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unschooleveryfam.bsky.social
@unschooleveryfam.bsky.social
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Reposted
propublica.org
5/ In November, State Department human rights leaders met with one of Blinken’s top lieutenants and begged the administration to follow through on a threat to cut off arms to Israel for blocking humanitarian assistance.

Here’s what happened 👇
Screenshot of excerpt from ProPublica article: Several attendees at the November meeting — officials who help lead the State Department's efforts to promote racial equity, religious freedom and other high-minded principles of democracy — said the United States' international credibility had been severely damaged by Biden's unstinting support of Israel. If there was ever a time to hold Israel accountable, one ambassador at the meeting told Tom Sullivan, the State Department's counselor and a senior policy adviser to Blinken, it was now. But the decision had already been made. Sullivan said the deadline would likely pass without action and Biden would continue sending shipments of bombs uninterrupted, according to two people who were in the meeting. (Continued screenshot of article): Those in the room deflated. "Don't our law, policy and morals demand it?" an attendee told me later, reflecting on the decision to once again capitulate. "What is the rationale of this approach? There is no explanation they can articulate." Soon after, when the 30-day deadline was up, Blinken made it official and said that Israelis had begun implementing most of the steps he had laid out in his letter — all thanks to the pressure the U.S. had applied. That choice was immediately called into question. On Nov. 14, a U.N. committee said that Israel's methods in Gaza, including its use of starvation as a weapon, was "consistent with genocide." Amnesty International went further and concluded a genocide was underway. The International Criminal Court also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for the war crime of deliberately starving civilians, among other allegations. (The U.S. and Israeli governments have rejected the genocide determination as well as the warrants.)
January 16, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Reposted
propublica.org
🧵 THREAD: Our reporter spent the past year reporting inside the State Department, trying to answer the central question of Biden’s foreign policy:

How did the U.S. let Israel get away with widespread horrors in Gaza?
January 16, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Reposted
indivisible.org
🚨 The Senate will soon vote on the Laken Riley Act. This cruel and chaotic bill isn’t about keeping communities safe — it’s about stoking fear and division and handing MAGA extremists unchecked power. We need you to contact your senators ASAP. 👇
January 17, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Reposted
lexmcmenamin.com
wrote a farewell to my, our, beloved David Lynch: about getting "fix your hearts or die" tattooed, the legions of queer and trans art his work has since enabled, and losing his genius in part to the ecological decline caused by the human hubris his work obsessed over. @them.us
“Fix Your Hearts or Die”: David Lynch’s Work Has Always Been Deeply, Powerfully Queer
The filmmaker was so much more than just an influence on his legion of LGBTQ+ fans.
www.them.us
January 16, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Reposted
ezralevin.bsky.social
These are the Dems who voted for the MAGA immigration bill - Laken Riley - barely getting it the support it needs to get to a final vote in the senate. Despicable. If you're a constituent, tell them.
January 17, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted
astra.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
Gaza death toll 40% higher than official number, Lancet study finds
Analysis estimates death toll by end of June was 64,260, with 59% being women, children and people over 65
www.theguardian.com
January 11, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Reposted
leahgreenberg.bsky.social
This is a bill designed to 1) hand Trump massive new powers to terrorize communities with ZERO oversight and 2) give extremist right-wing judges the power to set policy for all of us.

Let your Senator know that you oppose it and that you're watching how they vote.
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · Jan 8
New from me: The Laken Riley Act could hand decisions about the enforcement of many immigration laws to state attorneys general and any one of 677 federal district judges around the country; including decisions to issue visa bans to entire nations. The consequences could be extremely far-reaching.
Jan. 8, 2025, 2:54 PM EST By Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council Who runs the U.S. immigration system? If the Senate passes the Laken Riley Act this week, the answer might not be Congress or the president. The bill, already passed in the House, would hand state attorneys general, like Ken Paxton in Texas, veto power over large swaths of federal immigration policy. Under a provision of the bill that has gotten little attention, federal courts in places like Texas and Louisiana could hear lawsuits seeking to impose sweeping bans on all visas from countries such as India and China. State officials could also seek court orders forcing the government to deport a specific individual without the sign-off of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
January 9, 2025 at 3:41 AM