Rik Scarce
@rikscarce.bsky.social
I'm a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg National Military Park and a retired sociology professor who's eager to build a better world. ("Scarce" like money: does not rhyme with "farce," although sometimes....) Personal account
Yet the war went on for many years.
The challenge for social movements is to see out the issue to victory, and doing so requires unceasing effort even in the face of immense opposition. Will a D tidal wave this fall do the trick? Highly unlikely. Antifa's streetfight has 2 years, 359+ days to go.
The challenge for social movements is to see out the issue to victory, and doing so requires unceasing effort even in the face of immense opposition. Will a D tidal wave this fall do the trick? Highly unlikely. Antifa's streetfight has 2 years, 359+ days to go.
When I teach Vietnam, I explain that opposition to the war really grew in fits and starts. Some big rallies and visible protests, but also a steady stream of celebrities and ordinary folks breaking with their priors and taking a new stand.
This last month, this last week, feels like a real shift.
This last month, this last week, feels like a real shift.
January 27, 2026 at 2:44 AM
Yet the war went on for many years.
The challenge for social movements is to see out the issue to victory, and doing so requires unceasing effort even in the face of immense opposition. Will a D tidal wave this fall do the trick? Highly unlikely. Antifa's streetfight has 2 years, 359+ days to go.
The challenge for social movements is to see out the issue to victory, and doing so requires unceasing effort even in the face of immense opposition. Will a D tidal wave this fall do the trick? Highly unlikely. Antifa's streetfight has 2 years, 359+ days to go.
Reposted by Rik Scarce
Tomorrow is Int'l Holocaust Remembrance Day, the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I'm forever grateful that the Holocaust education I received - from survivors who jumped off trains to Dachau & other miracles - instead taught me that the whole point was Never. Again. For Anyone.
🧐🤷♂️🤦♂️
🧐🤷♂️🤦♂️
January 26, 2026 at 10:58 PM
Tomorrow is Int'l Holocaust Remembrance Day, the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I'm forever grateful that the Holocaust education I received - from survivors who jumped off trains to Dachau & other miracles - instead taught me that the whole point was Never. Again. For Anyone.
🧐🤷♂️🤦♂️
🧐🤷♂️🤦♂️
I know Mainers. This approach won't work, nor will any other than ICE thugs looking for trouble leaving the state.
Feds are trying to use coercion to stop ICE watch activity in Maine:
“The volunteers in Maine say federal agents have started showing up at their homes and intimidating them or threatening arrest. Some of them, masked and wearing tactical gear, have issued stark warnings not to follow them.”
“The volunteers in Maine say federal agents have started showing up at their homes and intimidating them or threatening arrest. Some of them, masked and wearing tactical gear, have issued stark warnings not to follow them.”
ICE watchers in Maine say they were threatened by federal agents
Community members have been monitoring the activity of immigration agents in Greater Portland.
www.pressherald.com
January 27, 2026 at 2:22 AM
I know Mainers. This approach won't work, nor will any other than ICE thugs looking for trouble leaving the state.
Wonderful news for all who care about justice and the (old) American way.
BREAKING Greg Bovino has been removed as Border Patrol "commander at large" and will return to El Centro Calif, where he is expected to retire soon. A stunning turnaround after Pretti killing. Bovino's traveling blue city crackdown is over www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
Gregory Bovino Gets Demoted
The Border Patrol chief was the public face of a traveling immigration crackdown on cities governed by Democrats.
www.theatlantic.com
January 26, 2026 at 11:52 PM
Wonderful news for all who care about justice and the (old) American way.
Reposted by Rik Scarce
In 2018, forensic analysis by @citizenlab.ca and Amnesty Tech both confirmed evidence of Ghanem's targeting with Pegasus spyware
www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...
www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...
Exclusive: Saudi Dissidents Hit With Stealth iPhone Spyware Before Khashoggi's Murder
At least four Saudis have now been targeted with hyper-sophisticated iPhone spyware from an Israeli firm, after Forbes finds a Saudi satirist in London who's been hit.
www.forbes.com
January 26, 2026 at 2:02 PM
In 2018, forensic analysis by @citizenlab.ca and Amnesty Tech both confirmed evidence of Ghanem's targeting with Pegasus spyware
www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...
www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...
This is a really important story that explores the t– administration's dangerous, unscientific, bizarre decision to trim the number of recommended vaccines. They went looking for legitimacy in Europe...and chose the wrong nation, a decision that will cost lives. www.thebulwark.com/p/this-is-th...
This Is the Vaccine Story RFK Jr. Doesn’t Want You to Hear
The Trump administration says we should learn from other countries. Maybe they should have looked someplace besides Denmark.
www.thebulwark.com
January 26, 2026 at 2:06 PM
This is a really important story that explores the t– administration's dangerous, unscientific, bizarre decision to trim the number of recommended vaccines. They went looking for legitimacy in Europe...and chose the wrong nation, a decision that will cost lives. www.thebulwark.com/p/this-is-th...
