Olivia Messer
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oliviamesser.bsky.social
Olivia Messer
@oliviamesser.bsky.social
28K followers 4.2K following 1.9K posts
texan. editor in chief, the barbed wire. words in rolling stone, marie claire, slate, the daily beast, texas monthly, texas observer etc

for texas tips, email: [email protected]
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oliviamesser.bsky.social
Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · Dec 3
Just a reminder as we approach the 2025 #txlege session: My email is in my bio, and I always welcome tips. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
Reposted by Olivia Messer
arghavansallesmd.medsky.social
This is our fault
theguardian.com The Guardian @theguardian.com · 6h
60,000 African penguins starve to death after sardine numbers collapse – study
60,000 African penguins starve to death after sardine numbers collapse – study
Climate crisis and overfishing contributed to loss of 95% of penguins in two breeding colonies in South Africa, research finds More than 60,000 penguins in colonies off the coast of South Africa have starved to death as a result of disappearing sardines, a new paper has found. More than 95% of the African penguins in two of the most important breeding colonies, on Dassen Island and Robben Island, died between 2004 and 2012. The breeding penguins probably starved to death during the moulting period, according to the paper, which said the climate crisis and overfishing were driving declines. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
December 5, 2025 at 6:39 AM
Reposted by Olivia Messer
prismreports.org
BREAKING: Trump administration plans to end prison rape protections for trans & intersex people, memo says. A DOJ memo says certain standards under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) do not align with Trump’s Jan. 20 anti-trans executive order, @byadamrhodes.bsky.social reports.
Trump administration plans to end prison rape protections for trans and intersex people
A Department of Justice memo says certain standards under the Prison Rape Elimination Act do not align with Trump’s executive order
prismreports.org
December 4, 2025 at 11:30 PM
oliviamesser.bsky.social
Work for this story began in 2023 as part of a project by the Investigative Reporting Workshop, a nonprofit newsroom at American University. Students, interns, and editors over the past two years combed through more than 1,600 bills filed nationally since 2015.

thebarbedwire.com/2025/12/04/a...
Where Did Anti-Trans Laws Start? How a Forgotten Houston Ordinance Turned Into a Massive, Nationwide Culture War
In fighting for bathroom bills in Houston, Texas conservatives provided a blueprint for the rest of the country.
thebarbedwire.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:57 AM
oliviamesser.bsky.social
“There was very little they could do to convince the public to restrict the rights of gays ... But trans rights issues were a really successful wedge issue that could ... lead to restrictions on not just trans rights but also gay, lesbian, bisexual rights.”

thebarbedwire.com/2025/12/04/a...
Where Did Anti-Trans Laws Start? How a Forgotten Houston Ordinance Turned Into a Massive, Nationwide Culture War
In fighting for bathroom bills in Houston, Texas conservatives provided a blueprint for the rest of the country.
thebarbedwire.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:53 AM
oliviamesser.bsky.social
“In a stunning break in one of the FBI’s most high-profile unsolved cases, agents arrested a suspect Thursday morning who investigators believe placed pipe bombs outside Republican and Democratic headquarters in the hours before the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.”

www.ms.now/news/fbi-arr...
FBI arrests suspect in Jan. 2021 pipe-bombing case
Authorities say the suspect placed viable explosive devices outside RNC and DNC offices the night before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
www.ms.now
December 4, 2025 at 5:00 PM
oliviamesser.bsky.social
“We’re not changing anything about our practice and not anticipating any changes to our practice in regard to HB 7.”
thebarbedwire.com The Barbed Wire @thebarbedwire.com · 20h
Via @19thnews.org: Texas’ massive new abortion law taking effect this week represents the most ambitious effort to halt telehealth abortions. But providers say it won’t work.

