Toben
@tobend.bsky.social
Left of the Dial
Art Director at @RAN.org by day 🌎
Views are my own
Art Director at @RAN.org by day 🌎
Views are my own
Provoking article / cautionary tale from @ilyseh.bsky.social, particularly this gripping last line:
“The choice is whether we constrain this while we can, or whether we normalize it until we can’t.”
“The choice is whether we constrain this while we can, or whether we normalize it until we can’t.”
The Intentional Terror of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Militia
Last Friday, the image of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos standing stoically, nose inches from the frigid side panel of a snow-streaked ICE vehicle, seemed to be the darkest stain on the collective so...
theallamerican.substack.com
January 30, 2026 at 6:18 AM
Provoking article / cautionary tale from @ilyseh.bsky.social, particularly this gripping last line:
“The choice is whether we constrain this while we can, or whether we normalize it until we can’t.”
“The choice is whether we constrain this while we can, or whether we normalize it until we can’t.”
Reposted by Toben
“I am grateful that I was in a position to be there for my community. To stop the lies and the madness, and allow there to be proof.”
Stella Carlson, who filmed the killing of Alex Pretti up close, speaks out.
Stella Carlson, who filmed the killing of Alex Pretti up close, speaks out.
The definition of heroism and bearing witness: An extraordinary CNN interview.
Stella Carson, who filmed the killing of Alex Pretti, up close, speaks out.
www.motherjones.com
January 28, 2026 at 7:58 PM
“I am grateful that I was in a position to be there for my community. To stop the lies and the madness, and allow there to be proof.”
Stella Carlson, who filmed the killing of Alex Pretti up close, speaks out.
Stella Carlson, who filmed the killing of Alex Pretti up close, speaks out.
Civil Society orgs vs Secret Police
Letter From 1,025 Organizations Asks Congress to Halt Funds for ICE and Border Patrol
Amnesty joined over 1,000 national, state and local organizations in a letter to Congress to demand accountability and halt funding for ICE and Border Patrol.
www.amnestyusa.org
January 28, 2026 at 4:09 PM
Civil Society orgs vs Secret Police
We had a good run..
National Museum Of The Middle Class Opens In Schaumburg, IL https://theonion.com/national-museum-of-the-middle-class-opens-in-schaumburg-1819567586/
January 28, 2026 at 3:39 PM
We had a good run..
Reposted by Toben
MAGA is a death cult
Holy moly this chart: Cumulative US measles cases
January 28, 2026 at 3:06 PM
MAGA is a death cult
Reposted by Toben
Sesame Street is now offering tips for parents on post-trauma comfort because the federal government is physically and mentally abusing our country's children.
January 27, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Sesame Street is now offering tips for parents on post-trauma comfort because the federal government is physically and mentally abusing our country's children.
Safe passage home for this lost kitty..
'Majestic' young mountain lion found in wealthy SF neighborhood
San Francisco Zoo officials have arrived on scene.
www.sfgate.com
January 27, 2026 at 6:01 PM
Safe passage home for this lost kitty..
I support this message from a fellow Tobin
Pope Leo’s top U.S. ally — Cardinal Joseph Tobin — calls on Congress to defund ICE.
January 27, 2026 at 2:00 AM
I support this message from a fellow Tobin
Reposted by Toben
The right to protest, the right to dissent, the right to vote your conscience — without the fear of being killed by masked federal agents or falsely labeled a 'domestic terrorist' — we are witnessing these rights being systematically undermined in real time.
January 27, 2026 at 12:19 AM
The right to protest, the right to dissent, the right to vote your conscience — without the fear of being killed by masked federal agents or falsely labeled a 'domestic terrorist' — we are witnessing these rights being systematically undermined in real time.
Reposted by Toben
Strike, fellows, strike
January 23, 2026 at 6:35 PM
Strike, fellows, strike
Reposted by Toben
"ICE will leave Minnesota if you hand over your voter rolls" tells you everything you need to know.
This was never about immigration or fraud. It was always about rigging elections.
This was never about immigration or fraud. It was always about rigging elections.
January 25, 2026 at 11:01 PM
"ICE will leave Minnesota if you hand over your voter rolls" tells you everything you need to know.
This was never about immigration or fraud. It was always about rigging elections.
This was never about immigration or fraud. It was always about rigging elections.
Reposted by Toben
That rage you feel is sacred. Honor it.
We’re in the fight of our lives and honestly we have been for some time now.
Don’t allow yourself to go numb. Don’t look away. None of this shit is normal.
We’re in the fight of our lives and honestly we have been for some time now.
