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Deborah Baker

@deborahbaker.bsky.social
793 followers 1K following 224 posts

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist. Guggenheim, Cullman, Whiting Fellow. Charlottesville: An American Story June 2025 Graywolf Press. www.deborahbaker.net

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Reposted by Deborah Baker
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 05/10/2026
Holy shit.
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The Fig Economy @figgityfigs.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Sometimes my wife and I like to send each other text messages as though they’re democratic fundraising messages, and I believe she has produced the jewel of the form.
, it's
and I
have some personal news to share with you.
Being a mom is one of the greatest joys of my life, and I feel deeply that we should have salad tonight
This year has been challenging in many ways, and I have immense gratitude for the kindness and support of family, community, and people like you who have continued to stand by me through everything. It means the world, and I wanted you to be among the first to know that squash is in the oven and kale is in the fridge.As many of you are aware, ve been navigating one of the most challenging periods of my day while waiting for dinner.
Facing baseless federal hunger brought on by not eating since lunch, fighting for the working kids of this country, and now caring for a mean toddler and helping him grow up in a world that isn't always easy. But it has also reminded me exactly why I do this work and who I do it for.
I will never stop working to eat dinner. I will never stop fighting for what is right, even when there is also some feta in the fridge. And I will never stop being so very thankful that you are by my side in this important work and that there is tahini in the pantry for dressing
With love and gratitude,
stop to end
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Janet Reitman @janetreitman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Launching a book whilst closing a @nytmag.bsky.social piece is about as daunting as it gets, but the strange, terrible story of the #Prairieland defendants took a while… this is the chilling, long term impact of the 25-yr #waronterror. Gift link below: www.nytimes.com/2026/10/05/m...
nytimes.com
Inside the Group of Texans Accused of Being Antifa Terrorists (Gift Article)
The strange story behind the first federal terrorism prosecution of American protesters.
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Virgíl Al-Hawkíns @crymsondawn.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Israelis have been torturing Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who they took hostage after threatening to massacre his patients, for nearly two years now. His crime was documenting the genocide that Israelis were gleefully committing and trying to save Palestinian lives.
The last image of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya before he was taken hostage by Israeli genocide forces who forced him to surrender to them by continuously attacking his hospital & killing his patients. 
He is pictured walking up a hill through the rubble of Gaza to a waiting Israeli tank. 
Israelis have been holding him in a concentration camp for over 500 days & torturing him to death.
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Deborah Baker @deborahbaker.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
No words.
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Amee Vanderpool @girlsreallyrule.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This is Alison, Cornell Class of 1994. She saw and experienced how Cornell University has gone out of their way to support and protect gang rape fraternity culture FOR YEARS, just like many other schools continue to do today.
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whet moser @whetmoser.com · 03/10/2026
“Drawing on labyrinthine Internal Revenue Service records, the pair study a group of rich business owners that looks more like a suburban chamber of commerce than an oligarchy: car dealers, dentists... What they find is tremendous wealth and power.” www.nytimes.com/2026/10/02/b...
nytimes.com
The Rich People Democrats Aren’t Talking About (Gift Article)
As billionaires become a popular political target, a new book urges Washington not to lose sight of a much larger, and quieter, group of wealthy business owners.
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Erin Overbey @erinoverbey.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I wrote about Cornell, My Own Sexual Assault, and the Cowardice of Men for my new Substack This is “The Eyes in the Rearview Mirror” open.substack.com/pub/erinover...
New Substack post: The Eyes in the Rearview Mirror: On Cornell, My Own Sexual Assault, and the Cowardice—and Occasional Heroism—of Men
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Rabih Alameddine @rabihalameddine.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Mornin'
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BlueFairyVA @bluefairyva.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Come on, Beth Macy!!! #bethmacy4cd6
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Dan Sinykin @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Working on this reported essay, just published, increasingly took over my life for the last two months. PEN America did a terrible disservice with its sloppy reporting about American Jews and Israelis in publishing in July. Josh Lambert and I tried to do better. jewishcurrents.org/what-pen-ame...
jewishcurrents.org
What PEN America Got Wrong About Antisemitism in Publishing
Misleading anecdotes, flawed data, and oversimplified analyses are at the heart of a narrative of Jewish exclusion promoted by the free expression…
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Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
There is a moment at the very very end of Abdul El-Sayed's podcast with Ezra Klein (book recommendation section) where he talks about the idea of "speaking truth to pain" and this will be staying with me for an extremely long time. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...
But there’s also something about truth to pain. We talk a lot about truth to power, but I think it’s actually a lot harder to speak truth to pain. I say that as someone who went to medical school, realizing that in a lot of our politics right now, we’ve got to get a lot better at speaking truth to pain if we’re going to get through some of these challenges that we have.

