Chet DeFonso
@chetdefonso.bsky.social
Yooperprof. British historian. Occasional actor. Jet Set Chet. Reader of books. Likes opera. Also beer. LGBTQ club member. He/him.
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
November 25, 2025 at 4:15 PM
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
"The White House isn't sure whether Trump actually had a phone call or just imagined it" is where we are on the dementia scale now.
An amazing new Trump controversy, Part II of II:
- Saturday afternoon: Trump says he spoke to Bolsonaro the night before and planned to see him “in the very near future”
- Monday afternoon: The Trump White House isn’t sure whether Trump actually had the conversation he referenced two days earlier
- Saturday afternoon: Trump says he spoke to Bolsonaro the night before and planned to see him “in the very near future”
- Monday afternoon: The Trump White House isn’t sure whether Trump actually had the conversation he referenced two days earlier
White House hedges on Trump’s curious claim about his call with Brazil’s Bolsonaro White House hedges on Trump’s curious claim about his call with Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro
Did the Republican president talk to Bolsonaro as the Brazilian plotted to escape? Trump said yes, but the White House isn’t so sure.
www.ms.now
November 25, 2025 at 6:49 PM
"The White House isn't sure whether Trump actually had a phone call or just imagined it" is where we are on the dementia scale now.
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
BREAKING: This is huge news, the EU's equivalent of the 🇺🇸Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
www.reuters.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:10 AM
BREAKING: This is huge news, the EU's equivalent of the 🇺🇸Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
Not a bug, but a feature.
Where I work, grad student enrollment in Engineering and Business is down 70% and 40%, respectively.
Now, to cover the loss in revenue from these Departments, the rest of the colleges have to take MASSIVE hits. History Dept alone has cut/closed 6 TT lines. Forget about raises or salary equity. 🫠
Now, to cover the loss in revenue from these Departments, the rest of the colleges have to take MASSIVE hits. History Dept alone has cut/closed 6 TT lines. Forget about raises or salary equity. 🫠
Enrollment by international students from China dropped by 3 percent, from India by 4 percent, and enrollment from students from Mexico has flatlined. Here are the likely consequences for Texas' education and economy:
November 25, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Not a bug, but a feature.
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
Gender-affirming care saves lives
1. A landmark study was just published in The Journal of Pediatrics.
It found a 68% reduction in suicidality for trans youth getting HRT.
It also found only 7 of more than 400 stopped taking HRT... and of those that did, 4 still identified as gender-diverse.
Transgender care saves lives.
It found a 68% reduction in suicidality for trans youth getting HRT.
It also found only 7 of more than 400 stopped taking HRT... and of those that did, 4 still identified as gender-diverse.
Transgender care saves lives.
Study In The Journal Of Pediatrics Finds Trans Youth Care Lowers Suicidality, Few Detransition
The groundbreaking study found that suicidality dropped for transgender youth receiving hormone therapy by nearly 70%, with only 7 patients of 432 discontinuing treatment.
www.erininthemorning.com
November 25, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Gender-affirming care saves lives
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
Does the BBC think it's improper for a speaker to state their opinion that Donald Trump is the most openly corrupt president in American history?
Because I think almost all historians would readily agree that Donald Trump is the most openly corrupt president in American history.
Because I think almost all historians would readily agree that Donald Trump is the most openly corrupt president in American history.
BBC censors a lecture removing author’s remarks on Trump that refer to him a the most openly corrupt American president.
November 25, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Does the BBC think it's improper for a speaker to state their opinion that Donald Trump is the most openly corrupt president in American history?
Because I think almost all historians would readily agree that Donald Trump is the most openly corrupt president in American history.
Because I think almost all historians would readily agree that Donald Trump is the most openly corrupt president in American history.
Nothing fishy about this!
I'm recruiting a new master's student for fall 2026 in my lab at Northern Michigan University @bionmu.bsky.social ! Students with interests in evolution of freshwater fish are encouraged to apply. Please see our lab website lizmandeville.github.io and the attached advertisement for more information.
Mandeville Lab
Fish are so delightfully weird. We study the evolutionary genetics and ecology of freshwater fishes, plus a few more things, at Northern Michigan University
lizmandeville.github.io
November 24, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Nothing fishy about this!
It's almost as if they are using Tsar Putin the Terrible as a role model.
JD Vance and Peter Thiel are running a sustained operation out of the White House designed to acquire Greenland, either voluntarily or by force. Thiel has laid out plans for what he intends to do with the island nation in past writings. It doesn't entail the consent of the Greenlanders for anything.
November 24, 2025 at 3:17 AM
It's almost as if they are using Tsar Putin the Terrible as a role model.
Tbh, I'm surprised it's worth that much.
Well that’ll correct its right wing bias!
Daily Mail publisher agrees to buy Daily Telegraph for £500m www.bbc.com/news/article...
Daily Mail publisher agrees to buy Daily Telegraph for £500m www.bbc.com/news/article...
Daily Mail owner agrees to buy Daily Telegraph for £500m
The publisher of the Daily Mail says it is in talks to buy the Daily and Sunday Telegraph for £500m.
www.bbc.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Tbh, I'm surprised it's worth that much.
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Nicholas McGegan conductor, Handel Messiah. Cheryl Hill choral director. Btw, McGegan was musician in residence at Wash U in St Louis when I was an undergrad there in the early 1980s.
November 22, 2025 at 4:18 AM
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Nicholas McGegan conductor, Handel Messiah. Cheryl Hill choral director. Btw, McGegan was musician in residence at Wash U in St Louis when I was an undergrad there in the early 1980s.
