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needlesandbits.bsky.social
Tara
@needlesandbits.bsky.social
1K followers 1.9K following 2.3K posts
Reader. Stitcher (Needlepoint & Cross Stitch). Tatting. Equestrian. Adopter of Cats & Dogs. Curious about Everything. Always Learning. (she/her)
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Reposted by Tara
asharangappa.bsky.social
“Weaponizing the DOJ” takes on a whole new level when you order investigations in order to reopen it so it’s no longer closed and you can claim you can’t release information because it’s an “ongoing investigation”
November 15, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Reposted by Tara
adamserwer.bsky.social
Great piece by Zadie Smith. When the right talks about classics or "Western" culture, these works are only important to the extent that it demonstrates their superiority, they have no interest in art in and of itself beyond that www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
You know a country by its values. By what a country values. And it turns out that what a country values can change over time. Sometimes, though, there’s a sort of cognitive delay between the country you think you are in, and the country you’ve actually become. For example, you can keep selling yourself, to foreigners, as the country of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen, and luring busloads of tourists to Stratford-upon-Avon and Bath, and put a statue of George Orwell in front of the BBC, and imagine yourself a cultured and literate nation, which the rest of the world admires for its devotion to the written word – but if you then chronically underfund your cultural institutions, and treat your cultural workers with contempt, many people will suspect you of being full of it. And as the decades pass – and fewer and fewer Shakespeares and Austens and Orwells emerge from your little island – even more people will begin to suspect that in truth you do not value culture at all, and are in fact running a giant heritage museum in which the only cultural workers you respect are the dead ones.
November 12, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Tara
bookshopghost.bsky.social
Let's talk about books and the public trust.

📚🧵

Something that is easy to forget, in these days of barcode-scanning / auto-adjust pricing on third-party platforms for pennies plus shipping:

Booksellers are not merely people who sell some popular books in a competitive market.
A bookcase near a doorway, through which you can see another bookcase. There are maybe 150 books visible, with very few duplicates; they are shelved fairly tightly, with only one face out. A book open to a page with text about William Caslon, a printer and font creator. The text is actually in Centaur, which was created by Bruce Rogers. This is from Rogers' book about creating Centaur, actually.
November 12, 2025 at 8:41 PM
needlesandbits.bsky.social
Be careful. You can be suspended on this platform for quoting Johnny Cash in regards to an article about Johnny Cash...
safety.bsky.app Bluesky Safety @safety.bsky.app · 3d
The account owner of @sarahkendzior.bsky.social was suspended for 72 hours for expressing a desire to shoot the author of an article. The post, made 11/10, stated: "I want to shoot the author of this article just to watch him die." 1/2
November 12, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by Tara
bagleycartoons.bsky.social
ICE won’t stop with immigrants. They are Trump’s thugs

Next they’ll be coming for his critics

You shouldn’t have to be threatened personally to stand against evil
November 10, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Tara
newsjennifer.bsky.social
Read every word & share with everyone you know. This is real life here in Chicago. Americans need to know this grotesque reality & stand with us.
bgrueskin.bsky.social Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 6d
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.

He is a computer safety researcher.

And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.

In under 1600 words.

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
I Want You to Understand Chicago Politics Chicago 2025-11-08 I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st. Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…
November 10, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Reposted by Tara
pcbryan.bsky.social
If you were curious about your chances of survival in event of a nuclear attack, Alex Wellerstein's NUKEMAP can let you play with it: nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

#HouseOfDynamite #HATM
NUKEMAP by Alex Wellerstein
NUKEMAP is a website for visualizing the effects of nuclear detonations.
nuclearsecrecy.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Reposted by Tara
vanhollen.senate.gov
I’ve voted 7 times to reopen the government in a way that holds Trump accountable for his lawlessness and prevents a health care crisis.

I’m prepared to work toward a compromise, but this “deal” before us does not come close to meeting those terms. Voting NO.

Full statement:
November 10, 2025 at 12:48 AM
needlesandbits.bsky.social
Join Historians at the Movies #HATM tonight as we chat about the new movie A House of Dynamite.