What does “truth to pain” mean?

It’s one thing to look power in the eye and say: You’re wrong about this. But there’s a way in which pain is very difficult to reason with. Because when somebody is in their pain, they’re in their trauma. They see that pain, and they may not see what’s causing it.

I remember just very explicitly being in a trauma ward with a gunshot wound patient and watching this big guy with his hand on his gunshot wound. All the folks are trying to pull his hand off his pain, that point of his gunshot wound, this clear vulnerability.

And this emergency room doctor had the presence of mind to be like: Everyone, stop. And she looks him in the eyes, and she’s like: I get that really hurts, and I’m so sorry that you’re here. You don’t want to be here. We don’t want you to be here. But if you don’t let us fix this, you could die. So I’m going to take your hand, and I’m going to move it off, OK? Because I need to get there so that you can live.

She was speaking truth to pain. He understands he’s at the hospital, he needs care, but he also doesn’t want anybody to touch the wound. Which is a natural thing. And I think it is a really great metaphor for how we think about a lot of these challenges we talked about today.
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Gareth Gaston @cggaston.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Here is a contemporaneous account of school closing in Charlottesville: drive.google.com/file/d/1dbMP...
drive.google.com
SchoolDesegregationGastonHammond.pdf
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Deborah Baker @deborahbaker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
With the support of the vast majority of its white residents, Charlottesville closed its schools too.
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@GeoBlogs @geoblogs.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Excellent piece on Andri Snær Magnason in yesterday’s Observer
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 23/09/2026
‘Israelis branded Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham as traitors, not Jews, “Kapos”. There were calls for violence against them, for them to be ostracised, sent to Gaza or exiled elsewhere.’ Alona Ferber on the frenzied response to the documentary 𝘕𝘈𝘡𝘈, new on the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/se...
lrb.co.uk
Alona Ferber | Layers of Denial
The frenzy in Israel surrounding the documentary NAZA is fundamentally undemocratic. That is what happens after years of...
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Deborah Baker @deborahbaker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
She lost her daughter.
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Adanedhel🌹 @danielwaweru.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
reason.com
Biden’s team wanted war in the Middle East without owning it
'Crossing the Red Line' peels back the curtain on the bureaucratic machinery behind U.S. involvement in Gaza and beyond.
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 22/09/2026
America’s longest-running paternity dispute has seemingly come to an end: Thomas Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings, his enslaved chambermaid, and the Smithsonian has the DNA to prove it. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/9tkTEI
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Cameron Clark @cameronclark.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
A key point: you do need a theory of communication, alongside a theory of politics, to be an effective operator I think the centre and left struggle, generally, with "playing the game" - it's not enough to just have policy prescriptions you think will work
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Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · 21/09/2026
If European countries & other signatories to the International Criminal Court have any self-respect, they'd sanction Rubio & Trump for obstructing investigations of Netanyahu's war crimes.
wsj.com
Exclusive | Trump Ramps Up Bid to Dismantle International Criminal Court
The U.S. administration is preparing sweeping sanctions that would cut the court off from much of the global financial system.
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Annette Gordon-Reed @agordonreed.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Two Centuries On, Smithsonian Connects Jefferson’s Hair to Hemings’s Children www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/a...
nytimes.com
Two Centuries On, Smithsonian Connects Jefferson’s Hair to Hemings’s Children (Gift Article)
A new book describes how cutting-edge genomics techniques yielded “extraordinary proof” that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings.
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Christopher Mathias @letsgomathias.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
New for @talkingpointsmemo.com: Marshall Rawson, GOP nominee for Florida legislature, marched w/ Nazis in Charlottesville, condoned slavery, & called for execution of gay people. Does GOP even care? Is there a limit to MAGA's "never punch right" ethos? talkingpointsmemo.com?p=1558029&pr...
talkingpointsmemo.com
We Asked 28 GOP Officials If They’d Denounce the GOP Nominee Who Marched With Nazis in Charlottesville
This week I asked 28 current and former Republican Party officials in...
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Rabih Alameddine @rabihalameddine.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
On short lifespans
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Nicola Spurr @nicolaspurr.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Book people are the best people
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The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 15/09/2026
Florida’s Marshall Rawson joined the “Unite the Right” rally—and was even spotted with the man who drove his car into counterprotesters. trib.al/YRaForf
trib.al
Republican Nominee Marched at Violent Neo-Nazi Rally
Florida’s Marshall Rawson joined the “Unite the Right” rally—and was even spotted with the man who drove his car into counterprotesters.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 15/09/2026
enjoyed making this one youtu.be/zGYmIwM4T90
youtu.be
Smart Answers to Stupid Comments About Slavery
YouTube video by Takes™ by Jamelle Bouie
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Livable Cville @livablecville.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This Wednesday, September 16th at 6pm at the Jefferson School, PHAR and community partners are hosting an event called “Whose City? A Community Panel About Luxury and Affordable Housing.” This promises to be an engaging and informative event - please consider attending!
WHOSE CITY?
A COMMUNITY PANEL ABOUT LUXURY AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING
WEDNESDAY, SEP 16TH 6:00PM

