into its third week. Senate Democrats aren’t budging. Many Democratic voters applaud their tenacity. But critics worry that the standoff could wreak even more havoc on the federal government and workforce than the Trump regime has already wrought. Finally, consider the oft-repeated threat by elected Democrats that when they’re back in power, they’ll do to Republicans exactly what Republicans have now done to them — including defunding and canceling projects that have been appropriated for Republican states and congressional districts. Where will this end? Underlying all this is a fundamental issue that was raised in Michelle Obama’s famous quip that “when they [Republicans] go low, we [Democrats] go high.” As Trump’s Republicans go lower and more authoritarian than anyone ever imagined, should Democrats stop taking the high road? Or should they go as low as Republicans are going? Or even lower? The danger is that going low may undermine the very democratic values that Democrats are trying to uphold. To put the question bluntly, is it justifiable to use low-road authoritarian tactics to rescue democracy from authoritarians? When I ask this question, I usually get back three types of answers. I’d be interested in knowing which of them you’re most comfortable with. Herewith: 1. It’s entirely justifiable to use authoritarian tactics to rescue democracy from authoritarianism. Otherwise, Dems are fighting with one hand tied behind their backs. When they regain control of the presidency and Congress, they can once again take the high road. But unless they fight like Republicans, there won’t be any road left for them to run or govern on. 2. Democrats should only go so far as to neuter the authoritarian tactics Republicans are using. Instead of competing in a race toward authoritarianism, Democrats should simply remove any incentive for Republicans to enter the race to begin with. So, for example, Dems shouldn’t try to exceed the number of House seats Republicans are creating through redistricting; Dems should only seek to match them. 3. It’s not justifiable to use authoritarian tactics to rescue democracy from authoritarians. Doing so normalizes and legitimizes authoritarianism and sacrifices the moral authority of democratic institutions to an immediate political goal. Dems must stick to the high road even if that means losses in the short term, because they have to exemplify to America what the high road looks like and why democratic institutions and processes matter. Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.

Gino Vannelli was born in Canada to an Italian family in 1952 and moved to Los Angeles in 1972. I chose to use the title track for the video, but he was nominated for Grammy for the song, "I Just Wanna Stop," from the B2B album. Wiki: Vannelli and his brother, Joe, moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Desperate and broke, they waited for hours in the parking lot outside A&M Studios, hoping to get a record deal. When Herb Alpert, the co-owner of A&M Records, finally emerged, Vannelli ran toward him and gave him a demo tape while being chased by security guards.[6] Alpert signed Vannelli and released his debut album, Crazy Life, in the summer of 1973.[7] read more

Fox News political analyst Brit Hume was hit with outrage on Saturday after appearing to reject the premise of the "No Kings" protests this weekend. Hume took to social media to defend the president. He wrote, "The 'No Kings' rallies are mostly a protest against a man who sought power 3 times through democratic elections and enacted his major agenda item by majority vote of democratically elected members of Congress." "Some king," he then added. But he was quickly corrected. Ex-GOP lawmaker Adam Kinzinger replied directly to Hume, writing, "Come on. You know what this means." "Of course he’s not a literal king because we won’t let him be. But our nation was founded on anti-corruption, disseminating power to the people, holding all equal under the law," he wrote Saturday. "Trump tried to overthrow a free election, pardoned 1000 criminals, and has placed congress on their knees. Oh not to mention the Epstein files, and his 400 million dollar free jet that we will pay 1 billion to upgrade and give to him. Gold palaces and ballrooms and massive arches are not the works of someone who seeks humble power." Political scientist Norman Ornstein had a list of his own: "Executive actions, illegal acts, including 'pocket' rescissions, firing people and eliminating agencies, bragging about killing fisherman in violation of international law. Weaponized DOJ and FBI in an open campaign of retribution," he wrote. "Masked thugs without identification assaulting children and American citizens, throwing them into detention without their constitutional rights being respected. Federal judges nominated by every modern president trying to block imperial actions. Brit, you used to be a conservative." He continued: "Let’s talk about selling pardons, violating emoluments clauses by enriching himself and his family through his office, including a $400 million jet bribe from Qatar, and Trump resorts in various countries, not done out of largesse but knowing they can extract something in return." Ornstein concluded, "If you don’t see something troubling in all of this, Brit, you have replaced your integrity with fealty to the cult. Which is very, very sad."Executive actions, illegal acts, including “pocket” rescissions, firing people and eliminating agencies, bragging about killing fisherman in violation of international law. Weaponized DOJ and FBI in an open campaign of retribution. 1 https://t.co/k5cFzdX3Ib — Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) October 18, 2025

Donald Trump just made a huge mistake in releasing a Republican from prison, according to former George W. Bush administration White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. Fleischer, a Fox News contributor who served as press secretary under then-President George W. Bush from January 2001 to July 2003, chimed in over the weekend after learning that Trump commuted the sentence of disgraced ex-GOP representative George Santos. Santos not only was found to have lied to voters about his background, but also to have committed wire fraud and other felonies. "Why? This is a mistake," Fleischer wrote on social media over the weekend. "Wire fraud and identity theft are serious crimes." Fleischer then added, "There is nothing about Santos that suggests he deserves this, especially after serving only three months."Why? This is a mistake. Wire fraud and identity theft are serious crimes. There is nothing about Santos that suggests he deserves this, especially after serving only three months. George Santos released from prison after Trump commutes sentence https://t.co/h1TLcLUwzI — Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) October 18, 2025

Multiple MAGA commentators noted an abundance of older people protesting Donald Trump at "No Kings" protests across the country, leading one ex-MSNBC host to call them out. Tony Ortiz (Current Revolt) posted a video on X on Saturday, writing, "Currently at the No Kings protest in Carrollton, TX and it’s almost exclusively old white people." That led to Sen. Ted Cruz sharing the video along with laughing emojis and the words, "Boomers gotta boom…." Democratic activist Michelle Kinney replied to Cruz, writing, "You ok pumpkin? MAGA commentator Benny Johnson separately posted video of the protests, writing, "I’ve seen dozens of videos and I’m convinced there’s not a single person under 50 at these 'No Kings' protests." Brian Mistrot, a "politically homeless conservative," replied to Johnson, writing, "At least 80% here are under 50. But keep telling yourself that." Ex-MSNBC voice Mehdi Hasan noticed the pattern, writing on X, "Republicans are now complaining about old white people." "Now I’ve seen everything lol," he added on Saturday.

Donald Trump's administration just stepped in it with its latest military strike, according to a Yale professor. Margaret M. Donovan, Visiting Clinical Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School, appeared on MSNBC on Saturday to discuss Trump's latest attack on a foreign boat, purportedly carrying fentanyl. Donovan noted that the Trump admin returned the two survivors of the strike to their home countries, which she said was likely to avoid going before a judge on the topic of war powers. "The Trump administration stumbled into the last place they want to be," she said, "which is before an Article III judge." By sending "these people back to their apparent countries," Donovan added, the Trump admin was implying they aren't Venezuelan and they are "apparently not that dangerous." The host cut in to say it was "an admission that either they haven't thought it through... or these people aren't who they claimed them to be." Donovan agreed, saying it's possible that the federal government has been "killing not who they've been telling us." She went on to note a "blaring alarm bell" and "a bright red flag" as a top military official reportedly resigned amid tension over the military strikes. "That is very unusual," the professor added. "That's a sign. That's a clue." Of the Trump admin's actions today, Donovan said, "None of that holds up." "Their actions today undermined all of their legal justifications," she said this weekend.

-- Trump supporters complain they never received the pricey “Trump watches” they ordered, exposing yet another grift using Trump’s name for profit Become a Member: https://www.davidpakman.com/membership Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://substack.davidpakman.com Get David's book: https://davidpakman.com/book Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidpakmanshow Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dpakman Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow Discord: https://www.davidpakman.com/discord Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/davidpakman.bsky.social Threads: https://www.threads.net/@david.pakman David's tech: Camera: Panasonic Lumix G85 https://amzn.to/4fOir5a Microphone: Shure SM7B: https://amzn.to/3hEVtSH Voice Processor: dbx 266xs https://amzn.to/3B1SV8N Stream Controller: Elgato Stream Deck XL https://amzn.to/4fOGJvE Microphone Cloudlifter: https://amzn.to/2T9bhne Timely news is important! We upload new clips every day! Make sure to subscribe! Original show date: October 17, 2025 #davidpakmanshow #davidpakman #tdps

