Robert Downen
@robertdownen.bsky.social
51K followers 3.7K following 1.3K posts
Texas Monthly writer focused on the far right, Christian nationalism and the billionaires funding them. Helped expose the Southern Baptist abuse crisis. Fan of Hip Hop and loud guitars. DAEAC#E evangelist. Send me good music.
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robertdownen.bsky.social
Really wild that it’s entirely possible the Pope subscribes to @blockclubchi.bsky.social
socialmedialab.ca
"Pope Leo XIV encouraged international news agencies on Thursday to stand firm as a bulwark against the “ancient art of lying” and manipulation, as he strongly backed a free, independent and objective press." apnews.com/article/pope...
Pope urges news agencies to stand as bulwark against lies, manipulation and post-truths
Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the “ancient art of lying” and manipulation.
apnews.com
robertdownen.bsky.social
I do think it’s a little unfair that the same folks who bludgeoned consensus reality to death also get paid millions of dollars to sit around telling the world that they’re totally and utterly disinterested in it.
robertsilverman.bsky.social
and while we're here, Tim, I'm pretty sure that Hitler did in fact target and do a great deal of harm to Jews after gaining power. He didn't just go after "rival enemy nations." It was in the newspapers and everything.
Reposted by Robert Downen
deephunk.bsky.social
He deserved to grow old. He deserved the space to be more creative and share more art w/ the world. He deserved to be adorned in praise while he was still able to receive it in the physical. Luckily, music and spirit is eternal.

RIP Michael Eugene Archer aka D'ANGELO. 🕊️
Reposted by Robert Downen
premthakker.bsky.social
Republican Rep. Cory Mills allegedly threatened to release nude images of a 26-year-old woman and to harm her future boyfriends after she ended their relationship.

Now, a judge just ordered Mills, 45, not to come within 500 feet of the defendant & ruled that she is “a victim of dating violence.”
Judge grants ex-girlfriend restraining order against Rep. Cory Mills
A Florida judge said Rep. Cory Mills had cyberstalked an ex-girlfriend and barred the lawmaker from going near her residence or workplace or referencing her on social media.
www.orlandosentinel.com
Reposted by Robert Downen
leahmillis.bsky.social
The @chicago.suntimes.com photographer who risked their personal health and safety to take this photograph is Anthony Vazquez. Please credit photographers and media outlets. In this age of misinformation, a photo with no context could be anything at all.
50501movement.bsky.social
Please remind us who the domestic terrorists are again.
Photo from Chicago: DHS militarized agent holding a gun up directly in someone’s face as the victim has their hands up, pleading for them not to shoot.
robertdownen.bsky.social
This Questlove story, in which he details intentionally almost ruining a Roots concert to impress D’Angelo because he knew they were musical soulmates, is a perfect example of their genius. Before they’d even met—and speaking only through rhythm—they created an all-time sound. Its incredible. Watch:
Questlove Shares D'Angelo "Voodoo" Stories & Rick Rubin Declares It "Absolutely Perfect" Album
YouTube video by Bringing Down The Band
youtu.be
Reposted by Robert Downen
hunterw.bsky.social
NEW: I took a long look at the Proud Boys and found some of their most extreme chapters are sharing ICE recruiting materials on encrypted apps and even suggesting members have joined up. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/in-the-...
The first
Antifa
Counter Terrorism
Task Force
Trump already gave so many of us jobs with ICE. We may have to start recruiting soon to fill all these spots.
robertdownen.bsky.social
The fact that he could finish this statement without being fried by lightning tells me that they may actually have saved God
atrupar.com
Eric Trump: "We're saving Christianity. We've saving God. We've saving the family unit. We're saving this nation. I mean, DEI is out of the window, Benny. You no longer have Colin Kaepernick kneeling for the national anthem. You no longer have Budweiser going woke as hell. All of this is dead."
Reposted by Robert Downen
jackjenkins.me
As @rns.org documented in August, apparent ICE/federal immigration agents have conducted operations near or even *on the grounds* of churches at least 10 times this year so far.

