Melissa Gira Grant
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melissagiragrant.com
Melissa Gira Grant
@melissagiragrant.com
100K followers 3.5K following 9.5K posts
staff writer, @newrepublic.com
author, A WOMAN IS AGAINST THE LAW (@littlebrown.bsky.social, 2KTK) + PLAYING THE WHORE (Verso)
member, @nyguild.bsky.social

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melissagiragrant.com
“It's this whole, like, what is filmmaking?“
Just on a couple close ups. It's this whole, like, what is filmmaking? So much of filmmaking really is problem solving, and problems solved together. And yes, things sometimes don't
January 14, 2026 at 3:41 PM
melissagiragrant.com
truly feels like The Year For It, the last thing that got me to go to Mass was to witness this in Chicago…
a black silhouette of a woman sitting in a pew in a church the front of the black silhouette of a woman sitting in a pew in a church, with a sign reading, “PRAY FOR ME / ORA POR MI”
January 14, 2026 at 3:25 PM
melissagiragrant.com
it is also my birthday (and the Roe anniversary) and I quit the Church 30 years ago but seeing Homan’s mug that close to Mary……..
event flyer, with two mugging headshots (Homan, a white potato, and the Bishop, in some kind of not-ordinary-time drag) THUR JAN 22, 2026 PROTECTOR OF AMERICA AWARD *** Honoring Tom Homan U.S. Border Czar Bishop Joseph Strickland joins the ceremony in D.C. to give a special blessing to Tom Homan • Join Us Live Jan 22, 1am ET CFORC.COM/EVENTS CATHOLICS CATHOLICS
January 14, 2026 at 3:18 PM
melissagiragrant.com
The complaint is difficult reading, but if you need a condensed timeline of events in Minneapolis... I think I missed this incident entirely:

www.courtlistener.com/docket/72132...
91. Shortly before Renee Good was shot and killed on January 7, 2026, a different scene unfolded less than a mile away. An attorney for the State of Minnesota with expertise in civil rights law witnessed an apparent DHS arrest unfolding, and she approached the scene in order to act as a witness. She identified herself as an attorney and stood a safe distance from the arrest. A DHS agent jumped out of his vehicle, unloaded entire canisters of pepper spray on her at point blank range, causing such irritation that she had to strip her clothing off on the scene to reduce the effect.
January 13, 2026 at 7:33 PM
melissagiragrant.com
New story from @jcollins.bsky.social on ICE attempts to intimidate ICE Watch observers in Minneapolis, including ICE letting them know they know where they live—by leading them to their homes www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...
The first time Kovarik saw private data used by ICE agents was a couple days after Christmas. They were observing ICE agents while a friend from Robbinsdale drove. The agents had already stopped them to warn they'd be arrested, but they kept following the vehicle. Then they realized the agents were leading them to their friend's home in Robbinsdale. "He pulled up to her house, both the agents got out of the car and were both performatively and theatrically taking pictures of her house," Kovarik said. "Then they drove off and they went around to the back alley behind her house and took pictures of the back of her house." It happened again to Kovarik last week when an ICE agent led them to a residence where Kovarik used to live. "It's one of many intimidation tactics, and obviously people should be safe," Kovarik said, "but if you feel pretty comfortable that ... they're not really going to be able to do anything to harm you, I think it's to our benefit to show them that we're not scared."
January 13, 2026 at 2:40 PM
melissagiragrant.com
www.thenation.com/article/acti...
For the past decade, Democrats and the wider liberal and centrist establishment in the United States have often responded to escalating MAGA hysteria about antifa with a degree of dismissiveness, incuriosity, and snark. “This group ‘Antifa’… are they in the room with you right now, Mr. President?” Representative Eric Swalwell (D-AK) quipped on X after Trump signed the anti-antifa executive order. In another post, Representative Dan Goldman (D-NY) challenged the president to “Name one member of ‘Antifa.’” Journalist John Harwood wrote that antifa was “made up,” while former Meet the Press host Chuck Todd said on his podcast: “I don’t even know what Antifa is. I know what the definition of Antifa is.… There is no group.” Joy Behar, the cohost of The View, once made fun of Republicans for being “scared of this fictitious idea of antifa, a thing that doesn’t even exist.”
