Bryan Fichter
@bryanfichter.bsky.social
Retired intelligence analyst. Russian speaker. Arabic speaker. Democracy enthusiast. Publisher of the Intelligencer newsletter on Substack.
Pinned
Opinion | This Is What Autocrats Dread
www.nytimes.com
We can do this, people
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...
This is a brilliant dissection of the MAGA grift machine
“If you can’t win on the field you can always play quarterback for the culture war”
aka The Failing at Life-to-MAGA Influencer” pipeline LOL
aka The Failing at Life-to-MAGA Influencer” pipeline LOL
November 29, 2025 at 9:54 PM
This is a brilliant dissection of the MAGA grift machine
All that's missing is for Karoline Leavitt to say that Venezuelans will welcome U.S. troops as liberators
@jamellebouie.net @anneapplebaum.bsky.social @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
@jamellebouie.net @anneapplebaum.bsky.social @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
It's like the end of Animal Farm and the MAGA folks are indistinguishable from the neoconservatives they ousted. foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/03/m...
With Military Buildup Against Venezuela, the U.S. Eyes Cuba as Well
Washington hopes cutting off Venezuelan oil to Havana would collapse the Cuban regime.
foreignpolicy.com
November 29, 2025 at 9:00 PM
All that's missing is for Karoline Leavitt to say that Venezuelans will welcome U.S. troops as liberators
@jamellebouie.net @anneapplebaum.bsky.social @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
@jamellebouie.net @anneapplebaum.bsky.social @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
This is one advantage of having the historical memory of authoritarianism, as I have from Brazil: you know that, when the regime is gone, the people who collaborated and acquiesced look terrible in retrospect. It may look reasonable and justifiable now, but believe me, it will age like milk.
November 29, 2025 at 3:34 PM
This is one advantage of having the historical memory of authoritarianism, as I have from Brazil: you know that, when the regime is gone, the people who collaborated and acquiesced look terrible in retrospect. It may look reasonable and justifiable now, but believe me, it will age like milk.
Hoo boy get ready for a tidal wave of Cuban and Venezuelan refugees heading for the U.S. to escape the chaos we unleashed in their countries
@chrislhayes.bsky.social @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social @dandrezner.bsky.social
@chrislhayes.bsky.social @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social @dandrezner.bsky.social
It's like the end of Animal Farm and the MAGA folks are indistinguishable from the neoconservatives they ousted. foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/03/m...
With Military Buildup Against Venezuela, the U.S. Eyes Cuba as Well
Washington hopes cutting off Venezuelan oil to Havana would collapse the Cuban regime.
foreignpolicy.com
November 29, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Hoo boy get ready for a tidal wave of Cuban and Venezuelan refugees heading for the U.S. to escape the chaos we unleashed in their countries
@chrislhayes.bsky.social @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social @dandrezner.bsky.social
@chrislhayes.bsky.social @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social @dandrezner.bsky.social
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
ICE convoy retreats from Manhattan's Chinatown after hundreds of New Yorkers confront them.
Around two dozen car/vans have sped out of the garage, with NYPD officers clearing the path. One guys tries to stop them, NYPD officers come chasing.
November 29, 2025 at 6:17 PM
ICE convoy retreats from Manhattan's Chinatown after hundreds of New Yorkers confront them.
So the president can just issue a NOTAM on social media now ?
@radiofreetom.bsky.social @markhertling.bsky.social
@radiofreetom.bsky.social @markhertling.bsky.social
Donald Trump says airspace above and around Venezuela is closed
Donald Trump says airspace above and around Venezuela is closed
President made declaration in a social media post, after FAA last week warned airlines of ‘worsening security situation’
Donald Trump said on Saturday that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela is to be closed in its entirety.
Trump, in a Truth Social post said: “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.” Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 29, 2025 at 4:37 PM
So the president can just issue a NOTAM on social media now ?
@radiofreetom.bsky.social @markhertling.bsky.social
@radiofreetom.bsky.social @markhertling.bsky.social
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
Trump, with no authority to do so, demands the airspace “above and surrounding” Venezuela be closed as he threatens to bomb and invade the country.
November 29, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Trump, with no authority to do so, demands the airspace “above and surrounding” Venezuela be closed as he threatens to bomb and invade the country.
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
You're not seeing the defense and international conflict experts disagreeing because if the facts are true, it's one of the most basic things in the law of armed conflict: You cannot kill people who are "hors de combat," taken out of the game by injury or attack. This is Geneva 101 stuff.
I follower a few defense experts.
Seeing them all straight-up declare this a war crime without any him-and-hawing is uhm
Disconcerting.
