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John Stehlin @jstehlin.bsky.social · 8h

AAG 2026 Call for Papers/Panelists: "Urban Politics from Bidenomics to MAGA Urbanism" organized by myself and @alanwiig.bsky.social. Please send abstracts and/or expressions of panel interest to us by October 24, and share widely!

AAG 2026 Call for Papers/Panelists: Urban Politics from Bidenomics to MAGA Urbanism
Sponsored by the Urban Geography Specialty Group

With the return of Donald Trump to the presidency, there is broad agreement that U.S. political culture is at a crisis point (Bouie 2025; Viala-Gaudefroy 2025). Since January 2025, the Trump Administration, an unusual assemblage of impresarios, hustlers, influencers, and hard-core ideologues, has deployed a chaotic program to remake American government and society in the image of authoritarian nationalism across the realms of foreign policy, immigration, trade, social policy, media, and energy (Townley 2025). In short, key figures in the administration have called for “repealing the 20th century,” and more proximately, key policy legacies of the Obama and Biden administrations (Davies 2025). Most recently, the administration has focused its attention on “crime” in “blue” cities and states, sending ICE agents and National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Portland in a show of force against its political enemies (Ward and Fertig 2025; Wong 2025).

While most commentary on the Trump administration focuses on the transformation of the federal government, the changes underway are also profoundly urban (Wyly 2025). This session will explore the urban dimensions of the Biden-Trump transition across a range of domains. We invite paper abstracts and panelists discussing any of the following topics and beyond:

- Urban policy under the Biden and Trump administrations
- Changing city, state, and federal interactions (conflict, cooperation, etc.)
- Implications of legislative changes (IIJA, IRA, BBB, etc.) for cities
- Specific sectoral dimensions (energy, housing, climate, social policy, etc.)
- Urban voting patterns, gerrymandering, and partisanship
- Urban militarization, policing, political violence, and spectacle
- “Sanctuary cities,” immigration, and xenophobia
- Interrelated housing, housing affordability, and homeowners' insurance crises
- Urbanism, suburbanization, and transportation investment
- Nativism, racism, natalism, and cities
- Energy, petronationalism, and urban climate response
- Urban discourses across legacy media, social media, and administration figures
- Tech, venture capital, AI, and cities
- Structural and conjunctural dimensions of each administration in the longue duree

We anticipate at least one paper session and one more open-ended panel session based on this theme, depending on interest. Please submit paper abstracts or expressions of interest in panel participation (including topics of interest) to John Stehlin (jgstehli@uncg.edu) and Alan Wiig (alanwiig@ufl.edu) by 6:00 PM EDT (GMT -5:00) on Friday, October 24.

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Dillon Mahmoudi @marxist.af · 9h

"A myopic emphasis on individual privacy also obscures how companies like Argyle impact collective action."

Stellar piece from Eliza McCullough (elizamccullough.com) in Lux that shows what data indebtedness actually means for individuals and organizers.

lux-magazine.com/lux-for-life...

Debt by Data

Predatory lending with a high-tech sheen.

lux-magazine.com

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John Stehlin @jstehlin.bsky.social · 1d

“please clap”

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 1d

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

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Kevin Gannon (now a Moo Deng fan account) @thetattooedprof.bsky.social · 3d

Bar associations need to start disbarring. There's immediate precedent with Giuliani. To the point @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social has repeatedly made, a polity that allows elites to repeatedly lie, obviously and with impunity, is not sustainable. Feels like the legal profession is at the same juncture.

Dante Atkins @danteatkins.bsky.social · 4d

The case against Comey is beyond weak. The case against James is worse. It is based on a lie, and they know they're lying because exculpatory evidence that contradicts the indictment had already been presented to a grand jury in another jurisdiction. Everyone involved with this needs to be disbarred

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John Stehlin @jstehlin.bsky.social · 4d

these people are monarchists not because they believe kings are virtuous but because a monarch is typically an easily manipulated figurehead that provides cover for all manner of private violence and enrichment

bob barker 🍸 @insortediaboli.bsky.social · 4d

“The president is being fed a steady diet of AI generated propaganda videos from his team so they can direct his energies and signatures towards their own goals” is a real and true statement about America in 2025

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bob barker 🍸 @insortediaboli.bsky.social · 4d

“The president is being fed a steady diet of AI generated propaganda videos from his team so they can direct his energies and signatures towards their own goals” is a real and true statement about America in 2025

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 5d

a friend of mine in antifa told me that antifa's headquarters is SHEIN and if the company fell the whole network would fall

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John Stehlin @jstehlin.bsky.social · 5d

not surprising that the @nytimes.com didn’t include a comment section on this putrid garbage, and surely it’s just a coincidence that the author is the CEO of a private equity firm trying to take the University of Phoenix public and would financially benefit from destroying higher education

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Badly Needed

www.nytimes.com

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 6d

the administration is laser-focused on making sure Americans don't get clean energy, so Saudi Arabia (Trump's paymaster) has someone to sell their oil to in 10 years when the rest of the world has moved on to solar+batteries

Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 6d

Picture how big the Hoover Dam is. An absolute unit. The Hoover Dam has a power capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW).

