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Moira Birss

@moira.bsky.social

14K followers 1.7K following 980 posts

Climate, economic justice & human rights research, advocacy & policy visioning. Senior Fellow w/ @cplusc.bsky.social studying US disaster insurance & global policy. Board co-Chair of @lawgaction.bsky.social. Amo a 🇨🇴. Living on Ohlone land. she/ella/ela.

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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · Jun 24

Safety planning & preparation for organizers & community leaders in this moment of growing authoritarianism in the US is essential.

And, as I learned as an international accompanier in Colombia under an authoritarian government, we must also bring our values of community, care, & joy to that work.

Waging Nonviolence @wagingnonviolence.org · Jun 24

Developed in Central America during the civil wars of the 1980s, accompaniment strategies show how movements can reduce authoritarian attacks and resist state repression.

Lessons in courage, care and collective action from the international accompaniment movement

Developed in Central America during the 1980s, accompaniment strategies show how movements can reduce attacks and resist state repression.

wagingnonviolence.org

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Ana Marie Cox @anamariecox.bsky.social · 23h

To everyone who says, "But this won't matter": *MAKE IT MATTER.*

You have that power! This is not inside baseball and your friends and neighbors will likely be appalled. And if they're *not* appalled, don't be cynical yourself. Take the lead, give the cue.

Politico @politico.com · 1d

EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat.

Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

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Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️ @napaaqtuk.bsky.social · 2d

Western Alaska was hit hard by the recent storms. Houses floated away in Kipnuk, houses flipped over, people lost everything from the flooding that came with the storms. Please donate if you can. This group has a long history of supporting AK communities.

alaskacf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/c...

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The Onion @theonion.com · 1d

Nation’s Indigenous People Confirm They Don’t Need Special Holiday, Just Large Swaths Of Land Returned Immediately https://theonion.com/nation-s-indigenous-people-confirm-they-don-t-need-spec-1839033177/

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George Gantsoudes @pedsortho.bsky.social · 2d

Please remember that the disgust people have over Christopher Columbus is not based on some modern, 21st century “woke” ideology, but rather on contemporaneous accounts of atrocities that make many modern genocides appear quaint in comparison.

Below, are the accounts of Bartlomé de las Casas.

But too many of the slaves died in captivity. And so Columbus, desperate to pay back dividends to those who had in-vested, had to make good his promise to fill the ships with gold. In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where he and his men imagined huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death.
The Indians had been given an impossible task. The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed.

After each six or eight months' work in the mines, which was the time required of each crew to dig enough gold for melting, up to a third of the men died.
While the men were sent many miles away to the mines, the wives remained to work the soil, forced into the excruciating job of digging and making thousands of hills for cassava plants.
Thus husbands and wives were together only once every eight or ten months and when they met they were so exhausted and depressed on both sides... they ceased to pro-create. As for the newly born, they died early because their mothers, overworked and fam-ished, had no milk to nurse them, and for this reason, while I was in Cuba, 7000 children died in three months. Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desper-ation.... In this way, husbands died in the mines, wives died at work, and children died from lack of milk ... and in a short time this land which was so great, so powerful and fer-tile... was depopulated... My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write....

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✪ Jonathan H. Gray: “Professor of Halloweenery” ✪ @jongraywb.bsky.social · 1d

May her memory be a blessing and may she consistently rest in power

Matthew S. Bajko @politicalnotes.bsky.social · 1d

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a Black transgender woman and longtime activist who once lived in the Bay Area, died October 13. She was 78....
www.ebar.com/story/159150...

Trans leader Miss Major Griffin-Gracy dies

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a Black transgender woman and longtime activist who once lived in the Bay Area, died October 13.

www.ebar.com

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Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · 2d

ICE kidnapped a 7th-grader with a pending asylum claim and spirited him out of state without notifying his parents, seemingly with the cooperation of the local police in Everett, MA.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...

Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility
By Marcela Rodrigues Globe Staff,Updated October 12, 2025, 44 minutes ago

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A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Everett after an interaction with members of the Everett Police Department and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia, according to his mother and immigration lawyer Andrew Lattarulo.

