Heather in Chicago
LightNews LightNews
banner
heatherk.bsky.social
Heather in Chicago
@heatherk.bsky.social
1.6K followers 520 following 4.9K posts
Chicago will never give in to fascism. ✊🏼 Writer bicycle rider, traveler, bird admirer, cat nose booper. she/her. Also posting here as ibikedinthis.bsky.social
Posts Replies Media Videos
heatherk.bsky.social
Sometimes you just gotta go look at the lake.
Photo of Lake Michigan looking east at sunset
November 14, 2025 at 9:57 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
I went out quickly on my balcony this morning morning to check the snow. About a half hour later my neighbor called me bc she was outside and heard a cat meowing. Yep, it was Ruckus, who snuck out behind me and got a lot more outdoor time than he bargained for.
Photo of orange cat by my feet
November 10, 2025 at 3:10 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
Forgot to bring the bougainvillea inside. Hope it can recover.
Pic of bougainvillea plan with snow in the pot
November 10, 2025 at 2:13 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
Screenshot from Facebook: Senator Dick Durbin & • Follow 37m • g Now that Democrats secured these wins, it's time for Leader Thune to keep his promise to schedule a vote on the ACA tax credits in December and we will see to it that he makes good on his word for the millions of Americans worried they won't be able to afford health care in January.
November 10, 2025 at 2:23 AM
heatherk.bsky.social
Washing them down with this tarragon soda I got at Arzan, a Central Asian grocery on Kimball near Lawrence.
Photo of soda bottle with green liquid inside, label says “Flaming Baku” “tarragon” “product of Azerbaijan”
November 7, 2025 at 7:19 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
I did not find tamales but I did find a taco stand! They got a little roughed up in the ride home.
Photo of three messy tacos in a styrofoam container
November 7, 2025 at 7:16 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 4:56 AM
heatherk.bsky.social
This is hilarious
November 5, 2025 at 3:48 AM
heatherk.bsky.social
Post Conversation Greg Abbott @GregAbbott_TX · 1h Join me for a moment of silence for NYC. Thoughts & prayers. 🙏 Jo @JoJoFromJerz This is more emotion than you showed in the wake of Uvalde, Greg. 9:03 PM · Nov 4, 2025 · 18.4K Views
November 5, 2025 at 3:43 AM
heatherk.bsky.social
Oh of course
NYT screenshot: Republicans Reprise Unfounded Claims of Widespread Election Interference Prominent conservatives, including the president, sounded familiar alarms about voter suppression and other efforts to manipulate the vote on Election Day, without presenting evidence.
November 5, 2025 at 2:59 AM
heatherk.bsky.social
More rich people like this please
Screenshot of NYT update on the mayoral election: Keith McNally, the restaurant’s owner, wrote on social media that he had voted for Mamdani and announced that customers and staff members at Balthazar would be offered a glass of champagne if he wins the race for mayor. McNally called Mamdani someone who can take on “the oligarchs of New York” and “a president who is destroying the world order” — a reference to President Trump, who has openly criticized Mamdani throughout the campaign and urged voters to reject him. “I would happily pay more in taxes so that all the people in New York can afford to live here and have a decent, healthy life,” McNally said.
November 4, 2025 at 10:27 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
How about the same actor AND character as hero and villain?
Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes Sebastian Stan as the Winter Soldier
November 4, 2025 at 8:27 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
Another one for the block list.
graziaxuereb1.bsky.s... @graziaxuereb1.bsky.soc... Follow Who do you think paid your subsidy? Don't you think that if your business is not generating enough income, the responsible thing to do is find another job? Medicare for all will encourage freeloaders and when resources become scarce elective suicide will become the norm for elederly. Look at Canada. November 3, 2025 at 11:08 PM
November 4, 2025 at 12:19 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
Pretty much.
Photo of two cats in a cat bed, one white with orange spots, the other an orange tabby
November 4, 2025 at 2:06 AM
heatherk.bsky.social
Doing my best!
Photo taken from the water of kayakers on the river with the Chicago skyline in the distance
November 3, 2025 at 8:21 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
First-ever visit to Starved Rock. My friends wanted to do a ghost picture. Sure, why not?
Four ghosts (actually people under white sheets with sunglasses) in the woods Ghosts against a rock formation Four women in hiking gear with woods and the Illinois River as a backdrop Trees and water.
November 3, 2025 at 3:36 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
Fancy new sweets shop, Amande Dessert, just opened on Kimball at Montrose in Albany Park. This could be very dangerous for me. Macarons, cheesecake, tres leches, panna cotta, plus coffee, etc.
Photo of restaurant case with desserts inside
November 2, 2025 at 10:36 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
I wanted to get tamales from a vendor for lunch today, but ICE stampeding through the neighborhood prevented that. I went to Lindo Michoacán at Lawrence & Kedzie instead. Got these tacos, some churros, and apple pastry, a drink, bag of chips, and salsa for $21.52!
