Brett Allin
@brettallin.bsky.social
Oregon appellate public defender, rafter, husband, father
Portland OR
Portland OR
Reposted by Brett Allin
From an optics perspective... the protesters being the ones waving the US flag while Bovino et al looks like every awful nazi inspired movie we've ever seen... hats off to Minnesotans.
Greg Bovino was seen earlier today at the Minneapolis ICE facility dressed in a very nazi-inspired outfit. They don’t even hide anymore.
January 17, 2026 at 8:53 PM
From an optics perspective... the protesters being the ones waving the US flag while Bovino et al looks like every awful nazi inspired movie we've ever seen... hats off to Minnesotans.
Reposted by Brett Allin
over the course of 1871, congress held seven months of hearings on ku klux klan and other white vigilante violence in the south, they took detailed testimony from hundreds of black men and women attesting to klan terror. (1/?)
January 14, 2026 at 2:06 AM
over the course of 1871, congress held seven months of hearings on ku klux klan and other white vigilante violence in the south, they took detailed testimony from hundreds of black men and women attesting to klan terror. (1/?)
Reposted by Brett Allin
These barbarians are destroying everything that makes society work. Kids can't go to school, patients can't go to the hospital. We are, in effect, paying them to wreck the basic infrastructure of the country
ICE's "presence is terrifying medical staff and raising concerns about patient care, according to five nurses at HCMC hospital in Minneapolis who asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing their jobs."
Via reporter @ericazurek.bsky.social www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...
Via reporter @ericazurek.bsky.social www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...
ICE agents appear at Twin Cities hospitals, alarming health care workers
Health care workers in the Twin Cities report that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are entering hospitals with detained individuals, leaving some medical staff terrified and concerned ...
www.mprnews.org
January 14, 2026 at 4:28 PM
These barbarians are destroying everything that makes society work. Kids can't go to school, patients can't go to the hospital. We are, in effect, paying them to wreck the basic infrastructure of the country
Reposted by Brett Allin
Our first podcast of 2026 has landed!
Listen to Kathleen Boland discuss how she writes, why she writes, and the path to publishing her debut book SCAVENGERS (@vikingbooks.bsky.social).
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/4rui...
Listen to Kathleen Boland discuss how she writes, why she writes, and the path to publishing her debut book SCAVENGERS (@vikingbooks.bsky.social).
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/4rui...
January 14, 2026 at 4:15 PM
Our first podcast of 2026 has landed!
Listen to Kathleen Boland discuss how she writes, why she writes, and the path to publishing her debut book SCAVENGERS (@vikingbooks.bsky.social).
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/4rui...
Listen to Kathleen Boland discuss how she writes, why she writes, and the path to publishing her debut book SCAVENGERS (@vikingbooks.bsky.social).
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/4rui...
Reposted by Brett Allin
Happy Pub Day to @kpboland.bsky.social! Join us next week to celebrate SCAVENGERS.
"But at the end of the day, any attempts to control the land are just hubris. We can permanently change the land, absolutely. But can you control it? I don’t think so."
electricliterature.com/a-mother-dau...
"But at the end of the day, any attempts to control the land are just hubris. We can permanently change the land, absolutely. But can you control it? I don’t think so."
electricliterature.com/a-mother-dau...
A Mother-Daughter Novel That Transforms the Western - Electric Literature
Kathleen Boland’s “Scavengers” is a madcap adventure probing questions of reinvention, the wilderness, and the stories we tell ourselves
electricliterature.com
January 13, 2026 at 8:35 PM
Happy Pub Day to @kpboland.bsky.social! Join us next week to celebrate SCAVENGERS.
"But at the end of the day, any attempts to control the land are just hubris. We can permanently change the land, absolutely. But can you control it? I don’t think so."
electricliterature.com/a-mother-dau...
"But at the end of the day, any attempts to control the land are just hubris. We can permanently change the land, absolutely. But can you control it? I don’t think so."
electricliterature.com/a-mother-dau...
Reposted by Brett Allin
One of the (several) problems with the demand that bystanders and targeted people be immediately compliant with ICE agents is that fleeing ICE is incredibly rational. They’re violent, piggish thugs who disappear some people into horrendous gulags and shoot others in the face.
January 9, 2026 at 5:35 AM
One of the (several) problems with the demand that bystanders and targeted people be immediately compliant with ICE agents is that fleeing ICE is incredibly rational. They’re violent, piggish thugs who disappear some people into horrendous gulags and shoot others in the face.
