‘The Work of Democracy is The Work of Our Time’
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mdrfl.bsky.social
‘The Work of Democracy is The Work of Our Time’
@mdrfl.bsky.social
4.5K followers 7.5K following 3K posts
😒 You can never appease a tyrant. 🔥
DO NOT OBEY IN ADVANCE.
💙 🌻 🟧 🐝

Don’t do genocide.
***El que calla, otorga***

💙 #heretostay #BLM #stillwithher #khive #climate #slavaUkraini #ofa
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mdrfl.bsky.social
‘The Work of Democracy is The Work of Our Time’ @mdrfl.bsky.social · Jul 1
…this will be a long hard slog!
Stay ready ❤️💙
Banksy black & white drawing of a girl sitting w legs crossed and her chin in her hand, looking at a blue-colored bird on a branch near her knee (the only color in the drawing). Above it says “If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit !” Banksy
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matthewcebul.bsky.social
As a democracy movement scholar, the Minneapolis ICE resistance is one of the most inspiring things I've witnessed in US politics.

These people are the very best of us, and the vision of American community that they embody is far more powerful and enduring than anything the nativists could offer.
‘Enough Is Enough’: Hundreds of Minnesota Businesses Take Stand Against ICE
www.nytimes.com
January 23, 2026 at 2:49 PM
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acyn.bsky.social
Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Prime Minister of Greenland: Sovereignty is a red line. Our integrity, our borders, and international law are definitely, definitely a red line that we don’t want anyone to cross.
January 23, 2026 at 4:46 AM
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tommasinaresist.bsky.social
Stop ICE NOW.
Stay away from corporate retailers.
Stay away from school.
Stay away from work.
Today, Jan. 23, 2026.
#Minnesota
#USDemocracy #Voices4Victory
January 23, 2026 at 12:59 PM
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carvehername.bsky.social
#OnThisDay, 23 Jan 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell graduates with a medical degree. She is the first woman to receive one in the USA. She was also the first woman on the UK medical register.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WomenInMedicine #AmericanHistory 🗃️
Elizabeth Blackwell as a young woman. She is white, with dark hair in a bun.
January 23, 2026 at 9:00 AM
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chicago21222.bsky.social
I reamed a gop state senator on broad daylight in front of 20 ppl. I told her how dare she deem herself qualified to rip my kids rights away? To make them die? It felt so cathartic.
January 23, 2026 at 2:06 PM
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bjkeefe.bsky.social
Since Rubio spends most of his time tongue-bathing Trump, he's rarely in his office at State. This means the place is being run by Mike Needham and Christopher Landau.

"Both were former longtime employees of the Heritage Foundation."
January 21, 2026 at 12:27 AM
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bjkeefe.bsky.social
We've already lost a bunch of soft-power tools and places to apply it, and surprise, surprise, surprise, China has moved right in.
January 21, 2026 at 12:22 AM
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bjkeefe.bsky.social
Rubio has also used visas as a weapon against what the Administration regards as hostile elements. Since taking office, he has revoked the visas of at least eighty-five thousand people, many of them students at American universities, on the ground that they pose a threat to the “citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles” of the United States. The revocations punished not just actions but also speeches, articles, and Facebook musings. In March, Rubio ordered American diplomats to scour the social-media posts of people who had applied for student visas. That month, Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish graduate student at Tufts University, was walking down a street in Massachusetts when she was seized by masked immigration agents, thrown into a van, and sent to a detention center in Louisiana. No charges were made public, but her supporters say that her offense was co-writing an op-ed supporting divestment from Israel. She was held for six weeks; her case is still unresolved.
January 21, 2026 at 12:15 AM
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bjkeefe.bsky.social
Even Rubio put out memos that would previously have been inconceivable. In April, an order was sent in his name to embassies around the world, urging employees to report colleagues for “anti-Christian bias.” The memo specified that “reports should be as detailed as possible, including names, dates, locations.” Violators would be disciplined, it noted. Another memo informed diplomats that they would be rewarded for “fidelity to the Secretary”—that is, to Rubio.
January 21, 2026 at 12:08 AM
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bjkeefe.bsky.social
At the Embassy, Rubio spoke to staffers in the courtyard and could do little more than try to offer reassurance. According to a person familiar with the discussion, he said that he hadn’t known that there would be aid cuts when he’d agreed to become Secretary, and that he didn’t like them. Though he acknowledged that there would be changes to eliminate waste at U.S.A.I.D., he said that assistance would remain robust. “Rubio’s message was, he didn’t know about the cuts, didn’t sign off on them, and that he’d fight to restore them,” an American official who saw the address said. A few weeks later, Rubio told a different story. Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee, he claimed that he’d made the cuts himself. “The DOGE team didn’t do any-thing,” Rubio said. “I did it. I was the one who made the decisions. . . . I remember being in a hotel—I believe in Guatemala—going through, line by line, on spreadsheets of contracts that were cancelled.” Afterward, Rubio changed his story yet again: in private meetings, he assured senators that he would try to reverse the cuts. “My impression was that he didn’t have much power,” a source on Capitol Hill told me.
January 21, 2026 at 12:06 AM
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bjkeefe.bsky.social
“The one constant in Marco Rubio’s career is that he has betrayed every mentor and every principle he’s ever had in order to claim power for himself,” a political figure in Miami told me.
January 20, 2026 at 11:59 PM
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bjkeefe.bsky.social
One of my favorites, Dexter Filkins, has a new article up about one of my least favorites, Marco Rubio.

