Jeff Nichols
@backwardsriver.bsky.social
Chicago blueystorian, UIC ABD
jeffnicholshistory.com
jeffnicholshistory.com
Pinned
I queue up Chicago images and footage on days when I am multitasking or just burned out. If Trump has ordered tanks to roll over peaceful demonstrators in Los Angeles or anywhere else, my Chicago posts aren't some kind of passive aggressive message.
David Mamet should read The Room.
Like, the script to the movie, The Room. This movie idea sounds like the genesis for the worst movie ever made, so Mamet should read up on the competition.
Like, the script to the movie, The Room. This movie idea sounds like the genesis for the worst movie ever made, so Mamet should read up on the competition.
January 17, 2026 at 8:10 AM
David Mamet should read The Room.
Like, the script to the movie, The Room. This movie idea sounds like the genesis for the worst movie ever made, so Mamet should read up on the competition.
Like, the script to the movie, The Room. This movie idea sounds like the genesis for the worst movie ever made, so Mamet should read up on the competition.
Terrace Row, lost during the Great Chicago Fire. Now roughly the site of the Auditorium.
January 17, 2026 at 7:53 AM
Terrace Row, lost during the Great Chicago Fire. Now roughly the site of the Auditorium.
Reposted by Jeff Nichols
As WSJ calls Mamdani a "communist" for suggesting that the wealthiest pay tax rates that are still lower than they were under Eisenhower, Trump is engaged in bona fide communism by forcing state ownership of major commercial ventures. Here's yet another one.
January 16, 2026 at 3:39 AM
As WSJ calls Mamdani a "communist" for suggesting that the wealthiest pay tax rates that are still lower than they were under Eisenhower, Trump is engaged in bona fide communism by forcing state ownership of major commercial ventures. Here's yet another one.
Reposted by Jeff Nichols
Mischief Toys is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking to hold his tariffs unconstitutional 🤔🤔🤔
January 17, 2026 at 12:39 AM
Mischief Toys is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking to hold his tariffs unconstitutional 🤔🤔🤔
Reposted by Jeff Nichols
come to minneapolis you miserable toad of a man
Schumer as a major American metro is being brutally occupied by Trump goons: "The affordability crisis will be our focus throughout 2026 because that's what the American people are demanding"
January 15, 2026 at 5:26 PM
come to minneapolis you miserable toad of a man
Chicago undated
January 17, 2026 at 2:00 AM
Chicago undated
Reposted by Jeff Nichols
I genuinely don't understood how America took the emoluments clause -- the common-sense bar on a president using his powers to line his own pockets, a law children can understand -- and just said, nah, that doesn't apply for our Very Special Boy.
He’s turned the presidency into the world’s largest ATM machine.
January 17, 2026 at 1:26 AM
I genuinely don't understood how America took the emoluments clause -- the common-sense bar on a president using his powers to line his own pockets, a law children can understand -- and just said, nah, that doesn't apply for our Very Special Boy.
Big Ed Walsh, Chicago White Sox, 1909
January 17, 2026 at 1:42 AM
Big Ed Walsh, Chicago White Sox, 1909
Kitchen of a railroad worker, Chicago 1941
January 17, 2026 at 1:26 AM
Kitchen of a railroad worker, Chicago 1941
Barber chair by Theo A. Kochs Co., Chicago 1960
January 17, 2026 at 1:07 AM
Barber chair by Theo A. Kochs Co., Chicago 1960
Reposted by Jeff Nichols
This is like a satanic parody of the best moments of Reconstruction, which saw the DOJ using federal power to break up white supremacist conspiracies against civil rights. Here, white supremacists in the DOJ are using conspiracy law to attack civil rights.
This is bad. Like Reconstruction Era bad. www.cbsnews.com/news/justice...
DOJ investigating Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey over alleged conspiracy to impede immigration agents
Federal prosecutors are investigating Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for allegedly impeding immigration agents, sources told CBS News, an extraordinary escalation in the Trum...
www.cbsnews.com
January 16, 2026 at 11:19 PM
This is like a satanic parody of the best moments of Reconstruction, which saw the DOJ using federal power to break up white supremacist conspiracies against civil rights. Here, white supremacists in the DOJ are using conspiracy law to attack civil rights.
Reposted by Jeff Nichols
the wildest thing is right-wingers acting like minnesotans in videos must be outside agitators when we can all hear their accents. i don't think i could do that accent convincingly if i spent a year practicing. and neither would i wish to. have you heard that shit? craziest american accent
January 16, 2026 at 4:57 AM
the wildest thing is right-wingers acting like minnesotans in videos must be outside agitators when we can all hear their accents. i don't think i could do that accent convincingly if i spent a year practicing. and neither would i wish to. have you heard that shit? craziest american accent
Reposted by Jeff Nichols
Same reason Elon Musk paid twice the value of twitter and has been running it into the ground financially while benefiting from his ability to influence politics internationally
I hate to burst everyone's bubble but if you think that CBS News losing ratings or prestige matters to David Ellison, you're mistaken. Murdoch ran the NY Post for 45 years without turning a profit. They want these media companies to pump propaganda, not to get ratings or make money.
