Just jumped into listening to the Tipton status hearing in the Texas case and the Texas AG just said something wildly incorrect, that all 14,000 people held in ICE detention would be released—but that's just completely wrong. It only applies to those with final orders!

Tipton, admitting his lack of knowledge on immigration law, asks a series of questions about detention that suggests he completely buys into Texas's argument that anyone with a criminal record is per se dangerous. But they served their time! If they were a citizen they'd be out.

Kirschner pushing back on Tipton and the AG's focus on detention, making clear that the case is about "removal," not detention. He asks Tipton to lay out his questions fully so they can answer them.

Texas's AG office completely botches Zadvydas, claiming that if removable is not foreseeable the government has no authority to detain them.

That is simply false (DHS can always continue to detain on public safety grounds), and @CodyWofsy jumps in to correct that issue.

Pushing back, @CodyWofsy makes clear that "as a practical matter, people who have final removal orders are often detained for years," including in circumstances where there are practical issues with their removal (diplomatic issues, e.g.) and Texas's claim was just wrong.

i hate that the school/covid situation is framed as 'reopen schools.' schools ARE open. schools ARE meeting, daily. teachers are working their asses off to make online teaching work. schools. are. open.

the question is when can schools meet in person and start face to face learning.

when you frame it as 'face to face learning' or 'in person learning' it exposes what the REAL problem is. face to face/in person shit is NOT OK RIGHT NOW.

and with that we get the entire avalanche of real problems. some kids are NOT adjusting to online learning well. some kids need resources that online learning can't give. all human beings need to be around other human beings.

AND--it's not safe to be around other human beings in enclosed rooms right now. AND there's variants running rampant throughout our communities and those variants THRIVE in out of control rampant conditions. AND we're on our way to losing 500,000 people to this crap.

Remembering Vaclav Havel

"The manager of a fruit-and-vegetable shop places in his window, among the onions and carrots, the slogan: “Workers of the world, unite!” Why does he do it? What is he trying to communicate to the world?"

#WomenWontWheesht

"I think it can safely be assumed that the overwhelming majority of shopkeepers never think about the slogans they put in their windows, nor do they use them to express their real opinions."

"That poster was delivered to our greengrocer from the enterprise headquarters along with the onions and carrots. He put them all into the window simply because it has been done that way for years, because everyone does it, and because that is the way it has to be."

"If he were to refuse, there could be trouble. He could be reproached for not having the proper decoration in his window; someone might even accuse him of disloyalty. He does it because these things must be done if one is to get along in life."

Got yer pronouns on yer profile and in yer email signatures, boys and girls?

Don't want tae be accused a being *disloyal* dae ye!

Got get on, keep that salary coming in. Wullnae daere upset the wee plooky ranty tyrannical 15 year auld son a the boss, eh!

#WomenWontWheesht

It’s funny how, when Black people leave toxic church spaces we are the ones called “divisive.” We always have to bear the weight of judgment and have to explain ourselves.

When you see Black people leaving a predominantly white church space en masse, you should be asking...

Why are so many people walking away? Why are their stories all similar or exactly the same? Why is this not being addressed by leadership? Why does it feel like it’s being swept under the rug? Why is Black folks’ departure deemed as their issue or fault?

Why does the leadership of my church or organization only take the slightest of responsibility (if any at all)? Why do the sermons end teaching in my church seem to change for a season directly after departures? Why are the Black folks who remain given promotions or visibility?

I have observed a pattern of behavior around Black folks leaving white Christian institutions.

There’s a lot of folks who leave who won’t make public (or private) comment about their departure. Often it’s out of fear of what opportunities that it could cost them.

This allows the institution to shape the narrative around the departure and make it seem more amicable than it actually was. I’ve seen this pattern multiple times.

In response to @nytdavidbrooks
A thread. 👇🏻
You can’t argue studies & reports with fear. Minority communities have been disproportionately affected by their families dying. The unions are representing the teachers who are also POC, at risk & don’t want to die.

I see both sides of this issue and it’s only a problem because of a lack of a Federal response and Federal leadership. If the US had a functional @CDC last year and had set out guidelines for school reopening we wouldn’t be here.

I quit my job because the protocols I wrote weren’t being followed so I don’t blame unions one bit for advocating for the health & safety of their workers.

This biased & inflammatory OpEd does not give any credence to substantiated concerns and fears, especially of those teachers who are unvaccinated, at high risk, and being forced to go teach in unventilated classrooms without N95 respirators or support...

to manage both on line & in person education. I can tell you that I would not be sending my own kid to school under these circumstances knowing the buildings and ventilation problems at their public high school I the US.

