Victor Shammas
Associate Professor of Sociology—based in Oslo, Norway, with a global perspective. Research: victorshammas.com. Newsletter on politics, culture, and social theory: theorybrief.com.
- Reposted by Victor ShammasThis is an authoritarian power grab, full stop. Nationalizing elections would put the executive branch in control of who votes and how. That’s how dictators rig outcomes, crush opposition, and assault democratic self-government. This should alarm everyone: www.ms.now/news/trump-s...
- “What the messages do reveal is Epstein’s interest in European nationalists. … Bannon writes that he is ‘focused on raising money for Le Pen and Salvini so they can actually run full slates.’”
- Reposted by Victor ShammasHappening now in Silicon Valley: marchers have surrounded the Palantir building and are holding a prayer vigil for victims of ICE, while video of ICE and Palantir crimes is projected on the building. #AbolishICE #ICEOut #Palantir #PaloAlto
- "One of those deported…was Maher Awad, a 24-year-old originally from the West Bank, who had lived in the US for nearly a decade. Speaking to the Guardian…Maher shared photos of his girlfriend and newborn son in Michigan.'I grew up in America,' he said. 'America was heaven for me.'"
- Calling the site “TrumpRx” highlights a collapsing distinction between impersonal public authority (the office) and its individual personification; it entrenches a specific leader as the “natural” embodiment of the State’s favors to its citizens/consumers.
- “‘Now we only have 2,300 aggressive, brutal, cosplaying soldiers bursting into people’s homes, brutalizing people on the streets, killing citizens, creating mayhem and chaos,’ said state Sen. Scott Dibble, a member of the Democratic-Farm-Labor Party.”
- Reposted by Victor Shammas[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Victor Shammas[Not loaded yet]
- European leverage: “If Europe’s holdings matter strategically, it’s not because Europe can credibly threaten to dump Treasuries tomorrow morning. It’s because the US still depends on continued foreign inflows — and the marginal foreign buyer matters for pricing.”
- Reposted by Victor ShammasWe gotta come up with a better system than “everything rests on whether these twelve billionnaires are nice”
- Reposted by Victor ShammasCasar holds a 3 minute and 26 second moment of silence to represent the time in which DHS officers let Renee Good bleed out after she was shot
- Reposted by Victor Shammas🚨 Documents leaked to me reveal a federal watchlist of American protesters suspected of being Antifa - including its supposed leader. One Department of Homeland Security document says a 29-year-old resident of Portland "is the leader of Antifa": www.kenklippenstein.com/p/feds-ident...
- Reposted by Victor ShammasIf Congress doesn’t act, the last nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia will expire. It would pointlessly wipe out decades of diplomacy, and could spark another arms race that makes the world less safe. This piece is worth the read.
- “Rather than going to senior department or F.B.I. officials, Mr. Trump spoke directly to the frontline agents doing the granular work of a politically sensitive investigation in which he has a large personal stake.”
- ”The manufacturing boom President Trump promised would usher in a golden age for America is going in reverse. … [F]ewer Americans work in manufacturing than any point since the pandemic ended. Manufacturers shed workers in each of the eight months after Trump unveiled “Liberation Day” tariffs.”
- “There may be some blame to be directed at Democrats as well, who often come to a political gunfight with a butter knife. … Graves reveals much about the failure of moderates, liberals, and progressives to play the long game that…conservatives, libertarians, and reactionaries have been playing.”
- Reposted by Victor ShammasJust experienced the most intense tear gassing of my life by federal officers outside the ICE facility in Portland where marchers gathered. There was no fast exit as they indiscriminately threw loads of gas and flash bangs. Children were in the crowd screaming. @oregoncapitalchronicle.com
- Spain/immigration: "For the young Bangladeshi man sitting in a cramped NGO office in central Madrid on a rainy Thursday, the announcement was nothing short of a miracle. ... 'I don’t have my papers so I can’t get a proper job. I’m so excited. It’s like a gift from God that will help keep me going.'"
