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Melissa Vanden Bout

@docvanden.bsky.social

7.6K followers 840 following 2K posts

Ethicist and troublemaker. The only way out is through. The only way through is together. (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🇵🇸

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Melissa Vanden Bout @docvanden.bsky.social · Oct 17

(For now, my latest article.)

Betray can mean “break faith,”or it can mean “reveal.” In its choices about who it protects and who it identifies as a threat, an institution tells us who it really was all along.

My story of institutional betrayal: www.advancejournal.org/article/94664

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Melissa Vanden Bout @docvanden.bsky.social · 14m

⬆️ this! Because reality exists in reference to them. Everything—culture, other people, history—exists to confirm what they feel and what they believe about themselves.

Reposted by Melissa Vanden Bout

Derek Powazek @fraying.bsky.social · 5h

Replacing writers and artists with slop generators programmed by rich powerful men to say and do what they prefer is a fascist wet dream.

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Derek Powazek @fraying.bsky.social · 5h

You can’t hate fascists and use AI slop generators. They’re the same thing: total destruction of truth at scale.

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Charlie Jane "Lessons in Magic and Disaster" Anders 🏳️‍⚧ @charliejane.bsky.social · 1h

Today is National Coming Out Day!

It's also Freedom to Read Day, aka the last day of Banned Books Week.

This feels right — because the main reason they try to ban books is to keep people from dreaming they could ever come out.

My latest newsletter: buttondown.com/charliejane/...

They Want To Ban Books To Keep Us From Coming Out

Quick housekeeping! I’m doing a flurry of events once again: Tuesday I’ll be in the Koret Auditorium at the SF Public Library talking about banned books for...

buttondown.com

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Reposted by Melissa Vanden Bout

ProPublica @propublica.org · 2h

WATCH: ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the 94 million pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the Trump administration’s cuts to The Emergency Food Assistance Program.

➡️ Read more: https://propub.li/4odsKnn

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Melissa Vanden Bout @docvanden.bsky.social · 2h

Happy #Caturday!

Melissa Vanden Bout @docvanden.bsky.social · 15h

Mr. Jack here came to our door and demanded we let him in, 10 years ago tonight.

(Lucky, lucky us.)

Cute tabby kitten looks up at the camera. He is sitting on a doormat. In the evening light his eyes are golden.

Same tabby, grown into a chonky boy with huge paws. He’s reclining across a brown couch.

Reposted by Melissa Vanden Bout

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 14h

As I said a couple hours ago about a different fake video, you don't need to feel stupid if you fell for it.

The entire internet is drowning in this AI shit. And there's no easy solution. We're just fucking cooked as a society.

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 17h

Don’t feel stupid if you fell for fake video. It can be really hard to tell these days. But we do have to try and be careful with what we share because there’s so much AI video out there.

It’s just the world we live in now.

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Melissa Vanden Bout @docvanden.bsky.social · 14h

It was cold that evening. And he just keep asking to be let in! I put out a box lined with some old flannels. But he was so persistent. So we let him in, and that was that.

Melissa Vanden Bout @docvanden.bsky.social · 15h

First time I met Jack, my husband had just come back from the store with our youngest, 3 at the time. She immediately ran at the stray kitty and put him in a headlock (toddler hug). I ran (felt like slow-mo!) but he didn’t scratch/bite. When she let him go he just meowed at the door to be let in.

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Melissa Vanden Bout @docvanden.bsky.social · 15h

Mr. Jack here came to our door and demanded we let him in, 10 years ago tonight.

(Lucky, lucky us.)

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Reposted by Melissa Vanden Bout

Senate Judiciary Democrats 🇺🇸 @judiciarydems.senate.gov · 23h

BREAKING: Sens. DURBIN, DUCKWORTH were just denied entrance to the Broadview ICE Facility in Illinois, unable to conduct constitutional role of oversight.

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Melissa Vanden Bout @docvanden.bsky.social · 17h

Today. Please send help.

Charlotte. @charlotteirene.bsky.social · 1d

I have until the end of the the day today (Friday, 10/10) to raise $710 for a partial rent payment. I'm on a payment plan, and I have two weeks to pay off the rest of my back balance or I'll get evicted again.