Reposted by Brett Allin
You and your wife drop your 6-year-old off at school. You just moved here. You see ICE terrorizing your new neighbors. You film them, as is your legal right. Your wife complies with orders. She is then shot in the head. You still have to pick up your child later today.
This could be you.
This could be you.
January 8, 2026 at 12:15 AM
You and your wife drop your 6-year-old off at school. You just moved here. You see ICE terrorizing your new neighbors. You film them, as is your legal right. Your wife complies with orders. She is then shot in the head. You still have to pick up your child later today.
This could be you.
This could be you.
Reposted by Brett Allin
Reposted by Brett Allin
the reason they don’t bother to manufacture the consent beforehand is that everyone just sort of does it for them post-facto now
January 3, 2026 at 5:02 PM
the reason they don’t bother to manufacture the consent beforehand is that everyone just sort of does it for them post-facto now
Reposted by Brett Allin
A concept I've been meaning to float to make sense of what's happened to the US Constitution is an idea from the British constitutional tradition: "implied repeal."
It's useful because it helps us to understand that Article I, & much else of the US Constitution, has been implicitly repealed.
It's useful because it helps us to understand that Article I, & much else of the US Constitution, has been implicitly repealed.
January 3, 2026 at 7:35 PM
A concept I've been meaning to float to make sense of what's happened to the US Constitution is an idea from the British constitutional tradition: "implied repeal."
It's useful because it helps us to understand that Article I, & much else of the US Constitution, has been implicitly repealed.
It's useful because it helps us to understand that Article I, & much else of the US Constitution, has been implicitly repealed.
I loved @kwistent.bsky.social’s review of my wife Kathleen Boland’s debut novel, Scavengers. Can’t wait for everyone to read it on January 13!
Review | A novel inspired by a real-life treasure hunt illuminates the American West
In Kathleen Boland’s “Scavengers,” a struggling woman sets out with her erratic mother in search of buried loot.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 31, 2025 at 2:42 AM
I loved @kwistent.bsky.social’s review of my wife Kathleen Boland’s debut novel, Scavengers. Can’t wait for everyone to read it on January 13!
Reposted by Brett Allin
Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:
December 22, 2025 at 3:37 AM
Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:
Reposted by Brett Allin
1/ One thing that I think is getting understandably overlooked in the coverage of immigration overenforcement is just how wasteful and inefficient ICE is being even when they aren't kidnapping and caging people who should be with their families.
Here's a quick example from my casefiles today:
Here's a quick example from my casefiles today:
December 10, 2025 at 2:49 AM
1/ One thing that I think is getting understandably overlooked in the coverage of immigration overenforcement is just how wasteful and inefficient ICE is being even when they aren't kidnapping and caging people who should be with their families.
Here's a quick example from my casefiles today:
Here's a quick example from my casefiles today:
Reposted by Brett Allin
bad actors like wurman are why i think it is important to place the birthright clause in the full context of section 1 and section 1 in the context of both dred scott and the two decades of antislavery and abolitionist agitation and political thinking that proceeded it
The evidence is the text. All you have to do is read the Constitution.
December 7, 2025 at 7:09 PM
bad actors like wurman are why i think it is important to place the birthright clause in the full context of section 1 and section 1 in the context of both dred scott and the two decades of antislavery and abolitionist agitation and political thinking that proceeded it
Reposted by Brett Allin
Are we in a game of chicken to see how far a handful of freaks can push things until we bring back consequences and / or guillotines? How have we hyper-normalized them saying this shit out loud in public?
Palantir CEO Says Making War Crimes Constitutional Would Be Good for Business
Palantir CEO Says Making War Crimes Constitutional Would Be Good for Business
Alex Karp vows to use his "whole influence" on immigration and defense policy.
gizmodo.com
December 4, 2025 at 4:48 AM
Are we in a game of chicken to see how far a handful of freaks can push things until we bring back consequences and / or guillotines? How have we hyper-normalized them saying this shit out loud in public?
Reposted by Brett Allin
America does not have capital punishment for selling or smuggling drugs and none of these people were arrested or tried. There could have been mountains of cocaine in open view on the deck of the boats and it still would have been murder of unarmed civilians.
Rand Paul just posted this letter from the Coast Guard confirming that 1/4 of the boats they stop carry no contraband. The likelihood that Hegseth & Bradley ordered the murder of innocent civilians is very high.
