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takingaction4us.bsky.social
Taking Action 4 US🇺🇸🇪🇺🇺🇦🇩🇰🇬🇱🇨🇦🇩🇪📚📗
@takingaction4us.bsky.social
1.7K followers 2.6K following 2.1K posts
Interests: democracy—is it crumbling beyond repair at home🇺🇸& where I live🇩🇪,history, ethics, science, foreign policy, education, communication, art, leadership, food…
Big fan of 13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments
My dog’s name is Ginsburg
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takingaction4us.bsky.social
A beautifully crafted call to service to service from Governor Spanberger.
Thank you for including it
In Virginia today, former representative and former intelligence officer Abigail Spanberger took the oath of office as the commonwealth's seventy-fifth governor, the first woman to hold that position. In her inaugural address, she celebrated the peaceful transfer of power and called for Virginians to work together to make life more affordable and embrace progress, writing a new chapter in the state's history. "As we mark 250 years since the dawn of American freedom: What will our children, grandchildren, and their descendants write about this time in our Commonwealth's history—this chapter—50, 100, and 250 years from now?" she asked. "Will they say that we let divisions fester or challenges overwhelm us? Or will they say that we stood up for what is right, fixed what is broken, and served the common good here in Virginia? Today, we're hearing the call to connect more deeply to our American Experiment—to understand our shared history, not as a single point in time, but as a lesson for how we create our more prosperous future. And so I ask-what will you do to help us author this next chapter?"
January 18, 2026 at 7:29 AM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
😎 🙏
I always thought that we North Carolinians had the best motto
Esse Quam Videri=To Be Rather Than to Seem
At the center of our seal are Liberty with Constitution & Plenty with cornucopia symbolizing freedom, abundance, & NC's commitment to liberty that stretch from the mountains to the sea
The official NC seal is a circle that features the robe-covered figures of "Liberty" & "Plenty" in its center. Liberty is standing & holding a capped pole in her left hand, and in her right hand is a scroll on which is written the word "Constitution." Plenty is seated with her right arm extended, holding three heads of grain in her right hand and the end of an overflowing cornucopia in her left hand. In the background are depictions of mountains and a three-masted ship floating on the ocean. The dates "May 20, 1775" (the date of the so-called Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence) & "April 12, 1776" (the date of the Halifax Resolves) appear at the top & bottom, respectively, of the center part of the seal. Around the outside border of the seal are the phrases "The Great Seal of the State of North Carolina" & Esse Quam Videri (To Be Rather Than To Seem)
January 17, 2026 at 12:42 PM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
…Unique, for sure, but then again so is everybody else 🤷🏻‍♀️
From:
economist.com/culture/2026...
“…beneath the surface, republican ideas ran swift & deep, eroding old assumptions about status & power”
The radicalism of the American revolution. By Gordon S. Wood. Knopf; 464 pages; $23 and £17.50. The heavy hitter It has become fashionable to dismiss America's revolution as a self-interested, slave-preserving project carried out by elite white men. This book offers a powerful counter-argument. The revolution was a radical act that created a new kind of society and social order, Mr Wood contends. He portrays late-18th-century America as deeply hierarchical, shaped by primogeniture and religious authority. Yet beneath the surface, republican ideas ran swift and deep, eroding old assumptions about status and power. The book is not an easy read, but it is a rewarding one. For those seeking to understand America's intellectual foundations, it pairs perfectly with Alexis de Tocqueville.
January 16, 2026 at 1:14 PM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
Strikingly large (63%) GOP bubble = strikingly small part of America 🇺🇸
January 13, 2026 at 11:24 AM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
Just like Lady Liberty “brandishing a torch”
I begin to wonder how long before liberty and justice get a makeover courtesy of stylists for Melania,Tiffany & Ivanka or are simply replaced by a Proud Boy & David Duke
Cartoon A rear view of a handcuffed ICE agent being led off by Lady Liberty and Lady Justice Cartoon Three ICE agents, one of whom says “She was brandishing a torch …” standing a fallen Lady Liberty her torch on the ground
January 10, 2026 at 10:59 AM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
This is a good editorial
However, I find it difficult to read, wondering if @nytimes.com — its publisher, editors some opinion writers & reporters consider themselves among the Americans on whom America’s next chapters rest.