One LA pastor personally confronted agents on her church property, demanding they leave. religionnews.com/2025/08/04/w...
Reposted by Robert Downen
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Wow, wow, wow. This has always been legally possible but the law has virtually never been enforced — and now this is the SECOND case I've heard of in the last month (first involving a person with a green card) of a noncitizen being charged for failure to carry their papers.
royalpratt.bsky.social
NEWS: ICE gave a Rogers Park man a $130 ticket for not having his papers on him. They rounded him up last week and eventually let him go, but not without a fine that some critics say is un-American. Trump admin enforcing little-used law
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/13/i...
ICE tickets Chicago man with legal residency $130 for not having his papers on him: ‘It’s not fair…I’m a resident’
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fined Rueben Antonio Cruz $130 for not having his papers with him.
www.chicagotribune.com
Reposted by Robert Downen
unraveledpress.com
ICE is all over the city and burbs today, including Waukegan. Multiple reports on social media from people who have found empty work vans and are trying to locate family of their owners. This is a near daily occurrence now.
Reposted by Robert Downen
noturtlesoup17.bsky.social
You can just share my video from me instead of sharing a screen recording of my video from a content farm account that isn’t on the scene btw.
noturtlesoup17.bsky.social
The inflatables have made it to Broadview.
robertdownen.bsky.social
This is the most Catholic he’s ever sounded
atrupar.com
Trump: "I don't think there's anything that's gonna get me in heaven. I think I'm not maybe heaven bound. I may be in heaven right now as we fly on Air Force One. I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to make heaven."
Reposted by Robert Downen
vimiller.bsky.social
Feds deploy tear gas in Albany Park as neighbors respond to them detaining people. One person was taken, though another was freed.

“I was afraid to go over there. I got braver the more people came out. I know my neighbors have my back, and I have their back."
Feds deploy tear gas in another Chicago neighborhood: 'We chased federal agents out of Albany Park today'
A federal judge’s temporary restraining order requires federal agents to issue two warnings before using riot control weapons such as tear gas. Witnesses says they didn't get any warning.
chicago.suntimes.com
Reposted by Robert Downen
hannahgais.bsky.social
I feel like it should be a slightly larger story that amid all the administration’s screaming about “antifa” (whatever that is for them), Trump and his cronies are more aggressively and more frequently calling journalists they don’t like terrorists.
Reposted by Robert Downen
rlmartstudio.bsky.social
This week in 1988: 1,000+ ACT UP demonstrators shut down the FDA headquarters, demanding (and eventually winning) action on developing HIV/AIDS treatments. ACT UP's militant and creative actions always included powerful visual artwork, and paved the way for movements in the decades to come.
A photograph from the 1988 ACT UP demonstration outside the FDA. Many people are participating in a die-in on the front steps, holding mock tombstones with messages like "RIP - killed by the FDA" and "Dead from lack of drugs." A line of police officers (some with classic 80s mustaches) wearing riot helmets stands between them and the building; one cop wearing white gloves is walking through the demonstrators. Affixed to the 2nd story windows of the building is a series of posters and a large blank banner reading Silence = Death.
robertdownen.bsky.social
(The answer is horrific child sexual abuse and torture. That’s really all you need to know.)
robertdownen.bsky.social
Thoughts and prayers for the millennial FuseTV Emo kid who just googled “why was the LostProphets singer in jail”
A mugshot of Ian Watkins and a headline announcing his murder
Reposted by Robert Downen
premthakker.bsky.social
Huh: TikTok took down my 8-second video featuring this image of Debbie Brockman — the news producer just detained by Trump’s CBP agents — saying it violates the “joy of TikTok”
Reposted by Robert Downen
ndhapple.bsky.social
MMWR was the early alert system that told doctors to be on the lookout for Gay-Related Immune Deficiency (and just about every other pandemic/epidemic since the 70s
sherylnyt.bsky.social
BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:
robertdownen.bsky.social
I wrote this tweet in that voice
robertdownen.bsky.social
Just look at Southern Baptists: 40 years after purging "moderates" and "liberals," moderates and liberals remain. The definitions just keep changing in reaction to the Culture War. Which to some degree ties Baptist identity to the very secularism its at war with.
robertdownen.bsky.social
All to say that I don't think many Christian nationalists realize how bored they'll be if they ever do Christianize this place. They'd just end up eating their own.