Brett Allin
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brettallin.bsky.social
Brett Allin
@brettallin.bsky.social
200 followers 780 following 6 posts
Oregon appellate public defender, rafter, husband, father
Portland OR
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Reposted by Brett Allin
whstancil.bsky.social
As someone who had the lowest possible expectations for Democratic leadership and electeds, watching Democrats in Congress see my neighbors brutalized by a government hellbent on causing us harm and then clumsily change the topic is… radicalizing
January 22, 2026 at 2:10 AM
Reposted by Brett Allin
kpboland.bsky.social
"In this riveting novel of madcap adventure, a woman named Bea leaves New York City for Utah, where her mother lives..."

SCAVENGERS in the New Yorker's Briefly Noted!

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
@vikingbooks.bsky.social
Briefly Noted Book Reviews
Short reviews of recent releases.
www.newyorker.com
January 20, 2026 at 11:38 PM
Reposted by Brett Allin
kpboland.bsky.social
"Escape to the enchanting Utah desert with an irresistible mother-daughter duo... Charming, propulsive and emotionally gripping."

SCAVENGERS named one of @peoplemag.bsky.social's Best Books of January!

people.com/people-best-... @vikingbooks.bsky.social
PEOPLE’s Best Books of January 2026: A Stunning Sophia Loren Photobook, Plus New Fiction
See PEOPLE's picks for the best books of January 2026 so far, including self-help books, literary fiction and photo books.
people.com
January 20, 2026 at 11:40 PM
Reposted by Brett Allin
newyorker.com
“Scavengers,” “Some Bright Nowhere,” “Atlas’s Bones,” “Everything Is Photograph,” and more books our writers and editors are reading this week. Find some to add to your #TBR list. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/8Xl1T0
Briefly Noted Book Reviews
Short reviews of recent releases.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
January 21, 2026 at 2:00 AM
Reposted by Brett Allin
kendrawrites.com
From an optics perspective... the protesters being the ones waving the US flag while Bovino et al looks like every awful nazi inspired movie we've ever seen... hats off to Minnesotans.
victinibcn.bsky.social Luca Migo ❌👑 @victinibcn.bsky.social · 4d
Greg Bovino was seen earlier today at the Minneapolis ICE facility dressed in a very nazi-inspired outfit. They don’t even hide anymore.
January 17, 2026 at 8:53 PM
Reposted by Brett Allin
jamellebouie.net
over the course of 1871, congress held seven months of hearings on ku klux klan and other white vigilante violence in the south, they took detailed testimony from hundreds of black men and women attesting to klan terror. (1/?)
January 14, 2026 at 2:06 AM
Reposted by Brett Allin
internethippo.bsky.social
These barbarians are destroying everything that makes society work. Kids can't go to school, patients can't go to the hospital. We are, in effect, paying them to wreck the basic infrastructure of the country
January 14, 2026 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Brett Allin
debutiful.bsky.social
Our first podcast of 2026 has landed!

Listen to Kathleen Boland discuss how she writes, why she writes, and the path to publishing her debut book SCAVENGERS (@vikingbooks.bsky.social).

Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/4rui...
January 14, 2026 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Brett Allin
booksonthepark.bsky.social
Happy Pub Day to @kpboland.bsky.social! Join us next week to celebrate SCAVENGERS.
"But at the end of the day, any attempts to control the land are just hubris. We can permanently change the land, absolutely. But can you control it? I don’t think so."
electricliterature.com/a-mother-dau...
A Mother-Daughter Novel That Transforms the Western - Electric Literature
Kathleen Boland’s “Scavengers” is a madcap adventure probing questions of reinvention, the wilderness, and the stories we tell ourselves
electricliterature.com
January 13, 2026 at 8:35 PM
Reposted by Brett Allin
moiradonegan.bsky.social
One of the (several) problems with the demand that bystanders and targeted people be immediately compliant with ICE agents is that fleeing ICE is incredibly rational. They’re violent, piggish thugs who disappear some people into horrendous gulags and shoot others in the face.
January 9, 2026 at 5:35 AM
Reposted by Brett Allin
katmabu.bsky.social
You and your wife drop your 6-year-old off at school. You just moved here. You see ICE terrorizing your new neighbors. You film them, as is your legal right. Your wife complies with orders. She is then shot in the head. You still have to pick up your child later today.

