Dr David R Brake
@drbrake.bsky.social
Journalist, policy wonk (transit, urban planning, EVs, climate, internet/media regulation), PhD (Media@LSE), dad, newly-adoptive Brightonian
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
🔴 NEW: Amsterdam Defies Last-Minute Lobbying to Become First Capital City to Ban Fossil Fuel Ads
www.desmog.com/2026/01/23/a...
📝 @ellen-ormesher.bsky.social
www.desmog.com/2026/01/23/a...
📝 @ellen-ormesher.bsky.social
Amsterdam Defies Last-Minute Lobbying to Become First Capital City to Ban Fossil Fuel Ads
Amsterdam city council has passed a legally binding ban on advertising for fossil fuels and meat products across public spaces in the city, becoming the first capital in the world to prohibit such ads...
www.desmog.com
January 23, 2026 at 5:54 PM
🔴 NEW: Amsterdam Defies Last-Minute Lobbying to Become First Capital City to Ban Fossil Fuel Ads
www.desmog.com/2026/01/23/a...
📝 @ellen-ormesher.bsky.social
www.desmog.com/2026/01/23/a...
📝 @ellen-ormesher.bsky.social
Outrage spilling over outside the usual spaces when ”Normie” Americans learn they can’t avoid politics anymore (better late than never)!
Though the real and terrifying crime is the repeated immediate and unsubtle application of the “big lie” from the top down to continually justify these actions.
Though the real and terrifying crime is the repeated immediate and unsubtle application of the “big lie” from the top down to continually justify these actions.
January 25, 2026 at 11:10 PM
Outrage spilling over outside the usual spaces when ”Normie” Americans learn they can’t avoid politics anymore (better late than never)!
Though the real and terrifying crime is the repeated immediate and unsubtle application of the “big lie” from the top down to continually justify these actions.
Though the real and terrifying crime is the repeated immediate and unsubtle application of the “big lie” from the top down to continually justify these actions.
Was hoping this would be from the NYT Editorial Board. Not yet?
"Fundamentally, the terror was random. That is, in fact, how state terror works.
The randomness is the difference between a regime based on terror and a regime that is plainly repressive."
Gift link:
The randomness is the difference between a regime based on terror and a regime that is plainly repressive."
Gift link:
Opinion | State Terror Has Arrived
www.nytimes.com
January 25, 2026 at 10:40 AM
Was hoping this would be from the NYT Editorial Board. Not yet?
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
Really want the academics and think tanks to start churning out pdfs on what tribunals and truth and reconciliation commissions look like. Political leaders are absolutely not going to come up with this on their own.
Would happily take time to help write and edit any of that, too.
Would happily take time to help write and edit any of that, too.
January 25, 2026 at 1:22 AM
Really want the academics and think tanks to start churning out pdfs on what tribunals and truth and reconciliation commissions look like. Political leaders are absolutely not going to come up with this on their own.
Would happily take time to help write and edit any of that, too.
Would happily take time to help write and edit any of that, too.
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
Thinking more about this and it's not just the stakes of the moment, but about what comes next. So many people think things will eventually return to normal. They haven't come to the realization like so many of us have, that we need Nuremberg trials, Truth and Reconciliation, and Reconstruction.
I'm grateful for my community online and in the real world that understands the stakes of this fight. Otherwise it would be an incredibly lonely road ahead.
the unbearable psychic damage of being alive in America and having a conscience
January 25, 2026 at 12:04 AM
Thinking more about this and it's not just the stakes of the moment, but about what comes next. So many people think things will eventually return to normal. They haven't come to the realization like so many of us have, that we need Nuremberg trials, Truth and Reconciliation, and Reconstruction.
I think I see an opportunity for a reprint. If not a reskinned 4th edition. Board games have their own parts to play!
End of semester reward Bloc by Bloc
Semi-cooperative tabletop game inspired by 21st century protest movements, riots and popular uprisings.
#boardgame #tabletop @outlandishgames.bsky.social
Semi-cooperative tabletop game inspired by 21st century protest movements, riots and popular uprisings.
