“Texas desperately needs a place where we can tell our stories, where we can be ourselves, mourn our losses, and celebrate our victories,” writes @kitoconnell.com. Meet our newest newsletter writer and contributor, who’ll be spearheading our queer coverage 💕 thebarbedwire.com/2025/11/25/t...

Ppl justifiably dislike masked law enforcement, but cops hiding the identify of bad actors in their ranks goes well beyond that. E.g., this press statement doesn't name the officer who shot this social media influencer, but accuses the dead man of multiple felonies.

A Republican sheriff in a swing county that Trump won by 0.1% signed a contract to help ICE, then lost last week by 11. New by me in @boltsmag.org: boltsmag.org/sheriff-of-b...

This is what's happening in Austin. Doesn't help folks w/ leases locked in, but supply expansion has mitigated what were for a while outlandish and untenable rent hikes. Real estate folks are calling it "oversupply," but IRL it's a much-needed correction following an extreme, unsustainable shortage.

The nature of policing is to avoid accountability and responsibility. That is how it works, in the past, today, and in the future. (I’m not allowing responses because I don’t want to keep explaining. At this point if you tell me the police need to be more professional, I’ll just tap this.)

What's happening in TX-18 is more obscene than not seating Grijalva during pro formas. Turner died in March. Abbott delayed the special election until yesterday, and now it goes to a runoff early *next year.* Congress can and should require special elections to be held within 90 days of a vacancy.

I forgot to note that this was a thread, so: Here is a 🧵🧵 on the direct connections between Heritage Foundation, Nick Fuentes and the far-right Texas billionaire who is fueling the rise of Christian nationalism. If you do not already know a lot about Tim Dunn, I recommend changing that.

At sundown, the new Jewish year begins. It will be 5786. This is the start of our High Holidays. The new year in Judaism is complicated. It’s not about being excited for a new year, but rather teshuvah, repenting on the things we’ve done wrong, collectively and 1/

A friend of mine was on Charlie Kirk's "watch list" of Black professors. She received so many death and rape threats that her university offered her a security detail for the walk to class. This is Kirk's legacy. You would never know it from reading all of these legacy newspaper op-eds about him.

For the record, if you pick 1 cause - just 1 - and fight for it, I think that’s cool as hell. No part of me is gonna go “wow, you picked y vs x? Clearly you don’t give a shit about x.” That’s not how human energy works. You can care about many things, but you can’t throw yourself at all of them.

People missing an important point about folks getting fired for whatever they said about Charlie Kirk: Americans are being conditioned to be snitches on their fellow citizens who don’t toe a party line on what is “allowed” to be expressed. And employers are going along. It’s the new secret police

This is a Melissa Hortman appreciation account for the next 24 hours.

Because a transfem friend was harassed at a gas station in Texas over the weekend by a security guard who told her that she had to use the men's bathroom now, a reminder that 1) Texas Senate Bill 8 has not gone into effect yet and 2) It does not apply to private businesses

Just Trump declaring war on a US city, a normal Saturday

Trey is such good people. Help him by helping his family

“The removal of hormones from prisons is a deliberate act of cruelty that strips trans people of medically necessary care and basic dignity," said Dr. Christy Perez, a formerly incarcerated trans woman who advocates for trans people behind bars.

The rhetoric Sen Perry used is part of a campaign to dehumanize immigrants so that Texans will accept that violence against them is ok. Whining about not getting forgiveness when he sent up this test balloon is outrageous. He's the one normalizing murder. #txlege

This photo was taken of miners at the end of their shift during the Gilded Age before they were unionized. A Labor Day reminder of the blood, sweat, and tears that those before us paid to give the working class the basic rights that Trump and his thugs are trying to strip away.

Nuther one. Under HB 15 at the #txlege, Sheriffs, constables, etc. can make records about misconduct allegations against themselves secret simply by declining to punish ... wait for it ... themselves. So stuff like this will continue to happen, but who knows if we'll continue to hear about it?

“I heard the bill author say they weren’t sure if they were here to protect trans rights, but we are. I don’t want anyone to go home today thinking that they are not wanted or loved. Because that is not where we stand. Not in Texas.” Thank you, Rep. Nicole Collier. #txlege #SB8

There's always been "scum and villainy" at the #txlege, but until 2017 or so, the democratic processes still largely functioned, and if you engaged, you cd affect them. That began to erode in 2019 and, by 2021, the old norms were gone and I openly began calling the new regime "fascist" on Grits. 🧵

Breaking: Democrat Catelin Drey just won an Iowa Senate district that Trump won by double digits last year, flipping the seat blue. Republican just lost their supermajority in the chamber.

