Dave Anderson

I was her teaching assistant at UNC back in the 1990s. I really looked up to her. She was a dedicated scholar and wonderful professor, just so smart and so kind and encouraging to me and her students. Such a sad loss.

Amazon Plans to Replace More Than Half a Million Jobs With Robots

Gift link. Program launched in Shreveport and expects to cut half the labor force. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/t...

Opinion | Why Young Men Are Losing Faith in Science

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/o...

'No Kings' Unveils a Big New Trump Protest, and the Stakes Couldn't Be Higher Ezra Levin of Indivisible on how protest can stop Donald Trump’s authoritarianism.

“… organizers are expecting to outshine the original, amid revulsion to Trump’s brutal campaign of mass deportation led by masked agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and an increasingly lawless president who claims ‘a lot’ of Americans would ‘like a dictator.’” #NoKings

The MAGA Influencers Rehabilitating Hitler A growing constituency on the right wants America to unlearn the lessons of World War II.

Prominent far-right influencers have been attempting to rehabilitate Hitler's reputation. That's not an exaggeration; it's easily documented. I wrote about why they are doing this, what they hope to gain, and what it means for America.

Trump's massive raid on the Hyundai plant in Georgia is huge news all around the world. But in the US it's barely even reported, much less discussed and explained. Something fundamentally wrong with US media.

An Arkansas group’s effort to build a white ethnostate forms part of a wider US movement inspired by white supremacy Several white nationalist groups such as Return to the Land have attempted to establish all-white communities across the country.

A group called Return to the Land has established two "whites-only communities" in Arkansas, with plans for four more sites in the Ozarks and Appalachia. The creation of white ‘ethnostates’ is the ultimate goal of some white nationalists, a scholar of right-wing extremism explains:

mRNA Vaccines Are a Game-Changer—Here’s Why Speed and flexibility have made mRNA a blockbuster technology

www.scientificamerican.com/article/mrna...

Opinion | RFK Jr. is attacking the very science that saved millions HHS Secretary Kennedy’s decision is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of vaccinology that could cost lives in future pandemics.

www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb... RFK Jr. is attacking the very science that saved millions

I explore why liberals fell for the heterodox movement’s “free speech” ploy in my latest for @bostonreview.bsky.social: www.bostonreview.net/forum/the-ri...

U.S. deportees, freed from Salvadoran prison, describe ‘horror movie’ Three Venezuelans, released last week from the Terrorism Confinement Center, said they were repeatedly beaten and denied access to lawyers.

Gift link: wapo.st/3GZuXCW

"As the years went by, the truth began to sink in. The former campers developed terrible cancers. Kent suffered from skin and endometrial cancer and ultimately had to have her thyroid removed. She was one of the lucky ones. Only she and one other of that group of 12 would live past the age of 40."

Opinion | ‘Catching it on our tongues’: How 12 girls became the first atomic bomb victims The Trinity nuclear test was not conducted on barren, uninhabited land.

Gift link: wapo.st/4kPdpr0

Were Americans Ever Really Healthy? The history of nutrition science in the US suggests that the Make America Healthy Again movement would make more sense without the ‘A.’

Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

In light of this:
www.media.mit.edu/publications...
I will start my fall research seminar with five or ten minutes of free writing. On paper, with pen.
And I'll assign Lynn Hunt, "How Writing Leads to Thonking."
www.historians.org/perspectives...

Massive crowds for the No Kings rally in Flagstaff @maddow.msnbc.com @thecontrarian.bsky.social @ezralevin.bsky.social @leahgreenberg.bsky.social #nokings

Book cover with yellow and black border and white background. Black title: "Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile. Sarah Goodyear Doug Gordon Hosts of The War on Cars Podcast and Aaron Naparstek" Graphic shows yellow traffic light with vines on it.

Coming October 21st...

"Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile."

A new book about how cars ruin everything and what we can do to fight back.

Pre-order here: www.lifeaftercars.com

From Lane Windham, here's an unsparing look back at the period 20 years ago, when the leadership of the AFL-CIO really did try to recommit to organizing the unorganized and rebuild the labor movement as a movement. And failed to do so. portside.org/2025-05-28/c...

AI Is Eating Data Center Power Demand—and It’s Only Getting Worse A new analysis of AI hardware being produced and how it is being used attempts to estimate the vast amount of electricity being consumed by AI.

tired: people AI-generating rando images of themselves as anime

WIRED: AI’s energy use already represents as much as 20 percent of global data-center power demand, new analysis has found

How to Take Medicaid from Millions of Americans, in Less Than 72 Hours There’s a reason Republicans are in such a rush to get Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” through Congress.

“How to Take Medicaid from Millions of Americans, in Less Than 72 Hours”
Of course the GOP wants to pass its bill fast: They want to avoid public focus on the damage it would do to health coverage, writes @citizencohn.bsky.social.
He also shares important history.

www.thebulwark.com/p/how-to-tak...

YouTube video by The Atlantic Peter Keisler and the Crises of Due Process | The David Frum Show

Former acting Attorney General Peter Keisler and I discuss the many crises of due process in the Trump presidency. Episode 3 of the David Frum Show on YouTube below - or wherever you get your podcasts. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdBQ...

I'm lecturing in my US survey on the 1920s this week, and I came across @seeshespeak.bsky.social Great Courses lectures on The Great Gatsby, which pointed out things in both the book and the 1920s that hadn't considered before. It's well worth the listen.

the cover of blondie’s “dreaming” single

So sad today about the death of Clem Burke from cancer at the too-young age of 70. I kept seeing people mention his drumming on "Dreaming," which is one of my very favorite Blondie songs, and so I dug into why the tune (and his performance) is so brilliant. anniezaleski.substack.com/p/dreaming-i...

Defunding the NIH: A Betrayal of Taxpayers and America’s Biomedical Future American taxpayers have spent decades and over $1 trillion building the world’s foremost biomedical research enterprise. The National…

NIH isn’t some bloated bureaucracy—it’s the reason you survived COVID. It’s why cancer treatments keep improving. It's why gene therapy exists.

Now? We’re defunding it. That’s not just foolish. It’s strategic surrender. A thread 🧵
medium.com/@KellenSquir...

Regional steel plant is closing | 600 jobs axed | Texarkana Gazette U.S. Steel is closing its plant here, and laying off 600 people as a result of a "dramatic decline in business conditions" caused by the pandemic, according to a company official.

www.texarkanagazette.com/news/2020/ju...

Financial Stress Has More Americans Tapping Their 401(k)s Empower sees hardship withdrawals running 15% to 20% above the historical norm.

Not a good sign. Gift link.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Near the Canadian border, the tariffs are already being felt: theatln.tc/MeMekMiC

It is with profound sadness that we relay news of the passing of our beloved friend and bandmate Clem Burke following a private battle with cancer. (1/7)

Dow futures fall 1,500 points Sunday as Trump tariff market collapse worsens: Live updates Trump posted on Saturday to Truth Social for people to "hang tough" and that this was an "economic revolution."

www.cnbc.com/2025/04/06/s...

This is part of the big manufacturing lie: that people can get jobs with no education or training just wielding screwdrivers.

Apple cannot make iPhones in the US without an army of tooling engineers, and we don’t even have the tooling engineers here to educate an army of tooling engineers.