Matt Farish
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mattfarish.bsky.social
Matt Farish
@mattfarish.bsky.social
680 followers 680 following 180 posts
Historical geographer, University of Toronto; Affiliate, U of T's Centre for the Study of the US. Writing a book about climate labs, survival schools, and the 20th-c. US militarization of the planet. Distracted by AC Milan and ⚽️. Posts are personal.
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Reposted by Matt Farish
donmoyn.bsky.social
The people wearing masks are scanning your face to capture your identity.
An immigrant agent holds a cellphone that is doing a facial scan of a detained man. The app says "Searching Face"
January 15, 2026 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
ositanwanevu.com
I wrote about Renee Good, Venezuela, Greenland, and what it means to be a human being. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
America, JD Vance tells us, is merely a nation like many others ⁠– a “homeland”, he said upon accepting his nomination to the vice-presidency, for “people with a shared history and a common future”. That’s a vision of American identity that would have described bands of cavepeople in skins just as well or better. Stephen Miller’s proleptic defense of seizing Greenland last week suggests the Trumpists themselves know this. “We live in a world, in the real world ... that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” he declared. “These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.” Miller’s laws are the laws of animals. It is true, obviously, that high ideals have long been deployed to obscure or justify predation, here and elsewhere. But Miller’s stance and the stance of the administration is that there aren’t, actually, any high ideals worth pursuing or even pretending to – that the human being, in itself, is nothing so much ⁠and that we are, fundamentally and forever, primitives. Against the demands and best aspirations of civilization – western or any kind – they tell us the human being is a creature that yearns for nothing more than blood and soil, which is, of course, just mud. The lust for mud has taken up many guises in our history and has been many given names of late – neo-reaction, post-liberalism, fascism. But the name familiar to most is evil. It was evil – the standpoint that only might matters, that human morality, and our sense of reality itself, must yield to the turfism of the primates with the biggest clubs – that ginned up the propaganda that provoked an act of terrorism against our legislature and the policemen defending it five years ago. It is evil that undergirds pronouncements from the same voices responsible for that attack, in defense of the man who shot Renee Nicole Good, that those who disobey the commands of law enforcement, however unsound or unjust, deserve summary execution – that implies, as Fox’s Jesse Watters and others have, that Good’s killing was of trivial significance because she was a lesbian “with pronouns in her bio”. It is evil that sends innocent men to foreign gulags, evil that condemns hundreds of thousands of destitute people abroad to death without a moment’s discussion or debate about what the country they had depended on might owe them, or the furnishing of alternative arrangements for their wellbeing. The gutting of USAID remains this administration’s worst and least surprising offense against the human conscience – a president who rejects the idea that we might have obligations to all within our society can’t be expected to wonder or worry about whether we have obligations to those outside of it. This is also why, after all the noise and nonsense about the need to depose the Maduro regime, the Venezuelan people are now being told that regime will be left in mostly in place for as long as it takes to secure and extract the country’s resources on our terms – that Venezuela will not see democracy unless and until it is profitable for the United States. Democracy has always been a useless abstraction to those who deny we have basic human entitlements – for those who believe, instead, that the idea of human liberty is a luxury for those wealthy and powerful enough to consider themselves our betters rather than the birthright of all. As many who’ve taken to the streets in protest have noted, the Trump administration’s assaults on liberty here at home are the kinds of abuses that spurred the revolution we will commemorate this year. But no grand revolution is in the offing this time around. The only just and plausible recourse for our situation is politics – understood not merely as the contest to win any given set of elections but as the broader fight to forge a republic that honors and strengthens our humanity. The American project must and will succeed. Its enemies stand for too little. Our lives are worth too much.
January 14, 2026 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
adamserwer.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
This approach, of course, is quite familiar to communities that have been dealing with police abuses for as long as there have been professional police forces. In 2000, then–New York City Mayor and future Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani justified the killing of the Haitian American Patrick Dorismond by police by quipping that he was “no altar boy.” Embarrassingly for Giuliani, whose capacity for shame was overestimated even then, it turned out that Dorismond had literally been an altar boy. Dorismond’s mother responded to the campaign to justify her son’s killing with an observation that continues to haunt me decades later. “They kill,” Dorismond said, “and after that, they kill him the other way—with the mouth.” Taking Good’s life wasn’t enough. The moment she died, it became imperative for the administration to also destroy her memory.
January 9, 2026 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
nickybandini.bsky.social
Fluffed penalties! Canadians Parmesan cheese on clam pasta! My latest Serie A column for the Guardian truly has it all*

