Shelly Penton
@plaidsilk.bsky.social
PhD Candidate Religious Studies. UVA. Skeets my own.
Reposted by Shelly Penton
Even when there’s no accountability, the record matters. Credit to the Wikipedia editors maintaining this page.
Deaths, detentions and deportations of American citizens in the second Trump administration - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
January 25, 2026 at 3:09 AM
Even when there’s no accountability, the record matters. Credit to the Wikipedia editors maintaining this page.
Reposted by Shelly Penton
Our country was founded on independence — aspirational and clumsily attempted as it was — and has been sullied by this sort of servile, vapid Dick Wolfish law enforcement worship.
Attorney General Pam Bondi: "Our country was founded on law enforcement"
Bondi: "It's extremely organized. The signs they have are all matching, they're well written. And look at what's happening today. How did these people go out & get gas masks? These protesters. Would you know how to walk out on the street and buy a gas mask? Think about that. We're not gonna have it"
January 25, 2026 at 3:00 AM
Our country was founded on independence — aspirational and clumsily attempted as it was — and has been sullied by this sort of servile, vapid Dick Wolfish law enforcement worship.
Reposted by Shelly Penton
“Get it all on record now — get the films — get the witnesses — because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower, after visiting liberated concentration camps in April 1945
Dwight D. Eisenhower, after visiting liberated concentration camps in April 1945
January 24, 2026 at 9:24 PM
“Get it all on record now — get the films — get the witnesses — because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower, after visiting liberated concentration camps in April 1945
Dwight D. Eisenhower, after visiting liberated concentration camps in April 1945
Reposted by Shelly Penton
Goddamn.
Protesters chanting "We're not cold, we're not afraid, Minne[apolis/sota] taught us to be brave" in Boston tonight outside Government Center station.
January 25, 2026 at 2:55 AM
Goddamn.
Reposted by Shelly Penton
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.
"Please get the truth out about our son."
"Please get the truth out about our son."
January 25, 2026 at 12:43 AM
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.
"Please get the truth out about our son."
"Please get the truth out about our son."
Reposted by Shelly Penton
"abolish ICE is the moderate position" is no longer just bluesky wishcasting
YouGov is out with a new poll after ICE killed another person in Minnesota today. Abolishing ICE is now +5 among all adults, and **+12 among independents**
substack.com/@gelliottmor...
substack.com/@gelliottmor...
January 25, 2026 at 2:39 AM
"abolish ICE is the moderate position" is no longer just bluesky wishcasting
Oh my God
I’ll share any picture anyone sends of these memorials
Everyone in the suburbs are putting them out on our porches. At least around us in Eagan
January 25, 2026 at 2:51 AM
Oh my God
Reposted by Shelly Penton
I have spent my entire adult life being lectured by Republican politicians and conservative legal movement types about how important it is to preserve the sacred constitutional right to self-defense of *specifically this person* and then secret police murdered him in the street
Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara says that the victim was a 37-year-old white man and US citizen with no criminal record and that he was a legally permitted gun owner.
January 24, 2026 at 6:29 PM
I have spent my entire adult life being lectured by Republican politicians and conservative legal movement types about how important it is to preserve the sacred constitutional right to self-defense of *specifically this person* and then secret police murdered him in the street
Reposted by Shelly Penton
I would treat any statement from a US government source at this point as about as trustworthy as the Russian government or any other modern authoritarian regime.
January 24, 2026 at 6:26 PM
I would treat any statement from a US government source at this point as about as trustworthy as the Russian government or any other modern authoritarian regime.
Reposted by Shelly Penton
After illegally abducting Maduro, Trump has just sold $250M of Venezuela's oil to Vitol.
John Addison, a senior trader at Vitol who helped broker the deal, gave $6M to Trump's 2024 campaign.
Pay-to-play imperialism.
John Addison, a senior trader at Vitol who helped broker the deal, gave $6M to Trump's 2024 campaign.
Pay-to-play imperialism.
January 22, 2026 at 1:00 AM
After illegally abducting Maduro, Trump has just sold $250M of Venezuela's oil to Vitol.
John Addison, a senior trader at Vitol who helped broker the deal, gave $6M to Trump's 2024 campaign.
