David Leftwich

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!!

The University of Texas-Austin is beginning a process to eliminate the Black Studies, Latino Studies, and Gender Studies departments in the College of Liberal Arts. This is a grave threat to the educational liberty of students, faculty, staff, and the people of Texas. 1/

The end of federal enforcement of special ed laws. Some states - including MN - will likely be ok. But a lot of disabled kids in a lot of states are going to lose the education that federal law and decades of jurisprudence say they are owed.

ICE secretly kidnap autistic boy during bathroom break—never notify parents.

Mother reported him missing a week ago—turns out ICE had him detained the whole time.

He was helping sell fruit and asked to go to the restroom—by the time she was done helping a customer he was gone.

Houston, Texas

“Some faith activists and leaders have found themselves in handcuffs. The following evening, Rabbi Michael Ben Yosef, a local activist and regular presence at the protests, was among those detained by police at a protest. Footage showed four officers holding him down as he was arrested.”

Neighbors Warn Neighbors as Fear of ICE Ripples Across Chicago

The $tr¥mp administration is terrifying cities and communities, making them less safe: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/u...

Chorus for a Fractured World: My favorite reads of September:

* here is the sweet hand, francine j. harris (FSG)
* Carbonate of Copper, Roberto Tejada (Fordham Press)
* Time, Etal Adnan (trans. Sarah Riggs), (Nightboat)
* Soul House, Mireille Gansel (trans. Joan Seller Sidney), (World Poetry) 1/3

#poetry

into “shards of grief that a teapot/transforms into inexpressible joy” (Adnan), leaving “traces of light like so many small houses in the night” (Gansel). 3/3

These four books offer urgent, necessary music woven from the despair of displacement. They craft language that “works over information” (Harris) into a cacophony of “oblique rebellion” (Tejada), 2/3

Chorus for a Fractured World: My favorite reads of September:

* here is the sweet hand, francine j. harris (FSG)
* Carbonate of Copper, Roberto Tejada (Fordham Press)
* Time, Etal Adnan (trans. Sarah Riggs), (Nightboat)
* Soul House, Mireille Gansel (trans. Joan Seller Sidney), (World Poetry) 1/3

Portland ranks 57th for violent crime, lower than Little Rock,Tulsa, Lubbock, and Chattanooga.

Des Moines Schools Superintendent Is Detained by ICE

This was never about criminals. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/u...

“Science Under Siege”: Dr. Peter Hotez on Trump, Tylenol & Autism President Trump is promoting unproven claims that both vaccines and the common painkiller acetaminophen, also known as paracetamol or by the brand name Tylenol, cause autism. Trump’s recent anti-vacci...

Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert and the parent of a child with autism, who notes that increased autism rates are also a consequence of improved diagnostic practices. Autism was first diagnosed by name in 1911. Tylenol first came on the market in 1955. www.democracynow.org/2025/9/24/pe...

Meta appoints anti-DEI and anti-LGBTQ+ conspiracy theorist Robby Starbuck as AI bias advisor Robby Starbuck has been appointed as an AI bias advisor at Meta with the goal of making the company's chat bot less "woke."

Meta HIRED the “chemicals are turning the frogs gay” guy to police AI bias against, presumably, complete morons:

“He [Starbuck] falsely asserted that exposure to the pesticide atrazine turned amphibians "gay,” prompting male frogs to mate — a claim that has been repeatedly debunked.”

At Harpers Ferry, staff flagged more than 30 signs, according to a person familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The Post, that highlight information potentially in violation of Trump's policy. They include signs referring to racial discrimination and the hostility of white people to people who were formerly enslaved.

They’re just completely erasing history.

The free speech activist who built a list of professors he worked to get fired for their speech must be celebrated for his support of free speech, and anyone who quotes his speech accurately in context will be fired and/or face state punishment by the champions of free speech, do I have that right?

My optimism here is limited, but I really hope centrist institutions like universities and major news organizations understand that the plan is for the govt to dismantle them. They do not care if you fire your columnists or discipline staff for accurately quoting Kirk. They just want us all gone.

ICYMI — After years of pretending she would never stop fighting to get the Epstein files release, @MarshaBlackburn just voted not to release them.

Truly pathetic.

www.wkrn.com/news/tenness...

At least 3 injured after shooting at a Denver-area high school, officials say | CNN At least three students are in critical condition after a shooting at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado, where more than 100 law enforcement officers are working to clear the school “room b...

The 47th school shooting this year. This shouldn’t be what children have to deal with.

www.cnn.com/2025/09/10/u...

Stephen Miller pulling FBI agents away from investigating crimes so he can see more immigrant children cry.

The Epstein estate also turned over another letter from the book that references Trump. It came from businessman and longtime Mar-a-Lago member Joel Pashcow, who made a crude joke about a woman that Trump and Epstein socialized with in the 1990s, according to people familiar with the matter. The Pashcow letter included a photo of a posterboard-sized check for $22,500, which had been mocked up to appear that it was sent from Trump to Epstein. Beneath it, a handwritten caption said: “Jeffrey showing early talents with money + women sells ‘fully depreciated’ [redacted] to Donald Trump for $22,500.” The woman’s name is redacted in the image.

This detail from the WSJ’s new Trump-Epstein reporting also seems pretty bad www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

the maga constitution doesn’t allow any institution, public or private, to explicitly work to ameliorate racial inequality but allows the government to racially profile

Trump minimizes domestic abuse during a talk at the Museum of the Bible: "Things that take place in the home, they call crime ... If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime, see?"

SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in a college applicant's file is blatantly unconstitutional

ALSO SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in targeting whom to detain and deport is cool cool cool

I truly do not say this lightly but the Supreme Court is behaving lawlessly.

Next year, Americans will see the biggest jump in health insurance costs in 15 years.

Meanwhile, the six largest health insurers raked in more than $31 billion in net income last year.

Still not sure if we need Medicare for All?

These motherfuckers are so racist and so don't care.

What if Democrats had defended immigration over the last few years instead of running from it?

Cool signature to find at Kaboom Books, my local used bookstore. #poetry