Melissa
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Melissa
@melissa-in-md.bsky.social
1.4K followers 490 following 28 posts
Mom of kids and dogs, Maryland politics, gun violence prevention, LGBTQ rights, she/her.
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Reposted by Melissa
twitterrefugeeog.bsky.social
Our convicted felon president, who pardoned Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys convicted of seditious conspiracy, wants to charge Mark Kelly, a decorated war veteran and astronaut, with seditious conspiracy.

That’s some next-level banana republic shit right there.
November 26, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Reposted by Melissa
taniel.bsky.social
In Rhode Island, ICE arrested an intern who worked for a court, and then a judge intervened to say they had the wrong person.

All leading to a scene where ICE agents surrounded the judge's car and "threatening to smash in the windows if they did not comply." www.wfla.com/news/judge-i...
November 22, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Melissa
krassenstein.bsky.social
November 21, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Reposted by Melissa
brennancenter.org
Trump’s net worth has grown by $3 billion since he took office. That’s not a coincidence.
A New Era of Crony Capitalism
Washington hasn’t seen graft like this for at least a century.
www.brennancenter.org
November 18, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Reposted by Melissa
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
NEW: @propublica.org investigated the Chicago apartment raid where kids were zip-tied and citizens detained for hours. They find:

- NONE of the arrested were criminally charged
- NO evidence the building was "filled with TdA terrorists."
- ZERO legitimate reason for DHS to rappel from a Blackhawk.
As a Black Hawk helicopter roared overhead, the slender, 28-year-old immigrant from Venezuela answered softly, his eyes darting to a television crew invited to film the raid. Next to Caicedo, masked Border Patrol agents inspected another man’s tattoos and asked him if he belonged to Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang that the Trump administration has designated a terrorist group. Until that moment, Caicedo’s only interaction with law enforcement in his two-and-a-half years in the United States had been a traffic stop two weeks earlier for driving without a license or insurance, according to the records we reviewed. Chicago police had run a background check on him and found no prior arrests, no warrants and no evidence that he was in a gang. Caicedo said he had a pending asylum application, a steady job at a taco joint and a girlfriend whose daughter attended elementary school across the street. None of that mattered. The U.S. government paraded him and his neighbors in front of the cameras and called their arrests a spectacular victory against terrorism. But later, after the cameras had gone, prosecutors didn’t charge Caicedo with a crime. They didn’t accuse him of being a terrorist. And after a brief hearing in immigration court, the government sent him back to the country he had fled nine years earlier. “I lost everything,” he said in a phone interview from his mother’s home in the Venezuelan city of Valencia. “For those fools, everyone from Venezuela is a criminal.”
November 13, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Melissa
petebuttigieg.bsky.social
November 12, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Reposted by Melissa
ezralevin.bsky.social
Important to understand this. There's a reasonable chance that your Dem Senator who voted against it and is acting mad now was in on the play. It's the same reason why they scheduled the surrender for AFTER the election this week. They didn't want people pissed at Dems right before an election.
mattortega.com Matt Ortega @mattortega.com · 19d
The caucus meeting was just to orchestrate who would fall on the sword but not be up for a vote in 2026.
unavaleable.bsky.social Reconstructionist @unavaleable.bsky.social · 19d
so currently defectors are:

Kaine (2030)
Shaheen (Retiring)
Hasan (2028)
Fetterman (2028)
Durbin (Retiring)
CCM (2028)
Rosen (2030)
King (2030)
November 10, 2025 at 2:11 AM
Reposted by Melissa
ericmgarcia.bsky.social
Mark Kelly is a NO on the continuing resolution deal
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly released the following statement on his opposition to advancing the Continuing Resolution in the Senate tonight that does not address rising health care costs: “In the richest country in the world, families shouldn’t have to choose between putting food on the table and their health care. But that’s exactly what Donald Trump has done to Americans with this shutdown. “There should’ve never been a shutdown in the first place, and I worked to find a solution with Republicans and this administration. But Donald Trump has proven he doesn’t care about rising costs, skyrocketing health care premiums, or working families struggling to put food on the table. He has spent more time working on his ballroom than working to open the government. He sued to block food assistance for hungry families. “I’ve spent the last month hearing from Arizonans worried they can’t afford health care and families who were going broke and hungry because the government was shut down. That’s who I’m fighting for. But Donald Trump rejected a straightforward compromise that would have best served all Americans by reopening the government and keeping health care from becoming unaffordable and out of reach for millions, including thousands of Arizonans. If he’s ready to get serious on a solution to keep health care premiums from spiking, I'm ready to work, but everything he’s done suggests he just doesn’t care.” Kelly spoke on the Senate floor on Friday in support of a compromise that would extend the Affordable Care Act enhanced tax credits for one year and reopen the government.
November 10, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Reposted by Melissa
ericmgarcia.bsky.social
Minority Whip Katherine Clark puts out a stinging statement on the senate deal. "A GOP budget that spikes health care premiums and everyday costs to fund tax cuts for billionaires is a grave betrayal of everyday Americans. That was true in July. It was true in September. And it remains true today."
MALDEN, MA – Democratic Whip Katherine Clark issued the following statement on the Senate’s budget vote: "A GOP budget that spikes health care premiums and everyday costs to fund tax cuts for billionaires is a grave betrayal of everyday Americans. That was true in July. It was true in September. And it remains true today. “Republicans eliminated the ACA tax credits and slashed $1 trillion from Medicaid, $500 billion from Medicare, and billions from medical research. As a result, Americans are seeing soaring costs – doubling, tripling, and quadrupling families’ premiums. Democrats have called on Republicans to work with us to protect health care and lower costs since March. They’ve refused at every turn. “Let’s be clear: Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress own this health care crisis. They own the pain of every American facing a premium hike. And they own the hopelessness of every parent who can no longer afford health insurance for their family. “House Democrats are not giving up. The American people deserve affordable health care, we will continue to fight back on their behalf.”
November 10, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Reposted by Melissa
atrupar.com
Dems backed Trump into a corner where he’s advocating for starving Americans and hemorrhaging support. If they vote to let him off the hook in exchange for nothing it’s a cataclysmic failure. I know people are in pain but insulating Republicans from political consequences is not the answer.
November 9, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Reposted by Melissa
wyden.senate.gov
Senate update: Republicans are now trying to sneak a backdoor national abortion ban into their government funding bill. Republicans will stop at nothing to control women's health care decisions.
November 8, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by Melissa
vanhollen.senate.gov
I’ve voted 7 times to reopen the government in a way that holds Trump accountable for his lawlessness and prevents a health care crisis.

