Jeff Sharlet
@jeffsharlet.bsky.social
I wrote a book about now, THE UNDERTOW: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, & 2 about how we got here, THE FAMILY & C ST, also a Netflix series. Also THIS BRILLIANT DARKNESS & SWEET HEAVEN WHEN I DIE. Professing @ Dartmouth. That's not my cat.
Reposted by Jeff Sharlet
seen in my neighborhood in south Minneapolis
February 10, 2026 at 10:28 PM
seen in my neighborhood in south Minneapolis
A dvd? How do they play it?
RON JOHNSON: In Central America, if you become a police chief, the drug cartels send you a DVD w/ a video of your family going to church or school...that's what ICE agents are facing
SORKIN: But these people are allowed to protest
J: They want their activists to dox them & put families at risk
SORKIN: But these people are allowed to protest
J: They want their activists to dox them & put families at risk
February 10, 2026 at 11:35 PM
A dvd? How do they play it?
Saying Trumpism hasn't accomplished much is likeBoston fans saying Yankees suck. It might feel good, but more often than not it's not true. That's just a game; this is countless lives damaged, ruined, ended. It's not doomerism to count the costs; it's remembering what, & who, you're fighting for.
When I hear people say that Trump hasn't accomplished much (an argument that comes from both the center and the left) it is mind-boggling. In one year they have destroyed the foundation of climate regulation, crippled the public health system, and brought immigration to a standstill.
This guts me
February 10, 2026 at 10:40 PM
Saying Trumpism hasn't accomplished much is likeBoston fans saying Yankees suck. It might feel good, but more often than not it's not true. That's just a game; this is countless lives damaged, ruined, ended. It's not doomerism to count the costs; it's remembering what, & who, you're fighting for.
Reposted by Jeff Sharlet
This guts me
February 10, 2026 at 10:25 PM
This guts me
Reposted by Jeff Sharlet
"There are still plenty of places to read about literature.…But they are produced for an audience that already knows it cares....The books section of a newspaper plays an altogether different role. It does not cater to aficionados; it seeks new recruits."
www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...
www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...
February 10, 2026 at 10:31 PM
"There are still plenty of places to read about literature.…But they are produced for an audience that already knows it cares....The books section of a newspaper plays an altogether different role. It does not cater to aficionados; it seeks new recruits."
www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...
www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...
This drives me nuts: people saying we don't need to worry about Trump seizing ballots because it won't be close enough to matter. What timeline do these folks live in? Not just the last ten years, but the many times elections have turned out closer than expected? But yes, *the last 10 years.*
February 9, 2026 at 11:03 PM
This drives me nuts: people saying we don't need to worry about Trump seizing ballots because it won't be close enough to matter. What timeline do these folks live in? Not just the last ten years, but the many times elections have turned out closer than expected? But yes, *the last 10 years.*
Reposted by Jeff Sharlet
ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps.
If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...
If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...
ICE to begin detaining immigrants inside Social Circle warehouse in April
Homeland Security plans to build warehouse detention facilities in other cities being met with opposition.
www.ajc.com
February 9, 2026 at 5:56 PM
ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps.
If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...
If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Jeff Sharlet
This is 18-mo-old Amalia waving to me when she was detained.
She was hospitalized with a respiratory infection while at ICE’s Dilley facility for immigrant families.
She’s one of dozens of detainees who I spoke to via video and phone calls, letters and an in-person visit. 🧵1/
She was hospitalized with a respiratory infection while at ICE’s Dilley facility for immigrant families.
She’s one of dozens of detainees who I spoke to via video and phone calls, letters and an in-person visit. 🧵1/
February 9, 2026 at 11:21 AM
This is 18-mo-old Amalia waving to me when she was detained.
She was hospitalized with a respiratory infection while at ICE’s Dilley facility for immigrant families.
She’s one of dozens of detainees who I spoke to via video and phone calls, letters and an in-person visit. 🧵1/
She was hospitalized with a respiratory infection while at ICE’s Dilley facility for immigrant families.
She’s one of dozens of detainees who I spoke to via video and phone calls, letters and an in-person visit. 🧵1/
Something I'm learning from Epstein files is how often rich & powerful people who don't really know each other as much beyond status markers tell each other "I miss you."
February 9, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Something I'm learning from Epstein files is how often rich & powerful people who don't really know each other as much beyond status markers tell each other "I miss you."
I'm re-reading The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths, by Brad Fox, to teach tomorrow. It belongs in a tiny canon of the brilliantly odd literary nonfiction of things found and assembled, w/ Svetlana Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl and Lauren Redniss' Radioactive.
February 9, 2026 at 1:51 PM
I'm re-reading The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths, by Brad Fox, to teach tomorrow. It belongs in a tiny canon of the brilliantly odd literary nonfiction of things found and assembled, w/ Svetlana Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl and Lauren Redniss' Radioactive.
Reposted by Jeff Sharlet
1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken.
Hundreds of kids are still detained.
We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
Hundreds of kids are still detained.
We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
February 9, 2026 at 12:25 PM
1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken.
Hundreds of kids are still detained.
We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
Hundreds of kids are still detained.
We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
Reposted by Jeff Sharlet
The best bit in 1984 about the novel-writing machines: Julia (who works in the Fiction Department) "could describe the whole process of composing a novel, from the general directive issued by the Planning Committee down to the final touching-up by the Rewrite Squad."
October 29, 2025 at 3:02 PM
The best bit in 1984 about the novel-writing machines: Julia (who works in the Fiction Department) "could describe the whole process of composing a novel, from the general directive issued by the Planning Committee down to the final touching-up by the Rewrite Squad."
1984.
Julia worked on the "novel-writing machines"
February 8, 2026 at 9:17 PM
1984.
