Justin V.
Nikkei nerd in the city of wind and resident Angry Asian American.
Policy Wonk 🤓 Community Builder ✊ Hip Hop Head 🎧 Bookseller 📚
He/Him
- Watching him respond to the big, ugly bill polling at below 40% popularity with: “Well, if you poll the red states it’s really popular. If you ask certain populations or blue states, it’s not.” Hmmm. This is the worst timeline.
- Thank you, @duckworth.senate.gov, for your vote against cloture today- listening to and working for your constituents💛👏✊ @durbin.senate.gov, we expected better. This isn’t the senate of 20 years ago.
- Reposted by Justin V.Senator Durbin @durbin.senate.gov, you let us down. Deeply dismayed to see that Senator Dick Durbin voted YES.
- Reposted by Justin V.These are the senators who collaborated with the GOP. Schumer Fetterman Cortez Masto Durbin King Shaheen Gillibrand Schatz Hassan Peters Don’t let them forget it. No peace for them.
- Reposted by Justin V.New Yorkers and DC residents trying to talk with @schumer.senate.gov are having to push notes through a locked door with police posted outside.
- No on cloture > No on the CR. @durbin.senate.gov & @duckworth.senate.gov, you don’t even have to worry about voting on the dangerous CR if you deny them cloture 🤓
- Reposted by Justin V.Columbia University has revoked degrees from some pro-Palestine student protesters, in addition to issuing multi-year suspensions and expulsions. The full number of affected students and graduates remains unclear, sparking concerns over academic freedom and free speech.
- Reposted by Justin V.Just a friendly reminder that while voters won't have another chance to remove Schumer until 2028, the Dem senators can remove him at any time if they just get together. He may be able to stay in the senate, but he doesn't have to remain leader. It's time for something new.
- Sometimes it feels like some #SenateDems still think they’re operating in an early 2000’s moment where people like Sen Graham will join Sen Durbin to introduce the DREAM Act. That version of the Senate hasn’t been around for almost the past decade, from what I’ve seen.
- #SenateDems can’t take that framework into the CR vote. A yes on cloture is guaranteeing its passage, even with no Dem support on final passage, no matter how many show amendments get thrown at it- they won’t be adopted.
- All that to say, as a Chicagoan, parent, and small business owner- I need my Senators, @durbin.senate.gov & @duckworth.senate.gov, to vote NO on cloture and the CR. If the GOP wants to shut down the government by not coming to the table, working across the aisle that’s on them. #Politics
- Hi, Nikkei/Japanese American policy wonk here. Fuck this (the Alien Enemies Act, the President, Stephen Miller, deportations, etc). This is going to open a reckless, racist can of worms. #immigration #politics #AsianAmerican abc7chicago.com/post/trump-i...
- Also, ABC’s report should be clarified: The Japanese immigrants at the time didn’t just “not become US Citizens.” Asian immigrants were “Aliens Ineligible for Citizenship” under very racist immigration laws pre-1965. More accurately “were legally ineligible for citizenship because of their race.”
- Reposted by Justin V.🚨 Everyone needs to call their Dem Senator right now. They are starting to cave. Tell them: 1. Vote NO on Cloture AND 2. Vote NO on the Republican spending bill. Don’t let them pivot to reconciliation. GOP doesn’t need Dem votes on that and they know it. TODAY is the showdown. 🤳🏽: (202) 224-3121
- Reposted by Justin V.Mahmoud's wife recounts ICE following them into their building as they returned from an Iftar dinner. She refused to leave Mahmoud. Officers threatened to arrest her too. The officers barricaded Mahmoud from her. They didn't show a warrant. They hung up the phone on their lawyer.
- Sending the email after COB. “Work from home tomorrow because, uhh, security? But definitely back in office Thursday…” Feels like some Office Space shit. These workers and our kids deserve better than this. abc7chicago.com/post/departm...
- It’s wild watching the Speaker of the House go on @meetthepress.com & straight-faced say things like “we’ve got to prevent the largest tax hikes in American history at the end of the year” without acknowledging it’s the Trump tax cuts —passed by the GOP— last round that planted this seed. #politics
- Vice President out there with his dog whistle great replacement trash and trying to reframe things to fit an imaginary victimhood narrative.
- This feels like something we forget a lot and then wonder when we feel like our influence wanes.
- Also! If your rep (or an institution) does something good? Call to thank them and strengthen their backbone. That matters too. And this can be a less scary, more fun call to make. Find their numbers at reps.fyi.
- Reposted by Justin V.Here is a script you can use for any issue. Find your reps' # at reps.fyi or 5calls.org. Every time you see a news story that horrifies you: call, or something else about it. It matters to say what you believe. You are setting a norm.
- I’ve read “If you give a mouse a cookie”, they can’t fool me: www.rawstory.com/stephen-mill...
- Thinking that this is the guy to go in and “fix” the economy for non-billionaires is both laughable and terrifying: www.theverge.com/2025/1/24/24...
- While billionaires are attempting to take over the government, political appointees attack an important agency working to protect Americans from exploitation. This is some bullshit. www.politico.com/news/2025/02...
- It’s interesting to compare refugee countries of origin over time with the growing anti-refugee rhetoric from the right over time. But people still get squeamish and say it’s not a race thing….
- Reposted by Justin V.Yeah so the Constitution isn’t really in effect right now
- So the tax cuts proposals would raise taxes for the majority; the tariffs push will eat a significantly larger portion of non-billionaire’s money; cutting social safety net programs hits the poor. But sure, trickle down and what if one day I’m a millionaire. #EatTheRich
- This is an oligarchy shifting tax burdens to the workers they exploit while also getting the keys to the Treasury so they can get the federal contracts that they allow to further enrich themselves.
