Alison Bell
@abellvt.bsky.social
Lawyer, mother, Vermonter, committed to social justice, mutual aid, and maple syrup. #weprotectus she/her
Reposted by Alison Bell
Big thanks to a reader who donated $20 from California.
$120 raised tonite. Can we keep the momentum going? m
paydayreport.com/help-a-broke...
$120 raised tonite. Can we keep the momentum going? m
paydayreport.com/help-a-broke...
Help a Broke Labor Reporter Take Off Thanksgiving
I’d love to take some time off for the holidays, but these past few weeks, Payday Report has been in a fundraising drought.
paydayreport.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Big thanks to a reader who donated $20 from California.
$120 raised tonite. Can we keep the momentum going? m
paydayreport.com/help-a-broke...
$120 raised tonite. Can we keep the momentum going? m
paydayreport.com/help-a-broke...
Please follow and support Mike. He does great and necessary work.
Big thanks to reader like this for donating so I can take the holidays off
paydayreport.com/help-a-broke...
paydayreport.com/help-a-broke...
November 26, 2025 at 1:44 AM
Please follow and support Mike. He does great and necessary work.
Reposted by Alison Bell
What an amazing essay from the former chair of Africana Studies at Bowdoin. I'll share a few sections in the reply but seriously, read the whole thing. It's all insightful and beautifully written.
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:11 PM
What an amazing essay from the former chair of Africana Studies at Bowdoin. I'll share a few sections in the reply but seriously, read the whole thing. It's all insightful and beautifully written.
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Reposted by Alison Bell
I keep beating that drum because I figure that a lot of people are going to be going to jail over dumb shit like this in the near future if the assholes get their way.
And I think it's really good if people know that they don't have to vote "guilty" if they think that this wasn't actually a crime.
And I think it's really good if people know that they don't have to vote "guilty" if they think that this wasn't actually a crime.
November 6, 2025 at 7:55 PM
I keep beating that drum because I figure that a lot of people are going to be going to jail over dumb shit like this in the near future if the assholes get their way.
And I think it's really good if people know that they don't have to vote "guilty" if they think that this wasn't actually a crime.
And I think it's really good if people know that they don't have to vote "guilty" if they think that this wasn't actually a crime.
Reposted by Alison Bell
ah, perhaps instead of pumping millions into endless factional infighting Dem donors could invest in making local Dem organizations genuine civic spaces that can reach people during and between elections
November 5, 2025 at 12:49 PM
ah, perhaps instead of pumping millions into endless factional infighting Dem donors could invest in making local Dem organizations genuine civic spaces that can reach people during and between elections
Reposted by Alison Bell
Yes, an important test for the midterms.
If ICE agents begins harassing voters on the way to vote on Tuesday, we need local prosecutors to charge the ICE officers with state law crimes. We need to send a message for 2026 that they will be swiftly arrested.
November 2, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Yes, an important test for the midterms.
Reposted by Alison Bell
Once again, the Actual Thing the Actual Democrats Must Actually Do is to make institutional reform the platform & to explain to voters why & how Doing A Popularism is the <consequence> of that, not a prerequisite.
- DC/PR/USVI statehood
- Enlarging the House
- MMDs
- New VRA
- Totally revamping SCOTUS: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Automatic universal voter registration
- Rewriting the "national emergency" laws: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Subordinating the Senate: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Etc.
- Enlarging the House
- MMDs
- New VRA
- Totally revamping SCOTUS: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
- Automatic universal voter registration
- Rewriting
- Subordinating the Senate: bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Etc.
👇🎯💯
Again, the needs to be & all the committees & commissions that want to Do A Popularism & focus on Kitchen Table Issues are engaged in a category mistake about What Democrats Must Do the next time they ever have power.
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
Again, the
bsky.app/profile/mcop...
November 1, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Once again, the Actual Thing the Actual Democrats Must Actually Do is to make institutional reform the platform & to explain to voters why & how Doing A Popularism is the <consequence> of that, not a prerequisite.
The confluence of pets in adorable costumes and videos of ICE/CBP attacking people is messing me up.
October 31, 2025 at 11:57 PM
The confluence of pets in adorable costumes and videos of ICE/CBP attacking people is messing me up.
