The United States Disappeared Tracker is “tracking persons politically arrested, detained, or disappeared by the Trump regime since March 9, 2025”.

In addition, We Are Higher Ed and Forward are tracking campus abductions specifically.

I have said it before, I will say it again, and I will continue saying it: ICE needs to be abolished. Not reformed, not re-trained. ICE needs to be abolished.

Contrary to what Joe Biden said, ICE is the mf problem, and there is no reforming it.

As we are seeing, the agency is not in “safe hands” under a Democratic administration, and it damn sure ain’t in safe hands under the fascistic Trump administration.

There is no amount of “reforming” or “re-training” that will fix ICE’s carceral culture, where civil liberties violations and other atrocities have existed and been allowed to thrive.

ICE NEEDS TO BE ABOLISHED.

👉🏿 https://indi.ca/americas-travel-warning/

it really is insane how little you hear about "america has the world's highest prison population by such a significant margin that it would be seen as excessively over-the-top if it was used in fiction"

before you say "4% isn't that big of a difference between the US and China"

for anyone bad at math 1.4 billion divided by 340 million is about 4. we have a fourth the population of china but a higher prison population and a higher incarceration rate by far. this is just widely publicly available information that you're supposed to just accept. it's not supposed to make you go insane.

The US has the largest prison population AND the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world. The US is home to 4.2% of the world's population but 20% of its incarcerated population. More than 0.6% of the US population is incarcerated.

Men make up 93% of the US prison population, but despite this, the US accounts for 30% of the GLOBAL population of incarcerated women.

Housing insecurity is the most significant predictor of incarceration with 22% of state prisoners experiencing it shortly before incarceration.

12% of state prisoners in the US were unhoused before their 16th birthday.

68% of US state prisoners were first incarcerated before their 16th birthday.

More than half of people in prisons and jails in the US have a mental illness.

Cognitive learning disabilities occur in state prisons at nearly 500% the national rate.

[all data sourced or derived from the Prison Policy Initiative]

Extremely important to talk about race in this conversation. Black and Indigenous Americans are significantly more likely to be incarcerated.

It's worth noting that there are some extraordinary people in the world who have been quietly doing the work for decades, and they should be celebrated with all the fervor that we denounce the villains. I first read about Harrison twenty-odd years ago, when he'd already been doing this for about fifty years, and this is one of those guys whose life can, indeed, be summed up by his headline.

James Harrison saved millions of lives. Millions. Not with anything flashy or dramatic, not with profound speeches or brilliant strategy or any of the things we insist are the ways to impact the world. He simply kept himself as healthy as possible so that every few weeks he could go and sit quietly in a room and give away a fundamental part of himself — quite literally his lifeblood — to people he'd never meet, for no pay and no expectation of acknowledgement. (He was, it should be said, acknowledged quite a lot per this article, but that's beside the point.)

When we talk about the kind of people we want to elevate and celebrate in our societies, I often think of people like James Harrison. I hope we get more of him; not just for his blood, but for his heart.

question 4 kemetics that know more about this than me. did set like Literally sexually assault horus or is that more of like a metaphor or something bc, and this may be from me spending so much time in fandom, the fact that people worship Set as much as they do when that myth exists lowkey confuses me, im not here to judge anybody for worshiping their deity but can someone like, educate me more about set in terms of him and horus and if that myth is supposed to be taken literally?

Yes and no.

The question you pose is actually incredibly complex and no matter who responds to you about this, it will remain complex and require your own decision after looking at every facet of the facts involved, which potentially could take years to do.

So, the myth in question is during The Contendings when Horus (son of Osiris and Isis) is basically like "bitch give me the throne; my dad wanted it that way" and Set is like "who tf cares" and they basically try to one-up each other to prove who is the most amazing, virile, perfect specimen to rule over all of the things.

The version of this myth can be interpreted in a wide variety of ways. It can be interpreted on a literal basis (that Set sexually assaulted his nephew and to get back at his uncle for calling Horus a bottom, Horus and his mother sexually assault Set in turn and use this assault as proof that Set is actually the bottom). It can be interpreted on a metaphorical basis (as to the metaphor in question that is definitely in the eye of the beholder thing). It can be completely ignored (the Contendings have absolutely no basis whatsoever in my practice; I know the myth and have my own thoughts on it but since I have no relationship with Set or the Horus the Contendings are about, idgaf).

