This is a compendium of the reporting and commentary that best explains the America's political, economic, and social conditions – and, most important, how we can find a way back from the dark days ahead. You will rarely find anything here from the New York Times or Washington Post or any of the other Big Journalism companies that failed us so completely during the 2024 elections and are now sucking up – even more than usual – to Donald Trump, his cult, and corporate oligarchs. My focus will be on smaller, more honorable outlets (and individuals). I hope you'll support them with your attention and your money.
I entered War Room because I wanted insight into how MAGA is thinking about its expanded coalition and its fight against any emerging liberal resistance in the coming Trump term. What I found myself more struck by was the extent to which Bannon is gearing up for a fight within his own party. The architect of MAGA sees victory, but he also sees weakness everywhere. To Bannon, this is a time of potential peril: The party could set itself on the path for decades-long power—but only if it has learned to heed the lessons he’s offering.
This Slate piece (alternative link) is an interesting read, in which the author listens to Steve Bannon's podcast/radio/TV program for days on end and comes to some conclusions about what our modern Rasputin (he thinks of himself more as Lenin) is up to. Spoiler: He's not up to anything good for America. The notable element in his latest planning is his contempt for what's left of the former Republican establishment – you know, the Republicans who are eager to swamp our democracy, endorse (and engage in) corruption, and in general follow every Trump instruction to the letter. Good times.
[S]ince everyone knows that Trump is not above a personal payoff, they might feel it wise to put money directly in his pocket. There are multiple ways to do so: They could book rooms at his resorts (as many did in his first term), or boost the price of his stock in the Trump Media & Technology Group with a large purchase of shares, or invest in his sketchy crypto enterprise, or perhaps buy a few thousand Trump Bibles or Trump sneakers or Trump watches. This president makes it easy to grease his palm.
This piece by a Washington Post commentator begins to capture the sleaze we're likely to see in the establishment and enforcement of Trump's new tariffs. To see why, you have to understand first that Congress, stretching back decades, has given presidents almost unlimited authority to establish these taxes and manage the process, e.g. grant "exceptions" with no requirement to justify them. With a president like Trump, who positively revels in his corruption, there is no end to what he can do to grease all kinds of palms, not just his own. Bonus: The Supreme Court gave Trump immunity from crimes he'll be committing right and left from the Oval Office. He's really going to be a billionaire this time.
Eight years later, the Democrats have lost the White House, House of Representatives and Senate. The big tech platforms are awash in extremist content. Big tech should not look like the ally anymore. Not only is Musk fully ensconced at the head of the power table, right next to Trump, but the CEOs of Meta, Alphabet, Apple and Amazon all reached out to Trump before the election, perhaps taking seriously his threat to put Mark Zuckerberg in jail if he opposed him, perhaps just realizing that Trump is a deregulatory juggernaut.
I was enamored of Silicon Valley when I first lived there, but luckily had a job that required me to challenge my own beliefs. One of the moments of clarity came in the 1990s when I expressed my astonishment at a blatant financial conflict of interest at a major investment firm. That was when I first heard one of the valley's mantras: "No conflict, no interest." That rotten ethos has captured Washington, and nowhere more so than in the way the cryptocurrency gang has bludgeoned its way into power – which we'll all be paying for after the next crash, which may well bring down everything else with it.
There's still a lot to admire about some aspects of Silicon Valley – including the many, many people who haven't lost their consciences along the way – and the tech industry in general. But something fundamentally ugly emerged from the promise, and it's going rapidly in the wrong direction today (and has been for the past decade). My infatuation long ago gave way to realism. I still love the best it offers, and the possibilities. The rancidness of so much of it is...disappointing.
Note: The commentary above gets a lot right, but it is ridiculously off base in parroting a claim that tech companies should be paying the news industry – Big Journalism's BS factories – billions of dollars a year for having the gall to point to news sources. The tech industry's ripoff is in its abuse of everyone, traditional media included, via its beyond-sleazy partnership with advertising companies; the "ad-tech" industry is plain evil.
The toughest parts of homelessness have been surviving the poverty and the marginalization, discrimination, and hostility from the non-homeless population. It’s usually subtle, this hostility. People pull in to visit the lighthouse or the beach or wherever I am, see me, and immediately park somewhere else. All day long. They are so afraid. I know I look disheveled, but I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with me intellectually or spiritually. I know I could look better, but I just don’t see what the big deal is.
Please just read this eloquent, heart-rending essay (alternative link) at Esquire. It is about one man's struggle with depression and what too often comes along with it: homelessness. That more than half a million people are homeless today in the United States is an indictment on all of us. I'm sorry if homeless people are disturbing your neighborhood, truly I am. I'm also aware that this isn't a simple problem to solve. But our "policy" today is to make it illegal to be without a home. That is cruelty, pure and simple. Even supposedly liberal politicians are demonstrating contempt for the homeless these days, so imagine how this is going to get in the new Trump era.
Molly Olmstead
Paul Waldman
Zephyr Teachout
Patrick Fealey
