James Mitchell
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wotsac.bsky.social
James Mitchell
@wotsac.bsky.social
780 followers 580 following 2.5K posts
Cat, old tech lover, and carer for library computers.
He/Him for now
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Reposted by James Mitchell
dinahrose.bsky.social
Is the rain clearing?
Grey cat looking out of the window, one paw resting on the sill. Something is fascinating him outside. His ruff is magnificent, like a full-bottomed wig.
January 30, 2026 at 7:59 AM
Reposted by James Mitchell
sethanikeem.bsky.social
Jan. 30 - General Strike #CatBreak
Photograph of a white and black cat with its mouth open. The cat sits on top of a slim hard backed book on a dark wooden coffee table. The walls behind the cat are red, as is an upholstered chair nearby. A word bubble added to the picture of the cat makes it look like the cat is saying, “Fuck ICE.”
January 30, 2026 at 8:52 AM
wotsac.bsky.social
Angry babies
veronicaf.bsky.social Veronica @veronicaf.bsky.social · 7h
Three kittens have arrived! They are very grumpy about it, but they're skeletal and definitely needed to be in care.

A fourth kitten was trapped after these were already on their way to me. And, surprise, a fifth kitten has been spotted. 🤦🏻‍♀️
January 30, 2026 at 2:08 PM
wotsac.bsky.social
Kittens!
veronicaf.bsky.social Veronica @veronicaf.bsky.social · 7h
I wrapped my arms around this entire cuddle puddle and smooshed my face into them, and it was good.

They're still not super friendly, but they'll let me love on them as much as I like.
Four kittens cuddled together. From L- R clockwise we have Melody, a small dilute tortie kitten. Then Sonnet, a ginger kitten staring directly into the camera and your soul. Right at the edge is Harmony, another dilute tortie kitten, and then there's Cadence at the bottom, a black kitten with a hint of smoke tabby coming through. She is pretending she doesn't trust the cuddle.
January 30, 2026 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by James Mitchell
hookland.bsky.social
Last year we saw an increase of graffiti depictions the Wicker King. This year colleagues in the Folklore department report an uptick in Wicker King sightings. This matter needs further study. – Sophie Morley of Woden College's Graffiti Research and Formalisation Team (GRAFT), 1983
January 30, 2026 at 12:27 PM
wotsac.bsky.social
Is baby
garius.bsky.social John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 4h
Important friday afternoon content
Black kitty snoozing on bed
January 30, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by James Mitchell
wolvendamien.bsky.social
Please read this extremely thoughtful & careful post on Tim Walz, Anne Frank, & the US Holocaust Memorial Museum from Martin Shuster, philosopher, Isaac Swift Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, former Holocaust Memorial Museum Fellow, & scholar of genocide, the Holocaust, & authoritarianism:
Martin Shuster sdSreptoon1hm9t97235g2u5796glgh0435l6iaf05it1l232lc20cllf4g0 · So apparently on Sunday Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, said in a press conference that "we have got children hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside ... many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody’s gonna write that children’s story about Minnesota.” Then on Monday--one day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day--the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum tweeted in response that: "Anne Frank was targeted and murdered solely because she was Jewish. Leaders making false equivalencies to her experience for political purposes is never acceptable. Despite tensions in Minneapolis, exploiting the Holocaust is deeply offensive, especially as antisemitism surges." As someone who spent a year at the Museum as a fellow doing research, I feel embarrassed for the institution. First, it is very clear that Walz wasn't drawing an equivalence, he was drawing an analogy. So this kind of response reminds me of the atrocious positions that the ADL has started to carve out, and why it has become mostly a sycophantic joke, now seemingly mostly geared towards currying favor with MAGA. Not unrelatedly, I am noticing that a lot of--oftentimes even well-intentioned--people are spending time trying to delineate exactly which historical referent best captures what's going on now, as if we have to pick only one. There is the now well-circulated meme that says: no, ICE isn't the Gestapo, it's actually American--it's slave catchers. But this is a kind of odd distinction: the Nazis were themselves influenced by the Americans (if you're curious read the excellent book by James Whitman, _Hitler's American Model_). Nazis came here and studied American legal systems and statutes ... and remarkably a group of "liberal" Nazis decided that they couldn't make German laws as *extreme* as American ones (and this "liberal" group in fact won the day; German laws weren't as extreme as many of ours). Equally, Nazi jurists and theorists like Carl Schmitt were deeply influenced by American notions of manifest destiny. So the Nazi and American contexts were already fused. The idea of foreign/domestic is already quite complex in this context. (And this is before we even speak of the many actual Nazis that existed here and the many people who materially supported Hitler and the regime). We can complicate this picture more by noting that Nazism itself, even apart from these American influences, wasn't something that sprouted up out of thin air: it, too, had a(n experimental) history. Many of its barbaric practices and aims were developed and tested on colonial and imperial victims (as I have written elsewhere: there is a direct line from Shark Island concentration camp [called frequently simply "Death Island" where the Germans committed genocide against the Herero and Nama people] to the entire Nazi camp system). Thinkers like Hannah Arendt and Aimé Césaire drew our attention to this already in the middle of the last century. In noting this, let me be clear that this does not erase or make less relevant the centuries of European antisemitism that fed into the Nazi project. That's the whole point: these are all related phenomena. European antisemitism influenced the way in which European colonialism and imperialism operated against indigenous populations in the Americas. Strikingly, as innovations mounted in "administering" the Americas, antisemitic policies also evolved in Europe. Administrators (oppressors) would sometimes even move from one sphere to the other and back. They were all synergistic (a brilliant examination of some of this is María Elena Martínez's _Genealogical Fictions_). (And one could, btw, also tell an important story about the development of Islamophobia in this very same orbit, since policies stumbled on in the Americas came back to oppress both Jews and Muslims in Europe). This is all to say: Walz's analogy is not at all far fetched. The history of oppression doesn't move in any kind of neat or purely linear fashion. It is oftentimes recursive, shifting, necessarily granular. Neither is it a competitive history. It is, in the words of Michael Rothberg, a *multidirectional* history. Drawing these analogies in fact *helps* us understand all the involved phenomena better. At least this is what "Never Again" has meant and means to me: it does not mean only never again for me or other Jews. And it does not mean never again only something that looks exactly like the Nazi genocide. I think also, btw, that this is what it meant for Otto Frank, who spent time *editing* his daughter's diary so that it could be available to anyone, not only to Jews. For ultimately the Nazi genocide--any genocide--is a highly mediated phenomenon: it consists of many diffuse events, marshals an immense amount of people and institutions, relies on sometimes conflicting or contradictory cross-sections of society, and, indeed, emerges out of a process that does not neatly, especially as its happening, have a clear beginning, middle, and end, but rather arranges for itself a kind of constellation that harnesses a range of actors, perspectives, and also histories (this is one way to understand how German colonial projects or anti-communism or ableism were no less crucial to Nazism than European antisemitism). The genocidal outcomes emerge from the structural forms society adopts. And all of this without in any way eliding the special role that Jews played in the apocalyptic Nazi worldview.
January 30, 2026 at 1:24 AM
Reposted by James Mitchell
sarahjeong.bsky.social
This piece is incredibly important for understanding the Trump administration and what happens next. There's a stochastic element to what they do, because social media algorithms are central, not incidental, to government policy www.theverge.com/news/869824/...
What is Nick Shirley?
Slop doesn’t need to be AI-generated
www.theverge.com
January 29, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by James Mitchell
halkyardo.bsky.social
death squads.
jsweetli.bsky.social Jacqueline Sweet @jsweetli.bsky.social · 1d
‼️This famous photo from the Minnesota Tribune on Jan. 21 is from this incident, involving at least three of the same agents from Alex Pretti's killing.

