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laurasell.bsky.social
I promote books at Duke University Press. Reader, cat lover, messy cook and lazy gardener. Will plunge into any nearby body of water.
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W.E.B. Du Bois on Robert E. Lee: “Either he knew what slavery meant when he helped maim and murder thousands in its defense, or he did not. If he did not he was a fool. If he did, Robert Lee was a traitor and a rebel–not indeed to his country, but to humanity and humanity’s God.”

EXCLUSIVE: Trump team plans to send thousands of migrants to Guantanamo starting as soon as this week. Read details about the plan, according to documents obtained by POLITICO 👇

The Declaration of Independence specifies 27 grievances with King George III, and I count at least 15 of them that Donald Trump has also committed in whole or in part. Particularly notable right now: "He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures."

This is bonkers. The driver won't be charged at all!

DEAN: What's the tariff on bananas? LUTNICK: Generally 10% DEAN: Walmart has already increased the cost of bananas by 8% LUTNICK: If you build in America, there is no tariff DEAN: We cannot build bananas in America

“Defiance” is the key word here. More of this please!

As someone is quoted as saying in the article, the US health care system is working as intended, not to save lives but to create profit.

I need you all to see the hype video that this person made to sell their 1994 Geo Metro

🚨 Trump’s Bedminster golf club flagged for 18 health violations in latest inspection—earned lowest grade in county (32/100) Among the violations: 🤢 Expired milk 🤢 Raw meat stored above cheese 🤢 A hand-washing station without soap me, for @forbes.com

Every high school and college teacher should share this with their students.

I talked to 15 teachers/professors about how AI and ChatGPT is ruining their lives: www.404media.co/teachers-are...

Author Jojo Moyes on AI.

I do feel like "is what's on the computer actually real life" is quickly becoming the organizing question of our time www.semafor.com/article/06/0...

"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."  —Louis Brandeis

There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd. It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.

We watched two movies this weekend, Paddington in Peru and Fountain of Youth, and the one with talking bears was less far-fetched.

As of today, Elon Musk is thought to be responsible for the death of 300,000 adults and kids due to the illegal closure of USAID (source: www.impactcounter.com/dashboard?vi...) That's a 103 deaths per hour, each day. And it will get worse. His legacy is one of death, destruction, and failure.

I spent five weeks talking to federal workers about knowledge loss and brain drain across the federal government, and its implications, both right now and for decades to come. Their stories are frightening, but I think it's important to know what we're facing: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Some UNC-Chapel Hill faculty say they are concerned about a recent Board of Trustees decision—or, rather, non-decision—on faculty tenure and promotion cases. www.theassemblync.com/education/hi...

“The Trump administration has launched a comprehensive attack on knowledge itself, a war against culture, history, and science,” @adamserwer.bsky.social writes. “If this assault is successful, it will undermine Americans’ ability to comprehend the world around us."

I still think the best idea for progressive donors is to just revive every alt-weekly in the country and staff them with 10 reporters each.

Any librarians following me? Come meet me and my colleague Robert Thompson tomorrow online and learn about our environmental humanities titles.

President Trump pardons Scott Jenkins, the former sheriff of Virginia’s Culpeper County who was convicted of bribery and fraud.

"This is what we were voting for!" From a friend in academia: >>I was with a public health professor from [major university] last weekend and he said that NIH is now euthanizing whole cohorts of animals from animal studies because there is nobody around to feed them<< Great work.

ACTIONS MEET CONSEQUENCES… North Carolina voted for Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024—now he’s denying the state’s FEMA request. Again. Reminder: Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) and Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) voted against FEMA funding on September 25, 2024.

"House Republicans worked through the night to advance a massive piece of legislation that might, if enacted, carry out the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history," writes Jonathan Chait:

Alison Bechdel is reading Urvashi Vaid's "The Dream of a Common Movement," and so should you! via @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/the-annotate...

#PublishingJob Acquisitions Assistant University Press of Florida Gainesville, FL (remote applicants will be considered) $15-$16/hr 👇

This is—it bears repeating—ethnic cleansing and a war crime. It feels utterly pointless to say, and roughly equivalent to screaming into the void, but the United States should not be supporting or providing any aid to a state that has ethnic cleansing as a policy position.

The AI slop summer book preview/supplement in the Chicago Sun-Times is about what's happened in media more than what's happening with AI. This Slate piece gets it and I have some thoughts from the perspective of someone who writes about books for a major Chicago newspaper. slate.com/technology/2...

I sincerely hope that these examples shine a greater light on the utter depravity of how US jails and prisons operate OVERALL. Because I've traveled miles to see incarcerated people and been REFUSED for no reason AT ALL. This happens A LOT.

RIEDL, on the House Budget: “.. [It] will cost more than the 2017 tax cuts, the pandemic CARES Act, Biden's stimulus, and the Inflation Reduction Act combined.” @yahoofinance.com 🇺🇸

-Three of the 215 House Democrats have died this year, all from states that Trump won (TX/AZ) or have a Republican Governor (TX/VA). -Six House Democrats have died since April 2024. -The last eight House members to die in office have been Democrats, going back to 2022.

I said it would get worse very quickly. By tomorrow we will have completed the most dangerous & frightening 24 hours thus far of Trump 2.0. Just to name a few: 1. Defiance of a court order by sending migrants to Sudan without due process (despite clear DP decision SCOTUS) & Dist. CT. order.

In the GOP budget plan, 18.3 million kids could lose access to free school meals to give tax cuts to billionaires. We don't suffer from scarcity. We suffer from greed.

So far today I've received 28 pitches for upcoming books. By 28 different publicists representing 28 different authors. There is so little space to cover any of them. Which is why this AI-created and unedited by humans summer reading list is such a slap in the face.