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested. After waiting for about an hour and a half, she was told her son was taken by ICE, Berto told the Globe in a phone interview.

“My world collapsed,” Berto said in Portuguese.

From the police department, the boy was taken to ICE’s holding facility in Burlington on Thursday evening, where he spent a night before being transferred by car to the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Winchester, Va., on Friday morning, his mother said. The juvenile facility is more than 500 miles away from Everett.

The boy is a 7th-grader at Albert N. Parlin School in Everett, his mother said. The teen and his family, who are Brazilian nationals, have a pending asylum case and are authorized to work legally in the United States, Lattarulo said.

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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 3d

The amount of money we are giving to Argentina amounts to $450 per resident of that country. But we're not even giving it to people there who need it, we're giving it to prop up Elon's pal, the corrupt President of that country, who'll then shovel some of it into the pockets of Trump's friends here.

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 3d

“America First.”

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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 3d

The mass protests in Ecuador against austerity measures dictated by international finance is clear example of the export-extraction vicious cycle generated by today’s international financial architecture, as we describe in a recent @cplusc.bsky.social report: climateandcommunity.org/wp-content/u...

The image is a circular diagram illustrating a cycle of interconnected issues. Starting with "Debt," the cycle moves to "Export-oriented production," which leads to "Extractivism." This then causes "Social and environmental underinvestment," followed by "Civil society opposition," and "Repression." The repression leads to "Climate vulnerability and biodiversity loss," which in turn drives the need for more "Debt," completing the cycle. The diagram uses purple rounded rectangles to represent each stage, with arrows indicating the direction of the cycle.

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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 4d

Seems like a good time to re-up this piece…

Waging Nonviolence @wagingnonviolence.org · Jun 24

Developed in Central America during the civil wars of the 1980s, accompaniment strategies show how movements can reduce authoritarian attacks and resist state repression.

Lessons in courage, care and collective action from the international accompaniment movement

Developed in Central America during the 1980s, accompaniment strategies show how movements can reduce attacks and resist state repression.

wagingnonviolence.org

Reposted by Moira Birss

Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 8d

Whether you're a casual news reader or a breaking news reporter at the NYTimes, I implore you--please, please, please--do not believe or report DHS/ICE/CBP's side of events uncritically. End the state's monopoly on legitimate storytelling. They are not the objective arbiter of what really happened.

Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 8d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

Attorney for woman shot by Border Patrol claims officer said 'Do something b-----' before shooting

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government's claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed. A judge ordered Martinez and a co-defendant released pending trial.

trib.al

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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 9d

Tax the rich.

Lora Kolodny @lorak.bsky.social · 9d

wealth of the top 1% reached a record $52 trillion (icymi friday) — www.cnbc.com/2025/10/03/t...

The wealth of the top 1% reaches a record $52 trillion

All wealth groups saw gains over the past year, according to recent Fed data. But the growth has been fastest for those at the very top.

www.cnbc.com

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 9d

Wishing everyone a good week ahead. Take care of yourselves and don't give in to the fascists.

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BlackJew 🏳️‍⚧️ @blackjew.bsky.social · 9d

You know I want more said about the Argentina bailout. I know our media is a farce of vapid drama seeking nonsense. Argentina's bailout is exp: 194342 billion that rightwing economics are stupid. Argentina's super rightwing leader needs a socialized bailout because rightwing economics are nonsense

Under siege: Argentina’s president drops his chainsaw

The self-proclaimed ‘first anarcho-capitalist president in world history’ faces mounting troubles

theweek.com

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Jeremiah Hayden @jeremiahhayden.bsky.social · 9d

A hundred plus people, and growing, are gathered at Portland City Hall for the “Duty to Disobey” demonstration. The call is for US military veterans to honor their oath and stand against Trump’s deployment of the military on U.S. soil (and against foreign wars).

Veterans gather outside Portland city hall

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Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 11d

“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”

Diary of Anne Frank
January 13, 1943

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Moira Birss @moira.bsky.social · 10d

Dahlia timeline cleanse!

