Aastha पास्ता

@aasthauprety.bsky.social

✍🏽 writer, editor, socialist 🌹 views are my own 🛸 editorial @rooseveltinstitute.org @rooseveltforward.org and member @nyguild.bsky.social‬

aasthauprety.substack.com 👩🏽‍💻
nyc via dc

@washingtonpost.com Oct 16, 2026, 1:46 PMReposted by @aasthauprety.bsky.social

Masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villagers on Friday, setting olive groves on fire and slinging rocks.

Caught in the attack was Post photographer Heidi Levine. “They just kept kicking me and kicking me, like probably 50 times,” Levine said. https://wapo.st/4yt6dHY

@trackaipac.com Oct 17, 2026, 1:48 AMReposted by @aasthauprety.bsky.social

Three years ago today, 13 House Democrats saw the obvious. Israel’s response to Hamas’ October 7 attack was disproportionate, and it needed to be stopped.

@advaitarun.bsky.social Oct 16, 2026, 5:59 PMReposted by @aasthauprety.bsky.social

It's @aasthauprety.bsky.social in Fireside Stacks asking great questions about how to build progressive institutions of countervailing power into our governance!

www.firesidestacks.com/p/designing-...

@hamiltonnolan.bsky.social Oct 16, 2026, 2:03 PMReposted by @aasthauprety.bsky.social

If the hard left gets what it wants then before you know it the Democratic Party will be a place that only supports things that are "good."
www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/im-sick-of...

@currentaffairs.bsky.social Oct 15, 2026, 5:58 PMReposted by @aasthauprety.bsky.social

We urgently need to protect human thought and creativity. Our magazine is committing itself to remaining handmade. Ensure every publication you support does the same.

www.currentaffairs.org/news/why-wer...

@washingtonpost.com Oct 16, 2026, 1:30 PMReposted by @aasthauprety.bsky.social

Dozens of masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villagers trying to gather their autumn olive harvest. Heidi Levine, a veteran photographer for The Post, was also knocked her to the ground, kicked repeatedly and stripped of her camera and phone.

washingtonpost.comIsraeli settlers attack Palestinians and Washington Post photographer in West BankThe settlers attacked Palestinians harvesting olives and beat Heidi Levine, a veteran photojournalist. Witnesses said Israeli soldiers did nothing to halt the violence.

@aasthauprety.bsky.social Oct 15, 2026, 8:39 PM

Policies that deliberately empower the working class strengthen the ability of the people to protect their collective rights the next time an antidemocratic government rolls around—and eventually prevent that from happening in the first place.

www.firesidestacks.com/p/designing-...

@aasthauprety.bsky.social Oct 15, 2026, 8:39 PM

"Our reading of past moments of democratic rebuilding—from American history as well as other countries—is that rebuilding efforts will be wholly insufficient if they do not center a theory of power shifting." So much to chew on from this conversation ⬇️

@rooseveltforward.org Oct 15, 2026, 4:43 PMReposted by @aasthauprety.bsky.social

New for Fireside Stacks: Every policy shifts power, but policymakers rarely ask who gains it and who loses it. Our @aasthauprety.bsky.social speaks with @awhf.bsky.social about designing policy that builds power for workers and tenants and weakens those who undermine democracy.

@thedigradio.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 9:09 PMReposted by @aasthauprety.bsky.social

New on The Dig: Confronting Labor's Crisis w/ Micah Uetricht & Chris Brooks It’s no surprise to our listeners that the US labor movement has long been in serious crisis - but we might soon be hitting a point of no return, after which the revival of organized labor might not be possible.

@diplomatofnight.com Oct 14, 2026, 11:10 PMReposted by @aasthauprety.bsky.social

Hard to describe this as anything other than an elite-level psychosis spurred on by the collapse of mainstream support for Israel.

@mayaschenwar.bsky.social Oct 14, 2026, 3:03 PMReposted by @aasthauprety.bsky.social

"Under a fascist regime that wants to gut education & suppress information, libraries highlight the importance of giving everyone access to learning & knowledge. They provide a model for an antifascist future"
- @prisonculture.bsky.social

substack.com/inbox/post/2...
This whole piece is so good!!

substack.comAntifascism Means Well-Funded Public LibrariesMayor Mamdani’s Unfulfilled Promise

@aasthauprety.bsky.social Oct 15, 2026, 12:53 AM

Relevant to the mayor’s terrible horrible no good very bad week aasthauprety.substack.com/p/the-moveme...

