Brendan Salisbury
@brendanws90.bsky.social
J.D. NUSL'20/M.S. Criminal Justice NU:CSSH '14. 'That guy on the news who hates cars.' Cyclist, state/municipal govt. wonk, and armed queer. Opinions obviously my own, no one else would want them. Pronouns: He/They
Pinned
This is an open invitation. If you are in MA, are anti-gun, and have never held or fired a gun before, come to the range with me. I won't preach at you. We'll go through a safety briefing and then shoot as much or little as you'd like. All you'll spend is time and you'll be more informed. #mapoli
Reposted by Brendan Salisbury
if you are talking today about how bad maduro was and were alive, at all, during the run-up to the iraq war you are potentially the dumbest person to ever live
January 3, 2026 at 5:00 PM
if you are talking today about how bad maduro was and were alive, at all, during the run-up to the iraq war you are potentially the dumbest person to ever live
Reposted by Brendan Salisbury
I'm seeing some comments saying stuff like "No US President has ever done anything like the kidnapping of Maduro before" and altho I relate to the outrage behind such a comment, I encourage you to look up the history of United States presidents before you post this
January 3, 2026 at 3:10 PM
I'm seeing some comments saying stuff like "No US President has ever done anything like the kidnapping of Maduro before" and altho I relate to the outrage behind such a comment, I encourage you to look up the history of United States presidents before you post this
Reposted by Brendan Salisbury
People are going to try and lure you into debates about whether Maduro was a good guy or not and the thing is, it doesn’t matter for the purposes of discussing whether violent kidnappings and extrajudicial murders by the US government are ok. No, they aren’t! End of convo.
January 3, 2026 at 2:01 PM
People are going to try and lure you into debates about whether Maduro was a good guy or not and the thing is, it doesn’t matter for the purposes of discussing whether violent kidnappings and extrajudicial murders by the US government are ok. No, they aren’t! End of convo.
If you're concerned about the effect this illegal act of war will have on international relations, wait til you see how the utter lack of consequences for the administration dramatically escalates domestic oppression.
The man got to do a SEAL team 6 moment. He's not going to stop there.
The man got to do a SEAL team 6 moment. He's not going to stop there.
January 3, 2026 at 3:14 PM
If you're concerned about the effect this illegal act of war will have on international relations, wait til you see how the utter lack of consequences for the administration dramatically escalates domestic oppression.
The man got to do a SEAL team 6 moment. He's not going to stop there.
The man got to do a SEAL team 6 moment. He's not going to stop there.
If nothing else, his age, diet, and aggressive avoidance of any exercise besides golf is doing wonders for how I feel about *my* diet and exercise regimen.
January 2, 2026 at 11:51 AM
If nothing else, his age, diet, and aggressive avoidance of any exercise besides golf is doing wonders for how I feel about *my* diet and exercise regimen.
Anyway, I'm a huge fan of @abetterway2a.bsky.social and they've got these great stickers right now. Completely apropos of nothing. www.abetterway2a.com/product-page...
Fascists Have Guns Sticker - 5 Pack | A Better Way 2A
Five stickers to help you remind folks that the worst people aren't going to get rid of their guns just because they choose not to participate.Product specifications:- 5 Pack- 3"x3"
www.abetterway2a.com
January 1, 2026 at 4:40 PM
Anyway, I'm a huge fan of @abetterway2a.bsky.social and they've got these great stickers right now. Completely apropos of nothing. www.abetterway2a.com/product-page...
Pointing out the concept of critical mass is all well and good, expect that the fascists don't care. It's not just that they're deluded enough to believe it wouldn't negatively impact them, they actively desire that chaos. They believe themselves strong enough to be warlords in a collapsing society.
DHS now says it's aiming for 100 million deportations. In an amazing coincidence, there are 104 million Black and Hispanic people living in the U.S. right now.
![@DHSgov on X: The peace of a nation no longer besieged by the third world.
[Image of a beach] America after 100 million deportations](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:eppsmw5nfmdzhfeymtzd3xbe/bafkreiccvipzc5mayvbrzoo3cxhkp2iayuhphh4grk6lziqajuk7d2leee@jpeg)
January 1, 2026 at 4:32 PM
Pointing out the concept of critical mass is all well and good, expect that the fascists don't care. It's not just that they're deluded enough to believe it wouldn't negatively impact them, they actively desire that chaos. They believe themselves strong enough to be warlords in a collapsing society.
