Melissa Johnson, PhD

@ladyhistorian.bsky.social

1632

Followers

822

Following

3004

Posts

Historian. Associate Professor. Community College enthusiast. Researching 17th-c gossip. Weighs more than a duck. Employed by George and Gracie. She/her.

Posts Replies Media

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

Also, Biden went to Philly, stood with Casey, in a Black Church, got support from Sanders on the morning shows, and had Maxine Waters say she's still with him...almost like he's solidifying his left flank and support with Black voters...almost like he's a good politician or something.

10-ish house members and a cancelled meeting between Dem Senators is not a 'dam breaking.' Biden's been around forever and has a million connections. If there are no major gaffes in the next week, I'm 70% sure he weathers this. Bit if though.

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

Literally the only people doing this are losers and folks who couldn’t get jobs working in the Biden White House, plus some fash curious VC types

Former Rep. Tom Malinowski, who endorsed Biden in 2020, calls on Biden to #PassTheTorch.

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

Investing a billion dollars to train a model that is 10% better at generating a picture of Garfield with an ak47 and giant cans for the low price of boiling an entire lake www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...

Truth

Elementary is a) the best Sherlock adaptation, and b) such an absolute delight to watch, 10000/10 do watch highly rec (ALSO has Lucy Liu dressed like this and come on COME ON)

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

This isn't a plan to replace a presidential candidate, it's a plan to entertain journalists

Hey you guys wanna see the dumbest plan to replace Biden possible? www.semafor.com/article/07/0...

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

a better idea for a blitz primary: ➡️ all potential candidates are drugged, pass out, and wake in a classroom on a remote island ➡️ each is randomly assigned a weapon and sent out one by one ➡️ every hour, a zone of the island is forbidden; staying there is fatal ➡️ last one standing is the nominee

Hey you guys wanna see the dumbest plan to replace Biden possible? www.semafor.com/article/07/0...

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

Reply to

jamie quinn 🏳️‍⚧️

Here it’s so bizarre especially—like do you know who knows how to run Nazis out of town, because they’ve done it before? People in north Idaho. People all over that part of the country.

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

What news from France?

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

there are many reasons we need to win in the fall, but one of them is that i simply am not going to abide by letting both the brits and the french lecture us

*MACRON'S GROUP PROJECTED TO WIN MORE SEATS THAN FAR RIGHT *LEFT ALLIANCE SET FOR 170-215 SEATS IN FRENCH VOTE: ESTIMATES *LE PEN'S GROUP SET FOR 110-158 SEATS IN FRENCH VOTE: ESTIMATES *FRENCH LEFT SET FOR SHOCK ELECTION VICTORY, PROJECTIONS SHOW

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

How I wish that Americans would learn something from the French with regards to how you hold your nose and keep fascism at bay, even if it means that your ideal (imaginary) candidate doesn’t win and you don’t get every progressive item on your agenda. But I guess it can’t happen here.

I'll be reposting every Casablanca gif for the foreseeable

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

If you're too cringe for Threads but not Bluesky what are we even doing as a society

Wow. @nytimes.com has closed their Threads account and left the platform after days of getting just shredded in the replies for their handling of Biden post debate. Now they're getting dog piled on Instagram for running from Threads.

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

JUST IN: Polls closed in France. Exit polls show surprise: —Left coalition (New Popular Front) projected first. (!) —Far-right (RN) has lost its bid to take power. Anti-RN front appears to have worked very well. —No bloc close to majority. Follow this 🧵 for results and more:

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

Tres bien. C'est tres jolie!

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

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

La Marseillaise Casablancawww.youtube.com YouTube video by Andrew Barbin

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

Wash, rinse, repeat.

Sadly predictable but no less offensive

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

Re this thread: Any thumbsucker on dumping Biden that doesn't explicitly deal w. the many major practical obstacles a new non-Harris candidate would face is lying to its readers. Not just about the details, but about the on-the-ground realities of US national campaigns. It is/should be a scandal.

