Time to vote... [BnF. Département des Manuscrits. Français 875 f.110r]

FWIW, I don’t think the major problem in my field, or related ones, is that people need to move faster & produce more. I read a lot of papers as part of the job, and I’m increasingly convinced we’d benefit from fewer papers and better ones, not more mediocre work produced ever more “efficiently.”

One of my favorite books since college.

Happy posthumous birthday to Orson Welles, who would have been 111 years old today. While an undeniable genius in many respects, Welles could be difficult to work with. Case in point: These outtakes from a late 1970s or early 1980s commercial for Paul Masson wines, when he was totally plastered.

We’ve been told our content needs to be more informative so here you go

Horrific. (#OTD in 1937, the majestic German airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire while landing in New Jersey. 36 lives were lost. #HISTORY)

Секретная третья вещь

RESULT: Democrats tonight have defended a swing district in Michigan's state Senate. This means they also defended their majority in the chamber. (The GOP could have erased it by winning.) SD35 voted by Harris by just 1% in 2024, but Dem Chedrick Greene appears to have won easily today.

To overcome this industrial level plagiarism perhaps we need to return to an analogue world of scholarship: hard copies of articles circulated within trusted networks (maybe with an ijaza-style system for authorization)… theamericanscholar.org/who-is-blake...

University of Hertfordshire closes a swathe of Humanities courses, accelerating the sweeping tide against Human-centred disciples in the UK. Because understanding humans is so yesterday today. With such happy consequences, as we see when we look around us.

When I came out of law school in 2006, DOJ's prestige was such that liberal and conservative graduates alike would have gladly stepped over their friends' dead bodies to get a position there. Trump has ruined it now to the point they're having to bribe new graduates to apply.

Just a reminder that, in April 2023, Justice Alito *also* issued administrative stays of Judge Kacsmaryk's ruling purporting to take mifepristone off the shelves on a nationwide basis, and then dissented when the full Court stayed that ruling indefinitely. Don't read too much into what he did today.

Putin is growing increasingly paranoid: Several media, including the CNN&the Financial Times have published a report that was allegedly provided to them by an employee of the intelligence service of an EU country. The document allegedly describes what's going on in the Kremlin&Putin's close circle⤵️

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... Now on SSRN. #history #lawsky

🚨BREAKING: The Supreme Court Monday fast-tracked its decision in Louisiana v. Callais — a move that clears the way for Louisiana to move forward with redrawing its congressional map even as an election is already underway. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Today's full motion in the "Broadview Six" case is here: cst.brightspotcdn.com/c9/24/88fac5...

Some words take us back immediately. Dallas. Columbine. Sandy Hook. And, Kent State, which happened 56 years ago today. We remember "Four dead in Ohio," but let us also remember their names... Allison B. Krause, 19. William Knox Schroeder, 19. Sandra Lee Scheuer, 20. Jeffrey Glenn Miller, age 20.

Austria is no longer willing to look away when spies operate in Vienna. Congratulations to @bmeia.gv.at ! www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

What did you think of the recent 'AI identifies Anne Boleyn' story? The claim (in a new Nature article, link in 🧵) is that the drawing on the left is wrongly labelled as Anne, and the drawing on the right is more likely her, based on AI and facial recognition. 1/

Incredible. DOJ, in court, tells Judge Reyes "no closure notice has been issued" for the East Potomac golf course. Moments later the judge is handed a note saying that closure signs are on parts of the golf course today. There's a reason the presumption of regularity is gone.

Holy shit a federal judge blocked the law, ruling that it was "unconstitutional.” www.wwltv.com/article/news...

BREAKING: The Court has ordered the government to respond with answers at 7:30am — and there will be a status conference at 8am. Thank you team @democracyforward.org and co-counsel and clients!

And here's a *THIRD* school district in Texas that just ousted a conservative incumbent. In Mansfield, another district that was a book ban epicenter, voters had already ousted 3 conservatives in 2025 in a big sweep. Yesterday, incumbent Courtney Lackey Wilson was voted out as well.

Last night saw more setbacks for the Texas right in school boards. They already lost a lot of ground twelve months ago; yesterday, at least six conservative board members who’ve been at the forefront of book bans or policies restricting LGBT rights were ousted. boltsmag.org/whats-on-the...

