Today will live in infamy in Austin - for police violence victims, for poor & working people reliant on City services & jobs, for future residents that will live in a less resilient city AND for those that voted for this disaster police contract that seek office down the line.
I love my community. 100s of the smartest, most eloquent people spent hours across 2 separate days this week to tell #atxcouncil to oppose this rotten police contract proposal & brought RECEIPTS.
I so appreciate everyone willing to speak out & pray our elected officials listen.
While Trump says states should handle social services b/c the feds must focus on fighting wars, state & local govts say the feds should provide social services b/c they must focus on fighting crime.
A nation so focused on fighting we neglect to care for ourselves or others.
President Trump said he told White House budget director Russell Vought, "'Don't send any money for day care,' because the United States can't take care of day care."
"We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of day care," Trump said Wednesday while speaking at a White House Easter lunch. He went on to say that the states should "take care of day care, and they should pay for it, too," by raising their taxes.
"We have to take care of one thing, military protection," Trump added. "We have to guard the country."
“Democrats are trying to impose guardrails on how Trump’s fascist paramilitary force looks and operates, and how Trump can deploy his fascist paramilitary force, when the truth is that his fascist paramilitary force must be eliminated.”
From First Draft:
https://t.co/Y3MjfkbWOG
An ICE prosecutor in Dallas, James Rodden, who was previously exposed for running a white-supremacist X account praising Hitler and calling America a “White nation,” is quietly back in immigration court. After the Texas Observer revealed his online activity last year, he was pulled from court schedules and Congress demanded an investigation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement promised a review within 120 days. That deadline blew past with zero public outcome.
Now Rodden has resurfaced at the prosecutor’s table, badge on, no explanation given. ICE refuses to comment. The account is still active, just locked. Bottom line: a government lawyer who openly promotes racist ideology appears to be prosecuting immigrants again, with no transparency, no accountability, and no evidence that ICE ever did what it claimed it would do.
Same system. Same silence. Same bullshit.
https://t.co/6zMV0VDXSV
Mussolini had his Blackshirts, Hitler had his SS, and Trump has ICE—an army of ideologically motivated chuds whose new members owe their employment not to the state (being largely unqualified for legitimate positions) but rather to Trump’s personal patronage.
The existence of this unaccountable military apparatus poses a structural danger to our democracy. Structural dangers like this can’t be reformed—they need to be dismantled.
https://t.co/mZn5Gl9deA
The fact that Matthew Dowd lost his job for pointing out Charlie Kirk’s hate speech, while Brian Kilmeade openly suggests we should euthanize the homeless and there is zero outrage, shows exactly what is terribly wrong with today’s political mainstream media.
Once you see that this is actually a logo for San Antonio, you can't unsee it.
More wasted public treasure while working people suffer brought to you by City Manager Broadnax.
Hopefully common sense prevails and this is scrapped before ever being used.
We are launching our first-ever brand, aimed at improving our engagement with + service to Austinites.👏
👉 Learn more: https://t.co/epyIvQ9ILa
📌 https://t.co/Syxll2jhGF
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"Brandon Scott’s approach offers benefits to get people out of the street and off a violent path: housing, victim assistance, drug treatment, mental health services, job training."
Community investment works – criminalization does not.
https://t.co/iMNFM3iUyi
Ta-Nehisi Coates in Seattle about the Democratic Party in this moment:
“If you can’t stand up against genocide, why should I believe you can stand up for democracy?”
A man in Missouri spent 17 months in jail after an AI facial recognition program misidentified him as a suspect. He was finally freed when prosecutors admitted there was no evidence.
Our fascist police state abducted a man and tortured him because a computer told them to.
The American Medical Association did a study showing encampment sweeps that forcibly relocate people lead to big increases in: overdose deaths, hospitalizations, life-threatening infections, and more. And yesterday, a man was run over with a bulldozer in an Atlanta sweep.
We talk about homelessness in many contexts – as a hardship, as a matter of public safety, as an issue affecting public spaces – but it’s also a condition that significantly shortens people’s lives. Just how much is now clear. My latest for @statesman:
https://t.co/wcHbG4BgAo
Tesla and other car companies have the ability to spy on car owners. They shouldn't provide that information to law enforcement without a warrant, and shouldn’t collect most of that data in the first place, EFF’s @MGuariglia told @KTVU. https://t.co/yXJ7B6A4US
Nearly 400 ppl in prison have been sent out to battle the L.A. fires.
Obviously, no standing ovations, recognition, or real fire fighter pay for risking their lives
Everyone needs to know that these fires were made possible by global heating, which is caused by the fossil fuel industry, which has lied and blocked action for half a century. And that this will all get much, much, much worse until we end the fossil fuel industry