Brian Baughan
@brianbaughan.bsky.social
Independent nonfiction editor in the Philly area. I share reflections on books and trees at brianbaughan.substack.com.
Reposted by Brian Baughan
The White House claims the vote to rename the Kennedy Center was “unanimous.” That is false. I was muted on the call and denied the opportunity to speak or register my opposition. That is not consensus. That is censorship.
December 18, 2025 at 7:42 PM
The White House claims the vote to rename the Kennedy Center was “unanimous.” That is false. I was muted on the call and denied the opportunity to speak or register my opposition. That is not consensus. That is censorship.
Reposted by Brian Baughan
An absolute bedrock institution for understanding how the planet works, just civilization-scaled vandalism by the most incurious morons on Earth
December 17, 2025 at 2:52 AM
An absolute bedrock institution for understanding how the planet works, just civilization-scaled vandalism by the most incurious morons on Earth
When are we going to start protecting children and young adults? When are we going to stop traumatizing and re-traumatizing them?
SANDY HOOK SURVIVOR: “I carry this trauma with me every single day… we deserve to live in a nation where you value children more than guns.” 🇺🇸
(H/T @marchforourlives.bsky.social )
(H/T @marchforourlives.bsky.social )
December 15, 2025 at 2:00 PM
When are we going to start protecting children and young adults? When are we going to stop traumatizing and re-traumatizing them?
Reporters, please go back to Cotton and Perdue. Either "Why do they send us people from shithole countries?" is a vile, racist remark that Trump "never said" in 2018, or it's NOT a racist remark because, uh, the Cheeto God-King said it (and still says it), and they totally condone it. Which is it?
I’ll never forget hearing Donald Trump’s racist “shithole countries” comment in a 2018 Oval Office meeting about immigration.
Tom Cotton and David Perdue claimed Trump didn’t say it and accused me of lying.
The truth comes out.
Tom Cotton and David Perdue claimed Trump didn’t say it and accused me of lying.
The truth comes out.
TRUMP: “I said why is it we only take people from shithole countries? Why can't we have some people from Norway, Sweden, Denmark… But we always take people from Somalia— places that are filthy, dirty, disgusting.”
Such a mystery what he means when he says this stuff, isn’t it?
Such a mystery what he means when he says this stuff, isn’t it?
December 11, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Reporters, please go back to Cotton and Perdue. Either "Why do they send us people from shithole countries?" is a vile, racist remark that Trump "never said" in 2018, or it's NOT a racist remark because, uh, the Cheeto God-King said it (and still says it), and they totally condone it. Which is it?
As a copyeditor, I find the closing of any press sad news. When it's the university press of your alma mater? Ooph. This is a must-read if you're a fan at all of literature and the humanities.
Everything about this article is spot on. University Presses are not a "bespoke ornament" but an integral part of the academic ecosystem. The claim that UPs "don't serve undergraduates" creates a (frankly head-scratching) false barrier between research & teaching--one informs the other & vice versa.
Why Close Bucknell University Press? (opinion)
Erosions of shared governance, narrow definitions of “student-centeredness” and a broader abandonment of a liberal arts ethos all lie behind the closure announcement.
www.insidehighered.com
December 5, 2025 at 1:51 PM
As a copyeditor, I find the closing of any press sad news. When it's the university press of your alma mater? Ooph. This is a must-read if you're a fan at all of literature and the humanities.
Reposted by Brian Baughan
Steve Cropper played on the most enduring records ever made—his work with Otis Redding, an American treasure gone way too soon, is unreal (and that’s him on the Soul Children debut and many others). Here’s Cropper w/ the pioneering Booker T., Otis, and Sam & Dave in 1967 youtu.be/kUk1WTAReyE?...
Stax Volt Tour 1967 feat. Otis Redding, Booker T. & The MGs, Sam & Dave
YouTube video by bobbynoe1
youtu.be
December 3, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Steve Cropper played on the most enduring records ever made—his work with Otis Redding, an American treasure gone way too soon, is unreal (and that’s him on the Soul Children debut and many others). Here’s Cropper w/ the pioneering Booker T., Otis, and Sam & Dave in 1967 youtu.be/kUk1WTAReyE?...
Reposted by Brian Baughan
NEW: Epstein survivors release the most powerful PSA I have ever seen.
Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.
Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.
November 16, 2025 at 11:43 PM
NEW: Epstein survivors release the most powerful PSA I have ever seen.
Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.
Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.
Reposted by Brian Baughan
Wow it turns out the entire country is not permanently reactionary because Trump won an election by 1.5%
November 5, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Wow it turns out the entire country is not permanently reactionary because Trump won an election by 1.5%
Reposted by Brian Baughan
NBA media is not built to cover a gambling scandal, but Defector is: defector.com/products
October 28, 2025 at 7:15 PM
NBA media is not built to cover a gambling scandal, but Defector is: defector.com/products
A @dominicumile.bsky.social review of Ray Bradbury’s legacy in the world of horror comics. Quality spooky season content.
Sixty years ago this month, eight EC horror comics based on Ray Bradbury stories were collected and republished in a paperback book called The Autumn People. New seasonally appropriate post from me ("boo," etc.) www.dominicumile.com/blog/ray-bra... #horror #books
Classic EC horror comics in Ray Bradbury's The Autumn People — Dominic Umile
Eight EC horror comics based on Ray Bradbury stories were shoehorned into a paperback in 1965
www.dominicumile.com
October 27, 2025 at 10:16 PM
A @dominicumile.bsky.social review of Ray Bradbury’s legacy in the world of horror comics. Quality spooky season content.
