Sign in

Kevin Lawrence

@psaltis.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1.1K following 638 posts

Violinist teaching at UNC School of the Arts, liturgical musician...and some day I'll really know Syriac

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Kasey Gifford @kaseygifford.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
To put this in perspective chestnut trees used to be dominant species in the United States. Billions of trees were killed by fungal blight and now fully grown America chestnuts are functionally extinct. There is no getting them back. Ever. All for a data center. www.gadgetreview.com/one-of-ameri...
gadgetreview.com
One of America’s Last Chestnut Groves Is About to Be Destroyed for a Data Center
A rare 200-tree American chestnut grove in West Virginia may be cleared for data-center development, but the project denies the site is on its land.
8537332228
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 04/10/2026
Tim Snyder: The term that I came up with… is superpower suicide. I just can’t see an example of a major country losing so much power so quickly as the United States under Trump. We’ve encouraged our enemies and we’ve made our allies not trust us.
25960572251
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Yet another reason to run on oversight and accountability. Those are promises they can actually keep.
361094223
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
HuffPost @huffpost.com · 25/09/2026
“ICE is fundamentally broken and cannot be fixed," the executive director of Amnesty International USA said.
huffpost.com
Amnesty International: 'ICE Needs To Be Abolished'
Amnesty International: 'ICE Needs To Be Abolished'
37229
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Balls & Strikes @ballsandstrikes.org · 16/09/2026
Gee, wonder where Trump could have gotten the idea that he can weaponize the DOJ to accomplish his political goals
ballsandstrikes.org
Trump Is Doing Exactly What John Roberts Said He Could
The Supreme Court has made clear that presidents can direct DOJ as they see fit. Trump is taking full advantage.
0125
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) @hcrichardson.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
September 12, 2026
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
September 12, 2026
On Thursday, in The New Republic, conservative judge J.
63957370
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Rev. Benjamin Cremer @brcremer.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
When you worship power, compassion and mercy will look like sins. When you worship power, harsh treatment towards those you see as "enemies" will look like righteous strength. When you worship power, the value and dignity of others is solely measured by their conformity to you.
316662
Kevin Lawrence @psaltis.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
The Legal Wreckage of the Supreme Court’s Ballroom Follies newrepublic.com/article/2150... via @newrepublic.com
newrepublic.com
The Legal Wreckage of the Supreme Court’s Ballroom Follies
The high court’s recent decision on the illegal addition to the White House shines a light on just how willing it is to let Donald Trump break the law.
010
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
JeannetteBlue @jeannetteblue.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
“Hold accountable” is after the fact. Too late. Not a solution.
031
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Yet another issue where every single person who touched it needs to end up in jail for us to have any semblance of the rule of law. You cannot have a functional democracy where the government creates a plan to literally throw away votes from places that don't support the incumbent party.
362474767
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Protest that endures, I think, is moved by a hope far more modest than that of public success: namely, the hope of preserving qualities in one's own heart and spirit that would be destroyed by acquiescence. Wendell Berry, What Are People For?
121173351
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Diana Butler Bass @dianabutlerbass.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Rest in the peace of wild things, Wendell. Thank you, thank you, thank you for everything, every word. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/31/u...
nytimes.com
Wendell Berry, Writer Who Extolled America’s Agrarian Past, Dies at 92 (Gift Article)
A Kentucky farmer, he railed against agribusiness and championed small family farms and the environment, winning widespread acclaim.
536384
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
The New York Times @nytimes.com · 30/08/2026
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com The president “has ripped an enormously damaging Trump-size hole in the constitutional order, and a future president with autocratic designs will have every tool he needs to push the envelope even further,” our columnist Jamelle Bouie writes.
nyti.ms
Opinion | Trump Is in Open Revolt Against the Constitution
The mail-in voting fiasco is the latest proof that we have another reconstruction ahead of us.
36313118
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Lana 🌺 ❤️💛💚💙💜 @mahalomalama.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
No caption required…
5 Supreme Court Judges Raising The Confederate Flag While Trampling Over Paper That Says, Voting Rights Act
17280802770
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
The president is refusing to spend taxpayer money assisting Americans suffering from natural disasters solely because their states didn't vote for him. I know there are a thousand scandals at the moment, but this one deserves some more oxygen at every level.
17962962421
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
🗽LOLGOP🗽 @lolgop.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
"t’s bad enough that the Roberts majority has changed the balance of power and reshaped our government to suit their personal preference. But to give the power to Trump is dangerous to the nation and the world. It’s a crime against democracy. Impeach all six."
emptywheel.net
The Roberts Majority Restructured Government - emptywheel
How much do you have to hate democracy to give power to Trump?
