Hearing more reports from people I know of ICE chasing down farm workers in fields in Oxnard. This is all not very good, for countless reasons, but mostly for snatching hardworking citizens of this county for no reason but racists in the WH. #VenturaCounty #ICE #politics #agriculture
politics
Food for thought from David Rothkopf:
"One of the most important jobs we face in life is distinguishing between what is real and what is not.
It is American capitalism, as it is practiced here in all its Darwinian law of the jungle brutality, that is killing American democracy.
Many other societies offer a better quality of life. Many other countries provide more generously and wisely for their people. Many other countries are better democracies."
https://davidrothkopf.substack.com/p/we-are-not-the-nation-we-thought
#Politics
1/n
Thousands Of Chicagoans Take To The Streets To Protest ICE Raids, Trump Immigration Policies
#politics
https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/06/10/thousands-of-chicagoans-take-to-the-streets-to-protest-ice-raids-trump-immigration-policies/
The BBC is shocked when Israeli soldiers – illegally occupying Syria – identify its film crew, point guns at their heads, strip-search them, then blindfold and interrogate them.
Might it encourage the BBC to report the systematic murder of Palestinian journalists in Gaza?
Most of the focus on the House passing the budget bill is on the numbers. (It is a budget bill.)
But this, as the screenshot says, should it survive the Senate, completes the transition of the US to a dictatorship.
We were warned. We didn't pay enough attention.
No-one will be surprised that MI5 has been lying to those who are supposed to regulate (oversee) its conduct, inlacing the courts.
You may be more surprised to see its a BBC journalist who has been working to push that out into the open...
As before, claims by the Secret Services that they need to keep their secrets but are working fairly & honourably don't survive contact with reality.
The Limitations of Professional Psychology - Tuning In
This is just an overview, a summary, of my thoughts from over three decades of study and practice in positive psychology to describe some limitations of contemporary professional psychology. What do you think? What have I missed? I’m eager for any comments, disagreements, or other perspectives.
#Psychology #MentalHealth #Healthcare #Politics #culture
http://www.ajschuler.com/blog/the-limitations-of-professional-psychology
The story of this exodus—of men and women who had once been enslaved—is one of harrowing survival. The Black Loyalists fled to the British not out of fealty to a distant crown, but because the British offered what the American Republic did not: freedom. And now, in the winter of 1782, they waited. Waited to see whether freedom, once granted, could be taken back.
1/20
Image: Black Loyalist Richard Pierpoint, artist, Malcolm Jones, Canadian War Museum.
#history #canada #Blackmastodon #politics
This was never about “protecting” college seats for US citizens. It has always been about fear—about sending a chilling message to undocumented youth that they are not welcome, no matter how long they’ve lived here, or how much they’ve already given back.
https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-dream-act-paxton-trump-immigrant-rights-movement/
It's a little strange how The European Union does not condemn the harshness of the actions of the US regime towards the rioters, does not call the protest peaceful, does not demand to start a dialogue, does not send deputies and officials there, does not threaten the US and its leadership with sanctions and a cooling of relations, does not talk about curtailing democracy and reforms, does not condemn the use of the National Guard against protesters. 🤔
58 years ago:
“Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. No Viet Cong ever called me nigger."
For this refusal—for standing on faith in a country that demanded obedience—he was made an example. The response came swift: they stripped him of his title, suspended him from boxing, fined him $10,000, and, on June 20, 1967, sentenced him to five years in federal prison.
#History #Histodons #Politics
1/5
Video: Muhammad Ali Refuses Army Induction, April 28, 1967.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Z2xrr2OuoYg?si=sgOcYyfS8d5ZJq1Q
Edited 109d ago
Dear G-d:
When I said that I wondered what watching a dictatorship form would be like, I didn't mean it *this* way!
Over 100 years ago, El Paso became the first city in the USA to ban marijuana. Now, #Texas is renewing its commitment to tradition with a bill that will destroy 10,000s of jobs if it goes into effect, fully banning all products with THC despite years of normalization of their usage in our state.
My latest for the @TexasObserver: https://www.texasobserver.org/dan-patrick-texas-devastating-thc-ban/
#drugs #health #cannabis #news #politics #USpol #TXlege #law #police
On May 1, 1865, in the 1st spring of freedom, Black Charlestonians held a procession to honor Union soldiers buried in a mass grave.
They came with roses. With hymns. With children.
It was the 1st Memorial Day.
But America gave the credit to others & buried the memory.
#MemorialDay #History #Histodons #Politics #photography #blackandwhite
#blackmastodon
#blackandwhitephotography
1/21
Image: Black American Civil War Memorial, Spirit of Freedom statue by Ed Hamilton 1997, NPS Photo Washington DC.
Edited 107d ago
NPR: 'Bring Carol home:' ICE snatches rural Missouri mom at immigration check-in
"...Mayorga, whose legal name is Ming Li Hui, has been detained in jail under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since late April. She’d traveled from Kennett, Missouri, her home for nearly two decades, to St. Louis for what she thought was a routine meeting to renew her employment authorization document.
The document, issued by the federal government, allows her to work legally in the U.S. and is set to expire in January 2026.
Originally from Hong Kong, Mayorga said she was used to the meetings. But when she arrived, things were anything but usual...."
https://www.stlpr.org/law-order/2025-05-24/missouri-kennett-woman-ice-deportation-visa
As Nicola Sturgeon observes:
'How much better the world might be now if we had leaders with an ounce of the self-awareness that, alongside her empathy, courage & intelligence, Jacinda Ardern has in abundance'...
She may not have achieved everything she promised or aspired to but a world led by leaders such as Aedern & Sturgeon would be preferable to the one we find ourselves in right now - not perfect, certainly, but better!
#politics
https://observer.co.uk/culture/books/article/nicola-sturgeon-jacinda-ardern-offered-a-different-template-for-politics
How Thomas Nast’s Cartoons Transformed American Life And Culture
By Kaleena Fraga
https://allthatsinteresting.com/thomas-nast-cartoons#34
The Man With the Carpet Bag
Edited 106d ago
From George Orwell's 1984, published OTD, 8 June 1949 -
"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power.
Power is not a means; it is an end.
Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.
To die hating them, that was freedom.
War is peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength.”
Are we there yet?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
#Politics
1/n
Edited 94d ago
Ronnie Dugger, founding editor and longtime publisher of the Texas Observer and for many years the crusading conscience of the progressive movement in Texas and beyond, died of complications of dementia at a hospice center in Austin on May 27. He was 95. https://www.texasobserver.org/ronnie-dugger-1930-2025/
#politics #USpol #journalism #RIP #Texas #media #history #news
The latest from cartoonist Ben Sargent, in our magazine.
Read more from the May / June 2025 issue: https://www.texasobserver.org/issues/may-june-2025/
#education #religion #schools #politics #USpol #Texas #TXlege #comics
Edited 111d ago
In 1783, nearly 3,000 Black Loyalists arrived in Nova Scotia—free in name, but not in fate. Promised land and liberty, they built settlements from bark and memory, while the empire marked their freedom with boundaries. It is a story of what they built, what was taken, and what remains. #Juneteenth #Histodons #politics #BlackMastodon #history #photography
1/19
Image: Temporary shelters the Black Loyalists lived in on their arrival in Nova Scotia in 1783. Black Loyalists Heritage Center, NS.
“Texans know bullshit when we see it. This bill is a political stunt designed to distract us from the damage the state’s #abortion ban continues to cause.” https://www.texasobserver.org/legislature-abortion-reproductive-rights-bills-2025/
#news #politics #USpol #health #healthcare #TXlege #HumanRights #women #Texas
I'm kind of sick of endless #superhero movies and endless reboots
But I can totally get behind this:
"#JamesGunn Says ‘#Superman’ Is About an ‘#Immigrant That Came From Other Places’ and How We’ve ‘Lost’ the Value of ‘Basic Human Kindness’: ‘Yes, it’s About #Politics’"
So much can be mined from the golden age of comic books which had its roots in fighting #fascism in #WWII
And the silver age and the #civilRights struggle (#XMen)
#PopCulture is a tool to fight #MAGA
Edited 65d ago
Capitalism is just paywalls stacked on paywalls. Pay to eat. Pay to sleep. Pay to drink. Pay to breathe. Miss a payment? Game over.
Capitalism isn’t an economy, it’s a hostage situation.