Glaucous-winged Gulls, Ediz Hook. March 28, 2025
Not a particularly great image but one that conjures fresh sea breezes and a casual nonchalance, both of which sound pretty good right now.
Twofer Tuesday: gull edition
An ICE-capped mountain of horribleness and the people who refuse to give in
Last week’s passage and signing of the they want us dead bill is horrifying on every level so it’s hard to point to one “worst” element, but there’s a case to be made that giving Immigration and Custom Enforcements (ICE) $170 billion is at the top of the list. As a PIC abolitionist (prison industrial complex), I’m horrified by the $45 billion to nearly double the current immigrant detention capacity. Also horrifying is the fact we already have masked people (many of whom, I’m quite certain, railed against masking for public health but are quite happy to don a mask in order to inflict terror) showing up in neighborhoods with their guns, eager to fulfill their white supremacist dreams.
Here’s a video thread from independent L.A. journalist Mel Buer in Los Angeles today: UPDATED INFO BELOW**
from Mel Buer on Bluesky
From Mel Buer thread on Bluesky
These highly militarized and faceless people descended upon a community to inflict terror. Apparently, after Mayor Bass spoke to someone at Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the terror goons packed up and left as people from the community chased them out, shouting their disdain. One participant in the video thread said the goons released mace on their way out. Again, the thread can be found here.
** UPDATE from Ken Klippenstein: Operation Excalibur in Los Angeles Is “Show of Presence” (I don’t know whether to laugh or cry)
This morning I also happened upon Garrett M. Graff’s article Four Fears About ICE, Trump’s New Masked Monster. Reading Graff’s take opened my eyes to issues I hadn’t considered. For instance, he draws parallels with what happened when war criminal G.W. Bush played on post 9/11 fears to double the size of Border Patrol. Spoiler alert: an escalation in violence and corruption. Graff raises four major issues:
1) THE HOW — ICE can’t grow that fast.
2) THE WHO — We should fear specifically who the next 10,000 ICE officers will be.
3) THE WHAT — Funding ICE and CBP at this level marks a fundamental and dangerous shift in the balance of the rule of law and federal law enforcement.
4) THE WHY — Trump’s vast spending increase will coincide with an increasingly lawless administration.
I recommend reading the entire article, not a fun or uplifting read, but vital to our understanding of where we’re at in this country.
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably thinking “Thanks for the doom and gloom, Tracy. What can we possibly do about all this?” Well, it’s true that we don’t have representation that listens to the will of the people (say, for instance, those sounding the alarm that “people will die if kicked off Medicaid so PLEASE DO NOT CUT MEDICAID!”), but we do have each other! And, as Mariame Kaba says, “People are in motion, everywhere.” All around this country, people are organizing for their communities and pushing back against the authoritarians. We are not helpless and the situation is not hopeless. This horrific moment provides room for people to come together to effect change. I guarantee there’s a mutual aid group in your community. (Note: our local group wasn’t on that map so we had to ask around and check bulletin boards.) Yesterday, Zippy and I met with a group here, and I not only left with joy in my heart to have connected with those folks but also a renewed commitment to building community.
I’ve shared this document from Mariame Kaba before–Some Actions That Are Not Protesting or Voting— and encourage you again to check it out for ideas on how you can take action in a way that works for you. I will also reshare this from Garrett Bucks: Thirty lonely but beautiful actions you can take right now.
The authoritarians are trying their hardest to inflict the most damage they can in the shortest amount of time, and they’re counting on us being overwhelmed and demoralized and passive. Instead, let’s keep our hearts soft and squishy, filled with compassion and empathy, and fight together for people and planet.
Please don’t hesitate to send a private message if you have questions, ideas, thoughts, or experiences you’d rather not share publicly. I’m here for you. Solidarity.
Want to join me?
So many horrible things are happening, but this morning I had coffee on the wharf with a new friend. Previously we’d been on a zoom call together because she’s leading a local immigrant defense action group, and now we’ve met in person. Yay for sunshine, good conversation, and connections!
As a result of our wide-ranging talk, I learned that the American Friends Service Committee (otherwise known as the Quakers) holds a weekly Action Hour for Palestine. Every Friday at 12 pm ET/9 am PT, they host a zoom call centered on Palestine. According to my friend, they: have guest speakers, share info on the people of Gaza, highlight a Palestinian artist, give viewers the chance to share their local strategies on advocating for Gaza, and allow time to write/call representatives. My friend’s been attending these sessions for a year and says they really help ground her in the issue.
