Diligence Jones

By day, a woman who knows and does some things in the social impact space; writer of romantica; by night, shenanigans, political side eye, & snark. Y'all, I'm TIREDT.

Pronouns: She/Her
D/s: a D who giggles (it's fun dammit)
IFKYK: SoPo

Public Key

npub1qyhfwwdjq4s6q29zsu9e46nnduuru9p8xyget34k3u5gwksd3dsqxjy8tr

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsqzt5h8xeq2cdq9z3gwzu6afek7wp7zsnnzyv4c6mg72y8tgxckcqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsepdy3p

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1qyhfwwdjq4s6q29zsu9e46nnduuru9p8xyget34k3u5gwksd3dsqxjy8tr

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-08-04 15:24:10 GMT

"Today, more Americans identify as pro-choice than they did before Dobbs. And ... more Americans are now taking absolutist positions. They support legal access to abortion in all or most cases and oppose government regulation altogether."
https://theconversation.com/public-opinion-on-abortion-has-shifted-4-years-after-dobbs-decision-overturned-roe-v-wade-285668?utm_medium=article_clipboard_share&utm_source=theconversation.com

2026-07-25 20:38:13 GMT

- reply

I'm genuinely amazed at how many USians are okay with the State spying on them through the guise of consumer products.

2026-03-14 19:28:42 GMT

No one: How's that fitness journey going?
Me: Hate to admit it but it's doing ok. Guess being perpetually fat and struggling with it my whole life has actually taught me some things.
Like, whaddya know - tracking meals obsessively actually makes me hyper conscious of what I eat. (It also helps that I like routines. I just eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch now. Dinner is the wild card.)
Eating 1 fermented thing/day helps my gut.
Oh, and rejiggering my gut with a strong prebiotic and more fiber (Metamucil is my bestie) makes me less bloated. My belly has actually become less round. WTF.
I'm now less a teapot and more a bag of rice.
Oh yeah -- and going cold turkey on processed foods and Door Dash is like an instant calorie shed. I haven't had Doritos in 30 days.
Conclusion: I lost another 2 lbs this week. (My digital scale has also begun weighing me in kg for some reason.)
I kind of hate my doctor was right.
Effing lifestyle interventions.
#LadyBachelorIsAnMnM
#FromThiccToLessThicc

2026-02-11 22:25:07 GMT

Minnesota Twin City neighbors are still going through it. That so-called 'draw down' was a ploy to get media to leave and it worked. ICE and Border Patrol are still everywhere and they haven't stopped.
There's a lot going on everywhere but if you can still be a witness and amplification point for Minneapolis/St Paul, that would be great.
#ICEOut
#minneapolis

2026-02-08 17:25:48 GMT

- reply

This next part is important:
Defend the elections.
I know. I just said --.
Anticipate what they're going to do.
In areas of high interest (iow, not Berkeley), they're going to arrest/detain voters, surround polls, sweep up Black/brown voters based on 'immigrant' status, seize ballots, confront voters and vote watchers, leading to more disappearances.
Areas of high interest: NV, AZ, PA, GA, etc. -- y'all need to get ready.
Be the crackpot in the square and sound the alarm at local, county, and state levels.
And then organize. It's the same concept as Rapid Repose to protect neighbors. Now it's RR to defend the election -- and fucking fight the police state.
Poll workers and poll defenders unite.
It's your time to shine.
3/3

2026-02-08 17:11:18 GMT

- reply

And so now we have another looming decision point: what are we going to do when they come for the ballots. When ICE assholes kill a poll worker defending her polling place?
Wait for a court decision to decide for us what's right? What's allowed?
I need people to see the inevitable now. Have our crisis. Get it over with.
Sit with what it feels like to have your schema ripped off your body.
Freak out.
Because the next part is going to be important.
OK lemme back up: why do they need to stop the elections. It's not about fucking Congress qua Congress. Jesus christ no.
It's about the $175B earmarked for a police state. They are trying to build a police state (disguised as immigration control infrastructure) as fast as they can. Palantir, Core Civic, and the Geo Group have a schedule.
The goal isn't: Save our elections.
The goal: Stop the police state.
See the difference?
2/

2026-02-08 16:51:08 GMT

There's an account on here I follow because she's smart, forthright, and has insight into things that are outside my own sphere.
I also follow her because there's a core of bravery in her posts. I like brave people. I like to think of myself as brave but we all know bravery exists only when it's tested. I wobbled once and I didn't like how that made me feel so bravery it is, I guess.
I bring up AnarchoNina because she said what we needed to do if we wanted to appropriately meet this moment. But folks freaked out. 'We can't fight the government! Yikes, revolution! Scary! Dangerous!'
We keep holding on to November elections like it's going to save us. Babes. Beloved. There won't be any. Not in any meaningful way.
1/

2026-02-07 16:22:44 GMT

- reply

I said, What do you want to see happen to MAGA?
He said, Well I think anyone who did something illegal needs to go to prison.
And that, folks, is the problem. Did the Heritage Foundation do anything *illegal*? Did Elon Musk? (Bad example.) Is the judge who ruled in favor of Trump's DOJ taking a shit on habeas corpus doing anything illegal?
No. But if we leave that asshole on the bench we leave a tiny root of American fascism planted in soil where it can grow again.
What the fuck, people. We're all saying how terrible and awful things are. How we are on the precipice. But folks think we should reabsorb these fuckers into society when this is over? They're fucking untrustworthy and don't deserve to be welcomed back into the body politic.
2/2

