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randalljstephens.bsky.social
American historian, religion, environment, pop culture, the South. Author: The Devil's Music (Harvard, 2018). Prof of Am & Brit Studies, Univ of Oslo. Fulbright alumnus. https://t.co/oGDJUwAhXL
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Re-imagining American history through the lens of McCarthyism, by Scott Long, 1954.

Scott Long's 1954 view of the red scare and the Republican Party.

“Nick Cave has said that he turned down Morrissey’s request to appear on a new song in 2024, claiming that the former Smiths frontman wanted him to sing ‘an unnecessarily provocative and slightly silly anti-woke screed he had written.’”

If Methuselah died in 2025, it means he was born in 1056.

Some years back I mocked up a $15 bill with Osawatomie Brown on it.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb said today in a speech that Finland and the US do not share the same values basis anymore, and despite fairly good bilateral relations and close contact with Trump, the future is very uncertain. Stubb ended his speech by saying ”the world is not Sweden” lol

Scott Long did a series of cartoons in 1954 placing red-baiting demagogue and all-around vulgarian Senator McCarthy into famous scenes of American history. Something about it reminds me of Trump’s mangling of US history: The Continental army taking the airports or “never fight uphill, me boys!”

Scott Long having fun with Senator McCarthy’s (McWashington) narcissism and his cult of personality, 5/22/1954.

An interesting account of the way that some writers are using AI to conceptualize and write works of history. Most of the benefits described here involve ways of amalgamating and synthesizing materials from already-existing digital databases. I remain concerned... www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/m...

Roy Justus on the question of GOP party control, Ike vs McCarthy, during the red scare, Charlotte Observer, 3/9/1954

Whenever I have really bad allergy symptoms that medicine can do nothing to counter, I feel like I should be inside playing the clarinet and wearing coke-bottle glasses with white tape in the middle.

Pottery day. Used the wheel and did some glazing.

King Donald the Wise in his Fort Bragg speech last week: “we had a grossly, grossly unfit president who listened to whoever was operating the autopen, and they allowed these people to stay. And by the way, I've known this guy for a long time, he was never the sharpest bulb.”

“The discovery of germs led to breakthroughs like antibiotics and vaccines. But in a book Kennedy published about four years ago, The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health, the now- health secretary harkens back to the miasma theory.”

My blood type right now is Allergy Medicine

One in a series of #ClassicsOnVinyl I mocked up a couple years back. Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1935), read by Nick Offerman, 180g vinyl.

I was just looking at some of this exit polling from November. These two things seem closely related to me. And now we are all getting to find out why it matters.

I'm giving this talk to some University of Oslo staff on Monday.

A green shield bug stopped by for a visit this afternoon. Good excuse to use the macro lens.

PWA Rebuilds the Nation map, 1935

Abstract and actual conference paper

Art Wood depicts a government employee having to swear a loyalty oath to Senator McCarthy during the era of the red scare. Richmond News Leader, 6/7/1954.

"Roughly 200 faculty members and students gathered in the Humanities Quad to rally against budget cuts to the UC Irvine School of Humanities for the upcoming 2025-26 academic year...the humanities are facing a 9% cut of approximately $6 million" bit.ly/3ZYrmv5

Boebert: What we’re seeing in LA is an insurrection Pritzker: You don’t know understand what insurrection is. It is outrageous that you are asking that when you are the one condoning the pardoning of people that attacked police.

Here's the latest of Jon McNaughton's executive kitsch paintings. This one is called "The Secret Service." Looks like three guys from an Aryan Nation hair metal band.

Nanette Barragan, former chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, commenting on Senator Padilla: “If this is how they treat someone with a title and a national platform, imagine how undocumented members of our communities—without cameras or microphones—are being treated when no one is watching.“

A Chicago Times cartoon from 1935 about how eager the press was to paint FDR red.

"...Donald Trump has always presented himself as astronomically wealthy, a feat of imagination he has tried to impose on the world for decades, even via litigation. That personal fantasy is only now approaching reality as he exploits his second presidency." newrepublic.com/article/1961...

I used some music software, Photoshop, Keynote, and iMovie to make a sample of an apocalyptic gospel song. Came out like an alternate-reality 1950s quartet.

Brian Wilson from a 2007 interview: Q. Have you seen any good movies lately? A. Well, I’ve only seen one in the last couple of years. It’s called Norbit by Eddie Murphy. Q. How did you like it? A. Fantastic movie. Very funny. Q. What’s your favorite movie? A. Norbit.

A basic question about Trump's favorite play left the president so stumped he passed it to Melania, only for her to completely blank him.

Roy Justus on the sinking ship of "liberal Republicanism," July 1964.

Lawyer Joseph Welch during the Army-McCarthy hearings, 1954: "Looking at you, Senator McCarthy, you have, I think, something of a genius for creating confusion, throwing in new issues, new accusations, and creating a turmoil in the hearts and minds of the country that I find troublesome.”

Roy Justus on the Party of Lincoln becoming the party of states' rights and segregation under Barry Goldwater, 1964.

Truman in 1953: The Eisenhower “administration has fully embraced, for political advantage, McCarthyism….It is the corruption of truth, the abandonment of the due process of law. It is the use of the big lie and the unfounded accusation against any citizen in the name of Americanism or security."

The Guardian is reporting that Trump has "planned to start 'phasing out' the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) after the hurricane season..." Below is a map of the 2024 election results by county and another that shows areas that were most affected by natural disasters between 2002-2017.

Herblock's take on the culture wars and polarization, 1965. "Beagles Unfair to Cats" and "Expel Alabama" for the win.

Scott Long on Barry Goldwater's candidacy taking the GOP backwards, Minneapolis Star Tribune, 6/14/1964.

The latest Quinnipiac polling on approval ratings: Trump: 38% Hegseth: 37% RFK jr: 38% Handling of universities: 37% Immigration issues: 43% The economy: 40% Big Beautiful Bill Act: 27% Israel-Hamas conflict: 35% Russia-Ukraine war: 34% poll.qu.edu/poll-release...

PhD Candidate in Modern Economic History- Norwegian University of Science and Technology - Department of Modern History and Society #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNL460/p...

Surf’s up

Revivalist Billy Sunday in 1908: "The politicians of this country are the worst bunch of rat-eaten, peanut-brained, tin-horn four-flushers that ever rotted a fruitful land. They open congress with prayer—it's a lot of hot air; they stamp 'In God We Trust' on the coins—it's a bluff." Very Griswold.

Bill Bramhall on Trump's performative authoritarianism, 2019.

Mike Luckovich, AJC, 6/2/2020.