Laura Sell
laurasell.bsky.social
Laura Sell
@laurasell.bsky.social
I promote books at Duke University Press. Reader, cat lover, messy cook and lazy gardener. Will plunge into any nearby body of water.
So sad. She was still going great work.
Catherine O’Hara, the comedian best known for her roles in “Home Alone,” “Schitt’s Creek” and “Beetlejuice,” and as a member of the influential Canadian sketch comedy series “S.C.T.V.,” has died. She was 71. nyti.ms/4qbsUMS
January 30, 2026 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
“Independent” is doing too much work in this first wave. They are arresting journalists and just like everything else they’ve done, they’re testing the limits of our resistance by starting wt vulnerable margins.
January 30, 2026 at 3:45 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
The Dems showing up to a gunfight with a deck of magic the gathering cards
We've let the party become so filled with rules obsessives (whose strongest conviction is that rules are good without much mind to what they mean or who they should protect) that the only weapons our opposition can possibly imagine using are investigations, citations, and slaps on the wrist
January 30, 2026 at 4:09 PM
A woman in Minneapolis had her TSA Pre-check and Global Entry revoked for legally protesting. How can we go after Palantir the way people did Tesla?
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/t...
How ICE Already Knows Who Minneapolis Protesters Are
www.nytimes.com
January 30, 2026 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
Finally got around to a bit of research I'd been meaning to explore, and: There is no documented instance of an ICE officer being identified and assaulted while off duty because he wasn't masked. www.pbump.net/o/ices-excus...
ICE’s excuse for wearing masks has never actually manifested
There have been incidents of harassment and threats. But there are no apparent incidents in which identified ICE officers have been assaulted off-duty.
www.pbump.net
January 29, 2026 at 6:05 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
The date for the next No Kings Day is set.

But this is a save the date, not a “sit back and wait.” 🧵
January 28, 2026 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
youtu.be
January 28, 2026 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
A US veteran leaves the country after ICE agents seize her husband at his green card hearing, and then causes him simply to "disappear." "This country is broken," she says.
January 28, 2026 at 1:58 PM
Foushee is competent but quiet, she works behind the scenes. But is that right for this moment? I wanted to see her speaking out much more last year on all the federal job cuts in our district. She should have been on the news weekly.
Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam is challenging incumbent Rep. Valerie Foushee in this year’s Democratic primary. The race is a rematch: Foushee defeated Allam in 2022 and cruised to victory in the general. But a lot has changed since their last matchup.

www.theassemblync.com/news/valerie...
A House District Divided
Incumbent Valerie Foushee and challenger Nida Allam present starkly different approaches to politics. Could NC-4 be a bellwether for Democrats?
www.theassemblync.com
January 28, 2026 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
Abolish DHS. If you can imagine a world before Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, you can imagine a world without the Department of Homeland Security. My latest at @startribune.com. (gift link)
Perry: Abolish ICE? How about DHS altogether.
"We have models for how to structure federal immigration oversight that doesn't rely on an unaccountable masked secret police force running rampant in our streets," David M. Perry writes.
www.startribune.com
January 27, 2026 at 12:08 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
Ian Austin, an Army veteran, was arrested for protesting ICE in Minneapolis. But he’s continued protesting. Senior reporter @julialurie.bsky.social spoke to him.

“When they say, ‘Why would you be out here?’ How the fuck could I not be out here?” he says. “My nation is under attack."
January 27, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
This March 1965 Herblock cartoon about police violence against civil rights activists has added relevance today.
January 26, 2026 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
I'm not sure Democrats in D.C. are aware that their base's rage against ICE has reached a level of blinding white-hot intensity.

They're worried about "looking weak" for voting "against law enforcement" when they should be worried a mob of housewives is going to come beat them to death if they do.
January 24, 2026 at 9:03 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
“If one is honest about the history of the United States, it prominently features white violence, terrorism and revanchism, particularly toward Black people, Indigenous people and women.” — @sorayanadiamcdonald.com

andscape.com/features/cap...
The dangerous magical thinking of ‘this is not who we are’ - Andscape
Since the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, there have been statements from white people across the political spectrum, including President-elect Joe Biden, that repeat variations of the sa...
andscape.com
January 23, 2026 at 12:21 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
“This is un-American“ is anti-Indigenous, anti-Black gaslighting and if you find that inconvenient imagine how our colonized and enslaved ancestors felt and grow the fuck up
January 23, 2026 at 4:17 AM
I have about 80 unread $2 e-books on my Kindle. Glad to think of them as a good deed rather than a personal failure!
Look, I'm going to tell you a secret. If you buy an e-book while it's on sale, you never have to read it. If you have $2 to spare & want to help that particular author, you can just chuck the book into the oubliette of your TBR. Every sale helps. The author will never know, but you gave them a gift.
January 21, 2026 at 9:19 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
YOU ARE RETIRING! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE! BE FUCkING CRITICAL!!!
Tillis: "To be clear -- I'm not critical of the president. I'm critical of the bad advice he's getting on Greenland."
January 20, 2026 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
Martin Luther King Jr. understood better than almost anyone that racial justice and economic justice are inextricably intertwined. Watch his powerful call to end poverty from his final Sunday Sermon.
January 18, 2026 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
Instead of ending the constitution and murdering people, we could have high speed trains and universal health care.
January 14, 2026 at 3:40 PM
Hilarious review of a new Agatha Christie adaptation: "This is Agatha Christie by way of Enid Blyton, made for an international market that thinks Downton Abbey is real and that Paddington Bear is holding the queen’s hand in heaven."
www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials review – think Downton Abbey is real? This terrible adaptation is for you
Martin Freeman does his best to lift this three-parter, but it feels like Enid Blyton – made for an international market that thinks Paddington Bear is holding the queen’s hand in heaven
www.theguardian.com
January 15, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
"No peaceful demonstrator should ever be killed for standing up to their government. Unless, of course, they’re a suburban mom in an SUV that’s driving away from law enforcement."
We Support Protesting Against Any Authoritarian Government Except Our Own
"President Trump called on Iranians on Tuesday to keep protesting against their government and warned that those responsible for killing demonstrat...
buff.ly
January 14, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
Leonardo DiCaprio has stopped using Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is 25 today.
January 15, 2026 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
The four Oglala Lakota men kidnapped by ICE in Minneapolis have finally been located. One of them was released but the other three are being held at Fort Snelling, a former concentration camp used to imprison Native people including the Dakota 38 during the Dakota Wars. ictnews.org/news/north-c...
Four Oglala detainees located, three still in ICE custody - ICT
The four Lakota detainees were reportedly sent to a former concentration camp used during the Dakota Wars
ictnews.org
January 14, 2026 at 6:43 AM
Reposted by Laura Sell
It's beginning: Duke Energy has filed the first permits for a potential new nuclear power plant in North Carolina up in Stokes county.

Duke Energy is now hiking NC ratepayers' bills to pay for this potential plant's development in advance, whether or not anything actually gets built.
January 14, 2026 at 12:57 PM
Reposted by Laura Sell
A few months ago, ICE hired me

I didn't sign and submit any paperwork. I almost certainly failed the drug test. I'm real outspoken about my opposition to the Trump administration, and I am extremely googlable

And yet, there it was, in plain English. "Welcome to ICE!"

My latest for Slate
You’ve Heard About Who ICE Is Recruiting. The Truth Is Far Worse. I’m the Proof.
What happens when you do minimal screening before hiring agents, arming them, and sending them into the streets? We're all finding out.
slate.com
January 13, 2026 at 2:11 PM