Reposted by Alison Bell
The energy we need is this suburban dad standing out in the street -- barefoot with Blackhawks pajama pants on -- screaming at the masked goons to get the fuck out of their neighborhood.
October 25, 2025 at 5:51 PM
The energy we need is this suburban dad standing out in the street -- barefoot with Blackhawks pajama pants on -- screaming at the masked goons to get the fuck out of their neighborhood.
Reposted by Alison Bell
October 24, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Reposted by Alison Bell
Halloween is next week. Why not take the opportunity to hand out actual useful information along with the candy? Give the candy to the kids and zine to the adults...
October 24, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Halloween is next week. Why not take the opportunity to hand out actual useful information along with the candy? Give the candy to the kids and zine to the adults...
Reposted by Alison Bell
"normies do not care about this thing and so it is no use raising a stink" is imho just an excuse for not doing politics, which is the job of making normies care about something
October 24, 2025 at 2:47 AM
"normies do not care about this thing and so it is no use raising a stink" is imho just an excuse for not doing politics, which is the job of making normies care about something
Reposted by Alison Bell
Stop. Intervening. At. All. The SCt’s longtime, pre-Roberts practice was to grant emergency relief from a lower ct order only if necessary to preserve the status quo on the ground. The lower cts are open and operating. Opt. Back. Out.
Amy Coney Barrett defends heavy use of the shadow docket: "If we wrote a long opinion, it might give the impression that we have finally resolved the issue, and in none of these cases have we finally resolved the issue."
October 12, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Stop. Intervening. At. All. The SCt’s longtime, pre-Roberts practice was to grant emergency relief from a lower ct order only if necessary to preserve the status quo on the ground. The lower cts are open and operating. Opt. Back. Out.
Reposted by Alison Bell
Whistling when ICE is about to kidnap someone for no reason is incredibly effective. They know what they are doing is wrong and will scatter in the wind when too many witnesses gather.
October 12, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Whistling when ICE is about to kidnap someone for no reason is incredibly effective. They know what they are doing is wrong and will scatter in the wind when too many witnesses gather.
Reposted by Alison Bell
Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine
Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
October 11, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine
Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
Reposted by Alison Bell
Tens of millions of people have died from Covid.
Every country should have responded with record investments in public health infrastructure.
Instead the US government is putting us all at greater risk of more catastrophes by firing hundreds of top scientists whose job is to prevent outbreaks.
Every country should have responded with record investments in public health infrastructure.
Instead the US government is putting us all at greater risk of more catastrophes by firing hundreds of top scientists whose job is to prevent outbreaks.
October 11, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Tens of millions of people have died from Covid.
Every country should have responded with record investments in public health infrastructure.
Instead the US government is putting us all at greater risk of more catastrophes by firing hundreds of top scientists whose job is to prevent outbreaks.
Every country should have responded with record investments in public health infrastructure.
Instead the US government is putting us all at greater risk of more catastrophes by firing hundreds of top scientists whose job is to prevent outbreaks.
Reposted by Alison Bell
This pic really makes the US collapse into full despotism feel real, doesn't it? Leader's dead-eyed, meritless teen son shoved into powerful role solely because Leader wills it: a marker of corrupt autocracy recognizable on every continent and in every century.
Trump said he deserved a cut for brokering the TikTok deal, and at once there was agreement that his son Baron would have a top executive slot... though he hasn't asked for it, and has no apparent qualifications to hold it. This is how Trump 2.0 works. www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025...
Barron Trump tipped for top TikTok job
US president’s 19-year-old son could be appointed to the app’s board
www.telegraph.co.uk
October 11, 2025 at 9:34 PM
This pic really makes the US collapse into full despotism feel real, doesn't it? Leader's dead-eyed, meritless teen son shoved into powerful role solely because Leader wills it: a marker of corrupt autocracy recognizable on every continent and in every century.
Reposted by Alison Bell
Whatever you think of the propriety of their decision to talk to the NYT, the fact that federal judges did so — reportedly more than three dozen! — means they are pulling the proverbial fire alarm.