Thanks to the people replying who tipped me off to this.
January 29, 2026 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by James Mitchell
douglasmack.bsky.social
Here are some ways to help Minnesota with all the essential but less visible needs.

But also, go get involved with your own community. Make new friends. Get those networks going. Learn what orgs in your city are already doing good work that needs support. Don't wait.

www.standwithminnesota.com
Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory
Stand With Minnesota is a hub for supporting, learning, and taking action to support Minnesotans impacted by ICE and federal enforcement.
www.standwithminnesota.com
January 29, 2026 at 4:26 PM
wotsac.bsky.social
sarah jeong perfectly captures the batshit moment.
sarahjeong.bsky.social sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 1d
me, emotionally writing an essay on the use of force by federal agents: ok but what if i packaged this in the most insane way possible www.theverge.com/policy/86857...
Best gas masks
“How did these people go out and get gas masks?” AG Bondi asked.
www.theverge.com
January 29, 2026 at 3:00 PM
wotsac.bsky.social
Its on all of our minds
buttpraxis.bsky.social Butt Praxis @buttpraxis.bsky.social · 1d
No work tomorrow. No shop tomorrow. Get in the streets for all of them. Get in the streets for him
Five year old Liam Conejo Ramos, legal resident of the United States, sleeps sick and feverish in an unheated prison far from his home
January 29, 2026 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by James Mitchell
cheriepriest.com
anyway good night
Fluffy gray tabby asleep curled upside down like a hog nose snake when it’s startled. Except his hands are over his head, and snakes don’t have hands.
January 29, 2026 at 6:08 AM
Reposted by James Mitchell
buttpraxis.bsky.social
Share this with everyone you know. ICE has not backed down in Minnesota. They are kidnapping children from their homes and sending them to an unheated prison in the dead of winter. The maximum legal detention time is 20 days (still too long!). Some kids have been imprisoned over 100 days there
January 29, 2026 at 1:17 PM
Reposted by James Mitchell
yvonnezlam.bsky.social
Big Papa Huge Time is PERFECT.
jovialbeing.bsky.social JOY!! WHIMSY!! EUPHORIA 🎉🎉🎉🎉 @jovialbeing.bsky.social · 14d
big papa huge time is a jovial…JUBILANT cat as proven by his big grin and closed eyes…whenever you can, be happy like big papa huge time! he is happy and joyous, enjoying the moment; just like how you should allow yourself to be! be like big papa huge time!
A screenshot on the Petfinder website, featuring a picture of a fat cat laying on its back with its stomach exposed. The expression on its face resembles a content face, with closed eyes and a wide smile. Below the picture is a white box featuring the cat’s name in a large font: ‘Big Papa Hugs Time’ Smaler text below reads ‘Domestic Short Hair Mix’ and ‘Portsmouth, OH’
January 29, 2026 at 1:31 AM
Reposted by James Mitchell
sethanikeem.bsky.social
These responses are cathartic to watch. Brave people.
iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 1d
Congressman Tom Suozzi was confronted.
He is one of seven Democrats casting the decisive votes to increase ICE funding by $10,000,000,000. Hideous, grotesque, fascist-loving coward, this man has blood on his hands. We will not forgive him, and we will not forget.
January 29, 2026 at 1:43 AM
Reposted by James Mitchell
elissablack.com
Getting all nostalgic over here in Second Hand Computer land...

#IndieDev #GameDev #FantasyComputer
A screen shot of Second Hand Computer, having just booted up. It's a letter from someone's mother, introducing the hand-me-down computer they have just received from their aunt. It ends on a note saying that she won't be home until late and there is leftovers ready to be microwaves for dinner.
January 29, 2026 at 1:09 AM
Reposted by James Mitchell
hookland.bsky.social
The phantom economy has many meanings. In England, a good ghost story is hard currency in a pub. It can be exchanged for ale. – #CJosiffe #Ghosts
January 28, 2026 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by James Mitchell
funranium.bsky.social
601.
A view up the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone to the falls
January 28, 2026 at 7:48 PM
Reposted by James Mitchell
sethanikeem.bsky.social
One thing we are looking for is a CREOLE translation of the standard Know Your Rights

We’ve got a pretty sizable Haitian population we need to protect

If anyone has leads on a translation that already exists in Haitian Creole, that would be deeply appreciated

Or a knowledgeable translator
sethanikeem.bsky.social M. Belanger @sethanikeem.bsky.social · 1d
Resource Request!

We have word that 🧊 plans a 30 day blitz in #Ohio soon

Springfield looks like one of the main targets, but we’re preparing everywhere

Drop links & recs for your favorite zines & resources for us to include in our whistle packs so we can observe, inform & keep our neighbors safe
January 28, 2026 at 7:49 PM
Reposted by James Mitchell
sethanikeem.bsky.social
Today’s cat is hitting the gym #CatBreak #BlueSkyCats #CatSky
A sleek gray cat lays on a beige rug. The cat is hugging a black 20 pound hand weight
January 28, 2026 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by James Mitchell
cheriepriest.com
The Morning Monty saw some sun today but it’s already gone away - and he does NOT approve.
Big fluffy gray tabby sitting on the back of a couch with a white throw blanket; he is depicted from below, gazing out over his kingdom and wondering why it isn’t any warmer or brighter.
January 28, 2026 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by James Mitchell
0xdaeda1a.bsky.social
This needs to be a t-shirt, hoodie, coffee mug, etc.

"Fight Against Federal Overreach," what did you think I meant? The other already is.
chrisgeidner.bsky.social Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 2d
"Its acronym, F.A.F.O., references a slang term for negative consequences." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/u...
January 28, 2026 at 2:02 AM
Reposted by James Mitchell
chicago.suntimes.com
A student was “begging for his life” as a classmate allegedly pointed a fake rifle at him last week during a prank at the Moody Bible Institute on the Near North Side, according to Chicago police.
Student was 'begging for his life' as Moody Bible Institute classmate points fake rifle at him, police say
chicago.suntimes.com
January 27, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Reposted by James Mitchell
hookland.bsky.social
Some homes hold their ghosts with quiet forbearance. They do not boast of their phantoms nor advertise for psychic researchers to poke and test them. They accommodate both living and dead residents, afford privacy to both sides. Places of gentle spectral tolerance. – #CJosiffe #Ghosts
January 27, 2026 at 6:33 PM