“[America’s] next chapters will depend on what Americans do now…”
As dark as this story has become, it is not over. Its next chapters will depend on what Americans do now, especially those who share some of Mr. Trump's policy preferences but remain loyal to American democracy. Many people have already responded heroically to Jan. 6. Police officers risked their lives and suffered beatings to defend the Capitol. Hundreds of F.B.I. agents, prosecutors, congressional aides and others investigated the day's events and created a historical record that Mr. Trump cannot erase. A small number of elected Republicans - including Liz Cheney, Anthony Gonzalez, Jaime Herrera Butler, Adam Kinzinger, Peter Meijer and Mitt Romney - insisted on defending the Constitution, at the cost of their careers. The past few months offer some new reasons for hope. Mr. Trump's approval ratings have fallen. His party has lost elections. Lower-court judges, including some appointed by Mr. Trump, have blocked some of his policies and called out his brazen disregard for truth. Even some congressional Republicans have voted against him on a few matters, like the Jeffrey Epstein files and health care subsidies. These developments make it possible to imagine a better future. The Jan. 6 era turns five years old on Tuesday. The anniversary will always be a mournful one for America. The nation's challenge now is to ensure that the day is ultimately viewed as it initially was: as an aberration. Americans must summon the collective will to bring this era to an end and make certain that the violence, lawlessness and injustice of Jan. 6 do not endure.
January 3, 2026 at 12:36 PM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
@hcrichardson.bsky.social
Just reading and noticed a typo in the second line in screenshot below ‘Lincoln’ is missing after Abraham
In his third annual message on December 8, 1863, President Abraham asked Congress to get involved in the process by establishing "a system for the encouragement of immigration." Like other Republicans, Lincoln believed immigrants contributed mightily to the nation's economy. He wrote: "there is...a great deficiency of laborers in every field of industry, especially in agriculture and in our mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals," while "tens of thousands of persons, destitute of remunerative occupation, are thronging our foreign consulates and offering to emigrate to the United States if essential, but very cheap, assistance can be afforded them."
January 2, 2026 at 7:15 AM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
Yep. Time for me to once again recommend @vermontgmg.bsky.social’s “The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of The Making & Unkeashing of the Atomic Bomb”
Book cover photo: red, orange atomic bomb exploring with white lettering reading: *A masterpiece... If you are an intelligent person, or at the very least think you are, you have to read Ibe Devil Reached Toward the Sky. ... This period in history has never been more relevant and frightening than it is today. —JAMES PATTERSON New York Times Bestseller The DEVIL REACHED TOWARD the SKY AN ORAL HISTORY of THE MAKING & UNLEASHING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB GARRETT M.GRAFF New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist
December 29, 2025 at 6:04 AM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
Yes! And we need a lot reporting and *writing* like Michael Lewis did in “The Fifth Risk”
Photo of Book Cover that reads #1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR MICHAEL LEWIS THE FIFTH RISK Over a photo of Jenga blocks with an American flag painted on them
December 22, 2025 at 6:28 AM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
Looking through a bookcase last week I ran across Rolling Stone, Time, & other commutative editions of the 2008 election
This edition of Letters from an American feels equally significant
“It seemed to mark an end for the Reagan Revolution whose ideology Trump has pushed to its brutish conclusion”
Then, Wednesday night, Trump spoke to the nation in what was supposed to be a speech about the economy as Americans are giving him poor marks on his handling of it. The speech was shorter than his usual, coming in at just under twenty minutes. Trump shouted his way through a rushed speech so full of lies that economist Paul Krugman said he couldn't "find a single factual assertion Trump made that was true." What Tom Nichols of The Atlantic saw was "an unnerving display of fear." As Nichols wrote, "Americans saw a president drenched in panic as he tried to bully an entire nation into admitting he's doing a great job." But there was more to it than just an indication of the president's weakening poll numbers or declining mental acuity. It seemed to mark an end for the Reagan Revolution whose ideology Trump has pushed to its brutish conclusion. When Trump yelled that he had "inherited a mess, and I'm fixing it," and slammed "Radical Left Democrats," Somali Americans, immigrants, and transgender Americans while claiming he "fights for the law-abiding, hardworking people of our country..who make this nation run, who make this nation work," he was amping Republican rhetoric since the 1980s into caricature. In the 1980s, Republicans told Americans that the modern government that had regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, promoted infrastructure, protected civil rights, and stabilized the international order since World War II was "socialism." Undeserving Americans like President Ronald Reagan's "welfare queens," who were coded to be Black Americans from inner cities, or talk radio shock jock Rush Limbaugh's "feminazis"-women who demanded equal rights-were cheating the system to take tax money from hardworking white taxpayers.