Reposted by Rik Scarce
ICE is leaving Vietnam-style death cards in the wake of their kidnappings because they are the saddest, most embarrassing military wannabes to ever live
coloradosun.com/2026/01/23/a...
coloradosun.com/2026/01/23/a...
January 26, 2026 at 5:35 AM
ICE is leaving Vietnam-style death cards in the wake of their kidnappings because they are the saddest, most embarrassing military wannabes to ever live
coloradosun.com/2026/01/23/a...
coloradosun.com/2026/01/23/a...
Reposted by Rik Scarce
Their fiscal year 2026 budget is already 5 months late. A long govt shutdown already happened. Last week The Cowardly Speaker passed appropriations bills and then sent the House home until Feb 3rd, making it impossible for Senate to make changes this week. It's recklessness beyond words.
January 26, 2026 at 1:02 PM
Their fiscal year 2026 budget is already 5 months late. A long govt shutdown already happened. Last week The Cowardly Speaker passed appropriations bills and then sent the House home until Feb 3rd, making it impossible for Senate to make changes this week. It's recklessness beyond words.
"Agitators" are for washing machines.
Free assembly and freedom of speech are for Americans.
Questions?
Free assembly and freedom of speech are for Americans.
Questions?
Putin pioneered this. No opposition is legitimate. Regular, decent, “ordinary” people cannot possibly be against us because only we represent “the real people.”
Tell-tale sign of authoritarianism.
Tell-tale sign of authoritarianism.
January 26, 2026 at 2:09 AM
"Agitators" are for washing machines.
Free assembly and freedom of speech are for Americans.
Questions?
Free assembly and freedom of speech are for Americans.
Questions?
Reposted by Rik Scarce
A thread of MAGA protesting with guns and not getting murdered for it...
Arizona, November 2020
Arizona, November 2020
January 25, 2026 at 10:22 PM
A thread of MAGA protesting with guns and not getting murdered for it...
Arizona, November 2020
Arizona, November 2020
Reposted by Rik Scarce
Another way to think of ICE right now is as the institutionalization of the Kyle Rittenhouse model of vigilantism under the state's authority.
Escalation and aggressive violence is clearly intentional.
But it's also cooked into the sociological model of how this force has been mobilized.
🧵
Escalation and aggressive violence is clearly intentional.
But it's also cooked into the sociological model of how this force has been mobilized.
🧵
January 25, 2026 at 11:25 AM
Another way to think of ICE right now is as the institutionalization of the Kyle Rittenhouse model of vigilantism under the state's authority.
Escalation and aggressive violence is clearly intentional.
But it's also cooked into the sociological model of how this force has been mobilized.
🧵
Escalation and aggressive violence is clearly intentional.
But it's also cooked into the sociological model of how this force has been mobilized.
🧵
Reposted by Rik Scarce
Since July, I've tracked at least 2,300 cases in which federal judges have ruled ICE has illegally detained people without bond or due process.
This is one that stands out:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
This is one that stands out:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
January 25, 2026 at 2:36 AM
Since July, I've tracked at least 2,300 cases in which federal judges have ruled ICE has illegally detained people without bond or due process.
This is one that stands out:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
This is one that stands out:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Reposted by Rik Scarce
Reminder: If the Supreme Court upholds Trump’s attack on birthright citizenship, some of the ICE officers currently brutalizing Minnesotans may be reassigned to apprehend newborns from the hospital for immediate deportation. Just read the Trump administration’s own memo. slate.com/news-and-pol...
January 25, 2026 at 12:14 AM
Reminder: If the Supreme Court upholds Trump’s attack on birthright citizenship, some of the ICE officers currently brutalizing Minnesotans may be reassigned to apprehend newborns from the hospital for immediate deportation. Just read the Trump administration’s own memo. slate.com/news-and-pol...
Reposted by Rik Scarce
I think another way of framing this is that a federal judge (appointed by Donald Trump!) is concerned that his administration is engaged in a criminal conspiracy to cover up a murder.
BREAKING: A federal judge blocks the Trump administration from destroying or altering evidence related to the Minneapolis shooting of Alex Pretti.
Live updates: Federal agents shoot and kill man in Minneapolis, officials say
Officials confirmed that federal agents shot a person in south Minneapolis, prompting a heavy law-enforcement response, street closures and sharp condemnation from Gov. Tim Walz.
nbcnews.to
January 25, 2026 at 6:03 AM
I think another way of framing this is that a federal judge (appointed by Donald Trump!) is concerned that his administration is engaged in a criminal conspiracy to cover up a murder.
