Brendan C. Hamilton
LightNews LightNews
banner
revoltedstates.bsky.social
Brendan C. Hamilton
@revoltedstates.bsky.social
480 followers 980 following 210 posts
🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🖤❤️

Writer, poet, and historian. Author of Year of Crows and Jerusalem Plank Road. American Civil War history geek. Associate editor at www.irishamericancivilwar.com

https://brendanchamilton.weebly.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
revoltedstates.bsky.social
Brendan C. Hamilton @revoltedstates.bsky.social · Dec 2
Hi all! I'm new to the platform and wanted to introduce myself. I'm a writer, poet, historian, and associate editor for irishamericancivilwar.com.

My American Civil War novel, Year of Crows, is currently on sale in ebook and paperback formats below:
brendanchamilton.weebly.com
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
owillis.bsky.social
America 🇺🇸
taylordahlin.com taylr @taylordahlin.com · 6d
brass solidarity band performing “stand by me” in the streets of whittier next to alex pretti’s memorial. the crowd started chanting “the people united will never be defeated” so they incorporated it into the song. i love minneapolis
January 27, 2026 at 1:28 AM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
owillis.bsky.social
Execution
washingtonpost.com The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 8d
Federal agents in Minneapolis wrestled Alex Pretti to the ground and secured the handgun he was carrying moments before shooting him multiple times, according to a Washington Post analysis of video footage.

Read more: https://wapo.st/4qGOx8M
January 25, 2026 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.
1. I am a resident of the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am over 18 years of age. I am a children's entertainer who specializes in face painting. 2. On Saturday, January 24, 2026, at about 8:50 am, I was getting ready to go to work when I heard whistles outside. I knew the whistles meant that ICE agents were in the area, so I decided to check it out on my way to work. I've been involved in observing in my community because it is so important to document what ICE is doing to my neighbors. Connecting to your local community and knowing who your neighbors are is something I profoundly value. 3. I drove to Nicollet Ave. and 26th where I could hear the whistles coming from. I turned south onto Nicollet. There were already several ICE agents there and they'd set up a sort of vehicle convoy on Nicollet and 28th. There were also about 15 observers there, recording and observing ICE. 4. I saw ICE agents surrounding cars and punching car windows. I also saw them stopping vehicles further down Nicollet, so I backed up because I didn't feel safe continuing on. 5. I noticed a man sort of acting to help traffic move more smoothly. He helped me find a place to park. I got out with my whistle and my camera. I went over to him and said something like, "I'm going to film and use my whistle." 6. It seemed like most ICE activity was happening a little farther down the street from us, near 27th. Someone was being thrown to the ground. 7. I started recording. There was an agent by a car across the street. Two observers were a few feet away from the agent, blowing their whistles. One was wearing a backpack. 8. I and the man who was observing and helping direct traffic were standing in the street. There was a phone in the man's hand recording a video. 9. An agent approached and asked us to back up, so I moved slowly back onto the sidewalk. 10. The man stayed in the street, filming as the other observers I mentioned earlier were being forced backward by another ICE agent threatening them with pepper spray. The man went closer to support them as they got threatened, just with his camera out. I didn't see him reach for or hold a gun. 11. Then the ICE agent shoved one of the other observers to the ground. Then he started pepper spraying all three of them directly in the face and all over. The man with the phone put his hands above his head and the agent sprayed him again and pushed him. 12. Then the man tried to help up the woman the ICE agent had shoved to the ground. The ICE agents just kept spraying. More agents came over and grabbed the man who was still trying to help the woman get up. All three of the observers looked to have been badly affected by the pepper spray. I could feel the pepper spray in my eyes. 13. The agents pulled the man on the ground. I didn't see him touch any of them-he wasn't even turned toward them. It didn't look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn't see him with a gun. They threw him to the ground. Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times. 14.1 don't know why they shot him. He was only helping. I was five feet from him and they just shot him. 15. The video I recorded of what happened accurately depicts the events leading up to the agents shooting him and several minutes afterwards. The video is attached as Exhibit 1. 16. I have read the statement from DHS about what happened and it is wrong. The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached them with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground. 17. I feel afraid. Only hours have passed since they shot a man right in front me and I don't feel like I can go home because I heard agents were looking for me. I don't know what the agents will do when they find me. I do know that they're not telling the truth about what happened. I've heard that other witnesses might have been arrested and taken to the Whipple Building. 18. I am disgusted and gutted at how they are treating my neighbors and my state. I keep alternating between crying and feeling determined it is important to remember the value of documenting injustice. We show up for the people who need us to bear witness, because it can't just be one group of people bearing the brunt of their tyranny. This is a struggle to protect our freedom and democracy, those things are on the line. He lost his life for those values. I declare under penalty of perjury that everything I have stated in this document is true and correct. Dated and signed on Jan 24, 2026 in Hennepin County, State of Minnesota.
January 25, 2026 at 1:15 AM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
jeffrueter.bsky.social
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.

