Spencer McDaniel

a drawing of a monk wearing dark glasses and rolling dice at a table

gambling monk, germany, 15th century

The March 15, 2025, killing of Ruben Ray Martinez drew almost no public attention.

But Martinez is now the first known American citizen shot to death by federal immigration agents during President Trump’s second term. https://wapo.st/4lbpGYC

Painting of a clean-shaved, short-haired man wearing a white tunic holding out his arms

Painting of a short-haired, clean-shaved man wearing a tunic and carrying a sheep over his shoulders.

Paintings from the baptistry of a Christian church at the same site also preserve some of the oldest surviving Christian depictions of Jesus. These are of similar date, but they reflect a more Greco-Roman image of a teacher and healer. Notably, this Jesus is short-haired and clean-shaven.

Painting of a brown-skinned man with short, dark hair and a short, well-trimmed beard. The man is wearing a white tunic with a bluish-purple trim. He is barefoot and a pair of boots are sitting on the ground beside him.

Painting of the same man in the previous painting reading from a Torah scroll, wearing a cloak over his tunic and sandals on his feet

Below are two wall paintings of Moses from an ancient Jewish synagogue at the site of Dura-Europos in Roman Syria. They date sometime between the late second century CE and 244 CE, and they reflect how Jews in the Roman-ruled Levant in the early centuries CE imagined a religious leader.

While I appreciate the sentiment, your sympathies would be directed more suitably toward the people who have suffered or died (or will suffer or die) in the wars this wretched administration has started. I am unlikely to personally suffer any direct effects of this war, but others certainly will.

"United States go for one month in 2026 without invading and seeking to regime-change yet another foreign country" challenge failed, again.

Today’s military strikes on Iran — carried out by the United States and Israel — mark a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression. Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war.

we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad

Meanwhile, Hanson's argument that there is a single, continuous "western way of war" that originated in ancient Greece and has remained dominant through to the present day is, I think, pretty much indefensible and thoroughly debunked at this point.

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Hanson's work on Greek warfare is *at best* defensible; it is far from "solid." His argument that yeoman farmer hoplites were the backbone of ancient Greek militaries is increasingly challenged, as more evidence suggests that the hoplite class was one of elite, leisured landlords.

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Attic red-figure plate depicting a Scythian archer drawing an arrow from his quiver as he turns to shoot at the enemy (520-500 BCE; The British Museum, inv. GR 1837.6-9.59):

If you have read your Herodotus, you know a fair amount about the Scythians (modern Ukraine). And both Romans & Greeks cast milk as a “barbaric” drink. Now, dental calculus is pointing to the Iron Age (ca. 700–200 cal. BCE), Scythian drink of cow & mare 🐴 🥛 milk. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Painted Etruscan terracotta funerary urn lid showing a reclining woman in banquet pose, holding a fan, wearing draped chiton, gold jewelry, on museum display.

A painted #Etruscan terracotta cinerary urn lid with a reclining woman.
Found in Chiusi, dating 150-120 BC.

It was on display at the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, which will be closed for the next couple of years.

🏺
📷 me

The article below adds some fascinating detail to the rule of the #Thracian king Seuthes III, whose bronze portrait head, greaves and helmet I've photographed, below. He straddled multiple cultures, as the treasures from his tomb attest. 🏺

📸 me #ancientbluesky

flic.kr/s/aHBqjBSifK

"As critics had been warning" is central.

Many folks (inc. me, acoup.blog/2024/10/25/new-acquisitions-1933-and-the-definition-of-fascism/) warned during the election that mass repression was coming with mass deportations.

Now we're here. More media and voters should have listened.

A detailed close-up photograph of a limestone relief plaque featuring an owl face. The owl has large, circular eyes with intricate dotted borders, a prominent curved beak, and decorative patterns around the eyes and neck, set against a plain gray background.

It has been quite a week! We all need a timeline cleanse.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

An Egyptian relief plaque with a face of an #owl 🦉.

The owl hieroglyph represents the sound m.

