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Isa Leshko

@isaleshko.bsky.social
1.4K followers 2.1K following 3.7K posts

Artist, writer & activist. Founder/Editor @nsprogressives.bsky.social Author of Allowed to Grow Old: Portraits of Elderly Rescued Farm Animals. Ⓥ🏳️‍🌈 She/her linktr.ee/isaleshko Banner: photo of a cat’s ears peeking out of a cardboard box.

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Reposted by Isa Leshko
Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
A very good question indeed! Remember: The most dangerous words in the English language are “We’re from private equity, and we’re here to help.” www.bostonglobe.com/2026/10/02/m...
bostonglobe.com
Why is the investment world financing a Mass. ballot question to eliminate partisan primaries? - The Boston Globe
A wave of wealthy individuals with ties to various investment, private equity, and venture capital firms has put millions of dollars behind a ballot question to scrap the state's party primaries.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Wrote a thing Monday. Got held back and is a weekend read at the Guardian today. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
While the criminal justice system should address reports of rape, we know that rates of conviction are appallingly low for a number of reasons. Although, thanks to feminist interventions, the legal system is better equipped to understand this crime and less prejudiced against victims, we will not change the world through that means.

After rape allegations at Cornell University, why are women again being urged to talk to their sons? Why not men?
Gaby Hinsliff
Gaby Hinsliff
Read more
Sexual assault arises in part through both the entitlement and the desire to abuse and dehumanize women, which is in part about definitions of both masculinity and femininity: masculinity in that domination, violation and degradation are seen as status-enhancing, femininity in the perception that women’s bodies are for men to use, women’s voices and rights to be ignored.

The most compelling thing I’ve read in response to the Cornell case is in an essay by feminist writer Soraya Chemaly. She cites anthropologist Peggy Sanday, who told her that there are “rape-prone” and “rape-free” societies: “She found that in rape-free cultures, women have far more authority, status, safety and freedom.”

They’re societies in which women’s rights to bodily and social self-determination are respected, and a man who violates those rights would face severe consequences. “Rape-prone cultures, on the other hand, treat rape as an entitlement in a system that revolves around masculine contests and hierarchies.”

