14 two-year postdocs for academics of any nationality who cannot continue their research due to US politics. Do share if you know of such.

Manufacturing consent

When did discussions of “the economy” begin, and why? In our latest blog post @williamcavert.bsky.social takes us to 18th-century England to explore the "improvement" literature of the time👇

At long last, a movie about Stalinism but with the vibe of Kung Fu Panda.

"The Improvement Police," my article on a scheme, c. 1700, to force people to use new scientific knowledge to make their government rich, is out in a fantastic issue on Projects, edited by @tedmccormick.bsky.social, Vera Keller, and Kelly Whitmer. journalhistoryknowledge.org/article/view...

My daughter’s school bus was delayed this morning because armed ICE agents, some masked, were in the middle of 15th Ave in Cedar Riverside. So why wouldn’t ICE just get out of the way when the bus came? Perhaps they were busy harassing Somali-Americans, who are overwhelmingly citizens. But... (1/4)

An absolute horrific nightmare of two AI bots caught in a loop with each other is the perfect example of the total nothingness of AI “brains”.

Respectfully, Congresswoman, you voted with Republicans to strip due process from immigrants and to praise Trump's ICE. This year. Now you're upset? Votes have consequences. Minnesotans deserve better.

Watching Real Madrid players lose their minds and get card after card, and it's clear that fifa needs a better chief Peace keeper than Trump. All red cards from now on are his fault.

I spoke to the New York Times in this great explainer piece by Charlie Savage www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/u...

When they go low, we go accurate

Organic chemicals entered agricultural use after WWII in the form of pesticides, fertilizers, and miscellaneous use like desiccation. The result is a world dripping with residues. The stuff is *in* us and *of* us now. Yet, we really have no clue what this means.

Trump plays chess in the 4th dimension, which of course is time, whereas you and I only play it within the 3 spatial dimensions and so can never progress from one moment to the next. Our chess matches are stuck in an eternal present whereas only Trump has beginnings and ends.

Great thread. This dynamic -both the situation and the critique of it - is very familiar to anyone who's studied the history of monarchies. Having an old/sick/incompetent ruler, which happens at some point in any monarchy, means factions and patronage networks intrigue to wield real power.

Imagine being a career officer in the chain of command on Trump's boat bombings. You have deep moral and legal concerns about them. Your faith in leadership is shaky. Then you see Pete Hegseth tweet out a sadistic cartoon about it. Must be awful. Thoughts on this: newrepublic.com/article/2037...

This portrait series of people working in climate/science is one of my favorite things on Bluesky.

By the way, Sahan Journal is a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to reporting for immigrants and communities of color in Minnesota. All of their reporting that I've seen this year is unusually excellent. Follow: @sahanjournal.bsky.social

"Could" lead to dirtier air, "would" prevent thousands of deaths.

Over many interviews, King Richard told us about how he plans to remake the Ayyubid dynasty. Can he lead Saladin's sultanate he's spent much of his life crusading against?

Had great fun chatting to @rebeccarideal.bsky.social about her brilliant new Civil War podcast, with Emily Briffett, here: www.historyextra.com/period/upris...

ICE’s Detention Center outside Chicago was sued on October 30 for allegedly abusing detainees. One day later, a "system crash" lost all video footage that could have shown how detainees were being treated. trib.al/8EEVfEr

This, by @giacgrassi.bsky.social, remains one of the simplest and best climate visuals

Ricky was a young boy, he had a heart of stone,

Check out Martin Luther over here, challenging orthodoxies.

'Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday in remarks carried by state media, warning that severe ecological strain has made Tehran impossible to sustain' #Iran 🇮🇷

Accountability for crimes is a big umbrella issue that Democrats could use to connect topics that voters might otherwise struggle to see as related - Epstein, Saudi Arabia, personal corruption, unconstitutional power grabs, ICE terror, and so many more.

when I was young, i used to wonder how people like this would fare in life, as they didn't seem suited for gainful employment. it turns out, the internet allowed them to accumulate a massive audience of similar idiots, enriching them and turning them into a presidential advisor

My students have a paper on the history of American environmentalism due today, and every single one of them has a more sophisticated understanding of that term than this person, who I'm told is a prominent intellectual.

From a St. Paul city council member:

This is good. Teaching critical, accurate history to kids means that you don't need to cover the same material twice, beginning with a nationalist hagiography that later gets challenged by a counter-narrative. It's hard for adults to unlearn such material, but not to start kids on something better.

I don’t think US taxpayers should subsidize treason against the United States

"You know us...So please trust us now when we say that what is happening in the Chicago area is wrong." Powerful letter from retired Chicago broadcast journalists about what ICE/CBP is doing to our city: "it is terror" www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/13/l...

Sure, if cows adored their white captors like the antebellum slaves who are imagined to have appreciated their paternalist masters, and if cows could discern human skin tones and were racist and studied census data, and if driving past hobby farms were research, this would be a shrewd observation.

NYPD taking photos of Columbia faculty during our vigil for CU students seized by ICE

It's this easy.

The US is the world's largest oil and gas producer. Yet, "China is now making more money from exporting green technology than America makes from exporting fossil fuels."

Agreed, and perhaps "be yourself and advocate for clear and meaningful policies that would help people" is a good strategy.

🚨 BREAKING: A federal judge in Rhode Island rules from the bench that the Trump admin **must** pay SNAP benefits. "The court is orally ordering that USDA must distribute the contingency money timely or as soon as possible for the November 1 payments to be made." Story to come.

34 people killed in 50 days. Their guilt or innocence unknown, for an alleged crime that doesn't carry a death sentence. That's a lot of death. adamisacson.com/boat-strikes/

"Involved in" by driving the car which hit the man who then died. If only active verbs existed to express who does what. www.espn.com/soccer/story...

If faculty tell their university that more support for research is necessary, how about the university does not ask faculty for donations to support faculty research.

Good point Lisa, call your senator to demand congress perform its constitutional duties.

One of her students became so overwhelmed that he had a panic attack. “It’s very scary because this is their normal,”...”You start forming your memories more solidly around 4 or 5 years old, so they have some happy kindergarten memories. But now all of sudden, this is going to take over…”

Lots of US companies have done lots of dreadful things to Americans. But the symbolism of paying to destroy the White House is hard to top.

I want more people to care that SNAP benefits are being cut off on November 1. 40% of SNAP beneficiaries are children. This is callous and vile.

Amazon stock up 1.5% today, why not.

Amazing.

Congratulations to Joel Mokyr, who once provided me with expert mentorship in economic history by advising against picking some particular battles. "You don't want to talk about that" can be the right advice.

We're delighted to announce that @williamcavert.bsky.social has been awarded the Dyos Prize for 2024! The Dyos Prize is awarded to the best article submitted to #UrbanHistory in the previous calendar year. Check out 'Industrial brewing in early modern London' here: doi.org/10.1017/S096...