"Theatre kid" is tossed around by right-wingers, and I want to say: - I wasn't a theatre kid. - I have a theatre kid, they're great. So are their friends. - If you have a problem with theatre kids you should look into your heart to see why or crawl back into your hole and die. Either's fine by me.

Maine and Vermont, two states with the highest proportions of white residents, never disenfranchised people with felony convictions. That’s no coincidence, says an advocate for incarcerated Mainers: “The Maine model ain’t happening in Louisiana."

Maine Prisoners Organize to Protect Their Rare Right to Vote - Bolts

Maine is one of the only places in the country where prisoners keep their right to vote. But logistical barriers to voting still contribute to their larger exclusion from the political process.

boltsmag.org

You know that thing Trump does where he drains an idea of its potential to generate mass, spontaneous blowback by playing footsie with it for weeks or months before acting? We need that but for oversight, accountability, democracy reform. www.offmessage.net/p/reclaiming...

Reclaiming "Normalization"

It’s way past time we start normalizing the kinds of things that will be necessary for American renewal in the post-Trump era.

offmessage.net

It's also available here. Please share and spread this report. Trans folks in the UK can't for fear of lawsuits by gender critical groups. drive.google.com/file/d/1UggI...

Last week I had drove 4 hrs, shot 2723 shots over 7 hours with 2 cameras, hardly slept, then drove back to LA, had a dentist and doctor's appointment Worth it This is the Perseids Meteor Shower over the Milky Way in Mt Pinos with 100s of my newest friends 🌌 PDFs: drive.google.com/drive/u/0/fo...

It's a choice when the Commander in Chief suggests deployed service members are either whiners or liars to not make that a front page headline.

Abolishing ICE is now the official position of the Democratic Party

Dante Atkins@danteatkins.bsky.social · 5d ago

Here are things that happened at the DNC today: 1) Resolution calling to abolish ICE unanimously adopted 2) Brand-new early state calendar that reflects the full diversity of the Democratic base 3) Rejection of insider efforts to ban RCV from being used in presidential primaries Great results here

There’s an underlying assumption a lot of people are making that if a black guy successfully misleads you, it means you have set your racism levels too low.

Seems like the bigger and wealthier the school, the more eager they have been to cave to Trump’s racist & authoritarian demands.

John Aerni-Flessner@lesothojohn.bsky.social · 5d ago

This is an absolute travesty. Northwestern has, probably, the 2nd best library collection for African History/Studies in the USA (behind Yale and ahead of MSU, UCLA, etc). A self-inflicted wound that is absolutely, 100% unnecessary given the massive wealth of Northwestern--north of $15 billion.

I distinctly recall the disgust over this libel and that Harris, the Dems and the media let them get away with it.

Bill Grueskin@bgrueskin.bsky.social · 5d ago

ICE has started its crackdown in Springfield, Ohio -- the town where JD Vance accused Haitians of eating dogs and cats. Residents reported "a caravan of vehicles" conducting raids. One unnamed neighbor "praised all the Haitians who live around him." www.springfieldnewssun.com/local/spring...

I am filled with anger at what our government is doing. It’s just 10 arrests so far, yes; not a mass pogrom. But the fear is real and this is actual people who didn’t DO anything (except not immediately return to a country in the throes of danger).

Bill Grueskin@bgrueskin.bsky.social · 5d ago

ICE has started its crackdown in Springfield, Ohio -- the town where JD Vance accused Haitians of eating dogs and cats. Residents reported "a caravan of vehicles" conducting raids. One unnamed neighbor "praised all the Haitians who live around him." www.springfieldnewssun.com/local/spring...

My god, what an image. Dead kings in a plastic box, carried off as the world burns.

Reuters@reuters.com · 6d ago

Spain removes remains of 11th century kings from monastery as wildfire rages reut.rs/4zAAN4r

This young man has a bright future and I think he's learned his lesson. The real crime would be punishing him any further.

NBC News@nbcnews.com · 6d ago

BREAKING: Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges in the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO.

He killed about 230 fewer people than Trump & Hegseth have fishermen

NBC News@nbcnews.com · 6d ago

BREAKING: Luigi Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges in the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO.

it does seem underreported that the US is just doing death squads again. Christ thats bleak. Some guys just show up with american flags kill some brown people and bound

Christiaan Triebert@trbrtc.bsky.social · last wk.

