John Duda

A black man stands, hat in hand, before a line of police in suits, their faces covered by disturbing white masks

3) The image on the book cover is pure nightmare fuel once you actually look closely at it:

2) Because Baltimore was the biggest slaveholding city not burnt to the ground by the Union army, and was never subject to Reconstruction (white supremacist elites were "redeemed" the day the war ended), it could "innovate" faster and earlier on new syntheses of racial capitalism + carceral control

Takeaways from Mike Casiano's book launch @redemmas.org:

1) The Baltimore Police Department was literally a slave patrol from its 1857 founding through 1864.

Excuse me

” In a US buffeted by extreme weather, disaster spending is becoming a key driver of the economy.”
www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

Will be at @redemmas.org with Ho-fung Hung this Wednesday. In Baltimore? Come on down!

You can’t call the police on fascism.

I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win

The problem with capitalism, in my account, is not just that it destroys nature or unjustly distributes the material harms and benefits of production. Rather, these problems stem from another, second-order problem: that capitalism limits our ability to treat nonhuman nature as something other than a free gift. It constrains our ability, individually and collectively, to make genuine decisions about how to value and relate to the nonhuman world, and to take responsibility for those decisions. Put simply: capitalism limits our freedom.

Started in on @alybatt.bsky.social’s “Free Gifts” in anticipation of her event on 10/9 at @redemmas.org w/ @pmbigger.bsky.social. (It’s really good so far!)

@govpritzker.illinois.gov owns every arrest and act of violence against protesters this morning. He is aiding and abetting Operation Midway Blitz by allowing state cops to do this. He tells us to film ICE. His cops have shoved me around for filming this morning.

A little obsessed with the archives of the Public Broadcasting Laboratory americanarchive.org/special_coll...

We need a bigger national spotlight on this building raid, fam. Agents dropped from helicopters onto the roof. Citizens and non-citizens alike were dragged from their homes in the night. People who weren't kidnapped during the raid had their belongings seized after the fact. This is madness.

Spain's PM says he will send warship to protect Gaza aid flotilla Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday he will join Italy in sending a military warship to protect an international flotilla seeking to deliver aid to Gaza after it was attacked by drones off Greece.

"Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday he will join Italy in sending a military warship to protect an international flotilla seeking to deliver aid to Gaza after it was attacked by drones off Greece."

www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Bluestockings Cooperative Bluestockings Cooperative: Established in 1999, Worker-Owned since 2021. Located at 116 Suffolk Street, New York, NY 10002. One of NYC's only queer, trans, sex-worker run bookstores.

Devastated to hear that Bluestockings is closing. They will be missed.

bluestockings.com

If you spent even one second of the last decade indulging the free speech claims made by the American right in earnest, I genuinely think you're lacking in intelligence. I do not think you have what it takes to deliver sound commentary on American politics.

Their waists and hands were tied together, forcing them to bend down and lick water to drink. The unscreened bathrooms contained only a single sheet to cover their lower bodies. Sunlight barely penetrated through a fist-sized hole, and they were only allowed access to the small yard for two hours. Detained by US immigration authorities for eight days, the workers and their families expressed shock, describing human rights violations and absurdities they could not have imagined as ordinary Koreans living in 2025.

korean reporting is nightmarish on the conditions Korean workers were contained in

In the aftermath of the subprime mortgage collapse, the goals of national housing policy have swung from expanding home ownership back to increasing the supply of rental housing. Given the return of this goal, the history of public-private rental housing merits reflection. The midcentury FHA scandals show that loosened regulations and public subsidies—the main planks of today’s abundance agenda—are not enough to deliver sufficient affordable housing. Fred Trump did not just exploit the FHA system; he embodied its core logics of liberalized credit, socialized risk, and privatized profits. Trusting the same class of builders and recycling similar incentive schemes would be a mistake. Because developers, homeowners, and local governments are all deeply invested in maintaining or boosting property values, clearing out regulations and pouring in subsidies risks fuelling the same kind of speculative, profiteering frenzy that defined not only the windfall profits scandal but also the 2008 financial crisis.

Great piece from @brentcebul.bsky.social and Michael Glass on the limits of subsidy-driven housing development www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/add...

birds/roof

Helpful for thinking through this possibility in Baltimore!

Our schedule for the Baltimore Book Festival is packed with free talks and panels across three different stages on Saturday 9/13 and Sunday 9/14....

A big table and shelf unit covered in comics

The same shelf, empty

Built a new massive shelf for @redemmas.org to house our expanding quantities of comics, graphic novels, and manga. So many new bins to dig through now.

Any computer program is, no matter how large and complicated, fundamentally just a number. What ChatGPT has shown us is pretty terrifying: there are numbers that are demons.

9/13 - Drag Queen Story Hour, presented by Absolutely Dragulous and special guest, Tourmaline by Red Emma's Get tickets and support Red Emma's by becoming a member

It's almost time for the Baltimore Book Festival!

Here's a peak at our schedule on the 32nd St. Stage just for day 1 of the festival, Saturday 9/13, kicking off with something for the kids: Tourmaline presenting her new book "One Day in June" about Marsha P. Johnson!

withfriends.co/event/266732...

Fresh off the risograph! Grab some free posters and let ICE know they aren’t welcome here (or anywhere)

really can't wait to get my hands on this!

A Prominent OpenAI Investor May Be Suffering an ChatGPT-Related Mental Health Crisis, His Peers Say Bedrock co-founder Geoff Lewis has posted increasingly troubling content on social media, drawing concern from friends in the industry.

I wrote about how Geoff Lewis, one of OpenAI’s long running investors, has sparked concern among peers who believe he may be facing a public mental health episode brought on by ChatGPT.

futurism.com/openai-inves...

Tuesday, August 12 7:00 PM ET Red Emma's Baltimore, MD In conversation with Chris Lehmann and Max Alvarez Wednesday, August 13 7:00 PM ET Politics & Prose (Conn Ave) Washington, DC In conversation with Michael Tomasky Wednesday, September 3 7:00 PM ET Books Are Magic (Montague) Brooklyn, NY In conversation with Alex Shephard Thursday, September 4 7:00 PM ET Harvard Book Store Cambridge, MA In conversation with Ryan D. Doerfler Friday, September 26 4:00 PM CT Seminary Co-op Bookstore Chicago, IL In conversation with Alex Han

Tour dates for The Right of the People are out now! Hope to see some of you on the road.

Pre-order links and info here: t.co/CmNKNBtqcG

"Opportunity Zones tax breaks [are] fundamentally at odds with a principle that’s becoming increasingly central in many historically disinvested communities: that investment should be driven by community priorities, not by the pursuit of tax-free profits for wealthy investors."

Really helpful summary of the case against Opportunity Zones — about to be made a permanent feature of the tax code — from @oscarthinks.bsky.social: nextcity.org/features/tru...

CHILLY GRAY COMMIE SUMMER