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Michael Chabon | Substack Field Notes of a Serial Enthusiast. Click to read Michael Chabon, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.

My writing, writing on writing, and thoughts on writing—and on music, culture popular and unpopular, etc.—can now be found on Substack. Check it out. michaelchabon.substack.com?r=oy2er&utm_...

About 700 Marines being mobilized in response to LA protests | CNN Politics More than 700 Marines based out of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in California have been mobilized to respond to the protests in Los Angeles, and the troops will join the thousands of Nati...

Only an ignorant, draft-dodging, tinpot showboat weakling would ever consider bringing the military into this situation. www.cnn.com/2025/06/09/p...

#itsclobberintime

A little was enough.

2017 piece. Imaging tech & other modern methods unavailable to Freud have begun to find at least some evidence for some of Freud’s hypotheses—the pleasure principle, for example. Freud was a neuroscientist whose ambition far outstripped his technological means.

After Muscling Their Bill Through the House, Some Republicans Have Regrets

If you’ve ever wondered what lives in spineless’s basement.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/u...

Hegseth moves to rename Navy ship honoring gay rights icon Harvey Milk The directive could be expanded to include other military vessels named for prominent American civil rights figures, said people familiar with internal discussions.

“Hegseth” is actually an old Norwegian word meaning “internalized homophobia.” www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Paul Waldman*, writing about the unedifying perma-squirm that was once Marco Rubio, puts it precisely.

*My brother-in-law.

“…because we don’t want the world to be drawn to us. We’re just one more ruthless competitor in an international viper pit, and whatever we gain will be only at others’ expense, because we’re bigger and stronger than they are.”

What Happened to Marco Rubio? Ambition is a helluva drug.

tinyurl.com/37kvth5u
“But the essence of the Trump foreign policy is that this isn’t a special country, not really. We have no admirable values that lift us up, no particular principles, no desire to foment the spread of liberty. We are not trying to be a beacon to the world…”

Exploitation of mass media to spread disinformation, state orchestration of xenophobia, unholy alliance of nationalist regime and ultra-right (Catholic, in this instance) religion, taking revenge on a scapegoat population for a past degradation/humiliation… our times were born in poor Dreyfus’s.

France finally acts to deliver justice in infamous Dreyfus case More than century on, wronged officer is in line for posthumous promotion

Found this unexpectedly moving. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

World’s oldest fingerprint may be a clue that Neanderthals created art A man 43,000 years ago dipped a finger in red pigment and made a nose on a face-like pebble in Spain, scientists say

Perhaps, judging from the current state of things, we were the VHS to the Neanderthals’ Betamax. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Jadin: Sonatas for Piano with Violin by Marek Toporowski & Zofia Wojniakiewicz Listen now on your favorite streaming service. Powered by Songlink/Odesli, an on-demand, customizable smart link service to help you share songs, albums, podcasts and more.

Until recently I was totally unfamiliar with the splendidly-named Hyacinthe Jadin (1776-1800) and his (even more splendid) Sonatas for Piano with Violin. This is my favorite of the performances I’ve discovered so far. album.link/i/1733259207

An ad agency for McDonald’s France, calling it like they see it, is using graphics and design elements of a fictional meth-smuggling front company to sell “McDo”’s reformulated “McCrispy” fried chicken.

Bruce Springsteen Drops ‘Land of Hope & Dreams’ EP Featuring Speech That Set Off President Trump Bruce Springsteen's speech about President Donald Trump's "corrupt" administration is featured on a new live EP titled 'Land of Hope & Dreams.'

#unintimidated

www.billboard.com/music/music-...

In Attacks on Harvard, Chinese See Yet Another Reason to Write Off the U.S.

Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you/Forget the dead you’ve left, they will not follow you/The vagabond who’s rapping at your door/Is standing in the clothes that you once wore/Strike another match, go start anew www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/w...

25 on 9/19/25. Hard to believe.

Cost-cutting tactics The secret bonuses were just one of many maneuvers UnitedHealth devised to track and cut expenses in its nursing home initiative. Internal emails show, for example, that UnitedHealth supervisors gave their teams “budgets” showing how many hospital admissions they had “left” to use up on nursing home patients. The company also monitored nursing homes that had smaller numbers of patients with “do not resuscitate” – or DNR – and “do not intubate” orders in their files. Without such orders, patients are in line for certain life-saving treatments that might lead to costly hospital stays. Two current and three former UnitedHealth nurse practitioners told the Guardian that UnitedHealth managers pressed nurse practitioners to persuade Medicare Advantage members to change their “code status” to DNR even when patients had clearly expressed a desire that all available treatments be used to keep them alive.

UnitedHealth secretly pressured nurses to change patients' records to include DNRs (Do Not Resuscitate) without their consent, so those patients would die instead of being saved with medical interventions that could cost UnitedHealth money.

This is murder.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Wait, Robert "Blank Generation Blue Mask Girlfriend" Quine was Willard "To Be Is To Be The Value Of A Bound Variable" Quine's nephew?

Fair point.

Israeli troops fire ‘warning shots’ at 25 diplomats visiting occupied West Bank Shots force delegation representing 31 countries, including Italy, Canada, Egypt and UK, to run for cover

When your power depends on persuading the populace that everyone hates them and is their enemy, logic demands that you behave hatefully and make enemies of everyone. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

I love Calling All Destroyers even more!

They were so good!

Elderberry Wine Wednesday · Elderberry Wine · Song · 2025

If you love indie-alt-Americana-country-rock-whatever, right now is a great time to be alive. #Wednesday open.spotify.com/track/1FZXwh...

Am I the only one who hears “I could drink a case of you/And I would still be on my feet” as more of a defiant put down than as sweet talk?

I could write a book.

Israel says ‘extensive’ ground operations underway in Gaza Strip The Israeli military said the ground maneuvers were part of Operation Gideon’s Chariots, an offensive that could include the occupation of Gaza.

This is the leap into the abyss. Israel will have committed suicide by genocide. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

A GREAT DAY IN HIP HOP THE FILM A documentary about one of the most iconic photographs in hip hop history, taken by Gordon Parks. | Check out 'A GREAT DAY IN HIP HOP THE FILM' on Indiegogo.

Chipped in to help the great Nelson George make this film a reality. igg.me/at/AGREATDAY...

Is It Ethical to Buy Used Books and Music?

I was digging Kwame Anthony Appiah’s answer *before* I got to the shoutout! www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/m...