Gwen Rubinstein

When bad things get worse Border Patrol, ICE, and the repetition of grim history.

I wrote about how Border Patrol taking the lead in immigration operations mirrors a shift that happens often in concentration-camp regimes, including Nazi Germany, and some ways we can respond.

“Walmart was the top employer of SNAP recipients in five states and one of the top four employers in the remaining four states. McDonald’s was among the top five employers of Medicaid enrollees in five of six states and SNAP recipients in eight of nine states.”

www.cnbc.com/2020/11/19/w...

Marc Lobliner post on X: "Why the hell are we giving food stamps to 40 million people? Does anyone work anymore?"

SNAP isn't about "people who don't work." It's about people who don't get paid enough to live.

Of the 40 or so million people who rely on food stamps:

* Two-thirds are children, seniors, or disabled

* Most working-age adults who receive SNAP are employed—but in jobs that pay poverty wages

Whenever people complain about the number of folks relying on food stamps, it is worth reminding them that SNAP is, by too large of a degree, a subsidy for corporations that refuse to pay a living wage and their political allies who reject public policy prescriptions to reduce income inequality.

Did you know that over 1.3M active duty service members and veterans rely on SNAP benefits to feed themselves and their families?

Now you know.

Trump Administration Live Updates: Pentagon Accepts $130 Million Donation to Help Pay Troops During Shutdown

The amount is meaningless — less than one day of salary. But the principle is important: once the armed services are paid by the oligarchs, they become a private militia, and we no longer have a country.
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

Also not remotely true

Here are the companies destroying the east wing of the White House

Despicable

Well, that’s a head scratcher. Signed a a previous long-term subscriber.

The Democrats need to get a hell of a lot of cameras on the White House and plaster the photos everywhere. It's not just the brazen symbol of a megalomaniac destroying national heritage; it's happening during a government shutdown when ordinary people aren't getting paid. Make every American see it.

Also an indication he never intends on moving out

Nederlandse diensten delen minder informatie met de VS: ‘Soms vertellen we dingen niet meer’ Het aantal dreigingen dat op Nederland afkomt is groot, zien de hoofden van de AIVD en de MIVD elke dag: niet alleen Russische agressie, maar ook de opmars van China als digitale macht en binnenlands ...

Dutch intelligence suspends sharing arrangements with the US after concluding that high level intel was routinely being shared by the White House with their friends in the Kremlin. www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/n...

DC J6: 1.500 arrests
DC No Kings: zero

Tell me again which side is violent?

Harrisburg, PA — there are so many older women in banana suits at the Capitol holding antifa signs and none of that sentence would have made sense to me 10 years ago

Boston. Wow.

One of my favorite signs today - so very DC #nokings #freedc

More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...

Justice Brett Kavanaugh: “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen...they promptly let the individual go."

The reality: Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents.

A must read from the very talented @nicolefoy.bsky.social:

JD Vance brushes off racist texts by adults in Republican group chat as ‘what kids do’ Vice-president downplays messages such as ‘I love Hitler’ in chat by 24 to 35-year-olds to ‘stupid jokes’

For those of you keeping score, 18-22 year-old students calling for an end to slaughter in Gaza are so racist they need to be expelled or deported, but 24-35 year-olds celebrating Hitler, rape, and, um, racism are just kids being kids so chill.

Also, racism is over so no need for Voting Right Act.

Joking in your Young Republican group chat about the mass murder of 6 million people who'd been scapegoated for decades as morally degenerate ethnic/religious outsiders is just locker room talk. Speaking lightly of the murder of Charlie Kirk to your 400 friends on Facebook is a fireable offense.

Two headlines on front page of NYT. First is "Trump Weighs Transforming Refugee Policy. White People Would be Given Preference." Second is "Justices May Ban Race as a Factor in District Maps. Nation's Political Balance Could Shift If Court Guts 1964 Law."

Where we stand, in long arc of history:

-Story on left, adding race as a factor when that favors white people.

-Story on right, banning race as a factor when that favors non-whites.

I often complain about NYT headlines and story-play. But these are strong. Including "If Court Guts 1965 Law."

But I was told trump was going to make things cheaper

Run on that my dude

The worst of the worst or something something

Johnson describes planned No Kings rally as ‘hate America,’ ‘pro-Hamas’ gathering Organizers largely blew off the rhetoric, but some Democrats online criticized the tone.

These are the same kind of weasels who would’ve called George Washington & America’s revolutionaries “terrorists.” They spend their days sucking up to King Trump & demonizing peaceful protest just as some in America sought to appease King George III. 

Looking forward to No Kings Day.

Going for free!

Trump's new layoffs hurt disabled kids "This is absolutely a violation of federal law."

“This is absolutely a violation of federal law.”

For @motherjones.com, I reported about how reduction-in-forces in the Office of Special Education Programs will lead to disabled kids' needs not being met, as funding may not be distributed. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

New — Video shared with me shows ICE officers in DC detaining a man on Friday.

Bystander filming asks man for his name. ICE agent lies and says he’s not allowed to speak to him “by law” and another says “We’ve arrested American citizens for being too close…If he gets any closer, put him in cuffs.”

Don’t threaten me, a DC resident taxed without representation, with a good time - something I am sure someone else has already posted