This has nothing to do with the specific content here, but Polymarket adopting the language of news, here with BREAKING, and with Texas election results earlier this week, is BAD. Polymarket is not and will never be a news org or break news. It's a betting app. It's Draft Kings for sociopaths.
As my favorite teacher in high school always said, words mean things. 🧵
Really nuts how many men were like "Me Too went too far, and I need to email Jeffrey Epstein about it."
It is really infuriating to see how misogyny really does unite men across the sociopolitical spectrum. And, in so far as the Epstein files go, they sort women into two categories: fuckable or irrelevant. When they near a hint of accountability they complain about not being able to make women prey.
"If America wants to stand for human rights again, we must start by telling the truth—and by making clear that no badge, no agency, and no president is above the law.”
- @repmcgovern.bsky.social
Proud Team McGovern alum right here.
Alex Pretti’s coworkers take a moment of silence this morning
ICE officers tell media that the conduct in Minneapolis is part of a plan by Stephen Miller to provoke as much violence and death as possible—which in turn will be taken as pretext for more. “They’re essentially operating now in a resource constraint-free environment and doing very dangerous things”
A reminder to everyone glued to the news: If it is not explicitly your job to watch the video, you don't have to. It doesn't make you a bad citizen or a bad activist.
If you're a journalist or researcher or investigator and it is your job, don't forget to take care of yourself.
And a P.S. -- Thank you @atherton.bsky.social for giving this piece a home! It was wonderful to work with you!!
The work belongs to us, too. The past year has demonstrated the power of creative and relentless organizing to defend democracy and our neighbors.
May we continue to protect each other as we build towards enduring democracy and accountability together (8/8).
While accountability might feel very, very far away right now, Congress and state governments have actions they can take to get us closer:
(7/8)
Preventing these abuses from escalating requires comprehensive, meaningful accountability. That encompasses:
🗣️ Acknowledgment, explanation, and apologies
🤝 Taking responsibility and making amends
⚖️ Legal Liability
🙅 Disciplinary action
🛑 Non-repetition
(6/x)
This past year has highlighted a particularly dangerous result of unaccountability. The pervasive unaccountability we've seen in past decades has created a permission structure for abuse that the Trump administration has gleefully taken advantage of in Minnesota, the Caribbean Sea, and beyond (5/x)
At the same time, individuals inside and outside of institutions were working tirelessly and creatively to promote a comprehensive, meaningful approach to accountability that met the needs of victims, survivors, and their communities (4/x)
What we found was sobering. U.S. security accountability frequently fell short across domestic and international contexts, with devastating consequences for impacted communities (3/x)
A few years ago, I led a research project with the Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC), where I investigated how U.S. security forces, from local police departments, to immigration enforcement, to the military, approached accountability when civilians were harmed during operations (2/x)
What appears unprecedented isn't as unprecedented as we think it is. In my latest for the International Policy Journal at @cipolicy.bsky.social, I write about how the abuses we're seeing under the second Trump admin are an unfortunate consequence of decades of unaccountability for similar 🧵
Thesis: ICE is un-American and the Minneapolis protestors are real Americans.
Antithesis: Ackshually ICE is operating in a long American tradition of racist terror.
Synthesis: Minneapolis is now the epicenter of a clash between two distinct but historically grounded American political traditions.
Good showing in Pershing Park for the @freedcproject.bsky.social protest of the Trump administration. “Our homes, our rules,” read many of the signs.
When Google cuts off the headline at the proper place.
I wrote something along these lines for @humansecurityproj.bsky.social last year:
tfw you have no elected senators to call and demand impeachment proceedings from because you live in #DC and you have no voting representation 🫠
Also if anyone is interested in the history of the United States' attempts to topple leaders in South America and install more friendly dictators then you can - and I'm not joking here - download the files from the CIA website.
This all seems pretty unbecoming of a FIFA Peace Prize winner
I am sure Suzanne Collins takes no pleasure in being right about the reality TV-ification of political violence
Trump's assault on Caracas is his foreign policy in a nutshell: reckless, illegal, and completely counterproductive. These actions won't improve the lives of people in Venezuela or the U.S and our thoughts are with those impacted by this violence. We’re watching the situation closely.
Whenever foreign policy is about advancing peace and development the line is “we can’t do it because the American public is against it” but when it comes to invading countries—which is way more unpopular—suddenly public opinion goes out the window
...and this isn't the silliest I've seen them look this week.
I'm not gonna presume everybody's Christian, but I can guess from the states that they're deployed from that most of them are. They should be at home taking silly Santa hat photos with their families.
Really hard to imagine this opinion coming down the way it did if Illinoisans hadn't rallied to protect their neighbors and Pritzker hadn't publicly and forcefully resisted the administration.
Kavanaugh goes out of his way to pen a footnote not having to deal with the case at hand.
He appears to be trying to narrow the forces he unleashed with his prior opinion allowing for race- and ethnicity-based #KavanaughStops
