We are entering a challenging news cycle, but we must remain focused on the real issues to hasten the day when we re-establish the rule of law and rehabilitate the Constitution.

The shutdown is not about providing healthcare for immigrants who lack legal status in the US.

It is not (only) about reversing the substantial increases in healthcare premiums for tens of millions of Americans.

It is about whether Congress will retain its authority under Article I of the Constitution to lay taxes and appropriate funds through legislation. As of October 1, 2025, that remains an open question.

On Wednesday, Trump and his sidekicks announced billions of dollars in “cancellations” of funds lawfully appropriated by Congress. Trump has no authority to cancel those appropriations, but the GOP-controlled Congress is apparently willing to cede its control over the power of the purse—one of its chief constitutional duties.

But it gets worse. Not only does Trump claim the authority to cancel congressional appropriations, he also claims the authority to raise revenue through illegal tariffs.

With a president who can raise revenue and decide which congressional appropriations will be honored, the question presents itself: Why do we need Congress? Trump’s answer is, “We don’t.” The Republican Party’s answer is, “Whatever Trump says.”

That leaves the Democratic Party as the only political force defending Congress’s constitutional role as a coequal branch of government. Trump is currently withholding funds without any oversight or constraint. The Supreme Court has given Trump the green light to do so, and congressional Republicans are too frightened to object.

Sadly, the media and some Democrats believe the shutdown is a fight over healthcare funding. Although Democrats have highlighted healthcare as one issue at the center of the shutdown fight, the real issue is the constitutional authority of Congress to raise revenue and appropriate funds.

A perfect example of the media’s myopia is evident in the New York Times’ coverage on Wednesday evening. In an article entitled, Trump Uses Shutdown to Maximize Pain for Democrats and Move Forward With Layoffs, the Times writes:

Taken together, the administration’s actions laid bare the risks and consequences of a protracted fiscal stalemate under Mr. Trump.

With an expansive view of executive power, the president has spared no opportunity in his second term to shutter agencies, slim down the federal work force and reconfigure the budget, with aggressive tactics that have tested the courts and, at times, defied Congress.

In the Times’ telling, the “fiscal stalemate” between the parties has “tested the courts and defied Congress.” Wrong! Trump’s unlawful actions haven’t “tested” the courts and “defied” Congress. They have violated the express terms of Article I of the Constitution! They have violated the Impoundment Control Act—the conduct that was at the heart of Trump’s first impeachment!

The media must accurately identify the issues at stake in the shutdown. That is not too much to ask of a profession dedicated to informing the public.

So, too, with the handful of Democratic senators who are reportedly considering agreeing to a continuing resolution in exchange for minor concessions on healthcare. Per Axios, those Senators include two Democrats and one independent who have already voted in favor of a continuing resolution:

John Fetterman (D- PA)

Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV)

Angus King (I ME)

Axios claims that the following Senators are considering voting for a continuing resolution:

Maggie Hassan (D. NH)

Jeanne Sheehan (D. NH)

Gary Peters (D-Mich.)

Dick Durbin ((D-Ill.)

Although Axios speculates that Jon Ossoff, Brian Schatz, and Kristen Gillibrand could be susceptible to pressure, none have suggested that they will break with the Democratic caucus in the Senate.

If Democrats needed any further evidence that compromise with Trump is foolish, the president began canceling grants and projects in states that did not vote for him in 2024.

See Politico, Trump targets states that voted for Harris in shutdown fight.

See Raw Story, White House ‘cancels’ billions for energy projects in 16 blue states amid shutdown, and

See AP, Trump administration puts on hold $18 billion in funding for New York City infrastructure projects.

Withholding funds appropriated by Congress is unlawful in the first instance. But doing so to exact political revenge is among the most corrupt presidential actions in the history of our republic.

The withheld funds do not belong to Donald Trump and should not be used for political purposes. Those funds belong to the United States of America, to be spent as directed by Congress.

Trump’s enablers defended his racist posts that mocked Latino and Black Americans. JD Vance said that the president “was just having fun.” See New York Magazine, Vance Explains Trump’s Racist Shutdown Posts Are ‘Funny’ and Latin Times, JD Vance Taunts Hakeem Jeffries Over Claim That Trump AI Video Is Racist: ‘Is He a Mexican-American?’. (“House Speaker Mike Johnson sought to downplay the issue, saying the video was posted “as a joke” . . . .)

