Austin Powell

Historian.
Medieval and Renaissance Italy.
Religion, gender, and manuscript studies.

[Brian Connolly @BrianConnolly74]

there has long been internal conflict in disciplines and "the public" has long been skeptical of some of the work...the new thing over the past several decades is a structural/material crisis that is less about the content of a discipline than about the university itself

[Lorenzo Zamponi @masaccio_]

Immagina passare anche saltuariamente per Firenze e pensare che il problema della città sia che non ci sono abbastanza affitti brevi e la rendita immobiliare non è abbastanza tutelata...
Tanta retorica, poco rapporto con la realtà.

[Diabetic of Enlightenment @dee_of_e]

one of the easiest ways to beat the heat this summer is to chill in your penthouse infinity pool

[Cassie Pritchard @hecubian_devil]

Since the libs are already mad at me, I’ll poke the bear and say the anti-public-sector-union takes amount to effectively wishing for an end to the American labor movement—that’s just the reality when private sector unionization is ~6%.

I’m sure I’ll get some “yes” chad face replies and quotes, but be careful what you wish for; liberal democracy under capitalism but without unions has often been pretty politically unstable! People want a democratic say in their economic life; unions offer this. Without unions, allegiance to liberal democracy itself declines, because people feel (reasonably) without resource to have a say in where they spend a third of their lives—at work.

If you’re frustrated with the policy demands of some public sector unions, find compromises. Offer them something else in exchange! Do a little horse trading.

Better yet, reform and expand American labor law through things like sectoral bargaining so unions aren’t so often in zero-sum situations where they feel obligated to cling to existing jobs for existing members, because they don’t have a strong path to organizing new workplaces and finding good new union jobs for workers that would be displaced by, say, automating trains.

[Austin Powell @austintpowell2]

@sam_d_1995 @claireforny @LIRR @MTA Scab

[Mike Duncan @mikeduncan]

Tfw when fidelity to Helen of Troy’s genetics is somehow super important

[Policy Tensor @policytensor]

What have we learnt so far? What are the surprises? What has been discovered about the shape of the world?

Here’s the five most important.

1 — The most important discovery is that Iran is a great power. This is a real discovery that was not known to the Iranians themselves; specifically, they could not be sure in advance that a strategic victory over the US was achievable. It is a fundamental discovery about the polarity of the system: there are now four great powers in the world and this structure will have very important consequences going forward.

2 — The idea that you can secure strategic objectives with the air weapon due to the precision-strike revolution has been debunked. The ‘combined-arms orthodoxy’ has been vindicated and proponents of strategic air war have again been proven wrong.

3 — We have learnt that Warden’s decapitation idea does not work against highly-institutionalized states. This was always the position of the serious scholars, but recent Israeli successes had sown some doubt about the thesis. These doubts have now vanished.

4 — We have learnt that a mature precision-strike regime is defense-dominant. Specifically, we have learnt that a great power can deny a global maritime power access to its near-abroad, curtailing the latter’s ability to project power.

5 — As a corollary of the above, the US command of the global commons is gone. The US is no longer a maritime hegemon that can guarantee access to even the most important chokepoint in the system. This is a development of great significance in the history of capitalism.

[Saikat Chakrabarti @saikatc]

It is so obvious what Dems should run on. Vote Republican if you want endless war. Vote Democrat if you want daycare.

But to do that, Dems must commit to slashing the defense budget. Unfortunately, half the current Dem party won't do it. That's why we need to change the party.

[Policy Tensor @policytensor]

The imperial presidency is a creature of the empire. If tomorrow we gave up the empire and reverted to hemispheric defense, the raison d’être of the imperial presidency would vanish. The price of restoring democracy is losing the empire.

[Graham Platner for Senate @grahamformaine]

Before AI, we'd blame a low-level drone operator when we'd bomb a school, a wedding, a hospital. Now we can blame a computer instead.

The blame lies where it always did: with the president, with his generals. With the people who prosecute wars of choice that slaughter innocents.

[Will 🦥 Menaker @willmenaker]

However much you may think you already hate Chuck Schumer, it isn't enough.

[Dylan Riley @DylanRiley6216]

The solution to precarity in the academic job market is not to weaken tenure protections, nor to pretend that tenured professors are lazy, privileged, good-for-nothings; it is to expand the number of tenured positions. This should be obvious.

[Enzo Rossi @enzoreds]

In the US academia is becoming unviable outside the R1 environment. And soon it will be unviable outside the ultra-elite tier of R1s. The UK is in a similar situation. The few European institutions in the global/Anglo R1 game are holding up for now, but it’s scary.

[Diabetic of Enlightenment @dee_of_e]

a student started audibly snoring during my Lacan lecture today, but I simply shook my head and laughed. Sleeping is one of the most Lacanian things you can do. in fact, the lessons she learned in the dreamworld of das unbewusste would rival the insights of my own lecture

[Dr. Abdul El-Sayed @AbdulElSayed]

No. Delivering “all the aid that Israel needs” while Americans struggle for healthcare, housing, and basic dignity should not be part of the job description for US Senate minority leader.

[Nikhil Pal Singh @nikhil_palsingh]

Trump was able to create a bloated, federal paramilitary force with bi-partisan support. Every time I think about it, it blows my mind.

[Austin Powell @austintpowell2]

@ChrisMurphyCT Abolish ICE. do not cave to the promise of fake “reforms.”

[Austin Powell @austintpowell2]

@SenSchumer Abolish ICE

[Austin Powell @austintpowell2]

@hakeemjeffries Abolish ICE!!!

[Austin Powell @austintpowell2]

@Sen_Alsobrooks Abolish ICE. Reforms will do nothing. No kore money. Do not cave for fake “reforms”.