Rick Shenkman
@rickshenkman.bsky.social
Historian’s can’t predict the future. We can’t even agree on the past. Journalist & historian. Author of POLITICAL ANIMALS: How Our Stone-Age Brain Gets in the Way of Smart Politics (Basic Books).
Pinned
Rick Shenkman
@rickshenkman.bsky.social
· Nov 22
A quarter century ago I wrote and produced a series on TLC—The Learning Channel—called Myth America. These are the links to the 13 half-hour shows. Enjoy!
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
When you look at Noem, RFK Jr, Hegseth, Bovino, Bessent, it's pretty striking. Trump picked an entire cabinet whose only qualification is to be able to tell outlandish lies with a straight face.
January 27, 2026 at 2:54 AM
When you look at Noem, RFK Jr, Hegseth, Bovino, Bessent, it's pretty striking. Trump picked an entire cabinet whose only qualification is to be able to tell outlandish lies with a straight face.
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
Nice try, but we remember who put these vaccine deniers in positions of power… and who, once they proved utterly unfaithful to their promises, are still keeping them there.
Sen Cassidy: “Claiming that risk from vaccines is greater than the threat from disease has led to highest rate of measles in decades. Undermining faith in polio vaccine will lead to paralyzed children. What others are doing will be blamed on President Trump. Unfair but true.”
January 25, 2026 at 8:31 PM
Nice try, but we remember who put these vaccine deniers in positions of power… and who, once they proved utterly unfaithful to their promises, are still keeping them there.
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
Pick.
A.
Side.
If you turn away from what's happening and have ANY political power, you've made your choice.
You're supporting the killing and kidnapping of innocent people.
And people around the US -- and the world -- are bearing witness.
A.
Side.
If you turn away from what's happening and have ANY political power, you've made your choice.
You're supporting the killing and kidnapping of innocent people.
And people around the US -- and the world -- are bearing witness.
Walz: "To Americans who are watching this, I've got a question for you: What side do you want to be on? The side of an all powerful federal govt that can kill, injury, menace, & kidnap its citizens off the streets? Or on the side of a nurse at the VA hospital who died bearing witness to such govt?"
January 25, 2026 at 8:40 PM
Pick.
A.
Side.
If you turn away from what's happening and have ANY political power, you've made your choice.
You're supporting the killing and kidnapping of innocent people.
And people around the US -- and the world -- are bearing witness.
A.
Side.
If you turn away from what's happening and have ANY political power, you've made your choice.
You're supporting the killing and kidnapping of innocent people.
And people around the US -- and the world -- are bearing witness.
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
It is like a knife in my heart when I see what these thugs are doing to decent and loving people. He was trying to help a woman who had been violently pushed to the ground. And paid for that with his life, murdered by violent and vicious criminals masquerading as law-enforcement.
Alex Pretti "used to tell people off when they made sexist comments to female physicians. He bought me coffee when I had a really bad day as an intern...I laughed alongside him daily. He made a point to teach medical residents without judgement, but with a smile on his face and a joke."
January 25, 2026 at 3:00 AM
It is like a knife in my heart when I see what these thugs are doing to decent and loving people. He was trying to help a woman who had been violently pushed to the ground. And paid for that with his life, murdered by violent and vicious criminals masquerading as law-enforcement.
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
Good. Take these racist a**holes to court and make them defend this.
January 23, 2026 at 11:22 PM
Good. Take these racist a**holes to court and make them defend this.
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
Holy fucking wow.
"Slavery was real"
Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington.
Presidents House, Philadelphia.
Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington.
Presidents House, Philadelphia.
January 23, 2026 at 6:50 PM
Holy fucking wow.
Trump said he was going after the worst of the worst. Instead he gave them a badge and a gun and signed them up for ICE.
January 22, 2026 at 1:51 AM
Trump said he was going after the worst of the worst. Instead he gave them a badge and a gun and signed them up for ICE.
