Robert Rosenthal
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robertrosenthal.bsky.social
Robert Rosenthal
@robertrosenthal.bsky.social
Go Birds! Phillies fan. Baseball is best experienced on radio. Francisville resident. Happy to have the PCC Cars in green and cream back on Girard. Studied physics a long time ago. Descendant (sort of) of Robert Musil.
@sarahmackattack.bsky.social It's not a squid, but
Are you located in the DC-Baltimore-Philadelphia-New York corridor?

Have you always wanted to have your very own 11 foot long papier-mâché hammerhead shark?

Now available for free!

Perfect for museums, community centers, or your living room!

Save this lovely creature from imminent destruction!
November 14, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
I find the phrase “makes history” nonsensical. Have you seen the stuff historians study? Just dropping an old piece of farm equipment down a well or accidentally freezing to death in a glacier gives you a good shot at the history books
November 14, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
they want to stamp out the entire profession of public health for a generation. same day they announce they’re closing the CDC museum
🚨Dept. of Education proposes to exclude public health degrees from the “professional degree” category.

That means new public health experts could lose access to key higher ed resources, like loan limits & reimbursement.

A bold strategy to let infectious diseases win! 🦠

aspph.org/department-o...
Department of Education Proposal Excludes Public Health Degrees from “Professional Degree” Definition
Discover the new results and implications of Dept of Ed consensus regarding professional degree programs and public health education.
aspph.org
November 14, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
A convicted felon who had also been found liable for sexual assault and committed additional crimes in plain sight was close with a notorious child sex trafficker and likely participated in some of those crimes too got elected with much of that known and spent his presidency railing against “crime.”
November 13, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
The attorney general and the FBI director, a manosphere podcaster bro, pulled into the situation room a member of Congress best known for getting kicked out of a Beetlejuice musical for drunkenly giving her date a handy, in order to pressure her about the president's child sex trafficking scandal.
November 12, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
turns out the emails we should have been reading in 2016 were from the NYT
November 12, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
We are excited to host Philly's own doyenne of community science communication, Dr. Sarah McAnulty!

Friday, Nov 21, 1:30-3PM
Hands-On Science Zine Making Workshop

Registration for the workshop is limited by room size. Sign up here: www.eventbrite.com/e/hands-on-s...

@sarahmackattack.bsky.social
November 11, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
In the century leading up to 1975, nearly 6000 freighters went down in the Great Lakes.

The Edmund Fitzgerald was the last.

The last. In 50 years, not a single commercial freighter has been lost in the Great Lakes.

Why?

It's NOAA. Of course it's NOAA.
November 11, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
Trump has threatened to bomb or invade 7 countries with a shot to play in the 2026 World Cup. He *has* bombed one (Iran) and said he'd deny them visas. He's preparing for war with another (Venezuela). He has summarily executed citizens from at least 3. He has imposed tariffs on nearly all of them.
FIFA head says 'you will see' at World Cup draw if Trump receives new peace prize
FIFA has announced the creation of a peace prize, which it plans to award for the first time at the World Cup draw on Dec. 5 in Washington.
www.npr.org
November 10, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
It’s such a bad idea, when one of his crimes was calling forth an insurrection, that he’s actually forbidden from holding the office by a constitutional provision, which a unanimous Supreme Court invented a way to turn off.
To repeat: Maybe electing a life-long criminal to an office where he can pardon other criminals wasn't such a good idea.
November 10, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
The coordinated nature of this—none are facing voters in 2026—means that either Schumer approved it or failed in his job as Senate Majority Leader to stop it.

