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Victor Silverman

@victorsilverman.bsky.social
1.2K followers 1.2K following 839 posts

Author, Filmmaker, Professor of Contemporary US and International History. Emeritus Professor Pomona College.

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Reposted by Victor Silverman
Global Refuge @globalrefuge.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The White House has set the 2027 presidential determination, which establishes the U.S. refugee admissions ceiling at 17,500 and directs that those places go primarily to Afrikaners from South Africa. Join us! globalrefuge.org/action
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Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This report should be required reading for every university president and board member in the country.
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Reposted by Victor Silverman
The Nexus Project @nexusproject.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
BREAKING: Bipartisan federal commission has released a new report criticizing the Trump administration's campus antisemitism strategy.
nexusproject.us
Nexus Welcomes U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ Call for a Balanced Response to Campus Antisemitism - Nexus Project
The Nexus Project welcomes the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ unanimous conclusion that combating campus antisemitism requires both protecting Jewish students from discrimination and safeguarding ci...
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Pete Hegseth removing tenure protections shows precisely why they are needed. He wants to silence dissent by being able to fire anyone who questions his vision of the military. www.militarytimes.com/news/pentago...
militarytimes.com
Hegseth halts tenure appointments for civilian faculty at military academies
Military academies will no longer appoint civilian faculty to tenured positions as Hegseth says it can contribute to “academic stagnation.”
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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“I’ve heard from a bunch of people in our field who say, ‘Uh oh, are they training on my prompts?’” Dr. Shipman said. “We can’t not think about it.” ... '[A]fter Anthropic’s announcement last week, he is winding down his projects with Claude.' “I’m shutting down everything,” [Dr. Mestre] said.
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Evelyn Waughluigi @mattressisland.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Finally, a British conservative who remembers their Defoe
The True Born Englishman, by Daniel Defoe:

"Thus from a mixture of all kinds began,
That het’rogeneous thing, an Englishman:
In eager rapes, and furious lust begot,
Betwixt a painted Britain and a Scot.
Whose gend’ring off-spring quickly learn’d to bow,
And yoke their heifers to the Roman plough:
From whence a mongrel half-bred race there came,
With neither name, nor nation, speech nor fame.
In whose hot veins new mixtures quickly ran,
Infus’d betwixt a Saxon and a Dane.
While their rank daughters, to their parents just,
Receiv’d all nations with promiscuous lust.
This nauseous brood directly did contain
The well-extracted blood of Englishmen."
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Reposted by Victor Silverman
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
At one point in the video he actually reads the following portion of the Defoe poem.
 The Romans first with Julius Caesar came,
  Including all the nations of that name,
  Gauls, Greeks, and Lombards, and, by computation,
  Auxiliaries or slaves of every nation. 
  With Hengist, Saxons; Danes with Sueno came;
  In search of plunder, not in search of fame. 
  Scots, Picts, and Irish from th’ Hibernian shore,
  And conquering William brought the Normans o’er. 
  All these their barbarous offspring left behind,
  The dregs of armies, they of all mankind;
  Blended with Britons, who before, were here. 
  Of whom the Welsh ha’ blessed the character. 
  From this amphibious ill-born mob began
  That vain, ill-natured thing, an Englishman.
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Mai El-Sadany @maitelsadany.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Today, a jury found Jason Eaton guilty of attempted murder for shooting Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Aliahmad, and Kinnan Abdalhamid during their a walk near the University of Vermont. They were speaking a mix of English and Arabic. Two were wearing kuffiyehs. www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/202...
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 21/09/2026
incredible
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The Great Pumpkin Papers 🎃🎃🎃 @professormusgrave.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Asking Claude to write a book: To Serve Man
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Joerg Lau @joerglau.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Greenland and Denmark, backed by European nations in NATO, together with the fabled “markets”, warded off Trump’s 🇬🇱 bid. He gets basically what the US had since ‘51, with no infringement on 🇬🇱 and 🇩🇰 sovereignty. 🇪🇺 must learn that standing up to the bully is the way to go.
