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Holly Brewer

@earlymodjustice.bsky.social

Historian http://earlymodernjustice.org/ Sample articles: https://earlymodernjustice.org/publications/ https://earlymodernjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SlaverySovereigntyInheritableBlood.pdf Opinions my own

18,860 Followers  |  4,992 Following  |  2,592 Posts  |  Joined: 05.09.2023
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Posts by Holly Brewer (@earlymodjustice.bsky.social)

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Quietly, calmly and forensically, BBC just dismantled the Trump communications shitshow on Iran.

No hyperbole, just laying out an unprecedented military, diplomatic and reputational shambles.

Worth a watch.

(πŸŽ₯ BBC News/BBC Verify)

05.03.2026 08:46 β€” πŸ‘ 1194    πŸ” 751    πŸ’¬ 30    πŸ“Œ 50

The entire controversy that ended last Friday at 5 pm EST– hours before the US launched a war against Iran β€”between Hegseth and the head of Anthropic β€” was about ethical limits on the use of AI to kill people

05.03.2026 10:41 β€” πŸ‘ 32    πŸ” 10    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 1
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JamesTalarico to Pete Hegseth in unearthed clip: "I'm asking you to tell your voters right now that Donald Trump lost the election in 2020. Can you admit that?”

Hegseth: β€œI-it’s not your show…”

Talarico: β€œIs this an uncomfortable question for you?”

02.03.2026 20:00 β€” πŸ‘ 582    πŸ” 160    πŸ’¬ 19    πŸ“Œ 10
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Cartoon by Pedro Molina | Tribune Content Agency

04.03.2026 23:13 β€” πŸ‘ 488    πŸ” 166    πŸ’¬ 13    πŸ“Œ 2
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Dana Perino bragged about the Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner pretending they were negotiating with Iran while the Pentagon planned an attack. Witkoff is part of the Ukraine/Russia negotiations .Kushner is part of the plan to rebuild Gaza. Who would trust them after this?

05.03.2026 10:21 β€” πŸ‘ 209    πŸ” 65    πŸ’¬ 21    πŸ“Œ 18

Brilliant. Thanks for writing it. So many excellent points, but especially:

β€œWhen the government asserts the right to use powerful AI without vendor-imposed constraints, and punishes the vendor that declines to comply, it eliminates one of the only remaining points of friction in the kill chain.”

05.03.2026 11:20 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

On ethics and authority and Hegseth’s invocation of β€œdeath and destruction.”

05.03.2026 10:52 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Even *with* the limits that Hegseth wanted removed, Claude misidentified (hallucinated?) a girls school as a target, latest verified updates below.
What did that self-described bringer of β€œdeath and destruction,” Pete Hegseth, want to target? On what grounds did Anthropic head say no?
Dystopian

05.03.2026 10:41 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

The entire controversy that ended last Friday at 5 pm EST– hours before the US launched a war against Iran β€”between Hegseth and the head of Anthropic β€” was about ethical limits on the use of AI to kill people

05.03.2026 10:41 β€” πŸ‘ 32    πŸ” 10    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 1
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Susannah Clapp Β· At the British Museum: β€˜Hawaii’ Traditional fabrics bring unifying stories. The most distinctive Hawaiian material, kapa or barkcloth, was wonderfully...

β€˜There is no dispute about the magnificence of what some will consider specimens and others sacred items. A saffron and rust-coloured feather cape more than five feet long; a whale-tooth ivory pendant.’

Susannah Clapp visits the British Museum’s Hawaii exhibition.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

05.03.2026 10:10 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

Too many to choose from πŸ™‚ although I absolutely love Mount Stewart, Co.Down (which has very good copies of the Castlereagh Papers btw!)

05.03.2026 10:10 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

finally in deep archival mode again after far far too long away

and lord, the more I read by Hamilton the executive officer with Washington's ear, the more bizarre it seems that he's been transmogrified into a prophet of the royal residuum.

04.03.2026 22:40 β€” πŸ‘ 29    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 6    πŸ“Œ 3
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Iraq plunged into nationwide blackout as US tells citizens to leave immediately - TΓΌrkiye Today Iraq's entire national power grid has collapsed in a total blackout as the country reels from the widening US-Israeli military campaign against Iran

Iraq plunged into nationwide blackout as US tells citizens to leave immediately
www.turkiyetoday.com/region/iraq-...

