Andromeda, with one of its satellite galaxies (Messier 110), taken tonight with a Dwarf Mini, 30-second exposures, 2.6 million light years from the heart of Roxbury, MA. (h/t to the great @chanda.blacksky.app for introducing me to astrophotography in her amazing book, The Edge of Space-Time)

Next month, voters in Massachusetts will be voting on NINE ballot questions, which have received barely any attention. Thanks to the folks at Tufts’ Center for State Policy Analysis, we can be a slightly more educated electorate. now.tufts.edu/2026/10/05/y...

Your Guide to the 2026 Massachusetts Ballot Questions

This year, Massachusetts voters can weigh in on a daunting nine ballot questions, with potential impacts on everything from public records law and tax refund pr

now.tufts.edu

This #RedSox team was a lot of fun during the season but it turns out they aren’t very good

Put Tolle back in. Probably we should try that

This wild card series format, where only one team gets home games — it’s stupid

JOB ALERT: I'm chairing a Search Committee for a Professor of Practice in School Counseling at @salemstate.bsky.social. If you're a counselor or know one, please consider applying! And please send any questions my way! salem-state-university.career-pages.com/jobs/faculty...

Faculty: Secondary and Higher Education (School Counseling), Full-Time, Professor of Practice -

Overview The McKeown School of Education is seeking applicants for a full-time, professor of practice position with a specialization in School Counseling beginning in September 2027. The School Counse...

salem-state-university.career-pages.com

This hearing has been six years in the making, so if you are a @bostonschools.boston.gov family or staff member who wants to share your feelings on or experiences with fundraising in our school system, please join us! You can listen in or give public comment:

This piece, by @nhannahjones.bsky.social, is powerful and deeply challenging. I recognize the tension she writes about: between what it means to be a good person and a good parent, doing right by the world and by your child. I have also felt this tension. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/m...

In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own? (Gift Article)

A decade ago, I made a decision about my daughter’s education that I hoped would challenge New York City’s separate and unequal school system. Now 16, she thinks I made the wrong choice.

nytimes.com

I’d like a word with the person who scheduled an Orange Line closure on the first week of @bostonschools.boston.gov…

Nik DeCosta-Klipa@nikdecostaklipa.bsky.social · last mo.

This morning in WBUR Today: — Another Orange Line closure — RI incumbents' very bad night — Pell Grants for job training — Springfield school closures continue — BPL adds public pianos www.wbur.org/news/2026/09... @wbur.org

I have had a few recent interactions with our health care system. And I’m struck by how one of the first things people ask is not how they can help but how I’m going to pay. That is a tragic failure of humanity.

Dollyland employees, both part time and full time, receive 100% of tuition covered. Healthcare, medical, vision, retirement benefits, childcare. A saint that walked among us. Every other wealthy person should be ashamed of themselves if they don't live up to Dolly standards.

Thomas Lecaque@tlecaque.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I started my PhD program with an eight week old at home, sole income being my doctoral stipend, in a history program, in Knoxville, TN. And every month we got a new book to read to my son, free, mailed to us, so my kid, my kids, grew up in rooms full of books even when I had no money. That's Dolly.

Hawk having dinner at Marcella Park in Roxbury @universalhub.com

Also, this is a great time to share this thread about all the racist stuff that each president did: bsky.app/profile/jmno...

James Noonan@jmnoonan.bsky.social · 5mo ago

🧵 Because looking backward is a way to move forward, between now and July 4, I’m going to post about one president a day. Specifically, I’m going to look at how race and racism shaped them and how their racism has impacted us.

So, what happens if I'm a parent and I know that my kid needs highly paid teachers, a library full of books with diverse characters, trans-inclusive bathrooms and extracurriculars, and a curriculum unpacking topics like systemic racism, colonial oppression, economic inequality, and climate change?

‘Polarization’ has become the master concept for diagnosing our current democratic crisis. But this is not polarization. It is the radicalization of the political right. By misdiagnosing it, we risk becoming complicit in the crisis. 🧵 Just out in Perspectives on Politics doi.org/10.1017/S153...

And, well, that’s it (so far, at least): 250 years of US presidents, all of them—all of them—deeply implicated in the racist foundations of our country. #America250 bsky.app/profile/jmno...

James Noonan@jmnoonan.bsky.social · 5mo ago

🧵 Because looking backward is a way to move forward, between now and July 4, I’m going to post about one president a day. Specifically, I’m going to look at how race and racism shaped them and how their racism has impacted us.

So, in conclusion: the next time a president (or any US politician) says something racist, let’s condemn it. Because racism is wrong & repugnant. But let’s not say that racist words & actions are “not who we are.” Let’s instead reckon with the fact that they are & they have been since the beginning.

