Under the Volcano
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bfbnk.bsky.social
Under the Volcano
@bfbnk.bsky.social
Historian: ritual and culture, fraternal groups, symbols in culture, art, politics, etc. Writer of textbooks, college educator.
Reposted by Under the Volcano
The DoGood movement in Roanoke really illuminates how the opposition to Trump has matured during this second regime.

1. Far more persistent, with weekly protests of all sorts.
2. It's reaching further into Trump country.
November 23, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Reposted by Under the Volcano
Listen to Michael Keaton!
Beth Macy is taking her message to voters that enough is enough. It's time that working on behalf of one's constituents becomes a thing again and Beth will do just that. Her heart knows no other way.
#BethMacyForCongress
Grateful to Michael Keaton, who lost a nephew to overdose, to come out swinging for my campaign—and for what is right!
November 20, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Reposted by Under the Volcano
It's important to understand what this ad does and why it is so threatening to the Trump admin. It gets to social identity theory, which posits that we have many identities, and the one which is salient in a given context will dictate how we think/behave in a particular situation. 1/
WATCH: After six Democratic lawmakers posted a video urging members of the military not to follow illegal orders, Trump erupted online, accusing them of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Sen. Elissa Slotkin, one of the senators in that video, joins Chris Hayes to respond.
'HANG THEM': Trump melts down, accuses six Dems of ‘seditious behavior’
YouTube video by MS NOW
www.youtube.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:00 AM
I've never heard a louder crowd at a political rally. Roaring enthusiasm.
I went to Roanoke to witness a community's attempt to care for *everyone* in it, and to see how residents are demanding accountability from their elected officials. (Also, great news: @bethmacy.bsky.social is running for Congress!)
Of, by, and for the people
Roanoke is rising, and it's drafted Beth Macy for Congress.
degenerateart.beehiiv.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Tremendous turnout and energy at author Beth Macy’s announcement in Roanoke, VA of her congressional campaign against incumbent Ben Cline, a fully owned subsidiary of Donald Trump. @andreapitzer.bsky.social @bethmacy.bsky.social @bluevirginia.bsky.social
www.roanokerambler.com/beth-macy-en...
Beth Macy Enters Race for Congress Blasting Ben Cline and Saying Enough is Enough
Democratic candidates are lining up to get a chance to run against incumbent Republican Ben Cline.
www.roanokerambler.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Under the Volcano
“Come-to-America-spend-your-money-then-get-out” is some next-level, smooth salesmanship. 🤡
November 12, 2025 at 5:27 PM
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Former VA Del. Mark Levine (D): "I’m really surprised a Senator I know personally and have long respected is this naive. Kaine isn’t stupid. But his justification for bowing down to King Donald is so illogical that it insults any thinking Virginian." bluevirginia.us/2025/11/sen-...
November 10, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Under the Volcano
Great job, @schumer.senate.gov. You've changed the story from "GOP hurting millions of Americans to please unpopular, failing, delusional despot who's destroying his party" to "Dems are too weak and divided in the face of Trump's strength to take a stand and protect Americans"
November 10, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Not even pretending to hide the corruption: the wealthiest will henceforth pay no federal taxes under the Trump regime: "The administration is rapidly gutting a 2022 law intended to ensure that a sliver of the country’s most profitable corporations pay at least some federal income tax."
NYT: The tax cuts come amid “steep cuts to health care for the elderly and food stamps for the poorest Americans.”

@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/b...
November 8, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Under the Volcano
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
Reposted by Under the Volcano
If nothing else (and there is much else), the Mamdani campaign has reintroduced Americans to the names Eugene Debs, Dorothy Day, and Fiorello LaGuardia, people they sure as hell aren't learning about in school any more. Who knows where ths might lead?
November 5, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Reposted by Under the Volcano
i think the president has an inherent inability to conceptualize an organization larger than the Trump Organization, and so does not value the existence of a bureaucracy. in fact he cannot imagine that any such thing exists. this is why the government is now run by one hundred guys who you can name.
November 4, 2025 at 7:15 AM
Reposted by Under the Volcano
It's stupid's economy.
Iconic outdoors retailer in business since 1856 closing 40 locations due to tariffs www.pennlive.com/nation-world...
Iconic outdoors retailer in business since 1856 closing 40 locations due to tariffs
The chain is overhauling the way it does business.
www.pennlive.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Welcome to Trumpville. Like Pottersville in "It’s a Wonderful Life", only with more fake gold and sociopathic billionaires.
November 3, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Just occurred to me that if Trump thinks he can run for a third term, so can this guy.
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Obama shreds Trump administration - ‘It’s like every day is Halloween’
Obama laid into Trump during a speech in support of Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger
www.independent.co.uk
November 2, 2025 at 3:27 PM
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Schedule for today's VA General Assembly special session on redistricting bluevirginia.us/2025/10/virg...
October 29, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Firesign Theater, the '60s comedy group, used to introduce Ben Franklin as "the only President of the U.S. who was never President of the U.S." Michael Luttig can likewise be characterized as "the only Supreme Court Justice who was never a Supreme Court Justice"
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
President for Life
Donald Trump is trying to amass the powers of a king.
www.theatlantic.com
October 28, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Reposted by Under the Volcano
Trump's good at manipulating media (& MAGA) using clear, compelling & simple imagery/messaging constantly. Also known as symbols. IOW he's good at symbolic warfare. Dems & left need to understand the importance of symbols and how to use them effectively.
October 24, 2025 at 12:53 PM
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Leftists saying the White House thing doesn’t matter are demonstrating the classic leftist misunderstanding of symbols and the role emotion plays in politics. Sometimes they can be as tone deaf as dumb centrist liberals.
October 24, 2025 at 4:03 AM
Reposted by Under the Volcano
All of the pilfering, vandalism, and outright death caused by DOGE cuts, and all of the thefts from the future by illegally stopping research grants, didn't save a penny, Trump spent the money and more on corruption and incompetent ICE goons.
Total federal spending is up +7% in 2025 over 2024 year-to-date to Oct 20.

The story that the fed govt is tightening its belt is contradicted by its own real-time expenditure data. Admin spectacularly hammering some things but raising spending elsewhere.

Was -7% just after Inauguration Day.
October 23, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Under the Volcano
Chris Murphy: "There's a lot of history that has taken place in the East Wing & it was just destroyed without any conversation in the public, without any consent of Congress. It's absolutely illegal. That visual is powerful b/c you're watching destruction of the rule of law as those walls come down"
October 22, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Where are the poll questions? "Do you support the destruction of the East Wing of the White House and the construction of a 90,000 sq foot ballroom proposed by President Trump?"
[Current size of White House with 132 rooms is 55,000 square feet]
Slam dunk litmus test for any Dem candidate in 2028: will you tear down the Trump ballroom?
October 21, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Raping history: This is the same view from the Treasury department--2025 and 1905 (Library of Congress)
October 21, 2025 at 10:37 AM
No Kings continues:
Monday, 10/20, downtown Roanoke: In search of missing congressmen Ben Cline (R), who hasn't held a public town hall since 2019 in the largest city in SW Virginia and in his district.
October 21, 2025 at 10:27 AM