Lynn Gazis-Sax
empressnorton.bsky.social
Lynn Gazis-Sax
@empressnorton.bsky.social
DevOps Engineer, speculative fiction writer in my spare time, Quaker. I enjoy singing in several languages. Used to be in Katie Porter's district till I got redistricted to Young Kim's district. She/they.
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
Republican voter in Michigan: “What he’s doing with ICE is the worst thing. I would say the economy is the second worst thing. I’m getting ready to retire and I’m wondering how I’m going to make it. But I’m blessed. I don’t have to hide in the basement because my skin is brown.”
What independents think of Trump's recent immigration actions, according to a new AP-NORC poll
A new AP-NORC poll finds that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults believe that President Donald Trump has “gone too far” in sending federal immigration agents into U.S. cities.
apnews.com
February 13, 2026 at 4:56 AM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
A pre-cooked rotisserie chicken from Safeway is $9.99. If I bought one every day for a year, that's $3,646.35. The average price of a house in the United States is $400,000. It would cost about 109 years of daily rotisserie chickens to buy that house.
February 12, 2026 at 11:12 PM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
This is the way. When they come at us, we come back at them twofold. Raise that Pride flag every time they take it down. If they prevent that, surround the park with Pride flags. Ruin their petty little lives until they shit rainbows. Never stop. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/n...
N.Y.C. Officials Reinstate Pride Flag at Stonewall After Federal Removal
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 4:56 AM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
Holding the humanities hostage by controlling our funding is like holding an ordinary person hostage by controlling their access to foie gras.

Can’t be done.
February 13, 2026 at 4:57 AM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
Besides *waves hands frantically* everything else, does this person know what role funding plays in the humanities? Yes, there are historians who need to travel to get to archives, etc., but in general we in the humanities have tiny funding needs.

No labs! No staff of researchers!
It would be embarrassing under any circumstances to spend a year on this reactionary horseshit, but to have spent the year in which graduate students were sent to concentration camps for op-eds and the federal govt launched a no hold barred attack on academic freedom is just beyond
The Atlantic is indistinguishable from Compact.
February 13, 2026 at 4:55 AM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
Not only did the administration not accomplish its stated goal of targeting Somali fraud, it caused the US attorneys who were actually prosecuting the fraud to resign in disgust
This episode has been a nightmare for my city and state, but I hope people realize it’s also a profound defeat and political catastrophe for Trump and DHS, who are slinking away having accomplished nothing. Minneapolis simply wouldn’t bend to them and they lost
Homan in Minnesota: "I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude. A significant drawdown has already been underway this week and will continue."
February 12, 2026 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
a reminder that DC remains under occupation
February 12, 2026 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
this case was first filed almost exactly 11 months ago. one-year anniversary on march 15
BREAKING

Judge Boasberg ORDERS the Trump admin to facilitate the return of the more than 100 men spirited out of the country last year without notice or a hearing.

Plaintiffs may also submit habeas petitions from abroad, he says.

Doc buff.ly/rccakD7
February 12, 2026 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
I'm of the opinion that the breakdown in American politics is at the elite level not the mass level. Low info voters behaved as they always behave. It was elected officials, business leaders, etc. that could have maintained the guardrails but did not.

www.gelliottmorris.com/p/trump-lost...
The less voters knew, the more they liked Trump in 2024. Not Anymore
The least-engaged Americans have swung 25 points against him since 2024 — about twice the shift among everyone else. Trump has flattened the engagement gap.
www.gelliottmorris.com
February 12, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
NEW @ms.now: The lawyer representing the woman who was shot 5x by a Border Patrol agent in Chicago in Oct says the agent is the subject of a criminal investigation by the US Attorneys Office. This would be a remarkable shift in a case that started w/ the gov’t trying to prosecute the woman he shot ⬇️
Agent investigated in Chicago woman’s shooting, her lawyer says
The attorney for Marimar Martinez says prosecutors told him the agent who shot her five times is facing a criminal probe.
www.ms.now
February 12, 2026 at 11:25 PM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
Here’s that passage from the ethics opinion
February 12, 2026 at 11:28 PM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
The potential foreign agent was Saudi foreign agent Jared Kushner.