Poppy for Palestine blooming in garden on July 1, 2025
I’ve signed up to get the zoom link and will attend my first session this Friday. As the vicious attacks on starving Palestinians intensify, I welcome the chance to connect with other heartbroken/enraged humans while we work together to free Palestine from its oppressors in the U.S. and the apartheid state of Israel. If this sounds like something that would help you in this moment, I encourage you to also attend. Sign-up link HERE.
Thankful Thursday: buffet of gifts
Here’s a shout-out to this week’s highlight reel of awesomeness:
⭐ On Tuesday, Zohran Mamdani–33-year-old Muslim/democratic socialist/New York State Assemblyperson–won the Democratic primary for New York City mayor! Mamdani crushed the money-soaked and scandal-ridden Andrew Cuomo, and now has the Democratic establishment and pro-Israel money machine in an absolute panic. I’m still riding that high!
⭐ Zippy and I finally unpacked enough boxes and moved/donated enough furniture to be able to fit our car in the garage! The end of this moving process is in sight (if I squint and tilt my head just so).
⭐ Today there was a pretty substantial low tide (-3.4′) at Freshwater Bay so we put on our boots (hiking for Zippy, waders for me) and went exploring. The first thing we saw upon arrival was this:
When we got closer, I took another photo as I asked Zippy what he thought the story was with the boat. A voice came out of nowhere: “I fell asleep during high tide.” I hadn’t realized anyone was on the severely-tipped boat! The man went on to say he just had to wait for high tide and then could leave. A pretty relaxed outlook considering he was most definitely not able to wait/sit in an upright position.
Zippy and I continued our explorations where we saw all sorts of cool stuff (crab; very large sea anenome; sea slug known as “clown nudibranch”; vivid orange sea star [click to enlarge]:
⭐ Two other generous explorers also shared their discoveries with us, sightings that made them absolutely giddy with excitement since those creatures are somewhat rare in that area: a California Sea Cucumber and a Sunflower Sea Star. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in position for good photos but very much appreciated the sightings!
⭐ After a couple hours, Zippy and I headed back across the slippery, kelp-strewn rocks toward the parking area. One last gift? The rising tide righted that man’s boat.
Happy day!
Today’s project: a GOP ransom note
Mariame Kaba is soliciting submissions for a zine she’s creating (deadline extended to July 15!) which will be a collection of ransom notes from the GOP, and I highly recommend you check it out. I just finished creating my ransom note and had so much fun!
That last line is a tribute to stone-hearted Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) who, during a town hall meeting with constituents at the end of May, didn’t even pretend to care.
Appearing at a town hall on Friday, Ernst was pressed on cuts to Medicaid – the health care program for low-income Americans – in House Republicans’ budget plan. One audience member shouted that “people will die.”
The usual politician thing would have been to take issue with that premise – or to, as other Republicans have strained to do, cast the Medicaid cuts as merely cutting waste and abuse. (That’s not the full story, of course; the Congressional Budget Office recently projected that House Republicans’ changes to Medicaid, including work requirements for some recipients, would leave 7.6 million Americans uninsured by 2034.)
But Ernst decided to go in a different direction.
“Well, we all are going to die,” said Ernst, who’s facing reelection in 2026.
When hostile portions of the crowd balked at the response, she said: “For heaven’s sakes, folks.”
In researching this to provide links, I just found out that Ernst doubled down on her lack of compassion in that town hall by making a follow-up “apology” video in a cemetery and saying this [emphasis mine]:
“… I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this earth,” Ernst said. “So I apologize. And I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.”
The condescension is grotesque. I don’t know how much money Ernst has, but I do know she’s paid a whopping $174,000 per year to represent her constituents in the Senate and is much more likely to weather a medical emergency than the typical U.S. citizen. Many of her constituents are rightfully worried about the proposed massive cuts to the social safety net, including Medicaid, that would hit them hard. The good news is that Ernst is up for reelection and is now more vulnerable as a result of that open contempt for her constituents. NOTE: If you’re in Iowa or have friends or family in Iowa, please know it’s very worth time and effort to push Ernst on the massive bill the Republicans are trying to ram through. Vulnerable Republicans like Ernst are more likely to peel off and cause further discord in the negotiations. Let Ernst know what you think of those proposed cuts and how they’d affect you.
Again, I hope you’ll check out Kaba’s call for submissions and have some fun cutting up old magazines! I found it to be cathartic and the perfect use of my time on a rainy Saturday. If you do make a ransom note, please share yours here!
Thankful Thursday: wild morning
At a little after 7:00 this morning, we headed out for our walk. After a couple blocks of sunshine and birdsong, Emma decided it was time to relieve herself on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection lawn (shucks, no poop sack 🤷 ). As Zippy and I waited, a crow that’d been on the CBP roof flew down and dropped something furry a few feet from Emma. The crow hopped around as Zippy moved in for a closer look and announced, “It’s a mole.”
