Politics

Good morning. To the extent that we are still a democracy, we Americans all have fresh blood on our hands today. nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/…

Law and order. twitter.com/KristenClarkeJ…

Not sure how much more transparent corruption can get. Something tells me we’ll find out.

These are the staggering consequences of this administration’s defining myopia and hubris. How many of the 500,000+ (and rising) would have lived?

Previous potential pandemics were contained because the US coordinated the global response. Guess who dismantled that system?

Be a patriot this July 4th by learning how the scope of the global pandemic can be put on one guy. You know the one. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

A stellar summary of the obstacles to police reform and how they’re strengthened by this administration. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

It’s my birthday, and sometimes the best present is something that’s not there. inquirer.com/news/frank-riz…

I live in Philadelphia now. While I was still in Brooklyn, I aspired to get outside every day, but my stretches indoors got longer and longer. My last one was 11 days. I’m getting out much more regularly now, and it feels good, but it’s invariably an exercise in frustration. The latest CDC guidance says that surface transmission, while possible, is much less likely than transmission via respiratory droplets. Nevertheless, at least half of the… See more →

I went for a bike ride early Sunday morning. It ended my longest indoor streak yet: five full days. I suppose my area of Brooklyn bustles more than most, but after reading about how everyone staying inside had given major cities the appearance of ghost towns, I expected a lot less activity. And more masks. The CDC’s guidance recently shifted to a recommendation that everyone cover their nose and mouth when going out. It makes… See more →

Third U.S. census in a row where I’m preparing to move to another state as I complete the questionnaire.

so relieved we have pence to pray us out of this

“American law is incapable of prosecuting crimes in which elites use their legitimate power for nefarious ends.” huffpost.com/highline/artic…

Resuming redesign activities by taking inventory on content and wondering if I’m overdoing it. v7.robweychert.com/blog/2020/02/v…

If you wanna skip the State of the Union tonight, here’s the short version: we’re now accessorizing surgical masks with our assault rifles.

Jeff Bezos’s net worth is nearly 1.2 million times the median US household’s. See how his expenses compare to yours. washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/…

Hiring Ken Starr for impeachment defense is the 2020 version of inviting Bill Clinton’s accusers to the presidential debate in 2016.

It’s that time of year again. features.propublica.org/cabinet-cards/…

Just in case the US presidential election season weren’t interminable enough, every election year is a leap year.

This excellent piece from @YAppelbaum brings a welcome clarity to our partisan rift and the stakes for democracy. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

Sorry, folks, I messed up the math so I deleted this tweet. It’s actually .7%. Still a lousy showing, but not as bad as I made it out to be.

if i were a brand consultant i’d suggest the tsa change its name to the much more direct and exciting “dystopia now!”

so much talk lately about this guy joe biden who is apparently the president of vice media?

This may not elevate your opinion of Trump’s progeny, but maybe you’ll be comforted to know they’re as deeply unhappy as their father is. twitter.com/TheAtlantic/st…

“To those who say this is a half-baked idea, I would say, ‘what’s your idea?’”

If only anyone had another idea for preventing shootings! twitter.com/washingtonpost…

The books I read this summer.

I truly never expected to see this in my lifetime. This is the President of the United States. Absolutely sickening. twitter.com/Yamiche/status…

“Women have been making the case [for reproductive rights] for years, but more men need to speak up.” nytimes.com/2019/06/23/opi…

An insightful and predictably rage-inducing read on Mitch McConnell, the worst person in America. newrepublic.com/article/153275…

It’s been three years and I still can’t get over how incredibly rich the whole Brexit concept is, given Britain’s history of colonialism.

I haven’t gotten too heavy here lately, but I need you to know that the accelerating erosion of reproductive rights is making me very angry.

rumz.org v3

If Rumsey Taylor is not on your radar, this is an excellent opportunity to rectify that error.

Hindsight 2070: We asked 15 experts, "What do we do now that will be considered unthinkable in 50 years?" Here’s what they told us.

Most of these are more aspirations than likely outcomes, and one is included in a rather transparent attempt at ideological diversity (see if you can guess which one!), but an interesting collection… See more →

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You Are Not a Tool

To me, that combination of many things — of not being tied to one particular tool — is where the power often lies.

The Tragedy of Baltimore

In 2017, it recorded 342 murders — its highest per-capita rate ever, more than double Chicago’s, far higher than any other city of 500,000 or more residents and, astonishingly, a larger absolute number of killings than in New York, a city 14 times… See more →

I’ve reached the point in The West Wing where I need to seek out the presumably bustling fan fiction community devoted to Mrs. Landingham.

When do we change our national anthem to “Send in the Clowns”? twitter.com/nytimes/status…

Don’t talk to me about the 2020 presidential election until two weeks before my primary.

Hello, dear reader!

February is gone, but its links remain.

I owe you a belated “Happy new year!” since I failed to get this newsletter out the door the past two months. If you’re desperate to see the links that never made it to your inbox during those months, you can find December and January (along with every other edition) on my site.

In February, I finally launched Tinnitus Tracker, a live music diary I’ve… See more →

“The trap of exceptionalism is to place distance between us and them.” A thoughtful, generous essay from @otraletra. propublica.org/article/the-lu…

Is there a site yet that lets you know where you are in the line of succession for the Virginia governorship?

In my dream, there were whole capitalist and socialist movements based on competing interpretations of the design of the Brady Bunch house.

The Leaked Louis C.K. Set Is Tragedy Masked as Comedy

Over the years, C.K.’s comedy evolved, as any comic’s will, but at their best and most well known, his jokes were about interrogating himself as a means of interrogating American culture. As C.K. shuffled uncomfortably on stages and sets, clad in rumpled T-shirts and slouchy dad jeans, he served as his own act’s useful idiot: C.K., author and character at once, played the privileged guy… See more →

“About 79,000 people, most trapped by out-of-reach rents and low wages, are homeless” in New York City. nytimes.com/2019/01/24/nyr…

We updated our Cabinet Cards to mark two years of the Trump administration, and it got pretty messy pretty quickly. features.propublica.org/cabinet-cards/…

This collection of portraits of the women of the 116th Congress is a beautiful piece of work. nytimes.com/interactive/20…

capitalism is working just fine why do you ask twitter.com/nytimes/status…

This profile of Apprentice creator Mark Burnett makes me want to set things on fire. newyorker.com/magazine/2019/…

“I always tell my daughters they can be anything they want, so long as they don’t make other people uncomfortable.” mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-don…

George Bush, Who Steered Nation in Tumultuous Times, Is Dead at 94

I like this Bush obit as a crash course on the political forces that shaped the world during my formative years.

24 Ways

Always delighted to see this advent calendar of web design articles light up my RSS feed every December.

The Fun Is Back in Social Media…Again!

TikTok probably feels a lot like Flickr or Twitter in the early days, where everyone… See more →

I like this Bush obit as a crash course on the political forces that shaped the world during my formative years. nyti.ms/2DU2iwe