He/him UMass Boston biological anthropologist. Ph.D. War and health, growth, embodiment, DOHaD, refugees. Binghamton grad. Child of PVD. kevishere.com
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The president is sending the military to control American cities and if you're a reporter who's framing that illegal power grab as "pushing the boundaries of constitutionality" or "acting boldly to fight crime" or whatever, please go find another line of work where you won't get us all killed.
“A while ago, I was in Las Vegas. I was at the roulette table, having a furious argument over what I considered to be an odd number.” -Steven Wright
"We have a much better chance of combatting autocracy if people are creative instead of reactive....Do not let Donald Trump be the most important person in your life." sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/mafia-stat...
So long, A23a. 🥹
There’s a sickness here.
Thank you!
that's a great quote, Peter
So begins year 23 teaching Anthropology at UMass Boston.
This should be the lead story in all major national news outlets. Public health people prefer to stay out of the limelight unless there is no other choice. I can’t overstate how bad things have to be for 9 former CDC directors to band together and pen an op-ed in the NYT warning the entire country.
What?!??
Okay. I just came back to this and you aren’t calling these efforts resegregation yet, you absolutely should be
And it’s not even remotely close.
“Have you considered bread-and-circusing your way out of confronting the surging fascism around you?”
Went outside today.
What is a regime dedicated to destroying all kinds of expertise? Authoritarianism doesn't seem right -- these things aren't usually up for popular vote -- and even under non-democratic gov'ts, careerists usually make decisions on public health. So what is it?
This exchange is deeply ominous. It offers a preview of where the aggressive demonization and dehumanization of trans folks might be headed. And to be clear: it is *already* abhorrent that this kind of talk happens out in the open, for all to see, in the White House briefing room.
"Mike Johnson Says Guns Aren’t the Problem — It’s the ‘Human Heart’ " As I understand things, people in other countries have human hearts too. They don't have mass shootings on the scale that we do. www.mediaite.com/media/tv/mik...
Has anyone made a comprehensive list of all the racist actions taken by this administration?
Welch: Everybody's missing the point here. The point is, he's doing this on purpose. He's priming the public to get accustomed to having the military in the streets
Don’t look away
🙏Drop everything and put this on your agenda. Save it, and listen to it during exercise or your commute. You may know some or most of these events, but to hear them all together is alarming. The analysis is sober, but as Balko said, it’s hard to talk about this without sounding crazy.
When Ziblatt is talking about the lessons from Weimar for the present day, you listen. Chilling.
Anything in there about stopping authoritarianism?
But what will stand in his wake?
The whole conversation with Balko really paints a picture of where we are now.
🙏Drop everything and put this on your agenda. Save it, and listen to it during exercise or your commute. You may know some or most of these events, but to hear them all together is alarming. The analysis is sober, but as Balko said, it’s hard to talk about this without sounding crazy.
Mr. President, a nation turns its weary eyes to you.
We buy mugs when traveling. It’s a nice reminder of the things we saw and did on the trip. They do take up space though. Too bad we can’t fold them up.
The mass shooting in Minnesota today has led to an increase in hateful rhetoric. As a reminder, the Secret Service reported that 96% of mass shooters in the US from 2016-20 were male. Just 2% were transgender. www.secretservice.gov/sites/defaul...
“‘It is about the systematic dismantling of public health institutions, the silencing of experts, and the dangerous politicization of science,’ Mr. Zaid and Mr. Lowell wrote. ‘The attack on Dr. Monarez is a warning to every American: Our evidence-based systems are being undermined from within.’”
Cis people: This is where you fucking step up. Do everything you can to support trans people in the coming days. You're going to hear horrible, hurtful rhetoric about us. Shut it down. Don't let it stand. And buy the trans people in your life a drink.
I think I’m in the same boat. Our admin left this summer and I’ve been picking up the slack. It’s a lot.
The mass shooting in Minnesota today has led to an increase in hateful rhetoric. As a reminder, the Secret Service reported that 96% of mass shooters in the US from 2016-20 were male. Just 2% were transgender. www.secretservice.gov/sites/defaul...
I don’t cry over these events as often as I used to. I know I should, but I think my empathy has been made to congeal by the repetition of tragedy.