More judges speak to the press (the NYT) about what a disaster the Supreme Court (specifically the shadow docket) has been - “incredibly demoralizing & troubling”; a “judicial crisis”; a “slap in the face to district courts.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...
October 11, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Whatever you think of the propriety of their decision to talk to the NYT, the fact that federal judges did so — reportedly more than three dozen! — means they are pulling the proverbial fire alarm.
Reposted by Alison Bell
Seriously, Judges *do no do things like this*
They don't give their opinion to the media
They don't criticize how SCOTUS works
This is them breaking the emergency glass, folks
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...
They don't give their opinion to the media
They don't criticize how SCOTUS works
This is them breaking the emergency glass, folks
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...
Federal Judges, Warning of ‘Judicial Crisis,’ Fault Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders
www.nytimes.com
October 11, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Seriously, Judges *do no do things like this*
They don't give their opinion to the media
They don't criticize how SCOTUS works
This is them breaking the emergency glass, folks
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...
They don't give their opinion to the media
They don't criticize how SCOTUS works
This is them breaking the emergency glass, folks
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...
Reposted by Alison Bell
aaand we are officially in the hide-your-neighbors stage
During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door.
It wasn’t the feds — it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help.
He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Neighbor shielded 7-year-old during South Shore federal raid: ‘I didn’t want them to take her’
During the Sept. 30 raid one tenant protected a terrified girl and her mom. Remnants at the complex, including a detailed map of all the units, offer clues to what authorities may have known before th...
chicago.suntimes.com
October 10, 2025 at 10:31 PM
aaand we are officially in the hide-your-neighbors stage
Reposted by Alison Bell
They are not planning "a violent crackdown" on 10.18. What they are doing is sending a signal to their shock troops to try to cause havoc. But those shock troops will be vastly outnumbered. Go out and protest freely. Do not be cowed.
October 10, 2025 at 3:03 PM
They are not planning "a violent crackdown" on 10.18. What they are doing is sending a signal to their shock troops to try to cause havoc. But those shock troops will be vastly outnumbered. Go out and protest freely. Do not be cowed.
I’m supporting Hunger Free Vermont’s Whole Lotta Little campaign — 500 people giving $5 in 5 weeks. If we hit the goal, an anonymous donor will add $5,000, turning small gifts into more than $7,500 for food security in Vermont. I just gave $5. Will you join me? bit.ly/46P3QDu
Hunger Free Vermont | Kindful
bit.ly
October 9, 2025 at 5:59 PM
I’m supporting Hunger Free Vermont’s Whole Lotta Little campaign — 500 people giving $5 in 5 weeks. If we hit the goal, an anonymous donor will add $5,000, turning small gifts into more than $7,500 for food security in Vermont. I just gave $5. Will you join me? bit.ly/46P3QDu
Reposted by Alison Bell
i don’t really understand why this made me start bawling i just really love seeing people try to help each other in creative ways and that this shit is necessary
October 6, 2025 at 1:44 PM
i don’t really understand why this made me start bawling i just really love seeing people try to help each other in creative ways and that this shit is necessary
Reposted by Alison Bell
The American people are smart. They know Trump and Republicans control government and Democrats do not.
LAST MONTH SENATE REPUBLICANS CHANGED THEIR DUMB RULES TO ALLOW A MAJORITY VOTE. Then can do so again.
GOP Senate can pass their bad funding bill today if they felt like it.
LAST MONTH SENATE REPUBLICANS CHANGED THEIR DUMB RULES TO ALLOW A MAJORITY VOTE. Then can do so again.
GOP Senate can pass their bad funding bill today if they felt like it.
New Washington Post poll on who voters blame for the government shutdown:
October 2, 2025 at 2:51 PM
The American people are smart. They know Trump and Republicans control government and Democrats do not.
LAST MONTH SENATE REPUBLICANS CHANGED THEIR DUMB RULES TO ALLOW A MAJORITY VOTE. Then can do so again.
GOP Senate can pass their bad funding bill today if they felt like it.
LAST MONTH SENATE REPUBLICANS CHANGED THEIR DUMB RULES TO ALLOW A MAJORITY VOTE. Then can do so again.
GOP Senate can pass their bad funding bill today if they felt like it.