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craigmsmith.bsky.social
a grumpy melange of personality defects who gets paid to talk about books
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Thank you, Mr. Trump, now both me (masters student at Georgetown, 2025) and my mom (undergrad in China, 1989) can both say “I’m a student and there are tanks in the capital.”

New: A week before the ICE raid on day workers outside a Home Depot ignited the L.A. protests, the White House posted video from a similar bust, calling it an "EPIC Takedown." Commenters called it "disturbing": this "isn't a reality show." But the messaging war had just begun 🧵 wapo.st/4l2fK2A

So, goodbye then, Harvill Secker, which has rebranded to become Harvill, with a simplified bird colophon. Of course it was Harvill before it was Harvill Secker, but the new iteration seems less than ever like the glorious Harvill of old. (cont)

I don't really think Americans, even the ones who read non-Fox news, have fully internalized how much the current administration has just pissed off potential customers of US goods around the world.

There’s been a lot written about the reactionary backlash to the 2020 protests but not enough about how much of Trump’s current shtick is driven by that night he got scared and had to hide in the basement.

In 2010 SCOTUS allowed states to loosen gun laws. In those that did, many more kids have been killed. But in the 9 states that didn’t and have the strictest laws, those numbers have stayed the same or dropped. The leading cause of death for American children is getting shot. It’s a choice.

This summer I have replaced the faucet in the master bathroom sink and replaced the doorknob and deadbolt for the front door of my house. These are easily the handiest things I have ever accomplished. I assume this is what people mean when they refer to life after academia.

Impeachment articles on this alone should be submitted overnight. California should refuse cooperating with the federal government on anything. The legislature should pass a broad anti-commandeering law. And every governor worth their salt should fly to California and pledge mutual assistance.

we’ve got a bunch of parents voluntarily guarding the elementary school gates if you want to know how LA feels this morning

I am not kidding when I say that this is how “normie libs” get radicalized, and we need to invite and encourage them

A federal prosecutor quit rather than help the Trump regime railroad Kilmar Abrego Garcia for political purposes.

We don’t need to back off the American Gestapo and we don’t need to respect its agents. People exercising state violence are not entitled to anonymity. Nor are the people directing the state violence.

There’s $150.3 billion in military spending in the GOP megabill, and nearly all of it will go to private companies. This is wealth redistribution — just not the kind that either party likes talking about. www.stephensemler.com/p/how-much-d...

Where I got my PhD! Good stuff, Queen's.

“There are only two kinds of society in which armed agents of the government routinely conceal their identities: (1) Lawless failed states… (2) Authoritarian states… Stable democracies do not allow agents of the state to operate under cover of concealment.” www.thebulwark.com/p/the-secret...

Too many books? I think what you mean is not enough bookshelves.

Tim definitely has a Twitter burner and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s got a Bluesky burner too

"Evil" is an insufficient word to describe the racist fascist Nazi fucks causing this devastation.

These are the people who look (and act) like foreign invaders.

Seven-game series against the 2025 Rockies, WHO YA GOT?????

Just a reminder that there is still an ongoing coup against the Constitution, in case you were wondering...and it's broadly succeeding.

We were likely years away from making HIV a thing of the past. Humanity triumphing over one of its worst diseases Instead we'll live in a world where people continue getting sick because of a greedy few who didn't want to pay their fair share of taxes

brian was starting to think that maybe his mom wasn’t coming back

I’m not saying this story is false but I am saying it is totally in the interest of the Trump White House to have a story out there suggesting that some universities are looking to acquiesce.

My high school age son has a classmate just seized by ICE and she is now in a cell in Louisiana, her phone seized. This is High School in the USA in 2025. More Au Revoir Les Enfants than Ferris Bueller. School and community response already in motion.

This is such a good example of "turn every page" journalism - nothing less fun/glam than clicking through every footnote. And it's roughly 10,000x more newsy than the thumbsucker RFK profiles reported with big travel budgets.

this rules "I am old, and I am a legend, and fuck you all I'm going to use my platform to support trans people" good for him

These are positions for senior scholars who are relinquishing tenure at their current institutions to move to UNC. The board must know that these options are non-starters.

New terror level just dropped for if I ever do another move

Superman is the story of an illegal alien living under an assumed identity and paying taxes

"A funny thing is that I tend to give all my novels the same title to begin with — Wrestling with God. Then while I’m writing, I realize, Oh, that’s not quite it..." Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o in this excellent @theparisreivew.bsky.social interview by Namwali Serpell www.theparisreview.org/interviews/7...

Years ago, a co-worker who knew I was a big RATM fan gave me a USB key with Street Sweeper Social Club on it. Time has doggedly passed, and I listen to less Rage than I did once upon a time, but I still love "Promenade." www.youtube.com/watch?v=teq0...

i’m here you fuckaas bitch

these numbers are a decent indication that the whole "the left is ostracizing young men" thing is, if not entirely fictional, at least very overblown

boy canada and europe are about to get a surge of grad students

“In prison I began to think in a more systematic way about language,” he told the Guardian in 2006. “Why was I not detained before, when I wrote in English?” He decided from then on to write in Gikuyu, that “the only language I could use was my own.” RIP

I said to Spencer Strider last night: "I know you've been booed in Philly before. What did you make of tonight's version?" “I love pitching here," he said. "I mean, where else do they chant your name? Ask how your family's doing? They seem very interested in my well being, and I appreciate that."