Mark Gilbert

guacamole = avocado sauce Where do the words “avocado” and “guacamole” come from?

Cool episode of Linguistic Discovery about guacamole.
linguisticdiscovery.substack.com/p/guacamole

Trump Defunds Effective Crime-Prevention Policies Misguided budget cuts could reverse encouraging crime trends.

Trump Defunds Effective Crime-Prevention Policies
open.substack.com/pub/brennanc...

Vang: Deporting these Hmong men isn’t justice — it’s a failure of America’s promise "I am asking you to reject the idea that immigrants are welcome to do America’s dirty work but are not allowed to call this country home when peace comes," Ka Vang writes.

The arrests and deportations Vang describes are both immoral and just plain bad governance. This is not making our country better.
www.startribune.com/mn-ice-depor...

"This Town Is Great, Why Would Anyone Want To Live Here?" Urbanism as localism that isn't obstructionism

A good way for us YIMBYs to think about NIMBYs.
open.substack.com/pub/thedelet...

RFK Jr. guts the U.S. vaccine policy committee The system is becoming unrecognizable.

RFK Jr. guts the U.S. vaccine policy committee
open.substack.com/pub/yourloca...

We don’t need zoning Cities shouldn’t micromanage their economies

open.substack.com/pub/postsubu...

Immigration is not an "invasion", nor should it be The far right and the far left both want you to think that the purpose of immigration is to overthrow America. Don't let them get away with it.

Immigration is not an "invasion", nor should it be
www.noahpinion.blog/p/immigratio...

Opinion | I’m Normally a Mild Guy. Here’s What’s Pushed Me Over the Edge.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/o...

MAGA’s War on Science Why do these people believe that ignorance is strength?

MAGA’s War on Science
open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Trump is crippling the tax police The dire consequences of a decline in voluntary compliance

Cuts to the IRS cost us more in revenue than they save. But, even beyond that, it's a moral good to collect taxes that are owed.

Trump is crippling the tax police www.slowboring.com/p/trump-is-c...

Leading Nutrition Scientist Departs N.I.H., Citing Censorship (Gift Article) Kevin Hall said his work on ultraprocessed foods has been “hobbled” under the Trump administration. Scientists have been raising such concerns for months.

The administration's anti-science and anti-government tendencies undo any good that might have come from their legit concerns. Kennedy should have been supporting his work, not undermining him.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/w...

If this is the effect of walking back some of his economic program, just imagine the prosperity he could unleash if he abandoned all of it!

Justin Wolfers on X: "Biggest mistakes I'm seeing in early reporting: 1. Tariffmageddon isn't over: Lotsa tariffs to account for, but the average tariff rate is only down around one quarter." / X Biggest mistakes I'm seeing in early reporting: 1. Tariffmageddon isn't over: Lotsa tariffs to account for, but the average tariff rate is only down around one quarter.

x.com/JustinWolfer...

All the arguments for tariffs are wrong and bad Trump's defenders are flailing.

Noah Smith gives the details about why Trump's tariffs are bad.

All the arguments for tariffs are wrong and bad www.noahpinion.blog/p/all-the-ar...

If I ran Canada, I'd cut off the supply of pulpwood to the US. If people can't buy toilet paper, they'll get Trump's attention.

Stocks Surge as Trump Announces a Delay to Global Tariffs The S&P 500 spiked, showing investors’ relief to President Trump’s decision to pause high tariffs for most countries, except for China.

If only there was some way for the President to get advice from experts BEFORE doing something stupid...

Stocks Surge as Trump Announces a Delay to Global Tariffs www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/b...

This essay illustrates how the loudest proponents of “free speech culture” have contributed to normalizing state censorship. Read it. Some key points:

/1

Threats to public health at every angle Covid anniversary, pandemic revisionism, chronic diseases, and a boulder going down the hill

Threats to public health at every angle
open.substack.com/pub/yourloca...

As always, not a lawyer, but one thing that leaps out at me about how things are going down in the courts right now is that the US court system is not designed to be responsive to a crisis like this one. A crisis like this one is not what it's FOR.

Patricia Bauman died a year ago.

ActBlue is a payment processor. Almost anyone who’s given to a D candidate in the last 20 years could be mischaracterized as a “ActBlue funder.”

Listing five Jews, two of whom are long dead, as “ActBlue funders” secretly behind the Tesla protests is antisemitism.

Give him time.

I just don’t understand why some people are “meh”.

Weekend Update #123: The Week The USA Started Killing Ukrainians Part 1: The Trump Plan to Damage Ukraine and Help Russia

Weekend Update #123: The Week The USA Started Killing Ukrainians
open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

Opinion | Gentle is the joy that comes with age It turns out the point of life is gratitude. And gratitude is joy.

I'm starting to feel some of this.
wapo.st/41EtPw4

Maybe honest isn't the right word. Idealistic maybe was the charge against him.

His son is a legislator here in Minnesota. When he ran for Governor, in 1994, he was faulted for being too honest. He lost a close race against a popular, moderate Republican incumbent in a year with a red wave nationally.

We have people who want to build housing, and people who want to buy and/or rent that housing. But, we have literally made it illegal to do that. That's dumb.

Opinion | The Chilling Consequences of Going Along With Trump (Gift Article) The voluntarily surrender of the public’s power is how autocracies are built.

Gift article. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/o...

In Other Contexts, It's Called "Consumer Advocacy" My theory for why YIMBY broke through rhetorically and politically

In Other Contexts, It's Called "Consumer Advocacy"
open.substack.com/pub/thedelet...

President Trump’s executive order suspending foreign aid is reckless and cruel Compassion, not chaos, should guide foreign aid reform.

Amid the chaos don't overlook Trump's cut-off of foreign aid. Perhaps the cruelest action so far, and likely to cause great suffering.
www.startribune.com/president-tr...