…I'm so goddam tired. Ppl are increasingly in their city halls about "AI" data centers making their water & power bills & air quality worse, & literally all Dems would have to do sew up up that bloc is *Vibe With That Energy.* It's affordability & billionaire overreach all in one package you dorks!

I'm still early in @andrewhickey.500songs.com's series, and Episode 39 is one of my favorites so far. It covers James Brown's early days and "Please, Please, Please" 500songs.com/podcast/epis...

don't just kvetch; comment. CBP is proposing a massive new interference with the private lives and opinions of visitors to the united states, and those who exit. you can email comments to [email protected] - and post them if you do. you have until early february.

FTW

Here's everything you need on the #XPNCountdown at the countdown homebase. The final numbers, the stats, links to the archives and articles. xpn.org/885-countdown/

“The guy who bedazzled this room in gold thinks your child has too many pencils.” - Jimmy Kimmel

Hey you guys it's Rita Moreno's birthday! w/ Morgan Freeman on THE ELECTRIC COMPANY. #RitaMoreno #BOTD #PBS

✊🏼Join concerned citizens from around Michigan,Tuesday, 12/16 in Lansing to protest the onslaught of secretive large-scale data center projects across our state and to stand by Saline residents as MPSC/EGLE makes their project decisions on 12/18. Let's show support for every community in this fight!

Some nerdy stuff from NHK World's Bizstream show: how analog gauges are can be digitized at low cost, how a cell phone app can simplify land surveying. The segment starts at 14:30 www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/...

A mega-thread about how Republican sabotage of the ACA will cause major premium increases

LANSING, MICHIGAN acasignups.net/ira-subsidy-... This is my home state.

In keeping w “Kavanaugh Stops,” let’s call these Kennedy Pox.

coe cherries, painted by amanda almira newton, 1915

Page One in Europe: @theguardian.com

Some good TV news from PBS: Miss Scarlet season 6! Passport members can stream now, all can watch or stream in January. www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterp...

Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has “turned his back on science, on public health, and on the American people – spreading conspiracies and lies, driving up costs, and putting lives at risk,” the Michigan Congresswoman says.

What if solar power could power your career? Photo from the Solar Intelligence Training Academy courtesy of the Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network.

Solar training in Detroit seeks to create 'energy leaders' in Detroit. Progress will be slower because "federal efforts to fund massive renewable energy projects, such as the $7 billion Solar for All program, have been terminated by the Trump administration"

Countless more tragedies to be caused by Trump/Musk/GOP/Supreme-Court-6. "[T]he program treated 1.7 billion people and eliminated at least one NTD [neglected tropical disease] in 14 different countries" www.npr.org/sections/goa...

Alexei Lyapunov and Lena Ehrlich, illustration on vintage sheet music

I work in a business where smart people are literally a dime and dozen. Maybe distinguish yourself by your kindness and generosity? Just a thought.

"What makes this episode especially disturbing is that the U.S. government appears to be using its power to support the broligarchy’s fight against European regulation." open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Something every 2026/28 Dem should commit to is investigations of any company that did deals with Trump. A kind of forward guidance to get companies to think twice in advance of what’s coming.

i’m taking more portrait commissions this month! i cannot guarantee delivery by the holidays but if you’d like one, check out the thread below ✨

And "The U.S. is kneecapping the next generation of cancer researchers", instead building a police state

One way to think of the Trump Admin is as having SHIFTED the $$ we used to spend on curing cancer (and providing care to Veterans and protecting nature and etc) to snatching brown people off the streets.

I really would like to hear a non-nefarious reason why reporters at places like the NYT, WaPo, or NPR can't take 10 second to tell us that the $100 billion we spend on SNAP is 1.3% of the budget or the $6 billion that went to the AIDS program in Africa was 0.9% of the budget. Love to hear a reason.

Anyone with info about foster care 👇

Good morning. We’re back with the #xpncountdown. It’s day five and we pick it up with song #510, Roxy Music covering Neil Young’s “Like A Hurricane.” youtu.be/CbsTMkttmWM?...

UPDATE: Another Chicago-area church has put up an immigration-themed Nativity scene. A church member at Urban Village Church sent this one along, where Mary, Joseph and Jesus are gone and replaced with a sign that reads: “Due to ICE activity in our community, the Holy Family is in hiding.”

This is fascinating www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/com... If stores typically charge more at the checkout than their shelf prices, it would not be picked up in inflation measures. Wrote about this with Dollar stores cepr.net/publications...

AOC just put out a very cogent way to think about what it might mean if we stop federally recommending the Hepatitis B vaccination at birth: www.dcinbox.com/email/?id=26...

That was a beauty! Highly recommend the movie "Summer of Soul" for a great live performance of this song and others

I was listening to U2's Joshua Tree this week and thought maybe it's time for a new recording of "Mothers of the Disappeared", with proceeds going to immigrant-protection groups www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsDy...

2/2 Sen Bill Cassidy, a liver-disease MD, complains about this ruling, as I am doing. Here's the difference: He, personally, could have prevented all the resulting casualties, by casting the swing vote against RFK Jr. That's a power the other 330+ million of us lacked. Don't let him forget it.

The "Hiroshige Code" from NHK World explores strong and subtle messages in Utagawa Hiroshige's "100 Famous Views of Edo" www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/...

If you had to guess which country gets the largest share of its electricity from solar, you might picky a balmy island or a country with swaths of desert. Here’s who actually topped the list:

Richard Wayne Penniman was born on this day in 1932. youtu.be/Cj059o9OwqY?...

You know, I think if I owned the rights to a century's worth of the most acclaimed films ever like The Wizard of Oz and 2001, plus all the most popular characters in cartoon history, plus Superman and Batman, plus tons of other stuff, I could probably make enough money I wouldn't need to sell it.

The GOP economic platform: Struggling to pay for food? Relax. Can’t make next month’s rent? Relax. Going without health insurance because it’s too expensive? Relax. Don't worry, Republicans have the solution to your economic problems: just relax!

Coming today…stay tuned.

USAID funding to combat tuberculosis in India helped to save 3.65 million lives last year. Funding cuts spell death for many TB patients, and has left health workers unable to do their jobs. From Shoab Mir and Parthu Venkatesh P: trib.al/4FNvqGa

Drummer Brandon Sanders' Lasting Impressions (2025) was featured on the Naxos #Jazz home page, so I gave it a try. A good decision: I've been listening to it every day this week, and especially enjoy tracks 1, 2, and 7 brandonsandersmusic.com/music

For everyone who contributed to my cover songs playlist -- WXPN kicked off their listener generated 885 greatest cover songs playlist this morning. You can listen and follow along here: xpn.org/wxpn-playlis...

This past spring, the City of Rochester took a big step in a small space: planting a micro forest – a densely packed grove of native trees and shrubs grown in an area as small as 1,000 square feet. Photo credit: Amanda LeClaire, WDET News

This composition had eluded me for nearly a decade, but yesterday I was finally able to capture it. A train rolled through just as the Duquesne Incline was crossing over the tracks in #Pittsburgh, creating a picture perfect winter scene. It was worth the hours and hours I've waited over the years.

Be sure to shout, “I love crypto!” during your crimes, kids!

Saline residents mobilize against planned $7 billion data center ->WDET | #data | More from Lil Dr Glen EcoChat at BigEarthData.ai

Rushing a project of this scale without full transparency is unacceptable. If the MPSC allows DTE to fast track the Saline project, every future data center will expect the same treatment.