randy r. potts

thank you!

thank you!

thanks mister, I feel realllly lucky to have landed in such a great place

somehow missed the first two purges this summer at National Archives but decided to move anyway; working at the pleasure of Voldemort was just never my dream, ya know? it's hard not to feel guilty for leaving but I also have to hope I'm still doing "the work" over here, too 🤞

you prolly haven't checked, but some 40% of homes for sale in the DC area this year have ... been taken off the market - a total glut, for who knows what reason 🙃; it's a shitty time to sell, but thank baby jesus, my cute little row house in Baltimore just sold this weekend - a huge relief 😄

and, while things are also weird in Poland and the RW are rampant globally (spent my birthday here watching small groups of the fash rise up in anti-immigrant protests) things are also really really great - I have an absolute dream job now, writing and reporting daily about Ukraine, et al

got a new story I'm pushing out in a few hours from here in Warsaw, where I live now 🥰

there's a lot of research supporting the idea that reading literature and being schooled in the humanities is one (very good) way to do this; both are basically vehicles for learning that other humans exist - and, thereby, gaining empathy

well y'all, it's been awhile - what'd I miss

Sterlin Harjo on Ending ‘Reservation Dogs’ in That Good Way The co-creator and showrunner talked about why three seasons was just right, and why the show is likely to be the most important thing he ever makes.

I love Sterlin Harjo’s response to Salamishah Tillet’a ? abt “surrealism” in Reservation Dogs: “…it’s not surrealism. [A] lot of the storytelling is so natural to our communities. I also took so much from “Atlanta.” …There was just such a rebellion in that storytelling.”

yeh I've spent too much thinking about how Star Wars will def appear to ppl a thousand years from now as our generation's Ramayana

text You Who Wronged By Czeslaw Milosz You who wronged a simple man Bursting into laughter at the crime, And kept a pack of fools around you To mix good and evil, to blur the line, Though everyone bowed down before you, Saying virtue and wisdom lit your way, Striking gold medals in your honor, Glad to have survived another day, Do not feel safe. The poet remembers. You can kill one, but another is born. The words are written down, the deed, the date.

from You Who Wronged, vy Czeslaw Milosz:

Do not feel safe. The poet remembers.
You can kill one, but another is born.
The words are written down, the deed, the date.

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49482/...

both sides of the street are lined with red brick rowhomes and many trees; in the distance, three church spires

my favorite view of Baltimore: this is St. Paul looking north toward North Ave

pic of Ricardas Gavielis' Vilnius Poker resting on a blue MARC train seat

new book

text: Here, then, is what I think it all adds up to: 1. ICE agents are supposed to act against previously identified individuals who belong to one of the five categories enumerated by Mr. Lyon, above. 2. They are given no "bright line" rules and they are empowered to exercise discretion, extending to families and friends of potential targets. 3. In public spaces, they can arrest anyone without a warrant. 4. They are not individually identifiable. 5. The result is that they act indiscriminately. The comparativist in me wants to think about other police forces in history which had such broad and ill-defined powers. But such comparisons are too frightening.

from @adamprz.bsky.social's newsletter today, dissecting ICE powers and behavior: "The comparativist in me wants to think about other police forces in history which had such broad and ill-defined powers. But such comparisons are too frightening."
adamprzeworski.substack.com/p/week-19?ut...

notice: "Restricted-Access Federal Facility, Effective July 7, 2025 Effective July 7, 2025, the National Archives at College Park, MD, will become a restricted-access federal facility with access only for visitors with a legitimate business need. It will no longer be open to the general public. Security officers will enforce these restrictions, and your cooperation is appreciated."

so, I work at National Archives and haven't heard anything about this - no email, nada. The building most ppl visit in DC is more of a museum while College Park has the majority of records researchers rely on for their work - losing access to those archives = not good:
www.archives.gov/college-park

anti-Maersk actions at Pride marches across Europe this month (this photo is from Warsaw where pro-Palestine activists poured "blood" on the Maersk Pride float) may have shifted Maersk's calculus - it is a truly great thing when Pride is actually a protest 🌈👊🌈👊🌈👊🌈👊