You’re not dropping a single, asshole. If you’re actually knew anything, it would be criminal not to reveal it now. But of course, this is a bullshit publicity stunt.
Conservatives now control federal research funding. The next step: actually manipulating research. A conservative law firm is demanding Brown retract research showing connections between anti-wind groups and the fossil fuel industry. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/c...
CDC is no longer surveilling outbreaks caused by campylobacter, cyclospora, listeria, shigella, vibrio and Yersinia. What could go wrong?
People out there replying, "That's it, we're fucked. It's over." If you need to walk away, fine. But why would you message people—many of whom are exposed or can't leave—encouraging them to give up?
"The MAGA base loves this so-called “crackdown.” But not because it’s making D.C. safe. They love that it’s making D.C. miserable. They appear to know the victims of this charade aren’t criminals, but ordinary people just trying to live their lives." www.salon.com/2025/08/25/m...
The ideal probability would be zero.
There is a non-zero chance that we’re going to have mass executions here.
“As Dr. King once said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ Humbly, I would add, it doesn't bend on its own. History tells us we often have to apply force needed to make sure that the arc gets where it needs to go. This is one of those times.” -Gov. JB Pritzker
The weirdos were right. The West really is committing suicide. But it's using the weirdos to do it. www.nbcnews.com/world/europe...
“And here's the part that breaks your heart. Violence works. For them. Fascists use violence while claiming to be victims. They create chaos that "requires" their authoritarian solution.” cmarmitage.substack.com/p/i-research...
Trump signs an executive order tasking Hegseth to establish "specialised units" within the National Guard to "deal with public order issues" across the US. Using the US Military against the American public.
Just got a nice email from a relative of one of the students killed at Kent State. That made me feel a little better.
Pritzker: To the members of the press who are assembled here today and listening across the country, I am asking for your courage to tell it like it is. This is not a time to pretend here that there are two sides to this story.
I’ve genuinely enjoyed watching them grow, and loved every age. But I have to admit to really missing the little kid years.
It’s maddening that evidence means nothing to them at all.
I don't mind admitting I'm starting to panic. I'm a mom in my 40s, flattened by long covid for the past 3 years. I'm finally starting to get better but I'm now at increased risk. Access to covid vaccines is essential. Truly can't believe this is happening!
The ghoulish fixation on preexisting conditions and starving children in Gaza is bizarre. In all modern conflicts the death toll is measured in excess deaths. This is something I wrote about Congo's civil war almost 20 years ago:
If you assault an officer with an American flag, pardon. www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...
"many ... wrongly believe there would be one clear unambiguous moment where we go from 'democracy' to 'authoritarianism.' Instead, this is exactly how it happens — a blurring here, a norm destroyed there, a presidential diktat unchallenged. Then you wake up one morning and our country is different."
they're literally taking science out of your kid's classroom
I'm also apprehensive about their future and what kind of country they're about to enter as young adults.
I hope that day comes, and soon.
These young guys are starting grad school and college this week. When I look within, there’s a mix of emotions. I’d say “pride” is accurate and the most predominant, but there’s also nostalgia and a bit of sadness to watch time run by inexorably.
Why would Trump arm the troops that he ordered to occupy Washington, D.C.? Because he's building a dictatorship, step by step. He's counting on the public to stay asleep and the media to fail to tell the whole ugly truth until it's too late.
They didn't attempt a violent coup because of the left. They aren't destroying US science & academia because of the left. They're not embracing open racism & nazi ideology because of the left. They are adults, making choices, doing things of their own volition, and they bear the responsibility.
Another possible explanation: millions of dumb, selfish people were deliberately lied to by a billionaire-funded right-wing propaganda apparatus with the explicit goal of enraging them & hurting the Dem administration. Dumb, selfish people believed lies. Doesn't that ring a little more true?
"The couple has a two-year-old daughter and an 8-month-old son."
Trump's Presidencies have so far involved numerous Saturday Night Massacres, dozens of Watergates, and a never ending parade of Tea Pot Dome scandals. I worry that we're about to enter the "dozens of Kent State's" portion of the story.
Just unbelievably stupid. I had no idea how dumb fascism would be when it came to America.
John Shin, a well known and respected violinist from South Korea, who received Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the University of Utah for violin performance, was detained by ICE. John Shin has been a violinist and teaches students in Utah. He is being detained in Colorado.
