“When a society fosters as much crime & destruction as ours, w ample resources to meet the actual needs of every one, there must be something radically wrong, not in the society but in the foundation upon which society is reared.” -T. Thomas Fortune, Black & White (1884)

It’s funny because when kids ride dirt bikes in the city it’s taken as proof we need a totalitarian police state.

it is fascists who argue that they represent the dispossessed and that they are fighting for the most crushed to bring about fairness. this is a fascist lie. I would urge people not to spread fascist lies.

History rhymes

🧵

“When a society fosters as much crime & destruction as ours, w ample resources to meet the actual needs of every one, there must be something radically wrong, not in the society but in the foundation upon which society is reared.” -T. Thomas Fortune, Black & White (1884)

“reveals a staggering level of corruption and influence.” www.propublica.org/article/dona...

Since Trump took office, there has not been a single arrest of a "paid protestor," or indeed a single piece of evidence that paid protestors exist. It remains something that Trump admin officials routinely claim to be investigating but have so far utterly failed to prove is more than a fantasy.

Every now & then, I think abt how Foucault would have lost his goddamn mind on this machine.

I took this video right before ICE pepper sprayed the crowd at Delaney Hall, including Senator Andy Kim. ICE was dressed like they're going to war, with weapons and an armored vehicle. That's because we are the enemy to them. We just keep standing up to this repression. @north.dsanj.org

I think people are having a hard time understanding that my desire to not give money to the US government in this EXACT MOMENT is explicitly linked to the things that the money is being used for IN THIS EXACT MOMENT.

🧵 I'll add that some of the leaders of those many unprosecuted coups and massacres became politicians and officials in Jim Crow governments. The failure to prosecute allowed them to blend paramilitary leadership with direct politics. "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman is a classic example.

Highly recommend my colleague Jim Pope's "Snubbed Landmark: Why United States v. Cruikshank (1876) Belongs at the Heart of the American Constitutional Canon" on the legal aspects of this campaign scholarship.libraries.rutgers.edu/esploro/outp...

Most folks don't realize how central events like J6 were to the Jim Crow state. Dozens of unprosecuted coups & massacres—actively encouraged by those in power—revived the fundamental logic of the pre-emancipation state: that Black Americans had "no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

Does anyone have recommendations for publicly-available digital primary source collections in African American History? I put together a list for class this past term, which students clearly found helpful, & want to add to it if possible.

democrats vote to confirm trump judges on the day trump sets up a $1.7 billion pedophile slush fund with your tax dollars

the myth of white victimization is really all they have

👇🎯 Today in "neither our media nor our political system is designed to deal with a far right authoritarian party"

The actual, immediate dangers of AI look much more like this: widespread surveillance & misinformation. Probably not an accident that the tech broligarchs all made the fascist turn. 🤷

AI makes it harder for humans to trust one another, which makes it harder for humans to work together towards shared ends, which is the greatest gift billionaires could ever give to aspiring authoritarians.

This, coupled with travel bans on people from non-white countries, is exactly what you'd expect a white supremacist administration brimming with Nazi ideology to do.

“Saw a vision of Jesus Delivering The Bread Feet against the water They put a crown on His head They only love Him 'cause He is dead They only love him 'cause He is dead”

I was assured by colleagues at my former institution that this wouldn’t happen bc the underlying goal of the regime wasn’t fascism but “fairness.” That is very plainly not the case. It never was.

A huge weakness in America's political culture is that we never developed the habit of using the word "fascism" to describe other Americans with any sort of precision or accuracy. Hence fascists like G. Roy Lockwood just passed through life known as a "conservative Christian who hates Communism."

Why we are on here in the Year of Our Lawd 2026 still individualizing things we know to be systemic is beyond me.

For my birthday this year, I had the honor of helping launch Made by History at its new home with the Philadelphia Inquirer. I'm grateful to Carly and the other editors for helping me shape the piece. In short, what we need now are more historical markers, not fewer.

My last name is Standish. Let’s google my family hist—oh. Oh no.

In the VERY NEAR future—when neuro atrophy reaches critical levels—the ability to collect, analyze, & communicate information will become a highly sought-after superpower.

“Get off the internet I'll meet you in the street Get off the internet Destroy the right wing“

And this folks is exactly why universities shovel money towards accountants and consultants. Faculty unions: if you don’t already have one, IMMEDIATELY create your own university finances task force to shadow them.

I would prefer not to I reject your assumptions I deny your premises I refuse your authority I do not capitulate Be ungovernable my friends

Gift article: “In January, a nationalistic Beijing think tank affiliated with Renmin University published a triumphant report about Mr. Trump [calling him:] an “accelerator of American political decay,” with the US sliding toward… “Latin American-style instability.” www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/b...

Trump’s war in Iran is hitting Americans hard. Prices at the checkout shot up to the highest level since May 2023, now outstripping wage growth. Trump is making everyone poorer.

My kids call this “Thanksgiving bread,“ which makes it extra fun to bake it for breakfast on a random Tuesday.

"I believe if we just give the AI revolution to tech billionaires we're going to have political unrest in this country." @khanna.house.gov joins Editor @cmychalejko.bsky.social to discuss his recent article @thenation.com, "AI for the People." FULL INTERVIEW: bit.ly/4fesXW4

So the war was quite literally pointless. All around the world they're rationing energy, there are food shortages, people are suffering and dying, all for absolutely fucking nothing.

We could all be free. No idea what we'd do about online courses though

Before all this happened today, I was just telling someone at one of my two current extremely unfortunate temp jobs that I feel like half my time as an adjunct prof has been taken up fiddling with Canvas instead of designing actual content, doing research, or writing. I *hate it*.

What if we just let Canvas die?

Been immersed in the archives all day & am struck by the audacious gamble that free Black & enslaved people made—even with deep reservations abt rights & treatment—in forcing the Army to enlist them. One of those transformative moments that has been muted by nationalist mythologies.

Hard to see so many basic rights being dismantled and not view the Biden interregnum as a total failure. His presidency was premised on restoring institutions and stability, and so many of the wins achieved have already been undone by Trump (as well as 50+ years of progress).

“You know, I have one simple request, and that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads”

Of all Trump's idiotic conservative beliefs, for me this one takes the cake. It's the kind of thinking one might find in ancient Mesopotamia. Makes his obsessions with tariffs, kings and wars of conquests look downright modern!

It’s not just about tequila and sombreros. Cinco De Mayo reminds us that victory and justice can be won against the greatest odds. La lucha sigue! Sí se puede! 3/

Today, many immigrants from Puebla and elsewhere struggle in American fields against modern day systems of racist exploitation. Farm workers today remain excluded from many basic labor rights, while immigrants from Mexico and elsewhere remain excluded from citizenship. 2/

a thought i had while talking to a friend is that a federal end to partisan gerrymandering has to be at the top of the democratic party's agenda, and may likely get there because of threat the status quo poises to black representation, and thus black political involvement altogether.

And the fact that he was a key architect & supporter of many of the racist policies so many of us claim to oppose ought to make us more wary these sorts of unsavory characters.