Pete Hegseth must resign, as does Stephen Miller. Donald Trump should be subpoenaed before Congress to answer for HIS policy.
Seeing them all straight-up declare this a war crime without any him-and-hawing is uhm
Disconcerting.
Pete Hegseth must resign, as does Stephen Miller. Donald Trump should be subpoenaed before Congress to answer for HIS policy.
November 29, 2025 at 2:01 AM
You're not seeing the defense and international conflict experts disagreeing because if the facts are true, it's one of the most basic things in the law of armed conflict: You cannot kill people who are "hors de combat," taken out of the game by injury or attack. This is Geneva 101 stuff.
"The stage is set for a folly of immense proportions.'
open.substack.com/pub/bryanfic...
open.substack.com/pub/bryanfic...
A Splendid Little War
Thoughts on the eve of (possible) war with Venezuela
open.substack.com
November 29, 2025 at 3:48 PM
"The stage is set for a folly of immense proportions.'
open.substack.com/pub/bryanfic...
open.substack.com/pub/bryanfic...
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
trump: “no see we HAVE to blow up those boats in the caribbean, they could be carrying drugs!”
also trump:
also trump:
November 29, 2025 at 12:01 AM
trump: “no see we HAVE to blow up those boats in the caribbean, they could be carrying drugs!”
also trump:
also trump:
Ever since Brexit the UK has been morphing into the dystopian state depicted in the (great) film Children of Men
@jamellebouie.net @anneapplebaum.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/w...
@jamellebouie.net @anneapplebaum.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/w...
The British Public Thinks Immigration Is Up. It’s Actually Down, Sharply.
www.nytimes.com
November 28, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Ever since Brexit the UK has been morphing into the dystopian state depicted in the (great) film Children of Men
@jamellebouie.net @anneapplebaum.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/w...
@jamellebouie.net @anneapplebaum.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/w...
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
If they ever get around to building this thing, it should be bulldozed on Day 1 of a new administration. No messing around, no hemming and hawing about procedure or costs. Order heavy equipment in and start knocking it down immediately, as surely as an overthrown tyrant's statues would be torn down.
Even the architect Trump hired to build his massive addition to the White House objects to the president's vision. The two have argued about the size of the 90,000-sq-foot project that would dwarf the mansion. @jonathanreports.bsky.social @ddiamond.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Trump wants a bigger White House ballroom. His architect disagrees.
The president and James McCrery had argued in recent weeks over the project’s size, with Trump pushing him to expand the ballroom.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:56 PM
If they ever get around to building this thing, it should be bulldozed on Day 1 of a new administration. No messing around, no hemming and hawing about procedure or costs. Order heavy equipment in and start knocking it down immediately, as surely as an overthrown tyrant's statues would be torn down.
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
I think that somewhere along the way something in Stephen Miller got fundamentally damaged. This is neither an excuse nor a mitigating factor; the dude is genuinely fucking evil and he and everything he stands for should be fought against and stopped. But he is something beyond mere sociopathy.
Since Stephen Miller is in the midst of another of his Aryans-only trantrums, we should note that his family are 20th century immigrants from the shtetl of Antopol (Антопаль) then in the Hrodna gubernia of Russia. Applying his immigration rules, they would all have perished in the Holocaust.
Stephen Miller Is an Immigration Hypocrite. I Know Because I’m His Uncle.
If my nephew’s ideas on immigration had been in force a century ago, our family would have been wiped out.
www.politico.com
November 28, 2025 at 6:57 PM
I think that somewhere along the way something in Stephen Miller got fundamentally damaged. This is neither an excuse nor a mitigating factor; the dude is genuinely fucking evil and he and everything he stands for should be fought against and stopped. But he is something beyond mere sociopathy.
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
Straight up war crime
Every single congressional Democrat needs to be out there, right now, insisting that Pete Hegseth resign right now and announcing that he will be held accountable for committing war crimes.
If you do not demand accountability here and now, they will only become more emboldened.
If you do not demand accountability here and now, they will only become more emboldened.
Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” in the first strike on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. After two men survived, the mission commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, according to two sources.
November 28, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Straight up war crime
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
The unifying aim of all Trump pronouncements and actions is to trash the constitution and impose a white supremacist militarized autocracy by EO and truth social decree - the latest attack on naturalization and birthright citizenship is an ugly new escalation of that barbaric aim.
November 28, 2025 at 3:03 PM
The unifying aim of all Trump pronouncements and actions is to trash the constitution and impose a white supremacist militarized autocracy by EO and truth social decree - the latest attack on naturalization and birthright citizenship is an ugly new escalation of that barbaric aim.
