Hey there. Here’s a quick link list of things I’m thinking about today.
-Apparently, there’s a dark roof lobby. As in lobbyists who fight for the benefit of companies who make roofs made from dark materials. I learned this in an article from The Guardian — How the little-known ‘dark roof’ lobby may be making US cities hotter.
-I continue to think about how young men are moving to the right. This article in Salon gives some additional insight — Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard predicted young male voters flocking to Trump. The trial was permission to believe men are the real victims — regardless of facts.
-When the current administration cut funding for USAID, it was immediately predicted that this would bring death and chaos. We’re a few months into the cuts and the predictions have been proven correct. Here’s ProPublica’s story about the vacuum left after the U.S. abandoned its humanitarian commitments — Death, Sexual Violence and Human Trafficking: Fallout From U.S. Aid Withdrawal Hits the World’s Most Fragile Locations.
-Need an 80’s nostalgia hit? Someone on Threads made this request: All right, old music nerds, please give me your favourite 80s hit that doesn’t get enough love or doesn’t get played a lot. The comments are bringing up great memories and make me want to make a playlist.
-The topic I’m seeing the most chatter about today is Palantir. Peter Thiel’s company, Palantir, is helping the Trump’s team build a centralized surveillance state. You can read the New York Times report on this via this gift link — Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans. Much of the conversation about this topic brings up the idea that this was the whole point of DOGE, and that Elon Musk is stepping down because this is in now in place, and his work is complete.
What did you read today? Or bookmark to read later?
kisses,
Gabrielle
dark roof lobbyists- that's fucking grim. Like can we not have one positive thing omg.
USAID cuts are so hard to think about. Undone decades of progress in AIDS work in a matter of weeks- unthinkably cruel and unnecessary.
I'm reading this book called "the privatization of everything" and one thing that's sticking out is starting in the Reagan era our transformation from "citizens" to "consumers" or from "citizens" to "taxpayers" (as if this is a quid pro quo)- can we bring back trying to be a good citizen FFS. Great book, but not sure if I'll be able to get through the whole thing.
Looking forward to getting a substack from you every day for a month! What a treat even if it's hard topics.
Interesting about the dark roof lobbyists! We have a flat roof in Denver (mid-mod in Arapahoe Acres) with black EPDM - we painted the roof with light UV coating a few summers ago. The internal temps in our house in the summer came down about 7-8 degrees immediately!