2026-02-07 16:05:59 GMT

Last night's conversation with my sister's best friend Steven was really interesting.
We always talk politics. He's a bit more moderate than I but generally on the right side of things. He tends, however, to believe in a world where the good must endure the presence of the bad.
Well, fuck that, I said.
When this is over I want every MAGA Republican and judge to be stripped of power, money, and reputation. They destroyed the Constitution, destroyed whole communities. Miller?? I want him dropped down a hole. Noem? That bitch can join him. The MAGA city council member who's gonna hide his voting record? He needs to be treated like a sex offender, put on a register of people who betrayed this country, and run out of town.
Steven squished up his face like the concerned liberal he is.
Well, he said, South Africa had a remarkable process of truth and reconciliation that healed the country after the end of apartheid....
I said, America ain't that. We're the country that let the Klan kill Reconstruction.
1/

2026-02-01 00:14:44 GMT

i'm looking for good *modern* anti-authoritarian, pro labor music.
(in other words, while the Wobblies are commendable, their hymns are not what I'm seeking right now.)
any recs?
(looking at you, the part of the fediverse with vinyl collections you haven't talked about in a while. now is your time to shine.)

2026-01-31 02:21:03 GMT

Everyone is absorbing This Moment in their own way.
[Note: I think, since Jan 22, 2025, we've had at least 300 unprecedented moments]
A colleague, someone I would absolutely call a 2nd Wave feminist, had almost an a ha moment. She said, The women's movement is just failing to come together to meet this Moment!
You know that thing that Black women do when we curl in our lips and bite them as if to seal our mouths shut to keep our words from flying out and hitting someone in the face?
That's what I did.
#Feminism
#BeingBlackAtWork
#CombaheeReallySaidAllItNeededToSay

2026-01-29 04:14:34 GMT

Dearly Beloved,
He's not changing direction.
We need to be able to tell the difference between PR strategy and reality.
As long as Miller, Vance, Noem, Vought are in this administration (and all of their little friends, too), and weirdo unfucked fash billionaires are still pouring money into their pockets to turn this world into a dystopic hellscape, they aren't changing direction.
They do not fucking care how many nice white people they shoot in the back or face. (I actually would not be surprised if the next nice white person they murder is a faith leader. Because it makes them look *hard* to their Nazi and Christo Fash base.)
They aren't going to change direction unless they are *forced*. And that force will need to be mighty and merciless.
I know we are all looking for signs that things are going to ease up.
This ain't that.

2026-01-27 02:59:16 GMT

I don't care that Bovino was thrown under the bus.
I want ALL of them under a bus.
Nothing less.
#FuckICE
#CoupBackDammit

2026-01-27 00:14:14 GMT

- reply

And here.
Again -- I really don't care that this is the line for a lot of folks. I knew it would be (because American White Supremacy).
But now is the time to make as much of this as possible.
All lives matter, right?
This is your time to shine. Make some trouble.
2/2
https://www.tavernresearch.com/research-and-writings/52-say-excessive-force-56-say-too-far

2026-01-27 00:11:16 GMT

Turns out America really doesn't like it when the government kills nice white people for no good reason.
1/
https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/53878-more-americans-view-ice-shooting-minnesota-unjustified-than-justified-january-9-12-2026-economist-yougov-poll

2026-01-26 21:06:11 GMT

Writing tip: Strong, visceral verbs are your friends.
Reviewing a draft report we want to send to media and I'm, like, This is not the time for legal politesse!! Get in the GUTS!

2026-01-22 22:46:50 GMT

- reply

Anticipate more policy moves to limit young women's financial independence.
And more crackdowns on nontraditional family structures.
Especially anticipate the State getting *more* aggressive in controlling the reproductive freedom of those it has pathologized.
The State is coming for all of us.
Believe them when they tell you.
6/

2026-01-22 22:42:38 GMT

- reply

👮‍♂️🤰🏾Forced Pregnancy
The Policy: The report explicitly opposes "needless delay in marriage" and argues against IVF access outside of traditional marriage (Heritage Report, p. 51).
The Trap: This enforces a biological timeline that necessitates dependency during a person’s most career-critical years, ensuring they lack the capital to ever leave.
5/

2026-01-22 22:40:40 GMT

- reply

👮‍♂️👰‍♀The NEST Fund (Marriage Coercion)
The Policy: The "Newlywed Early Starters Trust" (NEST) deposits $2,500 at birth, but it’s only accessible if the child marries before age 30 (Heritage Report, p. 42).
The Trap: This is the state literally placing a "bounty" on early marriage, incentivizing young people to enter legal contracts of dependency before they have established independent financial identities.
3/

2026-01-22 22:39:16 GMT

- reply

🔒The Domestic Enclosure (Childcare)
The Policy: The report characterizes federal childcare centers as "institutionalization" and calls for defunding them in favor of a $2,000 "Home Childcare Equalization" credit for stay-at-home parents (Heritage Report, p. 28).
The Trap: This is structural exclusion. When you remove the infrastructure that allows people to work, you force them back into the home via market pressure.
2/