December 20, 2025 at 5:13 AM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
We might hope SCOTUS would “…think twice about continued pursuit of its ideological project. But these…principled conservatives…believe in their theories & intend to see them through, no matter the cost to the Constitution or the damage done to 🇺🇸 democracy”
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/o...
In fact, we can see quite clearly that the concentration of presidential power in this administration has done more to make the government unaccountable than it has opened it up to public input or made it more responsive to public discontent. The embrace of the unitary executive theory by both the president and the court has given us the worst of all worlds: an ultrapowerful presidency without an actual president at the helm. A figurehead whose viziers exercise unitary authority on his behalf, running roughshod over both the law and common decency in pursuit of their own narrow agendas. The White House is a lost cause, but one might hope that the Supreme Court would be attentive enough to the conditions of the real world to think twice about continued pursuit of its ideological project. But these are principled conservatives. They believe in their theories. And they intend to see them through, no matter the cost to the Constitution or the damage done to American democracy.
December 17, 2025 at 5:07 PM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
Here’s my sweet little guy catching a snowflake ❄️ last winter 🥰
December 5, 2025 at 7:35 PM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
weaintbuyingit.com
We Ain't Buying It Target Companies This action is taking direct aim at Target, for caving to this administration's biased attacks on DEl; Home Depot, for allowing and colluding with ICE to kidnap our neighbors on their properties; and Amazon, for funding this administration to secure their own corporate tax cuts Target Target has rolled back their DEl initiatives, which included ending programs that help Black employees advance, cutting financial support for Black-Owned businesses, and removing LGBTQ+ products from their stores. Amazon Amazon holds a monopolistic position in the market, contributes to dangerous working conditions for its employees and drivers, and CEO Jeff Bezos has donated over $1 million to this administration. Home Depot Home Depot is allowing ICE agents to illegally detain and kidnap laborers from their stores. The laborers in our communities are not able to look for work safely. How to Participate • Full Black Out: Don't buy anything from Target, Amazon or Home Depot stores during this week. Use the time and money to connect with those you love, and rediscover what matters. • Redirect Spending: Skip the companies undermining democracy. Shop small, local, or with businesses affirming our humanity. • Join the Movement: Pledge to be a conscious consumer. • Amplify: Spread the word. Share the message in conversation and online. • Use and SHARE Our Toolkit: Get the word out about this economic action so we can hit the billionaire's pockets where it hurts! Share now!
November 18, 2025 at 4:22 AM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
Call Schumer and tell him to whip his caucus

If you can’t get him in Washington call his other offices
Albany Phone: (518) 431-4070 Buffalo Phone: (716) 846-4111 New York City Phone: (212) 486-4430 Rochester Phone: (585) 263-5866 Syracuse Phone: (315) 423-5471 Washington D.C. Phone: (202) 224-6542 Binghamton Phone: (607) 772-6792 Melville Phone: (631) 753-0978 Peekskill Phone: (914) 734-1532
November 10, 2025 at 8:38 PM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
Call them!
