Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
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badtoss.bsky.social
Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
@badtoss.bsky.social
Guggenheim Fellow, Prof Emerita and Author: The Gilded Edge (Dutton) and forthcoming, a book on America's home grown Soviet spy (37Ink). Oh, and tennis tweets. Expect them.


Lit rep: Mackenzie Brady Watson

Stacks at https://prendergastc.substack.com
Pinned
The antisemitism is screaming. The "Jewish Billionaire" trope has now come from the right (Fox) and the left (Occupy) and I've yet to see an apology from either.
Current state of things: One Fox News host casually declares that Epstein’s money comes from “Jewish billionaires” and a “Jewish banking family,” another responds that he was a “sex rabbi.” www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/jes...
I taught Alice Wong's work on the (hideously hypocritical and deeply ableist) plastic straw bans. She was one of the giants among us.
February 15, 2026 at 12:27 AM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
When I taught at LSU, I got some gasps when I said plantation weddings were like getting married at a Nazi concentration camp, and I got nods from a lot of other students who understood it. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Plantation weddings and pre-civil war fashion: the film that critiques the historical fantasy of Natchez
A documentary about Mississippi examines competing forces: the nostalgic celebration of the old south and the refusal to sanitize the brutal history of enslavement
www.theguardian.com
February 14, 2026 at 11:00 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
I am gonna go out on a limb and say that a Jersey dude so horrified that he went to his first protest and is trying not to cry on camera has a pretty good chance of staying radicalized. And that while Bluesky loves to pick apart things like this, this kinda video moves the needle for OTHER dudes.
Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social
February 14, 2026 at 9:10 PM
Shapo, Shelton, Shambles of a break.🎾
February 14, 2026 at 11:57 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
I've said it many times that "this struggling talking bitch was no different the marjorie Taylor Greene. MAGA ALL THE WAY)
February 14, 2026 at 11:55 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
CCTV footage appears to show DHS agents posing as people having car trouble in order to lure a target out of his house before arresting them. The target comes out and starts helping them before 3 vehicles surround the scene. The car "experiencing" trouble then drives off with them.
February 14, 2026 at 4:25 PM
White people who don't want to vote--it doesn't work unless ALL the white people don't vote.
You're not a serious person if you think voluntary disenfranchisement is a successful tactic when all it does is help Republicans win.
They go out of their way to suppress the vote to cheat themselves into office, which you make unnecessary by refusing to vote & pretending to be principled.
February 14, 2026 at 11:54 PM
Shelton - Shapo is a pretty fun match up so far. Still on serve deep in the first.🎾
February 14, 2026 at 11:50 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
The whole sky just exploded in green here in Reykjavík. It was so bright, I didn't even need my flashlight to walk out to my neighborhood beach. It's rare when we get these whole sky engulfing shows.

This season has been something else.
#solarmaximum ftw!

#northernlights #aurora #iceland
February 13, 2026 at 10:36 PM
The nerve of this while the Epstein files are demonstrating the broad willingness of men to rape and abuse children.
you're never gonna guess whose fault the times says it is
February 14, 2026 at 11:35 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
Remembrance is not a violation.
February 14, 2026 at 12:01 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
Rep. Jason Crow on Rubio's Munich speech: "Not only did he say things I found disturbing, what was also important was what he did not say. He never mentioned Russia once. He never mentioned China once. There was historically revisionism."
February 14, 2026 at 4:39 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
Bard alum and former faculty member here. Leon Botstein must resign.
Our latest story on Leon Botstein’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein shows the college president knew of the trafficking allegations as he sought donations from the sex offender, despite his repeated claims in recent days to the contrary.

Much more herein:

www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley...
Emails show Botstein knew of Epstein allegations while pursuing donations
Condolences sent after public reports of Epstein’s sex trafficking and his ties to then-Prince Andrew indicate the Bard president knew more than he now admits.
www.timesunion.com
February 14, 2026 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
Kennedy only being at -4 is just so bleak.
February 14, 2026 at 10:32 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
My wife is a Columbia grad, and since they folded like a cheap suit, the Columbia alumni chapter here in Boston has been forced to cancel almost every event they've planned due to lack of interest.

Columbia alumni are pissed.
February 14, 2026 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
Because for some people Kamala Harris “wasn’t clicking” for them.

www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
Broken bones, burning eyes: How Trump's DHS deploys 'less lethal' weapons on protesters
Federal immigration officers have repeatedly used force in ways that appear to violate their own policies or general policing guidelines, NBC News found.
www.nbcnews.com
February 14, 2026 at 10:15 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
Fortunately the handy image provided illustrates a healthy, moderate pour for your reference
February 14, 2026 at 10:44 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
Breaking: The CDC reports SARS-CoV-2 levels *quadrupled* in Minnesota in the past week.

Using harmonized wastewater estimates, we project 1 in 12 people in Minnesota are actively infectious. This is equivalent to a 59% chance of exposure in a room of 10 people....
February 14, 2026 at 7:51 AM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
Hey there Pam Bondi if you have nothing to hide why were you tracking what congressmen were searching on the Epstein files?

Why uh…. Why…. Why so nervous?
February 13, 2026 at 2:27 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
This is probably ok
February 14, 2026 at 9:31 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
There's a short video clip of Pinker and Epstein on the plane and a girls voice says "where are you taking me" and this is the still from it. So I don't know what he's talking about.
February 14, 2026 at 6:54 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
Karolina Muchova is Masters 1000 title holder

Victoria Mboko is a top 10 player

I mean, come on. What a way to end the week.
February 14, 2026 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
The kind of utter confusion Brooks is going to inflict on Yale undergrads.
February 14, 2026 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
Two Rice University undergrads (freshmen!) built a digital mapping tool to track ICE activity. Students are OK.

www.thenation.com/article/acti...
How 2 University Freshman Are Tracking ICE Enforcement Actions Across the Country
With ICE Map, Rice University students Jack Vu and Abby Manuel hope to help communities understand where immigration enforcement activity is happening and how it unfolds in real time.
www.thenation.com
February 14, 2026 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by Catherine Prendergast🇺🇦🪬
What a great photo of Brazilian alpine skier Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, the first South American to ever win a medal at the Winter Olympic Games.
February 14, 2026 at 9:06 PM