2026-01-22 22:38:02 GMT

In 2026 the Heritage Foundation’s 2026 blueprint, Saving America by Saving the Family kicks into gear.
People who are NotMen, this is for y'all.
This is the State moving into a phase where control is achieved through your bank account rather than violence.
⛓️The Financial "Tether" (FAM Tax Credit)
The Policy: Heritage proposes a $17,670 tax credit (matching the current adoption credit) but limits it to married, biological parents, paid over 4 years (Heritage Report, p. 12-15).
The Trap: By conditioning thousands of dollars in survival capital on "first marriage" and biological parenthood, the state creates a "Marriage Bonus" that acts as a penalty for anyone choosing an alternative path.
1/

2026-01-21 22:28:40 GMT

I really needed this today.
Legit made me get all verklempt (which is *not* the same as overslept, autocorrect.
Swear to god, autocorrect lives in a gated community.)
https://youtu.be/2CBaK3OobBM

2026-01-16 15:55:31 GMT

Boosting this for Minnesota folks who are suffering under occupation.
It's a place to donate to the orgs on the ground that are keeping folks who can't safely go outside fed, among other things.
https://www.standwithminnesota.com/

2026-01-10 23:16:39 GMT

I'm not mad that some folks are having their ACAB awakening because of Renee Good.
If the murder of a nice queer white lady from Minneapolis is what convinces more people that ACAB because they are a boot of the state, great. Welcome, newbie.
But understand this: get up to speed *quickly.*
ICE/feds and cops are under the same problematic State Hammer umbrella. They have ALL been used against liberation movements and the people who live on the margins of hegemony.
And now, for this political moment, that hammer is going to begin coming down on white folks who decide to ally themselves with their neighbors vs the State.
So let's be clear:
Our struggle might be *shared* but they are not the *same.* Newbies need to learn that distinction.
Ok. Carry on.
#BLM
#ACAB
#FuckICE
#ReneeGood

2026-01-03 21:32:40 GMT

Just for the heck of it, I looked up US+regime change+history, and the Wikipedia summary is just blowing my mind.
Is there ANY country we have not fucked with??
#USImperialism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change

2026-01-02 22:16:44 GMT

"The power of enclosing land and owning property was brought into the creation by your ancestors by the sword; which first did murder their fellow creatures, men, and after plunder or steal away their land, and left this land successively to you, their children. And therefore, though you did not kill or thieve, yet you hold that cursed thing in your hand by the power of the sword; and so you justify the wicked deeds of your fathers, and that sin of your fathers shall be visited upon the head of you and your children to the third and fourth generation, and longer too, till your bloody and thieving power be rooted out of the land."
Thank you to the person who pointed me in the direction of this fantastic Gerrard Winstanley quote.
TILL YOUR BLOODY AND THIEVING POWER BE ROOTED OUT OF THE LAND.

2025-12-29 16:30:36 GMT

I really hope folks get better politics in #2026.
Because next year is going to be important.
It's the year where choosing a side really fucking matters. The year that will force you to have a Damascus moment. When you're not going to be allowed to take shelter under Voting. When normalcy is going to look like a fucking zombie baby.
It's the year they realize that if they don't want to lose everything they're going to need to shut everything down -- with force.
Cultivate some bravery and risk tolerance.
It's gonna be rough.
Just calling it now.

2025-12-24 21:49:22 GMT

RE: https://mastodon.social/@DrALJONES/115773505725394271
Watching Britain lose its mind and betray their people to repress nonviolent anti-genocide protests has been mind-boggling (even as the US suspends habeas corpus and due process for Black and brown people ).
#note1mpd…c9k9

2025-12-23 03:53:02 GMT

- reply

Thank you!!
Had no idea this was even a thing.
This was very reassuring.
Needless to say I am NOT watching Good Boy.

2025-12-23 03:37:41 GMT

PLEASE tell me the dog doesn't die in this stupid movie, Merv.
It's all light rom-com right now but that was a moment of foreshadowing.
I cannot watch a dog die after bringing his co-parents back together.
I've already woken up Benson to hug him because I needed to ask him if he was sad.
#BensonUpdate

2025-12-08 18:01:45 GMT

I predicted a couple weeks ago to my HR mgr that this admin was going to find a way to erase Juneteenth and MLK day.
I was right!!
Also, if Trump's birthday is declared a 'holiday,' I will fucking make it my business to make sure no one I know observes it, including my org.
The fucking gall.
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/06/g-s1-101090/national-parks-fee-free-calendar-mlk-juneteenth

2025-12-02 14:11:42 GMT

Oh. Did I tell y'all?
We closed on #GhostDad 's house last week. Officially wrapped everything (title transferred, money deposited) on Thanksgiving.
We toasted Dad and his janky house over dinner. We loved that house -- and now a single mom will love that house too.
When I'm solvent again (LOL), I'm going to send our realtor some flowers. She worked her ass off to sell that house and kept us on track for three months.
The #DeathAdmin isn't over. But that was a significant chunk.

2025-11-29 02:55:55 GMT

- reply

Benson is still not sure about the new layout. He hasn't left the couch to lay on his bed.
And he keeps peeking over the top of the couch at the part of the living room that used to be his open romp space. It's still romp space! But it has a different path into the seating area, buddy. You'll like it!
I like this layout. It's more ... hospitable. Benson is having reservations.
Dogs really are creatures of habit.