- Reposted by Victor ShammasBREAKING: At least 25 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn, according to medical sources speaking to Al Jazeera. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.news/yd606g
- Reposted by Victor ShammasI'm happy to announce my book "Counterrevolution in Egypt: Sisi's New Republic" is now available for pre-order!
- Nobel Peace Prize committee member Asle Toje allegedly met with Steve Bannon in 2018. A further meeting was planned with Bannon, Toje, and then-deputy leader of Norway’s right-wing Progress Party Sylvi Listhaug. Possible MAGA ties raise questions about the Nobel Peace Prize committee’s credibility.
- “Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum said that Mr. Trump’s threat of new tariffs would set off a “humanitarian crisis of great scope’’ in Cuba. ‘Mexico unequivocally reaffirms the principle of sovereignty and free self-determination of peoples, a fundamental pillar of…international law.’”
- Reposted by Victor Shammas[Not loaded yet]
- The Trump administration seems to think complying with court orders is optional: "This is one of dozens of court orders with which respondents have failed to comply in recent weeks," Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in his order Monday. “The Court’s patience is at an end.”
- Another world is possible: “Spain’s socialist-led coalition government has approved a decree it said would regularise 500,000 undocumented migrants and asylum seekers, rejecting the anti-migration policies and rhetoric prevalent across much of Europe.”
- Reposted by Victor Shammas[Not loaded yet]
- A “TV president” used to mean a president who crafted their image with television audiences in mind. Now it means a president who governs on the basis of remarks heard on TV five minutes ago.
- Reposted by Victor Shammas[Not loaded yet]
- This both-sidesing piece by Bishop Robert Barron purports to be balanced but is deeply MAGA-coded: protest becomes "demonizing"; Barron "strongly defends our nation’s right to maintain the border." In a social crisis created by fascists, unequivocally siding with the oppressed is the bare minimum.
- “In an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan, now the White House border czar, accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration.” (Sept. 2025)
- Even if Trump yields a little here, relents a little there, what has been gained—a slightly delayed implementation of the fascist program? Press for the advantage, certainly, but without illusions. This won’t be over until Trump is out of office, which will take mass organization.
- There is a register of journalistic prose, usually reserved for poor countries with oppressive governments, that is all of a sudden applicable to the United States—with words like regime, crackdown, opposition rallies, dissidents, security forces, targeted killings.
- “In a few moments, Pretti’s killing turned some Trump supporters, including members of his administration, against generations of conservative orthodoxy on the Second Amendment.”
- Reposted by Victor ShammasIt's time for a truly massive general strike. robertreich.substack.com/p/sunday-thought-enough
- Reposted by Victor Shammas[Not loaded yet]
- The level, extent, and sheer mendacity of the Trump administration’s coordinated propaganda messaging on the Pretti execution seems particularly intense. They are scared.
- Reposted by Victor ShammasThis is how fascism comes to America. It’s the endless events, day after day, until one day you wake up in a different country. Anti-immigrant rhetoric, censorship, attacks on universities, masked terror squads murdering people in the streets, enemy lists, denaturalization, camps
- Reposted by Victor ShammasRep. Bennie Thompson demands the Senate vote against CBP and ICE funding and for the House to immediately take up the impeachment of Kristi Noem.
- Reposted by Victor ShammasAbolish ICE is now the moderate minimum position, Prosecute ICE is where Dems should be at next.
- Reposted by Victor ShammasAlex from our time working together, while he was in nursing school. Later, he moved to ICU, working as a nurse to support critically ill Veterans. He had such a great attitude. We’d chat between patients about trying to get in a mountain bike ride together. Will never happen now
- Reposted by Victor ShammasIf you're living somewhere outside the USA, one thing you can do is pressure your leaders to boycott World Cup and Olympic events here.
- Republicans will lose the midterms.
- ICE has become a fascist paramilitary force: beyond oversight, manned by provocateurs and militants, willing to use violence—sometimes lethal violence—to advance an extreme nativist-nationalist cause.
