nonbinaryjellyfish✡️centrist democrat

News - Abdul El-Sayed lands endorsement from National Nurses United (225K members). He’s the only Michigan Senate Dem backing Medicare for All.

Did you know that the Armenian Christian Community in Iran only received their religious freedom rights, to practice their faith, under the Islamic Republic. While alcohol is illegal in Iran, the Iranian leadership permit the use of alcohol for Christian ceremonies.

Heartbreaking famine survivor videos from Gaza again. The heart shatters💔

On this day in 1997, the Islamic Republic of Iran was formally served with a federal lawsuit for torturing Americans, and was later held legally accountable for its savage, decades-long war against American civilians. In the mid-1980s, Beirut had become a killing field for Americans. Iran’s terror proxy, Hezbollah, waged a brutal campaign of bombings, kidnappings, torture, and murder against U.S. citizens. In 1983, Hezbollah truck-bombed the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 American servicemen in a single day (the deadliest terrorist attack on Americans until 9/11). That same year, they bombed the U.S. Embassy, killing 63 more, including 17 Americans. Then, in the years that followed, Hezbollah (with direct Iranian support), kidnapped, tortured, and murdered numerous American civilians and officials. On April 28, 1997, three of those civilians — David Jacobsen (hospital administrator), Joseph Cicippio (university comptroller), and Frank Reed (school owner) — together with their wives, filed suit against Iran. Between 1985 and 1991, these men were snatched off the streets of Beirut by Hezbollah terrorists. They were blindfolded, chained, beaten, starved, and threatened with execution. Held in darkness, they endured 532 days, 1,330 days, and 1,908 days respectively. One was subjected to Russian roulette. Another had boiling tea kettles placed on his shoulders. All suffered solitary confinement, mock executions, and unimaginable psychological torment. Their only “crime” was being American civilians in Lebanon. In August 1991, as hope flickered for the release of remaining hostages, an ABC News broadcast showed a picture of Joseph Cicippio to authenticate a statement from his captors promising an American would be freed within 72 hours. His wife Elham expressed cautious optimism in the interview, saying it was “a very good step.” Cicippio himself, however, would not be released until December 1991, after nearly five and a half years in captivity. In a landmark 1998 ruling, a U.S. federal judge held Iran directly liable under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act’s terrorism exception. Iran had provided material support to Hezbollah, making it responsible for the torture and hostage-taking. The court awarded substantial compensatory damages: $9 million to Jacobsen, $16 million to Reed, $20 million to Cicippio, and $10 million each to their wives. This was one of the first major cases in which a foreign state sponsor of terrorism was held accountable in an American courtroom. Yet the broader tragedy remains: Iran has never paid a cent. And the same regime that orchestrated these horrors has continued to sponsor terrorism worldwide with near-impunity until the recent fighting back by American and Israeli armed forces. This is Iran’s 47-year war against America — a war of bombing, kidnapping, torture, and murder.

Politico: Barney Frank was the first member of Congress to come out voluntarily as gay and the first to enter a same-sex marriage while in office. “When I decided, finally, to come out in ’87, it just struck me when I did that … the American people are a lot less homophobic than they thought they were supposed to be,” he said. “More racist, unfortunately, but less homophobic.” His latest book is set to be released later this year (“I face a literal deadline, so I don’t know how we’ll adjust to that,” he said of the timing). He’s hoping “to use my reputation and my record of being on the left to give courage to many of my colleagues who I know agree with me but are inhibited from saying so.” “For a lot of my colleagues, the argument has been, ‘well, we don’t support defund the police or open borders, and we don’t say we do,’” Frank said. “But my point is, no, it’s not enough … to be silent. We have to explicitly repudiate it.”

It’s special election day and Lindsey Boylan is campaigning with Lander, Epstein and Avilés. Expecting Mamdani soon. The mayor’s endorsement had “a huge impact on elevating the race and bringing people to us that would not otherwise have known about the candidacy,” she says.