We’ve spent the last two weekends knocking on doors in Fort Bend county trying to help Eliz Markowitz win a special election for the state house. If she wins, she’ll be the first Democrat to represent the district in the legislature.
Nation
Here’s to 2020: A Letter from Beto
Beto sent this note to people who’d contributed to his presidential campaign. He’s kept in touch with them since he dropped out of the race. There’s nothing extra-special about his modest messages, yet they testify to his character and his clarity democracy can’t be a me-first thing. His notes hint he still has something more to give the American organizing tradition (if we let him)…
Surprise Medical Billing: Outrage and Betrayal (Thy Name is Schumer)
Congress can rarely ameliorate even patent outrages. We know this. One person’s outrage is another person’s profit, and the profiteer usually has more cash and more leverage than the outragee. But, it looked like one medical outrage was actually about to be solved, at least partially, by this highly partisan Congress, and highly partisan administration.
Sad Memes and the Limits of Radical Brokenness
r/2meirl4meirl is a “subreddit”[1] devoted to sad memes. People commiserate there in short blasts of image and text on how lonely and shitty life as a Millennial is.
Fuck Jeffrey Epstein (Varieties of Necro Leftism)
I was living in a devil town/I didn’t know it was a devil town
Sympathy for BeYelzebub
The best line from Jesus is King, Kanye’s new gospel album, comes halfway though its brief 28 minutes. “I thought the book of Job was a job.” It’s classic Ye—self-deprecating, stupid-corny (in a fun way), and a little sad. It’s honest about the cause of his recent hard times: himself. Five years ago he was claiming celebrities are the new slaves. I think processing that in good faith made us all a little stupider. His candor now is refreshing.
Burning Man
A clip from this 7 minute Q&A between Mike Pompeo and Nancy Amons–a reporter from a local news station in Nashville–made the national news late last week.
Allies in Unexpected Places
George Soros, Tom Steyer, Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, what do they have in common? They are multibillionaires, who in varying degrees, are on the liberal or progressive side of the political spectrum, a place where one doesn’t normally find billionaires.