Chet DeFonso
@chetdefonso.bsky.social
220 followers 220 following 350 posts
Yooperprof. British historian. Occasional actor. Jet Set Chet. Reader of books. Likes opera. Also beer. LGBTQ club member. He/him.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
Mary Miller (R-IL) quoted Hitler on the steps of the Capitol on January 5th, the day before a Republican mob attacked the Capitol, one wearing a "Camp Auschwitz" T-shirt and Elon Musk gave Heil Hitler salutes and Donald Trump says he wish he had Hitler's generals. Johnson is good with all of that.
Q: Are you worried about extremist pro-Hitler sentiment among young Republicans?

JOHNSON: No. I don't know who any of these people are. I've never heard of them. Somebody posted a photo of me standing next to these guys wearing tuxedos. It was at the inauguration, people were coming up for selfies
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
A terrific AFP fact check uses reverse image searches to expose how a White House video took scenes from Florida, Texas, South Carolina and Nebraska and lied that they showed "Chicago is in chaos."
factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....
Post from WH about Chicago "in chaos," showing scene from another state.
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
scientific american participating in it's own extinction is also worth a question or two
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
“What’s the benefit for 🇺🇸 in sending $20 BILLION to Argentina?”🤔

Trump says he just really likes their philosophy and will only send the $20 Billion if his pal Milei wins.

Imagine not being able to see this blatant corruption for what it is. (While our farmers struggle)
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
I fear that schools being willing to drop diversity programs without a fight shows how flimsy their commitment to inclusion was in the first place. People fight for things they truly believe in.
Victor Ray, a sociology professor at the University of Iowa who studies race, said in an email that OSU’s decision to interpret federal guidance in this way “reflects the real pressure universities face as the Trump administration and Republican legislators attack higher education.”

But, Ray added, it may also be exposing the true colors of many universities that were broadcasting their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion when it was politically expedient to do so just a few years ago.

“The swiftness with which these organizations have complied with legally dubious orders shows that their commitments to diversity were often paper-thin before this administration’s pressure,” he said. “In many cases, administrators with existing qualms about diversity, perhaps going too far, now have political cover to take anti-equitable actions.”
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
Forcing them to watch the boss's speech and telling them they'll get in trouble for making fun of him.

That's just a sign of a respected and capable leader, folks.
NEW: Pentagon officials are forcing staff to watch Pete Hegseth's "Warrior" speech he forced generals to listen to.

Officials are even "testing" staff to see if they watched — and are threatening consequences if they lie about watching it or if they mock it, sources tell @swin24.bsky.social and I.
The Pentagon Is Ordering Staff to Watch Hegseth’s ‘MAGA Garbage’ Speech… Or Else
Defense Department sources tell Zeteo that staff have been warned that if they don’t watch or read the speech, or if they speak negatively of it, they could face severe consequences.
zeteo.com
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
Trump has cancelled $18B of spending in blue states. He fired more than 4,000 federal employees the same day he sent $20B to Argentina. He is propping up the government of the guy on the left, while firing government officials working for the guy on the right. But those employees also work for us!
Milei w RFK Jr and a chainsaw
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
First they came for the woodwind section, and I said nothing ...
Otto Preminger Comes to Marquette, presentation last night by local historian Dan Rydholm about 1959 making of Anatomy of a Murder. Dan's father Fred was Mayor of Marquette in 1959.
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
As I've noted, central to Stephen Miller's propaganda is the claim that the Chicago complex targeted by ICE was "filled" with Tren de Aragua "terrorists."

Now @jacobsoboroff.bsky.social reports that the number of TdA members netted in that raid is down to *one.*

newrepublic.com/article/2016...
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
Today in life under competitive authoritarianism
Federal Secret Police and plainclothes ICE agents kidnap multiple people from a neighborhood in Chicago. They then deploy teargas and brutally beat neighbors who come out to express their concern.
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
Today in life under competitive authoritarianism
BREAKING: Marco Rubio's State Department announces publicly that it is exercising unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination in revoking people's visas based on comments about the killing of Charlie Kirk.
Department of State v
@StateDept
g..
The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans.
The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk. Here are just a few examples of aliens who are no longer welcome in the U.S.:
5:55 PM • Oct 14, 2025 • 34.1K Views
Northern Michigan University might hire the Provost of Texas State to be our next President.
If you make "controversial statements" outside of classroom, that the President of the university dislikes, you can be summarily fired even if you are tenured.
I just learned, Thomas Alter, tenured professor, has been terminated effective immediately. Shame on Texas State! We mst build support for Tom. spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-tex...
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
ICE has been deployed to *provoke* civilians, not to protect them. They want to throw tear gas canisters and get people on the streets riled up, all to create footage for Fox News and Newsmax, et al., that will be used as a pretext for imposing martial law to lower voting rates in Democratic cities.
The only violence I’ve been seeing in Portland is from the so-called Feds!!!