05.03.2026 02:04 β€” πŸ‘ 848    πŸ” 415    πŸ’¬ 48    πŸ“Œ 38

Hegseth seeming to claim that here too. Scary & wrong

05.03.2026 03:28 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I was a kid, but a friend’s uncle knew people in Hollywood and got free tickets.

05.03.2026 03:09 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Galileo’s handwritten notes found in ancient astronomy text Discovery sheds new light on how famed astronomer came to lead a scientific revolution

I love everything about this! The conviction that a major figure was not struck by a bolt of lightning but worked to understand the system he would ultimately critique and help dismantle. The scholarly sleuthing rare books β€” all of it. πŸ˜ŽπŸ€“
www.science.org/content/arti...

04.03.2026 23:33 β€” πŸ‘ 206    πŸ” 78    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 6

I saw Star Wars on opening night at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles (May 25 1977)

05.03.2026 03:05 β€” πŸ‘ 22    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

β€œβ€˜Nobody gets to hide and give the president an easy pass or an end-run around the Constitution,’ Sen. Tim Kaine, the chief architect of the war powers effort in Congress, said the day before the vote.”

05.03.2026 02:55 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Pearls before swine and all of that.

05.03.2026 02:49 β€” πŸ‘ 57    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1

πŸ”₯

05.03.2026 02:44 β€” πŸ‘ 11    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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[TW: graphic fracture, sound of breaking bone]

Sen Tim Sheehy (R-Montana) badly breaking the arm of a Marine veteran protesting the war Iran.

04.03.2026 22:05 β€” πŸ‘ 7795    πŸ” 3804    πŸ’¬ 865    πŸ“Œ 1341
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AOC: We already have multiple American service members who are dead for an illegal action that the president has pursued with no plan out. They don’t know why they got into this war. They’re talking about a hundred different reasons, and they don’t know how they’re getting out.

04.03.2026 23:36 β€” πŸ‘ 13125    πŸ” 3705    πŸ’¬ 324    πŸ“Œ 130

The β€œauthorities” part is key.
Who authorizes this β€œdeath and destruction” and on what grounds?
Reminded of William Blackstone’s admonition to judges: β€œTo shed the blood of our fellow creature is a matter that requires the greatest deliberation, and the fullest conviction of our own authority. …,”

04.03.2026 13:56 β€” πŸ‘ 30    πŸ” 16    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 3

He continues:β€œThe guilt of blood, if any, must lie at their doors, who misinterpret the extent of their warrant; and not at the doors of the subject, who is bound to receive the interpretations, that are given by the sovereign power.” Blackstone 4:11

04.03.2026 14:17 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

The fact that POTUS and his β€œsecretary of war” are acting without legislative imprimatur makes it all the more clear that they are taking the role of judges in their own hands.

04.03.2026 14:43 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Vol 4, page 11, from Blackstone’s section on crime and punishment.
His point is: who are we as judges, and on what authority do we act to take peoples’ lives without strong evidence it is justified? Hegseth and POTUS have acted as judges without such evidence, and only assert their authority.

04.03.2026 14:04 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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The Province of Legislation Determined A comprehensive account of English legal thought in the age of Blackstone and Bentham for nearly a century, The Province of Legislation Determined advances an ambitious reinterpretation of eighteenth-...

One of my favorite overall books about Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England:

04.03.2026 14:31 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Blackstone’s synthesis of the common law was debated in his own time. But I think volume 4 is his most important. In it he was the most thoughtful in his critique of England’s laws, especially their β€œbloody code” which prescribed the death penalty for so many crimes (160), even minor ones.

04.03.2026 14:25 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

He continues:β€œThe guilt of blood, if any, must lie at their doors, who misinterpret the extent of their warrant; and not at the doors of the subject, who is bound to receive the interpretations, that are given by the sovereign power.” Blackstone 4:11

04.03.2026 14:17 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Vol 4, page 11, from Blackstone’s section on crime and punishment.
His point is: who are we as judges, and on what authority do we act to take peoples’ lives without strong evidence it is justified? Hegseth and POTUS have acted as judges without such evidence, and only assert their authority.

04.03.2026 14:04 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0