Unfortunately there is this wave of malaise and alienation washing over people when it comes to the most basic freedoms. All the while, authoritarians exploit our distraction & apathy with power grabs that further weaken freedom. A brutal period right now which we must resist with solidarity.

John Sands@iohn.bsky.social · 3h ago

A new survey from @knightfoundation.org and @ssrsresearch.bsky.social reveals a disquieting decline in how free Americans feel to use the freedoms protected by the #FirstAmendment without government interference or punishment. 🧵

Unfortunately there is this wave of malaise and alienation washing over people when it comes to the most basic freedoms. All the while, authoritarians exploit our distraction & apathy with power grabs that further weaken freedom. A brutal period right now which we must resist with solidarity.

John Sands@iohn.bsky.social · 3h ago

A new survey from @knightfoundation.org and @ssrsresearch.bsky.social reveals a disquieting decline in how free Americans feel to use the freedoms protected by the #FirstAmendment without government interference or punishment. 🧵

The US government is constantly, nearly daily, killing civilians. It’s lying about basic facts. It’s erasing & rewriting historical records. Pressuring private people & sectors into compliance. Stripping media & law of independence. Starting wars. Raping girls. In bed w dictators. Midterms matter.

Our joint statement on the great news, ft. @freepress.bsky.social @freedom.press & others: www.freepress.net/news/civil-l...

Civil-Liberties and Press-Freedom Groups Applaud First Circuit Ruling in Rodríguez-Cotto v. González-Colón, Affirming First Amendment Rights

This is a huge win for free speech and press freedom at a time when we need them most.

freepress.net

Nora Benavidez@attorneynora.bsky.social · 22h ago

BREAKING: The 1st Circuit issued a decision in the Rodriguez-Cotto case affirming a permanent injunction of Puerto Rico's false information law on First & Fourteenth Amendment grounds. Great news. We @freepress.bsky.social along w/ several partners filed an amicus at the district & appellate stages.

BREAKING: The 1st Circuit issued a decision in the Rodriguez-Cotto case affirming a permanent injunction of Puerto Rico's false information law on First & Fourteenth Amendment grounds. Great news. We @freepress.bsky.social along w/ several partners filed an amicus at the district & appellate stages.

BREAKING: The 1st Circuit issued a decision in the Rodriguez-Cotto case affirming a permanent injunction of Puerto Rico's false information law on First & Fourteenth Amendment grounds. Great news. We @freepress.bsky.social along w/ several partners filed an amicus at the district & appellate stages.

Loved @jamellebouie.net piece @nytopinion.nytimes.com on Musk's racist track record. I wrote @cnn.com about this very problem back in 2022, urging he must be rejected, w/ Twitter just one frontier of many shaped by his racism & willingness to court neo-Nazis, etc: www.cnn.com/2022/12/20/o...

Opinion: Enough is enough. Elon needs to go | CNN

Elon Musk’s replacement as CEO needs to be someone who understands at the most basic level that this social media platform will succeed only when it puts the health and safety of its users before the ...

cnn.com

Oh yeah, David Ellison is legit scared he's gonna lose. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/o...

Opinion | David Ellison: In Defense of the Paramount-Warner Deal

The issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of CNN

nytimes.com

We've gotten to the sci-fi fascism future where government charges you with a major felony if you give them a code to your phone that auto-wipes the device's data. Privacy or bust? More like Big Brother or bust. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/u...

A U.S. Citizen Deleted His Phone’s Data. Now He Faces a Felony Charge.

Federal prosecutors charged a man returning to the United States with obstruction because he gave them a passcode that erased his smartphone during a customs search.

nytimes.com

New: police are being explicitly told to hide the fact they're using Flock to pull people over and arrest them. Basically, do not mention this in official police reports. If the tech is completely legal and acceptable, like law enforcement say, why hide it? www.404media.co/do-not-menti...

‘DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE’: How Cops Are Trying to Hide Their Use of Flock

“DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE TO THE OCCUPANTS OF THE VEHICLE. DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE IN YOUR REPORT OR COMPLAINT."

404media.co

Will we be able to walk this back? It's just so pervasive, so haunting, so violative, so bleak. ICE is collecting DNA of young children and uploading it into CODIS for FBI monitoring: www.reutersconnect.com/item/uncapti...

The great unfolding of authoritarianism is a series of plausibly deniable moves in which people choose power over principle, over & over & over. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

How ICE Is Weaponizing Social Media Against Its Critics

The agency says its surveillance program searches for threats to agents, but critics see free-speech infringements.

wsj.com

One more interesting point: this spring I sat down with Sharyn Alfonsi of 60 Minutes for an extensive interview about my Epstein investigation. Subsequently, CBS pulled the segment and fired the reporter. The MAGA buyout of media has unquestionably aided the Trump administration’s cover up here.