January 16, 2026 at 11:03 PM
Same reason Elon Musk paid twice the value of twitter and has been running it into the ground financially while benefiting from his ability to influence politics internationally
Reposted by Jeff Nichols
Another data point indicating that Polymarket is not a “prediction market” but a public persuasion operation—here it spreads disinformation about Minnesota and DHS signals boosts the disinformation:
January 16, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Another data point indicating that Polymarket is not a “prediction market” but a public persuasion operation—here it spreads disinformation about Minnesota and DHS signals boosts the disinformation:
Reposted by Jeff Nichols
good lord its the reverse incoming “Democratic majority“ post-2008
we don’t know what the census will be, nobody thought Ohio would completely slip away or Georgia could become purple 15 years ago!
we don’t know what the census will be, nobody thought Ohio would completely slip away or Georgia could become purple 15 years ago!
January 16, 2026 at 6:11 PM
good lord its the reverse incoming “Democratic majority“ post-2008
we don’t know what the census will be, nobody thought Ohio would completely slip away or Georgia could become purple 15 years ago!
we don’t know what the census will be, nobody thought Ohio would completely slip away or Georgia could become purple 15 years ago!
Reposted by Jeff Nichols
I think Chicago urbanists should stop arguing for less bus stops as a solution to bus speed issues, it is dumb and ableist.
January 16, 2026 at 5:47 PM
I think Chicago urbanists should stop arguing for less bus stops as a solution to bus speed issues, it is dumb and ableist.
Reposted by Jeff Nichols
i have been reading Tom Ricks’ “Fighting the Good War” which is a military analysis of the civil rights movement, and one thing that comes abundantly across is that movement leaders and ordinary people made it a practice to refuse to fall into despair and cynicism.
January 16, 2026 at 1:55 PM
i have been reading Tom Ricks’ “Fighting the Good War” which is a military analysis of the civil rights movement, and one thing that comes abundantly across is that movement leaders and ordinary people made it a practice to refuse to fall into despair and cynicism.
Reposted by Jeff Nichols
Reposted by Jeff Nichols
Being a stay at home mom also means you are often 1) plugged into local community in a way most folks aren't (through your kid's school/sports) and 2) around in the hours ICE thinks they can get up to shit because everyone is at work
It sounds like being a stay-at-home mom is now a superpower, because you don’t have an employer, you have a husband. Employers don’t have to pay alimony or negotiate custody of their kids if they fire you for bullshit reasons.
January 16, 2026 at 5:41 PM
Being a stay at home mom also means you are often 1) plugged into local community in a way most folks aren't (through your kid's school/sports) and 2) around in the hours ICE thinks they can get up to shit because everyone is at work
Reposted by Jeff Nichols
MAGA, a movement of cynical cruelty that is fueled by atomization, has accidentally created the conditions for in person communities to be formed around resisting their repression bsky.app/profile/aaro...
They have quite an operation going.
www.mprnews.org/episode/2026...
www.mprnews.org/episode/2026...
Minneapolis church has delivered more than 12,000 boxes of groceries to families in hiding
DHH church has hundreds of volunteers packing and delivering groceries to families who have been too scared to leave their homes during the immigration operation.
www.mprnews.org
January 16, 2026 at 2:11 PM
MAGA, a movement of cynical cruelty that is fueled by atomization, has accidentally created the conditions for in person communities to be formed around resisting their repression bsky.app/profile/aaro...
Reposted by Jeff Nichols
Rogan has like 3 of these revelations a year but then he gets distracted by an AI video of a screaming black woman he thinks is real
I suppose it’s nominally good median brained Americans are waking up and I’m not sure how best to navigate how graceful to be towards people who want to walk back enabling this (an important conversation for the near future), but for now: yes you fucking rube. That’s exactly what we are
Joe Rogan criticizes ICE tactics: 'Are we really going to be the Gestapo?'
The influential podcaster, who endorsed Donald Trump in 2024, has been increasingly critical of the president’s mass deportation strategy.
www.nbcnews.com
January 14, 2026 at 4:22 AM
Rogan has like 3 of these revelations a year but then he gets distracted by an AI video of a screaming black woman he thinks is real
Reposted by Jeff Nichols
Another thing we saw in Chicago. They terrorize neighborhoods but pretend no one actually lives there. A man in my neighborhood just happened to be coming home during a CBP kidnapping and ended up with six broken ribs.
The 6-month-old that DHS is tweeting about here lived in the neighborhood and the baby’s father was just trying to evacuate his family after federal agents had shot someone.
January 16, 2026 at 3:50 PM
Another thing we saw in Chicago. They terrorize neighborhoods but pretend no one actually lives there. A man in my neighborhood just happened to be coming home during a CBP kidnapping and ended up with six broken ribs.