Craig Franson

Seems to be the pattern…

@gavinnewsom.bsky.social

Pull-quote 2 from @aurelmondon.com

Pull-quote 1 from @aurelmondon.com

Mondon on the historic failure of "really existing liberalism."

FYI, my apparatus for Lovecraft Country 1-2 is "Dueling Consciousness" by @ibramxk.bsky.social. I taught it after Kindred & before "Racial Fictions" by @ruha9.bsky.social. All this will set up The City We Became by @nkjemisin.bsky.social.

After 4-5 perfectly fine attempts, I finally figured out how to teach the first 2 episodes of Lovecraft Country right.

Hell with Big Apostrophe! My pinky is its own boss.

Such a good book. I used to teach part of it in my composition classes.

No one want's to be on the wrong side of Big Ink.

We are deciding right now whether we want to be a country with ethnic cleansing and concentration camps.

Successfully cut my upcoming Oxford chapter on Tolkien & Appropriation to a -40 min keynote-style talk!

The dispute between Carlson & Huckabee marks a feud between two versions of far-right, anti-Islamic antisemitism. An ethical stand on Gaza doesn't require you to side with either one of them. It requires to you denounce both.

Being out of district is a fair critique.

Posting to read later. Excellent, on a speed through.

Can we has a Kat in every state, please?

For instance...

A room full of repressive authoritarians doing a photo-op for a billionaire's Board of Peace to Guns 'n Roses "November Rain?" How is this not a scene from Watchmen?

Axl Rose:
"When I look into your eyes / I can see a love restrained
But darlin', when I hold you / Don't you know I feel the same?

Nothin' lasts forever / And we both know hearts can change
And it's hard to hold a candle / In the cold November rain."

It's shocking how many major scholars are just clueless about both the content of far-right beliefs & the past 70 years of ideology theory.

He built it. Why the surprise?

College administrators, board members, & clueless faculty need to come to grips with the number of young men on U.S. campuses who consume this stuff.

How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism Moderation used to help Democrats win, but its advantages now have been greatly exaggerated.

Moderation will not save us. As Bonica & Grumbach argue, "The strategy has been fully deployed. It has not delivered."
@bostonreview.bsky.social

Absolutely. The left's half-century-long failure to invest in cultural, civic, & intellectual institutions may prove irreparable. Stuart Hall warned about this fifty years ago, & we've done nothing to address it, while the right has been pumping hundreds of millions into its infrastructure.

We keep talking about the plight of the arts & humanities as a problem with arts & humanities, not a problem with corporations, politicians, economic systems, & national culture.

Trump official allies with Europe’s far right in attacks on migration and hate speech policies US state department’s Sarah B Rogers has become face of White House’s hostility to European liberal democracies

Pink-washing America's pro-fascist foreign policy. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Elon Musk posted about race almost every day in January Many social media posts by Tesla CEO on his platform are indiscernible from those of white supremacists, say experts

The guy is a social and nat. security threat. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Gotta find this Althusius guy on Bluesky.

How are we doing, America?
Well, Rep. Massie (R) is preparing for defenestration, so...

Phantom Pains [winner] - The Georgia Review Before the amputation, the doctors warned me. My memory might recall my absent limb after the surgery, and I might experience these recollections as physical sensations. I pressed for more specifics a...

The week's essential reading is "Phantom Pains" by @rochellejohnson.bsky.social. Trust me.