michellelevine

award-winning writer, mom (no awards), lawyer, lunch lady, bus driver and more

[ProPublica @propublica]

When the Pentagon announced a $620 million loan last year to a startup linked to Donald Trump Jr., defense officials and the company tried to tamp down suspicions of cronyism.

We found that the request came directly from the White House.
https://t.co/bp9HDvuNOZ

[Ed Krassenstein @EdKrassen]

BREAKING: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin now says that ICE will be arresting people at polling places on election day. Specifically:

"ICE isn't there to patrol the polling places, we're there to enforce specific threats. The only reason why we would be at polling places if there is a threat to that polling place or we're serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down."

This is why they killed Democrats in the streets. This is why they keep arresting American citizens. They want Democrats to be too scared to show up at the polls on Election Day.

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

The chaos surrounding USPS and mail ballots is not an accident — it’s the whole point. Your right to vote is under threat.

“That is what Donald Trump wants,” Marc Elias says.

Don’t miss any updates on this fast-moving legal battle: https://t.co/l2FHZu9Aex

[Ben Crump @AttorneyCrump]

20-year-old Pierre Damas Bel came to the United States in 2024 on Temporary Protected Status from Haiti to be with his parents and to build a life. After the Trump administration terminated TPS for more than 350,000 Haitian immigrants, he was fitted with an ankle monitor. According to advocates at the Haitian Bridge Alliance, he was terrified of being deported back to Haiti. He took his own life.

These policies have heartbreaking consequences that cannot be undone. Pierre was someone's son. He had teachers writing letters on his behalf, coaches who believed in him, and a future he was working toward! https://t.co/GMXxr15jtX

[The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center @TheKingCenter]

“I came to this country to pursue my education. I didn’t come here to commit a crime or hurt anyone. Now I’m walking through the streets of the United States with a GPS monitor on my leg, carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation that I never imagined I would experience.” -Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian college student who died by suicide after walking into traffic on an Ohio highway

His family says he’d been struggling after losing Temporary Protected Status and being placed in an ankle monitor by ICE.

What a preventable tragedy that is a result of xenophobic propaganda and racism.

Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: https://t.co/kLXLNe34lm or call or text at 988

Story details: @thegrio

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

A new whistleblower complaint reveals a serious flaw buried in USPS's mail ballot system: if even one ballot's barcode fails to scan, the entire batch — potentially thousands of ballots — gets rejected and sent back.

According to the whistleblower, USPS hasn't disclosed this to the public, and even days before launch, still has no policy for how many ballots will actually be checked.

[Maj. (Ret.) Richard Ojeda @Ojeda4America]

Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and anyone else in leadership that decided that it was okay to grab Afghan interpreters who stood by our sides in combat and deport them to gulags in Africa is a damn traitor that has turned their backs on the very people that we relied on in combat.

Without these interpreters it would have been impossible for us to accomplish our mission and communicate with the people. I had no air support where I was most of the time. There was only 4 of us on my team, me, my NCO, my interpreter and a mechanic. I had 8 Afghan police stations that I was responsible for providing equipment for to defend themselves against the Taliban. What do you think would’ve happened if we had no means to communicate with the Afghan police?????

This entire administration is criminal. These people risked their lives for us. They are disappearing these folks to third world countries. The cruelty is unacceptable. When this nightmare ends, this entire corrupt administration must be held accountability. There is nothing patriotic about this.

[Rolling Stone @RollingStone]

Dolly Parton's family asked that, in lieu of flowers, fans make a donation to the singer's Imagination Library.

Here's what the charity does ⬇️
https://t.co/wYj727Ao9I

[John Pavlovitz Official @johnpavlovitz]

Dolly Parton knew how to be human better than just about anyone I can think of.

For me, one of the biggest takeaways of Dolly’s passing is the way she reminded us what wealth and influence can do when they are in the hands of someone whose life is oriented outward, someone who remembers what it is to lack, someone who centers empathy, someone who values loving people over being a billionaire.

Among the countless roles and titles at which Dolly Parton has so excelled, her single greatest performance was as a human being.

https://t.co/jlPlsUjv9Z

[Terry Moran 🇺🇸 @TerryMoran]

Dolly Parton was an American original.

“Jolene” is her most covered song, and it’s great—the driving beat like a racing heart, the minor key urgent and scared, her pleading voice. 2:42 of country Flaubert.

But “Coat of Many Colors” is the American treasure.

A mother sews a winter coat out of rags and tells her daughter the story of Joseph while she stitches. The kids at school laugh at it. The girl insists she’s rich—and means it.

That song is an essential, unmatched document of who we are, at our best.

Goodbye, Dolly.

We will always love you.

[Aaron Parnas @AaronParnas]

NEW: A service member says his father was taken by ICE while he was deployed aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln for over nine months fighting the war in Iran.

Per his post, his father has a driver's license, social security card, and a work permit.

This post is public on Joshua Aviles' Facebook.

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

EXCLUSIVE: Ten years ago, David Michael Levin was convicted of hacking into government election websites.

Now, he appears to have been hired by the Trump DOJ to...wait for it...monitor elections. https://t.co/a4x0e6oM3L

[Mike Nellis @MikeNellis]

NEWS: First Trump's Pentagon killed the rule protecting Stars and Stripes from censorship. Then it fired the watchdog Congress created. Now it's fired the editor, publisher, and a war correspondent ten days after they reported on sailors going hungry aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, nine months into a deployment in his Iran war. That's not a coincidence. That's a cover-up, one step at a time, and our troops are the ones paying the price.

[Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost @RepMaxwellFrost]

The State Department says Haiti is so dangerous that Americans should leave DNA samples before traveling there.

Yet at the same time, the Trump Administration is trying to force 350,000 Haitian TPS holders to return.

The hypocrisy is staggering.

We passed a bill to extend Haiti TPS in the House. Now it's time for the Senate to do the same.

[Andy Kim @AndyKimNJ]

Last week OMB Director Vought lied to my face when he said they don’t use politics in funding decisions. Now we have proof. In court, the Trump admin admits they based decisions on who the states voted for President. That’s a disgusting abuse of power.

[BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ @mmpadellan]

It is INSANE that Senator Mitch McConnell is virtually brain dead in the hospital, and Republicans are content to leave it that way indefinitely.

His wife is in China, just DAYS after he received CPR, so nobody with power of attorney?

Something ain't right here

[Aaron Parnas @AaronParnas]

This image is from today. A Black woman sits on the DC metro as masked white nationalists prepare to march on our nation's capital.

This is America's 250th anniversary. REUTERS/Cheney Orr

[Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock @SenatorWarnock]

Donald Trump is doing everything in his power to silence your voice.

This is what happens when authoritarians are desperate to hold on to power.

[Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie]

Trump wants federal control over state voter rolls so he can purge voters and manipulate the outcomes of elections.

This is what rigging an election actually looks like: