The Gray Sage
LightNews LightNews
banner
walterdgreason.bsky.social
The Gray Sage
@walterdgreason.bsky.social
7.7K followers 3.3K following 990 posts
Historian. Economist. Professor. UX Designer.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by The Gray Sage
folukeifejola.bsky.social
'There is no humane colonialism
There is no democratic colonialism
There is no non-exploitative colonialism'
- Samora Machel, Mozambican military commander, politician, revolutionary... President (1933-1986)
brosef-stalin.bsky.social Ashok Kumar 🇵🇸 @brosef-stalin.bsky.social · Nov 19
Julia Hartley-Brewer: Why is colonialism bad?

Me: “When Britain arrived in 1700s, India had 27% of global GDP. After 200 years of theft and millions starved to death, by 1947 India had 3% of global GDP, 90% living below the poverty line, a literacy rate of 17% and life expectancy of 27”
January 5, 2026 at 11:49 AM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
ebonyteach.blacksky.app
Come, cry with me.
Here's to the best Trek ever! 🖖🏾
www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9bw...
January 4, 2026 at 5:14 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
aninsggirb.bsky.social
“So much of how we understand our culture as a country & understand our place w/in it is thru memory. And memory is, of course, embodied in individuals. It’s also embodied in different art forms…in the case of Nina Simone, her music…a vocal supporter of the civil rights movement during her time.”
January 4, 2026 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
sarahkendzior.bsky.social
Excerpt of Sarah Kendzior's THEY KNEW published in 2022
January 4, 2026 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
Yeah, people are fixating on a Cabinet Secretary being given a sovereign country to run because the president waged war without congressional approval and kidnapped the old leader. Weird that they’d get hung up on that.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d
WELKER: Mr. Secretary, are you running Venezuela right now?

MARCO RUBIO: Yeah. People are fixating on that. Here's the bottom line -- we expect to see changes in Venezuela
January 4, 2026 at 3:35 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
nikitagill.bsky.social
Ever relevant, this poem by Mary Oliver, especially today.
OF THE EMPIRE We will be known as a culture that feared death and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity for the few and cared little for the penury of the many. We will be known as a culture that taught and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke little if at all about the quality of life for people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a commodity. And they will say that this structure was held together politically, which it was, and they will say also that our politics was no more than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of the heart, and that the heart, in those days, was small, and hard, and full of meanness.
January 3, 2026 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
boycottcitizens.bsky.social
"A military contractor with a lineage going back to the notorious mercenary firm Blackwater will help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement track down a list of 1.5 million targeted immigrants across the country."
January 3, 2026 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
laurenmeidasa.bsky.social
BREAKING 🚨 🚨 🚨

CBS Folds Again, Cancels 60 Minutes Segment on Epstein Cover-up After DOJ Pressure

dailyboulder.com/cbs-folds-ag...
CBS Folds Again, Cancels 60 Minutes Segment on Epstein Cover-up After DOJ Pressure
The Justice Department had a chance to show backbone on Jeffrey Epstein. Instead, it offered opacity, delay, and a reminder that accountability still has a VIP section.
dailyboulder.com
January 3, 2026 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
cristianfarias.com
Best thing I’ve read this morning, from a human rights lawyer in Mexico. Translation is in the ALT-text.
Twitter thread in Spanish by José Mario de la Garza, a human rights lawyer in Mexico, translated using Google Translate: 1. Overthrowing a dictator sounds morally right. No one mourns a tyrant. But international law wasn't built to protect the good, but to restrain the powerful. That's why it prohibits force almost without exception: not because it ignores injustice, but because it knows that if each country decides whom to "liberate" by force, the world reverts to the law of the strongest. 2. The problem is not Maduro. The problem is the precedent. When military force is used to change governments without clear rules, sovereignty ceases to be a limit and becomes an obstacle. Today it is “overthrowing a dictator”; tomorrow it will be “correcting an election,” “protecting interests,” “restoring order.” The law does not absolve dictatorships, but neither does it legitimize unilateral crusades. Cont’d: 3. The uncomfortable question is not whether a tyrant deserves to fall, but who decides when and how. Because history teaches something brutal: removing a dictator is easy; building justice afterward is not. And when legality is broken in the name of good, what almost always follows is not freedom, but chaos, violence, and new victims. The law exists to remind us of this, even when it makes us uncomfortable. Maduro isn't the problem: he's the face of the problem. Removing him from power would be merely opening the door. Behind him is the machine: Rodríguez, Cabello, the military command, the operators of repression and plunder. If you only change the person at the top and leave the system intact, what follows isn't democracy: it's a reshuffling. And there's something even more difficult: Chavismo didn't just capture institutions, it captured daily life. Economy, media, bureaucracy, employment, fear, favors, blackmail. A country can't be "de-Chavistaized" by decree or by an electoral miracle. The real transition begins when that network is broken without setting the country ablaze. The challenge is enormous, and it's also a moral one: to unite without vengeance, but without impunity. Targeted justice for those most responsible, truth for the victims, guarantees that the rest will dismantle the system, and a plan for people to live again—not just survive. Because freedom doesn't come with a new president: it comes when the state ceases to be a threat.
January 3, 2026 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
larryglickman.bsky.social
I was thinking about Mamdani's comments about civility and cruelty when I came across this 1966 column by William F. Buckley excoriating Arnold Forster, General Counsel of the ADL, for refusing to shake the hand of John Rousselot, public relations director of the John Birch Society.
In any case tht was the background when Rousselot and Forster in the crowded room, were introduced. Rousselot immediate extended his hand. Forster refused to take it. "He's not the kind of man whose hand I care to shake," Forster commented to the press. Is it an excommunicable offense from the order of humanity to belong to the Birch Soceity? If so, where exactly does one draw the line. John Rousselot....most decent man
January 2, 2026 at 11:27 PM
walterdgreason.bsky.social
When someone lies to you every minute for a decade, your first reaction to new statements about their violence is outright rejection.