According to @hrw.org, during the first 500 days of Trump’s second term, 52 people died in the custody of immigration officials. The mortality rate in ICE custody is the highest in over a decade, more than 2.5 times as high as his first term. www.hrw.org/report/2026/...

Dying in Detention

The 73-page report, “Dying in Detention: Rising Deaths in an Expanding US Immigration Detention System,” documents the increasing number of deaths in ICE custody through expert statistical and medical...

hrw.org

Talking to the @nytimes.com, Trump said the Civil Rights Act was “unfair in certain cases,” because “white people were very badly treated.” The head of the EEOC, the same agency run by Clarence Thomas under Reagan, called on white men to file discrimination claims. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/u...

Trump Says Civil Rights Led to White People Being ‘Very Badly Treated’

nytimes.com

For 2026, the Trump administration removed MLK Day and Juneteenth from the National Park Service's list of fee-free entrance days to national parks and replaced them with Trump’s birthday. www.npr.org/2025/12/06/g...

National parks' fee-free calendar drops MLK Day, Juneteenth and adds Trump's birthday

The Trump administration, which has railed against what it describes as "woke" policies, removed MLK Day and Juneteenth from next year's list of fare-exempt days for visitors at dozens of national par...

npr.org

During a luncheon for leaders from five African countries, Trump complimented the president of Liberia on his English: “Such good English. Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Where? Were you educated?” English is the official language of Liberia. youtu.be/hGPGhJcqNv4

Trump Asks Liberian Prez Where He Learned English: In a Country Where It’s the Official Language

YouTube video by The Indian Express

youtu.be

On Juneteenth 2025, the federal holiday marking the end of slavery, Trump did not issue a holiday proclamation but instead complained there were too many “non-working holidays.” Trump had honored Juneteenth three times during his first term, before it was a holiday. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/u...

Juneteenth Goes Uncelebrated at White House as Trump Complains About ‘Too Many’ Holidays (Published 2025)

nytimes.com

Today, we reach the present day: Trump 2.0, Part 2. #America250 #FourthOfJuly

James Noonan@jmnoonan.bsky.social · 5mo ago

🧵 Because looking backward is a way to move forward, between now and July 4, I’m going to post about one president a day. Specifically, I’m going to look at how race and racism shaped them and how their racism has impacted us.

I read this about 50 years ago at the Berlin Library (Technical University), and I have hated Jackson from that day on.

James Noonan@jmnoonan.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) enslaved 300+ people during his life. As president, he urged his Postmaster General to record the names of those receiving antislavery pamphlets & expose them “thro the publik journals as subscribers to this wicked plan of exciting the negroes.” www.loc.gov/resource/maj...

Who does this sound like in 2026?

James Noonan@jmnoonan.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) enslaved 300+ people during his life. As president, he urged his Postmaster General to record the names of those receiving antislavery pamphlets & expose them “thro the publik journals as subscribers to this wicked plan of exciting the negroes.” www.loc.gov/resource/maj...

This 4th, re-bumping James’ extraordinary thread.

James Noonan@jmnoonan.bsky.social · 5mo ago

🧵 Because looking backward is a way to move forward, between now and July 4, I’m going to post about one president a day. Specifically, I’m going to look at how race and racism shaped them and how their racism has impacted us.

#History The post 👇 is part of a long thread about America's presidents that is well worth reading. (The Epstein class has been around for a very, very long time.) #America250

James Noonan@jmnoonan.bsky.social · 5mo ago

In 1787, while in Paris, Jefferson sent for his daughter, who brought an enslaved girl as a maidservant. At the time, Sally Hemings was 13 or 14. Jefferson was in his 40s. Hemings would bear at least six children, all by Jefferson. She was never legally emancipated. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbdU...

This whole thread is good and shows that these “elite” white men have been using the same talking points for over 200 years.

James Noonan@jmnoonan.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Monroe’s advocacy for Black deportation reflected, in part, fear of racial equality. Writing to John Mason in 1829, Monroe worried that free Blacks, if they remained in the US, would “become a publick [sic] burden, if considered and treated, a portion of the community.” highland.org/highland-and...

It is, of course, also true that many people who’ve served as president have done commendable things & advanced the cause of racial and economic justice. But racism is still a part of their story, just as it is a part of all our stories. And we need to acknowledge it www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

Everyone's A Little Bit Racist - Avenue Q - Original Broadway Cast

YouTube video by Broadway Classics

youtube.com

For a running tally of Trump’s “cruelties, collusions, corruptions, and crimes,” see the impeccably documented list by @mcsweeneys.net www.mcsweeneys.net/columns/lest...

Lest We Forget the Horrors: An Unending Catalog of Trump’s Cruelties, Collusions, Corruptions, and Crimes

Lest We Forget the Horrors: An Unending Catalog of Trump’s Cruelties, Collusions, Corruptions, and Crimes

mcsweeneys.net