Peter L'Official
@elapostrophe.bsky.social
director of american & indigenous studies program @ bard college | author, *urban legends: the south bronx in representation & ruin* | sometimes editor @ european review of books
Reposted by Peter L'Official
Blue states should prohibit the use of masks by federal authorities.
This is not an apt moment to use the word "but." www.cnn.com/2025/07/09/p...
July 9, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Blue states should prohibit the use of masks by federal authorities.
Reposted by Peter L'Official
"To be white in America is not to have to think about it," R.W. Terry wrote in 1981. Everyone else needs to be attentive to their race — not only as they understand it but also as White people do.
Gift link: wapo.st/40HTp2j
Gift link: wapo.st/40HTp2j
Opinion | The useful political lesson from Zohran Mamdani’s college application
America’s understanding of race and ethnicity is still woefully simplistic.
wapo.st
July 7, 2025 at 2:22 PM
"To be white in America is not to have to think about it," R.W. Terry wrote in 1981. Everyone else needs to be attentive to their race — not only as they understand it but also as White people do.
Gift link: wapo.st/40HTp2j
Gift link: wapo.st/40HTp2j
Reposted by Peter L'Official
Franz is one of the most insightful chroniclers of music labor from the ground level. Always worth engaging with his insights, especially when they challenge your assumptions.
Modern-day musicians face a host of crazymaking challenges: poverty-level streaming royalties, AI ghost artists, corporate consolidation of ticketing/touring. Franz Nicolay writes on the efforts past and present to organize the industry.
thebaffler.com/latest/worke...
thebaffler.com/latest/worke...
Worker’s Song | Franz Nicolay
To organize the modern-day music industry, we should look to the lessons of musicians’ unions past.
thebaffler.com
July 2, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Franz is one of the most insightful chroniclers of music labor from the ground level. Always worth engaging with his insights, especially when they challenge your assumptions.
Reposted by Peter L'Official
We need to build some real social stigma around being afraid of cities. You don't have to like them or live there, but a politics built this strongly around watching TV and going "ewww" is embarrassing, and people should be embarrassed by it. It's like "fear of werewolves" being your top issue.
June 10, 2025 at 3:17 PM
We need to build some real social stigma around being afraid of cities. You don't have to like them or live there, but a politics built this strongly around watching TV and going "ewww" is embarrassing, and people should be embarrassed by it. It's like "fear of werewolves" being your top issue.
Reposted by Peter L'Official
File impeachment articles that are just direct quotes from the Declaration of Independence
Grievances 16-19 in Declaration of Independence
16. "For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world"
17. "For imposing taxes on us without our consent"
18. "For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Jury trial"
19. "For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences"
16. "For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world"
17. "For imposing taxes on us without our consent"
18. "For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Jury trial"
19. "For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences"
April 15, 2025 at 2:12 AM
File impeachment articles that are just direct quotes from the Declaration of Independence
Reposted by Peter L'Official
what booker is doing right now is an example of what i mean when i say things like “we need more ambition right now.” there is room in american politics right now for people with ambition to take big stands and reap the rewards. he’s doing it!
April 1, 2025 at 8:24 PM
what booker is doing right now is an example of what i mean when i say things like “we need more ambition right now.” there is room in american politics right now for people with ambition to take big stands and reap the rewards. he’s doing it!
Reposted by Peter L'Official
Sen. Booker’s speech was a substantive and moral account of this moment. He did not read the phone book. He did not babble.
For 24 hours @booker.senate.gov laid out a detailed, damning, and critical narrative of truth, history, politics, morality, humanity.
What will you do?
For 24 hours @booker.senate.gov laid out a detailed, damning, and critical narrative of truth, history, politics, morality, humanity.
What will you do?
April 1, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Sen. Booker’s speech was a substantive and moral account of this moment. He did not read the phone book. He did not babble.
For 24 hours @booker.senate.gov laid out a detailed, damning, and critical narrative of truth, history, politics, morality, humanity.
What will you do?
For 24 hours @booker.senate.gov laid out a detailed, damning, and critical narrative of truth, history, politics, morality, humanity.
What will you do?
Reposted by Peter L'Official
Trump's 3/27 executive order targets the Smithsonian for advancing "the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct."
Trump argues that the exhibit's statement, below, is unscientific. He's wrong. As a biology professor and population geneticist, I agree with every word of it.
Trump argues that the exhibit's statement, below, is unscientific. He's wrong. As a biology professor and population geneticist, I agree with every word of it.
March 31, 2025 at 11:27 PM
Trump's 3/27 executive order targets the Smithsonian for advancing "the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct."
