a brown and white dog holding a sign that says vote yes Alt: a brown and white dog holding a sign that says vote yes

LET'S GO VIRGINIA!

The whole nation is with you today!

#VoteYesVirginia

To be clear: this is not to say social media and podcasts aren’t important. They are.

But doing that by itself won’t accomplish anything if we don’t also build community and give folks a reason to trust us.

Winning Gen Z Isn't About Likes Soccer tournaments, scavenger hunts, and what a mayoral race is actually teaching us about 2026.

Filming another TikTok or going onto another podcast isn’t gonna win us Gen Z.

What will is giving people a place to go and a reason to come back, and letting the politics follow from the belonging, not the other way around.

open.substack.com/pub/santiago...

Steve Hilton is still leading the pack.

Becerra also has a +33 net favorability with non-Republican voters, best among the top Democrats.

Undecided? Down to 10%.

Holy shit, it wasn’t your imagination.

Look at this poll.

New Gudelunas Strategies numbers show Xavier Becerra surging, the same momentum we’ve been seeing online.

Not a top-tier poll, but still, the direction is clear: Becerra is rising fast after Swalwell dropped out.

Keep the polls coming!

Betty Yee is stepping aside after a tough run, citing fundraising challenges. Respect to her for getting in the fight.

The field is still crowded, but momentum is starting to shift, and the pressure to consolidate is getting real.

ICYMI- a lot happened with the California governor race today and there has been a major shift.

New polling shows Republicans still leading, with Hilton out front, but on the Democratic side, Becerra is making a real move and now tied with Steyer at 13%, the biggest jump we’ve seen.
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Accountability

There is none for the Trump cabinet-so guys like Kash Patel are running around like frat boys gone wild

On America’s dime

At the expense of America’s safety

Virginia can help restore accountability

Tomorrow

By voting to YES on the redistricting amendment

#VoteYesVirginia

Well it’s now or never Virginia!! You’ve got this!! Vote yes to help our entire country!

More details. How many from this regime are corrupt? Probably easier to say how many aren’t 😳🤬🤬🤬

So another one gone under an investigation of misconduct.

Congratulations John!5️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣🆙

Join me in congratulating @chauncey8581.bsky.social on reaching 50K followers!

A great milestone John and much deserved. 🙌🙌🙌

Congratulations my friend!🎉🎊🍾🥂🥳

A daily reminder to support Xavier Becerra for CA Governor! @xavierbecerra.bsky.social @becerraforca.bsky.social

Thank you Priegotime of IG for this great reminder of the upcoming CA Governor race & just how great Xavier Becerra is! Donate to his campaign if you can. I did all the way from FL.

Roger Stone warns Republican makes Eric Swalwell "look like Mother Theresa" The GOP strategist suggested a “bombshell” report about Representative Cory Mills, a Florida Republican, was forthcoming.

Another case of “looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, must be a duck”, sexual abuse charges seem to be pending. Mills is facing renewed scrutiny over sexual misconduct accusations as similar scandals led Swalwell and Representative Tony Gonzales, to resign. He’s a FL rep and running AGAIN!

Trump started an illegal war where 13 service members and many Iranian schoolgirls died

Gas and grocery prices are through the roof

We can’t afford to pay rent or buy health insurance

And ICE is killing people in the streets

Changes at the federal level are long overdue

Vote YES, Virginia

We have an OK Corral style shootout in the middle of urban America and it's just another day that ends with y thanks to the Republicans and their gun policy.

The guy who threatened to annihilate an entire civilization is worried about America not being a moral nation? Sorry, but that ship sailed when 77 million American morons made a convicted felon and rapist the POTUS.

Every YES vote tomorrow is a stand for free and fair elections. The redistricting amendment gives Virginians the temporary fix we need to level the playing field before it’s too late. Neighbors, family, friends — get to the polls on April 21!

#VoteYesVirginia

Side note 2: Abel Meeropol used the pen name Lewis Allan in memory of his two stillborn children. In addition to “Strange Fruit,” he wrote “The House I Live In,” a patriotic song recorded by Frank Sinatra that advocated for religious and racial tolerance. I will write a thread on him in the future.

Billie Holiday - "Strange Fruit" Live 1959 [Reelin' In The Years Archives] YouTube video by ReelinInTheYears66

Side note:
Here is the 1959 footage of Holiday singing “Strange Fruit.” The raw emotion is palpable.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DGY...

Billie Holiday at a recording session in 1939. The film “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” chronicles the government’s efforts to suppress the song “Strange Fruit.” She never stopped performing it despite the relentless harassment. Photo Credit: Charles Peterson / Hulton Archive / Getty Images.

“Strange Fruit” was one of the first musical assaults on racism. It served as a declaration of war on injustice and a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement. The recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978 and selected for preservation in the Library of Congress in 2002. /end

Billie Holiday (center) with her pianist, Bobby Tucker, and her road manager, James Asendio on May 20, 1947. She had been arrested at the U.S. Commissioner's office in Philadelphia for heroin possession. This incident was part of a long struggle with substance abuse and legal harassment she faced throughout her life. She was handcuffed to her hospital bed while dying of cirrhosis of the liver at Metropolitan Hospital in New York City in 1959.

Holiday faced severe threats, surveillance and government harassment for singing “Strange Fruit.” Federal Bureau of Narcotics commissioner Harry Anslinger used her known addition to initiate a campaign of persecution that involved stalking and multiple arrests and persisted until her death. /7

Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit."

Holiday re-recorded the track for her album Lady Sings the Blues. Haunting live footage exists from 1959, the year of her death. Her performances were intentionally harrowing. She would often sing it in darkness, with one spotlight on her, and no encore, leaving audiences shocked into silence. /6

Billie Holiday's recording of "Strange Fruit" on the Commodore Records label.

Holiday’s primary label, Columbia, refused to record the song due to its controversial nature, but allowed her a one-session release on the independent Commodore label. A powerful live version was captured at Philharmonic Hall in Los Angeles during a “Jazz at the Philharmonic” set. /5

"Strange Fruit" (1960) by Valerie Maynard.

The “strange and bitter crop” hanging from “poplar trees” refers to the bodies of lynched Black people, shocking the audience with descriptions of “bulging eyes” and “twisted mouth.” The song highlights “blood on the leaves and blood at the root,” emphasizing the deep-seated nature of racism. /4

Cover of a video about "Strange Fruit." Many images illustrating the song show lynching more explicitly.

Originally titled “Bitter Fruit,” the poem confronts Southern racial violence and lynchings, which were common during that era. It juxtaposes the beauty of nature with the brutality inflicted on African Americans, contrasting the “scent of magnolias” with the horrific “smell of burning flesh.” /3

Abel Meeropol was the son of Jewish immigrants who fled Russian pogroms. He taught high school English in the Bronx neighborhood where he was born, and wrote "Strange Fruit" as an expression of his strong anti-racist views.

The song was originally a poem written in 1937 by Jewish teacher Abel Meeropol under the pseudonym Lewis Allan. Meeropol, who was a high school teacher from the Bronx, was deeply disturbed by a 1930 photograph showing the lynching of two Black men, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, in Marion, Ind. /2