Not great.
Professor of Africana Studies and Sociology at Smith College. Posts represent the views of my cats. One of my books has a 2 second cameo in an Oscar winning film.日本語を勉強します. I’m my ancestors’ wildest dreams and/or worst nightmare. I have a lot of ancestors.
11,356 followers 818 following 3,383 posts
view profile on Bluesky
Not great.
I am organizing multiple workshops this week for Chicago activists and organizers as we prepare for a possible military occupation of our city. I am tired but moving fast.
Someone asked me what victory against the forces seeking to occupy Chicago looks like. Obviously, those forces being repelled is the goal, but there are layers to what success looks like in these deteriorating conditions. The first is to successfully resist the normalization of military occupation.
Perfect encapsulation of the Trump administration: The guy suing Harvard for alleged antisemitism is a straight-up Hitler-admiring Nazi. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/02/m...
To no one in particular: The true cost of a delicious honey deuce cocktail is about $2.
(We are woke)
Broke: Spending thou$ands to attend the #USOpen in the post-Serena-Big-Three-era Woke: Spending $5 on a melon to make Honeydeuce cocktails and watching on ESPN in your home theatre Bespoke: Attending the US Open for free as Barbora Krejčíková’s guest because you screamed louder than 20,000 people
variations.
🚨 Job! 🚨 Brown Sociology & the Watson School of International & Public Affairs are hiring a TT assistant professor whose research focuses on social policy (broadly conceived). Apply by 9/15: apply.interfolio.com/172655 Happy to chat about life at Brown, etc!
Picard management tip: The universe is a ridiculous place, but do try to be dignified.
Picard management tip: Make it so the crew feel welcome and appreciated. Remember there are other starships they could transfer to.
Judge: I got a call at 2:36 a.m. because the govt chose this time on a holiday weekend to execute this plan. I have been up since then. I haven't been able to reach anyone from govt until this morning at 9:30 a.m. So absent this intervention, all children would already have been sent to Guatemala!
Judge: During recess, I read provision you cited and then the complaint. Every one of 10 named plaintiffs says they are *afraid* of being sent back to Guatemala. (Reads aloud from declarations.) Doesn't line up with what govt is saying. This is why we have courts.
Judge: I don't want there to be any ambiguity in what I'm ordering or what the govt is expected to do. Plaintiffs: Because of multiple misunderstandings that have resulted in irreparable harm, I would like to extend hearing until children have been removed from plane.
Judge Sooknanan: Are you aware that I have issued an order on the docket about the putative class? DOJ / Drew Ensign: I have not, your honor Judge Sooknanan: I want you take 5 minutes now to look at that order and circulate that through the govt/DHS (Hearing pauses)
Judge Sooknanan has ordered the Trump admin not to deport any members of the class of Guatemalan children while she is hearing the case
HAPPENING NOW: Judge Sparkle Sooknanan holds an emergency hearing as the Trump admin is reportedly trying—imminently—to deport hundreds of Guatemalan children without required process or access to representation. www.courtlistener.com/docket/71240...
Truly - his level has definitely elevated
I have never seen FAA play this well?!!
FAA is dismantling Zverev.
That’s a great way of putting it - all the discomfort and none (or little) of the joy.. for me, Peloton is fun but it’s a grind and since there is no movement through space, there’s no real sense of euphoria
Riding a bike feels weirdly addictive in a way Peloton never does. I think it's 1) being outside + 2) a feeling of self efficacy.. being able to run errands, biking to pretty places, exploring in away that's impossible to do walking or even driving. Already plotting how to get my next endorphin hit
FAA!!!??!!!! #usopen
Another #cycling first: picked up brunch on the bike today.. saved $11 on delivery and service charges, burned 60 cals, got outside in the breeze, enjoyed sunshine and felt that primordial hunter-gatherer-satisfaction of literally bringing home the bacon!
NEW: Late Friday night, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration's unlawful and cruel fast-track deportation policy. This win is a blow to the president's anti-immigrant agenda. Immigrants have the right to due process and to live without fear of being torn from their families.
I saw the grainy photo of the president supposedly appearing in public "alive"....
I really don't like the idea of continual surveillance while students are writing. As a particular activity or one step in an a larger assignment, perhaps.. but watching them write while they write every time they write seems incredibly, almost absurdly, invasive.
Honestly I very much agree.. I don't like the idea of monitoring every aspect of student writing while it's happening. Seems like an egregious violation of psychological safety and the right to privacy during the very vulnerable process of creative thinking.
I'm gonna have to look into Draftback.. but I think strategies largely depens on the size of the class.. oral presentations and meetings don't scale to courses with 250 students. But then, essays are dubious assessment tools in large classes regardless.
Interesting!
If my tarot cards were wrong and that man is not dead or dying….
As opposed to relying on AI detection tools which are still wonky and unreliable (like AI generally!)
Bad news for the species, to be sure, but the upside pedagogically is that the data seem to suggest that if you want to know whether a student actually wrote their paper, a fairly effective assessment is simply to ask them to talk about it and to walk you through their arguments.
First thing I asked my wife this morning: “Is he alive”
I don't think they will actually hide it for very long if he dies. Vance will be eager to seize the wheel. What would be rougher for them is a messy in-between stage of him decompensating, clearly unable to function, but of course unwilling to yield power.
!! What’s your interpretation?
One thing I know for sure is that at some point, these cards will be true..
Mostly expecting to wake up tomorrow and find him alive but this was interesting!
If you end up doing one at some point, please share!
Answer — not great! The Nine of Michael (Swords) indicates “a breaking point.. anguish, remorse, guilt, regret, joylessness and despair.. [the] wish [that] you could go back in time and re-write the past..” www.thetarotguide.com/nine-of-swor...
I couldn’t help but ask my deck one last question.. If he’s dead, how’s his spirit/soul doing?
Anyway, he may or may not be dead. That’s all I know for sure..
If any of you diviners out there use your tools, let us know what you find out!
What question did you ask?
So the reading, in sequential order is given: “Yes, he’s dead. As in, dead-dead. And many people are happy about it.” Is this reading true? I guess there’s a 50-50 chance. It could also mean, many people hope he’s dead. But given the question I asked…
The most important card in this reading though, and also the most explicitly obvious, is the middle card - the death card. It doesn’t usually mean death in a typically reading - but when you ask about death (which should be done with caution) and you get the death card, it can certainly mean death..
So far, we have, on the one hand, the sort of cold fact: "Yes, he's dead." And it's not an overly emotional rendering of the fact - it sort of is what it is. Then on the other hand, we have joy. I would guess, reading between these cards, is a message about moderation and the middle path..
But yes, this card is all about, well, joy. Happiness. Wishes coming true. Triumph, overcoming difficult times.. www.thetarotguide.com/nine-of-cups/
Skipping over death to Nine of Cups on the right.. in this deck, the message is pretty clear: "Make a wish! Dreams become reality. A joyful time of life." Recall, the query was: "Is he dead?"
Queen of Swords, in addition to connoting "yes" in a yes/no reading, is more broadly representative of female energy, queen-energy, and the power of the mind.. but this female energy is a bit cold, not touchy-feely. Think (literally): analysis. Strength.. www.thetarotguide.com/queen-of-swo...
SO! The fact that the Queen of Michael repeated is significant. Repeating cards after shuffling at length is a message. I also think it's really interesting that on the left, we have Swords - the intellect, ideas - (Michael), flanked on the right by Cups (Raphael) - feelings, emotions..
Prefacing this with the serious caveat that phew, I am not neutral, this could mean nothing at all, could represent, shall we say, energetic projections, who knows - but I'm just gonna read the cards straight and tell you what they mean within tarot divination..
Please keep us posted!
Query: “A little more context. What’s going on with his health? Is he physically alive or dead?” Three cards: Queen of Swords (REPEATED!) - Death card (straight up!) - Nine of Cups (Lord have mercy!) Again, in this deck, Michael = swords. Peace = Death and Raphael = Cups. Let’s get into it..
OMG. Yall. This three card spread. I gagged!
Queen of Swords is typically a yes card. Do I have certainty in this card? No. As I said, I feel in no way neutral. But, that’s the card I pulled. Let’s see what happens if I repeat the query with a three card spread..
Query: “Is he dead?” One card pull, yes or no. Card: Queen of Michael, which translates to Queen of Swords in this deck. Worth noting that Michael is considered by some traditions to be the angel of death..
