Rebecca Spang

The lessons from Brazil and Serbia? Don't concede one inch of ground to the far right. Don't appease. Don't triangulate. Don't grovel. Don't say they have "legitimate concerns". Mobilise your base, and fight them with all the democratic means at your disposal.

Isle of Klezbos plays Joe’s Pub NYC: High Noon Hanukkah on Sunday, Dec 6th! Tickets publictheater.org/performances...

The on-ramp to academic monograph publishing is very long, and I used to delay my gratification until the moment a publication was alive, but I'm a new me, and I will celebrate every milestone now. Friends, I give you a webpage for my forthcoming book. uk.bookshop.org/p/books/impr...

Stingrays https://www.wikiart.org/en/utagawa-kuniyoshi/stingrays

I do think when historians look back the period the exact moment where it flipped and started going the other way won’t be anything any politician did but my Minneapolis neighbors weathering the worst of the regime in the streets, rallying together, fighting back, and winning

Lincoln in the Bardo, Trump in the Cheesecake Factory.

I asked UNH's archivist to create a file of letters protesting the "weeding" of 30% of the library's books. Future researchers need to know faculty did not let the books "go gentle into that good night" (30+ books on Dylan Thomas to be culled). 🗃️ #skystorians www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-e...

For the fabulously wealthy, paying taxes is pretty much optional. They can borrow against their vast wealth, which is mostly an untaxed capital gain, without paying taxes. When they die, the capital gain goes to zero. And loopholes exist to bypass the estate tax too.

Ralphs Food for Less Mariano’s Smith’s Harris Teeter Kroger ALREADY owns all these grocery stores. Now, Kroger wants to buy Giant Eagle too. Less competition could mean higher grocery costs for YOU. Donald Trump shouldn't just rubber-stamp this merger.

It is both very unlikely Trump will personally succeed at establishing a full-blown dictatorship before he's gone, and also the case that Trump's tenure in American politics has massively increased the chance this country will have a full-blown dictatorship at some point in the next 30 or 40 years.

This Day in Labor History: October 28, 1825. The Erie Canal opens after over 1,000 workers die building it! Let's talk about the labor history of this early engineering marvel!

no amnesty

Congrats to Lula on overcoming Mark Zuckerberg and Donald Trump to defeat Hospital Pervert Jr., even as his opposition literally blocked off roads and turned off bus service during election day. Fascists are scary but they are always, 100% of the time, ultimately gigantic fucking losers.

JD Vance has undergone several updates. He has been a memoirist, a never-Trumper, a MAGA edgelord, and a loyal veep attack-dog. Now, we have Vance 6.0: the amnesiac heir. (1/4)

Sara, 24 years old: "It’s simply the realisation of our dream. And it’s very strange that on the very streets where the police beat us, on the streets where we retreated countless times in the face of the gendarmerie, we are now standing here as the victors."

We are watching a coup d’état attempt unfold in real time in Brazil. I’m consumed by desperation.

Thread: bsky.app/profile/leba...

Brazil going the way of South Korea. Basically around the world women are desperately trying to keep power out of the hands of incredibly stupid fascistic grifters while men keep trying to hand it over. Men are an embarrassing cringe gender.

“Everybody is annoying” joins the ranks of “Congress could stop this” in my very short list of evergreen posts.

I know it's unlikely, but if anybody I know has plans to be in Mâcon or Rodez next month, send me a message! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A2...

Tech bros have always been sexual harassers and abusers • Zuck invented “The Facebook” to rank and compare his female classmates at Harvard • Jawed Karim’s idea for YouTube stemmed from his difficulty finding online video of Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction” • Elon Musk…is…Elon Musk…

As the author of “The Invention of the Restaurant,” I get calls from the press to comment whenever there’s big restaurant news.* I think he’s making this up * It’s been probably 7-8 years since I got asked about giant pepper grinders though.

I appreciated the “tech reviewer” tone of this analysis (“parent company, Trump President, was once the market leader…” etc.) and would be entertained, maybe even enlightened, to read more in that vein

Blimey, I wonder WHY? Mysterious. www.ft.com/content/2770...

The Right’s Fascistic Fever Dreams Are a Sign of Weakness MAGA wants us to believe that Trump can simply declare “martial law” and wipe away the system - but it’s just not true. A threat assessment before the midterms. Some thoughts from my new piece: 🧵

Kind of nauseating to think of how much money is left on the table by wildly underfunding the IRS

Ferruccio Lamborghini (Italian 1916–1993) was born to grape farmers in Emilia-Romagna. Among others, he founded a tractor company (1949), an oil heater factory (1959) and sports cars Automobili Lamborghini in 1963. He retired as a winemaker in Umbria en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrucc...

The Trump administration and the Venezuelan government have struck a deal to exploit Venezuela’s oil—but their partnership is good for the rich and no one else, @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu reports. theatln.tc/PANSlDZN

I think I like the set-up line—“This guy is really focused on… home improvements. He should be on HGTV”—even more!

“He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened up a Cheesecake Factory” — Obama

The Supreme Court ruled that the President cannot do this. But nice try, Donald.

This admission alone is an impeachable offense

Worth reading www.nytimes.com/2026/10/20/w...

Obama: Jon Husted is the same guy who pushed so hard for data centers, he's been called a 'data center's best friend.' Now, I don't know if that's a title I'd want. You know who hasn't been called that? Sherrod Brown.

Evergreen post...

In good news, I just discovered there's a direct TGV from Charles de Gaulle to Lyon. In even better news, today is #Caturday [photo taken last night]

it's been so long, i'd need to go digging! but i do have a funny truth ad on the topic

It's 10 o'clock in the morning on October the 24th, if you want to know.

This is so important & it’s why those of us who do basic research are so discouraged by what’s happening at NIH & NSF the past 2 yrs #ScienceMatters 🧪

Evergreen post...

So now Trump is going to sell Alaska back to Russia?!! Turning the clock all the way back to 1867….

Restaurants and speculation so I guess I am professionally obligated to repost this.