"If only it were as simple as de-privatization." The unraveling of Britain’s largest water utility is not just a corporate scandal but a case study in how privatized water systems strain under climate pressure and the limits of market governance.

i do think the combination of Trump and an AI-driven tech bubble could crash the markets, but it’s very important to remember that “what are online leftists saying?” is probably the worst possible way to approach investing

Happy to see this story now in print at the @indyweek.bsky.social. I imagine he'd be pleased to find himself in Durham's paper of record talking trash about Coach K.

Fascinating, forensic, wise. And a moving tribute to Karen Bakker: "Essential to life, imbued everywhere with cultural and spiritual import, water is, she writes, 'a final frontier for capitalism'.”

I went long on England's largest water utility failing, the history of global water privatization, and the late geographer Karen Bakker. Excited to see it now live in @the-breakdown.bsky.social: www.break-down.org/nothing-to-l...

I wrote about Renee Good, Venezuela, Greenland, and what it means to be a human being. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I went long on England's largest water utility failing, the history of global water privatization, and the late geographer Karen Bakker. Excited to see it now live in @the-breakdown.bsky.social: www.break-down.org/nothing-to-l...

I wrote about my dad, and loving basketball indyweek.com/news/culture...

I'm confident the @ringernba.bsky.social family will enjoy this beautiful essay by my dear friend @sammyfeldblum.bsky.social about his late father's love for the game and what basketball can give us over a lifetime. indyweek.com/news/culture...

Our @us.theguardian.com investigation of widespread overcharging by Dollar General and Family Dollar has caught the attention of 30 members of Congress, who have written to the CEOs requesting documents and demanding answers. @jocelynzuck.bsky.social @michaelwhudson.bsky.social @budzinski.house.gov

As president of Uruguay, José Mujica expanded personal freedoms and aided a rapid increase in renewable energy—and left behind a country better than he found it. @sammyfeldblum.bsky.social follows his journey from militant to prisoner to head of state.

For @thebaffler.com I wrote about the late Pepe Mujica, one of my favorite guys, in conversation with Noam Chomsky, with some thoughts on degrowth and the Chill Revolution along the way. Please enjoy: thebaffler.com/latest/free-...

Had the pleasure of contributing a couple suggestions to @thedialmag.bsky.social's summer reading list, linked below. A dreamy—bad dream-y—novel for the Latam and politics heads; a polemic for the river lovers. Both great.

This should absolutely be a scandal which people lose their jobs over. You'd have to assume that anyone in power actually cares though to think that would happen, which obviously would be a bold assumption in present circumstances.

New article surveying recent developments in the political ecology of water. I look at legal geographies of water, Indigenous scholarship on relationality, everyday and infrastructural practices of making water, and hydrosocial territories. Hop on in: compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New article in Geoforum: building from a historical case study of the place of water law in the colonization of New Mexico, I show how recent social movements based around acequia irrigation have refashioned the law to reassert communal control: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Every so often, it just comes back to me in full force. The political and economic order that allowed this man to come to power is obviously no longer tenable. The leaders who let it happen obviously have to be replaced. This is an epoch defining failure and we have to turn the page completely.

a must read for all UC workers @ucaft.bsky.social @sammyfeldblum.bsky.social @trevorgriffey.bsky.social

Trump to the American people:

Starbucks trabajadores in Chile on huelga, vamos!

As inflation licenses the demolition of the US state, I interviewed historian Margarita Fajardo about structuralist Latin American economic schools of thought offering alternative diagnoses and policy prescriptions. For @phenomenalworld.bsky.social: www.phenomenalworld.org/interviews/m...

Enjoyed sitting down with Margarita Fajardo to talk about the history of dependency theory and think through alternative possible responses to inflation. Lord knows we could use some.

Mark your calendars for the 2025 Unruly Natures Party @geographers.bsky.social!

I’ve seen too many higher ed folks wave away the threat to our universities. We need to understand what is coming and get organized right now to fight back. Join your union, form a union, join your AAUP chapter, talk to your colleagues. Do it now @ucaft.bsky.social

Reading the news

An illuminating and well-written story that touches on themes much bigger than Chile.

I wrote about the Chilean left, social movements and the state, the constitutional hangover, fire, and water. For @thedialmag.bsky.social: www.thedial.world/articles/new...

What happens when the left takes power with a seeming revolutionary mandate—to change the constitution and bury neoliberalism—but the new constitution fails, and they're stuck running the same old state? How should critics of the state approach governing? It's a fascinating moment in Chile

Can an activist revolutionize government from the inside? In Chile, a group of leftwing leaders came to power in the last half decade hoping to solve the country’s water justice issues and to revolutionize its economy, @sammyfeldblum.bsky.social reports: www.thedial.world/articles/new...

Hey you 🫵 don’t forget to follow my brother👇

I wrote about the Chilean left, social movements and the state, the constitutional hangover, fire, and water. For @thedialmag.bsky.social: www.thedial.world/articles/new...

This month marks the 25th anniversary of Walking Home, my @indyweek.bsky.social series about Loves Creek Hispanic Baptist Mission. I wanted to write about North Carolina's new immigrants in an immersive, respectful, cultural competent way, and spent eight months at the church before publishing.

A little rundown of my year in writing, as I try to get up to speed on This Site. This year I wrote about universities, and about Chile, but pretty much everything touched on Palestine to some degree. How could it not? A thread of most of it:

"The election of a new slate of DNC officers is an opportunity to change the course of the Democratic Party and to center its purpose and messaging around the economic and social needs of working people. It’s time to stop doing business as usual." aflcio.org/press/releas...

Had fun writing this one with Joseph. No thank you antiwoke academia, vamos broad-minded academic unionism, hello bluesky