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
Emanuel: We are not going to invade Greenland, and you shouldn’t pay full price for something Denmark would give you for free. They want a closer relationship. This is, again, a glaring example of why Donald Trump’s companies all went bankrupt—because he’s a rotten businessman.
January 18, 2026 at 8:39 PM
Emanuel: We are not going to invade Greenland, and you shouldn’t pay full price for something Denmark would give you for free. They want a closer relationship. This is, again, a glaring example of why Donald Trump’s companies all went bankrupt—because he’s a rotten businessman.
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
I have been wondering, myself if pundits were right in thinking that when Trump referred to the psychological importance of owning Greenland, he was referring to his own psychology. Well, he was!
Original sane washed edition, left, transcript which reveals it is even more a confession of psychological illness than NYT tried to sane wash, right.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/u...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/u...
January 12, 2026 at 6:00 PM
I have been wondering, myself if pundits were right in thinking that when Trump referred to the psychological importance of owning Greenland, he was referring to his own psychology. Well, he was!
Does Trump know Spain and parts of Africa are in this hemisphere? Please hide this map!
January 12, 2026 at 4:27 AM
Does Trump know Spain and parts of Africa are in this hemisphere? Please hide this map!
Trump Declares Emergency to Shield Venezuela Oil Cash
Suggestion for the next Democratic Congress: All national emergencies declared by POTUS must be confirmed by Congress within 30 days or are nullified. Perhaps by 2/3rds vote. politicalwire.com/2026/01/11/t...
Suggestion for the next Democratic Congress: All national emergencies declared by POTUS must be confirmed by Congress within 30 days or are nullified. Perhaps by 2/3rds vote. politicalwire.com/2026/01/11/t...
Trump Declares Emergency to Shield Venezuela Oil Cash
“President Trump declared a national emergency to shield Venezuelan oil revenue held by the U.S. government from seizure by private creditors, framing it as critical to U.S. national security and regi...
politicalwire.com
January 12, 2026 at 4:17 AM
Trump Declares Emergency to Shield Venezuela Oil Cash
Suggestion for the next Democratic Congress: All national emergencies declared by POTUS must be confirmed by Congress within 30 days or are nullified. Perhaps by 2/3rds vote. politicalwire.com/2026/01/11/t...
Suggestion for the next Democratic Congress: All national emergencies declared by POTUS must be confirmed by Congress within 30 days or are nullified. Perhaps by 2/3rds vote. politicalwire.com/2026/01/11/t...
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
RIP Dan Howe, a great historian of the antebellum United States
🗃️
🗃️
In memoriam: Daniel Walker Howe, 88, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and UCLA professor
His scholarship reshaped how Americans understood the nation’s political, intellectual and religious past.
newsroom.ucla.edu
January 10, 2026 at 3:43 PM
RIP Dan Howe, a great historian of the antebellum United States
🗃️
🗃️
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
They won't have the numbers to occupy the nation and force everyone to comply, and that's why they're engaged in such an aggressive show of force. They're hoping we all get cowed into submission and do their work of suppression ourselves.
Once again, no.
The mantra remains "fuck you, make me."
Once again, no.
The mantra remains "fuck you, make me."
January 10, 2026 at 7:37 PM
They won't have the numbers to occupy the nation and force everyone to comply, and that's why they're engaged in such an aggressive show of force. They're hoping we all get cowed into submission and do their work of suppression ourselves.
Once again, no.
The mantra remains "fuck you, make me."
Once again, no.
The mantra remains "fuck you, make me."
