Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
@aivalentin.bsky.social
🇺🇦 Writer, artist, PhD candidate | C19 US, New Orleans, immigration, religion, death | Disabled Jewish queer trans | Husband and cavalier of @thelionmachine.bsky.social 🪬
Pinned
Hello new followers!
I'm Aleksei (he/they) and I'm the other half/cavalier primary of @thelionmachine.bsky.social
I'm a PhD student working on German Catholic immigrants and yellow fever in 19th c New Orleans. I write spec lit, dabble in art, and generally nerd around.
I'm Aleksei (he/they) and I'm the other half/cavalier primary of @thelionmachine.bsky.social
I'm a PhD student working on German Catholic immigrants and yellow fever in 19th c New Orleans. I write spec lit, dabble in art, and generally nerd around.
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
I think it’s time to put this one back out into the ether, friends
Come and learn about how the tropes undergirding anti-Jewish hatred and conspiracy theories as they exist today came to be…
Come and learn about how the tropes undergirding anti-Jewish hatred and conspiracy theories as they exist today came to be…
The Antisemitism Post (tm)
Gotta get the history to know where the tropes live in the discourse today.
www.lifeisasacredtext.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:12 PM
I think it’s time to put this one back out into the ether, friends
Come and learn about how the tropes undergirding anti-Jewish hatred and conspiracy theories as they exist today came to be…
Come and learn about how the tropes undergirding anti-Jewish hatred and conspiracy theories as they exist today came to be…
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
Louisiana officials plan to reopen a youth prison in April that was shuttered over a decade ago when it was declared inappropriate for young people. @jsodonoghue.bsky.social reports a new correctional facility will eventually be built on the same site. lailluminator.com/2025/11/26/l...
State officials say East Baton Rouge youth prison could reopen as soon as April • Louisiana Illuminator
Louisiana officials plan to reopen a youth prison in April that was shuttered over a decade ago when it was declared inappropriate for young people.
lailluminator.com
November 26, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Louisiana officials plan to reopen a youth prison in April that was shuttered over a decade ago when it was declared inappropriate for young people. @jsodonoghue.bsky.social reports a new correctional facility will eventually be built on the same site. lailluminator.com/2025/11/26/l...
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
Angry Goose
2 Angry 2 Goose
Angry Goose 3: Tokyo Drift
2 Angry 2 Goose
Angry Goose 3: Tokyo Drift
There are too many movies about angry men and not enough movies about angry geese.
November 26, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Angry Goose
2 Angry 2 Goose
Angry Goose 3: Tokyo Drift
2 Angry 2 Goose
Angry Goose 3: Tokyo Drift
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
What are the mitzves of Thanks Giving, a festive meal, to eat the turkey bird, to hear the story of thepilgrim, to watch the football game. And some say to argue with an uncle.
November 25, 2025 at 6:37 PM
What are the mitzves of Thanks Giving, a festive meal, to eat the turkey bird, to hear the story of thepilgrim, to watch the football game. And some say to argue with an uncle.
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
I always feel some kind of way when I find out an academic has created a whole ass conference based off my work and did not think to invite me which had happened twice and that's not a LOT but it is two whole opportunities that I benefitted from literally zero.
November 26, 2025 at 8:14 PM
I always feel some kind of way when I find out an academic has created a whole ass conference based off my work and did not think to invite me which had happened twice and that's not a LOT but it is two whole opportunities that I benefitted from literally zero.
Now it's time to find out what medication insurance didn't cover this time, America's 22nd favourite game!
November 26, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Now it's time to find out what medication insurance didn't cover this time, America's 22nd favourite game!
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
You do want to read this one.
OK - pie discourse - best pie story:
In 2016, we were living in Andover, in the UK. My wife was assigned as an exchange officer at the Army Air Corps base at Middle Wallop (yes, really).*
The US Army has a tradition: senior leaders, in dress uniform, serve junior troops Thanksgiving dinner.
/1
In 2016, we were living in Andover, in the UK. My wife was assigned as an exchange officer at the Army Air Corps base at Middle Wallop (yes, really).*
The US Army has a tradition: senior leaders, in dress uniform, serve junior troops Thanksgiving dinner.
/1
November 26, 2025 at 4:08 PM
You do want to read this one.
I microwaved two sweet potatoes just now for dinner, and you bet your sweet bippity I stabbed them and watched them like a hawk.
Orange goop contained (deliciously).
Orange goop contained (deliciously).
My Momma wanted to make squash to add to some dish. She'd read about softening it in the microwave, so she put two butternut squash in there, cranked it, and set it working.
I was coming out of the back of the house, passing in front of the kitchen where it opened into the dining room. +
I was coming out of the back of the house, passing in front of the kitchen where it opened into the dining room. +
November 26, 2025 at 1:22 AM
I microwaved two sweet potatoes just now for dinner, and you bet your sweet bippity I stabbed them and watched them like a hawk.
Orange goop contained (deliciously).
Orange goop contained (deliciously).
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
Ellen Harding Baker (1847-1886) was a US astronomer and teacher, known for her Solar System Quilt, used as a teaching aid in her lectures on astronomy.
