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John Lis 🇺🇦

@jjlis.bsky.social

1.1K followers 390 following 710 posts

USAID Democracy and Governance consultant. Former Hill staffer. Dad. Cleveland sports trauma survivor. Insights on democracy, foreign aid, Ukraine, Congress & the Curse of Rocky Colavito. "Be not afraid.” - Saint John Paul II

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John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · Feb 10

I have worked the past 20 years to help to strengthen democratic institutions around the world to make a safer, more stable world for us and our allies. This administration has spent the last 20 days trying to destroy that work. Now is the time, then, to strengthen our own democratic institutions.

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 8h

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 18h

Oregon may have inflatable frogs, but Virginia has a naked eagle pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. #NoKings #FiftyFiftyOne #Indivisible #Virginia #BaileysCrossroads

Photograph of a protester at a No Kings rally in Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia, wearing an eagle head costume and star-spangled briefs, with a sign reading, “The emperor stole my clothes.”

Reposted by John Lis 🇺🇦

The Last Mile with USAID @thelastmileusaid.bsky.social · 20h

💪🇺🇸 At the No Kings Day rally, they wore the world they serve. USAID workers standing for people, not power. No crowns. No strongmen.

Two people walk side by side at a rally, draped in large white, red, and blue banners that read “USAID FOREVER.” The banners show two hands forming a heart shape around an image of the Earth. The crowd ahead holds protest signs, and trees line the park under a clear autumn sky.

Reposted by John Lis 🇺🇦

Joe DeLong @joedelong.bsky.social · 16h

Powerful sign at No Kings in Cleveland

Reposted by John Lis 🇺🇦

The Last Mile with USAID @thelastmileusaid.bsky.social · 13h

❤️ 🇺🇸 Tyrants feared those who fed the hungry and taught the free to stand. USAID was not charity, it was conscience. On No Kings Day, America remembered what power once meant: to lift, not to rule. The fight for democracy rose wherever someone still believed we belonged to one another.

A cardboard sign held high in bright daylight reads “TYRANTS FEAR USAID.” The words are hand-painted in bold red and blue letters, simple and defiant. The photo was taken during No Kings Day on October 18, where citizens gathered to defend democracy and human dignity.

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 15h

Meanwhile, just up Route 7 at Bailey’s Crossroads … #NoKings

Man wearing an eagle head costume and star-spangled briefs

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 17h

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 18h

Oregon may have inflatable frogs, but Virginia has a naked eagle pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. #NoKings #FiftyFiftyOne #Indivisible #Virginia #BaileysCrossroads

Photograph of a protester at a No Kings rally in Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia, wearing an eagle head costume and star-spangled briefs, with a sign reading, “The emperor stole my clothes.”

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 17h

Whoever is not against us is with us.

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 17h

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 18h

Oregon may have inflatable frogs, but Virginia has a naked eagle pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. #NoKings #FiftyFiftyOne #Indivisible #Virginia #BaileysCrossroads

Photograph of a protester at a No Kings rally in Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia, wearing an eagle head costume and star-spangled briefs, with a sign reading, “The emperor stole my clothes.”

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 17h

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 18h

Oregon may have inflatable frogs, but Virginia has a naked eagle pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. #NoKings #FiftyFiftyOne #Indivisible #Virginia #BaileysCrossroads

Photograph of a protester at a No Kings rally in Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia, wearing an eagle head costume and star-spangled briefs, with a sign reading, “The emperor stole my clothes.”

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 17h

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 18h

Oregon may have inflatable frogs, but Virginia has a naked eagle pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. #NoKings #FiftyFiftyOne #Indivisible #Virginia #BaileysCrossroads

Photograph of a protester at a No Kings rally in Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia, wearing an eagle head costume and star-spangled briefs, with a sign reading, “The emperor stole my clothes.”

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 17h

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 18h

Oregon may have inflatable frogs, but Virginia has a naked eagle pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. #NoKings #FiftyFiftyOne #Indivisible #Virginia #BaileysCrossroads

Photograph of a protester at a No Kings rally in Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia, wearing an eagle head costume and star-spangled briefs, with a sign reading, “The emperor stole my clothes.”

