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Holly Brewer

@earlymodjustice.bsky.social

18K followers 4.5K following 1.6K posts

Historian http://earlymodernjustice.org/ Sample articles: https://earlymodernjustice.org/publications/ https://earlymodernjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SlaverySovereigntyInheritableBlood.pdf Opinions my own

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Holly Brewer @earlymodjustice.bsky.social · Mar 20

The issue at stake in 1686 was whether the king was bound by the law.
How are we back here again?

Peter Sterne @petersterne.com · Jul 2

In The New Republic, historian Holly Brewer compares the Court's decision to Godden v. Hales, a 1686 case affirming that James II was above the law – which was only repudiated when James II was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution. newrepublic.com/article/1833...

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The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 3h

Trump has little to insulate him now. Vought is not some temporary White House employee who’s dabbling in the art of sabotaging the government before he returns to his “job” as the world’s richest man.

According to the president himself, he is the Grim Reaper personified. trib.al/gB4mfCg

Russ Vought Is Going to Damage Trump Even More Than Elon Musk Did

Americans, and even many Republicans in Congress, don’t like it when an unelected bureaucrat makes huge cuts to the government.

trib.al

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Laprofmme @laprofmme.bsky.social · 7h

Courtesy of colleagues at Penn

A variation on Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 engraving in the Pennsylvania Gazette, published in Philadelphia, in an effort to foster cooperation among the various colonies against the tyrant king of Britain, with the American colonies replaced by the nine universities selected for special collaboration opportunities

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John Ragosta @johnaragosta.bsky.social · 7h

There needs to be consequences when law enforcement grossly abuses its authority. Republicans used to agree....

Sandieglo @sandieglo.bsky.social · 14h

𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝟑 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥, 𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐧, 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐠𝐞 𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫,

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Morgan J Freeman @mjfree.bsky.social · 7h

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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 1d

Make your plans for #NoKings. October 18th. Free speech is action. Please join in. You'll see me at one of the events.
www.nokings.org

No Kings

As the president escalates his authoritarian power grab, the NO KINGS non-violent movement continues to rise stronger. We are united once again to remind the world: America has No Kings and the power ...

www.nokings.org

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 7h

Thinking this is wrong and untenable isn’t radical.

Thinking it isn’t, is.

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Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 8h

A federal judge ordered federal agents last week to issue two warnings before using tear gas.

Witnesses said they heard no warnings and none can be heard on videos, @chicago.suntimes.com reports

Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 8h

Federal agents deployed tear gas after Albany Park residents protested to their attempts to detain a resident of the Northwest Side neighborhood, @vimiller.bsky.social reports for the @chicago.suntimes.com

Feds deploy tear gas in another Chicago neighborhood: 'We chased federal agents out of Albany Park today'

A federal judge’s temporary restraining order requires federal agents to issue two warnings before using riot control weapons such as tear gas. Witnesses says they didn't get any warning.

chicago.suntimes.com

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 15d

Area man, who decided George W. Bush being President was more important than counting everyone’s votes, has concerns about the survival of democracy in 🇺🇸

Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 15d

Justice Anthony Kennedy tells @npr.org's @ninatotenberg.bsky.social "very worried" about our country, and that "Democracy is not guaranteed to survive."

Kennedy wrote Citizens United and was the fifth vote in the rest of the Roberts Court's anti-democratic decisions.

www.npr.org/2025/09/27/n...

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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 11h

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns’s new PBS series, “The American Revolution,” tells the nation’s founding story. Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg asks Burns: What would the Founding Fathers make of this political moment in America?

Watch the full discussion: https://bit.ly/3J6Yqfc

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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1d

Careful and powerful analysis by @gregsargent.bsky.social of the New York Times treating Trump's propagandists as "provocateurs" and decision to treat MAGA's ideologically-driven lies as part of a legitimate clash of perspectives in describing Portland.
newrepublic.com/article/2016...

MAGA Implodes over Kristi Noem’s “Stare Down” with Man in Chicken Suit

A good New York Times piece on Portland nevertheless demonstrates how the conventions of objective reporting fail to accurately capture the bad faith driving pro-Trump propaganda.

newrepublic.com

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 17h

Vought is singularly focused on bending the entire government machine to Trump’s will. He believes that any check on the power of Donald Trump, who Vought literally describes as a “gift of God,” is illegitimate. There is no line he doesn’t feel justified to cross.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 17h

But there is nothing noble or respectable about what Vought is doing, about his vision for the country. He is a fully competent, utterly committed radical ideologue. He lusts for counter-revolution and radical measures. There is no line he doesn’t feel justified to cross.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 16h

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 17h

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 23d

Ex-Trump White House Attorney Ty
Cobb: “Trump is waging war on people who offend him… I think it will take at least a generation for 🇺🇸 to regain the freedoms we enjoyed 9 months ago.”

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 18h

The deportation order derives from the crime of which he has now been exonerated.

www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

He was wrongfully imprisoned for 43 years. Moments after being released, ICE took him

Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam now faces deportation.

www.miamiherald.com

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RepJackKimble @repjackkimble.bsky.social · 1d

Portland is burning, people!

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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 1d

Grandpa has again forgotten who was president on Jan 6, 2021. He was.

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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 2d

New from me at Cato: I go through the numerous and massive First Amendment and academic-freedom violations of Trump's proffered "compact" with universities and then talk about the mechanism by which it would be enforced, by way of what I describe as a "retroactive push-button guillotine."

Universities Must Defend Their Independence by Rejecting Trump's "Compact"

The Trump administration has proffered a “compact” to universities that would require them to surrender their independence and academic freedom. How many First Amendment violations can we identify in ...

www.cato.org

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Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 1d

This Is Fascism

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Blake Leyh @earlofedgecombe.bsky.social · 1d

If you think you know why US newspapers died, this feature documentary now streaming for free on PBS might surprise you. It wasn't the Internet. Newspapers were specifically targeted by vulture capitalists.

I composed the score for the film, which features electric cello & Crowfoot guitars.

Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink

A handful of journalists rebel against a hedge fund that is gutting newspapers nationwide.

www.pbs.org

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

"Making the rigged election claim to the military now, retroactively, is a half-step. By stating it as fact and forcing the general staff to accept it, he is laying the predicate to make such a claim directly to the military in the future."

“Legal Orders” and Trump’s Military

Authoritarians don’t take power by openly flouting the law. They look for pretexts and legal theories.

www.thebulwark.com

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Holly Brewer @earlymodjustice.bsky.social · 2d

“Women played a fundamental role in the development of England’s national economy before 1700.
Far from being the unpaid homemakers and housewives of traditional historical record, women contributed to all the most important areas of the economy, such as agriculture, commerce, and care.”

A woman’s place was not in the home: New book challenges assumptions about women’s work in early modern history

New research has revealed that women played a fundamental role in the development of England’s national economy before 1700. Far from being the unpaid homemakers and housewives of traditional historic...

news.exeter.ac.uk

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Dahlia Lithwick @dahlialithwick.bsky.social · 1d

With Yale Law School military justice expert Eugene Fidell and former JAG Maj. General Steven J. Lepper on the biggest civil/military crisis since the Civil War.

Trump Wants to Use American Cities as a “Training Ground.” It’s Becoming Clear Why.

MAGA cries “Insurrection!”, setting up a dangerous standoff between the American people and the military.

slate.com

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Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 1d

Most Americans Who Rely on Obamacare Live in Republican Areas
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Obamacare Enrollment by State: Most Enrollees Live in Republican Areas (Gift Article)

Millions of Americans depend on Obamacare. Here's where they live.

www.nytimes.com

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