Peter Birkenhead
@pbirk.bsky.social
Bylines in The Daily Beast, The Week, McSweeney’s, The NY Daily News, Salon, LA Review of Books, US News, the Washington Post, The Awl, The Morning News, Marie Claire, MORE, Chicago Tribune, others.
substack.com/@peterbirkenhead
substack.com/@peterbirkenhead
Reposted by Peter Birkenhead
No more pretense or excuses. Trump and his team have made the white supremacist foundations of this project explicit and clear.
If you enable this you need to face who and what you are. But you can always choose another way.
Choose humanity. Decency. Equality. Democracy.
If you enable this you need to face who and what you are. But you can always choose another way.
Choose humanity. Decency. Equality. Democracy.
To make common cause with this Administration is to support an affirmatively white supremacist vision of this country. Period.
Every corporation.
Every Republican.
Every influencer.
Every Governor.
Every evangelical leader.
Every voter. Yes. Every voter.
Every corporation.
Every Republican.
Every influencer.
Every Governor.
Every evangelical leader.
Every voter. Yes. Every voter.
Mark Kelly: "This president, when he says things like 'third world countries,' what is he really saying? I think what he's saying is he doesn't want brown people in our country. And that's disturbing. It's un-American."
November 30, 2025 at 6:03 PM
No more pretense or excuses. Trump and his team have made the white supremacist foundations of this project explicit and clear.
If you enable this you need to face who and what you are. But you can always choose another way.
Choose humanity. Decency. Equality. Democracy.
If you enable this you need to face who and what you are. But you can always choose another way.
Choose humanity. Decency. Equality. Democracy.
Reposted by Peter Birkenhead
Don't be chickenshit.
September 18, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Don't be chickenshit.
Charlie Kirk was a loathsome human being because he celebrated violence against people he didn’t like. Don’t be like Charlie.
September 10, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Charlie Kirk was a loathsome human being because he celebrated violence against people he didn’t like. Don’t be like Charlie.
Reposted by Peter Birkenhead
This is a demand, that if raised loudly by the base, the congressional Democrats will have an incredibly hard time avoiding or ignoring. What are they going to say? That this is a distraction? That it’s too complicated? That they can get this deal without leverage? That Latino voters can drop dead?
Democrats can demand a rollback of the Supreme Court ICE racial profiling case. It’s a trivial legislative fix. It poses virtually no political risk for them. It protects 68 million people from open government persecution. It protects basic constitutional values. No government funding without this.
September 10, 2025 at 12:01 AM
This is a demand, that if raised loudly by the base, the congressional Democrats will have an incredibly hard time avoiding or ignoring. What are they going to say? That this is a distraction? That it’s too complicated? That they can get this deal without leverage? That Latino voters can drop dead?
Reposted by Peter Birkenhead
Trump's Birthday Card To Dead Sex Pest Epstein As Gross As We Imagined
www.wonkette.com/p/trumps-bir...
By Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social
www.wonkette.com/p/trumps-bir...
By Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social
Trump's Birthday Card To Dead Sex Pest Epstein As Gross As We Imagined
And other people were in on the 'joke.'
www.wonkette.com
September 9, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Trump's Birthday Card To Dead Sex Pest Epstein As Gross As We Imagined
www.wonkette.com/p/trumps-bir...
By Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social
www.wonkette.com/p/trumps-bir...
By Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social
Reposted by Peter Birkenhead
The new CDC director is trying to kill you. Not just “the most vulnerable”; you, me, everyone. This is a comic book-level evil scenario.
August 29, 2025 at 5:10 AM
The new CDC director is trying to kill you. Not just “the most vulnerable”; you, me, everyone. This is a comic book-level evil scenario.
This story is unbearable. Read it anyway.
Mohammad Halimi barely escaped Afghanistan in 2021 when the Taliban returned to power — only to later have DOGE, Elon Musk and right-wing media suggest he was a funnel for Taliban funding, putting him and his loved ones at risk.
DOGE Targeted Him on Social Media. Then the Taliban Took His Family.
Afghan scholar Mohammad Halimi, who fled the Taliban in 2021, had worked to help U.S. diplomats understand his homeland. Then DOGE put his family’s lives at risk by exposing his sensitive work for a…
www.propublica.org
August 22, 2025 at 10:39 PM
This story is unbearable. Read it anyway.
