Category: Commentary

Deborah “Deb” Lindström — mother / Montessori politburo

Monday afternoon. The china is still quiet. The group text is not.

On September 21, 2026, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Senate Republicans must “TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER” or he will be — “despite how well our Party is doing” — “the last Republican President.” Just the News (Ben Whedon, 1:29 p.m.) and Townhall (Jeff Charles, 3:45 p.m.) both carried the warning the same day. Joe.My.God. posted a quote dump of the same Truth Social thread. The facts are short enough to fit on a napkin. The melodrama is not.

Trump’s claim, as reported: if Republicans leave the 60-vote legislative filibuster intact, Democrats will later kill it themselves, admit Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., as states — he cites “4% Republican Vote” and “3% Republican Vote,” respectively — pick up four senators and eight House members, plus “tremendous numbers” of popular and Electoral College votes, and “control the Voting Mechanisms and Systems, both Legal and otherwise.” Then: “It will be impossible for Republicans to ever win an Election again. In other words, it will be THE END OF AMERICA!”

Process is the point. The Senate filibuster is a house rule the chamber has lived with for generations — sixty votes to end debate on most legislation. Trump has pressed for years to scrap it so Republicans can pass agenda items with a simple majority, including voting measures such as the SAVE America Act. Just the News notes he has also pushed firing the Senate parliamentarian to ram bills through on a simple majority. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has repeatedly refused both paths. Earlier mainstream coverage — Reuters (Nov. 5, 2025) and AP during the same shutdown fight — quoted Thune saying he knows where the math is and “it’s not happening,” and that the filibuster “makes the Senate the Senate.” That is not invention. That is laminated resistance dated on the record.

Context, carefully: Democrats have historically floated ending the filibuster and expanding the Court when they held the gavel — Just the News and Townhall both note that as reported background, including the 2022 Biden–Schumer push to change rules for voting-rights legislation that failed when Manchin and Sinema refused. Reciprocal temptation is not a permission slip to scream TERMINATE because dessert is late.

I run a household. The filibuster is a napkin rule everyone agreed to before the meal. You do not rewrite it mid-course because you want the pie faster and then announce that civilization ends if the china stays intact. Soft power is not a Truth Social all-caps threat. Soft power is notice, patience, and the votes you actually have. “TERMINATE” is not notice. If the boys vibrate the china, they go outside. They do not get to nuke the seating chart while the rest of us set the table.

I am not handing this site back to Theo’s cardigan temperature this afternoon either. Family takeover week stands. News still comes first. Buck can keep his chair opinions for Tuesday. Taryn can keep pie for Wednesday. My job on a Monday is simpler: put the facts down, cite the outlets, and insist that a republic that prints Senate rules also print the patience to live by them.

No FaceTime ham. No vibrating the china. No nuking the napkin because you’re impatient. Put them down.

Sources: Just the News (Ben Whedon), Sept. 21, 2026 (Truth Social “TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER” / last GOP president / Puerto Rico–D.C. / “THE END OF AMERICA!”; Thune resistance; parliamentarian pressure; Democratic court-packing / filibuster context); Townhall (Jeff Charles), Sept. 21, 2026 (same Truth Social text; SAVE America Act pressure; Democratic nuclear-option history / 2022 voting-rights rules fight); Joe.My.God., Sept. 21, 2026 (full Truth Social quote dump); Reuters, Nov. 5, 2025 (Thune: “it’s not happening”); AP News (Thune: filibuster “makes the Senate the Senate”; votes not there).

— Deb Lindström

Deborah “Deb” Lindström — mother / Montessori politburo

Monday morning. The china is quiet. The news is not.

On September 21, 2026, CNN, MS NOW, and Politico notified the government that they are filing an emergency lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking restoration of White House access and press credentials revoked over the weekend. Their joint statement, reported by CNN Politics and echoed by CBS News, Axios, and Bloomberg, put the rule in plain English: the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes.

“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” the three outlets said Monday. “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.” That is not poetry. That is a laminated complaint about how a door got locked.

The facts are short enough to fit on a napkin. On Friday, September 18, President Donald Trump announced he was banning journalists from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House “effective immediately,” citing what he called “FAKE NEWS” coverage. On Saturday, September 19, those outlets’ reporters were denied entry and had their hard passes confiscated when they showed up for work, according to contemporaneous reporting. On Monday, the three mastheads answered with a joint First Amendment suit — and a Fifth Amendment due-process claim — asking a D.C. district judge to move quickly.

Process is the point. The complaint, as summarized by MS NOW and reflected in the publicly posted filing, argues the ban is viewpoint discrimination and retaliation for coverage the President disliked, and that credentials were yanked without advance notice based on clear standards or an opportunity to be heard. CBS notes the motion calls it a direct assault on the First Amendment and reminds the court that presidents have always grumbled about coverage — complaining is not the same as confiscating the badge. CNN was also scheduled as the network pool team traveling with the President on Monday; a ban that erases the pool assignment is not a vibe. It is a scheduling problem with constitutional teeth.

I run a household. Credentials are a guest list. You do not wipe three names off the list at breakfast because you disliked Saturday’s conversation and then pretend the stamps never existed. Soft power is not a slammed door. Soft power is notice, standards, and a chance to answer before the china rattles. If the boys vibrate the china, they go outside. They do not get to rewrite the guest list while the rest of us set the table.

History already laminated this lesson once. In the first Trump administration, a federal judge ordered CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s White House pass restored after the administration tried to revoke it, finding a Fifth Amendment due-process violation. The White House complied. The new suit leans on that same grammar: access to a nonpublic forum like the White House press area may be limited, but not as punishment for viewpoint, and not without process.

I am not handing this site back to Theo’s cardigan temperature today. Family takeover week stands. News still comes first. Buck can keep his chair opinions for Tuesday. Taryn can keep pie for Wednesday. My job on a Monday is simpler: put the facts down, cite the outlets, and insist that a republic that prints press passes also print the rules for taking them away.

No FaceTime ham. No vibrating the china. No ban without notice. Put them down.

Sources: CNN Politics, Sept. 21, 2026 (joint statement; emergency filing in D.C. District Court; “without notice or process”); CBS News, Sept. 21, 2026 (Saturday denial / pass revocation; First Amendment motion language; Acosta precedent; CNN pool assignment); Axios, Sept. 21, 2026 (joint lawsuit announcement); Bloomberg, Sept. 21, 2026 (joint sue over White House ban); MS NOW, Sept. 21, 2026 (First Amendment viewpoint discrimination / Fifth Amendment due-process claims); complaint PDF via Variety upload (Friday Sept. 18 ban announcement; due-process count citing notice and clear standards).

— Deb Lindström