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Mark Firla

@unioncat.bsky.social
1.3K followers 2.1K following 61 posts

From The Land of Steady Habits, Organizing makes me happy. Solidarity

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Reposted by Mark Firla
Tom Broderick @trumbullbrod.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This monstrosity of a McMansion is legal to build by-right virtually anywhere in Connecticut, but if you tried to make the same building (or even a smaller one!) a quadplex…well that’s only allowed on 2.2% of the state’s land 🫠 Economic segregation is wild www.ctinsider.com/realestate/a...
ctinsider.com
$1.37 million Connecticut home has an indoor pool beneath skylights
The property at 4 Aspetuck Hill Lane in Weston offers residents a chance to swim beneath skylights or step outside to the golf course.
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Matt Pearce @mattdpearce.com · 19/09/2026
“She said she wanted the second line of her obituary to acknowledge her role as a shop steward for SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents NPR's editorial workers. She wanted the line to say that her ‘proudest achievement’ was helping convince NPR to increase its paid parental leave.”
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Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is eugenics
Emily Hilliard, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, confirmed on Wednesday that the department had not yet made a decision about whether to provide the shots through that program.
Vaccines for Children provides free shots to children who are uninsured, underinsured or eligible for Medicaid, as well as to American Indian and Alaska Native children.
Pediatric doses are available for children who have insurance, or whose parents can afford to pay for vaccines out of pocket.
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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 16/09/2026
Fair play to the wife of a Caribbean man and mother of mixed race children being informed by the BBC reporter that she’s in the minority in her community regarding immigration and responding with, “Yes, I’m surrounded by bigots.”
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Joshua Eaton @joshuaeaton.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
EXCLUSIVE: When elected officials and advocates in Danbury, Connecticut, said ICE arrested a parent at a school bus stop Aug. 26, federal officials denied their accounts. I got video that appears to show such an arrest. My latest at @ctinsider.bsky.social — www.ctinsider.com/news/article...
ctinsider.com
Video appears to show ICE arrest near CT school bus stop, despite federal denials
ICE has denied it made an arrest at a school bus stop, but confirmed it made 118 arrests in Connecticut that week.
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High Country News @highcountrynews.org · 14/09/2026
Everything from sand to summer vacations is projected to change in the Grand Canyon as the river’s flows are reduced.
hcn.org
What will happen to the Grand Canyon as water levels drop? - High Country News
Everything from sand to summer vacations is projected to change in the Grand Canyon as the river’s flows are reduced.
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Hugh Bailey @hughsbailey.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
24 homes on 11 acres. They still hate it. They still want nothing to be built. They still vilify anyone for trying. You cannot reason with this.
newstimes.com
New Fairfield neighbors protest Danbury pool contractor’s plan for 24 homes with affordable units
“Go walk that property and tell me if you think it fits 24 [homes],” said Monica Oswald.
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Tom Broderick @trumbullbrod.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
There’s no reasoning with NIMBYs, the only way forward for Connecticut is to take away their power to block projects. People have a right to be annoyed by construction and change, but their annoyance can’t dictate public policy.
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Hell Frasier: Bloodline @babadooknukem.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
since I haven't seen anyone else mention where this wet shitheap actually was, and I happen to remember it clearly, here he is literally during 9/11 calling into WWOR in Jersey to brag about how he now has the biggest building in New York:
youtu.be
Donald Trump Calls Into WWOR/UPN 9 News on 9/11
YouTube video by FOX 5 New York
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rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
when i worked at sbux in high school they kept scheduling me for like 35 hours a week and i kept saying i can't work this schedule i have to go to school. turned out they were hugely overscheduling kids to avoid giving enough hours to the adults that they would've qualified for health insurance
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Debt Collective 🟥 @debtcollective.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
As a doctor, Kansas Senator Roger Marshall had dozens of his patients arrested for medical bills. Meischa was arrested for missing a court date related to a C-section bill from Mr. Marshall. "I asked them quietly 'Can you not handcuff me in front of my daughter?" www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/u...
nytimes.com
Roger Marshall Sued 700 Patients for Debts; 81 Were Arrested. Now He’s a Senator. (Gift Article)
Patients sued by Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas were routinely charged 18 percent interest, The Times found. Some had bank accounts garnished.
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Alex Tomlinson @alextomlinson.com · 08/09/2026
Flat illustration of a Common Loon wading through black water- white mono-line ripples silhouette their body
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In These Times @inthesetimes.com · 08/09/2026
Tyson shut the gates on 2,500 workers without warning. The workers answered by rallying outside. Caitlyn Clark reports they’re demanding six months’ severance—and urging Illinois to take the Joslin plant into public ownership and reopen it.
inthesetimes.com
‘Treated Worse Than Cattle’
2,500 Tyson Workers Laid Off, Plant Shutters Overnight.
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Jess Nevins @jessnevins.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I think it's important that everyone knows that the Sumerian word "sil" means "to praise and recline in preparation for love-making." I'm always in favor of pithiness, and I'm always in favor of cultures that reduce important steps in life to a single word.