All of them! I’m even calling my 2 GOP Senators, so if you have one of these Dems please 🙏 call them (again)

A U.S. Capitol Switchboard operator can connect you directly with the Senate office
(202) 224-3121
November 10, 2025 at 6:12 PM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
I highly recommend Ryback’s “Takeover”
A word of caution from his
Notes on Sources:
Book Cover (background photo Hitler and Hindenburg shaking hands) TAKEOVER HITLER'S FINAL RISE TO POWER TIMOTHY W. RYBACK "Refreshingly candid.... Riveting." —The New York Review of Books I also relied frequently on The New York Times, not only because it was the newspaper of record but also because it occasionally got things so remarkably wrong, repeatedly predicting Hitler's political demise, even after January 30, 1933.
November 9, 2025 at 5:54 AM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
I just finished Timothy W. Ryback’s “Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power”.
From the author’s Note on Sources:
“I…relied frequently on The New York Times, not only because it was the newspaper of record but also because it occasionally got things so remarkably wrong, …”
Just saying
Book Cover Background black and white photo Hitler and Hindenburg shaking hands TAKEOVER HITLER'S FINAL RISE TO POWER TIMOTHY W. RYBACK "Refreshingly candid.... Riveting." —The New York Review of Books
November 5, 2025 at 6:00 PM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
Reminds me I’m just finishing Timothy Ryback’s “Takeover Hitler’s Final Rise to Power”
Highly Recommended!
Book cover Background photo: Hitler shaking hands with President von Hindenburg, Germany, 1933. Heritage Images/Getty Images Cover design by John Gall TAKEOVER HITLER'S FINAL RISE TO POWER TIMOTHY W. RYBACK "Refreshingly candid.... Riveting." —The New York Review of Books
November 4, 2025 at 7:09 PM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
Billboard in Chicago paid for by Win Without War ARMY NATIONAL GUARD YOU JOINED TO SERVE YOUR COMMUNITY. SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN CHICAGO? NotWhat YouSignedUpFor.org New billboards were put up on expressways leading to U.S. Southern Command in Doral, Florida, where the U.S. military's ongoing operations in the Caribbean Sea are being overseen. Photo by OUTFRONT Media. SOUTHCOM: DON'T LET THEM MAKE YOU BREAK THE LAW NotWhatYouSignedUpFor.org Billboard with following text DID YOU GO AIRBORNE JUST TO PULL SECURITY FOR ICE? ›NotWhatYouSignedUpFor.org New billboards were put up on expressways leading to U.S. Southern Command in Doral, Florida, where the U.S. military's ongoing operations in the Caribbean Sea are being overseen. Photo by OUTFRONT Media.
November 1, 2025 at 7:04 PM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
Gift 🎁 link
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/u...
"’reprehensible, abusive & demeaning material.’ [published in] the magazine, The Harvard Salient, which was founded during the Reagan era & revived four years ago…”

We are confronted constantly by so very much Reagan residue
The board of a conservative magazine at Harvard known for its muckraking suspended the publication on Sunday, citing the printing of "reprehensible, abusive and demeaning material." The magazine, The Harvard Salient, which was founded during the Reagan era and revived four years ago after a decade-long absence, is editorially and financially independent from the university. e statement from the board, which is made up of conservative umni, did not provide any detail about what incident prompted the review, but the publication had recently been embroiled in a controversy over an article that included a line similar to one in a Hitler speech.
