David Fedman

I’m definitely going to watch this Hannah Arendt documentary now streaming on PBS.

Arendt was a political theorist who coined the phrase “banality of evil,” which inspired the famous Milgram experiments into how every day people could suppress their own morals in the face of authority.

yea, for sure. just noticing now it's missing Washington Heights. This map is from his now 20 year old dissertation, so imagine there's plenty other changes he'd wanna make!

Slave-catcher energy here

Buildings and land in central Tokyo requisitioned by US occupation

Sources: GHQ Senryô Chizu, Chiyoda-ku shi, Chûô-ku shi. Cartography by my co-author Cary Karacas

😮😮😮

"That’s why, when someone tells an American to "love your homeland," they can’t truly understand what that means. Ultimately, they came to the new continent of America for one reason—money."

Source: 「長期戦に向かぬ米軍」『飛行日本』18巻8号、1943年8月、31頁。

"This, in itself, is a revealing expression of their national character. Roughly 60% of Americans are Anglo-Saxon, another 30% are Italian, and the rest are a mix of Polish and German backgrounds. In other words, Americans themselves are a kind of ethnic cocktail." 2/

This IJA roundtable from August 1943 just *reeks* of desperation:

"Speaking of alcohol: Japan has sake, the UK whiskey, Germany beer, and the Soviets vodka—each country has its own national drink. But America doesn’t have one. What they have is the cocktail—a mixture of various foreign liquors." 1/

A Giant in the Field of Civil War Military History Has Passed Yesterday I received word that historian Eric Wittenberg passed away after a long illness.

A Giant in the Field of Civil War Military History Has Passed
open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

A travesty and a tragedy.

“The United States Aims for World Domination Using Alaska as a Base” (ca 1943)

😲 WE ARE SO DISAPPOINTED with the United States Coast Guard for participating in this disgrace 👎

24 million Americans are about to be priced out of medical care, there’s a famine in Gaza, fewer and fewer people can afford groceries…

…and here’s what corporate media chooses to tell you the “big news” is.

August 1, 2025 AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION Committee on Economic Statistics and Committee on Government Relations Statement from the American Economic Association on the Dismissal of the BLS Commissioner Leaders of the American Economic Association express their grave concern over the dismissal of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) earlier today. The independence of the federal statistical agencies is essential to the proper functioning of a modern economy. Accurate, timely, and impartial statistics are the foundation upon which households, businesses, and policymakers make critical decisions. Undermining the independence or credibility of these agencies threatens the integrity of the information that markets, institutions, and the public rely on every day. Measuring the vast and dynamic U.S. economy in real time is inherently challenging. It is standard practice for statistical estimates to be revised as more complete and higher-quality data become available. These revisions reflect the commitment of statistical agencies to accuracy, transparency, and methodological rigor-not failure or bias. The BLS has long had a well-deserved reputation for professional excellence and nonpartisan integrity. Safeguarding this tradition is vital for the continued health of the U.S. economy and public trust in our institutions. We call upon elected officials to respect and preserve the independence of the nation's statistical infrastructure. Lawrence Katz President, American Economic Association Katharine Abraham President-Elect, American Economic Association Karen Dynan Chair, American Economic Association Committee on Economic Statistics Kenneth Troske Chair, American Economic Association Committee on Government Relations

Statement from the largest economics association about the BLS firing

As context: AEA approximately never makes such public statements

This is a big deal

“The United States Aims for World Domination Using Alaska as a Base” (ca 1943)

The materiality of borders 👍

"The U.S. military leadership (the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and NORTHCOM) need to feel – for the first time – the urgency of the homeland defense mission. They need to understand the threat, what’s at stake, and the political importance the administration has placed on this issue."

Important article, notably has DHS/DOD political appointees thinking about how to persuade and pressure senior military leadership into being more willing to use the military for domestic immigration and law enforcement

If you’ll recall, the “antisemitism” at UCLA involved primarily campus police allowing Zionist counter protesters to attack the pro-Palestinian camps (incl. many Jewish participants) while they did nothing, and arresting the anti-genocide students & faculty afterwards.

Some Japanese intellectuals, increasingly incredulous of the wartime state's announcements about the progress of the war, devised a technique called "article engineering" (kiji kōgaku 記事工学) to cut through the lies.

Here's literary critic Kōshin Murofuse on his approach:

Economists, take note.

Every day it’s sorting out the things that seem bad but are actually worse than they appear from the things that look truly terrible but end up being only as depressing as everything else.

Sometimes I think of how only two generations of us were even allowed to attend these settler colonial ass universities in tiny, awkward handfuls, and how even that was too much

Some Japanese intellectuals, increasingly incredulous of the wartime state's announcements about the progress of the war, devised a technique called "article engineering" (kiji kōgaku 記事工学) to cut through the lies.

Here's literary critic Kōshin Murofuse on his approach:

Economists, take note.

It says Akira. The name of the artist is in the parentheses next to the dialogue -- 山本章, Yamamoto Akira.

No AP News alerts, no Union-Tribune alerts or articles, no emails from UC either. I work at a UC and I would not know that UCLA lost all grant funding last night if I wasn't on Bluesky or in union group chats.

Self-preserving silence and general complacency are becoming more common.

Fascinating account from Ben Kuroki, the only American of Japanese descent to fly B-29 missions against Japan

Rumors of Japanese hold-outs disguised as GIs on Tinian didn't make life any easier for him

"During the first couple weeks...I actually felt safer when I was flying combat missions..."

"Since the first messenger who told Tigranes that Lucullus was coming had his head cut off for his pains, no one else would tell him anything, and so he sat in ignorance while the fires of war were blazing around him, giving ear only to those who flattered him."

-- Plutarch, ≈ 100 A.D.

welcome to the humpty dumpty economy, friends

Inside the Crisis at the Anti-Defamation League The group used to believe the rights of Jews were inextricable from the rights of everyone else. Its war against anti-Zionism has changed everything.

Great, enraging reporting from @noahshachtman.bsky.social nymag.com/intelligence...

literally any billionaire has the power to stop this