Happy National Library Week! This week you should:
1) Donate $ to your local Friends of the Library
2) Write to your public library director to thank them for standing up for diversity or to condemn them for caving to fascists
3) Plan a similar public comment for the next library board mtg
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., attends a news conference in the U.S. Capitol. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
AOC: “This is a threat of genocide & merits removal from office. The President’s mental faculties are collapsing & cannot be trusted.
To every individual in the President’s chain of command: You have a duty to refuse illegal orders. That includes carrying out this threat”
David Lynch "FIX YOUR HEARTS OR DIE!"
Happy Trans Day of Visibility ❤️🏳️⚧️❤️
🫶🏳️⚧️🫶
if you are a bigot or support bigotry or act in a movie built on the profits of hate, people are allowed to not like you 1. because bigotry is bad and 2. because people generally DONT LIKE THINGS THAT HURT THEM. like this is so obvious. it is not 'canceling' it is an exercise in basic human autonomy
This dreadful book banning bill, H.R. 7661, has made it out of committee and into the House. It's time to call your reps.
Votes recorded on hr 7661 in House Committee for Education and Workforce Development’s markup.
HR 7551, the National book ban bill, has passed the markup and is being recommended to the House with amendment. Here’s who voted how.
This isn’t over. CALL YOUR HOUSE REPS NOW.
A BILL TO SUPPORT
"Senator Jack Reed (RI) and Representative Adelita Grijalva (AZ-07) have introduced the Right to Read Act (H.R.6440 / S.3365), landmark legislation that invests in school libraries, strengthens literacy, and defends students' freedom to read."
(from @everylibrary.bsky.social )
About: The Trans Rights Readathon is an annual call to action to readers and book lovers in support of Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV) on March 31st. How to participate: read and uplift books written by and/or featuring trans, nonbinary, 2Spirit, and gender-nonconforming authors and characters. Donate and fundraise for trans aid organizations in your community.
#TransRightsReadathon begins soon. It's a decentralized event, which means you don't have to sign up or do anything in particular, you just have to love trans people and trans books. Here's what I'm doing this year 🧵
@trreadathon.bsky.social
Following the lies and hatred targeting trans folks during the State of the Union Address, numerous republican House representatives introduced a bill that would create A NATIONWIDE BOOK BAN.
Here's what it is and what to do: bookriot.com/hr7661-book-...
Numerous accusations from critical media outlets claimed the clinic was a “transing factory” that ignored “holistic” approaches to care and was recklessly prescribing puberty suppressant hormones, known as puberty blockers, to children. One article from The Times, published in 2022, claimed that at least 1,000 families were planning mass legal action against the Tavistock gender clinic for rushing youngsters into taking puberty blockers. However, a freedom of information (FOI) request to the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, shared by Yorkshire Bylines, revealed that, between 2012 and 2022, only eight complaints over healthcare provisions had been lodged.
This entire 'debate' is so maddening. We have been promised that a groundswell of rushed, dissatisfied detransitioners was about to emerge for nearly a decade.
Not only have they never materialized, but academic research continues to show small numbers, long assessments and miniscule regret rates.
Gradient yellow to pink background. An illustration of an arm holding a megaphone with the Trans flag colors waving out of it. The text says, "TAKE ACTION. All major medical associations agree: Gender-affirming care is essential healthcare that saves lives."
Gradient yellow to pink background. An illustration of a closed fist in the air, the Trans flag colors wrapped around the wrist and extending, waving out of it. The text says, "The US department of health and human services is trying to block hospitals from providing this care to trans and gender-diverse youth. SIGN OUR PETITION to speak up against this attack on trans people."
Take Action! From now til Feb 17 5pm ET!
Gender-affirming care is essential, life-saving healthcare. The federal gov't is trying to block hospitals from providing this care to trans youth. Sign now to oppose these attacks.
mailchi.mp/translifeline/tlforgenderaffirmingcare
1. It was not an accident.
2. It was not a staffer.
3. While the president may have dementia his racism is not due to dementia.
4. He isn’t sorry. He means every racist thought he shares.
5. His base agrees with him.
6. He will do it again.
7. No one in power will hold him accountable.
Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day — and with masked troops in our streets, law-abiding neighbors being disappeared, a president othering and dehumanizing entire communities in our country, and big mysterious prisons awaiting his scapegoats, history is speaking to all of us.