"Please get the truth out about our son."
Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti “We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.
January 25, 2026 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
andycraig.bsky.social
"Down with the traitors, up with the stars"
chathamharrison.bsky.social Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST @chathamharrison.bsky.social · 8d
photographer is Jeff Wheeler at the Star Tribune. guy with the flag is Curtis Evans, a Marine veteran.
man defiantly holding US flag while wearing protective gear, surrounded by tear gas & flares. the image is the same as above but wider to show more of the crowd plus a street sign.
January 25, 2026 at 12:20 AM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
cwnewser.bsky.social
Horrifying NEWS: “These are incredibly straightforward cases,” attorney Rebekah Wolf, who is desperately fighting to save her clients from being sent to torture or death by getting a federal judge to stay the removal before tomorrow’s flight, told me this afternoon.
www.advocate.com/news/iranian...
Trump administration is potentially sending two gay men to their death by preparing to deport them to Iran
“They are textbook asylum cases,” attorney Rebekah Wolf told The Advocate. “People from a country where who they are is criminalized and punishable by torture or death — that is literally the definiti...
www.advocate.com
January 24, 2026 at 9:51 PM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
bencollins.bsky.social
218 people voted to fund the child kidnapping ring and masked death squads.
ericmgarcia.bsky.social Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 10d
218 with 7 Democrats voting for it, the DHS bill passes
January 22, 2026 at 9:58 PM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
joshrgreenberg.bsky.social
The National Association of Base Ball Players was founded OTD in 1857. To celebrate the 1887 season, the league issued advertising notes (this one branded by Kenton, OH jeweler Bennett Garrettson). It featured Chicago White Stockings president Albert Spalding and images of the team on the back. 🗃️
January 22, 2026 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional!

ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth and private conversation.
The Gravamen of the Disclosure 4. The gravamen of the disclosure is as follows: a. By memorandum dated May 12, 2025 (“the May 12 Memo”), Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons authorizes ICE agents to forcibly enter into certain people’s homes without a judicial warrant, consent, or an emergency. b. Specifically, in the May 12 Memo, the Acting ICE Director authorized ICE Agents to rely on Form I-205 (which is not a judicial warrant) to enter the residence of an alien subject to a final order of deportation, without consent, including by “a necessary and reasonable amount of force.”2c. While addressed to “All ICE Personnel,” in practice the May 12 Memo has not been formally distributed to all personnel. Instead, the May 12 Memo has been provided to select DHS officials who are then directed to verbally brief the new policy for action. Those supervisors then show the Memo to some employees, like our clients, and direct them to read the Memo and return it to the supervisor.
January 21, 2026 at 10:00 PM
revoltedstates.bsky.social
I look forward to reading this!
mkn.bsky.social Megan Kate Nelson 📚 @mkn.bsky.social · 15d
Blueskis, studies have shown that when folks see or hear about a book more than five times, they are likely to check it out, and buy it.

So in the spirit of creating buzz, here is the gorgeous cover of THE WESTERNERS, which will be published on March 31!
Three women on a raft move across a body of water in front of green, yellow, and brown mountains; white text announces the title of the book: THE WESTERNERS: MYTHMAKING AND BELONGING ON THE AMERICAN FRONTIER; a narrow strip at left bears four images: Jim Beckwourth, Sacajawea, Ovando Hollister, and Polly Bemis.
January 18, 2026 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
cherylrofer.bsky.social
Latest NYT video analysis.

