for which we give much thanks.

Moyn's a piece of shit. The reality of what's holding back America, expressed in last line of Paul Schrader's Blue Collar 45 years ago: "They pit the lifers against the new boy; the young against the old; the black against the white. Everything they do is to keep us in our place."
The "they" is the?

America was on the rise in 1876, now it's in accelerated decline

All true. I might increase the list to five.
4. Bring public utilities back to public ownership
5. Related to 3 & 4: Reverse privatisation of NHS
Wealth tax and ending Trident would "pay for" that, anticipating Keunesberg kwality kweries

We should form a political party or just take over the existing Labour party. I can see the headline:
Shermans Save Britons From Themselves

as it was in the beginning, world without end etc

Starmer/Mandelson = sideshow. Getting Palantir out of UK govt business is a priority for what's left of his term of office. The 3 things he needs to do:
1. Get as close to EU as EU will allow ie undo worst of Brexit
2. Defence of Ukraine
3. Terminating with extreme prejudice all Palantir contracts

An America 250 thought: The polls show 2/3rds of Americans are pissed off with the misrule of the MAGA regime. These misrulers should worry:
"An exasperated people, who feel that they possess power, are not easily restrained ..."
T Jefferson
We have power & won't be restrained

"I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!" Thomas More
Iran's is the Devil, a regime of murderous men. But there is no law against that except a divine one. Laws govern war, and the Trump MAGA regime has ignored them. Custom of Empire:It does what it wants because it can.
👇

"It's not a custom of empire but a feature of them that eventually they are ruled by an idiot. The US shouldn't go to war with a Commander-in-Chief as brain-addled as Trump and his squad of Fox News hosts elevated to positions of leadership."
frdhfirstroughdraftofhistory.substack.com/p/you-cant-a...

Percy Bysshe Shelley Describing America's current regime two centuries ago and sounding a note of hope
(via @bryanappleyard.bsky.social

Credentialed or educated? The distinction we all need to make in the 21st century. Vance went to Yale. Brand name purchased degree or place of learning? And if the latter what did he learn?
Kushner's father bought his place at Harvard etc & In UK, substitute Oxbridge on our leaders CVs ... same ?

keeping not quite criminal people in line

I see "Avignon papacy" is trending. I used the term Avignon presidency to describe Trump's 2021-25 sojourn in Mar a Lago refusing to acknowledge Biden won more than a year ago on a panel at the frontline club

EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS: I WANT MY JUDAISM BACK From Michael to the Synagogues of the Diaspora

A midrash for Atheists, agnostics, the observant and the devout ... and you don't have to be Jewish: the story of the Golden Calf, the part of the Exodus story we elide over at Pesach.
frdhfirstroughdraftofhistory.substack.com/p/epistle-to...

Let me add to the general merriment: Bibi and Bestie, halfway to retirement

Let me add to the general merriment: Bibi and Bestie, halfway to retirement

Who would have thought worship of the golden calf would
make its comeback in 21st century America? Picture: Aaron making his ring entrance in UFC

Shmuesing with Shmueley. Sounds like the name of a podcast all things Jewish with sports betting tips on the side

EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS: I WANT MY JUDAISM BACK From Michael to the Synagogues of the Diaspora

A midrash for Atheists, agnostics, the observant and the devout ... and you don't have to be Jewish: the story of the Golden Calf, the part of the Exodus story we elide over at Pesach.
frdhfirstroughdraftofhistory.substack.com/p/epistle-to...

you are also not a Catholic if you are a bot

Ya know what? 250 years ago there was no fucking constitution and the people personally removed the King and Parliament from ruling over us. It wasn't easy but it got fucking done!

I guess civilisational collapse gets the newspaper of record it deserves. this is on the current home page of @nytimes.com:
Pop culture and the end times.

Thanks pitchbot, I needed that laugh

FRDH: No Place of Greater Safety There is no place of greater safety for civilians and soldiers wounded in today's wars. In 2016 alone there was nearly one attack every day on a hospital in a conflict zone. The most infamous attack

It is with anguish I am reposting this FRDH podcast. Made at a conference on emergency trauma medicine in Beirut a decade ago. No city had greater experience with civilians being caught in the bombing cross fire even then & after y'day's Israel attack ...
soundcloud.com/michael-gold...

Ya know what? 250 years ago there was no fucking constitution and the people personally removed the King and Parliament from ruling over us. It wasn't easy but it got fucking done!

From Richard Wilbur, Advice to a Prophet: a riposte to white civilisation is being erased types
"Nor shall you scare us with talk of the death of the race.
How should we dream of this place without us?—
The sun mere fire, the leaves untroubled about us,
A stone look on the stone’s face?"

Thought for the day ... and every day the MAGA regime remains in control of the White House, Congress, and SCOTUS

There is a certain parallelism to Trump's calling on the people of Iran to rise up against the regime, and Europeans calling on the US to rise up against Trump. It breaks down because in Iran there is a massive state apparatus to kill people so inclined. In US only fear of worse to come if they try

Very hard not to imagine his trousers round his ankles as this is the exact posture his body assumes when it's on the crapper. He needs those thoughts and prayers to shift his constipated bowels