Dr. J. Franklin Williamson

Millions of student loan bills ballooned this year, sometimes doubling or tripling, after a Republican overhaul of repayment plans. Ahead of pivotal midterms focused on rising costs, some voters say student debt is an unsung affordability issue. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

My kids’ reactions to listening to a lot of bluegrass and Americana music in the car this week: Bill Monroe: “This is farmer music.” Allison Krause: “This is sad. She just crying into the microphone.” Nickel Creek: “This is distracting.” Mandolin Orange/Watchhouse: “This is sad dad music.”

Man, Dolly Parton’s passing is hitting me hard. Can’t say I was ever more than a casual fan of her music but she was just such a kind, caring, giving person. Haven’t felt this was about a celebrity since Jimmy Carter passed. We don’t seem to have many left like those two and it worries me.

Late July is for teachers like Sunday nights, writ large. Ugh.

The robots cost more to replace.

Have not yet seen the movie but does it make all of us who had to read the Iliad, the Odyssey, and a bunch of other Greek plays in high school suddenly hipsters? ‘Cause we knew about it before it was cool and all.

"I need you to *find* 11,780 votes." —Something said by someone who tries to interfere with elections, not something said by someone who is concerned with election interference.

Would be really funny if the chyron person goofed up and put Carte Blanche instead of Todd Blanche under his picture

Man, I'm loving seeing all this Congressional oversight!

Grading essays on pre-Columbian America and it's so refreshing to see spelling errors, poorly-phrased sentences, and too many first-person personal pronouns. Seriously. I'll take students who struggle with writing over those who use AI any day. I want them to be unafraid to try!

"In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."

@marketplace.org usually does the “cost of Christmas dinner” sort of thing but it’d be great to have a “cost of 4th of July cook out” for this year. Hamburger meat, corn, potatoes, the whole spread. With data to compare to 2025, etc… ooh also cost of gas for your friends to drive to your house.

Wonder if we'll see re-enactors from the International Brigades in the parade tomorrow? Or from John Brown's Raid? Or from March on Selma? That's part of "Independence Day," too.

Did you grow up celebrating Gettysburg Day or Vicksburg Day? Did you open your presents from Father Union on the 3rd or the 4th? Did you water your Tree of Liberty with the blood of Enslavers or the Tears of Secessionists?

If you're an FBI analyst surging to Atlanta to review records, reach out to me. I'll keep you anonymous. Signal in bio. Please share this post widely.

Spotify asked if I wanted to switch my screen to Dark Mode and i honestly can’t imagine existing here and now in any other state of being

The Reflecting Pool Guy admitted he's NEVER cleaned a pool before........ 🤡

Friend who works in healthcare told me: you do NOT want to go to the ER on a holiday b/c it's new people working that night b/c all the people with experience and seniority got the day off. So the surgeon most able to reattach your fingers is off at a party or watching fireworks. Make smart choices!

Listening to Phoebe Bridgers for the first time while grading and now I'm all sad and wistful. Does that mean it's working?

Last year I was 99% convinced I would never need Microsoft products again because Google Drive, Docs, Slides, Sheets were easier to use and Microsoft always finds new ways to gum up their works. Then Google started adding AI and sales pitches for paid subscriptions everywhere so now I'm back to MS

What, to anyone who is not MAGA, is the Fourth of July?

We need a bunch of posters and stuff asserting (with good reason) that the United States government, as we know it, is really only 239 years old. Or 158. Or maybe 106. Or maybe even only 61 years only and being currently smothered under a pillow by those celebrating “Freedom 250”

Another SCOTUS reform idea: make the justices send their opinions out for double-blind peer review. Why should justices be able to willfully write bad US History to support their pre-determined positions, if they aren’t experts in US History?

We can’t have nice things with this guy

So…can we go with “Greenwatergate?”

So are going with “Poolgate?” Somehow “algae-gate” sound even stupider

How many public buildings will be healed but still left scarred by this regime? Like bodies that can never fully erase the marks of disease or trauma?