“You don’t look sick”.

Chronic illness is often invisible

Many disabilities are invisible

People can look “fine” on the outside and have devastating disease processes inside their body

They can be living in constant pain, fatigue & exhaustion

Don’t judge a book by its cover

“We can give $20 billion to Argentina but we can’t afford the CDC’s measles experts” is a hell of an argument

The RIFs that began Friday will reportedly cut 65% of CISA’s 2,540 employees, one of the dumbest and most dangerous moves imaginable. CISA defends the nation’s cyber and critical infrastructure. Destroying it now only makes sense if you’re afraid of election integrity.

Portland 🔥

I like how the news will be like “while the President claiming Portland was ruled by a giant skeleton named Mr Nibbles is not strictly true, it does speak to the anxiety of many Americans”

apple season
i’m not who i was
last autumn

aaand we are officially in the hide-your-neighbors stage

They’re still offering new ICE recruits a $50,000 signing bonus, yet active duty military were seen today lining up at food banks.

Defend your country and you can’t afford to eat.

Terrorize your country and you become rich.

Today my daughter's preschool is holding a farewell assembly for one of her classmates whose mother has no choice but to self deport. The school is hoping it will be joyful in tone, so we might make this less upsetting for this 3 year old.

There's just no words for the uselessness of this cruelty.

Very much enjoying the inflatable frog segment of the civil war.

Russ Vought v @russvought The RIFs have begun. 12:27 PM • 10/10/25 • 15K Views

Three key points:
1) The admin has been planning mass firings to begin in October since February
2) The work necessary to carry out mass firings is illegal during a shutdown, violating the Antideficiency Act, which carries a criminal penalty
3) This harms America, ridding us of talent and expertise

Nothing says “America First” like letting another country put an Air Force base in Idaho

I’m exhausted to my bones of having to explain before every single holiday or event that, no, actually, my stance on Covid infections hasn’t changed, nor do I see it changing in the long-term future.
Yes, apparently I am “a lunatic”.
So tired.

“.. an overhaul of the federal safety net for poor, older and disabled people that could result in hundreds of thousands of people losing benefits ..”

@washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

“There’s a baby!”

Guns drawn. Windows smashed. With a 1 month old in the car. (They did this as he was coming home from an immigration court appointment— which is illegal in Colorado: coloradosun.com/2025/10/01/i...)

Illustration of woodland animals in Halloween costumes on a full moon night. Two witchy squirrels are making a potion. There is a tree in the background, with an owl in a top hat.

Witchy squirrels on a vintage Halloween card

It only took 256 days to reach the “zip tying little kids at 2am on the street” stage of this administration.

Hey mainstream news media. Maybe do your job and let people know just how fucking crazy this guy is. He’s trying to start a civil war.

"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder"

Rumi

It’s time to post this quote again…

“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.”

― James Baldwin

It’s so crazy to see this same unjustified and unhinged violence keep playing out in multiple cities, while so much of the nation, and even our cities, just carry on as if everything is fine.

It’s never too late to start masking again.

It can be daunting to mask back up when no one else is bothering, but your health is worth it.

Every Covid infection is a dice roll with disability, and a good respirator like an N95 stops chains of transmission.

You’ll also get less colds & flus!

Federal agents hurled tear gas at people on a busy Logan Square street, outside a grocery store and near an elementary school.

Reckless, undertrained ICE hires are a danger to everyone. This is terrorism against US citizens.

News today that ICE shot a woman is chilling. The videos online show that there are some abusive, masked thugs masquerading as law enforcement.

Nobody deserves this. The courts need to step in.

This is due to a law signed by Ronald Reagan and has nothing to do with this shutdown fight.

But consider this...

Emergency Medicaid spending in 2023 cost $3.8 billion — just 0.4% of total Medicaid spending.

Now what about the $20 billion taxpayers are giving to Argentina?

Same guy who declared bankruptcy 6 times shut down the U.S. government 4 times in 5 years of being President. They wanted him to run the government like his businesses and that’s exactly what he’s doing.

Your gentle reminder that Rep. Melissa Hortman was assassinated on June 14 and hardly anyone bothered to talk about it.

OCTOBER COUNTRY By Ray Bradbury ... that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain. ...

October Country
Ray Bradbury
for @tomsbrown.bsky.social and any others who love this month.

As the government shutdown begins, remember that one of the biggest deficit drivers of the past 20 years are Republican tax cuts for the wealthy & corporations. The issue isn't programs that help millions of Americans, it's giveaways to the rich.