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Simon Balto

@simonbalto.bsky.social
162 followers 108 following 10 posts

Professor, author. Steady with your hope now.

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Reposted by Simon Balto
will tchakirides @willtchak.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
This is horrible news. Dr. Fernandez was a brilliant and determined scholar who not only wrote & taught about struggles for racial and economic justice but understood how historians could serve those movements themselves. Her book on the Young Lords is simply elite. She’ll be so deeply missed. RIP
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Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
An absolute hero when it comes to fighting government secrecy and bringing to public one of the most important archives in the history of policing.
nytimes.com
Old New York Police Surveillance Is Found, Forcing Big Brother Out of Hiding (Published 2016)
Boxes found in a Queens warehouse contain files about the Black Panthers, the Nation of Islam and the Young Lords.
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Simon Balto @simonbalto.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Devastated to hear of Dr. Johanna Fernandez’s passing. I’ve had the privilege of sharing some spaces with her, and she always kept the main thing the main thing. Power, in/justice, organizing — these weren’t abstractions to study but forces to confront and possibilities to engage. Rest in power.
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Tone Madison @tonemadison.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
Now in print! THE BODY CAMERA ISSUE features design by @cmy-kay.bsky.social, illustrations by Andrew Mulhearn, a special intro essay by @simonbalto.bsky.social, and writing from @scottgordonwi.bsky.social, @stinadale.bsky.social, and Kay Reynolds. Come get it today at Madison Print and Resist!
tonemadison.com
The body camera issue – Tone Madison
Our second-ever print edition accompanies our ongoing coverage of surveillance and transparency.
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Scott Gordon @scottgordonwi.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
I am very excited to have this out in the world today. Extremely grateful to @simonbalto.bsky.social for writing the intro, @cmy-kay.bsky.social for masterminding the whole thing, @stinadale.bsky.social for writing and editing, and Andrew Mulhearn for an all-new batch of illustrations!
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Barb McQuade @barbmcquade.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
From interview of Lee Bollinger, 1st Amendment scholar who served as dean of @UMichLaw, president of @UMich, and president of Columbia University. www.chronicle.com/article/were...
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 14/03/2025
whether they’re retiring or not this should be the last term for each of them
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The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 14/03/2025
Democrats built their entire party structure on polite deference, seniority, and chasing bipartisanship—as opposed to elevating the most talented and passionate politicians. ...Leaving too many pale, stale (and, frankly, male) lawmakers in prominent positions.
newrepublic.com
Primary Every Democrat
It’s exhausting to watch poll-tested, donor-beholden congressional Democrats continue to be too old, too cloistered, and too bumbling to do anything as the government burns.
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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
This is not a victory for "centrists" or "moderates" over "the Left" or the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. This is a faction of accommodationists, people entirely incapable of imagining anything but politics-as usual, and outright collaborators sabotaging those who wish to fight back.
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
I cannot tell a lie.
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Jason Linkins @dceiver.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
these are the exact kinds of struggles you'd expect from three dipshits who've never held down a real job between them
Mr. Duffy said there were not any names, because he had stopped them from being fired. At another point, Mr. Musk insisted that people hired under diversity, equity and inclusion programs were working in control towers. Mr. Duffy pushed back and Mr. Musk did not add details, but said during the longer back and forth that Mr. Duffy had his phone number and should call him if he had any issues to raise.

The exchange ended with Mr. Trump telling Mr. Duffy that he had to hire people from M.I.T. as air traffic controllers. These air traffic controllers need to be “geniuses,” he said.
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Simon Balto @simonbalto.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Ever since I landed back at Wisconsin, the highlight of my year professionally is getting to orchestrate this lecture series in celebration of our friend Doria Dee Johnson. I could not be prouder to have the incomparable Kelly Lytle Hernández lecture in Doria’s name next month. Please join us.
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Simon Balto @simonbalto.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Great to have the homie @eveewing.bsky.social at the Madison Public Library. A great event celebrating her great new book.
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
Most money for US aid to Ukraine went to US manufacturers. It is literally American industry, and part of the funding was for expanding US industrial capacity. It's next level lying. Lies wrapped in lies, stacked in a pile of BS. Reality inverting lies. Piss-on-my-leg-and-tell-me-it's-raining lying.
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Paul Krugman @pkrugman.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
So Musk’s people, who misread $8 million as $8 billion, who counted the same contracts multiple times and counted as savings programs that ended last year, claim that their AI is finding lots of Social Security fraud. Why should anyone worry?
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Puff the Magic Hater @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
Rahm Emanuel covered up the murder of a Black teen, and shuttered public clinics and schools. Cuomo covered up COVID nursing home deaths and harassed women. These men heard "now is the time of monsters" and decided to attempt a comeback. They both belong in hell.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 01/03/2025
remember when this guy covered up a brutal police killing? i do!
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Richard C. Keller, PhD @richardckeller.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
POSTDOC ALERT! Postdoc in the history of modern medicine or public health at Wisconsin: details at the link below. 2 years, excellent conditions. #Skystorians #HistMed #medhum please repost widely! mhb.wisc.edu/2025/02/25/p...
mhb.wisc.edu
Postdoctoral Fellow: History of Modern (19th century-present) Medicine or Public Health
Position Requirements: PhD in history of modern (19th century-present) medicine or public health or closely related field, geographic area and specialty open. All requirements for the PhD, including t...
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Simon Balto @simonbalto.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
A local restaurant is advertising muffalettas (my favorite sandwich in the world) as a special this week for Fat Tuesday. They say that one serves 4-6 people and if we're being honest I can't read that as anything other than a very specific challenge to me personally.
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Simon Balto @simonbalto.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Pretty ambivalent about joining another social media platform after getting kicked off Elon’s, but I was thinking this morning about the time when @profsuddler.bsky.social tried to convince me that Memphis is in the Midwest and I needed more people to know about this.
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Paul Renfro @renfro.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
A month from today, I'll be @uwmadison.bsky.social discussing my new book. Come on out if you're in the Madison area! 🗃️
A poster advertising a talk by Paul Renfro titled "Ryan White, HIV/AIDS, and the Politics of Innocence." The lecture will take place in the Curti Lounge at UW–Madison on Wednesday, March 19 at 4 p.m.
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Heba Gowayed هبة جويد @hebagowayed.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
I would like to emphasize that the governor of the state of NY, a democrat, intervened in college activities, something she has no business in, for political reasons. This is authoritarianism. Period. And the coverage is not nearly as forceful as that reality requires.
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whet moser @whetmoser.com · 28/02/2025
"The grant appears to have been tagged for the repeated use of “POC,” an acronym often used for “people of color” but in this context meaning “point of care”"
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Max Felker-Kantor @mfkantor.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
He certainly did try to convince @simonbalto.bsky.social of that.
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Simon Balto @simonbalto.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Pretty ambivalent about joining another social media platform after getting kicked off Elon’s, but I was thinking this morning about the time when @profsuddler.bsky.social tried to convince me that Memphis is in the Midwest and I needed more people to know about this.
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