Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
professor058.bsky.social
Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
@professor058.bsky.social
Retired university professor of African American Studies and American literature
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
These photos are 20 minutes apart, the first is from THE TORNADO that just hit St Louis!
May 16, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
Trump and his cohort embody the “deep state” they claim to fight, and the FBI embodies the corruption they claim to counter. Their decades-long, mutually beneficial relationship has been extremely damaging to the US. The roots of it need to be examined — and pulled out.
May 16, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
From 2020: Comey doesn't want Trump to be investigated because doesn't want his own activity to be investigated. Comey spent his tenure at the FBI protecting a mafia syndicate linked to the Kremlin -- a mafia syndicate two other former FBI heads went on to serve.

-- HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT (2020)
May 16, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
It's bizarre how pundits and politicians cover Trump's second term with little mention of the first term, even though it's a direct extension. Just as they covered his first term as if it weren't a continuation of a lifetime in organized crime. They treat everything as disparate when it's one story.
May 16, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
It became much easier for them to do this when paywalls were instituted and many outlets and archives were deleted in 2021, soon after Trump left office. This trend has since accelerated and led to the erasure of history and in turn, memory. The deletion of Twitter accounts also contributed to it.
May 16, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
A must read if you’re interested in learning how we got here
May 16, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
From my book HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT:
"Trump covers up crime with scandal. That is his main propaganda tactic, the one few seem to be able to discern...The crimes are much worse than the scandals, but the media will always take the scandal bait."
November 20, 2024 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
In February, the journalist Jordan Salama paid for a bed in an overcrowded East Elmhurst apartment shared by 12 migrants, all from Ecuador. What he witnessed was a community “focussed on the day-to-day difficulties of surviving.”
Twelve Migrants Sharing a Queens Apartment
In New York City, a shadow economy helps new arrivals find a place to sleep. Sometimes it’s just a bed and a curtain.
www.newyorker.com
May 5, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
Hey MONTGOMERY! I'll be at NewSouth Bookstore 5/6 at 5:30 pm to talk about THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP and more! I'll be taking questions and signing books. See you soon, Alabama! newsouthbookstore.com/event/bestse...
May 1, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
"End Times Fascism": Naomi Klein on How Trump, Musk, Far Right "Don't Believe in the Future"
“End Times Fascism”: Naomi Klein on How Trump, Musk, Far Right “Don’t Believe in the Future”
An alliance between the far right and Silicon Valley oligarchs has given rise to a form of “end times fascism,” says journalist Naomi Klein, who details in a recent essay co-authored with Astra Taylor...
www.democracynow.org
May 5, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
May 5, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
March 29, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
Updated graphic for the LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP Tour. Kenny Mayne is my conversation partner in Seattle! Come join us!

Information here: sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/my-book-to...

And here: www.sarahkendziorbooks.com
March 24, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
Just picked up my pre-ordered copy of @sarahkendzior.bsky.social’s The Last American Road Trip from my fantastic local independent bookstore, @audreysbooksyeg.bsky.social.

I’m excited (if a bit apprehensive) to read this.
March 29, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
The clearest eyed, most perceptive chronicler (and predictor) of America's slide into authoritarian dystopia. She's there in flyover country, saw what was hiding in plain sight, and proved that they knew.

Now this.

Can't wait to pick it up...
"National Lampoon's Vacation" meets "Mad Max"

Out April 1.

Come on THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP: www.thelastamericanroadtrip.com
March 12, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
I've been following for just about 10 years. The foresight to our current state has been eerie and incredible. Will be buying!
"National Lampoon's Vacation" meets "Mad Max"

Out April 1.

Come on THE LAST AMERICAN ROAD TRIP: www.thelastamericanroadtrip.com
March 12, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
In case you are confused by recent events this may help clarify a few things.
"Material acquisition is not the goal of the criminal elite, and debt is not a problem. A lifestyle of total impunity, powered by fraud and threat, is the goal. Raw power is not measured in money but by how little you need it. Money is beneath you when you live above the law."

--THEY KNEW (2022)
March 12, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
“The idea that ICE can detain people on the basis of its own conclusions or biases, and then decide later how it wants to charge the person, is extremely problematic,” a legal scholar says, about the arrest of the Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil.
Mahmoud Khalil’s Constitutional Rights and the Power of ICE
A legal scholar explains the unusual justification for the Columbia graduate’s arrest, and what it could augur for immigration enforcement in Trump’s second term.
www.newyorker.com
March 12, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
When R.F.K., Jr., says that Americans are “the sickest people on earth,” he does not acknowledge that the nations at the top of the health-care rankings all have two things he doesn’t like: universal health care and comprehensive vaccine programs.
The Dangers of R.F.K., Jr.,’s Measles Response
The H.H.S. Secretary has touted over-the-counter remedies and stressed that the decision to vaccinate is “personal.”
www.newyorker.com
March 12, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
Goodreads is giving away forty free copies of my forthcoming book *Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea*, to be published in May by Viking Books (@vikingbooks.bsky.social). More info here:

www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...
Book giveaway for Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea by Marcus Rediker Mar 02-Mar 31, 2025
Enter to win one of 40 free copies available. Giveaway dates from Mar 02-Mar 31, 2025. We're giving away 40 early copies of FREEDOM SHIP, a gripping acco...
www.goodreads.com
March 3, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
From October 2024: "The USA is on a crime spree against foreign civilians and against its own people... It is a controlled demolition led by kleptocrats and billionaires."
sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/totem-and-...
Totem and Taboo
On nostalgia for the future and invaders of the present.
sarahkendzior.substack.com
March 3, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
I've got a new book out in April! Enter the giveaway below or preorder a copy here: www.thelastamericanroadtrip.com
March 3, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Michele L. Simms-Burton, PhD
In 1885, in one of the most gruesome episodes of racial terror in U.S. history, a white mob killed at least 28 Chinese residents of Rock Springs, Wyoming, and burned down the town’s Chinese quarter. @michaelluo.bsky.social writes about the little-known atrocity.
When an American Town Massacred Its Chinese Immigrants
In 1885, white rioters murdered dozens of their Asian neighbors in Rock Springs, Wyoming. A hundred and forty years later, the story of the atrocity is still being unearthed.
www.newyorker.com
March 3, 2025 at 9:02 PM