Jay Rubenstein

@medievaljay.bsky.social

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Medieval historian interested in other stuff

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Odda's Chapel: A kitchen in the nave and a bedroom in the chancel hid within plain sight an Anglo-Saxon chapel built by Earl Odda (a relation to Edward the Confessor). Re-discovered in 1865, it is the most complete surviving Saxon church in England.

Is Trump the Antichrist? “Time to dust this off,” as they say. religiondispatches.org/teflon-antic...

Teflon Antichrist: How Did a President Who Fit the Role So Well Avoid the Label?religiondispatches.org One of the more unexpected developments of Donald Trump’s presidency was his metamorphosis into an evangelical hero. American Christians didn’t just like his policies, they venerated him as a near sup...

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Hilarious takedown of JD Vance from comedian Trae Crowder, who got a visit from Vance at one of his shows. "He came to my show, we hung out afterwards at the bar, drank beers, all we talked about was the existential threat we agreed Donald Trump posed to this country" www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eMM...

Liberal Redneck - JD Vance Ain't Itwww.youtube.com Bank better at www.climatefirstbank.com/traeI actually know ol Vance a tiny little bit. Not a fan, really, believe it or not. Also, see me live: www.traecrow...

This is brilliant

I’ve made a lot of jokes about the J.D. Vance sparkling water story from Hillbilly Elegy, to the extent that it probably sounds made up, but you owe it to yourself to read the real thing if you haven’t

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✨Monday Pick-Me-Up: Holding on to the past: 'I’m stood in the cloister at Norwich Cathedral. I've rarely been to a place that so deeply embodies the human need to express their hopes and fears through architecture.' www.digest.andymarshall.co/andy-marshal...

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Cathédrale Saint-Trophime d'Arles

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Richard Simmons and Dr. Ruth leaving us on the same day is a bit much, to be quite honest. 😩

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One of my favourite Roman roads: a section of the 'Via delle Gallie' in Donnas, Val d’Aosta, Italy. The wheel ruts are still visible. The arch was carved into the rock. The road that was built under Augustus. It began at Mediolanum, present-day Milan, and passed...1/2 🏺 AncientBluesky

@erikloomis.bsky.social gives the late Senator Jim Inhofe the obituary he deserves. My only quibble is that it doesn’t mention how Inhofe was sued by stockholders in his bankrupt company and by his own family. www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/07/sena...

Senator Snowball - Lawyers, Guns & Moneywww.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com Hey, James Inhofe is dead! By now, you may have more or less forgotten Senator Snowball. After all, the Senate Republican caucus has become so infested with fascists and half-educated dimwits that the...

More evidence we are stuck inside a Philip K. Dick nightmare

Presumably the Court gives the Court immunity (on a 6-3 vote)?

It's not every day that senators ask the attorney general to appoint a special counsel to criminally investigate a sitting Supreme Court justice. What's more, the case against Clarence Thomas is quite credible. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Dems seek special counsel to investigate Justice Clarence Thomaswww.msnbc.com It's not every day that senators ask the attorney general to appoint a special counsel to investigate a Supreme Court justice.

What’s the best episode of television you’ve ever seen?

I am ever more amazed at how much the far right leaders of today resemble the dystopian imaginings of Philip K. Dick

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This!! Start with “they want to end no fault divorce, sell national parks, and ban porn” end with tax structure.

tom nichols—of all people???—just made a good point: you have to talk about P2025 in simple real people terms. not policy wonk terms.

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It seems a little bit on the nose that just before a highly consequential French election, a priest discovers that someone has stolen a mythical medieval sword from where it's embedded in a cliff—but then, the 2020s ain't subtle (N.B.: This is as much Roland's sword as my butter knife is Excalibur.)

Rocamadour : Durandal, la légendaire épée de Roland, a été voléewww.lefigaro.fr Encastrée dans le rocher depuis des siècles, l’épée qui est traditionnellement considérée comme celle de la chanson de Roland a disparu le 22 juin dernier.

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There is a 7 foot tall guy behind Rishi Sunak who likely ran for office just to be able to hold a printed out L behind him during his concession speech.

“I’ve grown tired of living Nixon’s mess.” With that lyric in 1984, the Meat Puppets summed up my political life.

Due to a lot of unexpected stress so far this year (I’m looking at you, Los Angeles Unified School District), I have restarted Transcendental Meditation. Twice a day, 20 minutes each time. Today was 40 days w/o missing a session, which seems kind of biblical and worth posting

That headline didn’t age well.

Several people have observed that SCOTUS has made the President a King. No. Kings embodied the law but could not break it. If they, they ceased to be Kings. SCOTUS threw out Magna Carta.

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We have a book! An essay collection based on a symposium I co-organized for spring 2020 in Knoxville. We proclaimed it to be “the semester of the apocalypse,” which turned out to be a little too on the nose. Thanks to my friend Bob Bast for doing so much of the heavy lifting

Anxiously waiting for “Presidential Historians” to weigh in with the Jill Biden/Edith Wilson comparisons. What’s taking so long? www.pbs.org/newshour/hea...

When a secret president ran the countrywww.pbs.org All during September of 1919, President Woodrow Wilson became thinner, paler and ever more frail. Unfortunately, the president refused to listen to his body. He had too much important work to do.

What is your favorite black and white movie?

If Joe Biden steps aside, I see only one possible choice for the Democrats. The only person who can help us navigate this surreal national nightmare. Ladies and gentlemen, the next President of the United States, David K. Lynch.

My cat loves me, gimpy ankle and all

I’m calling bullshit.

“the Bible, which was includes the Ten Commandments” The mind boggles at the stupidity of the state that spawned me.

Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters issued this memo today requiring teachers in all schools to keep a Bible in their classroom and teach from it as a historical document. (Via KOCO 5 News)

I think this theory about Mrs Flood is probably correct—she is a character from the extended Doctor Who universe named Iris Wildthyme. Besides the suggestions in the link, Iris = Rainbow, and in biblical lore, the rainbow appears after the Flood. comicbook.com/tv-shows/new...

Doctor Who: Is Mrs. Flood Secretly SPOILER?comicbook.com Is Iris Wildthyme finally headed to live action?

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Happy Peter Lorre's birthday!