Brian Schefke
@brianschefke.bsky.social
Historian of biology. Native NCS speaker.
Pinned
Brian Schefke
@brianschefke.bsky.social
· Sep 21
So I screwed up my old Bluesky account (don't ask) and now I'm starting over on this one.
Good thread, and Sargent is exactly right. There's no "good" way to do mass deportations, and the terror attacks of ICE are not separate from that policy.
Trump is privately worried about the "optics" of ICE raids and his advisers are looking for ways to soften them, Axios reports. I'm calling bullshit: The terror and violence cannot be hived off from the broader policy agenda. They are 100% intrinsic to it.
New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2053...
New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2053...
Trump’s Own Advisers Suddenly Unnerved as ICE Raids Take Horrific Turn
So the president doesn’t like the “optics” of what ICE is doing. But there’s no such thing as sanitized, popular mass deportations—and this is by design.
newrepublic.com
January 16, 2026 at 8:13 PM
Good thread, and Sargent is exactly right. There's no "good" way to do mass deportations, and the terror attacks of ICE are not separate from that policy.
I, for one, support training a corvid antifascist strike force.
WE COULD’VE BEEN DOING THIS THE ENTIRE TIME. www.themirror.com/news/politic...
Man 'trains' crows to attack MAGA hats in just 3 months
A man has gone viral after documenting how he trained crows to target MAGA hats, sharing his months-long process and sparking fierce debate about ethics and politics
www.themirror.com
January 16, 2026 at 7:28 PM
I, for one, support training a corvid antifascist strike force.
We were told for years that this didn't matter because of comparative advantage and free trade. China would make more and cheaper stuff, and we'd buy it. So it will be amusing to see the alarm about China and green tech over the next few years.
I don’t think this stuff is recoverable. I think these are the crucial four years where we just cede all basically all green tech production to China.
January 16, 2026 at 6:59 PM
We were told for years that this didn't matter because of comparative advantage and free trade. China would make more and cheaper stuff, and we'd buy it. So it will be amusing to see the alarm about China and green tech over the next few years.
Reposted by Brian Schefke
Truth is a social phenomenon. Societies that choose to turn the process of "truth" production & dissemination over to rich, lying, manipulative, narcissistic, & proudly ignorant jackasses like Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch, and Donald Trump are societies in which the truth will cease to have any power.
January 16, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Truth is a social phenomenon. Societies that choose to turn the process of "truth" production & dissemination over to rich, lying, manipulative, narcissistic, & proudly ignorant jackasses like Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch, and Donald Trump are societies in which the truth will cease to have any power.
She did not present the prize. She cannot give it away. The medal is not the same thing.
BREAKING: Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado says she presented Trump her Nobel Peace Prize to recognize his commitment to her country.
Venezuela's Machado says she presented her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump during their meeting
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado says she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Donald Trump.
bit.ly
January 16, 2026 at 4:27 AM
She did not present the prize. She cannot give it away. The medal is not the same thing.
Reposted by Brian Schefke
“Psychologically Western.” In the Gilded Age, America’s elite embraced the pseudoscience of eugenics to justify their own sense of superiority and provide backing for racist and anti-immigrant policies. Pretty rich for Musk and his internet-broken brain to be judging the psyches of others.
January 15, 2026 at 2:14 PM
“Psychologically Western.” In the Gilded Age, America’s elite embraced the pseudoscience of eugenics to justify their own sense of superiority and provide backing for racist and anti-immigrant policies. Pretty rich for Musk and his internet-broken brain to be judging the psyches of others.
We have a winner! A case of Turtle Wax and a year's supply of Rice-A-Roni!
Cripes a’mighty people, Steven Miller is not staging a militarized ethnic cleansing and sending the border cops to murder people in the street to distract from the Epstein files. He’s doing it because he and Trump (and Vance and Homan and Noem etc) really really want to.
January 15, 2026 at 3:10 AM
We have a winner! A case of Turtle Wax and a year's supply of Rice-A-Roni!
iT'S a mAgAziNE, nOt A CliP
A single federal agent with a long gun just walked through the crowd, slipped on the ice on his way under the police tape.
Dropped his loaded clip.
Dropped his loaded clip.
January 15, 2026 at 2:48 AM
iT'S a mAgAziNE, nOt A CliP
Why should Poor Will be whipped? That’s kinda mean.
Bird names crack me up
“Killdeer” haha no you don’t buddy
“Killdeer” haha no you don’t buddy
January 14, 2026 at 11:46 PM
Why should Poor Will be whipped? That’s kinda mean.
Reposted by Brian Schefke
I wonder if Denmark is about to roll Trump by "letting" the US invest much, much more to defend the Greenland, like they've been asking us to for years.
January 14, 2026 at 6:42 PM
I wonder if Denmark is about to roll Trump by "letting" the US invest much, much more to defend the Greenland, like they've been asking us to for years.
"More training" doesn't fix this.
A protester is currently lying in a hospital bed with a piece of shrapnel in his neck 7mm from his carotid artery.
While he lay bleeding on the pavement, blinded in his left eye, gasping for air, agents did not call a medic. They dragged him and sneered: "You're going to lose your eye."