-- Trump slurs through donor remarks while bragging about multimillion-dollar checks and obsessing over White House décor Become a Member: https://www.davidpakman.com/membership Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://substack.davidpakman.com Get David's book: https://davidpakman.com/book Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidpakmanshow Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dpakman Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow Discord: https://www.davidpakman.com/discord Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/davidpakman.bsky.social Threads: https://www.threads.net/@david.pakman David's tech: Camera: Panasonic Lumix G85 https://amzn.to/4fOir5a Microphone: Shure SM7B: https://amzn.to/3hEVtSH Voice Processor: dbx 266xs https://amzn.to/3B1SV8N Stream Controller: Elgato Stream Deck XL https://amzn.to/4fOGJvE Microphone Cloudlifter: https://amzn.to/2T9bhne Timely news is important! We upload new clips every day! Make sure to subscribe! Original show date: October 16, 2025 #davidpakmanshow #davidpakman #tdps

More than 20 million Americans are expected to see their health insurance premiums more than double next year after Republicans refused to extend a tax credit for those who purchase health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace. And as the GOP remains firm in its stance that it will not vote to extend the credits in order to end the government shutdown entering its third week and the open enrollment period for ACA insurance fast approaching, Americans in some states are already getting a glimpse into how the price of their insurance will skyrocket in 2026. On Wednesday, ACA health insurance marketplaces in six states—California, Maine, Minnesota, Vermont, Oregon, and Kentucky—launched "window shopping" tools that allow residents to compare their current insurance premiums with the ones they can expect to pay next year. Increases would be the most drastic for customers making over 400% of the poverty line, which is around a million people. They would have to cover the entire cost of premiums — and grapple with an 18% jump in overall premium costs. pic.twitter.com/hrMQ9s4IPm — More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) October 14, 2025 read more

Rep Randy Fine was speaking to a group of home-schooled children - apparently the only group of people that won't look at him in absolute disgust - when one of the little kids asked him who the coolest person in his phone was. It went downhill from there: “Who's the coolest person in your phone?” asked a home-school student in a video Fine shared on social media Friday. “Donald Trump!” Fine exclaimed, eliciting laughter from the students. “There’s a cool person… and both my sons.” That's actually a double fail of biblical proportions. First of all, there is no fricking way anyone in their right mind would thing Trump is "cool." He's a fascist, a fraud, an adjudicated rapist and that's just for starters. Secondly, Republicans are supposed to be so pro-family, but he's putting his own sons after the demented orange sphincter. Then again, it's no secret that Fine is a pretty messed up individual himself, so it does make sense, even though it's still very wrong. read more

Besides his astounding ignorance and laziness, the 79-year-old Trump is missing several screws holding what grasp he ever had on reality. The New Republic caught another shocking example: Apparently speaking about Senator Mazie Hirono, Trump said Friday, “She wanted a tunnel from the mainland to Hawaii. Then she said, ‘Well, we can’t do that, so we’re gonna build a railroad to Hawaii.’ Do you remember? She’s a current, sitting senator, a Democrat. She wants a railroad to go to Hawaii. You know who that is, right?” You probably won’t be surprised to learn that Sen. Hirono never said anything close to such a thing. TNR called Trump’s statement “a nesting doll of inaccuracies.” Basically, it seems to have come from a joke Hirono made six years ago about right-wing attacks on the Green New Deal. Whether Trump pulled that fake rabbit out of his elderly brain or whether he recently ate up the misinformation from some sycophant, anyone even halfway in control of their mental faculties would have recognized the ridiculousness of the allegation. read more

-- Rep. Jake Auchincloss, Democrat from Massachusetts, joins us to discuss the government shutdown, and much more... Become a Member: https://www.davidpakman.com/membership Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://substack.davidpakman.com Get David's book: https://davidpakman.com/book Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidpakmanshow Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dpakman Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow Discord: https://www.davidpakman.com/discord Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/davidpakman.bsky.social Threads: https://www.threads.net/@david.pakman David's tech: Camera: Panasonic Lumix G85 https://amzn.to/4fOir5a Microphone: Shure SM7B: https://amzn.to/3hEVtSH Voice Processor: dbx 266xs https://amzn.to/3B1SV8N Stream Controller: Elgato Stream Deck XL https://amzn.to/4fOGJvE Microphone Cloudlifter: https://amzn.to/2T9bhne Timely news is important! We upload new clips every day! Make sure to subscribe! Original show date: October 15, 2025 #davidpakmanshow #davidpakman #tdps

Conservative anti-Trump attorney George Conway has three words for the president who might try to indict him one day: "Let him try." Conway, a frequent critic of Trump, appeared on MSNBC on Saturday to discuss the recent indictment of former Trump adviser John Bolton. According to Conway, Bolton's defense has a tough case on their hands, but, at the same time, it might be possible to show that he was retributively targeted. After giving his analysis of the Bolton case, one of the hosts asks Conway a simple yes or no question. "Yes or no answer. Are you worried that you're next on the enemies list?" she asked. Conway simply laughed and replied with, "No. Okay. Let them try. Let them try."

