Brea Cooper

"Ned? Ned Ryerson?"

"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read."
-- James Baldwin

Rob Reiner: “Silence in the face of authoritarianism is complicity. Speaking out is a patriotic act. Democracy doesn’t defend itself. It requires participation, vigilance, and courage from ordinary people."

We spend twice as much per capita on health care as almost any nation on Earth. We pay the highest prescription drug prices in the world. 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured.

Republicans — pathetically — have nothing serious to say about the health care crisis.

If you don’t want to read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein together by candlelight whilst sharing dark chocolate and a vintage bottle of Château Margaux in an abandoned castle on the Irish coast during a full moon, then please don’t tell me you’re “down for a good time.”

Jim Banks calls for Indiana to have a 9-0 Republican congressional map and alleges that "the Democrats manipulated the census data when Joe Biden came into office." (The 2020 census happened in 2020, when believe it or not Trump was president)

“The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.” -Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

This. Always this.

UPDATE: Two federal judges have ruled withholding SNAP benefits to be unlawful. Our caucus will continue to monitor the situation to ensure no Hoosier goes hungry due to the shutdown.

The Scariest Thing This Halloween is Donald Trump’s Hatred for Children At Least Freddy Kreuger, Jason, Pennywise, and Michael Myers Didn’t Take Food Away From Kids

The whole title is “The Scariest Thing This Halloween is Donald Trump’s Hatred for Children:
At Least Freddy Kreuger, Jason, Pennywise, and Michael Myers Didn’t Take Food Away From Kids”

Enjoy.

‘Everything Is Gone’: Gazans Return Home to Find Devastation and Little Hope

Gaza has 2.2 million people. In 2 years, 10% of the population has been killed or wounded. Their entire infrastructure has been destroyed. 

Instead of giving more military aid to Netanyahu’s extremist government, the US must work with the international community to rebuild Gaza.

I keep going back to this piece and this sentence: “The question of who gets to live as long as they should isn’t moral but systemic.”

What do you think would get Indiana heading in the right direction? Sound off in the comments 🗣️

“In a devastating blow to the Jewish community, Nazi Germany revokes the passports of all Jewish citizens, effectively stripping them of their citizenship and freedom to travel. This..is a calculated attempt to isolate & persecute Jews, making it impossible for them to escape..”
- October 5th, 1938

Jane Fonda relaunches free speech group started by her father during the McCarthy era In wake of the Trump administration’s censorship threats, the actor re-established the Committee for the First Amendment with A-list support

Solidarity, now and forever.

“This is the most frightening moment of my life,” she added. "The only thing that has ever worked...is solidarity: binding together, finding bravery in numbers too big to ignore, and standing up for one another.”

www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...

Pritzker: “This is a convicted felon…who is threatening to jail me. This guy is unhinged. He's insecure. He's a wannabe dictator. And there's one thing I really want to say to Donald Trump: If you come for my people, you come through me. So come and get me.”

photo of Google News search results for Amazon Prime Day (the second this year)

twice a year the entire U.S. press becomes a marketing extension of a single billionaire-owned retailer, and nobody in any position of editorial power thinks it's weird or gross

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

a man in a black suit is walking down stairs ALT: a man in a black suit is walking down stairs

Teachers of #Frankenstein - anyone have favorite essays/articles you like to use with undergraduates that engage the novel in terms of artificial intelligence (AI)? Thanks!

A photo of Jane Goodall, in her later days with a quote from her: "The greatest danger to our future is our apathy. Each one of us must take responsibility for our own lives, and above all, show respect and love for living things around us, especially each other."

RIP Jane Goodall, who has died at 91.

She was a gentle disrupter who reshaped how we understand our place in nature. Her research with chimpanzees revolutionized science, and her boundless optimism touched the world.

buff.ly/5Hwx3Z7 🌎🩺

If you've done in-person research at any of the following presidential libraries in the last 8 months, can you please follow me/contact me—soon—for a story I'm working on (can be off the record)?

Hoover
FDR
Truman
Eisenhower
JFK
LBJ
Ford
Carter

And either way, can you please share this request? 🙏

We’re Being Ruled Over by the World’s Biggest Losers They effectively control our fates, but deep down, they know they’re sniveling, pathetic, and inadequate, and it eats them up.

We're living in a nation ruled by a confederacy of losers. My latest for @thenation.com:

www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Spending my Sunday doing the literary equivalent of doom-scrolling.

So, closing 1% of total US/ Canada stores, but nearly 10% of union stores. Some mathematicians would consider this evidence of union busting.

Guess which one Gov. Braun and the Republican supermajority are considering?

indianacapitalchronicle.com/2025/09/03/b...

opening a Spirit Halloween where my patience used to be

This is a hell of a letter. “The intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines…will bring us to a pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many if not all will suffer….Eugenics plays prominently in the rhetoric being generated…”

See photos by Palestinian photojournalist Mariam Dagga, killed on the job An Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in Gaza killed five journalists, among them an AP freelancer. She died in the hospital she had long documented.

Mariam Abu Dagga, a Palestinian journalist whose photos captured the destruction in Gaza, died in an Israeli strike on Gaza's Nasser Hospital, the one she regularly documented.

Here are some of the scenes Dagga captured during the war:

Woody Guthrie used songs to sort out his feelings and ideas, and to build connection A new collection of Guthrie's music and lyrics opens a window into the artist's storytelling.

"He [Guthrie] set out to tell stories he thought were important, to resist oppression and greed, to use songs as a way to sort out his feelings and ideas, and to build connection."

A graphic reading “SOMEONE LEFT A LABUBU ON KARL MARX’S GRAVE”

(Ice T on SVU voice)

I’m a Teenager In Gaza. And I Am Starving. What hits you first is the exhaustion carved into every face. The sickly pallor. The terrifying weight loss ravaging everyone—yes, including me.

Over the past 16 months, @thenation.com has published regular dispatches from Lujayn, a teenager in the Gaza Strip. Lujayn has endured huge loss and trauma. Now she, along with the rest of Gaza, is starving. But she is still writing.

This is her latest. www.thenation.com/article/worl...