She likely began creating the Solar System Quilt in 1876, and it apparently took her until 1883 to complete the project.
#WomenInSTEM #WomensArt
She likely began creating the Solar System Quilt in 1876, and it apparently took her until 1883 to complete the project.
#WomenInSTEM #WomensArt
November 25, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Ellen Harding Baker (1847-1886) was a US astronomer and teacher, known for her Solar System Quilt, used as a teaching aid in her lectures on astronomy.
She likely began creating the Solar System Quilt in 1876, and it apparently took her until 1883 to complete the project.
#WomenInSTEM #WomensArt
She likely began creating the Solar System Quilt in 1876, and it apparently took her until 1883 to complete the project.
#WomenInSTEM #WomensArt
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
Christians I beg you please stop naming your organizations Hebrew words
like, you have a whole tradition & language(s) & religious culture that's your own
our traditions broke up a long time ago
you have a lane? This is not it?
and it's v confusing for me personally when I click on stuff, ok
like, you have a whole tradition & language(s) & religious culture that's your own
our traditions broke up a long time ago
you have a lane? This is not it?
and it's v confusing for me personally when I click on stuff, ok
November 25, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Christians I beg you please stop naming your organizations Hebrew words
like, you have a whole tradition & language(s) & religious culture that's your own
our traditions broke up a long time ago
you have a lane? This is not it?
and it's v confusing for me personally when I click on stuff, ok
like, you have a whole tradition & language(s) & religious culture that's your own
our traditions broke up a long time ago
you have a lane? This is not it?
and it's v confusing for me personally when I click on stuff, ok
Louisiana out here, always sending our best.
CDC’s new top deputy had ordered his state health department to stop promoting mass vaccinations amid a flu surge www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
Louisiana health official who halted state vaccine campaign tapped as CDC’s No. 2
Ralph Abraham, a Louisiana health official who stopped promoting mass vaccination vaccines, has been appointed as the CDC's principal deputy director
www.washingtonpost.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Louisiana out here, always sending our best.
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
Medieval peasants would get the equivalent of an office pizza party when their lord required them to do extra work (a boonwork day). They’d get good bread, ale, beef and fish like this 15th century recipe for Barbel Boylled. youtu.be/CFXuZAGEO5c?...
How to Eat Like a Medieval Peasant
YouTube video by Tasting History with Max Miller
youtu.be
November 25, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Medieval peasants would get the equivalent of an office pizza party when their lord required them to do extra work (a boonwork day). They’d get good bread, ale, beef and fish like this 15th century recipe for Barbel Boylled. youtu.be/CFXuZAGEO5c?...
My jaw is refusing to stay in joint and thanks, I hate it.
November 24, 2025 at 11:07 PM
My jaw is refusing to stay in joint and thanks, I hate it.
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
Unless the thieves are a rival ballet company, I desperately want to see the facial expressions when they open that truck and discover they've stolen the set for the Nutcracker.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Who stole the Nutcracker set? Travelling ballet says moving truck with backdrop inside was swiped | CBC News
A ballet company on an Ontario-wide tour of The Nutcracker says someone stole the moving truck storing its “irreplaceable” sets and backdrops.
www.cbc.ca
November 24, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Unless the thieves are a rival ballet company, I desperately want to see the facial expressions when they open that truck and discover they've stolen the set for the Nutcracker.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
Does anyone in Baltimore need (or could use) a 20 lb turkey? Because reasons, we have acquired one, and while we can come up with uses for it, it's A Problem for my allergy issues and if someone needs it more, Sarah is happy to deliver anywhere in Baltimore
November 24, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Does anyone in Baltimore need (or could use) a 20 lb turkey? Because reasons, we have acquired one, and while we can come up with uses for it, it's A Problem for my allergy issues and if someone needs it more, Sarah is happy to deliver anywhere in Baltimore
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
The Boshin War was the means by which Satsuma-Choshu oligarchs imposed their vision for Japan at the point of a gun.
My PhD thesis about the Northern Alliance, one group that fought them, is free to read via the link. It was panned for "reading too much like a novel," so you should totally read it!
My PhD thesis about the Northern Alliance, one group that fought them, is free to read via the link. It was panned for "reading too much like a novel," so you should totally read it!
The Sparrow's Dream: The Meiji Revolution and Local Self-Assertion in Northern Japan - D-Scholarship@Pitt
Bakkalian, Nyri A. (2017) The Sparrow's Dream: The Meiji Revolution and Local Self-Assertion in Northern Japan. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)
d-scholarship.pitt.edu
November 24, 2025 at 1:10 AM
The Boshin War was the means by which Satsuma-Choshu oligarchs imposed their vision for Japan at the point of a gun.
My PhD thesis about the Northern Alliance, one group that fought them, is free to read via the link. It was panned for "reading too much like a novel," so you should totally read it!
My PhD thesis about the Northern Alliance, one group that fought them, is free to read via the link. It was panned for "reading too much like a novel," so you should totally read it!
