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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 21m

Happy Prize Day! Trump, October 13, 2024: “If I were named Obama, I would’ve had the Nobel Prize given to me in 10 seconds….There has to be fairness and I don’t care about…I’m not looking for it. I’m not politicking for it. I’m just saying that there’s a lot of unfairness in this world...”

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 15h

Paul Szep on the fate of social programs at the start of the Reagan years, March 1981.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 18h

One of the earlier album reviews of the Beatles in an American newspaper.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 19h

Time magazine's brief notice about Rubber Soul, March 18, 1966.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 19h

Tax cuts and trickle down theory

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 20h

“The war on poverty, 1981.” Herblock, with a play on LBJ's program, reimagines Reagan as a wrecking ball to social programs and welfare spending, March 1981.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 20h

“If we’re selfish, that could destroy the whole program.” Herblock on Reagan’s spending priorities, March 1981.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Ben Sargent on Reagan’s tax cuts for the rich and the impact on the working poor, March 1981.

Cartoon shows a man labeled "The Working Poor" being run over, with tire tracks across his body, by an old-timey looking truck labeled "Reagan and Co Tax Cuts to the Rich."

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

"The entire US economy?..." Ben Sargent on the big gamble of Reaganomics, March 1981.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

"They fight over the size of their cuts, too." Herblock on government spending under Reagan, March 1981.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This week in the MA rock history seminar we have chapters and articles by Kelefa Sanneh, Suzanne E. Smith, John Covach and Andrew Flory, Phyl Garland, James Brown, and Robert Hilburn.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Herblock on the Reagan-era Office of Management and Budget cutting programs, February 1981.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The Beatles at Shea Stadium, August 23, 1966.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Mike Peters on the Gun Lobby, February 1981. This was just two months after John Lennon was murdered.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

At the natural history museum. “No one does bird better than me. That I can tell you.”

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The AfD’s “vision includes so-called remigration, a policy that advocates deporting people on a massive scale, including immigrants with German citizenship.…’The word remigration is nothing more than a synonym for ethnic cleansing based on origin and skin color,’ Merz recently told lawmakers.”

npr.org

Following far-right and far-left gains, Germany's center struggles for relevance

After gains for the far-right and far-left, Germany's centrist politicians are soul-searching among echoes of a past that led to the collapse of the Weimar Republic and rise of fascism decades ago.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Keith Emerson (ELP), the science of prog rock, Civic Center in San Francisco, February 17, 1974.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"How far did Mr. Reagan say we could turn it back?" Paul Szep, Boston Globe, 7/24/1980.

Cartoon shows an old man and old woman with cats in a traditional living room. The man, wearing a cowboy hat with Reagan's name on it, is winding the grandfather clock as the woman asks, "How far did Mr. Reagan say we could turn it back."

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Jim Borgman's editorial cartoon of the US and the Soviet Union comparing their Vietnam and Afghanistan scars, September 1980

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"We're number one!" Paul Szep on defense spending and domestic cuts, September 1973.

Cartoon shows a giant in military uniform, holding a gun labeled "defense spending." The gun has a cork on a string, with the cork labeled "keep America strong." In the background President Nixon is swinging a club with "domestic cuts" written on it at a civilian.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

“Our top story of the day… Ronald Reagan had an error free day.” Brian Basset, September 1980.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Building a massive border wall in the Land of Nod.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"I'm getting darn tired of your wanting clean air—and clean government." Herblock, September 1973. From the NYT, 9/5/1973: "The Nixon Administration, in response to a request by industry, will propose tomorrow new regulations relaxing antipollution requirements."

Image shows a man labeled "administration" looming over another man with a clothespin on his nose and a button that reads "US" on his lapel. The administration is holding papers that read "Reduce anti-pollution standards – Nixon."

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Bill Mauldin on the defensive, secretive Nixon administration, September 1973.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

A very good Halloween passage from the Book of Job: One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease & secure, his pails full of milk & the marrow of his bones moist. Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity. They lie down alike in the dust, & the worms cover them.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"The tougher it gets, the cooler I get!" Paul Szep on Nixon lashing out at the press amid his many scandals, October 1973.

Cartoon shows a press briefing room with Nixon taking hold of a member of the press, holding him down on the ground, and shaking him.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"Following this newest government crisis, we now resume with the latest Administration scandals!" Herblock, October 1973.

