Jun 17, 2025
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As the president escalates his authoritarian power grab, the NO KINGS non-violent movement continues to rise stronger. We are united once ag
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency operates a network of 170 unofficial detention sites around the country, called “hold rooms,” according to agency data obtained via the Freedom of Information Act. Located in warehouses, strip malls, office parks, and ICE substations, the facilities are held to different standards than the agency’s official detention facilities. They are not permitted to contain beds, and are not required to contain toilets. Though agency policy limits the time a detainee can be kept in a hold room to 72 hours, federal data show thousands of violations of that rule, including many stays lasting weeks or months at a time.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency operates a network of 170 unofficial detention sites around the country, called “hold r
Indivisible, MoveOn and other groups are encouraging Democrats to dig in for health care concessions from Republicans.
Arthur Delaney at HuffPost:
WASHINGTON — Ezra Levin despaired earlier this month when it appeared Democrats on Capitol Hill had no plan to fight Republicans over government funding. To Levin, who co-founded the progressive group Indivisible in 2016 to resist the first Donald Trump administration, it was “baffling” Democrats hadn’t issued any demands. It looked as if they’d roll over just like they did in March. But now that Democrats have insisted Republicans roll back their recently enacted Medicaid cuts and extend soon-to-expire health insurance subsidies, Levin praised them for making a strong play. “We will cheerlead them,” Levin told HuffPost. “We want them to hold strong,”
Indivisible and other influential progressive groups, including MoveOn, Public Citizen and the Service Employees International Union, are backing Democrats in a high-stakes standoff that appears likely to result in a partial shutdown of the federal government next Wednesday. Republicans in Congress ignored Democrats’ health care demands before adjourning last week without having passed a bill to fund the government past the end of month. On Monday, President Donald Trump agreed to meet with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), the top Democrats in the House and Senate, only to call off the White House meeting the next day.
“What naming those demands has done is to cause Trump to escalate and pull out of the negotiations, which very clearly places the blame on him,” Levin said. “The Republicans are acting as if they’re throwing the steering wheel out of the window during this game of chicken.” In a social media post calling off the encounter, Trump said no meeting with Democrats “could possibly be productive,” adding that Democrats had “totally lost their way.”
Glad to see the Democrats actually standing up this time on the government spending bill to try to prevent the Trump/Vought government shutdown from happening to keep health care funding.
What was the point of meeting you? We could’ve skipped that.
Apology accepted, H-E-B. 💖😌
How many different ways, in different times, and different places,
Do I have to tell you I love you, before you love me back?
Dave Whamond :: @DaveWhamond#BigBeautifulBill
* * * *
LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN
August 3, 2025
Heather Cox Richardson
Aug 04, 2025
Today, Democratic lawmakers from the Texas House of Representatives left the state to deny Republican lawmakers the quorum—the number of legislators required to pass legislation—they need in order to push through a new district map that would take five seats currently held by Democrats and give them to Republicans. President Donald J. Trump has demanded this rare mid-decade redistricting in an attempt to hold control of the House of Representatives in 2026. He is urging all Republican-dominated states to make a similar change to guarantee Republican dominance regardless of the will of voters.
Republicans in the Texas legislature rushed a bill that would make the new map law through committee on Saturday morning after the one public hearing they held on it showed overwhelming opposition. Sophia Beausoleil of NBC 5 in Dallas–Fort Worth reports that the Texas House is scheduled to vote on the bill Monday.
“My Democratic colleagues and I have just left our beloved state to break quorum and stop Trump's redistricting power grab,” Texas state representative James Talarico said in a video posted to social media. “Trump told our Republican colleagues to redraw the political maps here in Texas in the middle of the decade to get him five more seats and protect his majority in Congress. They're turning our districts into crazy shapes to guarantee the outcome they want in the 2026 elections. If this power grab succeeds, they will hang on to power without any accountability from the voters. But Texas Democrats are fighting back. We're leaving the state, breaking quorum and preventing Republicans from silencing our voices and rigging the next election. We are not fighting for the Democratic Party. We are fighting for the democratic process, and the stakes could not be higher. We have to take a stand.”
The Texas legislators traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, and to Albany, New York, to confer with Democratic leaders. About 30 of them, though, went to Chicago, Illinois, where Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker welcomed them at a press conference tonight.
Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu emphasized that the Democrats had tried to work with the Republicans, but Texas governor Greg Abbott and the Republican lawmakers were forcing the new map through against the will of the voters because Trump told them to. Wu’s explanation mirrors that of Republican state representative Cody Vasut, who told Natasha Korecki and Ryan Chandler of NBC News: “This map was politically based, and that’s totally legal, totally allowed and totally fair.”
Wu warned that the attempt to grab five new seats in Texas to maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives against the will of voters is a threat not only to Texas, but to the entire country and to the concept of America. “If Donald Trump is allowed to do this, if he is allowed to once again cheat and get away with it, there's no stopping this. This will spread across the country, and…will occur everywhere. Because if one person's going to cheat and no one's going to stop it, why doesn't everyone just do it then? And that is not a society, that is not an America that works.”
Wu continued: “Everyone is already tired of the hyperpartisan bickering and all the fighting because we never get anything done. And they are creating a system that will reinforce that and make it even worse. And we're telling people, please come out, stand up against it, rise up and say no more. Enough."
Wu said the Texas Democratic representatives “did not make the decision to come here today…lightly, but we come here today with absolute moral clarity.”
Governor Pritzker has been in contact with the Texas Democrats to plan for such a moment. His staff will provide logistical support to the visiting Texans. Tonight he made it clear that the Texas Democrats’ fight against Trump’s power grab is the fight of all Americans to protect democracy. “Let's be clear,” Pritzker said, “this is not just rigging the system in Texas. It's about rigging the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come.”
Pritzker continued: “Texas Democrats were left no choice but to leave their home state, block a vote from taking place, and protect their constituents. This is a righteous act of courage.” Pritzker urged other Americans to “take a page from these leaders's playbook. When you show people that you have the will to fight, well, they can muster the will to fight, too. Courage is contagious.”
“To be in public office right now is to constantly ask yourself, how do I make sure that we’re standing on the right side of history? There's a simple answer. The wrong side of history will always tell you to be afraid. The right side of history will always expect you to be courageous. Expect courage from people around you, and it will show up. Expect fear, and fear will rule the day. Let the courage of these leaders be an example to the rest of the country. I'm proud to stand side by side with our friends from Texas today.”
Tonight U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) told an audience in Phoenix, Arizona: “My former colleagues from the Texas House—those Texas Democrats—decided to get the hell out of Texas…and breaking quorum is where they’re at right now. And they didn’t just do it by themselves—they went to Illinois, where there is a governor that gives a damn. You see, this fight is going to take all of us.”
Crockett’s comments came at tonight’s launch of the “Won’t Back Down” Tour, organized by MoveOn and MeidasTouch, to hold Republicans accountable and organize for 2026. Crockett, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Representative Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) spoke tonight; Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Representative Maxwell Frost (D-FL) will take the tour to Nebraska next.
Texas governor Abbott responded to the Texas House Democrats' quorum break by threatening to remove from office any Democrats who are not back in their seats for Monday’s vote and to replace them “swiftly” with his own appointees thanks to his power to fill vacancies. He also suggested he would consider them felons for accepting money to pay for their food and housing in Chicago and that such a designation would enable him to cross state lines to get them back. He threatened to use “my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons.”
When a reporter asked about Abbott’s threat, Pritzker responded: “They’re here in Illinois. We’re going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them…. It’s the leaders of Texas who are attempting not to follow the law. They’re the ones that need to be held accountable.”
LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON