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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 11d

I thought he was Beck. 🤭

Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 23d

I hear Jon Stewart is hosting The Daily Show tonight & Maria Ressa is his guest. If you haven't dug into her work/interviews & have access to the show, please watch. I also highly recommend her book, How To Stand Up To A Dictator.

Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 23d

""Don't voluntarily give up your rights, right? ...in the Philippines, where the first newspaper gave up — the television station gave up largest — it lost its franchise or license to operate.

And guess what? It never regained it even after the time of Duterte."
www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa discusses state of U.S. democracy

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and journalist Maria Ressa has long fought for global press freedom. Her book, "How To Stand Up To A Dictator," detailed her experience running the news site Rappler under t...

www.pbs.org

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 23d

""Don't voluntarily give up your rights, right? ...in the Philippines, where the first newspaper gave up — the television station gave up largest — it lost its franchise or license to operate.

And guess what? It never regained it even after the time of Duterte."
www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa discusses state of U.S. democracy

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and journalist Maria Ressa has long fought for global press freedom. Her book, "How To Stand Up To A Dictator," detailed her experience running the news site Rappler under t...

www.pbs.org

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 23d

I wrote the QP yesterday before news broke of Carr threatening the affiliates & ABC/Disney to pull their licenses, then Nexstar pre-empting the show, followed by Sinclair, & then ABC/Disney indefinitely suspending the show.

www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 24d

A lot of free-speech absolutists are showing that the only absolute is it's only free if we comply & perform their expectations of "etiquette" regardless of the harms they cause us.

Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 26d

Whenever marginalized people feel forced to "prove" we're "model minorities" (as if that's even a real thing) I think of the following quote by Toni Morrison. (Thanks to @uppitynegress.bsky.social)

I want laws & supports that benefit us all as do most. Others actively work to deny us access. /end

Screenshot of white text on black background. Threads user uppity_negress_ (blue check verified) "The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn't shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you drudge that up... None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing." Toni Morison

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 26d

No one owes anyone "respectability" upon their death & it's condescending to lecture us. It's authoritarian to wag fingers at those of us he targeted in life, threatening to strip our rights/liberty bc we refuse to show deference to a bigot who didn't like us. /12

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 26d

I know that we used it to destabilize other countries, especially those south of us, and then demonize the refugees who fled to us seeking safety from the tyranny we enabled. I know that what I've seen since the 2nd Trump admin began is a slide into dictatorship. /11

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 26d

I'm not a zero violence absolutist or a pacifist, & I don't want the power to take a life. I learned that last part about myself while studying Iaijutsu. Yet, I know the systems built here were through political violence, as was stealing & keeping other countries' sovereignty. /10

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 26d

As a Sen, he was more ineffective than Portman was. And lest we forget, he leaned hard into the "dog eating foreigner" racism when Springfield's mayor contact his office for help with easing their overburdened systems. He ensured they received threats instead of helping. /9

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 26d

This is how much Vance is disliked here. He never would've won the Sen primary w/o Trump's endorsement--he was like 4th in polling before it. In the general, he only won over Tim Ryan by about 6% pts while the rest of the OH GOP won their re/election by 20+. /8

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 26d

We have DOJ lawyers being sketchy at best in court. We just had to deport all those Guatamalan kids in the middle of the night bc their parents wanted them back. Except their parents didn't. We have civil servants fired for retribution & swaths of them laid off for appearing to keep promises. /7

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 26d

We have POTUS sending NG into cities & feds unlawfully arresting people using racial profiling & overcharging them; & threatening to do the same in other cities. We have ICE & feds detaining, disappearing, & deporting BIPOC w/o due process & w/o regard for their status. /6

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 26d

They are promises of political violence for exercising our First Amendment rights while relying on the antisemitic trope of Jewish people secretly running/funding everything. Meanwhile we have a weaponized DOJ investigating unis over allegations of not doing enough to prevent antisemitism. /5

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 26d

This is while others with privilege are doing the "political violence has no place here." That's nothing but adjacent to "thoughts & prayers" in a country built & sustained on political violence at home & abroad. Vance's exclamations of "there is no unity" is stochastic terrorism. /4

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 26d

NYT or WaPo published an article the other day on people losing their jobs over their posts on "celebrating" his death, yet every embedded post they included wasn't about celebration. It was about the reality we lived with as people like him profit off dehumanizing us. /3

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 26d

What I see is a demand for performative grief/denouncement of violence from marginalized people who were harmed by his work fueled by bigotry when we simply say, yeah, okay, we're not sad to see someone who wished our end to have met his. That's not celebrating or wishing them dead. /2

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 26d

I've shared this on my private SM account & I'll try to distill it here w/the caveat that I haven't seen the article he references. In the larger scheme since last Wednesday, I haven't seen anyone "celebrating" his death. /1

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 26d

In a Hitleresque speech, JD Vance says there can be no unity with the left and vows to use the government to dismantle non-profit NGOs and liberal civil society who he says promote violence and terrorism.

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · 26d

a woman singing into a microphone on a stage

ALT: a woman singing into a microphone on a stage

media.tenor.com

Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · Sep 8

TL;dr Kavanaugh may be using "sound" legal precedent/reasoning, but it's full of blatant racism, & erroneous realities of the systems & numbers he uses to justify his position while ignoring the realities of what is happening in the raids & "stops" of Brown people, immigrant & citizen alike. /end

Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · Sep 8

2 former clients are brothers who spent about 2 yrs in a refugee camp (unaccompanied) b4 they were allowed to enter the U.S. Those 2 years added to the trauma they already experienced bc refugee camps aren't what most think they are. /11

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · Sep 8

That brings me back to Kavanaugh & his claim that undoc are "jumping in front of those noncitizens who follow the rules and wait in line to immigrate..." There is no line. Many wait over a decade for the okay to move here bc we are exclusionary. /10

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · Sep 8

My dad assimilated & lost his 1st language. He didn't even recognize Ilokano numbers when I returned from Lolo & Lola's one summer counting to 10 in Ilokano. He hated that his sibs & cousins (all U.S. born) made sure I was fluent in HPE bc he wanted me to be as assimilated as him. /9

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · Sep 8

Because of the Page Act, the Manongs dated haole women (they were more fashionable with choke rizz too), which was met with violent haole men in days-long race riots.

FF my lolo being brought over as immigrant labor for 10 yrs b4 he could bring my lola & dad. /8

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Debi V. Smith @debivsmith.bsky.social · Sep 8

The Chinese Exclusion Act, The Page Act, & The Geary Act were exclusionary & restrictive. The only reason Filipinos were allowed in was that the Philippines was a U.S. territory (no right to citizenship but). Biz/farm owners exploited their labor while enforcing segregation. /7

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