I’m not talking about Putin, Israel, China, Iran, the US Supreme Court, or the US Congress.

#chuckd #nationofmillions
January 3, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
katiephang.bsky.social
HERE Jack Smith sets out Trump’s direct culpability and complicity in the federal election interference case, including January 6th:
December 31, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
rachelbitecofer.bsky.social
Jack Smith Deposition quotes
December 31, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
gregolear.bsky.social
Highlights from Jack Smith deposition.
December 31, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
nkalamb.bsky.social
As we all said, international law, such as it was, no longer exists. The United States, following Israel’s precedent, considers itself to have the explicit authority to blatantly violate sovereignty anywhere in the world and abduct even leaders of other states.

There are no guardrails whatsoever.
Just got off the phone with @SecRubio He informed me that Nicolás Maduro has been arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States, and that the kinetic action we saw tonight was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant This action likely falls within the president’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack Thank you, @SecRubio, for keeping me apprised
January 3, 2026 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
chanda.blacksky.app
People are going to try and lure you into debates about whether Maduro was a good guy or not and the thing is, it doesn’t matter for the purposes of discussing whether violent kidnappings and extrajudicial murders by the US government are ok. No, they aren’t! End of convo.
January 3, 2026 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
davidcorn.bsky.social
A Mad King has usurped the power of Congress—which represents the American people. That is, he has seized power that belongs to you and me collectively. He has declared war without consultation with or approval from Congress. And with no imminent threat. This is a profound betrayal of the republic.
January 3, 2026 at 10:11 AM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
americanstudier.bsky.social
& then there are my #ScholarSunday threads, embodied by today's special year-end best-of-2025 thread. For 5.5 years now these have exemplified my goal of helping create community & solidarity for all of us doing this work.

bsky.app/profile/amer...
January 1, 2026 at 12:57 AM
walterdgreason.bsky.social
DuBois had 1899-1955.
Robeson had 1919-1960.
Bethune had 1917-1951.
Hurston had 1921-1951.

History remains my inspiration for the years ahead.
#booksky
January 1, 2026 at 7:34 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
historyonfilm.bsky.social
We were honored to contribute to this, there is so much great work included this and every week in #ScholarSunday (and sometimes Wednesday). It was hard to pick one, but we had to go with the guy whose book we named the show after!
December 31, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
gvaughnjoy.bsky.social
Ben puts so much work into these threads every week to amplify other people's scholarship.

If you've ever complained about a lack of community or support in public academic spaces, please check out Ben's #ScholarSunday, subscribe for emails, share them, and add your work to take meaningful action.
December 31, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
contingent-mag.bsky.social
"My sources broke categories: they were monstrous. Studying them meant integrating methods from several disciplines — and being marginalized by the more conservative practitioners in all of them."

The final piece in our monsters series, from @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social
Can the Archive Make a Monster of a Historian?
A historian who pays full attention to their sources can’t help but be transformed into a monster...
contingentmagazine.org
December 31, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by The Gray Sage
annabower.bsky.social
Read former special counsel Jack Smith’s transcript before the House Committee on the Judiciary here:

judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-su...
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, WASHINGTON, D.C. DEPOSITION OF: JACK SMITH Wednesday, December 17, 2025 Washington, D.C. The deposition in the above matter was held in room 2237, Rayburn House Office Building, commencing at 10:05 a.m. Present: Jordan, Biggs, McClintock, Nehls, Kiley, Fry, Grothman, Knott, Onder, Harris, Fitzgerald, Gooden, Cline, Schmidt, Raskin, Lofgren, Scanlon, Balint, Moskowitz, Goldman, Cohen, Neguse, Crockett, Johnson, and Jayapal.
December 31, 2025 at 7:39 PM
walterdgreason.bsky.social
Forty years ago, my colleagues celebrated my work in leadership, education, and community service.

Twenty years ago, the move into higher education tested if new models of historical research were possible.

This year? From Dakar to the Vatican to the Black Midwest, I reached the stars. #peace
December 31, 2025 at 8:47 PM
walterdgreason.bsky.social
Lots of “Best of 2025” and “Year in Review” content over the last month. BLACK AND WHITE AND READ gives us the insights that mass media cannot provide. #HappyNewYear
americanstudier.bsky.social Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 5d
PS. Thanks again to folks who shared these nominations for this special best-of-2025 thread! I hope you’ll add a ton more in all these categories & beyond in comments below, & make sure to keep sharing new work as the threads continue this coming Sunday & throughout 2026!
December 31, 2025 at 8:38 PM