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
DHS is stealing Haitians money while they deport them. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/w...
nytimes.com
Haitians Deported From U.S. Are Left Broke and Stranded (Gift Article)
Hundreds have been deported to Haiti in recent weeks, and some say they have been left with no money, no protection from gangs and no place to go.
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unpersoned.bsky.social @unpersoned.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
If Dems don't do this, they will have failed us entirely.
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Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Biggest problem with modern Looney Tunes, even COYOTE VS ACME (which I like) is that Bugs Bunny has been sanded down into a mascot. You watch him in the 40s or 50s and he's a freaky lil dress-up pervert who is down for anything. Assigned diva at birth. Nowadays, he's just a regular guy. Not my Bugs.
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Micah @rincewind.run · 04/09/2026
this is horrifying, unnecessary capitulation by an institution that absolutely knows better than this and both @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social and @governor.ny.gov should be imposing consequences on mount sinai at the state level as a result
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Nick Field @nickfield.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
John Fetterman called in sick to avoid a meeting with three Pennsylvania paralyzed military veterans. Then he walked into the office less than an hour later to shoot a Fox News interview www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
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Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
We’re talking here about Col. Josh Gaspard, who parachuted into Bashur during the 2003 invasion as a 2LT, then a year in Afg, then company command in surge-era Iraq. His Columbia degrees aren’t even in the “woke” social sciences, they’re in industrial engineering and engineering management systems.
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Lupita Nihongo @otsumamiboy.blacksky.app · 01/09/2026
It’s not suicide it is social murder. It is the result of policy that is explicitly designed to Inflict maximum pain & make a class of people feel as life isn’t worth living.
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Tuta @tuta.com · 31/08/2026
If you have a Gmail account, you need to read this. Google's AI now scans your emails and attachments, bank statements, tax files, medical letters, all of it. It turned on by default, and there's a class-action lawsuit over how. Here are 5 moves to shut it off, the switch is hidden in two places:
Image of Sundar Pichai and the Gmail logo
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Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Are we ever going to find out what happened to mitch McConnell
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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
her very existence was an indisputable reminder of how many things framed as inevitabilities were actually just someone’s choice. there actually is enough money for everything. the wealthy could fully fund literacy and public health and the arts and child welfare. they just won’t
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 25/08/2026
This girl I used to waitress with in Austin, we moved to New York together in 2003 on a literal Greyhound bus. Shared a fifth floor walk-up studio that, when it rained, had more leaks in the ceiling than we had pots and pans. We used to get drunk and smoke off the fire escape and do “sad-offs.”
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🌈Tyranny🫧Sparkles🏳️‍🌈 @tyranny.sparklenoise.com · 25/08/2026
Dolly Parton with Keith Haring in 1985, incredible woman and supporter of LGBTQ people for decades going back to a time when few others dared.
Black and white photo of Dolly Parton with gay artist Keith Haring.
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Angry Staff Officer @pptsapper.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
RIP to our queen. Dolly was a gift and we were lucky to live in her lifetime
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 25/08/2026
China couldn't have put a better stooge to destroy the US military than Hegseth. It's quite amusing as he destroys US military capacity. It's like an anti imperialist's dream. But that's what you get when you put a raging alcoholic rapist in charge.
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 25/08/2026
The military is out of munitions. Key bases were destroyed by Iran. The navy can't even supply its ships in theater. Sailors are throwing themselves overboard because conditions are so dire and morale is through the floor. Iran has the upper hand in the strait. But sure, you got rid of trans people
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Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
“Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, met privately in recent weeks with Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and top outside adviser, and discussed potential areas of common ground, according to five people with knowledge of the meeting.” BRUH.
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 21/08/2026
Wage theft is theft. Tenant harassment is illegal. Those who defraud vulnerable New Yorkers will be held accountable. We are working with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to share real-time information and crack down on crimes that target workers and consumers.
cbsnews.com
Workers' rights at the heart of new NYC initiative, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg says
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection commissioner are partnering up to combat wage theft, tenant harassment and fraud targeting immigrants.
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the abbot of unreason (an archaeologist) @merovingians.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
god this fucking RULES
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Lee West @whodat35.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Please take a moment and read Lara Korte’s last story that she filed for Stars and Stripes published 3 hours ago. Thank you Lara for your professional dedication and journalistic values. www.stripes.com/branches/nav...
Lara Korte O @lara_korte
X.com