Photo of tacos dorados on a styrofoam tray with plastic and a price tag
October 31, 2025 at 8:09 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
This Matt Mercer? Who's on LinkedIn?
screenshot of Matt Mercer linkedin profile
October 30, 2025 at 5:32 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
Interrupting the doomscrolling to remind you it’s National Cat Day! Cats hate fascists! 🐈🐈‍⬛🐱
Photo of mostly white cat with orange spots and orange tabby lolling on windowsill
October 29, 2025 at 7:36 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
😬
Closeup of Pope Leo’s polite pressed lips smile/grimace
October 28, 2025 at 2:47 AM
heatherk.bsky.social
I said we needed to look to French history for guidance and my French friend chimed in
Heather Yep. If you want to be true to the No Kings spirit..... you know what you gotta do
October 26, 2025 at 2:15 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
Did a three-card pull for a Tarot reading on the country (past, present, future). This is my interpretation. If you think this stuff is dumb, feel free to scroll on.
Photo of three tarot cards: Death, Queen of Wands, three of Swords, all reversed.
October 24, 2025 at 4:57 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
9:27 1今100 Tonoccus McClain 2d • @ • •• And if you think it's speculation, you haven't paid attention to all the other points on this list. All of his actions are pointing in one direction: The federal government is done. And certainly the House of Representatives. The Speaker's "wait until the government reopens" line isn't a promise. It's a firewall. It transforms the shutdown from a crisis to a containment strategy - a way to freeze the legislative branch precisely where it is safest for those who have the most to lose. So let's call it what it is: the government isn't "waiting to reopen." It's been locked shut, deliberately and indefinitely. The only question I have is how long is it going to take for the rest of the world to realize it? Comment as Heather...
October 22, 2025 at 2:39 PM
heatherk.bsky.social
9:27 . , 100 Tonoccus McClain 2d • © IV. The Quiet Erasure of a Branch Congress's most fundamental check on executive and corporate power-the foundation of its very existence-dies. The House has been silently defunded, not through legislation but through time itself. When the Speaker erased that calendar, Congress's authority to find facts, question power, and enforce accountability-the lifeblood of its legitimacy-was quietly gutted. Johnson hollowed out its agency and relevance by the simple act of not calling the House back to work. This is why the calendar is not a bureaucratic formality; it is the heartbeat of constitutional oversight. The genius and danger of this maneuver is that it leaves no clear act to challenge. Johnson doesn't have to suspend Congress formally (which would be unconstitutional); he only has to never reconvene it. As long as the Speaker's chair remains vacant, so does the House itself. In effect, Johnson has done through omission what extremists and hostile powers could never achieve through force: he has hollowed out the investigative heart of Congress while leaving its shell intact. The chamber can no longer investigate anything-including the Speaker himself. This maneuver accomplishes what no ◎ Comment as Heather.. 9:27 0l , 100 Tonoccus McClain 2d • © In effect, Johnson has done through omission what extremists and hostile powers could never achieve through force: he has hollowed out the investigative heart of Congress while leaving its shell intact. The chamber can no longer investigate anything-including the Speaker himself. This maneuver accomplishes what no coup, insurrection, or hostile power has ever managed-the quiet nullification of the legislative branch through mundane procedure. By weaponizing time, Johnson found that the soft underbelly of the republic isn't ideology or partisanship-it's process. Through the manipulation of something as ordinary as the congressional calendar, the United States has stumbled into the unacknowledged suspension of its own legislative branch. The result is a Congress that looks alive from the outside-members still going on CNN and FOX News, staff still answering phones and dodging constituent questions. But that normal-seeming routine is a façade, concealing Congress's current reality: the slow, bureaucratic death of representative democracy. And the longer this continues, the harder it becomes to turn things around. Every day that passes without a published calendar, without ... .... Comment as Heather... 9:27 1今100 Tonoccus McClain 2d • © ... And the longer this continues, the harder it becomes to turn things around. Every day that passes without a published calendar, without pro forma sessions, without committees in motion, is another day the legislative branch erodes. The return of what we once took for granted grows less likely, and the idea of a permanently diminished Congress begins to feel normal. The longer this goes on, the longer the President acts without fear of constitutional consequence. That is why this point matters more than all the others combined: through silence and scheduling, the Speaker has rendered Congress unable to do the one thing that defines it-to seek truth, demand accountability, and defend the republic it was created to protect. 9. This is what first made me question what's happening with the House. I had heard the outrageous news that the Speaker of the House was delaying swearing in a duly elected member of Congress and making it contingent on the reopening of the government. And I also know that Speaker Mike Johnson does everything Donald Trump wants him to do. That's how he got his job and that's what he's all about. Full stop. • Comment as Heather... 9:27 .l - 100 < Tonoccus McClain 2d • © GII UNOMI GII SIOて・ • •• So when I hear this man declare that the 218th vote needed to release the Epstein files will be sworn in when the government reopens, that broadcasts to me that the government will never reopen. By making her oath dependent on an event he alone controls, Johnson ensures that both the swearing-in and the reopening remain perpetually out of reach. Once Grijalva takes her seat, the House regains the 218 votes needed to compel action on multiple fronts, like removing the Speaker's power to single-handedly dissolve the House of Representatives for one thing and another would be the long-delayed release of the Epstein files. That single vote would unlock subpoena power, trigger committee filings, and make it procedurally impossible to continue hiding what powerful people most fear seeing made public. Trump's motivation couldn't be clearer: keeping those files buried is existential. Johnson's job is to make sure the vote that could unearth them never happens - and the easiest way to do that is to keep the House itself dormant. And if you think it's speculation, you haven't paid attention to all the other points on this list. All of his actions are pointing in one direction: The federal government is done. And certainly ◎ Comment as Heather..
October 22, 2025 at 2:39 PM