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Brooke Mels (they/them)

@brookemelz.bsky.social
1.5K followers 108 following 634 posts

Peach-flavored jurisprudence nerd and community advocate

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Brooke Mels (they/them) @brookemelz.bsky.social · 12h
It's insane that there are people who think we can get around the limitations of the technology by quantizing the data for narrower formats and just...giving it more resources ad infinitum.
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Brooke Mels (they/them) @brookemelz.bsky.social · 12h
The falsehood of simply scaling the size of an LLM will somehow enable it to do everything is farcical at best. Any all large machine learning models have diminishing returns with scaling–that's just how it is.
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emma best 🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️🏳️‍⚧️ Mxy @emma.best · 14/10/2026
AI stans: It can do anything. Me: It can't even translate German without committing a hate crime.
A screenshot of part of a German language Wikipedia article which has been auto-translated into English. The text says "the queer appointed by the Berlin Senate Administration"
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
If you're a fraternity alum (from any school/state) who experienced sexual violence as a member, I'm here to listen. I understand this is extremely sensitive and I will treat your story with the utmost discretion and care. Reach out— Signal: marisakabas.04 Email: marisa@thehandbasket.co
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 14/10/2026
#OtD 14 Oct 1977 anti-gay crusader Anita Bryant was "pied" by Thom Higgins, a gay rights activist. She then began praying and burst into tears. Following a boycott, she lost her job as brand ambassador for Florida orange juice. More LGBT+ history here: workingclasshistory.com/tag/lgbtq/
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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 14/10/2026
We are facing a concerted, cross-border, not exclusively Christian nationalist effort to brainwash every demographic except young (and diverse) women of the manufactured threat posed by young (and diverse) women, in order for countries to collectively hand over their democracies to tech oligarchs
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Documented @documentedny.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
ICE Is detaining West African women, some of whom have been in New York for decades, with plans to send them to countries they have no connection to.
documentedny.com
‘But I’m Not From Ghana’: ICE Targets Longtime New Yorkers for Third-Country Deportation
African New Yorkers, many here for decades with protected legal status, are being arrested by ICE.
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Bolts @boltsmag.org · 14/10/2026
Upcoming referendums in Missouri and Montana could give popular initiatives “the highest level of constitutional protection,” says a legal expert. That would help organizers counter attacks on direct democracy by state Republicans.
boltsmag.org
To Protect Direct Democracy, Two States Mull a New Approach: Name It As a Right - Bolts
Ballot measures in Missouri and Montana would strengthen citizen-led initiatives. Democracy advocates in each state are going on the offense after facing years of attack.
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go loud @stillicides.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
@ bioware defenders insisting it's groundbreaking and interesting that all their masc leaning women aren't queer 🙃
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october "pre-order The Struggle Is Always Worth It now!" krausch @octoberk.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
for a Truthout story: I'm looking for folks involved in activism around police violence and killings outside of the top 100 or so cities in the US. are you an organizer in a rural place focused on police use of force and/or abolition? hit me up! on signal @freeze.16, rebelprof@proton.me
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Death @insatiableone.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
With tooth pain &a splitting migraine&dozens of accounts banned daily,why must I tear my soul apart just to save my boy Ibrahim from becoming a tragic number like his sisters?Why is life so cruel? We are dying in total agony,Please help us today just 150€🙏🥺💔 chuffed.org/project/191450 ✅️Gaza Verified
Many photos together, Bara'a nursing her son, Ibrahim with a cloth on his fevered head, Bara'a in an exam chair, Bara'a and Ibrahim together, Bara'a's two infant daughters, and some medicine
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Spartan 0323 The Phoenix Shall Rise In Silver & Black @thejaklife.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Today, I left the doctor with a broken heart: Elias is getting worse. I swear, there is no improvement. On my knees, I beg you: please help me raise €300 for his eye drops. Imagine your child losing his last light. Please,don't abandon my son. 💔 Verified by : molly shah✅ chuffed.org/project/196611
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Phil McDuff @mcduff.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Again, consider who is and isn't subject to this.
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Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Holy shit ASOS released an adaptive clothing line specifically for people with disabilities?!?!!! Magnets instead of buttons, special pockets and holes to hold wearable medical devices that have tubes, and zippers to make them more comfortable for wheelchair users. www.asos.com/women/fashio...
A woman in a wheelchair with a brown suit that has zippers on the leg openings A woman in a wheelchair with a grey marbled dress
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
You’ve got to be kidding me.
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ACLU of Georgia @acluofga.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
If you are a student at one of these schools or a Fulton County voter, you can vote early at these locations. Make your voice heard! For a complete list of ALL Advance Voting locations available in Fulton County, please visit fultonelections.com
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steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
"District Judge Patrick Gallagher did not provide a reason in his one-page decision, handed down after a day of testimony from voters and county officials." www.dallasnews.com/news/electio...
dallasnews.com
Judge denies request to reinstate 92 Tarrant County election polling sites
The ruling dealt a setback to voting rights advocates and minority groups weeks before a high-stakes midterm election.
