Alison Bell
@abellvt.bsky.social
Lawyer, mother, Vermonter, committed to social justice, mutual aid, and maple syrup. #weprotectus she/her
Reposted by Alison Bell
I usually spend a lot of this month uplifting this effort but have had our toy drive to uplift this year so I haven't been able to share this as much.
We're about 75 toys & teen gifts to our goal for parents at Cook County Jail. Thank you! Info & ways to donate:
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
December 10, 2025 at 12:21 AM
I usually spend a lot of this month uplifting this effort but have had our toy drive to uplift this year so I haven't been able to share this as much.
Reposted by Alison Bell
Understandably, it's been slow going for this project this year. They need at least 75 more toys for parents at Cook County Jail to give to their kids: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
December 10, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Understandably, it's been slow going for this project this year. They need at least 75 more toys for parents at Cook County Jail to give to their kids: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Reposted by Alison Bell
We have to listen to bigoted handwringing about how we have to abandon trans people and marginalized communities and immigrants while the clearest election winning message is right there.
"Do the rich have too much political power?"
Yes: 80%
No: 8%
YouGov / Dec 8, 2025
Yes: 80%
No: 8%
YouGov / Dec 8, 2025
December 9, 2025 at 10:26 PM
We have to listen to bigoted handwringing about how we have to abandon trans people and marginalized communities and immigrants while the clearest election winning message is right there.
Reposted by Alison Bell
ICE raided a James Beard award winning restaurant & because the chef/owner was prepared, left emptyhanded:
December 5, 2025 at 3:24 PM
ICE raided a James Beard award winning restaurant & because the chef/owner was prepared, left emptyhanded:
Reposted by Alison Bell
As far as I'm aware not one reporter has asked if the president is receiving regular IV treatment.
Trump last night had the complexion of a Thanksgiving turkey that was left in the oven too long and bandages were again visible on the back of his right hand
(photos via Getty and by Aaron Schwartz and Paul Morigi)
(photos via Getty and by Aaron Schwartz and Paul Morigi)
December 7, 2025 at 10:51 PM
As far as I'm aware not one reporter has asked if the president is receiving regular IV treatment.
Reposted by Alison Bell
🇺🇸 trifectas get shot at doing something
Obama chose policy (ACA). It didn’t fix the authoritarian problem
Biden chose policy (ARP/IRA). It didn’t fix the authoritarian problem
The platform must be institutional reform next time. Right from the start, as @dhnexon.bsky.social said
Obama chose policy (ACA). It didn’t fix the authoritarian problem
Biden chose policy (ARP/IRA). It didn’t fix the authoritarian problem
The platform must be
If we want to actually be a representative democracy, then the platform needs to be institutional reform. All the Popularism and all the policies follow from that, not the other way around.
- DC/PR/USVI statehood
- Enlarging the House
- MMDs
- New VRA
- Totally revamping SCOTUS: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Automatic universal voter registration
- Rewriting the "national emergency" laws: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Subordinating the Senate: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Etc.
- Enlarging the House
- MMDs
- New VRA
- Totally revamping SCOTUS: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Automatic universal voter registration
- Rewriting
- Subordinating the Senate: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Etc.
December 7, 2025 at 4:16 PM
🇺🇸 trifectas get shot at doing something
Obama chose policy (ACA). It didn’t fix the authoritarian problem
Biden chose policy (ARP/IRA). It didn’t fix the authoritarian problem
The platform must be institutional reform next time. Right from the start, as @dhnexon.bsky.social said
Obama chose policy (ACA). It didn’t fix the authoritarian problem
Biden chose policy (ARP/IRA). It didn’t fix the authoritarian problem
The platform must be
Reposted by Alison Bell
👇🎯
- DC/PR/USVI statehood
- Enlarging the House
- MMDs
- New VRA
- Totally revamping SCOTUS: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Automatic universal voter registration
- Rewriting the "national emergency" laws: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Subordinating the Senate: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Etc.
- Enlarging the House
- MMDs
- New VRA
- Totally revamping SCOTUS: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Automatic universal voter registration
- Rewriting
- Subordinating the Senate: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Etc.
