Laura Free

The situation at the immigration detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” has gotten so bad that detainees have been on a hunger strike for over ten straight days.

Sixty years ago today, Medicare and Medicaid were signed into law - securing health care for millions and saving countless lives. As GOP politicians try to tear them down, it's up to us to protect and expand these programs for Americans who rely on them today and for future generations.

The truth here is so ever relevant, is so simple and profound. I think I might pop it into my next book. Sharing yet again:

Here’s a thought 👇

The entire point of good reporting or good scholarship is to tell us something we didn’t already know and the idea that they could ever be replaced by AI tools that rely on scraping the internet database of what we *do* know is just ludicrous.

Time for my #caturday nap

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it will shut down its Office of Research and Development and eliminate thousands of agency jobs. According to the agency, this office has long served as the scientific backbone of its efforts to protect both public health and the environment.

Partisanship Meets Social Networks: How Politically Heterogeneous Acquaintances and Close Relationships Buffer Partisan Animosity Article: Partisanship Meets Social Networks: How Politically Heterogeneous Acquaintances and Close Relationships Buffer Partisan Animosity | Sociological Science | Posted July 7, 2025

New study finds that politically diverse social networks, even casual acquaintances, reduce partisan hostility by exposing people to others with opposing views, correcting stereotypes, and fostering understanding.
sociologicalscience.com/articles-v12...

Americans have been duped.

Every other advanced country has universal healthcare, universal education, paid family leave, paid maternity leave, at least 6 weeks paid vacation, living wages, and a commitment to green energy.

That’s how you make America great.

Right? (The sexual innuendos from the 8th-grade boys were the absolute worst!)

And now, also, isn't it the best name to have?!? Free solidarity! :)

Update on our trip to Alligator Alcatraz. We are being denied access.

Portrait of James Forten in profile waring a black coat & white tie c. 1818 Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

In July 1776 James Forten heard the 1st public reading of the Declaration of Independence. He served in the American Revolution & fought for its ideals long after the war. A descendant of the enslaved, he founded schools, funded manumission, & helped establish a multiracial abolitionist society.

Boycotting is a privilege.

Prepping is a privilege.

Protesting is a privilege.

Leaving the country is a privilege.

Not all solutions are accessible to everyone.

We need robust community care to ensure people aren’t left behind.

They’ve destroyed American medical research, the American education system, the American university research system, and the aid system that protected millions of lives, and they’ve given our anti-immigrant masked paramilitary police force a budget the size of a nation

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.

This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.

It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

We moved very fast from "we promise to deport illegal migrants with criminal records" to funding ICE to a level on par with the entire military of mid-size European countries and using these funds to build concentration camps for any and all migrants.

CALL A REP.

2.977 people died on 9/11.
The daily quote for ICE is 3000.
I think putting it in terms like that puts it into perspective.
They want one 9/11 every day.

Mamdani: "I've already had to start get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I'm from, ultimately bc he wants to distract from what I'm fighting for. I'm fighting for the the very working people he ran a campaign to empower that he has since betrayed."

If Jeff Bezos can afford to rent Venice for a $50 million wedding, he can afford to pay his fair share in taxes.

Colorful quilt of a nighttime scene with Harriet Tubman in an orange jacket and purple dress carrying a rifle. She is leading other figures who walk behind her.

Harriet Tubman #quilt by my Mom, Vera P. Hall, who makes quilts celebrating Black people who fought for their own freedom. This seems to be the crowd favorite of the “We Didn’t Wait for Freedom” series. Happy #Juneteenth #quilting

So now ICE is attacking political candidates as well as asylum seeking people.

A right-winger -- a registered Republican, a Trump voter, an evangelical anti-abortion activist -- assassinates a Democratic official.

Republicans respond by blaming the left.

Democrats respond by blaming ... no one.

This is the moment when he realizes what he's become.

Holy shit, New York indeed!
Great turnout in Ithaca, as well as everywhere else.

THIS IS A US SENATOR.

Padilla: If this is how DHS responds to a senator with a question you can only imagine what they're doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California.

NO KINGS Ithaca  

No Kings in Ithaca tomorrow. 1-3 Washington Park www.cityofithaca.org/Calendar.asp...

We will not cower, even in the face of Trump’s crackdown on dissent. Join tomorrow’s nationwide peaceful protests for #NoKings Day: www.nokings.org?SQF_SOURCE=i...