Michele Somerville she/her

this is incredible

UFW pushes for farms to honor union contracts - Rochester Beacon United Farm Workers organizers have called on Wayne County’s Wafler Farms to implement a contract imposed in arbitration.

“Imagine harvesting fruits that feed America, yet being told that we don’t deserve the protections that are already written in law. This is our reality.”

rochesterbeacon.com/2025/10/06/u...

😹

I mean, that IS a pretty big frog...

Yup. Also no way to get a good look at net worth, assets, etc.

I reported on the Canadian residential Catholic schools abuses of First Nations people. I learned every diocese and church was a distinct legal entity - this protected the larger church from legal responsibility and financial liability. If a local church went bankrupt - tough beans. No one to sue.

Love this. Superbly done. Please send this far and wide. @donwinslow.bsky.social

The Richest Churches In The World 2026 The religion continues to shape the global economy through powerful institutions with immense wealth and influence. The richest churches in the world 2026 manage vast networks of real estate, investme...

Opus Dei #13

www.universitymagazine.ca/richest-chur...

Funny/not funny, & wild how they divide up the Vatican Church by regions to mask its inordinate wealth (Which is probably underestimated here)!

Trump’s order to deploy Texas National Guard troops to Chicago is illegal, immoral, and must be stopped by the courts. ICE is already wreaking havoc in our communities. Let’s call this what it is: an invasion by out-of-state troops coming here only with the purpose of tormenting Chicagoans.

Scoop: White House memo says furloughed federal workers aren't entitled to backpay A move to deny backpay to up to 750,000 furloughed workers would dramatically escalate Trump's pressure on Democrats to end the shutdown.

“Furloughed federal workers aren't guaranteed compensation for their forced time off during the government shutdown, according to a draft White House memo described to Axios by three sources.” www.axios.com/2025/10/07/t...

Book cover for ‘Dispatches from the Land of Erasure: Essays and Conversations’ by Philip Metres. The cover features an abstract geometric composition of overlapping rectangular blocks in various colors including blues, reds, greens, yellows, purples, and browns against a light gray background. The blocks appear layered and fragmented, creating a mosaic-like pattern that suggests themes of fragmentation and reconstruction. The title and author name are displayed in clean, dark typography at the top of the cover.

When Israeli forces captured Jaffa in 1948, the municipal archives vanished, erasing Palestinians' legal proof of land ownership.

@philipmetres.bsky.social's DISPATCHES FROM THE LAND OF ERASURE shows how Arab poets have sought to preserve this disappeared history.

press.umich.edu/Books/D/Disp...

Hopefully the whole Bari Weiss thing and Ezra Klein thing starts waking people up to the fact that corporate media is mostly populated with mediocre people who have made millions and gained unbelievable influence because they threaten nothing and tell wealthy people exactly what they want to hear.

Really want to encourage libraries - especially school libraries - to put no-AI content into your collection development policy. At the very least, if you have a clause in there about requiring accurate information, you can use that to weed out or prevent genAI purchases.

September 30!

WIC runs out this week

Amen to this!

Don't ever let anyone scare you about have a teenage daughter - it's the best 💜

Abortion, Every Day | Jessica Valenti | Substack All things abortion. Feminist commentary & community. Click to read Abortion, Every Day, a Substack publication.

If you appreciate independent feminist media that doesn’t miss a thing - sign up for Abortion, Every Day jessica.substack.com

By the way, that's not the only big news in Abortion, Every Day:

If Oklahoma healthcare providers want to keep their Medicaid funding, they'll have to sign what amounts to an anti-abortion loyalty pledge—promising they won't even refer patients for abortions, or affiliate with pro-choice groups

This, btw, is why criminal #Catholic leaders — e.g. Cardinal Chuckles & the #Catholic Joel O$teen loved #CharlieKirk & continue to love #TurningPoint .

YouTube video by The Mark Thompson Show Trump Government Purge is All According to Plan — Sarah Kendzior

www.youtube.com/shorts/vqk9r...

Two Franks (poem)

For the Feast of St. Francis! open.substack.com/pub/indiethe...

Every American should read this judge’s stirring rebuke to Trump | Austin Sarat The court’s opinion in a case on immigrants’ right to free speech is a powerful lesson in civics

“On 30 September,Judge William Young of the United States district court of Massachusetts made clear that when it comes to freedom of speech,the constitution does not distinguish between people born in the United States and those who have come here as immigrants.“
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

UK names Mullally as first female Archbishop to lead Church of England Mullally, 63, also becomes the ceremonial head of some 85 million Anglicans worldwide, who are divided between conservative Christians, especially in Africa, and their generally more liberal counterparts in the West.

Love to see it when churches decline to traffic in #MaleSupremacy & #Misogyny .

Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived. ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the administration’s cut...

24,576 pounds of cheddar cheese to Food Bank for the Heartland in Nebraska;

270,000 eggs to Harvest Hope Food Bank in South Carolina;

4,640 pounds of chicken legs to Maui Food Bank in Hawaii

--> just some of the food aid canceled by Trump

projects.propublica.org/trump-food-c...

I remember when our college president only offered contract renewal to the faculty members who didn't sign the petition asking for a fair contract. If you yourself are not venal and cruel I think it can be hard to imagine how far people will go to produce suffering.

2/“DePaul, a Catholic school in Chicago, prohibits distribution of any kind of birth control on its campus.” #CatholicChurch
#BoycottTheBasket #BoycottTheBishops Boycott #Christofascism #MaleSupremacy #Misogyny

2/“College student Maya Roman has the handoff down to a science: a text message, a walk to a designated site, and a paper bag delivered with condoms and Plan B emergency contraception. At DePaul University, it’s the only way students can get a sliver of sexual health support, she said.>

A student 'womb service' works covertly to deliver contraception at a Catholic college At DePaul University, a Catholic school in Chicago, students have created a covert contraceptive delivery network called “the womb service.”

1/ How is it that #Catholic progressive-minded & “liberal” women of conscience are still sending the manchildren in miters money every Sunday? & supporting #Catholic colleges like this one?
apnews.com/article/abor...