this is the closest I've ever come to actually suggesting a "one neat trick" suggestion for anything, but I'm so serious here. the Virginia Constitution gives the legislature the power to set retirement ages for judges "REGARDLESS OF THE TERM TO WHICH ELECTED OR APPOINTED." make it 54 right now.

One of the pieces of my students' writing I am most proud of: an obituary for Harold Kahen, who helped the NAACP defeat covenants in a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court challenge. He died six years ago at age 101 and had just a one-sentence obituary. www.chicagocovenants.com/blog/z06l44s...

I'm moonscrolling

This is extremely wise.

do not dream of being America's top retailer if you are not willing to do this: bsky.app/profile/good...

Great news. Note how the party that sued here was not the University of California but its faculty and staff unions.

I'll read any interview with @tj-stiles.bsky.social. Here's a good one for a Sunday morning.

Cake was a great late-90s band with a wide range of styles featuring guitar that I will remember all the rest of my days. Rest in Peace, Greg Brown.

#NEW: 2030 Apportionment Forecast based on 2025 Census Bureau Population Estimates (January 27, 2026). Forecast prepared by Dr. Jonathan Cervas (CMIST) at Carnegie Mellon University

I am just a simple small-town lawyer but I really can’t think of a more toxic and self-defeating political strategy than telling your constituents the things they care about are “a distraction.”

"the state of the commonwealth is everyone is tired of my sorry ass" www.vpm.org/news/2026-01...

A Department of Homeland Security whistleblower has released the identities of about 4,500 ICE and Border Patrol employees Tuesday in what has been called potentially the largest agency data breach for the department.

This is the most correct take. It is extremely heartening to see someone in a leadership position say "I will continue to do my job and will not concede to bullshit."

This is the sort of statement that was expected from every university president and law firm partner over the last year. That those statements weren’t made played a huge part in where we are now and people will remember.

Hey, Chicago! @historians.org panel on civic engagement yesterday and a big public research session today for @chicagocovenants.bsky.social. It’s great to be back.

An extremely ill-advised acceptance that is not only tone-deaf and nakedly ambitious, but actively undermining the expressed will of Virginians and the incoming governor. I get why Republican hacks want to undercut the governor...

I always said that the humanities couldn't save your life, but that it could make it worth living. I am going to amend that proposition -- it can save your life.

Savage! 🎄 Lake Street Church of Evanston creates a nativity scene with gas masks to remind us that Jesus was a refugee. "This installation is not subtle. The crisis it addresses is not abstract. We ask viewers to confront the disconnect between professed religious or moral values & immigration."

Among all the Edmund Fitzgerald coverage, this record of the radio transmissions from 50 years ago posted on Threads is the one that has affected me the most deeply: www.threads.com/@visitthesau...

This would be amazing. Tom Perriello had one term 2009-2011 and it has been all right wingers since.

Back in grad school I worked for HABS, the Historic American Building Survey, an office in the NPS. Staff had just finished a long documentation project on the White House, creating measured drawings and photographing everything. It was documented because of course the WH was historic but ... 1/n

It's time for me to finish revisions for _Property Wrongs_; aiming to wind things up this semester. I have a Tuesday afternoon Zoom writing group you might like to join -- 1-3pm Eastern. Longtime participants are urban historians and landscape studies people. DM for Zoom link.

Hard agree. I feel that the books and articles and things they buy are the heart of the learning. I feel this as a writer and as a reader, and also as a person who converses with others to learn about their experiences. The readings are the key things, the core elements, not add-ons or expenses.

www.latimes.com/politics/sto... I'm extremely interested to see if Olympic athletes will respond to the certain enshittification of the LA Games. Swimmers, especially, are super excited for the LA Games to showcase the sport. Will they be excited to have the Games ruined by the President?

Can confirm that, in my just-concluded trip to Europe, many friends and family who have visited the US previously or had it on their list of travel goals are not coming because of word of tourist detentions and overall state of upheaval.

Did ChatGPT write this?

I don't think NYT should know peace until they divulge the full chain of decision making that led to the laundering of Nazi propaganda against a leading anti-fascist politician the same day fascism was codified in Congress.

Well, he resigned, and I cannot possibly see the logic. It will protect no one and nothing at UVA; it in fact emboldens the bullies. There is no golden parachute worth protecting at the cost of a university. A final act of extremely middling leadership.

I cannot emphasize enough how dumb it would be for Ryan to resign. There might be enough Youngkin stooges on the BOV to fire him (I'm not sure, even though it has tipped more right-wing with Youngkin appointees), but you've got to make them fire you.

Today's No Kings protest march in Chicago's Loop was extremely impressive -- for its normie energy, for its size, and for the quality of the witticisms on various signs.

Geez, it’s like when the Chicago Cubs were hiring an archivist.

UVA's acquisition of this site is a classic shitty university move. It was awarded to the city school system for a pre-K site; in the course of application, the city asked UVA to withdraw its competing application. It didn't; the DofEd then rescinded Cville's award + gave the site to UVA.

Robert Smigel’s tribute to George Wendt is really great

RIP George Wendt, aka "Norm!" but I know him best as Bill Swerski of the Superfans

Going to need Mark Carney and the Canadian diplomacy apparatus to step up here.

The Pope at Game 1 of the 2005 World Series. No wonder the White Sox swept the ‘Stros

As I’ve told many people who are the subjects of my stories, I have no control and no involvement in writing headlines. But within 15 minutes of the white smoke going up, I did say DIS was the only possible front page headline!

Genuinely has anyone *ever* been owned so badly as a man who converts to a new religion as an adult and sorta makes it his whole thing only to see the literal head of that religion rebuke his entire deal and then they choose the NEXT head of the religion specifically because he doesn't like you

One of those guys who showed promise to do so much good as a youth and ended up doing so much evil.

A nation of sanity and strategic voting.

RIP Hudson Bay Company. There was no easier way to identify a Canadian than seeing the HBC stripes on someone. Seriously, I did love that place.

In every institutional comparison, in every standard of faculty evaluation, @virginiatech.bsky.social claims "peer institutions" with far higher ranking, status, ambition, resources. Every time, I laugh. Now is the time to live up to those aspirations, VT. The way is clear. This is what matters.

This is a brilliant account, but this pairing tonight is an absolute masterpiece. Go Broncos!

Western Michigan is going to win the NCAA Hockey Championship. Unreal. Good for them.

Go Broncos!