The Trump administration’s actions to undermine forums at the UN designed to promote the rights and equality of people of African descent will be a stain on our nation’s history, writes @desireecsmith.bsky.social.

The Trump Administration’s Anti-Blackness is Showing on the Global Stage

The United States’ actions are not just a betrayal of the rest of the world; they are the latest examples of the Trump administration's betrayal of its own people—and in particular, of the 45 million Americans who are of African descent.

commondreams.org

Meet Jeremy Carl, Trump’s nominee for Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations. Even he knows his racist and antisemitic comments make him unqualified to serve as an American diplomat — he tried to delete them. 1/2

Check out the latest from Professor Catherine Powell in @cfr.org: www.cfr.org/expert-brief...

Trump’s Boycott of the UN’s Human Rights Process Puts America Last, Not First

The Trump administration has chosen to retreat from UN human rights standards and processes. These decisions make Americans less safe.

cfr.org

The U.S. is making history again - but not in a good way. For the first time, a UN member state is withdrawing from the Universal Periodic Review, one of the core human rights instruments…and it’s the U.S. @catherinepowellesq.bsky.social, Beth Van Schaack & I wrote about this dangerous move 👇🏾

Trump’s Boycott of the UN’s Human Rights Process Puts America Last, Not First

The Trump administration has chosen to retreat from UN human rights standards and processes. These decisions make Americans less safe.

cfr.org

I wrote this with two brilliant colleagues because what is happening at the State Department should concern every American. “We fear that America’s retreat from human rights and democracy on the global stage is a preview for more repression to come here at home.” www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

Contributor: A plan to take human rights off the table at the State Department

Marco Rubio's proposal will wipe out expertise and infrastructure that promote justice abroad and keeps Americans safe at home.

latimes.com

America is beautiful, contradictory, unfinished. I am proud of our country even as we constantly strive to make it better, to protect and deepen our democracy, to fulfill its promise for each and every person who calls it home. Happy Independence Day. No Kings in America.

One of many moments in Omar El Akkad’s new book, “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” that will stop you in your tracks.

Join us on Friday, March 28, 2025 at 7pm (CET) for a hybrid panel discussion on U.S. perspectives on history and memory, feat. @desireecsmith.bsky.social, @margarethuang.bsky.social, et al. Free registration for Munich: t1p.de/k0t8r Or follow the livestream: www.youtube.com/live/MyqxcSs...

#SaveTheDate On March 28, 2025 Lonnie Bunch, Desiree Cormier Smith, Margaret Huang and Jim R. Grossman will discuss different perspectives on history, memory, and current challenges in the U.S. – a joint event with @amerikahaus.bsky.social www.nsdoku.de/programm/akt...

“The Past is Never Dead”: U.S. Perspectives on History, Memory, and Current Challenges - Gespräch am 28.03.2025 19:00h

As the American novelist William Faulkner famously wrote in 1951: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Just like Germany, the United States has tried to come to terms with a difficult past – ...

nsdoku.de

everyone should listen to this in its entirety but journalists should listen to it multiple times. this is how you ask questions. you just keep asking simple, easily answerable stuff and the evasiveness becomes that much more glaring

Adam Steinbaugh@adamsteinbaugh.bsky.social · last yr.

In which the Department of Homeland Security struggles to answer a very simple question: "Is any criticism of the United States government a deportable offense?" (From NPR here: www.npr.org/2025/03/13/n...)

The attack on DEI shows why liberals should stop arguing about "strategic" use of language forever. DEI stands for three uncontroversial virtues that most every American accepts, and the right still turned it into a vile slur. It doesn't matter what you say - they will poison it because YOU said it.

👏🏾 👏🏾 👏🏾 👏🏾 A perfect example of the justice system working for the American people! apnews.com/article/dei-...

Judge blocks Trump’s executive order ending federal support for DEI programs

A federal judge has blocked a sweeping executive order from President Donald Trump that sought to end government support for programs promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

apnews.com

NEW --There's this guy in the executive branch who in less than a month has already spent NEARLY 11 MILLION DOLLARS of taxpayer money playing golf. Yet the whole thing has flown under the radar of the crack waste/fraud/abuse squad over at DOGE somehow. www.huffpost.com/entry/donald...