“We should all remember Washington, D.C.’s most violent day was sparked by Trump himself. What’s more, D.C.’s safety won’t come from militarization, but rather through decreasing unemployment, ending ICE’s kidnapping of neighbors, and restoring funding to Medicaid, SNAP and public schools.”
Free DC models effective resistance to Trump’s takeover
DC residents’ rapid response to Trump's National Guard deployment is a masterclass in how to prepare for crises and fight authoritarianism.
wagingnonviolence.org
August 14, 2025 at 3:17 PM
“We should all remember Washington, D.C.’s most violent day was sparked by Trump himself. What’s more, D.C.’s safety won’t come from militarization, but rather through decreasing unemployment, ending ICE’s kidnapping of neighbors, and restoring funding to Medicaid, SNAP and public schools.”
A million times this.
August 14, 2025 at 1:44 PM
A million times this.
Reposted by Peter Birkenhead
News --> Top Dems are demanding that the Pentagon disclose any/all internal memos and policy guidance involving DHS's push for more militarization of domestic enforcement.
It's a response to our reporting on DHS talks w/Pentagon on this. Details in my new piece:
newrepublic.com/article/1990...
It's a response to our reporting on DHS talks w/Pentagon on this. Details in my new piece:
newrepublic.com/article/1990...
“Alarming”: Trump’s Threat of Troops in Cities Just Got Much Scarier
Top Democrats are demanding that the Pentagon release documentation of internal
conversations about future militarization of domestic law enforcement.
newrepublic.com
August 14, 2025 at 11:19 AM
News --> Top Dems are demanding that the Pentagon disclose any/all internal memos and policy guidance involving DHS's push for more militarization of domestic enforcement.
It's a response to our reporting on DHS talks w/Pentagon on this. Details in my new piece:
newrepublic.com/article/1990...
It's a response to our reporting on DHS talks w/Pentagon on this. Details in my new piece:
newrepublic.com/article/1990...
Reposted by Peter Birkenhead
I wrote a thing, a roundup of some of the resistance going on.
"We are standing up, from coast to coast, in Nebraska and Florida and Illinois and Arizona and Ohio. Don't stop now." @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social
www.meditationsinanemergency.com/resis/
www.meditationsinanemergency.com/resis/
Resistance from Sea to Shining Sea
I've been traveling, which means being blessedly offline a lot more than usual, but I'm settled for a while, and there's so much to say. Before I say anything elaborate or essayistic, I just want to s...
www.meditationsinanemergency.com
August 12, 2025 at 2:43 AM
I wrote a thing, a roundup of some of the resistance going on.
The Holocaust Museum ushmm.bsky.social has an opportunity, as an institution not connected to the Smithsonian, to highlight Trump’s erasure of history. State control of historical narrative and its role in incipient fascism would make for a timely exhibition. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
ushmm.bsky.as
August 14, 2025 at 1:11 PM
The Holocaust Museum ushmm.bsky.social has an opportunity, as an institution not connected to the Smithsonian, to highlight Trump’s erasure of history. State control of historical narrative and its role in incipient fascism would make for a timely exhibition. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
I have been placed in Facebook jail. If you know me on there please spread the word.
August 14, 2025 at 12:29 PM
I have been placed in Facebook jail. If you know me on there please spread the word.
Reposted by Peter Birkenhead
STFU, RFK Jr, you ridiculous idiot. You don't care about the wellbeing of patients. You care about politics. You are actively undermining doctors' ability to protect their patients from measles and COVID. Your party forces women who have miscarried to bleed out in parking lots over your politics.
August 10, 2025 at 4:27 PM
STFU, RFK Jr, you ridiculous idiot. You don't care about the wellbeing of patients. You care about politics. You are actively undermining doctors' ability to protect their patients from measles and COVID. Your party forces women who have miscarried to bleed out in parking lots over your politics.
@americanair.bsky.social We’re booked to fly from Bermuda to DC via Charlotte. Our flight has delayed by several hours & now we have been told that 2nd flight will be to Baltimore instead of DC, landing at 10:15 We cannot afford a cab from Baltimore to DC. This is completely unacceptable.
