Amy Van Doren
@avandoren.bsky.social
Public servant, city planner, and policy wonk
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
Amanda Gorman wrote this poem for Renee Good and that’s it for me tonight.
January 9, 2026 at 2:54 AM
Amanda Gorman wrote this poem for Renee Good and that’s it for me tonight.
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
Yes, JD. Let’s ask them if they think a stay at home mom, avowed Christian, and widow of a veteran deserved to be shot in the face and left to bleed out in her own car after dropping her 6-year-old off at school, for the crime of looking out for her neighbors. Let’s ask everyone running for office.
January 8, 2026 at 8:27 PM
Yes, JD. Let’s ask them if they think a stay at home mom, avowed Christian, and widow of a veteran deserved to be shot in the face and left to bleed out in her own car after dropping her 6-year-old off at school, for the crime of looking out for her neighbors. Let’s ask everyone running for office.
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
I know people are still squeamish and want to return to some fantasy status quo. That’s over. We’re in new territory now and things are going to be unpleasant.
The entry level position at this point is putting these motherfuckers in jail for the rest of their natural lives.
The entry level position at this point is putting these motherfuckers in jail for the rest of their natural lives.
January 8, 2026 at 5:22 AM
I know people are still squeamish and want to return to some fantasy status quo. That’s over. We’re in new territory now and things are going to be unpleasant.
The entry level position at this point is putting these motherfuckers in jail for the rest of their natural lives.
The entry level position at this point is putting these motherfuckers in jail for the rest of their natural lives.
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
You and your wife drop your 6-year-old off at school. You just moved here. You see ICE terrorizing your new neighbors. You film them, as is your legal right. Your wife complies with orders. She is then shot in the head. You still have to pick up your child later today.
This could be you.
This could be you.
January 8, 2026 at 12:15 AM
You and your wife drop your 6-year-old off at school. You just moved here. You see ICE terrorizing your new neighbors. You film them, as is your legal right. Your wife complies with orders. She is then shot in the head. You still have to pick up your child later today.
This could be you.
This could be you.
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
The American people electing Trump after he staged a coup attempt 5 years ago was a nail in the coffin of our democracy. You can rationalize it all you want - But inflation! But wokeness! - but ultimately it was a societal suicide attempt and probably the dumbest collective voting decision ever made
January 6, 2026 at 2:51 PM
The American people electing Trump after he staged a coup attempt 5 years ago was a nail in the coffin of our democracy. You can rationalize it all you want - But inflation! But wokeness! - but ultimately it was a societal suicide attempt and probably the dumbest collective voting decision ever made
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
Even if this were not explicitly prohibited by the United States Constitution, it means we kidnapped Venezuela's President and are now extorting money with the threat of future harm.
January 7, 2026 at 2:36 AM
Even if this were not explicitly prohibited by the United States Constitution, it means we kidnapped Venezuela's President and are now extorting money with the threat of future harm.
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
Not sure how to summarize this one. Wrote about the podcaster-occupied government invading for content, how the algorithmic internet is governed by the logic of reaction videos, and how it has contributed to a very nihilistic illiterate politics and culture of performance for imagined audiences
Everything Reacting to Everything, All at Once
Why the Trump administration is posting messages like “THIS IS OUR HEMISPHERE” after the attack on Venezuela
www.theatlantic.com
January 7, 2026 at 12:42 AM
Not sure how to summarize this one. Wrote about the podcaster-occupied government invading for content, how the algorithmic internet is governed by the logic of reaction videos, and how it has contributed to a very nihilistic illiterate politics and culture of performance for imagined audiences
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
I feel a great disturbance in the force, as if millions of political scientists cried out in bafflement and then suddenly fell into silent sobbing.
Stephen Miller: "What the president said is true. The United States of America is running Venezuela ... by definition we are in charge because we have the US military stationed outside the country. We set the terms and conditions ... for them to do commerce, they need our permission."
January 6, 2026 at 12:04 AM
I feel a great disturbance in the force, as if millions of political scientists cried out in bafflement and then suddenly fell into silent sobbing.
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
Bondi should charge Maduro with denying the legitimate results of a democratic election. Be good to get some precedent on that.
January 4, 2026 at 6:12 AM
Bondi should charge Maduro with denying the legitimate results of a democratic election. Be good to get some precedent on that.