October 28, 2025 at 7:04 AM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
The military leaders were reportedly aghast, & see their boss, Hegseth as untrustworthy out of his depth. “Comments from military leaders interviewed by the right-wing Washington Times describing Hegseth and his address to them in the most unflattering terms:”
October 27, 2025 at 8:20 PM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
It’s quite remarkable they’ve been disappearing the few sensible things he said but amplifying the rest of it including “Make America Great”, sending Don Jr to repeat Reagan’s creepily calculated campaign stop in Philadelphia, MS, dog whistles & behind the scenes racism amplified to bullhorns 📢
Campaign button picturing Reagan and Busch in the center with the text Reagan Butch in ‘80 across the top and Let’s Make America Great Again across the bottom
October 26, 2025 at 11:49 AM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
“The violence produced the sort of headlines Hitler had hoped for—‘Reds Shoot at Nazis from Roofs in Altona,’ in The New York Times”
from Timothy Ryback’s “Takeover Hitler’s Final Rise to Power”
Book Cover Cover image: Hitler shaking hands with President von Hindenburg, Germany, 1933. TAKEOVER HITLER'S FINAL RISE TO POWER TIMOTHY W. RYBACK "Refreshingly candid.... Riveting." —The New York Review of Books
October 23, 2025 at 8:16 AM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
Favorite is difficult…kinda like what’s my favorite book… couldn’t answer it…
But 1 of my favorites is Waterllama
Visual icon (the head of a white llama on a blue background, wearing orange glasses sipping blue water through an orange straw) for Waterllama water tracking app
October 11, 2025 at 6:24 PM
takingaction4us.bsky.social
A far cry from the care & thoughtfulness of Paul White, news director, CBS News, in a memo, Feb 1944:

Keep an informative, unexcited demeanor at the microphone…Don’t risk accuracy…Use care in your choice of words

From “When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day” by @vermontgmg.bsky.social
Paul White, news director, CBS News, memo, February 1944, on how to cover an invasion: Keep an informative, unexcited demeanor at the microphone.… Give sources.… Don’t risk accuracy for the sake of a beat.… Use care in your choice of words.… Don’t say “German defenses were pulverized.” Say “German defenses were hard hit.”… When you don’t know, say so. Locutions like “Allied troops were believed to be progressing, etc.” are out. Rather say “Nothing has been released during the past 24 hours, etc.”… Exaggeration and immoderate language breed dangerous optimism.… Respect the listener’s trust. Remember that winning the war is a hell of a lot more important than reporting it. The first news reports of D-Day came in Berlin, from Germany’s Trans-Ocean News Service, which announced that a possible invasion appeared under way at 6:33 a.m.—just 43 minutes after the first bombardments had begun. Four minutes later, the Associated Press followed with an international news bulletin: 12:37 A.M. WASHINGTON, D.C. / 6:37 A.M. LONDON Bulletin London Tuesday June 6 (AP): THE GERMAN NEWS AGENCY TRANSOCEAN SAID TODAY IN A BROADCAST THAT THE ALLIED INVASION HAS BEGUN. 12:48 A.M. WASHINGTON, D.C. / 6:48 A.M. LONDON Jim Sirmons, CBS News: We are interrupting this program to bring you a special bulletin. A bulletin has just been received from the London office of the Associated Press which quotes the German Transocean News Agency as asserting that the invasion of Western Europe has begun. This report—and we stress it is of enemy origin with absolutely no confirmation from Allied sources—says that American landings were made this morning on the shores of northwestern France. There is as yet no reason to believe that this report is anything more than a German propaganda move or a fishing expedition for information. You will recall that Prime Minister Churchill warned us not long ago that the actual invasion would be preceded by feints and diversions. Nevertheless, until confirmation or denial of this German report is forthcoming, the CBS World News staff is standing by and will bring you developments as reported. Beginning at 3:32 a.m. in Washington, 9:32 a.m. in London, the Allies officially confirmed the landings and issued a series of messages from key leaders of occupied nations—a series, again, carefully calculated to sow doubt and confusion among the Germans about whether the Normandy landings represented an initial stage or the entirety of the…
October 10, 2025 at 3:14 PM