“The library doesn’t own the archive. It can’t freely digitize it or put the images online. The intellectual property still belongs to Gannett… And yet… it’s hard not to feel that whatever the legal paperwork says, this archive belongs, in spirit, to the people of Poughkeepsie.”

“In 2019, as [Gannett] began fully moving operations out of the bldg, the entire collection—by then scattered across the basement—was suddenly in limbo… The Poughkeepsie Public Library stepped in, agreed to pay rent on a dedicated storage unit + took on physical custodianship of the archive…”

“[James Talarico] was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast,” Colbert said.

journalists are workers who deserve to be paid fairly for our labor and I think that far too few consumers of media recognize or even care about this fact

If we're going to have a democracy, we need to include everyone - so we have recommendations for how to do that. The DNC today launching a listening campaign to have volunteers talk to people who voted in 2020 but not in 2024 is a good start - but it will need to be done right.

The people we spoke to - across racial groups, and across geographies in Pennsylvania - told us they feel disconnected from our leaders and our political system, that politics looks like a game played by privileged people. They don't feel like politicians really care about them or their communities.

Today I'm releasing probably the most important scholarly thing I've ever worked on - a report based on talking with 144 people about why they don't vote or only vote regularly, and on what needs to be done to build a democracy that can include everyone. www.swarthmore.edu/u... please share!

Some years ago, I was chatting with a Retropolis reader, a young history student, and I mentioned there were several dozen people enslaved in New Jersey up until the day the 13th Amendment kicked in in December 1865. Y’all. He identified every one of them. njs.libraries.rutgers.edu/index.php/nj...

And they want us to suffer. Because human care is incompatible with capitalism. As other sectors have profited from automation and outsourcing, care has remained too labor-intensive to be simultaneously profitable, affordable for all who need it, and paid well enough to avoid shortages of care. 2/

As care gets more expensive, and as shortages of human care increase, desperate people may be willing to buy the lie that AI is a reasonable substitute. But really, they'll just be getting, at best, a cheap knock-off, while the wealthy hoard what remains of human care for themselves. 1/

"In February 2026, AI agents began doing something unprecedented" It is the second day of February 2026.

I just saw a video of what appeared to be a 6 or 7 year old little girl in agony as someone flushed her eyes for tear gas. ICE is an evil abomination. This is authoritarian, failed-state shit and everyone who helped this along should be held accountable.

YES!!! Y'all just do not understand Tarrant County. This is...oh well there are the tears. Great work by all the organizers!!

ICYMI @hebagowayed.bsky.social wrote about the companies profiting from ICE’s ethnic cleansing campaign and why a bipartisan consensus keeps the out-of-control agency funded for our newsletter Group Threat (please subscribe).

The Dept. of Appearing to Take Things Rather Seriously While Wearing a Navy Sport Coat and No Tie is actively searching for a Dean of Comfortably Ordering Wine in a DC Steakhouse Where Denny Hastert Used to Sit Right Over There. The position will pay $580,000. The history department is abolished

"In 2023, the “Minnesota Miracle” secured one of the strongest social safety nets in the country...None of it would have been possible without years of organizing that built a multiracial constituency prepared to stand together" - @hahrie.bsky.social for @hammerandhope.bsky.social, 2024

Something important to understand about ICE thugs in the Twin Cities is that they're harassing innocent kids and parents at bus stops and schools every single day. Even after the Pretti shooting. It's terrorism.

Everything they learned in Minnesota they’re applying in Maine from day one. They started off doing fast-moving snatch and grabs on the street, recording and using facial id on observers, and threatening observers directly. They’ll do it all where you live too.

Even when they show signs of weakness or forced regret, we must not give an inch. Authoritarian governments still respond to public opinion, which is why sustained pressure matters. We have to keep making clear that these thuggish actions are unconscionable and will not be tolerated. Don’t let up.

ICE killing #AlexPretti should remind you of police killing #PhilandoCastille. Both men had concealed weapon permits, did not draw their guns, & were killed in Minn. These homicides are the price of unaccountable policing. These deaths are variations on the same fatal theme.