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
"Trump thrives on the ineffectiveness of his opponents. The operation in Venezuela is a warning that Trump’s imperial ambitions are growing. An ineffective anti-Trump movement is an indulgence American democracy cannot afford or accept." - @davidfrum.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...
Trump’s Critics Are Falling Into an Obvious Trap
The capture of Nicolás Maduro is a show of ambition that calls for an effective response.
www.theatlantic.com
January 3, 2026 at 7:45 PM
"Trump thrives on the ineffectiveness of his opponents. The operation in Venezuela is a warning that Trump’s imperial ambitions are growing. An ineffective anti-Trump movement is an indulgence American democracy cannot afford or accept." - @davidfrum.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...
Lengthy but important post
Some thoughts on what Trump has done in Venezuela and what it might mean for US national security. Caveat: not a Latin America scholar so this is focused on US policy. Clearly huge consequences for Venezuela that others can address.
First, despite the buildup, I didn't think Trump would do it.
1/
First, despite the buildup, I didn't think Trump would do it.
1/
January 3, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Lengthy but important post
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
Yep, the level of vicious bigotry is extreme and we can cannot give an inch. There is a movement on the far right, supported by billionaires and powerful people in the White House, who want to ethnically cleanse Somalis from the U.S., and we must describe it as such and treat it as such.
This is the "testing the waters" phase of the playbook. The GOP ecosystem targets groups like Somalis, Haitians, and trans people specifically because they've calculated that the average person's passive disapproval won't ever turn into active defense. They're exploiting public apathy.
i'm really having a hard time getting past the "surely we can all agree that Somalis are worse than trash" thing. this feels new and very bad
January 2, 2026 at 6:45 PM
Yep, the level of vicious bigotry is extreme and we can cannot give an inch. There is a movement on the far right, supported by billionaires and powerful people in the White House, who want to ethnically cleanse Somalis from the U.S., and we must describe it as such and treat it as such.
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
Cover reveal. It's about how & why colonies/states controlled international & domestic migration until 1888, why in the late 19th c the feds took over, & what it was like for politically disfavored groups to live under that arrangement of power. You can't understand voluntary migration history 1/
January 2, 2026 at 1:01 PM
Cover reveal. It's about how & why colonies/states controlled international & domestic migration until 1888, why in the late 19th c the feds took over, & what it was like for politically disfavored groups to live under that arrangement of power. You can't understand voluntary migration history 1/
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
This is not Trump being stupid, tho Trump is a very stupid person. This is not Trump being played, tho Trump is one of the most easily manipulated people who’s ever lived. No, the truth is scarier. This is Trump working for & siding with Putin. This is Trump, the Russian asset.
Trump: "Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed. It sounds a little strange but President Putin was very generous in his feeling toward Ukraine succeeding, including supplying energy, electricity and other things at very low prices."
December 29, 2025 at 2:41 AM
This is not Trump being stupid, tho Trump is a very stupid person. This is not Trump being played, tho Trump is one of the most easily manipulated people who’s ever lived. No, the truth is scarier. This is Trump working for & siding with Putin. This is Trump, the Russian asset.
Thread
Finally had a chance to read this Incredible piece by @gregsargent.bsky.social that documents Miller’s attempt to undo and reverse the 1965 immigration settlement and reveals how central this effort is to the administration’s reactionary aim to take down the New Deal and civil rights orders.
December 27, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Thread
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
Disasters don’t take days off. Neither do we.
Right now, Greyshirt volunteers are deployed across the country. They are cutting trees, mucking out homes, and helping communities get back on their feet.
🔗 Join now, visit: teamrubiconusa.org
#TeamRubicon #DisasterResponse #BuiltToServe
Right now, Greyshirt volunteers are deployed across the country. They are cutting trees, mucking out homes, and helping communities get back on their feet.
🔗 Join now, visit: teamrubiconusa.org
#TeamRubicon #DisasterResponse #BuiltToServe
August 25, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Disasters don’t take days off. Neither do we.
Right now, Greyshirt volunteers are deployed across the country. They are cutting trees, mucking out homes, and helping communities get back on their feet.
🔗 Join now, visit: teamrubiconusa.org
#TeamRubicon #DisasterResponse #BuiltToServe
Right now, Greyshirt volunteers are deployed across the country. They are cutting trees, mucking out homes, and helping communities get back on their feet.
