Twirling towards Freedom
LightNews LightNews
banner
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
Twirling towards Freedom
@twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
380 followers 860 following 1.8K posts
Sometimes I rage against the machine.
Sometimes I anxiety bake.
But always I'm twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.

Grew up in Texas, lived in NYC, live in Colorado, survive in the USofA
Posts Replies Media Videos
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
Rubio's efforts have been immoral. Period.
Did Rubio have any regrets about the untold number of lives that PEPFAR’s evisceration might cost? “No. First of all, whoever says that, it’s just not being accurate,” he told me. “We are not eviscerating PEPFAR. PEPFAR has been rearranged and reorganized in such a way where we’re now going to be able to deliver aid in a way that has a goal. The goal is to help countries become self-sustaining.” With a note of “America First,” he added: “Let’s begin with the premise: Is it the United States’ fault? Why isn’t China paying for more immunizations? Why isn’t the UK or Canada or any of the G7 countries?” (The UK, following in the footsteps of the US, slashed foreign aid in 2025. In November, China, which funded the Africa CDC, pledged $3.5 million in AIDS prevention in South Africa alone.) When I repeated Rubio’s comment to a former GOP White House chief of staff, he remarked: “I find that immoral.”
December 17, 2025 at 1:04 AM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
USAID was a "smallish agency" which saved millions of lives.
And here's Wiles quoted confirming they did "very good work."
Musk triggered the first true crisis of the Trump presidency and an early test for Wiles. Trump’s chief was shocked when the SpaceX founder eviscerated USAID, the United States Agency for International Development. “I was initially aghast,” Wiles told me. “Because I think anybody that pays attention to government and has ever paid attention to USAID believed, as I did, that they do very good work.” In his executive order freezing foreign aid, Trump had decreed that lifesaving programs should be spared. Instead, they were shuttered. “When Elon said, ‘We’re doing this,’ he was already into it,” said Wiles. “And that’s probably because he knew it would be horrifying to others. But he decided that it was a better approach to shut it down, fire everybody, shut them out, and then go rebuild. Not the way I would do it.” Wiles knew that fixing this was on her. “The president doesn’t know and never will,” she told me. “He doesn’t know the details of these smallish agencies.”
December 17, 2025 at 1:02 AM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
Cholera has spread to nearly every corner of South Sudan, infected at least 100,000 people and killed 1,600, though cases began abating this fall. The true death toll is impossible to know, in part because clinics that would have cared for people and counted the dead were shuttered. The Trump administration also cut funding to the World Health Organization, which helped the South Sudanese government gather accurate data on the outbreak.
December 15, 2025 at 9:36 PM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
This week needed a sweet potato stew + cornbread with hot honey butter (recipes below)
#anxietybaking #anxietycooking
Bowl of spicy lentil & sweet potato stew + plate with 2 cheesy cornbread muffins w smidge of hot honey butter
December 13, 2025 at 5:52 AM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
There is much else in the Amnesty report that should prompt not only a shutdown of this entire enterprise but an immediate criminal investigation. According to Amnesty, the unusual relationship between ICE and Florida leads to disappearances, since migrants held by ICE and transferred to Alligator Alcatraz no longer appear in ICE's databases. "They are also not registered in any public database where their families and lawyers can search for and confirm their whereabouts. This means that there is no official record of their detention and no way to track where they are being detained," Amnesty writes.
December 8, 2025 at 11:41 PM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
Boy howdy, these are yummy. Another win from @smittenkitchen.bsky.social's Keepers cookbook:
Chocolate chip cookies w salted walnut brittle
#anxietybaking
Plate of 4 cookies: Chocolate chip cookies with salted walnut brittle
December 8, 2025 at 12:31 AM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
The ego, the racism, the blandness of the Trump regime.
We fought for our parks before, and we will do it again.
First they came for the scientists. And the NPS said, "LOL, NO." And went rogue. And we were all, like, "I was not expecting the park rangers to lead the resistance. None of the dystopian novels I read prepared me for this. But, cool."