Pay-to-play imperialism.
John Addison, a senior trader at Vitol who helped broker the deal, gave $6M to Trump's 2024 campaign.
Pay-to-play imperialism.
I would make a theater joke but they've already put it on the Kennedy Center's facade.
disgusting man but also funny that trump looks at one of his horrors and is like "how can i justify this using a theater analogy"
Trump on Renee Good: "When she was shot, there was another woman that was screaming 'Shame. Shame Shame Shame.' So loud. Like a professional opera singer. She was so loud. And so professional. She wasn't a woman that was hurt like, 'Oh my heart is injured.' She was a professional."
January 20, 2026 at 7:52 PM
I would make a theater joke but they've already put it on the Kennedy Center's facade.
Reposted by Shelly Penton
I’ve heard young women facing down threatening ICE officers on open dispatch channels in ways you wouldn’t believe. The officers announcing they’re going to be arresting and jailing the observer, and the observer, voice shaking, calmly reasserting their constitutional right over and over.
January 18, 2026 at 2:44 PM
I’ve heard young women facing down threatening ICE officers on open dispatch channels in ways you wouldn’t believe. The officers announcing they’re going to be arresting and jailing the observer, and the observer, voice shaking, calmly reasserting their constitutional right over and over.
Reposted by Shelly Penton
I think the moment I fully lost it with American elite culture was when there was a no-shit bipartisan panic attack over Colorado throwing Trump off the 2024 ballot because of this stipulation
every time I read this, I get apocalyptically apoplectic about how clear it is. it is instant. it does not require explicit congressional action to invoke, it instead only requires that to remove.
donald trump is not the current president right now, according to the constitution.
donald trump is not the current president right now, according to the constitution.
January 20, 2026 at 7:10 PM
I think the moment I fully lost it with American elite culture was when there was a no-shit bipartisan panic attack over Colorado throwing Trump off the 2024 ballot because of this stipulation
Reposted by Shelly Penton
Between Mamdani and Spanberger, the establishment of "instantly repeal all the bullshit the last pig put in place" as Democratic priority #1 for both democratic socialists and ex-CIA types is an extremely heartening development.
The first thing Virginia Spanberger did after being sworn in as Governor of Virginia was repeal Youngkin’s executive order requiring state and local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE.
This is the kind of leadership Democratic governors nationwide should be emulating.
This is the kind of leadership Democratic governors nationwide should be emulating.
January 18, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Between Mamdani and Spanberger, the establishment of "instantly repeal all the bullshit the last pig put in place" as Democratic priority #1 for both democratic socialists and ex-CIA types is an extremely heartening development.
Reposted by Shelly Penton
"What's your favourite Beatles album, then?"
"Tough one! I think I'd have to say... The Best of The Beatles"
"Tough one! I think I'd have to say... The Best of The Beatles"
January 20, 2026 at 9:58 AM
"What's your favourite Beatles album, then?"
"Tough one! I think I'd have to say... The Best of The Beatles"
"Tough one! I think I'd have to say... The Best of The Beatles"
Reposted by Shelly Penton
Register now! for the online event on Wednesday, January 21 from 6:30-7:30pm, on “Belonging in Charlottesville: Effective Strategies to Prevent Displacement.”
Register here: events.humanitix.com/belonging-in...
Register here: events.humanitix.com/belonging-in...
Belonging in Charlottesville Webinar, presented by Livable Cville
Learn about the most effective anti-displacement strategies from University of Toronto professor Dr. Karen Chapple and local advocate Sarah Malpass.
events.humanitix.com
January 20, 2026 at 11:28 AM
Register now! for the online event on Wednesday, January 21 from 6:30-7:30pm, on “Belonging in Charlottesville: Effective Strategies to Prevent Displacement.”
Register here: events.humanitix.com/belonging-in...
Register here: events.humanitix.com/belonging-in...
Reposted by Shelly Penton
Yesterday I taught a class about the historiography of Stonewall.
I used the official defacing of the Stonewall National Monument - removing the TQ+ by the administration - to illustrate how public memory and debates about history, aka historiography, have relevance today.
Next year I'll use this.
I used the official defacing of the Stonewall National Monument - removing the TQ+ by the administration - to illustrate how public memory and debates about history, aka historiography, have relevance today.