January 12, 2026 at 4:29 PM
melissagiragrant.com
did the winter sowing—seedlings TK
three recycled plastic mandarin boxes, repurposed into little greenhouses, labeled nemophilia, dianthus, scabiosa, bee balm, and anise hyssop, placed in a large black 1020 planter tray, on a white marble tiled floor
January 12, 2026 at 12:11 AM
melissagiragrant.com
I think we won’t really free up the space to imagine a way out of American fascism until people grasp this: most of what the “opposition party” has to offer them is their preferred actors for state violence
post by Governor Tim Walz @governorwalz.mn.gov State and local law enforcement know the communities they serve. They've built the trust and know how to keep us safe. As Minnesotans express their first amendment rights, I encourage you to remain peaceful and know that local law enforcement has one goal in mind: your safety. 11:26 AM • Jan 10, 2026 post by The Bulwark @thebulwark.com "The question that you're basically asking is, can our cops arrest them? From a legal perspective, yes. From a practical perspective...they have bigger guns than we do." That's where we're at. Look out for@mayorjacobfrey.bsky.social on today's Bulwark Podcast with @timmiller.bsky.social! 1:37 PM • Jan 9, 2026
January 10, 2026 at 4:38 PM
melissagiragrant.com
My story on where things were at in the struggle to restore abortion access in Missouri, despite voters rolling back a near-total ban, for TNR's June 2025 issue: newrepublic.com/article/1946...
A week later, I spoke with the CEO, Emily Wales, by phone. Planned Parenthood had by then provided abortion care to at least one patient in three of its clinics in Missouri. The affiliate was focused on Columbia, Wales said, because that was where there was the most patient demand. Medication abortion remained unavailable at its clinics, owing to multiple legal challenges from the state attorney general (who had sent the affiliate a cease-and-desist letter for medication abortion, a service it was not providing) and the Department of Health and Senior Services (which Wales said effectively blocked them from providing medication abortion). After speaking with Wales, I tried to book an appointment at the Columbia clinic, where, she said, “almost everybody” was able to get one. But there were none online, and there were none when I called. The receptionist suggested I go to Kansas.
January 9, 2026 at 6:54 PM
melissagiragrant.com
Bring the war home:
Ross described himself as an Indiana National Guard veteran, who served in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 as a machine gunner on a combat logistical patrol team. After serving, he joined the U.S. Border Patrol and was stationed near El Paso, Texas, where he worked on patrol, tracking, and field intelligence. In 2015 he joined ICE, where he's currently assigned to the Enforcement and Removal Operations special response team in the St. Paul, Minnesota, field office. Ross said he worked in fugitive operations, targeting "higher value targets," and as a member of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.
January 9, 2026 at 12:41 PM
melissagiragrant.com
This was where we were one year ago. newrepublic.com/article/1902...
Given all this, you could well conclude that the Laken Riley Act appears poorly constructed—more a public statement than a piece of policy. It has at least one immigration attorney begging senators to “sit down and take the time to read it.” Then again, from another angle, the bill appears to be serving precisely the function its right-wing backers intended: to sell the public on the idea that immigrants are endangering Americans and that any response is justified. “All of this just lends itself to this idea that immigration is a public safety issue, which it’s just not,” Shah told me. “It’s a lie that’s constantly told to us.” The act is a key component of Trump’s plan premised on such lies: to carry out, on day one, the largest mass deportation operation in the history of the United States. “Making federal policy that says anybody who’s charged with a crime and doesn’t have any right to due process could be detained and then eventually deported is really disturbing,” said Shah. “That just opens up so much more space for them to do what Trump’s been promising.” Passing a law like this, she added, “it signals to people that it’s OK to target these individuals.” Rhetorically, the story of Laken Riley has primed people to accept the arrest and indefinite detention of any immigrant suspected of being undocumented and/or having committed a crime. It has done so by activating a script deep in the American story: the protection of white women's innocence, at all costs. Throughout our history, Americans have crossed their own imagined moral line to allow "what appears to be unconstitutional arbitrary detention, as long as it is done to immigrants," noted Andrea Pitzer, author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, in an essay this December. As Trump's second Inauguration Day approaches, many Americans are thinking about what sorts of moral lines the new administration may try to cross, and what it will mean for ordinary people to attempt to hold them back. Democrats entertaining this destructive bill are also demonstrating what little they will do to help hold that line. They are saying they don't even know what side of that line they are on.
