Lester K Spence
@lkspence.bsky.social
790 followers 450 following 110 posts
Professor, Author, Son of Blood and Thunder, Father. Newsletter (https://lesters-newsletter-2ff539.beehiiv.com/subscribe), Knocking the Hustle ( http://bit.ly/1SzPlHi)).
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Reposted by Lester K Spence
premthakker.bsky.social
If you were concerned about Kimmel, here's another for you…

Journalist Mario Guevara has been detained for 100+ days, ironically arrested as he reported on a "No Kings" protest.

The Trump-Vance admin just issued an order of final removal, to send him to El Salvador—where he fled from 21 years ago.
Mario Guevara
lkspence.bsky.social
Just realized a couple of weeks ago that east baltimore folk have a different accent than west baltimore folk.
lkspence.bsky.social
And here's Coleman A. Young, who would become first black mayor of Detroit, who told HUAC they must have confused him for a stool pigeon. michiganadvance.com/briefs/on-th...
Reposted by Lester K Spence
dukepress.bsky.social
"Globalization, Neoliberalism, and the Global Rise of Right-Wing Politics," a curated reading list of journal articles and issues published by Duke University Press, has been made freely available through October 31.

Access here: buff.ly/zplaDVr
Reposted by Lester K Spence
lpeblog.bsky.social
Don't let the embarrassment that is Ezra Klein's op-ed distract you from the embarrassment you will feel if you forget to submit your ALPE proposal by Monday 😳
lpeblog.bsky.social
Today at the Blog, it's last call 🚨🚨

Submissions for the first-ever Association of Law & Political Economy Conference are due Monday, Sept. 15 ⏰

Don’t miss your chance to be part of this landmark event. For updates, make sure to follow: @a-lpe.bsky.social

lpeproject.org/blog/cfp-rem...
CFP Reminder: Association of Law and Political Economy Conference
Don’t miss your chance to present at the first-ever ALPE Conference. Proposals for paper panels, individual papers, and roundtables are due by September 15!
lpeproject.org
lkspence.bsky.social
I'm on the list too. (Who knew?)
lkspence.bsky.social
Kirk is their Rosa Parks.
marisakabas.bsky.social
I am genuinely confused by all this pageantry. He was not an elected official. I cannot think of another time a regular citizen being killed garnered this response. It’s perverse.
brandonfriedman.bsky.social
Jesus christ what is wrong with Democrats
Reposted by Lester K Spence
rollingstone.com
"The only known solution to creeping authoritarianism is broad-based, peaceful, geographically dispersed mass engagement by everyday Americans. That’s it. That’s what works."

Story: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
lkspence.bsky.social
Not going to @apsa.bsky.social this year. Will participate virtually. If there's any organizing going on that folks think I should be made aware of, let me know.
lkspence.bsky.social
They got me. A lot. If they got me....they probably got you.
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
If you're an author and haven't yet signed up for the Anthropic settlement, do yourself a favor (and strike a blow against AI) by checking to see if any of your books were involved.

www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
www.theatlantic.com
lkspence.bsky.social
The comparative move makes sense. But I don't know many racial politics scholars who've taught about the US in a normatively positive, exceptional framework.
Reposted by Lester K Spence
tamaranopper.bsky.social
I'll be presenting on crime data. Please join us.
womensmarch.com
🚨 Our cities aren’t battlefields, but they’re treated like it. From police patrols to military occupation, state violence is reshaping our lives.

This Thursday, Sept 11 at 8pm ET / 5pm PT, join our Mass Call on Military & Police Occupation.
Mass Call: Military and Police Occupation
September 11 | 8pm ET/5pm PT Join us in a conversation on the state of liberty and liberation in the face of politicized militarization and police occupation of our cities.
act.womensmarch.com
Reposted by Lester K Spence
cjsprigman.bsky.social
If I were a Democrat in Congress I'd be introducing legislation to suspend the Supreme Court's upcoming term (it's happened before, in 1802). The suspension would be to give us time to figure out what to do with this dangerous, anti-democratic institution.
Reposted by Lester K Spence
prisonculture.bsky.social
Are you an NYC resident who is willing to set up a meeting with your City Council members to get them on record re: supporting our budget demand? docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... - sign and we will contact you to let you know what is needed.
Reposted by Lester K Spence
cristianfarias.com
The New Yorker asked me “how bad” today’s Supreme Court ruling was. I boiled it down to one paragraph:

link.newyorker.com/view/5bda429...
"Just the other day, I was in the audience at Lincoln Center when Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, while promoting a new book, that she doesn't think the United States is in a constitutional crisis," Farias told us. "Today, the Supreme Court, without offering a single line of reasoning, more or less declared that the Fourth Amendment, which protects everyone from unreasonable searches and seizures, nonetheless allows the Trump Administration to arrest and detain anyone who looks Latino, citizen or not, on account of the language that they speak or the kind of jobs they do. The ruling putatively covers the Los Angeles area, but the effect could be national," he continued.
"If that's not a constitutional crisis, then what is?"
lkspence.bsky.social
Being of service can stave off a great deal of this.
Reposted by Lester K Spence
govpritzker.illinois.gov
The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city.

This is not a joke. This is not normal.

Donald Trump isn't a strongman, he's a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.
Reposted by Lester K Spence
conradhackett.bsky.social
Disease prevalence in US states before & after vaccine introduction 🧪

From Edward Tufte & graphics.wsj.com/infectious-d...
lkspence.bsky.social
I just heard that a group of national guards (probably a small one) got off the MARC train at the west baltimore stop. Has anyone else reported on this?
Reposted by Lester K Spence
deanbaker13.bsky.social
I wouldn't make a big distinction between the situation for Black women and Black men. The labor market situation for both has deteriorated sharply since January. The Black unemployment has risen a full pp to 7.2%, the white rate hasn't budged at 3.7%
murshedz.bsky.social
“Black women are the canaries in the coal mine, the exclusion happens to them first ... And if any other cohort thinks it’s not coming for them, they’re wrong. This is a warning, and it’s a stark one." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/u...
Screenshot of a NYT graphic:

'"Black women lost 319,000 jobs in the public and private sectors between February and July of this year, the only major female demographic to experience significant job losses during this five-month period

White men saw the largest increase among groups, 365,000, over the same time period."
Reposted by Lester K Spence
ohrobin.bsky.social
“Nothing is more important than stopping fascism, because fascism will stop us all.”

- Fred Hampton
Reposted by Lester K Spence
lilymasonphd.bsky.social
Wild set of posts here:
Screenshot of Ziblatt's Foreign Affairs article on Weimar Germany: "Democracy rarely dies in a single moment. It is chipped away via abdication: rationalizations and compromises as those with power and influence tell themselves that yielding just a little ground will keep them safe or that finding common ground with a disrupter is more practical than standing against him. This is the enduring lesson of Weimar: extremism never triumphs on its own. It succeeds because others enable it—because of their ambition, because of their fear, or because they misjudge the dangers of small concessions. In the end, however, those who empower an autocrat often surrender not only their democracy but also the very influence they once hoped to preserve." Matt Yglesias tweet: "If democrats end up in deal making mode with Trump, giving him what he wants on vote by mail might be smart."
Reposted by Lester K Spence
gregggonsalves.bsky.social
#NIH is hanging by a thread. The #CDC has been decimated. #RFK Jr. and Russell #Vought are psychopaths--I don't say this frivolously--they are cold, calculating, inflicting violence on millions through public policy. It is where we are right now. These men are not normal. 1/