Notices by Rebecca Brückmann (historleans@historians.social)

“The (majority of) justices said that Mr. Trump is immune from prosecution for official acts taken during his presidency but that there was a crucial distinction between official and private conduct." Absolutely wild. Instigating a coup in your “official” capacity in order to stay in said official capacity because you lost the election but don’t want to step down is fair game now. This decision is beyond the pale.

“Trump’s efforts to pressure the Justice Department to legitimize his false claims of voter fraud would be immune from criminal prosecution because overseeing the department’s operations are a core duty of the president.” Let that sink in. https://www.inquirer.com/news/nation-world/scotus-trump-immunity-opinion-20240701.html

The author's name checks out 🙄 (and please do let me know when these scores of incredibly harsh punishments begin, rather than the usual chorus of victim blaming).

Personally, I would like to put the spotlight not only on the 6 million people in Germany who voted for a neofascist party, but also on the many liberals who kept telling marginalized people to stop “overreacting” when they, ten years ago, started to point out the danger that party posed. Great job. #AfD

Honestly, the performing arts, that bastion of (supposed) liberalism, is one of the most racist social sectors. The experiences of artists and employees of color and the many stories of sabotage against DEI staff and initiatives are... something. (No paywall) https://wapo.st/3Kencr1

"I can’t say from experience how you’re supposed to know when you’ve officially become part of an organized crime family, but if you feel it necessary for your professional advancement to show up at a courthouse and pay respect to a patriarch charged with fraudulent payments" to hide an extramarital affair, "chances are you check all the boxes." (No paywall) https://wapo.st/4aqSsh3

Happy International Workers' Day ✊🏽🍞🌹!

The “meeting in many a university setting” version of this is that no one can understand your idea or suggestion because you speak a foreign and slightly hysterical language, but when a male white colleague kindly rephrases it for you or just states it as his own, it’s a million dollar idea 🙃.

“#Amazon spent more than $3 million on anti-union consultants last year in its continuing effort to keep organized labor out of its delivery network, according to disclosures filed Saturday with the Labor Department.
The retail giant has been ringing up a large tab hiring “persuaders” who try to convince workers not to form unions. It doled out more than $14 million on such consultants last year as well”: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/amazon-anti-union-spending-2023_n_6606cd7ce4b07b59d64d0a42

Status update. 🫠😂

WTF. https://bbc.com/news/business-68534703

So, none of my (first year) students had ever heard of (let alone listened to) Nina Simone until today. I confess that I did have to sit down for a minute... 🫠 I shall now play as much of her discography as humanly possible in the last 2 weeks of our trimester. https://youtu.be/GRIYZL4FxHE?si=VltThMFwr1Nyom3K

So, it is "But you should debate Nazis!" season again? Then let me repeat for the eleventeenth time: stop confusing whiteness with moral superiority and/or debate skills. If you can "debate" Nazis (and I have yet to meet a single person who demands this and has actually done it), you can do so because they recognize you, a cishet white man, as a human being, and do not call for the genocide of your social group. That's not a skill or a political strategy, that is simply unacknowledged privilege.

I do not negotiate my humanity, and, thus, I do not talk with fascists and their friends. That is all.

If only there were an entire profession that could assess the veracity of claims, particular statements, and provide factual context. Alas!

And the people who are, truly, fed up with the status quo (which is a much larger and more diverse group than commonly acknowledged in NYT Midwest Diner stories): why is your first impulse to take a sharp right turn, then? Because, historically, that has worked out so well for laborers? You're not voting against your own interests, though, if your primary interest is white supremacy. That is an entirely rational decision if your priority is to keep "those people" further down than your.

Frankly, I am so done with media "explaining" the electoral successes of right-wing and fascist parties/candidates in many parts of this world as "people" being "fed up" with "the usual" politics. Really? Then how come, e.g., Black voters don't provide right-wing majorities, if it's all just about class related status quo? Could it actually mean that large sections of our societies harbor racist, homophobic, and antisemitic hate and really support authoritarianism? It's all so mysterious, innit.

Please keep in mind that Hans-Georg Maaßen who wrote an essay in "Die Weltwoche" a week ago that equates migrants with "a cancer" and calls for German "chemotherapy" in response (i.e., eradication), is not only a member of the CDU party but used to be the president of Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution from 2012 to 2018. In this capacity, Maaßen also counseled the extreme right-wing party AfD as to how to avoid surveillance by his own office.

This is what “from the river to the sea” looks like. I need people to stop pretending that that is a just, peaceful slogan. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/11/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-oct-7-attack-shelter.html?unlocked_article_code=1.90w.qFPl.uSNBsf5gSQyN&smid=url-share

"The Home Office’s rejection said it saw “no compassionate grounds” on which to allow the child to join her mother. The letter, addressed to the six-year-old girl, added: “It was your mother’s personal decision to depart for the UK.” Absolutely vile. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/11/kenyan-expert-bristol-university-denied-visa-daughter