Bailey Poletti

The language of austerity is simply an expression of power masquerading as powerlessness.

Is it just me, or does this seem like the Nate Silver "polls tell you more about an election than the actual votes cast" mindset taken to the logical next step?

Street mural of Harriet Tubman reaching toward the viewer with a helping hand. A little girl facing the mural is in the foreground for scale. Artist: Michael Rosato. The mural, painted in 2019, is located behind 424 Race Street in Cambridge, MD on the exterior wall of the Harriet Tubman Museum and Education Center.

Did you know that tomorrow, March 10th marks the National Day of Rest for Black Women, a day created to center rest, reflection, and renewal? It's also the anniversary of Harriet Tubman’s passing, honoring her powerful legacy of courage, resistance, and liberation.

I'm a medievalist, and even I've got to say:

Can't they dig up anyone a bit less putefied than two and quarter centuries to complain about The Kids These Days™️? Why not Bismarck or Tsar Nicholas II? Pitt the Elder probably could say a thing or two about these ballyhoo drinks!

After years of it being in my home library, I'm finally reading Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations."

I now understand why it is one of the favorite books for online white male toxic chuds around my age range.

Because of the above, I promise to say no more about it.

Here's a draft manuscript of the Magic: The Gathering roleplaying game from 1996, and I've giving it away as a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood, with permission from the authors. Not sure how much to ask for. Vanishingly rare. $1,872 raised so far. #mtg #ttrpg

Yep. Married women have always worked. Many had jobs outside the home, many more did piecemeal work at home to supplement the family income. There are dozens & dozens of books by historians about this. I know because one of my comps fields was History of the American Family & I had to read them all

March 8, 2026 - Tehran at sunrise today. But the sun is hidden behind a sky filled with smoke. After a night of intensive strikes on oil facilities, thick black clouds now hang over the city, turning morning into something that feels like night.

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.

People need to understand that by attacking Iran, the “American sons and daughters” Trump is putting in danger are not just members of the military it’s *your* kids.

This is a big reason previous presidents didn’t do this.

And because we bombed a school, terrorists might try to retaliate in kind.

Life is a Sacred Text Truth, transformation, & collective liberation; ancient stories serve as mirrors & lights.

a reminder that all Christians should subscribe to my newsletter (ii mean everyone else too)

If they don't like the cup, they go in the cup.

Hurry! It might not have had happened tomorrow.

Sure, I'll try this.

From my9games.com

Academic history colleagues, list all the different courses you teach. 🗃️
Mine are:

1. Reformation
2. Renaissance
3. Early Modern Low Countries
4. Women in Early Modern Europe
5. Europe and the World 1400-1700
6. Early Modern Europe
7. Western Civilization to 1500
8. Grad Seminar in Ren and Ref

“To believe in laws over belief in people is to be colonized.” Natalie O’Shea

“To believe in laws over belief in people is to be colonized.”

This was the post that made me finally put Blake's 7 on my view-soon list.

Congress's authority to declare war is not opt-out. I'm incandescent.

Needs to be stated: this isn't how it works.

This reminds me of when I was a PhD candidate during comps (prelims). I was surprised that *I* had to put together all 3 of my reading lists instead of my committee. But then I realized that the act of compiling was an important learning experience.

When I first had the inkling of pursuing history, a professor told me that historiography interested him the most. I still think about that conversation, how it didn't make sense as an "interest" to 18yo-me, but now it completely does.

the one who loved horses, the one who was a great goalkeeper, the one who kept a diary every day, the one who held her sister's hand when they walked to school, the one who read Harry Potter in English, the one who collected old coins, the one who drew rainbows for her grandmother ...

Wait.
They're calling it "Operation Epic Fury"?
Is this real?
I...can't feel my left arm.
Oh, God!
Sam, I've forgotten the taste of strawberries.
Oh, fuck, what kind of losers are these people?

I know that the people who need to read this aren’t here, but here goes:

Rules of engagement aren’t for the enemy. They’re for you. They’re for your soldiers when they’re captured or wounded. They’re for your civilians when they’re in range of the enemy. They’re for your allies, to reassure.

There are at least 10,000 Amcits in Qatar alone, and the US government is saying we are on our own

Cedar waxwing perched on the branch of a toyon shrub.

I believe that a light overcast is the best lighting condition for photographing birds, by avoiding harsh shadows and faithfully bringing out colors. This cedar waxwing enjoys #perfectlighting for a #birdoftheday shot.

#birds #photography #nature #eastcoastkin

This is disgusting. Rationalizing the bombing of a school that reportedly killed 108 girls.

But since she asked,

"Currently, 161 public schools operate on military installations across the United States."

www.militaryonesource.mil/education-em...

Picture of Marjane Satrapi alongside a quote from her. The quote reads: The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same... - Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist

Thinking about this quote from Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi again.

Here's a thread demonstrating the failure of "vote blue no matter who," the damage AIPAC and Israel's lobbying have done to the Democratic party, and why it's important to primary sons of bitches like this.

And if there's no primary? Withhold your vote in November.