🔗 Join now, visit: teamrubiconusa.org
#TeamRubicon #DisasterResponse #BuiltToServe
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
People are rightly disgusted by this speech, but it’s a measure of fascism’s normalization that many see this as more of the awful same rather than what I think most of us who’ve been reporting this beat hear it as: a significant calculated escalation. Full alert stuff.
JD Vance gets the biggest applause of his speech so far when he says "by the grace of God we always will be a Christian nation"
December 21, 2025 at 9:57 PM
People are rightly disgusted by this speech, but it’s a measure of fascism’s normalization that many see this as more of the awful same rather than what I think most of us who’ve been reporting this beat hear it as: a significant calculated escalation. Full alert stuff.
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
I wrote about the conservative quest to restore the "true" Constitution, the Antebellum Constitution, shorn of the egalitarian nonsense in the Reconstruction Amendments, a document that replaces equality with a society of dominators and the dominated. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
December 21, 2025 at 2:59 PM
I wrote about the conservative quest to restore the "true" Constitution, the Antebellum Constitution, shorn of the egalitarian nonsense in the Reconstruction Amendments, a document that replaces equality with a society of dominators and the dominated. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
As the former Chief Mathematician for the Senate Budget Committee and the head of numbers on the political side at OMB,,,, this is not how it works
FOX: If you cut something by 100%, the cost goes down to 0. If you cut it by 600%, the drug companies are actually paying you
LUTNICK: What he's saying is if a drug was $100 and you bring it down to $13, it's down 7 times
F: Not a 600% cut
L: But it's 700% higher price before. It's down 700% now
LUTNICK: What he's saying is if a drug was $100 and you bring it down to $13, it's down 7 times
F: Not a 600% cut
L: But it's 700% higher price before. It's down 700% now
December 18, 2025 at 9:11 PM
As the former Chief Mathematician for the Senate Budget Committee and the head of numbers on the political side at OMB,,,, this is not how it works
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
The moral and intellectual poverty of the USA today in one exchange.
GLASHEEN: Antifa is our primary concern right now. That's the most immediate violent threat we're facing
BENNIE THOMPSON: Where is antifa headquartered?
GLASHEEN: ... ... ... we are building out the infrastructure right now
THOMPSON: What does that mean?
BENNIE THOMPSON: Where is antifa headquartered?
GLASHEEN: ... ... ... we are building out the infrastructure right now
THOMPSON: What does that mean?
December 11, 2025 at 8:18 PM
The moral and intellectual poverty of the USA today in one exchange.
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
This is a white supremacist rally. Anyone who attends something like this or still supports the leader of this movement should be unwelcome in your home and shunned from civil society. Period. We’re way past the point where this crap should be tolerated from anyone. Cast them out.
Trump: "Ilhan Omar, whatever the hell her name is. With her little turban. I love her. She comes in, does nothing but bitch ... we ought to get her the hell out ... she's here illegally."
The crowd in Pennsylvania then starts chanting "send her back!"
The crowd in Pennsylvania then starts chanting "send her back!"
December 10, 2025 at 12:57 AM
This is a white supremacist rally. Anyone who attends something like this or still supports the leader of this movement should be unwelcome in your home and shunned from civil society. Period. We’re way past the point where this crap should be tolerated from anyone. Cast them out.
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
Reader, he is, in fact, making this stuff up
Kudlow is just lying to his viewers: "Unemployment is at rock bottom. These are real facts. I'm not making this stuff up. Unemployment claims are as low as they're ever going to get."
December 8, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Reader, he is, in fact, making this stuff up
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
Reposted by Amy Van Doren
🔥 AL GORE: “We already have way too many subservient cowards in Congress, the last thing we need is to send another one (Van Epps 🤖) — you can make tomorrow the turning point for our country by getting out and voting for Rep. @aftynbehn.bsky.social .” #TN7
Full: www.threads.com/@thetnholler...
Full: www.threads.com/@thetnholler...
December 2, 2025 at 3:26 AM
🔥 AL GORE: “We already have way too many subservient cowards in Congress, the last thing we need is to send another one (Van Epps 🤖) — you can make tomorrow the turning point for our country by getting out and voting for Rep. @aftynbehn.bsky.social .” #TN7
Full: www.threads.com/@thetnholler...
Full: www.threads.com/@thetnholler...