Dara Lind

@daralind

Former journalist, now at @immcouncil.org (all posts here VERY MUCH my own), guest columnist at @documentedny.bsky.social, forever immigration explainer. Signal: daralind.18 Ruthless cosmopolitan.

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Dara Lind@daralind· 10d

Penny, of course, has spent the weekend being an affectionate little snuggler, because why should she be a terror when I’m NOT on deadline #PennyHelping

A gray and white cat naps on a human’s torso, fully flopped on her back, making a tiny pink blep with her tongue

Dara Lind@daralind· 20d

Wait that’s Penny??? She got a job???

A gray and white cat looks shocked to discover she has acquired a bodega job

Dara Lind@daralind· 20d

A gray and white cat simply being adorable. Pink toe beans are out.

Dara Lind@daralind· 23d

Sigh. Our Lady of Inevitable Denouement.

Dishwasher! Still a fun game for cats and humans to play together.

Dara Lind@daralind· 23d

A gray and white cat persuading a contractor that her parents are definitely not liable for any leaks in the subfloor.

Dara Lind@daralind· 23d

Sam I swear I went to cat yoga intending to get a workout instead of a cat and then this happened

SHE WAS JUST A LITTLE PUFFBALL PLAYING WITH A YOGA BLOCK

The photo that caused several weeks of difficulty in my marriage as I tried to insist to
my husband that I wasn’t trying to guilt him into letting us get a kitten

Dara Lind@daralind· 23d

Darth it gave me so much joy when this exchange happened in the group chat

A screenshot of a group chat exchange.

Me: “Tragic development: Penny has been evicted from the dishwasher for Crimes”
Friend: “were the crimes in question Dishwasher, Unauthorised Presence In”
Me: “::immigration nerd kool-aid mans in:: UNAUTHORIZED PRESENCE IS A CIVIL OFFENSE”
Me: “But she started trying to play with the spray arm”

Dara Lind@daralind· 23d

Sigh

Refrigerator: a Fun Game for Cats and Humans to Play Together

Dishwasher: a Fun Game for Cats and Humans to Play Together

Dara Lind@daralind· 23d

Darth I live in a <600sqft apartment with 2 people who have been working from home for 7 years and a cat who thinks that laptop is a fun game for cats and humans to play together What is personal space

“Indeed, what IS personal space” — Penny

Dara Lind@daralind· 26d

Extremely Darth posting this AM

Dara Lind@daralind· Jul 7

#PennyHelping expend some nervous energy

A gray-and-white kitten chewing her own tail.

Dara Lind@daralind· Jul 7

The eternal cycle of “it’s so over —> we’re so back —> it’s so over —> we’re so back.”

Dara Lind@daralind· Jul 4

#PennyHelping monitor this flyover situation (she has not yet figured out where exactly the Noises are coming from but if she does you BET she’s going to swat them out of the sky)

A cat on alert inside a rain-streaked window.

Dara Lind@daralind· Jul 2

My husband is my favorite philosopher.

A screenshot of a text sent by “JB” (Jonathan Blanks, the OP’s husband) that reads: “most of the best teams are diasporic AF”

Dara Lind@daralind· Jun 29

🫡 From me and everyone else who owns That One Brass Lion Menorah That Must Have Been For Sale On The Lower East Side

Dara Lind@daralind· Jun 26

#PennyHelping hold the cutting boards in place

A gray and white kitten peeks out from a shelf of cutting boards in an open kitchen cabinet.

Dara Lind@daralind· Jun 26

documentedny.com/2026/06/26/s...

Screenshot text:

“When 2026 comes to a close, it is entirely possible that barely anyone in the U.S. will have TPS. When that happens, the Trump administration’s effort to strip immigrants of discretionary protections – sometimes called “de-legalizing” them – will be nearly complete. The last domino to fall, of course, would be Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) — which the Supreme Court could to take up next year.”

Screenshot text:

“The breadth of the Thursday ruling on TPS is, in a way, an end to nearly 30 years of kicking the can down the road: an executive branch that kept extending temporary protections for people without giving them any chance to apply for more permanent status, and a judicial branch that stepped in under the first Trump administration to keep those protections from going away. Throughout that time, Congress has failed to act. Now, if Haitians — and everyone else — with TPS are going to have any shot of remaining in the U.S. legally, it’s going to have to be through the legislative branch.”

Dara Lind@daralind· Jun 26

Screenshot text:

“The ruling doesn’t affect anyone immediately. But pretty much everyone who still has TPS protections should be on alert for the rest of the year.