17724
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Shaily Patel @vox-magica.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
to the folks telling me how shitty higher ed is: yeah, i know. we went through a department closure last AY. you don’t have to tell me things are dire. but i do wish we, as faculty, had massive, totally unreasonable dreams for any future academy. you can do a lot with dreams. i know that too.
428833
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Lindsay Beyerstein @beyerstein.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I can't stress enough what a crisis this is. Trump's own intelligence agencies concluded that Iran attacked Minnesota's critical infrastructure and Trump is saying that it's Minnesota's own fault and denying it was Iran. The federal government won't defend blue states in a literal war.
nytimes.com
U.S. Sees Iran as Likely Behind Cyberattack on Minnesota Water Systems (Gift Article)
Investigators cautioned that the assessment was preliminary. There were no indications that any water supply had been rendered unsafe to drink.
8325591019
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Jonathan Larsen @jonathanlarsen.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
No one should ever forget that the reason Trump has such impunity is because of who both Presidents Bush put on the Supreme Court.
10533119
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
The US built the greatest talent magnet ever, attracting the smart, skilled, and striving. They’d come to study, then stay and build things here, or leave with positive impressions and fruitful connections. Helped make the US wealthy and powerful. Then America chose to throw it away. And for what?
20746311579
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele @drdragases.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Perhaps this's why adult friendship feels increasingly radical. It resists transactional logic modern life rewards everywhere else. Because a real friend offers something profoundly rare: unoptimised presence. Friendship survives purely through mutual choosing. Nobody has to stay. Yet some people do
tinyurl.com
The quiet grief of adult friendship
A few weeks ago, a friend called me at 01:40 AM. Not texted. Called. For a brief second, my body prepared itself for bad news. Adulthood has conditioned most of us to believe that late-night...
3195
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Paul Eric @pauleric70.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
🚨: Listen closely to realize exactly what we have lost. This acoustic footage captures the progressive erasure of birdsong, serving as a stark and alarming warning of catastrophic biodiversity loss. 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔🤬
53620
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Harry Litman @harrylitman.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Nothing in the agency cases held that Trump could simply shut down an agency of Congress’s creation. That’s what he has done with the election Assistance commission which now lacks commissioners to act. It’s taking the courts cases to the ultimate conclusion and just disabling an important agency.
24840209
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Kevin Collier @kevincollier.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Earlier this year, DHS told states that the EAC, tiny as it was, would handle CISA's old job of coordinating cyber threat information for the midterms. Now they're gone.
nbcnews.com
Trump ousts remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission ahead of midterms
The dismissals hamstring a key bipartisan agency just months before the midterms.
311871
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
The Rude Pundit @rudepundit.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
The founder we should talk more about is Thomas Paine, who will fuck your shit up every time. Here he is in The Rights of Man just ripping into any ideas of "originalism" and that kind of garbage.
Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave, is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies. Man has no property in man; neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow. The parliament or the people of 1688, or of any other period, had no more right to dispose of the people of the present day, or to bind or to controul them in any shape whatever, than the parliament or the people of the present day have to dispose of, bind or controul those who are to live a hundred or a thousand years hence. Every generation is, and must be, competent to all the purposes which its occasions require. It is the living, and not the dead, that are to be accommodated.
473067889
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
💪 The Lancet comes out swinging on how the MAGA/MAHA Administration is destroying US science Trump’s new OMB rule will “silence independent experts, codify ideological censorship, prioritise politics over data, & erect new barriers to international collaboration” www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
thelancet.com
The USA at 250: science in the new gilded age
“A republic, if you can keep it.” As the USA commemorates 250 years since the signing of The Declaration of Independence, the “if” in Benjamin Franklin's quip resonates more than ever. The present US ...
5208105
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Ken Schwencke @schwanksta.com · 01/07/2026
🚨 We analyzed the Supreme Court’s decisions over the past 20 years and found that for the first time, the court issued more consequential rulings on its “shadow docket” (unsigned orders often decided without arguments) than the traditional merits docket. www.propublica.org/article/supr...
421152537
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
The thing you need to understand is that there are 2 (TWO) different method for amending the constitution 1) The process laid out in the constititon itself (conventions, or 2/3's of both houses followed by 3/4 of states ratifying) OR 2) find five votes on the Supreme Court.
20779581862
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
👇🎯 As we've known since Dec 12, 2000, we don't live under a democracy. We live under a 9-member, unelected oligarchy, where all of our rights - including whether our votes count & the equal protection clause applies to everyone & whether people born in 🇺🇸 are actually citizens - depend on 1 vote.
732492
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Corruption & overthrowing democracy are two sides of the same coin. Those who've engaged in audacious forms of public corruption feel a pragmatic need to protect both themselves & their ill gotten gains by cementing themselves in power so securely that no opposition channeling public anger can win.
16318
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
CCL Raritan Valley @cclraritan.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
The Senate just UNANIMOUSLY blocked the Trump administration's plan to dismantle an ocean monitoring system "critical to understanding climate change and marine ecosystems." (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/c...
