Michele Somerville she/her

FEMA Employees Reassigned to ICE Probationary employees who had been on paid leave were told to report to ICE within seven days or lose their jobs. It could signal problems with ICE recruitment.

t Rump moves to impress FEMA workers into Service as untrained ICE goons b/c morale is down among ICE personnel, the incentives for signing on are not working & they need more help filling the #MAGA concentration camps.
prospect.org/labor/2025-0...

2/“elected Democrats and federal workers purged in Trump’s war on the ‘deep state.’ Advocacy groups say this is beginning to hamper their efforts to challenge the Trump administration.”

Trump’s War on Big Law Means It’s Harder to Challenge the Administration Some of America’s largest law firms are refusing to take pro bono and paid legal work from groups that seek to hold the government to account on issues like environmental protection, LGBTQ+ rights and...

1/“Big Law firms are also refusing to take on legal work involving environmental protections, LGBTQ+ rights and police accountability or to represent >
www.propublica.org/article/trum...

It’s “float” not “fly.” #AndrewCuomo
⬇️

#Caturday

my Frankie

THIS

Newark Archdiocese settles abuse claims against retired bishop who denies allegations The Archdiocese of Newark has settled two claims of sexual abuse against retired Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, dating back more than 50 years — when he was a priest in Jersey City — the lawyer for the pla...

#CatholicChurch
Very good news.
www.ncronline.org/news/newark-...

12 years after Jesuit priest's disappearance in Syria, friends and family members still want answers The absence of Jesuit Fr. Paolo Dall'Oglio seen as the tragic continuation of a life defined by radical devotion to peace and interfaith dialogue.

The absence of Jesuit Fr. Paolo Dall'Oglio seen as the tragic continuation of a life defined by radical devotion to peace and interfaith dialogue.

If he ordained a woman they would laicize this guy yesterday.

Remember: The recipe for economic growth isn’t tax cuts for the rich. It’s investment in our people — in health care, infrastructure and education — to build a strong middle class. 

You don't grow the economy through trickle-down nonsense.

The Last American Road Trip The New York Times bestselling author of They Knew, Hiding in Plain Sight, and The View from Flyover Country navigates a changing America as she and her fami...

In 2016, I worried that the US would soon be destroyed. So for the next eight years, I took my kids everywhere I could so they'd know their country firsthand. We drove in every direction to see things from all sides.

Our story is a book, and I hope you'll preorder: www.thelastamericanroadtrip.com

VA terminates union contracts, as WH labor actions hit veterans again The Trump crackdown on the federal workforce continues, with veterans bearing the brunt of the cuts.

This week, the VA ended collective bargaining for nearly all of its employees.

The Trump administration has made it very clear that it does not want to be held accountable by anyone — especially unions.

We will not sit by while they union-bust their way to a privatized VA.

Eddie Palmieri’s 13 Essential Songs and Albums

With the angels.

#EddiePalmieri RIP

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/a...

Yup.

"I had a nightmare recently that I was not admitted into a building because I am not “AI compliant.” I trust dreams more than reality these days, and I fear this is the American future: social credit scores, digital currency, mandatory tech. "

Church sign: You can / know the future / prophesy / seminar.

"Memebers needed"

Torn poster on brick wall: "Do not pathologize your grief"

business cards on bulletin board: Jehovah's Witnesses, and a green card featuring a cartoon of a beaver: "Beaver Problems?"

Driving around with my kid, pausing to take pictures of signs, I think I stumbled into a comic strip. There's a narrative arc here, I swear.

Truth Social Truth Social is America's

The dictator shared this tiktok reel on his social media platform. #Education #Oklahoma #fascism
truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT...

if you want to have a nice and relaxing sunday, do not watch the new Hulu documentary on Hurricane Katrina. if you want to shake with rage and anger over the total failure of this nation's government and media establishment, watch the Hulu documentary on Katrina (this is a recommendation)

Tariffs must be seriously thought out and used to help American workers & consumers. They should not be used to punish the political decisions of our allies.

Canada has a right to set its own policy on Palestine. Americans shouldn't pay the price because Trump doesn't like it.

Mad Max movies, Fallout, etc, imagined a desert apocalypse as a result of nuclear war, grand hubris. Turns out we'll get to Fury Road by asking AI to write our emails for us and chatting with imaginary girlfriends.

2/“Booth is married to Meghyn “Meg” Booth, the Republican treasurer of Maple Valley Township. Meg Booth… Chris Booth’s Facebook page also features extensive racist propaganda along with iconography often employed by neo-Nazis.”

Unmasked: the man behind one of the fastest growing far-right YouTube channels Chris Booth’s channel – rife with neo-Nazi ideology, antisemitism and racism – garnered 2.3m views and likely thousands of dollars from YouTube in about two months

1/“Johnathan Christopher ‘Chris’ Booth, 37, lives in the unincorporated community of Coral, a part of Maple Valley Township in Michigan’s Montcalm county and is married to a senior local Republican >>

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

2/Civilized societies do not use the #DeathPenalty .

Putatively so-called “pro-life” #Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee will either have to stop the execution/murder in the state’s name of this intellectually disabled man OR consent to have him tortured by his existing pacemaker’s response to the lethal injection. 1/

2/“now outpaces the melting of glaciers and the ice sheets of either Antarctica or Greenland as the largest contributor of water to the oceans.”

“Staggering” Water Loss Driven by Groundwater Mining Poses Global Threat A new study finds that freshwater resources are rapidly disappearing, creating arid “mega” regions and causing sea levels to rise.

1/“The researchers were surprised to find that the loss of water on the continents has grown so dramatically that it has become one of the largest causes of global sea level rise. Moisture lost to evaporation and drought, plus runoff from pumped groundwater, >
www.propublica.org/article/wate...

Mass. Legislature pass ‘shield bill’ to protect providers of abortion, gender-affirming care - The Boston Globe Massachusetts lawmakers on Thursday approved legislation that aims to better protect the identities and personal information of providers and those seeking abortion and gender-affirming care.

Massachusetts leaders are again taking action to protect access to reproductive and gender-affirming health care.

We deeply thank Senate President Spilka, Speaker Mariano, and Chairs Rodrigues, Michlewitz, Friedman, and Day for championing this legislation.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/31/m...

2/“Investors figure he must know what he’s doing — and even if he doesn’t, he’s shown no compunctions about using every lever of government power to keep the party going. So investors are following him, although more and more of these investments look like pyramid schemes …”

Be warned: the financial bubble will soon burst And just like 2008, many will be hurt — except for the biggest gamblers.

1/“I attribute all the high-risk gambling to the high-risk gambling of the gambler-in-chief who sits in the Oval Office. He’s into crypto and meme stocks, and has done well with his own blank-check entity. Plus, he’s a conman’s conman.>
robertreich.substack.com/p/the-financ...

Virginia Giuffre’s brother: I think we were shocked by it—especially the use of the term “stolen.” Because she’s not an object. She’s a person. Someone who was recruited at Mar-a-Lago—his property… it just kind of makes us wonder… how much he knew