John A. Farrell
@biographer.bsky.social
Historian. BA, UVA. PhD, Groningen. Biographer of Clarence Darrow, Tip O'Neill, Ted Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Next book: The American Revolution.
It's a healthy sign when women or minority voters distribute their votes between the two political parties. They can gain leverage and influence. But this justifies their former party's campaigns to ditch ideological purity, move toward the center, and wrest voters from the opposition coalition.
November 23, 2025 at 2:22 PM
It's a healthy sign when women or minority voters distribute their votes between the two political parties. They can gain leverage and influence. But this justifies their former party's campaigns to ditch ideological purity, move toward the center, and wrest voters from the opposition coalition.
As every young reporter learns: the all-important local angle.
queenseagle.com/all/2025/11/...
queenseagle.com/all/2025/11/...
Queens men meet — Queens Daily Eagle
The first man from Queens to be elected president and the first Queens resident to be elected mayor of New York City met for the first time in the Oval Office on Friday.
queenseagle.com
November 22, 2025 at 11:34 AM
As every young reporter learns: the all-important local angle.
queenseagle.com/all/2025/11/...
queenseagle.com/all/2025/11/...
Reposted by John A. Farrell
AOC: Should this AI bubble pop, we should not be entertaining a bailout of these corporations while healthcare is being denied to Americans and SNAP is being denied to Americans —
November 18, 2025 at 10:02 PM
AOC: Should this AI bubble pop, we should not be entertaining a bailout of these corporations while healthcare is being denied to Americans and SNAP is being denied to Americans —
I know it's the Sceptred Isle etc. But they ran the biggest of slave trades and betrayed their colonists, the Native Americans and the freed blacks. Yet we in the USofA are nothing if not suckers for a British accent and some monarchy foof. Britain gets a pass, and we do the self-loathing.
November 17, 2025 at 12:05 PM
I know it's the Sceptred Isle etc. But they ran the biggest of slave trades and betrayed their colonists, the Native Americans and the freed blacks. Yet we in the USofA are nothing if not suckers for a British accent and some monarchy foof. Britain gets a pass, and we do the self-loathing.
Reposted by John A. Farrell
Just in case you'd rather listen to the American Revolution then scramble to find the login for your PBS app, may I offer you something that will leave your Worlds Turned Upside Down?
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5OfU87p...
Website: www.r2studios.org
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5OfU87p...
Website: www.r2studios.org
Worlds Turned Upside Down
History Podcast · Monthly Series · Worlds Turned Upside Down tells the story of the American Revolution as a transatlantic crisis and imperial civil war through the lives of people who experienced it....
podcasts.apple.com
November 16, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Just in case you'd rather listen to the American Revolution then scramble to find the login for your PBS app, may I offer you something that will leave your Worlds Turned Upside Down?
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5OfU87p...
Website: www.r2studios.org
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5OfU87p...
Website: www.r2studios.org
"Shall a few designing men for their own aggrandizement, and to gratify their own avarice, overset the goodly fabric we have been rearing at the expense of so much time, blood & treasure? and shall we at last become the victims of our own abominable lust of gain?" George Washington, 1779
November 14, 2025 at 3:05 PM
"Shall a few designing men for their own aggrandizement, and to gratify their own avarice, overset the goodly fabric we have been rearing at the expense of so much time, blood & treasure? and shall we at last become the victims of our own abominable lust of gain?" George Washington, 1779
"The depreciation of our currency...aided by stock jobbing & party dissentions - has fed the hopes of the enemy and kept the Arms of Britain in America....We shall be our own conquerers." - George Washington, 1779.
November 14, 2025 at 3:02 PM
"The depreciation of our currency...aided by stock jobbing & party dissentions - has fed the hopes of the enemy and kept the Arms of Britain in America....We shall be our own conquerers." - George Washington, 1779.
"Is the consideration of a little dirty pelf, to individuals, to be placed in competition with the essential rights & liberties of the present generation & of millions yet unborn?...Forbid it heaven!...Our cause is noble. It is the cause of Mankind!" - George Washington, 1779.
November 14, 2025 at 3:00 PM
"Is the consideration of a little dirty pelf, to individuals, to be placed in competition with the essential rights & liberties of the present generation & of millions yet unborn?...Forbid it heaven!...Our cause is noble. It is the cause of Mankind!" - George Washington, 1779.
Our world would be different if Obama had prosecuted a few of the Wall Street bankers responsible for the financial crisis back in 2009.
November 14, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Our world would be different if Obama had prosecuted a few of the Wall Street bankers responsible for the financial crisis back in 2009.
Nixon faced a similar question from friend and foe: Why not just release the damn tapes? And then they came out and we all knew the answer.
November 13, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Nixon faced a similar question from friend and foe: Why not just release the damn tapes? And then they came out and we all knew the answer.
Reposted by John A. Farrell
The Speaker of the House shut the chamber down for two months to block the release of the Epstein Files and the president is huddled in the Situation Room of the White House to formulate a plan to keep them from being released, and I don't know why you crazy libs think there's some kind of cover up.
November 12, 2025 at 7:25 PM
The Speaker of the House shut the chamber down for two months to block the release of the Epstein Files and the president is huddled in the Situation Room of the White House to formulate a plan to keep them from being released, and I don't know why you crazy libs think there's some kind of cover up.
The Nixon Foundation resorts to Nixonian tactics (and counter-productive perversions of the truth) by inviting a right-wing Cassius to spread his conspiracy theories and promoting them on social media. Fellas, this is not the way to win history's respect for RN. It only adds to the caricatures.