GoFundMe: gofund.me/083af9ca
CashApp: $charlotteirene
PayPal: PayPal.me/charlotteirene
Venmo: charlotte-irene8

Reposted by Melissa Vanden Bout

Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 18h

For some context the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report in addition to being just a good read, to quote wikipedia, "is the main vehicle for publishing public health information and recommendations that have been received by the CDC from state health departments. "

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 18h

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Nikkolas Smith @4nikkolas.bsky.social · 23h

after millions of views and shares of my Portland Frog art. (thank you all🙏🏾) I got requests to highlight priests, and chickens, and Chicagoans, and T-Rexes, and more… all of us who refuse to bend the knee. so this is for US.
𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚃𝚊𝚕𝚕.
𝚆𝚎 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚆𝚒𝚗.

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 20h

CHICAGO: REBUILD is providing therapy to folks detained by ICE. Please feel free to let people know.

findmeatherapist.org

Find Me A Therapist

findmeatherapist.org

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Reposted by Melissa Vanden Bout

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 23h

The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 1d

A few minutes ago in the House:

- Speaker Mike Johnson officially cancels votes next week, extending the House recess through a fourth week

- House Republicans block Democrats from passing a bill to pay the troops during the shutdown, ensuring they will miss paychecks next week

House Press Gallery: During today's pro forma session, the Clerk read a message from the Speaker designating Tuesday, October 14 through Sunday, October 19 as a district work period.

Punchbowl's Briana Reilly: House gaveled in and out of its pro forma just now w/o recognizing Rep Elfreth, who was seeking to UC a mil pay bill from Rep Sykes.

Elfreth told reporters after that House Dems stand “ready and willing to take” up standalone legislation to pay troops.

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Sophie Sherry @sophiesherry.bsky.social · 1d

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/...

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

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Heartland Signal @heartlandsignal.bsky.social · 1d

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) says he has been denied 4 times to see what is going on inside the Broadview, IL ICE facility:

"Something's going on in there that they don't want us to see. I don't know what it is, but all Americans should be asking the same question."

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

“.. Frank Miranda, 46, filmed ICE agents confronting him before work on Oct. 2, demanding that he answer questions about where he was born. When he refused, agents threatened him with a dog ..”

@davidjbier.bsky.social
www.wweek.com/news/2025/10...

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thematthill.bsky.social @thematthill.bsky.social · 3d

Wow. Greg Bovino admits on camera that his agents can detain people if you look scared, change your demeanor, or grip a steering wheel too tight.

As his unmasked agents walk around with large guns to scare you, they may arrest you just for that — even if you're a U.S. citizen.

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ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · 1d

You should read @joanwalsh.bsky.social on the utter vindictiveness of the Tish James indictment

www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Trump’s Vendetta Prosecution of Letitia James Is a New Low

The New York attorney general has led the legal fight against Trump, and now he has mobilized the Justice Department to go after her.

www.thenation.com

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Seth Rudy @sethrudy.bsky.social · 1d

Meanwhile in #Portland

Kermit faces off with Hopper in The Muppet Movie

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Emily L. Hauser (she/her) ❌👑 @emilylhauser.bsky.social · 1d

>> to break stuff, people, & communities about which they know nothing.

When you go around breaking stuff that REALLY MATTERS to someone, or many someones—particularly when they already don't like you—they don't get scared so much as mad.

We're going to win in part bc we know what we love.
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Lawfare @lawfaremedia.org · 1d

HAPPENING IN JUST UNDER AN HOUR at 4pm ET

Trials of the Trump Administration live with @benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org, Loren Voss, @annabower.bsky.social, @rparloff.bsky.social, @ericcolumbus.bsky.social and @mollyroberts.bsky.social on domestic deployments, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and more ⬇️

Lawfare @lawfaremedia.org · 2d

Tomorrow at 4pm ET, @benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org, Loren Voss, @annabower.bsky.social, @rparloff.bsky.social, and @ericcolumbus.bsky.social will discuss the legal challenges to the National Guard deployments in Portland and Chicago, the effort to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and more.

Lawfare Live: Trials of the Trump Administration, Oct. 10

YouTube video by Lawfare

youtube.com

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