Immigrants: A Love Letter It has never been easy to be an immigrant to the United States – for most economic, linguistic, and cultural barriers make life here a struggle, even if they were escaping a worse life elsewhere. The ...

Wrote a thing: ...at the heart of it is another Trumpian Big Lie, that immigrants are a burden and menace. We need to fight the false story with a true one: this country needs its immigrants and they are a blessing and an enrichment of what this country is and in many ways its heart and soul.

Excerpt from here: https://open.substack.com/pub/sarahkendzior/p/tornado-daze?r=222bx&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

On the St Louis tornado, and the hardship that preceded it: open.substack.com/pub/sarahken...

The Republicans in Congress could remove Donald Trump any minute they wanted to. Blame them. Tell them to get rid of him. There is no daylight between the Republican Party and Donald Trump.

We knew exactly what this administration was going to do because it was written in Project 2025.

Folks can be surprised at how quickly it has moved, but no one can act like they didn't know.

If we can "avoid a government shutdown" by voting for this CR, then why is the entire Department of Education closed today? Why is USAID closed? Why are hundreds of billions in grant contracts frozen?

We are already in the shutdown. And your votes DON'T stop it. In fact, they allow it to expand.

you’re fired. wait you’re rehired. email us a list of things you’ve done today wait forget it you’re fired again. come back your job was important. you’re fired. or hired. come in to the office. wait the office has no computers go home. we are the department of government efficiency.

History will not be kind to these traitors.

Worth stating simply what’s happening. An American government is launching a full-scope political & economic assault on an ally repelling an ongoing invasion to compel them to terminate martial law, topple their president, hand over minerals to America & accept a ceasefire w/out security guarantees.

you knew there was going to be a lot of incredibly stupid shit happening but this is like "passing a law that everyone has to shoot themselves in the foot" level stupid

This whole thread is worth a read. Laugh to keep from crying.

New York Times, Jan. 26, 1935.

This thread, a must read.

Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin's reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access.

This Is the Way to Stop Elon Musk Senate Democrats have the power to block federal contracts to Tesla and SpaceX. It’s the path to pushing Musk out of politics.

Senate Democrats have the power to block federal contracts to Tesla and SpaceX. It’s the path to pushing Musk out of politics.

Deny unanimous consent. Demand and use every second they have to delay. Draw the process out and let negative press and public protest build. Refuse to act like any of this is normal and help convince people it’s a crisis.

I see it all around me - the “otherness” disguised as fascism…

The Missouri Dems made Valentine cards from our elected Republicans 😂

“I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.”

TMW cartoon with a lot of predictions that suddenly don't seem so far fetched

This one from February 8 2017 seems kinda relevant again

Remember: If we allow ourselves to fall into fatalism, or wallow in disappointment, or become resigned to what is rather than what should be, we will lose the long game.

The greatest enemy of positive social change is cynicism about what can be changed.

Nobody wants an emergency, but perhaps we should want some of the remarkable things that can happen during them. On the top of my list of those things is how in the immediate aftermath of a hurricane, a fire, an earthquake,  people take care of each other and work together without the kind of vetting and fretting whether they agree entirely about politics or religion or other matters. We are in an unprecedented emergency in the United States with fallout that poses threats to environments, economies, human rights and even survival beyond our borders, and we could use some of that energy. As political scientist Erica Chenoweth said in Saturday's Meditations in an Emergency interview, "The best study on the subject in my opinion suggests that in the long term, institutions really can’t save us; that civil society and mass mobilization are a more potent check on a backsliding democracy in the long term than relying on institutional checks and balances alone."  Right now the courts are doing important business as they render verdict after verdict against Trump and Musk thanks to lawsuits brought by states, federal employees, and others with standing. Some of the Democrats in office are being amazing, and others in the opposition party are being waffles, milquetoasts, cookies that crumble, and other  refined-carbohydrate items. As is now clear, the administrative branch of the federal government of the United States is engaging in a coup attempt against the legislative and judicial branches, against the law and constitution itself, and against your rights and mine and the security and stability of the world. They can be defeated and at a minimum held in check, and the sooner they are the more limited the damage. But as Chenoweth points out, it's up to us. Are we up to it?

In this emergency, I think it likely that we are going to need to pitch a very big tent and invite everyone in who doesn't want to live in a dictatorship... www.meditationsinanemergency.com/big-tents-an...

This is from a 2020 presentation. Now it's just the chaos we live in, and no such description is needed.

Convicted US Capitol rioter Pam Hemphill turns down Trump pardon Former "Maga granny" Pamela Hemphill tells the BBC the Trump government is trying to "rewrite history".

I was struck this morning by this story of Pamela Hemphill, who refused a pardon

"I pleaded guilty because I was guilty, and accepting a pardon also would serve to contribute to their gaslighting and false narrative…We were wrong that day, we broke the law"

Integrity!

www.bbc.com/news/article...

This is the only thread you need today.

'This Should Make Your Blood Boil': Top NC Court Blocks Certification of Democratic Justice's Win | Common Dreams Republicans on the North Carolina Supreme Court are under fire for blocking certification of incumbent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs' November victory to review GOP challenger Jefferson Griffin's…

Republicans on the NC Supreme Court just blocked certification of a Democratic justice's election win.

Her GOP opponent is trying to throw out 60,000 ballots cast in November, citing debunked far-right legal theories.

This assault on democracy should be a national scandal.

A brilliant and depressing thread.

The ACA was the plan from the Heritage Foundation, if memory serves.
This is why the R's can't replace it, it's the plan they wanted but they hate that Obama is the one that got it done.

‘Either we fight or end up as the next Belarus’ As Georgia enters its second week of protests, police violence adds fuel to calls for new elections — Meduza The protests sweeping Georgia have now entered their second week. Sparked on November 28, when Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that Georgia would halt E.U. accession talks “until the end…

As the protests sweeping Georgia enter their second week, Meduza spoke to Tbilisi-based journalist @annagvarish.bsky.social about police violence, popular demands, and why these anti-government demonstrations feel different.

From my book HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT:
"Trump covers up crime with scandal. That is his main propaganda tactic, the one few seem to be able to discern...The crimes are much worse than the scandals, but the media will always take the scandal bait."