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Le Monde in English @english.lemonde.fr · 19/09/2026
EU urges US to reconsider visa denial to Palestinian delegation for UN meeting
lemonde.fr
EU urges US to reconsider visa denial to Palestinian delegation for UN meeting
The US State Department said this week it was refusing to grant visas to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and other members of his delegation ahead of next week's meeting in New York.
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Dean Baker @deanbaker13.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Trump does it again, yet another record-high diesel price gasprices.aaa.com $6.49 a gallon
gasprices.aaa.com
AAA Fuel Prices
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David Burbach 🇺🇸 @dburbach.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
So far as I can tell, despite the administration's claims there is very little that is both new and significant. Some slight expansion of rights we've had since 1951 and explicit ban of a few things already banned or implied. NOT 'us control' www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
US and Denmark reach security deal after Trump’s threats to take over Greenland
The agreement would allow the US to expand its military presence, while Denmark and Greenland say it preserves their sovereignty and right to self-determination
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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Right-wingers understand one (1) piece of culture challenge: impossible
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ACLU @aclu.org · 18/09/2026
NEW: Professors shared details of the impact of Texas A&M's new censorship policy and urged a court to block it from being enforced. The policy means educators can't teach LGBTQ literature, the film Moonlight, Women's and Gender Studies courses, and more.
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Jonathan M. Katz @katz.theracket.news · 25/11/2025
An Enron-style logo with NVIDIA and a neon N that says “unlike Enron” that I ironically made using AI
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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
From the "Zionism is Racism" Green Party motion: "the Green Party supports the establishment of a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine" This runs directly counter to the entire body of international law in regarding to Palestine
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Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
good thread on the broad nature of the US elite--it's not just the billionaires. Their support for the Trumpian right is crucial, it's not just working class whites. This has long been the case, eg: Joe McCarthy's support was from small-town Republican bankers and businessmen.
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Reposted by Victor Silverman
Brad DeLong @braddelong.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The archetypal rich American isn’t a founder-CEO with a stock ticker—he’s the guy with seventeen McDonald’s franchises and a seat on the hospital board. Zidar and Zwick counted him, traced how the tax code inflated him, and revealed a American gentry élite class collectively ten times richer... 1/
braddelong.substack.com
America’s Gentry Élite: TUESDAY TRENDS & TURMOIL
Politics, Culture, & c.; Patrick Wyman saw America’s élite gentry in his Yakima hometown decades ago; now economists Zidar and Zwick show that he understated the case...
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Jessica Valenti @jessicavalenti.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The EPA will test America's drinking water for abortion medication & birth control—caving to a years-long pressure campaign from anti-abortion extremists.
jessica.substack.com
BREAKING: EPA Will Test Drinking Water for Abortion Pills & Contraception
The federal agency just caved to years of anti-abortion pressure
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Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
"In 2020, Google promised to cut their pollution in half by 2030. It’s up 80 percent since then."
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Leah Stokes @leahstokes.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
This summer, 35,000 heat deaths in Europe got one news cycle. Last week, a probability estimate about a hypothetical AI apocalypse got seven. The warnings may be sincere—but notice what they justify: fossil fuel plants. Climate change is existential now. electricnotes.news/p/pick-your-...
electricnotes.news
Pick Your Apocalypse: Climate vs. AI Doom
Some Thoughts On the *Other* Existential Threat
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Gizmodo @gizmodo.com · 12/09/2026
OpenAI Is Beefing With Mathematicians, Will No Longer Sponsor Caltech 'Mathathon'
gizmodo.com
OpenAI Is Beefing With Mathematicians, Will No Longer Sponsor Caltech 'Mathathon'
OpenAI will no longer sponsor the event after mathematicians criticized the company's 'destructive impacts' on the discipline.
