Erik Loomis
@erikloomis.bsky.social
Labor and environmental historian. Writer of books, teacher of American horrors, talker on labor movement. Beer, country music, and football are not just for the right wingers. Cats. The West. Music. Graves. Writes at https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/
There should be a special Oscar named for Burt Young--Best Slob in a Motion Picture. No one in all of cinema history was better at it.
January 5, 2026 at 8:23 AM
There should be a special Oscar named for Burt Young--Best Slob in a Motion Picture. No one in all of cinema history was better at it.
If the Eurotrash visitors ever weren't so scared of spicy food, it wouldn't be so hard for an American like myself on a Thai beach to get the restaurants to serve food the way it was intended to be served.
Of course the Europeans also outnumber Americans here 100-1 or more......
Of course the Europeans also outnumber Americans here 100-1 or more......
January 4, 2026 at 1:50 PM
If the Eurotrash visitors ever weren't so scared of spicy food, it wouldn't be so hard for an American like myself on a Thai beach to get the restaurants to serve food the way it was intended to be served.
Of course the Europeans also outnumber Americans here 100-1 or more......
Of course the Europeans also outnumber Americans here 100-1 or more......
Meanwhile, in countries that still do scientific research and medicine.....
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time
One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.
www.bbc.com
January 4, 2026 at 1:31 PM
Meanwhile, in countries that still do scientific research and medicine.....
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Some genuinely dumb useful idiot motherfuckers.
A gentle reminder… Sam Moyn and Trita Parsi are the dumbest motherfuckers on the face of the planet www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Opinion: The improvement Trump could make to U.S. foreign policy
Donald Trump's first term, with exits from the Iran nuclear deal and Paris climate agreement, hardly showed good global governance. But here's something he could get right.
www.latimes.com
January 3, 2026 at 12:02 PM
Some genuinely dumb useful idiot motherfuckers.
To everyone on the "left" who claimed that Donald Trump was the peace candidate unlike those warmongers Obama/Biden/Harris, please fuck off and die.
January 3, 2026 at 11:56 AM
To everyone on the "left" who claimed that Donald Trump was the peace candidate unlike those warmongers Obama/Biden/Harris, please fuck off and die.
I want to be clear here--Richard Nixon would have LOVED to have vetoed the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act. But it passed Congress by an easily overridden number and he wouldn't risk political capital on that. Nixon deserves ZERO credit.
tens of thousands of deaths is what it took for the most progressive republican president in the last fifty or so years to sign the federal coal mine health and safety act
This Day in Labor History: December 30, 1969. Richard Nixon reluctantly signed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act into law. The first comprehensive legislation in American history to protect the lives of coal miners, it came after the deaths of tens of thousands of miners!!!
December 31, 2025 at 2:05 AM
I want to be clear here--Richard Nixon would have LOVED to have vetoed the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act. But it passed Congress by an easily overridden number and he wouldn't risk political capital on that. Nixon deserves ZERO credit.
This Day in Labor History: December 30, 1969. Richard Nixon reluctantly signed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act into law. The first comprehensive legislation in American history to protect the lives of coal miners, it came after the deaths of tens of thousands of miners!!!
December 31, 2025 at 1:58 AM
This Day in Labor History: December 30, 1969. Richard Nixon reluctantly signed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act into law. The first comprehensive legislation in American history to protect the lives of coal miners, it came after the deaths of tens of thousands of miners!!!
If you are still on the search for the Maltese Falcon, it's in the lobby of my father-in-law's senior apartment building.
December 24, 2025 at 8:23 PM
If you are still on the search for the Maltese Falcon, it's in the lobby of my father-in-law's senior apartment building.
Grading finals on Christmas Eve may not be an ideal activity. But I am reminded of my perplexity when I hear professors who go into administration because they are now bored by teaching? Why would you be bored by teaching? I really don't get that. I love teaching so much. And also I loathe admin.
December 24, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Grading finals on Christmas Eve may not be an ideal activity. But I am reminded of my perplexity when I hear professors who go into administration because they are now bored by teaching? Why would you be bored by teaching? I really don't get that. I love teaching so much. And also I loathe admin.
This Day in Labor History: December 24, 1913. Striking Italian copper workers in Calumet, Michigan held a Christmas party in the town’s Italian Hall. Someone shouted “fire.” Could have been company thugs, but we will never know. People rushed the exit and 73 died, including 59 children!!!
December 24, 2025 at 1:19 PM
This Day in Labor History: December 24, 1913. Striking Italian copper workers in Calumet, Michigan held a Christmas party in the town’s Italian Hall. Someone shouted “fire.” Could have been company thugs, but we will never know. People rushed the exit and 73 died, including 59 children!!!
