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elise writes as busysmartypants

@busysmartypants.bsky.social
294 followers 286 following 115 posts

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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Buddy Spell @buddyspell.bsky.social · 5h
veritenews.org
Trans detainees allege abuse at Jena ICE facility
Three trans women have been held in solitary confinement for months allege that they are facing abuse at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
The Fig Economy @figgityfigs.bsky.social · 21h
Sometimes my wife and I like to send each other text messages as though they’re democratic fundraising messages, and I believe she has produced the jewel of the form.
, it's
and I
have some personal news to share with you.
Being a mom is one of the greatest joys of my life, and I feel deeply that we should have salad tonight
This year has been challenging in many ways, and I have immense gratitude for the kindness and support of family, community, and people like you who have continued to stand by me through everything. It means the world, and I wanted you to be among the first to know that squash is in the oven and kale is in the fridge.As many of you are aware, ve been navigating one of the most challenging periods of my day while waiting for dinner.
Facing baseless federal hunger brought on by not eating since lunch, fighting for the working kids of this country, and now caring for a mean toddler and helping him grow up in a world that isn't always easy. But it has also reminded me exactly why I do this work and who I do it for.
I will never stop working to eat dinner. I will never stop fighting for what is right, even when there is also some feta in the fridge. And I will never stop being so very thankful that you are by my side in this important work and that there is tahini in the pantry for dressing
With love and gratitude,
stop to end
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Something unprecedented happened during my visit to the Gulf. For the first time in 20 years in Congress, I was denied entry to U.S. military facilities and even meetings with military leaders. An order from Hegseth - that applies to both parties - to hide the cost of the war.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Richmond Eustis @reustis.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I am not in favor of having a stupid hurricane and it's still way too goddam hot for October and everything sucks.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 23h
The FBI is a law-enforcement agency. Under Kash Patel it is involved in flagrant criminal conduct, violating both the Hatch Act and the Magnuson Act by running partisan political propaganda (specifically naming and attacking a long list of Democratic candidates) in the 30 days before an election.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
HuffPost @huffpost.com · 23h
The forecaster has moved Kansas from "Lean Republican" to "Toss Up."
huffpost.com
Cook Political Report Shifts Another Set Of Senate Ratings Toward Democrats
Cook Political Report Shifts Another Set Of Senate Ratings Toward Democrats
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Michelle Laissez les bons temps rouler. @michellelabelle.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Son got Josh Johnson tickets for he and wife. They had to add a second show in New Orleans 1st sold out so fast. We know a good time when we see one, and support our home grown talented people.
static.klipy.com
Josh Johnson's Stand-Up Comedy
ALT: Josh Johnson's Stand-Up Comedy
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Chill Subs @chillsubs.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
this just in: you could spend a whopping ZERO DOLLARS on your MFA application this week! yes, you read that right. The University of Alabama, one of our MFA partners, has a free application window from October 5 to October 9. learn more here:
chillsubs.com
University of Alabama MFA | ChillSubs
The University of Alabama MFA in Creative Writing is among the oldest writing programs in the country, known as a welcoming landing-place for developing artists with a rigorous yet flexible curriculum that fosters cross-genre experimentation. Students become part of a vibrant community of fellow writers, participate in local readings, meet with visiting writers, and build lifelong friendships along the way.
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Quilty Mama 🪡🧵 @jannaps.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Here’s the portal to check voter registration in Louisiana: voterportal.sos.la.gov
voterportal.sos.la.gov
Voter Portal: Search
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
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Courtney Price @courtneycprice.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
If you live in Louisiana, go check your voter registration. Even if you already checked. This morning mine was fine. Just now I was showing someone how to check and it had changed me to inactive. So they are changing people to inactive as recently as this afternoon.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Jason Karsh @jkarsh.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
This is an important statement people, and especially elected Dems need to really understand. The current Republican project is one of destruction, by design. Yes, they have other goals, in RFK’s case he’s objectively pro-disease, but their primary metric of success is breaking government.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The White House today prohibited Politico from traveling on Air Force One.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Henny Gesserit @nmjmredux.blacksky.app · 04/10/2026
Because it wasn't about finances, it was about faces. They had to whiten the rooms again and realign the power balance.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Hey, I’m just asking questions. Ignorant questions, bigoted questions, questions that have been repeatedly answered for many years. Sorry, but I’m not listening to answers right now; I’m far too busy asking questions. It’s called being intellectually curious.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · 03/10/2026
"Check to seniors = money for midterms" the way media outlets treat Trump bribing voters like it's a no big deal is mind-boggling.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
"Local community activists and faith leaders from Louisiana and beyond marched and prayed Thursday at the fenced-off barracks and trailers at the airpark site where the Trump Administration is preparing to open a privately-run facility to hold children..." religionnews.com/2026/10/02/a...
religionnews.com
As ICE readies Louisiana facility for children and families, faith leaders hold vigil
ALEXANDRIA, La. (RNS and Verite News) — Part of the Trump administration’s efforts to ramp up deportations, the facility — which will hold unaccompanied minors and families — is situated beside an air...