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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 12/09/2026
Robbing Peter to pay Claude
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 01/09/2026
the press has gotten completely habituated to the ugly and hateful behavior of the people in this government so i will be surprised if anyone ever asks hegseth why he thinks it is appropriate to mock children for wanting to learn, grow and maybe serve their country
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Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Similar percentage of Americans approve of Trump as believe aliens are behind UFOs. (But is he an alien? If he is, certainly an illegal alien!) news.gallup.com/poll/713765/...
news.gallup.com
Americans Still Skeptical That UFOs Are Aliens
Americans are more likely to attribute UFO sightings to human activity or natural phenomena than alien activity; 17% say they have seen a UFO.
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
The Trump administration has filed 36 emergency applications since last February, which have generated 31 conclusive rulings. In those 31 rulings, the Court has voted *for* Trump in whole or in part 27 times (87.1%), and against him four times (12.9%). Here's a chart covering all of these rulings:
A (messy) Excel spreadsheet tracking all of the Trump administration's emergency applications, when they were filed, when they were decided, what kind of ruling they produced, and how each justice voted.
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Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Perpetual profit machine
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Reposted by Victor Silverman
Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 30/08/2026
Big Tech profits get $160bn boost from gains on stakes in other AI companies ft.trib.al/hnhu6wh
ft.trib.al
Big Tech profits get $160bn boost from gains on stakes in other AI companies
Analysts say large paper windfalls on investments in OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX have muddied the tech sector’s earnings metrics
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Core question in this case is whether the administration acted with animus towards trans people when they implemented a Trump order claiming trans people are inherently lacking "integrity," not helped every time Hegseth calls us "trannies" to make himself giggle
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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Yale President McInnis has been telling people that Yale has no choice but to negotiate a settlement with the Trump administration. This is a willful misreading of the law and as such, a lie. A resolution process is voluntary and legal scholars have been pushing back. 1/ abcnews.com/US/yale-face...
abcnews.com
Yale faces backlash for talks with the Justice Department regarding its admissions
Legal experts weigh in on Yale's decision to negotiate with the DOJ for a potential resolution over alleged race discrimination in their admissions processes.
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Raw Story @rawstory.com · 29/08/2026
ICE ordered to return torture victim dumped on African roadside: 'Shocks the conscience'
bit.ly
ICE ordered to return torture victim dumped on African roadside: 'Shocks the conscience'
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to bring back a Nigerian man it secretly deported despite a court order protecting him from return to Nigeria — after Immigration and Customs Enforcement lured him in with a fake appointment and shipped him through three countries via an unmarked bord...
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Ted Hesson @tedhesson.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
White South Africans who come to the United States as refugees could get up to $4,500 per person in initial federal support beginning Oct. 1, nearly double the current amount, four people familiar with the change in policy said www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
washingtonpost.com
White South Africans could get $4,500 in aid if they come to U.S. as refugees
The assistance, which helps pay for basic needs such as housing and food, would nearly double under a new policy.
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
The UN’s International Maritime Organization says around 6,000 seafarers aboard roughly 400 ships are still stranded in the Persian Gulf, unable to safely exit through the Strait of Hormuz. This is Trump’s problem now, right, as America “owns” the Strait?
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
We are a broken nation. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians were living and working legally, paying taxes, and contributing. Haiti remains wholly unsafe. But Trump hates Haitians, and the White House wanted videos of Black people in chains, so they stripped them of status and turned on the cameras.
Homeland Security 7
@DHSgov
X.com
Haiti TPS has been TERMINATED.
Those with terminated TPS are in our nation Illegally. They have two options: LEAVE IMMEDIATELY or be DEPORTED.
DHS.GOV/CBРНОМЕ

Underneath is a screenshot of a video showing two Haitian men in chains being led to the aircraft. I didn’t post the video, but it’s vile.
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Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Congrats to those hired by Canadian universities but 48 faculty taking jobs up north is a meaningless. The @nytimes.com once again tries to make a trend out of a blip. There are more than 850,000 US tenure track profs who didn't take jobs there this year... www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/w...
nytimes.com
Canada Hires U.S. Scholars From Harvard and Other Top Universities
A crackdown on American academia by the Trump administration has handed Canadian universities a rare opportunity to lure some top researchers north.