For whatever reason, the crow had gifted Emma/us with a dead mole! When we declined the gift (well, Zippy and I declined it without giving Emma a vote) and walked away, the crow picked up the mole and flew back to the CBP roof. That was a first for us. In Colorado, magpies regularly gifted us with pretty stones which we always thought were thanks for the peanut feeders and bird bath we provided. This dead rodent? A gift out of the blue.
Our second gift came later in the walk as we explored a street that was new to us. Suddenly, we were in dense forest where the air was clean and cool.
But it wasn’t only us in the forest. I looked down to see Gift #3 crossing the road:
I have no idea what kind of beetle this is (paging Mara at The Dirty Sneaker!) except that it was at least an inch long.
Later, after a stop at the local bakery for some muffins, we arrived back home where I cut some chard from our garden to add to my smoothie. When I went to wash out my blender, there was Wild Gift #4:
I know, I know. Most people aren’t fans of snails and their slime trails, especially not when they land on their dish cloths as a result of washing garden greens. But snails fascinate me. After watching it move about, I gently carried this one back outside to the flower portion of the garden. Slime away, funny snail!
So that’s my odd gratitude list. In this moment, I’m grateful for all the wildness in my life, big and small. These are very difficult days but as organizer Kelly Hayes says, there’s still so much left to fight for. Wishing everyone a day graced by the natural world. Solidarity!
No War on Iran: call to action
My inbox is filled with messages from various organizations pointing out the efforts to manufacture consent for the assault on Iran, efforts that follow the same playbook used in the lead-up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG) sent No War on Iran: Reject the Lie of Preemption which opens with this [emphasis mine]:
When the Israeli attacks on Iranian military and civilian targets began on Friday, warmongering media outlets like the New York Times rushed to advance the West’s preferred narrative of the “preemptive strike.” This convenient logic — if you strike to remove a threat before it materializes, what will materialize is a response that looks like a threat — has time and time again distorted the realities of imperial aggression. As always, post-facto justification and proactive consent-building work in tandem: The aggressor becomes the victim, while a nation of 90 million people is vilified.
We reject any and all narratives that absolve the U.S.-Zionist alliance of its responsibility for the current war of aggression on Iran, which threatens to displace millions and plunge the country into Western-backed proxy conflict. We count in this camp the writers, editors, and producers of English-language media, who have long served as handmaidens to the forces of destruction in West Asia.
In Iraq, the grammar of preemption at the onset of the so-called War on Terror enabled hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths. A multinational alliance of imperial powers committed billions in resources to George W. Bush’s “preemptive” hunt for weapons of mass destruction which, of course, never existed. Western media dutifully sought to convince the world of the justness and necessity of years of occupation, bombing, and forced economic dependency. For these crimes and cover-ups, there has never been any justice or reparation. The last week has shown that the media will not hesitate to corroborate imperial lies again, unless, with all our might, we refute them.
The article goes on to say “The only way to stop the genocide and support endogenous resistance to Zionism and imperialism — whether in Palestine, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, or Yemen — is to halt the flow of weapons to Israel.” and then lists some of the many global efforts to cut arms to Israel. You may read the entire article here. Key takeaway: ARMS EMBARGO NOW!
Another email came from Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)’s newsletter, The Wire. Their headline? No War With Iran. This article also points out how the mainstream media are beating the war drums and then states “The truth is that the Israeli government has run an anti-Iran propaganda campaign for decades, doing everything in its power to provoke the Iranian government into the kind of war that we’re now seeing.” The article also includes a link to CNN’s compilation of clips showing Israel’s Netanyahu fear-mongering over Iran’s supposed nuclear weapons program, which Netanyahu has been doing since 1996. That 1:10 video is well worth the time.
The article continues [emphasis mine]: International impunity for Israel’s unspeakable crimes against Palestinians has led us to this point.
Over and over again, the Israeli military has been allowed to bomb children while they slept, burn people alive in their hospital beds, shoot starving people waiting for food aid, orchestrate a famine, torture detainees, and nearly every other war crime imaginable, in a nineteen-month-long genocide funded and armed by the U.S.. At the same time, the Israeli government has been bombing sovereign states at will, all without repercussion.
Israel has received unconditional support from the U.S. as it genocides Palestinians and bombs neighboring countries, so it’s no shock that Netanyahu would feel confident that bombing Iran would receive the same support. But “Just last week, Netanyahu’s governing coalition was facing a vote of no confidence from his opposition, with protests and criticism only increasing. But attacking Iran, CNN reports, has “banished” the internal political challenges Netanyahu was facing “in an instant.” OOPS! Once again war is being used to to save a political career and/or divert attention from domestic policies. We see you, Natanyahu.