#boardgame #tabletop @outlandishgames.bsky.social
January 25, 2026 at 1:08 AM
I think I see an opportunity for a reprint. If not a reskinned 4th edition. Board games have their own parts to play!
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
It has gotten so bad that the @nytimes.com has stopped using the passive voice to describe the violence.
January 24, 2026 at 5:15 PM
It has gotten so bad that the @nytimes.com has stopped using the passive voice to describe the violence.
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
ICE is now responsible for 66% of the homicides in Minneapolis this year.
January 24, 2026 at 4:51 PM
ICE is now responsible for 66% of the homicides in Minneapolis this year.
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
It's not exactly the 30s again, but history rhymes.
Rising fascism. Environmental disaster. The 1% hoarding wealth and the 99% struggling.
Democratic socialism is the answer: we won medicare, pensions, public housing.
We've got plenty more popular ideas today.
We're gonna start winning again!
Rising fascism. Environmental disaster. The 1% hoarding wealth and the 99% struggling.
Democratic socialism is the answer: we won medicare, pensions, public housing.
We've got plenty more popular ideas today.
We're gonna start winning again!
January 23, 2026 at 11:23 PM
It's not exactly the 30s again, but history rhymes.
Rising fascism. Environmental disaster. The 1% hoarding wealth and the 99% struggling.
Democratic socialism is the answer: we won medicare, pensions, public housing.
We've got plenty more popular ideas today.
We're gonna start winning again!
Rising fascism. Environmental disaster. The 1% hoarding wealth and the 99% struggling.
Democratic socialism is the answer: we won medicare, pensions, public housing.
We've got plenty more popular ideas today.
We're gonna start winning again!
Not really @matthewlbishop.bsky.social 's fault but still entertaining - shows how impossible it is to predict Trump's mood. This AM in his Observer Davos Diary a bank CEO at Davos is jealous that JP Morgan is "untouchable". This afternoon Trump sues JP Morgan for $5bn. www.cnbc.com/2026/01/22/t...
Trump sues Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase over alleged 'political' debanking
Chase Bank closed Trump's accounts on the heels of the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot and the president exiting the White House later that same month.
www.cnbc.com
January 22, 2026 at 7:22 PM
Not really @matthewlbishop.bsky.social 's fault but still entertaining - shows how impossible it is to predict Trump's mood. This AM in his Observer Davos Diary a bank CEO at Davos is jealous that JP Morgan is "untouchable". This afternoon Trump sues JP Morgan for $5bn. www.cnbc.com/2026/01/22/t...
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
ICE secretly told its officers that any time someone has been ordered removed, ICE can break down their door.
It has been accepted for generations that the only thing which can authorize agents to break into your home is a warrant signed by a judge. No wonder ICE hid this memo!
It has been accepted for generations that the only thing which can authorize agents to break into your home is a warrant signed by a judge. No wonder ICE hid this memo!
![May 12, 2025
MEMORANDUM FOR: All ICE Personnel
FROM: Todd Lyons Acting Director
SUBJECT: Utilizing Form I-205, Warrant of Removal
On January 20, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion, directing the Secretary of Homeland Security to "ensur[e] the successful enforcement of final orders of removal." 90 Fed. Reg. 8443, 8444 (Jan. 20, 2025) (E.O. 14159). Essential to the removal of aliens subject to final orders of removal is the ability to locate and arrest them. To this end, certain supervisory immigration officers within both Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) are authorized to issue an administrative warrant, Form I-205, Warrant of Removal (Form 1-205), for the arrest of an alien with a final order of removal. 8 C.F.R. § 241.2(a)(1). All U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents and deportation officers are authorized to execute Forms 1-205. 8 C.F.R. § 287.5(e)(3)(iii) - (y)
Although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not historically relied on administrative warrants alone to arrest aliens subject to final orders of removal in their place of residence, the DHS Office of the General Counsel has recently determined that the U.S. Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the immigration regulations do not prohibit relying on administrative warrants for this purpose. Accordingly, in light of this legal determination, ICE immigration officers may arrest and detain aliens subject to a final under of removal issued by an immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), or a U.S.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2vtbmhmrwzbqcfv4we4uxzzt/bafkreifrzrvaszfhj4bzhgtyvx3fm6ht4kc2zrwtvozijyxl3zxgp7vx6a@jpeg)
January 21, 2026 at 10:09 PM
ICE secretly told its officers that any time someone has been ordered removed, ICE can break down their door.
