Lynn Brenner
lynnbrenner.bsky.social
Lynn Brenner
@lynnbrenner.bsky.social
Longtime personal finance columnist and business writer, New Yorker, classic movie fan, theater-goer.
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
Abolish Ice should be a centrist position
January 15, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
I know some have been a little unnerved at the aggressive following and noisemaking tactics of the observers. What they don’t realize is that it’s necessitated by what ICE is doing. You have seconds and you need as many eyes on them as possible, and as many people trying to get key info as possible.
January 14, 2026 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
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.
"“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.”"
A St. Paul resident says federal officers knocked on her door and asked her to identify Hmong and Asian households in her North End neighborhood last week.
January 14, 2026 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
Just another morning in the Twin Cities, keeping my eyes on the preschool parent signal chat to make sure none of my child’s classmates, their parents, or their teachers were kidnapped by the federal government in front of the school.
January 14, 2026 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
Just want to stress that this was a woman who was simply trying to get to a doctor's appointment.
We are so far past the Rubicon that it isn't worth having a discussion anymore as to whether Trump is acting as an authoritarian. The only question is whether we have the strength and courage to get back to the other side.
January 14, 2026 at 9:37 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
hey, boys, let's go to Maine in the absolute dead of winter and make sure everybody there REALLY fucking hates the GOP right before a pivotal Senate election
BREAKING — Mayor of Lewiston, Maine posts on FB that ICE is coming to the city imminently. This confirms my reporting the agency is planning a surge in the city and state generally.

Lewiston is home to a large Somali-American population, which made up 4.6% of the population as of the 2020 census.
January 14, 2026 at 10:57 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
We’re watching Trump radicalizing an entire generation in real time
🚨"This is nuts! What the f*ck is going on, this is insane! ICE is just trying to scare people; they tell you it's only immigrants—it's f*cking anybody!" -furious Minneapolis resident tells our @zdroberts.bsky.social after ICE shot a man in the leg tonight. LIVE NOW ⬇️
January 15, 2026 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
Quick someone tell Trump about the first amendment
January 15, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
"The idea of undeserving welfare recipients from a racial minority group made regular appearances in subsequent political debates—including during the presidency of Barack Obama." And look, here it is again.
How Somalis Became the New ‘Welfare Queens’
Trump has reinvented Reagan’s old attack, with one key twist.
lnk.thebulwark.com
January 14, 2026 at 11:00 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
👇🎯 Any president, of both parties, from Truman to Biden, except for this One Special Boy. The post-WWII Republican ones are also spinning in their graves:

bsky.app/profile/mcop...
The NATO treaty and UN Charter are both law in the USA. They are the two most important treaties in the world. Attacking Greenland would violate both of them, as well as the US Constitution.

A Democratic president would be impeached and removed for threatening war on NATO—and they would deserve it.
January 14, 2026 at 11:05 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
Timeline cleanse: the incredible and much-missed Rebecca Luker singing the soprano's lament, "Not Funny," written for her by Michael Heitzman and Ilene Reid.
January 14, 2026 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
Obviously correct, and worth underscoring in every press report.

As is the reality that Trump himself would obviously be removed from positions of responsibility in any other setting—pilot, surgeon, teacher, company official, bus driver—and those around him are denying that while using him.
ICE officers tell media that the conduct in Minneapolis is part of a plan by Stephen Miller to provoke as much violence and death as possible—which in turn will be taken as pretext for more. “They’re essentially operating now in a resource constraint-free environment and doing very dangerous things”
Former members of ICE say recent violence is "by design"
"What has changed is there has been an encouragement from the top to be much more aggressive in enforcement."
www.motherjones.com
January 14, 2026 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
When companies like Aetna or UnitedHealthcare want to rein in costs, they turn to EviCore, whose business model depends on turning down payments for care recommended by doctors for their patients.