The White House is lying.

Gift link.
Video Analysis of ICE Shooting Sheds Light on Contested Moments
www.nytimes.com
January 16, 2026 at 3:40 PM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
jonathanhoefler.bsky.social
While the pasty incels who work the federal agencies continue to churn out feeble, bloodless AI pastiches of Axis propaganda, here’s how a living breathing artist powerfully invokes design history. This is by illustrator Emily K in South Philly, a free poster-sized download on her website: →
January 15, 2026 at 7:57 PM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
🚨WHOA. The El Paso Medical Examiner says it will rule the death of a 55-year-old Cuban man at ICE's "Camp East Montana" tent camp as a homicide.

He was allegedly choked to death by a guard during a "struggle" after he refused to enter a housing unit without his medications.
By Douglas MacMillan When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the Jan. 3 death of detainee Geraldo Lunas Campos at a Texas detention camp, the agency said “staff observed him in distress,” and it gave no cause of death. An employee of El Paso County’s Office of the Medical Examiner told Lunas Campos’s daughter this week that, subject to results of a toxicology report, the office is likely to classify the death as a homicide, according to a recording of the conversation. In the recording, which the daughter shared with The Washington Post, the employee said a doctor there “is listing the preliminary cause of death as asphyxia due to neck and chest compression,” which means Lunas Campos did not get enough oxygen because of pressure on his neck and chest. Pending the results of a toxicology report, the staffer said on the recording, “our doctor is believing that we’re going to be listing the manner of death as homicide.” In an interview with The Post, Santos Jesus Flores, a man who says he was detained in the segregation unit the day Lunas Campos died, said he saw at least five guards struggling with Lunas Campos after he refused to enter the segregation unit, complaining that he didn’t have his medications. Flores said he saw guards choking Lunas Campos and heard Lunas Campos repeatedly saying, “No puedo respirar” — Spanish for “I can’t breathe.” Medical staff tried to resuscitate him for an hour, after which they took his body away, Flores said. “He said, ‘I cannot breathe, I cannot breathe.’ After that, we don’t hear his voice anymore and that’s it,” said Flores, who had contacted a family member of Lunas Campos, who in turn put him in touch with a Post reporter. The Post confirmed Flores was in Camp East Montana through ICE’s detainee locator.
January 15, 2026 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
donmoyn.bsky.social
"Officers threw flash bangs and tear gas in my car. I got six kids in the car"
"His wife, Destiny Jackson, told FOX 9 their 6-month-old infant stopped breathing and lost consciousness. She then performed CPR on her baby."
January 15, 2026 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
cykoore.bsky.social
ICE left papers behind in a vehicle. It was broken into, and the contents were examined.

They had several different challenge coins, including one with a skull and vultures on it.