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Backs Off Plan to End Ocean Monitoring
622474
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Ambassador Ken Fairfax (ret) @portlandken.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Quintessential Trump: In 2025, Trump axed the program to combat New World Screwworm, stating that they had "saved" $1.5 million a year. In 2026, the Trump announces a $1 billion emergency program to combat the Screwworm outbreak. $1 billion would have funded the old program for 667 years.
14864802579
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 15/06/2026
NOOOOOO! Dormition Cathedral of Kyiv‑Pechersk Lavra — a UNESCO World Heritage site and priceless cultural landmark — has been struck and is burning.
22927451274
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Elias Greig @eliasgreig.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
On this ongoing, relentless nonsense about AI resistance being classist, excellence is one of the few, fragile weapons working class people can deploy against privilege. Destroy excellence, or cheapen it to the point of routine, and you reward access and wealth.
116969
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Dutchy Patrick @dutchiepatrick.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
This Aussie is spot on, it will take years or decades to get rid of capitalism from the government. It’s not just Trump, it’s everything behind him, oligarchs, money, corruption, corporations etc. How can we fix this?
63683972623
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Congrats, John Roberts! You ended the three-branch method of governance!
393281988
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
I’ve been in the I don’t trust the dude with the Nazi tattoo since the beginning and people were like oooooh but the alternative was Susan Collins or Janet Mills dummy. No the alternative is the party cultivating talent and doing capacity building
902291343
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
The U.S. Supreme Court erased all doubts about the sweeping nature of its recent voting rights jurisprudence Tuesday night with a shadow docket ruling that effectively reverses the Court’s own decision in the same matter just three years ago. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
democracydocket.com
Supreme Court's Alabama redistricting ruling marks striking reversal of its previous stance
"More and more, this Court shows itself to be little more than a partisan tool engaged in results-oriented jurisprudence," Prof. Hasen wrote.
35965402949
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Frankly, I want to divest SCOTUS of jurisdiction to enter *any* orders reversing a lower court without a complete elaboration of the reasons why. They are the least busy judges in America with a self-selected workload. If they can't bother to explain it, they should not do it.
311991453
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Really fantastic @jamellebouie.net column today. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/03/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | America Broke Something When It Gave Trump a Second Chance
19464157
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Consistent with our new report: -Federal judges rate the rule of law today below 2021 and 2015. -86% say DOJ appointees often mislead judges, 71% say federal officials often fail to comply with court orders. -Fewer than half say presumption of regularity still merited. See open text quotes below:
26224
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 29/05/2026
Bumping this reply. I do not think the problem is the American people or public opinion. The problem is our Supreme Court is packed and corrupt. The people cannot pay attention to detailed constitutional law while a corrupt Roberts Court rewrites the constitution case by case.
936077
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
John Garrison Marks @johngmarks.com · 27/05/2026
Do not let the White House convince you that they are dictating what happens for the 250th. They're doing a bunch of stuff, but it's all fleeting spectacle. There is genuine, thoughtful, history-focused programming happening all over the United States. Get offline and go find it.
9469152
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
rev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
i think the phrase "their cities" is interesting in that it expresses the republican belief that they are at war with their neighbors
722094359
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
molly conger @socialistdogmom.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
they’re shooting crowd control munitions at crowds that include multiple members of congress, the governor, and a sitting united states senator. they fired pepper balls at the senator. they cannot and will not be reigned in by democracy, whatever’s left of it.
16294533373
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin @ecmclaughlin.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Again, straight from Delaney Hall in Newark NJ: ICE just tear gassed Senator Andy Kim.
14036321603
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 24/05/2026
Your daily reminder that this is all John Roberts' fault.
motherjones.com
This is all John Roberts’ fault
Trump owes his corrupt and abusive reign to one man.
652275418
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Trump is putting no effort into becoming less unpopular but a TON into putting elements of a coup in place. Some of them may remain invisible, but the ones we can see point to his general approach: violent intimidation + corrupt judges + executive branch and congressional coconspirators + bribes.
offmessage.net
They're Really Going For It
Trump's plan to overturn the midterm elections comes into focus.
511486598
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 20/05/2026
He's not planning on leaving. That's what the ballroom bunker equipped with drones is for. It's why he's calling for Thune to fire the parliamentarian who's refusing to allow the $1B for the ballroom in the reconciliation bill. It's why he's paying the insurrectionists with his slush fund.
29125641122
Reposted by Kevin Lawrence
David Simon @audacityofdespair.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Under authoritarian rule, there will always be an obscurant reason and contorted argument to explain why the consent of the governed is not really necessary to proceed. Whatever this fascist throws up in bricks and mortar before we finally spit him out, the rest of us will vote to tear down.
1134289