Still Cynical After All These Years

UC Berkeley professor warns of 'unprecedented crackdown' on academic freedom UC Berkeley told 160 faculty, staff and students that their names were included in files shared with the federal government related to "alleged antisemitic incidents." We hear from one of them.

UC Berkeley told 160 faculty, staff and students that their names were included in files shared with the federal government related to "alleged antisemitic incidents." We hear from one of them.

I said from the jump that Kimmel never said the shooter was MAGA. I heard it the way he meant it: that MAGA is desperately spinning a narrative that the shooter is anything but MAGA. It’s like when I say I don’t trust the source of the texts, people make all kind of assumptions about what I mean.

My mom called me last night about the Kimmel firing, saying "This is how Hitler got started!" I quickly responded, "By firing the late night tv hosts?"

Turns out, mom was right.

I know we keep focusing on Colbert and Kimmel as we should, but we also need to remember there are hundreds of people who work for these shows who also just lost their jobs because of this bullshit, and most of them are probably not millionaires.

It's not so much a panic "attack" at this point, it's more of a standing appointment we have every morning where we meet on my couch for coffee

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Files

Leak

In defense of Ukraine Anonymous has released 10TB of leaked data on all businesses operating in Russia, all Kremlin assets in the West, pro-Russian officials, Donald Trump, and more. 🇺🇦 #OpRussia

Oh, yes. And don't forget the cat.

THIS. #HandsOff

Thank you to whoever made this

After getting some rest, I am in awe of everyone who continues to lift their voice and speak out. This is a moment for our country, and we must make a choice about the America we want to be.

I'm not a programming guy but MSNBC and CNN should be airing this Cory Booker thing in the same way you take over programming if there's a no-hitter or a basketball player with 60 points in three quarters. It's a physical feat! Cut in for this kind of thing. Costs nothing, gooses ratings, good TV.

Sen. Cory Booker putting his hand over his heart as he beats Strom Thurmond's floor address record

It may be breaking, but @booker.senate.gov's voice has never been more powerful.

Thank you, my friend, for speaking out for freedom, justice, and the country we love.

A legend.

Trump’s Tariffs Promise a Major Car Wreck He doesn’t seem to grasp that no vehicles are 100% American-made. And: Wisconsin says no to Elon Musk.

Uncertainty, unnecessary trade wars, an unelected co-President, a hostile oligarchy and kleptocracy bent on enriching itself—kudos to Wisconsin voters saying enough is enough.
www.americaamerica.news/p/trumps-tar...

Thank you, Senator Cory Booker! #Resist

YouTube video by Associated Press LIVE: Cory Booker speaks on the Senate floor

A Black man just beat the record for the longest filibuster, defeating the record previously held by a man who filibustered the literal Civil Rights Act.

As the time ticked over, Cory Booker announced he did it not out of hatred for who he opposed, but out of love for those who supported him.

I may be tired and a little hoarse, but as I said again and again on the Senate floor, this is a moment where we cannot afford to be silent, when we must speak up.

Booker: "I confess that I have been imperfect. I confess that I've been inadequate to the moment. I've confess that the Democratic Party has made terrible mistakes that gave a lane to this demagogue. I confess we all must look in the mirror and say 'we will do better.'"

British activist in solitary confinement in India despite acquittal, family say Brother of Jagtar Singh Johal says he is ‘being mentally tortured’ through unwarranted detention The British Sikh activist Jagtar Singh Johal, detained for seven years in an Indian jail, has been placed into solitary confinement and under 24-hour surveillance despite being acquitted of all terrorism charges against him by a Punjab court on 4 March, his family have claimed. Johal is still facing the exact same charges in a parallel case in a clear example of double jeopardy, his brother Gurpreet said when giving testimony at Westminster to an all party committee on arbitrary detention. He said the Indian courts have not granted his brother bail, despite the prosecutor’s failure to produce any credible evidence or witnesses in the Punjab court. Gurpreet said UK consular staff met his brother in jail on Tuesday and were told he had been put into solitary confinement with a 24-hour guard, adding no explanation had been given. Gurpreet said: “I fear for his physical and mental welfare since he is being excluded from contact with all other prisoners. He has been in jail for seven years, acquitted and now he is being further punished. He is being mentally tortured and I am concerned something is going to happen to him. The aim is to break him.” He added that a critical window of opportunity existed after the Punjab acquittal, in which the judge was damning about the quality of evidence assembled by the Indian prosecutors, to secure his brother’s release. He said the Foreign Office had to realise his brother was not being held to secure his conviction, but to keep him in detention. “What is missing from the British government is political will. I am told the prime minister raised the case when he met the Indian external affairs minister, S Jaishankar, but I do not know what exactly they are raising, or how central it is to the conversations ministers are having.” Continue reading...

British activist in solitary confinement in India despite acquittal, family say

Midterms can’t come soon enough.

April 1, 2025 Today Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) made history.

April 1, 2025

@booker.senate.gov made history yesterday.

He made genuinely “good trouble.”

During his brilliant record-breaking filibuster, he asked “Where does the Constitution live, on paper or in our hearts?”

All of us are called in our own way to answer that question by our actions, not just our words.

Paul, Weiss Said It Felt ‘Called Upon’ to Launch a Center to Fight Hate. Now It Won’t Talk About It. Read more here.

Paul, Weiss removed from its site information about its pro bono work on topics like immigration, voting rights, LGBTQ issues and reproductive rights.

Paul, Weiss also retracted dozens of press releases, including previous statements denouncing antisemitic attacks and racism against Asians.

Congratulations to Judge Susan Crawford on her victory, and to the people of Wisconsin for electing a judge who believes in the rule of law and protecting our freedoms.

“As a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls,” Judge Susan Crawford said in her victory speech, “I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin. And we won.”

I refer to growing up in the acid rain/ quicksand/impending nuclear conflict era as being "classically trained" in generalized anxiety

There is an impulse in moments like this to appeal to self-interest. To say: These horrors you are allowing to happen, they will come to your doorstep one day; to repeat the famous phrase about who they came for first and who they'll come for next. But this appeal cannot, in matter of fact, work. If the people well served by a system that condones such butchery ever truly believed the same butchery could one day be inflicted on them, they'd tear the system down tomorrow. And anyway, by the time such a thing happens, the rest of us will already be dead. No, there is no terrible thing coming for you in some distant future, but know that a terrible thing is happening to you now. You are being asked to kill off a part of you that would otherwise scream in opposition to injustice. You are being asked to dismantle the machinery of a functioning conscience. Who cares if diplomatic expediency prefers you shrug away the sight of dismembered children? Who cares if great distance from the bloodstained middle allows obliviousness. Forget pity, forget even the dead if you must, but at least fight against the theft of your soul.

One of many moments in Omar El Akkad’s new book, “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” that will stop you in your tracks.

Imagine calling yourself the master race and have to resort to erasing the achievements of minorities to make yourself feel better.

Photo of Jen from January 2022 wearing a rainbow zig zag pattern dress and red button necklace, standing next to a yellow and white building.

Oops, I rainbowed again.