Update: I caved and went to the ER today only to learn that I did, in fact, manage to pass the kidney stone at some point. CT clear. Bonus, I also do not have gallstones. Trying not to think about how much that "all clear, you're good" is gonna cost me.
Man I'm a civil servant, I do not have ER money. My options today are both "pass", and only time will tell if it's gonna be "a kidney stone" or "away".
December 31, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Update: I caved and went to the ER today only to learn that I did, in fact, manage to pass the kidney stone at some point. CT clear. Bonus, I also do not have gallstones. Trying not to think about how much that "all clear, you're good" is gonna cost me.
I'm not big on new year's resolutions generally, but as things get significantly worse on the federal level I am resolving to return to being an insufferable, nightmarish presence for our state government. #mapoli
December 31, 2025 at 4:54 PM
I'm not big on new year's resolutions generally, but as things get significantly worse on the federal level I am resolving to return to being an insufferable, nightmarish presence for our state government. #mapoli
I'm not typically a "quote tweet my own thread" person, but, well, I wrote this to be read and 1am wasn't an ideal time for that. Hey #mapoli, this decision by DCF to stop standing between eager abusers and LGBTQ+ foster kids is part of a larger pattern of apathy and capitulation by MA's government.
Honestly I've been stewing all day. When I say MA residents deserving better than lip service, this is what I'm talking about. Universal basic income? Rent control? Single payer healthcare? Protections for LGBTQ+ youth? Nah. Shitty gun control bills that make no one safer? Hell yeah. #mapoli
30 Dec 2025 @rikiwilchins.bsky.social -- MA removes rules requiring foster parents support LGBTQ+ youth after threats from administration & lawsuits by 2 families denied licenses for refusing to agree they would not discriminate or try to change gender/sexual orientation of kids in their care.
December 31, 2025 at 2:10 PM
I'm not typically a "quote tweet my own thread" person, but, well, I wrote this to be read and 1am wasn't an ideal time for that. Hey #mapoli, this decision by DCF to stop standing between eager abusers and LGBTQ+ foster kids is part of a larger pattern of apathy and capitulation by MA's government.
Honestly I've been stewing all day. When I say MA residents deserving better than lip service, this is what I'm talking about. Universal basic income? Rent control? Single payer healthcare? Protections for LGBTQ+ youth? Nah. Shitty gun control bills that make no one safer? Hell yeah. #mapoli
30 Dec 2025 @rikiwilchins.bsky.social -- MA removes rules requiring foster parents support LGBTQ+ youth after threats from administration & lawsuits by 2 families denied licenses for refusing to agree they would not discriminate or try to change gender/sexual orientation of kids in their care.
Massachusetts removes rule requiring foster parents to support LGBTQ+ youth
<p>Massachusetts has removed state rules requiring that foster parents not discriminate against LGBTQ+ youth.</p>
www.advocate.com
December 31, 2025 at 5:16 AM
Honestly I've been stewing all day. When I say MA residents deserving better than lip service, this is what I'm talking about. Universal basic income? Rent control? Single payer healthcare? Protections for LGBTQ+ youth? Nah. Shitty gun control bills that make no one safer? Hell yeah. #mapoli
Hey @massgovernor.bsky.social, are these your values in action? I've never expected all that much from you, quite frankly, but this is a disappointing new low even for you. Why is your administration so consistently insistent on rolling over for the Trump administration? #mapoli
30 Dec 2025 @rikiwilchins.bsky.social -- MA removes rules requiring foster parents support LGBTQ+ youth after threats from administration & lawsuits by 2 families denied licenses for refusing to agree they would not discriminate or try to change gender/sexual orientation of kids in their care.
Massachusetts removes rule requiring foster parents to support LGBTQ+ youth
<p>Massachusetts has removed state rules requiring that foster parents not discriminate against LGBTQ+ youth.</p>
www.advocate.com
December 30, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Hey @massgovernor.bsky.social, are these your values in action? I've never expected all that much from you, quite frankly, but this is a disappointing new low even for you. Why is your administration so consistently insistent on rolling over for the Trump administration? #mapoli
Nothing quite like waking up in pain at 3am with a bunch of weird symptoms you've never experienced before and because of AI drivel the old "it's cancer, you're dying" has been replaced by a flood of forcefed plausible seeming things anyways I seem to be in the process of passing a kidney stone.