This could be you.
Distraught woman says ICE killed her wife in video after deadly Minneapolis shooting "They killed my wife," the distraught woman says, adding, "They shot her in the head." An ICE agent shot and killed a 37-year-old woman who was driving an SUV in Minneapolis on Wednesday. / Screenshot/@Breaking911 "They killed my wife. I don't know what to do," the woman says through sobs in the footage, with a damaged SUV visible in the distance behind her. "We stopped to videotape, and they shot her in the head," the woman cries. "We have a six-year-old at school," she says, almost unable to breathe, as a chaotic scene in which federal officers prevented at least one doctor who was on the scene from assisting the shot victim unfolds. "We're new here," the distraught woman says in despair.
January 8, 2026 at 12:15 AM
Reposted by Brett Allin
tbone.malware-virus.biz
It's Their Time
January 5, 2026 at 7:23 PM
Reposted by Brett Allin
mattielubchansky.com
the reason they don’t bother to manufacture the consent beforehand is that everyone just sort of does it for them post-facto now
January 3, 2026 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Brett Allin
kjephd.bsky.social
A concept I've been meaning to float to make sense of what's happened to the US Constitution is an idea from the British constitutional tradition: "implied repeal."

It's useful because it helps us to understand that Article I, & much else of the US Constitution, has been implicitly repealed.
January 3, 2026 at 7:35 PM
brettallin.bsky.social
I loved @kwistent.bsky.social’s review of my wife Kathleen Boland’s debut novel, Scavengers. Can’t wait for everyone to read it on January 13!
Review | A novel inspired by a real-life treasure hunt illuminates the American West
In Kathleen Boland’s “Scavengers,” a struggling woman sets out with her erratic mother in search of buried loot.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 31, 2025 at 2:42 AM
Reposted by Brett Allin
annabower.bsky.social
Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:
News Team, Thank you for the notes and texts. I apologize for not reaching out earlier. I learned on Saturday that Bari Weiss spiked our story, INSIDE CECOT, which was supposed to air tonight. We (Ori and I) asked for a call to discuss her decision. She did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity. Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now-after every rigorous internal check has been met is not an editorial decision, it is a political one. We requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story. If the administration's refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a "kill switch" for any reporting they find inconvenient. If the standard for airing a story becomes "the government must agree to be interviewed," then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast. We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state. These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless. CBS spiked the Jeffrey Wigand interview due to legal concerns, nearly destroying the credibility of this broadcast. It took years to recover from that "low point." By pulling this story to shield an administration, we are repeating that history, but for political optics rather than legal ones. We have been promoting this story on social media for days. Our viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of "Gold Standard" reputation for a single week of political quiet. I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight. Sharyn
December 22, 2025 at 3:37 AM
Reposted by Brett Allin
mattcameron.bsky.social
1/ One thing that I think is getting understandably overlooked in the coverage of immigration overenforcement is just how wasteful and inefficient ICE is being even when they aren't kidnapping and caging people who should be with their families.

