May 19, 2023 2 min read

You Should Read - May 19

Our Future Hangs in the Balance

Vox Democrats Have a Huge Opportunity to Win Back Rural Voters: For the first time in decades, Democrats are making gains in areas that have some of Trump’s most reliable voters.

CBS News Obama Grapples with America's "Different Realities": "How can we have a common set of facts?"

Esquire Texas Is On Its Way to Turning Public Schools Into Jesus Camp: Ah, you say, but what about that pesky Establishment Clause in the First Amendment?

Texas Monthly Do Texas Democrats Have Stockholm Syndrome?: An unusual number of lawmakers have crossed the aisle to support Republican bills this year. Party operatives are furious.

Bloomberg ‘We Just Want Someone Sane’: What Happens When a Small Town Goes MAGA: Washington County, Pennsylvania, was never known as Crazytown. Then election deniers decided to run for local office.

CBS News LA County Inspector General to Question Dozens of Deputies About Gangs Infiltrating the Department

Anti-Defamation League Hate in the Golden State: Extremism & Antisemitism in California, 2021-2022: Over the past two years, California has dealt with a significant increase in extremist activity driven by a variety of factors, including increased collaboration between small white supremacist and antisemitic networks, as well as continued activity by extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and Rise Above Movement, particularly as they turned their attention toward the LGBTQ+ community.

Collected Ephemera

Journal of Vascular and Interventional Neurology Cat ownership and the Risk of Fatal Cardiovascular Diseases: Results from the Second National Health and Nutrition Examination Study Mortality Follow-up Study.

A decreased risk for death due to MI and all cardiovascular diseases (including stroke) was observed among persons with cats. Acquisition of cats as domestic pets may represent a novel strategy for reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases in high-risk individuals.

Vanity Fair Meet the Writers Strike’s Secret Weapon: Hollywood Teamster Boss Lindsay Dougherty: “We are the hammer to their pencil”: How a woman who “gives no f--ks” is determined to unite entertainment industry labor.

Laura Erickson Arm & Hammer Bird Trading Cards: FOR THE GOOD OF ALL, DO NOT DESTROY THE BIRDS
⇛ I found a little stash of these bird trading cards while helping my mom prepare to move form her home of 50+ years to a retirement apartment. A little searching for that metal-as-hell tagline turned up this pretty detailed history.

The Guardian Please Stop Using AI to Make Wes Anderson Parodies

At one point in the Asteroid City trailer, Jason Schwartzman describes an alien invasion by saying: “I don’t like the way that guy looked at us, the alien, like we’re doomed,” to which Scarlett Johansson replies: “Maybe we are.” See? You can’t parody Wes Anderson, because he is already parodying himself.

CNBC CEOs Thought the Return to Office Debate Was Over. It Looks Like They Were Wrong.

Anil Dash The Immortal Myths About Online Abuse: After building online communities for two decades, we’ve learned how to fight abuse. It’s a solvable problem. We just have to stop repeating the same myths as excuses not to fix things. (2016)

Unfortunately, since most online platforms are made by people who love technology, they tend to want to try to think of technology as the solution to this definitively human problem.

Kotaku The Painful Irony of an Anti-Piracy Group Being Sued for Piracy (2011)

McSweeney's I Will Defend Free Speech to the Death. Or Until an Autocrat Asks Me to Stop

The Wabbit Hole