THREAD

I don't talk much about it, but @AOC 's brave comments brought home my own experience, decades ago, when I was abducted at gun point for an hour.

The feeling that your life may end, that your fate is wholly in someone else's hands, that you have no control...

1/

...never leaves you.

The emotions don't disappear after the situation ends, but they do evolve, from fear to anger--that anyone else would claim for themselves the role of determining whether you live or die. That anyone dared place themselves in that position is enraging.

2/

And when you see similar situations that arise--a video on the evening news of a 7/11 being robbed at gunpoint, for example--you remember it all again. The feeling of seeing that gun pointed right at you. The lack of control.

And now someone new just joined the club.

3/

Or for years, when you read in the news about someone else being abducted at gunpoint, who didn't live to tell about it (because most people abucted in a car at gunpoint don't live to tell about it), you remember it again, and wonder how you got so lucky.

4/

But I also was in politics when this happened, so I also know the whiplash of having the whole thing politicized. People questioning the story. Media doubting it. Personal attacks. Innuendo. A judge, of all people, still telling people years later you made it up...

5/

#nofgm thread about getting period for the first time. Trigger warning. So in our communities no ones discuses period or sex. So you don't know that .you are suppose to get period and its part of life. You truly have no idea

The first time I got period. I freaked out . I thought, I was dying literally. I told my cousin I am dying
She asked how .I said I am bleeding and my abdomen is on fire 🔥. First she said you are not dying . You have become a woman .

There its my panic gear goes into overdrive. She mentioned the word woman. The source of my pain. I associate the womanhood with something terrible will occur again. Before the Mutilation. They throw you a party and what everyone says to you is. You are going to be a woman.

For me at that time .everytime I heard the word woman. I panicked and literally scared. My cousin explain abit more. She said now that you have your period
You are a woman. That means you ready for marriage. You are not dying. Its a celebration for the family .

She must have told my mother and other aunties. All of a sudden they were whispering and I can see in their faces the happiness. I dont trust them. I am extremely wary of been hurt again. They are truly happy.. my aunty says. Mashallah( praise the lord) you are a woman

A short thread on how face masks work, why we wear masks *to protect other people from ourselves* and not the other way around, & why wearing face-shields without a mask, masks with valves, or masks that hang open on the bottom or sides IS ACTUALLY DANGEROUS FOR EVERYONE ELSE...

I am going to start off by citing from a great paper by @trishgreenhalgh about the benefits of mask wearing, which you can read in full here:

Masks can work in 2 ways: protecting the wearer, & protecting other people from exhalations emitted by the wearer. Surgical grade masks are supposed to do both. They block out small particles emitted by the source, AND they filter those particles out from other emissions

For cloth masks, however, they are not so good at filtering out tiny particles which can contain viruses. But what they are good at doing is limiting the large droplets people give off when they breathe or cough – before they become aerosolised.

This means when you wear a cloth mask, the most important role that it plays is not protecting you from other people's exhalations but *protecting them from yours*. @trishgreenhalgh calls this 'source control' i.e. 'protects other people from droplets emitted by the wearer'

Dear liberals, many of you have said things along the lines of "It's Biden's first week, he's already done great things, what's the issue with progressives?" In the case that this is a genuine question rather than rhetorical condescension, here's a thread on what our "issue," is

WHERE'S THE CHECKS? Over and over we heard Dem senate = instant $2K checks. Then it turned into $1,400, now even that number will go to negotiations with the GOP because Biden fetishizes bipartisanship when he doesn't need to. This can be passed with budget reconciliation TODAY.

WHERE'S THE COVID PLAN? "Trump has no plan for covid, I do." Sound familiar? Now Biden says "There's nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the virus." What? There's a hell of a lot of things we can do and we have to remind him of that as we approach 500k Covid deaths.

WHERE'S THE ANTI-WAR PARTY? Not long ago, dems were considered the anti-war opposition to Bush. Fast forward to Biden considering a reversal of Trump's order to remove troops from Iraq (18 year war!)Only thing wrong with Trump's order is that it would only remove *some* troops.

FOR REAL THO, WHERE?? Biden reversed the ban of transgender people from our military which is kind of a weird form of equality to celebrate. Now they have the same ability to kill innocent brown civilians in an unjust war that cisgendered people do... cool.