justmelaniebigalke (she/they)
@mmbigalke.bsky.social
likes: human rights. bodily autonomy. collective liberation. profanity. laughter. story. art. freedom. systems thinking. dislikes: capitalism. cruelty. white supremacy. transphobia. neoliberalism. genocide. pearl clutching prescriptive grammarians.
Sitting outside this evening together, @mmbigalke.bsky.social saw a shooting star. That was Lady — a shooting star burning brilliantly for her moment in our lives. I'll remember her lots of ways, but one that sticks now is her nestled cozily in a pile of blankets and pillows. Sweet dreams, pup.
Went to a paint-and-sip tonight at the local brewery that was sponsored by Centre County PAWS, the shelter where we adopted Lady. Felt good to get out, see a cute shelter pup named Hershey, get some dog kisses, paint for the first time in a long while, and give to a good cause.
My good girl took her final sleep. She was the most peaceful pup I've ever seen. No pain. No suffering. Absolute dignity as such a majestic beast deserves. We grew up so much together... which feels weird to say, given we got her right after I turned 37. But I'm better because she was in my life.
Zach Bigalke (he/him/his)@zbigalke.bsky.social · 2y agoThis was four years ago today, during my second year of grad school and right before Lady's first anniversary as part of the family.
Drew a few more sketches of Lady today while it rains...
@gapernet.bsky.social so why do you know so many camp songs?
Zach Bigalke (he/him/his)@zbigalke.bsky.social · last mo.Fun thread, though summer camp is completely alien to me. No such things existed in Wyoming while I was growing up. For me, summer camp meant going out into the woods for extended periods of time on my own.
successfully convinced @zbigalke.bsky.social that one night out of the car would be a good idea. he should be landing in Madison shortly.
“This is not who we are.”❌ “I’m going to speak up and take action to make sure this is not who/what we continue to be.”✅ “We’re acting like [insert region/country/oppressive group outside the U.S.]”❌ “The U.S. has a long history of oppression, discrimination, and harm that informs the present.”✅
Poverty is a systemic failure not a personal failure. Don't buy into calvanist prosperity doctrine garbage. Poverty is a SYSTEMIC FAILURE.
When people die (especially public figures), it reminds people of how they lived. That means who they were, what they said, and what they did. Dying doesn’t erase those things; it amplifies them. And when you say/do bad things in life, death acts as a reminder and people react in a variety of ways.
The fascists can now tell you what apps you can have on your phone. They don’t even need to pass a law any more.
Alejandra Caraballo@esqueer.net · 11mo agoThis was done at the direction of Pam Bondi. The US government is now dictating what apps you can have on your phone. The underlying threat here is if Apple didn't comply, they'd slap billions in tariffs on Apple products.
I also have no nostalgia for the road to fascism, which is a trap I think a lot of liberal and progressive folks are falling into—romanticizing the conditions that preceded this moment of acceleration. The path that led to this mess is not the way out.
92% of Black Women had it on their bingo card but folks weren’t trying to hear us🤷🏾♀️
Josh Busby@busbyj2.bsky.social · 11mo agoThis. This administration is even worse than any of us thought possible. Who had destroy NIH, CDC, USAID, EPA, scientific research all at the same time on their bingo card?
Queer joy is a radical act. Some reading this weekend.
Endgame? Comply with US doublethink or rot in foreign prisons. Swazi activists rage at US embassy: Trump paid King Mswati $500M to dump foreign convicts in their impoverished nation. Trump is outsourcing incarceration with corrupt politicians.
Exiled Swazi activists protest Trump deportation deal outside US embassy in South Africa : Peoples Dispatch
King Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch, is accused of accepting USD 500 million from the Trump administration to accept deported criminals in Swaziland.
peoplesdispatch.org
Fuck neoliberalism and fuck Ezra Klein. This is just hate mongering on the DL
Lucas Schaefer@lucaseschaefer.bsky.social · 11mo agoWhat the Ezra Klein brigade always misses is that if the only way “we can all live together” is to sacrifice the rights and dignity of huge swaths of Americans to appease far right reactionaries (who won’t be appeased anyway)… we actually can’t all live together!
So other than jail time and penalties, why should one keep paying federal taxes? Asking for a friend.
Trans people: can we have rights? Conservatives: no because we're killing you. Centrists: No because you're the reason we can't have unity in this country. Liberals: No and this is why we have Trump, because you're so selfish. Leftists: No because we have to focus on real problems first.
I think the problem with rallying around the most privileged when they've been targeted is that it never trickles down. they're touted as examples for "all of us" but it's not actually true.
...or the Black female federal employees persecuted and fired. the missing prisoners after the closure of the camps in Florida. genocide with our tax dollars. It took a rich white guy being censored for white America to sort of start freaking out en masse about their rights. That's harsh.
Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 11mo agoI think the Kimmel stuff is quite serious and bad, but taking a rich guy off the air for speech is not as harsh as agents of the state grabbing someone over speech and deporting them without due process, and the latter person is clearly more vulnerable, come on.
I keep getting asked if I’m worried about my job because I often speak up about issues. The answer is no. I’ve learned over the years that if employers want to hire you or if they want to fire you, they can always find a reason. It’s not worth compromising your morals or values for anyone.
Now that you're (justly) angry about Jimmy Kimmel, did you know that Palestinian Americans were evicted in 2023 and 2024 for flying Palestinian flags in their windows? It's true. I have a case before the Seventh Circuit about it.
Folks, you can't report the United States to its manager. There's no superhero coming to save us. We don't need one giant act of heroism. We need millions of small acts of solidarity. Help one person in your community for nothing in return. Then, do it again. And again. That's the revolution.
so ICE murdered a father in cold blood from a routine traffic stop, we're murdering random Venezuelans in foreign waters, we're shackling S. Koreans for building the factories we need to keep the southern economy alive, and we have a majority party trying to tie passport status to political views
