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stephen-morrison.bsky.social
Dad to a daughter. Instructor of rhetoric and writing. Runner of middle distances. Researcher on hegemonic masculinity and fascism. Writer of advice for my new college kid.
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I'll just note that Trump won because the "middle" wouldn't believe he would do the terrible things he vowed to do. Telling people that he's that and worse is persuasion. Saying he's a codger who's happily bumbling is permission to think he won't do shit.

No One Sure Why Kristi Noem Wearing Firefighter Helmet, Night-Vision Goggles, High Heels, Wet Suit theonion.com/no-one-...

I am trying to imagine how an LLM could write the book I am working on right now. It just . . . couldn't? The information in the book cannot be predicted from other published material. That's why I'm writing it.

Boys and girls receive similar maths scores at the start of school, but boys pull ahead of girls after just four months https://go.nature.com/43Mjnnw

I will admit that I was completely in the "Sotomayor -- and probably Kagan, too -- should obviously retire" camp. The NYT ACB profile has some pretty good counter-evidence, though www.nytimes.com/2025/06/15/u...

I’d started a list of books I’ve seen recommended on this platform, I’d love your input- what are we missing? google.com/books/librar...

Breaking: House Democrats introduce bill to adopt the U.S. Constitution as law which is rejected on party line vote.

when 4-5M people march peacefully against the current regime it's the story of the year. NYT cannot bring itself to focus on that reality.

I'm trying to imagine a Democratic president saying openly and proudly that he would be sending federal agents to target the 'Republican Power Center' in Texas, Florida, and Tennessee. We would be in the midst of a civil war before he'd finished saying those words.

The Minnesota assassin appears to be a hate-filled right winger. So can we stop walking on eggshells about MAGA's legitimization of political violence? Yes, Republicans have also been the target of inexcusable violence, but this isn't a "both sides" issue. 1/ A🧵on the danger.

An add: If you see journalists doing good work, share their stories, don't just "dunk" on stories you don't like, which also gets more people to read the not-so-good stories.

Once again the correct response to this is to immediately push for a huge amnesty bill. If farm, hotel, and restaurant workers are so vital to the country that even donald trump can admit it, they should all be getting green cards now

Based on crowd-sourced records of No Kings Day event turnout, and extrapolating for the cities where we don't have data yet, it looks like roughly 4-6 million people protested Trump across the U.S. yesterday. That's nearly 2% of the U.S. pop! Mobilized anti-Trump resistance is exceeding 2017 levels

And there it is. The Minnesota assassin who shot Democratic lawmakers “voted for Donald Trump and was a strong Trump supporter,” according to his best friend.

mood

I will not be attending #NoKingsDay protests today, but I will be helping @gelliottmorris.com and colleagues with data gathering to understand how many Americans have shown out today. Please reply in the comments with estimated attendance numbers from reputable news sources; no city is too small!

If you take one thing away from today, let it be that we outnumber them.

Misogyny is core to the American fascist project and feminism must be core to its opposition.

More than 1000 folks out in the small town of McAllen Texas. #nokings

REMINDER: Netanyahu convinced Trump in 2018 to withdraw US from Iran nuclear deal that Obama and allies had negotiated. That Deal would've prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. The death and destruction we're seeing now is 100% bc of Trump & Netanyahu www.timesofisrael.com/in-recording...

As the Army marks its 250th birthday with tanks and a parade in D.C., it faces a quieter crisis: #GenZ isn’t enlisting. The legacy of gun violence, not “wokeness,” is to blame, according to a scholar of terrorism and targeted violence.

AOC: “They’re making people undocumented by removing LEGAL status, then having the audacity to call them illegal… correct?” @govpritzker.illinois.gov: “Taking their legal right to be here away.” @aoc.bsky.social: “The Republican majority is anti-LEGAL immigration, I want to make that very clear.”

The South will fall again

My team and I at the Crowd Counting Consortium (@[email protected], Soha Hammam, & Chris Shay) have a new piece out: wagingnonviolence.org/2025/06/amer.... In it, we show that through May 2025, the size and scale of anti-Trump protests have dwarfed those in 2017. 🧵

Governor Gavin Newsom has elevated his war with Donald Trump to a new level by suggesting the president, who turns 79 on Saturday, is slipping mentally based upon a recent phone conversations with him. www.rawstory.com/trump-mental...

Every elected Republican should be asked if they think the president has the power to send in military in to “liberate” a state or city from its elected government.

This is good. Dem House members encouraging mass mobilization and monitoring ICE.

Trump's immigration approval has fallen 6 points on net this week www.gelliottmorris.com/p/data

"This is not who we are" is a fantastic example of constitutive rhetoric, as per Charland's (1987) article, "Constitutive Rhetoric: The Case of the Peuple québécois." It is not an assertion of established fact, but rather an attempt to call a better nation into being.

Here again, Baudrillard is useful: this is the hyperreal. The symbols of masculinity endlessly replicated and amplified until the signified (ideal masculinity) is so distant and removed from the original sign (a suit).

Remember when you protest: you're not trying to persuade the Trump regime to stop their actions, they're not open to persuasion. You're trying to persuade the public that the Trump regime is acting unconstitutionally. The public isn't persuaded by violence. Peaceful, joyful protest tactics will win.

theonion.com/marines-rais...

Padilla: If this is how DHS responds to a senator with a question you can only imagine what they're doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California.

FWIW, the NYT has improved their coverage of the assault on Padilla. Bad coverage should draw outrage, but good coverage should draw views to ensure it continues. Gift Link: www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06...

Trump and the US National Park Service are trying to erase the transgender community from the history of the Stonewall Uprising. This cannot stand. Join me in fighting back by signing the petition below to voice your support for all members of the LGBTQ+ community and their contributions to history.

The WSJ news pages expands on the NYT: since Stephen Miller demanded ICE increase its numbers, they’ve started grabbing people without even checking their immigration status, let alone their criminal history. Gift link: www.wsj.com/us-news/prot...

Welcome to the World Cup in Donald Trump’s America!

Ready for Saturday. #NoKings

Quinnipiac finds quite dismal approval numbers for Trump, at month 6: poll.qu.edu/poll-release... Overall: 38/54 'on deportations': 40/56 on the economy: 40/56 on trade: 38/57 on Russia-Ukraine: 34/57 and respondents oppose the 'big beautiful' bill 27/53.

It remains so funny to me how many people who claim to be socialists thought the Biden Administration was a disaster for the working class when the objective truth is it was a disaster for the bosses.