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Ross Dispenza

@rdispenza.bsky.social

🏳️‍🌈🌹 labor law and policy guy current: friendly local bureaucrat former: nlrb attorney 📍 PHL

20 Posts245 Follower704 Folgt
Max Kennerly@maxkennerly.bsky.social · 3d ago

This is a story about the President and several of his hand-picked appointees all committing crimes and blatantly lying to the public while stealing public funds and abusing the criminal justice system, but the NYTimes describes the situation like they're recapping a soap opera.

Larry Glickman@larryglickman.bsky.social · 3d ago

Another example of the problem with the fixation with Trump’s putative emotions: here a story about the Trump administration’s corruption, incompetence, and venality is framed as one about Trump’s “wrath.” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/01/u...

Rafe Meager (they/them)@economeager.bsky.social · 3d ago

the "eat out to help out" thing -- the fact that you couldn't get the discount if you got takeaway, which helps the business the exact same amount without risking anyone's life -- was like an existential unmooring thing for me. a time when i fully realised i live at the whim of capricious idiots

Nate O@nateo.bsky.social · 3d ago

If we’re discussing covid, back in August 2020 the Prime Minister of the UK, Rishi Sunak, introduced a programme that subsidised £850m for people to congregate in enclosed spaces and get infected with the disease that killed people, then the state broadcaster depicted him as a superhero

Lindsay Beyerstein@beyerstein.bsky.social · 4d ago

These third country deportations are among the most evil acts of the Trump administration. They're trying to extrajudicially punish people for seeking asylum, up to and including with death.

Gillian Brockell@gillianbrockell.com · 4d ago

Great reporting from @emilybregel.bsky.social about a gay man who’s been in the US since he was four, imprisoned in a “hotel” in Equatorial Guinea since April. He says he’s being denied soap and toilet paper in retaliation for filing a complaint w African Commission. 1/ tucson.com/news/local/b...

Liliana Segura@lilianasegura.bsky.social · 4d ago

When our car was stolen out of our driveway in the pandemic summer of 2020, the sum total police response was for a cop to enter our house unmasked, shrug that the car would likely turn up somewhere (it was not) and, upon examining my spouse’s expired license, telling him he could arrest him for it.

Em, midly@lefttheprairie.bsky.social · 4d ago

It’s so funny when people are like “sure you’re an abolitionist now but wait until you’re the victim of a property crime.” Buddy, the most useful thing the police have ever done for property crime is put the form you need to submit to your insurance online.

brian j.@talkwordy.bsky.social · 4d ago

i got mugged at shotgun point. the cops arrested the wrong guy, hustled me out of court at the hearing when i said ”that’s not the guy,” told me “you didn’t see him,” made me do a lineup at the prison and when i said “that’s the guy i saw in court, still not him” told me “it’s OK, he’s a bad person”

Em, midly@lefttheprairie.bsky.social · 4d ago

It’s so funny when people are like “sure you’re an abolitionist now but wait until you’re the victim of a property crime.” Buddy, the most useful thing the police have ever done for property crime is put the form you need to submit to your insurance online.

dell cameron@dell.bsky.social · 4d ago

“payout fund” is an interesting grammatical treatment. not a real statutorily defined thing (e.g. “judgement fund,”) or an established vehicle of federal finance (“settlement fund”). just some neutral-sounding noise that a handful of newsrooms coined with no real referent.

Breaking News 1h ago Trump says he will 'push hard' for $1.8B payout fund, keep Blanche as acting attorney general if GOP senators block nomination
Max Kennerly@maxkennerly.bsky.social · 7d ago

There are only three possible futures: a) everyone in the Trump admin goes to jail, rule of law partially restored; b) Dems retaliate in full, and maybe that's a deterrent; c) neither (a) nor (b), so lawless authoritarianism wins again, and when Republicans regain power they ramp it up even more.

Murshed Zaheed@murshedz.bsky.social · 7d ago

“Trump has rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47-year history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” Right now people in blue states are basically paying federal taxes as if they’re colonized territories of red states. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

Trump has denied most disaster requests from Democratic-led states A graph showing Presidential approval rates for disaster requests from Democratic-led states and Republican-led states Source: POLITICO's E&E News analysis of FEMA records
Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena.com · last wk.

Just thinking about how there was this huge (good! I was part of it!) push to unionize digital media and now I wanna say most of those unionized workers have been laid off/the websites shut down

Angus Johnston@angus.bsky.social · last wk.

And as hot as the linked sepia photo is, the other one of him on his Wikipedia page is even better, I think—he's got the facial expression of a big sweet galoot who has just been made sad and confused by witnessing a man knowingly refuse to do the right thing.

Bild
Patrick McCray@patrickmccray.bsky.social · last wk.

Remembering Silas Soule, born OTD in 1838. American abolitionist, conductor on the Underground Railroad, military officer, and hero for disobeying orders to participate in Sand Creek Massacre and then giving evidence against his commander. Murdered 1865. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silas_S...

Joel Pinckney@jpinckney.bsky.social · 2w ago

Man, this is such sad news. When I saw this, I thought about @gonebabygone.bsky.social's great piece for @lukeoneil47.bsky.social at Hell World, where Zach wrote about the type of masculinity he demonstrated in that moment. "The noblest calling he could think of was sacrifice, not violence."

Screenshot of text that reads: "It also made me think of two men who did something in another way, a quieter way distinct from the way men are encouraged to do something, but in a way that mattered more than what Robinson ever will. Not a lot of people outside of Youman Wilder’s life know his name, probably. I had to look it up to write this after seeing headlines about his story. Wilder’s been coaching Little League for 21 years – nearly as long as Tyler Robinson has been alive – and that’s what he did when ICE agents rolled into Harlem this summer. Wilder did something, but he didn’t use his fists or a gun or any sort of offensive weapon. As Wilder told it in an interview with MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace, he heard agents asking the kids about their countries of origin, and those of their parents. “I just stepped in and said this is very inappropriate to ask these kids anything ... I’m just going to have them implement their Fifth Amendment right, and not say anything to you,” Wilder said. In a separate interview, Wilder said he thought, in regards to his players “I'm willing to die to make sure you get home.” The phrasing is telling – Wilder wasn’t thinking about having to kill, he was thinking about having to die. The noblest calling he could think of was sacrifice, not violence."
Bradford William Davis@bwd.bsky.social · 2w ago

I have awful news. Youman Wilder, the Harlem baseball coach who courageously protected his kids from an ICE raid and said he was "willing to die" for them, very tragically, passed away this week Wilder's sister started a fundraiser set up to help with his burial: www.gofundme.com/f/honoring-y...

Youth Baseall Coach Takes a Stand to Protect Kids From ICE Agents: 'I'm Willing to Die'
Widow's Bay DSA@gonebabygone.bsky.social · 2w ago

Oh so it's MY fault that guy whose dialysis machine I smashed with a hammer died even though there are literally millions of people whose kidney could have been a match??

Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · 2w ago

He goes on to say zero people have died because of DOGE, and his *proof* for that claim is that the amount of money cut could easily be replaced by Gates or McKenzie Scott. Illogical and demonstrably untrue. USAID spent about 50-40 billion per year, more than Scott's net worth.

Tom Cox@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 2w ago

Someone said to me, "I'm sorry but I got your book from a library." Nobody should ever apologise for that. You read my book! That's brilliant! I grew up hanging out in libraries and the idea of a world without them fills me with dread. Without libraries, authors, like readers, will only suffer.