STATEMENT FROM MATT MOBERG, CHAPLAIN OF THE MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES IF YOU'RE A CHURCH POSTING PRAYERS FOR PEACE AND UNITY TODAY WHILE MY CITY BLEEDS IN THE STREET. MISS ME WITH THAT SOFTNESS YOU ONLY WEAR WHEN IT COSTS YOU NOTHING. DON'T DRESS AVOIDANCE UP AS HOLINESS. DON'T CALL SILENCE "PEACEMAKING." DON'T LIGHT A CANDLE AND THINK IT SUBSTITUTES FOR SHOWING UP. TONIGHT AN ICE AGENT TOOK A PHOTO OF ME NEXT TO MY CAR, LOOKED ME IN THE EYE AND TOLD ME, "WE'LL BE SEEING YOU SOON." NOT METAPHOR. NOT HYPERBOLE. A THREAT DRESSED UP IN A BADGE AND A PAYCHECK. PEACE ISN'T WHAT YOU ASK FOR WHEN THE BOOT IS ALREADY ON SOMEONE'S NECK. PEACE IS WHAT THE POWERFUL ASK FOR WHEN THEY DON'T WANT TO BE INTERRUPTED. UNITY ISN'T NEUTRAL. UNITY THAT REFUSES TO NAME VIOLENCE IS JUST LOYALTY TO THE ONES HOLDING THE WEAPONS. STOP USING SCRIPTURE LIKE CHLOROFORM. STOP CALLING YOUR FEAR "WISDOM." STOP PRETENDING JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED BECAUSE HE PREACHED GOOD VIBES AND PERSONAL GROWTH. YOU DON'T GET TO QUOTE SCRIPTURE LIKE A LULLABY, WHILE INJUSTICE STAYS WIDE AWAKE. YOU DON'T GET TO ASK GOD TO "HEAL THE LAND" IF YOU WON'T EVEN LOOK AT THE WOUND. THERE IS A KIND OF PEACE THAT ONLY EXISTS BECAUSE IT REFUSES TO TELL THE TRUTH. THAT PEACE IS A LIE. AND LIES DON'T GROW ANYTHING WORTH SAVING. THE SCRIPTURES YOU LOVE WEREN'T WRITTEN TO KEEP THINGS CALM. THEY WERE WRITTEN TO SET THINGS RIGHT. AND SOMETIMES THE MOST FAITHFUL THING YOU CAN DO IS STOP PRAYING AROUND THE PAIN AND START STANDING INSIDE IT. IF THAT MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE-GOOD. GROWTH ALWAYS IS.
w/ alt-txt
DreamHaven Books owner Greg Ketter emerging from a cloud of tear gas that ICE agents fired into the streets of Minneapolis.
Remember the other day when I was saluting my friend Greg Ketter, owner of Minneapolis’ DreamHaven Books? This is him the following day. Greg will never say this, so I will — now is a great time to buy books from DreamHaven. Support Americans who stand up vs. 🧊. dreamhavenbooks.com
You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.
We got you. ✊
Call scripts are updated to demand investigations, block funding for ICE, and impeach, like, everyone. Have at it. 🔥☎️🔥
Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti “We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.
"Please get the truth out about our son."
"They say they're coming to save us from some evil? They're talking about our neighbors who take care of us ... Alex was murdered while he was helping. Mr Rogers said look for the helpers, & right now the helpers have a target on our forehead ... Mr Rogers would be here right now too, so I'm here."
All of this is fucking senseless. Minnesota did not have an immigration problem. Trump sent his Nazi thugs here because he's racist against Somali people and to own libs like Tim Walz. Now two Minnesotans are dead and Minneapolis is on the verge of going up in flames. None. Of. This. Was. Necessary.
The official policy of the government of the United States of America is that they will murder anyone they want, that they will tell any lie necessary to justify that murder, and that no one who resists them has any rights they are bound to respect.
/1
Alex Pretti was a colleague at the VA. We hired him to recruit for our trial. He became an ICU nurse- I lover working with him. He was a good kind person who lived to help and these fuckers executed him.
White. Hot. Rage.
This is such an important point. This family tried to follow the rules.
The distinction is going to get more important when they start mass deporting the people whose TPS status Trump revoked. They’ll call them “illegal” too, even though they were here legally until Trump yanked the rug.
photo of march, signs for renee good and against ICe, crowded street.
this photo. minneapolis. 💜
📷️ Alex Kormann/Star Tribune
nine years old
New — I wrote about ChongLy Scott Thao, the elderly Hmong American wrongly arrested and forced out of his home by ICE in his underwear during the punishing Minnesota winter, what witnesses saw, and DHS's racist claim that he fit the description of another Asian man they were looking for.
My story:
I went to Minneapolis last week. What I saw was horrifying and inspiring in equal measure. Gift link to my latest column: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...
Any one of these daily atrocities should result in a full congressional investigation and a disbanding of the agency. The fact that it’s all just shrugged off by those with the power to stop it is a national disgrace.
Incredibly emotional to hear my poem has been turned into a song of resistance and is being sung in Minneapolis right now. Please do not give up.