JVP has issued a call to action: Members of Congress just introduced War Powers Resolutions to try to prevent war with Iran.
After 20 months of escalating genocidal violence against Palestinians, the Israeli government has launched unprovoked attacks against Iran and is bringing the entire region to the brink of disastrous war.
In gratitude and grief
For 10 months, I felt a close connection to a person in Gaza. I didn’t know their name and they didn’t know mine. That didn’t matter. What did matter was a Palestinian needed help and I was able to provide assistance. Our shared humanity brought us together.
Because Israel targeted (and continues to target) internet infrastructure in Gaza, it’s incredibly difficult for Palestinians to communicate with family, friends, and the world beyond the open air prison in which they live. Imagine not only being under constant bombardment while enduring forced starvation, but also desperately wanting the ability to say one last goodbye. This is why Egyptian writer and journalist Mirna El Helbawi stepped in to provide free esims to the people of Gaza. As explained in that article, “Despite the name, eSIM cards aren’t physical cards at all but pieces of software that act like traditional SIM cards, allowing people to activate a new cellular plan with phone and internet access on their existing phone.”
When I learned about El Helbawi’s efforts via Connecting-Humanity.org, I purchased esims to donate. Several esims were never activated and then one was, and my heart soared! Starting on August 10, 2024, I kept an open tab on my laptop for the Nomad esim site where I could monitor the 10 GB data usage. Each time I opened the tab, I made a silent wish that the data amount had gone down. Day after day, I cheered on the Palestinian recipient, sending thoughts of strength and solidarity. Each decrease in data was proof of Palestinian resiliency. Whenever the data usage reached 7-8 GBs, I topped off the esim, adding another 10 GB that would be ready when the other ran out.
Month after month, I was connected to that Palestinian in Gaza. A student doing online studies? A journalist? Healthcare worker or street medic? Mother of four? Older brother caring for younger siblings? I had no way of knowing who might be accessing the internet but my heart was filled with gratitude for El Helbawi and the other volunteers who provided vital assistance to my Palestinian “friend” and thousands of others while also providing people such as myself a way to make a tangible difference in Gaza.
Today, after 10 months of usage, that Nomad esim expired with 6.37 GB of data remaining. For the past three weeks or so, the usage had remained the same despite me checking and rechecking the Nomad site. My Palestinian friend used only 3.63 of the 10 GB before the esim quietly expired.
Obviously, I have no way of knowing what happened. Maybe their phone was dropped and damaged. Maybe their phone got lost. Or maybe the genocidal Israeli forces dropped a bomb on their tent or denied them access to life-saving medicine or lured them to a humanitarian aid station in order to gun them down. Or maybe my Palestinian friend got thrown in prison along with the thousands of Palestinians that Israel holds on administrative detention.
I will never know what happened to that courageous and resilient Palestinian who used their phone to survive those many months of horror. My pain of not-knowing is the tiniest fraction of the pain Palestinians endure as their families, friends, and communities are destroyed, and tens of thousands remain buried beneath rubble. I can barely imagine the depth of their pain and trauma.
What is being done to Palestinians is horrific. Full stop. But the damage doesn’t end with the death and destruction that’s been live-streamed since October of 2023. This genocide damages all of us as we avert our gazes and harden our hearts in futile efforts to protect ourselves from the violence and trauma. Israel and the United States and every other genocide-enabling government — whether actively aiding and abetting the death and destruction or merely remaining quiet — are counting on us becoming numb. They are purposely normalizing genocide, ethnic cleansing, displacement, colonialism, and state-sanctioned brutality so that we quit feeling compassion for others. Make no mistake, there’s a direct connection between what’s happening in Gaza and what’s happening in Los Angeles. Israel’s IDF trains ICE and police to use IDF’s brutal tactics.
In honor of my Palestinian friend I never met, I invite you to make a donation to Crips for esims for Gaza which is “a collaboration between Jane Shi, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and Alice Wong. Disabled people around the world are raising funds to get as many eSims as we can into Gaza.” This group has raised $2.4 million to buy esims for Gaza. They’re doing good and compassionate work.
Finally, also in honor of my Palestinian friend, I post this image from my yard. While it’s been battered and bruised by the elements, this red poppy still shines bright. It will rise up again next spring. There’s a reason the poppy is the national flower of Palestine.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’
Journalist Ken Klippenstein just reported that the White House has laid the groundwork for utilizing the Insurrection Act by labeling the Los Angeles anti-ICE protests an insurrection, and that Trump’s “border czar” just told Fox News, “We’re gonna bring National Guard in tonight.”