2025-11-28 19:49:59 GMT

- reply

He has temporarily accepted the new arrangement.
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/115/629/047/914/865/607/original/736872e43aead437.jpg

2025-11-28 18:59:46 GMT

Benson is home from his overnight holiday break at boarding.
It's taking him a little bit to get used to the new living room layout.
He's on the couch but now it's in the place his bed used to be and he's puzzled.
This is better, buddy. Trust me!
#BensonUpdate

2025-11-26 15:28:41 GMT

WTF.
Some guy submitted a proposal to provide graphic design services for us -- a civil rights org.
We chose a different team.
When my HR manager notified him, this was his response:
"A literal indian. Get out my country."
I kept that screencap -- and the portfolio. Good luck, Scott.

2025-11-16 22:31:47 GMT

RE: https://mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosbaez/115559260956688871
Beavers are amazing.
#note16fk…9xgm

2025-11-15 02:12:22 GMT

All of the neighborhood dogs in their glowing necklaces were adorable tonight. Rockridge dog parents really love our dogs, man.
Of course Benson was the raviest of them all with his rainbow collar glowing in the dark.
But then he got a zoomie.
And somehow he put his big paw through it.
And stretched it until it became a string of Christmas lights.
Sigh.
This big doofus.
#BensonUpdate

2025-11-04 13:54:13 GMT

Dear Lord,
WHYYYYYYY have You not dropped a piece of Tesla space junk on the White House.
Why.
Your people cry out to You.
Spare the poor Canadian farmers. Send the space junk to the White House! At great velocity! Make it a big chunk! Right on top of the Oval!
Lord hear my prayer, dammit.
Sincerely,
Probably 55% of this country and also me

2025-11-01 00:26:22 GMT

Still thinking about the Halloween pic a Chicago friend sent me years ago of her two kids in their costumes.
Me: You just sent me a picture of your yard.
Her: They're there!
Me: i'mma screen cap it. There. Is. Nothing. Here.
Her: They're literally standing there.
These little amazing weirdos built incredibly realistic hedges and bushes. A tall hedge and a little bush. The only thing I saw when i zoomed in was a toe of a kid's tennis shoe.
I wonder what they're up to this year. Have they managed full invisibility?

2025-10-29 21:01:03 GMT

Love his energy. He said 'there is nothing I want there.'
The US is becoming a stinky fart cloud.
#uspol
US revokes visa for Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka https://share.google/eInzXzNn7awKeHLl9

2025-10-25 16:14:18 GMT

*Gov Shutdown Call to Action: Support Your Local Food Bank*
"I work in human services, specifically on programs that help our most vulnerable neighbors.
One of the programs my agency administers is CalFresh, or food stamps. This program is funded by the fed and administered by states.
The current Administration has decided to not allow USDA to use its contingency funds to continue funding food stamps in November through the shutdown; this means that California will not have the money to feed 55 million people throughout California.
It also means that food banks will see unprecedented need.
I am reaching out to encourage everyone to donate to our local food banks in November to help those families who will be seeking food because their food stamps have been cut off.
While it can be helpful to donate food, the most helpful thing is to donate money if you can- the food banks can use that to purchase large quantities of bulk items and what they purchase will go a lot farther than donated food."

2025-10-23 13:04:54 GMT

Expose *all* these ICE and border patrol goons.
That video of the Chicago paralegal being rammed by ICE and then snatched out her car was intense.
It is so clear they're racially profiling anyone who looks Latino or 'ethnic.'
None of this is right.
None of it.

2025-10-19 19:17:30 GMT

- reply

This is one of the slides from the big Bay Get Ready community NonCooperation training some friends went to a couple weekends ago.
I would posit that this looks like A Plan. It's not the only Plan but it looks good for right now.
I would also posit that it's a hard plan. It's not a technical plan like Project 2025. It's a difficult adaptive challenge. And that's why folks will be like, This isn't a plan; this isn't going to work. They're looking for technical rubrics. Sorry, dude. Shit is hard.
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/115/402/400/124/216/337/original/f686ec9954f167d2.png

2025-10-19 18:48:37 GMT

- reply

That fucking thread fucking annoyed me, man.

2025-10-19 18:29:38 GMT

People: Your signs are cute but what's your plan?????? What are you going to doooooo?
BIPOC Communities: We're organizing, mobilizing, and getting ready.
People: But I don't see you doing it. What are you *doinngggggg*? What's your plan?
This is what a lot of snooty fucking lefty bros/people sound like. Like, bro, wtf are YOU doing?
Folks demanding a plan like they want to copy someone else's homework.
Fuck, *do your own homework.*
Yesterday, I listened to a tiny trabajadora describe in Spanish the work she and the other trabajadores are doing to protect each other while ICE kidnaps them and decimates their families. She asked for people to join them and help them.
THAT'S THE FUCKING PLAN.
FUCK.
Ypipo, man.
FUCK! What are you looking for? Some Project 2025-like outline for a radically different social order? No one has time for that! FUCK.
Happy Sunday.

2025-10-19 00:34:38 GMT

My favorite #NoKings sign:
*Due Process: Boring but important*
Bestie: So true.
Me: I bet he's a lawyer.