- Reposted by Victor Shammas[Not loaded yet]
- File under “Trump’s final warning.”
- MLK: “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.” (Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 1963)
- Amid all the Davos/Greenland noise this week, the Trump-brokered TikTok deal remains crucial. Larry Ellison’s Oracle, Abu Dhabi’s MGX and Silver Lake will own 80.1% of the new entity. At stake is the power to algorithmically sculpt key segments of U.S. public opinion ahead of the midterms.
- Reposted by Victor ShammasICE attacked an observer after they tailed a group of clergy on a spiritual pilgrimage. Our digital producer @sam.vp just so happened to be with the clergy on their journey. He spoke with the observer who was attacked and others who witnessed the assault.
- Reposted by Victor ShammasGEORGIA… 🔥
- Gideon Rachman: “A true de-risking from America extends well beyond trade. It would have to incorporate every area of strategic significance — including finance, technology and military equipment.” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
- Reposted by Victor ShammasICE agent asked why he's taking pictures of a legal observer's car, replies: "Cuz we have a nice little database and now you're considered a domestic terrorist. So have fun with that."
- Norway’s Labour government is proposing welfare cuts for immigrants, echoing right-wing talking points and policy proposals. Trying to beat the right by adopting its politics is self-defeating.
- The (largely performative) Trump-Musk rift has been mended: “Musk has made about $42 million in political contributions since June 2025, including $27 million to America PAC, $10 million to PACs backing House and Senate Republicans and $5 million to a pro-Trump PAC.”
- Minnesota/ICE: “Hundreds of shops, restaurants and cultural institutions are closing their doors Friday and activists are urging Minnesotans to stay home as part of a statewide economic blackout meant to protest the federal deportation operation now in its eighth week.”
- Chairman Trump for life? “According to the charter draft, a copy of which was obtained by CNN, Trump will serve as indefinite chairman of the board, possibly holding the post beyond his second term as president.”
- Any negotiations with the Trump administration over Greenland’s future that take place without Greenlandic and Danish representation are fundamentally unserious.
- “One person familiar with the matter said Attorney General Pam Bondi—who traveled to Minneapolis to speak to prosecutors this week—was enraged by the magistrate’s decision.”
- “One of the most damning pieces of correspondence between Nvidia reps and Anna’s Archive is shown above. The snippet appears to show an unnamed Nvidia exec inquiring about the use of Anna’s Archive for LLM training.”
- Reposted by Victor Shammas[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Victor ShammasI flew down to south Texas today to do my job - investigate why people are dying in ICE detention centers. I was just illegally denied entry to Dilley Detention Center. Because they have something to hide.
- Reposted by Victor ShammasTrump is now confusing Greenland and Iceland: "They're not there for us on Iceland, that I can tell you. Our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So Iceland has already cost us a lot of money."
- Mark "Can't wait to see you" Rutte wants Europe to be grateful for being bullied by a fascist authoritarian who shows total disregard for international law.
- “Mr. Trump has used the office of the presidency to make at least $1.4 billion. We know this number to be an underestimate because some of his profits remain hidden from public view.”
- As Trump continues to weaken the UN, Israel bulldozes UNRWA buildings in East Jerusalem, directly under the oversight of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
- Trust The Economist to lament that Reform aren’t radical enough. Yet another sign that center-right, establishment outlets fail to recognize the far-right’s radicalism in overturning Europe, if given half a chance.
- Norway’s $2T Oil Fund vs. net zero: “A financial policy analyst at the think-tank Carbon Tracker said the oil fund’s push to water down rules was at odds with growing climate risks to its own holdings. The change risked triggering a “domino effect” on other climate standards.”
- Trump’s pseudo-UN? “But the draft charter being circulated makes no direct mention of the region. That has given rise to speculation that Trump is aiming to build a U.S.-led alternative to the United Nations.” wapo.st/49Xx2Ln