I mean, I was betting on Roger Stone but this is actually far more problematic.
News: The top-secret whistleblower complaint against Tulsi Gabbard is related to a conversation intercepted last spring in which two foreign nationals discussed Jared Kushner, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
Gabbard Whistleblower Complaint Based on Intercepted Conversation About Jared Kushner
The substance of the conversation, which covered in part issues related to Iran, isn’t known.
www.wsj.com
February 12, 2026 at 9:03 PM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
Another shooting case falls apart (this time ICE, not CBP).

These are the Venezuelans that ICE excused shooting by claiming they beat him w/shovels.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
February 13, 2026 at 12:03 AM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
Also, I wonder if they waited on this dismissal until after Congressional testimony.
February 13, 2026 at 12:11 AM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
Two notes about this.

This was the VERY rare case where an FBI Agent, rather than an HSI agent, filed the affidavit. I gotta believe there's still enough institutional culture among Feebs to REALLY hate having been lied to. HSI not so much.
Another shooting case falls apart (this time ICE, not CBP).

These are the Venezuelans that ICE excused shooting by claiming they beat him w/shovels.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
February 13, 2026 at 12:11 AM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
BREAKING: The Trump administraiton has committed a mass violation of ICE detainees' constitutional rights in MN, effectively blocking their acess to attorneys in the Whipple building, a judge ruled tonight.

The judge: Trump appointeee Nancy Brasel

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
February 13, 2026 at 12:00 AM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
On the one hand, the more Noem wastes bc of her own incompetence, the less she'll have for goons and concentration camps. On the other hand, the GOP cut $273M in cancer cure research last year to pay for shit like this.

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
February 13, 2026 at 3:47 AM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
The speech is so well known, we often don't absorb its meaning. Lincoln speech opens stating clearly that the Revolution was to preserve equality and ends saying rule of, by, and for the people is what preserves it. See for yourself 2/2

constitutioncenter.org/the-constitu...
The Gettysburg Address (1863)
National Constitution Center Historic Documents Library record for The Gettysburg Address (1863)
constitutioncenter.org
February 12, 2026 at 12:46 PM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
“my ‘we’re not out scouring the streets to disappear people or deny people their civil rights or due process’ shirt is raising a lot of questions that are answered by the shirt”
Homan: "ICE is a legitimate federal law enforcement agency. We're not out scouring the streets to disappear people or deny people their civil rights or due process."
February 12, 2026 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
Just going to note again, because somehow we've all completely retconned this and I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, that pound-for-pound Biden had one of the most draconian border security regimes of any U.S. president ever, second only to Trump, *many of whose policies he inherited and kept*
Not going to read them all because jesus fucking christ but this is nasty work from Friedersdorf
February 12, 2026 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
really interesting to me how many professional political commentators have basically retconned the draconian immigration enforcement policies of Obama and Biden out of existence and have completely swallowed the right wing narrative of immigration enforcement
Not going to read them all because jesus fucking christ but this is nasty work from Friedersdorf
February 12, 2026 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
A great piece from @alibreland.bsky.social on Epstein's race science obsession—one he shares with much of the contemporary right wing elite www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
The Epstein Emails Show How the Powerful Talk About Race
The files reveal the disgraced financier’s interest in “race science.”
www.theatlantic.com
February 12, 2026 at 4:25 PM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
More people will be able to reach lawyers, directly or through family, and their lawyers will have enough time to help them before they’re secreted away to Texas.

I literally felt some stress melt away when I read this. It’s only a preliminary injunction for now. But it feels promising.
February 13, 2026 at 3:12 AM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
This is a huge victory. DHS must allow detainees a call to either family or a lawyer within one hour of arriving at Whipple, and then may not transfer them out of Minnesota for 72 hours.

I’m crying. So happy and relieved. We can help our clients before it’s too late. More people can be helped.
February 13, 2026 at 3:12 AM
Reposted by Lynn Gazis-Sax
“The Constitution does not permit the government to arrest thousands of individuals and then disregard their constitutional rights because it would be too challenging to honor those rights.”

It might not seem it to non-lawyers, but that is a *furious* judge right there.
February 13, 2026 at 2:57 AM