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There's a major civil rights protest taking place in Selma, Alabama, right now in response to the SCOTUS decision that weakened the Voting Rights Act and the ongoing attack on Black Americans’ political power (video: defiancedispatch/IG)

Internal AutoZone memo: “.. We’re facing the largest supply shortage of lubricating fluids in the modern history of America. Realistic, middle-of-the-road estimates are for our average available supply in this product category to drop by 40%.” (via Costa Oil) #$AZO

"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." –Justice Louis Brandeis Words spoken many years ago that are just as relevant today. We must continue the fight to get big money out of politics.

Two photos. Same room. Same flags. Same astronauts. In one, the President stands with them, smiling, centered, human. In the other, the President sits scowling, rambling, diminished. Four astronauts. Two presidents. And the faces tell you everything.

Can you imagine going back to 1776 and telling the Founding Fathers that in 250 years, the King of England would be standing in the United States Capitol lecturing American lawmakers about the importance of democratic norms?

This is an actual post. This is not funny. This is beyond desperate. This is a deeply unwell man who doesn’t belong anywhere near the levers of power. Every member of his cabinet and Congress is complicit in not demanding his removal now.

The FY2027 budget requests $1.5 trillion for military spending and pays for it by gutting NOAA, FEMA grants, NIH, and fully eliminating programs that keep the lights on for struggling Americans.

📢New article in JBS! 📗"Rethinking Periodization, Priorities, and Liberalism in British Queer History," by Charles Upchurch Open access here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

📢New article in JBS! 📗"I Am Not Anti Black Music But...": Popular Music, the NME, and Race in Late Twentieth-Century Britain by Benjamin Bland @benjamin-bland.bsky.social Open access here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Withholding needed medical care from poor and disabled people in MN in order to score a political point is both vicious and unnecessary. Vance should be ashamed to be the mouthpiece for his boss’s cowardly attacks on the vulnerable. Not surprised yet somehow still shocked #medicaid #minnesota

📢New article in JBS! 📗"Rethinking the Legitimacy of British Botanizing in Late Qing China (1840–1912)" by Di Lu Open access here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Norman L. Jones, an accomplished historian of Tudor history, has passed away. In this remembrance, Robert Tittler and @susancogan.bsky.social reflect on his scholarship, life, and legacy. www.nacbs.org/post/norman-...

📢New in JBS! 📗“Imperial Politics, the Dominions, and the Irish Question, 1907–21” by John C. Mitcham Open access here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Loved the newest piece from @bakerdphd.bsky.social's Inside Higher Ed blog today, and appreciated its attention to both historical context and the current power dynamics which make "institutional neutraility" far from neutral.

Next up in the series! 📗"One British Archive: The Weather Extremes in England's Little Ice Age Database" by Madeline Bassnett Open access here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Over the next few weeks, the NACBS blog will feature a series of pieces on artificial intelligence. Check out the opening essay by @amywb.bsky.social and stay tuned for more! www.nacbs.org/post/the-ai-...

My brilliant spouse just suggested that municipalities name landfills, sewage treatment facilities, and dumpsters after our “dear leader”. I love this idea.

The Strangers Case

I found the first investigative file from the first complainant against Epstein in 2005. There are descriptions from the officer, over several interviews of the girl, of her pulling her knees up on the chair, drawing doodles, & the officer high-fiving her to keep her calm as she speaks of horror.

www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ja... Nailed it with this review, and the taxidermy line!

I wrote this yesterday about the hero city of Minneapolis www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKOW...

"You don't get promoted to Chief Child Catcher without a little expertise!"

At the rate we're going, Larry Ellison is going to have Paramount Pictures put out a prestige drama about the valiant officers who tracked down Anne Frank

The DOJ is more than three weeks late in delivering the Epstein Files. In those three weeks: - Trump declared himself acting President of Venezuela - ICE murdered a woman in Minnesota - Trump is preparing an invasion of a NATO ally - Trump initiated a criminal investigation of Fed Chair Powell

I wrote about some of 2025's big generative AI developments and their implications for historians: multimodal generation, deep research, and handwriting transcription. In short, we need to stop dismissing this as nothing more than "autocomplete on steroids." cblevins.github.io/posts/gen-ai...

This sums things up well. open.substack.com/pub/marcmurp...

Bill Clinton releasing a statement saying 'release the Epstein files, you cowards' was not on my bingo list.

This administration is made up of internet influencers and Fox News mainstays who live for the camera, so I guess it’s not surprising they have no idea how to *hide* something from the media.

There has been no debate here among constitutional scholars, historians, political scientists, anyone with a pulse really. Any telling you that this very straightforward point, one that has been universally accepted for a century and a half, is now an "abstruse" issue is just a liar and a hack.

Just the president of the United States rationalizing that a Washington Post reporter was basically asking to be murdered and cut to pieces with a bone saw because of his reporting. As he sits next to the thug who ordered it.

I love how Rep. Joe Neguse reframed this question.

The President is disgusting and a disgrace. And he’s clearly rattled by yesterday’s turnout. Keep speaking out. The power belongs to the people.

New article out in @jbritishstudies.bsky.social. It's gestation began in late 2021, shortly before I started my current job teaching Black British history. It's the product of my frustrations with the way that the histories of racism & fascism in Britain are written about. doi.org/10.1017/jbr....

Dream PhD opportunity! We are recruiting another doctoral researcher in our @erc.europa.eu synergy project BLOCKADE - this one is on interwar blockades and sanctions. 4 years, fully funded at @uvahumanities.bsky.social and supervised by the amazing and super kind @samuelkruizinga.bsky.social

I hear the President has decreed that it is possibly a crime to refer to Americans as "fascists," but "fascism" is a word that has a relatively clear meaning that's worth understanding. Here's how an official publication of the US Army defined "fascism" in 1945.

FYI. If the Govt shuts down, everyone stays in town including the president but you’re just bored with nothing to do because it’s all messaging and negotiations. GREAT TIME TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES

Trump: "We've got a lot of stupid people in this country running things."

These are precedented times and the precedent is a loud ass warning www.nytimes.com/1939/02/04/a...

The @washingtonpost.com has changed its slogan again, from “Democracy Dies In Darkness” to “Know Your Place.”

Without question. Shout out to the women this week. Just…shout out to yall.

Cabinet secretaries, lying on the record