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
"it will be conformable to the modern Maxim that is now generally adopted by our worthy Constituents, that it is better that ten innocent Persons should suffer than that one guilty should escape"
January 10, 2026 at 7:42 PM
"it will be conformable to the modern Maxim that is now generally adopted by our worthy Constituents, that it is better that ten innocent Persons should suffer than that one guilty should escape"
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
Refreshingly clear headlines from the WaPo, NYT
January 8, 2026 at 3:40 PM
Refreshingly clear headlines from the WaPo, NYT
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
New 60 Minutes logo just dropped
December 22, 2025 at 1:00 AM
New 60 Minutes logo just dropped
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
One hot topic of debate at TPUSA this weekend has been the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967. If you’re like most normal Americans, you’ve probably never heard of this event. If you are or have ever been a neo-Nazi, then this is an event you know A WHOLE LOT about.
December 21, 2025 at 5:19 AM
One hot topic of debate at TPUSA this weekend has been the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967. If you’re like most normal Americans, you’ve probably never heard of this event. If you are or have ever been a neo-Nazi, then this is an event you know A WHOLE LOT about.
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
Insane that these antivax horrors, which bring avoidable suffering onto millions of people, including a lot of children, follow the biggest, fastest, most successful vaccine roll out in history.
RFK Jr., Trump, the GOP Senate, and “MAHA” evidently think the problem with COVID was not enough death.
RFK Jr., Trump, the GOP Senate, and “MAHA” evidently think the problem with COVID was not enough death.
December 20, 2025 at 3:27 AM
Insane that these antivax horrors, which bring avoidable suffering onto millions of people, including a lot of children, follow the biggest, fastest, most successful vaccine roll out in history.
RFK Jr., Trump, the GOP Senate, and “MAHA” evidently think the problem with COVID was not enough death.
RFK Jr., Trump, the GOP Senate, and “MAHA” evidently think the problem with COVID was not enough death.
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
Just a reminder: if there was a Democrat in the White House and it was three and half days after a mass shooting at a college, and there was still no suspect in custody, Fox News and every Republican in Congress would be screaming bloody murder.
December 18, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Just a reminder: if there was a Democrat in the White House and it was three and half days after a mass shooting at a college, and there was still no suspect in custody, Fox News and every Republican in Congress would be screaming bloody murder.
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
YES INDEED
One argument I used to make to my students about why it was important to learn history (and historical thinking) is that someone was always going to be trying to tell you things were natural or had always been this way and that you needed to be able to see that as an exercise of power.
December 14, 2025 at 3:41 PM
YES INDEED
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
Reposting this thread in response to a mass shooting at my Alma mater, a shooting that took place in a building where I used to write papers in the computer lab back in the 80s.
Duke has an amazing repository of the nation's historical gun laws...hundreds of laws which, if today's 2nd Amendment fundamentalists are to be believed, were 100% unconstitutional...and yet, no one seemed to notice that until the last 50 years or so. firearmslaw.duke.edu/repository-o...
Repository of Historical Gun Laws | Duke Center for Firearms Law
firearmslaw.duke.edu
December 14, 2025 at 2:33 AM
Reposting this thread in response to a mass shooting at my Alma mater, a shooting that took place in a building where I used to write papers in the computer lab back in the 80s.
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
This is so perfect. In 2012 CPAC banned the John Birch Society. In 2023 they were welcomed back into the fold. And now here they are working together with TPUSA.
December 13, 2025 at 6:09 PM
This is so perfect. In 2012 CPAC banned the John Birch Society. In 2023 they were welcomed back into the fold. And now here they are working together with TPUSA.
Is Pence (former Indiana governor) behind Trump’s defeat in Indiana? Sweet revenge, if true.
December 13, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Is Pence (former Indiana governor) behind Trump’s defeat in Indiana? Sweet revenge, if true.
Reposted by Rick Shenkman
A big part of the immigrant influx in Europe arose from the US destabilizing the Middle East.
Now Trump plans to exacerbate instability in Latin America?
Now Trump plans to exacerbate instability in Latin America?
December 13, 2025 at 1:40 PM
A big part of the immigrant influx in Europe arose from the US destabilizing the Middle East.
Now Trump plans to exacerbate instability in Latin America?
Now Trump plans to exacerbate instability in Latin America?