This Day in Labor History: December 23, 1872. Coal miners near Clearfield, Pennsylvania got into a fight with strikebreakers trying to mine coal during a strike. This moment tells us a great deal about how miners defined their jobs and their rights in 1872, providing lessons to us today!!!
December 23, 2025 at 2:28 PM
This Day in Labor History: December 23, 1872. Coal miners near Clearfield, Pennsylvania got into a fight with strikebreakers trying to mine coal during a strike. This moment tells us a great deal about how miners defined their jobs and their rights in 1872, providing lessons to us today!!!
Pleased that Robert Earl Keen's "Merry Christmas from the Family" happened to come up on my playlist today
December 23, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Pleased that Robert Earl Keen's "Merry Christmas from the Family" happened to come up on my playlist today
This Day in Labor History: December 22, 1988. The Brazilian rubber worker, union leader, and environmental activist Chico Mendes was murdered by a rancher named Darcy Alves who hated everything he stood for. Let's talk about this horrible moment but also Mendes' great movement!
December 22, 2025 at 1:12 PM
This Day in Labor History: December 22, 1988. The Brazilian rubber worker, union leader, and environmental activist Chico Mendes was murdered by a rancher named Darcy Alves who hated everything he stood for. Let's talk about this horrible moment but also Mendes' great movement!
SEAN O'BRIEN IS A DEMOCRATIC UNIONIST!
This is a big part of my point about the cult of democratic unionism. O'Brien comes out of the democratic unionist movement in the Teamsters! It is not better!
This is a big part of my point about the cult of democratic unionism. O'Brien comes out of the democratic unionist movement in the Teamsters! It is not better!
I’ll take dsa crowd over a conservative any day. Still doing better than O’Brien is
December 21, 2025 at 5:16 PM
SEAN O'BRIEN IS A DEMOCRATIC UNIONIST!
This is a big part of my point about the cult of democratic unionism. O'Brien comes out of the democratic unionist movement in the Teamsters! It is not better!
This is a big part of my point about the cult of democratic unionism. O'Brien comes out of the democratic unionist movement in the Teamsters! It is not better!
Great question!
Running a union is hard and not very many people are capable of doing so. Democratic unionists are often not actually competent of running organizations. The myth is that "more democracy equals better unionism." But any study of the fact doesn't demonstrate that.
Running a union is hard and not very many people are capable of doing so. Democratic unionists are often not actually competent of running organizations. The myth is that "more democracy equals better unionism." But any study of the fact doesn't demonstrate that.
December 21, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Great question!
Running a union is hard and not very many people are capable of doing so. Democratic unionists are often not actually competent of running organizations. The myth is that "more democracy equals better unionism." But any study of the fact doesn't demonstrate that.
Running a union is hard and not very many people are capable of doing so. Democratic unionists are often not actually competent of running organizations. The myth is that "more democracy equals better unionism." But any study of the fact doesn't demonstrate that.
The IWW doesn't even exist as a real thing--at the very least, can we please stop projecting our revolutionary desires on structures that can't support them?
December 21, 2025 at 1:53 PM
The IWW doesn't even exist as a real thing--at the very least, can we please stop projecting our revolutionary desires on structures that can't support them?
This Day in Labor History: December 21, 1907. The Chilean military massacred perhaps 2,000 striking nitrate miners, though possibly significantly more than that. Let's talk the horrors of the Santa Maria Massacre, part of the global war on workers!
December 21, 2025 at 1:16 PM
This Day in Labor History: December 21, 1907. The Chilean military massacred perhaps 2,000 striking nitrate miners, though possibly significantly more than that. Let's talk the horrors of the Santa Maria Massacre, part of the global war on workers!
What is going on with the UAW is another example of how the Labor Notes/DSA/Jacobin crowd are just as abusive and corrupt in power as the people they claim to hate.
The history of democratic unionist activists coming to power in unions is in fact very bad.
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
The history of democratic unionist activists coming to power in unions is in fact very bad.
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
UAW president’s chief of staff to leave the union following federal monitor report
A key United Auto Workers strategist and architect of the union’s 2023 auto-factory strike is leaving the labor group, after a report by the federal monitor overseeing the UAW concluded that he
was...
www.reuters.com
December 21, 2025 at 1:12 PM
What is going on with the UAW is another example of how the Labor Notes/DSA/Jacobin crowd are just as abusive and corrupt in power as the people they claim to hate.
The history of democratic unionist activists coming to power in unions is in fact very bad.
