David Sewell
@davidsewell.bsky.social
Native southern Californian, Swarthmore alum, former Tucsonan, retired from University of Virginia Press, living in Charlottesville. Interests include the greater Southwest, Lebanon/MENA (family members in Beirut); Quaker concerns.
Reposted by David Sewell
Hello @support.bsky.team
I heard from Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social that her account was suspended.
Can you please look into this and reinstate her account? She’s a published author and scholar on authoritarianism. Her presence here is valuable.
cc:
@jay.bsky.team
@aaron.bsky.team
I heard from Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social that her account was suspended.
Can you please look into this and reinstate her account? She’s a published author and scholar on authoritarianism. Her presence here is valuable.
cc:
@jay.bsky.team
@aaron.bsky.team
November 11, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Hello @support.bsky.team
I heard from Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social that her account was suspended.
Can you please look into this and reinstate her account? She’s a published author and scholar on authoritarianism. Her presence here is valuable.
cc:
@jay.bsky.team
@aaron.bsky.team
I heard from Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social that her account was suspended.
Can you please look into this and reinstate her account? She’s a published author and scholar on authoritarianism. Her presence here is valuable.
cc:
@jay.bsky.team
@aaron.bsky.team
Reposted by David Sewell
May tonight mark the beginning of the end of every political dynasty that made life harder, nights darker, and the world more violent.
November 5, 2025 at 4:28 AM
May tonight mark the beginning of the end of every political dynasty that made life harder, nights darker, and the world more violent.
A strong essay which, among other things, takes aim at the cliché of Lebanese "resilience" so often invoked by outsiders.
Forced to become a "spokesperson for a broken place," Lebanese writer Lina Mounzer writes a powerful essay on why she's no longer explaining the Middle East for American newspapers www.equator.org/articles/the...
The Disaster Correspondent • Articles • EQUATOR
Why I stopped explaining the Middle East to Americans
www.equator.org
October 29, 2025 at 5:23 PM
A strong essay which, among other things, takes aim at the cliché of Lebanese "resilience" so often invoked by outsiders.
Too bad about not visiting South Lebanon but that would be politically freighted. And pose security issues, probably.
Pope Leo XIV will pray at the site of the 2020 Beirut port blast in his first foreign trip.
A visit to southern Lebanon is not on the agenda, however.
apnews.com/article/pope...
A visit to southern Lebanon is not on the agenda, however.
apnews.com/article/pope...
Pope Leo XIV will pray at the site of the 2020 Beirut port blast in his first foreign trip
Pope Leo XIV will pray at the site of the 2020 port blast in Beirut that killed over 200 people during his first foreign visit as pope.
apnews.com
October 28, 2025 at 2:05 AM
Too bad about not visiting South Lebanon but that would be politically freighted. And pose security issues, probably.
Reposted by David Sewell
It's a teardown. Please share #laloalcaraz cartoons! Visit laloalcaraz.com for updates on the upcoming 2026 Year of Resistance Lalo Alcaraz Cartoon Calendar!
October 24, 2025 at 4:02 AM
It's a teardown. Please share #laloalcaraz cartoons! Visit laloalcaraz.com for updates on the upcoming 2026 Year of Resistance Lalo Alcaraz Cartoon Calendar!
"[The] delusion of an absolute value has made the production of gold since ancient times the business of adventurers, gamblers, criminals, of elements outside the pale of normal, sane society." --Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-f...
Trump flaunts Oval Office’s 24-karat accents as gold hits record highs. Is it time to start investing in gold?
‘All that glitters is not gold’ does not apply to the White House.
finance.yahoo.com
October 23, 2025 at 8:08 PM
"[The] delusion of an absolute value has made the production of gold since ancient times the business of adventurers, gamblers, criminals, of elements outside the pale of normal, sane society." --Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-f...
Reposted by David Sewell
Yesterday, the U.S. blew up a boat off Colombia's coast. Since Sept., the Trump admin. has conducted strikes on at least eight boats, killing at least 34 people. The U.S. has committed state-sanctioned murder.
Demand Congress stop these illegal strikes.
