Imagine this for a moment. People hold a funeral. The speakers talk about how their opponents are nothing and how they hate them — and call for an army to be awakened. They set off fireworks and leave trash strewn all around the venue. Now imagine that funeral happened anywhere else… 1/2

I’ve been pretty stuck in my writing for the past few weeks. It’s all been so much I couldn’t even figure out where to start. So as Rosh Hashanah fast approaches, I decided to ground myself in what I hope for in the coming year. A bit unformed, but from the heart. open.substack.com/pub/ruthzaka...

Karren Attiah, Matthew Dowd, and Jimmy Kimmel all lost their jobs due to their “speech” after Charlie Kirk was shot, and that’s even more infuriating now that we’ve heard the violence in Stephen Miller’s “speech” at Kirk’s funeral.

A man screaming to an arena full of white people that the unnamed other is wicked nothingness is some scary shit.

Every single speaker will include references to fascism and not a single one will talk about taking action on guns.

While way too many people were memorializing a very horrible man, my husband and I went out to commune with nature and take a breath. Touch grass, shall we say. In a quiet moment, we made a friend.

A Jewish man spewing full on Nazism while memorializing a white supremacist pains me to the very bottom of my Jewish soul.

Oh… the Tom Homan that called Boston’s Mayor Michelle Wu “not very smart” and accused her of lying about ICE. And then said she should thank him for making Boston safer. Yep, that’s the very same Tom Homan who did a not very smart thing that does nothing to keep our country safer. Yep, same guy.

Just yesterday I was comparing the deification of Kirk to the MAGA fixation with honoring Confederate generals & “honoring our history”. Both efforts are trying to rewrite history to make white supremacists the good guys. www.npr.org/2025/07/03/n...

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that meeting up with some random person to take a brown paper bag full of cash is not exactly upstanding behavior.

Rules are important. And the rules say… When you see the Tom Holland Umbrella video, you repost it. And on the 21st day of September, you pay homage. Them’s the rules.

U.S. citizen and lawyer Leslie Perlera Gonzalez has been living in fear for her undocumented husband. This week her fear came true, with ICE abducting her husband after ramming their car into his, smashing the car window, and pointing a stun gun at his head. 1/ www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/19/m...

Also, I want to draw attention to how this woman was grabbed. With a hand on her breast. She was thrown down by the ICE agent, and she was also groped. Sexual violence is completely intertwined with ICE — from the treatment of protestors to the rape of abducted immigrants

It is always the people who claim to be "tough on crime" folks who are the ones that break the most laws. It is an attempt at deflection.

You can’t have DEI on campus but you sure can have the deification of Charlie Kirk.

I am absolutely and totally not shocked by today’s news about Tom Homan.

Also, I want to draw attention to how this woman was grabbed. With a hand on her breast. She was thrown down by the ICE agent, and she was also groped. Sexual violence is completely intertwined with ICE — from the treatment of protestors to the rape of abducted immigrants

One person familiar with the federal investigation said that “thus far, there is no evidence connecting the suspect with any left-wing groups.” www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...

It seems appropriate to remind everyone that the leading cause of death in children is guns

Another terrible ICE abduction story. But this one raises the question: Is ICE free to commit as much property damage as they want…?! The economic implications of damaged property like a car makes things so much worse. #MomSky

I’m reflecting on the fact that my last two posts were about the U.S. government blowing up boats to kill people and smashing car windows to abduct people. The one prior was about Congress voting to honor a man who preached hate. That’s a lot of violence. From our government.

U.S. citizen and lawyer Leslie Perlera Gonzalez has been living in fear for her undocumented husband. This week her fear came true, with ICE abducting her husband after ramming their car into his, smashing the car window, and pointing a stun gun at his head. 1/ www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/19/m...

For the 3rd time, the U.S. government has blown up a boat killing everyone on board. In each case they have given us a lot of words of explanation but no evidence to back up those words. Our government is just out there killing people. And then bragging about it. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/19/n...

Congress voted today to honor shooting victim Charlie Kirk while apparently forgetting that the ATF took down their memorial honoring shooting victims. www.npr.org/2025/05/04/n...

