Michele Somerville she/her
@michelesomerville.bsky.social
NYC mama, poet, writer, teacher, religion scholar. Books (poems): Glamourous Life, Black Irish, WISEGAL. Bylines: NYT, https://indietheology.substack.com Harvard Div. Bulletin, oodles of jobs & journals. https://linktr.ee/mmsnypoet
Smoke has arrived in Seattle, but the other side of the Cascades is absolutely brutal. Wenatchee and other towns (e.g., Plain, Entiat) have been over 1,000 AQI today. Please use air purifiers, N95 masks, and avoid being outdoors if you’re able - there is no safe level of wildfire smoke exposure.
53% of Americans think it is important for U.S. schools to offer Spanish classes, the second-most common language spoken in U.S. homes. ✏️ 🏫 Have you ever taken a foreign language class? 💬
1/“Davis, the government says, has attended and facilitated meetings about protests and discussed his “anti-authoritarian” ideology with other activists. He is not accused of violent acts, taking any specific actions at protests nor> www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
The professor facing prison in ‘antifa’ case: ‘They want to scare all who oppose ICE’
Erik Davis is accused by the government of a ‘conspiracy’ to obstruct ICE – experts say it’s part of a pattern to criminalize lawful organizing and ruin activists’ lives
theguardian.com
With J6ers getting jobs in the justice department, and presidential memorandum NSPM-7 targeting the “left-wing” and “anti-fascists” as terrorists, it's never been more important to support those tracking the far right.
ICE harassing a child and her family on a Bushwick street. Pepper spraying a 72-year-old woman in Inwood. Abducting a man, taking him to a Lower Manhattan hospital emergency room & threatening a witness. ICE activity is up in NYC. But is it a "surge"?
NYC Sees an 'Uptick' in ICE Activity
And a judge just blocked the mask ban for agents, plus more news for your Tuesday.
hellgatenyc.com
A Nueces River Authority project could expand Corpus Christi's water supply, but Governor Greg Abbott has done little about the agency's financial problems despite choosing its board. bit.ly/3SevwhQ
Greg Abbott slow to act on river authority he has power over - The Texas Tribune
A Nueces River Authority project could expand Corpus Christi's water supply, but the Texas governor has done little about the agency's financial problems despite choosing its board.
bit.ly
So tidy that B of A and Chase are also two of the biggest US banks for fossil fuel, along with Citi and Wells Fargo. Investing in harm since....
Senator Ron Wyden@wyden.senate.gov · yesterdayBombshell new report out from my investigators this morning spanning our four year investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s financial records. This report shows exactly how Wall Street protected Epstein and enabled his sex trafficking for decades. Mega thread following with some key points:
The #NewEvangelization stop on the #MAGA #MACA “Make America Christian Again” t Rump Train has been to use resources 💸obtained via usury & greed to flood entertainment business w/Duc In Altum / #dominionist & #integralist messaging. 1/
Oh look, another far-right extremist at the Pentagon
Oh look, another far-right extremist at the Pentagon
He oversees defense intelligence and security agencies and helps shape military operations.
motherjones.com
UK plastic ‘waste colonialism’ found to be polluting Turkey’s farming heartland
UK plastic ‘waste colonialism’ found to be polluting Turkey’s farming heartland
A Guardian investigation finds irrigation canals polluted with microplastics in Turkey, a major destination for UK waste
theguardian.com
They need the 💸to buy more bombs. apnews.com/article/head...
Trump overhaul could gut Head Start preschool standards, leaving states to set the rules
President Donald Trump's administration is planning to overhaul the Head Start program. Two people familiar with the deliberations tell The Associated Press the Republican administration's proposed ch...
apnews.com
I love this movie & think it’s riveting. My first year teaching @ Dartmouth I showed it in a creative nonfiction class to think about dialogue & conversation as action. I sat in front. At the end, I turned around and found only one student remaining, fast asleep.
Michael Warburton@michaelwarburton.bsky.social · 2d agoThis Film often has the piss taken out of it for being a rather sedentary piece about 2 people just talking a lot — BUT — it has one of the most brilliantly prescient monologues in the history of Movies imho. MY DINNER WITH ANDRE (1981) Have a listen.