(Published Oct. 2024 with @capitolforum.bsky.social)
Inside the Company Helping America’s Biggest Health Insurers Deny Coverage for Treatments
When companies like Aetna or UnitedHealthcare want to rein in costs, they turn to EviCore, whose business model depends on turning down payments for care recommended by doctors for their patients.
www.propublica.org
January 14, 2026 at 4:00 AM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
In the 1860s Monet was so poor that he traded his paintings for food and rent.

His artistic focus during this period included landscapes, coasts, and beauty in everyday life.
December 30, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
Hegseth announced that Grok will soon go live in DOD and that “all appropriate data” from military IT systems would be available for "AI exploitation."
Pentagon is embracing Musk’s Grok AI chatbot as it draws global outcry
Hegseth announced that Grok will soon go live in DOD and that “all appropriate data” from military IT systems would be available for "AI exploitation."
www.defensenews.com
January 13, 2026 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
Large numbers of people called it before Trump even won the nomination: if elected, he would attempt to rule as a dictator. The prediction was based on who he WAS. Concerned people were called hysterical and derailed into pedantic "debates" about whether he was "really" a fascist or something else.
A video of ICE agents conducting door-to-door searches today in Minneapolis

The homeowner requests a warrant repeatedly, is told they don't require one, then is told they're getting it, then the agents storm in anyway

They also point a taser at her to try and disrupt filming
January 12, 2026 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
All the talk of "balance" in journalism produced a culture where constant sane-washing of the right isn't just allowed, it's expected and required.
The news outlets that have so far covered this have omitted the description of the GoFundMe from the creator himself: "The stupid cunts wanna make a go fund me for the stupod bitch that got what she deserved i made one for the ice officer that did his job lets get this man some money." /
January 12, 2026 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
also shoutout to the dummies who thought they could repurpose the attack on DEI for their own ends
As Trump Attacks D.E.I., Some on the Left Approve
www.nytimes.com
January 12, 2026 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
once again shoutout to every dipshit who insisted it was hysterical to talk about trump and white supremacy in the same breath www.rawstory.com/trump-267487...
Trump appalls with attack on Civil Rights Act: 'White people very badly treated'
Critics pounced on President Donald Trump Monday after he complained to the New York Times that the Civil Rights Act – the landmark 1964 legislation that outlawed racial discrimination – was “unfair i...
www.rawstory.com
January 12, 2026 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
I hope Democrats understand that if and when they get back to power, defaulting to “unity” politics and empty reconciliation without any real accountability would not only be morally abhorrent, but also politically suicidal: The desire for at least some semblance of justice will be overwhelming.
January 12, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
The animating force at the heart of US conservatism currently is incandescent rage at the mere idea of women's autonomy and independence. An image of a smiling woman who looks insufficiently deferential for their tastes riles them up enough to tear up the social contract.
this is all it’s really about for them. Not domestic policy, not “economic anxiety”, just an endless desire to punish stand-ins for the Mommy who forced them take a bath, even if it tanks their own quality of life.
January 12, 2026 at 7:17 AM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
He said this on Wednesday. It's Sunday now. It's way past time for the full transcript of this interview to be released. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/u...
Trump Says Civil Rights Led to White People Being ‘Very Badly Treated’
www.nytimes.com
January 11, 2026 at 11:32 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
This exact phenomenon was the subject of my column this week: The heavy accumulated emotional burden we are all carrying in the Trump era. That weariness is real—and there’s a reason for it. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/the-physic...
January 11, 2026 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
We have cleaned up the crime scene and blocked a local investigation and hidden the perpetrator and invaded the state and that is how you know that we are acting in good faith and that everything was the victim’s fault.
www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...
Trump Administration Live Updates: Noem Says ‘Hundreds More’ Agents Will Be Sent to Minnesota Over ‘Corruption’
www.nytimes.com
January 11, 2026 at 5:55 PM
Reposted by Lynn Brenner
👇🎯💯

My only addition is that it shouldn't stop with impeaching Noem. All the way to the top.
January 11, 2026 at 6:21 PM