I went to one of Sen Merkley's town halls, and more than what was said (though some good things were discussed), the most amazing thing to me was that 2-4 people in each 80 person seating block were wearing respirators (high quality masks).
That is a TON of folks for where I live. I cried happy tears. It wasn't the Senator or most of the staff (yet?), but it was still beautiful.
#WearARespirator #WearAMask
#ProtectEachOther
#WeKeepEachOtherSafe #CovidIsNotOver
#CovidCompetent #CovidSafeScouts
Expect these to become illegal under the #TrumpRegime (if they aren't already)...
A #Demonstrators Guide to #ReinforcedBanners
And How to Use Them
2025-06-16 via @CrimethInc
"This guide explores how to construct reinforced #banners that can function as a mobile #ShieldWall during demonstrations.
"To be clear, we do not encourage anyone to engage in illegal activity with banners or shields. We only offer these designs to satisfy the curiosity of historians."
#USPol #CriminalizingProtest #CommunityDefense #WeKeepOurselvesSafe #WeKeepEachOtherSafe #ACAB
Feds Criminalize Aiding #Protests Against #ICE
The #Trump administration is targeting nonviolent acts like identifying masked agents and handing out #PPE in support of LA’s #AntiICE movement.
Akela Lacy
July 23 2025
Excerpt: " 'Roving patrols' operating without reasonable suspicion and denying access to #lawyers violated the Fourth and the Fifth Amendments, the judge wrote. 'What the federal government would have this Court believe — in the face of a mountain of evidence presented in this case — is that none of this is actually happening.'
"Now, those accused of helping the anti-ICE movement are facing prosecution or investigation. Earlier this month, a federal grand jury indicted a man after he handed out #FaceShields to people protesting ICE in Los Angeles two days after President Donald Trump deployed the #NationalGuard.
"#AlejandroOrellana, 29, pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to aid and abet civil disorders. According to a grand jury indictment, the face shields were 'advertised as designed to protect from chemical splashes and flying debris.'
" 'Alejandro Orellana’s arrest for distributing supplies is an outrageous violation of #CivilRights and should be a wakeup call to people everywhere,' said California attorney Thomas Harvey.
" 'This appears to be a targeted, political attack on resistance to a military incursion on our communities,' Harvey said. 'Distributing supplies to protesters is not a crime. It’s a critical role to help keep people safe — especially in the face of some of the most violent police repression I’ve seen since the #Ferguson uprising.' "
https://theintercept.com/2025/07/23/feds-criminalize-protests-masked-ice/
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/sQii5
#ACAB #CriminalizingProtest #CriminalizingDissent #CivilRightsViolations #Authoritarianism #USPol #WeKeepOurselvesSafe #WeKeepEachOtherSafe
#Volunteers flock to #ImmigrationCourts to support #migrants arrested in the hallways
By MARTHA BELLISLE, CEDAR ATTANASIO and COLLEEN SLEVIN
Updated 8:38 AM EDT, July 20, 2025
SEATTLE (AP) — "After a Seattle immigration judge dismissed the deportation case against a Colombian man — exposing him to expedited removal — three people sat with him in the back of the courtroom, taking his car keys for #SafeKeeping, helping him memorize phone numbers and gathering the names of family members who needed to be notified.
"When Judge Brett Parchert asked why they were doing that in court, the volunteers said Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers were outside the door, waiting to take the man into custody, so this was their only chance to help him get his things in order. '#ICE is in the waiting room?' the judge asked.
"As the #MassDeportation campaign of President Donald #Trump focuses on cities and states led by Democrats and unleashes fear among asylum-seekers and immigrants, their legal defenders sued this week, seeking class-action protections against the arrests outside immigration court hearings. Meanwhile, these volunteers are taking action.
"A diverse group — #FaithLeaders, #CollegeStudents, #grandmothers, #retired #lawyers and #professors — has been showing up at immigration courts across the nation to escort immigrants at risk of being detained for deportation by masked ICE officials. They’re giving families moral and logistical support, and bearing witness as the people are taken away.
"The #NorthwestImmigrantRightsProject was inundated by so many community members wanting to help that they made a volunteer training video, created '#KnowYourRights' sheets in several languages and started a Google sheet where people sign up for shifts, said Stephanie Gai, a staff attorney with the Seattle-based legal services non-profit.
" 'We could not do it without them,' Gai said. 'Some volunteers request time off work so they can come in and help.'
"Robby Rohr, a retired non-profit director said she volunteers regularly.
" 'Being here makes people feel they are remembered and recognized,' she said 'It’s such a bureaucratic and confusing process. We try to help them through it.' "
Read more:
https://apnews.com/article/immigration-court-arrests-ice-bd145fae56c0d493ba52418cc66ef3b7
FMI about #NWIPR:
https://www.nwirp.org/
#ResistICE #USPol #BuildingCommunity #NoHumanIsIllegal #WeKeepOurselvesSafe #WeKeepEachOtherSafe
A diverse group of volunteers from faith leaders to grandmothers to retired lawyers have been escorting people to immigration courts across the country. They provide moral support and bear witness if people are taken away by masked ICE officers. The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project in Seattle had so many wanting to volunteer that they created an online signup sheet, a training video and multilingual “Know Your Rights” sheets to hand out. As President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign unleashes fear among asylum-seekers, immigrants and their families, these volunteers are helping families as people disappear into detention.
#TwitterRefugeesAreWelcome
#metarefugee
#tiktokrefugee
#facebookrefugee
#twittermigration
#Twitterrefugeeswelcome
#twitterrefugees
#WeKeepEachOtherSafe
#freeasinfreedom
#anarchonihilism
#fediverse
#welcomewagon
#friendlyneighbourhoodshitposter
Please allow me to introduce myself:
https://custodians.online because I do not believe that it is advantageous to society as a whole to deliberately create an ignorant underclass; https://gnu.org because I do not believe that it is advantageous to society as a whole to deliberately create an ignorant underclass, and #stillmasking because:
1.) Disabled people are people.
2.) Masks look cool. Fake plastic teeth make you look like a freak of nature. Tooth shaming makes you look like an ignorant bougie piece of shit.
I highly recommend that you shed mastodon.social like so much dead skin as soon as you find a pod that resonates with the community you always wanted and/or reconnect with the community that was stolen from you.
Have fun. Learn stuff. Grow.
Share this letter - read it in public - leave it in the printer. Share your writing - digitize a book - upload your files. Don't let our knowledge be crushed. Care for the libraries - care for the metadata - care for the backup. Water the flowers - clean the volcanoes.
If you are still wearing a respirator out there, you are a hero and you've got my love and solidarity.
😷✊❤️
If not, you could become one anytime.
It became devastatingly clear to me, with the removal of mask mandates and no move to monitor and improve #IAQ that the NZ govt had abandoned us. The choice to drop mandatory isolation rules only reinforces that. All we have now is, essentially, community defense and #MutualAid.
Find your local Covid-conscious folks, stock up on masks, and continue to fight (as frustrating as it is) for schools and workplaces to recognise #COVIDIsAirborne.
Louise Auerhahn 🏳️🌈
deer witch
DoomsdaysCW
Entertainment Products, LLC
Ika Makimaki
Angela