We may already be in the midst of a revolution, and not the one t–– thinks we're in. Combined w/@marcelias.bsky.social's argument that there is no going back to the America that was, maybe these folks are anticipating a new America. Is the "center" ready? Are Dem. leaders? Even progressives? Vision?
In his recent op-ed, Oleh Kotsyuba of Harvard University’s Ukrainian Research Institute compares the current protests in Minneapolis to Ukraine's 2013–2014 Revolution of Dignity, noting similarities in both the staging and spirit of both events.
Here's why Minneapolis reminds me of what I once saw in Ukraine
When the government asserts authority in ways that a growing share of the public experiences as arbitrary or vindictive, it begins to lose legitimacy.
kyivindependent.com
January 25, 2026 at 12:01 PM
We may already be in the midst of a revolution, and not the one t–– thinks we're in. Combined w/@marcelias.bsky.social's argument that there is no going back to the America that was, maybe these folks are anticipating a new America. Is the "center" ready? Are Dem. leaders? Even progressives? Vision?
Reposted by Rik Scarce
Saying there must be trials isn't just an emotive aspiration.
Congress can:
- Create a new court (complying w/ 6A jury vicinage)
- Give it jurisdiction over defined category of crimes
- Also create dedicated prosecutors for the same
- Strip SCOTUS of appellate jurisdiction
It can be done.
Congress can:
- Create a new court (complying w/ 6A jury vicinage)
- Give it jurisdiction over defined category of crimes
- Also create dedicated prosecutors for the same
- Strip SCOTUS of appellate jurisdiction
It can be done.
January 25, 2026 at 7:28 AM
Saying there must be trials isn't just an emotive aspiration.
Congress can:
- Create a new court (complying w/ 6A jury vicinage)
- Give it jurisdiction over defined category of crimes
- Also create dedicated prosecutors for the same
- Strip SCOTUS of appellate jurisdiction
It can be done.
Congress can:
- Create a new court (complying w/ 6A jury vicinage)
- Give it jurisdiction over defined category of crimes
- Also create dedicated prosecutors for the same
- Strip SCOTUS of appellate jurisdiction
It can be done.
Reposted by Rik Scarce
What the Trump Admin is telling you.
-Don't record ICE
-Don't carry a gun around ICE
-Don't ask ICE for a warrant.
So that takes out the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Amendments.
-Don't record ICE
-Don't carry a gun around ICE
-Don't ask ICE for a warrant.
So that takes out the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Amendments.
January 25, 2026 at 2:32 AM
What the Trump Admin is telling you.
-Don't record ICE
-Don't carry a gun around ICE
-Don't ask ICE for a warrant.
So that takes out the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Amendments.
-Don't record ICE
-Don't carry a gun around ICE
-Don't ask ICE for a warrant.
So that takes out the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Amendments.
Reposted by Rik Scarce
Beyond helping establish DHS itself in 2003, Mr. Mitnick was a senate-confirmed Trump choice for General Counsel for DHS in his first term. I've talked with him a few times, and he's not a man for hyperbole. So bear that in mind when you see him calling out DHS's "lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty."
January 25, 2026 at 1:05 AM
Beyond helping establish DHS itself in 2003, Mr. Mitnick was a senate-confirmed Trump choice for General Counsel for DHS in his first term. I've talked with him a few times, and he's not a man for hyperbole. So bear that in mind when you see him calling out DHS's "lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty."
Reposted by Rik Scarce
Mood in minneapolis right now
January 24, 2026 at 11:31 PM
Mood in minneapolis right now
Reposted by Rik Scarce
Nonviolence is, in fact, working. This administration is weaker than it was a year ago. More and more of the public is becoming galvanized against it; its agents are being impeded.
Do you honestly think people in the civil rights movement and other nonviolent movements faced no violence themselves? They practiced nonviolence because it works, because the oppressor wants a shooting war, which is the war it will win
How's your non-violent working Mr Gandhi stancil? They will kill each and everyone of you right if they had the chance and you will still be writing Kumbaya.
January 24, 2026 at 9:53 PM
Nonviolence is, in fact, working. This administration is weaker than it was a year ago. More and more of the public is becoming galvanized against it; its agents are being impeded.
What now, @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social and @schumer.senate.gov? What now?
January 24, 2026 at 10:54 PM
What now, @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social and @schumer.senate.gov? What now?
E-mailed. Thanks, @gregpak.net !
If you're in New York, please take two minutes right now to call Governor Hochul and tell her to support and sign New York 4 All, which would prevent state and local agencies from collaborating with ICE.
518-474-8390.
This is important.
518-474-8390.
This is important.
January 24, 2026 at 10:51 PM
E-mailed. Thanks, @gregpak.net !
Reposted by Rik Scarce
Reposted by Rik Scarce
Time to shut down Home Depot.
January 24, 2026 at 9:45 PM
Time to shut down Home Depot.