Read Ezra Klein's latest on a "mini-primary" to replace Biden. It's not as terrible as many of his colleagues' takes, but 2 notes: 1: He takes as given that Biden is incapacitated. Maybe so; but Klein's MD is not in evidence. 2: It ignores the huge practical obstacles to anyone but Harris...1/

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

I completely agree but the problem is that people who talk about politics a lot cannot simply consensus nominate a president and all realistic pathways are incredibly fraught, even before you take into account the fact that we’d have to actually force Biden out over his own objections

You’re right that the narrative is constructed. but that cuts both ways. Biden has shown limited capability to push counternarrative. Yes, NYT etc., are pushing this, but ultimately it doesn’t matter: the best candidate would be able to counteract this. Harris may do better there, IDK. Tough call

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

Reply to

Will Stancil

There’s a real revolutionary mindset in some of these pundit and Dem circles right now, where “remove Biden” has become an end unto itself, unquestionably correct, and anyone who tries to hold back the tide of history is an obstacle, and this is where revolutions get into trouble frankly

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

Yes, an incredibly underacknowledged reality is that social media, with its boom-bust viral dynamics and its instant performance feedback on ideas, has created an extremely demand-driven media ecosystem. Outlets and individuals alike rapidly iterate towards whatever explodes fastest on social

It’s not even being judged by that. It’s being judged by “whatever makes my content popular on TikTok or gets me attention from the NYT”. It’s why we’re getting armchair dementia diagnoses from people whose last hard science class was the gentleman’s C they rocked in 10th grade biology.

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

Reply to

Joshua Foust 🪖🎮

And then a party insiders being alarmed at the reporting on those party insiders’ alarm at the narrative narrative.

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

Reply to

Will Stancil

we’re gonna destroy the entire presidential administration because of circular, spiraling media narratives mainly propagating on Twitter and private internet chats, maybe this was a real problem after all

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

Look, I'm not crazy about Joe Biden either, but we've got Kamala as a backstop, and I can't imagine that throwing our own race into last-minute chaos is going to help with the casual voters we need to get to the voting booth. But you do you Dem Party.

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

The robot is not a bargaining unit member and must not be given bargaining unit work. Faculty unions should be looking over their contracts right now, figuring out exactly how to grieve or otherwise oppose the introduction of these systems.

Also known as “training your replacement.” 😩

Morehouse to be the first university to use virtual AI teaching assistantswww.axios.com The Atlanta HBCU will have AI teaching assistants this fall.

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

I know the latest NZ election outcome was less than good, but jesus.

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

This all becomes very evident when you read a paper by a lawyer on a historical topic. Context be damned, they go for accumulating a pile of quotes that support their argument, regardless if the people they're quoting violently disagreed with them Let's get some historians on SCOTUS

These mistakes originalist justices are making aren’t about disputed interpretations of history, with evidence on both sides. They’re pulling quotes out of context to attribute ideas to founding figures that those figures adamantly opposed. (via @andycraig.bsky.social) reason.com/volokh/2024/...

The Supreme Court's Dubious Use of History in Department of State v. Munozreason.com Justice Amy Coney Barrett's majority opinion includes significant errors, and violates some of her own precepts against excessive reliance on questionable history.

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

I keep thinking about how the SCOTUS justices, who have proven they care a TON about their media coverage, issued the worst decision since Dredd Scott and then got to happily watch outlets spend the next week running 10,000 “Biden in Trouble” stories and like 5 “Hm, Immunity is Interesting” stories

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

At some point, everyone will wake up in night sweats and say, "Trump prevailing because of concerns about his opponent's mental fitness is like Trump prevailing because of concerns about his opponent's email security! Unfortunately, that will probably be in December.

Reposted by

Melissa Johnson, PhD

Reply to

Claire Willett

as always, John Oliver is legitimately doing some of our most important journalism