2025-10-08 18:50:28 GMT

- reply

Did you know: Latinas stand to lose $1.2 MILLION over a 40-year career because of the wage gap.
#Trabajadoras #LatinaEqualPay
https://nwlc.org/resource/equal-pay-latinas/

2025-10-08 18:48:53 GMT

- reply

The #WageGap cannot be explained away by education, experience or perceived choices.
Even in states with large populations of Latinas in the workforce, rampant wage disparities persist, with devastating consequences for Latinas and their families.
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/115/340/031/363/209/152/original/43c467b06ee8ebf8.png

2025-10-08 18:46:13 GMT

It's Latina Equal Pay Day!
Let's learn some things:
Latina women who work full time, year round, and part time earn only 54 cents for every $1 earned by a white male.
Let's be in solidarity against pay discrimination & occupational segregation!
We need #LatinaEqualPay for #Trabajadoras everywhere.
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/115/340/009/927/182/677/original/b74570390381c968.png

2025-10-05 20:36:16 GMT

- reply

I think some folks legit struggle with how to be a neighbor. They don't have a model for it.
My model was my dad. He talked with everyone on our block: the racist dude, the drug dealers, the drop outs, the single moms, the snooty bougie folks, the old ladies and uncles.
He mowed the lawns of the shut in; he dropped off extra turkey packages for families; he showed up in court to keep someone's sons out of jail.
When the first immigrant family moved in on the block and everyone was grumbling my dad was the FIRST person to loudly hang out on his porch and yell hello to the Mexican family next door.
Sure; my dad was a pastor, and that practice of caring for a congregation was his ethical foundation. But he was also like this before he had a church.
There was NEVER a drive by on our street. Not a single gang flare up.
Because my dad neighbored the fuvk out of that block.

2025-10-05 20:30:00 GMT

Shit is bonkers in the world right now.
Someone asked: What can I do?
Maybe because it's a gorgeous Sunday and I woke up singing This Is The Day (a praise song from my youth) but I suddenly thought: Be a good neighbor.
Just....Be a good neighbor, dude.

2025-10-03 22:57:00 GMT

- reply

Me: I think a lot of nice white folks need to understand that the whole point of all this fascist intimidation is to intimidate Y'ALL.
Black/brown oppressed people already know this. We have already experienced all the things happening now in lesser or greater forms. So why is it being turned up? Why the heat on us when we're just here living our lives?
Sure; Miller wants to have a white America. That's one reason.
But the bigger reason is to scare nice white folks, who might be alarmed by everything happening, into meek compliance. THEY don't want YOU going on general strike and getting all January 6-ish.
So. When a very well-meaning white guy says 'hey, no need to be mean to the white folks' when what we're doing is warning all of you, then yeah, expect some vinegar to come your way.
---
Here endeth the lesson.

2025-10-03 22:55:02 GMT

so elsewhere, a very well-meaning white friend of mine just got his hat handed to him because he tone policed a Black woman who said something along the lines of 'yeah, white folks, you're not safe either.'
he crawled into my DMs looking for comfort.
like, my dude. do you not know me?
but in the interest of helping other white folks from getting fragged in POC comment sections, I'mma share with you what I said to him.

2025-10-02 19:54:20 GMT

- reply

AND I'm also aware that the *only* way to disrupt this violent cycle of colonial, imperialist, capitalist violence is to recognize that there is a *shared* global oppression we are a part of -- and then revolt against it.
My struggle IS absolutely connected to, and bound up with, the struggle for Palestinian freedom, trans liberation, PanAfrican liberation, etc.*
Intellectually, I've known that. However, it has only become clearer in the past several years. It is inevitable that we must acknowledge the fact that we all share a common fate.
*(Please don't get in my face if I haven't exhaustively listed all the liberation movements in existence.)

2025-10-02 19:37:10 GMT

One thing I'm really aware of (as I struggle to process the Chicago raid(s) AND the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank):
The 'technology' of control (and I'm using that word, technology, in the Foucauldian sense) has been perfected over centuries, and the oppressor deploys it in very similar ways against the oppressed:
- surveillance
- controlling movement + travel
- economic suppression
- medicalization/pathologization
- hyper contact with law enforcement/militarized interactions
- extra legal violence
- apartheid/racial profiling/racial categorization
- separate legal processes
- state-sponsored violence and incarceration
Right now, these technologies are touching BIPOC, the disabled, the poor, and trans people the most *often* and the most consistently -- with devastating impact.
Just a warning that that won't always be the case.

2025-10-01 22:58:37 GMT

- reply

I agree. It's an escalation meant to intimidate folks. And to test them.
*THAT* is domestic terrorism, IMO.

2025-10-01 19:03:41 GMT

Fucking 🧊 just rounded up a bunch of regular Black folks on the south side of Chicago. FOR NO REASON.
Article here: https://abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chicago-federal-agents-surround-south-shore-apartment-building-dhs-requests-military-deployment-illinois/17908911/
Tik tok here: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTM65EY5P/

2025-09-28 18:56:53 GMT

I'm reading the graphic adaptation of Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's *Indigenous People's History of the United States.*
(Don't judge me. My attention span is for shit.)
The point it makes about the tools and innovations of colonial Othering and oppression, privatization of public goods, militaristic quelling of domestic opposition (directed by the Church, even), displacement+relocation being perfected by the end of the 15th Century was a mind blower.
I mean I *know* this has happened before. But seeing clearly how Europe perfected this violence on their own people FIRST then exported it to the Americas and elsewhere -- how fucking sick is that.
And this is the 'heritage' Stephen Miller invokes.
#SettlerColonialism

2025-09-25 20:02:46 GMT

Oof. #Therapy was deeeeep today.
For the first time, I realized that we (Black folks) are potentially in another diasporic moment wrt all the current fascist shenanigans.
Like, if These Assholes get the country they want, this will force a number of us to flee.
All I could imagine during the session was a data viz of millions of little dots flowing from Africa to the Americas; then the dots growing and multiplying along the north- and southeast; then the South; then the Great Migration North (and the smaller one westward); and now...the unknown streams of Black folks *away* from America...back to Africa?
We talked about the burden of legacy that exists in Black families (usually in the form of the one family member who has been assigned that role of legacy keeper). I wear that double legacy in my family: enslavement on one side, colonialism and migration on the other.
All this on my birthday.
#BlackMastodon #BlackFedi

