Stephen Pimpare

For a story: I'm looking to speak to people of all ages about how uncertainty around access to SNAP and high cost of food is impacting mental health and well-being, especially as new restrictions/work requirements have taken effect. rainesford.alexandra@gmail.com, Signal rstauff.20

Ron Hayduk, "Untangling the Political Roots of Immigration and Inequality in the United States" (Routledge, 2026)

On @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social, @stephenpimpare.bsky.social interviewing Ron Hayduk about his book 'Untangling the Political Roots of Immigration and Inequality in the United States'.

"in 41 of the 50 states, every statewide executive office is held by the same party. In another six states, one party has a clear edge among the statewide offices."

centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/...

Cartoon: Better things are possible As always, if � you find value in this work I do, please consider helping me keep it sustainable by joining my weekly newsletter, � Sparky’s List! � You can get it in your inbox or read it on ...

oh hey whether you are dealing with snow or laying on the beach, there's a new cartoon for you

www.dailykos.com/stories/2026...

When Ds are back in charge, they have to change everything. No moderate half-measures. Just relentless razing of the corrupt institutions that enriched the worst people in the world and propped up fascism.

A few suggestions...

Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.

Meant to link to this one: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/lawf...

AI Won’t Automatically Make Legal Services Cheaper Three bottlenecks between AI capability and access to justice.

This is excellent: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/ai-w...

NEW: We’re publishing a full list of the 373 federal judges who have ruled against ICE’s mass detention policy and the 28 who have endorsed it — as well as links to key rulings by each.

Trump appointees have split 44 against/ 20 for the policy.

www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

Today.

Map showing tens of thousands of protests across the US between Trump's inauguration last year and January 31, 2026.

The volume & geographic distribution of protest nationwide during year 1 of Trump's second term was extraordinary.

My team at the Crowd Counting Consortium (@djpressman.bsky.social, Soha Hammam, & Chris Shay) has shared a big data update, covering all recorded US protests through Jan 2026. Some key takeaways 🧵:

He literally says in this clip that ICE will keep in Minnesota “quick reaction forces” — a military term — to go after “agitators.” Remember that those on the ground in MPLS have spent more than a week trying to tell everyone that Trump’s prior “deescalation” was a ruse and ICE is still operational

For those writing and reading and thinking about Sanctuary Cities, I recommend @petermancina.bsky.social's On the Side of ICE. You can listen to a short interview with him about the book here: newbooksnetwork.com/on-the-side-...

ICE to begin detaining immigrants inside Social Circle warehouse in April Homeland Security plans to build warehouse detention facilities in other cities being met with opposition.

ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps.

If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...

They're Coming for Our Daughters The conservative plan to shrink girls’ futures

The Heritage Foundation has released a 250-year roadmap to “save America.”

The document is a how-to guide for subjugating girls & young women: a detailed plan to push them out of college, funnel them into early marriage and motherhood, and then trap them there.
jessica.substack.com/p/theyre-com...

My colleague @hannahajames.bsky.social has an important post in today's @justsecurity.org debunking DHS's claim that it has legal authority to enter homes without warrants.

In many of the first generation of modern concentration camp systems (near the turn of the twentieth century), the vast majority of deaths were caused by disease and malnutrition. Most of the victims were women and children.

Two years may seem like a long closure for the Kennedy Center, but it’s gonna take time to replace all the union musicians with confederate ones.

Mamdani names reformer Stanley Richards to steer chaotic Rikers complex Exactly one month into his term, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has appointed a formerly incarcerated person to manage the facility.

"Richards most recently served as president of the Fortune Society, an organization that provides housing and re-entry services for formerly incarcerated New Yorkers. He has also served on the city’s Board of Correction.

gothamist.com/news/mamdani...

US-Regierung: Wie der Widerstand gegen Maga eine Chance hat Der Minneapolis-Moment offenbart die Schwächen der Trumpisten. Und er zeigt, wo der Widerstand gegen den US-Präsidenten in Zukunft erfolgreich ansetzen kann.

The Trumpists will continue to escalate. But in Minneapolis, we can see the limits of MAGA’s assault.

Trump’s authoritarian desires are limitless. But his ability to impose them on America is not.

My new piece for @zeit.de - and some thoughts, since it is in German (gift link):

In major rebuke, federal judge blocks key parts of Trump’s anti-voting order “Our Constitution does not allow the President to impose unilateral changes to federal election procedures,” the judge wrote.

BREAKING: A federal court permanently blocks two provisions of Trump’s anti-voting executive order seeking to impose new citizenship verification requirements to register to vote.

The judge said the Constitution assigns “no role at all to the President” to change federal election administration.

Voting in Authoritarian Elections Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025 TURKULER ISIKSEL Open the ORCID record for TURKULER ISIKSEL [Opens in a new window] and THOMAS B. PEPINSKY Open the ORCID record for THOMAS B. PEPINSKY [Opens in a new window] Show author details Article Figures Supplementary materials Comments Metrics Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window] Abstract Democratic theorists hold that voting contributes to some political good: individual and collective autonomy, equality, justice, pluralism, stability, better policies, and many others. But elections are common under authoritarianism, and empirical research finds that holding elections can stabilize authoritarian regimes. This creates what we term the democrat’s dilemma, where citizens who vote in authoritarian elections may bolster the regimes they wish to unseat, even when they cast a vote for the opposition. We identify three major ways of thinking about the democratic value of electoral participation—justice-based, epistemic, and proceduralist approaches—and use them to examine the complex moral considerations that confront voters in authoritarian regimes. We contend that authoritarian elections’ residual democratic value can justify voting, even when doing so could further entrench the autocrat. Our argument also implies that the democratic principles that justify voting in authoritarian elections oblige citizens to choose the most democratic alternative.

Alarmingly relevant new paper out in @apsrjournal.bsky.social by Turku Isiksel and @tompepinsky.com. They take on the question of whether citizens of authoritarian states should vote in their often unfair elections, & find reason to do so.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

A Running Count of How Many People ICE Has Killed and Injured - The American Prospect ICE is not required to report any use-of-force incidents against the public. So The American Prospect created our own running tally.

Amazing (and horrifying) resource: prospect.org/2026/01/29/i...

New GOP anti-voting bill may be the most dangerous attack on voting rights ever The MEGA Act represents one of the most catastrophic proposals for democracy in the United States.

NEW: Republicans in Congress have unveiled a new bill that would impose the most extreme voting restrictions ever proposed at the federal level. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Ultimate Banana Bread from Cook's Illustrated A blog with original recipes, and a few food-related reviews.

This one is great, if a bit fussy, but you don’t have enough bananas! www.cookistry.com/2011/11/ulti...

We Gave Homeless People Cash. They Bought Housing Not Drugs. The evidence from Vancouver to Denver is undeniable: When people in crisis receive money, substance use goes down, employment goes up, and homelessness ends.

I know. Big shock here, but I still wanted to put it all in one place. In my latest Substack, I compiled the evidence from multiple pilots focused on homeless people to show that over and over again, cash reduces homelessness and also even reduces drug use.

Universal basic income is the way to go.

The amount of money the US government spent on troops in DC in 2025 ($223m) would have been enough to give the city's ~5,100 homeless residents each $43,000. Instead, federal troops destroyed their meager encampments.

The people of Minneapolis are teaching us so much right now