“If anything, the implementation of this law makes people more determined to help folks.”

thebarbedwire.com/2025/12/04/t...
Texas’ New Abortion Ban Aims to Stop Doctors From Sending Abortion Pills to the State
Doctors say they won’t stop providing care.
thebarbedwire.com
December 4, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Reposted by Olivia Messer
n83z01qbui.bsky.social
🧵
December 3, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Reposted by Olivia Messer
jtischauser.bsky.social
Adding that Jason Lee Van Dyke is also deeply involved with Patriot Front. He's more than PF's preferred lawyer. Inside PF, Van Dyke is known as Big John TX. Only members of PF are given aliases b/c they want to hide their involvement in the openly fascist group.

www.splcenter.org/resources/ha...
December 3, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Olivia Messer
premthakker.bsky.social
Agents in Key Largo, Florida ripped this woman wearing medical scrubs out of her car as she screamed she is a US citizen. Agents cuffed her and put her in one of their cars.

She was eventually let go, per David Goodhue of the Miami Herald, who also took this footage:
December 3, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by Olivia Messer
matttomic.bsky.social
Man, the Bluesky Wrapped 2025 is pretty brutal
Two screenshots designed in the style of Spotify Wrapped but they're presented as being a (nonexistent) Bluesky Wrapped Screenshot 1: You spent 738 posts on the following topics: 1. Dunking on the New York Times op-ed section 2. Talking about drama at New York Magazine 3. Weighing in on the New York City mayoral election Screenshot 2: Based on this, your most likely place to be located would be: New York, NY Instead, swipe to see where, based on geotagging, you actually live
December 3, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Olivia Messer
cnn.com
The family of a Colombian man believed to have been killed in a US strike in the Caribbean has filed what’s believed to be the first complaint against such attacks with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
Colombian family files first known formal complaint over deadly US strike in Caribbean | CNN
The family of a Colombian man believed to have been killed in a US strike in the Caribbean has filed what’s believed to be the first complaint against such attacks with the Inter-American Commission o...
www.cnn.com
December 3, 2025 at 4:31 AM
Reposted by Olivia Messer
stevanzetti.bsky.social
My latest for @thebarbedwire.com
December 3, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by Olivia Messer
my-name-is-moo.bsky.social
"...in 2024, Van Dyke wrote that he was “tickled to death that we are going to see fascism in the United States as I have been a proponent of American fascism on my Twitter and Facebook for some time.”"
December 3, 2025 at 2:59 PM
oliviamesser.bsky.social
Jason Lee Van Dyke was once a leader of the Proud Boys, has posted racist threats online, and sports a white nationalist tattoo.

Now he’s running for public office as a Republican.

thebarbedwire.com/2025/12/02/j...
He’s an Unapologetic Fascist Who ‘Despises’ Democracy. He Still Wants You to Vote for Him.
He was once leader of the Proud Boys, has posted racist threats online, and sports a white nationalist tattoo.
thebarbedwire.com
December 3, 2025 at 2:48 PM
oliviamesser.bsky.social
“but the article didn’t include his associations with far-right extremist groups, the $100 million libel lawsuit he once filed after being called a Nazi and a pedophile, or the alleged ‘assassination plot’ that killed his accuser-slash-legal-opponent.”

thebarbedwire.com/2025/12/02/j...
He’s an Unapologetic Fascist Who ‘Despises’ Democracy. He Still Wants You to Vote for Him.
He was once leader of the Proud Boys, has posted racist threats online, and sports a white nationalist tattoo.
thebarbedwire.com
December 3, 2025 at 2:41 PM
oliviamesser.bsky.social
A 6-year-old boy is missing after ICE arrested him and his dad in NYC last week and shipped them off to separate facilities

