And one of my five is out! Trump continues his habit of forcing out only his female Cabinet secretaries.

bsky.app/profile/notu...

📢 We've reached *3000* documented authoritarian-like actions of Trump's second term since Jan 2025...

the two most recent are classic suppression of the press & using the justice system to attack political enemies

www.trumpactiontracker.info

This was seventeen years ago today. Can’t help wondering how different things would be now if rhe architects of the torture program had been held accountable in some way rather than honored and appointed to more presigious posts. www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/u...

Trump’s Meme Coin Rallies as Investors Chase Mar-a-Lago Invites The price of President Trump’s meme coin surged more than 50% in 24 hours after its official website and X account said the coin’s top 297 holders would be [invited to an exclusive conference and gala...

This isn't being talked about enough:

President Trump is hosting a gala at Mar-a-Lago next week for the top 297 holders of his $TRUMP memecoin.

Not only is this blatantly corrupt, it's a national security threat.

📢 SPIN is delighted to welcome Dr. Steph Codsi (Bristol) to the network! Steph's current research focuses on surveillance and the spy figure in late eighteenth-century British radical literature

Read more about her fascinating work here: buff.ly/mWJIjMv

#SPIN #secrecyresearch

Hell of a week for the Trump Administration:

I. Iran war goes badly; negotiations go worse.
2. A new spike in oil prices to start the week.
3. Vance and Trump rally for Orban. Orban loses.
4. First lady reminds us all about Epstein files
5. Then they, erm, pick a fight with the Pope. The Pope.

Figure that shows that, while political appointees were always represented among U.S. ambassadors, they constitute 90+% of ambassadors under Trump 2.0.

This graph perfectly captures the difference between Trump1 and Trump2.

Trump 1 was a coalition government between the GOP Establishment and Trump, with most top positions filled by the former.

Trump2 is a single-party government, with almost all positions filled with Trump cronies.

The UK must immediately and unequivocally suspend support for the US military.

The Government have tried to appease him, then they tried to say they're standing up to him.

Words aren't enough - it's time for action.

The talks were never serious.

Where is the UK PM??! Not on BlueSky it would seem but you ca email here: contact.no10.gov.uk

Where are you, @mark-carney.bsky.social? What are doing to stop these #warcrimes and make peace? You spoke so tough before your election, but why are you so quiet now?

um so who’s bringing sanctions against the u.s.? why isn’t the unsc calling an emergency meeting? why aren’t democrats doing a full court press for impeachment? this shit makes putin look moderate by comparison.

The receipts. A complete timeline of the shifting rhetoric. More: www.meidasplus.com/p/today-in-p...

Our next SPIN talks are coming up: Nicolo Miotto and Nina Klimburg-Witjes (Vienna) ‘Behind Closed Doors: Navigating Secrecy in the Study of Wargames’ and Daniel de Zeeuw (Amsterdam) ‘The tragedy of the leak’ - all welcome!

📆 22 April | 15:00 GMT | Online

Sign up here:

Honestly, after that Trump post, I’m begging @nytimes.com, @apnews.com, @reuters.com, @washingtonpost.com, @npr.org and all of the other newspapers and media outlets to take this seriously. This is not normal and we need to stop pretending. This is a crisis.

Trump advisers think the age of imperialism ended because of wokeness, not because 1) colonized peoples made colonialism untenable 2) technology made territorial empire unnecessary. They thought mere brutality and perceived genetic superiority would make wars against countries like Iran easy.

‘Occasionally a picture can change the course of history’: 33 scandalous photos that shocked the world When it comes to scandal, seeing is believing – which is why these images caused such a stir

Some odd choices in terms of what included/left out. Still an interesting collection for those teaching visual politics. “From the historic to the trivial, what makes many of these images unusually poignant in 2026 is that the era they represent”
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

The TikTok girlies (gender neutral) are hatching a plan to all buy copies of communion by hooks on Vance's release date. I will be participating.

Opening Sequences: The Narrative Architecture of TV Titles - British Association for American Studies This edited volume proposes the first critical anthology devoted to television title sequences as a distinct and influential mode of visual storytelling. By treating opening titles as complex…

How do opening title sequences distill the major themes of a show? 📺️

Proposals are invited for a prospective edited volume on television title sequences. They should be shared by 4th May.

When you’re doing man things (wars, killing) there is no time for women things (like care work)

That’s one hell of a cover…..

Time for me to reheat my TOSTADA theory: Trump Often Signs Then Abandons Deals Anyway

Everything with Trump is performance and distraction. His being there today is… to intimidate/ remind Trump appointees of their ‘loyalty’, pull focus from Iran crisis, prop up failing immigration policy? This might backfire on him if the SC votes against him when the finally rule.

The Supreme Court Decides Who Is Really American In Blockbuster Arguments The Supreme Court, at President Trump’s behest, will reconsider the bedrock American...

Biggest day of the term (maybe multiple terms) at SCOTUS. @joshkovensky.bsky.social and I have you covered. Hang out with us as we liveblog here: talkingpointsmemo.com/live-blog/su...

And before arguments start, get up to speed: talkingpointsmemo.com/news/supreme...

Interested in Conspiracy Theories and the Religous Right? Read On. Longtime TPM readers know we always have been and always will be...

Interested in Conspiracy Theories and the Religous Right? Read On.

Ziyun Fan - School for Business and Society, University of York Ziyun Fan, Associate Professor in Responsible Management

📢 Our SPIN community is growing! We are delighted to welcome Dr. Ziyun Fan (York) whose interests span secrecy, sustainable transitions and climate change

Learn more about her brilliant work here: 🔗https://buff.ly/EiwUThP

#SPIN #secrecyresearch

You knew this was coming. 🤣

'The report also says universities are spending less per academic member of staff in politics departments than before, when adjusted for inflation. Real-terms pay is now roughly £2,700 (or 7 per cent) lower than in 2019-20, it finds.'

Early career researchers are bearing the brunt, no surprise. 3/3