Portland, Oregon is a terrific city - it is not and has not been war torn. No federal occupation necessary or wanted as far as I can tell as a recent former resident and visitor with lots and lots of friends and connections and work there.

Trump says he’s authorized Hegseth to use “Full Force” against Antifa in “War ravaged” Portland

The exact lineup of investors is still under wraps but the network of players is in some cases nearly half a century in the making.

Really looking forward to being in conversation with Keisha Blain tonight in #Columbus at the Book Loft🗃️ Come on out if you are around! @mershoncenter.bsky.social @osuhistory.bsky.social

Heads up, #humanities scholars! @ransomcenter.bsky.social is hosting an online info session about our 2026-27 research fellowships. Join me & Tracy Bonfitto next Thursday (Oct. 2) at 9 AM, CDT for details about our collections & application process. events.teams.microsoft.com/event/ad72fe... 🗃️📜📚

Both illegal and (one more) backdoor impoundment. “Non-essential” does not mean that money was not appropriated for this work. If this logic holds, any President who wants to downsize government would simply engineer a shutdown

When raw capitalism and simple cost analysis rejects advice or requests not to do something in order to DO that something more costly in the short term, then you know FOR SURE it likely has much higher mid and long term costs to not do that thing.

Every day

With a ban postponed (again) and a new deal (yet again) supposedly close, the question "Is Tik Tok a national security threat?" also reappeared. There's relevant history here that I've been discussing🗃️ @mershoncenter.bsky.social @osuhistory.bsky.social #spectrum spectrumlocalnews.com/section/the-...

Epidemiologist Erin McCanlies spent much of the past two decades studying how parents’ exposure to toxic chemicals affects the chances that they will have an autistic child. RFK Jr. has now cut her entire division.

NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR GRAD STUDENTS: “SMH (Grad Student) TALKS” at #SMH2026 Annual Conference! Submission deadline: November 15, 2025 www.smh-hq.org/annualmeetin...

Come on out 🗃️People, this should be a wonderful way to launch Blain's new book in Columbus and at a very special book store, then she's kindly joining us at OSU for an International History Seminar at the Mershon Center! #historymatters

Columbus and Ohio come on out on Thursday evening at 7pm to the Book Loft in German Village to talk about Keisha Blain's just released timely book Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights @wwnorton.com @mershoncenter.bsky.social ! mershoncenter.osu.edu/events/keish...

If you'd like to get a sense of how official US govt sources of data are going to be be corrupted and rendered unusable going forward, this thread on NCES's IPEDS data offers a good preview. ED was one of the first federal agencies targeted by the regime; this is coming to BLS, the Census, etc...

Kudos to my colleagues @jimmillward.bsky.social and Chandra Manning for organizing and leading this effort. 🗃️

Serious scholars have examined what happens when we change the number of H1-B visas issued. Cities that get more H1-B immigrants subsequently see the wages of natives *rise* substantially. Skilled immigrants bring new ideas, fill labor shortages and make us all more productive.

Really important to note how historically unpopular Donald Trump and his Administration are -- they are underwater on virtually every issue, at least in terms of the presidencies of the last 25 years or so - thanks @gelliottmorris.com

“Both faculty and students are mincing their words in class and approaching their discussions with caution for fear of being reported” can confirm.

Probably not

On the chilling of speech in higher education across Ohio by legislative fiat. We are all beginning to feel it, but just listen to the student voices www.salon.com/2025/09/22/g...

A fee days ago @aaup.org published an advisory for academic workers in this time of intensive repression and censorship. Please read *before* a crisis hits, if possible, whether you’ve been targeted before or not. www.aaup.org/news/advisor...

Since Disney & fascists are trending, this is from the 1943 Writers Congress, led by Hollywood Writers Mobilization (for the war). Walt Disney was there, & every leftist who was anyone in H'wd. 🗃️ Disney briefly joined in - but so many of the rest got called by HUAC & blacklisted *b/c of this*.

This judge is Reviewer 2 and I’m here for it.

Firings, sanctions, bans, threats, chilling of speech… OSU AAUP laying out and standing up for the essence of academic freedom and responsibility @aaup.org @osuaaup.bsky.social www.aaup-osu.org/post/aaup-os...

Questions for anyone who has taught or taken a college-level survey of US History up to 1865. Teachers: What are your favorite primary source materials to teach? Students: What assignments have you found meaningful and memorable?

