Society and Law

Author: Chris Thoms-Bauer

  • Database: Historical Places Listed for Sale by Trump GSA

    Database: Historical Places Listed for Sale by Trump GSA

    On March 4, the General Services Administration published a list titled “non-core property list” containing 443 properties to be sold by the federal government. As of the evening of March 4, the list had been updated to contain only 320 properties.(I have not checked yet what the GSA removed from the list). As of March 5, the GSA removed the list from its website. The web page now reads “coming soon.”

    Below is an Airtable database containing properties listed in the National Register of Historical Places, including National Historic Landmarks, found within the GSA list.

    The database is currently a work in progress that I update every day. The database contains two tables: 1. District of Columbia 2. Rest of the U.S.

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  • University Trustees Should Not Profit from Trump Deportations

    Protest Signs at Kean University, 2021, Emma Yorra, via The Tower (kutower.com)

    A prominent donor family, including a trustee, of Kean University in New Jersey continues to own a warehouse used to house detained migrants. The warehouse, located in Elizabeth, is the closest detention center to New York City. Given the Trump administration’s plans to use the military for mass deportations, deport naturalized citizens, and ignore birthright citizenship, the Kean University community should be concerned about the university’s role in this crisis.

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  • Bluesky Appears Primed to Become a Disinformation Machine

    Bluesky Appears Primed to Become a Disinformation Machine

    Bluesky, a young social media platform, has rapidly grown during the last week. Many left-leaning users of “X” (formerly called Twitter) have been departing the platform for Bluesky in a movement dubbed “X-odus.” The movement comes after the owner of X, Elon Musk, helped Donald Trump regain the presidency. Musk’s efforts to support Donald Trump were most plainly displayed in the large amount of financial support personally put into America PAC, the super PAC created by Musk that spent about $200 million to help Trump’s election efforts. More discretely, Musk allowed and pushed disinformation on X that benefited Trump, a fellow disseminator of disinformation who owns the social media site Truth Social. Now, disinformation is spreading on Bluesky, and it’s not coming from Musk or Trump.

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