Elisabeth R. Anker
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libankerdc.bsky.social
Elisabeth R. Anker
@libankerdc.bsky.social
Professor: Political Theory & American Culture
Author: UGLY FREEDOMS (Duke) & Orgies of Feeling: Melodrama and the Promise of Freedom (Duke)
Next Books: “Every Man a Sovereign” and “Going Low”
Libby to my pals
Web: https://tinyurl.com/Elisabeth-Anker
Pinned
Just dropping this piece I wrote here. This entire administration is the ugliest of ugly freedoms: www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/o...
Reposted by Elisabeth R. Anker
BREAKING: The Epstein survivors are releasing this ad on this Super Bowl Sunday to send the message that they will not “move on” from the largest sex trafficking scandal in the world. #standwithsurvivors
February 8, 2026 at 5:07 PM
Reposted by Elisabeth R. Anker
i think this more than anything is what miller wants. vast detention camps with all of the suffering and death that means.
ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps.

If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...
ICE to begin detaining immigrants inside Social Circle warehouse in April
Homeland Security plans to build warehouse detention facilities in other cities being met with opposition.
www.ajc.com
February 10, 2026 at 3:56 AM
Reposted by Elisabeth R. Anker
As Le Point and Le Monde have both reported, Epstein was running a major project out of his luxurious apartment in Paris' 16th arrondissement to advance the interests of Marine Le Pen and her Pétainiste party, which appears to have been coordinated on several levels with the Kremlin. Here's Bannon.
February 10, 2026 at 3:04 AM
Thanks so much Juan!! and I can’t wait to check out your work.
February 10, 2026 at 4:08 AM
It is so embarrassing that this is the message from the official opposition leader
Our DHS reform demands are exceedingly reasonable.

We're asking ICE to do nothing more than follow the standards that the vast majority of law enforcement agencies already follow.

Republicans, the ball is in your court. The clock is ticking.
February 10, 2026 at 3:56 AM
Reposted by Elisabeth R. Anker
They're building concentration camps with my tax money Chuck. They're torturing children. They're murdering innocent people on the street. What are you doing.
Our DHS reform demands are exceedingly reasonable.

We're asking ICE to do nothing more than follow the standards that the vast majority of law enforcement agencies already follow.

Republicans, the ball is in your court. The clock is ticking.
February 10, 2026 at 3:45 AM
Reposted by Elisabeth R. Anker
In Eagleville, Pennsylvania, ICE goons broke into a home without a warrant, assaulted the occupants, and abducted another person in front of young children on February 9, 2026.
February 10, 2026 at 3:34 AM
Reposted by Elisabeth R. Anker
We gotta call a spade a spade here at this point
February 10, 2026 at 3:49 AM
The times gets it
Bad Bunny’s Halftime History Lesson
www.nytimes.com
February 10, 2026 at 3:39 AM
Reposted by Elisabeth R. Anker
Jack Duffy attaches a respirator to his bagpipes to play through tear gas. “I always play it whenever the police retreat because it's like, ‘You fucking ran while we stayed,’” he says.

The full story: lataco.com/protest-bagp...

By Julianne Le
February 10, 2026 at 12:51 AM
Reposted by Elisabeth R. Anker
“Raskin also said that he saw ‘references to 17-year-old girls, 16-year-old girls, 14-year-old girls, 11-year-old girls, 10-year-old girls, and I saw a reference today to a 9-year-old girl. So it is a really gruesome and grim story.’“ www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
Trump administration live updates: Lawmakers view unredacted Epstein files at Justice Department
Trump administration live updates: Congress members may begin viewing unredacted Epstein files at DOJ
www.nbcnews.com
February 9, 2026 at 9:39 PM
Reposted by Elisabeth R. Anker
Super Bowl viewers Sunday speculated that 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos appeared in the halftime show. In fact, he has been in hiding with his family.