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
ICE Is Everywhere and Acting with Impunity www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
ICE Is Everywhere and Acting with Impunity
ICE arrests have reached a record high—nearly fifty-one thousand in August alone—with agents conducting operations nationwide at hospitals, at airports, and outside schools.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
~Approximately no one in the general public knows because the leaders of the R1 research universities - whose budgets, programs, & personnel are entirely or significantly dependent on federal funding - have been totally absent from the public square in explaining & collectively protesting this.
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Again, <only Republicans> ever get to talk like this. If a single municipal level Democrat ever did, it would be a national outrage &spark a wave of “civility” discourse, & op-eds about how Dems must Respect Real Folkz & talk across difference. Democracy is incompatible with this double standard.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I really wish the world’s most dangerous, extreme anti-vaccine activist & conspiracy theorist, RFK Jr, who is a eugenicist & a MAHA dude who repeatedly peddles vile lies, had not been put in charge of the US health system Here he is telling truly horrific, dangerous lies about HPV & COVID vaccines
RFK Jr saying that the HPV vaccine increases the risk of cervical cancer & the Covid vaccine increases the risk of Covid—these are 2 dangerous lies
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Nancy Levine Stearns @nancylevinestearns.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
🚨NEW by me: New ICE facility for unaccompanied migrant kids is about to open in Louisiana. While ICE is sanitizing optics, calling it the "Alexandria Family Staging Center," lawmakers and child advocates are raising the roof warning of child trafficking risks. www.thequeenzone.com/new-ice-faci...
thequeenzone.com
New ICE Facility for Migrant Children Raises Alarm Over Trafficking Risks
A new ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) facility for unaccompanied children, families, and single women is set to...
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Stephen Spaulding @stevespaulding.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Majority Leader John Thune already said earlier this summer that the Senate would jam through a successor in the lame duck if the Senate flips and a justice retires.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 03/10/2026
You can't get anyone in political media to say it plainly, but GOP strategy for several decades now has been built around the fact that its core goals/policies are *wildly unpopular*. Everything depends on a) polluting the information environment, b) cementing unfair structural advantages, & c) $$$.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Danny Cherry Jr (twitter/Insta/tiktok: @Deecherrywriter) @deecherrywriter.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
There truly is no ethic consumption under capitalism I love this system we have created
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Each election year, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) takes extra steps to ensure ballots sent through the mail arrive at election offices on time. This year, it’s delaying those efforts. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
democracydocket.com
USPS pushes back measures that ensure mail ballots arrive on time
“The shorter timeframe is noteworthy and I don’t know why they’re doing this,” Steve Hutkins, who writes for Save the Post Office, told Democracy Docket.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Dhruv Mehrotra @dmehro.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
NEW: DHS agents tracked people observing ICE arrests, photographed them, ran their plates, pulled personal information, and added them to a Palantir database, according to newly unsealed court filings. w/ @regret.bsky.social
wired.com
ICE Has Been Dumping Protester Photos Into a Palantir Database
DHS agents not only tracked and intimidated people observing ICE activity in Maine, but stored information about them in a Palantir-built database, newly unsealed court filings say.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This is the same Mike Pompeo that smeared Jamal in his book. This is who Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs believes should be teaching the next generation of global leaders. share.google/3e5Yp0xTLu8J...
share.google
Washington Post blasts Pompeo's "shameful" remarks on Jamal Khashoggi
Pompeo made the remarks in his new book.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Mike Pompeo has been rewarded with a teaching fellowship at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. The same school that canceled my class on media, race and international affairs. @columbiasipa.bsky.social share.google/KEvTy5yER71U...
share.google
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to join SIPA faculty
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will join the School of International and Public Affairs as a fellow at SIPA’s Institute of Global Politics in March, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Arkansas Advocate @arkansasadvocate.com · 02/10/2026
Kentucky governor rallies Arkansas Democrats, says party can compete and win in South arkansasadvocate.com/2026/10/01/k...
arkansasadvocate.com
Kentucky governor rallies Arkansas Democrats, says party can compete and win in South | Arkansas Advocate
Arkansas Democrats have expressed hope they can pull off an upset in November but face an uphill battle in a state long controlled by Republicans.
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Orc Wizard @orcwizard.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The former Secretary of State, who took Kim Jong Un uncritically at his word, who got irate that Mary Louise Kelly could find Ukraine on a map and he couldn’t, is getting a teaching fellowship at an Ivy League school. Hm.
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Jessica Luther @jessicawluther.com · 02/10/2026
The Cornell story is horrific, but I’d like to shine a light on what happened at LSU with a current football player on the team:
In July, the school found Shanklin responsible for "forcible rape" and issued a one-year suspension, which is a full ban from campus and activities, according to documents reviewed by ESPN. After Shanklin appealed, an administrative law judge who handles appeals per LSU policy upheld the finding that the athlete was responsible for "forcible rape," but reduced the punishment to four semesters of probation with no restrictions, which allows Shanklin to remain enrolled and on campus and to participate in activities as long as he stays out of trouble.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Last year not a single refugee fleeing religious persecution was admitted to the US.