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Republicans have weaponized the non-sequitur.
February 8, 2026 at 9:09 PM
Republicans have weaponized the non-sequitur.
Reposted by Jeff Sharlet
Often forgotten is the detail in 1984 of a song writing machine that cranked out slop for the proles. Cranking out romance novels seems to be in the same vein.
February 8, 2026 at 7:53 PM
Often forgotten is the detail in 1984 of a song writing machine that cranked out slop for the proles. Cranking out romance novels seems to be in the same vein.
Reposted by Jeff Sharlet
Buried in this piece is a throwaway line about how actually her real hustle is selling online courses to aspiring AI hacks, marking an extraordinary symbiosis of my two most hated internet poisons
“If I can generate a book in a day, and you need six months to write a book, who’s going to win the race?” God this is bleak
The New Fabio Is Claude
www.nytimes.com
February 8, 2026 at 5:51 PM
Buried in this piece is a throwaway line about how actually her real hustle is selling online courses to aspiring AI hacks, marking an extraordinary symbiosis of my two most hated internet poisons
Good point. I forgot the 47th amendment, "one in, one out"--if you let in ONE five-year-old, you'd have to kick another out. I mean, how many five-year-olds can fit in this thing? (America, that is.)
Gonzales on Liam Ramos and his family: "They're not gonna qualify for asylum. So what do you do with all the people that go through the process and do not qualify for asylum? You deport them. I understand that 5-year-old and it breaks my heart. I also think, what about that 5-year-old US citizen?"
February 8, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Good point. I forgot the 47th amendment, "one in, one out"--if you let in ONE five-year-old, you'd have to kick another out. I mean, how many five-year-olds can fit in this thing? (America, that is.)
Reposted by Jeff Sharlet
This is Tom Homan's actual goal and why he is focused on law enforcement cooperation.
wrt to some of the replies to this post, part of why the media has “moved on” is because it has become extraordinarily difficult to document ICE activity on the ground, outside of them arresting citizens.
A desperate plea sent to me by a Minneapolis resident who's been on the front lines since the beginning of the ICE occupation:
February 8, 2026 at 7:32 PM
This is Tom Homan's actual goal and why he is focused on law enforcement cooperation.
It's a war on creativity, which can be made formulaic, commodified, deployed for propaganda, used for evil ends, but ultimately contains within it an unpredictability, a core of unriggability, that fascism hates and capitalism seeks to subdue.
The point of the AI project is to provoke despair in creative people. They haven’t produced profits or anything anyone wants, just a steady stream of articles about how us artistic types can’t do the thing we’re already doing, making art. Jokes on them, we’re even better at despair than they are.
February 8, 2026 at 7:41 PM
It's a war on creativity, which can be made formulaic, commodified, deployed for propaganda, used for evil ends, but ultimately contains within it an unpredictability, a core of unriggability, that fascism hates and capitalism seeks to subdue.
"With the *help* of AI." Emphasis mine. What rank bullshittery, in which, yes, sad to say, 50,000 readers were made unwitting accomplices.
February 8, 2026 at 7:39 PM
"With the *help* of AI." Emphasis mine. What rank bullshittery, in which, yes, sad to say, 50,000 readers were made unwitting accomplices.
Reposted by Jeff Sharlet
Park Service employees are being bombarded with guidance telling them to promote Freedom 250, the Trump-run org, in place of America250, the statutorily-bipartisan congressional commission. They were even urged to add the Freedom 250 logo to email signatures. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
February 8, 2026 at 7:35 PM
Park Service employees are being bombarded with guidance telling them to promote Freedom 250, the Trump-run org, in place of America250, the statutorily-bipartisan congressional commission. They were even urged to add the Freedom 250 logo to email signatures. www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
Reposted by Jeff Sharlet
@apnews.com:
Hard Hats and Dummy Plates: Reports of ICE Ruses Add to Fears in Minnesota
By Jake Offenhartz
"Legal observers and officials say they have received a growing number of reports of federal agents impersonating construction workers, delivery drivers and in some cases anti-ICE activists."
Hard Hats and Dummy Plates: Reports of ICE Ruses Add to Fears in Minnesota
By Jake Offenhartz
"Legal observers and officials say they have received a growing number of reports of federal agents impersonating construction workers, delivery drivers and in some cases anti-ICE activists."
Hard hats and dummy plates: Reports of ICE ruses add to fears in Minnesota
Legal observers and officials say they have received a growing number of reports of federal agents impersonating construction workers, delivery drivers and in some cases anti-ICE activists in Minnesot...
apnews.com
February 8, 2026 at 5:48 PM
@apnews.com:
Hard Hats and Dummy Plates: Reports of ICE Ruses Add to Fears in Minnesota
By Jake Offenhartz
"Legal observers and officials say they have received a growing number of reports of federal agents impersonating construction workers, delivery drivers and in some cases anti-ICE activists."
Hard Hats and Dummy Plates: Reports of ICE Ruses Add to Fears in Minnesota
By Jake Offenhartz
"Legal observers and officials say they have received a growing number of reports of federal agents impersonating construction workers, delivery drivers and in some cases anti-ICE activists."
Reposted by Jeff Sharlet
Vasily Shulzhenko, 'Chick' (2011)
February 7, 2026 at 7:51 PM
Vasily Shulzhenko, 'Chick' (2011)
Reposted by Jeff Sharlet
For #SuperbOwl Sunday, a thread of superb owls by artist Morris Graves. First up: Morris Graves, "Owl on a Stone," 1968
February 8, 2026 at 1:30 PM
For #SuperbOwl Sunday, a thread of superb owls by artist Morris Graves. First up: Morris Graves, "Owl on a Stone," 1968