Paul Benson

I literally didn't know this *could* be illegal! Does anyone know in how many / which places renting a room in your own house is illegal? I don't even know the search terms to begin to learn about this one....

‘No one deserves this’: Beaverton father dies after deportation to Mexico A Beaverton family is grieving after the father, who was detained and deported by ICE, has now died.

This 53 year old man who lived in my neighborhood w/no criminal record & who had been in the US for 30 years, was detained and thrown into a cold cell for days, caught pneumonia and COVID there and deported.

He finally died.

I am so angry.
www.kptv.com/2026/02/21/n...

One of these days, people will look back on these sports betting ads like we do on the ads for patent medicines featuring cocaine.

I'm a veteran criminal justice reporter. I've never seen anything like ICE-occupied Memphis. “It’s about as sad as you can possibly imagine."

I've been reporting on the criminal justice system for over a decade and have lived in an authoritarian country overseas, but I've never seen anything like the police presence in ICE-occupied Memphis. Here's my dispatch: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

An absolute bedrock institution for understanding how the planet works, just civilization-scaled vandalism by the most incurious morons on Earth

If he did, Democrats would win 3 or 4 of the nine new districts. And probably two more in nearby parts of Ohio or Michigan.

You can’t knife *a state from your own team* in public like that. You’ll lose folks.

They think they’re being dominant apes or something, but they’re bad at that, too.

Me when people suggest AI could help me with my creative endeavors.

To celebrate my new handle, it's raffle time‼️

There will be two winners!
1st- your choice of a custom ceramic sculpture (6"x6" max) OR a large woodburn (~11"x8" max, have several shapes)
2nd- custom pendant of any animal + woven cord!

to enter, simply follow and repost! ends Dec 1st!

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused apnews.com/article/myan...

We need a bigger national spotlight on this building raid, fam. Agents dropped from helicopters onto the roof. Citizens and non-citizens alike were dragged from their homes in the night. People who weren't kidnapped during the raid had their belongings seized after the fact. This is madness.

it’s pretty darkly funny that the U.S. has spent decades trying to become closer partners with India and trump blew it all up because India wouldn’t nominate him for a Nobel peace prize.

we’re being governed by the biggest moron on earth

Every lawyer should get the day off in observance of the fact that they actually failed to indict a ham sandwich

ICE released this Mass. mom with no phone, 30 miles from home in the rain after detainment for a sealed marijuana conviction Federal authorities refused to tell the Canton woman's husband or lawyer on what grounds she was being detained until shortly before her release.

“Jimenez Rosa, a legal permanent resident and mother of four U.S. citizens, was detained over what her lawyer believes was a decades-old, personal-use marijuana charge, which is no longer a crime in Massachusetts today… “I was just like, ‘Girls, we might never see your mother again in this country’”

In 1900 a popular rationale for excluding concession food and drink in SF's Golden Gate Park was animus against immigrants - specifically Germans

> where beer shall foam... while pretzels shall tangle the teeth with thirst, where the mettwurst, the sauerkraut and the sausage lay claim.

We Must Defend and Build a True Opposition Media It is absolutely critical that the opposition have a voice that is widely heard.

what all of these front-line fighters were insistent on was the incredible power of media. authoritarians and oligarchs around the world have laser-focused on seizing control of the commanding heights--of *media*--before anything else.

they're not wrong.

www.liberalcurrents.com/we-must-defe...

Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose The Trump administration has asked NASA staffers to draw up plans to end at least two satellite missions that measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to current and former NASA employees.

Head of NASA Sean Duffy intends to destroy a satellite that collects key data on carbon dioxide and plant health, by causing it to burn up in the atmosphere. The U.S. Dept of Agriculture and private agriculture firms use the data to forecast crop yield, drought conditions and more.

Hello, would you like to read about capital subsidy and social housing daniel-kay-hertz.ghost.io/deep-v-shall...

There’s No Safe Place for Legal Immigrants in Trump’s America As Trump’s deportation gangs continue snatching people after scheduled court hearings, more are opting to stay home. But that comes with its own dangers.

If you're a legal immigrant with a court date, ICE is likely to pick you up after the hearing. If you don't go to the hearing, a judge can order ICE to pick you up.
Here's @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social with some great reporting on the Catch-22 Trump has made of our legal immigration system:

ICE memo outlines plan to deport migrants to countries where they are not citizens The dramatic shift in policy could result in thousands of immigrants being deported to places where they lack family ties or even a common language.

Breaking news: Federal immigration officers may deport immigrants with as little as six hours’ notice to countries other than their own, even without assurances that the arrivals will be safe from persecution or torture, a top official said.

Prescient Warnings About Helene Didn’t Reach People in Harm’s Way. Here Are 5 Lessons for the Next Hurricane. After four months of reporting, ProPublica found that the warnings about Helene were eerily accurate. Yet, local residents remained largely unaware of the enormity of danger approaching as the storm…

More than 20 years ago, North Carolina legislators passed a law requiring that landslide hazards be mapped across 19 mountain counties.

But after only four of those countries were mapped, lawmakers gave in to developers who said it could harm property values.

(Published May)

Opinion | Don’t call it ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’ Call it a concentration camp. This facility’s purpose fits the classic model, and its existence points to serious dangers ahead for the country.

"The Nazis... imagined their targets would self-deport. Once the myth of self-deportation collapsed, they turned to more punitive measures. On Tuesday, Noem similarly noted the Everglades camp was meant to frighten immigrants into self-deporting. 'If you don’t,' she said, 'you may end up here.'"

With the awful news from the last couple hours, this post from the political optimism subreddit helped to break through a bit of the despair fog. Repubs know this is political suicide, ICE's support is crumbling despite the budget increase, and there's a myriad of ways to fight back. Keep strong.

Andry José Hernández Romero, about ten years ago, goofy & hopeful.

Andry José Hernández Romero, I remember you, even if I do not know how to articulate my horror, rage, & sorrow at your treatment by my government.

No one has heard from you in 111 days.

As vigil, I’m posting a photo or video of you every day until you are returned from El Salvador.

I haven’t laughed that hard in like a whole month. 🤣 Someone PLEASE do this whole song on video.

This is a really remarkable achievement: Cambridge, Massachusetts now allows midrise multifamily housing citywide.

To Tackle Housing Crisis, These Organizers Want to First Change How City Hall Works Advocates in Bozeman, Montana, are using a once-in-a-decade chance to reshape their local government structure to create more equitable representation and, eventually, more affordable housing policy.

This summer, Bozeman Tenants United scored a big win: voters overwhelmingly approved the creation of a study commission to explore changes to the city’s local government structure.

They talked to Bolts about how it's related to the fight for fair housing:
boltsmag.org/montana...

a graph of Spokane housing permitting over time, showing it spike in 2023/2024

Spokane passed a bunch of housing reforms recently—eliminating parking minimums, increasing height maximums, reducing lot minimums, allowing more missing middle, & expanding property tax exemptions for new multifamily projects—and now they're building record amounts of housing