Michèle Plott
@micheleplott.bsky.social
Historian of the emotions, visual & material culture, (sometimes) gender, lately monuments & memory in the urban landscape
Pinned
Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 110 by Robert Motherwell, 1971
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137843
https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137843
motherwell hitting harder w/this today.
❤️
A blackbird told me it was February (sound up for some much needed birdsong dopamine-these are my very favourite birdy notes):
February 6, 2026 at 5:40 PM
❤️
Reposted by Michèle Plott
❤️
An honest to goodness Hey Nonny Nonny in a 1680s King's Bench case. Lovely stuff [TNA KB 33/5/5]
February 6, 2026 at 4:26 PM
❤️
Reposted by Michèle Plott
"In Between Self" (2021)
by South African artist
DEBORAH POYNTON (born 1970 in Durban, based in Cape Town), best known for her monumental, hyper- realistic, hyper-detailed portraits, usually of friends and family.
Oil on canvas
190 × 250 cm
#art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt
by South African artist
DEBORAH POYNTON (born 1970 in Durban, based in Cape Town), best known for her monumental, hyper- realistic, hyper-detailed portraits, usually of friends and family.
Oil on canvas
190 × 250 cm
#art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt
February 5, 2026 at 8:49 AM
"In Between Self" (2021)
by South African artist
DEBORAH POYNTON (born 1970 in Durban, based in Cape Town), best known for her monumental, hyper- realistic, hyper-detailed portraits, usually of friends and family.
Oil on canvas
190 × 250 cm
#art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt
by South African artist
DEBORAH POYNTON (born 1970 in Durban, based in Cape Town), best known for her monumental, hyper- realistic, hyper-detailed portraits, usually of friends and family.
Oil on canvas
190 × 250 cm
#art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt
Reposted by Michèle Plott
this is vicious and correct www.economist.com/britain/2026...
February 5, 2026 at 9:35 AM
this is vicious and correct www.economist.com/britain/2026...
Reposted by Michèle Plott
COVID infections carry vascular risk & all medications carry small risk. MAGA pro media in the UK pushed herdimmunity via infection. Now so many are antivax. The messaging was incorrect from day 1 & this unpicked Public trust and has caused the shift to the right.
www.hdruk.ac.uk/news/new-stu...
www.hdruk.ac.uk/news/new-stu...
New study confirms far higher risk of blood clots from COVID-19, than from vaccines
A health data study confirms the risk of blood clots is far higher from COVID-19 infection than from vaccination.
www.hdruk.ac.uk
February 5, 2026 at 9:36 AM
COVID infections carry vascular risk & all medications carry small risk. MAGA pro media in the UK pushed herdimmunity via infection. Now so many are antivax. The messaging was incorrect from day 1 & this unpicked Public trust and has caused the shift to the right.
www.hdruk.ac.uk/news/new-stu...
www.hdruk.ac.uk/news/new-stu...
Reposted by Michèle Plott
I’m voting for not living with COVID. It’s the singularly worst idea since they told us smoking was good for us to sell cigarettes.
#CleantheAir
#WearARespie ffp2/3
#Covidisairborne
Vaccinate
#CleantheAir
#WearARespie ffp2/3
#Covidisairborne
Vaccinate
February 5, 2026 at 9:49 AM
I’m voting for not living with COVID. It’s the singularly worst idea since they told us smoking was good for us to sell cigarettes.
#CleantheAir
#WearARespie ffp2/3
#Covidisairborne
Vaccinate
#CleantheAir
#WearARespie ffp2/3
#Covidisairborne
Vaccinate
Reposted by Michèle Plott
I’m supporting @samwang.bsky.social (even though I don’t live New Jersey) - because he’s the type of scientist-as policy-maker that we so desperately need. Join me in helping him succeed!
Thank you, Nicole!
I'm just getting started on mobilizing scientists nationwide. I'm going to need all the support I can get. Can you help spread the word? Let's talk about how to do that... secure.actblue.com/donate/scien...
I'm just getting started on mobilizing scientists nationwide. I'm going to need all the support I can get. Can you help spread the word? Let's talk about how to do that... secure.actblue.com/donate/scien...
Donate to Sam Wang
Show your support with a contribution.
secure.actblue.com
February 6, 2026 at 4:47 PM
I’m supporting @samwang.bsky.social (even though I don’t live New Jersey) - because he’s the type of scientist-as policy-maker that we so desperately need. Join me in helping him succeed!
