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chirpitychirp.bsky.social
Birdbrained
@chirpitychirp.bsky.social
600 followers 670 following 1.4K posts
Love thy neighbor
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Reposted by Birdbrained
maddow.bsky.social
www.charlotteobserver.com/charlottefiv...
Charlotte grocery store offers free delivery to protect immigrant community
While U.S. Border Patrol is in Charlotte detaining people, one grocer wants “to help you receive the items you need from the comfort of your home.”
www.charlotteobserver.com
November 16, 2025 at 5:03 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
rbreich.bsky.social
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob."

—FDR, 1936
November 16, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
ianbassin.bsky.social
In the Obama White House we were so careful to follow the rules, including about use of the seal (which is regulated by statute), that we ran a legal process just to see if we could use the seal for fun on our White House softball team tee shirts!

No joke. The team was called STOTUS.
November 16, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
taonf.bsky.social
Despite industry leaders promising that agentic AI is the future, taking care of virtually all human tasks within the next few years

#CarnegieMellonUniversity researchers just released a paper showing that even the best–performing AI agents fail to complete real-world office tasks 70% of the time
November 16, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
strandjunker.com
Marjorie Taylor Greene was hired, trained, and paid by tech oligarchs & others from the very beginning to be a political troublemaker. With Trump’s downfall looming, Greene is now being strategically groomed to be JD Vance’s vice president.

Mark my words.
November 15, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Birdbrained
schooley.bsky.social
Before anyone gets too carried away here.
Anthony Fauci says Marjorie Taylor Greene drove death threats against him
Ex-leader of US Covid response said congresswoman and Fox News sparked ‘credible death threats’ against him and his family
www.theguardian.com
November 15, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Birdbrained
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
November 16, 2025 at 6:15 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
bgrueskin.bsky.social
Here’s a story for every national news outlet:

In N.C., churchgoers are literally running into the woods as federal agents descend on the property.

“Inside the church, women and children sobbed as they wondered whether their loved ones had been taken.”

www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politic...
6d Listen to this article Congregants of an east Charlotte church scattered into the woods Saturday when masked federal agents arrived and detained one of their members, according to witnesses. About 15 to 20 church members were doing yard work on the property off Albemarle Road while their children played games and their spouses cooked meals. Agents parked just outside a closed gate leading to the church parking lot and ran into the yard, said the pastor, who did not want to identify himself or his church. The agents asked no questions and showed no identification before taking one man away, whose wife and child were inside at the time, the pastor said. They attempted to grab others, too. "Right now, everybody is scared. Everybody," he said. "One of these guys with immigration, he say he was going to arrest one of the other guys in the church. He pushed him." Inside the church, women and children sobbed as they wondered whether their loved ones had been taken. Some yard workers fled into the surrounding woods when officials arrived, including 15-year-old Miguel Vazquez.
November 16, 2025 at 4:38 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
As Bovino and masked DHS officers sweep another Home Depot looking to round up day laborers, a reminder of the meeting in May when Stephen Miller screamed at ICE to stop doing targeted enforcement, start hitting Home Depots and 7/11s and “just go out there and arrest illegal aliens.”
Even with the high-profile arrests of suspects by masked immigration agents and the plane loads of migrants swiftly ferried out of the U.S., President Trump was falling short of the number of daily deportations carried out by the Biden administration in its final year. So in late May, Stephen Miller, a top White House aide and the architect of the president's immigration agenda, addressed a meeting at the headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE. The message was clear: The president, who promised to deport millions of immigrants living in the country illegally, wasn't pleased. The agency had better step it up. Gang members and violent criminals, what Trump called the "worst of the worst," weren't the sole target of deportations. Federal agents needed to "just go out there and arrest illegal aliens," Miller told top ICE officials, who had come from across the U.S., according to people familiar with the meeting. Agents didn't need to develop target lists of immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, a longstanding practice, Miller said. Instead, he directed them to target Home Depot, where day laborers typically gather for hire, or 7-Eleven convenience stores. Miller bet that he and a handful of agents could go out on the streets of Washington, D.C., and arrest 30 people right away. "Who here thinks they can do it?" Miller said, asking for a show of hands.
November 16, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
taniel.bsky.social
I'm seeing people wonder why ICE is going after Charlotte.

ICE has been at war with Charlotte's sheriff ever since he won in 2018.

We'd covered this at Bolts back in the day; this quote is from that sheriff:
boltsmag.org Bolts @boltsmag.org · Nov 28
“When the 8 African American sheriffs took over the largest counties in North Carolina, it became a threat to the good ol’ boy system,” says the sheriff of Charlotte. These new sheriffs broke ties with ICE.

But GOP lawmakers cracked down this week, overbidding the governor’s veto to adopt this law:
North Carolina GOP Is Cracking Down on the Black Sheriffs Who Stood Up to ICE
Boosted by new supermajorities, Republicans are closing in on legislation to mandate more collaboration with ICE and preempt local policies hard-won by immigrants’ rights advocates.
boltsmag.org
November 15, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Reposted by Birdbrained
patdeklotz.bsky.social
Folks, it can make a difference
Rheba Hamilton, 73, said she tried to dissuade her landscaper, who she knew was undocumented, from hanging Christmas decorations at her home this weekend. But he agreed to the job, understanding the risks. “We will keep our fingers crossed,” Ms. Hamilton told him. He arrived at her home just before 9 a.m. on Saturday. Within minutes, Border Patrol agents did, too. “The pit of my stomach fell out,” Ms. Hamilton said. She began to record the agents as they spoke to the landscaper in Spanish. After the agents noticed her phone, they got back in their vehicles and drove away, Ms. Hamilton said. The landscaper then left his ladders and drove home. But soon, Ms. Hamilton said she heard that he went off to another job. He still needed to work.
November 16, 2025 at 5:05 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
ryanmarino.bsky.social
Elizabeth Holmes deserves so much worse. She was only ever convicted of defrauding her investors even though she also defrauded thousands of patients.
Evidence was provided of Holmes's role in faked product demonstrations, falsified validation reports, misleading claims about contracts, and overstated financials. There was audio and video evidence of Holmes making inflated or misleading claims about Theranos. There were forged documents saying Pfizer and Schering-Plough had validated the company's blood-testing technology. Holmes admitted to personally manipulating those documents.
November 16, 2025 at 4:53 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
maddow.bsky.social
“FBI Director Kash Patel granted waivers to Deputy Director Dan Bongino and two other newly hired senior FBI staff members, exempting them from passing polygraph exams normally required to gain access to America’s most sensitive classified information…”

