Stephen West

Asked to explain his understanding of "DEI," DOGE boy repeatedly declines, saying it is a "big bucket."

Asked what's in the bucket, he finally and grudgingly says something specifically: "gender fluidity.... Promoting subsets of LGBTQ plus that might alienate another part of a community."

YouTube video by ModernLanguageAssoc Justin Fox Deposition (Part 3) in MLA-ACLS-AHA Lawsuit about the NEH

It's stunning how ignorant the DOGE bros were who were sent into agencies. Justin Fox cannot even articulate in his own words what his "present understanding of DEI" is: he can't even formulate a coherent sentence about it. I wouldn't hire him for basic tech support. #NEH
youtu.be/jomaMvItnew?...

Your periodic reminder that there is thoughtful, history-based 250th anniversary programming at your state museums, local historical societies, and other institutions—no matter where you live. The White House doesn't control the 250th and doesn't get to tell you how to commemorate it.

Exclusive | Trump Sons Back New Drone Company Targeting Pentagon Sales Powerus says it plans to acquire Ukrainian drone technology to sell to the U.S. military.

I appreciate the headline writer's effort, but this news doesn't really go down easier with a pun

(gift link)

It's featured in that New York Times story that I shared in my follow-up post, which identifies it as hanging in the West Wing in 2025

(I don't know if that means it's not still hanging there now, or if that's just when their photographer got a picture of it)

All the President’s Portraits (Gift Article) President Trump’s image — in paint and pixels, on posters and sculptures — is ubiquitous inside the White House, and beyond.

According to the New York Times, the "Tariff Men" image was commissioned by Peter Navarro and was (still is?) on display in The West Wing

Image that hangs in the White House labeled the tariff men. It shows from left to right. Alexander Hamilton, Henry Clay, Donald Trump, Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley

I dunno, maybe being a "tariff man" is hazardous to your health (l to r)

* killed in a duel
* wounded in a duel but survived
* ???
* assassinated
* assassinated

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.

I think it is very tempting to try to find complicated and nuanced explanations for why things are happening the way that they are, when the primary reason is just stupidity

It would be only fair to the reader to say frankly in advance that the attitude of any person toward this story will be distinctly influenced by his theories of the Negro race. If he believes that the Negro in America and in general is an average and ordinary human being, who under given environment develops like other human beings, then he will read this story and judge it by the facts adduced. If, however, he regards the Negro as a distinctly inferior creation, who can never successfully take part in modern civilization and whose emancipation and enfranchisement were gestures against nature, then he will need something more than the sort of facts that I have set down. But this latter person, I am not trying to convince. I am simply pointing out these two points of view, so obvious to Americans, and then without further ado, I am assuming the truth of the first. In fine, I am going to tell this story as though Negroes were ordinary human beings, realizing that this attitude will from the first seriously curtail my audience. W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS Atlanta, December, 1934

I'd forgotten how hard the preface to DuBois's "Black Reconstruction" (1934) went...and am saddened by how contemporary it still feels.

"why are people so mad at genAI companies and evangelists for those tools?"

well, i might have some theories

"citizenship"

As evidence, the filing notes a list Mr. Fox compiled of what he called the “craziest” and “other bad” grants, which he planned to highlight on DOGE’s X account. He used three dozen keywords, including “L.G.B.T.Q.,” “BIPOC,” “tribal,” “ethnicity,” “gender,” “equality,” “immigration,” “citizenship” and “melting pot.” (A majority of the two dozen grants deemed “craziest” related to L.G.B.T.Q. subjects.)

In identifying grants to eliminate, DOGE employees also searched for terms like “BIPOC,” “tribal,” “ethnicity,” “gender,” “equality,” “immigration,” “citizenship” and “melting pot.”

"A majority of the two dozen grants deemed “craziest” related to L.G.B.T.Q. subjects."

Really kind of morally offensive how much contempt these people have for curiosity.

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."

When DOGE Unleashed ChatGPT on the Humanities

It was wrong and harmful - and quite possibly unlawful - to cut already approved NEH grants because Donald Trump hates "DEI."

But the way DOGE went about doing it was even dumber than you probably imagined.