December 28, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Nothing quite like waking up in pain at 3am with a bunch of weird symptoms you've never experienced before and because of AI drivel the old "it's cancer, you're dying" has been replaced by a flood of forcefed plausible seeming things anyways I seem to be in the process of passing a kidney stone.
I really, really need people to see this for the horrifying escalation that it is. This isn't a mistake or a one-off. ICE is doing what they were always going to start doing under Trump: detaining and deporting anyone and everyone who "fits the description". Your citizenship will not save you.
"Her family has now been told she has been deported, despite US District Judge Brendan Hurson ruling Thursday that she could not be deported pending a hearing...attorneys said Monday that they have...confirm[ed] with the hospital she was born in Maryland." https://bit.ly/3MMdJvz
ICE detains woman whose lawyer insists is US citizen. DHS says she isn't
Federal agents arrested Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales on her way home in Baltimore, Maryland.
bit.ly
December 28, 2025 at 3:19 AM
I really, really need people to see this for the horrifying escalation that it is. This isn't a mistake or a one-off. ICE is doing what they were always going to start doing under Trump: detaining and deporting anyone and everyone who "fits the description". Your citizenship will not save you.
The answer to gun violence is the same as the answer to all violence: not an expansion of the carceral state, in any form, but an expansion of social welfare programs (SNAP, UBI, single-payer healthcare, subsisized housing) that have repeatedly been proven to reduce criminality.
The idea that enhancing surveillance in academic buildings will protect students from mass shootings is absolutely fucking preposterous. What it will increase is the criminalization of our students. Reject it!!!
GUN CONTROL IS THE ANSWER TO GUN VIOLENCE.
BEAT THE GUNS INTO PLOWSHARES.
GUN CONTROL IS THE ANSWER TO GUN VIOLENCE.
BEAT THE GUNS INTO PLOWSHARES.
December 16, 2025 at 11:23 PM
The answer to gun violence is the same as the answer to all violence: not an expansion of the carceral state, in any form, but an expansion of social welfare programs (SNAP, UBI, single-payer healthcare, subsisized housing) that have repeatedly been proven to reduce criminality.
I recognize that this is difficult for people to hear, but a society that routinely produces people eager to cause mass harm is not that way because it has tools available that facilitate mass harm. Guns do not make people killers any more than pressure cookers and cars do. A broken society does.
December 14, 2025 at 8:02 PM
I recognize that this is difficult for people to hear, but a society that routinely produces people eager to cause mass harm is not that way because it has tools available that facilitate mass harm. Guns do not make people killers any more than pressure cookers and cars do. A broken society does.
Well, when you're operating on a timeline of seven years to act on anything leadership doesn't see as valuable to their personal interests, 10 months ago might as well have been yesterday /s.
A reminder: the legislature has no incentive to do anything that actually benefits MA residents. #mapoli
A reminder: the legislature has no incentive to do anything that actually benefits MA residents. #mapoli
Stunned by how dishonest senators like Senate President Karen Spilka and Senator Nick Collins are being about Mayor Michelle Wu's tax shift home rule petition.
It was filed in February. They ignored it. No right to complain that it's a brand new ask. #mapoli
It was filed in February. They ignored it. No right to complain that it's a brand new ask. #mapoli
December 9, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Well, when you're operating on a timeline of seven years to act on anything leadership doesn't see as valuable to their personal interests, 10 months ago might as well have been yesterday /s.
A reminder: the legislature has no incentive to do anything that actually benefits MA residents. #mapoli
A reminder: the legislature has no incentive to do anything that actually benefits MA residents. #mapoli
Resident anti-car, pro-gun poster here: I endorse this position wholeheartedly.
TEN previous arrests for driving on a suspended license, because we let offenders keep their car and pinky promise to not use it. Drivers licenses need to be a license to POSSESS a car as well as to operate it, just like a gun license. There's no 2A rights for cars and they kill just as many people.
A man is dead after he was struck by an SUV while walking his dogs Saturday morning in Hopkinton, RI. Police say the driver was arrested. She had previously been arrested over 100 times. on.nbcboston.com/XEE5YAX
December 9, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Resident anti-car, pro-gun poster here: I endorse this position wholeheartedly.
"Tom Cotton wants to kill people" has been a pretty consistent theme over the years. He is very clearly desperate for an excuse, and loves seeing other people living out his murderous fantasies.
WELKER: Is there any hard evidence showing this particular boat was headed to the US?