August 10, 2025 at 7:49 PM
@americanair.bsky.social We’re booked to fly from Bermuda to DC via Charlotte. Our flight has delayed by several hours & now we have been told that 2nd flight will be to Baltimore instead of DC, landing at 10:15 We cannot afford a cab from Baltimore to DC. This is completely unacceptable.
August 1, 2025 at 8:54 PM
We have appended an Editor’s Note to our story about President Kennedy, who was declared dead from bullet wounds in Dallas, Texas. After publication, the Times learned that he also had a preexisting back condition.
July 30, 2025 at 2:53 AM
We have appended an Editor’s Note to our story about President Kennedy, who was declared dead from bullet wounds in Dallas, Texas. After publication, the Times learned that he also had a preexisting back condition.
Who among us hasn’t given a birthday card to the world’s most notorious pedophile in which we draw a picture of a naked woman and write “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey. May every day be another wonderful secret.”?
July 18, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Who among us hasn’t given a birthday card to the world’s most notorious pedophile in which we draw a picture of a naked woman and write “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey. May every day be another wonderful secret.”?
Reposted by Peter Birkenhead
“Superman is too woke!”
Literally the first page of the first ever appearance of Superman:
Literally the first page of the first ever appearance of Superman:
July 11, 2025 at 1:58 PM
“Superman is too woke!”
Literally the first page of the first ever appearance of Superman:
Literally the first page of the first ever appearance of Superman:
People who are handcuffed and taken away without warrant, Miranda warning, or officer ID, are victims of abduction.
Facilities that forcibly detain people of a single ethnicity indefinitely, without indictment, trial or conviction are concentration camps.
Facilities that forcibly detain people of a single ethnicity indefinitely, without indictment, trial or conviction are concentration camps.
July 10, 2025 at 4:25 AM
People who are handcuffed and taken away without warrant, Miranda warning, or officer ID, are victims of abduction.
Facilities that forcibly detain people of a single ethnicity indefinitely, without indictment, trial or conviction are concentration camps.
Facilities that forcibly detain people of a single ethnicity indefinitely, without indictment, trial or conviction are concentration camps.
Hillary’s “deplorable” statement was made in the context of an argument that most Trump voters were good people deserving of empathy. Yet it ignited a firestorm of negative coverage by the NYT, which pounded on the issue for weeks, permanently branding Clinton as a hater of the white working class.
July 7, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Hillary’s “deplorable” statement was made in the context of an argument that most Trump voters were good people deserving of empathy. Yet it ignited a firestorm of negative coverage by the NYT, which pounded on the issue for weeks, permanently branding Clinton as a hater of the white working class.
Reposted by Peter Birkenhead
It’s appropriate that, on this especially fraught holiday weekend, my 232nd #ScholarSunday thread is my longest yet, full of so much public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy! 🗃️
americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...
americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...
#ScholarSunday Thread 232
Published on July 6, 2025
americanstudier.substack.com
July 6, 2025 at 12:09 PM
It’s appropriate that, on this especially fraught holiday weekend, my 232nd #ScholarSunday thread is my longest yet, full of so much public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below, share widely, & enjoy! 🗃️
americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...
americanstudier.substack.com/p/scholarsun...
@volts.wtf I’ve just finished this book and I think it’s brilliant. Wanted to strongly recommend it to you. mitpress.mit.edu/978026204964...
The First and Last Bank
Through the ages, currencies have been based on all manner of objects—from tobacco leaves to salt to gold to collateralized debt obligations. The only ...
mitpress.mit.edu
June 25, 2025 at 3:15 PM
@volts.wtf I’ve just finished this book and I think it’s brilliant. Wanted to strongly recommend it to you. mitpress.mit.edu/978026204964...
Reposted by Peter Birkenhead
ICE arrested Job Garcia while he was running errands in LA. Job is a US citizen, a scholar, and a brilliant photographer. He’s also my friend. But none of that should determine his humanity.
ICE must release Job Garcia immediately.
ICE must release Job Garcia immediately.
June 20, 2025 at 1:40 AM
ICE arrested Job Garcia while he was running errands in LA. Job is a US citizen, a scholar, and a brilliant photographer. He’s also my friend. But none of that should determine his humanity.
ICE must release Job Garcia immediately.
ICE must release Job Garcia immediately.