www.thecity.nyc/2025/12/02/i...
ICE Arrested and Separated Chinese Father From 6-Year-Old Son, Advocates Say
The father and son were detained at an ICE check-in on Nov. 26, advocates say. The son’s location is currently unknown, while the father is being held at an upstate ICE facility.
www.thecity.nyc
December 3, 2025 at 5:18 AM
Reposted by Olivia Messer
captmarkkelly.bsky.social
Pete Hegseth says he’s going to court-martial me for saying the same exact thing he said 9 years ago. What changed for Pete? Well to start, he spends all day thinking about how he can suck up to Trump. When Trump says jump, he says how high.
December 3, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Reposted by Olivia Messer
thorbenson.bsky.social
I think it's probably bad if the terms "war crimes" and "pedophiles" are coming up a lot when people talk about your administration
December 3, 2025 at 5:10 AM
Reposted by Olivia Messer
joshtpm.bsky.social
Good reminder that Trump was guilty of an egregious crime simply in Georgia, let alone the rest of the country, and should have served a significant stint in prison. www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
The Last Big Case Against Trump Has Been Dropped
The U.S. justice and political systems have shown that they can’t hold the president and his allies to account for trying to steal the 2020 election.
www.theatlantic.com
December 3, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Reposted by Olivia Messer
oliviamesser.bsky.social
In interviews with immigration lawyers, watchdogs, and deportees themselves, @thebarbedwire.com found that hardships for detained migrants do not end after deportation to Mexico — in addition to unemployment, word has spread of dangers, including cartels.

thebarbedwire.com/2025/12/02/m...
Mexico Publicized a New Strategy to ‘Embrace’ Deportees. Instead, Many Have Found Danger and Unemployment.
Hardships for detained migrants do not end after deportation into Mexico.
thebarbedwire.com
December 2, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by Olivia Messer
yasharali.bsky.social
I’m also gonna start posting stuff I don’t have the authority to order.

Andrew Garfield shall be my husband.

Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Donald J. Trump l @realDonald Trump Any and all Documents, Proclamations, Executive Orders, Memorandums, or Contracts, signed by Order of the now infamous and unauthorized "AUTOPEN," within the Administration of Joseph R. Biden Jr., are hereby null, void, and of no further force or effect. Anyone receiving "Pardons,' "Commutations," or any other Legal Document so signed, please be advised that said Document has been fully and completely terminated, and is of no Legal effect. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
December 2, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Reposted by Olivia Messer
gregsargent.bsky.social
A note of caution about the new GOP vow of oversight on the murder of the two men clinging to the boat. It's good to see, but it could become a backdoor way for Rs to defuse pressure for broader scrutiny.

The entire operation is illegal. It all needs oversight. 1/

newrepublic.com/article/2037...
December 2, 2025 at 5:36 PM
oliviamesser.bsky.social
the two genders (via a text with my brother)
“the medical case for self-driving cars” vs “waymo drives through middle of police standoff”
December 2, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Olivia Messer
thebarbedwire.com
Amanda Aguilar, an immigration lawyer, said cartels held one of her clients for ransom immediately after his deportation to Mexico via the Tamaulipas border.

“My clients will say, ‘Can you please ask them not to drop me off in Tamaulipas?” Aguilar said. “And I do ask, but ICE just doesn’t care.”
oliviamesser.bsky.social Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 2d
In interviews with immigration lawyers, watchdogs, and deportees themselves, @thebarbedwire.com found that hardships for detained migrants do not end after deportation to Mexico — in addition to unemployment, word has spread of dangers, including cartels.

thebarbedwire.com/2025/12/02/m...
Mexico Publicized a New Strategy to ‘Embrace’ Deportees. Instead, Many Have Found Danger and Unemployment.
Hardships for detained migrants do not end after deportation into Mexico.
thebarbedwire.com
December 2, 2025 at 4:11 PM
oliviamesser.bsky.social
In interviews with immigration lawyers, watchdogs, and deportees themselves, @thebarbedwire.com found that hardships for detained migrants do not end after deportation to Mexico — in addition to unemployment, word has spread of dangers, including cartels.

thebarbedwire.com/2025/12/02/m...
Mexico Publicized a New Strategy to ‘Embrace’ Deportees. Instead, Many Have Found Danger and Unemployment.
Hardships for detained migrants do not end after deportation into Mexico.
thebarbedwire.com
December 2, 2025 at 4:01 PM