Next year I'll use this.
A small, ancillary detail in this horror that made me cry
January 20, 2026 at 8:02 AM
Yesterday I taught a class about the historiography of Stonewall.
I used the official defacing of the Stonewall National Monument - removing the TQ+ by the administration - to illustrate how public memory and debates about history, aka historiography, have relevance today.
Next year I'll use this.
I used the official defacing of the Stonewall National Monument - removing the TQ+ by the administration - to illustrate how public memory and debates about history, aka historiography, have relevance today.
Next year I'll use this.
Critical attention to control of the media takes second chair to more popular (among elitists) doctrinal questions that can be litigated neatly ad infinitum in opinion columns.
Republicans have made a documented effort to mislead these communities with well funded, highly localized Spanish language propaganda campaigns in recent years, which, as is usually the case when mainstream reporters try to tease out a segment of the electorate's thinking, simply isn't mentioned
To Their Shock, Cubans in Florida Are Being Deported in Record Numbers
www.nytimes.com
January 20, 2026 at 11:20 AM
Critical attention to control of the media takes second chair to more popular (among elitists) doctrinal questions that can be litigated neatly ad infinitum in opinion columns.
Reposted by Shelly Penton
maybe heading towards some of those weeks where decades happen
BREAKING: The UK Government is working with Canada and Australia to launch a coordinated ban on X, per the Telegraph
January 11, 2026 at 3:13 AM
maybe heading towards some of those weeks where decades happen
Reposted by Shelly Penton
Well, it’s the 9th anniversary of this today. No special reason for mentioning it now, obviously
January 20, 2026 at 9:25 AM
Well, it’s the 9th anniversary of this today. No special reason for mentioning it now, obviously
Reposted by Shelly Penton
this is the crux of it i think. i'm naive for not cowering in fear. if my grandfather had tried to vote for the first ten years of his adult life he could have been killed. i think i can deal with an ICE chud at my polling place.
January 15, 2026 at 6:13 PM
this is the crux of it i think. i'm naive for not cowering in fear. if my grandfather had tried to vote for the first ten years of his adult life he could have been killed. i think i can deal with an ICE chud at my polling place.
Reposted by Shelly Penton
i actually live in a district that might be the kind of competitive that attracts attention, in a city that holds real significance for trump and his minions. there might be goons at my polling place and if i see them i'll give a smile and a wave and i'll cast my fucking ballot
January 15, 2026 at 6:07 PM
i actually live in a district that might be the kind of competitive that attracts attention, in a city that holds real significance for trump and his minions. there might be goons at my polling place and if i see them i'll give a smile and a wave and i'll cast my fucking ballot
Reposted by Shelly Penton
“….they have misjudged the ground beneath their feet: a state full of ordinary people — real estate agents, high school students, solar energy consultants — who’ve decided that watching their neighbors being dragged away is an intolerable sin.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...
Opinion | In Minneapolis, I Glimpsed a Civil War
www.nytimes.com
January 19, 2026 at 10:33 PM
“….they have misjudged the ground beneath their feet: a state full of ordinary people — real estate agents, high school students, solar energy consultants — who’ve decided that watching their neighbors being dragged away is an intolerable sin.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...
Reposted by Shelly Penton
Virginia, a state profoundly shaped by slavery and segregation — and by generations of resistance to both.
Now being reshaped *and bettered in every way* by immigrants from all over the world and their descendants.
Now being reshaped *and bettered in every way* by immigrants from all over the world and their descendants.
Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi was just sworn in on a Quran, so expect a week-long freakout by Republicans.
January 17, 2026 at 5:40 PM
Virginia, a state profoundly shaped by slavery and segregation — and by generations of resistance to both.
Now being reshaped *and bettered in every way* by immigrants from all over the world and their descendants.
Now being reshaped *and bettered in every way* by immigrants from all over the world and their descendants.
Reposted by Shelly Penton
We did it Virginia!!! Our first female governor! Welcome Governor Spanberger! #spanberger #inauguration
January 17, 2026 at 5:35 PM
We did it Virginia!!! Our first female governor! Welcome Governor Spanberger! #spanberger #inauguration