The shutdown takeaway

The fighting over the shutdown will get uglier. Don’t take it personally, and don’t conflate the nastiness of the fight with the righteousness of our cause. We are doing the right thing, and no amount of political retribution and extortion should convince us otherwise. Democratic leaders in Congress are paid to navigate the rough and tumble of politics. Let them do their job as we focus on resisting Trump’s autocratic agenda.

Coda to Trump’s meeting with the Generals

In the twenty-four hours since Trump’s disastrous speech to the generals, he has remained out of sight in the White House. An article by Tom Nichols in The Atlantic focused on Trump’s obvious mental deterioration—and its implications for national security. What does the military do if the president is not sane? See The Atlantic, The Commander in Chief Is Not Okay.

Nichols writes,

[T]he generals and admirals should be forgiven if they walked out of the auditorium and wondered: What on earth is wrong with the commander in chief? [¶]

In 1973, an Air Force nuclear-missile officer named Harold Hering asked a simple question during a training session: “How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president?” The question cost him his career. Military members are trained to execute orders, not question them.

But today, both the man who can order the use of nuclear arms and the man who would likely verify such an order gave disgraceful and unnerving performances in Quantico. How many officers left the room asking themselves Major Hering’s question?

Trump’s tentative grasp on reality is so obvious that Speaker Mike Johnson avoided commenting on Trump’s performance by claiming that he did not watch it. See Mediate, ‘Oh My God, Please!’ House Democrat Confronts Mike Johnson Over Trump’s Comments to Generals. (Mike Johnson: “I didn’t see it.”)

Mike Johnson may not have watched Trump’s remarks in their entirety, but he saw video clips—as did most people in America. Trump’s political allies are so embarrassed by his deranged comments that they are denying knowledge of a major policy speech by the president to all senior leaders of the military.

Speaker Johnson’s denial is not credible. It is evidence that those around Trump recognize his mental deterioration and are attempting to conceal it—thereby highlighting the urgency of their fears.

Hollywood Actors Form Committee to Protect the First Amendment

In another sign that the institutions of democracy are awakening to the authoritarianism of Trump, several hundred actors have formed a committee to protect the First Amendment rights of all Americans, but especially those in the creative community. See NPR, Jane Fonda leads hundreds to re-launch a McCarthy-era committee to defend free speech.

Per NPR,

On Wednesday, over 550 celebrities relaunched a group first organized during the post-World War II Red Scare: the Committee for the First Amendment. Their intent is to stand up in what they call a “defense of our constitutional rights,” adding: “The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry.

This is a fabulous development, showing that the tide is turning! We need similar committees and groups in dozens of professions and industries: Law, education, medicine, scientific research, climate science, manufacturing, finance, technology, and more.

Per NPR, the celebrities on board (so far) include Jane Fonda, Barbra Streisand, John Legend, Janelle Monáe, Gracie Abrams and Billie Eilish; comedians Tiffany Haddish and Nikki Glaser; as well as actors Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Kerry Washington, Pedro Pascal, Natalie Portman, Viola Davis and Ben Stiller.

Such “industry-centric” groups will be an important complement to the grassroots activists whose ranks are swelling across the nation!

Opportunity for Reader Engagement

Please join *Senate Circle*and 31st St Swing Left on Thursday, October 9th at 7pm ET/4pm PT for a fundraiser for Alaska’s 907 Initiative with special guest former Alaska, At-Large, US Representative Mary Peltola. We will hear from Aubrey Wieber, the 907 Initiative’s Executive Director, on their work holding US Senator Dan Sullivan accountable on key issues where he fails Alaskans, including

Voting against releasing the Epstein files;

Cutting Medicaid to give tax-breaks to himself and other members of the ultra-wealthy; and,

Being against reproductive rights in pro-choice Alaska.

