Interesting to see Mayor Pete giving the #Montana plan a boost. Seems like the question will qualify for the ballot, and voters could very well approve it. But, since its a statutory measure, the legislature could also easily overturn it.

Red-state opposition to #ICE in #Montana. "No issue in recent memory has drawn such an outpouring of support from this community, and we urge our Mayor and Commissioners to continue leading with courage at a time when our city and country desperately need courageous leaders to take a stand."

“These are murders. The International Criminal Court is prosecuting the former Philippines president [Rodrigo] Duterte for the exact same thing.” - Kenneth Roth, former director of Human Rights Watch and a visiting professor at Princeton University.

One of several reasons why #Montana Governor Greg Gianforte is keenly interested in orchestrating a constitutional convention in 2030: Too much dignity for too many people. And thanks to @dailymontanan.com for quoting the operative clause: "The dignity of the human being is inviolable."

Unions representing mobile home parks in Missoula and Bonner say they’ve secured some concessions from their Texas-based landlord.

In 2023, the U.S. recognized President Arevalo's election in #Guatemala and helped end a coup attempt by disgraced AG Consuelo Porras. Now, the U.S. is returning to old habits, intervening on behalf of corrupt and anti-democratic actors. @plazapublicagt.bsky.social @epinvestiga.bsky.social

Spain, Slovenia, and Ireland pushed for EU leaders to consider suspending a trade agreement due to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, violence in the occupied West Bank and Lebanon, and recent passage of Israel’s openly anti-Palestinian death penalty legislation.

The decades-long American/Israeli partnership to support #genocide abroad extends far beyond the genocide of Palestinian people in #Gaza. Both countries have yet to fully acknowledge their efforts to facilitate mass murder and torture in #Guatemala in the 1970s and 80s.

❤️ @hvwriterscenter.bsky.social

A gift from @markengler.bsky.social this morning, a two-kid dad like me who's more tired than he used to be. A #poem that makes me happy for reasons I can't quite explain, maybe because it feels good to be used up by people you love even if you miss out on many other beautiful things.

I know we've heard it before, perhaps many times: "On our #earth, before writing was invented, before the printing press was invented, poetry flourished. That is why we know that #poetry is like bread . . .". - Pablo Neruda But may we please be reminded over and over again.

“What’s happening now in this part of the world is wealthy people are trying to buy up large swaths of land and turn them into exclusive resorts." Joseph Bullington reports from Yellowstone. inthesetimes.com/article/yell...

Pew Research: 80% of Dems & Dem-leaning indys now view #Israel unfavorably. And yet, per @politico.com: A DNC resolution recognizing a #Palestinian state is STILL "unlikely to pass". Is there no amount of suffering that moves the needle for elected Dems? www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

“Radical Zoomers have given up on Trump—and they’ll run the Party in 20 years,” a Trump staffer told Antonia Hitchens. Read Hitchens’s report on the very online, white-nationalist conservatives who are gaining influence in the MAGA movement. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/zjrkH6

When will top of the democratic ticket begin to imagine a future in which the path to power does not require consent for mass murder? Do any of the 2028 hopefuls have the courage to speak the name of even one child, among thousands, whose body has been torn apart by U.S.-supplied weapons?

This latest case of capitulation is not unique. Since WWII, lawmakers from BOTH PARTIES have been content to cede congressional #war powers to the President. The tangible result is the tearing apart of #human bodies—bodies just like yours and mine—by U.S. bombs in communities far away from here.

We long for a solution that won't require us to work and to make sacrifices, but there is no such thing.

Grateful to @blairmiller.bsky.social & his team for putting #poetry on the front page today. “A #poem seeks to begin and end at the heart of the matter,” explained Furshong. “It seeks to convey the essence of what has occurred.” @hvwriterscenter.bsky.social @jfranklinpoet.bsky.social #guatemala

My deepest thanks to @hvwriterscenter.bsky.social for filling the house at the #poetry reading on Sunday!

Looking forward to reading #poetry in Sleepy Hollow this weekend with multiple @poetrysociety.org award-winner Melissa Kwasny. Her powers of attention always astonish me. @hvwriterscenter.bsky.social @milkweededitions.bsky.social

The easiest way to prevent people from engaging in direct #democracy? Make them pay. Early signs of this same right-wing push are underway in #Montana, too, with new laws this year requiring signature gatherers to be MT residents—because that's how a free labor market works, right?

Hiroshima and Nagasaki then, and Gaza today, would have been largely unimaginable without the firebombing of Tokyo that preceded it 81 years ago.

I'm raising funds for the #Guatemala Program of @pbicanada.bsky.social—volunteers who risk their lives to protect #indigenous activists, human rights lawyers, and those testifying against the architects of #genocide. Grateful for any support—small, large, teeny tiny—from the @bsky.app community!

Resisted this for years . . . but glad to have a place where many print #stories and #poems can be read online for the first time, including profiles for Montana Quarterly on former Gov. Marc Racicot, former Congressman Pat Williams, and some pieces on overlooked chapters in #Montana #history.

Once again—and seemingly always—the US is murdering parents & children abroad, people like you & me with great capacity for #love. If we percieve murders in #Iran or #Venezuela as political "news" then we fail to understand their first & forever impacts as violent death & agonizing personal loss.