Keep sharing these videos; it’s evidence.
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
ICE kidnapped a 7th-grader with a pending asylum claim and spirited him out of state without notifying his parents, seemingly with the cooperation of the local police in Everett, MA.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...
Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility
By Marcela Rodrigues Globe Staff,Updated October 12, 2025, 44 minutes ago



31
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Everett after an interaction with members of the Everett Police Department and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia, according to his mother and immigration lawyer Andrew Lattarulo.

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested. After waiting for about an hour and a half, she was told her son was taken by ICE, Berto told the Globe in a phone interview.

“My world collapsed,” Berto said in Portuguese.

From the police department, the boy was taken to ICE’s holding facility in Burlington on Thursday evening, where he spent a night before being transferred by car to the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Winchester, Va., on Friday morning, his mother said. The juvenile facility is more than 500 miles away from Everett.

The boy is a 7th-grader at Albert N. Parlin School in Everett, his mother said. The teen and his family, who are Brazilian nationals, have a pending asylum case and are authorized to work legally in the United States, Lattarulo said.
Perhaps with a roll-on/roll-off rail ferry? The SS Badger was originally constructed as such - in 1953! I took one of these recently in Europe, part of the Hamburg-Copenhagen route. Lots of fun!
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
They cannot talk about the shutdown without lying.

There is no connection between troop payments and federal employee layoffs. Zero.

They are paying the troops with multiyear R&D allocations within DOD. This is also illegal by the way! But completely disconnected to the layoffs.
WELKER: During the 2019 shutdown when Trump was president, no federal workers were laid off. Why are these firings necessary?

VANCE: Who do we care more about- federal bureaucrats or the troops getting the payment they need?

WELKER: But layoffs are a priority?

VANCE: They have forced us to choose
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
George was just trying to get to work.

ICE pepper-sprayed him, dragged him from his car, locked him in a detention center, and placed him on suicide watch. He even missed his young daughter’s birthday in the process.

This man is a veteran and American citizen. Don't look away.
"They put me on suicide watch and they put me in the cell, I'm naked, in like a hospital dress and just a concrete bed with like a mattress, like a thin mattress and, they leave the light on 24/7."

@timmiller.bsky.social talked to a veteran who ICE wrongly detained and brutalized
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
JOURNALISM IS NOT A CRIME. BEARING WITNESS IS NOT OBSTRUCTION.
BREAKING: Masked Border Patrol agents aggressively arrested WGN video producer Debbie Brockman in Lincoln Square Friday morning, supposedly for "obstructing justice." (Video via Josh Thomas on Facebook)

Follow @heartlandsignal for more.
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
Mike Johnson: "We're so angry about it. I mean, I'm a very patient guy, but I've had it with these people. The theory we have right now -- they have a hate America rally that's scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It's the pro-Hamas wing and antifa people ... "
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
“This is JB Pritzker, reporting from war-torn Chicago. It’s quite disturbing. The Milwaukee Brewers have come in to attack our Chicago Cubs. We’ve seen people being forced to eat hot dogs with ketchup on them.”
Reposted by Chet DeFonso
When I decided to go to Ann Arbor to get my PhD, my mom, who lives in rural Colorado, was so concerned that I was going to live so close to Detroit. She was sure I was going to be murdered.
People who live in big cities and have MAGA relatives in rural and suburban areas are getting deja vu, that's for sure.

We've all had conversations with relatives who insist they know better than us what our cities are like. That we must be deluded not to see the constant riots and muggings.
Trump: "I don't know what could be worse than Portland. You don't even have stores anymore. They don't even put glass up. They put plywood on their windows."
Hilarious Onion Story, right?
“I’ll declare war on you if you don’t give me the peace prize” is an incredible bit
Scott Beaulier, Dean of the School of Business at the University of Wyoming, speaking at Northern Michigan University where he is a candidate for the Presidency. Scott is a graduate of NMU, having double-majored in History and Economics in 2000. And a former student of mine!
Scott Beaulier speaking at Northern Michigan University.