The Firestorm Collective | Patreon creating social movement space and grassroots programming

🌈 Join our Sustainers Program, starting at $10/mo! Members receive discounts on books and can access free shipping, a monthly book subscription, and other great perks. 8/9

A collective photo taken at Firestorm Books. Our team, including five humans and two dogs, is sitting on the sidewalk in front of the building looking relaxed. The sky is bright but cloudy and flags on the building hang without any indication of wind. The building is painted forest green and various posters and signs are visible in the windows, which reflect the sky. The largest reads "Immigrants Welcome."

Like a lot of small businesses in our region, Firestorm has been in financial distress for the last year. Hurricane Helene was our tipping point, but local cost of living increases, inflation, and higher occupancy costs are huge contributors. 1/9

sword-nimi

This.

No Kings Doomtree · Album · 2011 · 12 songs

open.spotify.com/album/0U49dl...

The Trump administration cut federal funding for a research project at Cornell University aimed at developing a heart pump designed for babies and children with congenital heart defects bringing the effort to a halt.

The biggest divide is not between “right” and “left."

It’s between democracy and oligarchy.

The billionaires who control our economy and democracy seek to divide us.

They want us to turn on each other so we don't look up and see that they have all the wealth and power.

Infest The Rats' Nest King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard · Album · 2019 · 9 songs

There is no planet b, track 1. #earthday #kglw open.spotify.com/album/612LP8...

🚨House Republicans just passed a bill that would disenfranchise 70 million married American women.

Under the SAVE Act, women who took their spouse’s last name and don't have an updated passport or birth certificate would be turned away at the polls.

Members of Congress should never be allowed to trade stocks. Period.

Your April Fools' Day reminder that trickle-down economics is the greatest trick of all. It's nothing more than a cruel hoax designed to enrich corporations and the super-rich at your expense. Don't fall for it.

Instead of stealing Greenland from Denmark, let’s steal some of their policies.

In Denmark:

- Health care and college are free.  

- The starting wage is $22/hr.

- Paid parental leave is 1 year.

- Paid vacation is 6 weeks.  

- All workers get pensions.

Objection: Voter Suppression Disguised as Election Integrity Why the New Executive Order on Elections Could Be a Threat to Voting Rights and Privacy

This executive order isn’t about election integrity—it’s about voter suppression. Purging voter rolls, restricting mail-in ballots, and tying voter ID to a biometric database are all dangerous attacks on our democracy.

Please check out my latest here:
open.substack.com/pub/objectio...

No, Elon. 40% of people who call Social Security's 1-800 number are not fraudsters, Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme & nobody who is 150 years old is getting a Social Security check.

Stop the lies. Stop the disinformation.

Get your billionaire hands off Social Security.

Netanyahu's illegal war has killed 50,000 Palestinians. Now, Trump wants to force out 2 million more to build a billionaire's playground in Gaza.

That is ethnic cleansing — and it’s a war crime.

Next week, I will force votes to block $8.8 billion in new arms sales to Israel.

Welcome to all our new followers! 💚

Medicare for All isn't radical.

What's radical is that we are the only major country not to guarantee health care as a human right. Every other major country figured out years ago how to provide health care to all at a much lower cost.

Please don't tell me we can't do the same.

This isn’t legal, Elon.

Musk steps up calls to impeach judges, offering $100 to voters who join in. America PAC is paying registered Wisconsin voters to sign its petition against “activist judges.” Talk about paid protesters. Now, judges are receiving violent threats online.

Right now, we have an authoritarian president.

He called CNN "illegal." He is trying to encroach on the spending powers of Congress. He is going after the courts.

Trump does not respect our Constitution. He just wants more and more power for himself.

Over 100,000 seats are up for grabs in 2025 — governors, mayors, city councils, state representatives, judges, school boards, and more.

Taking back our power starts now.

Some landlords are using A.I. to illegally coordinate rent hikes.

As NC’s new AG, here’s what we’re doing about it:

🚨 Everyone needs to call their Dem Senator right now. They are starting to cave.

Tell them:
1. Vote NO on Cloture
AND
2. Vote NO on the Republican spending bill.

Don’t let them pivot to reconciliation. GOP doesn’t need Dem votes on that and they know it.

TODAY is the showdown.
🤳🏽: (202) 224-3121

As Trump tries to dismantle the Department of Education, remember that his plan to cut the corporate tax rate to 15% would give the 100 largest corporations a tax cut larger than the entire department's K-12 budget.

Really think about how twisted this all is.

We just want to remind you: You’re not alone. We’re all in this together, and we’ll get through it together. We’ve seen so many people sharing their feelings of anxiety and stress—please take a moment for yourself. Your well-being matters. Sending you hugs—you are amazing, and we love you all! 💚

Remember this: Tyranny cannot prevail over people who refuse to succumb to it.

Elon Musk called Social Security a "ponzi scheme." This is absolute rubbish. Social Security has paid every benefit owed to every eligible American for 85 years. Perhaps the bigger "ponzi scheme" is the $38 billion spent by taxpayers to prop up his corporations?

The Trump-Vance-Musk regime is not only undermining democracy in the US.

It is laying the foundation for undermining democracies around the world.

The emerging battle will be global democracy vs. a global oligarchy.

The US is emerging on the side of global oligarchy.

Similarly, in Old English, meat just meant food in general. Historical linguistics is really intriguing. #foodforthought literally, lol.

Also, in Proto-Indo-European, the root meaning cheese just meant to ferment or to become sour. So I don’t think that’s the end of the story, since etymology shows words changing over time.