Like the bible says: live by the sword, no worries

[Exit Murderer.]

Sup chat this is Slouching Towards Bethlehem with your boy The Rough Beast, and it looks like today’s stream could be a big one, as some of you might’ve already seen there are rumors going around social media that the hour has come round at last, so we’re gonna get right into it

Welp, rolled into the thrift on my way back from an errand. Found a Lincoln bust that looked interesting and old, and it has a rock embedded in the back so I figured it was something.

Anyone know someone who reads Dutch and has decent skills at deciphering old handwriting? I have two court records from the 1880s (~7 pages total) that I'm dying to read, but deciphering old handwriting in a language you're not very familiar with is tough! Willing to compensate.

Historian friends, I'm trying to organize an AHA panel that uses haunting as a way to think through issue of the dead's consent to have their memories repurposed. Do you have material that might work? If so or if you want more info, message me!

today’s tech barons get compared to the robber barons (I’ve done it myself) but it’s notable how the current generation has responded to the philanthropic and cultural legacy of Carnegie et al with their own campaign of wanton destruction of cultural institutions

These people are definitely the intellectual descendants of James Henry Hammond (and fellow sex pests to boot!).

It's near-white out conditions in Chicago as the snow comes down, and tonight's anti-ICE/CBP rally is wrapping up in front of city hall. But not before the crowd bounces and chants, "I believe that we will win!"

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

kind of darkly funny that "gender studies" is the stereotypical "useless degree" because gender studies will help you understand a large and important chunk of the current psychosis in american life

Bear down, Arizona!

University of Arizona says no to the Compact, albeit very nicely with lots of conciliatory language. Just waiting to hear from UVA and Vandy. I can't imagine what's taking them so long... president.arizona.edu/sites/defaul...

Shared courtesy of my Penn History colleague, Ben Nathans

The two narratives about colleges right now are: 1.) College professors are so charismatic and convincing that students are completely hypnotized into doing whatever they want. 2.) Students are writing all their papers with AI because they don’t give a shit outside of a degree.

He has kept among us in times of peace Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution & unacknowledged by our laws.

This guy got a job at Yale, and that seems like a much bigger indictment of the academy than the existence of humanities disciplines.

When did college-aged folks start describing everything as x-coded (e.g. "those pants are so millenial-coded")? Did this happen abruptly or am I just experiencing a frequency illusion?

all anyone needs to do is tell him he didn't do a very good job with the drawing

Decades of mechanistic talk about university degrees as if they were bundles of 'skills' and 'prep' are about to be proved completely wrong (obviously). Want to get a real boost? Do History or English.

We are being held HOSTAGE by the Extreme MAGA Republicans...they will not let us leave until they can take away your #Healthcare

I really do think this might be the worst Supreme Court of all time, which is saying something for an institution that coexisted with slavery These motherfuckers are even worse imo bc they are *also* out here using antebellum reasoning and pursuing antebellum goals but well post bellum!

People need to understand, they are governing as if they're never going to give up power again.

Fascists hate history. They hate historians. The also hate the tools, methods and sources that allow us to tell history.

Wow...as a former history teacher, all I can say is this is fascist bullshit. ANY restriction of what was once a public archive is completely unnecessary.

These records belong to us, not the con-toddler and his enablers and sycophants. Losing access is theft, plain and simple. Class action? Current US population ~340 million.

The National Archives belong to the people. Full stop.

The major AI industry leaders stood next to Donald Trump at his inauguration. They talk about replacing artists and writers and creatives as a feature, not a bug. AI is deeply conservative and it astonishes me that people who are opposed to the conservative project would rely on it so carelessly

Today in absolutely crazy thrift store finds, these two paintings by MARGARET FUCKING SANGER for $27. Yes, that Margaret Sanger. She was into watercolor and moved to Tucson later in her life.

Absolute wildest thrift store find. If you see it…

Trump has not only symbolically condoned political violence, he's *materially enabled it* with the powers of his office by officially pardoning the traitors against America of the January 6th insurrection. Every other unhinged right-wing lunatic can see that and do the math

Here is a thing about the generals of the confederacy. They are losers. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

“And now that some of us have outlived our political utility, they’re more than happy to throw us to the wolves.” First off, lol. Second, very curious who Reid thinks the wolves are.

Imagine kidnapping people off the street in broad daylight and thinking you're the "good guys". People who are at work, at their kids' school or otherwise minding their business. Imagine shooting people with rubber bullets because they want it to stop and thinking you're the "good guys". 🤔😑

A sign of how fundamentally broken and inadequate to the moment our information and media ecosystem is when the president is deploying the military to crush protests against his mass kidnapping scheme, and the question is whether those who oppose it are being nice enough.

I need Armando Iannucci to make a film about today from the POV of the Trump and Musk aides.

if the wheels had come off this thing any faster it'd be a Cybertruck

Amazing. Right out in the open: "universities are free to do research as long as they're sympathetic to the administration." I want to personally play this clip in the face of every fucking clown who spent the last several years pretending that the left is the "real" threat to free speech.

Emergency application for a nationwide injunction on me having to see James Carville or hear what he thinks about anything

Three things made the US a rich and powerful nation: the rule of law, its science & innovation system, and openness to foreign talent. Remarkable how Trump has taken a sledgehammer to all three. No enemy of this country could do more.

Trump is so dumb that he thought “is the pope Catholic?” was an open question.

They’re taking *our* investment—the money that we spent months writing grants for, the hours and hours we all spent reviewing each others’ work, the money that was supposed to go to libraries and community groups—and blowing it on this nonsense.

Older women aren’t fertile or fuckable, so who in this administration cares?

This. We need to stop conceding when successful people who have made good lives for themselves using their full liberal educations tell others that they shouldn't aspire to the same and that arts and humanities are a profligate luxury. Everyone deserves beauty. We deserve to live, not just exist.

Or, hear me out, what if we stopped incarcerating so many people compared to almost every other country in the world? Not putting someone in prison in the first place: $0k/year