Writing is thinking.

As much as this month has sucked, it has also given me enormous hope in the power of ordinary people to do extraordinarily selfless things.

One thing to remember is that lots of people in the US didn’t vote for the current president because they are children. Other countries aren’t required to care about that but it would be nice if those of us in the US could keep that in mind when deciding who is “getting what they voted for.”

Talked to a Somali man today who said his mosque last night was surrounded by neighbors ready to protect them against ICE if needed. Made me feel proud to live in this city.

One of the things about people showing up to protest for the first time, that many, many armchair theorists don't grasp, is the effect of seeing what happens with your own eyes, then seeing how media covers it, and what is said ABOUT YOU by media and political personalities/office holders.

Friends—I need you to connect to your rapid response in your city. Your ICE watch. If you don’t have one, start one. I’m watching Minneapolis and we need to be prepared for what comes next. Know the activists in our neighborhoods. If you don’t know your rights now is the time to learn. Have a plan.

People need to stop pretending the U.S. government isn’t actively rebranding as a white supremacist movement. 🚨 The Trump administration has rolled out a coordinated campaign across departments, using imagery and messaging straight from right-wing and white nationalist circles. This isn’t subtle.

To be extra clear here: my single biggest source of hope in all this has been the moral courage of everyday Americans standing up for their neighbors despite the violence. Given the cowardice displayed by so many of our leaders, this was not at all guaranteed, and we'd be lost without it.

Props to the lady giving an interview in her pink UFFDA hat and saying, "well, gosh, I've never had tear gas and flashbangs shot at me, but I'm happy to take it so my neighbors are safe."

This is a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable searches and unlawful entry. Nuremberg trials 2.0 will be required after this administration. History shows that systemic abuses carried out under the excuse of “just following orders” are still crimes.

I wish people were as horrified about immigrants being kidnapped and killed in detention centers as they are about this shooting at the same time I am very glad there is finally some larger momentum building against this and I hope it sustains.

There are so many acts of bravery by every day people while elected Dems cower behind focus group tested talking points.

When it comes to politics, it's always better to fight and lose than to simply acquiesce.

A nice read heading into a new year. open.substack.com/pub/lakauffm... - and maybe a reminder for some about the reality that people are in motion, everywhere.

"Public forgetting, like public memorialization, can have a swift and easy outcome if the forces intent on causing the loss of memory have enough power and put enough effort into the project."

What ICE was up to last week in Columbus, OH: dissentinbloom.substack.com/p/ice-target... We are bracing and preparing for more cruelty over the holiday, holding the joy and longing of Christmas in tension. Even as ICE tears down my faith in humanity, the community response is building it back up.

When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.

ICE kidnapped high schoolers as the walked out of finals, they took parents a week before Christmas. Columbus is here to say, not without a fight. When you come for our neighbors, our kids, our sisters and brothers, when you come for our friends, you come for all of us. #ICEoutofCbus

ICE moved their group of 200 traveling gestapo into Columbus, Ohio, and for the last few days my community has been scrambling, connecting, activating and showing up in the most magnificent way. There are so many different emergency trainings, protests, etc. that I physically can’t go to them all.

ICE descends on my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, hitting K-12 schools and immigrant neighborhoods. Update: ICE reportedly arrested two Dublin Scioto high schools students today. austinkocher.substack.com/p/ice-descen...

ICE has made it to Columbus and I’m honestly quite heartened by the solidarity being exhibited by my neighbors.

ICE Targets School Zones in Columbus, Families Detained by Dissent in Bloom: They pulled parents and students out of their cars on the way out of the student pickup line. I don’t know what happened to some of my friends, but I know I might not see them ever again.” freepress.org/article/ice-...

The google AI summary of my most famous piece of writing--a thousand word blog post--misunderstands it on a fundamental level. In doing so, it reproduces the way critical yet lazy scholars misunderstood it, by reading the title and filling in what they thought was the most likely meaning.

I spent the morning at an ICE Detention Center and I don’t think I will ever be the same. If you’d like to read it in full, I’ve put it in the comments below. My Day at an ICE Detention Center: open.substack.com/pub/zachwlam...

