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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

“now you will see angry Sean,” orders to stop taking notes, and declaring that it’s not the DOJ lawyers’ job to determine what’s legal, it’s the job of the Domestic Policy Council [read: Stephen Miller] cool, cool, amazing stuff

Within hours, all six attorneys received a mandatory summons by email to a 4:30 pm meeting with Keveney at HHS headquarters. The attorneys contacted Shieh and Hyams asking for permission to join remotely from their DOJ offices where they worked approximately 30 minutes away but were told to attend in person. They arrived at the meeting and Shieh and Hyams appeared very tense.

Keveney then entered the room and tersely declared, "Now you will see angry Sean." In his state of announced anger, he said that the attorneys should come to him in person if they needed any questions answered. Adding to the chilling environment, Keveney signaled for the attorneys not to take notes during the meeting, implying that he did not want them to create a written record reflecting doubts and questions about the investigations and funding rescission. At one point, he looked at Ms. Van Erem and remarked that her notetaking was making him nervous, prompting her to drop her pen. Curiously, Keveney asserted that the DOJ attorneys' jobs were not to provide legal advice or make legal determinations. This behavior left the attorneys feeling intimidated and confused about their assigned roles.

Keveney additionally asserted that the funding suspensions were unrelated to any Title VI violations, and that the White House Domestic Policy Council would determine the legality of funding decisions. * This statement again called into question the basis and legality for the funding suspensions and their use as tactics to drive settlement. Following this meeting, [Ms. Van Erem and her colleagues] understood they were expected to do as instructed and not raise legal questions.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

“hey, uh, guys, has anyone noticed that the FIFA Wikipedia article is basically just about corruption? surely that can’t be right”

An info box from the top of the Wikipedia article on FIFA, dated July 2026. It reads: “This article may lend undue weight to certain ideas, incidents, or controversies. The specific problem is: 'Controversies' and 'Corruption' sections make up about 50% of the whole article.”

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

seriously, Odysseus, you had years, you could easily have made it to Cornwall (and tbh I’d love to read that alt-universal section of the Odyssey)

TIRESIAS: "You must go into the Unknown West, there to build an altar and beg forgiveness--"
ODYSSEUS: "You mean like Sicily or Italia? Sardinia? Perhaps Tartessos, in Iberia?"
TIRESIAS: ......
ODYSSEUS: "I know we Mycenaean Greeks have yet to begin the large-scale colonization of the Archaic Period, but we have long-distance trade routes integrated with the broader cosmopolitan Mediterranean economy, and potentially beyond! Did you know that there is some evidence of direct trade of copper ingots with Scandinavia? Not to mention the historic Amber routes that stretched across Central Europe and--
TIRESIAS: "Poseidon changed his mind, he says he's gonna kill you."

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

The ranger ended the tour with the story of Benjamin Franklin looking at the sun on Washington’s chair, unable to decide, as the Constitution was debated, if it was rising or setting. I felt at the time like I understood a little of how he felt. 🧵/

A detail view of the chair used by George Washington as presiding officer of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. It prominently features a gilded rising sun.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Tucked into a corner, an inscription held a quote attributed to John Wanamaker, optimistically describing his hopes for those who followed after him in business: honor, truth, integrity, education, courtesy, mutuality. Beside it, carpets had been hauled out and piled high on the floor. 🧵/

A gilded inscription on a marble pillar in the Wanamaker Building. It reads: Let those who follow me continue to build with the plumb of honor, the level of truth, and the square of integrity, education, courtesy, and mutuality.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

The Wanamaker Building was unsettling: a beautiful, grand cathedral to industry and capitalism, its central hall still echoing to the sound of the pipe organ, but worn, tatty, covered in signs: ENTIRE STORE ON SALE. NOTHING HELD BACK. By March, it was closed.🧵2/

The central hall of the Wanamaker Building, a multistory marble foyer with galleries on all sides and a gilded pipe organ occupying the far side. The floor has department store sales cases and closing-sale signs.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Anecdotally, this kind of obvious “what we are doing is hella illegal and we don’t trust anyone” move is distressingly common everywhere in the government these days.