2025-09-20 17:22:03 GMT

Oh wow.
2 hours on the near south side filming the Women Build Nations conference (of skilled unionized tradeswomen) banner parade.
Inspiring AF.
Swear to god I teared up.
And shoutout to my chicago crew (Odd Commodity) for being a great couple of guys these past three days. Good leftyish dudes who said they were feeling like there was nothing they could do about What's Happening.
And this project came along. They just spent two days with me listening to tradeswomen tell some of their stories and they were like, I never thought of this before.
I like that.
I also like being a Black woman heading up this kind of project. You don't see that a lot in this space.
Now if only I could get $50k more to do this project justice and interview other women ...
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/115/237/756/417/429/128/original/2386bb35a445d15b.jpeg

2025-09-17 23:11:03 GMT

- reply

There's usually a loooong line of forgotten taxis.
(Cuz who takes taxis anymore?? Only old folks like me cuz they know where the eff they're going.)
Thought I was being slick.
Errbody and they mama in this line.

2025-09-17 22:59:22 GMT

Noooooo! Other folks have also rediscovered taxis!
#Chicago

2025-09-14 14:20:49 GMT

The far Right is sick.
Without hesitation, they slid seamlessly into Horst Wessel territory.
And so quickly, too!

2025-09-12 00:27:14 GMT

What's happening with protests right now. And the elected officials y'all are so quick to give flowers are collaborating behind the scenes, sacrificing the people who are in the streets fighting for our communities.
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/115/188/474/425/136/481/original/f036ce966702cbac.mp4

2025-09-11 13:00:42 GMT

Let's celebrate Nepalese youth burning down their Parliament and chasing their Premiere into a river in his chonies.
#ThisIsTheWay

2025-09-06 19:14:20 GMT

TBF, the US has almost always labeled Others as terrorists without due process or evidence.
I mean, Guantanamo. Hello.
The US also literally invaded Irag a couple times because it accused them of 'terror' and 'weapons of mass destruction.' We all know how that turned out.
Like, every time folks react to shit happening now with HORROR, it's like you guys don't even know your own history. Like, ANY of it.
Let me be clear: It is not ONLY that this iteration of America is fascist, rabidly white nationalist, misogynist, and hyper capitalist, but it is that it has finally figured out how to EXPLICITLY ALIGN every lever of government and the body politic to its TRUE nature and intent.

2025-09-06 18:33:59 GMT

- reply

Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom had a really good post the other day about the 'male loneliness' 'crisis' where she observed how the patriarchy creates a social crisis (which demands empathy) out of a personal failing (ie, dudes lack basic social skills and their political/social values aren't hitting it on the marketplace of getting laid).
In the same studies identifying this male loneliness, she saw women are also lonely but funny how that hasn't risen to 'crisis' level.

2025-09-04 20:10:52 GMT

ok; i'll say it.
MY life is more important than a fetus'.
i don't know why we tiptoe around saying this explicitly when this is what we (the folks who believe in not being forced to be pregnant) mean.
anyway, that's what popped into my head when i read this.
https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-legislature-bounty-hunter-ban-abortion-pills/

2025-08-26 02:30:09 GMT

Lactose Intolerant Friends:
Please tell me I'm not the only one who 'forgets' about the dirigible qualities of dairy until *after* the dairy has been consumed.
In this case, an Adult Sundae: vanilla soft serve in a mug topped with a shot of whiskey.
The walk home I could feel my belly expanding to pop my buttons off.

2025-08-25 15:26:25 GMT

TIL there are high school plays about 9/11 and there's a CHEERLEADING ROUTINE.
America, WTF.

2025-08-21 19:22:40 GMT

Everyone gushing about Newsom's Xitter and TikTok feed 'sticking it to Trump' realllllly must interrogate their politics a little more closely.
He hates the unhoused, the poor, the indigent, the mentally ill, and the disabled as much as Trump and RFK. And it shows in his policies.
He is about to DOGE CA govt and he wants to be the Dem candidate for President.
Do y'all *actually* want a world that exists for everyone or do you want American fascism with better hair and more charm?

2025-08-16 19:07:35 GMT

Americans are some of the most hollow people on earth.
This is all it takes to betray our communities: racism, loan forgiveness, and signing bonuses.
And every time I see a video of an ICE raid and see Black people participating wearing masks and vests, I want to vomit.
Being a collaborator won't save you, fam.
I'd rather eat dirt than become this.
https://www.newsweek.com/ice-recruitment-campaign-applications-mass-deportations-2112375

2025-08-07 00:56:24 GMT

Timeline cleanser:
Benson begging for a walk by making it impossible to sit at my desk.
WTF, dog! You're so large.
#BensonUpdate
#DogsOfMastodon
#DogMama
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/114/984/752/056/232/570/original/1dd11aab7ed70400.jpg

2025-08-01 18:14:22 GMT

So interesting that blowing up hospitals, schools, apartment buildings, cultural spaces, churches, mosques, and whole families and lineages didn't make the 'world recoil'.
Murdering children surrounded by their dead relatives in cars; killing journalists, doctors and ambulance personnel, patients, aid workers; dismembering defenseless civilians - none of this made the 'world recoil.'
What hypocrisy of the 'world.'
#Palestine