Close up on a dahlia with maroon petals on the outside and white petals closer in, surrounding the yellow center

A cluster of dahlias of a pink/orangish color

Closeup on a maroon dahlia speckled with rain droplets

Closeup on a white dahlia with variegated purple colors.

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Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 11d

You are not seeing this slaughter live-streamed to your devices because Israel has murdered most of Gaza’s most prominent journalists in targeted assassinations.

Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera @aje.io.web.brid.gy · 14d

LIVE: A least 61 killed as Global Sumud Flotilla nears Gaza

At least 61 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as a flotilla of more than 50 ships carrying aid approach.

www.aljazeera.com

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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 11d

In one of her final interviews before she died, Jane Goodall emphasized that we know what’s killing the planet: industrial agriculture, including livestock, and burning fossil fuels.

She also reminded us that we don't have much time to save our planet.

Jane Goodall’s final, urgent, message

"Intelligent creatures don’t destroy their only home.”

www.motherjones.com

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Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 13d

We need a bigger national spotlight on this building raid, fam. Agents dropped from helicopters onto the roof. Citizens and non-citizens alike were dragged from their homes in the night. People who weren't kidnapped during the raid had their belongings seized after the fact. This is madness.

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 13d

"Jones, 27, is among the residents left at 7500 S. South Shore Drive who are trying to piece together what remains after an early morning, high-powered federal immigration raid led to the arrests of dozens of their neighbors at their South Shore apartment building."

Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated'

The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents with Border Patrol, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested 37 people in the raid.

chicago.suntimes.com

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Isabel Peñaranda Currie @ipenaranda.bsky.social · 13d

Insurers of last resort are state-enabled programs meant to provide insurance to properties that insurers refuse to cover. And yet in our @cplusc.bsky.social report, we find these plans are ill designed to meet their policy objectives, and are instead run by and for the private insurance sector 🧵

Climate and Community Institute @cplusc.bsky.social · 13d

As insurance prices balloon & companies refuse renewals, state “insurers of last resort” (FAIR plans) are often the only coverage option left for many homeowners. Our new report explains how they often prioritize cost savings for companies, not affordability for families.

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Climate and Community Institute @cplusc.bsky.social · 13d

We analyze all state plans, with specific case studies in FL, CA, and NM to show that despite their public purpose, FAIR Plans are largely governed by insurers themselves. In at least 86% of states, industry reps hold majority board seats. climateandcommunity.org/research/ins...

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Climate and Community Institute @cplusc.bsky.social · 13d

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Greg Greene (he/him/his) @greene.haus · 13d

“sign of America’s Latin Americanization,” hm? Seems like the clearest sign of that is being governed by a caudillo whose supporters joke about dropping his political opponents from helicopters. That feels more pertinent.

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 13d

am i the only person who cares about housing prices? is this like a niche political interest or something?

Scott Greer tweets: "Some may say it's frivolous to care about Bad Bunny as the Super Bowl halftime entertainment, but it matters for three reasons.

1) The Super Bowl is America's premier culture event. It reflects where mainstream culture is.

2) It shows the NFL willing to broadcast a middle finger to Red America in the form of an anti-Trump, anti-ICE, Spanish-only singer

3) An entire halftime show in Spanish is the clearest sign of America's Latin Americanization and an affront to our traditional culture."

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RL Miller @rlmiller.bsky.social · 14d

🔥🔥🔥MAGA Mike Johnson is refusing to seat @adelitaforcongress.bsky.social after she won her seat in a landslide last week. Is he afraid she's the 218th vote on the Epstein files? Or just afraid of a powerful progressive Latina? Sign our petition actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...

Tell Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson - Seat Adelita Grijalva NOW

Climate hawk Adelita Grijalva won a landslide victory in September, beating her nearest challenger by roughly 40 points. So why is House Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson refusing to allow her to take her sea...

actionnetwork.org

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Karl Jacoby @karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 19d

Only an administration intent on committing war crimes in the present and future would stoop to calling Wounded Knee a "battle" rather than what it truly was: a massacre of over 250 Lakotas, mainly women, children, and the elderly. 1/

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