Demand Congress stop these illegal strikes.
Tell Congress: Stop illegal military strikes in the Caribbean
Since Sept. 2 the U.S. has bombed multiple boats in the Caribbean, killing at least 32 people. The Trump administration claims this is part of a new “armed conflict” with “narco-traffickers.” These ac...
afsc.org
October 22, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Yesterday, the U.S. blew up a boat off Colombia's coast. Since Sept., the Trump admin. has conducted strikes on at least eight boats, killing at least 34 people. The U.S. has committed state-sanctioned murder.
Demand Congress stop these illegal strikes.
Demand Congress stop these illegal strikes.
Since getting involved with activism around the Farmville Detention Center in Virginia, I've set a Google news alert for articles about its operator, CoreCivic, and Geo Group, the other big private prison company in the U.S. Dismaying to see the glee in the financial press about their earnings.
October 21, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Since getting involved with activism around the Farmville Detention Center in Virginia, I've set a Google news alert for articles about its operator, CoreCivic, and Geo Group, the other big private prison company in the U.S. Dismaying to see the glee in the financial press about their earnings.
Since the "ceasefire", 270 deaths in Lebanon from Israeli strikes, zero in Israel from Hezbollah strikes (of which there have been very few).
Israel still fires on Lebanon almost a year after a ceasefire. Some predict the same for Gaza
My look at the Lebanon "lessfire" model, with interactive map courtesy of the @apnews.com graphics team
apnews.com/article/leba...
My look at the Lebanon "lessfire" model, with interactive map courtesy of the @apnews.com graphics team
apnews.com/article/leba...
Israel still fires on Lebanon almost a year after a ceasefire. Some predict the same for Gaza
Israel continues to launch near-daily strikes in neighboring Lebanon. That's despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war nearly a year ago.
apnews.com
October 20, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Since the "ceasefire", 270 deaths in Lebanon from Israeli strikes, zero in Israel from Hezbollah strikes (of which there have been very few).
Good news. The universities are on track to join the Pentagon journalists in solidarity against unreasonable demands and proffers.
BREAKING: UVA rejects the Trump Administration's Compact.
October 17, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Good news. The universities are on track to join the Pentagon journalists in solidarity against unreasonable demands and proffers.
If only Judas Iscariot had had a modern PR firm to help him. They could have drafted a resignation statement saying that "the continued accusations about me distract from the work" of the other disciples, and he could have gone on his merry way and probably gotten a book deal to boot.
October 17, 2025 at 8:21 PM
If only Judas Iscariot had had a modern PR firm to help him. They could have drafted a resignation statement saying that "the continued accusations about me distract from the work" of the other disciples, and he could have gone on his merry way and probably gotten a book deal to boot.
Reposted by David Sewell
Reposted by David Sewell
The San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona has passed one of the most moving and powerful resolutions memorializing the role of the jaguar as a protector of the O’odham with deep cultural and spiritual ties. The resolution also calls on U.S. Fish and Wildlife to…”
October 9, 2025 at 7:49 PM
The San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona has passed one of the most moving and powerful resolutions memorializing the role of the jaguar as a protector of the O’odham with deep cultural and spiritual ties. The resolution also calls on U.S. Fish and Wildlife to…”
This may have been the very last chance to prevent the destruction of Oak Flat. I'd be happy to learn I'm wrong.
The Supreme Court also rejected another effort to block a copper mine on an Apache sacred site. Once again, Justice Gorsuch dissented. www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...
October 6, 2025 at 1:42 PM
This may have been the very last chance to prevent the destruction of Oak Flat. I'd be happy to learn I'm wrong.
Done.
for any UVA folks that follow me you should circulate this among your networks balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...
Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
balkin.blogspot.com
October 6, 2025 at 2:29 AM
Done.
Reposted by David Sewell
Well then I can see why Trump would want his face on a coin. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/b...
October 4, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Well then I can see why Trump would want his face on a coin. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/b...
