Kara Johnson

@nickmark.bsky.social

apnews.com/article/h1b-...

This commentary offers a clear, powerful statement of why freedom of speech is at the heart of democracy and must be defended, whether the speaker is Charlie Kirk or Jimmy Kimmel, MAGA supporters or MAGA opponents.

Postal traffic to US drops more than 80% after trade exemption rule ends, UN agency says The de minimis rule that allowed small packages worth less than $800 to be exempt from tariffs ended on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025.

The de minimis rule that allowed small packages worth less than $800 to be exempt from tariffs ended on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025.

Today proves that Republicans were serious about one promise: to cut taxes for the wealthy. All the rest was bullshit.

I am grieving the barbarism that is going to unfurl from all this. People are going to die. Livelihoods gone. All to feed a corrupt kleptocracy.

I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.

This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.

It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

Scientists warn US will lose a generation of talent because of Trump cuts Political interference and chaotic cuts to staff, programs and grants at the National Science Foundation are producing ‘devastating consequences’

By me: A generation of scientific talent is at the brink of being lost to overseas competitors by the Trump administration’s dismantling of the National Science Foundation (NSF), with unprecedented political interference jeopardizing the future of US enterprise.

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

How the Senate reconciliation bill could impact Oregon college students Oregon’s graduate students and student loan borrowers have the most to lose in the Senate’s version of the federal reconciliation bill.

The Big Bad Ugly Bill is a dream killer for students pursuing a higher education. College is already unaffordable for many students, and this legislation rips away federal support for student loan borrowers and grad students. I’m voting no.
www.opb.org/article/2025...

Even Republicans in Congress are pointing out Trump doesn't seem to realize the bill slashes hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid which he says is a taboo. Why are they doing this? No one can say.

Secretary Kennedy ended a program that literally keeps the heat on for folks struggling to make ends meet. I asked him why.

Here's his response:

So much information information provided here

White House’s Stephen Miller: ‘We are actively looking at’ suspending habeas corpus Miller claimed the U.S. can suspend the right to challenge the legality of a person’s detention “in time of invasion.”

NEW: White House’s Stephen Miller: ‘We are actively looking at’ suspending habeas corpus
www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Supreme Court allows Trump to implement transgender military ban The blanket ban, expanding on a similar policy Trump proposed in his first term, has been blocked nationwide by lower courts.

Americans who serve in the military are the best of us. It takes courage, bravery, and sacrifice.

Banning transgender servicemembers has nothing to do with national defense. They love this country and contribute just like every soldier — and they are not alone in this fight.

A post from Alex Cole (@acnewstics ) on X reads: "Yes. They got trials, lawyers, and appeals—exactly what they tried to destroy while chanting for a lynching. I don’t think MAGA knows what 'due process' means." Below, a quote from Sharon McCutchan (@SharonMcCutchan ) asks: "Did Jan. 6 political prisoners get due process?"

Why did so many MAGA folks skip civics and government in school?

YouTube video by MSNBC 'Every client should fire them': Law firms that took Trump's deals find themselves at his mercy

OPINION:

'Every client should fire them': Law firms that took Trump's deals find themselves at his mercy
@nicollewallace.bsky.social and panel discuss the new NYT reporting on law firms who have accepted Trump's demands in order to avoid being targeted.

WATCH: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSp_...

Jeff Bezos and two women, all in Blue Origin spaceflight gear, stand in front of the RSS Kármán Line capsule, with a caption above mocking billionaires for funding space travel with avoided taxes.

Space adventure and exploration should be for the benefit of all humankind, not the whimsy of a few.

It’s Tax Day.
While working folks are doing everything right to file on time, Republicans are out here pushing a $7 trillion tax cut for billionaires like Trump and Elon.

Let’s be clear: their tax plan isn’t about helping you—it’s about keeping the rich rich while the rest of us foot the bill.

Elon Musk is looking toward the camera. He is wearing a black shirt. A headline reads: "DOGE Is Far Short of Its Goal, and Still Overstating Its Progress." Photo by Eric Lee/The New York Times

Elon Musk now admits his Department of Government Efficiency will produce only 15% of the savings it promised. But even that estimate is inflated with errors and guesswork. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/u...

The so-called Defense Secretary has ordered 400 books removed from the Naval Academy library.

This outrageous ban includes works about Slavery and the Holocaust, but not a book written by Adolf Hitler.

The effort to whitewash our history must be reversed and Pete Hegseth fired IMMEDIATELY.

Who do you know who receives social security and also is on Twitter (x)?

The image features a text statement with a stylized background. The text reads: "Only in America do regular folks fight against things that would actually help them — like free healthcare, free college, and fair work conditions — just because rich people convinced them it was bad." The words "free healthcare," "free college," and "fair work conditions" are underlined in red. The statement is attributed to a user with the handle @kazecomedy . At the bottom left, there is a logo or text that says "Engines of Solidarity." The background image shows three people in a stylized, halftone dot pattern, with two of their faces covered by red and blue circles, respectively. The overall tone of the image is critical of societal attitudes in America, suggesting manipulation by the wealthy to oppose social benefits.

Thanks, Fox “News.”

How Musk and Trump Are Working to Consolidate Government Data About You Elon Musk’s team is leading an effort to link government databases, to the alarm of privacy and security experts.

The federal government knows your mother’s maiden name, your bank account number, the student debt you hold and more. President Trump and Elon Musk are trying to connect these records, raising the prospect of creating a kind of data trove about Americans that the government has never had before.

Fear has a way of being contagious.

But courage is also contagious.

Why are antibiotics and steroids “good”, yet he says vaccines are “bad”?!
Why trust some medical treatment and science, but not others?!

Here's how you end a Hands Off! demonstration, Santa Barbara style. Thanks to the Society of Fearless Grandmothers, who organized the human alphabet and took the drone shots! #indivisible #handsoff

But it was the Gulf of Mexico at birth!

Sign of the day…

An international graduate student at Tufts University was taken into federal custody on Tuesday outside an off-campus apartment building, the university’s president said. The university was told that the student’s visa had been terminated. nyti.ms/4hRzPq1

Every. Single. Time. Their go-to is always attack the media outlet. And yet, officials in his own administration already confirmed the story is accurate. bsky.app/profile/atru...

Figured I’d hop on here today for the 15th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act.

With everything going on right now, it’s easy to feel like regular folks can’t make a difference – but the ACA is a reminder that change is possible when we fight for progress.

AOC and Bernie in front of the rally crowd in Denver

Zoomed out crowd shot of 34,000 people in downtown Denver with Colorado mountains in the background

Tonight an unbelievable **34,000 people** gathered for our Denver rally to take on billionaires and win our country back.

This was the largest political gathering in Denver since Obama in 2008.

Also bigger than the 2024 DNC.

And the largest ever rally in Bernie’s career (and obviously, mine too).