By expelling Mr. Christensen, Ohio State -- the 3rd largest public university in the U.S. -- has dangerously capitulated to the Trump Administration’s broad program of extreme, and selective, repression of First Amendment activity on college campuses. www.ideastream.org/2025-09-17/a...

🚨BREAKING: We’re suing to protect free speech at the Ohio State University. We just filed a new lawsuit in federal court challenging the University’s expulsion of a student for engaging in First Amendment protected speech. www.acluohio.org/press-releas...

Campus officials summarily disenrolled Guy Christensen without a hearing, in response to a controversial series of videos he posted on his personal social media pages expressing opinions related to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The end of things, or a significant pivot point, or what otherwise and later might best be depicted as the culmination of a series of small changes adding up to _____, often does not appear that way except with significant hindsight, I'm sorry to say, sayeth many historians 🗃️

Come on out -- such excellent content, topics, scholars, and intellectual community (we need it these days, don't we?!) -- the #USIH2025 Conference in Detroit Nov 6-8 is going to be great!🗃️

The careful diplomacy and coordination needed to get to the finish line has been lacking thus far -- so we're now on to a 4th extension on the Tik Tok ban, and the critical question of just how much of a national security threat it is and might be remains www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/t...

PEN America: “We are witnessing the death of academic freedom in Texas." https://pen.org/press-release/swift-removal-of-academic-leaders-at-texas-am-signals-the-death-of-academic-freedom-in-the-state-warns-pen-america/

As established in the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom & Tenure, faculty are entitled to hearings under long-standing principles before they may be subject to discipline. 3/4

Please see the national AAUP statement on the current disciplining of student, faculty, and staff speech.

Loved this roundtable honoring the Wilson Center and the Cold War International History Project. Like so many others, my work and my approach to doing history were profoundly affected by the Wilson Center and its dedicated directors and staff. #History 🗃️

More electric vehicles lead to more construction of newer, cleaner power plants. As the grid becomes cleaner, so do EVs. The Republicans’ bill eliminating incentives for EVs is throwing the brakes on that virtuous cycle, according to a technology scholar who modeled power demand: buff.ly/XYtjBkw

Worth noting the spate of folks now saying they won't run in 2026. In this case McCaul's decision is likely also a rejection of parts of the current Admin's foreign policies that he disagrees with or can't make headway on ...

"We will never know what diseases might have been cured or what advances in technology might have been invented had the lights not gone out in the labs." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/o...

We'd love to have you. Please consider, apply, & come join us @mershoncenter.bsky.social at The Ohio State University as the next new Mershon Chair in Peace Studies, tenured associate or full professor.🗃️ osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/OSUCareers/j...

OSU faculty and staff on the tragedy of our current violent, polarized, hyper-politicized moment and era #Lantern www.thelantern.com/2025/09/ohio...

We'd love to have you. Please consider, apply, & come join us @mershoncenter.bsky.social at The Ohio State University as the next new Mershon Chair in Peace Studies, tenured associate or full professor.🗃️ osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/OSUCareers/j...

AAUP-OSU board member Richard Finlay Fletcher spoke to “Inside Higher Ed” about OSU’s ban on land acknowledgements - and its chilling effect on academic freedom. Link below.

AAUP-OSU was quoted again in 10TV coverage on SB1: buff.ly/ZcCxfp3

Please help fill in the blank: First they came for the land acknowledgement statements of fact, censoring them so that they could not appear anywhere unless there was the most direct and obvious link ... then they came for the ________ www.wosu.org/politics-gov...

@mershoncenter.bsky.social postdoctoral fellowships now being offered! Please consider applying to join an amazing group doing superb work broadly defined in a great community Mershon Center for International Security Studies at The Ohio State University🗃️ osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/OSUCar...

The 1892 Geary Act did far more than extend the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act indefinitely. It added a new & especially authoritarian detail: all Chinese Americans would have to carry at all times a “resident permit” or risk immediate deportation if they were stopped by authorities for any reason. 🗃️+

Yup, that's about the size of it -- George Washington’s worries are coming true 🗃️ theconversation.com/george-washi...

Not only were they scalding milk, they were also boiling or cooking most things to well done to prevent gastrointestinal issues. Why? Because gastro issues were a common cause of death. Bad water, bad food, and disease were all primary causes of death. Hence the safety regs now getting tossed out