This is a MUST-READ affidavit. This eyewitness to Alex Pretti’s murder — who is too scared to even go home because she doesn’t trust federal agents — directly refutes what the feds are saying happened today:

I had a tweet at the time saying Blue Lives Matter was the most openly fascist thing I'd seen in America in my lifetime bc it was responding to Black Lives Matter by saying "no they don't, and in fact your murderers are our heroes" with a little sticker you could put on your fucking pickup truck

At the end of the day, the Black Lives Matter era was about whether people should be killed in the street, and lots of people decided yeah and put those little blue flags on their cars. It spread to everyone because it stopped for no one.

The damage this is doing to kids is so far-reaching. A friend’s 7yo has been having nightmares that his parents got arrested. They live in Vermont and are citizens and white—safe as you can get. But kids pick things up. The conversations they’re having are heartbreaking.

“mom, if i create enough noise my friends can get away”

becoming a teensy bit obsessed with heron's feet after @everyheron.bsky.social retweeted this other worldly photo

I just thought everyone should see this

the difference between the "border" (R +3) and "immigration" (R -17) is fascinating and tells you a lot about how Americans conceptualize of the issue. The "Border" is where the crime and drugs are. "Immigration" is everyone else

one way that I think Trump has a real mind meld with the median voter is the way he thinks of the border as a place of great fear and danger, a place of pollution or infection or violence, like the nation is a body and its vulnerable outward-facing areas must be protected

This is an important point *because it means that people can be and are being swayed to the opposition's side* and *this strengthens the opposition's position* It's not about grace or sympathy. It's about strategy and tactics!

"They voted for this." Well. 22% of the US population checked Trump/Vance on their ballot. What they thought they were voting for actually varies, thanks to propaganda/misinformation/disinformation/shitty newspapers. It's turning out that those who didn't vote for *this* actually don't like it.

The fact that their coalition is shrinking does not mean they are losing -- yet. In autocratic conditions, they don't need the majority on their side. It is by definition not a democratic system of governance. (And the U.S. was never a proper democracy.) But it does mean opposition has opportunity.

One of the reasons I am so insistent that everyone remember that only 22% of the US population voted for Trump is that the Christian Nationalists want the myth of a mandate in circulation. We need to reject it. They never had a mandate, and their coalition is shrinking.

Beautiful thread.

One of the things I’m really struggling with about what’s going on in Minnesota is that if you describe what’s going on in plain, factual ways to someone who’s not paying close attention you sound completely, bugfuck crazy

This is in Huntington, WV.!

'Why aren't they in the streets' is answered almost every day in my small town by people in the streets! Rather than asking 'why aren't they in the streets' it's worth asking 'why isn't your media showing them in the streets' and 'who is served by downplaying resistane in its myriad forms.'

It’s a variation on the just-world fallacy. Some people need to blame *all* Americans and assume we’re all doing nothing to resist, because otherwise it would be true that this can happen anywhere and there might not be something they, individually, can do to protect themselves.

Adventures in being 42: I seem to have tweaked my back clipping my toenails.

It wasn’t until the penultimate word of the follow-up tweet that I understood this wasn’t about ttrpgs.

i think this MLK day the thing to focus on is the strategic focus and tactical brilliance of the civil rights movement and the way it was laser focused on a set of achievable goals

Found this elsewhere on bsky 🤭

Listen: because I am hearing this a lot from folks who are in caregiving roles with disabled, sick, dying folks, elders, or children in their care: You are not unable to do anything or unable to take action. Care work IS justice work

There are FOUR blue jays outside my window right now. Never seen that in my life! Fancy corvid party!

I am a RETVRN guy for the graphic design of government nutritional guidelines only www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

If a Minnesotan says to you, "I don't plan to let you do that," run.

How much more in your face can it be? "Why are you asking me for my paperwork?" "Because of your accent." "You have an accent too." "Where were you born sir?" "Where were you born at?" "Put your hands behind your back."

There are lots of people sharing lots of ways to help. This is one I trust absolutely.

I’m in only a medium-size city but cuisines I can get in a <10min walk from my house include: Chinese Indonesian Italian x4 Korean Mexican x2 Polish Puerto Rican Soul Food x3 Sushi x2 Thai x2 It’s the best! I know everybody’s different, but forever baffled that some people don’t want this.

Copenhagen town hall square, Denmark right now. Massive solidarity with Greenland demonstrations. Source: dr.dk

you know this guy is a FOR REAL photographer because he's telling the story of his brutal, unconditional arrest by federal goons and can't help but slip in a gear review

I love how eager ICE is to tell the cameraman exactly what happened and how easily it was accomplished and just how much it is bothering him 😂

I love that every city has added a new mischief to the anti-ICE work: LA started the noise outside hotels Portland started the inflatables Chicago started the whistles Minneapolis started not warning them about the weather lol If ICE comes to your city it’s your duty to out-scamp the last 🫡

Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.

pretty sure he meant the other thing, grok, but very cool that those are your two things

Urine test; an EKG; was constantly meeting with his the primary doctor assigned to his case, and met with a specialist for his case. The care was amazing, efficient, and compassionate. We left and paid our bill (under $800) with a prescription and comprehensive aftercare recommendations.

We arrived at the hospital and within 20 minutes he already had a room and was receiving fluids. We were in the 5th largest city in the world at 1am on a Friday night and he received immediate care. Anyone who has ever needed immediate care in the U.S. knows how shocking this statement is alone.

Stark juxtaposition of the United States Healthcare and other countries 🧵: My husband almost died recently--and I'm not being hyperbolic. We were in Mexico and unbeknownst to us he was severely dehydrated (he had climbed 3 mountains, and several other excursions two days before). #brokensystem

This is what’s destroying me about Dem leadership calling for protests to slow and chill. There are numerous cases where the Feds stop committing illegal acts only BECAUSE the protesters showed up. The narrative about Feds committing illegal acts because of protesters is fully, completely backwards.

Some of the stories in here are absolutely chilling. One US citizen of Somali descent was just riding an elevator with ICE agents and then they detained him for almost half an hour in the freezing cold despite him showing agents his passport card. They only let him go once protestors showed up.

Here's actual evidence of money being used to pay protestors

They literally always accuse protesters of being paid because 1) it shifts the terrain of the debate and 2) it reassures their base that no one legitimately holds a contrary position. They take comfort in thinking that anyone who disagrees with Trump is either brainwashed or a cynic.

Ultimately the crackdown on transness has never been about trans people its never been about us. Its the struggle between the firm hand of heteronormative patriarchy and the freedom of feminism, bodily autonomy, reproductive rights. We are just the border where that war is fought

When Google cuts off the headline at the proper place.

Non-protesting dad just trying to hustle his kids, as young as 6mo, out of the neighborhood. ICE threw a flash-bang INTO HIS car, all 6 kids in the hospital now. If anyone wondered how things turn against occupying armies there's a case study playing out in front of you.

I know we aren’t all fans of the police here but the difference between this and an ordinary police arrest or detainment is night and day. There’s no “You’re under arrest” and then sitting in the car while they ask questions. You are simply disappeared in seconds. No record of what happened.

Having seen several abductions up close, it is really hard to convey how much the thing they’re doing is roaming in military convoys until they see someone who is alone and isn’t white, and then jumping out in large numbers, pulling them into a van, and screeching off, all in 90 seconds or so.