- None of this helps people to afford homes, fairly compensate the dignity of their labor, or keep enough groceries in the fridge for their families.
- This clown’s lust for territorial acquisition is running rampant. Prime time pitching co-colonizers and another Nakba so he can displace people to build a Mediterranean Riviera (which kinda already has one… you know, the French one) is abhorrent. #politics
- What the fuck was that press conference I just watched? The. Actual. Fuck.
- I mean, if they’re interested in donating more homes… I know a family with millennial, working class parents that would be open to ideas. 🤓
- Reposted by Justin V."Elon Musk is going to pay for his tax cut with your Social Security." @lindsayowens.bsky.social breaks down the billionaire's unprecedented takeover of key government functions, including trillions in Treasury Department payments. democracynow.org/2025/2/3/elon_musk_gov
- It feels like there’s a whole lot of “we don’t know how things work, but also feel no need to ask- so let’s just break everything” dominating political ideas lately. And that infuriates me. #CivicsAreImportant
- … if there’s nothing that you want, then why so invested in trying to get them? Also, if the only offer being pitched back as a benefit is military protection to a fellow founding member of NATO… *eyes roll back loud enough to hear* #smdh
- Reposted by Justin V.I need Americans to hate this administration the way Kendrick hates Drake so they can actually stand a chance of surviving
- Reposted by Justin V.For #BlackHistoryMonth we're offering 40% OFF Haymarket Books on the Struggle for Black Liberation
- Reposted by Justin V.Suddenly, out of nowhere, a declassified World War II-era CIA guide to sabotaging fascism in the workplace has become one of the most popular free ebooks on the internet: www.404media.co/declassified...
- Bless this driver.
- A week into the new administration, I think it’s also worth thinking about how the chaos and disruption are not only to shock the folks not rocking with them- but to validate their messaging to their base. #politics
- As they muck up the government works, things stop working or struggle. They can then turn back to their base and say “Wow, look how broken it is. We should get rid of or privatize it.” Fueling more funding to their funders and hurting more people.
- This is not a new policy set up. It is a dangerous one that speaks to messaging that has run for longer than I’ve been around. That said, call your Electeds and let them know how you feel. Politics is more than just the presidency and your voice *should* weigh more heavily closer to home.
- Senator Graham on @meetthepress.bsky.social today described Wong Kim Ark as a Chinese immigrant and that the case is yet to be clarified. This bootlicker is wrong and trying to rewrite history. Full stop.
- Reposted by Justin V.[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reminding myself that in my new chapter no one is expecting me to share analysis of each EO today. This was part of what happened in 2017, a flood of things to keep folks off balance is a tactic.
- The barrage is dizzying. They want us disoriented and in despair. To defend ourselves and others, focus is key. Play by play reactions to every harmful act and utterance won’t help you or others. Focus on what you can do (& where you can be most impactful), and remember that you can’t do everything.
- Reposted by Justin V.Senate has voted 61-35 to break filibuster on the Laken Riley Act. With the help of 10 Democrats, the bill directing detention of migrants without due process will now advance. Democrats also helped make bill's authority even wider than when it was first introduced. More: zeteo.com/p/why-democr...
- Reposted by Justin V.To all my fellow Asian Americans, please remember that the many new policy changes this administration will attempt to enact starting today are also an attack on us. We must not be complacent.
- Hmmm, to put on an episode of Firefly or Star Trek? A not totally implausible vision of what timeline we could be on or reliable comfort content of the timeline we should be on? #nerddilemma
- Reposted by Justin V.This morning's bedhead encourages you to read Dr. King's Letter From A Birmingham Jail.
- Reposted by Justin V."I've Been to the Mountaintop": In His Final Speech, MLK Spoke of Reaching "Promised Land" of Equality
- The intro tweet is a quote from an admin official, which doesn’t include the 14th Amendment or Wong Kim Ark v US SCOTUS case and how that factors in. The owner of the paper was also seated near the new admin during the inauguration. So, there’s that.
- Breaking news: The U.S. government will no longer recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States to immigrants who lack legal status, one of 10 immigration-related executive orders President-elect Donald Trump plans to sign Monday, an incoming administration official told reporters.
- Reposted by Justin V.To confront billionaire authoritarians, economic inequality and fascism, we need to build power. In MLK's words "We can all get more together than we can apart; we can get more organized together than we can apart. And this is the way we gain power."
- Reposted by Justin V.🚨BREAKING🚨 Leonard Peltier Granted Executive Clemency After 50 years of unjust incarceration and the tireless efforts of intergenerational grassroots organizing and advocacy, our elder and relative Leonard Peltier has been granted executive clemency.
- Reposted by Justin V.Leonard Peltier is finally going home.
- Day 1 Exec Orders about the names of places to shore up a particular, ethno-nationalist worldview. That’ll bring egg prices down 🙄
- Imagine being the white father of biracial kids, sitting there while your boss goes off on some white nationalist tirade about ending programs to address structural racism….
- National Energy Emergency? Like infrastructure in need of modernization and diversification? Oh, no, just more fossil fuels to funnel more funds to the ultra wealthy. Right. #inauguration
- It’s funny to me that he says he wants people to buy the car of their choice while ElMu was right there, the guy with complaints about want to keep proprietary charging ports.
