“How did America’s oligarchs grow so willing to openly rub their wealth power our faces? Well, a big part of it has to do with their success in neutering perhaps the greatest threat to their dominance: the ability of the government to tax them, and to hold those who cheat accountable.”

Beautiful piece from Sally Hayden. "Strip away headlines, statistics, front pages and photo captions, and what you are left with is a majority of people just trying to get by as best they can, while taking care of those that mean something to them." www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

heard a guy say "you have to access it through the portal" and i was momentarily struck by how sad it is that what he said is so boring :( "accessing it via the portal" should be wonderful. we deserve that at least. it should be cool to access it via the portal and instead it sucks shit

I think all the time about Jack Kerouac heckling Frank O’Hara that he was ruining American poetry & O’Hara responding without a beat, “That’s more than you ever did for it”

But shall this crazed old man be tamely suffered to drag a whole ship’s company down to doom with him?

Donald Trump letting you know how the authoritarian capture of the media is going, in case you missed it. Unlike other authoritarians in places like Hungary and Poland he has no worries about advertising his authoritarian take over of the media.

Correction. Orwell never said this. He did however, warn that: "political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” (That's Politics and the English Language, one of my favorite essays)

You can't... repeal... a scientific finding. At that point it's just called lying about it.

I've never been a conspiracy theory guy, but you're never gonna convince me that there hasn't been a specific cabal of ultra-rich dullards trying to buy, strangle, and bring to heel all of the most important reality-shaping machines since the uptick in power labor had during COVID

Wishing him luck with the rest of his friends in the Christmas Adventures Club.

Look at this crowd in Minneapolis marching against ICE, where the high was -9 F today.

ICE agent asked why he's taking pictures of a legal observer's car, replies: "Cuz we have a nice little database and now you're considered a domestic terrorist. So have fun with that."

One of the stories that makes me the saddest out of this ICE invasion is one out of the Minnesota Star Tribune today about ICE agents eating at a little Mexican restaurant in the small town of Willmar, Minn, —and then, when they were done, arresting some of the workers.

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts. Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

while I’m being cranky, access journalism needs to go. When the president does his “I’m alpha because I insulted you” thing somebody needs to fall on his sword and say “what the fuck is wrong with you, old man?” on a hot mic. the hero of the wizard of Oz is Toto.

Wondering what small thing you can do, today, to make a better world possible? Plant, Baby, Plant. And be a part of Robin Wall Kimmerer's new grassroots movement behind this call to action: plantbabyplant.com

remember this, kids, anytime a new David Brooks byline drops

NYC’s congestion pricing is a policy miracle: Less traffic, less noise, faster transit, more business sales, more transit revenue. And it hasn’t produced the negative effects outside the cordon zone we were afraid of. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

“Just as nature finds a way, Robin has found her devoted readers. And during a time of tremendous environmental fear and uncertainty, we have found, to our immeasurable relief, our master teacher.” --Elizabeth Gilbert @lizgilbert.bsky.social on Robin Wall Kimmerer for Time's 100

The first true American edition of Nan Shepherd's classic The Living Mountain is out next week, and Jenny Odell is blessing us with this beautiful new essay: www.thenation.com/article/cult...

Mother has arrived.