A Los Angeles "No Kings" protester told MSNBC on Saturday that she and her parents were discriminated against by Donald Trump's family when they tried to rent property in New York years ago. Trump was accused of bias in renting to Black people in connection with the rentals from his father, Fred Trump, in the 1960s, according to the New York Times. That old story got new life over the weekend, when a MSNBC reporter attended a "No Kings" protest in L.A. The subject was only identified as Jamie from Rancho Cucamonga, and, when asked why she was there, she said, "Because my daughter's future depends on me coming out here like my mother walked for Martin Luther King. She marched, she walked. And I'm here in honor of her. And in honor of my daughter." When asked about potential parallels to the past, Jamie said, "My parents and I came out of Jim Crow." "While I was at the end of it, we were the result of what happened in Jim Crow, because my parents, who came up from the south, they went into New York and we were discriminated against [by] Trump," she said. "He would not allow us as being Black people to live in his properties." When asked how she feels about recent ICE raids, Jamie said, "It makes me feel like we're going back and going back and going back, and we will not go back. We fought too hard. My mother, god bless her soul, she marched on Washington. And I cannot stand by while she marched on Washington and me not come out here and stand firm for her. God bless us all."

The official X account for the New York Police Department announced on Saturday that authorities made "zero protest-related arrests" at the local "No Kings" protests. Some analysts have hailed this weekend's pro-democracy protests as the largest on record, but others, such as political dynasty Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late GOP presidential candidate John McCain, do not understand the point. One big fear was that in big cities, such protests could result in arrests or even violence. But in New York that wasn't a problem, according to NYPD News. "The majority of the No Kings protests have dispersed at this time and all traffic closures have been lifted," the account wrote. "We had more than 100,000 people across all five boroughs peacefully exercising their first amendment rights and the NYPD made zero protest-related arrests."

Meghan McCain came under fire on Saturday after she made an unpopular comment about the "No Kings" protests. Some analysts have hailed this weekend's pro-democracy protests as the largest on record, but political dynasty McCain, the daughter of the late GOP presidential candidate John McCain, does not understand the point. "I don’t understand how Trump is a King when he won every single swing state, the electoral college and popular vote in a democratic election," McCain wrote on X Saturday. That led to immediate responses from various high-profile political insiders. Atlantic writer Jonathan Chait asked the commentator, "Is it your view that literally nothing a freely elected president does in office can be anti democratic?" GOP pollster Mike Madrid said, "Your father had the courage to speak out against this." The popular Nerds for Humanity account told McCain that "winning fair and square doesn't make overreach okay." The account added, "Critics aren't calling him king for the vote, they're worried about power grabs like these: -Issuing an EO to end birthright citizenship, defying the 14th Amendment. -Firing 17+ inspectors general without the required 30-day notice to Congress, gutting independent oversight. -Invoking the Alien Enemies Act for mass deportations, a wartime power twisted for peacetime crackdowns. -Freezing congressionally approved federal funds, usurping lawmakers' purse strings. -Directing agencies to rewrite election rules with voter barriers, invading Congress's turf. Make sense?" Former GOP staffer Drew McDowell said, "Meghan McCain is doing her best to blow up her father’s legacy." "John McCain would be speaking at a No Kings rally today," he added on Saturday. One attorney, Christine Jones, pushed back on those bringing up Meghan McCain's father. "Why does every Meghan post bring out the 'your dad would have…' crowd, mostly people who never even met him?" she asked Saturday. "I knew John McCain fairly well, and I’d never presume to know how he’d react to any of Meghan’s posts. The compulsion to drag him into every conversation is just bizarre."

The movement against Trump is growing as No Kings organizers estimate that 7 million people participated in the protest against Trump, which is the biggest ever single-day protest against a president.

The No Kings protests across the nation are still ongoing, but some of the nation's largest cities are putting up massive turnout numbers.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators flooded Washington, D.C.’s Pennsylvania Avenue, the National Mall, and the vast expanse between the Capitol and the White House on Saturday for the No Kings Rally, a peaceful nationwide protest opposing President Donald Trump’s authoritarian takeover of the United States. More than 2,500 rallies have been planned today across the country.