NEW: This was the last essay I was supposed to publish at the Washington Post. But they fired me. I'm publishing it anyway-- about my family's connection to a sword the British looted from Ghana in 1874. If youve ever wondered why I love swords, here's why. open.substack.com/pub/karenatt...

There is a major political organization allied with the president that got so mad a Latino artist was tapped to play at the Super Bowl they made a whole alternative show. We should all take a moment to reflect on that. It is so blatantly racist.

1. It was not an accident. 2. It was not a staffer. 3. While the president may have dementia his racism is not due to dementia. 4. He isn’t sorry. He means every racist thought he shares. 5. His base agrees with him. 6. He will do it again. 7. No one in power will hold him accountable.

Essential read from @thomaszimmer.bsky.social on the struggle between democracy and authoritarianism on the streets of Minneapolis: a granular accounting of recent events, contextualized within Zimmer’s description of a MAGA assault on American democracy. 1/x democracyamericana.com/posts/fccbc0...

It’s spreading. Kids will die because of RFK Jr and Trump

4 federal agents pull over an elderly US citizen for the suspected crime of being brown, break her car window, throw her to the ground, then drive off after they find her US Passport in her purse. The Salem Police, when called, say there’s nothing they can do. www.salemreporter.com/2026/01/31/u...

The agents who killed Alex Pretti are now identified by ProPublica. The man who shot Pretti in the back ("A4"), is Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa. The man who instigated the confrontation, then shot Pretti's prone body, is CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez. Not new hires - 8 and 12 years service. 1/

The Trump admin wont name the agents who killed Alexi Pretti. So we are.

BREAKING: The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

As Congress Begins to Grapple With Restrictions on ICE, States Take Matters Into Their Own Hands talkingpointsmemo.com/news/state-a...

New at @flux.community: Don't believe the president's talk of de-escalation in Minnesota — violence against citizens is the inevitable by-product of a war on blue America conducted under cover of immigration enforcement. 1/x plus.flux.community/p/president-...

This administration is stark raving mad, and it is controlled by men - Vance, Miller, Bovino - are all-but-publicly taking orders from neo-Nazis bent on violent removal of nonwhite Americans. The admin barely hides many of these links. And it is driving a campaign of ethnic violence in our country.

I know all eyes are on Minneapolis, but there's a fast-approaching nightmare in Springfield, Ohio. Trump is revoking protected status for tens of thousands of Haitians living there on Feb. 3. Reportedly, on Feb. 4, 1000 ICE agents are arriving to remove this population. Ethnic cleansing.

Trump is dispatching Border Czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to "manage operations on the ground." In case you missed it, here's our investigation into Homan and his relationships with government contractors/consultants cashing in on the deportation business:

From @matthew.flux.community @flux.community, a great overview of the bigger picture behind MAGA violence on the streets of Minneapolis: the U.S. is in an unsettled transitional period, with the reactionary Trump regime at war with modern America. 1/x plus.flux.community/p/the-limina...

As @jtccarroll.bsky.social wrote, Democrats must shape public defiance into something meaningful and real. We have to educate people about why government is the ultimate life hack, and that government must listen to them also. /end

Even if you don't like Zohran Mamdani's issue positions, the fact that he is out there proposing brand-new policies and really mixing it up with the public is what all Democratic politicians should be doing. You can't protect democracy if you don't listen to the people .

But we cannot just oppose fascism. We must advocate for something better. And a centerpiece of that must be restoring community and helping others. Isolated, impoverished people will look anywhere for help--even from someone seeking to imprison them.

The big thing we have going for us, however, is that while people can be tricked into voting for anti-democratic candidates like Trump was in 2024, people don't like totalitarianism. Ironically, dictators need popular support to implement dictatorship. This is why I said fascism is a state of mind.

And finally, there is a third significant psychological impulse that Trumpism has going for it, and that is the appeal to "naturalism." Many people have deep suspicion of technologies they don't understand. RFK has weaponized this for Trump, as @nataliapetrzela.bsky.social and I noted:

Beyond the biology, there is a core philosophical dilemma at work here, the "problem of other minds." We don't have access to other people's thoughts, and so it's easy to think their desires aren't justified. This has political implications as @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social and I discussed:

Because humans were originally pack animals, many of us have biologically ingrained desires to follow leaders. This is what authoritarians use. And, as @mattpolprof.bsky.social and I have discussed, controlling the masses is the centerpiece of all right-wing philosophies.

Trump has been an extraordinarily effective advocate for American fascism because his vaudeville demeanor and marketing sense make him trustable to people who do not follow politics. But some people, like Tim Pool, have deep sexual fetishes to be dominated. There are millions like him.

