Sabrina Vourvoulias

What are Black Catholics hearing when church leaders praise Charlie Kirk? For many Black Catholics familiar with Charlie Kirk's full record, endorsements of his message by Catholic leaders can be devastating.

Nota bene Bishop Robert Barron and Cardinal Timothy Dolan: "Church leaders can either acknowledge their grave error and work toward genuine reconciliation or they can continue tacitly sanctifying racist speech and injustice."
www.americamagazine.org/faith-and-re...

Always fun to see my column in print...

Speaking To The Dead: Why Americans Consult Mediums Interest in communicating with the dead has continued to thread itself through contemporary American life. For a medium in Pennsylvania, communicating with loved ones helps bring her clients comfort.

My friend @wallacewriter.bsky.social has a new piece out at Religion Unplugged. Like all her journalism, it is well worth a read: religionunplugged.com/news/speakin...

Something to complain about, if you're in the mood. Ahem.

Apparently neither of my books (including one published by Hachette's Running Press Kids), and none of my short stories (including two published by MacMillan), are eligible, despite being on the list of those scraped by AI... 😡

Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated' The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.

This kind of middle-of-the-night-break-down-doors-and-take-everybody kind of action is so familiar to those of us who have lived under authoritarian rule. Go to www.inquirer.com/opinion/ice-... to read about other authoritarian markers.

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Vance downplays Trump post of Jeffries in sombrero: ‘I think it’s funny’ Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday characterized Trump’s AI-generated post of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as “funny,” pushing back on criticism of the video.

By all means, let's make the person who propagated the lie about Haitians eating cats and dogs the arbitrer of what is racist and what isn't. 🙄 wapo.st/46zkkRv

ICE Threatens Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Stage Trump’s DHS goon Corey Lewandowski vows raids at Bad Bunny’s halftime show, turning America’s biggest sports event into a deportation spectacle.

In case that link doesn't work, try this one: migrantinsider.com/p/ice-threat...

ICE Threatens Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Stage Trump’s DHS goon Corey Lewandowski vows raids at Bad Bunny’s halftime show, turning America’s biggest sports event into a deportation spectacle.

For every MAGA Latino out there who still thinks any of this is about immigration status, wake the hell up. No importa si has sido ciudadano desde que naciste y no importa cuán exitoso seas ... nunca serás uno de «ellos».
ICE Threatens Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Stage
migrantinsider.com/p/ice-threat...

I have a short story in this!

👏

‘Say it with me: Our government is forcibly disappearing people’ Enforced disappearance of immigrants and noncitizens aren’t the only way the Trump administration is showing its authoritarian character, but it is one with deep resonances.

What can be done? We must “encourage the U.S. to recommit to its international human rights obligations and fully engage and participate in the international human rights systems.”
My new column.
www.inquirer.com/opinion/ice-...

75% 🤬

I’m not alone, but we pay over $19K/year for insurance through the ACA for my daughter, my wife, and myself.

Like millions of other Americans, we are bracing ourselves to be priced out. We don’t need to just save healthcare. We need to make it better and affordable.
#DonaldTrumpsShutdown

Kensington’s Cantina La Martina, from James Beard-nominated chef Dionicio Jiménez, is closing After a nearly four-year run, the restaurant's owners have decided not to renew their lease on the space at the corner of D Street and Kensington Avenue.

This makes me so damn sad.
www.inquirer.com/food/cantina...

Hegseth's words seem especially chilling in light of his whitewashing of the Wounded Knee Massacre as a heroic "battle" only a few days ago. The message would seem to be that the Trump Administration is willing to forgive any atrocity US troops may commit as an "earnest mistake."

yeah, this is hegseth straightforwardly announcing that it is free play time for bigots in the ranks. and together with his comments on standards, he clearly wants to purge as many women, black and brown people as he can from the armed services. a white man's military.

i'm guessing this is for his buddies who have been accused of war crimes or blatant racism

Medbeds, ‘truths’, and fantastical science, oh my! | Opinion It will take more than clicking the heels of my ruby slippers twice to pull back the curtain on what is passing for science in the White House, writes Michelle Francl-Donnay.

It will take more than clicking the heels of my ruby slippers twice to pull back the curtain on what is passing for science in the White House, writes Michelle Francl-Donnay.
www.inquirer.com/opinion/comm...

Religion note: there is an entire wing of Christianity that disagrees.

Pritzker: "In any other country, if federal agents fired upon journalists & protesters when unprovoked what would we call it? If officials marched down streets harassing civilians & demanding their papers, what would we say? I don't think we'd have trouble calling it what it is: authoritarianism"

I Filmed the ICE Officer Who Shoved a Woman to the Floor Inside a New York Courthouse I arrived in the U.S. eight weeks ago to report on how the administration’s immigration crackdown was playing out from the front lines. What I saw Thursday was the culmination of ICE’s aggressive beha...

The video I filmed of an ICE agent shoving a woman to the ground at 26 Federal Plaza, a New York City immigration courthouse, went viral.

Then, in a rare move, the government publicly reprimanded the officer, calling his actions “unacceptable.”

By @tilleckert.com

WOW. This entire story is HORRIFIC. This is FOIA of a body cam from the raid in upstate New York the same day as the Hyundai plant. It catches a Border Patrol agent on camera only bragging about denying medical care to migrants detained at the border under Biden — who he says are all "animals."

1/3

Help Rodney Taylor, a Disabled Double Amputee Being Held by ICE Rodney has been in the country more than 40 years. He's in solitary confinement in Georgia, being denied disability accommodations and having his medical needs ignored. He must be released.

Disabled people are particularly vulnerable to abuse under fascism.

ICE has been neglecting the medical needs of detainees.

One disabled immigrant, Rodney Taylor, needs our help.

He's a double amputee who's been in the country since he was two years old. He's being held in solitary:

No words. Actually, just one: GOP.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia transferred to Pennsylvania immigrant detention center Abrego Garcia’s case gained international attention after he was deported to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador, only to be returned to the U.S. in June.

www.inquirer.com/news/kilmar-...

😂

YouTube video by Yes on 50 Yes on 50: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

AOC stars in new ad urging California to vote "yes" on new redistricting map. "Donald Trump is redrawing election maps to force through a Congress that only answers to him ... With Prop. 50, we can stop him."

I don't know, it seems like people would take it as an invitation to come onto the property, and I am already a misanthrope...

😂
I did, for a second, think, "Oh, we have enough property for the apatosaurus..."

Just listed on Facebook Marketplace: Two dozen animatronics from a soon-to-be closed NJ dinosaur park Field Station: Dinosaurs, located in Bergen County, recently listed nearly 30 animatronic prehistoric creatures online, hoping to find them a good home.

They're animatronic: www.inquirer.com/arts/field-s...