Reposted by Brian Baughan
Trump has no legal authority, "standing" or otherwise, to order the killing of people in international waters for unsubstantiated accusations of non-capital crimes.
Calling them "narcoterrorists" does not make it right or legal to order their deaths without any due process.
Calling them "narcoterrorists" does not make it right or legal to order their deaths without any due process.
Trump announces another strike "just off the Coast of Venezuela" that killed 6 people
October 14, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Trump has no legal authority, "standing" or otherwise, to order the killing of people in international waters for unsubstantiated accusations of non-capital crimes.
Calling them "narcoterrorists" does not make it right or legal to order their deaths without any due process.
Calling them "narcoterrorists" does not make it right or legal to order their deaths without any due process.
Reposted by Brian Baughan
The "somebody showed me a TikTok" era of American government is going pretty much exactly how you'd expect.
RFK Jr: "Somebody showed me a TikTok video of a pregnant woman at 8 months pregnant -- she's an associate professor at the Columbia Medical School -- and she is saying 'F Trump' and gobbling Tylenol with her baby in her placenta. The level of Trump Derangement Syndrome is now a pathology."
October 9, 2025 at 5:45 PM
The "somebody showed me a TikTok" era of American government is going pretty much exactly how you'd expect.
Hewing really close here to Season 1 of The Wire and Detective Pryzbylewski's character arc. But I suspect this guy won't end up caring about disadvantaged students.
October 8, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Hewing really close here to Season 1 of The Wire and Detective Pryzbylewski's character arc. But I suspect this guy won't end up caring about disadvantaged students.
Reposted by Brian Baughan
This is literally directly across the street from an elementary school.
October 3, 2025 at 6:20 PM
This is literally directly across the street from an elementary school.
Oooph. This is not good. This is not good at all.
September 30, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Oooph. This is not good. This is not good at all.
Heartbreaking. Infuriating. A woman begs and pleads the authorities not to take her husband from her, and the response is to throw her to the ground.
1/ I’m Till Eckert, a ProPublica reporter. For the past 2 weeks, I’ve been going to the same NY immigration courthouse.
Nearly every time, I see ICE agents arresting immigrants. Today, a woman was slammed to the ground after begging officials not to take her husband away.
Thread 👇
Nearly every time, I see ICE agents arresting immigrants. Today, a woman was slammed to the ground after begging officials not to take her husband away.
Thread 👇
September 26, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Heartbreaking. Infuriating. A woman begs and pleads the authorities not to take her husband from her, and the response is to throw her to the ground.
Reposted by Brian Baughan
What a weird-ass Rapture. Only the Constitution disappeared.
September 24, 2025 at 10:53 PM
What a weird-ass Rapture. Only the Constitution disappeared.
Reposted by Brian Baughan
If you, like me, are the parent of a neuro-atypical child dreading this autism press conference, please remember: These are the people hurting our kids. Not us. They are the ones stigmatizing and pathologizing them. They are the ones peddling untested science. And we should be very, very angry.
September 22, 2025 at 9:03 PM
If you, like me, are the parent of a neuro-atypical child dreading this autism press conference, please remember: These are the people hurting our kids. Not us. They are the ones stigmatizing and pathologizing them. They are the ones peddling untested science. And we should be very, very angry.
In times like this, I want to hear from @mashagessen.bsky.social, someone who's experienced autocracy firsthand.
Opinion | This Is the Feeling of Losing a Country. I Know It Well.
www.nytimes.com
September 22, 2025 at 11:54 AM
In times like this, I want to hear from @mashagessen.bsky.social, someone who's experienced autocracy firsthand.
Reposted by Brian Baughan
Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.
July 18, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.
My parasocial homies.
Before he was a Senator, a candidate for President, and our greatest champion in the fight against oligarchy, Bernie Sanders was the four-term Mayor of Burlington, VT.
I sat down with Bernie in Astoria to talk about the lessons he learned—and the work ahead.
I sat down with Bernie in Astoria to talk about the lessons he learned—and the work ahead.
September 17, 2025 at 9:53 PM
My parasocial homies.
Reposted by Brian Baughan
Statement from @postguild.bsky.social on the firing of Karen Attiah:
September 15, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Statement from @postguild.bsky.social on the firing of Karen Attiah:
Reposted by Brian Baughan
staring straight into the camera and lying. just a despicable person and a poor excuse for a national leader.
Vance: “People on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence. This is not a both sides problem. If both sides have a problem, then one side has a much bigger and malignant problem and that is the truth.”
September 15, 2025 at 6:34 PM
staring straight into the camera and lying. just a despicable person and a poor excuse for a national leader.
Reposted by Brian Baughan
If I have any credibility with you from 20 years of reporting on rightwing & fascist movements, please listen when I beg you not to celebrate Charlie Kirk getting shot. Leave aside morality: this isn’t a match in dry grass, it’s a torch. We do not want what this could ignite & we would not win.
September 10, 2025 at 7:00 PM
If I have any credibility with you from 20 years of reporting on rightwing & fascist movements, please listen when I beg you not to celebrate Charlie Kirk getting shot. Leave aside morality: this isn’t a match in dry grass, it’s a torch. We do not want what this could ignite & we would not win.
Reposted by Brian Baughan
give me a fucking break
September 9, 2025 at 5:47 PM
give me a fucking break