I personally interpret the myth as a consensual moment between two deities who then use it to get the upper hand in the chess game the other gods demanded be played when they were "unable" to figure out who should rule the throne. (And by unable I mean bored.)

In my opinion, the point of the myth isn't really about all the shit Set did but about all the shit Horus did. To basically feed propaganda to a mostly illiterate populace that the king on the throne is amazeballs, maintaining the status quo is amazeballs, and don't upset the tea cart mmk. But I have been told that my interpretation isn't quite right and of course it isn't the only one around so take all this with a grain of salt.

Beyond Set and his did he or did he not assault his nephew question, the ancient Egyptian gods have all done some highly suspect and most definitely fucked up shit in their own myth cycles. Set, however, is the one most often villianized when technically every single one of the gods could be. The villianization of Set is something that takes place starting in later periods of ancient Egypt (but was not a thing iirc in earlier periods) and continued across the millennia until we come to the Victorian era and the Egyptologists of that period being incapable of looking at the AE religion within the lens of their own Christian backgrounds.

So. Does all of this mean that Set is a bad guy? Sure, if you want to see him that way. Nothing I or anyone else has to say on the matter is [probably] going to change your mind. But does that mean he really is a bad guy? Nah. He, along with all the other gods, are good and bad full of ma'at and isfet. And it's up to each individual to come to terms with that, or not.

So yeah, its, Like That, I mean, do what you want with the myth, but its fucking bonkers and if you wanna be mad at Set, be that much mad at Horus too.

People are always saying omgggg why do kemetics worship Set he's a bad guy but the truth is Horus is a bad guy too.

Two Verse Trying To Be A Top is probably still one of my sickest and rawest thing I ever said about the Netjeru lmao

i think it's hard to tell whether something is literal or not when it involves non-physical entities that we can't just objectively go up and ask. i personally take the stance that every version of a myth has some truth to it, that each version shows us a side of the deity that is real, even if it's not often seen or explored.

i feel like a lot of the discussion about the two of them duking it out to be the top sorta misses the subtle aspects of this story and why the rape may have been included as it was.

i think the first point to mention is that the interaction btwn them highlights that sex with set is fruitless. he's known for having a big sexual appetite, but none of his sex produces anything viable. even when he's trying to overcome the crown prince, he still can't convince his semen to, like, do anything useful lol. he is horny, but not fertile.

semen also overlaps with poison, i don't remember if they're the same word or just similar, but there is a specific line btwn poison and semen that should be considered when reading the myth. that his own poison (semen) is used against him in the end.

horus is able to take this poison and through the help of his mother, is able to use it to trap set. in many ways, he's taken setian energy and managed to transform it into something more useful. to me, this partially underscores the need of the Crown to be able to take chaotic isfetian energy and use it to push forth the Crown's agenda. put another way, the king needs to learn to harness isfetian energy and transform it into ma'atian energy.

Alison Roberts has an entire chapter about the contendings, and she posits that much of the parts of the myth are really there to establish a different role between aset and horus, describing it as "a brutal, but necessary rupture btwn mother and son." aset is no longer just a mother, but has been reintroduced to the solar circuit, being forced to give up her maternal over-protection that limits her son, thereby giving her (and Horus) new life and possibilities.

she also states that this story allows horus and set to experience the deepest and darkest sides of one another, and that the story highlights the coming of age of horus, and the removal of his naivete, youth, purity... whatever you wanna call it, as he takes on the weight of the crown.

i think it's also worth mentioning that this happens after osiris is introduced into the pantheon, that set and horus' relationship was different before the introduction of HSA and incorporating these entities into the myth. Ian Taylor purposefully splits set into set the younger and set the elder to reflect this change.

also, worth mentioning that the contendings is meant to be a little bit extreme. there is a paper on sacred humor in AE, and it talks about how the contrendings is sorta meant to be exxxxtra and that the gods act out in ways that is inappropriate due to the nature of how the contendings was told and shared every year.

tl;dr if someone wanted to be like "i don't wanna work with set because he raped HSA" i'd be like "that's fair". to me, there is nothing wrong with seeing the literal aspects of the myth and reading them that way (also HSA rapes aset in some versions of the myth rip. Roberts says that this is because he's becoming irreparably changed due to his interaction with set).

but i also think it's important to understand that most of our myths and stories have layers and context that we probably miss out on due to not being able to speak the language (the egyptians love puns) and not being within the culture itself.

as always ymmv.

“That’s a shame,” Walz said, responding to the GOP news. “If your Republican representative won’t meet with you because their agenda is so unpopular, maybe a Democrat will.”