Both of my parents had Frank Caprio as a young teacher in high school, a few years apart. They remember him differently, as someone who browbeat students. Perhaps he was insecure. Or perhaps people can grow. time.com/7311326/fran...
So, ethnic profiling then.
I recall video of Hurricane Katrina, when Gen Russell Honoré excoriated troops for holding weapons near civilians. The mission was to help, not treat civilians as enemies. . Things are different now. I hope people of integrity follow Honoré’s example. www.the-independent.com/news/world/a...
White supremacist tropes and ironic viral jokes illustrate the administration's project of redefining who belongs in the United States.
Pretty blatant www.theguardian.com/us-news/arti...
“the new Texas congressional map is indeed the worst gerrymander of the last 50 years. … The grand total is 5 to 7 additional seats above what a neutral process would produce. This is simply phenomenal.”
Multiple levels of blame here: The courts let DOGE take over the USIP, a congressionally created nonprofit not part of the executive branch. The DOGErs fired the people who knew what they were doing, and did not know or care about the lives they were destroying with their lies.
I mean, I don’t like protesting. I’m an introvert and I’d much rather spend my time doing something else. But holy fuck, what are we doing? Where’s the outrage?
He’s provoking people to have an excuse to do something even worse.
"With so much chaos, someone will do something stupid. And when they do, things will turn nasty."
Yeah, I think that would be more accurate. But he knows what the audience wants to hear.
I can’t even keep up. It’s just a firehose of awful.
By next month, he’ll have stopped 50 wars and single-handedly have destroyed the Death Star.
a lot of scary and escalating things unfolding but I just want to highlight how you see a free society working here in the people who are willing to call these guys cowards and face them down
Remember how the Trump administration claimed that Kilmar Abrego Garcia had to be brought back to the United States to "face justice"? That it wasn't about the deportation case, they just HAD to prosecute him? They lied! The whole thing was a lie! And they don't care at all that you know that.
We are moving dangerously close to martial law. Trump openly said he intends to “go after” Chicago and New York in his next federal crackdown, saying he’s prepared to deploy U.S. troops against civilians.
So subtle. I’m surprised she didn’t mention how often she stayed in his hotels, or how he had such profound knowledge of grass.
Let me guess: ivermectin, some unpasteurized milk, and beef jerky sticks.
I’d have a comment here, but nothing can adequately describe this.
Fox 17 Nashville reports that Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been released from criminal detention in Tennessee and is on his way home to Maryland. “Today, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is free,” his attorney, @sean-hecker.bsky.social, said in a statement. fox17.com/news/local/k...
This is a five-alarm fire. Washington, DC is now going to be crawling with ARMED military units, for no apparent reason. At what point do our idiot media members drop the crime-fighting pretense?
How many perceived enemies have been targeted so far? Bolton, Leticia James, Jack Smith, Adam Schiff…
Trump’s DC takeover installs Jeanine Pirro to gut local gun laws, making rifles and shotguns easier to carry under federal watch. Women-led Free DC says no: when the capital loses autonomy, the whole nation slides toward dictatorship. #FreeDC
How many critics/ perceived enemies have been targeted so far? Bolton, Leticia James, Jack Smith, Adam Schiff… No one is safe.
You do not have to like John Bolton to see this for what it is.
To confess: while I enjoy all the seasons, I’m really an autumn person too. October baby here.
Some have tried to downplay this by nitpicking photographs. www.mediaite.com/media/news/d...
Confederate statues are “history” but a rainbow crosswalk dedicated to victims of a mass shooting is “political.”
The white nationalist streak runs so deep in them.
Is it that they removed the old white guy?
@sarosecav.bsky.social I wore a sweatshirt today, and thought "Sarah must be loving this."
Israeli army database suggests at least 83% of Gaza dead were civilians. www.972mag.com/israeli-inte...
Luttig is communicating vastly more clearly and honestly about Roberts and Scotus than most Democratic officials are. It’s absolutely flabbergasting.
Israeli army database suggests at least 83% of Gaza dead were civilians. www.972mag.com/israeli-inte...
Picking up “100 more seats” would effectively turn the US into a permanent one-party state, just so we’re clear on the stakes