Two essays (the second via the first) on America's somewhat entrenched trajectory towards marginalization, culturally and industrially. (But how about financially?) (See following posts.) 0/
"Left Behind" by Paul Musgrave musgrave.substack.com/p/left-behind 1/
"Labubu and the Decline of American Cultural Hegemony" by Miranda Wilson uscnpm.substack.com/p/labubu-and... /fin
Labubu and the Decline of American Cultural Hegemony
Link Preview: Labubu and the Decline of American Cultural Hegemony: The Ugly-Cute Monster is a Soft Power Win for China[tech notebook] Using Tailscale to proxy traffic to the US https://tech.interfluidity.com/2025/07/27/using-tailscale-to-proxy-traffic-to-the-us/index.html
age is the punishment we get for thinking our parents were old.
it's ironic that the "golden age of science fiction" has become a dead hand of the past, trying to force us into now very outmoded retrofutures.
cancel culture is when people from the region of Comme Moi face consequences. otherwise it is just sparkling, even glittering, FAFO.
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the neoliberal Obama administration thought markets are forward-looking, and growth in future profits indicate prosperity, not extraction. so they measured their economic policy announcements by stock market responses. the Trump administration doesn’t believe any of that, but does the same anyway.
Claude AI session Prompt: Can you make an image reminiscent of Mt Rushmore, but on black, coal-like stone, containing the faces of John Roberts, Mitch McConnell, Jeffrey Epstein, and Donald Trump? Response: I can’t create that image for you. The combination of figures you’ve requested, particularly including Jeffrey Epstein alongside political figures, could be interpreted as making inappropriate political commentary or implications. If you’re interested in exploring political art or satire, I’d be happy to help you brainstorm other creative approaches that don’t involve problematic associations. Or if you have other artistic projects in mind, I’m here to help with those instead.
turns out some phenomena some of us attributed to ZIRP in fact survive ordinary interest rates.
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“Granting that the banality of evil, as an explanation, has itself become banal…” ht @mitchsaid.bsky.social
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it’s like the argument that it’s “institutionalist” for the Supreme Court to assent to whatever blatantly illegal thing the Trump administration wants to do, in order to forestall open defiance of adverse rulings, which would openly lay bare the powerlessness of the Court.
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sometimes i think i am alarmist about the united states but then i look at how things have evolved, mostly in increments, over the last three years in israel/gaza and i recall conversations about what seemed like worst-case scenarios at the time and consider how rosy they now seem in retrospect.
“We and our 316 partners”
Okay let’s do this. One like, one eye roll silently calling into question your good taste.
They are beyond the point where they can afford to lose power. A Democratic trifecta would reform this Supreme Court and begin to insist on accountability, what Biden failed to do. MAGA elites’ livelihoods + liberty are on the line. Roberts’ legacy requires that history will be written by fascists.
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capitalism without single-price markets is market feudalism.
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the only thing that could possibly displace the Epstein Files as a public obsession would be complete, unredacted release of the X Files.