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heck @anarchoheck.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
having lived in dallas/houston suburbs, out in rural towns with less than a thousand people, and the middle of austin, people simply do not care about trans people and, furthermore, convincing people that trans people are cool is literally as easy as being a kind and active participant ofa community
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Susan Rinkunas @susanrinkunas.com · 14/10/2026
Missouri Amendment 3 would permanently ban both transgender youth healthcare and abortion—but there’s little focus on the former. @assignedmedia.org followed canvassers persuading people to vote no with a playbook developed during the marriage equality fight. Honored to publish on @autonomynews.co
autonomynews.co
The Only People Talking to Missouri Voters About Trans Kids are Conservatives—and These LGBTQ+ Canvassers
Amendment 3 would ban both transgender youth healthcare and abortion, but there’s little focus on the former.
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Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Department of Homeland Security job posting: "defend your culture ... against illegal foreign infiltration"
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Carole (Ducky) (IrPsych) @caroleducky.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
‘Sally Rooney’s books will no longer be available in UK over her support for Palestine Action’. www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...
irishtimes.com
Sally Rooney’s books will no longer be available in UK over her support for Palestine Action
Faber blames UK antiterrorism legislation for decision to stop distributing bestselling author’s works
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Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
"The Immigrant Crosses,"a traveling memorial created by Chicago Catholic priests, religious sisters and brothers, in collaboration w/local labor unions, bears the names, ages and countries of origin of immigrants who died in custody or during enforcement operations: www.ncronline.org/news/traveli...
ncronline.org
Traveling crosses remember those who died in immigration custody, ICE operations
Created by Chicago Catholic priests, religious sisters and brothers, "The Immigrant Crosses" installation is a traveling memorial to people who have died in U.S. immigration custody or during enforcem...
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CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective @crimethinc.com · 14/10/2026
With a new $100 million domestic spy program, ICE aims to map your social relationships. The goal is not just to terrorize immigrants, but to repress all dissent. As the Democrats look to return to office, we must make it clear that anyone who does not oppose this by all means is an accomplice.
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William Gillis 🏴 @rechelon.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
A brutal reminder this morning that the fascists haven't stopped persecuting the Autistici/Inventati collective. Police in Amsterdam have seized one of their servers. Providing wordpress hosting for hundreds of activist groups is not "terrorism." keepitfree.ai/news/amsterd...
keepitfree.ai
Amsterdam Police Seize Server Belonging to Leftist Internet Service Provider a/I at US Request NRC (NL) · Keep the Internet free
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Illinois Alliance for Reentry and Justice @ilarj.org · 14/10/2026
🩷 Visit ILARJ.org/pledge to pledge your vote in the upcoming November election in honor of one of the 1,446 incarcerated women in Illinois who cannot cast their own vote. You do not have to live in Illinois to participate. You vote. She counts. Take the pledge. 🩷 @prisonculture.bsky.social
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David Forbes @davidforbes.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Trans people were here long before the American state. We were here before the constitution that's never really protected us and the political order so eager to expend our lives. We will be here long after the current empire, like all before it, reaches whatever end awaits it. We owe it nothing.
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Spencer Ackerman @attackerman.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Five hundred people on hunger strike inside a for-profit ICE concentration camp in Georgia.
thecurrentga.org
Approximately 500 participate in hunger strike at Folkston immigration detention center - The Current
Approximately 500 detainees at a private ICE facility in Folkston, Georgia, launched a hunger strike to protest poor living conditions and alleged asylum protocol violations while awaiting judicial he...
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gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Fascinating tidbit in this interview with former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont), he says that Texas Republicans anti-transgender ads aren't "resonating." "What Republicans are talking about is just not what the swing voter is really interested in." www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
DP: We’re still running transgender ads. It’s just not resonating. $100 million in ads, $125 million in ads, and nothing’s moved the needle here in Texas in a month in the Senate race. Let’s be honest. The 8 to 10 percent of voters in the middle who are going to decide this election, when they hear stuff about boys in girls’ sports, they don’t even know what you’re talking about. This never happened in their communities, and they’ve been hearing about it for so many years, and so many other people have been accused of it. What Republicans are talking about is just not what the swing voter is really interested in.
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Endless Screaming @infinitescream.bsky.social · 16h
AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH
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Jessica Pishko @jesspish.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
States that require (or have a lower standard for) arrests in DV cases are more likely to arrest the victim -- usually both parties -- because they don't want to sort out the issue. www.propublica.org/article/dome...
propublica.org
These Women Were Trying to Escape Domestic Abuse. ICE Detained Them Instead.