Re-upping this in light of Stephen Miller's latest racist pronouncement
open.substack.com/pub/bryanfic...
open.substack.com/pub/bryanfic...
Are We Watching White America's Last Stand ?
Turning the page to a new America
open.substack.com
November 28, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Re-upping this in light of Stephen Miller's latest racist pronouncement
open.substack.com/pub/bryanfic...
open.substack.com/pub/bryanfic...
Maybe buy one less present this holiday season and do this instead
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/o...
Opinion | Give to Groups Defending Immigrants From ICE
www.nytimes.com
November 28, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Maybe buy one less present this holiday season and do this instead
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/o...
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
This is fundamentally Nazism. The idea that different peoples than the favored races carry degradation in their very genes, that they cannot strive to become better because biology compels them to be worse. It’s not just repugnant, it’s a bald faced lie.
Stephen Miller is now arguing that assimilation is fundamentally impossible and that certain cultures are not compatible with Western civilization
November 28, 2025 at 2:02 PM
This is fundamentally Nazism. The idea that different peoples than the favored races carry degradation in their very genes, that they cannot strive to become better because biology compels them to be worse. It’s not just repugnant, it’s a bald faced lie.
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
We're gonna need a truth and reconciliation commission and Nuremberg style trials to reckon with all of this evil, and any Dem candidate for office who shies away from a full reckoning in the name of "moving forward as a nation" can get well and truly fucked
I feel much safer today knowing that we deported a Babson College student back to a country where she hasn't lived since childhood.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
A Babson College student wanted to surprise her family for Thanksgiving. She was deported instead. - The Boston Globe
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza was at Logan to catch a flight to Texas when immigration authorities detained her as she was about to board the plane.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:29 PM
We're gonna need a truth and reconciliation commission and Nuremberg style trials to reckon with all of this evil, and any Dem candidate for office who shies away from a full reckoning in the name of "moving forward as a nation" can get well and truly fucked
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
Straight-up sociopath.
Asked about a Guard member who’s dead because of his bullshit and it takes him 30 seconds to make it all about how great he is.
Asked about a Guard member who’s dead because of his bullshit and it takes him 30 seconds to make it all about how great he is.
Q: Do you plan to attend Sarah's funeral?
TRUMP: I haven't thought about it yet, but it's certainly something I can conceive of. I love West Virginia. You know, I won West Virginia by one of the biggest margins of any president anywhere.
TRUMP: I haven't thought about it yet, but it's certainly something I can conceive of. I love West Virginia. You know, I won West Virginia by one of the biggest margins of any president anywhere.
November 28, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Straight-up sociopath.
Asked about a Guard member who’s dead because of his bullshit and it takes him 30 seconds to make it all about how great he is.
Asked about a Guard member who’s dead because of his bullshit and it takes him 30 seconds to make it all about how great he is.
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
I wish it didn’t feel so unusual and inspiring to see a leader treating everyone like they matter and saying that we have a responsibility to help each other
Combatting poverty and hunger in this city will take every single one of us. Myself included.
November 27, 2025 at 3:19 PM
I wish it didn’t feel so unusual and inspiring to see a leader treating everyone like they matter and saying that we have a responsibility to help each other
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
the requirement is, of course, “be white” amp.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...
Trump says Haiti no longer meets requirements for TPS. Haitians have to leave
The Department of Homeland Security said TPS for Haiti ends Feb. 3, 2026, affecting over half a million people who may face return to gang-controlled Port-au-Prince.
amp.miamiherald.com
November 26, 2025 at 10:43 PM
the requirement is, of course, “be white” amp.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
An 18yo US citizen, surrounded by eight masked, armed agents of the state, taken into custody, not read his rights, not offered a chance to contact a lawyer, proof of citizenship ignored, handcuffed so tightly he later required medical attention.
Profoundly, profoundly anti-American shit.
Profoundly, profoundly anti-American shit.
ICE Detained an 18-Year-Old U.S. Citizen. This Is His Story.
YouTube video by The Hometown Holler
youtu.be
November 26, 2025 at 10:00 PM
An 18yo US citizen, surrounded by eight masked, armed agents of the state, taken into custody, not read his rights, not offered a chance to contact a lawyer, proof of citizenship ignored, handcuffed so tightly he later required medical attention.
Profoundly, profoundly anti-American shit.
Profoundly, profoundly anti-American shit.
Reposted by Bryan Fichter
Hugely useful
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
A year on from Trump’s victory, resistance is everywhere | Rebecca Solnit
Americans have shown a tremendous amount and variety of opposition – more than some may realize
www.theguardian.com
November 26, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Hugely useful
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...