This is all true; there is undoubtedly frustration among the base, and formal condemnations from the DSA have so far been rare. But this kind of rift tends to create two types of oversimplified reactions: 1) the Mamdani-defender who scolds critics for undermining his popularity and sabotaging his
governance project, or 2) the Mamdani-hater licking their chops at the possibility of internal collapse.
But consider that neither interpretation is the full story, and this isn't an attempt to run the Mamdani administration into the ground. What if, instead, it's sustaining pressure against the NYPD, keeping alternatives to policing in the political discourse, and-most importantly-ensuring that winning the mayoral office isn't the end goal but a platform for further progress and further political struggle? As Boggs &
Boggs write:

@abdulelsayed.bsky.social Oct 14, 2026, 10:15 PMReposted by @aasthauprety.bsky.social

The wealthiest in our country should pay their fair share into Social Security. Scrap the cap!

@simonkuper.bsky.social Oct 13, 2026, 2:45 PMReposted by @aasthauprety.bsky.social

I am not usually asked to be a peacemaker but I went on the Soccernomics podcast to try to cool things down between Stefan and Ashish over Man City. Not sure it worked. We then did some arguing about FIFA. open.spotify.com/show/033eUgQ...

@rebeccariddell.bsky.social Oct 13, 2026, 7:18 PMReposted by @aasthauprety.bsky.social

Total pleasure to join the @billionairetaxnow.bsky.social podcast and talk about:
🔹why California is the epicenter for our new Gilded Age
🔹how a one-time billionaire wealth tax on the ballot could turn things around, and
🔹why it's inspiring people around the world. www.youtube.com/watch?v=poBc...

@doctorvive.bsky.social Oct 13, 2026, 3:42 PMReposted by @aasthauprety.bsky.social

I have a long piece out now in @currentaffairs.bsky.social, where I argue that — even if they call for clean-energy development — insofar they also seek the expansion of fossil fuels, liberals are allied with the petro-authoritarian right.

1/4

www.currentaffairs.org/news/liberal...

It may seem implausible to argue that liberals who are working hard to enable capital investments in clean energy could be the allies of the petroauthoritarian right. But they are exactly that if they support expanding fossil fuels— or even if they advocate for an "all of the above" energy approach, which means expanding both clean energy and fossil fuels like "natural gas" (which, let's be real, should accurately be called "methane gas"). We could blanket the entire planet in solar panels, and power every last data center with nuclear power, but if we continued to use coal, oil, and gas, the temperature would continue to climb with no end in sight. Dismissing that physics as irrelevant, even if you purport to agree that "climate change is real'" is obviously a form of disavowal that borders on denial.

@hasanabirepeater.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 1:29 PMReposted by @aasthauprety.bsky.social

republican gotv strategy geninunely has been “eat shit and die - also our opponents are muslim” and the races are still close despite the deep bench of talent the dems actually put up this time around. there’s truly no force more powerful in this country than racism.

@aasthauprety.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 2:34 AM

This is what it comes down to

Just a quick reminder, Israel has committed mass murder every single day for 3 years, and we haven't even known about every single incident. There is not enough drugs I could take to be delusional enough to be in any way upset about a protest anywhere ever at anytime.

@mayor.nyc.gov Oct 8, 2026, 11:10 PMReposted by @aasthauprety.bsky.social

This afternoon in Marble Hill, a New Yorker was shot by an ICE agent in a residential neighborhood. Early reports indicate agents surrounded him and a 5-year-old child in his car before firing multiple rounds. We believe the child was physically unharmed.

This is an unconscionable and incredibly serious situation. I have called the President; when we speak I will demand that he ends all ICE enforcement actions in our city. I will not stand by while ICE agents terrorize our communities.

Our thoughts are with the injured New Yorker and his family tonight. We are praying for his recovery.

Get ICE out of our neighborhoods. Get ICE out of our hospitals. Get ICE off our streets. Get ICE away from our children.

Abolish ICE.

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