Leanne Avila
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leannemavila.bsky.social
Leanne Avila
@leannemavila.bsky.social
Editor, science writer, very fond of words. Also quite fond of numbers.
Reposted by Leanne Avila
the number one requirement for the next Dem president is that they are willing to look back

with a flamethrower
There's a series of things (like the ballroom, Gulf of America) that we're going to have to *undo* the moment this guy is out of office.
And yet I can already hear future Democrat presidents saying "I'm focused on the people's work, not the knucklehead stuff" and just leave this man's shit up.
The president's name was added to the sign outside the performing arts center.
December 19, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
“They’re denying that any of her birth certificates, which are from Laurel, Maryland, her records of immunization, medical records — they’re denying the authenticity of them. It is something I’ve never encountered.” www.huffpost.com/entry/us-cit...
Trump Administration Says Maryland Woman's Birth Certificate Is Fake In Dystopian Move
Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales was arrested on Sunday. ICE won’t release her despite extensive documentation of her citizenship, her attorneys told HuffPost.
www.huffpost.com
December 19, 2025 at 3:53 AM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
To all the young people in New York and across our country who count on gender-affirming care:

I won't let this administration come for you, your doctors, or your lifesaving health care. 

Your health care is still legal and protected. 

I'll always fight for you.
December 18, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
feels stupid to say at this point but how the fuck isn't anyone invoking the 25th amendment.
Trump: "Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled ... It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the USA all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us."
December 17, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
Apart from the fact the leader of the right mocked Reiner, one small difference is that Reiner's day job was making movies that people loved, while Kirk's starting point was creating enemies list of professors to be fired or harassed. These are not the same things.
December 15, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
The ACA isn't just "health care for people who don't have a conventional employer." It also disallows something that was incredibly common 20 years ago, which I fear is getting lost to generational memory: insurance companies could deny you health care for essentially any previous health problem.
I'm dubious about Amazon's commitment to keeping pre-existing conditions a thing of the past.
December 14, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
December 14, 2025 at 1:30 AM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
I understand that a lot of folks have been misled by fear-mongering and powerful regressive voices but it’s still astonishing to me that so many have fallen for the idea that oppressively policing other people’s gender identity and expression could in any way be part of an enlightened future.
December 13, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
It’s very funny to me that countries are trying to pass laws banning teens from social media until they’re older and can “handle it” as if the last decade hasn’t been about watching rich middle aged men nuke their brains on Twitter and then run the USA via shitpost.
Dude. Yes. Alito and Thomas are of course the standout examples, but all of the Republican justices have tells in their writing and their questioning indicating that they are, to varying degrees, marinating their brains in dumb bitch juice
My theory, fwiw, is that Supreme Court Justices are not immune to Twitter brain poisoning. I suspect all six have horrific information environments and have therefore lost the ability to understand the people who don't agree with them.
December 8, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
The hepatitis B vaccine had been recommended for all newborns since 1991.

From 1990-2019, acute hepatitis B infections reported among children and teens fell 99 percent. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/w...
Breaking: After contentious debates and three failed attempts at a vote, a federal vaccine committee decided on Friday to end the decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/h...
An End to Hepatitis B Shots for All Newborns
www.nytimes.com
December 5, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
Trump's speech about the shooting in DC veered into him attacking the Somali community in Minnesota, which of course had nothing to do with the shooting. Gives away his bigoted game.
November 27, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
There are going to be prominent Democrats and mainstream media voices who insist that we have to "turn the page" and "forgive and forget" and they should all be roundly ignored, if not mercilessly mocked.
It’s crazy to think about the crimes we’re going to learn about after this regime ends.

We’re already hearing about Watergate level crimes every week. Imagine what will come out after it’s over.

We’re going to need a full accounting of all that’s been done in violation of the constitution.
November 22, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
1) good, they should be prosecuted, they are responsible for countless deaths

2) always very funny when these people realize the extent to which their billionaire patrons could not possibly give less of a shit about them
November 22, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
It's remarkable that the number of news analyses/pundit takes that the Democrats are too extreme--out of touch, too focused on divisive cultural issues, too beholden to progressive orthodoxy--far exceeds the articles on the Trump/GOP's connections to the far right. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/u...
Trump Defends Tucker Carlson After Nick Fuentes Interview
www.nytimes.com
November 17, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
Millions of Democratic voters on Tuesday: Fight these guys. Fight them.

Senate Democrats: We heard you loud and clear and we will give in
November 9, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
Dems backed Trump into a corner where he’s advocating for starving Americans and hemorrhaging support. If they vote to let him off the hook in exchange for nothing it’s a cataclysmic failure. I know people are in pain but insulating Republicans from political consequences is not the answer.
November 9, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
So here's where we are, Sunday morning:

Trump is trying to starve hungry kids in order to bully Democrats into abandoning our fight against health care premium increases.

So Trump is starving kids in order to deny families health care.

Dystopian.
November 9, 2025 at 5:30 PM
This is who they are. The cruelty is the point
November 9, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
It’s almost like if people tell you that to win you have to turn your back on poor people, or Muslims, or trans people, or immigrants, you can just say, “no, that’s immoral, we’re not doing that,” and keep doing good old fashioned organizing and campaigning and things will be ok
November 5, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
Will be amazing when SCOTUS realizes that Congress has other powers also.
Supreme Court justices of all stripes had some tough questions for the Trump administration, making pretty clear two things:

1. Tariffs are taxes
2. Congress has the power to tax, not the president

www.notus.org/courts/supre...
Skeptical Supreme Court Questions the Trump Administration Over Tariff Powers
Some of the administration's arguments contradicted President Donald Trump’s statements about raising revenue through tariffs.
www.notus.org
November 5, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
😎😎😎😎 GOOD THINGS CAN STILL HAPPEN 😎😎😎😎
November 5, 2025 at 5:22 AM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
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
Off their phones and into the streets

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/n...
November 5, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
I got bad news for Trump about every election going forward from now until the end of time
November 5, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
I’m just a small-town political scientist, & it’s still relatively early, but it appears that The Actual Democrats did not Need To Do any of the Things or Learn any of the Obvious Lessons that Ezra Douthglesias said they Must Do & Learn.
November 5, 2025 at 2:08 AM
Reposted by Leanne Avila
Remember, they're currently arguing that Biden's pardons are illegitimate because he signed the actual forms with an autopen.

Trump, meanwhile, repeatedly insists he knows nothing at all about one of his very controversial pardons. Never heard of the guy!

Sorta seems like a problem.
O'DONNELL: Why did you pardon Changpeng Zhao?

TRUMP: Are you ready? I don't know who he is

O'DONNELL: His crypto exchange Binance helped facilitate a $2b purchase of World Liberty Financial's stablecoin. And they you pardoned him.

TRUMP: Here's the thing -- I know nothing about it
November 3, 2025 at 1:05 AM