Larry Birdland
@gerscholem.bsky.social
PhD student at UChicago - I read Phoenician, Hebrew, Akkadian, and Greek poetry. I collect records and hail from the city-state of Bloomington, IN
“I’m stayin’ . . . I’m finishin’ my coffee.”
“I’m stayin’ . . . I’m finishin’ my coffee.”
Thalia Hall Chicago 10/10
Midwest, East coast and southwest live rap dates on sale now
mikeeaglestinks.tumblr.com/post/8966612...
mikeeaglestinks.tumblr.com/post/8966612...
August 23, 2026 at 9:56 PM
Thalia Hall Chicago 10/10
While I was briefly visiting Athens today I saw not one but two pieces of graffiti in different parts of the city depicting a star of David, an equal sign, and a sw*st*k*
I suppose there are many ways to interpret this but none of them feel good
I suppose there are many ways to interpret this but none of them feel good
August 22, 2026 at 8:31 PM
While I was briefly visiting Athens today I saw not one but two pieces of graffiti in different parts of the city depicting a star of David, an equal sign, and a sw*st*k*
I suppose there are many ways to interpret this but none of them feel good
I suppose there are many ways to interpret this but none of them feel good
I just call this state capitalism
Target's profits just doubled, because the company got a massive $1 billion tariff refund.
Ordinary people have yet to see tariff refunds from the government or these corporations.
www.ft.com/content/c555...
Ordinary people have yet to see tariff refunds from the government or these corporations.
www.ft.com/content/c555...
Target profits double after $1bn tariff refund
US retailer reports higher sales as net income boosted by Washington’s tariff return programme
www.ft.com
August 19, 2026 at 9:07 PM
I just call this state capitalism
Reposted by Larry Birdland
Target's profits just doubled, because the company got a massive $1 billion tariff refund.
Ordinary people have yet to see tariff refunds from the government or these corporations.
www.ft.com/content/c555...
Ordinary people have yet to see tariff refunds from the government or these corporations.
www.ft.com/content/c555...
Target profits double after $1bn tariff refund
US retailer reports higher sales as net income boosted by Washington’s tariff return programme
www.ft.com
August 19, 2026 at 6:36 PM
Target's profits just doubled, because the company got a massive $1 billion tariff refund.
Ordinary people have yet to see tariff refunds from the government or these corporations.
www.ft.com/content/c555...
Ordinary people have yet to see tariff refunds from the government or these corporations.
www.ft.com/content/c555...
Pedantic, condescending prescriptivists who don't understand how language (change) works bug me in ways I can't - wait I just did
People who don’t know the difference between ‘entomology’ and ‘etymology’ bug us in ways we cannot put into words.
August 19, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Pedantic, condescending prescriptivists who don't understand how language (change) works bug me in ways I can't - wait I just did
Reposted by Larry Birdland
The Department of Education's laundry list of errors and failures on student debt is getting much longer.
Wrong balances. False notices. Missing payments. Disappearing trackers. Vanished repayment plans. Garnished payments. Broken websites.
Nothing works. It's all crashing.
Wrong balances. False notices. Missing payments. Disappearing trackers. Vanished repayment plans. Garnished payments. Broken websites.
Nothing works. It's all crashing.
August 18, 2026 at 7:53 PM
The Department of Education's laundry list of errors and failures on student debt is getting much longer.
Wrong balances. False notices. Missing payments. Disappearing trackers. Vanished repayment plans. Garnished payments. Broken websites.
Nothing works. It's all crashing.
Wrong balances. False notices. Missing payments. Disappearing trackers. Vanished repayment plans. Garnished payments. Broken websites.
Nothing works. It's all crashing.
Every other major city is turning it's back on Columbus, but Chicago is building him a statue - par for the course in the Midwest I guess - much like NASCAR, smoking, and guns, we double down on the 29th century.
The museum that will house Little Italy’s Columbus statue readies for opening as Taylor Street Fest kicks off. blockclubchi.co/4g7eHNS
August 14, 2026 at 10:15 PM
Every other major city is turning it's back on Columbus, but Chicago is building him a statue - par for the course in the Midwest I guess - much like NASCAR, smoking, and guns, we double down on the 29th century.
"People who were brought up in the macroeconomic framework that was dominant in graduate school when I was there said, “Unemployment is down; inflation is down. Everybody must be happy. Why aren’t they happy?” Paul Krugman was saying that the people must be stupid;"
jacobin.com/2026/08/galb...
jacobin.com/2026/08/galb...
