Timothy Burke
@timothyburke.bsky.social
Professor of History at Swarthmore College. Writes at timothyburke.substack.com, continuing from his old blog Easily Distracted. Remembers when there was no Internet, and stays up late because someone is wrong on it.
The BBC is funded by a royal charter. If it can't stand against a spurious lawsuit for allowing a writer to say something undebatably true--that Donald Trump is the most openly corrupt President in U.S. history--then that's not because of money. It's because of the cowards running the UK government.
November 26, 2025 at 3:35 PM
The BBC is funded by a royal charter. If it can't stand against a spurious lawsuit for allowing a writer to say something undebatably true--that Donald Trump is the most openly corrupt President in U.S. history--then that's not because of money. It's because of the cowards running the UK government.
Reposted by Timothy Burke
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
Reposted by Timothy Burke
The single feature of capitalism that most sets it against human flourishing is how misguided egomaniacs can take hold of a business that works well and produces steady value, blow it up in the name of some transparently dumb idea and walk away clean. www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/i...
HBO Max’s Big Plan: Be HBO Again
Casey Bloys is embracing a brand position for TV's crown jewel as a complement, not a replacement, for Netflix — kind of like how it was back when it was a premium cable add-on.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
November 22, 2025 at 7:09 PM
The single feature of capitalism that most sets it against human flourishing is how misguided egomaniacs can take hold of a business that works well and produces steady value, blow it up in the name of some transparently dumb idea and walk away clean. www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/i...
The puzzle to me with any multiplayer game that has a lot of children playing is why the solution that Toontown used a long time ago didn't become an industry standard. No chat, no open communications, identify nothing about players, other than standard speech bubbles for coordinating play action.
November 21, 2025 at 7:43 PM
The puzzle to me with any multiplayer game that has a lot of children playing is why the solution that Toontown used a long time ago didn't become an industry standard. No chat, no open communications, identify nothing about players, other than standard speech bubbles for coordinating play action.
Well, when a tech CEO can't handle an interview with Kevin Roose, one of the most tech-friendly journalists in the history of IT, that says something about the company.
November 21, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Well, when a tech CEO can't handle an interview with Kevin Roose, one of the most tech-friendly journalists in the history of IT, that says something about the company.
Reposted by Timothy Burke
The President of the United States just called for Democratic members of Congress to be executed. "HANG THEM", he posted.
If you're a person of influence in this country and you haven't picked a side, maybe now would be the time to pick a fucking side.
If you're a person of influence in this country and you haven't picked a side, maybe now would be the time to pick a fucking side.
November 20, 2025 at 4:15 PM
The President of the United States just called for Democratic members of Congress to be executed. "HANG THEM", he posted.
If you're a person of influence in this country and you haven't picked a side, maybe now would be the time to pick a fucking side.
If you're a person of influence in this country and you haven't picked a side, maybe now would be the time to pick a fucking side.
In finishing Tony Benn's diaries, I read about a group called the Elders that had been convened by Nelson Mandela at the urging of Richard Branson and Peter Gabriel in 2007. I had no memory of it. I was more surprised to find it still exists. All very nice people, but it's rather absurd.
November 21, 2025 at 2:36 PM
In finishing Tony Benn's diaries, I read about a group called the Elders that had been convened by Nelson Mandela at the urging of Richard Branson and Peter Gabriel in 2007. I had no memory of it. I was more surprised to find it still exists. All very nice people, but it's rather absurd.
I think I know who the noisy weakling is. Hint: he is an opinion columnist for the New York Times.
Ross Douthat: Don’t Worry. Trump Doesn’t REALLY Want Democratic Officials to be Executed.
November 21, 2025 at 2:29 PM
I think I know who the noisy weakling is. Hint: he is an opinion columnist for the New York Times.
Good. But as always in these situations, the lingering question is "why did it take this circumstance to produce this outcome?" Why do the investigations always focus just on the particulars of a given accusation and not on the inability of an institution to live into what it claims as values?
#BREAKING: Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers will immediately leave his role as an instructor at Harvard while the University investigates his ties to child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Dhruv T. Patel and Cam N. Srivastava report.
Dhruv T. Patel and Cam N. Srivastava report.