People accuse Trump of lacking principles but he's consistently in favor of impunity for sexual assault.

The lesson for Democrats of the last four years is that if you don't use power when you have it, your opponents will happily use it instead

Want to help with the California redistricting effort? Here is your opportunity: www.mobilize.us/swingleft/ev...

Alert! All Texas Public Schools Parents & Teachers: HB 8 just passed Committee & it will replace 1 STAAR test with THREE STAAR tests per year. They will try to pass it into law next week. Please weigh in with your Texas House member NOW and urge them to vote NO on HB 8.

The regime cannot erase Ida B Wells-Barnett or U.S. Black history. They will try and they will fail. open.substack.com/pub/prisoncu...

Four bills in front of SB 15 rn and I'm nervous AF. Dems have 55 there so they'd need to hold every one and swing 15 to defeat the bill. That's a tall order, but the Uvalde families coming out against it is a huge deal. www.house.texas.gov/videos

Greg Abbott is pushing SB 15 at the #txlege so DPS won't have to release records related to Uvalde, but the local PD and ISD settled their suits and released new records 2 weeks ago. Among them: The ISD chief failed to take required active shooter trainings. This info wd be made secret under SB 15.

Uvalde families speak out against SB 15 at the #txlege. This bill is up on this afternoon's House calendar. I really hope it dies. www.instagram.com/p/DNwfZd-2N8...

The cover-up is on the calendar today. #Txlege #SB15

“Some lawmakers’ answer to preventable deaths in county jails looks like a cover up: limit independent investigations, limit public information, limit oversight, limit liability" Reminder: SB 15 making most records about jailers secret will be heard in the House at the #txlege today.

Your periodic reminder that voter "concern" over immigration doesn't correlate whatsoever with actual immigration levels; instead it tracks almost exactly the AMOUNT OF MEDIA COVERAGE IMMIGRATION RECEIVES This is newsrooms availability cascading people's futures for clicks

Relevant also to #txlege. If you missed it, Zohran Mamdami had a kick-ass scavenger hunt in NYC today. Many locales in TX are just begging for a fun way for residents to rediscover why they love theur homes, altho admittedly we couldn't include the public transportation angle.

This is what headlines would look like if our major newspapers didn’t use euphemisms & simply wrote factually in plain English

New It Could Happen Here 🏭 Elon Musk and the Rebirth of Company Towns feat. @stevanzetti.bsky.social & Dr. Michael Phillips www.iheart.com/podcast/105-...

I wrote several proposals for podcast episodes as well as part of the presentation @betsyfriauf.bsky.social and I will make about Texas eugenics at SMU on September 16. I also walked 10 miles. I wanted to keep busy before battling Humana over access to diabetes equipment tomorrow.

Some of you white people have failed to understand; it is not Black against white, it’s Blacks against racism. Take all the time you need with this………

Testing Loyalty: Lies can function as “loyalty tests.” If trump supporters repeat or defend them, it proves devotion to him rather than to objective truth.

Here is a persin running in HD132 against one of the absolute worst incumbents in the Houston area. #txlege

🚨Arizona CD-07🚨 Your registration deadline is TOMORROW! Do not sit this out! If you’re registered, please double check your registration to ensure your vote will matter! Go to iwillvote.com Please, please be sure to vote in this special election! #ProudBlue #OneV1 #Pinks #ResistanceUnited

the zohran campaign mobilizing the masses to go outside and meet each other and get to know the city through a twee little scavenger hunt is advanced 22nd century levels of social democratic regime mass politics strategy while everyone else is still stuck on carrot & stick or pokemon go to the polls

shit like this is why it's so easy to marry together "these people are fascist freaks filled with hate" with kitchen table issues. rather than doing literally anything else, the state government is using its limited resources to paint a crosswalk and monitor it for illicit use of chalk.

Again:Journalists are not stenographers. We are to get information, report and verify the facts, and then report the reality not the talking point. What Trump is doing in DC and threatening in cities is NOT a crime crack down because he says it is. Don’t regurgitate. Report the truth not propaganda.

A thing Zohran & his campaign have powerfully tapped into -- and that his scavenger hunt captures so perfectly -- is that a vast majority of the people who live here genuinely *love* New York City. We wouldn't stay here otherwise!

In addition to creating a joyous event, Zohran Mamdani just showed the stupidity of Fox News's "Crime is so bad in New York City, people are afraid to go out in the street or take the subway!!!"

Texas Senate Bill Alert‼️ SB15 comes up for vote tomorrow. It will prevent access to the remaining Uvalde DOS records, and greatly restrict access to law enforcement records, including video, in ALL law enforcement cases. www.uvaldeleadernews.com/articles/bil...