Mostly I don't share unpublished #poems here...but I'm in New York as the #UNGA (#UN General Assembly) meeting happens and my country's president makes unhinged critiques of cooperation between countries and individual people's rights. The words just emerged. #poetry #politics #humanrights

From ‘Black and white and red all over’ by Emily Arnold-Fernández @emilyaf47.bsky.social Read the full poem at www.echepoetry.co.uk/one

Emily Arnold-Fernandez @emilyaf47.bsky.social (she/they) is a poet from California who resides in Scotland. Inspiration for 'After the Rescue' comes from a childhood love of the song 'Puff the Magic Dragon' to fairytales to the performances of femininity demanded of women. Read in #ShadowsOnTheStage

Thanks to the amazing poets … @mrirwin.bsky.social @garretandbasement.bsky.social @writeangled.bsky.social @lenaozge.bsky.social @wordsmithwitch.bsky.social @emilyaf47.bsky.social @simonmaddrell.bsky.social @navkiranmann.bsky.social @nblascsok.bsky.social @bornonadarkmoon.bsky.social

One of the biggest problems right now is people don't understand the scope of the Administration's actions. We make handouts about specific topics to help people understand what's happening. Please hand them out, share them online, and use our QR codes on stickers and signs. freedombell.us

Lives and livelihoods depend on the Federal Government's weather forecasting agencies. Why is the Trump Administration shutting down critical systems? freedombell.us/weather

The Greens now have nearly 200 more councillors than Reform. This is not something you'd be likely to guess from all the copiously salivating media coverage of Farage & his crew of billionaire-backed far-right chancers.

I have gotten confirmation from sources inside the Coast Guard that this is in fact true and happened in Key West. ICE went into military housing and took the spouse of a USCG member who is currently out to sea.

Please spread the word about this bot to folks who use screen readers and/or rely on alt text for understanding images of text. Please do not use the bot when it isn't needed. It isn't expensive to maintain the service, but it does cost money. You can report issues to @holden.bsky.social. Thank you!

If you accept that non-citizens have no right to due process, you are accepting that citizens have no right to due process. All the government has to do is claim that you are not a citizen; without due process you have no chance to prove the contrary.

Today, I am calling on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other top officials in the Trump administration to resign immediately due to their reckless and unlawful disclosure of national security secrets. Their actions have put our country at risk, and immediate accountability is necessary

Pinterest updated their terms of use and they're going to use all of the content you saved to train their AI. Go to options > your privacy rights > disable GenAI Please do it 🫠

Hearing that the Coast Guard is being told to deprioritize and de-emphasize the Search and Rescue mission. That’s right, you know, one of the main missions of the service since the very beginning? There are more than 3,500 lives saved per year by the CG.

💥 BREAKING: At John Deere's annual shareholders meeting today, shareholders overwhelmingly rejected an anti-DEI proposal brought by the same group that targeted Costco and Apple. An anti-DEI proposal from the NCPPR received less than 1 percent of votes. Deere shareholders: DEI is in. Bigots are out

SCOOP: Elon's favorite anon data expert, who's been appearing on NewsNation in sunglasses, isn't a govt. spending expert but rather a senior employee at an AI lending firm that's battled the CFPB for years. Me at @rollingstone.com www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

On the HHS Leadership call today: 1 employee from CMS (Center for Medicare/Medicaid Service) and 2 employees from SSA (Social Security Administration) have died by suicide after their firing.

We'll be opening submissions for the 2025 Literary Awards Program, judged by the ever wonderful @deeshaphilyaw.bsky.social, on March 1st. We can't wait to read those manuscripts! Learn more about our Literary Awards Program right here: https://buff.ly/4gUhp7J

As Musk rails against government fraud and waste (and gets it wrong), he would do well to remember how much he has benefited from taxpayer funds.

🚨 SCOOP 🚨 The acting Social Security commissioner has left the agency after a clash over providing DOGE access to sensitive data It follows our reporting that DOGE is seeking access to personal financial data at the IRS for every taxpayer, business and nonprofit.

Lots of protests on No Kings Day (Presidents' Day). Google's top links to news about it are Rolling Stone and Al-Jazeera. NYT coverage doesn't appear until p 3. Let's make visible the extent of these protests. We don't want a King Trump or an Emperor Musk! www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/u...

Fascinating how many liberals want to accept the unproved premise that we are less happy and justify it. I reject even the premise. Self-reporting is not a reliable measure. Considering how conservatives *act* like bitter, angry people, I'd think they aren't as happy as they say.

