“The glory which is built upon a lie soon becomes a most unpleasant incumbrance. … How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again!”
– Mark Twain
This week has been NUTS. We’ve got footballers wives doing a better job that national security apparatuses, the Ukraine scandal spiraling into new depths, and ursine QUEENS. This is an extra hefty dose of links to help you process the *waves hands at general state of things.*
It’s going to be a very normal and calm week, I see…
What BULLSHIT. This is what toxic gender roles mean for everyone: loneliness and disdain for all involved, unless we all participate in a system which requires a hierarchy with winners and losers. Imagine the world we could build if we dedicating one tenth of the energy we put towards reinforcing unequal systems to building better ones that rewarded different many different kinds of success instead of a designated few.
We’ve been playing the “horrible goose” game for a week, this might be next.
Words cannot express how much I love Caitlin Moran and her writing. Her last column in the Sunday Times is short but nails the appeal of chaos to so many right now–particularly those who should, theoretically, be most opposed to it.
LOL to the entire idea that Perry is the criminal mastermind. Also, the internal logic continues to impress me. This “perfect” phone call that is entirely above board was also totally this guy’s fault. Let me be clear, I completely am onboard with the idea that Rick Perry is involved in this mess (and so do other people, given he’s been subpoenaed), but you will have a hard time convincing me that the Oops Guy is responsible for it all.
I need to print out this list and post it. It’s nominally about writing, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the advice is multi faceted.
A rather interesting case progressed this week, wherein the President tried to keep his personal financial records hidden via a rather extraordinary set of circumstances and claims that his office grants him immunity from any kind of criminal prosecution–which would have been a deeply problematic ruling to enshrine in precedent.
This shift in policy is not just bad and last minute on it’s face, it puts one of our most stalwart allies in the fight against ISIS in direct harm’s way, thereby breaking promises and diminishing the likelihood that we are seen as a trusted partner to our own friends the world over. (ETA, two days later…)
TikTok makes me feel very old.
Ooh, someone running the social experiment I want follow!
Ronan Farrow’s latest book exposes a lot more about the shadowy world of private protection and security that the wealthy move in to safeguard them against reputational damage. He’s released excerpts with The New Yorker and they are not fucking around! Part I, Part II, Part III.
Related to the previous, what happens after, you ask?
…who’s in for the next pony party?
I don’t like this weird dystopia.
Meanwhile, Holly is a goddamn icon as far as I’m concerned!
SOMEBODY BUY THIS CAPE RIGHT NOW.
We’ve had to go through a lot of pain to realize that this should have been the take from the jump as a society, but I stan a sassy delivery of truth any day of the week.
Also, Elizabeth Warren is extremely good at this.
What a mess this is going to be…on Tuesday the White House sent a rather sloppy legal letter advising the House that they aren’t going to participate in the investigation into their behavior. This is either ridiculous gaslighting or they don’t understand how an investigation works. Likely both. Now is when we are going to see if our constitutional checks and balances actually work: will the House be able to serve and enforce subpoenas, or is the president above the law? Regardless of your politics, this has huge implications for American politics.
On Wednesday, the prominent legal scholar Noah Feldman summed up the impasse are barreling towards.
Also, greater insight into how a fairly small outfit (all things considered) is destabilizing nations and events around the world.
Something I honestly think about a lot: will Jeff and I ever really be able to retire?
A tragic and difficult read, about individual pain and community trauma.
The kerfuffle with the NBA and China, explained.
How did you survive the WAG War of 2019? Anything that gets the term “Wagatha Christie” trending will absolutely command my attention.
How handy! A new list of things to read, all of which tickle my fancy!
Another week, another great Amanda Mull piece.
It’s leather jacket season!
Thursday. Welp. (A tiny reminder of how deeply incestuous all of this world is, and a quick summary. Another tiny nugget/reminder that their companies are called Fraud Guarantee and Mafia Rave. Seriously.)
“…the best people…”
Reminder: to understand the Ukraine shenanigans, you have to understand the world of conspiracy theories. It’s also increasingly likely that some of the most powerful men (and they are mostly men) in the world, actually DO believe these.
On the flip side, here’s a succinct timeline of the Ukrainian situation as it actually happened. In other words, Mr. Guiliani was not “looking for dirt”
All the AOC haircut “scandal” has made clear to me is that most men don’t realize how expensive it is to be a woman.
Hey, that Webtoon I shared on a previous monthly favorites post has some great news!
Friday. The role of the Supreme Court really is the Chekov’s Gun in the Trump presidency.
Also also Friday. (Her statement is not messing about.)
And did sweet f a about it, apparently.
Fuck.
Extremely relevant to my interests and past professional life. This change will affect how money flows across this entire planet!
SHAMELESS PLUG OF THE WEEK. I’m so bloody proud of her I could burst! Enjoy this pleasing tease of the British version of her upcoming book and sharpen your knives in anticipation.
Welp, this baby made me cry.
Small Dog Syndrome 
Not at all surprised === yet saddened — to read about Inuit suicide rates. I spent all of 24 hours in a small Arctic village in the 80s in December and will never forget it. Kids were sniffing glue and dying in snowbanks. People have no idea because there’s almost no media coverage.
Retirement will likely have to change substantially for a lot of people….whether they want it or not: living with their children and grand-children or in some form of co-housing to share costs; re-envisioning the isolation and individualism that underpins “normal” life under capitalism. It’s long been clear to me, as someone whose highest income (1996, one year, 2006, one year) was $80,000 that social capital (friendships, barter, etc) is going to have to replace the two-income, high-earning, never-dropping-in-pay, NEVER un(der) empoyed 1950s fantasy that is now…what?! Gone for all but the fortunate few.
We are only able, we hope, to be able to retire because Jose worked 31 years at a good salary and got a very good buyout in 2015 — sweetened by 35% to get costly oldies OUT. BUT….hahahahahaha. We have had to spend plenty of it for full-market health insurance because age discrimination insures we will never again have a well-paid job or one with subsidized health insurance.
Americans are screwed,.
I honestly feel that way more than I’d care to admit…
Indeed.