Read Klippenstein’s full article Breaking: National Guard to Put Down LA Protests. And when you’re done, here are the lyrics to Ohio, the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song about the National Guard murdering Kent State students on May 4, 1970. Their crime? Protesting the Vietnam War.
Ohio
Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’
We’re finally on our own
This summer I hear the drummin’
Four dead in OhioGotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago
What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na, na-na-na
Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na, na-na-naGotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago
What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’
We’re finally on our own
This summer I hear the drummin’
Four dead in Ohio
This summer I hear the drummin’
Four dead in OhioGotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago
What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na, na-na-na
Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na
Na-na-na-na, na-na-naGotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago
What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’
We’re finally on our own
This summer I hear the drummin’
Four dead in Ohio
Four dead in Ohio (four dead)
Four dead in Ohio (four)
Four dead in Ohio (how many?)
Four dead in Ohio (how many more?)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio (oh)
Four dead in Ohio (four)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio
Four dead in Ohio
Friday Haiku for Gaza
traumatized children
pawns in genocidal plan
their eyes say it all
Please consider donating to Hot meals 4 Starved Palestinian Kids in north Gaza
Wordless Wednesday: tide pool edition
On this Nakba Day
Hello, again. I’ve been absent from these parts as we continue the many efforts involved in our move to Washington and am looking forward to resuming my WordPress friendships and making more connections with folks in the very near future. In the meanwhile, I can’t let Nakba Day pass without acknowledgement.
I know I’m not alone in carrying the heavy grief that comes from the ongoing genocide in Palestine, a genocide enabled by the U.S. with full support from both Democrats and Republicans. As my son Wildebeest recently said, Palestine is the one consistent bi-partisan effort from our government. Palestinians are considered disposable.
I received the following from MPower Change this morning and while I know it’s bad form to ask for action when I haven’t been engaging with anyone else’s posts here lately, I want to share this information. Anything you can do on behalf of Palestine is greatly appreciated! Solidarity!
Today is a heavy day.
It is Nakba Day — a day of mourning and resistance, marking 77 years since the violent displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Israel. Known as the Palestinian Catastrophe, the 1948 Nakba saw over 750,000 Palestinians driven from their homes and hundreds of villages wiped out. Since then, Israel has relentlessly continued its occupation and destruction of Palestinian land and people.
On this day of remembrance, here are four urgent actions you can take for Palestine:
-
- Email your Members of Congress to demand an end to Israel’s blockade on Gaza. Over 2 million Palestinians are being forcibly starved, with over 70,000 children being hospitalized due to severe malnutrition.
- Urge Members of Congress to call for the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil and all others targeted by the administration for expressing their First Amendment rights. We have seen the recent releases of Dr. Badar Khan Suri, Rümeysa Öztürk, and Mohsen Mahdawi — but our fight doesn’t stop. Take action now for those still unlawfully detained.
- Tell university leadership to say NO to repressing and targeting students on campus. Students speaking out against genocide are facing ongoing repression, police harassment, ICE abductions, and the threat of visa revocations. Together, we’ve sent nearly 800,000 letters to university presidents and administrators. They still need to hear from us.
- Tell Microsoft to stop partnering with Israel’s genocide. Microsoft’s AI and cloud support are core to Israel’s military operations in Gaza. Microsoft workers are boldly calling on the company to stop using their labor to commit genocide and enforce apartheid. Tell Microsoft leaders to listen to their workers, adhere to their own human rights policies, and stop partnering with the Israeli military.
We cannot stay idle as Israel wages yet another Nakba on the Palestinian people. Take action now — speak out, show up, and demand justice.
In solidarity,
Linda, Granate, Yasmine, Ishraq, and the team at MPower Change
Please, one quick action on behalf of students
I’ve been focused on stuff related to our recent move and haven’t been active here, but need to share information I received today. Spoiler alert: it’s rage-inducing. My ask? Use the template to personalize a letter that will be sent to 40+ university presidents and chancellors. Thank you in advance for taking two minutes to speak out on behalf of the courageous students who refuse to remain quiet about a genocide funded with their tuition and tax dollars. Solidarity!
Image from Truthout article linked below: Police and FBI agents raid a resident of University of Michigan pro-Palestine protesters in a video posted on April 23, 2025.
safexmich via Instagram
The following is from MPOWER Change:
Yesterday, police and the FBI raided the homes of students in Michigan who’ve engaged in Palestine solidarity, confiscating laptops and phones without making arrests. The Attorney General’s office claims the raids are part of a “vandalism investigation.”1
But even the press is questioning why the FBI would be involved in a vandalism investigation.
