I lIke the way the Guardian states obvious facts as facts instead of stepping around them as U.S. news outlets tend to do.

It's impolite to call Musk a genocidal white nationalist because "civility" in American discourse functions not as a neutral procedural norm but as an asymmetric weapon to shield the powerful from accurate moral characterization while policing the tone of those who object.

Benj DeMott bringing it: "There’s another current phrase, shit show, that’s stinks in my nose. It’s irritatingly irreal—as if mighty complainers who use it can’t imagine anything worse than a lame tv program. (Or anything better than a fun one.)" www.firstofthemonth.org/cant-truss-i...

omfg.

In which I cite the excellent research of Samantha Seeley, @katemasur.bsky.social Kristin O'Brassill-Kulfan, Christopher James Bonner, & of course Don and @pamherd.bsky.social + many journalists to connect history to the present.

This is the maybe most Trumpian thing I have ever seen: the presumption that live TV always trumps actual legal process. Toss the papers!

Admiring, appreciating how @johnfea1.bsky.social and @johannneem.bsky.social read more right wing stuff than I so I can read less.

I’m asking my SUNY and CUNY followers on here—particularly those with more followers than me—to help spread the word about this effort to align state budget priorities of faculty, staff, and students from every campus and sector and to support system and union efforts. hdl.handle.net/1951/88718

one maddening thing about all of this is the conservative idea that "election day" has always meant a single day until recently, which is nonsense. 19th century elections often took place over the course of an entire month, with results trickling out over time.

Today's @jamellebouie.net newsletter says the left must "rebuild the institution [Congress], enhance its esteem & transform the public’s expectations of the sources of political leadership." Historians could help! Ban "presidential historians" & replace presidential rankings with Congress rankings

It's time to get serious about Israel — coreyrobin.com/2026/03/17/i...

"Democratic-linked academic historian who hates Trump and loves the Clintons, but who is upset that people call him racist for opposing the construction of affordable housing" is such a cliché.

Here is my big picture of the historiographical weeds, open access on Project Muse: "The New Origins Debate: Looking Back at 1619 in 2020-21, and Beyond," Reviews in American History 54 (March 2026), 1-14. muse.jhu.edu/issue/56594

Last year, this guy (left) from DOGE used ChatGPT to find NEH grants that were too “DEI” for Trump, and canceled them, including mine, as shown by the letter I received last April (right). Huge new NYT article on the back story link below

The constitution's design does not grant the president a kinglike ability to take the country to war by himself, lest he do so for self-serving reasons. That is the entire purpose of dividing that authority between POTUS and Congress. Guess what just happened? www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

frankly trump himself is iraq war blowback

TONIGHT The brilliant Mary Sarah Bilder is joining us at 630 for the 13th John Patrick Diggins Memorial Lecture: "The Perils of Sex: Catherine Macaulay's Constitution of Liberty" Segal Theatre, CUNY Graduate Center In-Person RSVPs: email [email protected] Online: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Tonight! Join us in person or on zoom!

If you appreciated my @nybooks.com article, you'll love my new book Blue Power: How Police Organized to Protect and Serve Themselves, out from @basicbooksgroup.bsky.social in April. Order with discount code BLUE20 at www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/stuar...

Print is a rent strike.

The brilliant Mary Sarah Bilder is joining us Wed. 2/25 at 630 for the 13th Annual John Patrick Diggins Memorial Lecture: "The Perils of Sex: Catherine Macaulay's Constitution of Liberty" Segal Theatre, CUNY Graduate Center In-Person RSVPs: email [email protected] Online: Register at bit.ly/2026

Mary Sarah Bilder is joining us Feb. 25 at 630-8 @cunygraduatecenter for the 13th Annual John Patrick Diggins Memorial Lecture: "The Perils of Sex: Catherine Macaulay's Constitution of Liberty" The Segal Theatre at The CUNY Graduate Center 365 5TH Ave. New York, NY 10016

Wow!! Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship by Anna O. Law @unlawfulentries.bsky.social is out!! As timely as it is important.

