At this point, any Democrat who votes to keep this government open without extracting very serious concessions — RFK’s resignation, ICE rollback, Epstein Files release, etc — will absolutely face a primary challenger who will set fundraising records.

For those deleting our Academia dot edu accounts (due to their new exploitative TOC) make sure to follow the instructions quoted below or they'll force you to accept the TOC before you can get to the "delete my account" button. See you all on the open-source alternative hcommons Humanities Commons!

Important article from @andrew-whitehead.bsky.social integrating research on how Christian nationalism threatens democracy. Check it out.

Historical methodology reflections by @ggangl.bsky.social gtw.hypotheses.org/9274 #presentism #historicism #anachronism #history #historiography

"It is still a free country. You can still say what you want. So why are so many powerful institutions behaving like it isn’t and they can’t? If a few bratty cartoon kids can peel off the emperor’s clothes, what are the grown-ups so afraid of?" [giftie] www.nytimes.com/2025/08/16/a...

Trump’s Treason Summit Backfires Spectacularly His week of madness ends in rejection and resistance

Dictionnaire du Moyen Français has been down for a few days. 😒 I use this resource daily. I hope they get the site back up and running soon.

And importantly, he won the case in a landmark SCOTUS ruling that marked the start of the long erosion of affirmative action programs. One mediocre white guy's self-delusion has brought generations of lasting damage.

Florida’s Republican administration blocks Catholic priests from ministering to immigrants jailed at Everglades detention camp: migrantinsider.com/p/catholic-p...

We are six months into the second Trump administration and the scale and severity of its assault on our nation's science and democracy has been unrelenting. Today, @ucs.org releases a detailed assessment of the damage so far and where we go from here: www.ucs.org/resources/sc... #ProtectScience

@saracharles.bsky.social Loving this

Today they have crossed a deep red line. We, the people, must hold the president and his appointees accountable for this outrageous abuse against American liberty.

I’m not sure if you can overdose on schadenfreude but we’re about to find out

Riding the frog in 1545. The Zurich-based printer Christoph Froschauer used this trademark frog on the title page of Conrad Gessner’s 'Bibliotheca Universalis'. #earlymodern #bookhistory The trademark frog derives from a translation of the printer’s last name: frog is in German “Frosch”.

@microsoft.com Who thought that new Outlook was a good idea? 🤮 Seems like breaking what works is your MO. I’ve been using MS software since DOS, and you never fail to disappoint. Do better.

For #Calvin, the corruption of the medieval and early modern papacy was all about the lust for power. 4.7.24 #AmTranslating "Nor is there any other reason why the Pontiffs vent so much rage against the renascent doctrine of the gospel and exert every muscle to oppress it 1/

One example of #Calvin’s many allusions to classical literature in the Institutes, here 4.7.22 #AmTranslating “What complaints does Bernard [of Clairvaux] pour out, what laments does he utter, when he sees the corruptions of his age? 1/

#Calvin diagnoses the problem with the medieval and early modern papacy as a lust for power, #Institutes 4.7.5 #AmTranslating "I come now to the uncontestable jurisdiction that the Roman Pontiff claims he possesses over all churches. 1/

Calvin Institutes 4.8.7 #AmTranslating Calvin is discussing Christ as God's final source of revelation. “And so it was for a good purpose that the Father appointed the Son by a unique privilege to be our teacher, commanding us to listen to him and not just any person... 1/

Bluesky needs a notification setting for when your favorite people post. I need to hear from my people. Like @bethmoorelpm.bsky.social

“This is a moral moment. It’s not left or right. It’s right or wrong. Let’s get in good trouble.” Sen. Cory Booker, 4/1/2025

"When you're only taught a history where only a certain type of people are always in charge, then it's much easier to convince people that only a certain type of people should be in charge." - @bethallisonbarr.bsky.social ⬇️

#Calvin Institutes 4.8.1 #AmTranslating "After all, if we simply grant people the power that they see fit to assume, it is obvious to all how prone this power would be to a fall into tyranny, which should be far removed from Christ’s church."

Fellow scholars: Avoid Nitro PDF. I've used it for around 17 years, and it has numerous problems with functionality. For example, it can't properly read many books from Google books, among other things. E.g., Nitro deletes my books from One Drive. As of today, I'm done.

Alternative to Am*zon bookshop.org

@drsurekhadavies.bsky.social Just listened to you on the Vulgar History podcast… relates to work I’m doing on monsters and prodigia in 16th c. thought, including Knox’s misogynist tract.

a shrug of the shoulders a slouch in the seat fingers slackening on the keyboard might as well turn on the game no energy left for protest or even really to care what is happening outside my four walls after all, what can one really do? And that my friends, is how they win

May the Force* be with you everyday! *should be capitalized

Let's Gooo! techcrunch.com/2025/01/15/b...

🎉

A man in Indiana made an AT-AT costume for his horse, intending to only get a few pictures before removing it. When he took off the headpiece the horse got upset and insisted that he put it back on, which made the horse happy again. Now the horse isn't allowing him to remove any piece of the costume

#Calvin on the papal decrees allowing monks to serve as priests, Institutes 4.5.8 #AmTranslating "But what kind of grounds are there that some uneducated ass, once he has come to occupy the See of Rome, can overturn all of antiquity with a single little word?" 1/

It's interesting to note that John Calvin associates certain jobs with the "dregs of humanity." Calvin in Institutes 4.5.6. is criticizing the corrupt practice of awarding benefices as favors to the rich, influential, or fawning. #AmTranslating 1/

How I feel about working today

Two prayers to accompany your New Year's Eve celebrations: One for those who end this year in gratitude for all that is good in their lives; and another for those who end this year with an acute sense of all that's been lost, broken or forgotten. (via "Prayers for the Pilgrimage")

Please read this piece. Phil has reported on the activities of racist white Christian nationalists in Tennessee, and they (and their allies) have come after him in the most vile ways. This is what they do, and the world needs to know.

#Calvin Institutes 4.4.5 in the Latin complains that ppl in his day are made bishops who are drunkards, whoremongers and gamblers, but in the French his list is rather different... 1/3

#EarlyModern mystery. Translating #Calvin, Institutes, 4.5.1, he accuses the bishops of his day of immorality: "If one was not an alcoholic, he was a whoremonger. If he was free from these crimes, he was either a gambler or a hunter." A hunter?? 1/

Researching the 17th-century Dutch Republic has just become a lot easier !

This image pretty much sums up my entire personality. History, Latin, Star Wars, and humor.

@kennethjwoo.bsky.social nice exile reference

Advent quote from Clint Eastwood's *Unforgiven* movie: --A villain is shot, dies in agony. --Schofield Kid, watching: I guess he had it comin.' --Wm. Munny (Eastwood): We all have it comin', kid. Romans 11:29-32

PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law Monday to prohibit public and school libraries from banning books in the state and to enshrine protections against civil and criminal charges for librarians who comply with the law.

Undocumented, not “illegal.”

Not sure who made this & when but fittingly came across it in my downloads folder today:

Unpopular opinion: Martin Scorsese's 1995 mobster movie Casino is unbearably terrible.

I was late to this controversy. www.insidehighered.com/views/2022/0...

Why do humans make monsters, and what do monsters tell us about humanity? Monsters are central to how we think about the human condition. 🧵 on HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY. Preorder now! 💙📚 🧪🗃 #earlymodern #histsci 1/5 www.surekhadavies.org/humans-a-mon...