Dems voting "no" get zero credit until they demand a change in leadership. Schumer out as Leader, Durbin out as Whip.
so currently defectors are:

Kaine (2030)
Shaheen (Retiring)
Hasan (2028)
Fetterman (2028)
Durbin (Retiring)
CCM (2028)
Rosen (2030)
King (2030)
November 10, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
Loving today's news that the mysterious "fedora man" outside the Louvre heist was actually a 15-year-old museum visitor who dresses like a 1940s French detective all the time, just because. apnews.com/article/louv...
Fedora man unmasked: Meet the teen behind the Louvre mystery photo
Fifteen-year-old Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux has become an internet sensation after an Associated Press photo captured him outside the Louvre on the day of a crown jewels heist.
apnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
The construction industry, where more than a quarter of workers are foreign-born, has long struggled to find enough workers. Now, industry officials say Trump's immigration crackdown is making it worse.
ICE is sending a chill through the construction industry
The construction industry, where more than a quarter of workers are foreign-born, has long struggled to find enough workers. Now, industry officials say Trump's immigration crackdown is making it worse.
n.pr
November 9, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
The winner is John F. Hylan, mayor from 1918 to 1925. A century ago the analogue to fare-free transit was the 5-cent fare, and that cause was Mayor Hylan’s obsession. He campaigned almost exclusively on the 5-cent fare – to the point of being ridiculed for it.
November 9, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Schabowski holds the record for worst press conference
"Das tritt nach meiner Kenntnis … ist das sofort … unverzüglich"
"As far as I know, it takes effect immediately, without delay"

With that slightly improvised answer on November 9, 1989 by Günter Schabowski, the party chief in East Berlin, the border between the socialist East Germany and
November 9, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
SCOTUS is rapidly destroying "public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary" including with their numerous unexplained shadow docket orders, but the fault lies with lower court judges honestly saying that inexcusable anti-rule-of-law tactic is making their jobs harder?
November 6, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
Oh, what’s that? You need some free or cheap stuff to do in Philly? I got you.

Mon 11/10
Bad Art for Good
Make art that encourages action on imp you issues!

Wed 11/19
Native Plant Prep Party
Help me pack native seeds for free distribution!

Fri 11/21
Drink & Draw

Get all links at Lu.ma/dgs
November 6, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Thorough thread on the tariff case at the Supreme Court:
The Supreme Court just heard oral arguments in the challenge to Trump’s worldwide tariffs. No matter how the Court rules (and I’ll do just a tiny bit of tea leaf-reading here), its decision will have enormous implications for the scope of presidential power. 1/25
November 5, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
A Chester County (PA) judge has ordered that polling hours are extended to 10 PM tonight for all voters, helping to ensure that voters who were affected by today's poll book printing errors will not be disenfranchised. Post 8pm, voters will vote on provisional ballots.

Dems/GOP agreed on this.
November 4, 2025 at 10:30 PM
As an update, I'm told that Chester County failed to print poll books for independent registered voters. Independents will have to vote provisional ballots. I've heard the Board of Elections is trying to get poll books printed and distributed, but who knows if that gets done today.
Friends in Chester County, Pennsylvania, report that they were not in the book of registered voters at their regular polling place. They filled out provisional ballots. Is anyone else in Chester County experiencing this or hearing reports?
November 4, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Friends in Chester County, Pennsylvania, report that they were not in the book of registered voters at their regular polling place. They filled out provisional ballots. Is anyone else in Chester County experiencing this or hearing reports?
November 4, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
This is a remarkable case of Chinese authorities threatening a UK university into halting research on human rights violations, and the university acquiescing.
China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show
Sheffield Hallam University apologises to Professor Laura Murphy for restricting her academic freedom.
www.bbc.com
November 3, 2025 at 6:44 AM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
“Speaker Johnson, many Americans are wondering why you’re unable to see or hear any developments in the news. Some are speculating that you were kicked in the head by a horse; others theorize that you’ve been huffing spray paint. Which is it?”
November 3, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
November 3, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Reposted by Robert Rosenthal
Ezra Klein's NYT column leans on the trope of Manchin being better than a GOP senator in WV. He doesn't mention Manchin blocking the Build Back Better Act or For the People Act in 2021.

Here I mention three Senate races where voters might have turned out for universal programs that Manchin killed:
Billionaire-Backed Democrats Killed the Build Back Better Act ⑉ Brick House
The dark money group No Labels is reportedly loading up on billionaire donors to support conservative Democrats in elections ahead.
thebrick.house
November 2, 2025 at 4:13 PM