👇🎯💯
Again, the needs to be & all the committees & commissions that want to Do A Popularism & focus on Kitchen Table Issues are engaged in a category mistake about What Democrats Must Do the next time they ever have power.
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Again, the
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
December 7, 2025 at 4:16 PM
👇🎯
Reposted by Alison Bell
This could probably be done with simple legislation. Article 3 says almost nothing about how the Supreme Court operates. It mentions that a chief justice will exist, but that’s about it. There are essentially no constitutional rules about how they hear or decide cases.
I'm going to keep saying this in my effort to speak it into reality: Supreme Court should have at least 100 Justices with rotating panels (and maybe an en banc option). No single Justice should have so much power and they shouldn't be names everyone knows.
A court with a normal-ish conservative majority would have been tolerable. I'm not eager for court packing, impeaching justices, and other such options. But this court sticking around post-Trump is untenable. They've already torched their own legitimacy, the only question is what do we do about it.
December 5, 2025 at 11:00 PM
This could probably be done with simple legislation. Article 3 says almost nothing about how the Supreme Court operates. It mentions that a chief justice will exist, but that’s about it. There are essentially no constitutional rules about how they hear or decide cases.
Reposted by Alison Bell
My friend works on a Great Lakes freighter and was born just hours after the Edmund Fitzgerald went down. He wrote something about it on his site (where he often writes about life on the big freshwater lakers).
The Mighty Fitz & Me -
“The lake [Superior] is huge and cold and blue and treacherous. It can sink freighters, drown people. In a wind the waves roll in with the crash of oceans.” Margaret Atwood, Cat’s Eye Approximately...
www.nicktabone.com
December 5, 2025 at 1:25 AM
My friend works on a Great Lakes freighter and was born just hours after the Edmund Fitzgerald went down. He wrote something about it on his site (where he often writes about life on the big freshwater lakers).
Reposted by Alison Bell
It's good—very good, and very important—that district courts keep issuing these 100-page rulings upholding the law. It must be incredibly dispiriting to see them overturned in a two-page, lawless, unsigned order, but please, keep them coming. They expose SCOTUS' corruption like nothing else.
December 5, 2025 at 12:41 AM
It's good—very good, and very important—that district courts keep issuing these 100-page rulings upholding the law. It must be incredibly dispiriting to see them overturned in a two-page, lawless, unsigned order, but please, keep them coming. They expose SCOTUS' corruption like nothing else.
Reposted by Alison Bell
It is genuinely wild that a December special election reached midterm general election turnout.
Identical turnout to 2022, but a completely different universe
13% to the left of 2022/2024 despite midterm-level turnout
13% to the left of 2022/2024 despite midterm-level turnout
December 3, 2025 at 3:07 AM
It is genuinely wild that a December special election reached midterm general election turnout.
Reposted by Alison Bell
Big thanks to a reader from California who donated $20.
$1,470 raised tonite.
Only $30 short of $1,500
paydayreport.com/reader-pledg...
$1,470 raised tonite.
Only $30 short of $1,500
paydayreport.com/reader-pledg...
Reader Pledged $500 in Matching Funds for Giving Tuesday
Combined, we could raise $1,000 today - money that is sorely needed to cover our increase in health care costs. We will put the money to great use.
paydayreport.com
December 3, 2025 at 3:05 AM
Big thanks to a reader from California who donated $20.
$1,470 raised tonite.
Only $30 short of $1,500
paydayreport.com/reader-pledg...
$1,470 raised tonite.
Only $30 short of $1,500
paydayreport.com/reader-pledg...
Reposted by Alison Bell
Hegseth is a war criminal and I think it doesn’t get the attention it deserves because he’s also stupid and it’s hard to reconcile the gravity of his crimes with his clownish persona www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Hegseth is a war criminal and I think it doesn’t get the attention it deserves because he’s also stupid and it’s hard to reconcile the gravity of his crimes with his clownish persona www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Reposted by Alison Bell
Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."
Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social
Reposted by Alison Bell
Big thanks to a reader who donated $20 from California.
$120 raised tonite. Can we keep the momentum going? m
paydayreport.com/help-a-broke...
$120 raised tonite. Can we keep the momentum going? m
paydayreport.com/help-a-broke...
