The Chilean billionaire who wants to mine copper and nickel near the Boundary Waters can’t even be bothered to pay his DC sewer bill?

Kalorama Sewer_ 2025115942Download Law professor and ethics watchdog Richard Painter put it bluntly back in 2019: Jared and Ivanka’s landlord — a billionaire from Chile who rents them their mansion in D.C. — will use the Boundary Waters as his toilet. Pro-sulfide mining politicians in Minnesota and Washington are handing him the washroom…

https://lvgaldieri.com/2026/02/22/the-chilean-billionaire-who-wants-to-mine-copper-and-nickel-near-the-boundary-waters-cant-even-be-bothered-to-pay-his-dc-sewer-bill/

Donny McCaslin 16 Feb 26

Donny McCaslin with the Ari Hoenig Quartet last night at Smalls. Sony A7iii FE 1.8 85mm.

https://lvgaldieri.com/2026/02/17/donny-mccaslin-16-feb-26/

#photography #jazz

Hitchhiking As A Type of Women’s Emancipation in the Early Thirties

This scene from director Mervyn LeRoy's 1934 Heat Lightning brings me back to the observation that American women in the 1920s and 30s pioneered and popularized the practice of hitchhiking. Women like Doris Poggendee and Nettie Matthews, Barbara Starke, Nancy Youse, Betty Simpson, the McManus Sisters, or Allen Ginsberg’s mother Naomi – all could have been models from which these two characters were…

https://lvgaldieri.com/2026/02/09/hitchhiking-as-a-type-of-womens-emancipation-in-the-early-thirties/

What Happens to the Appeal in Twin Metals v. US if the Senate Passes HJR 140?

Forbes Magazine has excerpted and posted the same moment from the Rules Committee hearing on House Joint Resolution 140 that I did the other day: Pete Stauber's embarrassing concession that he brings HJR 140 on behalf of a Chilean conglomerate, a foreign company that will ship Minnesota's ore to China for processing. This was just minutes after the congressman gravely warned that "China, our…

https://lvgaldieri.com/2026/01/23/what-happens-to-the-appeal-in-twin-metals-v-us-if-the-senate-passes-hjr-140/

Antofagasta’s Lobbyists Deliver “An Outrageous Abuse” of the Congressional Review Act

It’s a little hard to sit through the video of yesterday’s Rules Committee hearing on House Joint Resolution 140, but it's worth it just to see Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez coax Pete Stauber to acknowledge that any copper Antofagasta pulls out of the ground in northern Minnesota is going to end up “on a boat, in China.” So I excerpted that moment, above.

https://lvgaldieri.com/2026/01/21/antofagastas-lobbyists-deliver-an-outrageous-abuse-of-the-congressional-review-act/

If We’re Talking about the Violent Occupation and Colonization of Minnesota, Let’s Also Talk about the Play for Minnesota’s Critical Minerals

The ever-prolific docket watcher and political commentator Marci Wheeler put up a video the other day where, in her words, she "laid out how Trump's invasion of Venezuela is like his invasion of Minnesota: Tribute and obeisance." I have been wanting to draw and explore that same analogy, but I am reluctant to paint with the broad…

https://lvgaldieri.com/2026/01/15/if-were-talking-about-the-violent-occupation-and-colonization-of-minnesota-lets-also-talk-about-the-play-for-minnesotas-critical-minerals/

François Moutin, 8 Jan 26

François Moutin with the Pilc Moutin Hoenig Trio last night at Jazz Genius. (The trio plays tonight and tomorrow night as well.) Sony A7iii. 85mm 1.8.

https://lvgaldieri.com/2026/01/09/francois-moutin-8-jan-26/

#photography #jazz #sonya7iii

Goddard and Newman On Resource-Hoarding Hyper-Elites

Stacie E. Goddard and Abraham Newman urge us to take off our "Westphalian blinders" if we are to make sense of the bullying, extortion, and belligerence that now passes for US foreign policy. Their paper on "neo-royalist cliques" addresses a theme I've discussed from time to time on this blog: "a return to the 'patrimonial' state, with rational-legal bureaucracies displaced by personalized rule and 'extra-legal'…

https://lvgaldieri.com/2026/01/05/goddard-and-newman-on-resource-hoarding-hyper-elites/

Chasing Returns Leaves a Big Carbon Footprint

This chart is from the World Inequality Report 2026, published this week by the World Inequality Lab. The authors explain: Most emission estimates traditionally attribute greenhouse gases to the final consumers of goods and services. This “consumption-based” approach highlights differences in lifestyle and consumption patterns. However, it overlooks another critical dimension of responsibility: capital ownership. Focusing…

https://lvgaldieri.com/2025/12/10/chasing-returns-leaves-a-big-carbon-footprint/

The crackpot king loses his bid to shut down offshore wind

Back in January, I wondered whether wind investors had standing to sue the Trump administration over the inauguration day memorandum suspending all federal approvals for offshore wind projects. It turns out the answer is yes, but the investors I had in mind -- individual and big name institutional investors -- are not the stakeholders who prevailed at the Massachusetts District Court yesterday in…

https://lvgaldieri.com/2025/12/09/the-crackpot-king-loses-his-bid-to-shut-down-offshore-wind/