Even if you think you know him, you will be amazed at what a slime he is, and has always been.

It's a #longread, so be sure to bookmark until you have some time.
How Marco Rubio Went from “Little Marco” to Trump’s Foreign-Policy Enabler
As Secretary of State, the President’s onetime foe now offers him lavish displays of public praise—and will execute his agenda in Venezuela and around the globe.
www.newyorker.com
January 20, 2026 at 11:29 PM
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bjkeefe.bsky.social
Claim is made that Rubio sees taking down Venezuela as leading to taking down Cuba, which would make him a hero in Florida, which is part of his strategy for his next run for president.
January 21, 2026 at 1:03 AM
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samthielman.com
I just thought everyone should see this
Dr Kareem Carr man: i wish to publish @kareem_carr Jan 21 reviewer 2: your paper is no good man: i'll do anything to improve reviewer 2: it's simple. you must read the work of the great scientist Pagliarini man: *bursts into tears* but i am Pagliarini Andre Pagliarini @apagliar Jan 21 a first: in rejecting an article I submitted to a journal, reviewer 2 noted I failed to engage the work of one Andre Pagliarini Jan 21, 2026 • 3:47 PM UTC
January 22, 2026 at 11:02 PM
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bloomberg.com
The Danish prime minister will travel to Greenland for talks on the island’s future.
Denmark’s Leader Flies to Greenland to Discuss Latest From Trump
The Danish prime minister is traveling to Greenland on Friday for talks on the island’s future after President Donald Trump seemingly deescalated his threats to take over the Arctic territory.
bloom.bg
January 23, 2026 at 2:00 PM
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daviddarmofal.bsky.social
JD Vance is such a narcissist. Five-year-old Liam is not a sex offender.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2h
Vance in MN: "It's really cold outside. We in the Trump administration want to deport criminal aliens who are sex offenders. It takes a certain level of committed to sex offender criminal aliens to stand outside in -40 temperatures and attack the vice president, but they're committed to the bit."
January 23, 2026 at 2:11 PM
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atrupar.com
AOC: This is quite a bit of market concentration. Agreed?

CVS HEALTH CHAIR DAVID JOYNER: No. I'd suggest it's a model that works well for the consumer