Donald Trump Has Already Spent $10.7 Million Of Taxpayer Money Playing Golf

Somehow, the expense has flown under the radar of the waste, fraud and abuse experts at DOGE.

huffpost.com

If the administration was actually serious about rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, it would want fully empowered Inspectors General rather than the amateurs of DOGE.

Jennifer Hansler@jmhansler.bsky.social · last yr.

NEW: The USAID Inspector General was fired on Tuesday, a day after his office released a report critical of the impact of the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle USAID, a source familiar told CNN.

Elon Musk retweeted a conspiracy theory about white people being ethnically cleansed from South Africa, a lie spread by white nationalists. Not only that, the person he RTed said this is the “human rights cause of our lifetimes.” You shouldn’t need a salute to know that this man is a Nazi.

“The thing that I can’t get over is that the actual richest man in the world directed my fucking firing. I make $50k a year and work to keep drinking water safe. The richest man in the world decided that was an expense too great for the American taxpayer.”

Chris Muravez@chrismuravez.bsky.social · last yr.

Yesterday many thousands of federal employees were terminated. This is a Reddit thread for federal employees that got laid off.

#AddtoBlacksky

Miriam IRL@miriam.blacksky.app · last yr.

FYI there’s a feed called Blacksky and it’s amazing and far less annoying than most other feeds It has moderation too @blacksky.app If your Black and want to be added just use the hashtag #AddToBlacksky If your white you can pin the feed and just enjoy viewing and engaging ✌🏽

Every day is chaos. Every fucking day.

If you understand that apartheid was an economic system first, and a brutally violent system of social segregation second, you'll understand how Elon Musk is trying to update the principles from his homeland, and bring about a neo-apartheid system in the US. My latest in @thenation.com

Elon Musk’s Vision Is Coming Into Focus—And It Looks a Lot Like Neo-Apartheid

Apartheid was, first and foremost, a business plan—one that the South African-born Musk seems to be reworking for the modern age.

thenation.com

How much Elon Musk makes from the government a day: $8 million. How much a senior on Social Security gets a day: $65 Guess which budget Musk and Trump want to cut?

NEW: USAID's Inspector General somehow just released a report on the impact of the Musk-Trump-Vance admin's aid freeze & cuts to the agency. Says $489 million of food aid was put at risk. BHA – which provides aid (food, water, shelter, healthcare) – had 90% of staff furloughed or put on leave.

So after promising to focus on safety, they’ve gotten right down to work… on gender terminology?

“And yes, I know many are afraid. We have seen the vindictiveness of Trump. But we will either act now or wait until autocracy has become so unyielding that we will no longer be able to exercise our basic rights.“

Sherrilyn Ifill@sifill.bsky.social · last yr.

Yes. “People are doing things. You will meet them when YOU start doing things.” Lots of information and resources in this one. open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...

Rubio's state dept appointee is a white supremacist and a misogynist. I remember not too long ago when a Republican who said this would be disqualified from high profile federal jobs forever.

Murphy: "This is a constitutional crisis that we are in today. Let's call it what it is."

@indivisible.org just concluded a great zoom call tonight, attended by 50,000+ people. They urged everyone to visit the local offices of our US Senators—whether your Senators are Dems or Republicans—to make them feel the heat & pressure them to fight back against Trump & Musk. Talking points here:

WE CHOOSE TO FIGHT: SENATE STATE OFFICE VISIT TOOLKIT

WE CHOOSE TO FIGHT: STATE OFFICE VISIT TOOLKIT Register your event: https://indivisi.org/register-choose-to-fight TOOLKIT CONTENTS: WHAT’S HAPPENING? THE ASK HOW TO PLAN YOUR SENATE STATE OFFICE VI...

docs.google.com

okay but you aren’t again, you could be shutting down all senate business by denying every single unanimous consent request, you could be down at Treasury with cameras, you could be doing something other than issuing strongly worded statements your actions have to match what’s happening

Elizabeth Warren@warren.senate.gov · 2y ago

No one elected Elon Musk. As Donald Trump allows Musk to access people’s personal information and shut down government funding, Republicans in Washington will also own the consequences. We must do everything in our power to push back and protect people from harm.

This is illegal. These are crimes!