Mary Nasca
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mnasca.bsky.social
Mary Nasca
@mnasca.bsky.social
1.7K followers 650 following 5K posts
She/her

Believes that people should have autonomy over their bodies.

Believes in social justice, equality & equity for all. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Believes no one should be disappeared to a foreign country or concentration camp.
Posts Replies Media Videos
mnasca.bsky.social
@ruthz.bsky.social:
“And most importantly, I wish that you never had to go through your trauma in the first place.”

open.substack.com/pub/ruthzaka...
And mostly what I want to say is that I wish people listened to you. I wish you didn’t have to lay your trauma bare over and over again in an attempt to get justice. I wish the world was a safer place to disclose your trauma and without worry that you will be raked over the coals, revictimized and retraumatized. I wish you didn’t have to witness people in positions of great power suppress, minimize, openly question, or simply not acknowledge the abuse you suffered. That you didn’t have to see an abuser occupy the highest position of power in the land, enabled and empowered by countless people who have caused great harm themselves. And that you didn’t have to watch family members and friends vote to put him back in office a second time. I wish the media did a better job of holding your stories and giving you more agency on how those stories are told. That you didn’t have to read the snarky comments or rape jokes that people post simply to get more clicks, without regard for who might be reading them. And I wish people remembered that survivors are everywhere.
November 13, 2025 at 1:51 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
oversightdemocrats.house.gov/news/press-r...
To: Ghislaine Maxwell From: Jeffrey Epstein “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [Victim] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. Police chief. etc. im 75 % there To: Jeffrey Epstein From: Ghislaine Maxwell “I have been thinking about that…”
November 12, 2025 at 3:42 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
oversightdemocrats.house.gov/news/press-r...
From: Michael Wolff “I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you--either on air or in scrum afterwards. To: Michael Wolff From: Jeffrey Epstein “if we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?” To: Jeffrey Epstein From: Michael Wolff “I think you should let him hang himself. If he says he hasn't been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt. Of course, it is possible that, when asked, he'll say Jeffrey is a great guy and has gotten a raw deal and is a victim of political correctness, which is to be outlawed in a Trump regime.”
November 12, 2025 at 3:08 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

@radiofreetom.bsky.social:
In addition to marching, Americans who care about democracy must organize and vote in every election, no matter how small or local. And in their personal lives, people who want to restore maturity to national government must be clear with those around them, even if it means risking their personal relationships, that some things, such as glib schoolyard taunts and scatological nonsense from the commander in chief, are not acceptable.
November 12, 2025 at 12:55 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/o...
I ask non-trans readers of this column to imagine having to dress and act as the opposite gender every time they travel. This kind of temporary transformation is not always possible, and is never foolproof. In many countries, one’s passport is checked — and often registered with the authorities — at hotels, when entering administrative buildings and even simply when walking in the street. Some airports have sex-segregated security lines. Some train lines operate sex-segregated cars. And then there is travel for work. Journalists, for example, have to present their passports to obtain press credentials. There are places in the world where working with a press pass that says I am “F” would expose me to mortal danger.
November 7, 2025 at 10:24 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
That American flag means the world to me, partly because of the personal ordeal to which it bears silent witness but, even more, because of the national ideals it symbolizes. The public schools I attended in San Francisco didn’t teach a phony version of America the beautiful—an America that was never ugly. They taught a lesson much more inspiring, the lesson that America, for all its flaws and misdeeds, stands for an idea so much better than the worst parts of its legacy. They taught that America, a nation of immigrants like me and my family, stands for an idea worth fighting and dying for, the idea of a nation whose principles were inseparable from the inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty welcoming the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” I equated that flag with ideas and ideals that lay at the foundation of a republic governed not by a powerful few but by all its people, pursuing liberty under law.
November 7, 2025 at 4:08 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
A woman ruined my workplace by Atemisia Gentileschi
(C. 1621)
Painting by Artemisia Gentileschi depicting the biblical scene in which Judith slays Holofernes.
November 7, 2025 at 3:27 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
@sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com:
The American system of limited government—the system that has guided our nation from a collection of squabbling revolutionaries to the greatest power in history—is built on the bedrock idea that it matters how decisions are made. Democratically, with checks and balances, and respect for certain inalienable rights. The alternative is dictatorship. And dictatorship is what Trump is attempting to institute. This fact has been somewhat disguised from the American people, because Trump's assault on our republic has taken place with the complicity of Congress and the Supreme Court. The Republicans in Congress have simply declined to assert their control over the purse strings. Republicans on the Court, meanwhile, have issued a blizzard of "temporary" orders and rulings, staying lower court rulings that went against Trump.
November 7, 2025 at 1:35 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
“Unbecomingly mean”

