Courtney Pollack

Hey Somerville! If you haven't voted early or by mail, your last chance to do so is TUESDAY.

Please go out and do democracy while we still have it.

I've been thinking a lot about state power recently, and wanted to share a few of those thoughts. 1/?

We know times are tough and money is tight right now. Please check out these local resources for food assistance if you find yourself in need. Solidarity, not charity.

Reach out to MAMAS if you need further assistance through our hotline: (339) 545-1315 or email us at: askyourmamas@gmail.com.

I'm grateful for the endorsement of Senator @edmarkey.bsky.social in this race & to know that as Somerville's next mayor I will have the federal support necessary to best serve our community. This colloboration will be critical to defend our rights, fully fund our schools, & improve city services.

I made an image of all the art posted by US DOL on X since approximately Labor Day

Shutdown Assistance Map - Resources for Furloughed/Excepted Federal Workers - MyFEDBenefits ShareTweetSharePin0 Shares

Shutdown Assistance Map - Resources for Furloughed/Excepted Federal Workers - MyFEDBenefits myfedbenefitshelp.com/shutdown-ass...

The Establishment Supports the Less Progressive Candidate, Again. Somerville Can Do Better The Somerville Democratic City Committee (i.e. the “Somerville Dems”) is a local organization that, despite its name, includes many voting members who hold unelected, lifetime-tenure seats. Last week,...

www.thesomervilletimes.com/archives/143...

😍 Boston, you are beautiful. #NoKings

For those who don’t intimately understand how news works and why Bari Weiss’s unearned elevation to head of CBS News matters, I’d recommend watching this in entirety. Also, will forever point out irony of how an admitted DEI hire thinks her hire was meritorious while Black people’s aren’t.

Marching with SCLT

♥️ Not even a nor’easter can stop us!

Another incredible, intergenerational HONK! parade, marching for affordable housing with the Somerville Community Land Trust.

This is the way

Where Is the Line? On Ezra Klein, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the struggle to define the boundaries of what is acceptable in America

This piece is just an essential, important and excellent intervention as Coates' Vanity Fair essay was. One NYT column isn't that important, but an accommodationist mindset has spread in center-left elite circles. And it should be rejected forcefully. democracyamericana.com/posts/c5d024...

In the HBS window sits a stack of 12 books with one larger picture book leaning against it. The picture book is "Sofia Valdez, Future Prez" by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts (Illustrator). The stack of books are, from the top down: - "Melissa" by Alex Gino - "The Poet X" by Elizabeth Acevedo - "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison - "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood - "Ace of Spades" by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé - "Last Night at the Telegraph Club" by Malinda Lo - "All Boys Aren't Blue" by George M. Johnson - "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult - "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" Jesse Andrews - "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess - "Flamer" by Mike Curato - "Gender Queer" by Maia Kobabe

This year we observe banned books week from October 5th-11th to draw attention to the harmful rise of book censorship across the country. Pictured here are just some of the challenged titles of the thousands being removed from schools and libraries in the US. Read banned books!

South Shore Residents Return To Ransacked Apartments After ICE Raid: 'It Looks Like Hell' A "now renting" sign outside touts granite countertops. Inside, residents are trying to make sense of the raid that made their already neglected building even worse.

ICE is running around Chicago harassing people for not being white.

Just a year ago, that was illegal in the United States and now it’s commonplace.

That’s not making America great again.

Haven’t read the piece yet. But it may be he best description I’ve heard of Klein generally.

I'm beyond excited that Thomas Zimmer is back. His analyses are always excellent. Check out his work!

steady.page/democracyame...

Amid ICE surge, Somerville becomes a focal point for arrests City officials say federal agents are targeting the local Brazilian community.

This weekend marked an “acceleration of ICE activity,” according to city spokeswoman Denise Taylor.

www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... @gbhnews.bsky.social

Somervillian here legally stayed to talk with Ice and was taken anyway, state and local officials say (updated) - Cambridge Day A federal agent is heard on video saying a man “fit exactly the description of the problem we’re here to address” before taking him away. A protest is planned for Saturday night at the hotel where age...

For the past 53 hours we have been trying to identify the man who was racially-profiled and abducted by ICE agents in East Somerville this past Saturday — his family and co-workers have now come forward to identify him as Magdaleno Pineda Avelar. More here: www.cambridgeday.com/2025/09/20/s...

Two crosswalk signs that say to push the button for an accessible signal.

Is the City of Somerville making our lives better? Yes! One way is with accessible crosswalks.

Grievance politics is in full swing in Somerville's local election and it is absolutely antithetical to what we need to meet this moment. I urge us to resoundingly reject it, in our conversations and on our ballots.

Mission statement for Shalom Somerville

Quote from Justin Klekota’s candidate questionnaire: “The pro-Hamas 2024 ceasefire resolution was proposed shortly after Hamas's brutal terrorist attack against Israel in October 2023: if implemented, it would only serve to advance Hamas's military objectives giving Hamas time to regroup, re-arm, and to launch more terrorist attacks against Israel which Hamas had already pledged to do. Given our City government's lack of constitutional authority, no aspect of the ceasefire resolution would enable the peace process. Thus, the City Councilors who voted for this resolution only managed to promote Hamas propaganda in service of Hamas terrorism.”

The newly formed political group “Shalom Somerville” writes that their mission is “building an inclusive, respectful, and civil community,” but it really gives the game away when one of their top candidates refers to people like me as terrorists (for calling for a ceasefire.)

What Columbia's settlement with the Trump administration means for higher education Columbia University and the Trump administration reached a deal that restores federal funding and research grant money to the university. As part of the agreement, Columbia will pay $200 million to th...

A voice of sanity on the administration's authoritarian assault on higher education.

www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

Opinion | Don’t call it ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’ Call it a concentration camp. This facility’s purpose fits the classic model, and its existence points to serious dangers ahead for the country.

I wrote about how the Everglades experiment fits into the history of concentration camps in the US and abroad, and how it will connect a domestic network of camps to an international one. We’re watching the imposition of a global concentration camp network.

LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of MA

I called LUCE's hotline yesterday for the first time. (Thankfully, the suspicious federal government car parked in my neighborhood didn't end up being ICE.) I'm grateful for the work of the dispatch and response teams. Keep sharing the hotline with others!

www.lucemass.org

June 18, 2025 (Wednesday) Tomorrow is the federal holiday honoring Juneteenth, the celebration of the announcement in Texas on June 19th, 1865, that enslaved Americans were free.

June 18, 2025

USNC-Somernova CBA passes with 71% YES votes!!!

What DEI threatens isn’t merit. It’s monopoly. Political science professor Hakeem Jefferson argues for DEI's importance to de-monopolizing universities.

A colleague at Stanford’s business school used The Stanford Daily to argue—poorly—against DEI. The piece was riddled with historical errors and left one searching for fact, so I broke my public writing hiatus to respond.

I hope you’ll read and share the piece.

stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/w...

I filmed this yesterday on my way to Lousiana where my constituent Rümeysa Öztürk is being wrongfully held by ICE. I’m there now demanding her release. More to come.

If you personally see ICE in action in Somerville, please call the ICE Hotline run by www.lucemass.org at 617-370-5023 to report it. This is very helpful.

Research with restricted-use data is more precise, powerful, and relevant. Faculty and staff will be working through the weekend to answer important research questions before we no longer can. This is not normal, necessary, or efficient.

Republicans Tear Down a Black Lives Matter Mural Symbols aren’t just symbols.

Heartbreaking
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...