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Mary Beth Williams

@mbwilliams.bsky.social
1.6K followers 933 following 2.5K posts

Made from Maine Wabanakiak, Isles of Shoals fishermen, and Welsh coal miners. Exiled to Oregon. Constitutional law and state/tribal/fed gov't wonk (JD). North Atlantic historian obsessed with wampum, cod fishing, and dual-host pathogens.

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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A whole new avenue of prosecuting 4th Amendment claims may have just opened up in Texas. I still need to pull up the pleadings to see how the plaintiff's attorney's defeated QI (probably due to the arresting officer admitting the official reason for the stop was pretexual.)
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Bingeing the Australia "Ghosts" and yes, Aussies haven't fully addressed their colonial crimes, but seeing an Indigenous woman cast in an everyday, non-stereotyped role that could be played by any race/ethnicity is heartening—and yet still so rare on US television...
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I’m currently on another yet deep dive on Charles I, and I can’t help but draw parallels with our current Mad King. Except I actually feel some sympathy for Chuck the Headless, scads more than the orange tyrant would ever deserve.
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I hope the gods have found an appropriate means of causing perpetual suffering for John Marshall.
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Milton Tan @mtanichthys.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
As someone who studies fish diversification, intrigued that apparently swedish fish have diversified
A picture of a candy shelf with various kinds of swedish fish
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AltStateGov @altstategov.altgov.info · 20/09/2026
This thread contains voting & election information for all 50 states and D.C. Links lead to the state's main elections web page and where and/or how to vote. Please take time to ensure you are registered to vote and know how and where you can vote.
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Imani Gandy @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 16/09/2026
i love this
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I woke up to Canada being invaded by the 19th century Mexican navy.
Picture of a Mexican navy 3 masted dialing ship.
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/nəˈθænjəl/ @nathanielbdemiller.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Someone using the runaway truck ramp on I-70
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The fish are in the Creek. The bears too.
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Which one????
Sign in Ketchikan, Alaska, for US Senate: “Sullivan”.
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Joe Noonan @joenoonan.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Banned: Macklemore's powerful statement deserves reading. www.instagram.com/p/DdRdsy0m2H...
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
UPDATE: DOJ decided to play fast and loose this morning. Without even filing a notice of appeal in the DSCC case, SG Sauer made arguments to SCOTUS about the merits of the DSCC case injunction in a "supplemental brief" in the stay application pending in the California/LWV cases out of Mass.
Late last night, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia entered a preliminary injunction in three consolidated cases, DSCC v. Trump, No.
26-cv-1114 (D.D.C.); League of United Latin American Citizens v. Trump, No. 26-cv-1132 (D.D.C), and NAACP v. Trump, No. 26-cv-1151 (D.D.C.). See DSCC D. Ct. Doc.
192 (Sept. 13, 2026) (App., infra, la-24a). Much like the injunction at issue here, the D.D.C. injunction bars the Postal Service from implementing and enforcing its Ballot
Mail for Federal Elections Rule. See App., infra, 25a-26a. Because that decision does not contain any materially new reasoning, a stay in this case will require the district
court in DSCC (or the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
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Circuit) to immediately grant a parallel stay. See Trump v. Boyle, 145 S. Ct. 2653, 2654 (2025) (explaining that this Court's interim orders "inform how a court should exercise its discretion in like cases").On the merits, although the DSCC court recognized that the Rule's labeling requirements might fall within the Postal Service's authority, see App., infra, at 16a n.7, it concluded that the Rule's requirement that state officials submit a list of intended ballot recipients as a condition of mailing ballots to those recipients likely exceeded the Postal Service's authority, reasoning that that requirement is about regulating elections rather than delivering mail, id. at 15a-16a. That rationale, which is essentially the same as the rationale of the district court in this case, see Appl.
App. 27a-30a, fails for reasons the government has already explained. In particular, creating lists of recipients helps to ensure that mail is sent only to the addressees the sender intends and to track if any fraudulent use of the mail occurs. See Appl. 9, 28;
Reply Br. 17. As such, that requirement falls well within the Postal Service's rule-making power and is analogous to the existing registration and tracking require-
ments for cremated remains or to a hypothetical rule requiring senders to provide
more detailed information regarding mailings to retirement communities that have been targeted for fraud. See Appl. 16-19; Reply Br. 7, 10-12.