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 17h

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 18h

Oregon may have inflatable frogs, but Virginia has a naked eagle pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. #NoKings #FiftyFiftyOne #Indivisible #Virginia #BaileysCrossroads

Photograph of a protester at a No Kings rally in Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia, wearing an eagle head costume and star-spangled briefs, with a sign reading, “The emperor stole my clothes.”

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 17h

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 18h

Oregon may have inflatable frogs, but Virginia has a naked eagle pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. #NoKings #FiftyFiftyOne #Indivisible #Virginia #BaileysCrossroads

Photograph of a protester at a No Kings rally in Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia, wearing an eagle head costume and star-spangled briefs, with a sign reading, “The emperor stole my clothes.”

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 18h

Oregon may have inflatable frogs, but Virginia has a naked eagle pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. #NoKings #FiftyFiftyOne #Indivisible

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 18h

Oregon may have inflatable frogs, but Virginia has a naked eagle pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. #NoKings #FiftyFiftyOne #Indivisible #Virginia #BaileysCrossroads

Photograph of a protester at a No Kings rally in Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia, wearing an eagle head costume and star-spangled briefs, with a sign reading, “The emperor stole my clothes.”

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 1d

When experts use analytic tools to assess the state of US democracy, the conclusions are alarming. “The speed with which we have devolved away from a fully functioning democracy is startling to me. In most cases, it takes longer than 9 months to get where we are.” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

US ‘on a trajectory’ toward authoritarian rule, ex-officials warn

A network of former intelligence and security officers says democratic decline is accelerating under Trump’s rule

www.theguardian.com

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 2d

Still don’t understand why the Guards didn’t play him at short.

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 2d

More evidence that a corrupt president is abandoning long-cherished democratic values: "... the latest in a long line of actions reversing America’s long-standing posture as an exporter of democratic values. Past presidents from both parties have publicly embraced those values ..." wapo.st/4n8Ca2M

Trump’s pardon proposals go global despite allies’ corruption charges

Trump has upended American presidents’ tradition of promoting the rule of law and democracy overseas.

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 4d

I'm attending No Kings's event, “NO KINGS BAILEY'S CROSSROADS, VA” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...

NO KINGS BAILEY'S CROSSROADS, VA · No Kings

Join the Bailey’s Crossroads Indivisible group for a “No Kings 2.0 Plus” event! In June, some 600 folks gathered on both sides of S. Jefferson St. from Leesburg Pike to the Giant on one side and the ...

www.mobilize.us

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 6d

Waste your summer praying in vain for a savior to rise from these streets

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 6d

On the plus side, it might block the view of Robert E. Lee’s slave labor camp house.

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 7d

And here we are two weeks later. The regime is looking to strip the tax-exempt status of NGOs it doesn't like. Nothing original here. Putin and Orban must be proud of Stephen Miller, who took really good notes. Authoritarian learning at its finest. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 8d

Jack Flaherty channeling Mark Fidrych on the mound, talking to the ball.

Reposted by John Lis 🇺🇦

David Darmofal @daviddarmofal.bsky.social · 8d

The head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops says that Pope Leo told them today to speak up about migration and that "We talked about the challenges we face when people align themselves more quickly with political positions than with the message of the Gospel."

Archbishop Broglio: Pope Leo understands the Church in the U.S - Vatican News

Following the first formal meeting of Pope Leo XIV with the leadership of the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Timothy Broglio speaks of ...

www.vaticannews.va

John Lis 🇺🇦 @jjlis.bsky.social · 8d

Good postmortem here from the folks at Devex on the unconscionable destruction of USAID. preview.shorthand.com/aT0qvytG0ogr...

The downfall of USAID: The full story

It started with a foreign aid freeze, launched on President Donald Trump’s first day in office. Four days later, it was the stop-work order, which forced organizations to halt their U.S.-funded progra...

preview.shorthand.com