It’s especially intimidating for immigrants suffering abuse to call 911. With this in mind, Congress has long treated people who need help as victims, not targets for deportation. Under the Trump admi...
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the beggars out of here getter @milesklee.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
I don't really believe this BUT if you or someone you know have made a significant lifestyle change based on beliefs about what AI will do or be capable of in the future, please hit me up: miles_klee@wired.com or millionbear.44 on Signal.
Palantir CTO says some AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect AI to cure cancer
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m @keptsimple.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
many centrists are as disdainful of science as MAGA these days. virtually every study on the topic, and there have been many, show that youth programs reduce crime. it's a settled question. this is no different from claiming vaccines are a hoax.
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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Shirts available here: www.librariesforthepeople.org/gear - this is how we've funded our work for the past 4 years along with money from our steering committee members.
librariesforthepeople.org
Gear — For The People
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Lee Cicuta @butchanarchy.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
After being brought down by the noblogs shutdown, my website is finally back and prettier than ever ✨ This is where you can find an archive of my work as well as a theory library collection of nearly 300 articles and books! butchanarchy.org
The butchanarchy.org homepage. The background is a grainy red image of a Cicuta plant botanical drawing with an anarchy a at its center. The welcome page reads: I am Lee Cicuta (she/her), also known as @butchanarchy, a disabled transgender butch lesbian anarcha-feminist theorist. I’ve been an anarchist for over a decade and have been writing in the public eye as Lee since 2019. I write about a breadth of subjects connected to anarchism and feminism, with a special focus on synthesizing an anarchist analysis of larger structures of authoritarian power with feminist theory on intimate violence.

On this site you will find my newly published work, informal blog posts, an archive of my previous work, and a personally curated resource library.
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Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
BREAKING: The total cost of defending and resolving lawsuits naming former CPD Detective Reynaldo Guevara now stands at $472.8 million, according to a @wttw.bsky.social analysis. Another 25 lawsuits remain pending in federal court.
news.wttw.com
Cost to Resolve Lawsuits Tied to Disgraced Ex-CPD Detective Reynaldo Guevara Tops $473M, With 25 Lawsuits Pending
The total cost of defending and resolving 32 lawsuits naming Guevara, who has been repeatedly accused of falsifying police reports, framing suspects and coercing witnesses, is now $472.8 million, acco...
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kelly jensen @heykellyjensen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Libraries! Brooklyn Public Library's Books Unbanned program is seeking applicants for their Teen Library Advocacy Network. Get $2500 + support for a year-long project. Rural + small libraries especially encouraged! bookriot.com/brooklyn-pub...
bookriot.com
Libraries Can Apply for Books Unbanned Program Funding
Books Unbanned is offering libraries nationwide the chance to be part of their Teen Library Advocacy Network, including $2500 in funding.
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Tade "Will Eat Your Heart in the Marketplace" Thompson @tadethompson.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
About two years ago I was invited to give a talk at the Turning Institute about AI. I warned them about my anti-LLM position and they said, yeah, it's fine. We want all views. I went, gave my views, answered audience questions. Invoiced them. The bastards didn't pay me.
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Listen I'm Scary OK @katiemcvay.cryptoanarchy.network · 14/10/2026
More people DIED than were housed after the eviction of Echo Park Lake's encampment.
Excerpt from "Storaging the Homeless": "The eviction of the Echo Park Lake encampment in March 2021, by a “battle-ready” police force, and the subsequent enclosure of the
park, was a pivotal moment in Los Angeles. Then-Mayor Garcetti declared this to be “the largest housing transition of an encampment
in the history of the city” and promised that the displaced would be housed in a year. The longitudinal research conducted by the After
Echo Park Lake Research Collective, which included several of us, exposed the lie at hand. More people died than were housed and
scores more were disappeared. But the “ruse of housing,” a phrase we borrow from housing justice scholar and organizer, Carla
Orendorff, justified the displacement and became the blueprint for the spatial governance of homelessness in Los Angeles, including
Mayor Bass’s Inside Safe. While the landmark Supreme Court decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson (2024) expanded the authority of
local governments to criminalize homeless encampments, such criminalization was already well under way in Los Angeles, including
with the amendment of the city’s long-standing anti-camping ordinance, LAMC 41.18, in 2021. The Los Angeles Community Action
Network characterized that amendment as a “Jim Crow, Sundown Town, segregationist throw-back,” and the hefty 2024 report by
Human Rights Watch, “You Have to Move!” The Cruel and Ineffective Criminalization of Unhoused Persons in Los Angeles, provides
meticulous analysis of its effects."