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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Mathematicians out here saying it is not the proof that matters, but the human understanding of the proof. We are all humanists now.
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European Research Council (ERC) @erc.europa.eu · 14/09/2026
🛡️ What does the Viking legacy look like today? Tom Birkett and his team have launched a project exploring how ideas and narratives about the #Vikings have evolved across Europe over the past 200 years. 👉 t.co/0L4WD9EsLL 📸 ©️Clare Keogh @norsemap.bsky.social @norseincork.bsky.social @ucc.ie
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 12/09/2026
mackenzie scott really seems like the only billionaire to figure out that you can be a literal hero to millions with a relative pittance
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Jonathan W. Gray @elmcitytree.blacksky.app · 14/09/2026
UC Berkeley Law School bans AI—and other law schools quietly follow their lead—U Chicago bans AI use in the social sciences but NOT the business school & now MIT issues this damning report. But AI companies lobby the private equity execs on university boards to adopt it anyway.
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
As an historian of cod fishing, this nearly brought me to tears. Incredible recovery, but it’s definitely not the time to pull back protection.
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🌺HippiesRule🌺 @teresa555.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Wut??? 🐸 *leaves work starts car speeds to store
Earbuds in the shape of... omg... omg... FROGS Frog earbud in an ear looking fcking adorable!
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Zoe Tillman @zoetillman.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
NEW: A US judge blocked the Trump administration from carrying out for now the president’s latest effort to impose new limits on automatic birthright citizenship after losing an earlier legal fight before the Supreme Court www.bloomberg.com/news/article... Ruling: assets.bwbx.io/documents/us...
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Katiesaurus @katiesaurusseven.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
"In an international study of more than 7 million people, type 2 diabetes patients taking a GLP-1 drug were less likely to develop TB compared with those on other antidiabetic medications"
medpagetoday.com
GLP-1 Studies Suggest Benefits Extend to Infectious Diseases
Another positive side effect of blockbuster diabetes, weight-loss drugs?
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
“Fear Mongols” was actually what Genghis Khan called his army
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Seriously? Come on, Andy. Don’t pull this sh*t.
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Nahel Belgherze @wxnb.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
It’s hard to fathom the sheer scale of the devastation that occurred in Nepal and Tibet. The latest estimates suggest that the glacier-rock collapse mobilized more than 142 million m³ of material. Here’s what that volume looks like when placed over Manhattan, New York City for scale.
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Ben Alpers @benalpers.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
And anyone in the media who accepts the premise that Trump has actually renamed the Gulf of Mexico or Lake Ontario should be similarly mocked. Don't be a bootlicker!
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Boosting for my other WC friends. These boys look adorable, and orange kitties have their own lovely personalities.
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Almost every celestial event is a no-go up here in the PNW, so I was shocked (shocked!) that we actually have a clear night to see the lunar eclipse. Had to walk down the street to get past the tree cover, but at least we got to see it.
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
As a family who lived in an RV and traveled for four years, the Wild Thornberrys were everything good. RIP Nigel.
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
The USPS can't determine that the dozen or so "home warranty" offers I get every week are scams and yet I'm supposed to trust them to determine if anyone is qualified to vote?
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Algorithms killed the spectrum of emotional valences. Everything now is set to 10. Bring back the eyeroll, the exasperated sigh, the hand wave, the shoulder shrug. Some stuff is just mildly annoying or blandly dumb. You don’t need to blow every emotional outburst on the mundane.
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Every state visited, consequence of living on the road for four years. I cheated slightly, as I only stayed one night in Alaska 40 years ago (flight from Japan diverted,) but I'm heading there for 10 days in two weeks time. Next goal: All the counties in England and Wales.
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Karen's firing was the final straw for me and that very day I canceled my WaPo subscription after more than 2 decades of (undeserving) loyalty. Let's see if they now follow the arbitrator's order.
nytimes.com
Washington Post Ordered to Rehire Fired Columnist Karen Attiah (Gift Article)
An arbitrator ordered the newspaper to reinstate Karen Attiah, who was fired after posting about “white men who espouse hatred and violence” following Charlie Kirk’s killing.
