Jan. 6, Seen in Comparative Perspective, Shows How Far Democracy Has Declined in America by Ruth Ben-Ghiat
The Outcomes of Self-Coups in the US, Venezuela, Brazil, and South Korea Tell the Story
Read on SubstackMonday, January 6, 2025
A Great Episode of John Fugelsang's Show
John is fantastic. He interviewed me about Hell a few months ago. This is a great recent episode, featuring Native American politics and Jimmy Carter.
It's Worse If They're UNrelated
The terrorist and terrorist-adjacent attacks--the man driving the car into people in New Orleans, and the man blowing up a Cybertruck (he wanted Democrats killed)--were from the same Texas Army base. Think about it--if they weren't related, it means we have a real big problem (they are related at a deeper or higher or more expansive level, if they're not contiguously related).
Big Freeze 2.0
It's very cold here. The Arctic came to say hi, because of global warming. It's colder than in London, which is right on the Arctic Circle.
It's 30 feeling like 15F with the wind, which is to say, it's -1 feeling like -9C.
It bothers me because it's global warming that sends the arctic down here, but also because in 2021 it was just terrible in my old house. It was so bad. My ptsd put me in a survivalist huddle mode. My house lost power for 3 days and it got down to 40 inside the house. Then we lost water. There was a terrible flood in the end because an idiot on the rental property staff had put a cap on a leak and that sent all the water into the basement!
A few weeks later, fluffy white mould was growing up out of the wood floor and black mold was coating the "mud room" (where you put boots and coats). A hot water pipe had burst and was making fluorescent goo ooze out of the outside wall.
The property manager was walking by my window talking with his boss. "He will have to prove it's mold, by taking it to a lab. You can't really prove it's mold unless you do."
I collected a sample immediately. How fucking dare people treat renters like this.
A few weeks ago, I drove past the property to see that it had been razed to the ground.
Sunday, January 5, 2025
I Just Switched from AAA to Allstate Car Insurance Because Black Lives Matter
...I had just found out that AAA discriminated against Black people during segregation, hence the Green Book that informed Black motorists of safe and good places and routes.
But look at what they just said! It's good.
View on Threads
An Important Letter
The good people who invited me to talk are being wonderful about it. You should know what's happening if you don't:
This Is Incredibly Important
...if you don't about it already, you really must.
Vought’s vision for OMB as presented in Project 2025 is “to basically change the plumbing so they can do whatever they want without any meaningful checks and balances” during Trump’s second term.
“I think that it's important to really make sure [Americans] understand what the plans are for changing the plumbing,” Olinsky said.
Saturday, January 4, 2025
Samuel Palmer
...I'm not sure I could love the work of Samuel Palmer any more than I already do, but I'm willing to try. I just ordered this newish book about his work--I've loved it for so long, as long as I can remember. Age ten was probably my first encounter with his work, at the Tate Gallery in London. Before it was the Tate Britain...in 1978...
Friday, January 3, 2025
Writing a New Book
...and I'm writing it with Treena Balds. It's the sequel to Hell and it's called
PARADISE
Yes that's right. Because the true opposite of Hell is not Heaven. It's Paradise. This is argued very closely in the book.