Summers Will Not Finish Semester of Teaching as Harvard Investigates Epstein Ties | News | The Harvard Crimson
Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers will immediately leave his role as an instructor at Harvard while the University investigates his ties to child sex trafficker Jeffrey E. Epstein.
www.thecrimson.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:40 AM
Good. But as always in these situations, the lingering question is "why did it take this circumstance to produce this outcome?" Why do the investigations always focus just on the particulars of a given accusation and not on the inability of an institution to live into what it claims as values?
Here's a top lesson of the last year. Everybody who every said "don't leave a bad law sitting around on the books and don't ignore the potential misuse of a legal precedent that hasn't been misused yet" is 100% on the money, especially for people who think law and norms are important.
November 20, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Here's a top lesson of the last year. Everybody who every said "don't leave a bad law sitting around on the books and don't ignore the potential misuse of a legal precedent that hasn't been misused yet" is 100% on the money, especially for people who think law and norms are important.
I dislike the observation that Trump has accelerating cognitive problems. It lets him off the hook for the raw malevolence behind his increasingly incoherent expression. 40 years ago, he would have had the same depraved moral indifference to a journalist being violently murdered, just more clearly.
November 19, 2025 at 7:03 PM
I dislike the observation that Trump has accelerating cognitive problems. It lets him off the hook for the raw malevolence behind his increasingly incoherent expression. 40 years ago, he would have had the same depraved moral indifference to a journalist being violently murdered, just more clearly.
The NYT is not subtle when they're trying to do someone a favor or when they're out to destroy someone. The story on Summers today goes out of its way not to mention the unsavory specifics of "seeking romantic advice" from Epstein and only quotes one email exchange, at the very end of the story.
November 18, 2025 at 2:26 PM
The NYT is not subtle when they're trying to do someone a favor or when they're out to destroy someone. The story on Summers today goes out of its way not to mention the unsavory specifics of "seeking romantic advice" from Epstein and only quotes one email exchange, at the very end of the story.
Reposted by Timothy Burke
mr president sir theres a story coming about how you intervened to help a sex criminal. no sir, not that sex criminal you helped….no not that one either…sir, please stop guessing sex criminals that you helped. ill give you a hint sir, hes a trafficker. no sir, not that trafficker a different one
NEW: When Andrew Tate landed in the US, Customs & Border Protection seized his electronic devices. But @propublica.org found that a White House official told DHS to return the devices, emphasizing that the request came from the White House.
By @robert-faturechi.bsky.social & Avi Asher-Schapiro
By @robert-faturechi.bsky.social & Avi Asher-Schapiro
The White House Intervened on Behalf of Accused Sex Trafficker Andrew Tate During a Federal Investigation
Federal authorities were chided for seizing electronic devices from Tate and his brother, and told to return them, records and interviews show. Experts said the intervention was highly inappropriate.
www.propublica.org
November 18, 2025 at 1:10 PM
mr president sir theres a story coming about how you intervened to help a sex criminal. no sir, not that sex criminal you helped….no not that one either…sir, please stop guessing sex criminals that you helped. ill give you a hint sir, hes a trafficker. no sir, not that trafficker a different one
I think we're probably a year away from Trumpworld people just hiring militia leaders and donors to be Justice Department officials and arguing that they don't need to be lawyers or know anything about the law, just to be loyal to the Supreme Leader.
November 18, 2025 at 12:07 AM
I think we're probably a year away from Trumpworld people just hiring militia leaders and donors to be Justice Department officials and arguing that they don't need to be lawyers or know anything about the law, just to be loyal to the Supreme Leader.
"The bullet theoretical launched the bullet possible."
November 17, 2025 at 10:03 PM
"The bullet theoretical launched the bullet possible."
You know, this from Nuzzi is not half-bad: "What is a politician? Any man who wants to be loved more than other men and through his pursuit reveals why he cannot love himself."
November 17, 2025 at 3:20 PM
You know, this from Nuzzi is not half-bad: "What is a politician? Any man who wants to be loved more than other men and through his pursuit reveals why he cannot love himself."