Worth reading for lots of reasons, but particularly because it closes with something I see in my work and travels speaking on writing and AI. Many, maybe most students do not want AI-mediated schooling or lives. We can offer them something better. www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...

This really is a must read for anyone in academia.

OPINION: For people wanting to experience God, we are more likely to meet the Divine trying to shut down the Broadview, Illinois, ICE facility than we ever were in church. religionnews.com/2025/11/13/w...

Love this: "Hope is not blind optimism or uncritical belief in a political savior. Hope, to me, means the ability to imagine a better world is possible and then work to build it brick by brick. It is... not an emotion but a discipline–one we must practice every single day."

Hoping this helps our colleagues across the industry

Get in, nerds. The records of Truman's Commission on the Renovation of the Executive Mansion (1949-1952) have been digitized. www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/fede...

If you would like to support some of the families of people who have been abducted by ICE in my area during the recent federal attacks on our community that I've written about, local organizers have put together this trusted list of crowd funds.

It’s hard to convey just how much Chicagoans are mobilizing against ICE. Don’t want to downplay the harm, or make it seem like a fair fight. But in neighborhoods across this city, ICE is getting chased by people blowing whistles and shouting. People are running TOWARD ICE to protect their neighbors.

There were activists and organizers at our local march giving people tangible steps to do the next right thing. Performative doesn’t inherently mean bad.

I’ve thought about this article every day for 14 days. It so perfectly encapsulates why showing up in all of our humanity beats machines every single time. “What A.I. can’t do is feel the shape of silence after someone says something so honest we forget we’re here to learn.” Nope. That’s my job.

These two historians are verbalizing why changes to the White House bother me SO much. @hcrichardson.bsky.social @jbf1755.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9A-...

learned recently that the guy who wrote "The Night Before Christmas," clement clarke moore, also wrote a takedown of thomas jefferson's proto-scientific racism in "Notes on the State of Virginia," basically accusing him and others of making it up to justify slavery. which, that's right.

just a reminder that there were people of the time — and of the same class and station — who saw this stuff and thought, "yeah this is bullshit"

Hi, I'm the ProPublica reporter who's been tracking an unusual stat: U.S. citizens grabbed by immigration agents. I did it because the government isn’t. This is what I found.

Take note of all these people turning out for protests in small towns in red states. Remember them the next time you’re inclined to write an area off because “they voted for this.”

Today, millions of Americans sent a message to the Trump regime. We are not scared. We will keep fighting. We will organize, we will mobilize, and we will resist—over and over again—until this corrupt wannabe authoritarian regime is removed from power. Because in America, we have No Kings.

Property taxes have become a political lightning rod in Ohio, but few voters realize what’s truly at stake if these taxes are abolished.

Don't engage. Just block. They want to push their rage bait on here. Don't give them the satisfaction. bsky.app/profile/did:...

Robert Gould Shaw, Glory, and the Problem of AI 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

15 US states and territories have formed a new Public Health Alliance, which will counter the absence of federal leadership by tracking outbreaks, issuing guidance, buying vaccines and more. Members of the new alliance include CA, CO, CT, DE, GU, HI, IL, MD, MA, NJ, NY, NC, OR, RI, WA.

Good people need to start outing their ICE family members, neighbors, and community members. They need to be made into pariahs in the places decent Americans gather.

My publisher’s been very patient. I’m not doing everything I said I’d do to promote this book (out in a few weeks) because I’m an organizer in a city under federal attack. My days are full and emotionally exhausting. Any help getting the word out means a lot. It's a book people need right now.

A group of hundreds of faith in coalition who started at a Maywood church just arrived at the detention center for a eucharistic procession. They want to offer communion to detainees inside, but won't be able to get past the barricades and fence on Beach Street.

In an unprecedented move, Senate Republicans just voted to erase public land plans in AK, MT, and ND, all to benefit corporate polluters. And they're not done yet: similar resolutions have already been introduced. Tell your members of Congress to choose the people over polluters: sc.org/LandsAction