Readers of this newsletter helped launch the 907 Initiative‘s accountability work on Sullivan in 2023. Please join for an update and help expand it ahead of the 2026 election. We hope to raise $150,000 to reach Independent Alaskan voters across digital platforms. My friend, Jessica Craven, of Chop Wood, Carry Water, will moderate*.* Please RSVP for the event on Mobilize and donate to the 907 Initiative here. For more background on Alaska and the 2026 Senate race, see Senate Circle’s post here.

Concluding Thoughts

I know that the political news environment is rough and that consuming the news can be challenging, even disheartening. But the ferocity of Trump’s response to the shutdown is a measure of his fear. He understands that his favorability continues to sink and that he has a narrow window to do his worst. He can see the day when he will no longer control Congress. He will see us on No Kings Day, he understands that Jimmy Kimmel is once again mocking him, that Hollywood is organizing against him, and that his own people cannot defend his actions.

Readers often send me emails predicting dark times ahead, often making parallels to pre-war Germany. I understand those fears, especially from readers who fled Europe before, during, and after WWII. Some readers are first-generation descendants of Holocaust survivors and victims. Their fear is rooted in first-person experience within their living memory.

In that regard, a reader recommended an essay by Micah L. Sifry in The Connector (Substack), entitled, We are Not “Good Germans.”

In the essay, Sifry reviews Sebastian Haffner’s memoir Defying Hitler. Haffner drafted an unpublished manuscript of his experience as a journalist living through Hitler’s rise and the capitulation of the German people. Haffner’s son found and published the manuscript.

The first part of Sifry’s essay covers familiar ground—all of the ways in which the current lurch toward authoritarianism in the US is similar to the rise of the Nazis in Germany. I won’t retell that story since it seems to be top of mind for many readers.

But Sifry’s essay takes an unexpected and uplifting turn when he posits that “We are not good Germans,” documenting the ways in which our present circumstance differs from that of pre-war Germans.

I urge you to read Sifry’s essay in its entirety, especially because I quote from it liberally, below. (I have become a paid subscriber to Sifry’s Substack.)

Sifry writes,

We are not in the same timeline.

There is a Defiant opposition to Trump’s lawlessness and racism, and it is growing. On April 5, close to two million Americans showed up about 1,300 Hands Off rallies around the country. Two months later, on June 14, there were No Kings protests in 2,200 locations, totaling five to perhaps six million people.

Now, a similarly broad coalition of groups have announced a second No Kings mobilization for October 18. And there are already 2,200 rallies scheduled—with nearly three weeks to go. It’s safe to say that the Defiance is getting bigger, not smaller, even as the regime is trying to accelerate its power-grab. [¶]

As Ian Bassin, the co-founder and executive director of Protect Democracy said to me less than a month ago on my This Old Democracy podcast, we are in the middle of a see-saw battle for the future.

There is a vicious spiral that can work to the benefit of a would-be authoritarian, but there is also a virtuous cycle that can reverse that course, where brave groups and leaders stand up and “pierce the veil of invincibility and inevitability.”

When that happens, Bassin said, “the veil of fear starts to lift, and the people and institutions then feel empowered to uphold their oaths and check power and autocratic power is disrupted.”

Ian Bassin and Micah Sifry have captured this moment perfectly. We are in a see-saw battle for the future and are entering the “virtuous cycle . . . where brave groups and leaders stand up and “pierce the veil of invincibility and inevitability.”

Now, more than ever, it is important for each of us to stand up and be the “brave groups and leaders” willing to pierce the veil of invincibility and inevitability.”

If you have been looking away because of the meanness and ugliness of the news, dig deep to find the determination and courage to show up at a No Kings Day rally on October 18. We must make each protest bigger and more enthusiastic than the last. Sooner or later, even cowardly congressional Republicans will begin to fear the political backlash from democracy’s defenders more than backlash from Trump’s base. When we cross that tipping point, there is no going back.

Stay strong! Talk to you tomorrow!

Protest Photos

Below, Hyannis Port Mid Cape Indivisible. (I removed background electrical transmission wires.)

Below, Burlington, MA, outside of ICE Office.

Below, Prop 50 postcarding by Swing Left San Gabriel Valley.

Daily Dose of Perspective

The star Antares is 550 light-years from Earth, is 680 times the Sun’s radius, and is 75,000 times more luminous than the Sun.

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