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CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective @crimethinc.com · 05/10/2026
More and more people are focusing on the midterm elections. But whether Trump's underlings retain power or the Democrats prevail, neither party will deliver the changes we need. There are no shortcuts. We must organize to make those changes ourselves. crimethinc.com/votingversusda A thread. 🧵⬇️
Voting versus Direct Action
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
The Chicago City Council just approved a $261 million settlement with 17 people who alleged disgraced Det. Guevara framed them for murder. One of those 17 men is Tyrece Williams. I detailed his battle to finally clear his name in the @injusticewatch.org & @boltsmag.org story below.
injusticewatch.org
Cook County prosecutor fights to block exonerated people from clearing their names
Certificates of innocence can help exonerated people get jobs and housing. State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke is making them harder to get.
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🇵🇸Martin “Doomsday” Pfeiffer🖖🏳️‍🌈 @nuclearanthro.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
🚨FOIA RELEASE🚨 filed 8 years ago on 2018 Sep 14 Sandia directories for 1951, 1986, 1991, & 1996. (approx 600pgs) I am OCR ecords then upload to my free to all Pfeiffer Nuclear Weapons & National Security Archive! enable my work & sharing it! paypal.me/nuclearanthro patreon.com/nuclearanthro
A close photograph of a fluffy black cat sitting in book case pose on a light grey tiled floor whose tiles are approximately one foot by one foot. The cat fits within a tile with a lot of room to spare and the cat is standing with all four feet in one place and their tail wrapped around their feet in a clockwise direction and looking at the photographer with loving and adorable green eyes and an expression that says he has never been fed.
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Trans News Network @transnews.network · 14/10/2026
Article edited by @davidforbes.bsky.social If you want more reporting like this — grounded in working class trans struggles and organizing — support TNN:
transnews.network
Donate To Trans News Network
Support trans journalism with a tax-deductible donation to Trans News Network! Your support enables us to publish our work without ads, corporate sponsors, or paywalls.
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Micheeel @micheeel.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
My family & I are desperately begging for your help to buy food & a tent to live in. I swear, my mother suffers from asthma & my brother has epilepsy & needs urgently medication. We are displaced in Gaza & sleeping on dirty sand with nowhere to go I beg you help us🤲😭 chuffed.org/project/1844...
Selfie of Hammam with his mother hugging her disabled sonA woman washing leaves (probably spinach) from a blue plastic basin to a silver bowl, crouching on the dusty groundSelfie of Hammam resting in his sandy patioA woman cooking from a makeshift stove on the ground with a lot of smoke.
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Micheeel @micheeel.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
💔 Today I am suffering unbearable pain after breaking and dislocating my leg I can barely endure this suffering I beg you please help me raise €150 for urgent medical treatment Imagine being injured and unable to afford care Please do not leave me suffering alone 😭🙏 chuffed.org/project/2038...
Mohammed in a hospital bed with an electronic measuring device next to him connected to his left upper armMohammed being transported on a stretcher in an ambulance
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Oliver Bullough @oliverbullough.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Re the Sally Rooney news, I was looking up data on arrests under terrorism legislation the other day, and hadn't quite realised how utterly bonkers the effect of the Palestine Action prohibition had been. That big purple spike is basically all PA-related arrests.
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Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻‍♀️ @chenchenzhang.net · 14/10/2026
This is a case that makes my heart sink. Feng Rui (known as xiaowu) is an activist/writer focused on labour rights and one of my mutuals on social media. We don't always agree on things and sometimes he'd repost my post and challenge my view. He was arrested after
A Chinese social media poster with a portrait of a long-haired man and bold black-and-red headlines. The headline reads, “Labour rights advocate Xiao Wu detained by Guangzhou police.” The text states that Xiao Wu was taken away by the Yuexiu District branch of the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau on September 14 and is currently being held at the Guangzhou Yuexiu District Detention Centre on suspicion of soliciting prostitution. It identifies Xiao Wu, whose real name is Feng Rui, as the operator of the WeChat public account “Qia Pa Si Dong Feng Dian Shi Ji” and a self-media creator focused on labour rights. The background is beige, with a red emblem featuring a fist and rainbow stripes in the upper-right corner.
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samantha is the spectre haunting europe 👻👻👻 @commiesamantha.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
strangely it's never time to try to change the democratic party. it's always the most important election of our lifetime.
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David Forbes @davidforbes.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
As bleak as so much of what we face is, the organizing in this story is honestly inspiring. Unionized trans workers organizing, fighting against labor exploitation and anti-trans violence — with the support of their broader union — is a cause for hope.
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Mira @thefreeradical.org · 15/10/2026
My latest w/ TNN. This is a piece that I hope will be inspiring for folks, especially in the current bleak times
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Bright D Limm 임대중 @bdlimm.myatproto.social · 15/10/2026
ANHD is the only major housing org I've seen so far that's been consistently telling the harsh truth about Z's housing plan: it's very pro-market/speculator/investor. The admin's failure to even try to provide deeply affordable units will perpetuate or exacerbate gentrification and displacement.
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