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
All the rape, torture, and murder will be brushed under the carpet, a great lesson for any future war criminals.
November 21, 2025 at 7:08 AM
All the rape, torture, and murder will be brushed under the carpet, a great lesson for any future war criminals.
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
Rep. Goodlander should followed up asking him if he intended to follow the law & the constitution as he committed to when he was sworn in. If he didn’t respond in the affirmative, she should have informed him she would be filing impeachment paperwork & actually done so.
bsky.app/profile/atru...
bsky.app/profile/atru...
Rep. Goodlander: "When the Sec Def came before the House Armed Services Committee, I asked him a simple question that has one answer only. I asked him, 'Will you abide by a decision of SCOTUS?' Sec. Hegseth refused to commit to doing so. This put our service members in an impossible position."
November 21, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Rep. Goodlander should followed up asking him if he intended to follow the law & the constitution as he committed to when he was sworn in. If he didn’t respond in the affirmative, she should have informed him she would be filing impeachment paperwork & actually done so.
bsky.app/profile/atru...
bsky.app/profile/atru...
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
Excited to see that our book page (The King's Dinner) is now live. It is all feeling a bit real now! It has been such a pleasure to work with Rachel Rich @adamcrymble.bsky.social @sarahfoxhistory.bsky.social -- and the lovely editorial team @uclpress.bsky.social uclpress.co.uk/book/the-kin...
The King’s Dinner
The King’s Dinner is about what it meant to be British at the end of the eighteenth century. Drawing on a large, open dataset of two royal household kitchen ledgers, the authors study the role and inf...
uclpress.co.uk
November 20, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Excited to see that our book page (The King's Dinner) is now live. It is all feeling a bit real now! It has been such a pleasure to work with Rachel Rich @adamcrymble.bsky.social @sarahfoxhistory.bsky.social -- and the lovely editorial team @uclpress.bsky.social uclpress.co.uk/book/the-kin...
Concur with this, Keegan is yet another brilliant writer from Ireland.
This is easily the best book I read last year and is one that I plan to reread this coming holiday season. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. Short but powerful about a man with the moral strength to do what's right despite social constraints. Google for more info.
#booksky
#booksky
November 19, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Concur with this, Keegan is yet another brilliant writer from Ireland.
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
Speaking truth can be liberating, and it’s clear Massie is enjoying his freedom.
Massie: “[Speaker Johnson is] trying to say the rich, powerful men who flew to Epstein Island are the victims now. The only way a ‘Christian man’ can stand up there and sell a lie like that is if he’s already decided in his head that protecting them is somehow okay.”
November 19, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Speaking truth can be liberating, and it’s clear Massie is enjoying his freedom.
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
"academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it... The dominant four collectively generated... $12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024."
November 18, 2025 at 6:48 AM
"academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it... The dominant four collectively generated... $12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024."
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
Poor But Proud: Alabama’s Poor Whites (this more related to my own roots) by Dr. J. Wayne Flynt of Auburn. It’s very good so far. Next up, I’m looking forward to The Yellowhammer War: The Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama edited by Dr. Kenneth W. Noe, also of Auburn.
My academic training 2/
My academic training 2/
November 17, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Poor But Proud: Alabama’s Poor Whites (this more related to my own roots) by Dr. J. Wayne Flynt of Auburn. It’s very good so far. Next up, I’m looking forward to The Yellowhammer War: The Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama edited by Dr. Kenneth W. Noe, also of Auburn.
My academic training 2/
My academic training 2/
Did anyone else have the pleasure of staying at the Department Head's house during an on-campus interview?
If you are not in academia, you might not know this, but job interviews used to be held at conferences IN HOTEL ROOMS. Women candidates in a hotel room alone with often all-male committees. People sitting on beds! The horror stories I've heard.
I thing I sometimes thing about is that university departments were still doing job interviews in hotel rooms in the mid aughts
November 17, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Did anyone else have the pleasure of staying at the Department Head's house during an on-campus interview?
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
Yes, sadly it is real.
November 15, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Yes, sadly it is real.
Getty Images, give me an example of "chutzpah."
November 13, 2025 at 4:27 AM
Getty Images, give me an example of "chutzpah."
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
$1M+ cash gifts for 8 U.S. Senators who inserted a provision into current funding bill the US GOV will pay them for each time their phone records were subpoenaed by the US House Committee investigating their role in January 6 attempted coup d‘etat
democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-r...
democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-r...
November 13, 2025 at 12:53 AM
$1M+ cash gifts for 8 U.S. Senators who inserted a provision into current funding bill the US GOV will pay them for each time their phone records were subpoenaed by the US House Committee investigating their role in January 6 attempted coup d‘etat
democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-r...
democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-r...
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
The Judge Advocates General knew this is against domestic and international laws. That’s why they were all fired in February along with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
November 12, 2025 at 4:26 PM
The Judge Advocates General knew this is against domestic and international laws. That’s why they were all fired in February along with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
“The past is never dead. It's not even past.”
November 8, 2025 at 10:22 PM
“The past is never dead. It's not even past.”
Maybe you really mean "English"? I always tell my students to read Orwell, who helpfully identified himself as Lower Upper Middle Class.
Could someone explain to me what is meant when a British person refers to "the middle class" ? Like, in the US, as I hear it, it basically just means a person who makes a certain amount of money, not too far below and not wildly above the median. Seems like a complex concept when UK writers use it?
November 11, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Maybe you really mean "English"? I always tell my students to read Orwell, who helpfully identified himself as Lower Upper Middle Class.