The solar farm that the Admin just cancelled could have produces 6.2 GW of power. That's more than 3 Hoover Dams.

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 6d

SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 5d

All I want in life is to persuade everyone, when encountering politics & culture, to ask, "why are we talking about this?" I mean that very literally: anything you encounter on your screens reflects a choice. Someone covered that, talked about that, rather than the many other things out there. Why?

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Dillon Mahmoudi @marxist.af · 6d

We all think it's a bubble, but seeing that Bank of England says that "market concentration hasn't been this extreme in 50 years" is extremely alarming.

arstechnica.com/ai/2025/10/b...

Bank of England warns AI stock bubble rivals 2000 dotcom peak

Central bank says market concentration hasn’t been this extreme in 50 years.

arstechnica.com

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John Stehlin @jstehlin.bsky.social · 6d

The Altman School of Being Left Holding the Bag

Triangle Blog Blog @triangleblogblog.bsky.social · 6d

mmm 😵‍💫

www.unc.edu/posts/2025/1...

University leadership announces development of new school at Carolina | UNC-Chapel Hill

The School of Information and Library Science and the School of Data Science and Society will be founding leaders of a new school to amplify and lead Carolina’s response to the information and data ne...

www.unc.edu

John Stehlin @jstehlin.bsky.social · 6d

Vulgar Latourianism With Eugenicist Characteristics

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 6d

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

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John Stehlin @jstehlin.bsky.social · 6d

full blown, completely agree

John Stehlin @jstehlin.bsky.social · 6d

I'm starting to think that COVID generalized the phenomenon of "car brain" to basically all realms of life. it's worst and most deadly on the roads, but everyone everywhere acts like they're in a private vehicle and whatever is in front of them is the enemy www.fastcompany.com/91330344/car...

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John Stehlin @jstehlin.bsky.social · 7d

as an after school special, it’s mid

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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 7d

If the regime does go after DSA, the appropriate response will be for as many people as possible to become dues-paying members.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 7d

Jonathan Choe to Trump: "Another group right now that is behind antifa and working with antifa very closely based on the research that we have right now that we're gonna give to you and your team are the Democratic Socialists of America."

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Use Alt Text not A.I. @carebear2717.bsky.social · 8d

It's the new highways through Black neighborhoods: Data centers

Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 8d

I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that all these data centers are going into communities that have been historically targeted for exploitation and have the least amount of civic power wielded by the people living there.

wordinblack.com/2025/09/alab...

Why Are Plans for This Alabama Data Center So Hush-Hush?

Officials in Bessemer, Alabama, are mum on Project Marvel, a proposed data center the size of 18 Walmart Supercenters.

wordinblack.com

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Desiree Fields @desireefields.bsky.social · 8d

Along with Will Payne and Jovan Lewis, I'm organizing an AAG session on the economic geography of scams for the 2026 conference in San Francisco. Please share widely! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

AAG 2026 CFP: Putting the ‘Con’ in Economic Geography

AAG 2026 CFP: Schemes, Scams, and Flim-flam: Putting the ‘Con’ in Economic Geography Will B. Payne, Rutgers University Desiree Fields, University of California, Berkeley Jovan Scott Lewis, University ...

docs.google.com

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John Stehlin @jstehlin.bsky.social · 8d

Probably not really what you’re after but could argue that the Scream series is about the horror genre itself being cursed and possessing people…

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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 9d

John Stuart Mill failed to consider that creepy loser men would not react well to other people's liberty.

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Nathan Tankus @nathantankus.bsky.social · 8d

Two years. I can't believe it. What a disgusting time. What a horrific time. We live in the age of monsters, and all we can hope for is to finally defeat some of them. Free palestine.

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John Stehlin @jstehlin.bsky.social · 8d

the Alien franchise hasn’t been this fun since the basketball scene in Alien: Resurrection

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Dan Immergluck @danimmergluck.bsky.social · 10d

The history of Nazis holding rallies in left-wing areas of Weimar Germany, instigating street fights, and then telling the press that only they could save Germany from the "violent communists" seems like an important thing for people to be studying right now.

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John Stehlin @jstehlin.bsky.social · 10d

genuinely think that people in both parties are aiming to become The Only Party. the right wants to make it illegal to vote for a Democrat. the Democrats want to permanently expel the left and absorb enough of the right to make the GOP redundant. right now, the latter seems more far-fetched...

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 10d

Something Ezra Klein hinted at in his conversation with TNC last week is still gnawing at me: That Liberals / Democrats may need to redraw the boundaries of what is acceptable so that Trump is no longer excluded. I think that is precisely the wrong answer to our current situation.