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Dean Baker @deanbaker13.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Ohio says she will cooperate with ICE if elected paydayreport.com/ohio-dem-gov...
paydayreport.com
Ohio Dem Gov Candidates Backs ICE Cooperation -- Haitian Pastor Detained in Springfield -- Pittsburgh DA May Press Charges Against ICE
Ohio Democrat shocked many by saying that she would cooperate with ICE
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John Walke @johndwalke.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
The United States in its dumbest timeline.
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Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 25/08/2026
Immigrant visa applicants with scheduled interviews at US embassies and consulates have received emails telling them their appointments were being rescheduled and that they would receive future notice of a new date and time. ft.trib.al/3FVnNCL
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Center for American Progress @americanprogress.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Lawyers for President Donald Trump issued a letter demanding the Center for American Progress retract a factual report or face a $5 billion lawsuit.
americanprogress.org
STATEMENT: Baseless Threats Won't Stop Our Independent Research, Says CAP's Neera Tanden
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Concerned Jewish Faculty & Staff @concernedjfaculty.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
STATEMENT: In light of new revelations about DOJ's sham antisemitism investigations, CJFS urges higher ed leaders to reject Trump admin's push to attack our institutions and communities, silence criticism of Israel, and smear Arab and Muslim faculty. www.concernedjewishfaculty.org/federalwhist...
concernedjewishfaculty.org
Federal Whistleblowers Reveal | Concerned Jewish Faculty & Staff
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John Ma 🇺🇦 @nakhthor.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
theonion.com/trump-unveil...
theonion.com
Trump Unveils New 250-Foot Gilded Catering Container For Presidential Travel
WASHINGTON—Touting the new vessel as an investment that could discreetly transport the nation’s chief executive for years to come, President Donald Trump unveiled Tuesday a new 250-foot gilded caterin...
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PBS News @pbsnews.org · 19/08/2026
The complaint alleges that the investigations into some of the nation's most prestigious academic institutions were designed to strong-arm the schools into cutting deals for political purposes.https://to.pbs.org/4x7XlYB
pbs.org
Whistleblower alleges political pressure, lack of evidence in antisemitism investigations targeting universities
The complaint alleges that the investigations into some of the nation's most prestigious academic institutions were designed to strong-arm the schools into cutting deals for political purposes.
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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
This is not a surprise to many of us. Yet, too many our academic leaders have embraced a narrative they too know to be false for some inexplicable reason. Rank cowardice in the face of a paper tiger. Yes, an indictment of the Trump administration but of university presidents and trustees as well.
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Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Terrible news. DTIC is an essential resource of non-and declassified information for scholarship, journalism and for democracy. This is our information not the privileged possession of the military. Another sign of the authoritarian destruction of the US intellectual world.
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Amy J. Rutenberg @amyjay401.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Military history and adjacent folks, public access to DTIC has been discontinued. This is an incredible loss to anyone who studies the US military 🗃️ @modamhist.bsky.social @oah.org @afssage.bsky.social @warontherocks.bsky.social @taskandpurpose.com #milhist
Homepage of the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) showing how authorized personnel can gain access.
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Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
The major media makes us all broken records: Islamophobia, unlike antisemitism, is promoted by the President. It is practiced by major institutions such as universities and legislatures. The @nytimes.com finally noticed, but a few years late www.nytimes.com/2026/08/11/u...
nytimes.com
With El-Sayed’s Victory Comes a Wave of Islamophobia
As Muslim politicians like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan have become more prominent, they have experienced considerable bigotry. President Trump said Democrats were electing “jihadists.”
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Reuters @reuters.com · 12/08/2026
US military operations killed 153 civilians in 2025, official says, citing Pentagon assessment reut.rs/4cf30n2
reut.rs
US military operations killed 153 civilians in 2025, official says, citing Pentagon assessment
U.S. military operations in 2025 killed 153 civilians and wounded 243, a U.S. official said on ​Tuesday, citing Pentagon assessments.
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Victor Silverman @victorsilverman.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
When he walked off they played Hail to the Chef"
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