Holly Brewer

1/It was not possibly unlawful; it was unlawful; and it continues to be unlawful. In addition, NEH canceled statutorily required grants to state humanities councils many of which have had to close, harming state arts communities. And guess what: “Western Civilization” is not in the statute.

96 percent of people charged with human trafficking are U.S. citizens Just 26 undocumented immigrants faced federal trafficking charges in 2023.

Despite what Trump says, human trafficking is mostly a homegrown offense. 96% of ppl charged were for US citizens. Just 2% were undocumented immigrants reason.com/2026/02/19/9...

When DOGE Unleashed ChatGPT on the Humanities

"Even an effort to catalog and digitize the papers of Thomas Gage, a British general in the American Revolution, was guilty of “promoting inclusivity and diversity in historical research.”

+ Important update on the lawsuit fr AHA, MLA, ACLS etc. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/a...

was communicated to me by (the Rev'd) Mrs McMurray of C. W. Dumbar The following love story of an Odjibway girl ^ it is founded on a historical incident in the ward of Canada. In 1759 Baigwaineoshee, (the White Eagle driven by the wind,) accompanied as far as the lake of Two Mountains, a party of her tribe, who descended the Utawas to aid Gen Montcalm in the defense of Quebec. While there, she received attentions from a young Algonquin, who, however, never fully declared himself. The attachment was mutual, and continued after her return to the south, where she continued to pour out her affections in these strains, which she composed to an Indian chant and often repeated. A grand niece of hers, thus heard the song, and by [?] frequent re- petition learned it. The term Odishquagumee, meaning a man at the lake of two mountains, or as it [?] literally ? at the end of the chain of water, is the Ojibwe term for an Algonquin. Ia indenaindum - ia indenaindum! Makow we yan ninemooshain wee Odishquagumee [Ah me - ah me! when I think of him - when I bring him to mind, my sweetheart, Odishquagumee, or the Algonquin] Pah bojeaun nebe naubekonig Waube megissun nenemooshain wee Odishquagumee [As I embarked he put the white wampum around my neck, my sweet heart, Odishquagumee] Keguh wejeewin aindah nuk ke yun Neen ge- egobun, ne nenemooshai wee Odishquagumee [I ^ shall go with you, he said, to your native country - I will go with you, ^ he said, my sweet heart - Odishquagumee.]

Nia !nin denau dush, wassahwud gushuh Aindunukkeyaum ke y au neememooshain wee Odishquagummee [Oh, I said to him - it is far away - my native country, my sweetheart, Odishquagumee.] Kai aubik oween, ain aube aunin Kewe naube, ne nemooshai wee Odishquag ummee. [When I [would] looked back again, he would still be looking after me, my sweetheart, Odishquagumee] Apee nay we ne nebow wisheban Aung wash agushing, ne nemooshai wee Odishquagumee [^When he was still standing on a fallen tree, that laid in ^ that had fallen the water, my sweetheart, Odishquagumee] Nyau indenain dum - nyau indenaindum! Makow we yan nin de nain dum we Odishquagumee, [Alas! alas! when I think of him - when I [bring his image to mind] think of him - my sweetheart - Odishquagumee.]

!!! Just found this transcription and translation of a love song by an Ojibwe woman who fell in love with an Algonquin man while traveling near Deux-Montagnes, QC in 1759 during the 7 Years War. I can't quite interpret her name, it looks like Baigwaineoshee "The White Eagle Driven by the Wind"

The prompt was simple: “Does the following relate at all to D.E.I.? Respond factually in less than 120 characters. Begin with ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’” The results were sweeping, and sometimes bizarre. Building improvements at an Indigenous languages archive in Alaska risked “promoting inclusion and diverse perspectives.” Renewal of a longstanding grant to digitize Black newspapers and add them to a historical database was “D.E.I.” So was work on a 40-volume scholarly series on the history of American music.

"The DOGE employees did not appear to question ChatGPT’s judgments, and continued hunting for unacceptable projects."

Still life of books, Hercules Segers, c. 1618 - ca. 1622.

A rare example of a print of a still life for this period.

(Rijksmuseum)

Caitlin KALINOWSKI over X I resigned from OpenAl. I care deeply about the Robotics team and the work we built together. This wasn't an easy call. Al has an important role in national security. But surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got. This was about principle, not people. I have deep respect for Sam and the team, and I'm proud of what we built together.

OpenAI head of robotics just resigned over company deal with the Pentagon saying…

“Surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got”

Iran's FM condemns US attack on Qeshm's freshwater desalination plant, warns of grave consequences US President Donald Trump announced that Iran promised not to attack its neighbours anymore

Multiple news outlets are reporting a US attack on an Iranian #desalination plant.
If verified, this violates international law protecting #water systems during wars, and it sets a dangerous precedent, given intense dependence of Gulf countries on desalination.
timesofoman.com/article/1691...

There are a lot of posts out there with the close-up visual of Markwayne Mullin on January 6, but this is a better perspective.

