Mark Stoneman Profile Photo

Mark R. Stoneman

Historian, editor, and translator for hire (German to English). Longtime resident of Washington, DC, now in Conway, NH, as a caregiver (he/him).

  2025

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    Inspiring Photo from 1971 for Our Troubled Times

    Black and white photo of men and women conference goers in a social situation of some kind, standing. The women described in the caption are in the foreground. They are the focal point.

    “Isabel Miller and Barbara Gittings hugging librarians” in 1971 at the American Library Association Conference in Dallas, Texas. (Miller is on the left. Gittings is on the right in the floral sleeveless dress.)

    Librarians can be central in the fight against bigotry and for equal rights, which might explain why some gay rights activists were there. (An important example: early professional Black librarians.)

    Photo by Kay Tobin, via the Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen Gay History Papers and Photographs Collection, NYPL Digital Collections, image ID 1606079. 🏳️‍🌈

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    I’m terrible at memes, but poking fun at the oaf is never not fun.
    Snippet of musical score to a jingle that starts 'M - I - C - K - E - Y' followed by ' M - O - U - S - E'. but above the last five letters, in red, is 'T - R - U - M - P'.

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    If you choose not to continue in your current role in the cult, we thank you for your service to your Dead God, and you will be provided with an unsummoning spell from the Gore Palace utilizing a deferred immolation program.

    – “Deferred Culling Email to President Nyarlathotep’s Workforce” by Andrew Paul, www.mcsweeneys.net…, January 29, 2025.

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    If Merz thinks he can control the AfD, he should remember that parliamentary elections have consequences, and political predictions are worth as much as Orange Oaf’s word, diddly-squat. Merz should also consider the American grifter-in-chief’s takeover of the Republican party, which is no longer recognizable. This path was made easier by the Tea Party nuts of the mid-1990s and early aughts (think debt ceiling and endless obstructionism), but Orange Oaf, who believes nothing, co-opted the party completely. If Merz has learned from Trump that norms need not constrain him, what does he think the AfD has learned?

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    PS: The joyful picture of Barbara Gittings I posted earlier today came from the private sphere, but even their private moment was political. Certainly they left their papers to the NYPL under terms that allow it to share the image online.
    #PrivateLives #PublicPolicy #ThePersonalIsPolitical 🏳️‍🌈

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    Maybe 4 in (10 cm) of snow last night. Not as good as down on the Gulf of Mexico, but still something.

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    Where is big pharma on a Sec RFK Jr for HHS? Do they really want to work with dozens of different health departments because there are no more common national standards? Or will lobbying only begin after a monster takes over HHS?

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    Photo of Joy and Love, 1962

    Her head, one shoulder, and one hand is visible. Soap in hair and forehead. In a shower, the rest of her behind the plastic shower curtain. But all one sees are her radiant eyes and face, the big spontaneous smile or laugh. So much joy.

    So much joy in this photo, so much love: “Barbara Gittings in shower, circa 1962” by Kay Tobin. 🏳️‍🌈

    Via Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen Gay History Papers and Photographs collection, NYPL Digital Collections, image ID 1605708.

    Postscript

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    Orange Ogre’s economic warfare on poor people and blue states undermines the rationale for a federally administered income tax. Why should rich states send money to Washington if there is no ethos or practice of solidarity?

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    We haven’t had enough fresh snow lately, so wind on the dry roads, driveways, and parking lots is kicking up a lot of sand, salt, and other things that’ve made me reach for a rescue inhaler today. Cough. Hack. 😷

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    Old poster, silkscreen color print, showing two deer, a doe and a fawn, caught in the headlights of a large approaching car at night. The road is bounded by trees. The main text below the image reads, 'Don't Kill Our Wild Life' and below that, smaller, 'Department of the Interior, National Park Service'. At the bottom right in small text reads, 'Made by Works Progress Administration - Federal Art Project NYC'.

    Thinking of a member of Orange Oaf's cast of terrible characters…

    Don't Kill Our Wild Life – Department of the Interior, National Park Service – By Works Progress Administration – Federal Art Project NYC – [ca. 1936–40]

    Via Library of Congress.

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    Black and white photo of group of African American men. Twenty are wearing flight suits with pilots headgear and goggles on their heads. Nine sitting on the ground in front are dressed in more ordinary military uniforms.

    Group portrait of a Tuskegee Airmen squadron, U.S. Army Air Corps, ca. 1939–45. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NYPL Digital Collections, image ID 1823641.

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    “Air Force says recruits will again learn about Tuskegee Airmen” by Sig Christenson, San Antonio Express-News, January 26, 2025.

    The head of the service’s San Antonio-based training command said a video about the famed Black aviators would remain in the Air Force basic training curriculum. The course had been shut down in response to President Trump’s DEI ban.

    Apparently overly zealous interpretations of executive orders can be turned back in some cases. It’s a small win for military training and tradition building, but it also suggests that military professionals can get through, at least on something like this. Trump’s pardon of war criminals in his first term tell a different story, however.

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    blue cover page of Simple Sabotage stamped declassified and marked with catalog numbers
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    Feel like I could use a little American history, starting with Amy S. Greenberg, A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico (Knopf, 2012). 📚

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    Illustration shows a woman diving into the warm waters of Florida after shedding the furs and heavy clothing of winter. Also shows in the background girls flying like birds from cold climates to the tropical warmth of Florida.

    “From Maine to Florida. The Annual Migration of the Bathing-Girl.” By Gordon Ross for Puck, January 11, 1911. Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011648855/.

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    Quoth Darth Putin: “Chomsky: Greenland is clearly in US sphere of influence. Denmark should trade land for peace. Mearsheimer: Great powers always ruthlessly pursue their own interests. Denmark should be pragmatic. Varoufakis: Denmark’s aggressive joining of EU provoked Trump. It’s their own fault.” /sarcasm

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    Valuable multilingual resource: “Immigrants' Rights,” www.aclu.org….

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    Sergio Olmos, “A surprising immigration raid in Kern County foreshadows what awaits farmworkers and businesses,” Cal Matters, January 10, 2025, calmatters.org….

    “If this is the new normal, this is absolute economic devastation,” says one local economist.

    This and more recent stories suggest that ICE was chomping at the bit before the rotten orange began his second term.

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    Finished reading Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present (Norton, 2020). Highly recommended. Good antidote to feelings of confusion and helplessness in these troubled times.📚

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