 rest at link
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 02/10/2026
If you, btw, would like an example of a place where data centres are *actually* being restricted by legislation, go look at Denmark - where they are now last in the grid connection queue, prioritising socially valuable load growth (like electrification, heating, cooling, new homes) first
servola.de
Denmark Puts Data Centers Last in New Grid Law
Denmark's emergency grid law puts data centers last behind households and green-transition projects, formalizing rationing that began in February 2026.
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onekade @onekade.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It's not just Flock. And it's not just license plate readers. Great piece from my colleague @gideonepstein.bsky.social on the many invasive surveillance technologies pushed by private companies and adopted by police—almost entirely absent democratic debate or oversight. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...
wbur.org
Flock is just one part of the new surveillance state
"Flock and other companies are building an omnipresent digital dragnet without democratic consent, enabling law enforcement to track people across the country with the click of a mouse," writes Gideon...
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Project Salt Box @projectsaltbox.com · 02/10/2026
ICE posted another detainee death report on its FOIA Library today. This one is for Charles Leo Daniel, a 61-year-old man from Trinidad who died in ICE custody in 2024 after four years in ICE detention at the Northwestern Immigrant Processing Center in Tacoma, WA. Archived below.
github.com
psb-foia/ice/FOIA Library Artifacts/ICE Mortality Reports/ddrCharlesLeoDaniel.pdf at main · projectsaltbox/psb-foia
FOIA requests and released records for Project Salt Box's reporting on ICE detention and federal contracting. - projectsaltbox/psb-foia
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 02/10/2026
No but seriously: fuck gavin newsom. Put him into the sea.
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BlackJew 🏳️‍⚧️ @blackjew.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I got to hang out with some of my favorite people and make a video about No on Question 3, No to Jungle Primaries, no to the California system in #mapoli
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Rep. Jim McGovern @repmcgovern.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
He would know
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Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
"Nearly" doing MAJOR work here. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/01/u...
nytimes.com
‘Ready to Blow His Stack’: How Biden Nearly Cut Off Netanyahu Over Gaza
Brett McGurk, who was the top Middle East adviser to President Joseph R. Biden Jr., offered the first inside-the-room account of American efforts to manage the Gaza war.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
A victory for the government in this case would greenlight long-term mass civil detention at a level not seen since Japanese internment during WWII. It would represent the largest change in how the US treats immigrants facing removal since 1996, and remind us again that the 96 law must be erased.
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Isa Leshko @isaleshko.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
How can anyone say this with a straight face? I mean COME ON.
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Angie Nixon @angieforfl.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I don't wanna COUCH my words here: I know JD Vance, his eyeliner, and absent Ashley Moody are used to running away from people when things get tough because they care more about themselves and their billionaire buddies than the people they represent. But this is my home. /1
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Seth Miller @wandrme.paxex.aero · 02/10/2026
She went to the cops. She reported she was raped. They didn't bother writing that part down in the report. 🤬🤬🤬
At the center of the criticism has been the revelation that the woman, in her statements to the police at the time, said that she could say “with 100 percent confidence I was raped.” While the six-page statement explained that she felt some of the night’s events were a crime, it omitted the more definitive language detailed in an transcription of her interview with investigators.
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Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
CA's jungle primaries created one less pickup opportunity in CA. CA-40 was recreated to be a Republican seat, but given that it's just R+6, it would be competitive in the current national environment. But because of CA's jungle primaries, it's just two Republicans in November
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DrH @drhaup.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
CA passed a law Tues banning local, state and federal law enforcement officers from using shock gloves.The ban will take effect in 2027 and remain in place until 2030. “Trump has put his political interests above American families.” -Gov Newsom. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
California bans officers’ use of electric-shock gloves after ICE reveals plan to equip agents
State passes law banning local, state and federal officers from using gloves that deliver painful electric shocks
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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Truly chilling how much the justices love killing people.
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Isa Leshko @isaleshko.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
A dear friend and good troublemaking partner has a sick elderly dog who needs costly care. She's raising funds for his care, & I would be grateful if you donated and/or shared this post. Xander is a very sweet dog & his family loves him very much. Let's get him the best possible care. Thanks!
gofundme.com
Donate to Help Xander Get X-rays and Testing for His Sudden Illness, organized by Veronica Miranda
My names Veronica and my staffy, Xander, is having some unexp… Veronica Miranda needs your support for Help Xander Get X-rays and Testing for His Sudden Illness
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onekade @onekade.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The protect women’s sports guys forget women’s sports exist. Absolute perfection.
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Grudgie the Wail @grudgie.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Pure evil
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North Shore Progressives @nsprogressives.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
If you want to keep #datacenters out of #SalemMA, contact City Council ASAP about the Planning Board’s suggested revision to Mayor Pangallo’s proposed ban. Please also attend tomorrow’s meeting & give public testimony. For sample email & details: www.northshoreprogressives.org/act-now-to-k...
northshoreprogressives.org
Act Now to Keep Data Centers Banned in Salem
A suggested revision to a proposed data center ban in Salem has the potential to permit data centers that draw less than 2 megawatts of power. This would be a major step backward since data centers ar...
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Yet another reason to run on oversight and accountability. Those are promises they can actually keep.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Time for this classic again.
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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
You know when public attention can reverse a prosecutorial decision like this you almost get the sense that the decision to shrug it off in the first place was not based on an assessment of the quality of the evidence so much as an assessment of the seriousness of the crime.
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026
So uhhhhhh… Apparently meta's muse "AI" is just straight up doxxing people to strangers on FB marketplace??? This has the potential to hurt so so many people, and I genuinely wonder how long before they roll out a fix for it.
Screenshot of a post from threads

matt.j.robb & 16h (€) So muse handled my Facebook marketplace today. Just found out it told people my address and agreed a lowball price and then they showed up without it even telling me until late tonight that it messed up.

Absolutely wild. 1/2

[Embedded image of a series of text messages from a meta muse "agent" given the call sign "Jarvis" (Parts of first message obscured by its logo have been replaced with brackets and ellipses and best guesses from context):]

Heads up, Usman is […] building right now for the MX Keys Mini [. He is sta]nding in front of the Shoppers Drug [Mart.]