2025-07-27 20:34:01 GMT

Listen up, GenXers - the kids today are talking about a commercial featuring some girl named Sydney Sweeney (who is she? I dunno. She's some rich blonde MAGA influencer.)
But she's in a jeans commercial and the cultural discourse it has triggered is about Whiteness and, of course, the far Right.
If you watch it, see the subtext immediately, but are talking to a YoungUn who doesn't see it, try and get them to bone up on cultural literacy with Jack Solomon's very short and very accessible book: The Signs of Our Times: semiotics, the hidden messages of environments, objects, and cultural images (1988).
Yeah, it's an old book but it's a really good one. I read it in undergrad and it did MOAR to strengthen my media literacy than all the toks on the interwebs.

2025-07-24 20:47:11 GMT

That whole MF-ing thread from Mekka.
We believe in a social compact, right?
Well, if one part of that partnership is out to kill me, you can eff my willingness to hold up my part of the social bargain.
That's basically what he's explaining.
And it totally makes sense.
#ACAB

2025-07-24 15:01:19 GMT

I'm reading about Trump's meeting with the president of the Philippines.
While the Philippines has problems of their own, they didn't deserve any of that.
It was basically a version of 'Sir, this is a Wendy's.'
#uspol

2025-07-20 01:15:47 GMT

We said it would happen and it has: Trump admin will hand over all that Medicaid data to DHS/ICE (aka Palantir).
I fucking hate Elon and DOGE for being the spear that made that possible.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/18/politics/medicaid-ice-personal-data

2025-07-17 18:27:26 GMT

#Storytime
Back when I worked for a global consulting company, some other snarky and bitter GenXers and I mobilized our admin cohort into a type of girl gang.
Our purpose? To humble the Bosses where and when we could -- especially if they overstepped some boundaries. (Like after hours, weekend, and personal bullshit. Don't ask me to book your dog a plane ticket on the company dime, Larry. Get your ex-wife to do that.)
We asked the folks in the graphics dept to work up a logo for us (a feminine fist) and we made stickers. We graffiti'd conference rooms with warnings: "Your Admin is not Your Spouse" things like that.
Our secret fraternity name? LEX TALIONIS
Snort.
Things were fine until the Bosses thought we were getting a little too ominous. I think it was when one of the partners left his dobb kit where it wasn't supposed to be, got his admin to retrieve it for him, and then Lex Talionis sent it back to him filled with condoms. I think that's what did it.
Anyway.

2025-07-14 03:54:04 GMT

Sometimes, I feel like I'm being an alarmist.
Had a Zoom with some besties, and it was frustrating. We in CA are seeing ICE activity folks in other states aren't seeing, and they're like, "Well, I feel bad for those people, but what are we supposed to do?"
And I'm like, Pick. A. Side. And know what you're going to do to help people when it's time.
Blank and uncomfortable looks.
I have no doubt these women *aren't* MAGA. But they are also...passive. I don't understand this kind of passivity.
I can't tell them what to do. I can't show them how to be brave.
I didn't think I'd need to.

2025-07-07 15:26:27 GMT

Whatever, Justice Barrett. You can tone police Justice Jackson all you want.
At least she's not a collaborator.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/05/us/supreme-court-ketanji-brown-jackson.html

2025-07-03 18:26:21 GMT

Watching these fuckers celebrate this inhumane betrayal of everyday Americans makes me want to chop off a dick.
This bill represents a fundamental restructuring of American life and well-being. FUCK.
I'm so pissed.
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/114/790/691/396/201/460/original/1fb7fbe6250b0758.jpg

2025-07-03 04:52:55 GMT

That clip of the border patrol agent asking why some of the other agents are getting 'hung up on semantics', ie, the Constitution. Saying he was committed to the mission and the men there. Working hard to maintain unit cohesion (is that the word?).
I know falling for fascism isn't gendered. But I think cis het dudes are the weakest link when it comes to male-dominated institutional group think. Think: The Church, the NFL, fraternities, tech, finance, the military, the Republican party.
(Women-dominated group dynamics are...different. The pressure isn't so much about loyalty to 'the unit'. It's more about conformity to being a Pick Me and not displacing the Queen Bee.)
This is why we can't have nice things.

2025-07-02 18:01:31 GMT

I heard that the House Republicans can't afford to lose more than three members on this Big Ugly Bill.
If you're in a Red district, you know what to do. Light up those phones.
And if you're in a Blue district, you better let them know they bet' NOT caucus with the MAGAs on this one.
Kill that reconciliation bill!
#USHouseOfRepresentatives
#BigUglyBill

2025-06-30 20:52:41 GMT

Do senior dogs sleep more?
Benson has two very distinct bursts of energy: in the morning between 7-10 am when he has checked his pee mail in the neighborhood, exercised, nom'd treats, and had breakfast.
Then he goes down for his post b'fast nap while I'm working.
Around 2 or 3 pm, he wakes up again for his enrichment games, more exercise, more treats, more pee mail, watching cars, then dinner by 6 pm.
He might have a quick nap right after his games if he was extra active.
He crashes by 7 and sleeps straight through until the next morning.
This is the senior life I thought we'd have, but it also makes me emotional to mark the passage of time. My old boi. His snout is turning white and he's starting to slow down.
#BensonUpdate