While he lay bleeding on the pavement, blinded in his left eye, gasping for air, agents did not call a medic. They dragged him and sneered: "You're going to lose your eye."
January 14, 2026 at 6:18 AM
"More training" doesn't fix this.
Reposted by Brian Schefke
So much of the reactionary tech elite and rationalist movements' views, epitomized in Elon Musk, are indistinguishable from Calhounism. Here is Calhoun's famous 1948 speech arguing that Jefferson's assertion that "all men are created equal" was wrong. teachingamericanhistory.org/document/spe...
January 13, 2026 at 5:24 PM
So much of the reactionary tech elite and rationalist movements' views, epitomized in Elon Musk, are indistinguishable from Calhounism. Here is Calhoun's famous 1948 speech arguing that Jefferson's assertion that "all men are created equal" was wrong. teachingamericanhistory.org/document/spe...
Aaron Rodgers is washed, and the Steelers are getting exactly what they deserve for believing otherwise.
January 13, 2026 at 4:13 AM
Aaron Rodgers is washed, and the Steelers are getting exactly what they deserve for believing otherwise.
This is a flat-out fascist slogan, and it's being presented in official appearances by US government officials.
January 13, 2026 at 4:07 AM
This is a flat-out fascist slogan, and it's being presented in official appearances by US government officials.
More training does not change the institutional imperative, which is exactly what ICE is carrying out.
Democrats are simultaneously beginning to refer to ICE and CBP agents as "poorly trained."
This message comes from leadership. They're trying to use it as a substitute for dismantling ICE and CBP and imprisoning their current employees. Don't fall for it; don't take any Dem seriously who uses it.
This message comes from leadership. They're trying to use it as a substitute for dismantling ICE and CBP and imprisoning their current employees. Don't fall for it; don't take any Dem seriously who uses it.
January 13, 2026 at 3:57 AM
More training does not change the institutional imperative, which is exactly what ICE is carrying out.
I don’t live there now, but the closest thing to a home river for me is the Clinton River.
My favorite Twitter prompt was "RT this with your home river," so reskeet this with your home river.
Mine is the Patuxent.
Mine is the Patuxent.
January 12, 2026 at 10:32 PM
I don’t live there now, but the closest thing to a home river for me is the Clinton River.
Reposted by Brian Schefke
A project to dismantle ICE will be years in the making. This is because you will have opponents [not just in the fascist GOP but also in the Democratic party]. And that means that organizing campaigns will have to be strategic and they will always be subject to being undermined by purported "allies"
January 12, 2026 at 9:02 PM
A project to dismantle ICE will be years in the making. This is because you will have opponents [not just in the fascist GOP but also in the Democratic party]. And that means that organizing campaigns will have to be strategic and they will always be subject to being undermined by purported "allies"
Reposted by Brian Schefke
I highly recommend “sound on” for this new angle
January 12, 2026 at 3:07 AM
I highly recommend “sound on” for this new angle
Reposted by Brian Schefke
If he wants to declare martial law, he will. It won't be based on reality. I don't know why some people continue to say: "be peaceful or he'll invoke martial law." Are you all living in this country in 2026???? Haven't you seen them make things up out of whole cloth???? Are you 10 years old?
January 12, 2026 at 2:10 AM
If he wants to declare martial law, he will. It won't be based on reality. I don't know why some people continue to say: "be peaceful or he'll invoke martial law." Are you all living in this country in 2026???? Haven't you seen them make things up out of whole cloth???? Are you 10 years old?
The right wing has long coded science as “liberal” or “left”. This goes back decades.
Once science denialists seize political power, science advocacy becomes “partisan” both by default, and because political power wants science advocacy to stop. Even just researching or talking about misinformation & disinformation is not only left-coded now, but in the crosshairs of political power
January 12, 2026 at 12:33 AM
The right wing has long coded science as “liberal” or “left”. This goes back decades.
Reposted by Brian Schefke
Once science denialists seize political power, science advocacy becomes “partisan” both by default, and because political power wants science advocacy to stop. Even just researching or talking about misinformation & disinformation is not only left-coded now, but in the crosshairs of political power
January 12, 2026 at 12:20 AM
Once science denialists seize political power, science advocacy becomes “partisan” both by default, and because political power wants science advocacy to stop. Even just researching or talking about misinformation & disinformation is not only left-coded now, but in the crosshairs of political power
Exactly. No amount of training can fix an institutional culture deliberately created to sow fear.
The problem with ICE is not insufficient training or even training content.
It’s creating an agency where you give people guns and tell them to terrorize Brown people and then recruit people excited to do that.
It’s creating an agency where you give people guns and tell them to terrorize Brown people and then recruit people excited to do that.
January 12, 2026 at 12:31 AM
Exactly. No amount of training can fix an institutional culture deliberately created to sow fear.
X is a cancer on the American body politic.
Ashley St. Clair says X removed her verification and demonetized her shortly after she spoke out about the Grok deepfakes
January 12, 2026 at 12:05 AM
X is a cancer on the American body politic.