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Erik Loomis

@erikloomis.bsky.social
18K followers 450 following 18K posts

Labor and environmental historian. Writer of books, teacher of American horrors, talker on labor movement. Beer, country music, and football are not just for the right wingers. Cats. The West. Music. Graves. Writes at www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com

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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 13h
Finally, Ohio State has accomplished something for good. www.nytimes.com/athletic/765...
nytimes.com
Dave Portnoy, Barstool Sports are off Fox’s ‘Big Noon Kickoff’: Sources
Portnoy and fellow top Barstool personalities like Dan "Big Cat" Katz have been part of Fox's college football program since 2025.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This Day in Labor History: October 2, 1968. The Mexican military slaughtered students protesting in the Tlateloco Plaza at the edge of Mexico City. The Tlateloco Massacre demonstrated the complete corruption of the Mexican Revolution’s ideals!!!
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This Day in Labor History: October 1, 1945. Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) in New York started a wildcat strike against the corrupt and conservative leadership of their union, as well as the terrible working conditions they faced. Let's talk about this rebellion!
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This Day in Labor History: September 30, 1919. A shootout occurred between armed guards protecting a union meeting of sharecroppers in Elaine, Arkansas and whites seeking to intimidate them. The next day, the governor ordered the military to crack down. Let's talk about the Elaine Massacre!
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This Day in Labor History: September 29, 1917. The Army intervenes in the strikes of the Northwest forests and sends in the military to get out the wood for airplanes. It both busted the IWW and also massively improved conditions on the ground for workers. Let's talk about this unusual moment!
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Given the history of Bears QBs, Case Keenum might be in the top 10 on this half alone
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This Day in Labor History: September 28, 1874. The U.S. military defeated the Comanche in Palo Duro Canyon, south of modern Amarillo, Texas, largely by stealing their horse herds. This made previous Comanche ways of life, including their work cultures, impossible and forced them into a reservation!
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This Day in Labor History: September 27, 1972. Workers represented by the United Auto Workers at the General Motors plant Norwood in Norwood, Ohio, ended their strike after 174 days. Let's talk how workers fought the horrors of automation and the speed-up in American auto!
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The problem is that you have to fix EVERYTHING that has been done in every single agency in the entire federal government. Hard to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This Day in Labor History: September 25, 1891. A battle broke out in Lee County, Arkansas, between members of the Colored Farmers Alliance and others, both black and white, who opposed their organizing for better wages in cotton picking. Two men died and the Alliance was crushed!
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Universities have three missions: 1) Educate and make students citizens of the world 2) Prepare them for the job market 3) Socialize them as normative for their age If that's not the real world--all 3 of them--then I don't know what is.
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Reposted by Erik Loomis
Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
There's a lot to say about this, and other folks are saying most of it. I just want to focus on one thing: the claim about the relationship between universities and "the real world."
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
My Duolingo Spanish lessons are getting weird--all these lessons are about neighbors having affairs.....
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"Harbaugh Won't Rule Out Playoffs" LOL Giants sure thing.... www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/...
espn.com
Giants QB Dart to have knee surgery, miss rest of regular season
Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart will undergo surgery on his knee and miss the rest of the regular season, though head coach John Harbaugh didn't rule out the possibility Dart would return if the Giants were to make the playoffs.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It really is genuinely amazing how few southern whites vote for Democrats. Do you know how few it would take for Democrats to win in Mississippi given the black vote? But nope, no way. One only dreams for the kind of world where people expressed class solidarity like they do white solidarity.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The asshole recently defeated mayor of Providence is furious about the rise of democratic socialism in the city and loathes rent control and gee whiz I wonder why..... www.providencejournal.com/story/news/p...
providencejournal.com
Smiley lists carriage house for rent for $5,500 a month | Exclusive
Mayor Smiley looks to rent his Providence guest house for $5,500, two weeks after losing reelection.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
When Richard Nixon felt he needed to make an appearance on a college campus in the days after the invasion of Cambodia and the widespread campus protests, he also chose the most right-wing major campus he could find--the University of Tennessee. www.nytimes.com/athletic/762...
nytimes.com
President Donald Trump to attend Tennessee-Texas football game Saturday, White House confirms
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
It's not just this bill--Newsom's entire administration has included vetoing dozens if not hundreds of good bills that would make people safer, increase their rights at work, etc. Anyone who cares about policy wants this person nowhere near the White House
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Tanking the global economy is definitely going to help the American economy, I can see no problems here......
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
My Gilded Age class today is turning in a paper on crime in the city. So for class, rather than lecture, I am going to do nothing but show them silent films about crime in the city, I am so unreasonably excited about this.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The Trump Klux Klan doesn't have the same ring, but if he wants to attach his names to American institutions, it's a good place to start for him.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
It's interesting how stable this is across time, which somewhat undercuts Trump narratives, both popular and elite
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This Day in Labor History: September 24, 1969. President Richard Nixon issued the Philadelphia Plan, forcing building trades unions to allow black members into their ranks. Nixon did this to divide the building trades from the Democratic Party and in no small part his cynical move worked!