“The first populations to be affected will be those covered in the lawsuits SCOTUS just ruled in: Haiti, with roughly 350,000 TPS holders, and Syria, with another 6,000 or so. Those people will lose their TPS status when Thursday’s ruling officially goes into effect, in 32 days (unless the government requests it be put into effect sooner). However, several lawsuits over other countries’ TPS terminations have also allowed TPS holders to preserve their protections until now. As of this writing, courts have preserved TPS for Burma, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen — an additional 10,000 people – due to ongoing lawsuits.”

Screenshot text: “The new Supreme Court opinion heavily implies that those lawsuits are also likely to fail — and that the Trump administration should be allowed to terminate TPS while the lawsuits are pending, anyway. Lower court judges are likely, over the coming months, to issue new rulings falling into line.

“Then there are the approximately 170,000 people from El Salvador whose current TPS grant lasts until September — when the Trump administration is almost certain to refuse to extend it.”

Dara Lind@daralind· Jun 26

A screenshot of a Signal post: “Harry Connick Jr lookin nepo baby let’s go”

Dara Lind@daralind· Jun 26

Also, you guys, this is my current angle on #PennyHelping. What is she helping to do right now? Genuinely unsure.

Assorted pieces of kitten, assembled on a human’s chest. Clockwise from top left: ear, paw, ear, leg, foot, foot, tail.

Dara Lind@daralind· Jun 23

Penfold (Penny) So far: Gato (obviously, the only name any cat in this house ever answers to) Captain Oversteer Little Miss Entropy Miss Bag

A gray and white kitten making an incredibly dumb shocked face while resting her cheek upon a shoe.

Dara Lind@daralind· Jun 22

But he’s asking so politely! Nothing like this little guanciale monster

Dara Lind@daralind· Jun 21

She bigger these days

A kitten(?) doing a full Don’t Talk To Me Or My Mom Ever Again facial expression with her paws condescendingly flopped

Dara Lind@daralind· Jun 20

A very happy sixth anniversary to @blanksslate.bsky.social, who is a better partner than any of y’all could ever understand.

blanks, having been victimized by a confetti attack during Seder.

Dara Lind@daralind· Jun 20

This is the best text the 21st century has ever produced about the human condition

The famous Tumblr screencap:

“RIP to everyone killed by the gods for their hubris but im different. and better. maybe even better than the gods”

Dara Lind@daralind· Jun 20

TAG YOURSELVES

A screencap:

STARTING LINEUPS TRANSLATED FROM THEIR EXTREMELY POWERFUL TURKISH NAMES THAT WILL MAKE YOUR FEEBLE, NON-MUSCULAR MONIKER QUIVER AND SHAKE IN THEIR PRESENCE
Fenerbahce:
Volkan Demirel (GK): Volcano Ironhand
Egemen Korkmaz (DF): Sovereign Unflinching
Selçuk Şahin (MF): Selcuk (medieval Turkic empire) Hawk
Mert Günok (GK): Manly Day's Arrow
Ibrahim Serdar Aydın (DF): Ibrahim, Marshall of the Crescent Religion
Salih Uçan (MF): Righteous Aircraft
Serdar Kesimal (DF): Marshall Takes My Share
Caner Erkin (MF): Manly Blood Mature
Galatasaray:
Hamit Altıntop (MF): Protector of the Golden Ball
Aydin Yılmaz (MF): Crescent Religion Dauntless
Burak Yılmaz (FW): Dauntless Thunder
Umut Bulut (FW): Hope Cloud
Hakan Balta (DF): King Axe
Ibrahim Coşkun (MF): Ibrahim the Ebullient
Yekta Kurtuluş (MF): Unique Independence
Berk Ismail Ünsal (FW) Solid Ismail comes to the forefront
Eray İşcan (GK): Manly Moon Beloved Work

Dara Lind@daralind· Jun 19

Me: “Aww, is #PennyHelping you store the winter clothes?” @blanksslate.bsky.social: “Helping is not the word I would use.” Me: “what word would you use?” Penny: ::pounces on folded sweatshirt:: @blanksslate.bsky.social: “Nothelping. One word.”

A gray and white kitten peers out from a vacuum bag where the sweatshirts are supposed to be but the kitten is not.

Dara Lind@daralind· Jun 19

#PennyHelping adjudicate the group stage

A gray and white kitten bats at the screen during MEX-KOR.

Dara Lind@daralind· Jun 18

Penny wanted a byline on this story but she didn’t even help me with the calculations www.thebulwark.com/p/is-the-tru...