Nicole Collier Shows Democrats How It's Done – The Wednesday AM Quickie 8/20/25

By Corey Pein — Aug 20, 2025

Huge congratulations to Air Canada flight attendants for winning their key demand – to get paid for every hour they work, which seems pretty reasonable – by standing up for their right to strike even after the government declared it illegal. That's how you give'r! - Corey

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THE BIG NEWS

More Texas Democrats Join Rep. Nicole Collier's Protest Over Police Minders

The fight against Republican gerrymandering in Texas isn't only the front line for control of the US House of Representatives ahead of next year's midterm elections – Democrats in Austin are also also showing their elected peers how to stand up to the GOP's authoritarian police state.

Paying newsletter subscribers learned yesterday about Texas state Rep. Nicole Collier, a self-described "political prisoner" of the Republican majority in the legislature. Collier returned with her fellow Texas Democrats on Monday from Illinois, where the caucus fled to deny the Republicans the quorum they needed to push through their gerrymandering scheme and erase Democratic Congressional seats from the electoral map. The Texas Republicans forced their Democratic colleagues to sign "permission slips" to leave the capitol, consenting to "around the clock" surveillance by state police to prevent another walkout.

Democrats who agreed to this arrangement soon regretted it. State Rep. Linda Garcia says her state police minders tailed her for three hours from Austin to Dallas, then followed her down every aisle at the grocery store, pretending to shop. State Rep. Sheryl Cole says her state police escort threatened to arrest her during her morning walk around her neighborhood. As the Austin American-Statesman reports, the state trooper "lost me on the trail, got angry about it, and made a scene in front of my constituents," says Cole, who was left "shaken up" by the incident.

But Collier refused to sign her rights away. Instead of heading home with a police minder, she slept at the capitol. "In the face of fascism, Nicole Collier is a hero," said state Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos, chair of the progressive caucus. Outside the capitol, protesters cheered her on until the cops forced them away.

Now, at least four more of Collier's fellow Democrats are joining the "slumber party for democracy" and refusing Republican surveillance. "Her courageousness is contagious," said state Rep. Mihaela Plesa said, holding up her slip and tearing it in half, per the New York Times. "If they can do it to us, they can do it to anybody."

Collier says the tremendous stakes of the moment inspired her dramatic stand. "At what point, what is it going to take for us to say, 'Enough is enough?' Yesterday was my moment. Enough is enough," Collier said yesterday. "I see it. The writing is on the wall. They want power at all costs. And you're not taking it from me without a fight."

MORE STORIES TO WATCH

Disappearances: Kilmar Abrego Garcia Demands Dismissal of 'Vindictive' Federal Charges

Does DHS Employ Bounty Hunters? Masked Men Boasted of $1,500 Bounty for Arresting LA Teen Walking His Dog The community has rallied behind Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz, who was supposed to be starting his senior year of high school, but is instead in detention in Adelanto pending deportation. via the Los Angeles Times and the Guardian.
Connecticut Democrat Gets Death Treats After ICE Falsely Accuses Him of 'Doxxing' Agents The agency's X account shared a false post by hate account Libs of TikTok, which led directly to racist and violent threats against the Black Stamford state Rep. Corey Paris and his family. via the New York Times, Connecticut Mirror, and the Hartford Courant.
New York Democrats Including Zohran Mamdani and AOC Denounce Deportation of 6-Year-Old Queens Girl and Her Mom Meanwhile, Mayor-Cop Eirc Adams asked the feds to stop making arrests at the city's immigration courts – but those arrests have largely ended, anyway, because people have stopped showing up to court appointments out of fear. via NY1, the City, and Gothamist.
Kristi Noem Says Mexico Border Wall Will Be Painted Black, Credits Trump for Idea "That is specifically at the request of the president, who understands that in the hot temperatures down here when something is painted black it gets even warmer and it will make it even harder for people to climb," the Homeland Security Secretary explains. "So we are going to be painting the entire southern border wall black to make sure that we encourage individuals to not come into our country illegally." via the Associated Press and the New York Times.

