Federal Workers, Resist the Trump-Musk Takeover

The email sent to federal employees urging them to resign in exchange for uncertain benefits is clearly aimed at purging critical government employees and replacing them with loyalists and ideologues.

Trump’s Tariffs vs. China’s Long Game

China is shrugging off Trump's tariffs and economic threats.

Bluesky Proves Monopolies Are Strangling the Internet

One tiny company has the bloated Facebook empire scrambling to respond.

Trump and Oligarchy, Authoritarianism and Kleptocracy

In my view, the Trump administration is moving this country very aggressively into an oligarchic form of society where extraordinary power rests in the hands of a small number of unelected multi-billionaires.

Media Bits and Bytes – February 4, 2025

The exodus from mainstream media

Trump Advisers Weigh Actions To Dismantle Ed Department

Officials are discussing executive order as part of efforts by Musk’s Doge team to seize control of federal spending

This Week in People’s History, Feb 5–11, 2025

Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis. Philly Garment Workers Shut It Down. From Bad to Worse for Unions. Hollywood Gives Racism a Big Boost. “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been . . .” Petition Denied, But Not for Long.

How Philly Whole Foods Workers Beat Bezos

"People need hope and the best place to find it is in your coworkers"

DoJ Finds Tulsa Massacre Was “Military-Style Attack”

The Cold Case Unit of the DoJ has issued a report on the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. The report contains new information that "shows that the massacre was the result not of uncontrolled mob violence, but of a coordinated, military-style attack."

Trump’s New Jim Crow

DEI is not a conspiracy to make white people feel bad about themselves; it’s a society-wide effort to combat past discrimination against everyone who is not a white, straight, able-bodied male. For Trump, that is the problem.
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Culture

food

Eat Less Beef. Eat More Ostrich?

Sarah Zhang The Atlantic
Ostrich is touted as a more sustainable red meat that tastes just like beef. The truth is, greenhouse-gas emissions from food are sensitive to the exact mode of production, which vary country to country, region to region, and even farm to farm. And any analysis is only as good as the quality of the data that go into it.

books

Tony Kahn: Boy Fugitive in the Cold War

Paul Buhle Portside
This is a poignant tale of remembering parents in trouble, careers dashed and of steady FBI harassment. The end is not happy, except that the boy survives and makes his own life as an admired cultural commentator on radio.

Labor

Friday nite video

video

The Hidden Horrors of Whole Foods

Whole Foods workers say they’re surveilled, tracked to the minute, and have to work two jobs to survive. Workers are organizing to form the first Whole Foods union.

video

Founding Fathers Cold Open - SNL

The Founding Fathers (Lin-Manuel Miranda ...) get interrupted by President Trump (James Austin Johnson) while signing the Declaration of Independence.