Click through here for more info and see you at 8 PM EST!
herberthistory.bsky.social Jason Herbert @herberthistory.bsky.social · 6d
And welcome to Historians At The Movies! Tonight we are talking about the worse possible scenario (other than a Duke basketball championship) with A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE on Netflix at 8pm eastern. #HATM 1/
herberthistory.bsky.social Jason Herbert @herberthistory.bsky.social · 11d
This week Historians At The Movies talks about something not relevant at all. Join us on Netflix this Sunday, November 9 at 8pm eastern for A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE.

Keep #HATM growing by sharing and we’ll see you soon!
November 10, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Reposted by Tara
herberthistory.bsky.social
Exciting news for the new Ken Burns series on the American Revolution. @lizcovart.bsky.social @michaelhattem.bsky.social & Historians At The Movies are partnering to bring you a first of its kind watch party next Sunday. Detail below. Share widely. #HATM

open.substack.com/pub/jasonher...
The American Revolution on PBS
A Historians At The Movies/Ben Franklin’s World Watch Party
open.substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by Tara
bencollins.bsky.social
“I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time.”

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago.
November 9, 2025 at 5:26 PM
needlesandbits.bsky.social
This is a wonderful response to being stopped from helping people.
November 9, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Reposted by Tara
wyden.senate.gov
Senate update: Republicans are now trying to sneak a backdoor national abortion ban into their government funding bill. Republicans will stop at nothing to control women's health care decisions.
November 8, 2025 at 9:05 PM
needlesandbits.bsky.social
WONDERFUL day horseback riding this autumn morning. Pluto even surprised me & broke out into a gallop at one point, doing his best to stay ahead of the thoroughbred we were riding with. After all the distressing news I have been dealing with for the past few weeks, today was an absolute delight.
November 8, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Reposted by Tara
waitmanwbeorn.com
Does anyone on here work with race and medicine in the southern US in the early 20th century?

Niche, I know, but I came across something very weird in my late father's stuff that might be of interest.

Feel free to share.
November 6, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Tara
alaw202.bsky.social
I had a run in with ICE snatching a man out of his car while walking my children to school this morning in NW DC

I asked a neighbor to continue walking my kids to school and I turned back to document and confront the ICE agents.

I am in contact with @dcmigrantmutualaid.org with the full video.
November 6, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by Tara
atrupar.com
incredible photo that's definitely worth at least 1,000 words from Andrew Harnik of Getty
November 6, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Tara
willguisbond.com
NEW - statement from air traffic controllers union
November 5, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Reposted by Tara
herberthistory.bsky.social
This week Historians At The Movies talks about something not relevant at all. Join us on Netflix this Sunday, November 9 at 8pm eastern for A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE.

Keep #HATM growing by sharing and we’ll see you soon!
November 4, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Reposted by Tara
sansip.bsky.social
Re-upping the dedication of Mahmood Mamdani's 2020 book, 'Neither Settler nor Native'.
November 5, 2025 at 5:04 AM
Reposted by Tara
thomaszimmer.bsky.social
The New York Times quickly sending out Douthat to argue that Mamdani’s victory doesn’t really matter is so predictable it borders on self-parody.

Remember, folks: Every time the Right wins an election, it’s an undeniable expression of the will of the people. If a lefty wins, it’s just a blip.
Opinion | Mamdani’s Victory Is Less Significant Than You Think
www.nytimes.com
November 5, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Tara
katzish.bsky.social
If the sandwich don’t split, you must acquit
ryanjreilly.com Ryan J. Reilly “paints a vivid and urgent portrait of… disarray” @ryanjreilly.com · 10d
Defense says that the officer's testimony was "very questionable" because he said the sandwich both exploded in spray of mustard and onions and also landed in its wrapper on the ground.
November 5, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Reposted by Tara
leximcmenamin.com
thank you for all the support; the statement from our union is now live here with some more reporting.

now that this is public I can confirm that the majority of today’s layoffs were women of color. there are no longer any Black women working at Teen Vogue.
November 3, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Reposted by Tara
leximcmenamin.com
today’s information came out piecemeal, and people should be able to share their own situations on their own time, but I could share this much ^ as it is pretty cut and dry on the facts.

Teen Vogue also no longer has any trans staffers as of today.
November 3, 2025 at 11:28 PM