Half a century ago, a recovering economist disillusioned with capitalism took up Buddhist practice and composed a magnificent manifesto for prioritizing people over products and creativity over consumption, which it is not too late to heed: www.themarginalian.org/2014/07/07/b...
I am taking down the paywall for this one, as I believe it remains relevant as a reflection on the limits of the authoritarian assault – and the need to push back against the idea that America is inevitably and irresistibly marching towards a Trump dictatorship.
This week’s piece:
Gotye was the Goatse of early 2010s indie radio. Cruising along to a KCRW block of Santigold, Grizzly Bear, Tame Impala…then the xylophone plinks and it’s all over, doesn’t matter how fast you flipped the dial, that’s gonna be in your head all day.
Myself, I spent the 2010s riding the last gasps of the post-punk garage rock micro-revival that dispersed into a frothy wave of synth-pop dance indietronica
Online exchange between Father John Misty, high holy man of Xennial Indie Folk Rock and shitposting, and a random Twitter/X user who highlighted a single “Hey” in his lyrics as evidence of his alignment with twee Hey-Ho pop folk. Which Father John sarcastically reshared to his followers, with a single word: “busted”
The Lumineers are to Father John Misty as The Neighborhood are to The National. Come on now.
The Indie head “stomp-clap” debate has broken containment from X into Instagram and Reddit, where Xennials (the micro-gen cultural authority on the 2000s-2010s) can finally see these GenZ hot takes and read them for filth.
The retirement money of public employees is invested in firms run by Thiel, Andreesen, DOGE goons, and others who are trying to destroy the public sector. We can stop doing that.
www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/financing-...
Try out Kagi — I made the switch a few months ago. It has a free plan you can test before committing. You can turn off AI features, define search “lenses” like UseNets, PDFs, etc, and further customize the results by prioritizing good sources (like Wikipedia) and deprecating crap sites (like X)
Almost twice as many people ride the New York City bus every day as live in Wyoming.
The bus should have two senators
Memories of living off campus with @melissafehrtrade.bsky.social and our friend Brian, flipping through the latest Onion print edition that arrived in our post, reading the funniest man on the street quotes to one another between giggle fits. And now it’s back!!
Lander is well to the left of Walz tho? DSA member in the 80s. Founded the NYC city council progressive bloc in the 2000s. Lander’s differences from Mamdani are mostly stylistic, coming from his POV of holding a city-wide position responsible for addressing budget concerns of all New Yorkers.
Nailed it.
Don’t threaten me with a good time! UGH HOCHUL. Donated to Lander’s mayoral campaign after he brought multiple legal challenges against her unilateral pause of NYC congestion pricing. A progressive mayor and governor? We’d be cooking for sure 👍
I feel like between Mamdani’s ability to energize the everyday working people and Lander’s ability to policy-wonk and outflank opposition from corporations and Albany, they’d make an unstoppable combo. Just so super excited for NYC today. Ready to run thru walls for Zohran in November!
Brad Lander did but unfortunately ppl slept on him until his ICE arrest. Hoping his “superfriends” team up with Mamdani continues into the mayorship. Lander’s experience would be an asset for enacting the sort of ambitious progressive policies they both believe in tinyurl.com/mvperh97
Screengrab of error text under the coupon field in checkout that appeared after attempting to apply the advertised discount code, saying the coupon does not exist.
FYI: code not found
In stark contrast to the murder of the United HealthCare CEO, I might add.
Hard to grasp just how massive turnout was for NO KINGS NYC without seeing it for yourself. This is a video walking the line south along Fifth Avenue between 42nd and 26th Streets at 20x speed.
The moment is now. If those of us who are able to fail to stand up for the people *today* then there will be nobody left to stand for us when democracy falls. Find and join your local No Kings demonstration this Saturday: www.nokings.org
As many CA Dems say: Yeah, Gavin Newsom is an asshole, but he’s OUR asshole — unlike most Centrists, he throws his hardest punches at the right. Honestly, should be a bare minimum qualification for Dem leadership today. Watch the California Gov’s address in full:
A graphic titled "BUILT TO SERVE" with the headline: "One Big, Beautiful Step Into Authoritarianism." The subtitle reads: "What’s buried in the 'One Big Beautiful Bill'? A quiet restructuring of democracy—and a dangerous consolidation of power." The issue is dated May 23, 2025. The We the Builders logo, featuring a wrench and paintbrush crossed with a star above them, appears in the upper left corner. The background has a blue gradient.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” should terrify anyone who cares about checks and balances. From court-defying powers to political control over regulatory agencies, this isn’t a tax bill—it’s a playbook for authoritarianism. We broke it down: https://bit.ly/3SlWNvk
#WeTheBuilders #NoKings #OBBB #OBUB
BCG consulting team (probably) banked $5M+ on the vaporware demo alone
“Ohio Raccoon” winning the “Florida Man” clickbait crown was not on my 2020s Bingo card…but then again, has a SINGLE THING that’s happened after Jan 1, 2020 been on ANY OF OURS?!
For fun, I checked ChatGPT’s market population demographics “calculation” against UN data bases— ChatGPT is off by 50% or more across the board. Amazing work here folks.
The biz case for a product I’m working on was built with “guesstimate” data copy-pasted straight from ChatGPT. No citations. For data source it’s just: “ChatGPT”
We’re so cooked fam. But global corps move so slowly, it’ll be years before we start seeing the results of garbage in -> garbage out.
Photo of an absolutely minuscule single-seater Mercedes power wheels toy coupe “parallel parked” along the curb of a city street. The front end is encroaching into a pedestrian crosswalk. An orange parking ticket envelope is visibly tucked into the toy car’s windshield-less front dash. Kids these days.
North Bedford yuppie gentrification has entered its “Power Wheels parking violations” era
#Brooklyn #Williamsburg
Honest question not trolling: do you prefer politicians who demonstrate uncritical loyalty to party, or who strive to communicate imperfect authenticity to voters? You can’t have both — while the former builds proximity to central power, I’d argue that it’s the latter which leads to real change.
May Day protester holding a sign. Black and white clip art print out of a penguin standing on point, raising one “clenched” flipper up to the sky. Above its head, the word “resist” in all capitals. To the right of it is a caption “No emperors (except penguins)”. Beneath this phrase, a gaggle of smaller identical penguins raised flippers standing in solidarity formation.
Finally. A ruling class I can get behind.
#MayDay #NYC #LaborStrong #PenguinProud
Screen grab of Brooklyn Mirage’s instagram post in which ownership regrets to inform all ticket holders for tonight’s show of what’s been very fucking obvious to everyone since last week — venue not ready, set cancelled, refunds coming. With 2 hours notice. Tomorrow’s show also TBD. Pure class.
Welp folks — they didn’t make it