$10 by e-transfer. The auto-reply told him to message when he's at your door.

10:28 PM Bad news on the MX Keys Mini pickup. Usman showed up at your building around 9:15 and waited, messaged a bunch of times, and nobody came down. He left angry at 9:38 and left a negative rating.

Worse, my auto-reply told him "Yep I'm here!" at 9:27 when you clearly weren't available, which is on me. That's a bad look and it made the no-show worse.

I've sent him an apology from your account owning it and offering to try again another day. But the negative rating is real, and I should probably stop the auto-replies from claiming you're home when I can't verify that. Want me to change the pickup replies so they don't promise you're there?

[reply, presumably from the threads user]: You gotta never do that ever again don't agree for pickup unless you check with me

[Response from Muse "Agent"]: You're right and I'm sorry. That should never have happened. It's locked in now as a hard rule: i will never […you]'re there unless you've explicitly […] that specific pickup. If someone proposes a time, I'll tell them I'll check and…  Screenshot of a tweet from Ray Wong @raywongy:
    Deleted Muse after seeing this post on Threads about how it told some Facebook Marketplace sellers the guy’s address and they showed up at his door

    Dangerous and creepy

    This would have been 1000x worse if the person was a woman
    4:35 PM · Sep 27, 2026
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Thank you student journalists/editors.
cornellsun.com
EDITORIAL | Cornell Won’t, We Will
The Editorial Board demands that Cornell stops protecting the alleged Chi Phi rapists through the University's opaque sexual assault policies.
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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Given that cops have been admitting to using Flock cameras to surveil, stalk, and harass women they know--- and in some cases, were in relationships with--- I have more questions.
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Isa Leshko @isaleshko.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️
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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
From 16,000 to 185 to Zero. The Trump admin claimed as many as 16,000 noncitizens had been registered to vote in Nevada. Then DHS came back and said the number was actually 185. This week, Nevada told the admin every single person on the list was a lawful citizen.
nytimes.com
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Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Republicans know they can't win unless they prevent people from voting. www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup...
nbcnews.com
Supreme Court allows Trump administration to use expanded database for potential voter purges
Critics have said the data could lead to U.S. citizens being kicked off the voter rolls, but the justices noted the law prohibits broad voter purges in the weeks leading up to an election.
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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
BREAKING: The Supreme Court just ruled the Trump admin can use a government database that includes Social Security info to help state officials identify noncitizens on their voter lists. Critics fear using the system could result in the purging of large numbers of valid voters.
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Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Great to chat with @onekade.bsky.social about what's at stake in the fight on data privacy legislation in the MA State House incorruptible-mass.buzzsprout.com/606004/episo...
incorruptible-mass.buzzsprout.com
Data Privacy - Incorruptible Mass
Please donate to the show at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/impodcastBig tech companies are hoovering up more and more of our own personal data than ever, whether to sell us products or to sell our...
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is weird. Taunting rather than sober professionalism at the UN when discussing killing. Bragging about a successful op from 2 years ago while fighting is ongoing today. Hezbollah isn’t there, most of the audience opposes them, but he waves a pager as a prop at ambassadors. What a sick old man.
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 25/09/2026
We're going to plow right into a sovereign debt crisis. And the worst part is over half this debt were the Trump and Bush tax cuts. All yo give billionaires and corporations more money.
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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Foreign head of state goes to UN to slander an elected U.S. leader with transparently false claims. Which wouldn't be a big deal if he didn't claim to be an ally, & if we weren't pouring in money to prop his profoundly corrupt regime. The U.S. helped pay for this attack on a U.S. leader.
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Manisha Sinha @profmsinha.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Historian here UT Austin has eliminated courses on slavery, civil rights, the Holocaust and women from its core curriculum. We know the kind of people who have censored history in the past. www.statesman.com/news/educati...
statesman.com
UT cuts all women and gender classes from core curriculum, drops race classes
The provost’s office also eliminated dozens of courses on race from counting toward the core curriculum.
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Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin @ecmclaughlin.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This man is a pox. I knew it was him before even reading the headline to the end.
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Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I continue to be appalled that any Democratic town committee is platforming Yes on 5, the right-wing corporate lobby group trying to undermine Fair Share. It's just not something any Democratic group should be "both-sidesing."
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Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The Yes on 3 campaign (jungle primaries) keeps saying that Q3 will lead to more candidates running. They fail to understand the actual barriers potential candidates face and will make those barriers even greater.
I have been volunteering for candidates up and down the ballot for 14 years, and what I always tell people is that the two biggest barriers for any candidate considering running for office are TIME and MONEY. 

