Andrea Pitzer
@andreapitzer.bsky.social
Books! One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, Icebound: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World, & a Nabokov bio. Now working on Snowblind: Death on the Polar Ice. Former karateka & record store clerk. Newsletter & podcast: andreapitzer.com.
Pinned
Andrea Pitzer
@andreapitzer.bsky.social
· Nov 10
Degenerate Art
Andrea Pitzer on politics and history, the Arctic, and Appalachian exile.
degenerateart.beehiiv.com
I currently have a newsletter in which I write regularly about how societies devolve into authoritarianism & what that means right now in the US & around the world. It also features essays about my unsettled childhood in West Virginia. Soon, it will also include art, surprises, & links to resources.
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
ICE is likely paying a premium to get the deal through quickly. E.g., in Hamburg, PA, the warehouse was purchased in 2024 for $57.5 million and sold to ICE for $87 million.
The real profit will come with the private prison companies and contractors hired to refurbish and staff these facilities.
The real profit will come with the private prison companies and contractors hired to refurbish and staff these facilities.
February 9, 2026 at 6:21 PM
ICE is likely paying a premium to get the deal through quickly. E.g., in Hamburg, PA, the warehouse was purchased in 2024 for $57.5 million and sold to ICE for $87 million.
The real profit will come with the private prison companies and contractors hired to refurbish and staff these facilities.
The real profit will come with the private prison companies and contractors hired to refurbish and staff these facilities.
I've been to some countries where people live under military rule or autocracy. And without fail, one of the questions I get when they ask about life in the U.S. is whether it's true that Americans just let homeless people die on the street.
During freezing temperatures in Port Arthur, Texas, a 61-year-old homeless man was found dead in his wheelchair outside a convenience store.
He was wearing a hospital gown and no shoes. Authorities say he had been released from a hospital the previous day.
This is a diseased society.
He was wearing a hospital gown and no shoes. Authorities say he had been released from a hospital the previous day.
This is a diseased society.
'What's wrong with the world?' Man in wheelchair found dead outside in freezing temps
The 61-year-old man had been released from a hospital the day before.
news4sanantonio.com
February 9, 2026 at 5:05 PM
I've been to some countries where people live under military rule or autocracy. And without fail, one of the questions I get when they ask about life in the U.S. is whether it's true that Americans just let homeless people die on the street.
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
During freezing temperatures in Port Arthur, Texas, a 61-year-old homeless man was found dead in his wheelchair outside a convenience store.
He was wearing a hospital gown and no shoes. Authorities say he had been released from a hospital the previous day.
This is a diseased society.
He was wearing a hospital gown and no shoes. Authorities say he had been released from a hospital the previous day.
This is a diseased society.
'What's wrong with the world?' Man in wheelchair found dead outside in freezing temps
The 61-year-old man had been released from a hospital the day before.
news4sanantonio.com
February 9, 2026 at 4:09 PM
During freezing temperatures in Port Arthur, Texas, a 61-year-old homeless man was found dead in his wheelchair outside a convenience store.
He was wearing a hospital gown and no shoes. Authorities say he had been released from a hospital the previous day.
This is a diseased society.
He was wearing a hospital gown and no shoes. Authorities say he had been released from a hospital the previous day.
This is a diseased society.
These people pictured Triumph of the Will and pageantry for the ages if they supported the ethnic cleansing machine. But what they're getting is public shunning and being forced to pretend they like Kid Rock.
February 9, 2026 at 2:16 PM
These people pictured Triumph of the Will and pageantry for the ages if they supported the ethnic cleansing machine. But what they're getting is public shunning and being forced to pretend they like Kid Rock.
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken.
Hundreds of kids are still detained.
We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
Hundreds of kids are still detained.
We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
February 9, 2026 at 12:25 PM
1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken.
Hundreds of kids are still detained.
We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
Hundreds of kids are still detained.
We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
Just spitballing here, but maybe we should celebrate all this beautiful stuff and have a better country?
February 9, 2026 at 1:38 AM
Just spitballing here, but maybe we should celebrate all this beautiful stuff and have a better country?
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
One of these days, people will look back on these sports betting ads like we do on the ads for patent medicines featuring cocaine.
February 9, 2026 at 12:31 AM
One of these days, people will look back on these sports betting ads like we do on the ads for patent medicines featuring cocaine.