December 3, 2025 at 5:48 AM
America does not have capital punishment for selling or smuggling drugs and none of these people were arrested or tried. There could have been mountains of cocaine in open view on the deck of the boats and it still would have been murder of unarmed civilians.
Reposted by Brett Allin
Rand Paul just posted this letter from the Coast Guard confirming that 1/4 of the boats they stop carry no contraband. The likelihood that Hegseth & Bradley ordered the murder of innocent civilians is very high.
December 2, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Rand Paul just posted this letter from the Coast Guard confirming that 1/4 of the boats they stop carry no contraband. The likelihood that Hegseth & Bradley ordered the murder of innocent civilians is very high.
Reposted by Brett Allin
The DC shooting story is really getting to me because we literally trained this man as a child soldier for a death squad in a forever war and Stephen Miller et al want to blame it on other cultures? It's our culture, American culture, that killed that woman.
November 28, 2025 at 1:40 PM
The DC shooting story is really getting to me because we literally trained this man as a child soldier for a death squad in a forever war and Stephen Miller et al want to blame it on other cultures? It's our culture, American culture, that killed that woman.
Reposted by Brett Allin
Hegseth - and the people carrying out his orders - need to be tried in The Hague for this
November 28, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Hegseth - and the people carrying out his orders - need to be tried in The Hague for this
Reposted by Brett Allin
The way we discuss crime in this country is abysmal—media and pop-culture alike.
I don’t know how we fix it, but it makes ALL of us worse off.
Those in high-crime areas are denied the things that work bc of fearmongering over them.
And those who are safe are made needlessly miserable by fear.
I don’t know how we fix it, but it makes ALL of us worse off.
Those in high-crime areas are denied the things that work bc of fearmongering over them.
And those who are safe are made needlessly miserable by fear.
November 12, 2025 at 8:11 PM
The way we discuss crime in this country is abysmal—media and pop-culture alike.
I don’t know how we fix it, but it makes ALL of us worse off.
Those in high-crime areas are denied the things that work bc of fearmongering over them.
And those who are safe are made needlessly miserable by fear.
I don’t know how we fix it, but it makes ALL of us worse off.
Those in high-crime areas are denied the things that work bc of fearmongering over them.
And those who are safe are made needlessly miserable by fear.
Reposted by Brett Allin
The more democratic elements of the American constitutional and economic order are actually throwing up road blocks to Trumpism. Protests and boycotts and low level courts and juries and cetera. Elite actors on the other hand are all too frequently caving. Fascinating study in who actually cares!
BREAKING: JUSTICE DEPARTMENT EATS A LOSS IN 'SANDWICH GUY' CASE AS JURORS FIND DEFENDANT NOT GUILTY www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...
Jury acquits D.C. 'sandwich guy' charged with chucking a sub at a federal agent
Sean Dunn faced single misdemeanor offense after federal grand jurors refused to indict him on the felony charge sought by prosecutors.
www.nbcnews.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:30 PM
The more democratic elements of the American constitutional and economic order are actually throwing up road blocks to Trumpism. Protests and boycotts and low level courts and juries and cetera. Elite actors on the other hand are all too frequently caving. Fascinating study in who actually cares!
Reposted by Brett Allin
For years, but especially for the past year, Democrats have been in thrall to the idea that they need to chase an imagined median voter, and adopt that voter’s positions. Mamdani’s victory shows another way: hold principles, and persuade people to share them.
I wrote about Zohran’s victory. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Mamdani’s victory is a rebuke to the failed strategies of the Democratic party | Moira Donegan
The Democratic party appears listless and unprincipled, unwilling to fight because they do not believe in anything. Zohran Mamdani is the opposite of this
www.theguardian.com
November 5, 2025 at 6:13 AM
For years, but especially for the past year, Democrats have been in thrall to the idea that they need to chase an imagined median voter, and adopt that voter’s positions. Mamdani’s victory shows another way: hold principles, and persuade people to share them.
Reposted by Brett Allin
1. There are three very important constraints on tonight's Mamdani victory you have to keep in mind when we're looking at what he's going to be able to do in office (taking him in good faith as someone who wants to make life better for people and discounting Trump).
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
November 5, 2025 at 2:44 AM
1. There are three very important constraints on tonight's Mamdani victory you have to keep in mind when we're looking at what he's going to be able to do in office (taking him in good faith as someone who wants to make life better for people and discounting Trump).
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
Moreover, ICE must be destroyed