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Annie Spell @anniespell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
MAGA Louisiana Gov Jeff Landry hiding Meta data center and SpaceX information in 300+ NDAs and giving away billions in tax benefits has done nothing to move Louisiana from it's highest poverty rate (double the national average), but voting against Republicans will.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
maura quint @mauraquint.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yes every woman has been harassed, many assaulted. But every woman has also experienced invisible loss from moments she avoided harassment. She felt a space becoming unsafe, so she left, while men stayed on. And in leaving, she lost: opportunities, experiences, learning, promotions, even simply fun.
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I Scare You Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 01/10/2026
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Tennessee governor suspends all executions after Christa Pike’s lethal injections fail
Independent inquiry ordered after halted execution of Pike, who was convicted of murder
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 01/10/2026
Tennessee remains a horror show run by the world's most repulsive people.
nbcnews.com
‘It was a mess’: Tennessee fails to execute woman after 2 lethal injections
Christa Pike’s attorneys said she was being treated at a hospital but her condition is unknown. May Martinez,, the mother of the murdered teenager Colleen Slemmer, called the botched execution “a mess...
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
New from 404 Media: a surveillance company is telling cops it wants to add facial recognition to Flock cameras. Flock doesn't do face rec, but that doesn't stop other companies doing it. "This is the way the world is going, the way the world will have to be" www.404media.co/surveillance...
404media.co
Surveillance Company Tells Cops It Wants to Add Facial Recognition to Flock Cameras
A surveillance company wants to "close the gap" that Flock won't do, by pitching facial recognition on its cameras.
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Verite News @veritenews.org · 30/09/2026
Min Khant Zaw was flying back home to Louisiana from a West Coast vacation when he was detained by ICE officers at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. ow.ly/w1hH50ZSW5J
Text: He fled genocide in Myanmar. ICE detained him in Louisiana.

Image: Min Khant Zaw, who spent seven weeks in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention before being released, poses for a portrait at his host family’s home in Covington.
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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
They quoted me in this New Yorker piece about AI today. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
“Let’s say there’s a world or time line I exist in where A.I. has been subject to regulation. It is ethical. It has no footprint environmentally,” the novelist Jeff VanderMeer, a prominent critic of A.I., told me over the phone. “With those guardrails in place, would I read an A.I. book? All I can say is no. And the reason is, in part, because I want to read something coming from a particular mind.” Using A.I., he said, “feels like a betrayal of the whole point of why you’re a writer.”
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Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
@kennyjacoby.bsky.social on X: NEW: I analyzed seven years of Cornell's sexual violence case data. Expulsions are very rare. 1,216 reports of sexual assault, DV and stalking, 2018-2024 162 formal investigations. 51 findings of fault. 14 suspensions. 7 expulsions or dismissals.
usatoday.com
Cornell rarely expels students in sex assault cases | Exclusive
A third of undergraduate women say they've been sexually assaulted. But on average, Cornell reported expelling just one attacker per year.
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Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
“There are men who cook for him and men who clean for him. There are men who make his bed and men who do his laundry. There is even a man who gives him Chinese-style massages.”
nbcnews.com
Diddy’s pampered life in prison: Massages, nude photos, Hennessy
Sean Combs has spent thousands of dollars a month to bring his lifestyle to a low-security correctional facility in southern New Jersey, sources said.
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ArtButMakeItSports @artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Circus Performers, by Walt Kuhn, 1978, 📸 via @marisakabas.bsky.social
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Democracy and trains @wingedisis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Louisiana, we’re about to be all data centers and ice detention. @conrad4congress.bsky.social here’s your next campaign ad.
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Buddy Spell @buddyspell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
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Reposted by elise writes as busysmartypants
Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
A great deal happened today. But nothing more important than this. SCOTUS allows Trump Administration to continue sending detained migrants to third countries with which the migrants have no prior connection. Just appalling.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Scoop — I've ID'd the two men sitting behind Sen. Eric Schmitt during his botched attack on Jack Smith this morning. Ethan Harper (left) is Chief Counsel to Schmitt, and Andrew Ceonzo (right) is Counsel to Schmitt and the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
#BREAKING: Over dissents from the three Democratic appointees, #SCOTUS grants a stay in the third-country removals case; clears way for Trump admin. to continue removing non-citizens without a full chance to litigate the conditions in those countries (while also taking up the full merits appeal).
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Stacy Kess: the revolution will be accessible. @stacykess.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Trump admin will rewrite Section 504 after settlement with TX, AK, FL, LA and MT to remove references to “most integrated setting,” removing protections for disabled people.
disabilityscoop.com
Trump Administration Gets OK To Scale Back Disability Protections
The government will do away with rules requiring that people with disabilities be served in the community under a settlement with a handful of states that advocates say sidesteps decades of precedent.
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The Volatile Mermaid @ohnoshetwitnt.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Men, stop telling women you denounce sexual assault and start telling your male friends.
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