Former Director, Western Pennsylvania Writing Project, University of Pittsburgh. Professional resources, personal perspectives
Allegan, MI
Joined May 2015
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Laura Roop retweeted
Hats off to MK Pritzker for this amazing statement and action
So love leaders who are standing up for Amy Acton!
Laura Roop retweeted
Living in Ypsilanti, Courtney is facing not one, not two, but three proposed new data center projects within just a few miles of her house.
I believe there should be no new data centers until guardrails and protections have been established at the federal level.
Laura Roop retweeted
NEW: The head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a statement firmly condemning plans to livestream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan.
Archbishop Paul Coakley calls the decision āa barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered.ā
Laura Roop retweeted
2. Trump's immigration agents detained more than 500 U.S. CITIZENS against their will. At least 70 were children. About 20 kids were handcuffed or zip-tied. Roughly a dozen citizens were deported
In the video: "I'M LITERALLY A US CITIZEN" from @propublica
Laura Roop retweeted
āInstead of respecting the law, those in power invoke it when it serves their interests and disregard it when it restrains them, treating even justice itself as though it were a commodity to be bought and sold.ā ā Pope Leo XIV
Laura Roop retweeted
THE āWORST OF THE WORSTā: A NUN WITH A WORK PERMIT.
Sleep peacefully, America. ICE caught Sister Leticia Ugboaja walking to Sunday Mass.
She had a valid work permit, attended EVERY required immigration appointment and complied with EVERY condition of her court-ordered protection.
A nun. A nurse. Following the rules. Walking to church.
Thank God they got to her before she could receive Communion.
It took intervention from members of Congress to help secure her release. Apparently, a work permit and doing everything immigration officials require arenāt quite as effective as knowing someone in Congress.
So much for ādo it the right way" hey MAGA????
ICE: protecting America from the terrifying threat of a nurse with a rosary.
Know your rights. Demand accountability: [PAXIS.app](PAXIS.app)
Help keep PAXIS free: [GoFundMe.com/PAXIS](GoFundMe.com/PAXIS)
Laura Roop retweeted
The president is making so much money that he is now worth 7 billion dollars and you canāt afford to fill your car up with gas because itās too expensiveā-this seems like an obvious midterm message
Laura Roop retweeted
The UN passed a resolution by a vote of 37-1 promoting womenās equality. The one opposing voteā¦ the United States.
Laura Roop retweeted
It's pretty impressive how much ground Mayor Mamdani has been able to cover after only nine months in office on a wide range of basic quality-of-life issues in NYC:
-- 229,000 pothole repairs (up 27% from last year)
-- speedbump installations up 25%
-- tree planting up 61% (55,000 total)
-- bus lanes installation more than doubled (5.5 miles to 12 miles)
-- residential curbside collection met its annual target for the first time in 21 years (with three months to spare)
-- affordable housing completions up 20%
-- financed 2,546 supportive housing units and 4,742 affordable homes for formerly homeless New Yorkers, the most in a fiscal year in NYC history
-- job placements through the city's human resources agency are up 33%
-- youth job placements through city admin up 26%
-- wait times for primary care appointments down 31% for adults and 24% for children
-- families receiving child welfare services up 16%
-- rec center membership up 13% (total membership highest in 15 years)
-- young adult attendance at rec centers up 50%
-- murder rate is down 20%
-- burglaries down 9%, robberies down 9%, auto thefts down 7%
All in fewer than nine months. Extraordinary.
Read the full stats here: nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2ā¦
Laura Roop retweeted
The Kennedy Memorial is made of irreplaceable marble that was gifted by Italy.
Matisse tapestries found throughout were gifted from France.
The massive starburst chandelier in the Opera Hall, and lights along walkways, were a gift from Sweden.
The record-breaking stage curtains were a gift from Japan. They had to build special looms to weave them because of how big they are.
The grounds are beautiful with displays of art.
This is what Trump is destroying.
Laura Roop retweeted
āDear migrants, before I say any other word to you, I want to bow before your dignity.
āYou are not numbers or case files.
āYou are people ā with a family and a home left behind, with dreams that no one has the right to scorn.ā
ā Pope Leo XIV
Laura Roop retweeted
How can they justify leaving right now?
Diesel costs just hit an all-time high. Our nation is at war. The bond market is quivering. The urgency of AI regulation has come to a critical moment.
Congress should be working overtime. Instead Speaker Johnson sent them home. All to dodge one uncomfortable vote - much like his maneuvers last year to hold off the Epstein files.
You don't have to be a Democrat to find that disgraceful.
In less than seven weeks, Americans can change all this. 48 days to go.
Terrifying. And it simply didn't need to happen!
The world has three shock absorbers for an oil crisis. This is the first one in 50 years to exhaust all three at once.
The first is spare capacity, the extra oil OPEC keeps ready but unpumped. Nearly all of it sits in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which load their tankers on the wrong side of the Strait of Hormuz. The exact strait that's been closed since February.
The world's insurance policy is locked inside the burning building.
The second is the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The US released 172 million barrels this year and the reserve now holds about 287 million, its lowest level since 1982. The floor isn't even political. Below roughly 250 million barrels, the salt caverns lose the hydraulic pressure needed to push oil out at emergency rates. The SPR is about 37 million barrels from being physically unable to respond.
