Amanda
amandastafford.bsky.social
Amanda
@amandastafford.bsky.social
Accidental academic - underground newspapers, movies, yoga, all too infrequent writing, plants. 🌱 PGR in US History at the University of Leeds.
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If there's any justice, Trump, Noem, Hegseth, Miller, and that whole sorry, fascist crowd will end up in jail for murdering and terrorising Americans. A Gestapo on the streets of US cities, kidnapping, killing, and assaulting anyone they please. All power to those who are documenting and resisting.
Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.

"Please get the truth out about our son."
January 25, 2026 at 9:48 AM
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"For Quartering large bodies of troops among us:

For protecting them ... from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States."

US Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.
January 24, 2026 at 10:26 PM
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"He has ... sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people ...

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power." 1/
January 24, 2026 at 10:23 PM
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I love Stephen. The face of a doomed WW1 officer and the wardrobe of John Travolta. #thetraitors
January 23, 2026 at 9:33 PM
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Help us make hope normal again.

Join the Green Party now.
January 22, 2026 at 7:07 PM
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Exhausting, isn’t it
January 21, 2026 at 6:29 AM
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Here’s a short poem about the power of poetry to change the world.
January 18, 2026 at 9:47 AM
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Donald Trump treats the international stage like a schoolyard playground, attempting to bully and brute force other countries into compliance with his imperialist agenda.

The UK cannot continue to appease an erratic, unreliable leader under the guise of a "special relationship."
January 17, 2026 at 5:19 PM
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Premium social media content
STOP.

We have a major news story in our house. It's been building up for a few days and this afternoon came the denouement.

It's the story of a banana.
January 16, 2026 at 9:47 PM
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*screams in historian*
Trump: "I'm a fan of Denmark too. They've been very nice to me. But the fact that they had a boat land there [Greenland] 500 years ago doesn't mean they own the land. I'm sure we had lots of boats go there also."
January 9, 2026 at 10:08 PM
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“Body count.” Paul Conrad on the Kent State massacre, May 1970.
January 8, 2026 at 2:32 PM
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The key to understanding this man is that he sees *everything* as a television show
Trump to Fox & Friends on the raid that captured Maduro: "I mean, I watched it literally l like I was watching a television show. If you would've seen the speed, the violence -- it was an amazing thing."
January 3, 2026 at 3:20 PM
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“…not even the most prescient Trump-watcher could claim to have fully predicted: gutting cancer research in the name of expurgating diversity programs….Shutting the door to refugees….Empowering the world’s richest man to cut off funding for the world’s poorest children.”
Donald Trump’s Golden Age of Awful
A damage assessment of the President’s first year back in the White House.
www.newyorker.com
January 2, 2026 at 7:07 PM
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Graduate of the American Studies programme that the University of Nottingham wishes to close wins 2025 Wolfson History Prize for Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade.

History, it's a long game. Divest in haste, repent for the longue durée.
The Wolfson History Prize - Celebrating Outstanding History
The Wolfson History Prize is awarded annually to promote and recognise outstanding history written for a general audience.
www.wolfsonhistoryprize.org.uk
December 3, 2025 at 8:44 AM
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my great-grandparents arrived in the UK in the 1890s with nothing.
they sold pickles from the front room window, took in laundry, worked as tailors.
their children were nurses, teachers, salesmen.
their grandchildren were professors, designers, opticians, doctors, magistrates, entrepreneurs.
This is so disgusting.
December 7, 2025 at 8:59 AM
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Your Netflix package is about to cost more, and your cinemas will have fewer movies to show, but *jazz hands* Thaaaaat’s Capitalism, Baaaaaby!
Breaking news: Netflix has agreed an $83bn takeover of the studios and streaming businesses of Warner Bros Discovery, in a deal set to reshape Hollywood and create a new global entertainment powerhouse. on.ft.com/3MGC59K
December 5, 2025 at 12:37 PM
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A small cry over this. how wonderful
Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard
December 2, 2025 at 9:02 AM
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November 30, 2025 at 1:54 PM
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If this goes through at Northumbria, other post-92s are next.
Sign the petition! www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/no...
Northumbria Pay and Pension Petition: Stop the Steal!
If Northumbria does this, other universities will too.  These cuts will harm thousands of people, their students, families, and their local communities now and into the future.
www.megaphone.org.uk
November 28, 2025 at 7:34 AM
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Has something happened that I am seeing lots of Twitter screenshots on Bluesky lately?

You're not supposed to use the bucket to pour water *into* the lifeboat.
November 24, 2025 at 5:17 PM
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Perhaps the wildest moment (but there were so many) bsky.app/profile/atru...
Q: Are you affirming that you think President Trump is a fascist?

MAMDANI: I've spoken about--

TRUMP: That's okay. You can just say yes. I don't mind.
November 21, 2025 at 9:32 PM
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There's still time to sign up for the BAAS PG Symposium next Wednesday.

Don't miss out! There's so much to experience!
⚠️ There are now less than 2 weeks until our 2025 Postgraduate Symposium ⚠️

The event, titled '"The people favored and the people oppressed": The Unequal Struggle for Equality and Rights in America', will take place on 26th November in Middlesbrough & online.

Sign up now:
BAAS Postgraduate Symposium 2025
‘The people favored and the people oppressed’: The Unequal Struggle for Equality and Rights in America
buff.ly
November 21, 2025 at 5:09 PM
So much of my largely misspent youth was spent in the old International on Anson Road watching whoever was playing which was frequently the Roses - this is bloody terrible news.

www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...
Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, the Stone Roses and Primal Scream bassist, dies aged 63
Ian Brown and Tim Burgess were among those to pay tribute to Mani, whose death was announced by his brother and nephew
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 8:21 PM
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I am absolutely over the moon that my book “The Republican House Divided: Civil War Memory, Civil Rights, and the Transformation of the GOP” is officially published TODAY!

After years of hard work, I am incredibly proud. Thank you to everyone who has made this possible 📚🐘🗃️

@uscpress.bsky.social
November 20, 2025 at 1:48 PM
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posted by a friend who is Professor of Molecular Biophysics. PM me if you have any ideas and want to be put in touch.
November 17, 2025 at 8:03 PM