“Hell, maybe I will,” he continued in a post on social platform X. “If you congressman refuses to meet, I’ll come host an event in their district to help local Democrats beat ‘em.”

National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) advised House Republicans to avoid in-person town halls with constituents and instead to host phone or livestreamed events.

There should be no billionaires.

Start killing billionaires.

"kill them with kindness" WRONG. chair attack 🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑🪑

This post is now about a far-right politician and one of the best moments of Brazilian live TV:

appreciating the added context

Got a rare dopamine boost scrolling bluesky and seeing:

1) US politicians in deep red districts being confronted by their increasingly angry constituents.

2) Seeing the size and number of protests happening at tesla dealerships (scroll TeslaTakedown or check out Alex Winter’s feed)

3) Vermont showing up to scream at vance and ruin his ski holiday

People are out there being loud and getting louder

Protests are happening and they are getting bigger

Town halls are overflowing and when politicians run, people are starting to meet them at their offices or vacation spots

Let’s keep it going

my brother in christ-

like you really aren't allowed to say shit about southerners until you have firsthand seen how people live deep in the appalachian hollers because it is fucking tragic. the poverty and the food desert and the lack of resources in general is so bad. the drugs. yall dont understand

also mississippi and louisiana are in the top five poorest states and also just so happen to have the highest black populations in mainland us. like. i don't think you guys know what you are talking about. when you talk shit about southerners. can i introduce you to a little something called gerrymandering

I lived in rural Arkansas as a teen.

My closest neighbors did not have running water or electricity in their home. (There was a nearby creek; they got water from that.)

In the entire school - about 500 students, grades K-12, from three nearby towns - I think there were one or two students who paid for lunches. Everyone else got free lunch because the entire region was so far below the poverty line. I don't think the lunchroom had a cashier. I vaguely heard of students needing to pay for lunch; I assume their families made arrangements.

The schools scheduled extra days off in November, around Thanksgiving - when hunting season started - because a notable number of students would vanish for a few days, because those families needed that turkey or deer meat to survive the winter.

Also. Under-18s didn't need a license to hunt, or the license was cheaper, I forget. So it was important to the families to have the kill registered to the teenager rather than the adult, because they couldn't afford the cost of an adult license.

(This is part of why anti-gun legislation has issues in the South - for a lot of families, "take away our guns" means "take away our ability to eat meat through the winter." Convincing them that the guns under threat are NOT hunting rifles is hard, because the NRA is deeply invested in furthering the notion that all guns are equal - and used for equally valid reasons.)

Sources:

• NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text

• Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)

Proud to work in this freaking state

When encountering someone stuck in an Apology Loop, I do not uselessly ask, or worse, demand that they “stop apologizing.”

Rather, I have found it much more useful to affect a theatrical tone and formally “absolve” them. “Like a Renaissance pope, I absolve you, my child.” Usually the combination of having the absurdity of the situation highlit, combined with a touch of physiological release if I can get a laugh, is enough to soothe their nerves a bit and get them to break the loop. And who knows maybe they feel absolved I dunno I have an authoritative bearing

This counts as a spell

Former Minnesota Vikings punter, Chris Kluwe, who was blacklisted from the league for standing up for marriage equality, speaks at a city council meeting where he calls Trump a Nazi. He is subsequently arrested and carried out by police.

I just want to clarify a few things, because I have a feeling some people may share this without watching the video in full and/or getting further details from related news articles:

(this is a good thing, if that's not clear; I feel like too many people have forgotten about the tactical use of arrests by activists, especially during the Civil Rights era, to highlight injustice or disrupt a media narrative)

Anyway, kudos to Mr Kluwe for this, I hope more public figures will follow suit.

He did not know he would be arrested for "disrupting an assembly," because the cops didn't know why they were arresting him. He figured he would be hauled out, but he said the cops "threw him in a cell while they figured out what to charge him with."

That is a fact that any good lawyer will look at and cackle wildly, because of the words "pretextual arrest." (Basically, if you don't know what you're charging someone with, if you don't CLEARLY KNOW what law they're breaking, you can't -- or aren't supposed to be able to, anyway -- just "arrest someone and figure out what they did wrong later.")

So that's genuinely delightful to me.

(My wife laughed SO HARD when I read an article about this to her last night. Kluwe is well-loved. He's just Like This, and this sort of Like This goes over well with a lot of Minnesotans.)