Dictatorship is a state of mind, not just for the ruler, but also in the people. To win, democracy advocates must: 1) Know and tell the full fascistic agenda of the people who puppet Trump, and 2) Understand and advocate for their own values

🧵 The people of Minnesota, especially Renee Good and Alex Pretti, have shown that American democracy still has a lot of strength left within it. But the battle is far from over. The US is in a liminal moment, a time of transition. We can do this, but there's much to know and to do.

One thing I found deeply moving about resistance in the Twin Cities was the universalism of loving your neighbor, the philosophy driving the opposition to the ICE/BP invasion. I couldn't help but notice the contrast with the blood and soil-ism of Miller and Vance. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

The Liminal States of America: The people are fighting back—and winning—but this is far from over

how trump lost the battle of minnesota (debated between this and "the battle of the twin cities," which does sound more evocative) youtu.be/vxI8sR-I0ME

This is a white supremacist paramilitary operation. Their goal—their stated goal!—is to force America to submit to the President's racist domineering vision for the country. The sooner everybody starts confronting it on the terms that they themselves have stated, the better.

Nation's largest nurses union repeats calls for ICE abolition, pledges to do "everything in our power to vote out any elected official who supports funding for this all-out assault on the health, safety, and civil rights of our people."

"The State of the Resistance": @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com with @owasow.bsky.social , on our Neon Liberalism podcast www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...

in case you're curious about how angry Minnesota is about ICE, it was -20 today

My latest @flux.community: As the Trump administration unleashes repressive mayhem in Minneapolis-St. Paul, crippling biases and blind spots keep the Democrats and major media from conveying the full story to the public. 1/x plus.flux.community/p/maga-autho...

Spot on from Brian as usual.

We have to get rid of Jeffries and Schumer. We have to. It’s unendurable that these men are the most prominent Democrats of the moment. They are two of the most broadly undistinguished men I could imagine in politics, zero fire, zero fight, zero zeal, machine politicians with sinecures.

"ICE has lost the public, which means taking a hard line against it, deeming it irremediable as an institution, has become a source of power." Agree with @brianbeutler.bsky.social on how to talk about dismantling of ICE: www.offmessage.net/p/abolish-ic...

a heavily armed paramilitary force with legal immunity is occupying a city and going door to door kidnapping non-white adults and children in furtherance of an explicitly white nationalist political project

This guy went to work today, put a mask on, kidnapped a 5 year old child, and then used him as bait so both he and his father could be sent behind bars

This man is talking about stealing a country at gunpoint from nations the US is allied with. Of course Europeans hate us. You would feel the same way if you were in their place. American voters put this man in power, he didn’t seize it this time.

ICE ended up returning the man, Saly, after realizing he’s a fucking US citizen with no criminal record, per his sister-in-law. These fucking animals.

This is correct. Every future election cannot be democracy vs. fascism on the ballot. Preventing that moving forward will require a massive, detailed rewrite of how the United States is governed. Elected leaders who aren't prepared for dramatic change need to get out of the way.

wrote about the occupation in minnesota with a closing note on how the white house has exactly one tactic — repression with goons — but no particular strategy for dealing with entrenched resistance. gift link.

fresh @leftanchor.bsky.social episode, I've got @whstancil.bsky.social on to talk about tooling around Minneapolis tailing ICE stormtroopers in his Honda Fit www.leftanchor.com/e/facing-dow...

America's massive political divide originate mostly from the core conservative/reactionary idea that other people are not quite real, only they are. @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social and I discussed at length how this happens, from a variety of different angles.

Watch What They’re Doing: Trump Threatens to Make War on the States talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/watch...

Read @hebagowayed.bsky.social on how the Trump visa ban harkens back to the eugenics-inspired immigration policies of the early 20th century. Steven Miller's virulent white nationalism is driving US policy at home (ICE) and abroad.

Yessss. Together these fascists stand no chance, but only together. Apart, we are easy prey.

At a deep theoretical level, Stephen Miller and JD Vance think their view that immigrants threaten social solidarity is widely shared. But what's now happening is MAGA is driving native-born Americans to show solidarity with immigrants. Now Miller is trying to break that up w/coercion and violence.

They expect - they NEED - the people they threaten to fall in line, like the law firms and universities and media companies and billionaires and Congress did. If you say “No, make me,” they simply do not have a Plan B. TRUMP DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH GUYS TO MAKE YOU.

Sargent nails it here. This is damage control without a shred of commitment.