In our latest, against a backdrop of the Trump administration’s attempted occupation of Chicago, we speak with @mskellymhayes.bsky.social about holding together in times of rising fascism and her new edited collection Read This When Things Fall Apart www.patreon.com/posts/141148...

I’m so looking forward to getting the three copies I ordered; one for myself and the others for two activist friends.

I find this encouraging, from @indivisible.org:

I have a full day today, but I woke up early to put this edition of my newsletter together because I need you all to have this rundown of what we've been up against this week in Chicago as the federal assault on our city continues. To ignore these developments would be a damning mistake for us all.

Stop lying. Your state cops attacked protesters alongside ICE yesterday. I was there. I and others were violently attacked by ICE agents. Your state cops acted in concert with them during the attack.

Palestinian scholar and feminist Eman Abdelhadi arrested today in Chicago. Here she is calling shame on the cops and demanding they question their life choices.

Federal agents are overtly abusing their power to try to intimidate advocates and elected officials. We need ICE out of Illinois immediately and justice for people like Ald. Jessie Fuentes who are defending their communities. blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/03/f...

I don't think pointing out the fascists' 'hypocrisy' is a good use of time. It's not hypocrisy, it's hierarchy. They actually do believe that they have the right and obligation to dominate you because they are superior to you. They are using their power not being hypocritical.

All charges brought against protesters at Broadview today must be dropped. When cops and agents attack crowds without provocation, they make shit up to justify their attacks (in his case, an attack waged on a cooperative crowd to produce fascist social media content). These charges must be dropped.

I’m told ICE attacked us—despite us being off the street, courtesy of the state police—to create a spectacle because Kristi Noem was present today. Here’s some footage of her and her team on the roof of Broadview. Everything is content creation to these fascists.

@govpritzker.illinois.gov owns every arrest and act of violence against protesters this morning. He is aiding and abetting Operation Midway Blitz by allowing state cops to do this. He tells us to film ICE. His cops have shoved me around for filming this morning.

Major commotion as IL state cops shove back crowds trying to stop an ICE vehicle. I was grabbed and shoved repeatedly while filming the incident.

I’m on the ground at a prayer vigil near the Broadview ICE facility outside Chicago.

Menominee and Palestinian solidarity with all immigrants.

I’m on the ground near Broadview. Because of illegal fence, we are at a nearby intersection.

These are precedented times and the precedent is a loud ass warning www.nytimes.com/1939/02/04/a...

In a civilized society, a person who suggested murdering unhoused people would be forever shunned

If ICE firing guns on a crowded street and slaughtering a man driving ~away~ from agents, a man who clearly posed no risk to anyone else Is not met with national outrage Its already-reckless agents will kill anyone, anywhere, anytime they deem it necessary It stops now or never

I am advocating for you to be killed but I am using my inside voice you must debate me this is called democracy

"To a supremacist society, most of us are acceptable losses. Charlie Kirk is not. To a supremacist society, guns are allowed to kill most of us, and the pundits can debate later how sad our deaths were. But guns were not supposed to kill Charlie Kirk." www.the-reframe.com/acceptable-l...

It’s not a double standard this *is* their standard. Speech for them not for us. Violence for us not for them. The sooner we understand this the better.

Nancy Mace acting on disinformation that the shooter was trans: goes off on tirade against "trannies" Nancy Mace when the actual shooter is a Christian white man: "he's just a poor lost boy, let us pray for him."

Choosing sproul plaza (often described as ‘the heart of the campus free speech movement’) as the hero photo is absolutely fantastic work congrats to the photo editor.

“This is the only story of mine whose moral I know. I don’t think it’s a marvelous moral; I simply happen to know what it is: We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

@bluesky moderation is suspending people for posting Kirk's own words which tells you everything you need to know.

My moral code does not include a requirement to show abject deference to the dead and dying simply on the merit of them being dead or dying. Death is morally neutral and doesn't absolve you of criticism past, present, or future.

I just hope I don't spend my entire life being flippant about the thing that eventually kills me, to the point that my last words are making light of that thing moments before suddenly falling victim to it. while everyone on earth quotes me making light of that thing to make fun of me

A thing can be both hilarious and worrisome. That's absolutely a thing. Complexity exists, even in spite of social media. I am talking, of course, about Chief O'Brien's chronic shoulder issues on Deep Space 9.

Leave it to Movement Memos to be spot on for the talk of the day

“I've never in my 37 years experienced the amount of hatred, racism, and bigotry than my few days in captivity over there in Israel.” Activist and labor union organizer Chris Smalls talk to @premthakker.bsky.social about the racism he experienced after getting arrested by the Israeli military.

Millions of audio recordings of hundreds of bird species have revealed that artificial light is making the birds wake up earlier and go to bed later.

Allies of the fascist regime are referring to the residents of our capital city as “cockroaches.” This is explicitly neo-Nazi language used in service of making Jeffrey Epstein‘s best friend into dictator for life.

I listened to this podcast episode this morning and it was very good. We should absolutely be organizing more local assemblies and building power from the bottom up.

I think it's important to note the audience for this isn't really cisgender LGB people (who polling tells us overwhelmingly favor trans rights) but is meant to serve as a permission structure for a broader audience to abandon trans rights while still claiming they're "liberal"

Pretty hard to believe that the particularly heinous and brutal treatment Christian Smalls was subjected to by Israeli authorities was not a function of racism given it was not inflicted on other Handala detainees. And the US media dgaf.

A British surgeon returned from Gaza says Israeli soldiers were shooting at aid-seekers “almost like a game of target practice". He also said formula doctors had packed to bring with them was the only item confiscated by Israeli authorities before entry. Formula. news.sky.com/story/almost...

the line from @prisonculture.bsky.social's book "We Do This 'Til We Free Us" that I think about the most is that our current criminal legal system is built on the premise that people will/should deny accountability for their actions. we treat accountability as a bad thing to be avoided

ICE piñata - scenes from Chicago ✊🏽

I think it’s worth noting this piece generated the most unsubscribes I’ve seen in a while, and the newsletter version had the lowest open rate in many months. These horrors persist in part because too many people go to great pains to avoid them.

Today, I made a donation to support Alaa and her children in Gaza. Alaa is a mother I've been in contact with for some time, and her family is facing immense hardship. Her children are in poor health and urgently need support. If you're able to contribute, it could make a real difference for them.

🦠 COVID associated with long-term cognitive impairment: “Infection with SARS-CoV-2 during the first year of the pandemic was associated with three to five times higher odds of cognitive impairment 2 years after infection.” Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

You are cordially invited to our Anti-Prime Sale, where every purchase will financially support bookstores, NOT billionaires 🥳

The double standard here is stunning. Universities are losing grants, student aid, and endowments for being "too woke." But churches (which also receive federal funds, eg, for school vouchers, food banks, and marriage promotion programs) are now allowed to openly endorse political candidates.

1. News has emerged that Israel bombed a transgender wing at the notorious Evin Prison in Iran. Over 100 transgender people are presumed dead. An Israeli official called the attack on the wing "an act of liberation." The latest from S. Baum. Subscribe to support our journalism.

"We need stories where, in contrast to those traitors, we’re part of a movement that is brave, resilient, courageous, compassionate, and committed to being here. And defending not just other human beings, but the planet and all the other species and creatures who call it home."

I find it really difficult to listen to podcasts about politics anymore but this is consistently the best one going.

The United States Supreme Court is not a legitimate court but a rubber stamp for fascism.