Cartoon shows a man and a woman, slumped over in chairs in their living room, watching television. At the man's feet are newspapers with headlines about various Nixon administration scandals.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"If he loses his grip, he'll have a hell of a fall." Bill Mauldin on Nixon's response to a host of scandals, October 1973.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Paul Szep on Nixon VP Spiro Agnew's culture war on the press, the media, anti-war protesters, Massachusetts... October 1973.

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Reposted by Randall Stephens

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This is like accusing someone of robbing a bank because they deposited money and never withdrew it

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Gene Basset on the Nixon administration's battle to keep the White House tapes from being released in the face of political, legal, and public pressures, October 1973.

Cartoon depicts District Court Judge John Sirica grabbing Nixon by the tie and swinging his gavel at him as Nixon holds a tape reel and says, "Here, if they mean that much to you."

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"Prepare to meet thy oil shortage." Jim Berry, October 1973.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Bill Mauldin's editorial cartoon commenting on the ongoing Watergate crisis and following the resignation of Nixon's VP Spiro T. Agnew, October 1973.

Cartoon shows the eagle symbol of the US with a cloud over it and hiding its eyes with its wing.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Like a chatbot, Trump hallucinates his sources

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Trump seeing the real problem with AI as a branding issue speaks volumes.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Randomly came across. Maybe on his Wikipedia page. The cemetery is right next to one of the city's largest parks.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I've gotta make a little pilgrimage to the grave of Casey Kasem here in Oslo.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Our wannabe authoritarian prez. "Trump complained about the lack of [media] coverage. Then, in front of Xi, Trump said how much he preferred the Chinese press to his own. The Chinese government, of course, has been notoriously repressive toward independent journalists."

npr.org

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

"King Richard sweeps back the waves!" Roy Justus, August 1973.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

"Ghosts out of Pandora's Box." Roy Justus, August 1973.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Paul Conrad on the GOP and what-aboutism during the Watergate era, August 1973.

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Reposted by Randall Stephens

Hilde Løvdal Stephens @hildelstephens.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I'm thinking of ways to show students how AI can help them *sound* like a certain kind of scholarship but still be wildly off, and I might just show them this.

The prompt was: "Write an outline for a[n] academic article on evangelicals on Mars and how they clamor for oysters for lunch."
Proposed title: "Oysters in the Red Desert: Evangelical Foodways, Colonial Longing, and Liturgical Appetite on Mars."

Potential Primary Sources for the Fictional Archive

Sermons from the First Evangelical Habitat Church.
Minutes from the Mars Settlement Council.
Ration cards and weekly lunch menus.
Focus-group interviews with settlers and food-service workers.
Children’s devotional curricula on “God’s Creation on Mars.”
Promotional material from a Martian aquaculture company.
Social-media posts using slogans such as “No Colony Without Cuisine” or “Oysters Are a Creation-Care Issue.”
Letters between settlers and relatives on Earth describing meals, deprivation, and homesickness.

Abstract

This article examines a hypothetical community of evangelical settlers on Mars whose recurring demand for oysters at lunch becomes a focal point for negotiating faith, scarcity, technological dependence, and earthly cultural memory. Drawing on scholarship in religion and food, space humanities, environmental ethics, and settler-colonial studies, it argues that the settlers’ clamoring for oysters is not reducible to culinary preference. Oysters function as a sacramentalized object of nostalgia: a materially scarce food through which colonists reproduce ideas of providence, abundance, status, and Christian dominion in an extraterrestrial setting. The article asks how a seemingly mundane lunch demand becomes a dispute over resource allocation, moral authority, communal identity, and the proper meaning of creation beyond Earth.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"He'll be ideal for watching the chicken house—he loves chickens." Herblock on Reagan's deregulation agenda and the role of special interests, December 1980.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"President Donald Trump's approval rating fell to 32% - the lowest of his political career - as his fellow Republicans soured on his handling of the cost of living amid the unpopular Iran ‌war, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found....Trump's overall approval was down from a reading of 35%..."

reuters.com

EXCLUSIVE: Trump approval falls to record low of 32% as high costs bite, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

The poll found voters leaning away from supporting Republicans in the midterm elections.

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Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

“If the Russians start anything we'll shoot money at them.” Herblock, December 1980.

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