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Caleb Crain

@calebcrain.bsky.social

3.6K followers 550 following 2.3K posts

Into #birding, #CrossFit, and sometimes writing. Wrote the novels "Necessary Errors" and "Overthrow" More at https://calebcrain.substack.com and https://steamthing.com. New short story! https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/12/clay-fiction-caleb-c

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Caleb Crain @calebcrain.bsky.social · Nov 26

Hi, new followers! I wrote "Necessary Errors," a gay coming-of-age novel set in Prague a year after the Berlin Wall fell, and "Overthrow," a novel about Occupy protesters aswim in surveillance. My short stories have won n+1's Anthony Veasna So prize and the Paris Review's Susannah Hunnewell prize.

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Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 15h

She’s left us no choice. It’s time for Isaac Chotiner to interview Bari Weiss.

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Leaving FilmStruck @leavingfilmstrk.bsky.social · 16d

Another incredible photo of Rev. David Black being assaulted by ICE agents outside an ICE facility in Broadview. Photo by Ashlee Rezin, Chicago Sun-Times

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Gene Ha @geneha.com · 6h

“The Rev. David Black of First Presbyterian Church recoils as a U.S. Customs and Border agents deploy tear gas and pepper balls Friday at the Broadview ICE facility outside Chicago. Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times”

Source: Chicago Sun-Times Sept 20, 2025 chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

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Kurt @flglchicago.bsky.social · 6h

Here’s video of the incident

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 7h

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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Jennifer Szalai @jenszalai.bsky.social · 6h

I was struck by that line too. I reviewed Walter’s book “How Civil Wars Start” when it was published way back in 2022. her analysis was incisive; I was hoping it wouldn’t be prescient:
www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/b...

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Caleb Crain @calebcrain.bsky.social · 6h

Chilling insight by @barbarafwalter.com: "Once citizens view their own government’s security forces as an occupying army, violence becomes inevitable. Trump’s team knows this… They’re trying to trigger the very unrest that would justify further crackdowns."

via www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/o...

Screenshot from a NYT article by Thomas Edsall, quoting Barbara Walter of UC-San Diego: "The quickest way to piss people off is to send soldiers into their neighborhoods especially when there’s no reason for them to be there. It’s inherently provocative, and Trump and his team understand this. Research by the political scientist Robert Pape shows that the single most powerful predictor of suicide terrorism is the presence of foreign troops on local soil. People hate, hate, hate that. They hate the humiliation, the powerlessness, the feeling of being occupied.

"Once citizens begin to view their own government’s security forces as an occupying army, violence becomes inevitable. Trump’s team knows this. In fact, that’s the point. They are not trying to restore order; they’re trying to trigger the very unrest that would justify further crackdowns. In the end, violence serves their ultimate end: They want to create the illusion of disorder so they can tighten control and stay in power indefinitely."

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Caleb Crain @calebcrain.bsky.social · 7h

With this Supreme Court, if you're a conservative Christian, the chip on your shoulder entitles you to standing.

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

Update from Adam Liptak

www.nytimes.com

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 8h

This image was posted on X today by a Chicago Tribune reporter. Trump’s government has declared war on the American people — or some of them, based on race.

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Microplastics Spookmelier @leastactionhero.bsky.social · 12h

this guy borrowed a monty python dvd from me in college and refused to give it back. so now whenever he’s in the news doing something shady i’m like “yup, seems about right.”

Charlie Savage @charliesavage.bsky.social · 1d

C.I.A. Deputy Director Has Replaced Agency’s Top Legal Official With Himself

It is not clear what is behind the move by Michael Ellis, a Trump loyalist. A legal ethics specialist said it could raise conflict-of-interest issues.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/u...

C.I.A. Deputy Director Has Replaced Agency’s Top Legal Official With Himself

www.nytimes.com

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Dr.MRO/ Axel Folio @isasaxonists.bsky.social · 11h

Finished a hat for my uncle to wear to work in the winter. Everything you make w/ your own hands is made w/ extra love.

I used St Maurice & Radiant Golden Brown in DK merino/nylon.

Anyway the message on the hat is loud and clear. We have work to do! 🧶
#showmeyourknits #knitsky #yarnsky #yarnlove

Back of knit hat with skills, and decorative work

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Caleb Crain @calebcrain.bsky.social · 16h

“Let’s do the news,” she said, using a familiar intensifying expletive.

Caleb Crain @calebcrain.bsky.social · 16h

“As paramedics placed tourniquets on Martinez’s leg and arm, a bullet fell out of her arm and onto the shop’s floor, the manager said.”

Jared Holt @jaredlholt.bsky.social · 1d

This really makes it sound like a Border Patrol agent tried to kill an anti-ICE activist in Chicago and DHS lied to cover for him

Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 1d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

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David Wallace-Wells @dwallacewells.bsky.social · 1d

“The hundreds of billions of dollars companies are investing in AI now account for an astonishing 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year. And some analysts believe that estimate doesn’t fully capture the AI spend, so the real share could be even higher.” www.ft.com/content/6cc8...

America is now one big bet on AI

It’s seen as the magic fix for every threat to the US economy

www.ft.com

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T. J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 2d

The President of the United States has initiated a low-intensity civil war.

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 2d

This evening, President Trump is ordering 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployments to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the United States. No officials from the federal government called me directly to discuss or coordinate.

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 2d

Driving through Illinois rn is the Venn overlap between seasonally golden dry, howling blasted dust bowl dry, successful harvest, miserable melancholy harvest of soybeans that no one wants to buy because of Trump’s stupid tariffs, and suffering farmers who absolutely did vote for this 🍂

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Caleb Crain @calebcrain.bsky.social · 2d

I swear I have seen this in dissolute art books that I could not afford, but because I couldn't afford them I don't have any on my shelves, and now I'm doubting myself

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Elle @elleisanisland.bsky.social · 2d

None of these apps are any good. I'm training a crow friend to scream out my thoughts as she flies through the city

Photo of my friend, the crow, sitting on my roof waiting for her bribe/breakfast

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Caleb Crain @calebcrain.bsky.social · 2d

well, you *can* have more than one trim size in a book, if you agree to be flagrantly, ruinously expensive

Caleb Crain @calebcrain.bsky.social · 2d

Today I took out the air conditioners, replaced the brake pads on my bike, and rewired a light switch. I am now retired.

Caleb Crain @calebcrain.bsky.social · 2d

As a novelist I appreciate this piece of evidence about the persistence of human character across time.

nullifie @nullifie.bsky.social · 6d

The year is 2003.

17-year-old Stephen Miller is sitting in the back of a school bus talking about torture, as in “Torture is a celebration of human life and dignity."

Miller looks directly into the camera and describes the torturing Iraqis in gruesome detail, as his peers laugh uncomfortably.