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Read the thread
And I'm playing this game with all cheat codes active. I'm a white, highly-educated professional man already fluent in French.
So I hate it how many people kinda accept that well, maybe ICE is okay for the illegal immigrants, but now they're going too far
Guys, every immigrant is *nearly* illegal.
So I hate it how many people kinda accept that well, maybe ICE is okay for the illegal immigrants, but now they're going too far
Guys, every immigrant is *nearly* illegal.
February 6, 2026 at 4:43 PM
Read the thread
Reposted by Michèle Plott
❤️
An honest to goodness Hey Nonny Nonny in a 1680s King's Bench case. Lovely stuff [TNA KB 33/5/5]
February 6, 2026 at 4:26 PM
❤️
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Great slapstick moment here from Elizabethan London: a Dutch guy goes to stab a Scotsman but the blade of his knife falls off in the attempt.
February 6, 2026 at 10:51 AM
Great slapstick moment here from Elizabethan London: a Dutch guy goes to stab a Scotsman but the blade of his knife falls off in the attempt.
Reposted by Michèle Plott
If they make a sequel to Muppets Take Manhattan I hope they do it while he’s mayor and put him in it.
Child at the podium: “A woo woo woo.”
Mamdani: That’s how I felt when we came up with this plan. Together, we will expand the idea of what is possible in our city—and what sounds and noises we can make at a press conference.
Mamdani: That’s how I felt when we came up with this plan. Together, we will expand the idea of what is possible in our city—and what sounds and noises we can make at a press conference.
February 6, 2026 at 11:26 AM
If they make a sequel to Muppets Take Manhattan I hope they do it while he’s mayor and put him in it.
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Ian McKellen performs “The Strangers’ Case” speech from “Sir Thomas More” on Colbert.
February 5, 2026 at 1:07 PM
Ian McKellen performs “The Strangers’ Case” speech from “Sir Thomas More” on Colbert.
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Childhood was a political project, centuries of activism carving out time and space for young people to grow and learn. It's an unfinished project, and the right wing wants it ended when it's barely even begun.
The Right has spent years trying to push a return to child labor and attacking age of consent laws. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they’re exposing us to mountains of the most horrendous stuff imaginable while also normalizing it.
So much of what’s happening is the destruction of childhood.
So much of what’s happening is the destruction of childhood.
February 5, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Childhood was a political project, centuries of activism carving out time and space for young people to grow and learn. It's an unfinished project, and the right wing wants it ended when it's barely even begun.
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Angel fresco resembling Giorgia Meloni removed from Rome church
Angel fresco resembling Giorgia Meloni removed from Rome church
Vatican appears to order removal of restored painting that looked like Italian PM after embarrassing debacle
The face of a winged angel bearing a striking resemblance to the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has been erased from a fresco in a historic Rome church, putting an end to a debacle that embarrassed the Vatican.
The image on the wall painting in a chapel of the Basilica of St Lawrence in Lucina in central Rome was removed overnight, leaving the cherub headless. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
February 4, 2026 at 5:33 PM
Angel fresco resembling Giorgia Meloni removed from Rome church
Reposted by Michèle Plott
This is an important point.
Empathy—in and of itself—is anti-fascist.
The arts—and the project of higher education as a whole—teach empathy, enabling you to put yourself in other people’s shoes.
So to a fascist, they must be destroyed.
Empathy—in and of itself—is anti-fascist.
The arts—and the project of higher education as a whole—teach empathy, enabling you to put yourself in other people’s shoes.
So to a fascist, they must be destroyed.
The war on empathy and the war on the arts are part of the same project.
www.liberalcurrents.com/none-more-wo...
www.liberalcurrents.com/none-more-wo...
February 5, 2026 at 4:03 PM
This is an important point.
Empathy—in and of itself—is anti-fascist.
The arts—and the project of higher education as a whole—teach empathy, enabling you to put yourself in other people’s shoes.
So to a fascist, they must be destroyed.
Empathy—in and of itself—is anti-fascist.
The arts—and the project of higher education as a whole—teach empathy, enabling you to put yourself in other people’s shoes.
So to a fascist, they must be destroyed.
Reposted by Michèle Plott
This. “Fuck you money” where the “you” is literally everyone.
One problem with billionaires is that they're so rich they no longer have rational incentives. To someone like Bezos, the financial performance of WaPo is wholly irrelevant, and so the only "incentive" is to satisfy emotional urges, such as breaking something just to show he can.