Knowledge is power…

you look sad here's a picture of a boxer crab a very grumpy crustacean who with minimal provocation will grab two anemones and use them like fists to fight photo by Bruce Shafer

just speaking from personal experience now, i think it is really important to understand that simply being black is read by a non-trivial number of people as anti-white extremism

Another way the dictatorship might kill you. This is from a friend who is a retired air traffic controller.

Everyone knew RFK was lying when he said he wasn't going to come after vaccines, but even I'm surprised at how swiftly he's moving.

The Trump administration laid off half of its Epidemic Intelligence Service, otherwise known as the “Disease Detectives.” The lay off affected 1,260 staff, reported NBC News’s Lewis Kamb.

Trump—or Vance—can make one phone call and set any investigation they wish in motion, or get one quashed. In other words, they are the law.

JFC. amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/02/...

Sounds good to me...

“The federal agency's new requirements under the Trump administration… are so egregious that Tupelo Press Publisher and Artistic Director Jeffrey Levine feels it's important to take a public stance.” www.berkshireeagle.com/arts_and_cul...

Additional scripts for cis het white men who want to be better allies: “What a weird thing to say” “Do you hear yourself right now?” “You shouldn’t say shit like that to people” “I won’t let you talk to them that way” “That’s a disgusting opinion to have” “Shut the fuck up, dude”

it really doesn't get any more disgusting than this. sick

The State Department was set to buy $400 million worth of armored Teslas from Elon Musk. But after a report from Drop Site News exposed the massive conflict of interest, the department quietly deleted the word “Tesla” and changed the $400 million line item to a generic “armored electric vehicles.”

A huge decision from Judge Amir Ali, meticulously reasoned and utterly scathing, finding that Trump’s foreign aid freeze is almost certainly an illegal and arbitrary abuse of power. He orders the immediate restoration of all international assistance. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

Protest at Stonewall tomorrow. You can’t spell Stonewall without the T.

"We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis right now," said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley. "There have been so many unconstitutional and illegal actions in the first 18 days of the Trump presidency. We never have seen anything like this."

So glad @gilduran.com explained this in a short video. Everyone needs to watch this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC62...

It's time for all of us to think seriously about what we will do in the key foreseeable moments when our ethics will be tested. It may start small, easing us into compliance. Let's make our plans now so we don't freeze or bend.

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ILLEGALLY FIRED FEMA OFFICIALS AFTER ELON MUSK TOLD LIES ABOUT THEM. jfc it's not that hard!

The Nazis burned it to the ground. LGBTQ people were sent to concentration camps and forced to wear triangle badges. Many were killed in the Holocaust. The Nazis also saw manhood as under threat by independent women who didn't rely on men. In 1934, Hitler proclaimed, “A women’s world is her /10

followers collected all books they saw as promoting "degeneracy" or what would be considered "woke" today, and burned them in large bonfires. They also burned books that promoted class consciousness. Berlin had a thriving LGBTQ community in the 1920s, and even had the first transgender clinic. /9

Media that dared to questioned him were vilified as "the enemy" and "Marxists." Hitler's Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, bragged about how the Nazis were able to intimidate the media into giving them favorable coverage, and didn't need to give direct orders. The Nazi regime and its /8

The German press under Nazi rule highlighted instances of violence by Jews to convince the public that Jewish immigrants were a danger to the "real Germans." Hitler wasted no time dismantling democratic institutions. Loyalty wasn't just encouraged; it was demanded. Opponents were silenced. /7

if they constantly had an "enemy within" to blame while the corporatocracy robbed the country blind. An easy target was one of the smallest minorities. Hitler removed birthright citizenship rights of Jews and started rounding them up for mass deportations for being "illegally" in the country. /6

strikes. Progressives and trade unionists were imprisoned and sent to concentration camps. Corporate profits skyrocketed while working class Germans lived paycheck to paycheck. Hitler, who became a billionaire while in office, knew he and his clan of oligarchs could get away with the scam /5

Chancellor in 1933. Hitler appointed German oligarchs as his economic advisors. He proceeded to privatize government run utilities, solidifying support of the economic elite. With the working class divided along cultural and ethnic lines, the Nazis shut down workers unions and abolished /4

promised to return Germany to greatness. To solidify his base, Hitler masterfully scapegoated minorities for the nation's problems, exploiting societal divisions with an "us vs. them" narrative. Many Germans took the bait. Hitler's Nazi Party continued to gain traction, until he became /3

the “corrupt" Social Democrats. Hitler cleverly positioned himself as the voice of the "common man," railing against the "elites," cultural "degeneracy," and the establishment, who he all labeled as "Marxists." He claimed the education system was indoctrinating children to hate Germany, and /2