It has been accepted for generations that the only thing which can authorize agents to break into your home is a warrant signed by a judge. No wonder ICE hid this memo!
It has been accepted for generations that the only thing which can authorize agents to break into your home is a warrant signed by a judge. No wonder ICE hid this memo!
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
she mentions it in passing but look up 'Starlight Tours', this is a method Canadian police have used to kill indigenous men for decades
🚨"Theyr're dumping people in the woods" - Medical workers are flagging potential cases of federal agents releasing injured detainees in the most inhumane method possible. LIVE NOW⬇️
January 22, 2026 at 2:32 AM
she mentions it in passing but look up 'Starlight Tours', this is a method Canadian police have used to kill indigenous men for decades
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
That none of the powerful people in the room are booing him or heckling him is one reason we're in this mess.
Trump to Davos: "Without us, right now you'd all be speaking German and a little Japanese perhaps. After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that? But we did it. But how ungrateful are they now?"
January 21, 2026 at 2:18 PM
That none of the powerful people in the room are booing him or heckling him is one reason we're in this mess.
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
'The government needs to properly fund councils'
Hackney Mayoral candidate @zoe.garbett.bskysocial discusses the impact of underfunded councils on local communities, jobs and services.
Hackney Mayoral candidate @zoe.garbett.bskysocial discusses the impact of underfunded councils on local communities, jobs and services.
January 21, 2026 at 5:01 PM
'The government needs to properly fund councils'
Hackney Mayoral candidate @zoe.garbett.bskysocial discusses the impact of underfunded councils on local communities, jobs and services.
Hackney Mayoral candidate @zoe.garbett.bskysocial discusses the impact of underfunded councils on local communities, jobs and services.
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
*sighing, tapping the sign*
January 21, 2026 at 4:32 PM
*sighing, tapping the sign*
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
Labour are low in the polls and hard on the country.
Fair play to whichever special advisor has written Keir a bit of a snarky line. Maybe Keir could take that energy to Trump on the warpath or the billionaire bosses ruining this country?
Fair play to whichever special advisor has written Keir a bit of a snarky line. Maybe Keir could take that energy to Trump on the warpath or the billionaire bosses ruining this country?
January 21, 2026 at 1:47 PM
Labour are low in the polls and hard on the country.
Fair play to whichever special advisor has written Keir a bit of a snarky line. Maybe Keir could take that energy to Trump on the warpath or the billionaire bosses ruining this country?
Fair play to whichever special advisor has written Keir a bit of a snarky line. Maybe Keir could take that energy to Trump on the warpath or the billionaire bosses ruining this country?
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
We agree. It’s time to pay up.
As billionaires and leaders arrive in Davos, protesters from the "Everybody Hates Elon Campaign" are greeting them with this massive banner near the Zurich airport.
#TaxTheRich #Davos #WEF #Inequality
As billionaires and leaders arrive in Davos, protesters from the "Everybody Hates Elon Campaign" are greeting them with this massive banner near the Zurich airport.
#TaxTheRich #Davos #WEF #Inequality
January 21, 2026 at 2:00 PM
We agree. It’s time to pay up.
As billionaires and leaders arrive in Davos, protesters from the "Everybody Hates Elon Campaign" are greeting them with this massive banner near the Zurich airport.
#TaxTheRich #Davos #WEF #Inequality
As billionaires and leaders arrive in Davos, protesters from the "Everybody Hates Elon Campaign" are greeting them with this massive banner near the Zurich airport.
#TaxTheRich #Davos #WEF #Inequality
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires have signed a letter calling for increased taxes on the super-rich.
Extreme wealth means extreme power - over our politics, our media, and our lives.
