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jamesenge.bsky.social
James Enge
@jamesenge.bsky.social
1.1K followers 490 following 2K posts
Classics by day; sword-and-sorcery by night. The other way 'round sometimes.

https://jamesenge.com
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Reposted by James Enge
brandonfriedman.bsky.social
Democratic leaders need to fear being branded as collaborators more than they fear being called soft on crime
January 22, 2026 at 3:39 AM
Reposted by James Enge
lunapress.bsky.social
Farah Mendlesohn's Considering The Female Man by Joanna Russ, or, As the Bear Swore - artist Judith Clute.
Out March 31, launch at Eastercon @easterconuk.bsky.social. You can pre-order now, paperback and ebook, in the Luna store and all other retailers. #booksfromscotland @effjayem.bsky.social
January 14, 2026 at 5:32 PM
jamesenge.bsky.social
I'm often proud of my native state, never more so than now. A thread full of hope.
margaret.bsky.social Margaret Killjoy @margaret.bsky.social · 12h
I came to Minneapolis to report on what's going on, and one of the main questions I showed up with is "just what is the scale of the resistance?" After all, we're all used to the news calling Portland a "war zone" or whatever when it's just some protests in one part of town.
January 22, 2026 at 5:18 AM
Reposted by James Enge
priscillapage.bsky.social
vibe check
Gene Hackman's Harry Caul in The Conversation, playing saxophone on the far right of the frame in his apartment, which he has torn down, ripped up, and hollowed out. crud is all over the floor, the walls are bare, and there appears to be a giant hole in the wall on the far left that divides what once was maybe a living room from the doorway.
January 22, 2026 at 4:50 AM
Reposted by James Enge
monet.bsky.social
Monet moved often before Giverny—Le Havre, Sainte-Adresse, Argenteuil, Vétheuil—each place a new lesson in light and air.
January 22, 2026 at 5:03 AM
Reposted by James Enge
josepagliery.bsky.social
If you work/worked at ICE and know about this memo, find me on Signal: JosePagliery.46
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 18h
In a sign of how explosive ICE knew this secret memo would be, one whistleblower says he was only allowed to read the memo and was barred from taking written notes, and warned that employees had been punished for disagreeing.

At least one ICE instructor resigned rather than teach the illegal memo!
Consciousness of Guilt: An Opaque and Secret Memorandum with Threats of Reprisal 13. Despite the May 12 Memo being addressed to “All ICE Personnel,” in practice the memorandum has only been distributed to select DHS and ICE officials. Furthermore, our clients have been told that the May 12 Memo must be treated with unusually strict access control for a document without any confidentiality markings. 14. To wit: one of our clients was allowed to view the memorandum only in the presence of their supervisor. They were handed the Memorandum, allowed a few minutes to review it without the ability to take notes, and were directed to hand it back. They were also informed that another employee had been reassigned for contradicting a supervisor about a different ICE policy. Our client understood their supervisor shared this piece of information as a warning that expressing disagreement with the new arrest policy could result in adverse career consequences. 15. Together, our clients are aware of multiple DHS employees who faced retaliation for expressing their concerns and/or disagreement with the May 12 Memo’s policy change, likely constituting prohibited personnel practices. One client is aware of a seasoned government instructor, tasked with teaching this new doctrine, who chose to resign rather than be forced to teach what they understood to be unlawful.
January 22, 2026 at 4:51 AM
Reposted by James Enge
charles.littlegreenfootballs.com
Seth Meyers: Trump Confuses Greenland and Iceland in Davos Speech, "No Kings" Comes to Swiss Alps #blogpost
Seth Meyers: Trump Confuses Greenland and Iceland in Davos Speech, "No Kings" Comes to Swiss Alps
Seth takes a closer look at Trump's Davos speech in which he confused Greenland and Iceland, called windmills “losers” and mocked the president of France.
littlegreenfootballs.com
January 22, 2026 at 5:05 AM
jamesenge.bsky.social
This just in, Conan: stacks of NESS have arrived at the Fortress of Engitude.