www.propublica.org/article/fbi-...
FBI Director Kash Patel Waived Polygraph Security Screening for Dan Bongino, Two Other Senior Staff
As the FBI’s deputy director, Bongino receives some of the country’s most sensitive secrets, including the President’s Daily Brief. His ascent to that position without passing a standard bureau backgr...
www.propublica.org
November 16, 2025 at 4:58 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
jamellebouie.net
made a similar point on the opinions podcast this week in response to the idea that epstein is a dead end. not only are actual voters interested in this but it divides the gop and puts pressure on the president. it would be political malpractice to treat it as a sideshow
brianbeutler.bsky.social Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 1d
The usual suspects are telling Dems that Epstein won’t win elections, get back to “affordability” and I think my head might explode. www.offmessage.net/p/force-a-re...
Force A Referendum On The Epstein Coverup
It divides Republicans much more than "affordability" or any other economic issue.
www.offmessage.net
November 15, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Birdbrained
mtsw.bsky.social
Voting patterns across the USA now look mostly similar - denser areas vote more Democratic, less dense or rural areas vote more Republican. Whether you are in a red state or blue state is mostly a function of how urban your state is (and some other factors like how white it is)
November 16, 2025 at 4:29 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
patdeklotz.bsky.social
Racist terrorism by the government. This is a US citizen.

www.charlotteobserver.com/article31293...
Willy Aceituno said he’d just left a Charlotte restaurant Saturday morning when federal agents approached him in his pickup, broke a window and stole his keys. “Are you an illegal immigrant?” he said an officer asked in the parking lot outside Pollo Campero, near the intersection of South Boulevard and Archdale Drive.
November 16, 2025 at 4:40 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
chrisgeidner.bsky.social
And, of course, a reminder that four months later, the SCOTUS Republican appointees essentially said, “Cool with us.” www.lawdork.com/p/scotus-tru...
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 8h
As Bovino and masked DHS officers sweep another Home Depot looking to round up day laborers, a reminder of the meeting in May when Stephen Miller screamed at ICE to stop doing targeted enforcement, start hitting Home Depots and 7/11s and “just go out there and arrest illegal aliens.”
November 16, 2025 at 4:25 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
maddow.bsky.social
"A citizens group in Ontario, California is spearheading an effort to make the community aware of incidents involving federal immigration agents.

They're placing signs at the locations that read, 'ICE stole someone here'..."

abc7.com/post/ontario...
Immigrant rights group placing 'ICE stole someone here' signs in Ontario
A citizens group in Ontario is spearheading an effort to make the community aware of incidents involving ICE agents detaining and arresting undocumented immigrants.
abc7.com
November 16, 2025 at 2:38 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
segalmr.bsky.social
If you do one Trump-assisting felony the next one’s free?
November 16, 2025 at 2:05 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
radiofreetom.bsky.social
A regime of avaricious, cruel goons isn't the same thing as a "fascist state," and the fact that they have to go to court, fight it out in state elections and legislatures, cower from being filmed (instead of filming *you*) means everything.

Recognize this. Don't surrender to your fears.

/19
November 16, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
davidcorn.bsky.social
Remember when conservatives went batshit crazy that government officials occasionally alerted social media companies to posts that might violate their TOS?
dmsilverman.bsky.social Dan Silverman @dmsilverman.bsky.social · 9h
FCC Chair Brendan Carr just shared a Truth Social post from Trump calling for Seth Meyers to be fired
November 16, 2025 at 4:09 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
jayrosen.bsky.social
This from @status.news is all true. But an even wider campaign is to punish and intimidate those who would theaten his *freedom from fact.*

Here we have to learn to group the news media with the research universities, vax confusion created by RFK, Jr., the Bureau of Labor Statistics mess, etc.
November 15, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by Birdbrained
joshtpm.bsky.social
a 50 year mortgage is more like debt peonage or renting from the bank. Why not 75 year mortgage?
November 16, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Reposted by Birdbrained
npr.org
From @jeffbradynews.bsky.social
A public TV and radio station in Western Alaska serves dozens of villages damaged by Typhoon Halong. But with federal funding eliminated, KYUK makes severe cuts to its staff and news department.
Alaska station that covered devastating storm cuts jobs
A public TV and radio station in Western Alaska serves dozens of villages damaged by Typhoon Halong. But with federal funding eliminated, KYUK makes severe cuts to its staff and news department.
n.pr
November 15, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by Birdbrained
anneapplebaum.bsky.social
Just in the past 3 days, I happened to speak to an academic, a US politician and a former Biden official who had all received death threats and severe harassment from the MAGA movement. It's now a common experience. I am sorry MTG has to live through the same thing, but she can't be surprised
carlquintanilla.bsky.social Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 19h
MTG: “.. “I am now being contacted by private security firms with warnings for my safety as a hot bed of threats against me are being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world. .. The man I supported and helped get elected.”

@mediaite.com #GA14
www.mediaite.com/media/news/m...
November 15, 2025 at 6:17 PM