He’s not protecting others; he’s protecting himself and hiding. You can see plenty of people at the entry door, ready to take on the insurrectionists, but not Markwayne.

more toxic fake book group spam email, complete with a relevant much-reviewed group on meetup and page on linkedin for the 'organiser' (reply and they'll ask for pay-to-feature money); real book groups aren't this corporate-sounding, but doubtless the AI or its utiliser will work that out eventually

I would argue they knew exactly what they were doing, which was deliberately sabotaging needed public works programs by offering snake oil they never had any intention of delivering.

IDEAS How Good Intentions Helped Pave Trump’s Road to Iran Humanitarians proposed a loophole in international law. Decades later, Trump is jumping through it.

Few believe that Mr. Trump is driven by a concern for human rights. He has also made clear his lack of interest in international law. And the war has already been catastrophic for many Iranian civilians, including dozens killed at an elementary school in an apparent U.S. missile strike on a nearby naval base. Yet the invocation of humanitarianism to help justify the war taps into — whether the president intends it or not — a powerful argument that has reshaped the global order since the end of the Cold War.

“Few believe that Mr. Trump is driven by a concern for human rights.”

Then why write a whole story blaming “humanitarians” for his war?

DOJ releases Epstein files with accusations against Trump Over the course of four interviews in 2019, a woman told the FBI that Epstein and Trump sexually abused her in the 1980s.

“A DOJ source told the Miami Herald that agents found her to be credible—and that they would not have interviewed her four times if they thought she was lying.”

@jkbjournalist.bsky.social bringing it home
www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...

OMG

U.S. May Have Committed War Crime In Sinking Of Iranian Ship The Geneva Conventions say nations have a duty to “take all possible measures” to help rescue victims of shipwrecks. A U.S. submarine left that to Sri Lanka.

“The 312-foot Dena and its 130-member crew, many of them musicians in the Iranian navy band, had just finished participating in an Indian government naval exercise and cultural exchange that the U.S. Navy had also participated in and were on the way home on Wednesday.”

OpenAI Is Opening the Door to Government Spying Whether it means to or not

The Pentagon can likely get away with using OpenAI’s technology for mass surveillance of Americans under the terms of their contract, legal experts told @matteowong.bsky.social.

This appalling White House video game imagery on Iran illustrates what @teotten1.bsky.social and I discuss on today's pod: The role of fantasy, unreality and sadism-as-entertainment in MAGA politics.

newrepublic.com/article/2074...

President Trump's Pardons: An Embarrassment of Riches At least the specter of corruption in previous presidential administrations (Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich or Biden’s pardon of his son) appeared to be an exception to the rule. Today, however, the ev...

Trump’s second-term pardons are historic in their enormity—billions in fines erased, allies protected, donors rewarded, DOJ undermined, and election norms threatened. Corruption looks less like an exception and more like the rule, says Cato’s Dan Greenberg.

Just learned that the son of renowned Puritan Praisegod Barebone was ... and I kid you not ... Nicholas If-Jesus-Christ-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Barbon.

What did he do for a living?

He was a property developer.

#earlymodern #skystorians

My article on Queen Anne’s wardrobe has just been published OA.

I provide a qualitative & quantitative overview of her extensive wardrobe accounts (incl makers & suppliers) & show how fashion influenced her representation!

#18thc #17thc #earlymodern

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Obama on Jesse Jackson: "The message he sent to a 22 year old child of a single mother with a funny name, an outsider, was that maybe there wasn't any place, any room, where we didn't belong"

i work with words for a living, so I am biased, but I really think we've got to bring back words. really useful if you imbue them with meaning and arrange them properly!

So now both Russia and China are assisting Iran.

“Just like that, a table wiped clean, a dream extinguished, another hole in America’s vast fabric where a friend, a leader, a striver had been.

Deporting Mauro and others like him doesn’t make us richer or safer or better. Only smaller.”

RICHMOND — Virginia lawmakers have passed a bill that prohibits schools from teaching that the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection was a peaceful demonstration or that there was massive fraud in the 2020 presidential election, the first Democratic state to try to shape how such events are taught.

Virginia moves to forbid schools from teaching that Jan. 6 was peaceful www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

The White House just posted a video mixing real footage from the Iran strikes with a killstreak animation from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

x.com/WhiteHouse/s...

ICE detains reporter Estefany Rodríguez in Nashville - Nashville Banner Reporter Estefany Rodríguez, detained by ICE with no arrest warrant, may face deportation. Her attorneys seek immediate review of the legality of her case.

ICE has arrested and detained a Nashville journalist who reported stories critical of ICE. She’s married to a U.S. citizen and has been seeking asylum here after fleeing death threats in Colombia because of her journalism there.

They’ve already sent her to Louisiana.

I absolutely LOVE this for her!!!

Let the investigation show all of her unethical actions.

get a load of Kristi Noem's facial expressions as Rep. Kamlager-Dove enters articles in the congressional record with headlines like, "Lewandowski taking out trash at Noem's DC home" and "ICE Barbie's mile high private chamber with alleged lover exposed"

I like the idea of using other programs as a yardstick. If anyone wants another one, each day of this war is also three years of NPR and PBS funding.