David R. Shumway | Lightnews

David Shumway

@nearleft.bsky.social

700 followers 500 following 460 posts

Professor of English, Carnegie Mellon. Film, popular music, literature. All opinions are my own.

Videos

Art 42%

Communication & Media Studies 10%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Mark Rice, David R. Shumway

Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 16h

The point of the AI project is to provoke despair in creative people. They haven’t produced profits or anything anyone wants, just a steady stream of articles about how us artistic types can’t do the thing we’re already doing, making art. Jokes on them, we’re even better at despair than they are.

David Shumway @nearleft.bsky.social · 2d

Modern factories: are those from 1700s, the 1800s, or the 1900s?

David Shumway @nearleft.bsky.social · 3d

Let’s see this all over Maine.

David Shumway @nearleft.bsky.social · 4d

My top ten Westerns (in no particular order)

Rio Bravo
McCabe and Mrs Miller
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Shane
Little Big Man
Red River
The Searchers
Lone Star
High Noon

Andy Hoberek @thathoberekguy.bsky.social · 4d

Top Ten Westerns (alphabetical)

Aferim!
Black God, White Devil
The Devil’s Doorway
Forty Guns
Little Big Man
McCabe and Mrs Miller
Once Upon a Time in the West
Ride the High Country
Ulzana’s Raid
The Wild Bunch

Dr. Mike Sell @profmikesell.bsky.social · 4d

Top-10 Fave Westerns:
Rio Bravo
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Once Upon a Time in the West
Bacurau
The Shooting
Little Big Man
Brokeback Mountain
Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood
Winchester ‘73
The Quick and the Dead

Reposted by David R. Shumway

Andy Hoberek @thathoberekguy.bsky.social · 4d

Dr. Mike Sell @profmikesell.bsky.social · 4d

David Shumway @nearleft.bsky.social · 5d

Here’s looking at you, Pittsburgh.

Julia Métraux @juliametraux.bsky.social · 5d

Snowstorms are more than just an inconvenience for wheelchair users. Inadequate snow clean-ups means a loss of autonomy for many. New for me at @motherjones.com www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Snowstorms are hell for wheelchair users—but they don't have to be

"You can't physically move. You can't do anything."

www.motherjones.com

Reposted by Allison Lombardi, David R. Shumway

Julia Métraux @juliametraux.bsky.social · 5d

Snowstorms are more than just an inconvenience for wheelchair users. Inadequate snow clean-ups means a loss of autonomy for many. New for me at @motherjones.com www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Snowstorms are hell for wheelchair users—but they don't have to be

"You can't physically move. You can't do anything."

www.motherjones.com

David Shumway @nearleft.bsky.social · 9d

CNN is Fox News light.

Reposted by Charles W. Smith, Nathan P. Kalmoe, David R. Shumway

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 9d

Anyway congrats to our Free Speech Champions(tm) who helped usher in the most censorious American government since the Palmer Raids

David Shumway @nearleft.bsky.social · 10d

The World of Leonard Cohen at the CUP Bookstore in Cambridge.

Reposted by Mark Z. Jacobson, David R. Shumway

cambridgebookshop.bsky.social @cambridgebookshop.bsky.social · 10d

From climate change, to Chinese politics, to Leonard Cohen, we've got a very wide range of new titles this week! 🙌

📖 'Still No Miracles Needed' by @mzjacobson.bsky.social
📖 'The Communist Party of China' by Ben Hillman and Fengyuan Ji
📖 'The World of Leonard Cohen' by @nearleft.bsky.social

Hand holding a book titled "Still No Miracles Needed" by Mark Z. Jacobson in front of a blurred bookshelf in a bookshop

Hand holding a book titled "The World of Leonard Cohen" edited by David R. Shumway in front of a blurred bookshelf in a bookshop

Hand holding a book titled "The Communist Party of China" edited by Ben Hillman and Fengyuan Ji in front of a blurred bookshelf in a bookshop

David Shumway @nearleft.bsky.social · 11d

Who could have guessed?

David Shumway @nearleft.bsky.social · 15d

CBS

Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 15d

Pam Bondi just sent a letter to Minnesota officials saying ICE will leave if the state turns over its voter database to Trump.

Guess what? This has never been about safety or immigration. It’s a pretext for Trump to take over elections in swing states.

Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 15d

Also, may I say that I don’t agree with people saying ICE and CBP need “more training.” They’re doing exactly what this administration has trained them to—impose a reign of fear in blue cities. They don’t need more training. They need to be ripped up root and branch.

David Shumway @nearleft.bsky.social · 16d

Vote them all out.