The third is refining slack. US refiners hit 98% utilization in early September and diesel set an all-time record price anyway. Every refinery in the country is running flat out, and prices are still climbing.
So when Chevron's CEO says spare supply is "almost exhausted," he means the delivery machinery. Saudi Arabia could pump millions of extra barrels tomorrow. There's simply no remaining mechanism to move oil from where it sits to where it's needed.
Brent was $72 the day before the strait closed. It's $96 today, and that's with every buffer fully deployed. Nobody has seen the price without them. We're about to find out.
Laura Roop retweeted
Dolly Parton spent decades quietly funding band uniforms and instruments at Black high schools across the South - never once putting her name on it. No headlines, no fanfare ā just help, given because it was needed.
Rhinestones on the outside, gold on the inside. š
Laura Roop retweeted
āPOTUS has made 2.2 billion dollars so far in his second term, as the most corrupt president in our nationās history by a country mile. Trumpās Treasury Departmentās dismembering of FinCEN this week will only add to his illegal haul and allow untold amounts of foreign dark money into the U.S. in the form of campaign contributions.
The international organized crime outfits that Trump participated in for decades before becoming president have now been consolidated in such a way that any financial crime or money laundering anywhere on earth could potentially benefit Trump and his family.
We are not just up against the MAGA movement, and the immorality of the billionaire backers of his xenophobic regime, but a well-oiled crime machine that just broke through the last remaining guardrails against corruption.
Trump had vetoed the reporting rules regarding āshell companiesā late in his first term. The bipartisan Corporate Transparency Act passed anyway - and it was a gigantic step towards rooting out money laundering and illicit funds from being moved and hidden anonymously within the United States by forcing shell companies to reveal their ownership.
Now, not only are those regulations abandoned, the databases themselves have been destroyed - and Republicans in Congress are working to make sure this evisceration of the rule of law cannot be reversed by any future administration.ā noelcasler.substack.com/p/thā¦
What we're doing to the Cuban people is just wrong.
Thisās Cuba right now under total blackout after seven months of fuel blockadeāDoctors are manually operating ventilators in order to keep babies alive.
The United States is now blocking 7,000+ containers of medicine, food, and resources for water and energy from reaching Cuba. The US threatens to freeze assets of entities providing support to Cuba.
This is what the US embargo is intended to be. It is a form of collective punishment, a criminal act, and a blatant violation of international law. This violates Article 33 of Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits collective punishment. The US embargo cruelly cut off all fuel and humanitarian aid.
Given the dependence of health, food, and water systems on imported fossil fuels, the current oil scarcity has put the availability of essential services at risk nationwideāhurting ordinary people, endangering lives, systems are breaking down, further deepening the socio-economic crisis, and having an increasingly severe impact on the human rights.
It is strange how the world can cooperate to get oil through the Iranian blockade at the Strait of Hormuz, but still aren't able to get aid through the U.S. blockade on Cuba. International law is not optional that you invoke only when it suits you. Let's call it what it is: weaponized international law.
The U.S. sanctions against Cuba must be lifted immediately. Thisās a crime against humanity, and no one is talking about it.
Laura Roop retweeted
UPDATE ON GERALD AND THE CROW SITUATION:
Things have escalated.
I repeat.
THINGS HAVE FUCKING ESCALATED.
For those of you just joining us, yesterday I accidentally entered into diplomatic relations with a gang of crows after Gerald stole my good spoon.
Well.
This morning I walked outside and Gerald was waiting for me.
Alone.
Standing directly in the middle of my driveway.
No screaming.
No hopping around.
Just staring at me like a tiny feathered loan shark who had come to collect.
I said, āMorning, Gerald.ā
He tilted his head.
I gave him a walnut.
He did not eat it.
Instead, this motherfucker picked it up, walked three steps to the left, PUT IT DOWN, and stared at me again.
Message received.
The offering was insufficient.
So I went back inside and got more walnuts.
When I returnedā¦
THERE WERE NINE CROWS.
Nine.
Yesterday there were seven.
Gerald is fucking recruiting.
And they were arranged in a SEMICIRCLE.
This isnāt a bird friendship anymore.
Iām funding organized crime.
I distributed the walnuts because apparently I pay protection money now.
Everything seemed fine until one of the smaller crows tried taking two.
Gerald immediately screamed at him.
The little one dropped the second walnut.
I have accidentally created an economy.
Gerald controls distribution.
Thereās a hierarchy.
There are consequences.
Iām pretty sure I witnessed a disciplinary hearing before breakfast.
Then Gerald flew away.
I thought we were done.
WE WERE NOT DONE.
Twenty minutes later I looked outside and there was something sitting where Gerald had been standing.
A bottle cap.
A shiny rock.
Andā¦
MY FUCKING SPOON.
HE RETURNED THE SPOON.
Ladies and gentlemen.
I believe we have successfully negotiated a trade agreement.
Unfortunately, there is now a crow sitting on my mailbox.
So I still cannot get my fucking mail.
I tried approaching.
He puffed up.
I backed away.
That mailbox belongs to the organization now.
At this point Iām just a tenant.
Anyway, Gerald has officially been promoted to General Gerald, Commander of the Driveway, First of His Name, Keeper of the Good Spoon, Lord of the Power Line, Collector of Walnuts, and Regional Manager of Whatever The Fuck Is Happening Here.
Iāll keep everyone updated.
But if I suddenly stop postingā¦
Gerald found out I told you.