Learn more about how racial inequity relates to housing and how safe, stable housing is the foundation for economic well-being, workforce stability, and the strength of the whole community

Shamaal Sheppard
Former Senior Policy
Analyst
Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality

James Bryant
Vice President
10th & Page
Neighborhood
Association, Retired
Educator

Latricia Giles
Executive Director
Charlottesville Public
Housing Association
of Residents

Zyahna Bryant
School Board Member;
10th & Page
Neighborhood
Association Organizer;
Deputy Political
Director, Tom Perriello for Congress

Jefferson School
African American Heritage Center Auditorium
233 4th St NW, Charlottesville, VA 22903
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
⁨7am at the Amtrak station in Baltimore. The glamour!⁩ Our new book comes out tomorrow -- get a copy and come see us on the road. naomiklein.org/end-times-fa...
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Christopher Mathias @letsgomathias.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
NEW: @talkingpointsmemo.com can reveal GOP nominee for Florida legislature: -marched at deadly Charlottesville Nazi rally w/ white supremacist group's flag -has *many* white supremacist donors -appears to advocate lynching He is expected to win Nov. election talkingpointsmemo.com/news/florida...
talkingpointsmemo.com
Exclusive: He Marched With Nazis in Charlottesville. Now He’s Expected to Join the Florida Legislature.
The Republican nominee for a seat in the Florida House of Representatives...
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Adam Chapman @adamchapman.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is a very interesting new resource, The Register of British Slave-Traders. 'The Register focusses on the individuals who sought to profit from the enslavement of over 3 million African men, women, and children, whose identity was – for the most part – erased from the historical record.' 🗃️
britishslavetraders.org
The Register of British Slave-Traders
The Register of British Slave-traders compiles and presents information on all known slave-traders in Britain who invested in the trafficking of captive Africans from 1563 to 1807.
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Deborah Baker @deborahbaker.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Truly.
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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
It’s alarming how much influence Hasan Piker may potentially one day have in the Democratic Party. by Laura Loomer, Nick Fuentes, David Duke, Thomas Rousseau, James Fishback, and Alex Jones
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
*How he research and writes There are some great tips for finding stories and documents from Radden Keefe, as well as some killer lines on writing compelling stories Be “like a duck floating on the crystalline surface of a pond!" www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTvo...
youtube.com
Trump's America, Coming to Britain | Patrick Radden Keefe
YouTube video by Democracy for Sale
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Blake Rogers Wilson @bodyindc.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
R.I.P. Oscar Grant
A graffiti covered confederate statue. A small poster dedicated to Oscar Grant of Oakland is in the front of the frame. Grant is pictured on the left.
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NPR @npr.org · 12/09/2026
Leading Palestinian writer Raja Shehadeh has documented Israel's occupation of the West Bank since day one. Fearing the occupation might consume his archive, he secretly moved it to Scotland n.pr/4yyXSmn
n.pr
The secret quest to preserve Palestinian writer Raja Shehadeh's diaries
Leading Palestinian writer Raja Shehadeh has documented Israel's occupation of the West Bank since day one. Fearing the occupation might consume his archive, he secretly moved it to Scotland
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Sergey Vasiliev @sevslv.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
“An Exception in World Affairs”: a must-read essay by Aryeh Neier in @nybooks.com, reflecting on the institutional success of the ICTY and why it may have been just what the title says: an exception in world affairs.
nybooks.com
An Exception in World Affairs | Aryeh Neier
Ratko Mladić’s death last week at eighty-three in The Hague—where he was serving a life sentence for committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and
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Deborah Baker @deborahbaker.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Gift link foreignpolicy.com/2026/08/31/t...
foreignpolicy.com
Trump Has Peaked
The U.S. president will remain disruptive on the global stage, but he is losing his coercive powers.
