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Rebecca Spang

@rlspang.bsky.social

Professor of History, sometimes administrator at big public university in Midwest. Writes about money, French Revolution, restaurants. Friend to vert paleo. ex UCL History; Yale SOM Visiting Fellow; Guggenheim and New America Fellow. once/future Mainer

created July 15, 2023

12,133 followers 2,282 following 3,423 posts

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Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

Old person I am going to turn into. Except much shorter

2/9/2025, 3:39:24 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

Indeed, the “funniest” thing anyone ever said about France!

2/9/2025, 3:15:57 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

“As Maine goes, so goes the nation” never sounded so important or so ominous!!

2/9/2025, 3:12:05 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

“With curiosity and humility” would be my motto for any research or higher education institution.

2/9/2025, 3:03:49 AM | 6 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) reposted

"'You need to say, ‘This is what we think we know, but this may change tomorrow,’ and just be really clear about risk communication,' Daskalakis said. 'You need to approach everything with less confidence and hubris.'" That wasn't enough.

2/9/2025, 3:00:59 AM | 155 45 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Silverman on Security (@silvermansecurity.bsky.social) reposted

🧵!!!!

2/9/2025, 1:26:14 AM | 9 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

V good by @timothysnyder.bsky.social Trump & Trumpists like destruction, but they're not likely to get a popular war. So they're left with death that...is indirect and passive-aggressive: from destroying government functionality" --wish it wasn't on Substack! snyder.substack.com/p/look-on-my...

2/9/2025, 1:12:45 AM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture your #3 source for absurdist true crime 🔨 (@davidgerard.co.uk) reposted

the big 4 sewing pattern brands are being sold off for parts. if you want patterns, get them *now*. (if you're secretly a zillionaire who likes sewing patterns, call the liquidator immediately with your chequebook) craftindustryalliance.org/parent-compa...

1/9/2025, 3:02:34 PM | 487 368 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

The population of the entire state is only 1.4 million! 10% of Mainers might have been there?

1/9/2025, 11:43:43 PM | 12 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Seth Cotlar (@sethcotlar.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

Anyway...Dems need to break out of the impulse to see 200 white people protesting against Covid restrictions as "the voice of the people which we must heed" while seeing 10X as many people protesting racist police violence as "a niche special interest group that's out of step with real Americans."

1/9/2025, 5:02:13 PM | 798 185 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Tim Onion (@bencollins.bsky.social) reposted

1/9/2025, 6:38:13 PM | 5771 1071 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Lisa See Bradley (@jrand1970.bsky.social) reposted

@bmeiselas.bsky.social @meiselasb.bsky.social @meidasjordy.bsky.social @50501movement.bsky.social Marching in Bloomington, IN

1/9/2025, 10:14:45 PM | 349 65 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture 50501: The People’s Movement ❌👑 (@50501movement.bsky.social) reposted

Trump Always Chickens Out 🌮🐔

Protesters in taco and chicken costumes stand outside of Trump Tower in NYC holding a sign that says: “Which side are you on? Workers fighting for a living wage for ALL OR the National Restaurant Association & Trump. Make America affordable now”
1/9/2025, 9:51:16 PM | 401 65 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rake (@rakishcowboy.bsky.social) reposted

“The Trump family notched as much as $6 billion in paper wealth on Monday after its flagship crypto venture opened trading of a new digital currency. “ www.wsj.com/finance/curr...

1/9/2025, 7:55:11 PM | 60 27 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture AFT (@aft.org) reposted

The Chicago Labor Day march is getting started. #WorkersDeserve

1/9/2025, 4:53:50 PM | 1422 378 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Collins Watch (@collinswatch.bsky.social) reposted

Quite the image from a Labor Day rally in Ellsworth. (Hard not to notice that Susan Collins is the only member of Maine's four-member federal delegation not to have posted anything on social media today about Labor Day, the importance of honoring workers etc etc.) tinyurl.com/yb26uc7w #MEpolitics

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1/9/2025, 6:20:39 PM | 510 135 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture SmilingMooseMainah (@smilingmoosemainah.bsky.social) reposted

Labor Day protest in #Bangor, ME. We had some great speakers including the incomparable Dr. Nirav Shah! #resist #mepolitics

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1/9/2025, 5:19:21 PM | 9 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Third Act Maine (@thirdactmaine.bsky.social) reposted