At a time when university leaders are finally standing up to Trump’s attacks on academic freedom, with Harvard’s public rejection of Trump’s orders and more than 200 educational leaders condemning “political interference” and “overreach,” many universities are still cooperating with Trump’s tyranny against students, including police raids and abductions.2
Tell the University of Michigan and other schools to protect students and academic freedom.
Despite the violent crackdowns, academic expulsions, and student abductions across the country, the encampment movement is strong and growing.
Students refuse to be silenced, and we must do everything we can to support and protect them.
Even if you have sent letters to university administrators before, please send more.
Trump fears students because they are demanding divestment from genocide and apartheid, and they are WINNING.
Yale students just relaunched their encampment after being forcibly cleared by police earlier this week, coming back even stronger. And their demands are being heard. At Northwestern, students just secured a historic agreement: the university will disclose its investments, establish a committee on divestment, and provide full funding for Middle Eastern and North African student groups.3
Take Action: Tell university administrators and presidents to protect students, not punish them.
From Columbia to UCLA, from Yale to Emory — this is a generation’s most significant wave of student protests. And the students are not alone: faculty are walking out, alumni are divesting, and communities are taking action to support them.
We must do our part as well.
Thank you for everything you do.
In solidarity,
Granate, Zara, Aydin, and the team at MPower Change
P.S. Want to support our work towards justice for all people, and against white supremacy and Islamophobia? Sign up for a recurring MPower Change gift now.
Sources:
- “Activists say southeast Michigan police raids are targeting pro-Palestinian protesters,” Detroit Free Press, April 23, 2025.
- “More Than 220 Academic Leaders Condemn Trump’s ‘Overreach’,” The New York Times, April 22, 2025.
- “The Daily Explains: As NU activists accept deal to deescalate encampment, demonstrators at other universities are seeing mixed results,” The Daily Northwestern, May 1, 2024
Learn more from Truthout: FBI and Police Raid Homes of Pro-Palestine Student Activists in Michigan
Call to Action: April 19th
Hello, friends. I just had a change of heart regarding tomorrow’s Day of Action and want to share some thoughts. Zippy and I attended our local Hands Off! action on April 5th but because there was no clear “call to action” or visible (to me) organizing happening around it, I told Zippy I didn’t feel compelled to join future protests.
I’ve changed my mind and have journalist Laura Jedeed to thank because when I popped into Bluesky, this was at the top of my feed:
I felt called-out. I also knew in my gut that Laura was correct. And that feeling was cemented after reading her entire thread which also points out that optics do matter and how it’s imperative crowd sizes are even larger tomorrow than on the 5th in order to present a visual refutation of Trump’s so-called mandate. (Go here to read a more fleshed-out version of Laura’s points via her newsletter.) Also? There was nothing stopping me on April 5th from doing some organizing of my own and it’s totally on me that I didn’t come prepared. Tomorrow, I will be prepared!
I’ll have the #TeslaTakedown flyers I didn’t think to bring on April 5th. (By the way, this campaign is having a huge impact and creating real pain for Nazi DOGE-bro Elon Musk: Tesla dealerships are no longer accepting Cybertruck trade-ins)
I’ll have Know Your Rights With ICE flyers. From the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) site: These flyers explain what to do if Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) comes to your door or you have an encounter with immigration officials, what to do if you witness immigration activity by ICE or CBP, and examples of judicial warrants and ICE warrants.
I’m also trying to figure out how to also insert a QR code to the pdf flyer that links to an upcoming online KNOW YOUR RIGHTS / RAPID RESPONSE TRAINING led by WAISN. Doing so is a challenge for this low-tech person, so please share if you have ideas!
Anyway, I hope you’ll consider joining an action near you tomorrow, Saturday April 19th. I’ll be there and promise there will be no eye rolling!
Solidarity! ✊🏾
Wordless Wednesday: sea anemones
Thankful Thursday: holding onto my JOY
These are incredibly hard days on the planet and today I want to give a shout-out to the JOY in my heart, something the fascists will never, ever take from me. They want us cowering in fear and apathy, quietly sinking into dark and joyless pits of despair, but it’s vital to stay connected to all the good stuff in this world. Here’s a list of some things bringing me joy today:
- Running for the first time in months (not to mention at sea level!) and even though my joints were creaky and my pace pretty darned slow, it made me SO freaking happy. Joyous, even!
- Singer/songwriter Valerie June‘s new release aptly titled “Joy, Joy!” which is catchy and uplifting (check it out here).
- Watching the rain fall as the sun shines.
- Putting on jeans still warm from the dryer.
- Leaving on my walk to the library after posting this, knowing I’ll get answers to my questions because librarians rule! They take care of patrons and books alike!
I’d love to hear about what’s bringing you joy these days so please share in the comments!
