Elie Mystal on Elon Musk’s vision of neo-apartheid. “First and most important, apartheid is a business plan. It’s a system designed to exploit cheap Black labor, without ever letting Black people reap the financial and social gains of hard work.”
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Jason Kottke’s weblog, home of fine hypertext products since 1998
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Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream is...
Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream is a forthcoming book that’s “an exposé of private equity’s devastating impact on American lives, communities, and the economy”.
Is This the End of the American Constitution?
Jamelle Bouie has started posting video essays on his YouTube channel about the current US political crisis. His latest one is an adaptation of his NY Times piece, There Is No Going Back.
Now, even if Musk had been elected to office, this would still be one of the worst a...
On a scale of +10 (full democracy) to -10 (full autocracy), the...
On a scale of +10 (full democracy) to -10 (full autocracy), the US now scores a 0, its lowest score since the Civil War. “The USA is no longer considered a democracy and lies at the cusp of autocracy.”
RFK Jr. confirmed as secretary of the Health and Human Services Department....
RFK Jr. confirmed as secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. There has been a lot of horrible news over the past month but this one is making me feel ill. I’m gonna log off for awhile.
Heather Cox Richardson on the history of the liberal consensus, from Lincoln...
Heather Cox Richardson on the history of the liberal consensus, from Lincoln to Eisenhower, and how the country has been turning back toward “the idea of a small government that serves the needs of a few wealthy people”.
The trailer for season six of The Handmaid’s Tale. Oh, no reason....
The trailer for season six of The Handmaid’s Tale. Oh, no reason.
What can I do to fight this coup? “We will succeed because...
What can I do to fight this coup? “We will succeed because millions of people do a couple things well, not because one person does a million things.”
Do Not Obey In Advance
Speaking of Timothy Snyder, Literary Hub published the first chapter (the one on not obeying in advance) of his 2017 book On Tyranny. It begins:
Do not obey in advance.
Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead abo...
You’re Allowed to Feel like Garbage. “If you are a remotely informed...
You’re Allowed to Feel like Garbage. “If you are a remotely informed left-leaning person in America right now, why wouldn’t you be experiencing depression and anxiety?”
Trump’s Obsession With Immigration Is Really an Obsession With Segregation. His policies...
Trump’s Obsession With Immigration Is Really an Obsession With Segregation. His policies are a continuation of the 1790 Naturalization Act (only landowning white men were citizens), the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act, etc.
Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care by...
Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba “is a practical and imaginative resource for activists and organizers building power in an era of destabilization and catastrophe”.
“We Are Hurtling Towards Having a Russian-Type Regime”
Writing from Ukraine on his way to the front in the country’s war with Russia, Timothy Snyder muses about the differences in life & freedom on the Ukrainian & Russian sides of the war’s front line.
Yet, on this, the Ukrainian side of the line, people lead completely...
Jamelle Bouie: Trump’s War on DEI Is Really a War on Civil...
Jamelle Bouie: Trump’s War on DEI Is Really a War on Civil Rights. “His attack on DEI isn’t about increasing merit or fighting wrongful discrimination; it is about reimposing hierarchies of race & gender (among other categories) onto American society.”
Tressie McMillan Cottom’s latest is not easily summarized, but is well-worth a...
Tressie McMillan Cottom’s latest is not easily summarized, but is well-worth a read: Look Past Elon Musk’s Chaos. There’s Something More Sinister at Work.
The Trump administration barred an AP reporter from an event because the...
The Trump administration barred an AP reporter from an event because the AP won’t refer to the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America”. Something something free speech something something protects but does not bind, etc. etc. lolololsob
Security expert Bruce Schneier & digital ethicist Davi Ottenheimer: “The U.S. government...
Security expert Bruce Schneier & digital ethicist Davi Ottenheimer: “The U.S. government has experienced what may be the most consequential security breach in its history.” And: “This is beyond politics — this is a matter of national security.”
Josh Marshall: “This new EO signed today appears to create DOGE as...
Josh Marshall: “This new EO signed today appears to create DOGE as a shadow government across the entire federal government.” And: “I genuinely don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that Elon Musk is functionally in charge of the US government.”
Law professors are a staid bunch. But: “We are in the midst...
Pitching a Big Tent in an Emergency
On her newly launched site, Meditations in an Emergency, Rebecca Solnit talks about the importance of coming together with “people who are not exactly like each of us individually” in times of crisis.
In this emergency, I think it likely that we are going to need to pitch a...
A federal judge has ordered the HHS, CDC, and FDA to restore...
A federal judge has ordered the HHS, CDC, and FDA to restore their websites and datasets to how they were on Jan 30th by 11:59pm tonight. Resistance is not futile, but we’ll see how much Trump wants to push/piss off the judiciary.
The Trump administration is defying federal court orders and maintaining the funding...
The Trump administration is defying federal court orders and maintaining the funding freeze on issuing grant funding at the National Institutes of Health.
I loved Russell Shorto’s The Island at the Center of the World...
I loved Russell Shorto’s The Island at the Center of the World so I am looking forward to reading his upcoming Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America.
Civil Servants Are Not America’s Enemies. “Washington created the modern civil service...
Civil Servants Are Not America’s Enemies. “Washington created the modern civil service to make the government efficient in the first place, ending a patronage system wracked with graft and incompetence.”
Unsurprising: a recent study of 32M tweets from politicians from 27 countries...
Unsurprising: a recent study of 32M tweets from politicians from 27 countries shows that “far-right populists [are] much more likely than the left to spread fake news” and “amplifying misinformation is now part of radical right strategy”.
Is Social Media Doing You Dirty? Apply the CUE Test.
In a recent episode of the Uncanny Valley podcast about quitting social media, Lauren Goode talked about a framework she applies to see if the time she’s spending on social media is serving her well. From the transcript:
I have been toying with this idea of a framework for ...
Democracy is Crumbling. Is Anybody Doing Anything? Sherrilyn Ifill has a list...
Democracy is Crumbling. Is Anybody Doing Anything? Sherrilyn Ifill has a list of what people are doing to counter the coup and more importantly, what you can do. I’m working on this one: “Make sure you have and can share good information”.
Five Former Treasury Secretaries: Our Democracy Is Under Siege. “[We’re writing] this...
Five Former Treasury Secretaries: Our Democracy Is Under Siege. “[We’re writing] this piece because we are alarmed about the risks of arbitrary & capricious political control of federal payments, which would be unlawful & corrosive to our democracy.”
Voting for the Mayor Who Promised to Blow Up the City Doesn’t...
Voting for the Mayor Who Promised to Blow Up the City Doesn’t Mean I Approve of the Mayor Blowing Up the City. “I just wanted him to fix the old bowling alley like he promised in passing once.”
How People & Institutions in Budding Autocracies Obey in Advance
In a piece called The Chilling Consequences of Going Along With Trump, Russian exile M. Gessen outlines the five different types of arguments used by people & institutions when they engage in “anticipatory obedience” (aka, obeying in advance). For example:
The second a...