I’m prepared to work toward a compromise, but this “deal” before us does not come close to meeting those terms. Voting NO.

Full statement:
November 10, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Reposted by Melissa
taniel.bsky.social
Democrats have flipped 2 seats in the Mississippi senate, and in so doing they've broken the GOP's supermajority in the chamber.
November 5, 2025 at 5:42 AM
Reposted by Melissa
taniel.bsky.social
What we know, final edition of the night:
[Now in 3 parts]

—Prop 50 wins
—VA Dems flip Gov, LG, AG
—Dems gain leg seats in VA, NJ, & MS
—Dems defend NJ-Gov
—Dems win NJ+VA trifectas
—Mamdani wins
—PA Dems win state supreme court
—ME anti-mail voting measure loses
—GA Dems flip 2 statewide offices
November 5, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Reposted by Melissa
taniel.bsky.social
We have the first result of any of the 190+ races on my cheat sheet, and it's from Florida.

The only Republican on Orlando's city council has lost his reelection bid: Jim Gray was defeated by Democrat Tom Keen.
November 5, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Reposted by Melissa
taniel.bsky.social
NEW: Today is a big day for us at Bolts! From today thru end of 2025, NewsMatch matches any gift you make.

In a nutshell: Your gift will be doubled. If you start a monthly subscription, your monthly amount is matched *x12*!

If you wish to support independent journalism, you can help us thrive:
Support Bolts
We are a nonprofit publication that covers the nuts and bolts of political change, from the local up, and we need reader support to build our journalism.
boltsmag.org
November 1, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Reposted by Melissa
walshfreedom.bsky.social
Too many Americans either didn’t care or didn’t believe. Hopefully they do now.👇
October 29, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Reposted by Melissa
maddow.bsky.social
"nearly half..." ???

it's an open book test.

www.nbcnews.com/politics/imm...
October 23, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Melissa
katieharbath.bsky.social
Picture of the East Wing demolition of the White House taken on my flight out of DCA.
October 23, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by Melissa
senchrislarson.bsky.social
ICE is stockpiling arms, including chemical weapons, guided missile warheads and explosive components. The spending dwarfs anything we've ever seen in the agency - a 700% increase.

The President is building an army to attack his own country.
October 21, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Reposted by Melissa
aclu.org
BREAKING: A court ordered the Department of Defense to stop censoring educational materials discussing race and gender in schools on military bases.

Books removed from the schools must be returned to the shelves immediately.
October 20, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Melissa
propublica.org
Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents.

They’ve had their necks kneeled on.

They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear.

At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them.

By @nicolefoy.bsky.social
More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.
The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...
www.propublica.org
October 20, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Reposted by Melissa
marcelias.bsky.social
Imagine being the largest newspaper in Washington, DC with the motto "Democracy Dies in Darkness" and thinking to publish this today.

You might think WaPo editors would look out the window and realize something more important is happening. But perhaps democracy already died over there.
October 18, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Reposted by Melissa
nicolefoy.bsky.social
Hi, I'm the ProPublica reporter who's been tracking an unusual stat: U.S. citizens grabbed by immigration agents.

I did it because the government isn’t.

This is what I found.
White words on a black background read: 50+ Immigration agents have the authority to detain whom they reasonably suspect are in the country illegally. We found more than 50 Americans who were held after agents questioned their citizenship. They were almost all Latino. ~130 Agents also can arrest citizens who allegedly interfered with or assaulted officers. We compiled cases of about 130 Americans, including a dozen elected officials, accused of assaulting or impeding officers. ~20 Among the citizens detained are nearly 20 children, including two with cancer.
October 18, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Reposted by Melissa
markharris.bsky.social
LOL this headline! Welcome to the resistance...People magazine?!
Mitch McConnell, 83, Falls to Ground in Senate Building as Woman Asks His Feelings About ICE
October 16, 2025 at 6:34 PM