www.theguardian.com/football/202...
Juventus deliver tale of humiliation and redemption inside three days | Nicky Bandini
On Saturday, Jonathan David’s lazy penalty cost Juventus a win. By Tuesday, he was the best player on the pitch
www.theguardian.com
January 8, 2026 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
lebassett.bsky.social
Turning on the news to Stephen Miller shrieking “I WANT GREENLAND BECAUSE ITS MINE. ITS MY TURN TO HAVE IT” like one of those spoiled rich kids in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory feels so deeply embarrassing
January 6, 2026 at 3:19 PM
mattfarish.bsky.social
The Liberal response is mush, but when you frame it as (strictly) "values" vs. "interests", John, you're obviously rigging the game. Given that their MAGA heroes are clearly placing "interests" directly alongside (awful *and* fungible) "values", we should look more closely at Conservative puffery.
January 6, 2026 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
nycsouthpaw.bsky.social
I believe this is the latest social media post from the US Director of National Intelligence, who hasn’t otherwise been heard from today.
Tulsi Gabbard @TulsiGabbard X.com My heart is filled with gratitude, aloha and peace / #2026 [various beach yoga and sunrise photos]
January 3, 2026 at 8:48 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
conjuncture.bsky.social
"If you want to go back to the old wobbly maxim--an injury to one is injury to all--you got to mean it," @kimkelly.bsky.social
tells @jordantcamp.bsky.social in the new episode of Conjuncture. They discuss labor, solidarity, and her book, Fight Like Hell: trinitysocialjustice.com/kim-kelly-on...
January 2, 2026 at 6:43 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
victorerikray.bsky.social
They are denying kids childcare and complicating parents’ lives over a racist moral panic drummed up by a fascist disinformation merchant.
washingtonpost.com The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 20d
The Trump administration paused child care payments to multiple Minnesota day cares following allegations that they improperly collected millions of federal dollars, the latest federal action against the state as it grapples with investigations into fraud in its social welfare system.
Trump administration freezes child care payments to Minnesota
The freeze of funds to day cares accused of fraud and stricter verification measures imposed nationwide comes as Minnesota grapples with widespread investigations of social service programs.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 31, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
donmoyn.bsky.social
New, from me: The NYT reporter who specializes in profiles of beleaguered right-wingers on campus went to New College...and found out that things were going ok!

So let me explain some pretty massive errors of omission: 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-nyt-re...
The NYT Recruiting Brochure for New College
A failing Ron DeSantis higher ed experiment gets a boost
donmoynihan.substack.com
December 28, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
bubbaprog.xyz
The full spiked 60 Minutes CECOT package, clean & subtitled. 1/5
December 23, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Reposted by Matt Farish
nickturse.bsky.social
NEW: U.S. Military Willing to Attack “Designated Terrorist Organizations” Within America, General Says

“That is one of the concerns with the administration asserting that the President essentially has a license to kill outside the law,” says expert.

theintercept.com/2025/12/16/t...
U.S. Military Willing to Attack “Designated Terrorist Organizations” Within America, General Says
“If I had no concerns and I was confident in the lawful order, I would definitely execute that order.”
theintercept.com
December 16, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
Classy as always.
Trump saying that Rob Reiner and his wife were murdered because Reiner made other people angry with Trump Derangement Syndrome
December 15, 2025 at 3:05 PM
mattfarish.bsky.social
Join us in Toronto for the 10th @antipodeonline.bsky.social Institute, in June! antipodeonline.org/institute-fo...
About the Institute - Antipode Online
Antipode’s 10th Institute for the Geographies of Justice (IGJ):“Organizing and Solidarity in a Polycrisis” Toronto, Ontario, Canadathe traditional territory of the Huron Wendat, the Seneca and the Mis...
antipodeonline.org
December 12, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
tkbarnes.bsky.social
Another day, another defense publication funded by the arms industry
December 12, 2025 at 2:51 PM
mattfarish.bsky.social
This guy (Makary) holds an endowed Chair at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, widely considered one of the best in the world.
doughenwood.bsky.social Doug Henwood @doughenwood.bsky.social · Dec 8
The lunacy spreads. From a Bloomberg BusinessWeek email:
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, whose agency regulates a market representing about a fifth of US consumer spending, gained prominence in conservative circles after questioning vaccine policy during the Covid-19 pandemic. Lately, with his agency in crisis, he’s been flirting with some edgier ideas to woo President Donald Trump’s base and shore up support for his leadership. In a string of right-wing podcast interviews that largely went unnoticed last month, he endorsed the widely debunked theories that HIV and Lyme disease were engineered in labs. His new baby, he boasted, wouldn’t be receiving a hepatitis B shot recommended by doctors. And, in his conspiratorial telling, the National Institutes of Health has been pilfering the DNA of LGBT people as medical insiders get rich on sex-change operations.
December 8, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
sharonk.bsky.social
okay i need to find a way to watch this
theguardian.com The Guardian @theguardian.com · Dec 8
Jim Caviezel to play Jair Bolsonaro in ‘heroic’ biopic
Jim Caviezel to play Jair Bolsonaro in ‘heroic’ biopic
Actor, who starred in The Passion of the Christ, will play the disgraced ex-Brazilian president in film written by his one-time secretary of culture Jair Bolsonaro, the former Brazilian president now in prison for plotting a coup, is getting the biopic treatment. Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, is reportedly filming a “heroic” portrait of the rightwing ex-politician in secret. Dark Horse, directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh and written by Mário Frias, who served as secretary of culture under Bolsonaro, started shooting three months ago in Brazil, where Bolsonaro served as president from 2019 until 2023. He was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison in September 2025 for leading a criminal conspiracy to stop his leftwing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, taking power, though his supporters deny the allegations and have compared the prosecution to the “lawfare” allegedly faced by Donald Trump before he was re-elected. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
December 8, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
brian-goldstone.bsky.social
I've been blown away by the generosity shown to my book this year, and wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the books that meant the most to me in 2025—along with a few I'm especially excited to see out in the world in the new year.