December 6, 2025 at 7:55 PM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
Immigration judges are the people who conduct hearings when the Department of Homeland Security wants to deport someone whom it claims violated federal immigration law. They decide things like whether a noncitizen can be removed from the country and, even if they can be, if there’s a good reason they shouldn’t be—for example, if they have a credible fear of persecution in their home country. Given the massive stakes and their lack of resources commensurate with those risks, immigration judges have likened their task to “deciding death penalty cases in a traffic court environment.”
December 3, 2025 at 9:22 PM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
One recently fired immigration judge in San Francisco, fellow union leader Jeremiah Johnson, told NBC Bay Area that the Department of Justice has issued a bevy of memos “giving judges the hint” that they should hear and decide cases a certain way: “Move faster. Less due process, essentially,” he said. Another former immigration judge, Emmett Soper in Virginia, similarly told PBS that the Trump administration “does not fundamentally see the immigration courts as neutral decision-makers,” but as “a tool for this administration to advance its policy objectives.” Still another former judge in San Francisco, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “Firing judges for doing their jobs is not about efficiency, it’s about control.”
December 3, 2025 at 9:21 PM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
Our country is whack; you deserve a treat.
From the Magnolia Bakery Handbook, bake up the recipe for Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies.
#anxietybaking
Surprisingly, not overpowered by the eponymous ingredients. Tastes like scrumptious, chocolatey brownies.
Plate of 3 delicious Cranberry white chocolate chunk cookies
November 27, 2025 at 3:35 AM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
Christy Lopez, a former senior civil rights litigator at the Department of Justice, said many of the bystander and news videos she’s seen show “clearly excessive, unreasonable force” that her former office would have investigated as potential crimes. “They are clearly violating people’s rights,” said Lopez, who now teaches at Georgetown Law. “It’s probably criminal, and it should be investigated as such.” “I don’t say that lightly,” added Lopez, who led investigations into misconduct and excessive force at police departments including Los Angeles, Chicago and Ferguson, Missouri. “This is a very different situation than anything we’ve seen in the past in terms of just the routine and really brazen use of force in violation of people’s rights.”
November 25, 2025 at 10:07 PM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
Yes, yes they are.
“It all felt cruel,” Hamer told reporters. She noted that the pepper ball launchers are similar in design to recreational paintball guns. “I have teenage boys, so when I look at [agents], I’m like, … are you pretending that you’re in a video game right now?”
November 25, 2025 at 10:05 PM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
"Where Border Patrol places its cameras is a closely guarded secret. However, through public records requests, the AP obtained dozens of permits the agency filed with Arizona and Michigan for permission to place cameras on state-owned land. The permits show the agency frequently disguises its cameras by concealing them in traffic equipment like the yellow and orange barrels that dot American roadways, or by labeling them as jobsite equipment. An AP photographer in October visited the locations identified in more than two dozen permit applications in Arizona, finding that most of the Border Patrol’s hidden equipment remains in place today. Spokespeople for the Arizona and Michigan departments of transportation said they approve permits based on whether they follow state and federal rules and are not privy to details on how license plate readers are used. Texas, California, and other border states did not provide documents in response to the AP’s public records requests."
November 24, 2025 at 12:48 AM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
"“They are collecting mass amounts of information about who people are, where they go, what they do, and who they know … engaging in dragnet surveillance of Americans on the streets, on the highways, in their cities, in their communities,” Nicole Ozer, the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Democracy at UC Law San Francisco, said in response to the AP’s findings. “These surveillance systems do not make communities safer.”"
November 24, 2025 at 12:43 AM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
"Reproductive health advocates say the products stuck in Belgium are only part of the problem and that there are likely more contraceptives held up at other points in the global supply chain. One group, PAI, says the value of contraceptives supplies already purchased by the U.S. government but stuck in limbo at risk of expiration could be as high as $40 million."
November 24, 2025 at 12:04 AM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
"After each visit, students came up to tell me that much, if not all, of what we’d covered was new to them. Many wondered why they had never heard it before. One seventh grader in Richmond told me that our discussion about the history and public memory of slavery had changed her understanding of why century-old statues of Confederate leaders had been taken down in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. She now saw that the distorted Lost Cause narrative of the Old South can skew people’s perceptions of racial inequality today. One young woman in Charleston told me that learning this history had inspired her to start an after-school book club with members of her school’s Black-student association; they would focus on learning history they weren’t taught in class. She hoped they might eventually recommend books for teachers to use in class, so that all students could be exposed to these ideas."