Trump likes to do this to let us know why next year we simply can't afford to keep some holidays; my guess is they'll want to shuffle/rename/change the entire fedl holiday calendar for '26 - be ready for MLK and Juneteenth to go and J6 to be added -

activists standing making fists in front of the jail where Sandra Bland died; her face is projected onto the wall of that jail

this is my favorite pic I made in Waller County - it's a spooky ass place, a place where the Civil War seems like it never really ended and we don't really know who won - but - on this night, Sandra Bland won, as did those who keep her flame alive - Happy Juneteenth! may we always make that fist

portrait, Jeremy Eugene; in the background, the fuzzed out barbed wire and chain link of the jail where we lost Sandra Bland; Jeremy is facing us but at an angle - his right cheek, hidden; he seems: confident, daring, fierce

this is a portrait I made of Jeremy Eugene, another one of the activists who have worked to keep Sandra's memory alive - he is a poet and you can find out more about him here:
www.edgelands.institute/team/jeremy

Sandra Bland's image projected on to the Waller County jail a year after she passed

portrait of Mirissa Tucker; she is wearing a loose, colorful, patterned shirt; her hair is up; her expression: maybe: earnest, wistful, and determined

Waller County in TX was 2 two things - 1, the last county to free enslaved ppl and, 2, the place where Sandra Bland died in jail; in honor of Juneteenth here are photos I made in front of that jail: 1, activists projecting Sandra's image onto that jail and, 2, Mirissa Tucker, one of those activists:

Ralph has been very helpful in getting my house cleaned up today, look at her just out here WERKING

still from "Hold Tight", in Polish it says "dzieci rosna" and in English "kids grow up fast"

cool thing for fellow language learners out there, there's a Chrome extension called Language Reactor that works on Netflix and YT and allows you to have dual subtitles - both in the language you're learning and your own - like so -

Righteous Gemstones - a church lit from "heaven," a preacher with arms outstretched; many crosses

we are much more comfortable laughing at them calling them con artists and snake handlers and rednecks when we should be portraying as heavily armed revolutionaries who've been committed to this project for over 100 years; instead, we like to pretend they are just this:

https://deadline.com/2023/06/john-cleese-to-ditch-always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life-from-life-of-brian-stage-show-1235424068/

"always look
on the bright side
of Life"

Trump wearing black gloves, black long coat, at a rally with a large "blue lives matter/thin blue line" flag

given that Trump campaigned in 2020 with the police state flag behind him (at the tail end of the George Floyd protests, no less) it's been interesting to see that he *hasn't* revived this rally style since he's been back in the WH - this is by far the most overtly fascist vibe he's ever toyed with

from: https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/06/14/pride-no-kings-boston-march-festival photo of Boston protesters, one sign saying "no kings but drag kings"

Baltimore scheduling 2 major antifascist events at the same time but miles apart - Pride and #NoKings - while Boston combined them and had a million ppl flood the commons is a pretty straightforward lesson going forward.

feel like the situation in these LA basements illustrates what @andreapitzer.bsky.social called the "concentration camp tendency" - you don't have to have full on classic "camps" to be a society hurtling toward something very bad - it's good to see our politicians fighting back!

and Jeffrey Sachs - or should I say джеффри саксссссссс - is at this conference along with Lavrov and Alex Jones - is this horseshoe theory?

Photo: Philip Holsinger https://www.cbsnews.com/news/photojournalist-witnesses-venezuelan-migrants-arrival-in-el-salvador-60-minutes/

apparently we're getting Kilmar back, sort of, kind of, hopefully - can we now start working on Andry? do queer lives matter? this is the last time we saw him: on his knees, head forcibly shaved, hands clasped, crying out both to god and his mother