The memo is addressed to all ICE personnel.
But it has been shown only to "select DHS officials" who then shared it with some employees who were told to read it and return it, Whistleblower Aid wrote in the disclosure.
One of the two whistleblowers was allowed to view the memo only in the presence of a supervisor and then had to give it back. That person was not allowed to take notes. A whistleblower was able to access the document and lawfully disclose to Congress, Whistleblower Aid said.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Welcome back to J.D. Salinger Presents: Washingto Stars and Politicos: What Do They Know? Do They Know Things?? Let’s Find Out! I’m your host, Mr. Peanutbutter

A screenshot from BoJack Horseman showing Mr. Peanutbutter, a yellow lab in a pink suit, hosting a game show, with BoJack, a horse in a blazer over casual clothes, as contestant. Some of categories on the vaguely Jeopardy-style board are cut off, but they probably include Time Travel Paradox, What’s That Smell?, Trigonometry, Advanced Physics, At The Movies with Mr. Peanutbutter, and Sports.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

To paraphrase Graydon Saunders in the Commonweal series: our purpose as a society is to get ourselves, to get one another, into the future. As many of us as we can manage.

This is how it works: We protect each other, period. These are our neighbors, our friends, our family. We do the things we have to do to ensure that as many of us can make it to tomorrow as possible. Not everyone does. I need you to understand that we tried.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

ps I am very sorry to anyone who, for some reason, follows me! I really would like to post more silly nonsense and/or fun history and archaeology stuff. The Republic is currently experiencing technical difficulties. Funny and interesting content may be temporarily disrupted.

The classic SMPTE color-bars test pattern, with the legend “TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES” superimposed over it.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

This idea has a fairly old lineage, cf this 1888(!) political cartoon/map. (source here: www.loc.gov/resource/g37...) Though I’d argue the roots of the Bad Tree have more to do with the Cavaliers, the English Revolution, and Bacon’s Rebellion than with Jamestown *specifically*

A 19th century map of the United States, titled “HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY.” It depicts two “trees,” shown as long arrows crossing the continent with smaller arrows branching off. One, originating at Plymouth (marked by an illustration of a Bible), is labeled “The Blessing of Liberty.” It runs straight across the continent to California, with its peak labeled “Immortality” and branches labeled things like “Benevolence,” “Philanthropy,” and “Love of Country.” The other tree originates at Jamestown (marked by an illustration of a dollar coin, symbolizing the financial motives involved in the settling of Virginia), and is labeled “God’s Curse Slavery.” It runs in a crooked course west and south, forced to turn southward by the northern boundary of the slaving states and territories, which is marked by the label “Mason and Dixon’s Line,” and it terminates in Texas. Its peak is labeled “Hades,” and it has branches labeled things like “Ignorance,” “Sedition,” “Rebellion,” and “Murder.” A series of props(?) holding up the sagging tree are labeled things like “Missouri Compromise,” “Fugitive Slave Law,” and “Dred Scott Decision.” Nevertheless, the tree of slavery is in the process of being chopped down by a giant axe labeled “Emancipation Proclamation.” The whole thing goes EXTREMELY hard.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Every now and then I remember the pikes that John Brown commissioned for his armory raid and attempted slave uprising, and I think that these would make a fantastic McGuffin for a modern-setting tabletop campaign. Find John Brown’s haunted freedom pikes!

A spear-like polearm called a pike, with a stabby steel blade like a long knife on the end of a wooden pole.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

In 1677, Cockacoeske, the werowansqua (chief/queen) of the Pamunkey, led a handful of fellow weroances--all that remained of Powhatan's empire--in signing the Treaty of Middle Plantation with the English Crown. The Monocans and a few others who were never part of Powhatan's empire signed, too. 24/

A bronze statue of an Indigenous woman, Cockacoeske. She's wearing a flowing dress and a cloak of furs and holding up a piece of parchment, which is meant to symbolize the Treaty of Middle Plantation. The statue is standing against the park-like backdrop of Virginia's Capitol Square.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

To symbolize this arrangement, he ceremonially "adopted" John Smith in a dramatic set piece that involved his daughter, Matoaka or "Pocahontas," ritually interceding to halt a threatened execution of Smith. You've probably heard about this bit, which Smith wrote about as if it were 100% real. 21/

A 19th-century American illustration of the ceremonial "saving" of John Smith by Pocahontas, as reported by Smith. It depicts a crowd of very anachronistic Native people in brightly-colored clothes and with feathered headdresses standing around Smith, who is kneeling over a stone, preparing to be executed. A woman, Pocahontas, has thrown her body over his to prevent his execution.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

We don't know exactly how this happened, but the Powhatans' location at the western edge of Tsenacommacah exposed them to trade, raiding, and diplomacy with the Siouan-speaking Monocan people, who lived in the Piedmont above the Fall Line and had trade connections along and across the Blue Ridge. 6/

