Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Lou Roper

@roperlou.bsky.social

6.2K followers 1.9K following 7.3K posts

Historian of the Anglophone world in the very long seventeenth century: https://go.bsky.app/BtkNcRq. ORCID 0000-0001-8375-0939 #earlymodern

go.bsky.app

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Lou Roper @roperlou.bsky.social · Aug 17

Self-promotion warning: @manchesterup.bsky.social will issue paper edition of our essay collection on #earlymodern European overseas empires in Jan '26 for pre-order @ GBP 30 @carrington-farmer.bsky.social manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526195791/

Manchester University Press - Agents of European overseas empires

Agents of European overseas empires - Browse and buy the Paperback edition of Agents of European overseas empires by Elodie Peyrol-Kleiber

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

1 9 34

Reposted by Lou Roper

John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 15h

The most demented piece of Popish Plot memorabilia ... St. Denis (feast #otd 9 Oct) after martyrdom, took up his head & carried it under his arm.
Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was believed murdered but some said they had seen him walking, after the time, at Primrose Hill. (BM)

3 8

Reposted by Lou Roper

John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 12h

9 Oct 1581: Tobie Matthew (future Archbishop of #York) makes the first public response to Edmund Campion's December ‘Rationes Decem’ publicity stunt #otd in an #Oxford sermon (BM)
Ironically Matthew’s own son would later end up converting to #Rome

1 4

Reposted by Lou Roper

Jezebel @jezebeldotcom.bsky.social · 13h

In March, a midwife became the first person charged under the state’s near-total abortion ban since Roe was overturned. On Wednesday, AG Ken Paxton announced more arrests tied to her clinics.
www.jezebel.com/8-more-peopl...

8 More People Arrested in Texas' Anti-Abortion Witch Hunt

In March, a midwife became the first person charged under the state’s near-total abortion ban since Roe was overturned. On Wednesday, AG Ken Paxton announced more arrests tied to her clinics.

www.jezebel.com

2 15 24

Reposted by Lou Roper

Sadiah Qureshi @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social · 14h

This collaborative PhD project with the LSE and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, on Planting Decolonization: Plantation Science and Empire in the Twentieth Century, sounds amazing.

I’m sure many of you might be interested.

#STS #HPS #HistSci

www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse...

LSE Collaborative Studentship with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

www.lse.ac.uk

38 53

Reposted by Lou Roper

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 1d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

280 7K 22K

Reposted by Lou Roper

Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 1d

Two big GOP activists from Oregon were in DC last month for meetings with Trump admin officials. On their podcast they talk about a plan they discussed to nullify the results of Oregon's 2026 federal elections. Pass federal voter ID law, then refuse to seat OR delegation because OR didn't comply.

Ep. 18: September to Remember
October 6 • S1 E18 • 44 min
Also, we proposed a idea how to do a end run on vote by mail. Concept is based on what Trump proposed. When you vote, you check everyone's citizenship as well as voter ID.
In a vote by mail state, you might be able to check citizenship during voter registration. You can send copies of your passport and your birth certificate in.
How in the world are you going to check our voters?
Voter ID, right? Vote by mail. So that creates a problem for Oregon.
But if federal government new requirement is to check both, and if Oregon can comply with the requirements, what would happen to our election result? I'm talking about the entire federal delegation.
For federal elections, we're talking about only federal elections.
COMMON SENSE
Vascluar

Ep. 18: September to Remember
October 6 • S1 E18 • 44 min
So entire federal delegation, congressmen and senators could be challenged, could be unseated because you didn't follow federal requirements to elect them. So I said the trade-off is worth it. You know why?
Democrats control two Senate seats out of six congressional seats. We only control one. They control five.
You talk about trade-off, right?
COMMON SENSE
Sanctuany

57 1K 2K

Lou Roper @roperlou.bsky.social · 14h

(to put it mildly)

Balu Puppy @balupuppy.bsky.social · 14h

Fukwitted lunatic needs to resign.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 15h

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

1 2

Lou Roper @roperlou.bsky.social · 14h

Would the awarding of a Nobel Booby Prize to Drumpf avert this crisis?

Randall Stephens @randalljstephens.bsky.social · 14h

“With hours to go until the announcement of this year’s Nobel peace prize, Norwegian politicians were steeling themselves for potential repercussions to US-Norway relations if it is not awarded to Donald Trump.”

