Charlie Thomas
@cthomasjamh.bsky.social
Professor, African Military Historian, Co-Editor of the Journal of African Military History. Opinions expressed are solely mine. My book, Ujamaa’s Army, is available now!! https://www.ohioswallow.com/9780821425596/ujamaas-army
Pinned
Charlie Thomas
@cthomasjamh.bsky.social
· Nov 12
"But Charlie!" you may say, "why should *I* care about the Tanzania People's Defence Force!?" Well let me tell you a few cool things about them!
1. Following independence most African states just inherited whatever colonial troops existed as their militaries. This often led to coups and mutinies.
1. Following independence most African states just inherited whatever colonial troops existed as their militaries. This often led to coups and mutinies.
Whooooo! Although I know other folks have already gotten it, my author copies finally arrived. It's been a long road and it still feels unreal to actually have the physical copies in hand!
For all my new followers, hello! I am a historian of African militaries and African military history- and I recently published a book on the Tanzania People's Defence Forces' fascinating history! Here's a thread about why you should read it! bsky.app/profile/ctho...
Oh my god! How explosive! The Senate Minority Leader actually knew what members of his caucus were discussing doing, a fact that we already knew days before the end of the shutdown and which he literally had no leverage to stop! Set off the Drudge Report Sirens!!
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen revealed that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer knew the entire time about the plan for a few Democrats to capitulate to Republicans on the government shutdown. trib.al/rgKrsJC
November 17, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Oh my god! How explosive! The Senate Minority Leader actually knew what members of his caucus were discussing doing, a fact that we already knew days before the end of the shutdown and which he literally had no leverage to stop! Set off the Drudge Report Sirens!!
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
“””Montezuma’s””” Castle and “””Montezuma’s””” Well
November 16, 2025 at 10:26 PM
“””Montezuma’s””” Castle and “””Montezuma’s””” Well
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
Today is Septidi the 27th of Brumaire in the year 234.
Brumaire is the month of mist.
Today we celebrate tuberous peas.#JacobinDay
More information on tuberous peas
Brumaire is the month of mist.
Today we celebrate tuberous peas.#JacobinDay
More information on tuberous peas
November 16, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Today is Septidi the 27th of Brumaire in the year 234.
Brumaire is the month of mist.
Today we celebrate tuberous peas.#JacobinDay
More information on tuberous peas
Brumaire is the month of mist.
Today we celebrate tuberous peas.#JacobinDay
More information on tuberous peas
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
If you are not in academia, you might not know this, but job interviews used to be held at conferences IN HOTEL ROOMS. Women candidates in a hotel room alone with often all-male committees. People sitting on beds! The horror stories I've heard.
I thing I sometimes thing about is that university departments were still doing job interviews in hotel rooms in the mid aughts
November 16, 2025 at 7:42 PM
If you are not in academia, you might not know this, but job interviews used to be held at conferences IN HOTEL ROOMS. Women candidates in a hotel room alone with often all-male committees. People sitting on beds! The horror stories I've heard.
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
Crucifixion thorn | Canotia holocantha
pretty much endemic to Arizona
same family as wahoo, spindle, and hearts-a-bustin’, Celastraceae!
#nativeplants
pretty much endemic to Arizona
same family as wahoo, spindle, and hearts-a-bustin’, Celastraceae!
#nativeplants
November 16, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Crucifixion thorn | Canotia holocantha
pretty much endemic to Arizona
same family as wahoo, spindle, and hearts-a-bustin’, Celastraceae!
#nativeplants
pretty much endemic to Arizona
same family as wahoo, spindle, and hearts-a-bustin’, Celastraceae!
#nativeplants
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
This, from the people who said sending artillery shells to Ukraine would leave us unable to defend Taiwan.
Roughly a fifth of all deployed US naval ships are in the Caribbean, according to Stars & Stripes and USNI News
November 16, 2025 at 5:33 PM
This, from the people who said sending artillery shells to Ukraine would leave us unable to defend Taiwan.
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
Rock-hewn churches of medieval Ethiopia
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-histor...
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-histor...
November 16, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Rock-hewn churches of medieval Ethiopia
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-histor...
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-histor...
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
A sunny pause in between the welcome rains in Matobo Hills
November 16, 2025 at 6:36 PM
A sunny pause in between the welcome rains in Matobo Hills
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
The Ford CSG will next transit to Malacca where our President and his fluids hear of incredible riches and spices where he may at last triumph over the trade monopoly of the Heathen Turk
November 16, 2025 at 12:27 AM
The Ford CSG will next transit to Malacca where our President and his fluids hear of incredible riches and spices where he may at last triumph over the trade monopoly of the Heathen Turk
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
This piece makes it sound totally normal that the police gets to decide whether or not to "work with" Mamdani as mayor, and it continues, as nearly all the paper's coverage, to wield normative terms like "moderate" and left" in a prejudicial way. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/n...
The N.Y.P.D. Prepares for Mayor Mamdani and a New Era in Public Safety
www.nytimes.com
November 16, 2025 at 5:58 PM
This piece makes it sound totally normal that the police gets to decide whether or not to "work with" Mamdani as mayor, and it continues, as nearly all the paper's coverage, to wield normative terms like "moderate" and left" in a prejudicial way. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/n...