Mainstream Economic Myths Are Disastrous for US Policy
In a wide-ranging interview with Jacobin, economist James K. Galbraith discusses how neoclassical economic orthodoxy has badly distorted US policy thinking on everything from inflation to trade policy...
jacobin.com
August 14, 2026 at 4:14 PM
"People who were brought up in the macroeconomic framework that was dominant in graduate school when I was there said, “Unemployment is down; inflation is down. Everybody must be happy. Why aren’t they happy?” Paul Krugman was saying that the people must be stupid;"
jacobin.com/2026/08/galb...
jacobin.com/2026/08/galb...
Reposted by Larry Birdland
At the Rylands Library in Manchester looking at a document labelled "Autobiography of a cavalryman in the Scots Greys" that they estimate a date for around 1825. Did not expect this memoir (the title on the first page reads "Memoirs for a Winter's Evening") to be such a banger. It's first paragraph:
August 12, 2026 at 11:16 AM
At the Rylands Library in Manchester looking at a document labelled "Autobiography of a cavalryman in the Scots Greys" that they estimate a date for around 1825. Did not expect this memoir (the title on the first page reads "Memoirs for a Winter's Evening") to be such a banger. It's first paragraph:
There really are lots of cats in Istanbul
August 8, 2026 at 7:53 PM
There really are lots of cats in Istanbul
Reposted by Larry Birdland
Sur le site d'une villa romaine à Córdoba en Espagne, identification de ce qui semble avoir été une bibliothèque et qui serait la plus ancienne de la péninsule ibérique
www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2026/07/t...
www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2026/07/t...
The Oldest Library in the Iberian Peninsula and the Westernmost in the Entire Empire Found in a Roman Villa in Córdoba
A team from the University of Granada has confirmed that a room in the Roman villa of Fuente Álamo, in the municipality of Puente Genil, functioned as a library, making it the oldest documented in the...
www.labrujulaverde.com
August 6, 2026 at 12:27 AM
Sur le site d'une villa romaine à Córdoba en Espagne, identification de ce qui semble avoir été une bibliothèque et qui serait la plus ancienne de la péninsule ibérique
www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2026/07/t...
www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2026/07/t...
How could anyone have possibly predicted this or done anything about it?
today in "headlines you'd see on a background TV in a disaster movie"
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Rhine Falls to Lowest Since 1880, Disrupting European Trade
The Rhine River’s water levels dropped to the lowest in nearly 150 years as hot, dry weather grips Europe, threatening to disrupt a crucial route for transporting coal, fuel and industrial commodities...
www.bloomberg.com
August 4, 2026 at 11:24 PM
How could anyone have possibly predicted this or done anything about it?
Reposted by Larry Birdland
Student loans are breaking *again.*
This time, debtors enrolled in the SAVE plan have received a wrongful message claiming they've missed months of payments and are now delinquent.
This isn't true.
It's a wrongful message—and another massive error.
Payments should be paused.
This time, debtors enrolled in the SAVE plan have received a wrongful message claiming they've missed months of payments and are now delinquent.
This isn't true.
It's a wrongful message—and another massive error.
Payments should be paused.
August 3, 2026 at 10:46 PM
Student loans are breaking *again.*
This time, debtors enrolled in the SAVE plan have received a wrongful message claiming they've missed months of payments and are now delinquent.
This isn't true.
It's a wrongful message—and another massive error.
Payments should be paused.
This time, debtors enrolled in the SAVE plan have received a wrongful message claiming they've missed months of payments and are now delinquent.
This isn't true.
It's a wrongful message—and another massive error.
Payments should be paused.
I genuinely don't understand how trump can get away with this kind of blackmail but Biden couldn't forgive any loans
President Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v
Trump Moves to Cut Off Student Loans for Tons of Degrees
Under a new rule, if your degree doesn’t make enough money, you won’t be able to get a student loan.
trib.al
August 3, 2026 at 10:28 PM
I genuinely don't understand how trump can get away with this kind of blackmail but Biden couldn't forgive any loans
Reposted by Larry Birdland
The NYT published a missing chapter of the DNC “autopsy,” titled “What Happened in 2024” which offers criticisms of party consultants who are “self-enriching” and out of touch with the concerns of ordinary voters.
Unpublished DNC Autopsy Chapter Slams “Self-Enriching” Consultants for 2024 Loss
The document describes them as insulated “from the realities many Americans were encountering in their lives.”…
truthout.org
August 3, 2026 at 7:46 PM
The NYT published a missing chapter of the DNC “autopsy,” titled “What Happened in 2024” which offers criticisms of party consultants who are “self-enriching” and out of touch with the concerns of ordinary voters.
I read this article.
I agree with a lot of it.
The trends it describes as "radicalism for radicalism's sake" have been growing for years, but since the pandemic they have begun to smother a lot of public protest in a way that is very alienating
www.liberalcurrents.com/prairieland-...
