Everyone a Sovereign: Fear and Self-Loathing on No Kings Day
Curmudgeon's take on No Kings Day: the protests are therapeutic. The real problem — a 45-year orchestrated attack on American political self-worth — is where we need to look.
Latest
Iran's Rope-a-Dope (and email test)
WWII proved bombing doesn't break police states. Iran's leaders know it. Their strategy: absorb punishment, blockade the Strait of Hormuz, and let economic pain end the war for them.
Iran's Rope-a-Dope
WWII proved bombing doesn't break police states. Iran's leaders know it. Their strategy: absorb punishment, blockade the Strait of Hormuz, and let economic pain end the war for them.
The Fault Lies not in AI
Updated: Trump moved against Anthropic to break or bend it to his will. Meanwhile, the panic about AI taking jobs misses the point — capital has used technology to strip workers of power for decades. The real threat was never artificial intelligence.
A Day in the Life of Epstein-with Andrew Update.
What did Jeffrey Epstein’s day actually look like? Using a random sample of the DOJ email release, I estimate his outgoing email volume and show how a steady stream of short, operational messages helped administer a trafficking enterprise. UPDATE: Andrew arrested--what did our emails have.
Unsupervised ICE: Built for Violence
ICE’s hiring surge did not just add inexperienced agents — it purposefully dismantled standards meant to restrain them. With academy screening collapsed and first-line supervision stretched past professional limits, Trump's ICE has constructed a system that predictably loses control of force.
Everyone Graduates ICE Killing Academy
Normal law enforcement academies remove more recruits than quit. At ICE, the pattern is inverted—74% quit, only 26% are dismissed. Academy attrition collapsed from 12.2% to 4.2%. Two out of three recruits who would have washed out are now put in the field. Part 2 of 3.
ICE is Built to Kill
The Trump administration claims 85% of ICE's surge hires are "experienced law enforcement officers." OPM payroll data tells a different story: two-thirds have no discernible law enforcement background.
Albert Speer Wants Credit
Monumental architecture is never neutral. From the proposed Commanders stadium to Trump’s National Mall plans, a pattern emerges—one that echoes Albert Speer, anticipatory compliance, and happy collaborators.
Send Michael Myers to Greenland on a Secret Mission
What began as Trump-era satire led to an unexpected question: if Greenland seeks independence, what forms could that sovereignty actually take—and why might Canada make more sense than the United States?
Napoleon Dynamite and Why I Am Leaving Substack
Netflix never solved its Napoleon Dynamite problem. It avoided it. As platforms optimize for predictability, distinctive voices disappear. This essay explains why I am leaving Substack for a quieter, reader-driven home.
The Science of Enshittification (ΔI < k⋅I)
Why platforms, products, and even political systems decay so slowly that we barely notice. Using Weber’s Law, this essay explains how gradual, imperceptible change enables enshittification—and why history is the only reliable defense against it.
Why This Newsletter Suddenly Feels Like It’s Yelling Into Felt
ChatGPT Explains Why My Substack Numbers Suddenly Suck A guest column
Ten Test Cases for Thinking About Social Change
How history shapes social problems—and how it can help us understand them