Connor Hansen

Mural of Statue of Liberty in shame unveiled in France the day before 4th of July

-A living wage
-Guaranteed healthcare
-The right to join a union
-The right to vote
-The right to choose when, how, and with whom you start a family
-The right for you and your family to live free from gun violence

These are the foundations of real freedom.

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

(1852) Frederick Douglass, "What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth Of July" Explore the speech "What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth Of July" delivered by Frederick Douglass in 1852, including full text and historical context.

Every 4th of July, I take the time to read "What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July." Let us begin:

"I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us."

We have a name for these types of facilities: concentration camps. What is being quoted in this thread is inhumane and is a violation of all that is decent.

Being a US citizen is an act of trust

You pledge yourself to the nation

You trust it won’t turn its back.

You join w/Americans in a grand, massive, diverse, contradictory, unruly, angry mass of people. “We the people.”

Don’t let folks blind you to the fact that WE THE PEOPLE govern this nation.

Things at the heart of being American:

Free & fair elections where WE get to decide who gets power.

The right to protest & talk back to power.

Faith in a fair chance before the law (due process)

The promise of citizenship: the ultimate pact of trust

A shared set of laws that rules us all.

"I’m looking to be shot any time I step out of my car. If I die, it will be in a good cause. I’ve been fighting for America just as much as the soldiers in Vietnam."
Medgar Evers, born on this day in 1925

University of California, Berkeley law professor John Yoo views the Claremont Institute's position as "an upside-down reversal of the 14th Amendment." "Here is a Reconstruction Congress at the end of the Civil War reversing the terrible mistake of Dred Scott and expanding citizenship to a class of Americans-the former slaves—who had been born in the United States but were still denied citizenship," Yoo wrote in February for the American Mind. "That is the point of the very first sentence of the 14th Amendment. Why would the 14th Amendment's Framers narrow the definition of citizenship for everyone else?"

shit. That’s…actually a good way to put it.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary.

June 28, 1914. A bad day in #History. A very bad day.

Netanyahu has spent the better part of two decades trying to strong arm the United States into an unprovoked war against Iran and finally found a president stupid enough to do it for him. Unbelievable.

Just to be crystal clear: bombing Iran is completely illegal.

ICE Just Paid Palantir Tens of Millions for ‘Complete Target Analysis of Known Populations’ The records show that Palantir is actively working on the technical infrastructure underpinning the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts which could soon impact U.S. citizens.

“The records show that Palantir is actively working on the technical infrastructure underpinning the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts which could soon impact U.S. citizens.“
Palantir will be used to identify domestic Trump critics soon enough.

I have obtained new nonpublic data from ICE that shows that 2/3 of the people it had booked into detention facilities this fiscal year had no criminal convictions at all. Less than 7% have violent convictions. Most convictions were for immigration, traffic, and vice offenses.

This is 100% spot on👇

“If you want to know what you think about a topic, write about it. Writing has a way of ruthlessly exposing unclear thoughts and imprecision.”

And it is why ChatGPT is rotting brains.

BREAKING: Mahmoud Khalil speaks out after being released from ICE detention.

"The Trump administration are doing their best to dehumanize everyone here," Khalil said.

It’s almost like there are really good reasons legitimate law enforcement doesn’t normally operate masked and in civvies.

New York Times: ICE Imposes New Rules on Congressional Visits The policy specifies that ICE field offices are not subject to an existing federal law that allows members of Congress to make unannounced oversight visits to immigration facilities that “detain or otherwise house aliens.”

To be really clear: The reason members of Congress can't just walk right in is because of the guns. Armed DHS personnel won't allow entry. In other words, DHS is using armed force to *break* laws.

Democrats need to wrap their minds around that. Accept that the frog is boiled.

Note on historic context and #Juneteenth — Many of the articles and social media posts today will correctly note that in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, approximately 250,000 enslaved Blacks in were informed of their freedom.

Here’s a few important details about that number…

Trump’s attacks on trans people could cause immense harm to antidiscrimination law more broadly, and “weaken the laws that protect Americans on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation, and other characteristics,” Adam Serwer wrote earlier this year. https://theatln.tc/Hg4J8oo7

What are some good orgs for trans youth that could use some donations on this awful day? Reply below.

When things get difficult over the next few years remember today.

The number of people who want democracy vastly outnumber the people who want a king.

Authoritarians depend on fear. Democracy depends on each other.

The first U.S. bishop appointed by Pope Leo XIV—a refugee himself—is mobilizing priests to accompany migrants at immigration court on June 20.

(Via Christopher Hale)

Posted without comment.

Frederick Douglass (1869): “There are such things in the world as human rights. They rest upon no conventional foundation, but are external, universal, and indestructible.”