“He can’t sleep well at night. He wakes up three or four times a night screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy,’” Liam's father Adrian Conejo Arias, said.
‘He’s not the same’: Father of Liam Conejo Ramos says 5-year-old continues to suffer
Some people thought they say the 5-year-old during the Super Bowl halftime show. But Liam is still in hiding with his family, after he and his father were detained and then released from a Texas deten...
www.mprnews.org
February 10, 2026 at 1:11 AM
Reposted by Elisabeth R. Anker
When AI was added to a tool for sinus surgery: “Cerebrospinal fluid leaked from one patient’s nose. In another… a surgeon mistakenly punctured the base of a patient’s skull. In two other cases, patients suffered strokes after a major artery was accidentally injured”

www.reuters.com/investigatio...
As AI enters the operating room, reports arise of botched surgeries and misidentified body parts
Medical device makers have been rushing to add AI to their products. While proponents say the new technology will revolutionize medicine, regulators are receiving a rising number of claims of patient ...
www.reuters.com
February 9, 2026 at 11:42 PM
Reposted by Elisabeth R. Anker
Maybe the WashPo didn't understand Bad Bunny because they fired everyone who covered race in America
Analysis: Weeks before he set foot on the stage, Bad Bunny’s halftime performance had already become a media event.

But if you were looking for political commentary, the closest that you got was when he said “God bless America” in English.
Analysis | Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show was expected to provoke. Did it?
The Bad Bunny Super Bowl show nodded to injustices in Puerto Rico but mostly evoked wholesome family values that meshed with the more sentimental commercials.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 10, 2026 at 12:43 AM
it's so on-brand that the March For Life™️ was a superspreader event for a dangerous disease
D.C. probing measles cases, says March for Life among potential exposure sites
D.C. Health says three people with measles visited the city, and Virginia reported a confirmed case in a child.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 10, 2026 at 1:22 AM
everyone else seems to get it
Bad Bunny gave us a Super Bowl halftime show for all Americans
In an electrifying, fully Spanish performance, the Puerto Rican superstar showed what the joy of unity looks like.
www.salon.com
February 10, 2026 at 1:19 AM
Maybe the WashPo didn't understand Bad Bunny because they fired everyone who covered race in America
Analysis: Weeks before he set foot on the stage, Bad Bunny’s halftime performance had already become a media event.

But if you were looking for political commentary, the closest that you got was when he said “God bless America” in English.
Analysis | Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show was expected to provoke. Did it?
The Bad Bunny Super Bowl show nodded to injustices in Puerto Rico but mostly evoked wholesome family values that meshed with the more sentimental commercials.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 10, 2026 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Elisabeth R. Anker
This is torture. The US is torturing children. Children whose words and whose art contain infinitely more humanity than the people keeping them detained.
5/ “I have already spent more than 60 days waking up eating the same repetitive meals…going to the doctor and that the only thing they tell you is to drink more water and the worst thing is that it seems like the water is what makes people sick here…”

From 12-year-old Ender, detained 60+ days
February 9, 2026 at 1:38 PM
Reposted by Elisabeth R. Anker
Bari Weiss bravely invites us to focus on the real fascism in Minneapolis
www.thefp.com/p/mob-rule-c...
February 9, 2026 at 6:32 PM
Reposted by Elisabeth R. Anker
now that's the power of a union
February 9, 2026 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Elisabeth R. Anker
This tracks one of the deepest beliefs of the far right: that feminism was a culture-defining error. That it upset the 'natural' gender hierarchy -- convinced women that true fulfillment could be found outside of family -- and diverted women from their reproductive 'duty' to culture, race, & nation.
The Heritage Foundation has released a 250-year roadmap to “save America.”

The document is a how-to guide for subjugating girls & young women: a detailed plan to push them out of college, funnel them into early marriage and motherhood, and then trap them there.
jessica.substack.com/p/theyre-com...
They're Coming for Our Daughters
The conservative plan to shrink girls’ futures
jessica.substack.com
February 9, 2026 at 6:42 PM
Reposted by Elisabeth R. Anker
what we're cutting:
health care
food stamps
preschool
environmental protections
international aid
scientific research

what we're buying:
Purchasing and converting these warehouse detention camps will cost the U.S. government billions of dollars. So far ICE has purchased at least half a dozen warehouses at a cost of $70-$110 million each. It'll cost billions more to refit them into detention camps, and hire staff.
February 9, 2026 at 6:57 PM
Thanks!! so many great essays on melodrama inside too
February 9, 2026 at 9:17 PM
Thrilled that this is finally coming out! I'm so proud to have collaborated on Linda Williams' incredible last work on melodrama. The intro to our volume is now available -- and look at that killer cover!!
"Melodrama as Provocateur," edited by Christine Gledhill, Laura Horak, and Elisabeth R. Anker, showcases the final project of influential film scholar Linda Williams, along with responses by a diverse collection of scholars. Read the intro for free now: buff.ly/PkD02nj
February 9, 2026 at 8:52 PM
Thanks Duke!! XO
February 9, 2026 at 8:51 PM