*rapidly updating my curriculum to reflect the new construct of “ways-means” while trying to diagram a two-legged stool*
The Trump administration is rapidly escalating its pressure campaign against Venezuela, even as President Trump’s aides provide conflicting accounts of what, exactly, they are seeking to achieve. nyti.ms/49nV4PY
November 16, 2025 at 5:54 PM
*rapidly updating my curriculum to reflect the new construct of “ways-means” while trying to diagram a two-legged stool*
This is of course why every state has massively expanded Medicaid from the Affordable Care Act and hundreds of thousands of struggling Americans had $10,000 sliced off of their Department of Education student loans.
Bessent on tariffs: "This is one of President Trump's signature policies, and traditionally the Supreme Court does not interfere with a president's signature policy."
November 16, 2025 at 5:47 PM
This is of course why every state has massively expanded Medicaid from the Affordable Care Act and hundreds of thousands of struggling Americans had $10,000 sliced off of their Department of Education student loans.
Excellent thread.
I’m familiar, by the way, with the argument that we just aren’t appreciating the NYT’s subtlety here; that it’s actually a searing indictment of this group of elites, just in a “show me, don’t tell me” kind of way. That take relies on ignoring that it’s in the New York Times.
/1
/1
I can’t even
November 16, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Excellent thread.
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
I can’t even
November 16, 2025 at 3:32 PM
I can’t even
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
Alice Wong, a writer and activist who was born with muscular dystrophy and who fought relentlessly for equal rights and access for people with disabilities, died on Friday. She was 51. nyti.ms/4r9WqEr
November 15, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Alice Wong, a writer and activist who was born with muscular dystrophy and who fought relentlessly for equal rights and access for people with disabilities, died on Friday. She was 51. nyti.ms/4r9WqEr
Oh my god, shoot it directly into my veins.
If you need me, tap me on the shoulder. I’ll be happily working all day listening to this on a loop.
November 15, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Oh my god, shoot it directly into my veins.
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
Stunning. Archives are everything.
‘We don’t even know all of what we have.’ Howard University fights to preserve Black newspapers. www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/... Last year, during a move, workers found two whole boxes of Frederick Douglass’s’ The North Star’s first year of publication.
‘We don’t even know all of what we have.’ Howard fights to preserve Black newspapers.
Across the United States, scholars are working to preserve the history of the Black press before the brittle pages are lost forever. In a basement at Howard University, uncovered treasures have includ...
www.csmonitor.com
November 15, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Stunning. Archives are everything.
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
They’re wasting our tax dollars
A stock of U.S.-bought birth control, meant for sub-Saharan Africa, goes bad in Belgium
Millions of dollars worth of contraceptives have been stored in Belgium since the U.S. froze foreign aid. A local official says some products were stored improperly and are largely unusable.
www.npr.org
November 15, 2025 at 6:04 PM
They’re wasting our tax dollars
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
Dawg
November 15, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Dawg
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
“straight up giving the president a bar of gold” is where we’re at now on the “corruption isn’t real” scale
good work, John Roberts
good work, John Roberts
"It was tough to beat Apple, but the Swiss did it." said one administration official.
How the Swiss convinced Trump to drop tariffs with gifts of a Rolex desk clock and a 1 kg gold bar.
www.axios.com/2025/11/14/t...
How the Swiss convinced Trump to drop tariffs with gifts of a Rolex desk clock and a 1 kg gold bar.
www.axios.com/2025/11/14/t...
How to lobby Trump with Swiss precision: gifts, gold and gab
How the Swiss broke a diplomatic logjam on tariffs by arriving with tributes fit for a king.
www.axios.com
November 15, 2025 at 5:16 PM
“straight up giving the president a bar of gold” is where we’re at now on the “corruption isn’t real” scale
good work, John Roberts
good work, John Roberts
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
can’t really express the level of contempt i have for what is just a form of solipsism. “the things that annoy me are the only things that exist and also the worst things imaginable”
November 15, 2025 at 4:12 PM
can’t really express the level of contempt i have for what is just a form of solipsism. “the things that annoy me are the only things that exist and also the worst things imaginable”
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
Yay!! This makes me so happy!!
@renatakeller.bsky.social “The Fate of the Americas” has arrived at the Boston Athenaeum. (Special thanx to the late John H. Wiggin!) Can’t wait to dig in.
November 15, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Yay!! This makes me so happy!!
Reposted by Charlie Thomas
HOI is one of the skeleton keys to understanding all of this
November 15, 2025 at 4:07 PM
HOI is one of the skeleton keys to understanding all of this
It is also very telling that the lawyer hired by Sheridan at UVA to try and push out the President was explicitly presented because she had been “advising” Columbia in their own process. It honestly seems like there are a lot of folks who sympathized with the admin while guiding the schools.
One reason why elite schools (Columbia, Brown, Cornell) caving to Trump’s illegal impoundment and extortion is so galling — a betrayal, really — is that they would have won had they fought. By giving up, they guaranteed every other school will have to fight harder.
Judge bars Trump from immediately cutting funding to the University of California | CNN Politics
The Trump administration cannot immediately cut federal funding to the University of California or issue fines against the school system over claims it allows antisemitism or other forms of discrimina...
www.cnn.com
November 15, 2025 at 3:05 PM
It is also very telling that the lawyer hired by Sheridan at UVA to try and push out the President was explicitly presented because she had been “advising” Columbia in their own process. It honestly seems like there are a lot of folks who sympathized with the admin while guiding the schools.