Gaza is a “killing field”
Gaza is a ‘killing field’, says UN chief, as agencies urge world to act on Israel’s blockade by Megan Fisher (BBC News). Since Israel broke the fragile ceasefire on March 18, they have murdered 1,449 Palestinians. Food and medical supplies are blocked.
There’s a very good chance you haven’t given much thought to what’s happening to Palestinians, seeing as we’re under another kind of assault in the United States. It’s no coincidence that as the fascists openly and willfully destabilize this country, there’s less focus on Gaza and the U.S.-sponsored genocide of Palestinians. That’s intentional. They’re overwhelming us with their shock-and-awe destruction, throwing so much horribleness in our faces at once that we lose sight of what’s still happening on the other side of the world:
Genocide.
Ethnic cleansing.
Intentional starvation.
Journalists and medical personnel targeted for murder.
Children shot and bombed and slaughtered at a rate never seen before.
And the media isn’t helping matters. Journalist Adam Johnson documented how mass death and destruction has been normalized.
Know who else isn’t helping matters? The Democrats. Last week only 15 Senators voted to block more arms to Israel. This is NOT what democracy looks like. The majority of people in the U.S. do NOT want to spend billions of dollars to arm an apartheid state so they can commit genocide. Many of us called and sent emails only to have our voices ignored again.
I’m exhausted. We’re all exhausted. But we can’t stop talking about Palestine. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
Signage of the times
Here are images from my community’s HANDS OFF! protest yesterday. Apologies for the poor quality as many were photographed from across the street plus I cropped them to remove all identifying features as I do NOT want to further fuel the surveillance state. It was a beautiful day and people were simultaneously upbeat and pissed. There were 1200 of us there, the majority in their 60s and 70s, which is why when the first speaker was introduced, I anticipated the white-haired woman would speak about the assault on Social Security. She did not. I missed much of what she said because I was across the street, straining to separate her words from the sounds of traffic, solidarity honking, and nearby conversations, but I did hear PALESTINE. I also heard GENOCIDE and STUDENT PROTESTERS. While I would’ve welcomed a story about how Trump and Musk’s greed and cruelty are affecting senior citizens, I was so very glad this speaker centered the U.S.-sponsored genocide and the ensuing attack on the brave students leading the moral fight. When I got home and uploaded my photos, I noticed someone behind the speaker with a sign: PROJECT ESTHER IS THE NEW RED SCARE.
These photos are presented in the order in which I photographed them and it feels like the story comes full circle, beginning with a reference to three immigrants recently abducted by ICE and currently incarcerated in Louisiana, and ending with NO TO FASCISM. NO TO FEAR. RESIST.
If you were able to attend a protest near you (and I fully understand it’s much more risky for some than others), please share in the comments.
Solidarity with the millions in the streets yesterday, April 5, 2025!
Friday Haiku
incoming tide
undulating seaweed
aquatic still life
The abduction of Rümeysa Öztürk
Rümeysa Öztürk is the Tufts University grad student abducted off the street in Somerville, MA, on March 25 by Homeland Security. If you can stomach watching the confusion and terror of this young woman as masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel grab her, video is here.
h/t to Ryan Pancoast on Bluesky
The terror didn’t end there. Per this AP article, After being taken to New Hampshire and then Vermont, she was put on a plane the next day and moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in remote Basile, Louisiana.
Why was Öztürk targeted? She’s one of several students at American universities whose visas were revoked after they expressed support for Palestinians during the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
This strategy was laid out in Project Esther, the Heritage Foundation’s plan to use anti-terror and immigration laws to crush pro-Palestinian demonstrators under the guise of combatting anti-semitism. The fascists have made it crystal clear they’re going to use pro-Palestinian protest as the launching point to crush dissent in this country–ALL dissent. That’s why they went after Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil earlier in March. I shared Kelly Hayes’s piece on Khalil here and have been meaning to update that post with Khalil’s statement which you can find here. Note: Khalil’s statement was dictated over the phone from where he’s being held in an ICE facility in, you guessed it, Louisiana.
The one piece of good news in all this is that yesterday, in a rare show of moral courage by a university, Tufts issued this University Declaration for Rumeysa Ozturk. I encourage you to read the entire declaration which includes a valuable timeline of events as well as full-throated support for their student.
Today, Öztürk’s legal team had a hearing with a federal judge on jurisdiction (being sent out of state to Louisiana). That decision will come soon. A legal journalist live-posted this thread on Bluesky during the hearing.
If you’d like to contribute a few dollars to Öztürk’s legal fund, you may do that HERE.
Please do not remain silent while the U.S. government disappears people. Please understand that if we normalize what is happening, they will eventually come for you, too.