TOM COTTON: That didn't come up in my briefing
WELKER: Are you comfortable having the US target a boat that you're not sure is heading to the US?
COTTON: I'm not just comfortable with it -- I want to continue it
TOM COTTON: That didn't come up in my briefing
WELKER: Are you comfortable having the US target a boat that you're not sure is heading to the US?
COTTON: I'm not just comfortable with it -- I want to continue it
December 7, 2025 at 4:17 PM
"Tom Cotton wants to kill people" has been a pretty consistent theme over the years. He is very clearly desperate for an excuse, and loves seeing other people living out his murderous fantasies.
Look, I don't mean to be an ass, but this is also literally how gun control works. People who don't understand guns, and think all gun owners are evil, keep slapping new felonies on top of already illegal behavior, and banning things like adjustable stocks because they think they're scary.
A major problem that our immigration system faces is that people, and that includes politicians, have no idea how it works and like creating new, harmful barriers (often ones that already pretty much exist) to look "tough."
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
US halts all asylum decisions after national guard shooting
Trump administration says decisions paused until government can ensure ‘every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible’
www.theguardian.com
November 30, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Look, I don't mean to be an ass, but this is also literally how gun control works. People who don't understand guns, and think all gun owners are evil, keep slapping new felonies on top of already illegal behavior, and banning things like adjustable stocks because they think they're scary.
I want to be clear: I'm not trying to doom. Fascism isn't sustainable, and I personally think that is especially true in a country the size of the US. It will fall apart, and likely relatively quickly.
But it's going to be very painful in the middle. So are you ready to survive the middle?
But it's going to be very painful in the middle. So are you ready to survive the middle?
November 28, 2025 at 2:31 PM
I want to be clear: I'm not trying to doom. Fascism isn't sustainable, and I personally think that is especially true in a country the size of the US. It will fall apart, and likely relatively quickly.
But it's going to be very painful in the middle. So are you ready to survive the middle?
But it's going to be very painful in the middle. So are you ready to survive the middle?
It is going to be too late to get ready once the violence starts. If you wait till your need for safety overrides your fear of guns, the months long wait for a license will kill you. Get licensed now, so when it's time you'll be hours, not months, from being ready to defend yourself.
November 28, 2025 at 1:14 PM
It is going to be too late to get ready once the violence starts. If you wait till your need for safety overrides your fear of guns, the months long wait for a license will kill you. Get licensed now, so when it's time you'll be hours, not months, from being ready to defend yourself.
No, really, this man has the ear of the president or, more realistically, is pulling his strings. He yearns for widespread violence and death, and there is a veritable army of white supremacists eager to fulfill his and their fantasies.
They have guns. Do you?
They have guns. Do you?
Stephen Miller is now arguing that assimilation is fundamentally impossible and that certain cultures are not compatible with Western civilization
November 28, 2025 at 1:08 PM
No, really, this man has the ear of the president or, more realistically, is pulling his strings. He yearns for widespread violence and death, and there is a veritable army of white supremacists eager to fulfill his and their fantasies.
They have guns. Do you?
They have guns. Do you?
Hey #Massachusetts, see my pinned post. The violence will escalate, whether by the state or by vigilantes empowered or emboldened by the state. Even if you 100% trust police, they can't be everywhere at once.
Understand, this is going to go from "deport" to "kill" very quickly. Are you ready?
Understand, this is going to go from "deport" to "kill" very quickly. Are you ready?
Trump: “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries … denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.“
November 28, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Hey #Massachusetts, see my pinned post. The violence will escalate, whether by the state or by vigilantes empowered or emboldened by the state. Even if you 100% trust police, they can't be everywhere at once.
Understand, this is going to go from "deport" to "kill" very quickly. Are you ready?
Understand, this is going to go from "deport" to "kill" very quickly. Are you ready?
Nah, this ain't it chief. Anybody cheering increasing the number of cops needs a reality check. For $1mil/day they could have completely eliminated crime in DC by pouring every penny of it into the social safety net.
National guard are NOT law enforcement. If they had hired more law enforcement for that $1 mil/day they spent on the NG, people would have cheered.
That is one of their mistakes - NG are not law enforcement.
That is one of their mistakes - NG are not law enforcement.
November 27, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Nah, this ain't it chief. Anybody cheering increasing the number of cops needs a reality check. For $1mil/day they could have completely eliminated crime in DC by pouring every penny of it into the social safety net.