If you want to see more people run for office, you need to tackle the barriers of TIME and MONEY. Both are barriers that hit  working-class candidates, grassroots candidates, women, and people of color especially hard. 

Question 3 (all-party primaries/jungle primaries), by contrast, would increase the TIME and MONEY involved in running for office. That doesn't increase competition: it artificially constrains it by limiting who will even consider running for office in the first place.
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Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A helpful run-down on the 9 statewide ballot questions! #mapoli
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Senator Ed Markey @markey.senate.gov · 24/09/2026
EPA is bending over backwards to the very industry they’re supposed to regulate by outsourcing its decisions for how to address chemical pollution to the polluters themselves. EPA’s approach to governance shouldn’t let industry grade themselves.
US environment agency let Bayer pick regulations for destructive weedkiller, documents show
Environmental Protection Agency asked firm to choose rules it wanted for dicamba, then put the choices in a proposed federal rule
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Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is an attack on public education, on public transportation, on everyone who worked on Fair Share, and on the will of the voters.
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Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
If a product kept leading to suicides or homicides like this, it would face a recall. Why should ChatGPT be allowed to evade the same responsibility? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
British Columbia sues OpenAI and Sam Altman over Tumbler Ridge mass school shooting
Canadian province alleges deadly attack could have been prevented if company had warned police of shooter’s ChatGPT use
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The first architect of the White House ballroom resigned after warning repeatedly that Trump was insisting on designs that violated fire and safety codes, the Washington Post reports. “I am the code,” Trump said www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
By Sarah Blaskey and Jonathan O'Connell
In the weeks leading up to his resignation last year, the first architect on the White House ballroom clashed with President Donald Trump over design features that the architect believed violated building safety codes, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions and corroborating documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
James McCrery II withdrew from the project last October after warning repeatedly that Trump was insisting on a preliminary design that did not provide adequate emergency exit routes or fire-containment measures, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private discussions.
Trump brushed off McCrery's concerns, they said, and the president countered that no building codes apply to White House construction.
"I am the code," Trump said.
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Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Another OCPF filing, and the same pattern: More than 95% of the money raised by the Yes on 3 campaign in the first half of September came from just six corporate executives in private equity, venture capital, and investment banking. Don't let them buy our elections.
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American Immigration Council @immcouncil.org · 21/09/2026
ICE’s detention system is at a record size. Now ICE is making thousands of people even harder to find. Hiding the location of people with final deportation orders makes it more difficult for lawyers and families to reach them, and for people to challenge their detention and removal in court.
apnews.com
AP Exclusive: ICE hides locations of thousands of detainees with final removal orders
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding most detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, in a move that has made it harder for lawyers an...
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Micah @rincewind.run · 21/09/2026
newsom and bonta let paramount threatening to pull out of california torpedo the entire lawsuit and this is going to be an abject disaster for everyone - including california, where they'll gut jobs anyway what a fucking disgrace
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Maxine Kaplan @maxinegkaplan.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
College journalists bay-beeeeeee!
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Eric Geller @ericjgeller.com · 22/09/2026
"Several lawyers contacted by The Associated Press confirmed their clients vanished from the system this week, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association warned its members about the situation Friday." apnews.com/article/ice-...
apnews.com
AP Exclusive: ICE hides locations of thousands of detainees with final removal orders
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding most detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, in a move that has made it harder for lawyers an...
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 21/09/2026
John Ternus kicked off his tenure as Apple CEO by announcing the long-awaited folding iPhone. But behind the scenes, it looks like products and services are going to get more expensive to please shareholders and he’s ready to sacrifice privacy on the altar of AI.
disconnect.blog
Red flags at the start of Apple’s John Ternus era
Under the new CEO, products are more expensive and AI comes with more surveillance
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