WaPo's Matt Murray told staff the paper is shuttering sports, moving remaining staff to features, shrinking foreign coverage, restructuring metro, closing books coverage, suspending Post Reports podcast
“Whole company now waiting for a live or die email” one staffer said
More in tonight’s Status
“Whole company now waiting for a live or die email” one staffer said
More in tonight’s Status
February 5, 2026 at 3:16 PM
This. “Fuck you money” where the “you” is literally everyone.
thread. ⤵️
one thing i have noticed is a lot of folks do not seem to understand the difference between a presidential election and 435+ legislative elections. i have seen any number of people say that you could subvert the outcome this november by targeting “swing states,” which does not make any sense.
February 5, 2026 at 3:53 PM
thread. ⤵️
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Kyiv survived through a horrible night today as Russia launched a massive drone&missile attack
Since sleep was already out of the question,several Kyiv residents chose to welcome the frosty dawn with a cup of coffee on Saint Volodymyr Hill.
Kyiv is so beautiful.I love this city
📷elena_semenchenk0
Since sleep was already out of the question,several Kyiv residents chose to welcome the frosty dawn with a cup of coffee on Saint Volodymyr Hill.
Kyiv is so beautiful.I love this city
📷elena_semenchenk0
February 3, 2026 at 3:12 PM
Kyiv survived through a horrible night today as Russia launched a massive drone&missile attack
Since sleep was already out of the question,several Kyiv residents chose to welcome the frosty dawn with a cup of coffee on Saint Volodymyr Hill.
Kyiv is so beautiful.I love this city
📷elena_semenchenk0
Since sleep was already out of the question,several Kyiv residents chose to welcome the frosty dawn with a cup of coffee on Saint Volodymyr Hill.
Kyiv is so beautiful.I love this city
📷elena_semenchenk0
Reposted by Michèle Plott
quickly re-upping this to say that my Mom got this lesson in high school, long before political correctness entered the lexicon - i.e., it has been known a long time, and resisted for plainly ideological reasons. BTW I like white marble classical sculpture but I don't pretend it's authentic.
for, um, almost no reason at all, here is Margaret Talbot's 2018 article on how we got the myth of whiteness in classical statuary, with references to @sarahebond.bsky.social: www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...
The Myth of Whiteness in Classical Sculpture
For centuries, Westerners have been engaged in an act of collective blindness.
www.newyorker.com
February 2, 2026 at 9:02 PM
quickly re-upping this to say that my Mom got this lesson in high school, long before political correctness entered the lexicon - i.e., it has been known a long time, and resisted for plainly ideological reasons. BTW I like white marble classical sculpture but I don't pretend it's authentic.
Reposted by Michèle Plott
ohhh ‘democracy dies in darkness’ was aspirational
February 4, 2026 at 3:47 PM
ohhh ‘democracy dies in darkness’ was aspirational
Reposted by Michèle Plott
A publisher who lays off a reporter whose pen is freezing because she's covering a frigid war zone while dodging missiles is not an editor you want to work for, in a more perfect world
February 4, 2026 at 5:07 PM
A publisher who lays off a reporter whose pen is freezing because she's covering a frigid war zone while dodging missiles is not an editor you want to work for, in a more perfect world
Reposted by Michèle Plott
Look at the size of the newsroom behind those guys. Think about what it meant for them to spend WEEKS researching a single story. Consider that they & colleagues had healthcare, office support, research budgets, lawyers, pensions. And reconsider, "they should just start a newsletter, I'd subscribe!"
February 4, 2026 at 6:40 PM
Look at the size of the newsroom behind those guys. Think about what it meant for them to spend WEEKS researching a single story. Consider that they & colleagues had healthcare, office support, research budgets, lawyers, pensions. And reconsider, "they should just start a newsletter, I'd subscribe!"
Reposted by Michèle Plott
has nobody learned anything about engaging in a flame war with dril
After a lengthy appeals process and productive discussion with the Blue Sky safety team I will no loinger be sending George Thorogood lyrics to beautiful women on here via DM. Thank you all
February 4, 2026 at 5:19 PM
has nobody learned anything about engaging in a flame war with dril
Reposted by Michèle Plott
That is the face of a dog who just won a contest only for the headlines to be about the assistant
Doberman Penny wins best in show at the 150th Westminster, giving handler Andy Linton a second career crown nearly four decades after his first triumph with the breed
Doberman named Penny takes Westminster’s best in show as Catherine O’Hara honored
www.theguardian.com
February 4, 2026 at 1:06 PM
That is the face of a dog who just won a contest only for the headlines to be about the assistant