THREAD
December 7, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
brucearthur.bsky.social
The FIFA Peace Prize is most correctly viewed as some of the world's most corrupt people recognizing what the world's most corrupt men values most: fake recognition based on lies
December 5, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
drewharwell.com
DOJ's newest recruitment ad features Judge Dredd, the comic satire about the dangers of lawless policing and authoritarian power
dhsgov Deliver justice to criminal illegal aliens. Become a deportation judge. Save your country.
December 4, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social
there are of course many examples of political constituencies that have in fact killed scores of children (en route to some other evil goal), but I can't offhand think of any historical examples of a political constituency organized for that specific purpose
apoorvanyt.bsky.social Apoorva Mandavilli @apoorvanyt.bsky.social · Dec 5
Breaking: After contentious debates and three failed attempts at a vote, a federal vaccine committee decided on Friday to end the decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/h...
An End to Hepatitis B Shots for All Newborns
www.nytimes.com
December 5, 2025 at 3:59 PM
mattfarish.bsky.social
Great piece by my colleague Mike Ekers on the Cowichan decision and Indigenous Title in BC: thenarwhal.ca/opinion-eker...
The Cowichan decision is a long time coming | The Narwhal
Governments of Canada and B.C. laid the groundwork for the Cowichan decision by ignoring the issue of Indigenous Title for more than a century
thenarwhal.ca
December 3, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
tressiemcphd.bsky.social
Maybe related, maybe not — I talked with Emily Keegin about rural aesthetics and politics

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...
Opinion | The Aesthetic That Explains American Identity Now
www.nytimes.com
December 2, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
jamellebouie.net
it is the worst of all worlds. a "unitary *presidency*" insulated from judicial or congressional power and a weak president unable to do the job of governing
December 1, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Matt Farish
bgrueskin.bsky.social
Extraordinary WSJ reporting today that unveils the extent to which Trump, Witkoff, Kushner and US business executives are salivating over business deals with Russia while Putin’s forces kidnap Ukranian children and bomb civilians in their apartments.

🎁 www.wsj.com/world/russia...
WSJ Gentry Beach, a college friend of Donald Trump Jr. and campaign donor to his father, has been in talks to acquire a stake in a Russian Arctic gas project if it is released from sanctions. Another Trump donor, Stephen P. Lynch, paid $600,000 this year to a lobbyist close to Trump Jr. who is helping him seek a Treasury Department license to buy the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from a Russian state-owned company. One sign that he may be serious is that some of his most-trusted friends, sanctioned billionaires from his St. Petersburg hometown-Gennady Timchenko, Yuri Kovalchuk and the Rotenberg brothers, Boris and Arkady-have sent representatives to quietly meet American companies to explore rare-earth mining and energy deals, according to people familiar with the meetings and European security officials. That includes reviving the giant Nord Stream pipeline, sabotaged by Ukrainian tactical divers, and under European Union sanctions. Earlier this year, Exxon Mobil met with Russia's biggest state energy company, Rosneft, to discuss returning to the massive Sakhalin gas project if Moscow and Washington gave the green light.
November 29, 2025 at 12:42 PM