Ellen Bender

You won't find a more important piece than this -- an absolute must-read from the woman who wrote the book on concentration camps

An American Reckoning | Ben Rhodes Robert McNamara’s failure to reckon with the exceptionalism that led the United States into the Vietnam War contributed to fifty years of foreign policy failures. It can help us understand the crisis ...

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Not official just yet but AIPAC really just burned more than $2,300,000 on a race against a candidate who is pro Israel but who wouldn't agree, preemptively, to always unconditionally vote for aid to Israel. And then that guy won anyway.

Accountability for ICE and CBP However bad you think the corruption and misconduct at ICE and CBP is — the reality is far far worse.

I testified Friday before Gov. Pritzker's commission studying abuses of ICE and CBP and tried to explain how the agencies went so far off track. It's actually way worse than I ever realized. Please read and share my testimony as Congress considers reform: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/accountabi...

Workspace showing several handwritten campaign postcards that read “Be a Voter!” with a photo of a singing blackbird perched in green grass. Postcards support Kadarius Knapper for LRSD Zone 3. One postcard includes handwritten text listing campaign priorities such as serving all students, improving reading scores, and ending the school‑to‑prison pipeline. Voting dates are written: early voting February 17 to March 2, and election day Tuesday, March 3. Pens and markers lie beside the postcards.

A purple gloved hand holds a stack of completed “Be a Voter!” postcards outdoors near a roadside or mailbox. The postcards feature scenic images and handwritten labels supporting Julio Salinas for state representative. Some cards are partially addressed and are ready to be mailed.

Five different “Be a Voter!” postcards for Julio Salinas, a candidate for state representative in Texas. Each postcard features nature imagery such as mountains, deserts, flowers, birds, and a monarch butterfly. Handwritten notes on the cards read “Julio Salinas” and “State Rep. March 3.” Several pens, markers, stamps, and a roll of tape are visible.

Writing #PostcardstoVoters is good for my soul & for democracy. Help increase name recognition for downballot candidates! Cards for Kadarius Knapper for school board 🚌 in AR & Julio Salinas for state rep, Rio Grande Valley, TX. More: @markers4democracy.bsky.social.

📷️ & cards by #StephaniesVision

YouTube video by Rocket Won’t You Be My Neighbor? | Lady Gaga Original

Lady Gaga has put out a gorgeous anthem for Minneapolis.
youtu.be/e3o5FIXoK84?...

Quote tweet from @WordsMeanings: Sad guy keeps pretending to go into work after getting fired Quoted tweet from former Mayor Eric Adams: I am closely monitoring what appears to be a deliberate attack at 770, the Chabad Headquarters in Crown Heights. Antisemitism is poison.

Absolutely brutal

Yup. www.offmessage.net/p/after-minn...

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

Alex Pretti and Another Kind of Masculinity Are We Finally Moving Away from Temu Tough Guys?

Alex Pretti and Another Kind of Masculinity
open.substack.com/pub/pegtyre/...

Just a reminder that Niall Ferguson is the guy in every dystopian sci-fi movie who issues blithe assurances that "the system will contain X"

My subscription to Brian's substack had lapsed because I hadn't updated my credit card, but I finally resubscribed just to read and share this. Highly recommend.

And this is why if you would like to see a better Dem Party, you should be adopting one or two primary challengers in safe Dem seats and helping them knock out a consultant-led incumbent.

For the umpteenth time, Brian nails it. House Dem Leadership screwed up big last week. This isn't "I told ya so." There should be some real reflection within the Dem Caucus about the systemic error in judgement that dismissed all efforts aimed at getting them to make the right call last week.

Tweet from Columbia Jewish Alumni Association: "Maybe if Mamdani had grown up in NYC and not Uganda, he'd know that snow days are a cherished part of American childhood"

I think it's really bad that the group that claims to speak for Jews at Columbia University is so grossly xenophobic.

Also - Mamdani did grow up in NYC.

One of the best things I’ve read in a while:

Tell your senators to rein in ICE NOW On Wednesday, January 7, Renee Good was killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Then, on January 24, Border Patrol killed Alex Pretti. These deaths were a direct...

Tell your senators to rein in ICE NOW act.indivisible.org/sign/ice-out...

You cannot claim to be a Democrat and vote to finance fascism. Any notion this will shore up your law enforcement bonafides will come crashing down as Americans see that the criminals are ICE and you just upped their weapons stash.

Trump & Vance are trying to inject their conception of America into the body politic & the American people are overwhelmingly rejecting it, like a failed organ transplant.

📣 ANNOUNCEMENT:

Last fall, in addition to my usual fundraising page to raise money VA Dems running in *competitive* state legislative districts, @90for90.bsky.social approached me with an idea to create a *second* page *specifically* to raise money for the REDDEST, LEAST competitive seats. 1/

MAD calls out Illegal intimidation of journalists by Trump administration and Jeff Bezos for cowardice and greed.

@mediaanddemocracy.bsky.social calls out Illegal intimidation of journalists by Trump administration open.substack.com/pub/mediaand...

Dispatch from the occupation What life is like in Minneapolis now

Read "Dispatch from the occupation" by @donmoyn.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

I have the utmost respect for Senator Kaine and Senator Warner but we do not need “coaching” on redistricting coming from a cuck chair in the corner. How about you all stay focused on the fascist in the White House and let us handle redistricting in Virginia. 10-1

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/o...

This dude is intense and correct

I mean, for such a famed Nazi slogan that the SS used in such a famed Nazi atrocity, it’s genuinely curious that the *very first time* it’s mentioned online is in all these viral posts claiming it’s a famed Nazi slogan used in a famed Nazi atrocity.

Kudos to the Golden Globe producer who - immediately after a joke about famous people on the Epstein list - cuts to Bill Maher.

In my world, there's a certain reluctance to being merely, or in a knee-jerk way, a resist lib. That's understandable, even commendable. On the other hand, let's be clear: It's a hell of lot better, morally and intellectually and politically, to be a resist lib than a Vichy conservative.

these guys just have some absolutely terrible advisors