January 9, 2026 at 12:33 PM
melissagiragrant.com
ICE shoots three people in two days, and you want to talk about this being an “incantation”
post: Brian Beutler@brianbeutler.bsky.s... • 13m Dems could and probably will proffer enforcement reform ideas ahead of 2028. In the meantime, the question isn't whether they'll repeat the incantation "abolish ICE," but whether they'll provide votes to fund this government, absent any enforceable mechanism to rein in the crimes and fascism. quote-posting: Dave Weigel• @daveweigel... • 41m Classic Democratic no-win. All of them voted against the OBAA, which supercharged ICE funding and hiring. But they won't say they'd "abolish ICE" so they'll get yelled at (mostly by people who'll vote for them in the midterms after threatening not
January 9, 2026 at 3:13 AM
melissagiragrant.com
Still seeing Renee Good described as having a child (she had three children) now “orphaned,” still, tonight, and her wife described as “a person who said in a video that she was her wife.” Her IG had a 🏳️‍🌈 emoji!! Her ex-husband even acknowledges her “current partner” (AP).

apnews.com/article/ice-...
In social media accounts, Good described herself as a "poet and writer and wife and mom." She said she was currently "experiencing Minneapolis," displaying a pride flag emoji on her Instagram account. A profile picture posted to Pinterest shows her smiling and holding a young child against her cheek, along with posts about tattoos, hairstyles and home decorating. Her ex-husband, who asked not to be named out of concern for the safety of their children, said Good had just dropped off her 6-year-old son at school Wednesday and was driving home with her current partner when they encountered a group of ICE agents on a snowy street in Minneapolis, where they had moved last year from Kansas City, Missouri.
January 8, 2026 at 11:25 PM
melissagiragrant.com
I wrote a kind of January 6 piece for 2026: newrepublic.com/article/2049...
Politics now play out parallel to conspiracy theories, expressing them and promoting them. This has been building for nearly a decade, while attempts to counter them can barely keep up, and don’t seem to stop them. Fact-checking responds to conspiracy theories as if they are isolated incidents that can be corrected, and not common and regular expressions of the political and media ecosystem in which we live.
January 6, 2026 at 2:57 PM
melissagiragrant.com
real question, are they going to end up at MDC? www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
Guardian live blog screenshot: 46m ago 09.41 EST Maduro and his wife will be transported to New York, says Trump Donald Trump has confirmed that the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are heading to New York. Trump told Fox News on Saturday that Maduro and his wife were taken to a ship after their capture by US forces and will be transported to New York. Earlier, US attorney general Pam Bondi said the deposed Venezuelan leader and his wife would face criminal charges after an indictment in New York. Bondi vowed in a social media post that the couple will "soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts"
January 3, 2026 at 3:33 PM
melissagiragrant.com
what
AP app screenshot showing live alert: • 5:43 AM EST Who is in charge of Venezuela? BY REGINA GARCÍA CANO It's not immediately clear. By law, the presidential succession follows the vice president, currently Delcy Rodriguez. screenshot of phone lockscreen filled with AP push alerts: Breaking News 13m ago Deposed Venezuelan leader Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, will face charges after an indictment, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi says. Follow AP's live updates. Breaking News 1h ago Utah Sen. Mike Lee says Trump administration has briefed him that Maduro will face criminal charges in the United States. Follow AP's live updates. Breaking News Trump says Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro has been captured after US conducted a "large scale strike" on the country. 3h ago Venezuela 03:14 FAA bans U.S. commercial flights in Venezuelan airspace over "ongoing military activity" ahead of explosions in the capital. Venezuela At least seven explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Venezuela's capital, Caracas. The cause behind the explosions was n...
