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Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

310 followers 200 following 2.3K posts

I live in Seattle and post stuff related to history, economics, politics, and Indic and East Asian philosophy. Oh and sports. 南無阿弥陀仏

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Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

Favorite comment: This is the fit of a 15 yr old in 2010 selling weed and stealing cologne

A man dressed in Ralph Lauren detritus from the Obama era who looks like he’s going to try to sell you solar panels.

November 29, 2025 at 5:09 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

Amazing stuff happening in the old home county.

November 27, 2025 at 11:00 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

Let’s hear it for loveless marriages!

November 24, 2025 at 4:14 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

There’s a lot going on with this guys essays, but they all are just restating the idea that children will fix whatever ails you.

November 24, 2025 at 4:11 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

This is certainly a history-adjacent thought. This man has a PhD in history btw.

Isn't it an import from the US, though, specifically Trump's Maga America? "I dispute that," Kruger says. "I recognise there's a bit of a conscious echo. But remember America is British."
I look up from my notebook and frown. Are you sure you meant to say that "America is British?"
"Yeah, go on, definitely. Trump, JD, they all explicitly say, 'We derive our ideas - and certainly our political model and our political culture - from Britain? And, 'What a shame you guys seem to have so little pride in your own country and your own model? If you look back to the 18th and 19th century, we were pretty vulgar, too. There's a lot of flag-waving. So partly, Reform is just bringing it back."
So flag-waving is vulgar? He tells me not to be a snob. "Vulgarity is great. It's a simple, straightforward, uncomplicated assertion of national pride, which is a good thing - if the country itself is good and democratic. If you go back to the time when America was being born, Britain was extremely triumphalist and pleased with itself in a way that we would now regard as terribly déclassé."

November 22, 2025 at 4:07 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

Jefferson’s advice to Madison regarding Patrick Henry.

Henry on his feet was a force of nature, part preacher in the pulpit, part actor on the stage, who spoke without notes, often wandering off point, but always casting a spell. In response to Madison's request for advice, Jefferson acknowledged that there was no way to deal with Henry "except to ardently pray for his imminent death."

November 21, 2025 at 11:26 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

We are sun dogging today

Two adorable chihuahuas in beds in the sun

November 20, 2025 at 9:06 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

We are SO back.

November 20, 2025 at 6:05 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

November 18, 2025 at 1:35 AM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

Elmer Smith was not a brilliant attorney, nor was he a good provider for his family, but he would do anything for the poor and downtrodden and he was a really great rhetorician.

Now look here! Who owns the resources of this world? You do. You own these forests; you own these coal mines around here; you own the ships on yonder water; you own the factories in the city over there. They are yours. You don't need to take them over—they are yours now. Those who now "own" them are thieves and robbers. What would you do if you would see some one wear your watch and who had stolen it? Why, you would take it away from him, of course. Do the same thing here. How they say to me-"Elmer, you are fanning the fire of discontent with your speeches!" Of course I am! Did ever anything worth while ever come to pass in the history of the world without fanning the fire of discontent? No!

November 17, 2025 at 3:05 AM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

Too early for Lulu.

November 15, 2025 at 4:54 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

After the magic mushrooms started wearing off, another series of photos show Johnson in a state of euphoria as he digs into a bowl of salad and declares it the 'best salad' he's ever had.
Johnson's business partner, Kate Tolo, wrote on his X account that he 'intentionally selected a mushroom for his first bite and then he thanked it', as he was still high from the psychedelic fungi.

November 13, 2025 at 2:59 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

Bad day for survivors, please enjoy a photo of Stevie sleeping.

November 12, 2025 at 4:46 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

An assortment of late bloomers

November 11, 2025 at 4:15 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

Please enjoy a minute of gentle rain and the hum of a Monday in the city taken from my garden this morning.

November 10, 2025 at 4:50 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

November 10, 2025 at 4:45 AM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

In the thick of leaf-peeping season.

November 9, 2025 at 7:29 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

Smith was a tough guy to the point of being recklessly unaware of how close he was to getting lynched. The closest he came to death was during a speaking tour in Eureka, California, when, after getting kicked out if town, he and his bodyguard were kidnapped by fifty drunk Legionnaires.

Smith left town the next morning in a two-car motorcade with Edwards and several other Wobblies, the Legionnaires following in their own car caravan. When Smith's party reached Scotia, headquarters of the Pacific Lumber Company, the local marshal stopped them and ordered Smith out of his car. Smith refused to get out without a warrant. When the Legionnaires arrived, they seized Smith, Edwards, and another man and sent the rest of the Wobblies back to Eureka. They drove the kidnapped men to the local Legion hall. During the drive, a marshal in the front seat turned around and said: "Where I come from we used to string up fellows like you every week." Smith replied evenly: "From what I have heard about you and your kind, that doesn't surprise me any." Some fifty Legionnaires, armed with rifles and drinking heavily, kept their three captives hostage for hours as they discussed what to do with them. Some cursed the three men and threatened to lynch them. They rifled Smith's briefcase and destroyed his file of newspaper clippings. Edwards grew angry as time wore on and was ready for a fight, but Smith calmed him down, assuring him that it was best to keep still.

November 7, 2025 at 6:46 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

His secretary Nora Dishong, was also a fighter.

The next day the motorcade reached Onalaska. Dishong was passing out some Farmer-Labor literature along with announcements of the evening meeting when three men carrying guns approached her. They ordered her to stop leafleting, but she refused to be intimidated. "I'm handing out more literature. Pull the trigger if you want to," she said. The men backed off.

November 7, 2025 at 6:40 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

After his acquittal in the Centralia IWW trial in 1919, Elmer Smith ran (unsuccessfully) for Lewis County prosecutor on the short-lived Washington Farmer-Labor ticket. Here he is responding to a pamphlet circulating in the county making outlandish claims about what the F-L Party’s aims were.

Smith was an effective campaigner, especially with his direct attacks on his opponents. Once he brandished a fake Farmer-Labor program that had been circulating around the county. The program called for atheism, free love, and common ownership of just about everything, including women. "They're whipped when they resort to cheap lies of this kind," Smith shouted. "Are you going to stand for these calumnies? Quit hugging the empty fantasy of hope to your breasts and Get In The Fight!" The crowd responded with loud applause.

November 7, 2025 at 6:36 PM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

This issue of BusinessWeek being delivered after Tuesday is very funny.

California Governor
Gavin Newsom is writing a battle plan for America's hapless
Democrats

November 7, 2025 at 1:42 AM

Neil Snyder

@neilsnyder.bsky.social

Rain-free morning. My favorite rose bush was damaged in the windstorm last week and I had to take out a good 60% of it. (It’s the pale pink rose in the photo.)