Just learned that Rhea Seehorn of Pluribus was in the movie my brother-in-law borrowed my apartment to film two decades ago.
February 9, 2026 at 12:17 AM
Just learned that Rhea Seehorn of Pluribus was in the movie my brother-in-law borrowed my apartment to film two decades ago.
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
As @andreapitzer.bsky.social has said, the correct response to Dachau was not better training for the guards
Trump’s concentration camps don’t need “reforms”—they need to be shut down
Trump’s concentration camps don’t need “reforms”—they need to be shut down
Concentration camps:
"I saw people lying in feces, throwing up, and sleeping in urine."
"I saw people lying in feces, throwing up, and sleeping in urine."
Former ICE Facility Worker 'saw people laying in feces' at Baltimore Detention Center
Whistleblower provides internal documents alleging severe overcrowding, mistreatment months before viral video sparked national outrage
www.wusa9.com
February 8, 2026 at 11:38 PM
As @andreapitzer.bsky.social has said, the correct response to Dachau was not better training for the guards
Trump’s concentration camps don’t need “reforms”—they need to be shut down
Trump’s concentration camps don’t need “reforms”—they need to be shut down
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
more of this. don't be the machine. be the cogs. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/b...
Google Workers Demand End to Cloud Services for Immigration Agencies
www.nytimes.com
February 8, 2026 at 10:09 PM
more of this. don't be the machine. be the cogs. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/b...
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
Today the crew of weirdo printers that I call the whistle goblins passed A HALF MILLION whistles printed and shipped. I wrote about how we got there and how you can start printing whistles yourself. dansinker.com/posts/2026-0...
Whistle Up 2: Rise of the Whistle Goblins | dansinker.com
dansinker.com
February 8, 2026 at 8:46 PM
Today the crew of weirdo printers that I call the whistle goblins passed A HALF MILLION whistles printed and shipped. I wrote about how we got there and how you can start printing whistles yourself. dansinker.com/posts/2026-0...
Sorry, can't talk now. I'm listening to Erroll Garner play "How High the Moon."
How High the Moon (Remastered 2020)
YouTube video by Erroll Garner - Topic
www.youtube.com
February 8, 2026 at 2:15 AM
Sorry, can't talk now. I'm listening to Erroll Garner play "How High the Moon."
My in-laws used to live in Anderson, SC, where this festival was going to take place. It was filled with Confederate flags two decades before Trump even announced his presidential run. If you can't make a MAGA-fest happen there, the movement has truly fallen on hard times.
February 8, 2026 at 2:00 AM
My in-laws used to live in Anderson, SC, where this festival was going to take place. It was filled with Confederate flags two decades before Trump even announced his presidential run. If you can't make a MAGA-fest happen there, the movement has truly fallen on hard times.
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
“You don't have to know how to live / It keeps happening either way” from Aubade by Heather Christle
February 7, 2026 at 9:13 PM
“You don't have to know how to live / It keeps happening either way” from Aubade by Heather Christle
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
There must be eventual consequences, even if it takes us a decade www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/u...
February 7, 2026 at 8:58 PM
There must be eventual consequences, even if it takes us a decade www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/u...
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
Some great news. My hybrid memoir IN OPEN COUNTRY will now be published by Little, Brown. It’s about freedom of movement and stillness in the US, and the ways capitalism & settler colonialism have shaped (and continue to shape) the answer to who has either across time. I also do a lot of walking.
February 4, 2026 at 7:18 PM
Some great news. My hybrid memoir IN OPEN COUNTRY will now be published by Little, Brown. It’s about freedom of movement and stillness in the US, and the ways capitalism & settler colonialism have shaped (and continue to shape) the answer to who has either across time. I also do a lot of walking.
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
The Friday roundup is here. With links to the latest podcast episode! And I wrote about the ways that people keep themselves from seeing or responding to the suffering of others. What if Senator Katie Britt *was* haunted by Liam Conejo Ramos's detention, yet still won't do anything to protect him?
Love that is complicit
Podcast links! And how America abets abuse of the immigrants it relies on.
degenerateart.beehiiv.com
February 6, 2026 at 11:56 PM
The Friday roundup is here. With links to the latest podcast episode! And I wrote about the ways that people keep themselves from seeing or responding to the suffering of others. What if Senator Katie Britt *was* haunted by Liam Conejo Ramos's detention, yet still won't do anything to protect him?
