Lainna Fader
@lainna.bsky.social
Politics, labor, art, graffiti, and dogs Work: newsletter strategy at Forbes
Musk and Trump “seem to be building a defining feature of many authoritarian regimes: comprehensive files on everyone so they can punish those who protest.” www.nytimes.com/2025/04/30/o...
Opinion | ‘This Is What We Were Always Scared of’: DOGE Is Building a Surveillance State
DOGE is rapidly assembling a sprawling monitoring system, the foundation of many authoritarian regimes.
nytimes.com
So just to recap, the Transportation Secretary is scared shitless of public transport. The Education Secretary is being sued for enabling child sex abuse. The Health Secretary is bringing back measles. And the Defense Secretary is texting classified war plans to the editor in chief of the Atlantic
Sean T. Collins@seantcollins.com · last yr.That would be Secretary of Education Linda McMahon who's being sued for aiding and abetting systemic child molestation, just to be clear
Something I learned from interviewing survivors of abuse and institutional betrayal is that by being willing to identify a problem, you are often treated as the problem. The institution will try to get rid of you instead of the problem. To me, this also speaks to the way the left is treated broadly
Meanwhile, in the richest nation on Earth, with homelessness at a record high, the Trump administration is looking for ways not to expand but to *eliminate* housing assistance for those who need it most.
More Perfect Union@moreperfectunion.bsky.social · last yr.Greece has a budget surplus this year, and with that money they've decided to help people. 80% of renters will now get a month's rent from the government every year. The government will also invest in a Public Investment Program to build public infrastructure and create jobs.
The reason billionaires like McMahon are obsessed with student debt is that creating financial precarity makes people more stressed about losing their job. If you’re worried about your job you’re less likely to quit and find work elsewhere. You’re less likely to ask for a raise. It’s pure class war.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last yr.McMahon: "The plan is very simple. We have announced that beginning May 5, you must start to repay your loan. This is not to in any way to try to cause hardship. There are several different payment plans ... but they need to get on it. Because there isn't going to be any loan forgiveness program."
MS-13 members are entitled to due process. School teachers are entitled to due process. Citizens are entitled to due process. Migrants are entitled to due process. Rodeo clowns, serial killers, senators, rapists, vet techs, students, and Scientologists are entitled to due process. This isn’t hard.
Hunter Walker@hunterw.bsky.social · last yr.Anyone debating or analyzing Kilmar Abrego Garcia's life or record is doing a grave disservice. He could be El Chapo. He could be Charles Manson. He could be the Dalai Lama. It doesn't matter. What has happened to him and others is clearly a violation of America's core laws and principles.
Highlights from an excellent column by @ericblanc.bsky.social: —Trump is pro-factory, not *pro-worker* —Factory jobs aren’t inherently good jobs and w/o a union can be very dangerous w/ low $ —Any job can be a good job with a union —Everyone needs a union!!!! www.laborpolitics.com/p/unions-not...
Unions, Not Just Factories, Will Make America Great
Factory jobs only become good when workers unionize. And factories for all is a mirage.
laborpolitics.com
Every newspaper should have the protests as their main image tomorrow. These protests are the manifestation of the First Amendment, of where the press resides. The press has to show its citizens what is happening. This is it. You either advocate for democracy thru your stories or you don’t.
I asked the one high ranking policeman I saw on 5th Ave why there were so few police. He said “We did not expect anything like this. Don’t tell anyone but I’ve only got 44 officers out here — and it’s a great crowd, great event, no incidents.”
Mor Naaman@informor.bsky.social · last yr.I have never seen anything like this in NYC. 5th Ave covered from 42nd St well to the 20s. Nobody prepared for this volume. Volunteers are holding the traffic on all the side streets. No police in sight. #handsoff
The reason the IRS has no data-leaking API is not because they don't know how to schedule a "hackathon." Instead it's because the API: 1. Likely violates the Privacy Act of 1974 2. Is not within the IRS's mandate 3. Would be a huge target for attacks against the privacy of all Americans
makena kelly@makenakelly.bsky.social · last yr.SCOOP: DOGE is hosting a “hackathon” in DC next week with the goal of building one “mega API” for accessing all IRS data. Palantir has been brought up as a potential partner. www.wired.com/story/doge-h...