Ecuadorean fishermen say drones attacked them in the Pacific — English-speaking men in US-flag uniforms, no insignia. 8 missing, several injured. Flight data shows a patrol plane shifting course to stay pointed at all 3 boats. It's on no Pentagon roll, registered to a UPS store mailbox in Virginia.

The "centrist" think tank Third Way is looking to pay someone between $140,000 and $150,000 to spend their days trying to dig up dirt on DSA members. They're trying to sell this gig as "anti-extremism" work, which I find completely disgusting.

Prediction markets are not predictive and should not be covered as news

Everything is vile all over.

Sanho Tree@sanho.bsky.social · last wk.

I couldn’t make this up if I tried.🤬 “An anti-sex-trafficking nonprofit in Utah whose founder resigned after multiple women accused him of trafficking and sexual abuse has won a federal contract to provide legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children in government custody.“

ABOLISH ICE, PROSECUTE THE MFS

Aaron Fritschner@fritschner.bsky.social · last wk.

Video of an ICE agent pulling a gun on a wife and mother, who is a US citizen born and raised in the area, near Bailey's Crossroads in Northern Virginia yesterday. Chillingly, they claimed she “almost ran them over” until she told them she had video proving that was a lie.

Trump committed sex crimes with his pal Jeffrey Epstein and there's a huge out in the open cover up to prevent people from finding out about it

Joyce White Vance@joycewhitevance.bsky.social · last wk.

New Mexico says DOJ promised to share Epstein evidence when the fed’l investigation ended. Instead, the state says DOJ withheld it—making it harder to investigate what happened at Zorro Ranch. That’s not how this normally works. So why is it happening? joycevance.substack.com/p/zorro-ranc...

I think a lot about how the Boeberts were clearly an example of an intergenerational family disfunction with 3 generations of underaged teen parenthood and for this disfunction she was rewarded by Republicans by being a Congresswoman, because thats the American family the GOP wants.

Raw Story@rawstory.com · last wk.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) described a "challenging time" after her son Tyler Boebert was charged with five felony counts linked to child sexual exploitation.

Awful news out of Big Bear, the famous momma eagle Jackie has died after several weeks of battling an unknown issue that caused severe anemia. Sad day for all her supporters who have watched her raise many chicks on the live stream

Shot:

Western Europe lived through hottest June and July ever recorded

Climate change across Western Europe has brought a summer of heat, drought and wildfires to the region and put the combined average temperature from June through July at 21.62C – beating the 2022 reco...

france24.com

its an insult to carter, but the last thing trump wanted to be was jimmy carter. he has said that over and over. iran is jimmy cartering him. even after 50 years of this they understand us, we do not understand them, because we do not respect them as human beings

Antifascist Militant@antifasictmilatant.bsky.social · last wk.

Iran is done talking until trump is gone. Which means if we want lower gas prices we should hand trump over to Iran immediately

BREAKING: For the first time since it was filled, the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) has fallen below 300 million barrels to 298.7 million, down 6.1 million barrels from a week ago. Declines are likely for a few more weeks before the authorized release is complete.

Ari’s first few moments on Penguin Beach! This curious, brave, and adorable boy explored his new habitat right away. 🖤🐧

the world needs to de-americanize and fast. using our software, our satellites, subscribing to our institutions like the UN, dangerous. we are expressly not interested in human welfare in any meaningful way anymore. we are interested in stealing and killing and lying

Fair question! I use the periods to avoid slandering the Alberts, Albertos, and Alfredos of the world. I use a lower case "i" to devalue the industry's claim of "intelligence," because "A.i." is not sentient. And I add the quotes because the whole thing is an inaccurate, bogus marketing term.

Rebecca R Helm@rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 2w ago

Curious: why do you type “A.i.” with the quotes and cases?

This is it. Their big idea was: we will end the culture wars by conceding to the crank right across the board, on everything. As they were repeatedly warned, the crank right always banks every concession then demands more and crazier things, now emboldened because they know we are weak and stupid.

@lastpositivist.bsky.social · 2w ago

Just so predictable. Labour got themselves into this because those who aren't True Believers thought they could appease those who are then the issue would go away. Not so. The GCs are obsessives attempting a top down reorientation of our culture to spite a minority they despise. They must be fought.

this is all so fucking instructive if they would take a step back and learn something. you cannot let this happen ever again. when you are weak and crumbling, you cannot revive your prospects by painting everything gold and declaring a victorious golden age. it makes it look even weaker and rotted