January 3, 2026 at 1:12 PM
melissagiragrant.com
sun is streaming in as we hear about people who ICE came for and people who stood with them
blown out video screen over broadway showing the nyc inaugural at city hall
January 1, 2026 at 7:14 PM
melissagiragrant.com
guys it is extremely cold on broadway but people are sticking thru it
large LARGE video screen over broadway showing a live image city hall draped in a NYC INAUGURATION 2026 banner
January 1, 2026 at 7:01 PM
melissagiragrant.com
en route to the mayor’s street party
tall red spindly sculpture against a twice as tall 19th century building lined with lit trees (Zuccotti Park, NYC)
January 1, 2026 at 4:46 PM
melissagiragrant.com
impossible to excerpt, here is one run: leahsottile.substack.com/p/66-clarity...
9. The saying “trust, but verify” is insufficient. The saying should be “earn trust, then verify.” There is a difference. 10. Trust is not earned quickly. People are entitled to privacy and dignity and the choice to share their story when they are ready. Until then everyone should have to wait. Be patient. Do not show up on the doorstep of those in grief. Just because this practice has been normalized doesn’t make it humane. 11. AI is for losers. 12. Reporting will harm you. You are not emotionless. Don’t work for people who tell you to toughen up. Cry on the job if you have to, and don’t do it in a bathroom stall. Let people see your humanity. 13. Before using the word “unprecedented,” interview a historian. 14. Get to know an archivist or a librarian. 15. A Nazi salute never needs to be verified. If you find yourself in a position where you are being told by an editor to verify if a Nazi salute is truly a Nazi salute, pull the fire alarm and stage a walkout with all of your coworkers. Act like the building is on fire. Do not return to work until management acknowledges that a Nazi salute is a Nazi salute. Handwringing and soft-pedaling hate is a call for an emergency.
December 29, 2025 at 11:48 PM
melissagiragrant.com
not lost on me that the street party stretches to Zuccotti Park nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/12/29/e...
office. Mamdani will be ceremonially sworn in at a public ceremony at City Hall at 1 p.m., this time alongside incoming Comptroller Mark Levine and re-elected Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) will conduct the ceremonial swearing-in at the daytime event, which will occur alongside a car-free "block party" on Broadway between Liberty and Murray streets. google maps screenshot of lower manhattan blocks on broadway from murray st (near city hall park) to liberty st (along zuccotti park)
December 29, 2025 at 5:33 PM
melissagiragrant.com
post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't nirvana, pearl jam, soundgarden, or Alice In Chains.

1994 is the year that made me, in no small part due to Under the Pink.
Cover of Tori Amos’ Under the Pink
December 28, 2025 at 5:18 PM
melissagiragrant.com
out at last from twelve days isolation, nothing better than this to go out to
nighttime shot of IFC marquee, featuring David Lynch’s Complete Twin Peaks 12/19 - 1/8 light trail smeary shot of the the lit up xmas tree framed in the distance by the arch at Washington Sq Park
December 28, 2025 at 4:32 AM
melissagiragrant.com
and I’m out
blue counter, blue box, warm cinnabon
December 21, 2025 at 11:07 PM
melissagiragrant.com
not the worst sick situation (past me thought ahead to order xmas cookies and nice tea)
on a light blanket, a grey tray with a dish of cookies, a tea towel, a small glass pot of tea, and a tea mug (white with small blue totoros holding parasols). nearby are headphones and a laptop. too much greige maybe but it suits the low light.
December 20, 2025 at 8:12 PM