“We have too readily assumed that the Classical cosplay of the 18th century was an affectation, a wig atop a wig. It was not. The Roman categories that Chesterfield absorbed in his library and Burke deployed in Westminster Hall were not decorative.”

#Cejourlà Le 3 mai 1936, le Front populaire remporte les élections législatives. Pour la première fois un socialiste, Léon Blum, arrive au pouvoir. Jusqu'à ce que la grève gagne l'Hexagone. Dans nos archives, Michel Winock revient sur cette victoire inédite. www.lhistoire.fr/%C3%A9ph%C3%...

3 mai 1936... Victoire du Front Populaire ! Le gouvernement de Léon Blum adopte dans la foulée une série de mesures sociales, dont l'instauration des premiers congés payés. @partisocialiste.bsky.social @olivierfaure.bsky.social @chloe-ridel.fr @borisvallaud.bsky.social

RESULTS from Texas: The school district of Grapevine Colleyville, near Fort Worth, drew national attention after conservatives running on an explicitly Christian message took over the board (archive: www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...). Voters just ousted 3 conservative incumbents tonight.

RESULT out of Texas. The Lake Travis school district in the Austin area become a focal point for book bans (see this story from 2024: www.kut.org/education/20...) Two conservatives school board members who were integral to that push just lost their reelection bids tonight, and are ousted.

The longtime president of Bard College in New York has announced his retirement, months after it was revealed that he had a much deeper relationship than was previously known with Jeffrey Epstein. n.pr/4wckn0q

Here is a link to a summary of law firm Wilmer Hale’s investigation into Botstein’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. It’s quite scathing. drive.google.com/file/d/1axoP...

'The research team, led by the University of Bradford, says the new discovery is "exciting" and the methodology could be replicated to do more art detective work. But there is scepticism from within the art history community over the findings.' #Skystorians

Not sure whether to run for the House of Keys in September? Going to take some time this Bank Holiday weekend to think about it? Have we got the youtube video for you ...

Leon Botstein, longtime friend of pedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, has resigned as president of @bardcollege.bsky.social. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/u...

Here's the new Louisiana lawsuit, seeking to stop the effort to stop the election: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Today in 1960, the Soviet Union shot down a CIA U-2 reconnaissance plane over Sverdlovsk piloted by Francis Gary Powers. The Eisenhower administration initially lied to cover up the true purpose of the mission but was forced to admit the truth when the Soviets produced both Powers and the wreckage.

Surprised that an American friend did not understand the framework for the address that HM King Charles III delivered before the joint session of the US Congress this week. So (historian here), a few points: 1) King Charles did not write his address and it may not convey many of his own opinions.

One of my favourite views in the world - the Edinburgh skyline seen from across the Firth of Forth

Meenu Batra was released from ICE detention on April 30. Judge Olvera forbade the govt from re-detaining her unless it provides her notice of the reasons for detention and a chance to respond. The govt has already filed a motion to reconsider. She has been a court interpreter for over 20 years.

THE UNION JACK IS UPSIDE DOWN

"how was your first day at work?" [longest cigarette draw in history] "pas bien"

This is a fabulous, fabulous letter for other reasons that I have long emphasized in my writings (going back to my first book) and teaching. SA (our lone Trotskyite) sums up his whole philosophy of political action: "We cannot make events. Our business is wisely to improve them."

1/3🧵 The Trump regime has done everything they can to cancel and/or delay this aid, but is bound by Congress. Three things we can read from this: 1. This is the first aid package with Trump as president. The aid is worth much less than the aid the regime has provided for #Russia. ⤵️

Final Powell presser thread begins here. Fed won't move rates at 2:00p but the statement will be here at that time: www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/p... No SEP, but the presser is live here at 2:30p: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHLb... Statement recap an analysis to follow when we get that shortly.

POWELL STAYING ON AS GOVERNOR AFTER CHAIR TERM ENDS

#BREAKING Federal prosecutors in Chicago say they are dismissing the conspiracy count against the remaining members of the Broadview Six.

I wrote up the Comey indictment. www.popehat.com/p/the-comey-...

All for trolling Trump and John Roberts, but there's an irony for the King's Speech to Congress that the Magna Carta is invoked a good deal less in the UK's highest courts... www.politico.com/live-updates...

“What he said: ‘The U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society has calculated that Magna Carta is cited in at least 160 Supreme Court cases since 1789, not least as the foundation of the principle that executive power is subject to checks and balances.’”