Bob Rifkin
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bobrifkin.bsky.social
Bob Rifkin
@bobrifkin.bsky.social
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Reposted by Bob Rifkin
vermontgmg.bsky.social
It goes without saying that in the US you’re not supposed to have a masked secret police that snatches people off the streets without knowing if they’ve committed a crime. That’s about as basic a requirement for a democracy as exists.
whstancil.bsky.social Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 1d
Having seen several abductions up close, it is really hard to convey how much the thing they’re doing is roaming in military convoys until they see someone who is alone and isn’t white, and then jumping out in large numbers, pulling them into a van, and screeching off, all in 90 seconds or so.
ajcousins.bsky.social Amy Jo (AJ) Cousins @ajcousins.bsky.social · 1d
"“They specifically asked me if I knew where the Hmong families lived on my street & in the neighborhood.” Lugert-Thom responded, “I don’t know anything about that” & she said they then asked, “Well, what about the Asian families?”"

"“I was a bit shaken & a bit shocked of what I was asked to do.”"
January 14, 2026 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Bob Rifkin
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
LUCE, on the “Sell America” trade.

@edwardluce.bsky.social @financialtimes.com 🇺🇸
www.ft.com/content/331e...
January 13, 2026 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Bob Rifkin
vermontgmg.bsky.social
Democrats need to understand that they can just say “It’s insane to threaten Greenland” and “I don’t think ICE should murder Americans in the street” and you don’t need to pretend to link it to the affordability crisis.

Say bad things are bad.
January 7, 2026 at 7:45 PM
Reposted by Bob Rifkin
muellershewrote.com
NEW: MAYOR FREY: “They are already trying to spin this as an act of self defense. I’ve seen the video myself and I want to tell everybody directly; that is bullshit.”
January 7, 2026 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Bob Rifkin
amreports.bsky.social
Our photographer Alex Kormann captured the exact moment the presses stopped for the last time in Minneapolis, ending a 158 history of locally printed newspapers.
December 28, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Bob Rifkin
strictlychristo.bsky.social
Trump's in the Epstein files over 600 times.
December 22, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Reposted by Bob Rifkin
stevenbeschloss.bsky.social
Every Democratic member of Congress should be in the streets of DC saying this dangerous authoritarian escalation must stop. Do they not grasp what’s going on here?
August 17, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Reposted by Bob Rifkin
noupside.bsky.social
There are lessons from history. There are lessons from authoritarian takeovers elsewhere. The strategy isn’t that complex -maybe even obvious. But it requires mobilization. It requires shifting institutional mindset from “someone should…” hoping & hunkering down, to networked activism & speaking up.
I told him to frame his fight to gain as many allies as he can. Mobilize your alumni networks. Enlist families whose children's lives have been saved in your hospitals; reach out to companies that have commercialized your research, make contact with universities in red and blue states, public and private, who face the same threat. Do it fast. Make sure your campaign is not just about you, because that opens you to attack as a defender of privilege. Make the case to the public that these attacks are senseless assaults on institutions that promote what America is famous for: life-saving science and world-class innovation. =1Q THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION The real challenge, whenever an authoritarian government attacks a university, is that they have already prepared the ground, portraying universities as privileged enclaves of the entitled and the condescending, trapped in their own self-regarding bubble of wokeness. These politicians play expertly on the resentments of those who don't have college degrees. They grab hold of the flag of academic freedom and wave it in the face of university administrators struggling to balance the imperatives of campus order and civility against their First Amendment obligations. The Germans have a word for this strategy. It is called Kulturkampf, and it proceeds from an intuition associated with Trump's former strategist, Steve Bannon: "Culture is upstream from politics." Translation: If you can win the culture war, you win the political war. So, I said to the embattled president who called me, You're going to need an alliance that pulls together American families, employers, unions, companies, the whole network of people and institutions beyond your campus who understand that the universities of America are critical to everything that is good about the country: its commitment to freedom, its devotion to excellence, its leadership in science and medicine. This alliance is going to have to get political - to reach across red state and blue state, identify the members of Congress from both sides of the House who understand why universities matter to their communities, to the American economy, and to America's deserved reputation for excellence. Don't mince words. It's too late to play nice. Call a spade a spade. Convince enough Americans that the administration's strategy deserves only one name: vandalism.
March 17, 2025 at 10:24 PM