Senator Ron Wyden@wyden.senate.gov · yesterday

Bombshell new report out from my investigators this morning spanning our four year investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s financial records. This report shows exactly how Wall Street protected Epstein and enabled his sex trafficking for decades. Mega thread following with some key points:

The great unfolding of authoritarianism is a series of plausibly deniable moves in which people choose power over principle, over & over & over. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

How ICE Is Weaponizing Social Media Against Its Critics

The agency says its surveillance program searches for threats to agents, but critics see free-speech infringements.

wsj.com

Carte blanche when it comes to IRS immunity. Pun intended(?). www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/b...

Republicans Let Trump Keep Unparalleled Benefit: I.R.S. Immunity

The rebellion against Todd Blanche’s nomination to be attorney general, now seemingly contained, at no point fundamentally questioned President Trump’s new protections from the I.R.S.

nytimes.com

Honored to co-author our @freepress.bsky.social comment re: the FTC's proposed policy on AI bias. We argue this latest effort to distort fighting discrimination as "censorship" is part of a wider gov't pattern to gut civil rights protections. www.freepress.net/download/fre...

NEW: Trump’s coziness with AI oligarchs is a defining feature of his admin. But the AI companies reshaping our lives are also betting on the support of Democrats. We tracked close to 100 former Biden officials to their new jobs working in the AI industry:

Tracking the Revolving Door Between AI and Former Biden Officials | Revolving Door Project

This tracker was last updated on August 3, 2026.  The artificial intelligence industry is rapidly reshaping every facet of life, from the popularity of chatbots and disruption of the workplace to the ...

therevolvingdoorproject.org

We've gotten to the sci-fi fascism future where government charges you with a major felony if you give them a code to your phone that auto-wipes the device's data. Privacy or bust? More like Big Brother or bust. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/u...

A U.S. Citizen Deleted His Phone’s Data. Now He Faces a Felony Charge.

Federal prosecutors charged a man returning to the United States with obstruction because he gave them a passcode that erased his smartphone during a customs search.

nytimes.com

Last week, xAI sued Minnesota over its first-in-the-nation law banning nudification technology. Part of the broader assault Musk is waging on transparency and safety laws.

Q: All these privacy laws being passed are requiring tech companies to hire privacy counsel for compliance. Who's taking these jobs? More: is compliance possible? Who is studying compliance to state & other regulatory privacy schemes? Feels very fundable & very needed.

Who’s going to the NABJ conference? I’ll be there speaking on press freedom and emergent threats to journalism & dissent.

I have so many new followers! Hey!! I’m a civil rights & free speech attorney! I’m working on my first book, fighting local surveillance (like Flock), and slowly getting my sommelier certification. Tell me about yall!

In our latest briefing, Ben Raderstorf offers a fresh perspective on the upcoming midterms. Defending free and fair elections isn't just the endgame of authoritarianism — it's about opening the door for systemic reform. Get the briefing: https://protdem.org/4bTflNy

BREAKING: The Trump administration has moved to drop its felony Reflecting Pool case against a former Olympic canoeist, admitting their allegations against David "Davey" Hearn don't hold water.

Trump administration drops Reflecting Pool case, blaming damage on ‘botched’ installation

The Justice Department said “it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”

nbcnews.com

The bulk of bad rulings come from our highest court. Not anxiety provoking at all. But I'll take another win here for basic rights and the constitution:

Kyle Cheney@kyledcheney.bsky.social · 6d ago

BREAKING: The 9th Circuit has rejected ICE's unprecedented mass detention policy — the 5th striaght appellate loss for the Trump administration and perhaps the most significant, covering California, Arizona, Nevada and Washington, among others. cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...

Not to mention the extensive manipulated algorithmic boosting he'll be giving to toxic and misleading content online, through his own accounts, the X algo, GrokAI. But sure, Citizens United was great for free speech and so is Musk: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/u...

Elon Musk Plans at Least $100 Million in Midterm Spending to Help Republicans

Elon Musk, a year after a huge blowup with President Trump and the Republican Party, is said to be planning to spend in at least eight states to help them in November.

nytimes.com

If you didn't know the country of origin, would you automatically think this was the US? Only if you're paying attention to the rapid deteriorating democratic conditions here. Just horrific: newrepublic.com/post/213627/...

Missouri Couple Found Tied Up and Shot Dead After ICE Deportation

The couple’s 14-month-old daughter was found crying near their bodies.

newrepublic.com

As of December 2025, USPS now postmarks letters & packages on the date they are processed at a postal facility, not when they’re picked up from a mailbox. This affects anyone sending time-sensitive mail, and especially: it will be absolutely consequential for elections.

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES ARE JUST TOOLS OF THE SURVEILLANCE STATE! 

Marc Rosenblum, head for statistics at DHS, resigns, saying he is delighted to no longer be involved in supporting the agency's war against facts and the truth. www.wired.com/story/dhs-of...

DHS Official Resigns, Citing ‘War on Immigrants’

The outgoing executive director of the Office of Homeland Security Statistics is one of very few federal officials to speak out against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

wired.com