Third Act members from our Central Maine Hub helped organize a Labor Day Rally to celebrate greater Waterville's rich labor and immigrant history and today's diverse and thriving community. #Indivisible #WorkersOverBillionaires #OldAndBold @thirdactorg.bsky.social

A Third Act Maine member in an orange safety vest and Third Act baseball hat hands out song lyrics to participants in today's Labor Day Rally in Waterville. Behind her is the Kennebec River. A group of participants in today's Labor Day Rally in Waterville sits on blocks of granite in an outdoor amphitheater in the sunshine. Centered in the photo is a sign that reads: IMMIGRANTS MAKE AMERICA GREAT Indivisible Mid Maine's info table with banner at today's Labor Day Rally in Waterville. A Third Act Maine member in a blue shirt and Third Act baseball hat stands by to help with the sound system at today's Labor Day Rally in a riverside park in Waterville. Beyond him is the Kennebec River.
1/9/2025, 5:29:37 PM | 14 6 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

Impossible things happening every day

1/9/2025, 7:46:39 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) reposted

Today is the first day of public trading for Trump’s crypto scam.

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1/9/2025, 7:28:55 PM | 1777 469 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture MKBinPA (@mkbinpa.bsky.social) reposted

Solid turnout for today's #LaborDay rally in Doylestown, PA (Bucks County), powerful speakers and music. Impressive haul in the collection of food, personal care, and household items for locals in need, too! #WorkersOverBillionaires #DoylestownActionLeague @50501movement.bsky.social

Photo of community members protesting at Court & Main Streets in Doylestown, many holding signs, two American flags flying in the breeze. (Lots of drivers going by, honking in support!) A woman bent over lots of bags, organizing food and other items donated by rally-goers to give to community members in need. Sign reads Wider shot of the intersection of Court & Main Streets in Doylestown. Protesters line streets with higher concentration of people in front of the courtyard of the old courthouse and in the intersection where the Civil War monument is located.
1/9/2025, 6:41:52 PM | 337 78 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Andrea Junker (@strandjunker.com) reposted

On this Labor Day, let us remember that it wasn’t the CEOs and billionaires who saved us during COVID-19. It was the janitors, nurses, cleaning crews, grocery and food workers with their hard, often invisible labor.

1/9/2025, 4:14:05 PM | 2235 720 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Present & Correct (@presentcorrect.bsky.social) reposted

The Full Moon this month is known as Stationery Moon. Traditionally the time of year for harvesting notebooks, pens and pencils.

1/9/2025, 5:35:48 PM | 86 26 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

Ready to go

Hand lettered poster reading “Everybody [rainbow colors] united (red white blue) against the broligarch$”
1/9/2025, 4:54:49 PM | 24 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Brian Goldstone (@brian-goldstone.bsky.social) reposted

A Labor Day reminder: today there isn't a single city, metro area, or state in the U.S. where a full-time minimum-wage worker can afford a modest 2-bedroom apartment. Millions of people with jobs—even multiple jobs—aren't safe from homelessness in this country.

1/9/2025, 11:54:28 AM | 3866 1860 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture United Farm Workers (@ufw.bsky.social) reposted

Join us in celebrating the people who labor in the fields to put food on our tables. Únase en celebrar a la gente que trabajan en los campos para poner comida en nuestras mesas. #WeFeedYou #LaborDay

A photo montage of a farm worker with buckets of potatoes she picked on top of the American flag with the words not everybody gets #laborday off
1/9/2025, 12:01:28 PM | 1462 457 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Adam Keiper (@adamkeiper.com) reposted

A Labor Day classic: www.thebulwark.com/p/labor-day-...

1/9/2025, 1:36:09 PM | 38 20 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Adam Keiper (@adamkeiper.com) reposted

FDR: "Labor Day...belongs to all of us....Anyone who calls it a class holiday challenges the whole concept of American democracy." www.thebulwark.com/p/labor-day-...

1/9/2025, 1:38:41 PM | 21 5 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

Eastport is SO post-city. History matters. There’s citiness lingering in Eastport, Millinocket, even Belfast.

1/9/2025, 3:40:06 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

And maybe there are other categories?

1/9/2025, 3:36:26 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

One of my sisters had her house broken into by someone throwing a pheasant through the window! Did this really happen? It did, but it still seems like it couldn’t have.