Standing in solidarity
Hello, I’m popping in with three quick items:
- Update: on Saturday, Zippy and I drove to another Washington community to participate in their Tesla Takedown picket attended by about 170 people with signs and flags and a fierce determination to help crash Tesla stock. I’m told it’s a pretty conservative community but the majority of responses from people driving past were positive: lots of honking, waving, thumbs-up, and peace signs. Spirits were high among the sign-wavers and there was spontaneous laughter each time one of those seriously ugly cyber trucks drove past. I felt even more invigorated by the time we left. PLEASE share your experience if you were able to attend a Tesla Takedown picket near you! (Remember: these pickets are ongoing so it’s not too late to participate.)
- This Saturday, April 5th, is another National Day of Action as people around the country come together to say HANDS OFF! From Indivisible:
Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them. They’re taking everything they can get their hands on, and daring the world to stop them. On Saturday, April 5th, we’re taking to the streets nationwide to fight back with a clear message: Hands off! Go HERE to find an April 5th action near you.
- Lastly, please take 10 minutes for John Lithgow’s reading of “20 Lessons On Tyranny” which is based on authoritarianism expert Timothy Snyder’s book, On Tyranny. Very good information to help keep us sharp in these perilous times.
Thank you for reading and engaging. Solidarity! ✊🏾
Friday Haiku: rise up edition
global action
help crash Tesla stock
Nazi billionaires not welcome
Wordless Wednesday: Brant edition
Hell NO to Huckabee nomination
I’d be hard-pressed to come up with a worse nomination than Mike Huckabee for Ambassador to Israel. The man’s like a walking molotov cocktail, inflammatory and extremely dangerous.
The Senate will hold a confirmation meeting for Huckabee tomorrow and it’s imperative they hear from us. Granted, our many, many calls and emails about other nominations went unheeded as the feckless Democrats rubber stamp the authoritarian agenda, but that doesn’t mean we should stop making noise.
How wrong is Huckabee for the position of Ambassador to Israel? MPower Action just led 65+ progressive, faith, and human rights organizations representing millions of their members across the country, including Justice Democrats, Pax Christi USA, Demand Progress, Our Revolution, and the IfNotNow Movement in a letter to Senators urging opposition to Mike Huckabee’s nomination.1
MPower Action has the receipts on Mike Huckabee:
In 2008, he denied Palestinian identity altogether, stating, “There’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.”2 He has openly pushed racist and exclusionary views, disregarding Palestinian rights by supporting illegal settlements, and justifying Israel’s complete ownership over Palestinian land.
His Islamophobic rhetoric is just as dangerous.
Huckabee has vilified Islam, calling it “a religion that promotes the most murderous mayhem on the planet.”3 His words are not just offensive — they incite discrimination and violence, harming Muslims both in the U.S. and abroad.
PLEASE take two minutes to personalize this email letter to your Senators. Extra credit if you call their offices to say NO TO MIKE HUCKABEE NOMINATION! They’re gone for the day so you won’t run the risk of talking to a person, you can just leave a voice mail. 🙂
Thank you in advance for taking action. Solidarity! ✊🏾
- 65+ Progressive, Faith, Human Rights Groups Urge Senate to Reject Mike Huckabee’s Nomination for Ambassador to Israel, MPower Change, March 24, 2025.
- “Factsheet: Mike Huckabee.” Bridge Initiative, November 26, 2024.
- “Mike Huckabee calls Muslims “uncorked animals.” HuffPost, August 9, 2013.
Thankful Thursday: Olympic National Park
It’s almost two weeks since we reached the Olympic Peninsula and because we’ve been busy with all sorts of tasks related to moving and relocation, we hadn’t yet visited the Olympic National Park. This morning, Zippy suggested a walk in the sunshine (!) to the Visitor’s Center to check it out. Kind of a recon mission. Well, before reaching the Visitor’s Center, we came upon a trail just off the street.
We stepped into the forest.
Oh my goodness. It was immediately like being in a whole different world. The sounds and smells of traffic disappeared, along with the stress I carried. Below you can see my spouse and our dog Emma, seemingly tiny beings against the backdrop of magnificent trees.
I’ve already developed a bit of a crick in my neck/shoulders from constantly tilting my head back in an attempt to see the tops of trees here and I’m not sure I’ll ever get tired of admiring moss-covered trunks and limbs.
Here’s Zippy working on his own neck crick while checking out these two trees growing from a cedar stump.
We had plans to hike another few miles but when the trail got so slick it took down Zippy, we decided to turn around for the day.
Today I give thanks for the Olympic National Park, its proximity to our rental home, and the rejuvenating properties of time spent in the natural world.
I receive these gifts.
Tracy Abell 