Zackary Berger שלום בערגער

In Europe they call it "austerity." We don't call it that in the US. What do we call it instead? "Waste/fraud/abuse", "getting rid of big government," what other synonyms do we use?
(Yes, I know we *know* the word in US English but it's not what the right wing says.)

interesting whether ZM's organization is now distinct from DSA. shades of OFA?

some people do drugs
i open up new google docs

Sometimes I wonder if Noem's dog committed suicide.

The entire entrance to the Treasury Dept on the side that faces the East Wing demolition has been closed, per a staffer there.

This is after Treasury Dept leaders told staff not to take photos of the demolition -- twice -- because it's such a devastating image.

This is just to say

I have looked on
the works
that were in
the desert

and which
you were probably
thinking
would still stand

Forgive me
they were trunkless
so vast
and so old

The vibe here is "I am authentically Jewish and can make Hebrew in-jokes," to which my considered Jewish response, in perfect Holy Tongue, is "fuck you, pal, all the way till Passover and back."

Bret: Er, like the House minority leader. Hakeem Jeffries, who, uh, just endorsed Mamdani? Or the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, whose last name, in Hebrew, means “Remaining Uncharacteristically Mum In Order to Protect Myself From a Primary Challenge from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez”?

Plenty stuff to be enraged about, but save some space for the trivial. In the Times, never-Trumper-turned-strangely-silent-on-torture Bret Stephens, paragon of anti-Palestinian morality, makes a deeply unfunny joke about Schumer in fake Hebrew. (He says its fake.)

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/o...

ABANDONED THE TODDLER IN THE BACKSEAT

Arrest these motherfuckers for child endangerment

We're seeing a massive institutional deportation and state violence apparatus being built and it honestly feels like people dont grasp the sheer scale of it and what already is in place. For every horrific video of masked feds kidnapping people there are so many people pushing paper to help.

Trump pushes an end to medical care for transgender youth nationally The White House plans to bar hospitals that treat transgender children and youth from getting any Medicare and Medicaid payments. The move would affect trans youth who have private insurance, too.

30 Oct 2025 -- Trump admin moves to restrict GAMT for minors nationally w/ 2 rules released Nov for comment which stop Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) reimbursements & block Medicaid/Medicare funds for any hospitals providing it. @rikiwilchins.bsky.social

*swallowing* shit or swallowing *shit*?
I fear I know the answer

He is a real person!
A real person who chose to get a Nazi tattoo!

Souvannarath is likely a citizen, ICE kidnapped him, he filed habeas, a judge ordered he not be deported, and *the next day* DHS deported him.

DHS told the press they didn't get the order, which is undoubtedly a lie and will be perjury when they say it to the court.
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Me: we'll cross that bridge when we come to it

[2 minutes later, at the bridge]

Me: Oh shit oh fuck oh no

To recap: Trump is spending money Congress never appropriated to pay federal employees with guns, and cutting programs and grants even when Congress has appropriated funds.
They literally have a contingency fund for SNAP that they are refusing to use.
No Speaker has done more to weaken Congress.

(I wrote a thing for @forward.com about a Saturday night near the ICE building in Portland. Write the Forward at editorial@forward.com if you'd like them to post the English [I have no idea if this will work, they'd have to translate it]).

A Saturday night in Portland, very close to the ICE building ס׳איז געווען אַ שטילע נאַכט אין פּאָרטלאַנד, אָרעגאָן. מײַן חבֿר ברונאָ, אַ משפּחה־דאָקטער װאָס אַרבעט אויפֿן געביט פֿון עפֿנטלעכן געזונט פֿאַר דער שטאָט, האָט פּאַרקירט זײַן אױטאָ אין אַ טונקעלער גאַ...

אַ מוצאי־שבת אין פּאָרטלאַנד, אַ קאַצנשפּרונג פֿונעם „אײַס“־בנין
A Saturday night in Portland, very close to the ICE building
שלום בערגער האָט גערעדט סײַ מיט די דעמאָנסטראַנטן קעגן „אײַס“ סײַ מיט די „טראָמפּיסטן“
forward.com/yiddish/7797...

Can we get democratic candidates who are not nazi or transphobic?!

Undocumented immigrants have an arrest rate of 613 per 100,000.

CBP agents have a self-reported arrest rate of 1%. There are 62,400 agents. So CBP agents have an arrest rate about 1.63 times that of undocumented immigrants, assuming these are correct.

After No Kings, It’s Time to Escalate We need bigger—and more disruptive—nonviolent campaigns that can go viral and peel away Trump’s pillars of support

Suggesting that high school students regularly take to the streets without reckoning with two years of BRUTAL repression against teenagers who were protesting genocide means that it's unlikely that teenagers will heed the call to protest.
www.laborpolitics.com/p/after-no-k...

fuck gavin newsom

Moulton is a moderate who is hoping that by opening the door *just a little* to anti-Jewish feeling, he can borrow some of that Mamdani energy to win his primary - then wedge the door, thus far and no farther. He hopes to control the hatred he wants to use. But it will use him. Quote Jack Cocchiarella @JDCocchiarella · Oct 28 Democrats taking money from AIPAC don't have the independence or moral clarity to lead our party. @sethmoulton explains why he is not only rejecting AIPAC money but returning it:

I've talked about it before but an underrated reason as to why the pro-Israel consensus is collapsing is the sheer maximalism of its adherents. David Frum is saying, explicitly, that if you're anti-AIPAC then you're antisemitic. This actually under-cuts his goal, if he were smart enough to see that.

man, it sure looks like republicans are using threat of federal government force to try and silence journalists

Reps. Ocasio-Cortez and Riley lead New York’s entire Democratic delegation in urging Trump Administration to fund November SNAP benefits.

Signed by Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Representatives Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), Yvette Clarke (NY-09), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Laura Gillen (NY-04), Dan Goldman (NY-10), Tim Kennedy (NY-26), George Latimer (NY-16), John Mannion (NY-22), Gregory Meeks (NY-05), Grace Meng (NY-06), Joe Morelle (NY-25), Jerrold Nadler (NY-12), Pat Ryan (NY-18), Tom Suozzi (NY-03), Paul Tonko (NY-20), Ritchie Torres (NY-15), and Nydia Velázquez (NY-07).

In 2 days, Donald Trump will cut off SNAP benefits for more than 3 million New Yorkers. Not because the USDA doesn't have the money, but because he thinks starving people helps him politically.

@reprileyny.bsky.social and I led a letter demanding that Trump reverse course and fund SNAP now.

(4) Trump and the Republicans don't have an advantage over Democrats because they *better understand heartland Americans.*

They have an advantage over Democrats because they created their own universe of propaganda outlets, and then went out and bought all the mainstream outlets.

Duh.

(3) Pollsters like to test messages with captured audiences who are being paid to pay attention. That isn’t reality. It’s pretend.

No such circumstances exist outside of their experimental settings.

The fight over attention is the central fulcrum point of contemporary politics.

No no. It's a basketball team

Please please please, even if you think Hasidim are troglodytes or noble savages, not "the Satmars"!!! It's like saying "the Canadas"!