Norway braces for Trump’s reaction if he does not win Nobel peace prize

US president may impose tariffs, demand higher Nato contributions or even declare Norway an enemy, analyst says

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Lou Roper

Benthe van Wanrooij @benthevanwanrooij.bsky.social · 16h

Many universities and departments across the Netherlands are starting cut funding for PhD theses whilst still ask for a compulsory number of copies. This week at least heard from Open University and Leiden University, and other universities are cutting back the funding per PhD candidate.

1 7 6

Reposted by Lou Roper

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 17h

Huge, huge swathes of *Trump voters* will effectively have no health care available except for emergency ER.

It is simultaneously a) the worst way to maintain public health and b) the most *expensive* way to do it.

Idiocy from moral degenerates. That's our country now.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 18h

SCARBOROUGH: The Nebraska Rural Health Association says at least 6 rural hospitals would have to close bc of the big beautiful bill

FLOOD: Here's the deal: Some hospitals that are rural hospitals are going to eventually have to transition from being acute bed hospitals into being an ER model

82 470 1.6K

Lou Roper @roperlou.bsky.social · 16h

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbP...

Reposted by Lou Roper

Prof. Elaine Chalus @profelainechalus.bsky.social · 1d

Assistant Professor or Associate Professor in Humanities- Waseda Institute for Advanced Study #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOY258/a...

Assistant Professor or Associate Professor in Humanities at Waseda Institute for Advanced Study

Searching for an academic job? Explore this Assistant Professor or Associate Professor in Humanities opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.

www.jobs.ac.uk

1 2 2

Reposted by Lou Roper

Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 16h

Rep. Jamie Raskin has sent letters to four of the nation's largest banks demanding information related to "more than $1.5 billion in suspicious financial transactions flagged by the banks tied to sex trafficking crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and their co-conspirators."

230 3.5K 11K

Lou Roper @roperlou.bsky.social · 16h

#earlymodern

Newcastle Uni Special Collections & Archives @ncllibspeccoll.bsky.social · 17h

New on CollectionsCaptured is a wonderfully illustrated set of 17 proof copies of early 17th Century maps, later included in John Speed's 'Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine'.

All 17 pages can be seen here on CollectionsCaptured: collectionscaptured.ncl.ac.uk/digital/coll...
[Ref. Freinds/JSM]

2 4

Lou Roper @roperlou.bsky.social · 16h

permit me to suggest that these f*ckers enable 'AI' to design and construct the SS M*sk-melon that will convey them on their colonizing journey to Alpha Centauri: buon viaggio, pezzi di merde don't forget to write

Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 16h

I dont think I have actually ever encountered more Bond villain like figures in real life like the lot of these technofascists hoping AI will eradicate the "unworthy" from the planet--Musk, Andreessen, Thiel, Zuckerberg, the lot of them, and all the acolytes licking their boots in Silicon Valley

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

ANDREESSEN: Even if AI ends up destroying all the jobs, “the result would be hyper-deflation of prices, which is the thing that people miss. .. Things that today cost a lot of money will all of a sudden be cheap or free.”

@fortune.com
fortune.com/2025/10/08/b...

1 1 13

Reposted by Lou Roper

Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) @hcrichardson.bsky.social · 17h

20 paragraphs down in the NBC News story that broke the information that the administration is considering invoking the Insurrection Act is the report that Stephen Miller is driving the issue.

640 5.1K 12K

Reposted by Lou Roper

Neil Younger @neilayounger.bsky.social · 18h

9 October 1582: The Privy Council, safely ensconced at Windsor, is still dealing with plague in London. Having told St Albans to expect the law courts to decamp there two days ago, and yesterday announced that it will in fact be Hertford, they write to St Albans slightly ... 1/
#earlymodern

Neil Younger @neilayounger.bsky.social · Jun 29

29 June 1582: An exciting find today. A couple of days ago I noted that the Privy Council records for 1582-6 were lost, which is a real hindrance. I now find that in fact the record for the next year (to June 1583) does survive, not printed like the rest, but in MS, in Spain. 1/
#earlymodern

1 3 8

Reposted by Lou Roper

Ohio Capital Journal @ohiocapitaljournal.com · 18h

A pair of Ohio Republican lawmakers want public schools and public universities to teach positive impacts of Christianity on American history. No other religion is mentioned in the bill, named the Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/10/09/o...