12K views · 138 reactions | Some curious facts about Watergate that get you thinking...@michaeljknowles | Richard Nixon Foundation
Some curious facts about Watergate that get you thinking...@michaeljknowles
www.facebook.com
November 11, 2025 at 4:59 PM
The Nixon Foundation resorts to Nixonian tactics (and counter-productive perversions of the truth) by inviting a right-wing Cassius to spread his conspiracy theories and promoting them on social media. Fellas, this is not the way to win history's respect for RN. It only adds to the caricatures.
Not a good guy: Lord Dunmore was an Indian killer, and as racist as the next guy in the 18th century. His proposal to free the enslaved and indentured was quite cynical: extended to the slaves and servants of patriots, not loyalists. After the war, he ruled an English slave economy in the Bahamas.
November 7, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Not a good guy: Lord Dunmore was an Indian killer, and as racist as the next guy in the 18th century. His proposal to free the enslaved and indentured was quite cynical: extended to the slaves and servants of patriots, not loyalists. After the war, he ruled an English slave economy in the Bahamas.
After each election, I am struck by the number of commentators, and self-deluding party professionals, who think the ballots cast on one day in our history constitute a settling of the argument. Of course they don't.
November 7, 2025 at 2:14 PM
After each election, I am struck by the number of commentators, and self-deluding party professionals, who think the ballots cast on one day in our history constitute a settling of the argument. Of course they don't.
Reposted by John A. Farrell
From pre-broadcast publicity it seems that one (perhaps unspoken) conclusion of the Ken Burns American Revolution show is a disagreement with the 1619 Project assertion that preserving slavery was the moving force of the rebellion. I agree: Access to western lands far more significant.
October 27, 2025 at 1:16 AM
From pre-broadcast publicity it seems that one (perhaps unspoken) conclusion of the Ken Burns American Revolution show is a disagreement with the 1619 Project assertion that preserving slavery was the moving force of the rebellion. I agree: Access to western lands far more significant.
500 + at our local Beltway overpass . And well done UVA for resisting the Trump administration extortion.
October 18, 2025 at 7:09 PM
500 + at our local Beltway overpass . And well done UVA for resisting the Trump administration extortion.
Reposted by John A. Farrell
Pro tip to Laura Loomer who deleted this: The Internet is written in indelible ink.
September 12, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Pro tip to Laura Loomer who deleted this: The Internet is written in indelible ink.
You mean James T. Hodgkinson?
It’s also worth noting that as soon as it became clear the Trump shooter had no real legible politics and certainly not from “the left” he completely vanished into anonymity. No one knows his name.
Is it just me or does this share a lot of commonalities with the attempted Trump assassination last summer? Maybe worth exploring those
September 12, 2025 at 7:12 PM
You mean James T. Hodgkinson?
Reposted by John A. Farrell
This is the official spokesperson for the White House, stating that the President hopes to deploy the United States military to occupy every city controlled by the political party that opposes him. Explicitly.
Leavitt: "These are the bad guys that we are picking up in Washington DC every day. The president would love to do this in every Democrat-run city across the country."
September 9, 2025 at 6:16 PM
This is the official spokesperson for the White House, stating that the President hopes to deploy the United States military to occupy every city controlled by the political party that opposes him. Explicitly.
Reposted by John A. Farrell
The erosion of basic principles like due process and the expanding use of our military on domestic soil puts the liberties of all Americans at risk, and should concern democrats and republicans alike.
August 28, 2025 at 2:33 PM
The erosion of basic principles like due process and the expanding use of our military on domestic soil puts the liberties of all Americans at risk, and should concern democrats and republicans alike.
Reposted by John A. Farrell
This interview, which is also available to listen to as a podcast, provides a useful overview of some of the dangerous trends we’ve been seeing in recent months regarding federalization and militarization of state and local police functions.
Opinion | Trump Is Building His Own Paramilitary Force
www.nytimes.com
August 28, 2025 at 2:33 PM
This interview, which is also available to listen to as a podcast, provides a useful overview of some of the dangerous trends we’ve been seeing in recent months regarding federalization and militarization of state and local police functions.
Re Jeffries, If Tip O'Neill had not given southern D's political cover in the Reagan years, the R's may have scored the gains in the House to make the "revolution" happen. Tip did what leaders in Congress do - preserve (or attain) a majority, if need be by shying from extremes. This is their grail.
August 16, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Re Jeffries, If Tip O'Neill had not given southern D's political cover in the Reagan years, the R's may have scored the gains in the House to make the "revolution" happen. Tip did what leaders in Congress do - preserve (or attain) a majority, if need be by shying from extremes. This is their grail.
content.time.com/time/covers/... We forget. It wasn't just scandal that brought Nixon down.
TIME Magazine Cover: Food Prices - Apr. 9, 1973
TIME Magazine Cover: Food Prices
content.time.com
August 15, 2025 at 11:39 AM
content.time.com/time/covers/... We forget. It wasn't just scandal that brought Nixon down.
Reposted by John A. Farrell
Meanwhile Sean Duffy is spending his hybrid Transportation Secretary/NASA Administrator gig figuring out how to deliver Starbucks by drone and building Chernobyl on the Moon.
abcnews.go.com/US/united-ai...
abcnews.go.com/US/united-ai...
Hundreds of flights delayed after tech issue grounds United Airlines flights
United Airlines has grounded flights nationwide on Wednesday night due to an issue with its weight and balance computer system.
abcnews.go.com
August 7, 2025 at 3:57 AM
Meanwhile Sean Duffy is spending his hybrid Transportation Secretary/NASA Administrator gig figuring out how to deliver Starbucks by drone and building Chernobyl on the Moon.
abcnews.go.com/US/united-ai...
abcnews.go.com/US/united-ai...