Heather Bouwman
@hmbouwman.bsky.social
980 followers 270 following 84 posts
children's writer, college professor, etc etc (new book in 2025: Scattergood). She/her. hmbouwman.com
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Reposted by Heather Bouwman
jackjenkins.me
Reporter's notebook: I actually began working on this story shortly after footage of the incident showed up last month.

But by the time I finally got ahold of folks, the story grew: 2 *other* faith leaders I spoke with *also* reported being shot w/pepper balls while protesting this ICE facility.
jackjenkins.me
Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.
(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
mosheroperandi.bsky.social
GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN EXTENDED TWO WEEKS TO HIDE EVIDENCE THE PRESIDENT IS A MAJOR PEDOPHILE
jamiedupree.bsky.social
This GOP move does several things:
+ No votes in the House until at least October 14
+ No swearing-in for Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva D-AZ
+ No 218th signature from Grijalva on the Epstein Files discharge petition
+ Continues the House 'jam' of the Senate on the CR
jamiedupree.bsky.social
🚨🚨The House reading clerk just read a letter from House Speaker Mike Johnson where he declares a 'District Work Period' from October 7 to October 13.

That would mean no votes in the House until mid-month.
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
roxanegay.bsky.social
If any other president in all of history said the military should use American cities as a training ground he would be removed from office that same day. The hardest thing to tolerate in all this is how relatively silent elected democrats are. It’s ridiculous.
hmbouwman.bsky.social
The kitten dreams of devouring the world
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
gendergoblinhelen.bsky.social
'out of the three mass shootings today'
ourearthaffairs.bsky.social
Iraq War veteran Thomas Sanford has been identified as the gunman who attacked Grand Blanc Mormon church, killing 2 people and setting it ablaze. Out of the three mass shootings today, two of them have been carried out by Iraq war veterans.
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
erininthemorning.com
UK's Labour Party abandoned transgender people. The gambit to pursue rightwing voters by abandoning a targeted minority failed, and now they're facing the prospect of a historic loss.

US Dems could learn a lot from their failure.

Great piece from S. Baum.

Subscribe to support our journalism.
UK's Labour Party Abandoned Trans People. Here's What American Dems Can Learn.
Democrats: There is no “middle ground” on equal rights. Take it from UK Labour.
www.erininthemorning.com
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
ingridm.bsky.social
ChatGPT Edu is built for conning education executives into subsidising and edu-washing planet-burning slop machines via non-consensual access to young people’s creativity AND DATA while attacking their ability to learn. At a university.
ox.ac.uk
NEW: Oxford will be the first UK university to give all staff and students free ChatGPT Edu access, from this academic year.

ChatGPT Edu is built for education, with enhanced privacy and security.
Graphic from the University of Oxford, featuring an image of a glowing, digital brain with the text: 'Generative AI at Oxford'. Highlights that ChatGPT Edu is now available to all staff and students. Includes a link for more information: ox.ac.uk/gen-ai
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
karl-jacoby.bsky.social
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/
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
I haven't had time to read up on the latest shooting, but I'm going to post my incredibly radical position that a shooting is bad no matter who did it and no matter who was shot.

Stop trying to crack the code of a shooter's motives and focus on the one thing they all have in common -- the guns.
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
hmbouwman.bsky.social
In addition to other things, I like washing dishes as a mind break/recharge. So I get the vacuuming thing! #KidLitChat
hmbouwman.bsky.social
What a beautiful cover! And congratulations!
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
atrupar.com
Q: Do you think it would've been fitting to lower the flags to half staff when Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota House Speaker, was gunned down by an assassin?

TRUMP: I'm not familiar. The who?
hmbouwman.bsky.social
Right now I’m mostly concerned that his death will be used as an excuse to go after trans people
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
ggwynterwrites.bsky.social
The combined worth of the tech bros who prostrated themselves before trump at that dinner is $600B. Not one of them *needed* to do it; they're just selfish, greedy men who care more about wealth than human life. So disgusting.
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social
Only 40 days have passed since Democratic lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were tragically killed by an unhinged Trump supporter, yet this story has largely faded from national awareness. We must not allow that to happen.
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
malena.bsky.social
This needs to happen in every single blue state...in every single state, for that matter...every state that actually values human life.
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
karenhallionkenney.bsky.social
Hegseth is now the Secretary of War, which is fitting I guess as RFK jr is basically the Secretary of Pestilence. We just need Famine and Death to round it out.
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
denisedwheeler.bsky.social
This photo was taken of miners at the end of their shift during the Gilded Age before they were unionized.

A Labor Day reminder of the blood, sweat, and tears that those before us paid to give the working class the basic rights that Trump and his thugs are trying to strip away.
Miners at the end of their shift Gilded Age
hmbouwman.bsky.social
Thinking especially of all my relatives today (many!!) who are nurses, and the 18+ months of mandatory overtime that some of them put in. ❤️❤️❤️
hmbouwman.bsky.social
Yes x 1000
strandjunker.com
On this Labor Day, let us remember that it wasn’t the CEOs and billionaires who saved us during COVID-19. It was the janitors, nurses, cleaning crews, grocery and food workers with their hard, often invisible labor.
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
strandjunker.com
On this Labor Day, let us remember that it wasn’t the CEOs and billionaires who saved us during COVID-19. It was the janitors, nurses, cleaning crews, grocery and food workers with their hard, often invisible labor.
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
nytimes.com
Republican governors have sent National Guard troops to Democratic-led Washington, D.C., even though cities in their states all have higher rates of violent crime than the nation’s capital. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/u...
A group of uniformed troops walk along the National Mall, with the Washington Monument and the Capitol in the background. A headline reads: "Crime Festers in Republican States While Their Troops Patrol Washington." Photo by Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times
Reposted by Heather Bouwman
cherylklein.bsky.social
This was an excellent essay I commend highly to you all about the Minnesota mass shooter and the deeper questions it raises about morality and identity.
gbbranstetter.bsky.social
Some thoughts on anti-transgender politics, mass shootings, and the urge to blame anyone but ourselves
One of Us
The absolution of exclusion
autonomy.substack.com
hmbouwman.bsky.social
Yessssss
ladyhistorian.bsky.social
I would read an academic murder book in which the murder was solved by reading the syllabus
ladyhistorian.bsky.social
I love this idea and also want a list of academic murder books. Please reply with recs