I hope historians discussing 19th-century U.S. history this term are including William Walker and the filibuster campaigns in Nicaragua in their lectures, if they aren’t already.

The amount of “this is clearly about oil” posting across all platforms as story after story comes out where the oil industry is saying that the oil isn’t worth extracting is making me feel a little insane

Briefly imagining a media landscape where it would be as easy to find thoughtful analysis of Venezuela’s political, economic, and social travails over the last 50 years as it is stenography for the regime and endless punditry about “what it all means”

every once in a while i look to figure it out and i think now musk could give every homeless person in the US a one bedroom apartment for like 35 years

Call me crazy: I think a baseline position of respecting national sovereignty is politically solid, and an easy explanation for why includes the fact that if US can do this to Venezuela, then Russia can do it in, say, Poland.

Duke Energy, North Carolina's monopoly electricity utility, is one of the biggest players in our state's politics. They are consistently the #1 or #2 spender on lobbying in our state legislature.

Merry Christmas good people. May we have peace on Earth.

Gluten free blueberry muffins baked for tomorrow morning. Meatballs now in the oven. Charcuterie prep in about 90 minutes. A night of delicious anticipation indeed.

Nice. flightaware.com/live/flight/...

Rick Steves is not just a national treasure. He’s a global treasure.

I cannot emphasize enough that the White House has no authority to withhold funds from the Smithsonian. It can, however, try to persuade/threaten Congress to reduce future funding.

The Lumbee Tribe has been in North Carolina since long before we became a state. The Lumbee were officially recognized by the State of North Carolina in 1885 and have fought for their fair share from the federal government for more than a century.

Also. In celebration of the Lumbees finally receiving federal recognition, here's a taste of Dr Ashley Minner-Jones' EXTRAORDINARY work documenting and telling the stories of Lumbee Baltimore www.baltimorereservation.com

Misinformation about the presidential memo on Lumbee recognition is frustrating but not unexpected given the complexity of the issue. Here is a short FAQ followed by suggested readings to help clear the air.

I am especially overjoyed for my friend Malinda Lowery, who has given so much of her creativity and intellect to telling the Lumbee story with the rigor of a historian and the soul of an artist. You should read her book.

I’ve been under the weather most of the week but have been following the progress of this legislation with a building sense of joy. My Lumbee friends all have known they are Indigenous and deserving of federal recognition, but now the rest of the world will come to know it too.

It's like they read the Christmas story and thought Herod was the good guy.

Yes. Well this is what Rev. William Barber has been saying on loop.

The number of ways these two teams have found not to score is impressive, I’ll give you that.

So… my aging but still quite sharp parents got taken in hard by one of the fake “your Apple ID has been compromised” texts. Days already spent cancelling accounts and trying to restore firewalls on their tech. Much $ tied up in fraud claims. Talk to your elders about tech scams and data security.

Laughing at all you football fans who say soccer is boring.

Leaving aside the underlying motivations, remember that little government shutdown we had?

It’s still just National Airport, too.

Amen x 1000000000000000

Melissa Hortman Died in a Shocking Act of Political Violence. This Is the Story of Her Life The Minnesota Speaker’s closest friends and family open up for the first time. Read @stephenrodrick.bsky.social's exclusive: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Shut the front door.

RIP Governor Hunt. A truly great man and a visionary leader. I am honored to have met him on a few occasions and to have lived in NC while he was governor.

“Sunsetting: How Universities Naturalize Ideologically Motivated Cuts and Closures,” forthcoming from a university press probably on its way to being sunsetted

As I was saying…

I hate this so much. I invested more than half my adult life in this university and it keeps finding new ways to shame me.

In the wake of public-records requests from a right-wing group, the University of North Carolina system is considering creating a publicly searchable database with information from all class syllabi. Many faculty fear the information will be used to target them. www.chronicle.com/article/when...

The Times has a panel of 12 Trump voters all ready to tell us tomorrow.

Unbelievable. This would be a terrible blow to American science, writ large. It would decimate not only climate research, but also the kind of weather, wildfire, and disaster research that has underpinned half a century of progress in prediction, early warning, and increased resilience.

Henri Veesaar on a heater for UNC. 26 points on 10-11 shooting impressive enough, but some of the catches and moves in the paint have been like watching a ballet class.

Still needs to be said.

Watching Louisville v Tennessee and one team definitely thinks they are playing football while the other is attempting basketball. I’m old enough to remember when freedom of movement was a priority in hoops officiating.

Reply with a holiday song, and I’ll indicate whether it’s a bop or not.

I may have missed something. Venezuela took our land?

My book has arrived and I have officially unboxed it! Thank you so much to everyone at @uncpress.bsky.social and esp to @lucaschurch.bsky.social for making this happen!

I’m going to start giving the heights of my favorite basketball players in Melonis.

I’m not crying you’re crying (read the whole thread)

The Princess Bride, by a mile. That film has given so much delight to multiple generations of my family.

Taking a break from the sickening tragedy to focus on the beauty for a moment. Rob Reiner achieved something so rare and coveted that artists and entertainers dream of and rarely achieve: cultural permanence. How many times have you made a reference to something going to 11? Shouted "Inconceivable"?

Armed ICE agents trapped US citizens in a restaurant and demanded their papers. Federal agents walked into East African restaurants in Cedar-Riverside, MN. They closed and blocked the doors. Then they demanded to see everyone’s papers. Every person present was a US citizen.

Well look at that. The inimitable @ansleyquiros.bsky.social gets a cite in Doug Wilson’s new apologia for Christian nationalism. And of course, he misrepresents (or didn’t read) her argument. @prri.org

Requiring temporary visitors to surrender five years of social media to the U.S. sends the message that the American commitment to free speech is pretense. This simply is not the behavior of a country confident in its freedoms. It's a threat to free speech around the world and must be opposed.

I want to watch this guy review Southern restaurant chains for the rest of my life. Can you imagine this dude in a Bojangles?

Did not expect font debates as a feature of the end of American democracy but here we are

"Nothing is better settled at the common law than the doctrine that the children even of aliens born in a country while the parents are resident there under the protection of the government and owing a temporary allegiance thereto are subjects by birth." Inglis v. Sailor's Snug Harbor (U.S. 1830).