November 23, 2025 at 11:29 PM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
Should you wanna try something different with your sourdough starter, here's a great focaccia recipe.
(I tossed some garlic into the final olive oil drizzle, then added fresh basil & rosemary to the sea salt)
#anxietybaking
Bake it: www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/big-...
Round focaccia with garlic, rosemary and basil flakes
November 23, 2025 at 6:43 AM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
Warm up with some sweet potato soup doused with chile oil!
#anxietycooking
Cook it: cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021...
Bowl of sweet potato + garlic soup with chile oil
November 22, 2025 at 6:05 AM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
SHOPPING BOYCOTT: Thanksgiving thru Cyber Monday!
🚫 No Target 🚫 No Amazon 🚫 No Home Depot 🚫
👉Redirect spending: Skip companies undermining democracy. Shop small, local or with businesses affirming our humanity.👈
We ain't buying it! Your wallet, your power (photo of protestors holding up signs)
November 20, 2025 at 8:20 PM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
When asked for comment about Trump’s remarks on Air Force One, a White House official told The Guardian, “This reporter behaved in an inappropriate and unprofessional way towards her colleagues on the plane … If you’re going to give it, you have to be able to take.” The White House did not provide any evidence of inappropriate behavior. “Giving it” is doing one’s job, apparently, and “taking it” is being called a pig by the president for asking him a question.
November 19, 2025 at 11:36 PM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
Ah, I want to believe in the latter so badly…
November 19, 2025 at 12:45 AM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
"Today, the Washington Post opinion section is going through an increasing Saudification – imposing harsh red lines on who and what can publish. Under owner Jeff Bezos’s edict to write only about “free markets” and “personal liberties”, the Washington Post opinion section, the first major US paper to publicly impose such heavy censorship, purged nearly all its full-time voices that wrote against censorship, political violence and repression at home and abroad, myself included. To date, the Washington Post editorial board has not mentioned Jamal’s name ahead of Prince Mohammed’s visit. The Saudification of the mainstream news media means that other US media outlets and institutions are bending the knee to Trump, agreeing to multimillion-dollar shakedowns in exchange for eliminating diversity. He has sued outlets he claims were not fair to him. He has begun attempting to prosecute his political rivals. Pro-Saudi voices would argue that moralizing about chopped-up journalists does us no good, shouldn’t get in the way of the US-Saudi partnership, that there is too much money at stake, and that in order for the west’s colonial management of the Middle East, we need our friends in Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel. They are effectively asking Americans to believe that America and Saudi Arabia will make the world a better place, together."
November 18, 2025 at 10:55 PM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
Duncan, 62, had only an eighth-grade education when he was incarcerated but became a legal expert while still in prison, helping other inmates challenge unconstitutional practices. He later became a lawyer. In 2020, Duncan’s legal advocacy drove the U.S. Supreme Court to end non-unanimous jury convictions in Louisiana and Oregon, the only two states still allowing a practice rooted in the Jim Crow era. Duncan, who recalls that it took years for incarcerated people to get access to basic court documents, says he sought the clerk position to ensure fair treatment for all and that records are treated with greater care and respect.
November 16, 2025 at 10:45 PM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
Terrible photo because they were soaring so high, but giddy to see that bald eagle season has begun again in Denver! So lovely to be reminded that the world is bigger than our human drama.
2 bald eagles soaring high above
November 16, 2025 at 9:32 PM
twirlingtofreedom.bsky.social
Should you also find yourself with a bag of dried black beans you stored up in the beginning of the pandemic, this is a tasty use of it.
#anxietycooking
@smittenkitchen.bsky.social's Black Bean Soup with chipotle & toasted cumin seed crème fraîche
Recipe: smittenkitchen.com/2010/01/blac...
Bowl of black bean soup swirled with toasted cumin seed crème fraîche
November 16, 2025 at 5:52 AM