Melissa Kotačka

Take all the time you need with this because you’ve got 3½ more years to ponder:

If you sat out the 2024 election, you voted against your own interests too— by way of abstention.

New to Bluesky? Want to find all the #AltGov accounts in one neat package? Here we are!

go.bsky.app/FLUwv5d

FSU active shooting cancels campus event that honored Tallahassee hot yoga shooting victim 4:10 p.m. – An event at Florida State University designed to promote safety on campus and among FSU students was canceled − due to an active shooting at FSU on the day of.

Shooting memorial cancelled because of a shooting is so very American.

The State Department is changing its mind about what it calls human rights The agency's annual human rights reports are being purged of references to prison conditions, political corruption and other abuses.

This report is gut-wrenching @npr.org

www.npr.org/2025/04/18/n...

Closeup of Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) quoting Heather Gay from the Season 4 Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, saying "Receipts. Proof. Timeliness. Screenshots." during a congressional hearing

"When you let a clown into the castle, the clown doesn't become king. The castle becomes a circus."

@heathergay.bsky.social of #RHOSLC is a sage of our time & listening to #GoodTimeGirl is as fantastic as #BadMormon ❄️

See also: explaining how endowments work bc the "X university has a $? endowment" replies are *rampant* 🫠🥲

sreenshot from the new york times reporting that Stanford University’s provost is talking about how the loss of funding from national institutes of health funding will cost the university $160 million. that’s not the way to get this changed — the people think “stanford is rich; no big deal.” leaders need to talk about what this will cost the public

for pity’s sake, I am BEGGING university leaders to stop framing this issue in terms of what this will cost the university. people dont care!

EXPLAIN WHAT THIS WILL COST THE PUBLIC: closed hospitals and clinics, skipped treatments, loss of access to experimental drugs, unemployment, recession

I can't wait to explain Kendrick's halftime show to all the liberal boomers at my gym this week
🖤❤️🤍💙

Somebody said "but he didn't do anything with those Black bodies but put them in red, white and blue" and I'm just like...

Like I don't wanna call nobody simple but if you don't understand the power of that image during NFL halftime at ANY moment but especially this moment?

The "But her emails!" crowd is so quiet

White man in suit infront of board of papers connected by red thread. Charlie from its always sunny in philadelphia infront of board going insane.

Red, White and Blue. The American Flag in one perspective.

But, in another, Bloods, Crips and the Klan.

And in another -- White is purity, religious, sacred-- very Daughters of the Dust.

It all depends on who holds the power and their intent.

In this essay, I will analyze Kendrick Lamar's--

a woman is sitting on a couch eating popcorn from a bag . Alt: A white blonde woman wearing a pink oversized sweater is sitting on a couch eating popcorn from a bag. Something offscreen catches her attention & she looks excitedly around to hear more.

Please keep going

An American flag built on the backs of Black people...

Black music protesting white political terror in registers they never hear; reminiscent of ancestral spirituals embedded with instructions for runaways

All this in New Orleans... What a moment

Kendrick brought America together the way that "Country Roads" ad was supposed to.

Kendrick’s American flag motif at THIS MOMENT is subversive. Yes, yes, yes.

Trump Guts Key Aviation Safety Committee, Fires Heads Of TSA, Coast Guard The committee will technically continue to exist, but it won't have any members to carry out the work of examining safety issues at airlines and airports.

only appropriate political response here is to demand the white house explain how its actions aren’t responsible www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...

The cruelty is the point
The cruelty is the point
The cruelty is the point
The cruelty is the point
The cruelty is the point
The cruelty is the point
The cruelty is the point
The cruelty is the point
The cruelty is the point
The cruelty is the point
The cruelty is the point
The cruelty is the point

from that NYT article about trumpies: We expect that Trump will usher in a new golden era for America. That’s why we’re dressed the way we are. This is the beginning of the Roaring Twenties 2.0. You’re going to see so much economic prosperity, the cost of energy going down, while American hegemony increases dramatically. It’s very hopeful right now — way more than his first term. There’s been a lot of lessons learned.

tfw you don't know how the roaring 20s ended

Dear civil servant A guide to the new executive actions on the federal workforce and what you can do now

And here is some advice for civil servants from @protectdemocracy.org

open.substack.com/pub/protectd...

Preparing mass layoffs of civil servants in order to replace them with loyalists is another move from the authoritarian playbook

www.politico.com/news/2025/01...

It would be pretty cool if society could do something about making teaching seem like a cool, rewarding, respected profession instead of treating them like resources to be used up and thrown away.

Get your samovar ready for the show trials, bc they're coming 🫖

Again, I am begging folks to look at 1930s Russia, bc the firing of the Inspectors General is straight outta Stalinism

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_P...

a cartoon fox is standing on top of a tree trunk Alt: Scene from Wild Robot in which Fin the red fox stands on top of a tree trunk and crouches down in fear

Peacock: Come for the Real Housewives escapism; stay for the existential dread regarding climate change & environmental degradation!

a cartoon duck is walking through a field of grass and flowers . Alt: Scene from Wild Robot where Baby Brightbill stands a field of grass and flowers, saying "Little sad but otherwise okay" as the hand of ROZ enters the scene in the last moments of the clip

I didn't know this movie existed until 20 minutes ago because I live under a rock and now it has fully reduced me to a sniffling puddle of feels

a group of animals including a moose and a bear Alt: Scene from Wild Robot in which the forest animals surround and hug ROZ the robot as one of their own

My emotional state is "Weeping over the Wild Robot trailer on the Peacock homescreen while waiting for my instant noodles to soften"

No, Donald Trump cannot rewrite the U.S. Constitution with the flick of his pen.

No, the Fourteenth Amendment is not ambiguous about this. Its plain meaning in written English is clear.

Need a refresher? Here it is:

Why did I start scrolling. Christ.

Photo of Anne Applebaum's book "Gulag"

At some point I have to stop doomscrolling and try to get setting resembling sleep, but I am begging folks to look not just at 1930s Germany but also 1930s Russia

cc @anneapplebaum.bsky.social