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The Oregonian @oregonian.com · 17/08/2026
What looks like a mess of fallen trees in a creek could ultimately help protect homes from flooding and improve habitat for native fish. mrf.lu/2RzDx
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Deva Woodly @devawo.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
They beat the planters and unionized their island. Because race matters. Ethnicity matters. Gender matters. If you don’t talk about it & explicitly call out its differing consequences in people’s lives&the way powerful people use it to fend off challenge to their power, then you lose.
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Waitman Wade Beorn, PhD, FRHistS @waitmanwbeorn.com · 13/08/2026
What? No. This is just more nonsense from the AI Koolaid-drinkers. And do you know what we call creating a "well-structured large historical dataset" and identifying a topic, analyzing sources, and writing? It's called the work of actual human historians. AI can't do this.
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Daniel Swain @weatherwest.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
This is one of those exciting announcements I mentioned just moments ago!
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Prof Tracey Hill @tracelarkhall.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
It's August 1640 and the Fishmongers are purchasing arms, bullets, gunpowder and match to keep 'in Store and readines for the safety of this Citty'...
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
The headline on the front page of the NYTimes digital version is so much more delicious than that of the article itself:
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Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 10/08/2026
We have very unfortunate news to share today... 😢 I've been an author for this report since 2020, and we just celebrated our 20th anniversary edition last year.
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
He's going to be sooooo mad. Which is delicious. Of course, he'll now probably invade Greenland or nuke Cuba...
nytimes.com
An Elaborate Ruse: Trump Secretly Used Military Jet to Leave Turkey Amid Threats (Gift Article)
President Trump hid in an airport catering cart and was taken to a military jet for a secret flight out of country after the NATO summit last month.
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Rockfall in Sidmouth, UK. Three weeks ago, we were there.
Photo of a large rockfall/landslide into the English Channel.
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
I keep seeing folks clamoring for Greenland and/or Denmark to start cracking skulls. TL;DR: Texas oil co. obtains maj. stake in UK firm with legit exploratory rights, lands equipment while awaiting regulatory approvals. Even locals know failing to approve could give Trump the casus belli he wants.
theguardian.com
Greenland issues ‘strong warning’ as Trump-linked oil firm prepares to drill
Island’s government says no approval given after Greenland Energy brings kit ashore for exploratory drilling
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Mary Beth Williams @mbwilliams.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Love hearing this. (Also love using the comments to this post to ruthlessly root out misogynists, racists, and poseurs to block.)
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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
The headline would be more accurate if it read "one person in Salem brought a miniature replica guillotine to an event attended by hundreds of citizens who oppose the building of a new data center." Knowing what I know about the people who attended that meeting, most weren't Robespierre-types.
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 07/08/2026
Story time! Six years ago, my first book, The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking), came out. It was fun to write! I got to share all my cosmology fun facts and dig deep into all the ways the universe might end. I had SO much fun with it, I thought, "maybe I should write another book?" 1/?
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
In other Michigan news, the state looks set to elect it's first transgender lawmaker. Joanna Whaley won her Democratic primary and will compete in November for a state house seat, beating a primary opponent who tried and failed to disqualify her for not running under her deadname
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Josh Chafetz @joshchafetz.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
1/ It's important that any thinking about post-Trump reforms think about the relative merits and demerits of rules vs. norms, as @dbernstein.bsky.social does today. But ... goodpoliticsbadpolitics.substack.com/p/restoring-...
goodpoliticsbadpolitics.substack.com
Restoring Norms
Trump may have ruined assumptions of restraint for future Presidents. Should we do something to rein them in?
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Senator Ron Wyden @wyden.senate.gov · 04/08/2026
Bombshell new report out from my investigators this morning spanning our four year investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s financial records. This report shows exactly how Wall Street protected Epstein and enabled his sex trafficking for decades. Mega thread following with some key points:
bloomberg.com
Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, BofA Enabled Epstein, Wyden Report Says
Democrat Ron Wyden cited nonpublic documents held by the US Treasury in a report that says banks delayed reporting suspicious financial transactions and calls for tougher anti-money-laundering rules, ...
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