Moira Birss
Climate, economic justice & human rights research, advocacy & policy visioning. Senior Fellow w/ @cplusc.bsky.social studying US disaster insurance & global policy. Board co-Chair of @lawgaction.bsky.social. Amo a 🇨🇴. Living on Ohlone land. she/ella/ela.
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- Reposted by Moira BirssMedia coverage of Gaza has plummeted. So today on @thenation.com, we're doing something pretty special: we're only running pieces by people in and from Gaza. We're calling it "A Day for Gaza." You can find links to all of the incredible pieces here. Please read! www.thenation.com/article/worl...
- Reposted by Moira BirssHere’s my @thenation.com post on the arrest of Don Lemon, Georgia Fort, the violation of the First Amendment, and Trump’s ongoing attempts to change the face of his victims and spark a race war.
- Now THIS is more like it!
- Senator Schumer's DC office, in case you want to let him know what you think about this: 202-224-6542.
- Reposted by Moira Birss“Liam is getting sick because the food they receive is not of good quality ... He has stomach pain, he’s vomiting, he has a fever and he no longer wants to eat.” Body cameras on ICE/CBP agents are not going to fix this.
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- This COULD be the way @governor.ca.gov approached conversations in CA about wealth taxes. Instead, he's putting the billionaires first, again.
- I have a new piece out today describing how the insurance industry's profit motives conflict with our need for protection & outlining the Disaster Insurance for All proposal from @cplusc.bsky.social in #TheRooftop, @futurelandhousing.bsky.social's housing blog. www.newamerica.org/future-land-...
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- Don't give up on the pressure!
- Reposted by Moira BirssThe biggest risk in this moment is something sociologists call “symbolic compliance.” That’s when an institution that is violating civil rights gives the public just enough symbolic victories that accountability efforts lose steam before there has been any meaningful change.
- “It’s only natural that our brains struggle to find logic in what we are seeing. There is a logic, and this logic has a name. It’s called state terror.”
- Reposted by Moira BirssWe are observers, not protestors. We show up to document and film the atrocities ICE is committing. Using 5 year olds as bait. Kidnapping senior citizens. Breaking down doors without warrants. Murdering poets and nurses. Media has all of that information because *observers* were there to document it
- Hard to believe one could be excited for an insurance commissioner race, but with a candidate like Jane Kim -- a proven champion for working people -- I'm pretty darn excited. youtu.be/VdaRc61cYfk
- Reposted by Moira Birssnext reporter who interviews stephen miller should ask him point blank if his goal in minneapolis is to kill more americans
- I'm thrilled to share this episode of the @obi-belonging.bsky.social's Real Solutions podcast, in which Sierra Kos of @weathersurvivors.bsky.social & I discuss climate-related disasters & solutions to increase community resilience & household financial safety nets. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r...
- Reposted by Moira BirssI know people on Bsky know this but I hope it filters out: The feds are OCCUPYING the Twin Cities. This is a blockade, a siege. They are shutting down economic and civic activity. They are conducting "papers please" stops. They are criminalizing being a bystander/witness. You could be next.
- Holy shit
- Reposted by Moira BirssThese fucking politicians need to STOP CONSTANTLY admonishing protestors to be "peaceful" while they are being brutalized regularly by the gatekeepers of the state. You should be up there telling ICE and Border Patrol to be fucking peaceful.
- Thinking about LA today, 1 year from the #LAfires. As a colleague and I wrote shortly afterwards, "only in the aftermath of these fires that their true toll will emerge..." jacobin.com/2025/01/la-f...
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- If you doubted the existence of a constitutional crisis in the US, this should clear up any doubts.
- Reposted by Moira BirssIt seems basic and yet
- "It is the Venezuelan people who should decide how Venezuela is governed, and by whom. Not the United States. Not a dictatorship. And certainly not some chimera of the two." New from @patrickiber.bsky.social: dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...
- Definitely going to contact my Alameda County supervisor about this!
- In Colombia a few decades ago, when rates of political violence were extremely high, judges heard cases anonymously. This helped protect them and their families, but also has consequences for accountability (see, eg., the impact of “Kavanaugh Stops”).
- Incredible irony here.
- During its worst drought in a century, Iraq signs a water security for oil deal with Turkey. The once rich Tigris & Euphrates rivers are drying up from climate change & mismanagement, leading to crop losses & a water crisis. edition.cnn.com/2025/12/21/c...
- Reposted by Moira BirssYou can very clearly see why someone whose job it is to protect war criminals would need this pulled from the airwaves: It’s visible proof the Trump administration is operating concentration camps.
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- Fascinating insight here: the US trade deficit is correlated with corporate profits, and the admin’s efforts to exempt US corporations from the global minimum corporate tax regime only exacerbates this.
- Reposted by Moira BirssDENTRO DEL CECOT (ENLACE DE REGALO) El informe del Washington Post sobre la prisión salvadoreña a la que la administración Trump envió a migrantes deportados de los Estados Unidos, basado en entrevistas con 16 exdetenidos wapo.st/3MPEeA6
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- Reposted by Moira Birssi really think there is legit political space for running on "we are going to dismantle ICE"
- Reposted by Moira BirssThis Yglesias piece in the NYT is horrifically bad. Almost every "fact" it cites is provably false. At best it is cocktail party banter from a pundit who knows nothing of energy. At worst, it was cut/paste from oil industry talking points. So, a rebuttal: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/o...
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- Oh cool Oakland city council just voted to approve a Flock contract
- Reposted by Moira BirssScientist at #AGU25 are speaking out to #SaveNCAR. Join more than 2000 of your colleagues to call or email your members of Congress to ask them to support NCAR today: agu.quorum.us/campaign/151...
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- These findings would seem to undermine the argument that risk-based premium pricing is an effective way to achieve risk reduction. If households just forego the insurance when premiums rise, no flood risk is reduced AND those households are exposed to greater risk of financial catastrophe.
- Tax the rich
- It's wild to see the reflexive attacks from the abundance/yimby crowd on a brief mention of a public disaster insurance proposal for CA with critiques that ignore: a) they have no idea what risk reduction components the proposal includes, b) that risk-based pricing is HIGHLY regressive 1/3