Today, I was informed that the Department of Defense is firing me for insubordination after I told a CBS reporter that I work for Stars and Stripes - not the Pentagon, not any administration, and not any policy maker.
3:29 PM • 8/21/26 • 155K Views

Lara Korte 
@lara_korte • 1h
I consider it a great privilege to live alongside members of the military and share their stories. It's a shame for the institution and service members, who swore to defend the Constitution and deserve right to a free and independent press.
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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
BREAKING: WASHINGTON (AP) - Editor of Stars and Stripes says he is being fired for insubordination after saying any censorship is a 'red line.'
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WhiteRoseAFA @whiteroseafa.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
He took a selfie while doing a Nazi salute with his mustache trimmed to look like Hitler's.
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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
universities are not run by leftist profs they are run by corporate profiteer board members siphoning public $$ to tech partnerships "An Inside Higher Ed analysis of SEC filings turned up dozens of presidents paid handsomely for sitting on corporate boards." www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...
the 10 presidents in Inside Higher Ed’s analysis who earned the most from outside board service in 2025.
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Ansley Erickson @ansleyerickson.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Sending kids to college soon? or wondering why some profs joke that their unis are actually in the real estate business? Check out what is really going on in the student housing scene. @lilyericksonseltz.bsky.social @inthesetimes.com
inthesetimes.com
Why Tenant Unions Are Spreading Across College Campuses
Faced with aging dorms, private equity landlords and few protections, student renters are banding together.
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 19/08/2026
Glad to see some reporting on this. When I first posted on July 17 about these incidents where an airline worker is asked or tricked into helping ICE, person who told me was too afraid of being identifiable for me to report it out. Bottom line: If you are not a citizen, do not use US air travel rn.
Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com
I saw video this week from another major airport of a woman being taken by plainclothes ICE after an airline worker paged them to the ticket counter.
Worker clearly didn't know it was ICE asking them to page and was upset. They follow, asking ICE for a warrant & woman who they can call for her.
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A.R. Moxon @juliusgoat.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
local paramilitaries struck by ground in gravity-related incident
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🕸️ Cobweb Curtains For Zoosha 🦇 @brianvan.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
You probably don’t even need ICE tribunals to put all those guys in jail, you just have to clear up the rape kit backlog
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Spoooooky Dev 🎃 🐮 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈 @lovelyheiferdev.northsky.social · 18/08/2026
Super fucking bullshit.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 09/08/2026
El-Sayed: "Imagine if instead of paying that to your health insurance company, whose CEO makes $20m a year, you paid a little bit more in taxes for healthcare you wouldn't lose. I think all of us would a lot more interested in that system if we knew our healthcare would be free at point of care"
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
NEW: Maine is one of 2 states that never strips people’s right to vote, and allows them to vote from prison. But in reality, logistical hurdles abound, & prisoners have organized hard for years to make sure everyone knows their rights. I learned a lot from this amazing reporting.
boltsmag.org
Maine Prisoners Organize to Protect Their Rare Right to Vote - Bolts
Maine is one of the only places in the country where prisoners keep their right to vote. But logistical barriers to voting still contribute to their larger exclusion from the political process.
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Shibley Telhami @stelhami.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
A growing number of Americans, including 58% of Democrats, say the US should be responsible for some reparations to Iran for war damage - a measurable increase from the previous week.
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rev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
i'm sorry what the fuck. gillibrand attends a church which teaches that COVID was God's punishment for permitting gay marriage?
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Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Susan Collins is financed by a man who wants to make it easier to create nude pictures of children
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
a republican congressman allegedly broke his two-year-old daughter's collarbone and he somehow hasn't been run out of congress. there really is no bridge too far for these ghouls.
politico.com
‘Platner on steroids’: Max Miller abuse claims have Republicans silently sweating
The Ohio lawmaker denies the allegations as an Aug. 5 deadline to drop off the ballot approaches.
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Meghann Burke @meghannburke.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
✊ www.espn.com/womens-colle...
espn.com
Over 100 college women's basketball players join union effort
More than 100 women's college basketball players have joined a unionization campaign with the United College Athletes Association, the organization announced.
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Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 31/07/2026
"WE THE FUCKING JUDGE SON" New York, I love you. I love you so fucking much. Via wali_talks on IG
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