This is the genius of the Portland protests - they make the claims of lawlessness look not just wrong, but comical

If you have two minutes free right now, call Netflix and leave a comment in support of this programming and ask them to stand up for their shows against political pressure. Phone number is 1-866-952-4456, and I waited less than a minute before a human picked up.

Lavender scare is back.

New: ICE has bought a tool that tracks the locations of hundreds of millions of phones globally, updates every single day. Usually harvested from apps and advertising www.404media.co/ice-to-buy-t...

More than 1800 detainees are missing after the closure of Alligator Alcatraz. Their families and lawyers can’t find them and they’ve vanished from the ICE database. Feels like this should be a much bigger story www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

I looked into the group and the guy pushing the FBI to create a new designation of “transgender ideology–inspired violence and extremism”—itself a political project, meant to conflate the fact of trans people’s existence with extremism.

Literally the authoritarian playbook: 1. Call your opponents terrorists. 2. Deploy state power against them. There's nothing subtle or confusing or complex about what's happening. The *outcome* is uncertain but the authoritarianism is right out in the open.

The way the NYT covers this, while they helped to create a similar moral panic that preceded Skrmetti, might be the thing that drives me mad.

The way I view this is, we know inherently that the law will not save us but that doesn't mean you still can't use it to slow them down. Make them work for it. Do not give them power they do not have. Make them fight for every inch of power.

Republicans: "transgenderism must be eradicated." Trans people: "they're trying to eradicate us." Republicans: "Saying we want to eradicate you is violent extremism."

@snopes.com You reported that Mast published amendments on the 14th to remove section 226 of H.R. 5300: www.snopes.com/news/2025/09... Can you explain why official online records about the bill don’t reflect that? No updates there since the 11th. www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c...

The primary antidote to despair that I've found is getting engaged in local organizing and volunteering. Find a group doing work you care about in your area - homeless advocacy and outreach, immigrant support, queer rights - and volunteer with them. It's a tremendous counter to helpless despair.

I would never have thought to notice this, and… it’s wonderful.

…emphasizing the importance of being quick to take action. And using available means for as long as they’re available.

🚨🚨🚨

Searched a handful of author friends’ names. Got a hit for every single one.

I can't stress enough that this is how is exactly how genocides are incited. They always use language to couch it in self defense to justify violence against their targets.

Sample citation ICYMI: www.vice.com/en/article/s...

As a corollary to this: any time sex workers tell you a policy is going to rain hell upon civil liberties, shut up and listen. They know how this works better than pretty much anyone.

I’ve been quiet here about music happenings, but: TONIGHT in San Francisco, my band the Homobiles plays our last U.S. show for the foreseeable future. All ages, wheelchair accessible, rad venue. @pleeay.bsky.social (ballet punk) & Boyswitch (2spirit punk) Details and tix: found.ee/byefornow

New executive order frames acknowledgment of intersex and trans people’s existence as “compromis[ing] public safety or promot[ing] anti-American values.” That’s not troubling at all. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Seriously. Take two minutes to make one now. You can always improve it later. (Thank you, @deviantollam.bsky.social.)

Federal workers: If you have information to share with us, we want to hear from you. We take your privacy seriously. We collect tips using encrypted forms and apps, meaning your messages can’t be read by anyone other than you and ProPublica.

I just left the Everglades Immigrant Interment Camp. No, I’m not using their ridiculous name. It was a very tough to witness humans in those cages. Every Floridian should be ashamed that our taxpayer money is being used for this.

ICYMI

There is only one possible ending to this story, and sports aren't the last chapter. I guarantee that if you haven't lost five decades of rights in two weeks, you have no idea what this feels like, so I'm begging you: protect trans kids right now with everything you've got.

When Musk gave a Nazi salute: all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath

Yikes.

I once met a man named Jacob. He was in his seventies, a small man, stooped and bent, who looked much older than he was. He was kind and gracious, and was used to people being put off by his posture and size. His story of how he ended up like that is informative. 1/

1. Today, 200,000 marched in Budapest Pride in defiance of a ban by Orbán's far-right government. It was led by the city's mayor Gergely Karácsony, who got around the law by making it an "official city gathering." He was warned of arrest. They marched anyway. Subscribe to support my journalism.

It would be one thing if caving on trans issues and immigrants was actually successful in ensuring electoral success but accommodating the far right by adopting their positions simply doesn't work. If anything, it mainstreams the far right's policy positions. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Patreon is raising the percentage it takes from new creators (again), from 8% to 10%, on August 4. People with existing Patreon pages get grandfathered into the old rate. If you're thinking about making a page, best to do it and publish it now.

This is insane

Stay thoughtful out there, friends.

This thread includes a lot of concrete specifics about how getting arrested — or, more likely, detained — at protests works in NYC.

FWIW, I had an email exchange with the lead author of this article. I am reproducing it here. She didn't respond to my second message.

Update: We've removed the paywall for all ye who enter.

They’re still being held.

Sample context ICYMI: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

If the national guard and ICE and stationing all of their forces in one place that's an incredible sign to Go Somewhere Else to protest Moreover, ICE must be destroyed

Every person on Bluesky should know: * Every post on Bluesky is PUBLIC forever * Every post on Bluesky is archived by ICE, NSA, and many other agencies * Even if you delete a post, it’s already been captured * Judges don’t care if you were “kidding” or being ironic www.404media.co/the-200-site...

“where protests against these functions are occurring or are likely to occur” “the duration of duty shall be for 60 days or at the discretion of the Secretary of Defense” Buckle up. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Malicious compliance ftw. And Salt Lake City and Boise have adopted this “city emblem” too.

The headline of this for me (since its findings are just what we've been saying all along!) is that it was commissioned by Utah's Republican-controlled legislature but will still be dismissed as the work of trans activists

All of our basic rights are under threat, not just trans people's. If you haven't made that connection, I'm happy to talk more about the way your freedoms are threatened by the government's anti-trans purge, bc this government is counting on you dismissing it as a side issue until it's too late.

I feel so conflicted underlining my pleas with “this doesn’t just affect people like me”. People need to understand that the murder machine they’re building won’t stop at just the acceptable targets, but it’s too much to ask that no target be acceptable.

If you’re reading this and you’re in the U.S., please call your senators. Right now. @5calls.org hasn’t added a script — yet? 👀👀👀 — but is an easy way to find your senators’ numbers. To be clear, this provision is literally lethal. (1/2)

Tonight in San Francisco! Show starts at 8pm sharp

In a world where anyone might be shipped to a foreign prison without a hearing, some advice if approached by ICE: 1. Don't say anything. 2. Don't sign anything. 3. Talk to a lawyer ASAP. Gift link: wapo.st/3SbvLqA

Your *visuals* were such a delight! What a fun night. Thank you 🖤💖