The word is already going out - so I'm finally able to say YES! I'm joining the team at Damien Center as their new Director of Advocacy. It's an honor to have earned the trust of such a storied institution.
Can't wait to dig into their impressive advocacy and policy portfolio! I'll be helping their team secure care, resources, and dignity for the vulnerable Hoosiers they serve.
I'm going to do that by doing what I do best: Making friends everywhere!
In #Indiana, I generally think of the anti-trans wave as starting in 2020, the most recent year we were able to stop all anti-LGBTQ legislation.
I just watched a (formerly?) powerful state senator fail to get a MAGA wet-dream of a bill out of committee, and then repeatedly fail to get amendments with similar language attached to three other Republican bills.
It's hard not to feel like the moral panic train is starting to run out of gas.
Repeating the "I'm not against deportations but this is clearly over the line" talking point actually helps the regime steer the convo.
CBP & ICE don't need most of the "lawful" power we've handed them to maintain an orderly border.
These fascists have been scapegoating migrants as a tactic to build political support for turning these agencies into a militarized secret police force for years.
Stop helping them hide that. We never needed a militarized border.
Most of any of the migration problems we have stem from a systemic lack of support for immigration courts that result in massive waits and human beings getting stuck in legal gray zones for years. Even when they are fleeing clear and obvious danger.
Drugs? I know it's hard for some of us to accept this but that's a domestic problem. An us problem. USAns love drugs. And most of our supply doesn't come from migrants and their families.
Housing? There is no world in which immigrants are pushing up housing costs to any appreciable degree.
Wanna know why it's hard to buy a home? Those answers come down to local housing policies often pushed by very wealthy domestic interests. Not to mention corporate banking greed.
Oh also, hey unchecked inflation, tariffs on supplies and the deportation of much of the workforce that builds them? Also not helpful.
Do we really feel like these deportations have improved the job market? And are you *really* thinking the problem is that more of us aren't dying of dehydration picking fruit? Falling and breaking our back installing shingles? Destroying our lungs with chlorine fumes cleaning a chicken processing plant?
Those abusive labor practices exist because our system isn't set up to offer anyone a living wage, safety, healthcare, or housing while doing it.
If we took a tenth of the money we've handed these armed goons to buy military hardware so that they can prance around American cities looking like the villains in an 80s action movie...
... we could invest it in judges, lawyers, courts, and humane infrastructure. And it would have FAR more real, direct impact on most of the actual problems (and there are many) our system has.
But that wouldn't help anybody bang the racism drum to stay in power. So we don't, and never really have.
So stop acting like your little "I support enforcement but ..." hedge is cute or clever. It's not.
You are doing their work for them. There is no practical, real world justification for the surge in enforcement resources we've gifted these assholes and we have to stop acting like that's even a remotely reasonable argument.
... the guy who owns a website that lets people create and share child pornography on demand would like you to believe there's nothing notable about him trying to get an invite to a "wild" party with the world's most infamous child rapist.
Again, just trying to get the story straight here.
Listen I roll my eyes at the #JustInstallLinux beardoes as much as anyone but if you are engaged in resistance work and don't want Kash Patel to be able to comb through your laptop at will I will be happy to help you.
It will take decades to restore public trust in our government and that's only if we actually succeed in doing the things that would restore public trust.
Many of us are probably going to be long gone before we are able to get to anything like sustainability and normalcy.
ICE hastily pressed thousands of poorly trained agents into service, anonymized them, gave them weapons, told them that protestors were evildoers, and shoved them into high pressure confrontations.
We *all* said that this was going to end with ICE openly murdering folks and it gives me no joy to be proven correct.
nobody can afford healthcare, electricity or groceries. masked agents of the federal government are abducting and executing people in the street. we've lost the right to abortion. homelessness is approaching record levels. we're probably going to invade greenland. we may never have a free and fair presidential election again.
but hey at least we got the like 3 total trans girls who were playing college volleyball kicked off their teams. hope it was worth it.
I like #StarTrek too, but not enough to allow my subscription dollars to feed a machine that is suppressing investigative journalism about Trump's human rights abuses against immigrants.
"Hoosiers don't love Trump" isn't the correct takeaway from last night, as much as I want that to be true.
"The Indiana Senate is largely composed of conservative institutionalists" is a much more accurate read.
The ideological spread of our no's was diverse. They voted to protect an institution under threat.
That's a good thing! And there are good takeaways for Dems too in all this. But Indiana has not suddenly become a more purple state overnight, I'm afraid.