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
Aaron is right, and, what's more, the procedural irregularity Douglas details here shows that not only was that the Trump administration's goal here — but that Jones and Duncan helped them along (if it not directly being their goal as well).
AWFUL news tonight. This blesses the “mandatory” detention in the 5th Circuit without bond (and little chance at habeas) of every undocumented immigrant who originally entered across the border, no matter how many decades in the past.
It will fuel ICE’s push to transfer people to Texas immediately.
It will fuel ICE’s push to transfer people to Texas immediately.
BREAKING: A 5th Circuit panel has backed ICE's mass detention policy, a decision that clears the way for the administration to lock up people who are in immigration proceedings
It's a 2-1 ruling
Majority: Jones (Reagan), Duncan (Trump)
Minority: Douglas (Obama)
s3.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
It's a 2-1 ruling
Majority: Jones (Reagan), Duncan (Trump)
Minority: Douglas (Obama)
s3.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
February 7, 2026 at 3:27 AM
Aaron is right, and, what's more, the procedural irregularity Douglas details here shows that not only was that the Trump administration's goal here — but that Jones and Duncan helped them along (if it not directly being their goal as well).
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
Update: They succeeded: www.mississippifreepress.org/byhalia-ice-...
February 7, 2026 at 12:54 AM
Update: They succeeded: www.mississippifreepress.org/byhalia-ice-...
Just putting it out there to the universe that I am willing to star *as* Charles Murray in a mockumentary of his life.
Charles Murray, famous racist, is very mad that Lupita Nyong’o is going to play Helen of Troy.
www.liberalcurrents.com/none-more-wo...
www.liberalcurrents.com/none-more-wo...
February 7, 2026 at 2:16 AM
Just putting it out there to the universe that I am willing to star *as* Charles Murray in a mockumentary of his life.
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
"You can no more slap a few reforms on our current system of immigration enforcement than you can create a safe structure for child abuse. You can’t tidy up a mission in which harm is the core principle."
The Friday roundup is here. With links to the latest podcast episode! And I wrote about the ways that people keep themselves from seeing or responding to the suffering of others. What if Senator Katie Britt *was* haunted by Liam Conejo Ramos's detention, yet still won't do anything to protect him?
Love that is complicit
Podcast links! And how America abets abuse of the immigrants it relies on.
degenerateart.beehiiv.com
February 7, 2026 at 12:06 AM
"You can no more slap a few reforms on our current system of immigration enforcement than you can create a safe structure for child abuse. You can’t tidy up a mission in which harm is the core principle."
The Friday roundup is here. With links to the latest podcast episode! And I wrote about the ways that people keep themselves from seeing or responding to the suffering of others. What if Senator Katie Britt *was* haunted by Liam Conejo Ramos's detention, yet still won't do anything to protect him?
Love that is complicit
Podcast links! And how America abets abuse of the immigrants it relies on.
degenerateart.beehiiv.com
February 6, 2026 at 11:56 PM
The Friday roundup is here. With links to the latest podcast episode! And I wrote about the ways that people keep themselves from seeing or responding to the suffering of others. What if Senator Katie Britt *was* haunted by Liam Conejo Ramos's detention, yet still won't do anything to protect him?
Reposted by Andrea Pitzer
VA Gov. Spanberger (moderate, was in CIA) and NYC Mayor Mamdani (left, is in DSA) both taking steps to block local law enforcement from helping ICE as it violently violates people's rights is a good example of how the relevant divide in the Dem coalition isn't center-left, it's fight-don't fight.
February 6, 2026 at 6:40 PM
VA Gov. Spanberger (moderate, was in CIA) and NYC Mayor Mamdani (left, is in DSA) both taking steps to block local law enforcement from helping ICE as it violently violates people's rights is a good example of how the relevant divide in the Dem coalition isn't center-left, it's fight-don't fight.
He seems like a guy who would be easy to trip.
International Olympic Committee Asks Fans to Not Boo JD Vance at the Opening Ceremony
The U.S. delegation will be led by the Vice President and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
www.townandcountrymag.com
February 6, 2026 at 6:45 PM
He seems like a guy who would be easy to trip.