curl_setopt($process, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($process, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

$params = array(
    'username' => $username,
    'password' => $password
);

$params_string = json_encode($params);

$process = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($process, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($process, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
curl_setopt($process, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $params_string);

$headers = array();
$headers[] = 'Content-Type: application/json';
curl_setopt($process, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);

$data = curl_exec ($process);

curl_close ($process);

AUTHENTICATE_DATA="usename=${USERNAME}&password=${PASSWORD}"

AUTHENTICATE_RESPONSE=$(curl
  -X POST
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json'
  --data-urlencode "${AUTHENTICATE_DATA}"
  -v
  ${AUTHENTICATE_URL})

echo ${AUTHENTICATE_RESPONSE}

curl_setopt($process, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

curl_setopt($process, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);

import requests

url = 'https://...'
username = 'username'
password = 'supersecret'

# curl_setopt($process, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
# PHP bashing time: Who in their right minds would create a function
# that spews its return value to stdout by default, unless explicitly
# instructed not to do so.
resp = requests.post(

    # $process = curl_init($url);
    url,

    # $params = array(
    #    'username' => $username,
    #    'password' => $password
    # );
    # $params_string = json_encode($params);
    # curl_setopt($process, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $params_string);
    # $headers[] = 'Content-Type: application/json';
    # curl_setopt($process, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
    json=dict(username=username, password=password),

    # curl_setopt($process, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
    # note: you shouldn't do this, really
    verify=False,

)

data = resp.text
# or if you expect json response
data = resp.json()