Here's a quick example from my casefiles today:
December 10, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Reposted by Brett Allin
jamellebouie.net
bad actors like wurman are why i think it is important to place the birthright clause in the full context of section 1 and section 1 in the context of both dred scott and the two decades of antislavery and abolitionist agitation and political thinking that proceeded it
anthonymkreis.bsky.social Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · Dec 7
The evidence is the text. All you have to do is read the Constitution.
December 7, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Reposted by Brett Allin
badideas.bsky.social
Are we in a game of chicken to see how far a handful of freaks can push things until we bring back consequences and / or guillotines? How have we hyper-normalized them saying this shit out loud in public?
December 4, 2025 at 4:48 AM
Reposted by Brett Allin
purplechrain.bsky.social
America does not have capital punishment for selling or smuggling drugs and none of these people were arrested or tried. There could have been mountains of cocaine in open view on the deck of the boats and it still would have been murder of unarmed civilians.
sanho.bsky.social Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · Dec 2
Rand Paul just posted this letter from the Coast Guard confirming that 1/4 of the boats they stop carry no contraband. The likelihood that Hegseth & Bradley ordered the murder of innocent civilians is very high.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security United States Coast Guard Commandant United States Coast Guard 2703 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE Washington, DC 20593-7000 Staff Symbol: CCG Phone: (202) 372-4411 5730 31 ост 2025 The Honorable Rand H. Paul United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Paul: In response to your letter dated October 6, 2025, regarding the Coast Guard's efforts to interdict illicit drugs headed towards the United States since September 1, 2024, I offer the following: 1. From September 1, 2024, to October 7, 2025, Coast Guard surface assets, operating under Coast Guard law enforcement authority, interdicted 212 suspected drug-smuggling vessels at sea headed toward the United States. Of the 212 interdictions, 41 vessels had no illicit contraband on board when interdicted; 24 of those 41 vessels without contraband did not appear to commit any federal criminal offense. 2. Of the 212 total vessels interdicted during this period, 69 vessels were interdicted in the Caribbean Sea by Coast Guard surface assets, operating under Coast Guard law enforcement authority. Of these 69 interdictions, 14 had no illicit contraband on board when interdicted; 11 of those 14 vessels without contraband did not appear to commit any federal criminal offense. Of the 69 Caribbean interdictions, 14 vessels were interdicted off the coast of Venezuela. Three of the 14 vessels interdicted near Venezuela had no illicit contraband on board when interdicted, but one of the three violated other U.S. federal criminal statutes. 3. The Coast Guard did not use lethal force against any of the 212 vessels interdicted at sea during this period. The Coast Guard used non-lethal force to warn and/or disable non-compliant vessels suspected of smuggling on 105 occasions during this period. 4. Of the 212 interdictions conducted by the Coast Guard from September 1, 2024, to October 7, 2025, 208 were interdicted in international waters. 5. Of the 212 interdictions conducted by the Coast Gu…
December 3, 2025 at 5:48 AM
Reposted by Brett Allin
sanho.bsky.social
Rand Paul just posted this letter from the Coast Guard confirming that 1/4 of the boats they stop carry no contraband. The likelihood that Hegseth & Bradley ordered the murder of innocent civilians is very high.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security United States Coast Guard Commandant United States Coast Guard 2703 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE Washington, DC 20593-7000 Staff Symbol: CCG Phone: (202) 372-4411 5730 31 ост 2025 The Honorable Rand H. Paul United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Paul: In response to your letter dated October 6, 2025, regarding the Coast Guard's efforts to interdict illicit drugs headed towards the United States since September 1, 2024, I offer the following: 1. From September 1, 2024, to October 7, 2025, Coast Guard surface assets, operating under Coast Guard law enforcement authority, interdicted 212 suspected drug-smuggling vessels at sea headed toward the United States. Of the 212 interdictions, 41 vessels had no illicit contraband on board when interdicted; 24 of those 41 vessels without contraband did not appear to commit any federal criminal offense. 2. Of the 212 total vessels interdicted during this period, 69 vessels were interdicted in the Caribbean Sea by Coast Guard surface assets, operating under Coast Guard law enforcement authority. Of these 69 interdictions, 14 had no illicit contraband on board when interdicted; 11 of those 14 vessels without contraband did not appear to commit any federal criminal offense. Of the 69 Caribbean interdictions, 14 vessels were interdicted off the coast of Venezuela. Three of the 14 vessels interdicted near Venezuela had no illicit contraband on board when interdicted, but one of the three violated other U.S. federal criminal statutes. 3. The Coast Guard did not use lethal force against any of the 212 vessels interdicted at sea during this period. The Coast Guard used non-lethal force to warn and/or disable non-compliant vessels suspected of smuggling on 105 occasions during this period. 4. Of the 212 interdictions conducted by the Coast Guard from September 1, 2024, to October 7, 2025, 208 were interdicted in international waters. 5. Of the 212 interdictions conducted by the Coast Gu…
December 2, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Reposted by Brett Allin
gbbranstetter.bsky.social
The DC shooting story is really getting to me because we literally trained this man as a child soldier for a death squad in a forever war and Stephen Miller et al want to blame it on other cultures? It's our culture, American culture, that killed that woman.
November 28, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by Brett Allin
rincewind.run
Hegseth - and the people carrying out his orders - need to be tried in The Hague for this
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a verbal directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. “The order was to kill everybody,” one of them said. A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack — the opening salvo in the Trump administration’s war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere — ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water.
November 28, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Brett Allin
johnpfaff.bsky.social
The way we discuss crime in this country is abysmal—media and pop-culture alike.

I don’t know how we fix it, but it makes ALL of us worse off.

Those in high-crime areas are denied the things that work bc of fearmongering over them.

And those who are safe are made needlessly miserable by fear.
November 12, 2025 at 8:11 PM