"Every man of Sense amongst us knows that the Army is not kept here to protect, but to enslave us; and notwithstanding our Assemblies have given vast sums of Money to provide them with such Necessaries which many of the good Burghers want." (John Lamb, "To The Public," Jan. 15, 1770).

Pennsylvania is like Long Island of my youth this week: DA Krasner: ICE are wannabe Nazis. Gov. Shapiro: what a terrible thing to say. Sen Fetterman: calling people that leads to violence. reminds me of conversations on playgrounds during the 1970s and i know who was on the side of the bullies.

CHEF'S KISS.

BIG news from @bloomberg.com, which confirms that ICE has gone ahead and *purchased* multiple commercial warehouses with the aim of converting them into mass detention camps. This is likely to be the big detention story of 2026 — literal warehousing of people. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

This is extremely fishy, because the Constitution Center is (1) not part of the Park Service, (2) not part of the government - it's a private entity, which (3) has a Republican board head that pushed out (liberal) Pres & CEO, Jeffrey Rosen, in a "leadership dispute" acc. to the Inquirer and NY Times

Informative but I am much more skeptical - to me looks like right-wing takeover that was always on the verge. I was inspired to research and write _Slavery's Constitution_ after visiting the Center for the first time after it opened. thephiladelphiacitizen.org/constitution...

all while cutting PhD spots. loser stuff. www.ctinsider.com/news/educati...

So, incredibly, the White House has chosen to escalate in blue Minnesota and retreat in Maine to protect a vulnerable GOP Senator. It's confirmation that Trump-Vance-Miller view ICE as a partisan govt-backed militia to attack blue America while propping up their regime. 1/

This is extremely fishy, because the Constitution Center is (1) not part of the Park Service, (2) not part of the government - it isa private entity, which (3) has a Republican board head that pushed out (liberal) Pres & CEO, Jeffrey Rosen, in a "leadership dispute" acc. to the Inquirer and NY Times

i have never felt a shortage of contempt for clintons

Go directly to Palestine. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Snowcialism!

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

it's cool that so many people in positions of power and influence were so negatively polarized by "wokeness" that they convinced themselves that there was an actual debate about who wanted to erase history and the "wokes" were on the wrong side bsky.app/profile/arch...

This must be weird news to see if you’re one of the literally hundreds or even thousands of university administrators who preemptively censored faculty, scrubbed websites, changed the names of centers, etc.

www.rawstory.com/nancy-lacore/ Among Hegseth's other things, his firings of generals and admirals is creating new Democratic House and Senate candidates in time for the 2026 election.

What day are they moving out? Documentation opportunity. (This is Pennsylvania, btw.)

ahh, off duty police officers getting stopped... now it's serious (but not enough to keep from bashing the left first for saying abolish ice). Reminiscent of antebellum politicians saying "I'm not an abolitionist but stop this one kind of violence against the negroes" etc.

I wrote about ICE relying on Great Replacement rhetoric in their media messaging, and why fighting ICE needs to be seen as part of the fight against antisemitism. forward.com/opinion/7983...

"The logical result of Fascism is the introduction of aesthetics into political life." - Walter Benjamin

"familiar analytical frameworks which rely on the distinction between foreign and domestic realms, normality and legality, policing and war, cannot provide the ‘world picture’ we need to grasp what’s happening here." -- Nikhil Pal Singh www.equator.org/articles/hom...

I did an interview with Robin Kelley about the murder if Renee Good — and what we know from history about strategies of resistance to armed agents of the state. www.bostonreview.net/articles/ren...

OK let's move on from "not my name" to "not in my name." www.msn.com/en-us/news/u...

Q: how do you say "ADL" in Yiddish? A: Shanda. Q: Is there a synonym? A: ציוניזם

i’ll say it again, jennings is a contemptible liar and it is a disgrace that CNN puts him on television every night to spread bullshit

One of the stories that makes me the saddest out of this ICE invasion is one out of the Minnesota Star Tribune today about ICE agents eating at a little Mexican restaurant in the small town of Willmar, Minn, —and then, when they were done, arresting some of the workers.