I want better 🇺🇸 policy debate; stronger political center. Interests: economy - esp anti-monopoly, healthcare, pro-democracy - 🦉 curious. Really appreciate meditation 🧘🏻♀️, health, beauty, good 🍽 & 🍷.
I HAVE A DREAM: of healthier iSpaces. Mastodon is part of manifesting that dream. May the citizens of the 🇺🇸 rise up and disrupt enshittification.
More about healthy iSpaces - BBC's Rethink: Is the internet getting worse? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0022z9r
| Posting from | Austin, Texas |
| ❤️ Letters from an American | https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com |
| ❤️ 🍷 & beautiful views at | https://www.balanzavineyard.com |
| ❤️ Truth sandwiches 🥪 | https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/briefs/media-can-dish-up-a-truth-sandwich-to-deal-with-political-lies/ |
Good post by #MikeKonczal — the raising cost of essentials is outpacing #CPI.
“When the prices of necessities rise faster than everything else, when housing becomes mechanically harder to access, when planning gets more cognitively costly, and when borrowing is more expensive, welfare can fall even if average real incomes recover.”
https://newsletter.mikekonczal.com/p/why-affordability-and-the-vibecession
#Muskism state take over plan - a chilling account
"Obviously ( #DOGE !), Muskism also seeks to dismantle the state, but only the parts of it that can be transferred to Musk's own private hands. Muskism is about big government…for Musk, but not for you. It embodies that important conservative value summarized in Wilhoit's Law:"
"There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."
https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/21/torment-nexusism/#marching-to-pretoria
NY Assemblyman Bores is running for Congress.
We need to plan for AI becoming a bigger part of life -- safety, jobs, economy. Assemblyman Bores got a law passed in NY for some basic AI safety requirements. Yesterday, he announced a proposal for an AI dividend - to help our country transition.
https://bsky.app/profile/alexbores.nyc/post/3mjwlgvabxc2z
If you want to get to know more about mitigating AI harms and Bores,
@wired.com did a great interview with him:
Biden files, Trump sabotages, state AGs for the win…
“the anti-monopoly movement has bagged an important scalp. #Ticketmaster was an iconic symbol of corporate lawlessness; the fact that they are now liable for lawbreaking says to all Americans that justice is possible against the powerful.”
Next? The #NexstarTEGNA merger and the #ParamountWarner merger
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/boom-ticketmaster-guilty-of-monopolization
"Gasoline ties household budgets to global volatility—geopolitics, refinery outages, and supply shocks. Electrification, by contrast, shifts transportation onto a more stable, increasingly domestic energy system. Every mile driven on electricity is a step away from that volatility."
#JigarShah on high #gasprices shifting demand for #EVs & #hybrids - 192,000 public charging ports ready to go.
"At $5 per gallon, that’s $150–200 billion annually flowing out of Americans’ pockets, alongside a reduction of roughly 2–3 million barrels of oil demand per day and 300–350 million metric tons of CO₂ emissions. Clearly the technology exists in Europe and China—we already know how to build more efficient vehicles."
Consumer sentiment plunges
@carlquintanilla.bsky.social :
ROSENBERG: “.. consumer sentiment at its lowest level since the series began in November 1952! .. undercutting the lows of all the prior eleven recessions .. the 1970s oil shock,.. the Asian financial crisis .. the tech wreck and terrorist attacks of 2001, the GFC of 2008-2009 .. the 2020 pandemic.”
Inflation up to 3.3%, while wage growth has stalled.
@joshbivens-econ.bsky.social 🧵 :
Price effects of the Iran conflict already showing up in March data. For the month, prices up a lot and real earnings are down. And it almost surely gets worse from here. 1
https://bsky.app/profile/joshbivens-econ.bsky.social/post/3mj5ebgb25c2h
Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
