Melanie Swiderek Howard
@zahra888.bsky.social
She/they. Married, 2 stepdaughters, 4 rescued kitties. Progressive. UCC. Marketing/technical writer. Geek/nerd.
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
Trump: "We're gonna be selling a gold card. You have a green card, this is a gold card. We're gonna put a price on that card of about $5 million and that's going to give you green card privileges, plus. It's gonna be a route to citizenship, and wealthy people will be coming into our country."
February 25, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Trump: "We're gonna be selling a gold card. You have a green card, this is a gold card. We're gonna put a price on that card of about $5 million and that's going to give you green card privileges, plus. It's gonna be a route to citizenship, and wealthy people will be coming into our country."
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
This is a full purge of every single LGBTQ employee at the NSA. Rufo is falsely mischaracterizing a LGBTQ employee resource group as a "sex chat" to create pretext to fire every single member in it.
This is a playbook they will run to purge the entire federal government.
This is a playbook they will run to purge the entire federal government.
February 25, 2025 at 10:57 PM
This is a full purge of every single LGBTQ employee at the NSA. Rufo is falsely mischaracterizing a LGBTQ employee resource group as a "sex chat" to create pretext to fire every single member in it.
This is a playbook they will run to purge the entire federal government.
This is a playbook they will run to purge the entire federal government.
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
If your FB profile is still active, check your “following” list.
My profile (but not my Page) is suddenly, newly following these accounts; I did not opt in or agree to do so.
Others are reporting that “unfollowing” doesn’t work, so “blocking” is one’s only recourse.
Have you found the same?
My profile (but not my Page) is suddenly, newly following these accounts; I did not opt in or agree to do so.
Others are reporting that “unfollowing” doesn’t work, so “blocking” is one’s only recourse.
Have you found the same?
January 20, 2025 at 10:54 PM
If your FB profile is still active, check your “following” list.
My profile (but not my Page) is suddenly, newly following these accounts; I did not opt in or agree to do so.
Others are reporting that “unfollowing” doesn’t work, so “blocking” is one’s only recourse.
Have you found the same?
My profile (but not my Page) is suddenly, newly following these accounts; I did not opt in or agree to do so.
Others are reporting that “unfollowing” doesn’t work, so “blocking” is one’s only recourse.
Have you found the same?
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
Former Pennsylvania Judge Michael Conahan accepted nearly $3 million in kickbacks for sending 2,300 children — some as young as 8 years old — to for-profit prisons on false charges. Why did Biden grant him clemency?
Mother of Son in “Kids for Cash” Scheme Slams Biden’s Clemency for Judge
President Joe Biden’s decision to grant clemency to a corrupt former judge has sparked widespread outrage, including from members of his own party. Biden announced nearly 1,500 commutations and pardon...
www.democracynow.org
December 18, 2024 at 11:46 AM
Former Pennsylvania Judge Michael Conahan accepted nearly $3 million in kickbacks for sending 2,300 children — some as young as 8 years old — to for-profit prisons on false charges. Why did Biden grant him clemency?
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
The lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, which for decades has protected millions of people from a virus that can cause paralysis or death.
Kennedy’s Lawyer Has Asked the F.D.A. to Revoke Approval of the Polio Vaccine
Aaron Siri, who specializes in vaccine lawsuits, has been at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s side reviewing candidates for top jobs at the Department of Health and Human Services.
www.nytimes.com
December 13, 2024 at 11:18 AM
The lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, which for decades has protected millions of people from a virus that can cause paralysis or death.
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
When techbros say “Move fast and break things,” what they’re talking about breaking are laws and the middle class.
It's not uncommon for Silicon Valley "disruptor" business models to violate the law. It's a big part of how they disrupt: they don't bother with the laws & regulations that their competitors follow.
Their goal is to get so popular so quickly that the law gets changed to allow them to continue.
Their goal is to get so popular so quickly that the law gets changed to allow them to continue.
As I’ve been saying for over a year:
If your business model doesn’t work without violating the law, you’re not in business — you’re in organized crime.
Great reporting by @elainelow.bsky.social. theankler.com/p/tv-writers...
If your business model doesn’t work without violating the law, you’re not in business — you’re in organized crime.
Great reporting by @elainelow.bsky.social. theankler.com/p/tv-writers...
November 25, 2024 at 8:31 PM
When techbros say “Move fast and break things,” what they’re talking about breaking are laws and the middle class.
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
“Can the C.E.O. class drop its indifference to the suffering and death of ordinary people? Is it possible to do so while achieving record quarterly profits for your stakeholders, in perpetuity?” Jia Tolentino writes about Brian Thompson’s murder.
A Man Was Murdered in Cold Blood and You’re Laughing?
What the death of a health-insurance C.E.O. means to America.
www.newyorker.com
December 7, 2024 at 9:43 PM
“Can the C.E.O. class drop its indifference to the suffering and death of ordinary people? Is it possible to do so while achieving record quarterly profits for your stakeholders, in perpetuity?” Jia Tolentino writes about Brian Thompson’s murder.
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
I hope he pardons like 5,500 people and Jill and Major.
December 2, 2024 at 10:09 PM
I hope he pardons like 5,500 people and Jill and Major.
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
This is important
The North Carolina General Assembly’s GOP supermajority just approved a hugely corrupt power grab, seizing authority from the governor and the courts to prevent any meaningful check on legislative abuses. Authoritarian stuff. A very dark day for democracy in NC. amp.newsobserver.com/news/politic...
December 3, 2024 at 12:20 AM
This is important
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
Former federal prosecutor Harry Litman: "But in fact, President Biden’s pardon was justified and falls within the heartland of executive clemency cases. A clear-eyed analysis of the facts, the law, and, crucially, DOJ standard practice in Hunter Biden’s case establishes this."
Night of the Hunter
You could almost hear the howls of protest begin on Capitol Hill the moment President Biden announced he was granting a pardon to his son, Hunter.
harrylitman.substack.com
December 2, 2024 at 3:41 PM
Former federal prosecutor Harry Litman: "But in fact, President Biden’s pardon was justified and falls within the heartland of executive clemency cases. A clear-eyed analysis of the facts, the law, and, crucially, DOJ standard practice in Hunter Biden’s case establishes this."
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
I can’t tell you how different it is on X now after so many people have left. I have always followed mostly right-wing accounts because I cover them, and they are running out of people to pick fights with. So they’re just mostly fighting with each other.
November 23, 2024 at 10:07 PM
I can’t tell you how different it is on X now after so many people have left. I have always followed mostly right-wing accounts because I cover them, and they are running out of people to pick fights with. So they’re just mostly fighting with each other.
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
“bluesky is an echo chamber” everywhere’s an echo chamber i’m going with the one without cybertruck guys
November 17, 2024 at 4:30 AM
“bluesky is an echo chamber” everywhere’s an echo chamber i’m going with the one without cybertruck guys
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
Trump now says he wants U.S. citizens who oppose him politically to be “handled” by the military. This is the very definition of fascist authoritarianism — so where the hell is the U.S. media? @washingtonpost.com? @nytimes.com? PUT THIS ON YOUR FRONT PAGES!
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Trump says ‘enemy from within’ should be ‘handled’ by military: Election 2024 news
New national polls from ABC, NBC, and CBS show tight race, with Kamala Harris’s lead narrowing in two and dead heat in one
www.independent.co.uk
October 13, 2024 at 8:11 PM
Trump now says he wants U.S. citizens who oppose him politically to be “handled” by the military. This is the very definition of fascist authoritarianism — so where the hell is the U.S. media? @washingtonpost.com? @nytimes.com? PUT THIS ON YOUR FRONT PAGES!
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
And Vance and the rest of the fash GOP are saying this out loud. They are literally saying “we made up a blood libel so you’d be forced to doubt yourselves when questioning our Generalplan Ost.”
The point isn’t to get the Times to print the 14 Words, it’s to make sure the mainstream press keeps focusing on “concerns about crime and immigration”
When your savvy position contorts you into arguing that the press is accurately covering the racist depths of Trump’s messaging
September 22, 2024 at 7:04 PM
And Vance and the rest of the fash GOP are saying this out loud. They are literally saying “we made up a blood libel so you’d be forced to doubt yourselves when questioning our Generalplan Ost.”
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
Furious at Ds for failing to push back on this for YEARS.
This is the result of years of far right messaging entering the right wing mainstream, then being laundered into centrist and mainstream media as legitimate policy.
This is how horrors like concentration camps become normalized.
This is how horrors like concentration camps become normalized.
Scripps News/Ipsos poll: Majority supports mass deportation of undocumented immigrants
A majority of Americans support the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, according to a new Scripps News/Ipsos survey.
www.scrippsnews.com
September 22, 2024 at 7:32 PM
Furious at Ds for failing to push back on this for YEARS.
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
Bouie’s newsletter is on point (as always) this week:
“Jim Crow was not free. The South paid for its negrophobia with endemic poverty so deep and shocking that we can still feel its effects in the present day.
So it goes with the Trump-Vance campaign against immigrants.”
“Jim Crow was not free. The South paid for its negrophobia with endemic poverty so deep and shocking that we can still feel its effects in the present day.
So it goes with the Trump-Vance campaign against immigrants.”
September 21, 2024 at 2:42 PM
Bouie’s newsletter is on point (as always) this week:
“Jim Crow was not free. The South paid for its negrophobia with endemic poverty so deep and shocking that we can still feel its effects in the present day.
So it goes with the Trump-Vance campaign against immigrants.”
“Jim Crow was not free. The South paid for its negrophobia with endemic poverty so deep and shocking that we can still feel its effects in the present day.
So it goes with the Trump-Vance campaign against immigrants.”
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
Undocumented immigrants paid $97B in taxes in 2022.
T-Mobile, Office Depot, and Duke Energy made billions in profits but paid nothing in federal income taxes between 2018 and 2022.
Remember this the next time the undocumented are called "freeloaders."
T-Mobile, Office Depot, and Duke Energy made billions in profits but paid nothing in federal income taxes between 2018 and 2022.
Remember this the next time the undocumented are called "freeloaders."
September 21, 2024 at 10:02 PM
Undocumented immigrants paid $97B in taxes in 2022.
T-Mobile, Office Depot, and Duke Energy made billions in profits but paid nothing in federal income taxes between 2018 and 2022.
Remember this the next time the undocumented are called "freeloaders."
T-Mobile, Office Depot, and Duke Energy made billions in profits but paid nothing in federal income taxes between 2018 and 2022.
Remember this the next time the undocumented are called "freeloaders."
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
The Washington Post was the only one out of five of the top newspapers to cover in print Vance’s indication that Trump would gut the Affordable Care Act, reversing protections for seniors and people with preexisting conditions www.mediamatters.org/health-care/...
Vance's ACA remarks deserve more attention than they've gotten from top newspapers
The Washington Post was the only paper out of five of the top newspapers to cover in print Sen. JD Vance’s (R-OH) indication that a second Trump administration would gut the Affordable Care Act, rever...
www.mediamatters.org
September 21, 2024 at 12:48 AM
The Washington Post was the only one out of five of the top newspapers to cover in print Vance’s indication that Trump would gut the Affordable Care Act, reversing protections for seniors and people with preexisting conditions www.mediamatters.org/health-care/...
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
This is cool. www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/o...
Star Wars film newly dubbed in Ojibway will give 'boost' to the language, its Darth Vader actor says | CBC Radio
Translating the original Star Wars film wasn’t without its challenges, but Dennis Daminos Chartrand says the act helps preserve a language his people were once barred from speaking.
www.cbc.ca
September 21, 2024 at 4:31 AM
This is cool. www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/o...
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
It's good that GOP Gov Mike DeWine urged Trump and Vance to stop smearing Haitians. But DeWine misses something big here: Trump *wants* the Springfield debate to be as charged with hate and rage as possible. He thinks that's a winner for him. 1/
New piece
newrepublic.com/article/1862...
New piece
newrepublic.com/article/1862...
A GOP Gov’s Harsh Takedown of Trump and Vance Exposes MAGA’s Ugly Core
Finally, a top Republican calls on Trump to stop attacking Haitians, arguing that it’s politically backfiring. But Trump wants this debate to be as charged with hate and rage as possible.
newrepublic.com
September 21, 2024 at 11:49 AM
It's good that GOP Gov Mike DeWine urged Trump and Vance to stop smearing Haitians. But DeWine misses something big here: Trump *wants* the Springfield debate to be as charged with hate and rage as possible. He thinks that's a winner for him. 1/
New piece
newrepublic.com/article/1862...
New piece
newrepublic.com/article/1862...
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
ALSO: Election updates for Nevada, Georgia, and Nebraska. www.lawdork.com/i/149160408/...
September 20, 2024 at 9:07 PM
ALSO: Election updates for Nevada, Georgia, and Nebraska. www.lawdork.com/i/149160408/...
Reposted by Melanie Swiderek Howard
NEW: The Biden administration on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to protect preventative care services offered under the Affordable Care Act in a case that could affect access to cancer screenings and HIV prevention drugs.
Biden admin asks SCOTUS to take up case threatening ACA preventative care coverage
The case filed by religious employers opposed to coverage of contraceptives and an HIV prevention drug, PrEP, has expanded to threaten care for "millions."
www.lawdork.com
September 20, 2024 at 8:45 PM
NEW: The Biden administration on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to protect preventative care services offered under the Affordable Care Act in a case that could affect access to cancer screenings and HIV prevention drugs.
Illegal, but also slower, less reliable, and may delay results. I hope there are some quick lawsuits before the election!
www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...
Georgia election board passes hand-count rule despite warnings the decision is illegal – US politics live
State board meeting approves rule requiring election workers to hand count ballots on election night by three votes to two
www.theguardian.com
September 20, 2024 at 4:19 PM
Illegal, but also slower, less reliable, and may delay results. I hope there are some quick lawsuits before the election!
www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...