2025-06-29 17:36:08 GMT

Why is no one stopping this shitshow?
Because our political and legal system was basically built by a bunch of dumbasses who never anticipated *coordinated* bad actors.
I like this one because she posts her citations.
#BadFaith
#USIsCooked
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTHb2kYHGQwRX-eib1w/

2025-06-29 17:08:12 GMT

The other day I was on another platform and a woman made a very clear request.
'I want X in exactly this way and thassit.'
Her replies inevitably filled with raised hands of 🙋‍♂️ hoping to be picked as Tribute.
Then one 🤡 said: It sounds like you want Y. Would you be open to Y?
This is when I 👸🏾 stepped in: Did she say that? Did she say she wanted Y? Or did she say she wanted X? She wants X. There is no need for your Y. She was very clear. Ignoring her explicit request to replace it with yours is disrespectful and earns a side eye.😑
The 🤡 of course deflected. And I reiterated: You ignored her explicit request. That's a 🚩flag.
These kinds of boundary violations happen all the time between cishet men+women. In kink, vanilla, and quotidian contexts. In big and small ways. In personal and political ways.
That thread from AnarchoNina about what the Manosphere *really* wants made me think of this.
They don't want us to be able to say NO. To anything.

2025-06-27 20:19:40 GMT

How much money would it take to convince you (working moms) to stay home?
https://www.vox.com/policy/417756/family-moms-mothers-jobs-maga-trump-vance-kids

2025-06-24 01:22:10 GMT

- reply

I don't know.
First, I think folks need to know these videos exist.
Then I think folks need to understand what propaganda is and how this type of content goes beyond being a mere ad for the US military and into something else.
Questions need to be asked when folks see these videos:
What is this video saying?
Why this image? Who's benefitting from it? What's missing from this video?
Why 'her' and why now? What's going to be the anticipated outcome?
And then the Call to Action:
Do NOT fall for this crap trying to get our young Black and Brown folks killed in a cause that's corrupt and foul.
We may have served before but this ain't that.

2025-06-24 00:56:43 GMT

🧵THREAD: Why Are AI-Generated Black Women Selling War?
There’s a new kind of military propaganda happening—and it has a face.
Not a general. Not a flag.
A Black woman.
Digitally generated. Dressed in fatigues. Smiling, jubilant as she praises a U.S. airstrike against Iran.
Let’s talk about why that’s not progress. 👇🏾

2025-06-22 03:19:08 GMT

THE STUPIDEST MOTHERFUCKERS.
#uspol

2025-06-19 19:17:47 GMT

Juneteenth progress:
baked goods consumed;
short stories read;
bookstore delayed;
mani+pedi complete;
Sparkling rosaayyyy in progress!

2025-06-18 23:29:52 GMT

Watching vids of regular community members protecting each other by following ICE/federal agent cars/vans/SUVs and using megaphones, speakers, mics to warn their neighbors and inform people of their rights.
A little Latino guy at a car wash saw some ICE at Pollo Loco across the street and took out his speaker/mic to warn everyone at the Pollo Loco drive-through, and the van pulled away and left.
BE LIKE THIS.
#FIREvsICE #FreeImmigrationResistExpulsion

2025-06-17 06:43:26 GMT

So everyone watching every police department in the country be absolute DICKS for fascism...you're all ACAB now, right?
RIGHT?!?
Am I gonna hear any bullshit tone policing about '....defund the police is just a really bad comms strategy...'
Because fuck them.

2025-06-16 14:41:52 GMT

- reply

Karen Bass seems to be ok with her police chief and rank/file escalating unnecessarily against journalists and rally goers who are literally doing nothing.
The local press (with a couple of exceptions) are repeating the story of 'rioters' and not really acknowledging that the LAPD starts everything. NOTHING is happening then they start firing into crowds and creating chaos well before curfew.
Karen Bass, the city's first Black woman mayor, is absolutely A-OK with that.

2025-06-13 23:48:14 GMT

Dear #FIFA fans,
Do *YOU* want to come to the US with Dept Homeland Security and ICE running security for all the matches? Yikes.
Stay home.
Watch it from home.
We are not safe for you!
Regards,
An American

2025-06-13 22:36:47 GMT

- reply

Re: the bounties on Hong Kong activists -
"We're not talking about extradition of people through a legal process. We're talking about people using other means. It could be gangsters; it could be anyone who wants to make a quick buck and have people like us arrested and put into a bag or somewhere on board a ship.
That is the kind of things that this bounty could potentially instigate. And I think that is the ruthlessness of this whole scheme, which we're seeing in Hong Kong today."
Ugh. Sound familiar?

2025-06-13 22:33:29 GMT

- reply

- " Basically, Beijing has completely tamed the place, if you will. And I don't know why they still feel there's this almost paranoia obsession with national security and that every year they have to put up a show to arrest people and to put bounties on people in exile like me and to continue this crackdown when there's really nothing more to crack down.
Because the whole place is basically completely silent and there's no protesters to speak of. But they keep saying that there's a national security danger here. There's a national security threat there. But it really reminds me of how authoritarian regimes in the past, like the Nazi regime, they're just constantly obsessed with national security, constantly have to find the enemies from within or outside the country."

2025-06-13 22:31:55 GMT

- reply

- "Basically, people can be taken away without any explanation, without any due process. And this is a further step up of what they did in 2020 in enacting the national security law, is that you can see that the legal pressure is being raised all the time, without any end to it. "