As Trump continues to punish anyone that dares challenge him, I feel compelled to repost this. Forever ago, I wrote about how we can only understand Trump through the lens of domestic violence. He is a batterer, and he proves that to us every single damn day. open.substack.com/pub/ruthzaka...

Congress voted today to honor shooting victim Charlie Kirk while apparently forgetting that the ATF took down their memorial honoring shooting victims. www.npr.org/2025/05/04/n...

Remember when Trump said he could shoot someone on 5th Ave and get away with it? The man is a murderer.

People voted for a man willing to disappear people and militarize cities and rip away health care and destroy our rights and democratic institutions all because our grocery prices were too high? And now look at this. It fills me with white hot rage. Screenshot: Axios Boston

As Trump continues to punish anyone that dares challenge him, I feel compelled to repost this. Forever ago, I wrote about how we can only understand Trump through the lens of domestic violence. He is a batterer, and he proves that to us every single damn day. open.substack.com/pub/ruthzaka...

Just like they can’t actually define what woke means, I think they have no concrete definition of antifa either. It’s the new catch all term for anything that makes them feel remotely uncomfortable. Every journalist should push them to define what they mean. Not just who, but what and where.

Something happened today that captured the exquisitely painful irony of this post-Charlie Kirk moment in the United States. It’s about guns. A short 🧵

An important reminder, trans people are much more likely to be killed than kill someone else. Trans people are over 4X more likely than cis people to be the victim of a violent crime: williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/ncvs-t...

An important reminder, trans people are much more likely to be killed than kill someone else. Trans people are over 4X more likely than cis people to be the victim of a violent crime: williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/ncvs-t...

Something happened today that captured the exquisitely painful irony of this post-Charlie Kirk moment in the United States. It’s about guns. A short 🧵

This administration is working very hard to make it harder for children to get a vaccine shot, and easier for them to experience a gunshot. apnews.com/article/cdc-...

This is so not the world I want for my children. Or for anyone else’s children. I’m going to keep fighting for the world I want for them. I don’t see any other choice.

It has been reported that the officers were dealing with a domestic situation. In 2009 three Pittsburgh officers were shot and killed, also related to a domestic incident. The intersection of domestic violence and easy access to guns is a lethal one. For survivors and for law enforcement.

Trump’s FCC chair Brendan Carr threatened Disney to silence Jimmy Kimmel, then praised the blackout. His past words opposing censorship expose the hypocrisy. The crackdown mirrors authoritarian tactics he once condemned.

Watching Trump and the tech bros hobnobbing in their finery with royalty while back at home families are torn apart, and people are disappeared, and people lose their jobs, and healthcare is taken away and and and and and… Really infuriates me.

But no matter the motivation one thing remains constant. These folks wouldn’t be able to kill so easily if they didn’t have such easy access to guns. You can’t shoot someone if you don’t have a gun in your hand. You just can’t.

Some people gave me a hard time when I said the cancel culture hoopla was total BS, and I now have no time for any of those people.

Charlie Kirk was shot. But in the aftermath of his shooting so much speech has been suppressed it’s going to get harder and harder to have real conversations about gun violence in the public sphere. That is horrificly ironic and profoundly soul crushing.

So not the point of this post, but Bernie’s chronically unkempt hair totally entertains me.

Charlie Kirk’s “free” speech is costing this country so damn much.

To All the Gun Violence Survivors, Join us at the 13th Annual National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence. Meet us in DC so that we can be together in person, honor the beautiful souls taken too soon by gun violence, & remember why we continue to fight this fight. forms.gle/nFcgSg2th9v3VKSL6

Can you imagine the racist bedlam if Obama said this?

Just play ball, they said. A right to free speech, they said. Until they wanted to ball players to say something. But it had to be the right something or they’d be slammed for their speech.

My litmus test for politicians (and yes I have one) is whether they put forth policies that will actually help people, stop trauma and violence, and build stronger communities. Whether they communicate compassion and real concern for those most vulnerable. This is what I’m looking for.

I am in gun violence prevention work. I think about gun violence every day. And still I was shocked by this.

Brian Kilmeade and Gary Gutfeld still have jobs while Karen Attiah does not. That is white supremacy culture right there.