reading

[How Greenwich Republicans Learned to Love Trump](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/11/how-greenwich-republicans-learned-to-love-trump) Leora Levy, who called him vulgar in the local paper, took to applauding his “leadership” and quoting him on Twitter, where she adopted some of his rhetorical style. “AMERICA WILL NEVER BE A SOCIALIST COUNTRY!!!” she posted. “WE ARE BORN FREE AND WILL STAY FREE!!!” Last fall, Trump nominated her to be the American Ambassador to Chile. i’m always a bit amused by these “we are born free and will stay free” assertions....

Portland and the Paramilitarization of the Border Patrol “Indeed, few people realize that the court system has upheld CBP’s claim that the “border zone” should extend 100 miles from any national or coastal boundary, a line that encompasses nearly two‐​thirds of all Americans. Within that zone and regardless of whether you are an immigrant, CBP agents can search you without a warrant, detain you without probable cause, and even deport citizens without due process....

READING: I Don’t Feel Like Buying Stuff Anymore “The US didn’t become a nation of consumers because everyone has ample amounts of discretionary cash. Before the pandemic, income inequality had reached its highest levels since the Depression. Most Americans’ wages, when adjusted for inflation and purchasing power, have barely risen in four decades. In 2018, with the economy at its most robust in years, 61% of Americans said they could not cover a surprise expense of $400....

i’m curious as to how long this link will last. that said, pretty solid advice and reasonable take on things. far less abrasive than his twitter feed would have you think.

this bloomberg article re: microsoft under nadella is totally worth the read. it’s really difficult to recognize the microsoft from the ballmer era vs. what we see today. the products and the stuff coming out of microsoft is actualy pretty exciting. their hardware is decent, their cloud presence and developer support (hello, github.) is first rate and they’re consistently chipping away at AWS in the cloud space. 20 years ago, if you would have told me that they’d be sticking a linux layer into their OS and you’d have something approximating a useful unix userspace environment in your PC, i would have thought you were quite high....