1/9/2025, 3:35:28 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Andrew Hickey (@andrewhickey.500songs.com) reposted

Gender began in 2015 (Later than it might have been) Between the end of Ed Miliband And Minions on the big screen

31/8/2025, 1:08:09 PM | 89 20 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

I’m so old, I remember when the Bangor Mall was new and VERY buzzy. In MSAD 22 (as was), Newburgh was “rural.” Hampden and Winterport definitely were not.

1/9/2025, 1:01:05 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Jess Piper (@piperformissouri.bsky.social) reposted

40% of Missourians vote for Democrats, and this is the Congressional map the Republicans are pushing for.

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30/8/2025, 9:36:35 PM | 1412 571 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Sarah J. Jackson (@sjjphd.bsky.social) reposted

Okay. I just came back to this and you aren’t calling these efforts resegregation yet, you absolutely should be

31/8/2025, 10:49:19 PM | 6656 2903 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) reposted

Nurses say that RFKJr must be removed from office immediately before he kills again. www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/nation...

31/8/2025, 11:23:03 PM | 66 25 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

Nice to know that someone out there gets research impulses similar to my own!

31/8/2025, 10:52:15 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture George Takei (@georgetakei.bsky.social) reposted

Perfection.

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31/8/2025, 10:23:22 PM | 3850 709 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

Oh please tell me that somebody out there is completing a biography of Ignatzius Heinz: subject of the Emperor, resident of Manhattan, and cruller shaper extraordinaire! [from a patent application filed Sept. 26, 1913]

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31/8/2025, 10:21:14 PM | 5 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Greater Lafayette Indivisible ❌ 👑 (@lafayetteindivisible.com) reposted

This is a big ask for #Indiana, maybe. But we say: If your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough! 💪 🌊🗽

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31/8/2025, 10:09:34 PM | 311 137 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

* “one”!

31/8/2025, 1:38:20 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Trumpflation Tracker (@trumpflationtrkr.bsky.social) reposted

Normally they've booked 40% of their fall soybean sales to China at this point. This year, they are at 0% booked, and no, that's not a typo. www.farmprogress.com/soybean/us-s...

30/8/2025, 1:25:47 AM | 2118 817 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

I do worry about that Bun!!!

31/8/2025, 4:27:06 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

Oh the trees!!!

31/8/2025, 3:42:28 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

I think it’s about boss-ism. Experts and facts only yield to more of same (“peer review”) and these third-rate cranks want everything and everyone to yield to them.

31/8/2025, 3:41:54 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Governor JB Pritzker (@govpritzker.illinois.gov) reposted

Why don’t you send everyone proof of life first? (Either way, Chicago doesn’t want you here)

Post from President Trump on Truth Social: Six people were killed, and 24 people were shot, in Chicago last weekend, and JB Pritzker, the weak and pathetic Governor of Illinois, just said that he doesn’t need help in preventing crime. He is CRAZY!!! He better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming! MAGA. President DJT
31/8/2025, 12:51:15 AM | 18947 3683 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Emily Hahn, MD (@ehahnmd.bsky.social) reposted

These are my patients. Kids dying of brain cancer. Kids and families desperate for treatment and hoping to find a cure through experimental therapies. Trump is dismantling science and children with brain tumor are the victims. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/w...

31/8/2025, 12:48:52 AM | 839 349 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

“Nothing in the middle of the road but yellow lines and dead armadillos” is a genius turn of phrase.

31/8/2025, 2:24:03 AM | 119 22 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) reposted

Hungary is also a unicameral state without hard federalism that is the size and has the rough economy of Indiana. There is no comparison. None.

31/8/2025, 2:20:37 AM | 171 45 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

“Economy of Indiana” isn’t a phrase on sees very often!

31/8/2025, 2:21:50 AM | 11 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

Trump take restaurants

31/8/2025, 12:10:05 AM | 6 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Dr. Peter Paul Rubens (@peterpaulrubens.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

2/2 My Coronation of Marie de' Medici which was of course the model for Jacques-Louis David's Coronation of Josephine. And mine had dogs. Just to point that out!

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31/8/2025, 12:05:23 AM | 45 6 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

We can't take public schools for granted any more. MAGA hates public education because it teaches children to be part of a public, something bigger than themselves, something that has rules and regulations designed to enhance the greater good.