Late Period–Ptolemaic Period. From Egypt, 400–30 BC.

📷 Metropolitan Museum

Obverse of a Roman aureus: Head of Caligula, bare, right.

Reverse of a Roman aureus: Head of Augustus, radiate, right; in field, left and right, a star.

#OnThisDay - 24 January - in AD 41 the third Roman Emperor Gaius, better known by his nickname Caligula, was assassinated by a conspiracy headed by the military tribune Cassius Chaerea. #AncientHistory 🏺

Image: RIC 1 Gaius 1; Münzkabinett Wien (RÖ 5199). Link - numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric....

In this context, the fact that Trump is steadily becoming even *more* dangerously delusional and confused than he was before is easy to miss. Especially if one is only paying attention to individual statements, the aggregate is easy to miss.

Part of the problem is that the media is bad at covering degree differences. Nearly everything Trump has said in his past decade of ubiquitous publicity has been ignorant, delusional, and outrageous; when he says more ignorant, delusional, and outrageous things, it seems like more of the same.

'The Magicians', by contrast, basically the follows the 'Harry Potter' premise, in which magic is taught at a secret school for people who are just born special for some reason. The main difference is just that the students are older.

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I'm imagining a story in which magic is real, well-understood, and everyone knows it exists, and magicians are a learned profession akin to doctors, lawyers, and academics. Notionally, anyone can become a magician, but it takes many years of intense, specialized study and dedication.

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In the 2010s, there was a television series 'The Magicians', based on a book series by Lev Grossman. In the books, the magical school is an undergrad university, but, in the show, it's a graduate school. The show isn't very good, though, and it's more like 'Harry Potter' than what I'm imagining.

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Realistically, I'd expect that the process of earning an MD ("Magicae Doctor") would also be exorbitantly expensive, extremely gatekept, and full of hazing, and there'd probably be a magical equivalent of the bar exam that someone would have to pass before they would be allowed to practice.

I've thought for a long time that, if a magic *was* taught in a school, it wouldn't be a boarding school for eleven through seventeen-year-olds who don't study anything else, but a doctoral degree for students who'd already mastered ancient languages, paleography, botany, chemistry, astronomy, etc.

This is yet further proof that ICE's true purpose is really just enforcing white supremacy.

The fact is that, as things currently stand, Trump probably doesn't *need* to pardon himself, since the Supreme Court has given him broad immunity from criminal prosecution.

We really need a whole series of amendments, but I agree that addressing presidential accountability is the most urgent.

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I agree that this should be an amendment, but the amendment also needs to state expressly that the president can be prosecuted for crimes committed while in office, including crimes committed as official acts, to override the Supreme Court's ruling in 'Trump v. United States' (2024).

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rithmomachy board with pieces of different sizes showing numbers

open book to page of text showing a dialogue in latin

today: another rithmomachy book, and if you didn't believe me that it's chess with extra maths for huge nerds in the middle ages and renaissance, the rules are here discussed in a latin dialogue between one Bathyllus, one Brontinus and Alcmæon the Pythagorean

Worn papyrus with drawings of figures, symbols, and writing in Coptic. More here https://smarthistory.org/coptic-magical-text/

Coptic spell to Acquire a Beautiful Voice, 6th–7th century CE, Egypt, ink on papyrus, 37.3 x 25.4 cm (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven)
archives.yale.edu/repositories...

A vessel in the shape.of an owl, displayed on a transparent pedestal. The figurine is intricately painted in black, red, and beige, with finely detailed feathers, large round eyes, and a slightly tilted head.

We all need a a timeline cleanse!

A small Corinthian aryballos in the shape of an owl (circa 630 BC). It served as a perfume container.

On display at Antikensammlung München

A lovely weekend to all of you ☃️😀

📷 me

I'm sure that I'm not the only one who sees the striking similarities between this scene and the lead-up to the Boston Massacre.

With scenes like this unfolding, it seems virtually only a matter of time before ICE agents open fire on a crowd. This can't be leading anywhere good.