Don’t allow yourself to go numb. Don’t look away. None of this shit is normal.
January 24, 2026 at 8:23 PM
That rage you feel is sacred. Honor it.
We’re in the fight of our lives and honestly we have been for some time now.
Don’t allow yourself to go numb. Don’t look away. None of this shit is normal.
We’re in the fight of our lives and honestly we have been for some time now.
Don’t allow yourself to go numb. Don’t look away. None of this shit is normal.
Reposted by Toben
“Get it all on record now — get the films — get the witnesses — because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower, after visiting liberated concentration camps in April 1945
Dwight D. Eisenhower, after visiting liberated concentration camps in April 1945
January 24, 2026 at 9:24 PM
“Get it all on record now — get the films — get the witnesses — because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower, after visiting liberated concentration camps in April 1945
Dwight D. Eisenhower, after visiting liberated concentration camps in April 1945
Reposted by Toben
You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.
January 25, 2026 at 1:15 AM
You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.
Mood
#AbolishICE
#AbolishICE
Protester in Minneapolis just before disappearing in gas: "Fuck you! Stop. Damn! I'm 70 years old and I'm fuckin' angry!"
January 24, 2026 at 5:57 PM
Mood
#AbolishICE
#AbolishICE
Absolutely horrific to watch this regime terrorize our country with lawless impunity like this. This is a fully-deputized Jan 6 attack every day on our Cities.
January 24, 2026 at 5:54 PM
Absolutely horrific to watch this regime terrorize our country with lawless impunity like this. This is a fully-deputized Jan 6 attack every day on our Cities.
Putting aside the typical science-illiterate verbal diarrhea from DJT, it’s a bit alarming to see the term “Environmental Insurrectionists” floated here
Trump: "Record Cold Wave expected to hit 40 States. Rarely seen anything like it before. Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain — WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???"
January 23, 2026 at 3:39 PM
Putting aside the typical science-illiterate verbal diarrhea from DJT, it’s a bit alarming to see the term “Environmental Insurrectionists” floated here
These moments will be enshrined in history books and documentaries, regardless of how this all ends..
Tomorrow’s front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 23, 2026
January 23, 2026 at 6:46 AM
These moments will be enshrined in history books and documentaries, regardless of how this all ends..
You know your talking points are shit when they seem to center around bathrooms..
Not exaggerating when I say that the collective action in Minnesota will be studied for generations if not centuries to come
January 23, 2026 at 5:13 AM
You know your talking points are shit when they seem to center around bathrooms..
From the guy who hates the sight of windmills off the coast..
Trump admin quietly attempts to open the entire Calif. coast to oil drilling
"We've stopped this before, and we can do it again."
www.sfgate.com
January 22, 2026 at 5:46 PM
From the guy who hates the sight of windmills off the coast..
Forsooth.. thou art 👹
are they not monsters?
January 22, 2026 at 4:17 AM
Forsooth.. thou art 👹
🏦+💰 = 🌎🔥
How Wall Street Turned Its Back on Climate Change
www.nytimes.com
January 19, 2026 at 8:17 PM
🏦+💰 = 🌎🔥
Reposted by Toben
DOJ investigating whether Denmark lied on its Greenland mortgage.
January 17, 2026 at 6:23 PM
DOJ investigating whether Denmark lied on its Greenland mortgage.
I recall many of us shouting this from rooftops 25 years ago, only to face scorns from naysayers standing in their socks at TSA checkpoints..
Nick Miroff: After 9/11, George W. Bush created the Department of Homeland Security to prevent future terror strikes. Now DHS shifted from defending the country against foreign terrorists to deploying agents on American streets for the purpose of terrorizing American citizens.
‘Maybe DHS Was a Bad Idea’
Two decades after its founding, the department has become what its critics feared.
www.theatlantic.com
January 17, 2026 at 5:38 PM
I recall many of us shouting this from rooftops 25 years ago, only to face scorns from naysayers standing in their socks at TSA checkpoints..
Even a Getty photojournalist can’t evade being terrorized by the monsters of ICE.
And as any photographer would know, throwing a Leica to safety is almost like desperately tossing your infant out of harm’s way
And as any photographer would know, throwing a Leica to safety is almost like desperately tossing your infant out of harm’s way
Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.
January 17, 2026 at 4:19 PM
Even a Getty photojournalist can’t evade being terrorized by the monsters of ICE.
And as any photographer would know, throwing a Leica to safety is almost like desperately tossing your infant out of harm’s way
And as any photographer would know, throwing a Leica to safety is almost like desperately tossing your infant out of harm’s way