@stevevladeck.bsky.social analysis here is worth a read.
The inference that first sentence leaves is that the majority just doesn’t think discrimination against transgender and nonbinary individuals is a thing. But whether or not the Constitution forbids such discrimination, acting as if it doesn’t happen is not just violating long-settled standards of appellate procedure; it is unbecomingly mean.
November 7, 2025 at 1:21 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
www.thebulwark.com/p/kash-patel...
What’s fairly clear is that Patel has been using the jet for events that have no real overlap with the actual responsibilities of the FBI. It’s an issue that came up in a September Senate hearing. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) showed blown-up pictures of Patel hobnobbing ringside with celebrities at UFC matches in Las Vegas and Miami, and chatting with hockey legend Wayne Gretzky at a New York hockey game—all trips Patel took on the government jet. “Congress made it mandatory,” Patel said in his defense. “We didn’t make it mandatory that you go to UFC games with Mel Gibson!” Welch said.
November 6, 2025 at 5:53 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social:

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...
One notable footnote to the Democrats’ victory here in Virginia: Remember the set of issues around transgender individuals that are widely, and maybe correctly, thought to have hurt Democrats in 2024? This year, more than half of the Republican spending on ads in the governors’ race was devoted to anti-trans messaging. Spanberger rebutted the attacks skillfully, and indeed framed the issue as one of bigotry and turned it against her opponent. And in House District 22, a Democrat, Elizabeth Guzman, who’d authored pro-trans legislation in the legislature in 2022, defeated a Republican incumbent who made this issue the center of his campaign.
November 6, 2025 at 2:20 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
We should all be supporting the trans community.

@charlotteclymer.bsky.social

charlotteclymer.substack.com/p/ride-the-b...
I have so many things to say about the results tonight, but there’s something which certainly stands out to me that I wish many Democrats in Congress would take to heart. Republicans across the country spent the past several months engaging in the most vicious anti-trans propaganda as part of their primary messaging. They sent mailers demonizing trans youth. They ran commercials and radio spots hurling transphobic bigotry at voters. They relentlessly gave interviews saying the most hurtful things about trans people. And they lost every single race tonight. It completely failed to resonate with voters. I have watched as these Republicans shamelessly dehumanized the trans community, and the Democrats in these races refused to throw us under the bus, even as I’m sure there were consultants and pundits telling them to do so, publicly and privately. But they didn’t.
November 5, 2025 at 9:51 AM
mnasca.bsky.social
In fact, the list of things you cannot pay for with SNAP is shorter than the list of things you can buy:
Things You Can Buy With SNAP Benefits Households can use SNAP benefits to buy to grow food for your household to eat: Fruits and vegetables; Meat, poultry, and fish Dairy products Loaves of bread and cereals Other foods such as snack foods and non-alcoholic beverages Seeds and plants, which produce food for the household to eat
October 31, 2025 at 11:33 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
It literally takes seconds to determine this is a full-blown racist lie:
Households cannot use SNAP benefits to buy nonfood items such as: Beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes, or tobacco Vitamins, medicines, and supplements. If an item has a Supplement Facts label, it is considered a supplement and is not eligible for SNAP purchase. Live animals (except shellfish, fish removed from the water, and animals slaughtered prior to pick-up from the store). Prepared Foods fit for immediate consumption Hot foods Any nonfood items such as Pet foods Cleaning supplies, paper products, and other household supplies, hygiene items, cosmetics
October 31, 2025 at 11:31 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
@charlotteclymer.bsky.social as always is spot on here:

charlotteclymer.substack.com/p/this-shit-...
Muslim Americans have a long and proud history of service to this country, and when we allow people like Mr. Cuomo to endorse such a racist ideology, we dishonor not only Muslims Americans but the central idea of what we want America to be. You don’t have to like Mr. Mamdani or support his policies or vote for him, but you cannot allow someone like Mr. Cuomo to use hatred and fear to exploit this moment in our country’s history for his own political gain. This shit has got to stop.
October 24, 2025 at 3:03 AM
mnasca.bsky.social
Excellent piece refuting the R lies.
There is really no other way to put it: The GOP’s tit-for-tat karma defense is not only morally appalling but also an artifice built on lies. And even if some of it were true—which it isn’t—it would not justify, excuse, or mitigate the orgy of real weaponization currently taking place at Trump’s explicit direction.
October 23, 2025 at 9:47 AM
mnasca.bsky.social
You’d better believe it!
@jvl.bsky.social :
It is maximally important to demonstrate—both to the authoritarians and those who oppose them—that the ratchet can go in reverse. That authoritarian gains are not permanent. That liberal society has the will to undo their grotesqueries. In this way, demolishing the Trump ballroom and restoring the East Wing will be symbolic. But symbolism matters a great deal to authoritarians. Champions of democracy ought to respect that insight and learn from it. If we get another Democratic president, he must tear down this monstrosity, brick by brick, and show the Trumpists that while their project might succeed for a time, liberalism won’t go quietly. That there will be no throne for them. That every time they build one, we’ll tear it down.
October 22, 2025 at 4:39 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
@charlotteclymer.bsky.social at her best, addressing Chip Roy’s derogatory comments about No Kings protestors. Check out the entire piece:

charlotteclymer.substack.com/p/an-open-le...
“Jesus is King” is not a political concept to those who understand Christ’s teachings and correctly separate, as Christ clearly did, the temporary nature of earthly political power from the eternal nature of Christ’s divine kingship. That divine kingship is not manifested in the physical world around us, whether that be a heavily-gilded Oval Office or arguments over human-made laws or the crowns worn by monarchs all over the world or the loud declarations of any aspiring tyrants. Christ’s divine kingship is manifested in our relationship with God and with Christ and with each other, as Christ explicitly taught. In regards to us, His Throne is only present in our hearts.
October 21, 2025 at 7:35 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
But the bitter truth is that Trump is an antipatriot. He destroys things that make America worthy of love and admiration, and he is twisting the country toward a mean, crass kleptocracy. Our global reputation for humanitarianism? Gone. Our investments in scientific research for the betterment of humanity? In trouble. Our status as a secure financial center? Wobbly. Our reliability as an ally? No more. Our dedication to the rule of law domestically? Teetering. Our rock-solid dedication to freedom of speech? Under threat.
October 21, 2025 at 7:20 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
But I defer to Rick Wilson’s description: Bondi strutted in, dialed the volume to eleven, and delivered the full martyrdom package: a sneering, venomous performance laced with sanctimony and shamelessness, larded with constant personal attacks against every Democratic Senator in the room, replete with wild accusations and wilder denials. MAGA will think she won today, but on the biggest question in Trump’s cobwebbed brain, she blew it. On Jeffrey Epstein, she failed to exonerate Trump, defend the coverup with anything even vaguely logical, and made the stench of her ongoing coverup even more rancid. Other than that, it went well.
October 8, 2025 at 4:44 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
You are either against Trump, or not. If you are against Trump then the anti-Trump movement must operate in solidarity. We do not have the luxury of saying, “Well yes, I dislike Trump. But Leader X wants higher marginal tax rates, so I can’t sign on with that.” This doesn’t mean you have to agree with everyone in the opposition. Just for the sake of argument, let’s pretend it’s October 2026 and AOC is the face of the opposition. You don’t have to suddenly love the Green New Deal and single-payer healthcare. You can disagree with those policies. But you cannot use those disagreements as pretext to distance yourself from the opposition movement. Remember: Any person or institution not explicitly anti-Trump becomes useful to him. You are either on the bus or you are off. And the point of solidarity is that everyone in the anti-Trump opposition needs to support one another. Again: History is clear on this.
October 8, 2025 at 4:03 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
This movement should have millions of highly activated people attached to it by the end of 2025, building to a show of strength in the summer of 2026. The goal should be a day when 2 million people show up in either New York or Washington and demonstrate that there is an unprecedented mass movement opposing the authoritarians running the federal government. That’s the moment you force the rest of America to take a side. And the moment you dare Trump to do what he’s always wanted: To take the mask all the way off and use force against American citizens. The more people you bring out, the greater the provocation and also, the safer the opposition will be. If you put 2 million people in the streets Trump will look weak if he doesn’t respond, but will look like a tyrant if he does. And everything is about making him unpopular and weak in the final stretch before November 2026.
October 8, 2025 at 4:03 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
Reposting with alt text
There are specific moments — and right now, to be honest they’re coming too frequently — where America crosses a once unthinkable bright line, moments that are worth noticing and calling out. This week’s Chicago raid was surely one of those. There is no warrant any judge could give — or at least, in theory, that any reasonable judge would ever sign! — that gives federal authorities the right to break down the doors of every apartment in a building in search of undocumented immigrants. That is almost exactly the definition of the so-called “general warrants” or “writs of assistance” that the British used against US colonists that helped spur the Revolution — warrants then very specifically outlawed by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.
October 8, 2025 at 2:12 PM
mnasca.bsky.social
Your argument is correct under normal circumstances. These are self-inflicted due to the tariffs just like when this Forbes article was written. Now China is buying from Argentina and Brazil instead. Once your customer has found another source, it doesn’t end well.
Did this turn out well for farmers? Experts say probably not. “Farmers would have been better off if the trade war had never started, to say nothing of the American businesses and consumers who continue to pay exorbitant tariffs, even after the ‘Phase 1’ U.S.-China trade deal,” said Bryan Riley, director of the National Taxpayers Union’s Free Trade Initiative, in an interview. “All the warnings issued by economists about the trade war, including higher costs for U.S. consumers, trade retaliation and heightened global tensions, have come true.”
October 8, 2025 at 11:52 AM
mnasca.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...
Now, though, those hypothetical cuts are real, and without the extension of the premium tax credit, the cost of many Americans’ healthcare premiums will skyrocket. As NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin pointed out on Saturday, about 24 million Americans who don’t have health insurance through their jobs or through Medicaid buy health insurance in the Affordable Care Act marketplace. According to the nonpartisan health research organization KFF, without the extension of the tax credits, premiums will go up an average of 114% for consumers. Spiking premiums will mean the healthiest people decide to go without health insurance, sending prices up for everyone else. Enrollment starts November 1, putting pressure on Congress to provide a fix before then. In a partisan twist, more than three in four people enrolled in ACA plans live in states Trump won in 2024. A KFF poll published October 3 shows that extending the premium tax credits is popular. Seventy-eight percent of Americans say they want Congress to extend the tax credits. That number includes 59% of Republicans and 57% of MAGA supporters.
October 7, 2025 at 8:47 AM