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
To simplify: the thing that made American higher-ed unique was the institutional organization around education as a PUBLIC GOOD, rather than as an elite training ground, or job training.
This aspect is nearly dead, killed by a thousand budget cuts.
This aspect is nearly dead, killed by a thousand budget cuts.
Really important to stress that the Crown Jewels of the US higher education system were never the Ivies or elite SLACs (other countries have equivalents of these) but the well-funded, large, cheap, and excellently staffed public state university systems bringing high quality education to the masses.
One of the bragging rights that the US ed system had in the 20th century is that we didn't have education tracks. Essentially, any kid could go to a CC or state school & major in whatever they wanted to (obviously an oversimplification). I fear this aspect of the American dream is dying.
November 23, 2025 at 5:56 PM
To simplify: the thing that made American higher-ed unique was the institutional organization around education as a PUBLIC GOOD, rather than as an elite training ground, or job training.
This aspect is nearly dead, killed by a thousand budget cuts.
This aspect is nearly dead, killed by a thousand budget cuts.
Wake me up inside
Wake me up inside
Call my name and
Save me from the dark
Bid my blood to run
Before I come undone
Save me from the
Nothing I've become
Wake me up inside
Call my name and
Save me from the dark
Bid my blood to run
Before I come undone
Save me from the
Nothing I've become
November 23, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Wake me up inside
Wake me up inside
Call my name and
Save me from the dark
Bid my blood to run
Before I come undone
Save me from the
Nothing I've become
Wake me up inside
Call my name and
Save me from the dark
Bid my blood to run
Before I come undone
Save me from the
Nothing I've become
I spent the entire afternoon convinced I'd lost my everyday carry pouch with my meds and leatherman and little mementos from my Momma and other folks I love, or that I'd been pickpocketed.
Turns out, it had fallen out of my bag and slid partially under the couch. A much better outcome!
Turns out, it had fallen out of my bag and slid partially under the couch. A much better outcome!
November 23, 2025 at 1:54 AM
I spent the entire afternoon convinced I'd lost my everyday carry pouch with my meds and leatherman and little mementos from my Momma and other folks I love, or that I'd been pickpocketed.
Turns out, it had fallen out of my bag and slid partially under the couch. A much better outcome!
Turns out, it had fallen out of my bag and slid partially under the couch. A much better outcome!
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
November 21, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
THIS AND THE FOLLOWING POST. IT REALLY MATTERS!
PayPal has rolled out a new "feature" that prompts you to leave feedback about an artist that you've commissioned via invoice.
Whatever you do, DO NOT fill this out! To quote Admiral Ackbar, "IT'S A TRAP!!!" It is meant to misguide you.
(continue...)
Whatever you do, DO NOT fill this out! To quote Admiral Ackbar, "IT'S A TRAP!!!" It is meant to misguide you.
(continue...)
November 22, 2025 at 1:23 AM
THIS AND THE FOLLOWING POST. IT REALLY MATTERS!
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
Trans people have exhaustively detailed the links between the anti-trans and anti-abortion movements, we warned that transphobia was a wedge issue for the religious right to roll back women's rights, only for us to be ignored, and of course UK TERFs are setting their sights on abortion.
Kathleen Stock has written an article against "abortion permissiveness". She claims abortion requires "justification" saying the state should limit "unacceptable decision-making" by women about their own bodies.
This is who anti-trans activists proclaim as the feminist thought leaders of our time.
This is who anti-trans activists proclaim as the feminist thought leaders of our time.
November 21, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Trans people have exhaustively detailed the links between the anti-trans and anti-abortion movements, we warned that transphobia was a wedge issue for the religious right to roll back women's rights, only for us to be ignored, and of course UK TERFs are setting their sights on abortion.
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
The myth is circulating again that it was more radical otg activists and assimilationist gays ("boots and suits") teaming up that was responsible for queer communities' gains late '60s on.
The history doesn't back this up. What actually happened is more revealing. 🧵
Let's start with Stonewall...
The history doesn't back this up. What actually happened is more revealing. 🧵
Let's start with Stonewall...
November 21, 2025 at 3:50 PM
The myth is circulating again that it was more radical otg activists and assimilationist gays ("boots and suits") teaming up that was responsible for queer communities' gains late '60s on.
The history doesn't back this up. What actually happened is more revealing. 🧵
Let's start with Stonewall...
The history doesn't back this up. What actually happened is more revealing. 🧵
Let's start with Stonewall...
Nothing like looking up locals mentioned in a contemporary book on New Orleans and discovering just how many died in either Katrina or the pandemic. I should start keeping a (very macabre) tally.
November 20, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Nothing like looking up locals mentioned in a contemporary book on New Orleans and discovering just how many died in either Katrina or the pandemic. I should start keeping a (very macabre) tally.
Reposted by Aleksei I. Valentín (he/they) ✡️♿🏳️🌈
Before the midterms of 1866, President Andrew Johnson called his congressional opponents traitors and said they should be hanged.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
November 20, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Before the midterms of 1866, President Andrew Johnson called his congressional opponents traitors and said they should be hanged.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.