Kenneth Nivison

Historians have a professional obligation to provide clarity, context, and correction—especially where the public trust is as stake. In an environment where truth is deliberately warped or obscured routinely, it is no surprise that historians engage more frequently.

one of the single best deals in streaming. i've been paying for PBS Passport for years. it rules

We all know what this is. As Franklin Roosevelt said of Nazism, this is not new, and it is not order.

But I can also say this: we historians will not forget. We will preserve. We will teach. We will speak. And the truth will out. It always does.

We will, as always, play the long game.

Also, stop calling them tariffs. They are taxes. They are the Trump Tax. And they land on US consumers.

How do we lead moral lives in an age of bullies? | Robert Reich In my lifetime, I have witnessed a shift from support of decency to tolerance of cruelty. Where do we go from here?

We are living in an age of bullies. Those with power are less constrained today than they have ever been in my lifetime.

The question is: how do we lead moral lives in this era? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/28/bullies-moral-lives-robert-reich

Every accusation from the right is a confession.

If he’s lost the Shaman, he’s lost the country (wink and nod to LBJ).

A little reminder from Henry David Thoreau, especially for my friends at Columbia University.

Columbia’s choice suggests just how far away from the mission of a university they had already strayed. Elite institutions are too beholden to powerful interests to take principled stands.

I am no constitutional scholar, but I can't help but feel that "the President gets to dictate what every university can teach and what every television station should broadcast" is closer to what the founding fathers were worried about when it comes to free speech than trigger warnings on syllabi.

If this isn’t genocidal, nothing is.

Follow. The. Money.

Follow. The. Money.

i have been stuck on JD Vance's claremont speech for almost two weeks now because it is structurally identical to roger taney's opinion for the court in dred scott

With the CPB now free from Fed funding, what’s to stop them from going full Team Democracy in their work? Maybe bring on @stephencolbert.bsky.social and pick up @thedailyshow.com (sure to get the boot from Paramount)? There is an opportunity in this moment. Maybe @karaswisher.bsky.social can help?

Caption this:

By "solved" he probably means "they should have just allowed slavery to continue, and then we would not have all of this DEI stuff to deal with." Or something like that.

If you were to sum up the entirety of my late life (re) education about SCOTUS in one post, this would be it.

Lest We Forget the Horrors: An Unending Catalog of Trump’s Cruelties, Collusions, Corruptions, and Crimes: March 2025: Atrocities 69-133 Early in President Trump’s first term, McSweeney’s editors began to catalog the head-spinning number of misdeeds coming from his administration. We...

98. March 18, 2025 – An article about Baseball Hall of Famer and Civil Rights hero Jackie Robinson’s military career was removed from the DoD’s website as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on DEI-related material. #LestWeForgetTheHorrors

Self-loathing is a powerful force.

When you worship power, compassion and mercy will look like sins.

When you worship power, the harsher the treatment towards your "enemies," the more righteous it will look.

When you worship power, the value and dignity of others is solely measured by their conformity to you.

This is what accountability looks like. More like this in more media outlets about more of those who supplant decency with cruelty in public life is needed. Thank you @profgalloway.com

If there is any justice left in this world, @chrismurphyct.bsky.social will become the Democratic leader in the Senate ASAP. No one else in that body is as pitch perfect for this moment.

Truth and reconciliation. Amen.

Opinion | We Are Not Being Asked to Run Into Cannon Fire. We Just Need to Speak Up.

Drew Gilpin Faust on the meaning of Memorial Day--in history and in the present:
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/26/o...

Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, recently used my second-place finish in the 1,600-meter run, and that of my teammate in the 800-meter run, to malign Soren Stark-Chessa, the trans-identified athlete who finished first. One of the reasons I chose to run cross-country and track is the community: Teammates cheering each other on, athletes from different schools coming together, and the fact that personal improvement is valued as much as, if not more than, the place we finish. Last Friday, I ran the fastest 1,600-meter race I have ever run in middle school or high school track and earned varsity status by my school’s standards. I am extremely proud of the effort I put into the race and the time that I achieved. The fact that someone else finished in front of me didn’t diminish the happiness I felt after finishing that race. I don’t feel like first place was taken from me. Instead, I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bully who is using children to make political points. We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school. Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren’s participation in the girls’ track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are. Anelise Feldman Freshman, Yarmouth High School Yarmouth

this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...

In fairness, he apparently wasn’t aware of an office under his department that is named after his own aunt, so it appears the brain worm is fully in charge.

Given the parameters established by ICE, doesn’t public safety require the Attorney General of Massachusetts to arrest the ICE agents and local law enforcement involved on kidnapping charges?

Epic Divine troll on the Cubs to have a White Sox fan elected Pope by a bunch of Cardinals.

Epic Divine troll on the Cubs to have a White Sox fan elected by a bunch of Cardinals.