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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 15h

To quote you, the cruelty is the point. Though I have also been sitting with a bit of spin on that. The power is the point. The cruelty is the mechanism for establishing that power.

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 15h

Well, this was entirely predictable and entirely terrible.

Trump calls for a pardon for Netanyahu on corruption charges - 8:22 a.m.
By the Associated Press
The president even waded into Israeli domestic politics, surprisingly urging the Israeli president to pardon Netanyahu on corruption charges.
"That was not in the speech as you probably know," Trump joked of his prepared remarks. He added to Netanyahu, "You are a very popular man. You know why?
Because you know how to win."

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 17h

From the president who insists he wants to protect women… this.

From the president who is himself a serial abuser of women… this.

Marianne Dhenin @mariannedhe.bsky.social · 20h

I'm in @newrepublic.com today, covering how Trump’s grant terminations and new ideological funding conditions are hurting survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. Cancelled grants include those for emergency housing and interpretation services for deaf and hard-of-hearing survivors.

Trump’s DOJ Cuts Are a Disaster for Sexual Violence Survivors

The administration has slashed funding and wants to implement ideological conditions on grants for programs that both support survivors and prevent these crimes in the first place.

newrepublic.com

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 19h

“If we are going to get an accurate picture of how a society works, historians must examine it honestly, seeing the bad as well as the good… And a society grounded in fiction, rather than reality, cannot function.”

@hcrichardson.bsky.social

Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) @hcrichardson.bsky.social · 1d

October 12, 2025

On October 9, President Donald J.

heathercoxrichardson.substack.com

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 19h

Hahahaha, to quote our friend Mike, we are elbows up together!

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 19h

How do we forge a path to peace w/ leaders that embody violence?

Today I hold the joy of watching videos of hostages coming home. But nothing moving forward will be simple.

There can be no peace without safety for all. And no safety without the basic resources to survive. So much work ahead. 4/4

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 19h

I watch the drone footage of Gaza and my heart shatters like glass. What does peace and safety mean for a community where everything has been destroyed? Where people lack the basic resources to not just thrive, but survive? 3/

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 19h

I am reflecting on that today. Because this moment also feels straightforward - for a very different set of reasons. Joy and relief that the hostages are home. Simple joy and relief.

And then we will need to go back to complexity. We have no idea what peace really looks like or if it’s possible. 2/

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 19h

Shortly after 10/7, an Israeli friend of mine shared something that stayed with me since. She said that for her, 10/7 was simple to think about. Everything before and after 10/7 was profoundly complex. But 10/7? Straightforward. Traumatic. Never should have happened. 1/

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Reposted by Ruth Zakarin

Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 1d

In town near me, a 13 yo was abducted by ICE and sent to a facility in Virginia. He is sleeping on a concrete floor with an aluminum sheet for a blanket, and is being held with adults. He calls his mother crying. I can’t imagine how traumatized this child is. 1/
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...

Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility - The Boston Globe

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested.

www.bostonglobe.com

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 1d

One thousand percent. He is so at risk right now.

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 1d

Well, I guess it’s official that I am officially official

Verified Account Tracker @verified.pds.mmatt.net · 1d

✅ @ruthz.bsky.social has been verified by @bsky.app.

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 1d

Our government is engaged in child trafficking. They transported a kid across state lines, something even a parent is not allowed to do without the express permission of the other parent. Someone in the GOP needs to explain how this makes this country safe. 2/2
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...

Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility - The Boston Globe

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested.

www.bostonglobe.com

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 1d

In town near me, a 13 yo was abducted by ICE and sent to a facility in Virginia. He is sleeping on a concrete floor with an aluminum sheet for a blanket, and is being held with adults. He calls his mother crying. I can’t imagine how traumatized this child is. 1/
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...

Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility - The Boston Globe

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested.

www.bostonglobe.com

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 1d

This is horrific and in my backyard. Child trafficking care of the U.S. government. Can you imagine how traumatized this child is?

Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · 1d

ICE kidnapped a 7th-grader with a pending asylum claim and spirited him out of state without notifying his parents, seemingly with the cooperation of the local police in Everett, MA.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...

Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility
By Marcela Rodrigues Globe Staff,Updated October 12, 2025, 44 minutes ago

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A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Everett after an interaction with members of the Everett Police Department and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia, according to his mother and immigration lawyer Andrew Lattarulo.

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested. After waiting for about an hour and a half, she was told her son was taken by ICE, Berto told the Globe in a phone interview.

“My world collapsed,” Berto said in Portuguese.

From the police department, the boy was taken to ICE’s holding facility in Burlington on Thursday evening, where he spent a night before being transferred by car to the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Winchester, Va., on Friday morning, his mother said. The juvenile facility is more than 500 miles away from Everett.

The boy is a 7th-grader at Albert N. Parlin School in Everett, his mother said. The teen and his family, who are Brazilian nationals, have a pending asylum case and are authorized to work legally in the United States, Lattarulo said.

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 1d

This is what I worry about. Amongst a bazillion other things. bsky.app/profile/ruth...

Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 2d

A lot of folks are talking about accountability for the people who chose to work for ICE. Another reason that’s so important? The state empowering ICE agents to act with such violence and hate means a whole lot of genies are out of the bottle now. 1/2

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 1d

It fits with his ever shifting narrative of himself and his own history. It doesn’t seem that he has a fixed notion of self, or any core values except power and self promotion.

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 1d

Rainy Sunday afternoon, Arlo style

My grey and white kitty curled up on a fuzzy plaid blanked with his front paws stretched out in front and his eyes closed

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 1d

What a horrific weekend it’s been. And if we had a federal govt that actually cared about stopping gun violence they wouldn’t be invading “blue” cities. They would be investing in solutions that address violence in ALL communities. Because then the goal would actually be prevention, not punishment.

Keith Boykin @keithboykin.bsky.social · 1d

Yesterday it was a high school homecoming in Mississippi. Today it’s a bar in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Another mass shooting leaves at least 4 people dead and 20 injured. This is America.

4 people were killed and 20 more were injured in a shooting at a bar in South Carolina, sheriff says

A mass shooting at a crowded bar on the idyllic South Carolina island of St. Helena left four people dead and at least 20 injured.

www.wisn.com

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 1d

They use violence to provoke violence to then in turn justify their violence.

Thats what abusers do.

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 1d

The people who want violent protests to happen are Trump, Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Pete Hegseth, Tom Homan, and other senior appointees in his admin. They are doing everything they possibly can to provoke people to violence and it is obvious that is what they hope for daily.

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 1d

The only thing more insane than this would be Trump calling it the Soros FBI and I don’t completely rule that out.

Nash Is Here for It @nashishereforit.bsky.social · 1d

How did President Elect Joe Biden place 274 agents in the crowd on January 6, 2021?

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Reposted by Ruth Zakarin

Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 2d

There is so damn much trauma in the world. Endless amounts of it. Acknowledging someone else’s trauma doesn’t take away or delegitimize your own. There’s plenty to go around.

That’s what bothers me the most about whataboutism and enforced equivalencies.

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Reposted by Ruth Zakarin

Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 2d

I am a trauma clinician, and I think so much about the unfathomable amount of trauma the people of Gaza have experienced. And how peace cannot truly take hold until Gazans have what they need to heal and thrive. They need health care and schools and economic opportunity. 1/

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 2d

Thousands of people continued to travel by foot toward Gaza City on Saturday as a cease-fire held overnight. But joy at the pause in fighting has been tempered by the scale of destruction that many people in Gaza face as they return to the north.

Thousands Return to Northern Gaza, Hopeful, but Faced With Devastation

With the cease-fire holding overnight, many Palestinians continued to travel toward Gaza City on Saturday to learn what remained of their lives and homes.

nyti.ms

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 2d

There is so damn much trauma in the world. Endless amounts of it. Acknowledging someone else’s trauma doesn’t take away or delegitimize your own. There’s plenty to go around.

That’s what bothers me the most about whataboutism and enforced equivalencies.

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Ruth Zakarin @ruthz.bsky.social · 2d

Even if this ended tomorrow, those who were paid to terrorize their neighbors are not magically going to turn into people capable of peaceful coexistence.

I shudder to think of what that means for our society — and of course particularly for those who were targeted — in the long term. 2/2

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