Bertis Downs

Massive Burt Jones-backed project among wave of data centers proposed for Georgia • Georgia Recorder A massive data center project backed by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and his family could be coming to Butts County, but many of the project’s details are still unknown.

Georgia Recorder:

A massive data center project backed by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and his family could be coming to Butts County, but many of the project’s details are still unknown. Jones, a Republican, is running to be Georgia’s next governor.

tinyurl.com/bpapcnf6

Inside the Trump Administration’s Assault on Higher Education How conservatives learned to stop worrying and love federal power.

Emma Green in the New Yorker on the landscape of higher education.

The example of the University of Maine system, and its practical effects on the state’s people and economy, is telling and enlightening.

Highly recommended— worth reading or listening all the way to the end:

tinyurl.com/3k9tceet

It’s a Racket! | Jed S. Rakoff Cryptocurrency has largely managed to remain free of government regulation, and as a result has often become a vehicle for fraud and criminality.

I’ve always been kind of a crypto skeptic, but figured it was probably just my liberal arts brain with limited technical capacity.

But when Judge Jed Rakoff weighs in, I pay attention:
"It’s a Racket!" (NYRB)

tinyurl.com/ohtherackets...

Gratitude this Thanksgiving dawn— for family, friends, music, work, hoops, morning skies, evening walks, decent health (so far), people all over who are resisting authoritarians keeping people down in favor of their own wealth… inspiration from so many people speaking up and speaking out 🙏

YouTube video by Movieclips Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) - A F***ing Car Scene | Movieclips

Had me at “gobble gobble” 🦃

youtu.be/jRvNg4zQ_14?...

✈️🚂🚙

Steve Martin forever 🎥

Ukraine Will Never Surrender From Russia’s Nov. 19 Terror Campaign to Trump and Witkoff's Moscow Surrender Plan

Flagged on Diane Ravitch’s blog, the latest on the state of the war in Europe (and yes sickening is the right word):

olgalautman.substack.com/p/ukraine-wi...

Some good November happenings on the REMHQ page and band socials. See also this very cool podcast with original producers Mitch Easter and Don Dixon talking all things technical and musical in those early days NC sessions that became Chronic Town and Murmur 

tinyurl.com/mitchanddont...

Athens friends, Chapel Hill friends, and so many other people who knew and loved Eve Carson

Today would gave been Eve’s 40th birthday. I learned recently of this special way her memory is being honored by some of her fellow UNC alumni:

tinyurl.com/EveCarsonUNC

REM's 20 greatest singles of their major-label era As chosen by Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe themselves

From the venerable UNCUT way back in 2003, a selective critical listing of the band’s mid and later-period “singles” (1988-2001). Particularly fun to see the guys’ realtime reactions to some of these songs.
www.uncut.co.uk/features/lis...

damn

Information ministry The weekend despatch: Why is U.S. federal data disappearing while citizen surveillance expands? How is Russia luring workers from Africa and Asia into combat? + What were the V-Discs?

From The Signal newsletter:

Since January, when U.S. President Donald Trump reassumed office, his administration has removed more than 8,000 web pages and approximately 3,000 datasets from federal agencies. Climate data, public-health research, educational statistics...

tinyurl.com/pagingmrstalin

YouTube video by neilyoungchannel as time explodes

Just had to share, Neil Young‘s latest, the music and the film clips say it all, no need for lyrics

youtube.com/watch?v=bK0e...

Trump’s Plan Is Now Out in the Open It’s getting ever harder to avoid connecting the authoritarian dots.

Peter Wehner’s powerful essay in this morning’s Atlantic with some necessary perspective in fraught and fragile times. And the Vaclev Havel quote is worth reading to the end for….

tinyurl.com/55mn33kv

From Khartoum to Clarkston: How a Sudanese nurse is filling a gap in health care Maha Mousnad, an immigrant from Sudan, overcomes challenges to become a registered nurse in the US, providing care to Arabic-speaking patients.

Needed: more stories like this please, real people in real places (my hometown) doing real things:

tinyurl.com/inspiringCla...

Opinion | In defense of the White House ballroom Donald Trump vs. the NIMBYs

Never mind— I think I’m outtahere.

Feck these pricks!

wapo.st/4o2FcGU

Man, 93, reunites with lost dog after rescuers lure her with his socks “She wanted to get back to him; she just didn’t know how,” rescue volunteer Jennifer Justice said.

Not much of a reason to stay subscribed to the Washington Post but along with David Ignatius and Karen Tumulty (Dana Milbank is now a nature writer) I guess I’ll stay for The Optimist and stories like this (you won’t read a sweeter shaggy dog story than this one anytime soon)

tinyurl.com/pnnfz8fs

Ukraine’s Underground Generation Addressing the isolation of young people has become an urgent priority in eastern Ukraine.

Interested in children, education, warfare, psychology, reesilience, Ukraine…?

A worthwhile article in The Atlantic:

tinyurl.com/3b8tzfrw

says it all, or close

We are hope despite the times!

With the Radio Free Europe 2025 EP arriving in record stores this Friday (and @RFE.RL's mission still as vital as ever), we’re revisiting our We Are Hope Despite the Times playlist — a collection of songs that offer a little light through the static.

📡 Listen: found.ee/rem-wahdtt

Portland has fallen!

The Border Czar and a Bag of $50,000 Podcast Episode · The Daily · 10/15/2025 · 24m

Dinner’s on Tom! Czar Homan The Daily treatment on today’s podcast:

“Crypto isn’t an easy thing to explain. You know what is easy to explain? A Cava bag full of cash, that’s pretty simple.”

-Reporter Devlin Barrett of the New York Times, who first broke the story tinyurl.com/CAVAmanincha...

Funny last night about the 6 minute mark when Stephen Colbert talks about airports and dentists’ offices

www.youtube.com/watch?v=F13K...

America Needs a Mass Movement—Now Without one, America may sink into autocracy for decades.

David Brooks, not usually my “favorite” columnist with a compelling piece in The Atlantic:

tinyurl.com/BrooksRevolu...

Trump’s Insurrection Claims Could Lead American Democracy Off a Cliff Podcast Episode · Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts · 10/11/2025 · 52m

Today’s Dahlia Lithwick AMICUS podcast covers some essential ground. Listen to the first minute or two and see if you don’t want to finish it out.

“Just Venezuela, just Chicago, just Portland…”

uh, not so fast

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

Out at indie retail next Friday October 17th— check local listings

YouTube video by remhq R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe 2025 (Jacknife Lee Remix) RFE/RL Dispatch

Kind of a unique take on a“lyric video”

🎸🎙️📡

Footage from the earliest days of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, with sounds from 1981 and 2025!

youtu.be/f_rshoUeixk?...

READ: Trump's tyranny needs just ONE more thing to succeed Even his best henchmen can't provide him with the most powerful tool needed for a military takeover.

Miles Taylor, a true patriot, and a brave one:

open.substack.com/pub/treason/...

Who was mooching down near the tree – – the dog, the bird or the android?

YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Shutdown Eve | Hegseth To America’s Enemies: FAFO | Trump To Military Brass: Fight The Enemy Within

Didja miss this today? DON’T!

Stephen Colbert at his very best!

youtu.be/XBXleKD9K4Y?...

Pegging the camera with the old F.A.F.O:

“Oh no… I know. I’ve been there. When you think it’s going to land, that quiet crowd really hurts”