Trump argues that the exhibit's statement, below, is unscientific. He's wrong. As a biology professor and population geneticist, I agree with every word of it.
Trump argues that the exhibit's statement, below, is unscientific. He's wrong. As a biology professor and population geneticist, I agree with every word of it.
Reposted by Peter L'Official
One of the defining feelings in American life, for decades now, is elites doing plainly criminal shit and nothing at all happening as a result. It is deranging in a way that virtually nothing else is. Media fixates on perceived street lawlessness but shit like this matters much more in my opinion.
Dereliction of responsibility by the court. It is so flagrantly illegal. www.huffpost.com/entry/us-wis...
Wisconsin Appeals Court Won't Stop Musk's $1 Million Payments To Voters After AG Sues
A Wisconsin appellate court has denied the state Democratic attorney general’s request to stop billionaire Elon Musk from handing over $1 million checks to two voters at a rally planned for Sunday, ju...
www.huffpost.com
March 30, 2025 at 11:14 PM
One of the defining feelings in American life, for decades now, is elites doing plainly criminal shit and nothing at all happening as a result. It is deranging in a way that virtually nothing else is. Media fixates on perceived street lawlessness but shit like this matters much more in my opinion.
Reposted by Peter L'Official
The idea that people with humanities educations are ignoramuses pursuing meaningless debased fragments of what human knowledge used to be sounds more and more like projection from incompetent computer babies
One theme echoing from Musk on down is that all these guys seem to really stink at comp sci
So, the DOGE kids intend to rewrite the social-security administration's COBOL code-base!
and they want to do it ...
... in *a few months*
I did a huge dive into COBOL a few years ago (www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazi...) ...
... so let me explain why DOGE is *way* over its skis here
1/9
and they want to do it ...
... in *a few months*
I did a huge dive into COBOL a few years ago (www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazi...) ...
... so let me explain why DOGE is *way* over its skis here
1/9
March 30, 2025 at 7:59 PM
The idea that people with humanities educations are ignoramuses pursuing meaningless debased fragments of what human knowledge used to be sounds more and more like projection from incompetent computer babies
Reposted by Peter L'Official
Can we nominate a Facebook screenshot for a Pulitzer? I love this.
March 26, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Can we nominate a Facebook screenshot for a Pulitzer? I love this.
Reposted by Peter L'Official
I texted @trufelman.bsky.social and we had a super-tiny chat about novelty, yet we managed to squeeze in Italian generals sporting jaunty little Tirol hats and nuns ditching their habits... europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...,
Texting with … Avery Trufelman … – The European Review of Books
europeanreviewofbooks.com
February 28, 2025 at 9:34 AM
I texted @trufelman.bsky.social and we had a super-tiny chat about novelty, yet we managed to squeeze in Italian generals sporting jaunty little Tirol hats and nuns ditching their habits... europeanreviewofbooks.com/texting-with...,
Reposted by Peter L'Official
If your excuse as an elected official, here in 2025, for not doing something that is in the interest of Dems who elected you is that Republicans might weaponize it, you are not living in 2025. They are going to weaponize anything you do, either way. They have demonstrated this over and over.
March 14, 2025 at 9:27 PM
If your excuse as an elected official, here in 2025, for not doing something that is in the interest of Dems who elected you is that Republicans might weaponize it, you are not living in 2025. They are going to weaponize anything you do, either way. They have demonstrated this over and over.
Reposted by Peter L'Official
A collapsing Tesla stock genuinely erodes Elon’s economic power. If the stock is hurt enough, Tesla’s board will have no choice but to remove Musk as CEO in order to save the company. www.currentaffairs.org/news/boycott...
Boycott Tesla
Electric car buyers don’t like right-wing politics. This means Elon Musk’s position at Tesla is very vulnerable and susceptible to economic pressure.
www.currentaffairs.org
March 14, 2025 at 8:28 PM
A collapsing Tesla stock genuinely erodes Elon’s economic power. If the stock is hurt enough, Tesla’s board will have no choice but to remove Musk as CEO in order to save the company. www.currentaffairs.org/news/boycott...
Reposted by Peter L'Official
Everyone--EVERYONE--in higher education has to understand that this is Trump's plan for you, too: federal control over scholarship, curricula, discipline, admissions--everything. They want you to submit. Your only other option is to stand up, together.
I’m told this is a real letter. It basically says, “We’ll destroy Columbia unless you destroy it first.”
March 14, 2025 at 1:24 AM
Everyone--EVERYONE--in higher education has to understand that this is Trump's plan for you, too: federal control over scholarship, curricula, discipline, admissions--everything. They want you to submit. Your only other option is to stand up, together.
Reposted by Peter L'Official
30 years ago, we did. They were called "local newspapers."
Then the Telecom Act of 1996 allowed essentially unlimited corporate consolidation of media outlets and they killed off local news in the space of a single generation.
Then the Telecom Act of 1996 allowed essentially unlimited corporate consolidation of media outlets and they killed off local news in the space of a single generation.
Imagine if we had a newsroom in every county that focused on municipal meetings.
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if you’re thinking of starting a newsroom in your community, you should do it.
March 9, 2025 at 3:48 PM
30 years ago, we did. They were called "local newspapers."
Then the Telecom Act of 1996 allowed essentially unlimited corporate consolidation of media outlets and they killed off local news in the space of a single generation.
Then the Telecom Act of 1996 allowed essentially unlimited corporate consolidation of media outlets and they killed off local news in the space of a single generation.
Reposted by Peter L'Official
Columbia University has caved to outside forces attempting to silence pro-Palestinian speech at every turn, and look at where it's gotten them: raided by ICE and defunded by the federal government. hellgatenyc.com/columbia-uni...
Columbia University, Profile in Cowardice
And more news to start the week.
hellgatenyc.com
March 10, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Columbia University has caved to outside forces attempting to silence pro-Palestinian speech at every turn, and look at where it's gotten them: raided by ICE and defunded by the federal government. hellgatenyc.com/columbia-uni...
Reposted by Peter L'Official
UbuWeb, an avant-garde #web #archive that has existed independently for 30 years, is adding new content again.
No ads, no links to social media. Only #art (text, image video) for you to #discover.
ubuweb.com
No ads, no links to social media. Only #art (text, image video) for you to #discover.
ubuweb.com
UbuWeb
ubuweb.com
February 15, 2025 at 3:46 PM
UbuWeb, an avant-garde #web #archive that has existed independently for 30 years, is adding new content again.
No ads, no links to social media. Only #art (text, image video) for you to #discover.
ubuweb.com
No ads, no links to social media. Only #art (text, image video) for you to #discover.
ubuweb.com
Reposted by Peter L'Official
The NAACP is re-mixing 1930s-era "don't buy where you can't work" campaigns to confront the neo-segregationists targeting DEI.
apnews.com/article/blac...
apnews.com/article/blac...
NAACP lists companies that dump DEI in its tactical spending guide for Black Americans
The NAACP wants Black Americans to steer their buying power toward corporations that haven’t pulled back from diversity programs under conservative pressure.
apnews.com
February 16, 2025 at 12:52 PM
The NAACP is re-mixing 1930s-era "don't buy where you can't work" campaigns to confront the neo-segregationists targeting DEI.
apnews.com/article/blac...
apnews.com/article/blac...
Reposted by Peter L'Official
I can’t say I’ve thought about inflation that much since the US Attorney in the district you and I both live in had to resign because the President wanted to make a corrupt deal with the Mayor, backed by the threat of a dangling DOJ prosecution, to terrorize immigrants and people of color here.
Inflation is the number one issue on people’s minds.
It was the biggest issue during the election.
And already Donald Trump is breaking his promise to do something about it.
It was the biggest issue during the election.
And already Donald Trump is breaking his promise to do something about it.
February 14, 2025 at 5:27 PM
I can’t say I’ve thought about inflation that much since the US Attorney in the district you and I both live in had to resign because the President wanted to make a corrupt deal with the Mayor, backed by the threat of a dangling DOJ prosecution, to terrorize immigrants and people of color here.
Reposted by Peter L'Official
The AP should stop covering Trump events. Instead send those White House reporters out into the field to report on the harms and repercussions of his policies.
The U.S. public never needed coverage of pseudo-events anyway.
The U.S. public never needed coverage of pseudo-events anyway.
Associated Press: “Today we were informed by the White House that if AP did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office.“
February 11, 2025 at 10:34 PM
The AP should stop covering Trump events. Instead send those White House reporters out into the field to report on the harms and repercussions of his policies.
The U.S. public never needed coverage of pseudo-events anyway.
The U.S. public never needed coverage of pseudo-events anyway.
Reposted by Peter L'Official
Signs. Of. Life.
Protest outside Treasury Dept. tonight.
Protest outside Treasury Dept. tonight.
February 4, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Signs. Of. Life.
Protest outside Treasury Dept. tonight.
Protest outside Treasury Dept. tonight.
Reposted by Peter L'Official
this is exactly what i’m getting at when i see these people have no understanding of civil society. they do not seem to conceptualize other people as having agency whatsoever.
February 4, 2025 at 5:05 PM
this is exactly what i’m getting at when i see these people have no understanding of civil society. they do not seem to conceptualize other people as having agency whatsoever.