Man it is really hard to be living in the USA right now and getting news about how South Korea deposed their president for staging a coup and then their Supreme Court just said yup, definitely the right thing to do there.
There is a certain uniqueness to the millennial experience of this though, we grew up in times of relative peace where things were pretty stable and we were sold stories of how everything would continue to only get better and that hard work was plenty to give you a job that provided for you.
Faine Greenwood@faineg.com · last yr.And also Christ I am NOT saying Only Millennials Have Had it Bad, I’m saying that when people are expressing rage and upset, don’t come into their mentions to tell them to stop whining and that other people had it worse.
The IRS unit that audits ultrawealthy earners has lost 38% of its employees this year. This will starve the government of revenue by making it easier for the rich to evade taxes — which the top 1% already do to the tune of $163B a year. See what DOGE is really about?
Jesus Christ can’t you people just let millennials express some entirely deserved outrage and anger over getting hit with yet another major financial crisis without parachuting in to finger wag at us about it
Trump’s tariffs aren’t an economic policy—they’re a protection racket. He’s turning the US into a mafia state that shakes people down, plunders our tax dollars to enrich his billionaire oligarch friends, and punishes his political opponents.
11/ The tariffs aren’t economic policy. They are political weapons. But as long as we see this clearly, we can stop him. Public mobilization is working. Today, a few Republicans joined Democrats to vote against one set of tariffs. The people still have the power.
4/ British kings used taxation to reward loyalty and punish dissent. Our own revolution was spurred by the King’s use of heavy taxation of the colonies to punish our push for self governance. The King’s message was simple: stop protesting and I’ll stop taxing.
3/ You see, our founders created a President with limited and checked powers. They specifically put the power of spending and taxation in the hands of the legislature. Why? Because they watched how kings and despots used spending and taxes to control their subjects.
Those trying to understand the tariffs as economic policy are dangerously naive. No, the tariffs are a tool to collapse our democracy. A means to compel loyalty from every business that will need to petition Trump for relief. 1/ A 🧵 to explain his plan and how we fight back.
So this logic means that I, a Jew who believes Palestinians should be free to live their lives like anyone else, am antisemitic. Nobody should be voting for this clown to be mayor NYC.
Jacob Kornbluh@jacobkornbluh.bsky.social · last yr.Cuomo rolling out his plan to counter antisemitism at the West Side Institutional Synagogue in Manhattan: “It is very simple: anti-Zionism is antisemitism.”
“This administration actively, proudly rejects expertise. It casts those who have it as corrupt, the real enemy, the ‘deep state,’ and it touts its own refusal to heed them as proof of its legitimacy and righteousness…Blunders like this are an inevitable consequence” www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/o...
“If you’re running the security directorate of a hostile nation, savor this moment. It’s never been easier to steal secrets from the US. Can you even call it stealing when it’s this simple? Trump has unlocked the vault, fired half the security guards. Walk right in.” www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/o...
Opinion | Foreign Spies to Team Trump: 👊🇺🇸🔥
It’s never been easier to steal secrets from the United States government.
nytimes.com
Today we honor César Chávez, the legendary union organizer, who taught us that the power of working people comes from standing together. His legacy lives on in every worker organizing for dignity, justice, and a better future.
There are trans Americans right now looking out at this world and wondering if anyone is going to stand up for them and for their simple right to exist. Well, I am. We are. We will.
Every year on Trans Day of Visibility I post something like "visibility without protection is a trap" and that's been made so clear recently. Legacy Dems who celebrated pride month and TDOV, have been so quick to turn to "well actually maybe we should sacrifice trans folks to the political altar."