Help a Broke Labor Reporter Take Off Thanksgiving
I’d love to take some time off for the holidays, but these past few weeks, Payday Report has been in a fundraising drought.
paydayreport.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Big thanks to a reader who donated $20 from California.
$120 raised tonite. Can we keep the momentum going? m
paydayreport.com/help-a-broke...
$120 raised tonite. Can we keep the momentum going? m
paydayreport.com/help-a-broke...
Please follow and support Mike. He does great and necessary work.
Big thanks to reader like this for donating so I can take the holidays off
paydayreport.com/help-a-broke...
paydayreport.com/help-a-broke...
November 26, 2025 at 1:44 AM
Please follow and support Mike. He does great and necessary work.
Reposted by Alison Bell
What an amazing essay from the former chair of Africana Studies at Bowdoin. I'll share a few sections in the reply but seriously, read the whole thing. It's all insightful and beautifully written.
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:11 PM
What an amazing essay from the former chair of Africana Studies at Bowdoin. I'll share a few sections in the reply but seriously, read the whole thing. It's all insightful and beautifully written.
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Reposted by Alison Bell
I keep beating that drum because I figure that a lot of people are going to be going to jail over dumb shit like this in the near future if the assholes get their way.
And I think it's really good if people know that they don't have to vote "guilty" if they think that this wasn't actually a crime.
And I think it's really good if people know that they don't have to vote "guilty" if they think that this wasn't actually a crime.
November 6, 2025 at 7:55 PM
I keep beating that drum because I figure that a lot of people are going to be going to jail over dumb shit like this in the near future if the assholes get their way.
And I think it's really good if people know that they don't have to vote "guilty" if they think that this wasn't actually a crime.
And I think it's really good if people know that they don't have to vote "guilty" if they think that this wasn't actually a crime.
Reposted by Alison Bell
ah, perhaps instead of pumping millions into endless factional infighting Dem donors could invest in making local Dem organizations genuine civic spaces that can reach people during and between elections
November 5, 2025 at 12:49 PM
ah, perhaps instead of pumping millions into endless factional infighting Dem donors could invest in making local Dem organizations genuine civic spaces that can reach people during and between elections
Reposted by Alison Bell
Yes, an important test for the midterms.
If ICE agents begins harassing voters on the way to vote on Tuesday, we need local prosecutors to charge the ICE officers with state law crimes. We need to send a message for 2026 that they will be swiftly arrested.
November 2, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Yes, an important test for the midterms.
Reposted by Alison Bell
Once again, the Actual Thing the Actual Democrats Must Actually Do is to make institutional reform the platform & to explain to voters why & how Doing A Popularism is the <consequence> of that, not a prerequisite.
- DC/PR/USVI statehood
- Enlarging the House
- MMDs
- New VRA
- Totally revamping SCOTUS: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Automatic universal voter registration
- Rewriting the "national emergency" laws: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Subordinating the Senate: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Etc.
- Enlarging the House
- MMDs
- New VRA
- Totally revamping SCOTUS: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Automatic universal voter registration
- Rewriting
- Subordinating the Senate: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Etc.
👇🎯💯
Again, the needs to be & all the committees & commissions that want to Do A Popularism & focus on Kitchen Table Issues are engaged in a category mistake about What Democrats Must Do the next time they ever have power.
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Again, the
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
November 1, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Once again, the Actual Thing the Actual Democrats Must Actually Do is to make institutional reform the platform & to explain to voters why & how Doing A Popularism is the <consequence> of that, not a prerequisite.
The confluence of pets in adorable costumes and videos of ICE/CBP attacking people is messing me up.
October 31, 2025 at 11:57 PM
The confluence of pets in adorable costumes and videos of ICE/CBP attacking people is messing me up.
Reposted by Alison Bell
The energy we need is this suburban dad standing out in the street -- barefoot with Blackhawks pajama pants on -- screaming at the masked goons to get the fuck out of their neighborhood.
October 25, 2025 at 5:51 PM
The energy we need is this suburban dad standing out in the street -- barefoot with Blackhawks pajama pants on -- screaming at the masked goons to get the fuck out of their neighborhood.
Reposted by Alison Bell
October 24, 2025 at 8:31 PM