Saturdays with Renee, 8am Pacific

While many flyers refer to the Portland Immigrants Rights Coalition, most were in fact produced and distributed by other community groups.

Analysis of this CBS News story by Richard Winger of Ballot Access News ⬇️

"In this moment of escalation, we need to build sustainable structures that develop the operational capacity to act and respond to the coming assault. This goes well beyond marching or protesting—it demands of us that we can do stuff, step by step."

- Keon Loyuk - Alexis Ames - Damian Lillard - Javonnie Shearn - Candace Avalos - Shannon Olive - Jared Leaf - Michael “Chappie” Grice - esperanza spalding - LaQuisha Minnieweather #pdx

The courtesans at Sheri’s Ranch are the first group of legally licensed sex workers to unionize in U.S. history (!!!). Their new union website states their demands as “safety on the job, better working conditions, and control over their own futures.” unitedbworkers.com

The visit suggests a possible FBI probe into Extinction Rebellion NYC as the Trump administration increases surveillance of activist groups.

“This book scrutinizes how the behavior of many Democrats assisted Trump’s electoral triumphs. That scrutiny is important not only for clarity about the past. It also makes possible a focus on ways that such failures can be avoided in the future.”

"James, a social justice advocate and former attorney, initially filed to challenge incumbent Gov. Maura Healey in the Democratic primary in March 2025 before announcing last month that she would instead seek the office as an independent candidate." #Massachusetts

Dems are now dismissing past Gallup data that show a strong desire for a third party. So here's Quinnipiac data that says the same thing: poll.qu.edu/Poll-Release...

"Winters in the coming decades are going to be much more like this. And I think the story here is to look at how impactful these conditions are to us, because we know we’re going to expect them more in the future.”

Smearing third-party and non-voters as stealth MAGA won't win a single vote. I see you're the chair of Sierra Club Seattle. You know that neither major party is meeting the climate moment. Is punching up out of the question, or is acting like a Democratic Party enforcer your only move?

The two-party system is like the Kobayashi Maru test in Star Trek, and people want to reprogram it so it's possible to win.

"No matter how much mining we do, we're never going to find the dream of unlimited, free power we are desperately clinging onto."

Portland City Council's discussion about removing members & alts from the new Community Board for Police Accountability gives tremendous insight into a lingering question about who gets a say in police oversight/discipline and what counts as "bias." (1/2)

Everybody who worked in a store of pretty much any kind in 1975 sold copies of "Jaws". I've seen people put it at 15 MILLION copies that year alone. Last year, MMPs accounted for less than 5% of the market. Everybody wants trade paperbacks now (the 6" x 9" kind). What caused the shift? (2/x)

LIVE NOW youtube.com/live/IagkHlI...

So will Dems try to smear these ex-military Green Party candidates as Russian agents, or will they be forced to use other tactics?

This goes for Dems who do the same thing.

Score one for democracy in Virginia.

NEW: In the third installment of our joint series with @cplusc.bsky.social, we explain how the anti-democratic rush to build hyperscale data centers and incorporate AI programs in numerous sectors is exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis—today and in the future.

When anarchism isn't being villified as evil it's being dismissed with an eyeroll by people who think they know better. But in Minneapolis, we're seeing the power of this maligned philosophy. Today on Assigned: The argument for anarchism, by Emma Arcadia. www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...

People on the left should want democratic allocation of resources, and AI ain't it. If we were serious about the climate crisis, the tech would be limited to critical research and applications. "State-capitalist AI wars encourage the irrational use and allocation of resources."

Lesser evilism throws accountability out the window, which is why RootsAction's 2024 election autopsy was so similar to the 2016 version: Dems refuse to reassess. That costs votes. And scapegoating the electorate won't fix the problem.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." — George Santayana (attributed)

"The political theater of condemning Trump's racism serves the function of diverting attention from the more dangerous, policy-based racism that operates with bipartisan support." Read: www.blackagendareport.com/trumps-de-ju...

Good. Student loans should never be repaid. That money is much better spent going to housing, health care, child care, groceries and saving for retirement. Millions of student loan borrowers aren't repaying their loans — and defaults are up www.npr.org/2026/02/10/n...

In Major Breakthrough, Volkswagen Auto Workers Reach Tentative Deal www.labornotes.org/2026/02/majo...

Friends from Minneapolis reporting to me that things are at the point where folks are being hidden in other people's houses and we are in the "again" part of "never again" which the "never" was supposed to preclude

🗞 In the new issue of Street Roots: Residents' response to shelters in Polk County, medical interpreters in Oregon fight for better pay, nurses at Legacy Emanuel say ICE agents are interfering with care and more. Purchase this week's issue: streetroots.org/vendors#locate

i am trying to haul two children three bags of groceries and many gallons of milk from winco foods to my house and i actually live here and i am extremely more important than a honda. move your ass

Question from @councilortkl.bsky.social : should we really be investing $600 million public dollars into Moda Center renovations while we're also talking about cutting Portland's public education, including higher ed and k-12? www.opb.org/article/2026...

Breckenridge is aiming to keep locals local.

I'm not a gambler, but after reading about California's top-two primaries, I want to know the odds on a Butch Ware administration.

Lance Hawkins joins us to discuss the first month of Zohran Mamdani’s administration. Lance Hawkins is a community, labor, and anti-war organizer, and a proud socialist born and raised in Harlem, New York. He provides analysis of Mamdani’s first days in office. blackagendareport.com/leftist-anal...

Butch Ware is running for governor of California on the Green Party US ticket.

"The Hollywood Theatre is an icon of Portland cinema, and has been witness to the entire history of film. "What started out as a silent film and vaudeville house has evolved into an institution that spotlights the importance of small independent cinema houses."

My first political canvassing was in the summer of 1989, riding around in a van in central Illinois w/a Public Citizen/PIRG-affiliated group. At the end of summer the group held a banquet in Chicago with Rep. Dick Gephardt and Sen. Paul Simon as speakers. The experience was invaluable.

I suspect that the Venn Diagram of people arguing that big Democratic Party donors are a necessary evil and people who have done door-to-door political canvassing has vanishingly little overlap.

"A modern-day concentration camp ... People have been killed by the staff here." Irish citizen Seamus Culleton has been in ICE detention since September, despite having a valid work permit and his own business in the US.

One swift blow from above will sever your home from the panopticon's icy grasp. www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/remove-you...

People have whole playlists ready.

The number of candidates for Multnomah County chair has doubled:

This is a great week to start a union at work.