New biography of Octavia Butler! Avoid Amazon by ordering direct from the publisher (at a discount), or bookshop.org, or your local indie bookstore.
www.harpercollins.com/products/pos...
www.harpercollins.com/products/pos...
Positive Obsession
A magnificent cultural biography that charts the life of one of our greatest writers, situating her alongside the key historical and social moments that sha...
www.harpercollins.com
October 3, 2025 at 3:42 PM
New biography of Octavia Butler! Avoid Amazon by ordering direct from the publisher (at a discount), or bookshop.org, or your local indie bookstore.
www.harpercollins.com/products/pos...
www.harpercollins.com/products/pos...
Reposted by David Sewell
As if irony isn’t already dead, the Hatch Act violation on the DOJ website, which blames Democrats for the shutdown, appears on the page advising DOJ employees they are subject to the Hatch Act. joycevance.substack.com/p/a-note-abo...
October 3, 2025 at 2:00 AM
As if irony isn’t already dead, the Hatch Act violation on the DOJ website, which blames Democrats for the shutdown, appears on the page advising DOJ employees they are subject to the Hatch Act. joycevance.substack.com/p/a-note-abo...
Reposted by David Sewell
Last night, the ADL took down its "Glossary of antisemitism" which included an entry for the term "globalist," describing it as a far-right codeword for Jews.
Hours later, the official DHS account authors a post with a common far-right meme, saying that "globalists" will be denied entry to the US.
Hours later, the official DHS account authors a post with a common far-right meme, saying that "globalists" will be denied entry to the US.
October 1, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Last night, the ADL took down its "Glossary of antisemitism" which included an entry for the term "globalist," describing it as a far-right codeword for Jews.
Hours later, the official DHS account authors a post with a common far-right meme, saying that "globalists" will be denied entry to the US.
Hours later, the official DHS account authors a post with a common far-right meme, saying that "globalists" will be denied entry to the US.
This one's for Pete Hegseth. "We Were All Wounded at Wounded Knee" by Redbone, 1973. youtu.be/AvZbmLJlSoM?...
Redbone - We Were All Wounded At Wounded Knee • TopPop
YouTube video by TopPop
youtu.be
September 26, 2025 at 8:39 PM
This one's for Pete Hegseth. "We Were All Wounded at Wounded Knee" by Redbone, 1973. youtu.be/AvZbmLJlSoM?...
The logic of Trump's tariff collocations increasingly resembles that of Borges' Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge or Terry Pratchett's Abominations Unto Nuggan wiki.lspace.org/Abominations...
Abominations Unto Nuggan - Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki
wiki.lspace.org
September 26, 2025 at 12:09 PM
The logic of Trump's tariff collocations increasingly resembles that of Borges' Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge or Terry Pratchett's Abominations Unto Nuggan wiki.lspace.org/Abominations...
Marco Rubio just got a promotion! From "Acting Archivist of the United States" to "Archivist of the United States (Acting)", on the website. Actually all the "actings" got edited, maybe to make it less obvious that permanent appointments aren't happening at NARA. www.archives.gov/about/organi...
Meet NARA's Leadership
Management Team Archivist of the United States (Acting) Marco Rubio Senior Advisor to the Archivist James Byron Deputy Archivist of the United States Chief Operating Officer Jay Trainer jay.trainer...
www.archives.gov
September 24, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Marco Rubio just got a promotion! From "Acting Archivist of the United States" to "Archivist of the United States (Acting)", on the website. Actually all the "actings" got edited, maybe to make it less obvious that permanent appointments aren't happening at NARA. www.archives.gov/about/organi...
At least one president gave a speech at the UN yesterday that didn't make his country's citizens want to hang their heads in shame. #Lebanon today.lorientlejour.com/article/1478...
Aoun at the UN: 'Lebanon has made its choice... don't abandon it!'
President Joseph Aoun took to the podium on Tuesday to address the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York for the first time since his election in January, and urged the international...
today.lorientlejour.com
September 24, 2025 at 12:31 PM
At least one president gave a speech at the UN yesterday that didn't make his country's citizens want to hang their heads in shame. #Lebanon today.lorientlejour.com/article/1478...