Some folks could really benefit from reading Carol Anderson's book on the ways the Second Amendment has historically been a tool of white supremacy, become some of the takes are...lacking. (And I guess Dr. Anderson isn't on here?) www.bloomsbury.com/us/second-97...

Worse than Kent State, really than any episode I can think of probably dating back to Reconstruc & earlier b/c 1. continuing, not 1 off. 2. organized, not individual ofcrs losing it 3. literally at hand of federal government, which is 4. immediately lying & circling the wagons to prevent inves.

This was something the Trump administration promised it would not do this time - separating kids from their parents. But of course they are doing it. Because cruelty is the point. And they believe they are above the law. www.propublica.org/article/ice-...

I am not being snarky. I need my colleagues who wrote on covid school lockdowns to engage with this. To be as loud as they have been about prior "learning loss." Hell, you can cite Tom & Mark's AERJ paper so you feel better that there's some econ somewhere in your argument.

As always, fuck cancer

Wow -- Fanone coughs "go fuck yourself" to Trey Nehls as Nehls blames Capitol Police leadership for January 6

One day, if we are lucky, the erasure of American history will itself be remembered as a shameful chapter in American history

Further to the point about (1) why law still matters and (2) why Trump's record in the appeals/SCt doesn't tell the whole story about just how much.

The US has an opposition party that does not act like one. If reining in lawless, masked men and keeping them from snatching our neighbors off the streets isn't a reason to work together to block funding for this enterprise, then what sort of democracy are you defending?

It’s shameful verging on collaborationist that universities slashed DEI rather than fighting the administration on this.

Ha ha. Second Life 2.0 going down, only $77 billion dollars later

I know this won’t get a lot of attention beyond “well it’s New Hampshire, what did you expect” but I want you all to know there are a lot of kids and families of color here and we all deserve better than this kind of garbage representation

Presented some of my preliminary research on congressional hearings today and I kinda forgot just how much work I put into harmonizing 75 years of higher ed hearings. Good reminder that I have bananas data with interesting trends that I need to be talking to more people about.

Powerful - from someone who has been a witness. "During the interregnum between the last gasps of a democracy and the emergence of a dictatorship, the nation is gaslighted. ... These lies mollify those being frog-marched into their own enslavement." open.substack.com/pub/chrished...

The revolving door we don't talk about.

This, combined with the case before SCOTUS on whether mail-in ballots have to arrive by Election Day (or as in 18 states only have to be ‘postmarked’) can change the results of the midterms.

Every even-numbered election year, when voters choose presidents, governors and legislators, national groups hire temporary staff to find people not yet registered to vote, or who need to update their registration.

<Taps sign> www.sup.org/books/sociol...

Congratulations to CBS News on finding its NEXT STAR!

In terms of US politics, Bush v. Gore is the defining event of the century. It set the template: a ruthless right that instinctively seeks power & doesn't give a shit about rule of law...and a bunch of hapless, feckless octogenarian Dems worried about the good opinion of centrist opinion columnists.

Client Alert: With End-Of-Year Giving in Full Swing, Actions Against Fundraising Platform Flipcause Highlight Need for Continued Due Diligence by Donors and Nonprofits

Flipcause has delayed transferring approximately $500,000 in donated funds to nonprofits.    This is simply unacceptable.    With our cease and desist letter, we’re holding Flipcause fully accountable and will ensure every cent possible reaches those it was intended for.

This is so fucked, predatory tech startup Flipcause is withholding funds from small non-profits. They own one I work with just under $20k and another just under $100k. Because its spread across the country its hard to know how much they owe in total. abc7news.com/post/exclusi... @theverge.com

Google “FlipCause Lawsuit.” I really dug into these guys because they’re holding about $50k for a charity I care a lot about. (I have the home addresses of several board members; don’t piss off Intel guys.) My guess is using donations to invest in crypto and losing all the funds.

We're hiring an outstanding Assistant Professor whose core research is in the field of cultural sociology with demonstrable expertise in the sociology of #culture and #technology. 📅 Applications close Sunday 30 November 2025. ➡️ jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...