Sean Gallagher

We’ve already seen quite a few examples of ICE agents trying to kidnap someone and eventually giving up and running away because a crowd had gathered and shouted them down. That’s EFFECTIVE.

At @oieahc.bsky.social conference, @adamxmcneil.bsky.social delivered an engaging paper centering enslaved Black children & the Battle of Yorktown as a historical lens through which to frame questions of freedom during the American Revolution.

“Making Sense of the Federal Forces on the Streets,” with photos of how they’re uniformed and equipped

The New York Times publishes a handy guide to which federal forces are terrorizing us at any moment. This is America, 2025.

So FYI, ICE is definitely in Oakland RIGHT NOW, clashing with protesters.
Whatever deal Lurie made with Trump does not include Oakland, which unlike SF is majority nonwhite. And of course has a Black female mayor.

They're still coming for Oakland right now - which was surely the plan all along.

Coming next spring, in time for what will surely be a lively but respectful debate about the 250th anniversary of the Declaration

👀👀👀

The fact that these 2 things can be happening at the same time demonstrates the contempt the ruling class has for the people

I had a lot of convos with people who said they were sympathetic, but Defund the Police was a "bad slogan". I told them it wasn't a slogan. It was an answer. It was an answer to the constant question "what can we do to actually lower crime and make our neighborhood's safer?"

Anyway. Here we are.

My gosh. After the US bombed multiple boats in the middle of the ocean, murdering people on grounds that they were allegedly "carrying drugs," the US Attorney General says "Just like we did with cartels, we're going to take the same approach…with Antifa."

This is truly horrifying.

and when I said “the violence is already here” I also meant: the actual police

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

Happening now: at Kedzie and 40th, where Border Patrol agents just opened fire on rapid response this afternoon. A woman CFD says they found after the incident is reported in fair condition.

A growing number of outraged neighbors have gathered across from ICE/CBP agents who have closed Kedzie.

Hey #vastearlyamerica folks, I'm thinking about putting together a panel for @cndhistassoc.bsky.social 's conference next summer, looking at religion and violence in the colonial wars between New France and New England/the mid-Atlantic (or just France & England in Canada). Anyone interested?

The Underground Railroad’s Stealth Sailors | Eric Foner The web of Atlantic trading routes and solidarity among maritime workers, many of them Black, meant fugitive slaves’ chances of reaching freedom below deck were better than over land.

Here is a review of my new book *Freedom Ship* by Eric Foner, published yesterday in *The New York Review of Books* (@nybooks.com).

www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Took about 20 years. And I never thought a book about enslavers using deputization to give themselves policing power would be relevant to our times. But we are where we are.

My book, White Power: Policing American Slavery, is now available for preorder.

a.co/d/29c7EIP

Trump’s NSPM-7 Alarms Law Firms While Congress Is Silent Domestic terror watchlist to double, sources say

FBI's domestic terror watchlist expected to DOUBLE in size as a result of NSPM-7, the new presidential directive targeting "anti-Christian," "anti-capitalism" and "anti-American" speech:
www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-nsp...

Feeling hopeless about giving shape to my academic career in a country where I can potentially lose my job at any time.

I know it's hard to do but you have to tune out the constant & I mean constant torrent of criticisms on social media re: activism & organizing. If you don't, it can stop you from trying to do any activism or organizing. Most of the critics aren't doing any organizing themselves so keep trying things

19 ICE detainees at the new Angola camp are on a hunger strike, advocacy group says The strike was reported by the National Immigration Project on Saturday. The group says the detainees have not been eating for the past four days.

19 ICE detainees on hunger strike at Angola.

Today makes it Day 5.

www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/...

Hundreds of Alligator Alcatraz detainees drop off the grid after leaving site As of the end of August, the whereabouts of two-thirds of more than 1,800 men detained at Alligator Alcatraz during the month of July could not be determined by the Miami Herald.

Where are the disappeared?

www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

This was such a great convo with @danieldenvir.bsky.social & @alfatau.bsky.social! Please check it out!

The crux of civil disobedience is partly the jails can’t hold everybody, so break their capacity and make them look stupid. History echoes itself

'Chilling reminder': At least 6 historically Black universities on alert amid threats At least six historically Black colleges enacted lockdowns after receiving threats, amid heightened concerns following recent campus violence at Utah Valley University.

"Multiple historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are on lockdown after receiving threats, including Alabama State University, Virginia State University, Hampton University in Virginia, Southern University in Louisiana, and Clark Atlanta University in Georgia." abc13.com/post/multipl...

Excited to join @seangallagher.bsky.social and other wonderful scholars in conversation to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation in Norfolk, Virginia!!

www.eventbrite.com/e/competing-...

If you click through to the video, you’ll hear a young woman repeatedly telling a college professor that President Trump has declared that what the Professor had been teaching is illegal and she’ll be meeting with the head of the university about it.

It’s chilling and scary.

This country is a disaster

Gaza: UN experts urge General Assembly to respond to famine and genocide GENEVA – UN experts* today issued an urgent appeal for an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly, warning that the international community must act immediately before the 17 September-deadline f...

“Three hundred and sixty-one Palestinians have died due to malnutrition, including 130 children. 13 of them, including 3 children, have died in the past 24 hours.”

www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

Guards riot, beat immigrant detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz” concentration camp in Florida Everglades In frantic phone calls, immigrants reported that guards deployed tear gas and assaulted them.

Prisoners inside #AlligatorAlcatraz report brutal attack by guards.

“People started shouting because a relative had died...shouting for freedom. At that moment, a prison team came in and started beating everyone...[W]e are not criminals, we are not murderers.” www.wsws.org/en/articles/...

Thank you, @profmk.bsky.social, for chopping it up with me on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about his new @lsupress.bsky.social book, “Slavery’s Fugitives and the Making of the United States Constitution.”

newbooksnetwork.com/slaverys-fug...

it's amazing how much hand-wringing about messaging amounts to "abandon X grouple of people." Just endless assertions that because of the electoral math, the focus-grouped data, certain members of the public just don't possess rights or interests worth defending.