Reposted by Timothy Burke
Absolutely no way to read this and not conclude that the Department of Justice has been deeply corrupted. And this is from a time when career lawyers were in place, pushing back against illegality. With firings and resignations, the politicization will just get worse.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
60 Attorneys on the Year of Chaos Inside Trump’s Justice Department (Gift Article)
Sixty former staffers describe an environment of suspicion and intimidation within the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency.
www.nytimes.com
November 17, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Absolutely no way to read this and not conclude that the Department of Justice has been deeply corrupted. And this is from a time when career lawyers were in place, pushing back against illegality. With firings and resignations, the politicization will just get worse.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Everything about Summers in the detailed Crimson story about his emails with Epstein is gross, though that's just a coda to a career full of gross behavior. But that he and Epstein gave a racist nickname to an East Asian woman he was sexually harassing is particularly grotesque.
I feel like the racism of the nickname they used for her really should have made the headline
November 17, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Everything about Summers in the detailed Crimson story about his emails with Epstein is gross, though that's just a coda to a career full of gross behavior. But that he and Epstein gave a racist nickname to an East Asian woman he was sexually harassing is particularly grotesque.
Gurri is right about the Trumpist war against professionals but I think he underestimates the reasons--it's not just about personalism or patrimonialism. This is the heart of Trumpism as a revolutionary ideology--they mean to destroy professionalization. www.liberalcurrents.com/the-war-on-p...
The War on Professionalism and Professional Competence
Incompetence and sloppiness are the self-conscious ethos of the administration.
www.liberalcurrents.com
November 17, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Gurri is right about the Trumpist war against professionals but I think he underestimates the reasons--it's not just about personalism or patrimonialism. This is the heart of Trumpism as a revolutionary ideology--they mean to destroy professionalization. www.liberalcurrents.com/the-war-on-p...
Do I dunk on someone saying "Trump is betraying me" who was a supporter? It depends how that person understands the cause of this "betrayal". If they say, "I have been thinking in incoherent and hurtful ways, I'm sorry", absolutely no dunk. If it's "I'm a real believer and Trump isn't", dunk away.
November 17, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Do I dunk on someone saying "Trump is betraying me" who was a supporter? It depends how that person understands the cause of this "betrayal". If they say, "I have been thinking in incoherent and hurtful ways, I'm sorry", absolutely no dunk. If it's "I'm a real believer and Trump isn't", dunk away.
A beloved friend once told me, "You can't call people evil". I understood the point--it's the useful thing that Inga Clendinnen wrote about the men who perpetrated the Holocaust. You don't want to say "someone is beyond comprehension". What I mean: someone is agentively responsible for anathema. 1/
November 16, 2025 at 12:05 AM
A beloved friend once told me, "You can't call people evil". I understood the point--it's the useful thing that Inga Clendinnen wrote about the men who perpetrated the Holocaust. You don't want to say "someone is beyond comprehension". What I mean: someone is agentively responsible for anathema. 1/
It's not that I had any doubt about Larry Summers. What I'm thinking about now, again, are all the people who said with such conviction, "No, you're overreacting, Larry doesn't have the slightest bit of bias, he's just thinking about a point we should consider".
November 13, 2025 at 11:26 PM
It's not that I had any doubt about Larry Summers. What I'm thinking about now, again, are all the people who said with such conviction, "No, you're overreacting, Larry doesn't have the slightest bit of bias, he's just thinking about a point we should consider".
Reposted by Timothy Burke
Anyway if you ever caught skeevy vibes from the New Skeptics, Third Culture or EDGE crowd, or questioned the entire existence of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, you were not wrong.
November 13, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Anyway if you ever caught skeevy vibes from the New Skeptics, Third Culture or EDGE crowd, or questioned the entire existence of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, you were not wrong.
Epstein's life as it materialized in his emails, his contacts, his money, illuminates the world of power and influence that emerged out of the 1990s like adding contrast in an MRI exam. We already know a lot about the endemic corruption of that world, but Epstein makes its details blaze out.
November 13, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Epstein's life as it materialized in his emails, his contacts, his money, illuminates the world of power and influence that emerged out of the 1990s like adding contrast in an MRI exam. We already know a lot about the endemic corruption of that world, but Epstein makes its details blaze out.