Joy Gehner

ICE handcuffs 71-year-old grandmother, a U.S. citizen, at San Diego immigration court Barbara Stone was handcuffed and held by federal agents for hours, according to her family; she was accused of pushing an ICE officer, which she denies.

When I say most people are good and we are going to beat these fascists, people like this woman are why I feel so confident:

“The message that it sent was very clear: For us to be afraid to come back and do the work that we’re doing,” Mendez said.

Stone, however, said she would volunteer again.”

Recently, my book THEY CALLED US ENEMY was banned – again – in Tennessee. Book bans are out of control. Huge parts of American history are being restricted. To join me in standing up for the freedom to read, go to pen.org/action. @penamerica.bsky.social @topshelfcomix.bsky.social @idwpublishing.com

OMFG!

Welcoming the asparagus On growth and patience (and what we're fighting for)

As I thought about fighting tyrannical government over the holiday weekend, this new piece emerged.

open.substack.com/pub/whirlyjo...

This garbage in my EMAIL tonight, the SSA adopting Trumpian Quirks of Capitalization and Politicizing its contact list.

But you can’t walk into a local office to get your needs met there anymore.

@sarahlongwell25.bsky.social

Thank you Sen Cantwell for stating the obvious. We need Dems to come together around a truly inspiring vision to counter these fascists who’ve co-opted the American dream. Listen to NYC! Wake up and be a leader!

Won’t be long before we learn of an ICE detention center setting up in a former regional hospital

Sorry, no beds for cancer patients, we’ve got to lock up this father of three who works as a roofer.

Here’s a look at how Trump stacks up against the Mad King

They Didn’t Have to Do This By passing Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, congressional Republicans have talked themselves into an incomprehensibly reckless plan.

*“Let’s do it before the crank wears off.”*

“Like the Mafia wannabes [from The Sopranos], congressional Republicans have talked themselves into a plan so incomprehensibly reckless that to describe it is to question its authors’ sanity.”

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

My favorite Congressional reporter right now is a member of Congress.

‘Don't give Donald Trump an excuse’: What WA leaders are saying before ‘No Kings’ protests The "No Kings" protests expected in Seattle and across the state on Saturday are part of a nationally coordinated rally against Trump's orders.

“[Ferguson] warned: ‘Don’t give Donald Trump an excuse to try to federalize the National Guard here in Washington state like he did in California.’”

is like telling a woman to dress modestly if she doesn’t want to get raped

www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

AI is getting more powerful, but its hallucinations are getting worse -
Is just a cutesie way of saying we are paying these companies to generate lies for us. How do people not get this?

www.seattletimes.com/business/ai-...

Early bird until the end of this month!

Outrage is not productive. They like us scared, sick, and seething. Use your energy wisely. Make it matter.

Even if you (wrongly) believe that some immigrants lack due process rights, what’s to stop the government from claiming that *you* are an undocumented immigrant; removing you to El Salvador; citing an “administrative error”; and refusing to do anything to bring you back?

The answer is due process.

The tariffs are a smokescreen! Get dizzy watching the market numbers do a jig while they implement authoritarianism. We’re knee-deep in it now already.

Whispering lizards On greed, loss and mortality

Today as markets collapse and our most vulnerable folks see their tenuous services thin out even more, our President posted "THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH" before heading to the golf course.
Want to read something with so much more heart, in these dark times?
open.substack.com/pub/whirlyjo...

Wins today!

I had to bring this here because it’s so good

Trump’s Crypto Reserve Is Really Happening Now what?

Eyes on the actual Ponzi scheme that “won’t cost taxpayers a thing”

www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Donald Trump targeted AP and legacy media did nothing.

Donald Trump has now targeted two large law firms and Big Law is silent.

You all read Martin Niemöller's poem “First They Came.”

So, I ask you -- What are you doing?

To our limp Dems in Congress: Have you decided where your line is? Who do they have to come after, and how, before you respond with more than platitudes and photo ops? Or will you look back and see the line you should’ve held when it’s too late?

@murray.senate.gov @cantwell.senate.gov

Opinion | James Carville: It’s Time for a Daring Political Maneuver, Democrats (Gift Article) There’s nothing Democrats can legitimately do to stop Trump, so we need a tactical pause in our fight to plan for the future.

Missed it when he first wrote it, but Carville has it right again

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/25/o...

WE GOT THIS!

Starts NOW - through the 14th. Don’t touch Amazon or anything Jeff Bezos owns.

This Sunday, the whole country needs to spring forward from 1939.

Satisfying, yet empty calories I fear

Thou shalt not claim to be improving efficiency when all you do is fire people and then beg them to come back.

So glad you’re finding time for photo ops while democracy dies

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT DAVID ERMOLD; DAVID MOORE, Plaintiffs-Appellees, No. 24-5524 V. KIM DAVIs, individually, Defendant-Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky at Ashland. No. 0:15-cv-00046-David L. Bunning, District Judge. Argued: January 30, 2025 Decided and Filed: March 6, 2025 Before: WHITE, READLER, and MATHIS, Circuit Judges.

OPINION HELENE N. WHITE, Circuit Judge. Defendant-Appellant Kim Davis, in her capacity as the clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, refused to issue a marriage license to Plaintiffs-Appellees David Moore and David Ermold. Plaintiffs sued Davis under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming that Davis violated their constitutional right to marry. After several interlocutory appeals, the district court entered judgment for Plaintiffs on liability and a jury awarded them compensatory damages. Davis now appeals, arguing that she is entitled to qualified immunity, that she has affirmative defenses to liability under the Free Exercise Clause and the Kentucky Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and that Plaintiffs' evidence of their emotional distress was insufficient to support the jury's award. We AFFIRM.

BREAKING: Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue same-sex couples' marriage licenses, loses her appeal at the Sixth Circuit of a lawsuit she lost at trial that was brought by same-sex couples whose constitutional right to marry she violated. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...