A friend shared these photos today of memorial stones to victims of state terrorism in Argentina, akin to German stolperstein and similar in purpose to @eji.org's Community Remembrance Project. Now, a new question: how to memorialize #ICE victims and future victims of state terrorism in the US?

My #poetry chapbook is now available for preorder @hvwriterscenter.bsky.social. These ten #poems issue from postwar #Guatemala between 2000 and 2005. I wrote them with hope that they would bear witness from that time to the present and honor those who fight for justice in the wake of genocide.

I build myself into a separate room, where memory— the illegal migrant in time—cleans up after imagination. - From "Ars Poetica", a #poem by Valzhyna Mort

I think this is the best pandemic #poem I have ever read. Somehow it manages to honor each little life while also recognizing that there's no amount of human death that cannot fit within the natural course of things. 🙏 @ashakijackson.bsky.social

"We should #resist the impulse to adorn reality, which is always plain, always and only the bare skin of being." Glad for the chance to visit with FRONTRUNNER about my #poetry chapbook "Surrounding the Country a Chasm", due from Slapering Hol Press @hvwriterscenter.bsky.social later this month.

“When I came here, I put my hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. I didn't put my hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.” ― Jesse Jackson Jr.

Grateful to @commondreams.org for running this essay about rejecting the questions of distance & privilege: "How much do I have to circumscribe my role and responsibilities to feel like I am fine with this? How far do I have to walk before I begin to feel that her body doesn’t exist?" #ICE #MSP

This model is simple. It requires us to put our bodies on the line and to ask ourselves what, precisely, are we giving up to alleviate the suffering of others? asks @gabriel-furshong.bsky.social.

"Why is it so difficult to see things plainly? Why do we, individually, and collectively as cultures and societies, repress the horrors we witness?"

We are excited to announce the release of a new and expanded edition of our book on the power of mass mobilization! whirlwinddispatches.substack.com/p/tenth-anni...

I wrote this essay for @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social after visiting the memorial for #ReneeGood in #Minneapolis and rereading "A Hanging", Orwell’s masterwork on the numbing agents of distance and privilege that so often keep us from acting in solidarity with others. TY @joshuafrank.bsky.social

My essay for @earthislandjournal.bsky.social made @longreads.com's Top 5 this week. For this piece, I spent the night at a remote Dark Sky Sanctuary in Southeastern Montana and explored all the things we cannot see—in the outer dark and the darkness within. 🙏 @kristastevens.bsky.social

"[AI] can use recurrent neural networks to create piano music & AI can drive cars, but my eyes tire, my eyes are animal eyes with animal need to gaze out" A #poem by @ka-hays.bsky.social with that astounding power to startle readers into seeing the whole truth anew.

"Perhaps then, when we protect dark skies, we are actually providing a sanctuary for understanding, a place of refuge from artificial illumination where we can learn from the dark." @gabriel-furshong.bsky.social @earthislandjournal.bsky.social www.earthisland.org/journal/inde...

A joy to work with @earthislandjournal.bsky.social's talented editors on this essay about the dark skies that are always with us and yet almost always difficult to see. What happens when we finally see that darkness—not just outside but inside of us, too? 🙏 Maureen, Zoe, & @serenarenner.com!

For the Winter 2026 issue, writer @gabriel-furshong.bsky.social visited a Dark Sky Sanctuary in Montana and lost himself in the endless night sky. “Darkness decentered me. It frightened me,” Furshong writes, but it also delivers us from distraction and provides sanctuary that has no bounds.

Last night, Helena, Montana passed resolution preventing the city from coordinating with #ICE following the murders of #ReneeGood and #AlexPretti.

BELOW THE FOLD: Over 300 people pack the capitol for a #veteran led rally demanding that lawmakers uphold their Oath of Office to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution and condemn the use of lethal force by #ICE. ABOVE THE FOLD: Football.

ICE shooting victim claims he was shot through door after letting cousin inside. "We were successful in helping my cousin get inside. ....I closed the door. And as I was locking it, I heard the shot, and that’s when I realized I had been shot in the leg.’” edition.cnn.com/2026/01/18/u...

Over 300 @indivisible.org supporters packed the #Montana statehouse today to hear 4 military officers accuse our governor and federal delegation of violating their Oath of Office. "Right now, our congressional delegation and governor are all AWOL." - Dennis Taylor, former Capt., USMC, Purple Heart

“The growing divide between the haves and have-nots, between a handful of the extremely wealthy and a growing impoverished population, put the very idea of democracy at risk.” #MLKDay progressive.org/latest/mlk-m...

One of my all-time favorite #poems. A immediate escape from what we think matters into what we know matters.

MLK Day provides an opportunity to reflect not only on the legacy of King himself, but also to hold up other heroes of the civil rights movement. In our latest, Whirlwind analyst Miles Goodrich reflects on two greats: Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer. whirlwinddispatches.substack.com/p/celebratin...

That sure would be nice, but it's not likely anytime soon. #Alaska has a top-4 primary that blunts national dichotomies, localizes politics, and makes space for a wider range of candidates AND issues. Without it, #Murkowski would be long gone and #Peltola wouldn't be a #Senate hopeful. .

When money talks, MOST members of BOTH parties listen. Of course, there remain major differences between Ds and Rs, but the astounding similarities should no longer surprise us.