@newedgeswordmag.bsky.social
NESS issues 5,6, & 7; the MMPBs _Beating Hearts & Battle Axes_ and _Sometime Lofty Towers_; postcards and bookmarks featuring cover art.
January 21, 2026 at 11:42 PM
Reposted by James Enge
peterpaulrubens.bsky.social
The Judgment of Paris. Who knew that it had involved an interpretive dance contest? Painted in 1716 by Adriaen van der Werff, whose day is today.
January 21, 2026 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by James Enge
pmbryant.com
Discovered a Jean Arthur movie from her star era that I’d not only never seen, but never heard of! (Thanks to TCM’s star-of-the-month schedule.)

Not at the level of her peak films like “Too Many Husbands” (1940), but still pretty entertaining.
Jean Arthur, sitting and looking into distance, wearing glasses and holding sheaf of papers. In costume for “More Than a Secretary”. Poster for “More Than a Secretary” (1936) starring Jean Arthur and George Brent.
January 21, 2026 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by James Enge
joachimboaz.bsky.social
Today I'm joined by Adam Rowe (@70sscifiart.bsky.social) on the Best Retro Science Fiction Art Collections sciencefictionruminations.com/2026/01/19/e...

#scifi #sciencefiction #art #artist
Angus McKie’s cover for Stewart Cowley’s Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD (1978). Various spaceships zip past the cosmos. Jim Burns’ cover for the 1st edition of Mechanismo (1978) A mechanical solder has their hand raised. There's a futuristic spaceship/airplane with another mechanical thing fixing it.
January 19, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by James Enge
shakespeare.lol
PRINCE HENRY
How does the king?

GLOUCESTER
Exceeding ill.
January 20, 2026 at 10:54 PM
Reposted by James Enge
jfallows.bsky.social
This post by @pkrugman.bsky.social on "Sundowning" is worth reading.

paulkrugman.substack.com/p/its-sundow...

Agree with this conclusion:
And what can we say about the cowardly Republicans in Congress, who are still sustaining Trump even though many of them – perhaps most of them – are privately appalled by his behavior? It would take just eight of these people — four Republican senators and four Republican House members — to switch sides and caucus with the Democrats to end G.O.P. control of Congress and eliminate much of Trump’s power. But taking such a step would mean risking Trump’s wrath by standing up and acting like patriots, rather than knuckling down and averting their eyes as Trump descends into madness. How did a great, sophisticated nation, one of the world’s longest-standing republics, end up so fragile that it can be undone by one man’s dementia? That’s an important question, the answer to which I believe lies in the straight line from Bush vs Gore and the Roberts Supreme Court, to January 6th, to the execution of Renee Good. However, what’s more important is that we realize where we are right now, that we don’t try to sugarcoat and sanewash what’s happening: A petulant, violent and deranged individual is running America.
January 20, 2026 at 3:57 PM
jamesenge.bsky.social
James D. Nicoll discusses Poul Anderson's "On Thud and Blunder" (a semi-useful guide to verisimilitude in sword and sorcery) as part of his yearlong celebration of Anderson's centenary.

jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/by-crom
By Crom!
Poul Anderson’s 1978 On Thud and Blunder is a non-fiction essay, first published in Andy Offutt’s swords & sorcery anthology, Swords Against Darkness III. It is a blast of trumpets against poorly ...
jamesdavisnicoll.com
January 20, 2026 at 5:09 PM
Reposted by James Enge
juddlegum.bsky.social
I’ve been writing Popular Information for 8 years, and this is one of the most important stories I’ve ever published. This is a humanitarian crisis that has gone unreported.
ICE has stopped paying for detainee medical treatment
ICE halted payments in October, and the situation will persist for at least several more months
popular.info
January 20, 2026 at 1:47 PM
Reposted by James Enge
alliterative.bsky.social
I’m on strike at my university, so the #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is union/university! (For more info about the strike: linktr.ee/lufappul) #wotd #union #university #strike
Why do universities need unions? Etymology! It’s probably clear that both words come from Latin unus “one”. A union is a collection of workers. You might have thought that the word university reflects the idea of universal education or the universal coverage of subjects, but in fact it’s short for universitas magistrorum et scholarium, the union of teachers and students. The university started out as a kind of scholastic guild to protect their interests against outside, non-academic forces, reducing the financial barriers to education and protecting the livelihood of the teachers.
January 19, 2026 at 10:10 PM
Reposted by James Enge
thomasthefrench.bsky.social
People in Europe get out and look at the sky 😇
January 19, 2026 at 9:25 PM
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paregorios.bsky.social
The Thesaurus Linguae Latinae project (125-year-long complete Latin language dictionary effort) is advertising to hire a full-stack developer in Munich (Django/React): job-portal.lmu.de/jobposting/5...
Full-Stack-Entwickler / -Entwicklerin zur Umsetzung der Umstellung des Thesaurus-Wörterbuchs von der gedruckten auf eine vollständig digitale Version
job-portal.lmu.de
January 19, 2026 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by James Enge
edzitron.com
Was honored to get the call to be one of The Guardian’s Big Interviews in G2. A thorough and thoughtful piece that digs into the real fundaments of the AI bubble narrative.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Ed Zitron on big tech, backlash, boom and bust: ‘AI has taught us that people are excited to replace human beings’
His blunt, brash scepticism has made the podcaster and writer something of a cult figure. But as concern over large language models builds, he’s no longer the outsider he once was
www.theguardian.com
January 19, 2026 at 5:29 AM
Reposted by James Enge
rawstory.com
A collection of far-right influencers were widely condemned Sunday after video of them chanting "heil Hitler" while aboard a party bus circulated online, amassing more than 7 million views in a matter of hours.
'Losers': Far-right influencers dogpiled after seen chanting Heil Hitler on party bus
A collection of far-right influencers were widely condemned Sunday after video of them chanting “heil Hitler” while aboard a party bus circulated online, amassing more than 7 million views in a matter of hours.The influencers included Andrew Tate – a pro-Trump influencer who was arrested on rape and...
bit.ly
January 18, 2026 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by James Enge
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
Democrats could act like a real opposition party, refusing to validate Trump malfeasance with votes, and setting up a shadow cabinet that regularly communicates how Democrats would be different. But nah.

It’s not only a majority of Democratic voters that hate this approach. US allies see it too.
jamesrball.com James Ball @jamesrball.com · 3d
The incredibly lukewarm Democratic response on Greenland is being noticed in Europe, incidentally.

Chuck Schumer not finding a stronger word than “quixotic” for Trump’s plan to seize Greenland has been name checked to me more than once.
aphclarkson.bsky.social Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 3d
But Americans who want to save the alliance with Europe must have no illusions about how bad a condition this transatlantic partnership is in.
January 18, 2026 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by James Enge
rbreich.bsky.social
"A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."

—The Declaration of Independence
January 18, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by James Enge
sibyllacumae.bsky.social
Choose 20 paintings that have stayed with you or influenced you — one painting a day (or thereabouts) for 20 days, no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just paintings.

4. The Young Cicero Reading by Vincenzo Foppa. Wallace Collection.
January 18, 2026 at 8:23 PM
Reposted by James Enge
propublica.org
Last July, ProPublica documented nearly 50 incidents of immigration officers shattering car windows to make arrests — a tactic experts and former ICE insiders say was rarely used before President Trump began his second term:
“We’ll Smash the Fucking Window Out and Drag Him Out”
We’ve documented nearly 50 incidents of immigration officers shattering car windows to make arrests — a tactic experts say was rarely used before Trump took office. ICE claims its officers use a…
propub.li
January 18, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by James Enge
chadbourn.bsky.social
New report from doctors shows the Iranian regime slaughtered 16,500 protesters during the communications shutdown.
Iran report says 16,500 dead in ‘genocide under digital darkness’ — The Times and The Sunday Times
‘You have ten minutes to cry,” came the officer’s curt command to the couple as he revealed the corpse of their twentysomething daughter, gunned down in the historic streets of Isfahan. After searchin...
apple.news
January 18, 2026 at 6:04 PM