@Sheril There are people in every state who can't vote. That includes 77 million kids under the age of 18 and millions of adults with such severe dementia and other cognitive problems that it makes it impossible for them to function.
I hate to see the narrative that people in red states "deserve" adversity when our most vulnerable citizens have no voice in the matter.
#mercy

“Today, right now, right here, is the easiest moment to draw the line against Donald Trump. Every day from here, it will get harder — the politics more inevitable, the destruction more irreversible, the sheer waste more costly, the downstream impacts on American life and the world beyond more catastrophic. The challenge is that fact has also been true every day for the last nine years.”

~ Garrett Graff

#Musk #Trump #fascism #cruelty #humanity #mercy #resistance
/6

https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/today-right-now-is-the-easiest-moment-to-draw-the-line-against-donald-trump

So "check yourself if you’re inclined to pee in the Cheerios in the comments. If you’re feeling that way, remind yourself that this is EXACTLY what Trump and Musk want you to feel, then resist it with all you have."

#Musk #Trump #fascism #cruelty #hate #humanity #mercy #resistance
/5

What Jay Kuo says here, 100%:

"Folks, a gentle reminder.

When there are important court filings and victories, it does no one any good to chime in with, 'Yeah, but too late' or 'They won’t abide by the court order anyway.'”

As Jay says, this response capitulates in advance and it gratifies strongmen sorts who count on our cynicism so they can win.

#Musk #Trump #fascism #cruelty #hate #humanity #mercy #resistance
/4

https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/can-musk-be-stopped/comment/91310996

"Tyranny is eroded by a sea of small acts. Everything matters.”

~ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

#Musk #Trump #fascism #cruelty #hate #humanity #mercy #resistance
/3

https://www.headsupnews.org/p/civil-society-is-coming-to-the-rescue

"An exhilarated hatred now parades as freedom, while the freedoms for which many of us have struggled for decades are distorted and trammeled as morally repressive 'wokeism'. ... It is a communal and contagious celebration of cruelty."

~ Judith Butler

#Musk #Trump #fascism #cruelty #hate #humanity #mercy #resistance
/2

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/06/trump-sadism-judith-butler

"For a long time now, I’ve been arguing that the primary targets of Christian nationalists are likely to be fellow Christians who do not toe the Christian nationalist line."

~ Kristin Du Mez

#Trump #immigrants #migrants #deportation #ICE #spectacle #cruelty #Christians #WhiteChristianNationalism #mercy
/8

https://kristindumez.substack.com/p/to-my-fellow-enemies

"Mercy shouldn’t be controversial, but in the current insanity, it is."

~ Mark Jacob

#Trump #Republicans #immigrants #migrants #deportation #ICE #PoliticsofHate #mercy #BishopBudde
/14

https://www.stopthepresses.news/p/we-can-fight-off-trumps-onslaught

"That's what I tell myself, too," she said.

"That's what life is all about, though, isn't it? Reaching out to others in need? And sometimes it will be we who need someone to reach out to us, too…."

#mercy #compassion #justice #HumanRights #solidarity #mitzvah #Trump
/5

"So I took a chance. I showed him my garden and asked if he might want to do some garden work. He had told me he's a landscaper."

"He also told me he has to be honest about his past, that he has spent some time in jail. I hired him and he's now doing garden work for me."

I said to our neighbor, who happens to be Jewish, "You've really done a mitzvah."

#mercy #compassion #justice #HumanRights #solidarity #mitzvah #Trump
/4

"So I went up to him and asked him if he needed information about local warming places during our bitter cold. I keep the list on my phone so I can share it with people who need it."

"I wasn't trying to be nosy and get into his business. I was genuinely concerned."

"He thanked me and told me he wasn't homeless, that he has a house, a wife, a child, but he's out of work and looking for work."

#mercy #compassion #justice #HumanRights #solidarity #mitzvah #Trump
/3

As we took our daily walk, we bumped into a neigbhbor whose garden we had passed a moment earlier.

I told her how pretty it is even in the dead of winter. She said, "I've been fortunate in finding a new gardener."

Then: "I was out walking and saw him on the street. I wondered if he were homeless, from the clothes he was wearing."

#mercy #compassion #justice #HumanRights #solidarity #mitzvah #Trump
/2

"Christian Nazis, white supremacists and fascists hate it when you show Jesus to them. In fact, I’d argue that there’s nothing in the world they hate more than Jesus. ...

But this is all of MAGA, and all of white conservative Christianity, be it protestant or Catholic. This sickness has invaded the entire body."

~ Evan Hurst

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #resistance #BishopBudde #TruthtoPower #mercy
/7

https://evanhurst.substack.com/p/there-is-nothing-trump-and-maga-hate

"There hasn't been much of a narrative outside of the narrative that the president has been describing, right? People have gone quiet or they've been ignored."

In other words, with what she said and did, Bishop Budde wanted to open a space for many others to be heard, whose voices are now suppressed by Republicans, Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, the rich and powerful who want total control of the conversation.

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #resistance #BishopBudde #TruthtoPower #mercy
/6

Bishop Budde responds:

"We're in a particularly harsh moment now when it comes to conversations around immigrant populations in our midst, and so that was the reason for the tone I took."

Then she notes that she took the opportunity to speak from the pulpit as a religious leader, addressing a powerful man directly, and creating a space for a narrative that the powerful are suppressing now:

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #resistance #BishopBudde #TruthtoPower #mercy
/5

Noting that Bishop Mariann Budde spoke directly to the man occupying the White House, "directly eye to eye," "about compassion, humility, kindness, honesty, honoring the inherent dignity of every person," Rachel Maddow asks,
"What do you see as the role of the church in helping lead the public and helping us understand what our moral responsibilities are right now?"

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #resistance #BishopBudde #TruthtoPower #mercy
/4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsKZA0bBNu8

"Bishop Budde was an unflinching example of prophetic boldness, integrity, and truth when she looked directly at President Trump and appealed for mercy and compassion for people who, in the words of Howard Thurman, 'live with their backs against the wall.' No ruler can dominate people who live with a faith that refuses to shrink.

Let’s follow her example."

~ Wendell Griffen

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #resistance #BishopBudde #TruthtoPower #mercy
/3

https://substack.com/home/post/p-155608044

"These are the people who will help us navigate through the darkness and the overwhelming commitment to inflicting damage. Their actions—their refusal to allow Trump’s poisonous agenda to spread unanswered—is where we’ll find nourishment and the promise that this cruel public will end and we will return again to pursuing a better future."

Steven Beschloss points to Bishop Mariann Budde and her willingness to speak out.

#Trump #fascism #cruelty #resistance #BishopBudde #TruthtoPower #mercy
/2