A section of a black-and-white map of Colonial Virginia, attributed to John Smith. It shows the locations of rivers, mountains, and Indigenous towns, with most towns shown as dots while major towns, which were the seats of chiefs, are indicated with little drawings of longhouses. The town of Powhatan is located at the bottom or east edge of the view, with towns of the Monocans located along the "Powhatan Flu," modern James River, leading upward to the west. One of these, labeled "Rassawek," is marked out at a fork in the river near the mountains, which today is the junction of the James and Rivanna Rivers near Columbia, Virginia.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

The Powhatan people of this town were the westernmost member of a diverse collection of mostly Algonquin-speaking peoples who lived in the coastal plain between the Fall Line and the sea. The Chesapeake Bay and the great tidal rivers of eastern Virginia were both food source and highway for them. 3/

A more modern map from 2002, drawn in black and white. It shows modern-day Eastern Virginia, with the names of Indigenous nations densely scattered across the landscape, showing where those people lived when the English colonists arrived at Jamestown in 1607.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

I'm from Richmond, VA, a city established in 1737 at the falls of the James River, where the river roars over the granite boulders of the Fall Line. Before it was Richmond, it was the town of Powhatan, the center of the Powhatan people and birthplace of a man named Wahunsenecawh: Chief Powhatan. 2/

alt: A section of a black-and-white map of Colonial Virginia, attributed to John Smith. It shows the locations of rivers, mountains, and Indigenous towns, with most towns shown as dots while major towns, which were the seats of chiefs, are indicated with little drawings of longhouses. The view is centered on the major town of Powhatan, located near "The Fales" on a river labeled the "Powhatan Flu," now the James River. The river flows from west (at the top of the map) to east (at the bottom), with mountains at the top and the Chesapeake Bay off the map at the bottom edge.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

The linked paper is quite a cool archaeogeophysics thing, they drove a magnetometer all over Karakorum and put the data together into a map of the city.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Maybe a couple of notes, but I respect the level of effort (none)

One of the many, many proposed new flags for Massachusetts. It’s literally just the overview location map from the Wikipedia article about Massachusetts.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

Isabella Rossellini as a celebrity spokesperson is a pretty impressive get, I have to admit…

Actress Isabella Rossellini with her face painted green. She is dressed as a praying mantis and is riding another, vaguely papier-mâché-style praying mantis to illustrate mantis mating habits. The screenshot is from an episode of Rossellini’s show “Green Porno,” which explores animal reproduction in a delightfully surreal fashion.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

RIP to one of my favorite spots in #RVA. I’ve played board games there, I had one of my first drinks with my now-husband there. And now, after ten years, I’ve had my last round there.

A picture of a brewery’s menu board, visibly a little sparse. The featured beer is the Last Round, an American Lager, described as “This is the last beer made here at Garden Grove! Thanks RVA! Ryan & Kev!” Other pictured beers include the Shades on Saison, the Double Wide, and the Oblivion.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Ok, it is a *little* funny seeing angry judges cite Loper Bright as a reason to completely ignore the administration.

Excerpt from court ruling:
not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” Abrego Garcia, supra, slip op. at 2. "Facilitate" is an active verb. It requires that steps be taken as the Supreme Court has made perfectly clear: See Abrego Garcia, supra, slip op. at 2 ("(Tihe Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps."). The plain and active meaning of the word cannot be diluted by its constriction, as the government would have it, to a narrow term of art. We are not bound in this context by a definition crafted by an administrative agency and contained in a mere policy directive. Cf. Loper Bright Enters. v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. 369, 400 (2024); Christensen v. Harris Cnty., 529 U.S. 576, 587 (2000). Thus, the government's argument that all it must do is "remove any domestic barriers to [Abrego Garcia's] return," Mot. for Stay at 2, is not well taken in light of the Supreme Court's command that the government facilitate Abrego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

This post reminded me that he also did the art for the 1989 John Bellairs novel The Trolley to Yesterday, which is set in Constantinople in 1453! I honestly remember nothing else about it but it's got some neat art, like this showing the Basilica Cistern. goreyana.blogspot.com/2010/06/trol...

A cross-hatched pencil illustration by Edward Gorey for the novel The Trolley to Yesterday, showing three characters rowing through the shadowed Basilica Cistern beneath Constantinople.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

If anyone wants to be particularly officious, feel free to reference the park's foundation document, its official statement of purpose, which makes clear why it exists. www.nps.gov/ston/learn/h...

The purpose of Stonewall National Monument is to preserve and protect Christopher Park and the historic resources associated with it and to interpret the Stonewall National Historic Landmark’s resources and values related to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights movement.

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