Craig Franson

@craigfranson.bsky.social

English professor/democracy enthusiast--18/19th century, popular culture, critical theory, writing & rhetoric. Sometime podcaster & substacker at #AmericanId, former photojournalist & actor, Idaho expat. #Politics #Romanticism #PopCulture #Tolkien #Buffy+

Just reading about the millions in direct oil & gas $$$ going to the pols most vocal in deflecting blame for wildfire onto “forest management.” My representatives signed this. You can check if yours did, too, or if they’re getting paid to incinerate the future. nofossilfuelmoney.org

No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge

It’s past time for our politicians and political candidates to reject support from the fossil fuel industry and protect the health of our families, our climate, and our democracy.

nofossilfuelmoney.org

1920s-30s fascists called themselves the "Third Way"--a nationally unifying "middle path" between the evil extremes of communism & capitol. Fascists won elections because liberals, democratic socialists, & communists fought each other, rather than their common enemy.

Jared Holt@jaredlholt.bsky.social · last mo.

The "centrist" think tank Third Way is looking to pay someone between $140,000 and $150,000 to spend their days trying to dig up dirt on DSA members. They're trying to sell this gig as "anti-extremism" work, which I find completely disgusting.

from job listing:

As the Director of Anti-Extremism, a typical day might include…

Assembling and updating a database of the DSA’s most extreme ideas and statements and a repository of voting records, affiliations, and issue positions to make available to allies and partners;
Leading public opinion research to identify and test the contrasts that move base voters away from these extreme candidates;
Overseeing the development of memos, talking points, rapid response materials, and other products that make the case against these extreme forces in American politics;
Promoting and marketing our research and materials to ensure they reach decisionmakers quickly, repeatedly, and at scale through a coordinated distribution infrastructure;
Recruiting and arming a group of young, diverse spokespeople to fight the DSA from a center-left perspective and assembling a broad coalition of organizational partners to make the case against extremism;
Running an earned media program to create a drumbeat of our message in op-eds, television appearances, podcasts, and traditional and digital media engagement.

Finally watched The Order (2024). Better than I'd heard, though not so good as I'd like. A mostly realistic depiction of a forgotten story that led us to now. The landscapes are exceptional, as is the cultural reconstruction the Pacific NW in 1983-84. I kept feeling like I actually knew Jude Law.

The Order review – Jude Law does solid work in vehement account of white supremacists’ takedown

Nicholas Hoult plays a wannabe far-right martyr, and Law and Tye Sheridan the feds on his tail, in a well-cast if anticlimactic true-crime tale

theguardian.com

Idaho labor economist ran anonymous accounts promoting pro-Russian, far-right views Online researchers recently identified Wolkenhauer as the anonymous poster behind large Substack & X accounts that often traffic in Nazi imagery and amplify far-right organizations. cdapress.com/news/2026/ju...

Idaho labor economist ran anonymous accounts promoting pro-Russian, far-right views

Sam Wolkenhauer ran anonymous accounts that generated thousands of dollars in subscriptions while posting pro-Russian commentary, slurs and Nazi imagery

cdapress.com