30/8/2025, 10:26:14 PM | 11 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Thomas M. Keck (@tmksyracuse.bsky.social) reposted

This whole thread is good, but this is the part that I’m most worried about over the next 18 months

30/8/2025, 9:30:00 PM | 8 4 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

yep. And the same corporations must have big shares in pet insurance schemes. I've never seen the point of pet insurance before, but when I get a puppy I'm going to!

30/8/2025, 9:55:50 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Julia Lynch (@jlynch13.bsky.social) reposted

Excellent thread on where we’re at right now by political scientist @dhnexon.bsky.social .

30/8/2025, 8:23:41 PM | 11 5 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

Hilarious if it weren’t so dangerous…

30/8/2025, 8:32:13 PM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Gil Durán (@gilduran.com) reposted

"In a hotel-turned-campus on a reclaimed island in Malaysia, crypto and tech entrepreneurs are building software, chomping down Australian prime ribeye, hitting the gym — and getting schooled in a radical blueprint for creating new sovereign states from scratch." 🎁 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

30/8/2025, 8:25:39 PM | 77 44 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

Maybe they'll have something choice to say about football the next time you see them!

30/8/2025, 5:30:05 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

I don't think rainbow wearers/flyers think of themselves as a team IN COMPETITION WITH another team in the same way. But I'm no expert

30/8/2025, 5:14:24 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

See Bernard Harcourt’s Illusion of Free Markets

30/8/2025, 4:18:54 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

I am incurably fond of old newspapers and mass-market periodicals, ALWAYS get distracted in them. So I give you from the Dayton Daily News (May 6, 1924) news of Chicago former mayor and U Chicago zoologists sailing for South America in search of a "tree climbing fish"

30/8/2025, 3:44:04 PM | 25 5 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

thanks! As a Europeanist venturing into USA history, I'm learning all sorts of things....

30/8/2025, 3:39:20 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

That MAGA _is_ so much more a "team" than a political position explains the difficulty/impossibility of taking adherents away from it on the basis of logic or examples. White socks [sic], win or lose!

30/8/2025, 3:38:34 PM | 10 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

Did the daytime sale of check, solid, pinstripe suits, overcoats, ulsters, etc. support costs associated with lynching, terrorizing, etc.? Was it "you're here for your robes, don't you want something to wear under them?" Was it a "buy American... no immigrant labor" move? I know nothing about it!

30/8/2025, 2:52:20 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

Today in things I didn't know about 1920 Cincinnati--things I can fathom but that I didn't expect to be QUITE so "in your face." Ku Klux Klothes sold ordinary men's suits, overcoats, etc., but clearly only to a certain sort of customer. No Germans! stories.cincinnatipreservation.org/items/show/40

30/8/2025, 2:42:36 PM | 9 6 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

Columbia does too

30/8/2025, 1:25:13 PM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture mialong.bsky.social (@mialong.bsky.social) reposted

As drug deaths hit a 5-year low, Trump continues to cite fentanyl as major threat www.npr.org/2025/08/30/n...

30/8/2025, 12:54:56 PM | 303 105 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

Private equity bought up veterinary practices. I think I saw somewhere that vet care costs have risen more than any other category (!) in the last 10 (?) years

30/8/2025, 12:46:47 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Climate, Ecology, War and More by Dr. Glen Barry (@bigearthdata.bsky.social) reposted

In Far Northeastern Maine, a Native Community Fights to Adapt to Climate Change ->Inside Climate News | #ClimateChange | More info from EcoSearch

30/8/2025, 10:00:41 AM | 9 5 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

Meanwhile….

30/8/2025, 3:37:50 AM | 4 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

Palm Beach Story!! I’ve only seen it once but I remember it SO fondly. Lady Eve is actually the only one I have seen repeatedly and I would gladly watch it again right now.

30/8/2025, 3:31:03 AM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

Student said to me yesterday: “I’m sick of hearing about AI all the time.” 🫧 📍

29/8/2025, 3:35:25 AM | 37 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) reposted

$DJT

30/8/2025, 2:53:12 AM | 278 76 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

The better to bully you, my dear!!

30/8/2025, 1:49:25 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Silverman on Security (@silvermansecurity.bsky.social) reposted

Very important 🧵!!!!

30/8/2025, 1:23:18 AM | 11 5 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

We are going to need very clear messaging about why produce prices have increased 50-100%. Or maybe not? Let consumers blame it on “Republicans.” That explains much of it!