Reposted by David R. Shumway

Morgan J Freeman @mjfree.bsky.social · 16d

Trump’s “Board of Peace” is a Board of Dictators — ICE terror at home, cash for autocrats abroad, and Trump deciding who’s protected. That’s not peace. It’s a protection racket.

READ & SHARE NEW SUBSTACK🙏⬇️

THE BOARD OF DICTATORS

Trump’s Fake “Peace” Scheme Is a Global Protection Racket—With Terror at Home and Grift Abroad

open.substack.com

Reposted by Stephen M. Walt, Joanna Bryson, Marc Lynch , and 80 more Stephen M. Walt, Joanna Bryson, Marc Lynch, Tobias Bunde, Anupam Chander, Rebecca Solnit, Jennifer Bussell, Richard S.J. Tol, Dorothy Bishop, Brian J. Enquist, Richard E. Lenski, Andreas J. Bäumler, Tobias Kuemmerle, Will Jennings, Jon Pierre, Stefan Rahmstorf, Peter Thorne, Brendan Nyhan, Timon McPhearson, Linda J. Skitka, Du Toit, Julie L. Lockwood, Elena Litchman, Scott L. Greer, John Horgan, Steve Peers, Christopher Wright, Michael A. Clemens, Matthias Doepke, Lewis R. Gordon, Michael J. Allen, Martin Tomko, David W. Kerstetter, Marianne Hundt, Juan Cole, Cathy N. Davidson, Gernot Wagner, Jerry H. Ratcliffe, Edgar Morgenroth, Tuomas Mattila, Michael Kevane, Devon Greyson, Smith, Jonathan Hopkin, Michael W. Kraus, Silvia Secchi, Aaron Sojourner, Vincent Noël, Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, William A. Allen, Robert B. Reich, Michael D. McDonald, Craig R. McClain, Jason Lyall, Michael Müller, Michael Jones‐Correa, Mark Rice, Anthony Burke, Juanjo Medina, Arlene Stein, Jack Stilgoe, James Connelly, Georg Weizsäcker, Ted Temzelides, Richard M. Carpiano, Nathan Richardson, Guy Pe’er, Hisham Zerriffi, Tim Stephens, Blair Fix, Karen O’Leary, Taku Ito, Sylvain Genevois, Nicole Guenther Discenza, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Dietmar Fehr, Karin Wulf, Juliet Johnson, Vincent Foucher, Jeannette Sutton, David R. Shumway, Elise Thomas, Carly D. Ziter

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 19d

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

Reposted by David R. Shumway

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 19d

Hey beautiful losers, this week the books series has ed David Shumway @nearleft.bsky.social talking new collection THE WORLD OF LEONARD COHEN w/ contribs @touchofallright.bsky.social, @eweisbard.bsky.social & Sarah Hill. Wed 5:30 pm ET, achieve satori here: iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Popular-Musi...

The cover of Cambridge University Press's The World of Leonard Cohen edited by David R. Shumway features a young Cohen in a black turtleneck writing with a ballpoint pen in a small notebook in his lap.

David Shumway @nearleft.bsky.social · 22d

In the past year especially. Garbage in, garbage out.

Reposted by David R. Shumway

Aaron Bady @zunguzungu.bsky.social · 22d

it is an incredible coincidence that the tech sector going all-in on AI is also owned by people that want to destroy the institutions of democratic life

Aaron Bady @zunguzungu.bsky.social · 23d

"If you wanted to create a tool that would enable the destruction of institutions that prop up democratic life, you could not do better than artificial intelligence." papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

How AI Destroys Institutions

Civic institutions—the rule of law, universities, and a free press—are the backbone of democratic life. They are the mechanisms through which complex societies

papers.ssrn.com

Reposted by David R. Shumway

Will Beaman @greenbackbetter.bsky.social · 23d

Bond drive for ICE Watch

moneyontheleft.org/2025/05/09/b...

Blue Bonds: A Fiscal Strategy for Overcoming Trump 2.0

By the Money on the Left Editorial Collective The Trump Administration has plunged the United States into a constitutional crisis. The President’s destructive executive orders and Elon Musk’s…

moneyontheleft.org

David Shumway @nearleft.bsky.social · 27d

If you are a wealthy landlord.

Reposted by McKenzie Wark, Andrew Jacobs, Eric Hayot , and 1 more McKenzie Wark, Andrew Jacobs, Eric Hayot, David R. Shumway

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · Jan 6

This was published in the dead week between Christmas and New Year’s. If you work in education & were, reasonably, taking a break, maybe you missed it.

Don’t miss it.