Ohio Republicans want public schools to teach positive impacts of Christianity on history • Ohio Capital Journal

A pair of Ohio Republican lawmakers want public schools and public universities to teach the positive impacts of Christianity on American history. No other religion is mentioned in the bill, named…

ohiocapitaljournal.com

79 130 210

Reposted by Lou Roper

Roy Edroso @edroso.bsky.social · 17h

This is genuinely totalitarian, real Valle de Los Caídos stuff, not built out of genuine affection for the fallen but to enforce veneration

Craig Pittman @craigtimes.bsky.social · 1d

Bill filed in #Florida Legislature would make every single college & university name one street after Charlie Kirk. And the bill even specifies WHICH street at each one. (But the governor doesn't want streets used for political messages, which is why no rainbows!) www.tallahassee.com/story/news/l...

Bill would make Florida colleges, universities name streets after Charlie Kirk

A new bill would make all of Florida's public state universities and colleges rename one roadway on their campuses after Charlie Kirk.

www.tallahassee.com

31 140 370

Reposted by Lou Roper

Joe Stieb @joestieb.bsky.social · 17h

We don't support suppression of speech, but we do create watchlists and doxx people and flood universities with angry phone calls and emails (not to mention death threats) and call professors woke commie Nazi scum who should be fired.

You know, free speech advocacy.

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 18h

This pretty much captures the contradictions of the politics of Kirk and Turning Point: Of course we oppose doxxing and violence, but we will absolutely use inflammatory language, false claims, and enemies list that fuels threats and intimidation.

Several days after publishing the petition calling for Dr. Bray’s dismissal from Rutgers, the Turning Point USA chapter added an update saying that it did not support harassment or the doxxing of him or anyone else.

“I think that all death threats and doxxing are unjustified and not how political disputes should be resolved in civilized society,” Ava Kwan, a Turning Point USA chapter member, said in an email on Wednesday.
But she defended the broader point of the petition, saying, “I think Dr. Antifa, who believes in violence as a political tool, should be fired, of course. Taxpayer money should not fund the salaries of terrorists.”

For years, Turning Point USA has maintained a watch-list of hundreds of professors whom the group accuses of advancing leftist propaganda in the classroom. Dr. Bray is on the list.

3 28 120

Reposted by Lou Roper

Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 17h

Nobody has ever asked me to teach gun (or hammer) safety in history class. The reasons are so obvious they don't need stating, and they have nothing to do with whether gun (or hammer) safety matters.

But I am being asked (not politely) to spend history class helping people to learn how to use Al.

3 16 76

Reposted by Lou Roper

NPR @npr.org · 21h

Mormon Women for Ethical Government was one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit that could overturn Utah's Republican-leaning map for U.S. House seats. That could matter in next year's elections. n.pr/48oizIc

In Utah, a group that helped prompt the redistricting says it's acting on faith

Mormon Women for Ethical Government was one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit that could overturn Utah's Republican-leaning map for U.S. House seats. That could matter in next year's elections.

n.pr

8 64 420

Reposted by Lou Roper

Hannah Walser @hkpmw.bsky.social · 17h

One significant thing about this video: this is WGN news. This is what my grandparents watched every night when they lived in the northwest suburbs. And although they’re not saying it outright, they are absolutely representing federal law enforcement as the bad guys.

Robert Loerzel @robertloerzel.bsky.social · 17h

ICE agents clash with Forest Park cemetery workers attempting to help man in Des Plaines River youtu.be/aPtEmAwgPRk...

Video: ICE agents clash with Forest Park cemetery workers attempting to help man in Des Plaines Rive

YouTube video by WGN News

youtu.be

4 28 62

Reposted by Lou Roper

The British Academy @britishacademy.bsky.social · 17h

India is the forgotten heart of the ancient world, a trailblazer of ideas along a Golden Road from the Red Sea to the Pacific.

Shortlisted for the British Academy Book Prize, The Golden Road by @willdalrymple.bsky.social is a culmination of a lifetime's work.

Learn more now https://bit.ly/3WsTunW

4 29

Reposted by Lou Roper

Makkon @makkon.bsky.social · 7d

a flow-chart with 2 islands. "Do I need AI?" that flows into a final island saying "No"

8 5.2K 14K