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Reposted by Erik Loomis
Dr. Stephanie @punkrockscience.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The fact that every major news outlet includes vocal tics and hesitations when it’s a woman saying “like” and not when it’s a man saying “um” is itself wicked telling.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
With one major exception--most of the building trades, who would of course build their own concentration camps for union wage rates. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/22/b...
nytimes.com
How Unions Are Confronting A.I. Threats in the Workplace
The machinists union shows how workers are negotiating for a say in the ways artificial intelligence is used in their workplaces.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
OMG YES awfulannouncing.com/nfl/everyone...
awfulannouncing.com
Everyone's already sick of the Jason and Kylie Kelce Sunday Ticket commercials
NFL fans have seen hours of the Jason and Kylie Kelce Sunday Ticket commercials, and we're barely out of Week 2.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The death of the Professor Watchlist makes me happy, as I was on it. Fuck fascists. www.nbcwashington.com/investigatio...
nbcwashington.com
Turning Point USA's Professor Watchlist is down. Instructors describe its impact
“I received several death threats.” Two D.C.-area college instructors who appeared on the Professor Watchlist describe what it meant for their lives.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This Day in Labor History: September 22, 1946. The Food, Tobacco, Agricultural & Allied Workers of America (FTA) reached a contract agreement with the Piedmont Tobacco Company, marking an early victory in the CIO’s Operation Dixie campaign. Let's talk Operation Dixie and why it eventually failed!
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
That the Battle of Chile exists is a testament to the belief that film can make a difference in the world. Plus Guzman had so many other great films as well. RIP to a true legend. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/m...
nytimes.com
Patricio Guzmán, Filmmaker Who Documented Chile’s Struggles, Dies at 85
He won renown for his trilogy about the 1973 Pinochet coup, and later for another trilogy, about the legacy of the authoritarian regime that followed.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This Day in Labor History: September 21, 1908. The Industrial Workers of the World met for its 4th annual convention in Chicago. This convention would reshape the struggling nascent organization, moving it clearly from an intellectuals’ movement to a workers’ movement!!!
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Ah, those assholes....
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
My choice to get AJ Brown and Zay Flowers as my receivers is why fantasy football is so great.........
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This Day in Labor History: September 19, 1945. 24 fired female employees of the Lindstrom Tool and Toy Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut picketed outside the factory in protest of their firing to replace with returning men. Let's tell the often untold story of women workers in World War II!
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Brett Smiley sucks. Glad David Morales kicked his ass. Smiley is another example of a rich centrist who likes to call for everyone to come together when the left loses, but is a whiny baby when he fails. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/18/m...
bostonglobe.com
Providence mayor has ‘no regrets’ about his losing campaign, but he won’t endorse the Democratic nominee - The Boston Globe
Brett Smiley reflects on the race against David Morales, which he believes came down to differences about rent control and cost of living.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Hard to fight a nation in a stupid war where the other side doesn't care what happens to its own people if you bomb then and wins by cutting off oil from the nations they hate, which they can very easily do. Good thing no one thought through this first!
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This Day in Labor History: September 18, 1873. The firm of the railroad monopolist and financier Jay Cooke collapsed, sparking the Panic of 1873. This sparked the first global depression in the history of industrial capitalism. Let's talk about the total greed that created such a terrible situation!
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This Day in Labor History: September 17, 2011. A group of activists started protesting in Zucotti Park in Lower Manhattan. Soon gaining the nation’s attention and spawning similar groups across the country, Occupy Wall Street was the first grassroots protest against inequality in the New Gilded Age!
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Reposted by Erik Loomis
andy @askewqueue.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
My man looks like he’s about to star in a low budget reboot of the 90’s Joe Isuzu television ad campaign
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I took my cat to the vet yesterday (he was very uncooperative!) and there was a situation while I was there about a dog needing to be transferred to a real animal hospital because of something it ate. Cats may be assholes but dogs are fucking morons.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
If you want things done right, don't have an anarchist do it.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
This Day in Labor History: September 16, 2004. Mt. Olive Pickles finally came to an agreement with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, ending a lengthy boycott of the company. Let's talk the 25 years of organizing that went into this major victory for justice!
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
All of our clothing is made in the exact same situation as 1845, it's just that it is in Bangladesh or Cambodia instead of Pittsburgh or Lowell
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Can we talk about Johnny Paycheck's suit from the cover of his excellent 1971 album She's All I Got?
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
This Day in Labor History: September 15, 1845. Women working in the Pittsburgh textile mills met in Market Square to discuss the necessity of fighting to cut their days from 12 to 10 hours without a reduction in pay. The workers struck and a militant confrontation with capital resulted!
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This Day in Labor History: September 14, 1889. Black guano workers on Navassa Island rose up and killed five white bosses in an act of desperation in revolt against a racist work regime. Let's talk about this horror and the necessary revolt against it!
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The worst part about watching the NFL is getting previews for what people watch on a regular basis on the networks. My god....
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
And yet, China provides a far more stable economic and diplomatic relationship to the rest of the world than the US.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Eat shit Cowboys!
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
This might not be the Browns' year
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