COMMENTARY: Crickets: Four fatal shootings by the Memphis Safe Task Force and almost no national news coverage. At the root lie Tennessee politicians who approve of the task force, writes Editor @jhollymc.bsky.social.
Crickets: Four fatal shootings by Memphis Task Force and little coverage from national news • Tennessee Lookout
Four men have been shot and killed in Memphis by agents with the Memphis Safe Task Force. Does anyone outside the city care?
tennesseelookout.com
1/ www.osvnews.com/notre-dame-m...
Notre Dame McGrath Institute to meet ‘novel’ opportunities in Church life under Capizzi
(OSV News) -- Joseph Capizzi, former dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America, was appointed the new director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life...
osvnews.com
The effective federal corporate income tax rate: 1950: 50% 1990: 25% 2020: 13% Stop asking "but how we will pay for it?" Restore the corporate tax rate. That is how we will pay for it.
A comprehensive list of the biggest children’s books publishing this August.
The On-Sale Calendar: August 2026 Children’s Books
A comprehensive list of the biggest children’s books publishing this August.
buff.ly
These Christian Brothers are even more disgusting in their obstruction of justice than other Roman Catholic religious orders covering up their child r*pe & sex abuse.
The Irish Times@irishtimes.com · 2d agoThe Irish Times view on the Christian Brothers’ legal strategy: morally bereft
68% of Catholics did not want to see Roe overturned.
On our Close Readings subscription podcast, Tom McCarthy argues that George Eliot’s ‘study of provincial life’ 𝘔𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 acts as a Trojan Horse to smuggle the continental philosophy of Spinoza and Hegel into the vicarages of middle England. Listen to an extract: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...
The Man Behind the Curtain: ‘Middlemarch’ by George Eliot
Podcast Episode · Close Readings · 2 August · 1hr 38min
podcasts.apple.com
Please read about this author/teacher/hero. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/b...
Mildred Pitts Walter, Author of Books for Black Children, Dies at 103
nytimes.com
Never forget.
Tom Joscelyn@tomjoscelyn.bsky.social · last wk.It’s striking that Douthat has been at the NYT all these years. The right has built a closed media ecosystem on the (false) belief that legacy media is a closed ecosystem. Meanwhile, a rightwing intellectual mediocrity like Douthat kept chugging along at the Times. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/b...
Why Odysseus would be a Trump supporter. by Ross Douthat
If you’ve had a poor experience with mechanical pencils, it may be time to reconsider. These mechanical pencils lay down precise lines and are comfortable to hold and nice to look at. nyti.ms/4vUDNp2
The Best Mechanical Pencils
These mechanical pencils lay down precise lines and are comfortable to hold and nice to look at.
nyti.ms
In recent days, The WaPo's opinion editor Adam O'Neal engaged in private convos in which he struck a triumphant and boasted he had moved the section to the right. But now he's out at the Jeff Bezos-owned paper. More from @nataliekorach.bsky.social in @status.news: www.status.news/p/adam-oneal...
The Post's Opinion Parting
Days before his abrupt exit from The WaPo, Adam O’Neal was privately boasting that he had pushed the Opinion section further to the right—raising new questions about what really drove his departure.
status.news
I’m loving/reading poet Medbh McCuckian this this week.
Michele Madigan Somerville (@NYpoet) on X
I’m reading Medbh McGuckian this week. #poetry 🔥
x.com
1/“AA: I originally saw this as a way to help reclaim our own narrative from people who were trying to steal it. Now I see it as a way to build on our own success in saving ourselves—>
Around 50% of Michiganders are white Christians, 25% are religiously unaffiliated, less than two in ten are Christians of color, and 7% are non-Christian, including 2% who are Muslim. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed held an interfaith roundtable ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic Primary in Michigan.
As progressives seek to take on inequality, some cite religion as a motivating factor
Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed says his Muslim faith shapes his progressive views.
apnews.com