This is going to be whatever it's gonna be because.. I'm definitely not neutral on this matter and, frankly, neither is the majority of the human population, so..
Let me go light some incense..
Okay, fuck it, I'm going to ask my tarot cards.
Neither is Melania.
JD Vance will be smiling and giggling through the whole damned thing
The SCRUTINY of the television cameras on the faces of the living presidents if (if!) THEY attend the funeral..
You know Michelle ain't going to the funeral..
Resisting the urge to ask my tarot deck......
The collective energy on the planet right now is crazy
Just to give you a sense how far all this shitposting and chatter has spread, my 14 y/o niece—who only recently joined IG and has no other social media—just told me her chats are blowing up about it too
Very suspicious.
There are only three possibilities. He's alive. He's dead. He's been abducted.
I asked ChatGPT (sorry) to estimate the likelihood that this post was "written" by Trump and it indicated a 35-40% chance that the text was authored by a "staffer (ghostwritten but aligned with his voice)".
they already got the drafts in the chamber and can’t wait to post
Reporting on Trump's supposed last post on Truth Social..
"He may have been a felonious rapist insurrectionist, but he was *our* felonious rapist insurrectionist.."
"There is not a Red America or a Blue America, there is only the United States of Mourning Trump America.."
Really? I wish I could see it for myself..
Oh no. This is so true.
How am I going to sleep without proof of presidential life?
"Now is not the time for partisanship or politics. We stand united in patriotic grief with the president's family and earnestly pray that God brings comfort to the hearts of his loved ones and victims alike" - Some Democrat
I think the situation is actually much worse. When Trump dies, there will be more than a handful of Democrats praising him and calling for national unity.
Truth social is down?
I think things will change, for sure! How exactly? No idea.
When was Donald Trump's last known post on Truth Social?
Speaking strictly as a Harvard-trained sociologist, of course.
No one really knows what's going to happen, but since this is the United States of America, it's probably going to be trashy, fashy and weird.
And then again, it's also still very possible that without the living, breathing charisma that fueled the MAGA movement and consolidated power in Trump's tiny hands, the right wing operation collapses into in-fighting and/or they cannibalize each other (probably wishful thinking)
If anything, it's darkly possible that an expired Trump would usher in an era of massive, superpowered MAGA disinformation and propaganda framed as "honoring the legacy of the president", attempting to etch his face into Mt. Rushmore and solidify his status as the greatest president of all time.
I do think people are kidding themselves that Trumpism will die when he dies. There's a lot that's unknown at this point, no doubt about it, but I'm fairly certain his followers and those who are literally invested in the brand will try arduously to keep some version of him and his malevolence alive
Je ne sais pas.. the frightening thing is that I don't think he's going to disappear. I can't even conceive of a post-Trump America because his people will not let him die, even when he dies.
(I think Trump followers will be claiming their children as his reincarnation)
What will Trump be reincarnated as?
I think a post-Trump Vance presidency looks like Vance wrapping himself in Trump flags and flanking himself with Trump posters and maybe even wearing Trump merch. He'll definitely be seen in red MAGA hats or even red MAGA onesies, anything to distract from the fact that he's a known couch fucker.
Vance will probably publicly kneel and pray to Trump's AI powered robot-doll in order to gain legitimacy with the MAGA faithful and, I'm sad to say, but this will likely work. He will then declare a years long national period of mourning while implementing Peter Thiel's plan for global destruction.
I think things are gonna get extremely weird when he dies. They might turn him into an animatronic doll like those things in Severance and use AI to simulate what Trump would say/do whilst alive, meanwhile, his followers will claim that he never died and/or was resurrected, crafting a new religion..
What if.. what if he just doesn't?
I mean, he's definitely going to die one day. Right? Right....??
À mon avis, les raisons ne sont pas aussi obscures que ća.. Vrai, Trump est visiblement malade, et Vance lui-même a récemment déclaré qu'il est "prêt" à prendre la place du president dans un interview télévisé..
So what exactly do we expect from an increasing-likely-by-the-day-possibility of a JD Vance presidency?
catGPT, why won't you answer my query
Incredible match play from Taylor! Wow! I’ve never seen her play this well in singles!!!!