When even the super-rich know it's time to tax them more, will Labour finally listen?
Extreme wealth means extreme power - over our politics, our media, and our lives.
When even the super-rich know it's time to tax them more, will Labour finally listen?
January 21, 2026 at 11:15 AM
Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires have signed a letter calling for increased taxes on the super-rich.
Extreme wealth means extreme power - over our politics, our media, and our lives.
When even the super-rich know it's time to tax them more, will Labour finally listen?
Extreme wealth means extreme power - over our politics, our media, and our lives.
When even the super-rich know it's time to tax them more, will Labour finally listen?
Apparently some Canadian companies are happy to take ICE's money? betakit.com/hootsuite-dh...
Hootsuite could receive up to $2.8 million USD for contract with US immigration enforcement | BetaKit
Years after scrapping a contract with ICE, Hootsuite is providing monitoring technology to DHS.
betakit.com
January 20, 2026 at 11:20 PM
Apparently some Canadian companies are happy to take ICE's money? betakit.com/hootsuite-dh...
The CPP Investment Board says it will be calling for child safety safeguards but doesn't seem embarrassed by the ongoing MechaHitler stuff or Grok's appalling owner. Wish my pension savings weren't going to build a fossil gas powered data centre to serve it!
Grok, the gas-powered deepfake-generating "anti-woke" chatbot that used to refer to itself as "MechaHitler," attracted a substantial investment from Canadians' pensions.
Canada's pension plan invested $416 million in Musk's deepfake porn-generating AI
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) ploughed about $416 million last year into xAI, Elon Musk's AI company. The money helped fund the billionaire's push to build three of the world's larg...
www.nationalobserver.com
January 20, 2026 at 10:59 PM
The CPP Investment Board says it will be calling for child safety safeguards but doesn't seem embarrassed by the ongoing MechaHitler stuff or Grok's appalling owner. Wish my pension savings weren't going to build a fossil gas powered data centre to serve it!
Is it already @greenparty.org.uk policy to make raw meat VAT taxable? It should be. And in Canada too. Money raised could go to welfare spending to offset the impact. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘Meat tax’ could have significant impact on environmental footprint, study finds
Full VAT on meat products could cost EU households as little as €26 a year but cut impact by 3-6%, says paper
www.theguardian.com
January 20, 2026 at 1:01 PM
Is it already @greenparty.org.uk policy to make raw meat VAT taxable? It should be. And in Canada too. Money raised could go to welfare spending to offset the impact. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
Profits go down: We regret to announce that we have to destroy the world.
Profits go up: We're delighted to announce that we have to destroy the world.
Profits go up: We're delighted to announce that we have to destroy the world.
January 19, 2026 at 5:45 PM
Profits go down: We regret to announce that we have to destroy the world.
Profits go up: We're delighted to announce that we have to destroy the world.
Profits go up: We're delighted to announce that we have to destroy the world.
The @telegraph.co.uk used to be a serious newspaper. How could it publish this absurd opinion piece, which does not even mention the fact the United States has already got a major military base in Greenland? apple.news/Ac-yETaYyT06...
Opinion: Greenland belongs in the United States — The Telegraph
Denmark cannot defend the territory. It is too strategically important for the US to leave it vulnerable to potential Chinese control
apple.news
January 20, 2026 at 12:37 PM
The @telegraph.co.uk used to be a serious newspaper. How could it publish this absurd opinion piece, which does not even mention the fact the United States has already got a major military base in Greenland? apple.news/Ac-yETaYyT06...
Reposted by Dr David R Brake
Please explain why it's good that an increasingly hostile United States controls the triggers for our nuclear submarines. Just tell me why that's a good thing, please.
An emotional response to Trump’s bullying over Greenland will not protect Ukraine, the UK or the rest of Europe. unilaterally abandon trident risks making a bad situation worse- we need to focus on how to strengthen, not weaken our alliances and our allies, and that means prioritising the EU.
January 19, 2026 at 11:25 PM
Please explain why it's good that an increasingly hostile United States controls the triggers for our nuclear submarines. Just tell me why that's a good thing, please.