They fed abstracts into ChatGPT and demanded an answer in fewer than 120 characters.

Major news: A @nytimes.com story today reports on developments in our lawsuit, filed with @modernlanguage.bsky.social and @acls1919.bsky.social, opposing the illegal dismantling of the NEH.

The article covers newly released discovery in the case.

Here’s what discovery confirmed:

🧵(1/7)

Pair of headlines from Wall Street Journal One reads, the big winner from the Persian Gulf energy crisis? Russia The second reads, Russia secretly sharing location of US targets with Iran, US officials say

so much winning ... for Putin

Great thread here, building on some of what we discussed with @jamellebouie.net this week in our two-parter on Lincoln's second inaugural.

🎙️Part One: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
🎙️Part Two: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
📺 Full Video: youtu.be/CwpQI3tx1mc?...

Democrats have pressed for implementation in the years since, saying the only thing keeping the plaque from public view was that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) had yet to instruct the Architect of the Capitol — which oversees the complex — to install it. A spokesperson for Johnson at the time argued the project was “not implementable.” Some lawmakers took it upon themselves to memorialize the law enforcement response, mounting copies of the plaque outside their office doors.

the chief coward is Mike Johnson

Long-delayed Jan. 6 plaque honoring police quietly erected overnight at Capitol The memorial honoring officers who defended the Capitol was required by law to be installed by March 2023.

cowardice in memorializing heroes

"In the predawn darkness Saturday, around 4 a.m., staff with the Architect of the Capitol bolted the bronze plaque to a granite wall near an entrance on the west front, close to where the armed crowd had amassed and scaled scaffolding set up for the inauguration."

#OnThisDay: Bloody Sunday Today marks the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, which occurred #onthisday in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. The march was named for the 600 marchers attacked on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. It was there that law...

Sixty-one years ago today, on Bloody Sunday, Alabama law enforcement attacked peaceful civil and voting rights marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. They broke John Lewis’s skull. 🗃️ #EduSky nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stor...

The report was completed about a week before the US and Israel started the war, and raises "doubts about President Donald Trump’s declared plan to 'clean out' Iran’s leadership structure and install a ruler of his choosing."

Intel report warns large-scale war ‘unlikely’ to oust Iran’s regime A classified U.S. report doubts that Iran’s opposition would take power following either a short or extended U.S. military campaign.

A classified U.S. report doubts that Iran’s opposition would take power following either a short or extended U.S. military campaign

Page of forever stamps with a picture of Alex Trebek and a jeopardy style Answer reading “this naturalized US citizen hosted the quiz show Jeopardy! For 37 seasons”

Spouse who is an immigration lawyer just got the world’s greatest USPS forever stamps for his mail

From Ulysses S. Grant to Donald Trump: How “Unconditional Surrender” Became Unconditional Bluster President Trump is channeling his inner Ulysses S.

From Ulysses S. Grant to Donald Trump: How “Unconditional Surrender” Became Unconditional Bluster #CivilWarMemory 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

Writing tip no. 5: When I know what I want to write about the following morning, I reread my primary sources closely the night before. This makes it easier to get started the next day, and sometimes the unconscious mind does a stunning job of sorting things out.

You know, for all that I've read and thought about the address, it's only Stephen's thread that makes me wonder if we might also perceive the "malice toward none, charity for all" as being addressed *to* former rebels and not only about them.

snip of page from Why the Solid South? Reconstruction and its Results Chapter 1 - Reconstruction at Washington under Abraham Lincoln "The death of Abraham Lincoln was an appalling calamity - especially to the South. Had the crazy assassin withheld his hand, reconstruction could never have been formulated as it was, into the Acts of March 2d and March 23d, 1867."

Hilary Herbert's first chapter of Why the Solid South? begins with a similar argument:

"The death of Abraham Lincoln was an appalling calamity - especially to the South."

Right! He's just talked at length about the violence, injustice, & sin of 250 years of American slavery. Who's been treated with more malice & less charity than the enslaved?

You can only read those closing words as exclusively meaning "hey, let's give the rebs a break!" if you ignore its context.