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Steven Beschloss @stevenbeschloss.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Still waiting: —for evidence Mitch McConnell is alive. —Republicans to confess how batshit crazy Trump is. —John Fetterman to announce he’s become a Republican. …Supreme Court supermajority to admit they really don’t care about upholding the Constitution. …Americans to prove enough is enough.
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Craig Harrington @craigipedia.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Oh my gosh, the best political video on YouTube just got updated after a decade and a half and it's still just perfect! It visualizes something that I've talked about a lot since the first video came out: The real problem is the billionaire class. www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gxl...
youtube.com
Wealth Inequality in America (Updated 2026)
YouTube video by politizane
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
JON STEWART: “They began covering their ass 3 weeks after 9/11… There was poison in the air, on the ground, on your pets/clothes… THE CITY KNEW. Rather than limit the damage, they covered it up… After 9/11, business will never be usual again.” (From @mamdanibulletin.bsky.social )
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Deborah Baker @deborahbaker.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
School choice for sickos
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
BUNCH: “.. Americans are an amazingly brave people .. They’ve got to be brave enough to face their own history. .. And I will stand against wind and tide to prevent history from being erased ..” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/a...
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
We woke up thinking about the long shadow of all the workers’ wins and even their losses. We made it free to watch the short documentary that dominated my life this year. Happy Labor Day. vimeo.com/1224659811/7...
vimeo.com
Power to the People, Y'all [Happy Labor Day]
Power to the People, Y’all is a character-driven documentary that explores aging, legacy, and resistance through interviews with five founding members of the Winston-Salem Chapter of the Black Panther...
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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Ugly but fascinating stuff from @lcrw.news. Valuable for those of us who study rightwing movements. And reminiscent, as a literary artifact, of the kind of weird insight the great alt-weeklies of the late 20th century used to offer. leftcoastrightwatch.org/articles/mee...
leftcoastrightwatch.org
MEET THE FORMER TPUSA VIDEOGRAPHER SELLING NAZI MEME SHIRTS | Left Coast Right Watch
As the opening seconds of September trickled into minutes, LCRW’s editor sat cross-legged against a granite pillar in the 62-degree Provo night. Across from them was a 27-year-old in a chocolate-chip ...
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 08/09/2026
to place the sexual and reproductive exploitation of black women at the center of your understanding of american slavery is to see that the system was forced birth and this, in turn, should lead to a more expansive vision of what the 13th amendment actually guarantees.
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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I'm biased, as faculty on the campus to which our president brought the state riot squad for the most modest of protests, but I think this is essential reading far beyond Dartmouth, a deep & measured case study--not a polemic--of how capitulation can occur even on a campus that had every advantage.
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Scroll @scroll.in · 06/09/2026
Instead of celebrating and showcasing Panjim’s enviable uniqueness, truly blessed with a riviera, a beach, & priceless heritage buildings, our city fathers seem single-minded in destroying those very same assets to reduce into another urban mess. scroll.in/article/1095... By Luis Dias
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 05/09/2026
Guyana is at least the sixth country to start taking third-country nationals since mid-July. (along with Burundi, Liberia, Belize, Dominica, St Lucia). Jamaica and the Bahamas may also be taking third-country nationals, but no one has been able to confirm it yet. 34 countries total now by my count.
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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I'd like this to be less folks saying similar things about a few links, more people saying "look at this." @cajuntaper.bsky.social sent me this video about how wealth is extracted from his state. No matter what you think you know, it's astonishing, & horrifying. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWTi...
youtube.com
Why Louisiana Stays Poor
YouTube video by Together Louisiana
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