Trump Is Afraid of Going to Hell

Donald Trump called into "Fox & Friends" yesterday morning and admitted he fears for his immortal soul. "I want to try and get to heaven, if possible," he said, per the New York Times. "I'm hearing I'm not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons." By "this," Trump meant his efforts to pressure Ukraine into accepting Russian terms for a peace deal, which he has also said should put him in line for a Nobel Peace Prize. Trump hopes to arrange a meeting between himself, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Aspiring Tsar Vladimir Putin in Budapest or possibly Geneva, but the Kremlin so far won't confirm Putin's participation. Trump also told Fox yesterday that he has ruled out providing US troops to Ukraine to back up his proposed "security guarantees." Some guarantee!

I'm no theologian, but I'd expect Trump has quite a ways to go before he's eligible for admittance to heaven. He might want to stop suggesting slavery wasn't so bad, for instance.

QUICKEST QUICKIES

Jeanine Pirro Probes 'Fake Crime Numbers' in Washington, DC, to Justify Trump's Military Occupation The Fox News host turned US Attorney has ordered prosecutors to charge people rounded up on the streets of Washington, DC, with the most serious imaginable felonies – except for people caught carrying rifles or shotguns, which are forbidden by local ordinance. via NBC News, the Washington Post, The American Prospect, and The New Republic.
Loomer Strikes Again as Regime Yanks Security Clearances from 37 Current and Former National Security Officials More than two dozen of the punished officials signed a 2019 letter saying Trump's attempt to extort Ukraine was serious enough to warrant impeachment; unofficial national security adviser Laura Loomer dredged up the letter three weeks ago, leading to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's purge yesterday. via the Washington Post and the Associated Press.
American Pediatricians Recommend Covid Vaccines for Small Children, Contradicting RFK Jr. "COVID-19 continues to result in hospitalization and death in the pediatric population," the 95-year-old American Academy of Pediatrics says, adding that "children younger than 2 years old are especially vulnerable to severe COVID-19 and should be prioritized for vaccination." via the AP and Politico.
Six Weeks After He Announced It, Elon Musk Bails on Plan to Launch 'America Party' The Nazi-saluting oligarch has instead "been focused in part on maintaining ties with Vice President JD Vance, who is widely seen as a potential heir to the MAGA political movement." via the Wall Street Journal and Reuters.

SOME NUMBER

$100 million

That's how much a philanthropic consultancy, Public Media Company, hopes to raise over the next two years to keep public radio and television stations on the air after the Republicans cut $1.1 billion in funding for PBS and NPR. The failure of the most vulnerable stations, many in rural areas, could lead to the failure of other, larger stations, the consultants warn. Meanwhile, newly unredacted court papers reveal the lengths to which Fox News hosts including Jesse Watters, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro routinely went to, in Pirro's words, "work so hard for the President [Donald Trump] and [the Republican] Party." Pirro is now US Attorney for Washington, DC.

ON THE SHOW TODAY

8/20: Emma will be hosting solo; the guest is Julie Su, who served as acting Labor Secretary in the Biden administration and is currently senior fellow at the Century Foundation.

DON'T MISS MR CLIPS‌

Morning Joe STRUGGLES Coping With MSNBC's Rebrand

It's hard out there in medialand.

Cuomo BUSTED Bragging About Making a Deal With Trump

There's more reporting on this from Politico and the New York Times.

PARTING WORDS

“Last week, while attending an event in my district, I repeated the word 'genocide' in response to a question. I want to be clear that I am not accusing Israel of genocide. We all need to work with urgency to bring the remaining hostages home, surge aid to Palestinians and oppose their involuntary relocation, remove Hamas from power, and end the war.”

-- House Minority Whip Katherine Clark of Massachussetts, the No. 2 Democrat in the chamber, in a statement to Politico and the Jewish News Syndicate yesterday, walking back a comment she made last Thursday at a Quaker forum about the need to stop "the starvation and genocide and destruction of Gaza." Also yesterday, dozens of Microsoft workers in Redmond, Washington State occupied a corporate campus to protest their employer's support of Israel's military and intelligence agencies.

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