I agree with a lot of it.
The trends it describes as "radicalism for radicalism's sake" have been growing for years, but since the pandemic they have begun to smother a lot of public protest in a way that is very alienating
www.liberalcurrents.com/prairieland-...
Prairieland: A Tactical and Strategic Analysis
Great evils require effective remedies.
www.liberalcurrents.com
August 2, 2026 at 8:27 PM
I read this article.
I agree with a lot of it.
The trends it describes as "radicalism for radicalism's sake" have been growing for years, but since the pandemic they have begun to smother a lot of public protest in a way that is very alienating
www.liberalcurrents.com/prairieland-...
I agree with a lot of it.
The trends it describes as "radicalism for radicalism's sake" have been growing for years, but since the pandemic they have begun to smother a lot of public protest in a way that is very alienating
www.liberalcurrents.com/prairieland-...
Reposted by Larry Birdland
One of the risks of philology is that researchers spend so much time mastering its techniques, we end up asking questions that can only be answered with philology, in an effort to justify so much time invested in philology.
July 30, 2026 at 9:33 PM
One of the risks of philology is that researchers spend so much time mastering its techniques, we end up asking questions that can only be answered with philology, in an effort to justify so much time invested in philology.
This is an excellent point. Some of the problems the humanities face are the result of never resolving these wars. And, I would argue, the humanities, really history and literature, do need A Canon, just not the western one.
Part of resolving the wars is finding a new canon, & Homer should be in it
Part of resolving the wars is finding a new canon, & Homer should be in it
And, for that matter, we've never really resolved the canon wars in a satisfactory way, so there isn't really a national common set of readings any more, either at the high school or college level. Maybe that's fine, but that means that common cultural referents come through mass entertainment
August 1, 2026 at 10:22 PM
This is an excellent point. Some of the problems the humanities face are the result of never resolving these wars. And, I would argue, the humanities, really history and literature, do need A Canon, just not the western one.
Part of resolving the wars is finding a new canon, & Homer should be in it
Part of resolving the wars is finding a new canon, & Homer should be in it
One of the risks of philology is that researchers spend so much time mastering its techniques, we end up asking questions that can only be answered with philology, in an effort to justify so much time invested in philology.
July 30, 2026 at 9:33 PM
One of the risks of philology is that researchers spend so much time mastering its techniques, we end up asking questions that can only be answered with philology, in an effort to justify so much time invested in philology.
I haven't seen Nolan's version yet but my favorite adaptation is still Taxi Driver - at least it gets the ending right
July 29, 2026 at 10:07 PM
I haven't seen Nolan's version yet but my favorite adaptation is still Taxi Driver - at least it gets the ending right
I will add to this that we need strong academics at all levels to stand up for student debtors, students that borrowed money that was then handed over to academia.
Professors, admin, staff, presidents, alumni, donors - they all need to make this issue a policy priority.
Professors, admin, staff, presidents, alumni, donors - they all need to make this issue a policy priority.
Add your name to our petition:
We need strong Democrats to tell Trump to pause payments.
debtcollective.org/forms/petiti...
We need strong Democrats to tell Trump to pause payments.
debtcollective.org/forms/petiti...
July 28, 2026 at 2:44 AM
I will add to this that we need strong academics at all levels to stand up for student debtors, students that borrowed money that was then handed over to academia.
Professors, admin, staff, presidents, alumni, donors - they all need to make this issue a policy priority.
Professors, admin, staff, presidents, alumni, donors - they all need to make this issue a policy priority.
Reposted by Larry Birdland
Add your name to our petition:
We need strong Democrats to tell Trump to pause payments.
debtcollective.org/forms/petiti...
We need strong Democrats to tell Trump to pause payments.
debtcollective.org/forms/petiti...
July 28, 2026 at 2:18 AM
Add your name to our petition:
We need strong Democrats to tell Trump to pause payments.
debtcollective.org/forms/petiti...
We need strong Democrats to tell Trump to pause payments.
debtcollective.org/forms/petiti...
Post a perfect album from the 90s
July 27, 2026 at 1:56 AM
Post a perfect album from the 90s
Reposted by Larry Birdland
Washington is hanging around a cliff by rushmore after his face is already on it? wtf year is this supposed to be?
did trump go back in time to take Washington to the future to throw him off a cliff?
did trump go back in time to take Washington to the future to throw him off a cliff?
July 26, 2026 at 11:36 PM
Washington is hanging around a cliff by rushmore after his face is already on it? wtf year is this supposed to be?
did trump go back in time to take Washington to the future to throw him off a cliff?
did trump go back in time to take Washington to the future to throw him off a cliff?