AOC: It works well for CVS. Health insurance gets a cut, pharmacy benefit manager gets one, drug manufacturer gets one, & the patient gets screwed
January 22, 2026 at 5:48 PM
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derm66.bsky.social
They love a white Europe, he means.
January 23, 2026 at 1:09 PM
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rsgat.bsky.social
It's -20 in Minneapolis and organizers are in the streets before dawn getting ready for actions related to the general strike. They've had locals training out-of-town volunteers on how to prepare for and endure the cold. AND IT IS WORKING. THE STRIKE IS HAPPENING. THE CITY IS DOING THE DAMN THING...
January 23, 2026 at 12:42 PM
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sarahjeong.bsky.social
HI's AG: "The sycophants who are following this president are willing to sell their souls...what they’re saying, what they’re doing, is so unconscionable on a daily basis, so immoral, that all of us need to be able to understand, there’s no way that they’re ever going to let up. We have to fight.”
January 22, 2026 at 8:05 PM
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sarahjeong.bsky.social
New from me on states' rights in the zeitgeist (gift link): www.theverge.com/policy/86588...
The state AGs are as mad as you are
“We have to fight.”
www.theverge.com
January 22, 2026 at 8:00 PM
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sarahjeong.bsky.social
I wasn't sure what to expect from a group of Democratic state AGs, but I definitely was not expecting a long monologue about Ruby Ridge and the Boston Massacre www.theverge.com/policy/86588...
Just before the town hall, a reporter asked Ellison about the difficulty states faced in prosecuting federal agents like the ICE agent who shot Renee Good. “The idea that they’re absolutely immune is a misstatement of the law, and it is a dangerous misstatement of the law, because I don’t want any ICE agent or Border Patrol agent or any agent to think that they can just kill people and then that’s it,” Ellison told the group of reporters. Then he asked rhetorically: “What about Ruby Ridge? You ever heard of that one?” Years after an FBI sniper shot Vicki Weaver at Ruby Ridge, the state of Idaho prosecuted the federal agent. The federal government went to bat for the agent, claiming that he was immune under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. The Ninth Circuit ruled that Idaho was allowed to prosecute the sniper — similarly, Minnesota is also entitled to investigate and potentially prosecute the officer who shot Renee Good. But a different example loomed larger in Ellison’s mind: the Boston Massacre of 1770, where British soldiers shot into a crowd, ultimately killing five people. “It’s not exactly analogous, but we are talking about local authorities in Boston, prosecuting imperial agents of the colonial power, the central government, in England. And they were prosecuted. Two of them were convicted. John Adams actually represented a few of the imperial officers.” The Boston Massacre, said Ellison, was obviously “in the mind of the framers of the Constitution” at the time the document was written. “They were thinking about this event, and they would have never conceded the state’s authority to prosecute a federal officer,” said Ellison, going on to add, “The states of the United States pre-date the United States. It is federal courts that are limited. Not state courts. State courts have plenary power.” He finished with a dramatic flourish: “It’s true that the feds are denying us access to the investigative file. It’s also true that there’s no statute of limitations on murder.”
January 22, 2026 at 7:58 PM
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unlawfulentries.bsky.social
"The Royal Navy was 'critically involved in expanding the slave trade, in protecting slaving vessels … loaning out Royal Navy vessels to slave trading companies and stocking them with men and supplies'....from the reign of Elizabeth I until the 18th century, with profits flowing back to the crown."
brookenewman.bsky.social Brooke Newman @brookenewman.bsky.social · 3h
Counterpoint Guardian review of The Crown’s Silence. “The British crown & the navy expanded & protected the trade in enslaved African people for hundreds of years, unprecedented research into the monarchy’s historical ties to slavery has found.” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
British crown was world’s largest buyer of enslaved people by 1807, book reveals
Exclusive: Author of The Crown’s Silence tells how navy and monarchy protected slave trade for hundreds of years
www.theguardian.com
January 23, 2026 at 2:11 PM
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margaretmorgan.bsky.social
Using TikTok in the Disunited States of Trumpism is now an existential risk. It will be exploited by forces of repression there, which is, of course, why Trump wanted it largely in US hands.

And the rest of the world should dump it too.
giamonroe.bsky.social Gia Monroe 🇺🇸 @giamonroe.bsky.social · 9h
🚨This is the new TikTok Privacy Policy I found on Reddit. Read it & pass this on. Looks like they can pull from USER CONTENT race, religious beliefs, mental/physical health diagnosis, sex life, status as transgender, citizenship/immigration status & more personal info.
January 23, 2026 at 12:04 PM
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adamkinzinger.substack.com
Funny how the right is outraged at Fanone flipping off a congressman just days after celebrating a president flipping off a working American .
January 22, 2026 at 10:05 PM