30/8/2025, 1:14:29 AM | 9 4 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Asawin Suebsaeng (@swin24.bsky.social) reposted

It is less a mass deportation regime as it is a mass kidnapping and indefinite detention regime

30/8/2025, 12:33:32 AM | 2639 816 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

Policy and planning can change human behavior! Paris is SO much more pleasant now than it was 15-20 years ago.

29/8/2025, 11:48:21 PM | 81 28 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Stanford University Press (@stanfordpress.bsky.social) reposted

WE'RE HAVING AN END OF SUMMER SALE! Labor Day weekend is the perfect opportunity to stock up on your favorite SUP titles Take advantage of 50% off of all in-stock print and ebooks sitewide 8/25, through 9/8. #ReadUP www.sup.org/about-our-en...

29/8/2025, 11:35:12 PM | 7 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

I think that is exactly what it is, but the authors would probably never admit it (or, probably, even be able to see it that way). My own experience with co-authoring w a scientist was similar: I didn’t think we had anything new, he wanted a publication. In that case, tho, method was much more new.

29/8/2025, 11:24:48 PM | 8 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

I agree, it's not AS intrinsically annoying as I expected it to be. On the other hand, it is *totally* not revelatory. It's "we took all these words and put them into programs that drew maps, etc." and then the maps matched the words. --It seems Parent has elsewhere praised Elster's work.

29/8/2025, 10:39:23 PM | 5 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Colin Carlson (@colincarlson.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

But by far and away, the biggest priority for a Heritage Foundation-captured CDC is going to be using the agency's legal frameworks for access to medical data, and weaponizing them to control women. *Most* of the Project 2025 plan for CDC is a witch hunt against abortion on an unprecedented scale.

Respect for Life and Conscience. The CDC should eliminate programs and projects that do not respect human life and conscience rights and that undermine — 455 — 2025 Presidential Transition Project family formation. It should ensure that it is not promoting abortion as health care. It should fund studies into the risks and complications of abortion and ensure that it corrects and does not promote misinformation regarding the comparative health and psychological benefits of childbirth versus the health and psychological risks of intentionally taking a human life through abortion. The CDC oversaw and funded the development and testing of the COVID-19 vaccines with aborted fetal cell lines, insensitive to the consciences of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people who objected to taking a vaccine with such a link to abortion. As evidenced by litigation across the country, it is likely that thousands were fired unjustly because of the exercise of their consciences or faith on this question, which could have been avoided with a modicum of concern for this issue from CDC. There is never any justification for ending a child’s life as part of research, and the research benefits from splicing or growing aborted fetal cells and aborted baby body parts can easily be provided by alternative sources. All such research should be prohibited as a matter of law and policy. CDC should update its public messaging about the unsurpassed effectiveness of modern fertility awareness–based methods (FABMs) of family planning and stop publishing communications that conflate such methods with the long-eclipsed “rhythm” or “calendar” methods. CDC should fund studies exploring the evidence-based methods used in cutting-edge fertility awareness. Data Collection. The CDC’s abortion surveillance and maternity mortality reporting systems are woefully inadequate. CDC abortion data are reported by states on a voluntary basis, and California, Maryland, and New Hampshire do not submit abortion data at all. Accurate and reliable statistical data about abortion, abortion survivors, and abortion-related maternal deaths are essential to timely, reliable public health and policy analysis. Because liberal states have now become sanctuaries for abortion tourism, HHS should use every available tool, including the cutting of funds, to ensure that every state reports exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence, and by what method. It should also ensure that statistics are separated by category: spontaneous miscarriage; treatments that incidentally result in the death of a child (such as chemotherapy); stillbirths; and induced abortion. In addition, CDC should require monitoring and reporting for complications due to abortion and every instance of children being born alive after an abortion. Moreover, abortion should be clearly defined as only those procedures that intentionally end an unborn child’s life. Miscarriage management or standard ectopic pregnancy treatments should never be conflated with abortion. Comparisons between live births and abortion should be tracked across various demographic indicators to assess whether certain populations are targeted by — 456 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise abortion providers and whether better prenatal physical, mental, and social care improves infant outcomes and decreases abortion rates, especially among those who are most vulnerable. The Ensuring Accurate and Complete Abortion Data Reporting Act of 20239 would amend title XIX of the Social Security Act and Public Health Service Act to improve the CDC’s abortion reporting mechanisms by requiring states, as a
29/8/2025, 9:10:20 PM | 1168 550 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Boston Tom Levenson (@tomlevenson.bsky.social) reposted

To be clear: RFK Jr. is a sociopath, killing people at home & abroad, & whose anti-vaccine campaign is only part of the greatest threat to American public health in memory. But this is Trump & the GOP's doing. DJT continues to back Kennedy. This is on him & the party he leads. They're killers too.