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
The history of democratic unionist activists coming to power in unions is in fact very bad.
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
Well, at least the days get longer now
December 21, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Well, at least the days get longer now
Notre Dame got "robbed" of a playoff bid, a team that somehow lost to both Miami and A&M, presently playing in one of the worst postseason games ever played.
December 20, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Notre Dame got "robbed" of a playoff bid, a team that somehow lost to both Miami and A&M, presently playing in one of the worst postseason games ever played.
This Day in Labor History: December 19, 1907. The Darr Mine near Smithton, Pennsylvania, caught fire and exploded. 239 people died, many of them children. This was the largest workplace disaster in Pennsylvania history. Let's talk about this horrible tragedy and all the dead coal miners of this era!
December 19, 2025 at 3:28 PM
This Day in Labor History: December 19, 1907. The Darr Mine near Smithton, Pennsylvania, caught fire and exploded. 239 people died, many of them children. This was the largest workplace disaster in Pennsylvania history. Let's talk about this horrible tragedy and all the dead coal miners of this era!
If there's one thing that Trump years have proven, its that you can lie and no one who votes for you will care
Lot for Democrats to learn here.
Lot for Democrats to learn here.
FOX: If you cut something by 100%, the cost goes down to 0. If you cut it by 600%, the drug companies are actually paying you
LUTNICK: What he's saying is if a drug was $100 and you bring it down to $13, it's down 7 times
F: Not a 600% cut
L: But it's 700% higher price before. It's down 700% now
LUTNICK: What he's saying is if a drug was $100 and you bring it down to $13, it's down 7 times
F: Not a 600% cut
L: But it's 700% higher price before. It's down 700% now
December 18, 2025 at 8:53 PM
If there's one thing that Trump years have proven, its that you can lie and no one who votes for you will care
Lot for Democrats to learn here.
Lot for Democrats to learn here.
Got to publish my Norman Podhoretz obituary, which was fun for so many reasons.
Who should I write an obituary on next? I know....Alan Dershowitz!
www.wonkette.com/p/norman-pod...
Who should I write an obituary on next? I know....Alan Dershowitz!
www.wonkette.com/p/norman-pod...
Norman Podhoretz, You Are Get The F*ck Out
Goodnight, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye!
www.wonkette.com
December 18, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Got to publish my Norman Podhoretz obituary, which was fun for so many reasons.
Who should I write an obituary on next? I know....Alan Dershowitz!
www.wonkette.com/p/norman-pod...
Who should I write an obituary on next? I know....Alan Dershowitz!
www.wonkette.com/p/norman-pod...
I quit Skocpol's Scholars Strategy Network because she refused to recognize her workers' union campaign and forced them through an NLRB election instead of just recognizing their union. So........
┏┓
┃┃╱╲ In this
┃╱╱╲╲ house
╱╱╭╮╲╲ we love
▔▏┗┛▕▔ & appreciate
╱▔▔▔▔▔▔▔╲
Theda Skopcol
╱╱┏┳┓╭╮┏┳┓ ╲╲
▔▏┗┻┛┃┃┗┻┛▕▔
┃┃╱╲ In this
┃╱╱╲╲ house
╱╱╭╮╲╲ we love
▔▏┗┛▕▔ & appreciate
╱▔▔▔▔▔▔▔╲
Theda Skopcol
╱╱┏┳┓╭╮┏┳┓ ╲╲
▔▏┗┻┛┃┃┗┻┛▕▔
December 18, 2025 at 4:36 PM
I quit Skocpol's Scholars Strategy Network because she refused to recognize her workers' union campaign and forced them through an NLRB election instead of just recognizing their union. So........
Really, everyone left of center--from DNC types to the far left--lies to themselves all the time about what THE PEOPLE believe.
If you think "the people" secretly believe what you do, if only they could be mobilized, my recommendation is to actually talk to people. Because they don't.
If you think "the people" secretly believe what you do, if only they could be mobilized, my recommendation is to actually talk to people. Because they don't.
Saying Texas isn't a Republican state it's a nonvoting state is cope www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
The Biggest Lie in Texas Politics
Ahead of the midterm elections, the state Democratic party is leaning on an old message.
www.texasmonthly.com
December 18, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Really, everyone left of center--from DNC types to the far left--lies to themselves all the time about what THE PEOPLE believe.
If you think "the people" secretly believe what you do, if only they could be mobilized, my recommendation is to actually talk to people. Because they don't.
If you think "the people" secretly believe what you do, if only they could be mobilized, my recommendation is to actually talk to people. Because they don't.