They also have a national DNA database.
archive.org/details/icHS...
icepapers : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Footage belongs to StatusCoup and taken from MeidasTouch channel on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RiaPyZMrtUhere's the original screen recording,...
archive.org
January 15, 2026 at 8:23 AM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
irishacw.bsky.social
I recently discussed "Green & Blue", Irish Americans in the Civil War and a few other topics on the Public History with Justin, Jake & Molly Podcast. For anyone interested you can catch the episode here: wynninghistory.com/2026/01/12/p...
Irish Americans in the Civil War | Public History Podcast
A podcast conversation with historian Damien Shiels on Irish Americans in the Union Army—moving beyond the Irish Brigade to class, wages, pensions, and Civil War memory.
wynninghistory.com
January 14, 2026 at 4:41 PM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
billcorbett.bsky.social
People not in Minnesota: please read this excellent summary of what life is like in Minneapolis since the murderous scum ICE swarmed here. And more are on their way. By local reporter / writer / bike dude / legend @dbrauer.net .
Text: “A friend said those of us who live in Minneapolis should write about what's going on here for folks who live elsewhere. You need to know that whether you're a Republican, Independent or Democrat, the Constitution is being violated by our federal government. This is not about catching criminals, or even deporting people. It is about punishing an entire state, including citizens, for not supporting the president. Everyone in my part of Minneapolis is affected. On our streets, ICE is stopping people of color and demanding their papers. In America. US citizens do not have to prove citizenship to ICE. Yet people are being intimidated, some cases beaten up and detained, for requiring ICE to follow the law. ICE needs a judicial warrant to enter homes. Yet there are documented cases of them ignoring the law - violating a bedrock constitutional principle. Americans of color are staying home, afraid to go to work, school, to grocery shop, or fill their cars with gas. This isn't just "illegals" or immigrants with valid work permits, it is citizens who have had their cars rammed by ICE for merely looking Hispanic. Businesses are closing. Schools are 50 percent full. When they are open, fascists are calling in bomb threats because the president decided to make us a meme. After a daycare teacher with a valid work permit (through 2030) was snatched from her workplace, parents (and grandparents) have had to organize to watch their SCHOOLS, to make sure conditional rights are observed. This is being repeated throughout Minnesota. Imagine trying to do your job or live you life while also taking volunteer shifts to make sure the federal government doesn't act extrajudicially. Because of ICE's documented abuses, neighbors have organized to monitor federal actions. This observation is legal, as long as it doesn't interfere with a valid action. Yet since ICE killed Renee Good, they are increasingly stopping this observation, breaking car windows and …”
January 13, 2026 at 10:38 PM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
vermontgmg.bsky.social
The epitome of a “Kavanaugh Stop.”

“[CBP] sometimes makes brief investigative stops to check immigration status…. If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a US citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, they promptly let the individual go.”

History will remember Brett.
mickeykuhns.bsky.social Mickey Kuhns @mickeykuhns.bsky.social · 21d
ICE kidnap 17-year-old U.S. citizen working at Target then dump him bleeding and crying miles away in a Walmart parking lot… 🤬
January 13, 2026 at 12:40 AM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
daninkc.bsky.social
This is literally the exact thing the 4th Amendment was written to prevent. This is horrifying.
iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 21d
Greg Bovino has officially kicked off door-to-door raids. ICE/CBP goons are seen blocking an entire block, while Bovino and his Gestapo personally go door-to-door. (St. Paul, MN. January 11, 2026)
January 12, 2026 at 12:29 AM
revoltedstates.bsky.social
The Braindead Kennedys
adambonin.bsky.social Adam Bonin @adambonin.bsky.social · 22d
Slightly diminish a band:

They Might Be Pretty Tall
docfreeride.bsky.social Janet D. Stemwedel @docfreeride.bsky.social · 22d
Slightly diminish a band

Concerning Straits
January 10, 2026 at 11:27 PM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
lukeoneil47.bsky.social
This is my blood
This is my blood I marvel at the design of our weapons. So sophisticated that they can transform any man woman or child into a terrorist. Writing in their flight between launch and concussion an entire alternate history of a life. Just as the cop’s bullet convicts you of a crime. Its presence in your body evidence enough that it always belonged there. A violent transubstantiation.
October 5, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
nytimes.com
A New York Times video analysis of an ICE agent’s fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis contradicts the Trump administration’s account. Watch our investigation here.
Video: Videos Contradict Trump Administration Account of ICE Shooting in Minneapolis
An analysis of footage from three camera angles shows that the motorist was driving away from — not toward — a federal officer when he opened fire.
nyti.ms
January 8, 2026 at 1:30 PM
revoltedstates.bsky.social
Shame on this murderous administration and its masked Gestapo.
jayapal.house.gov Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal @jayapal.house.gov · 25d
WARNING — GRAPHIC CONTENT

This video is absolutely horrific. ICE shot and killed a woman in her car as she was attempting to drive away.

The violence and aggression must stop. Get ICE out of our cities.
January 7, 2026 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
pwnedlib.bsky.social
The casualties already coming in. Grandmothers in their apartments….
January 3, 2026 at 7:21 PM
Reposted by Brendan C. Hamilton
jamesrball.com
Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts.

Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.
January 3, 2026 at 10:52 AM