29/8/2025, 3:29:21 PM | 43 23 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social)

"Workers/Everybody against Billionaires" rallies and protests on Monday, Labor Day. Local event is noon-3:00 on the Square. I'll be there unless this bad head cold turns out to be COVID. bloomingtonian.com/2025/08/25/w...

29/8/2025, 3:24:49 PM | 4 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Mark Copelovitch (@mcopelov.bsky.social) reposted

"In the political economy of shitcoins, fundamentals are vibes, governance is Discord mods, and demand is pure FOMO." "What Pepinsky & Copelovitch make explicit—and what we’ve always implicitly modeled—is that shitcoins are less a financial product than a politico-cultural coordination game." 😆

29/8/2025, 2:53:21 PM | 29 8 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Gregg Levine (@greggjlevine.bsky.social) reposted

t’s The Apprentice made flesh. Just like the TV show gave us simulacra of Trump as wealthy, powerful capitalist by amplifying the most cliche & nasty aspects of capitalism, down to building a phony boardroom, Trump’s minions present a pastiche of dictatorship, but where ppl are actually hurt.

28/8/2025, 4:18:35 PM | 7 2 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Ferric Fang, MD (@fangferric.bsky.social) reposted

More than 9 of 10 physicians say that prior authorization is bad for patients. 78% say it often causes patients to abandon a recommended treatment. “It’s really surprising that we are taking the most unpopular part of Medicare Advantage and applying it to Medicare,” said a former Medicare analyst.

28/8/2025, 8:18:55 PM | 49 43 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox.bsky.social) reposted

This story has it all: aquaculture, Black Flag, Bernie Sanders, Star Trek as policy, John Hodgman, male tears, and a candidate citing Luthen’s monologue from Andor. Meet Graham Platner, the Maine oysterman trying to crack the senate. @grahamformaine.bsky.social newrepublic.com/article/1996...

29/8/2025, 11:52:33 AM | 5204 1477 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

Thanks!

29/8/2025, 12:22:12 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

!! My brother and I both tried SPILT before getting the correct answer (he in 4, I in 5). Says something about us, I think.

29/8/2025, 4:03:14 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

Student said to me yesterday: “I’m sick of hearing about AI all the time.” 🫧 📍

29/8/2025, 3:35:25 AM | 37 3 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Greg Jaffe (@gregjaffe.bsky.social) reposted

The Pentagon is restoring a portrait of Gen. Robert E. Lee, which includes a slave guiding the Confederate general’s horse in the background, to the West Point library three years after a congressionally mandated commission ordered it removed, officials said. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/u...

29/8/2025, 3:10:15 AM | 1117 522 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Greg Pak (@gregpak.net) reposted

Al Sharpton at the National Action Network rally today: "I don't endorse candidates, but I take attendance. Let's hear from Andrew Cuomo. Oh he's not here. Let's hear from Mayor Adams. Oh he's not here. Let's hear for Zohran Mamdani!" youtu.be/eznxz7ZA5Yc?...

29/8/2025, 3:08:43 AM | 841 167 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

Sure enough. Many many victims. And more goons on the way. But I feel as if “dying guys into the appearance of strength” accounts for WAY more than it should be able to.

29/8/2025, 3:04:34 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reposted reply parent

That’s the thing. This regime only knows/cares about the “look”/spectacle of authoritarianism. Previous totalitarianism certainly had a look and the look mattered—but it wasn’t all there was.

29/8/2025, 2:16:03 AM | 17 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

Hiding that from them….

29/8/2025, 2:16:25 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

That’s the thing. This regime only knows/cares about the “look”/spectacle of authoritarianism. Previous totalitarianism certainly had a look and the look mattered—but it wasn’t all there was.

29/8/2025, 2:16:03 AM | 17 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

Oh yes. I assign the first chapter of Darnton’s book so this is perfect

29/8/2025, 1:45:05 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rebecca Spang (@rlspang.bsky.social) reply parent

Thanks!

29/8/2025, 1:44:00 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view