All these sad songs overlapping til I’m buried by my id

I am deeply moved by the moral clarity of both Miss Rachel and Greta Thunberg.  Imagine if we had leaders with this much backbone. Imagine if we could just have leaders who saw the world as it was rather than constantly inventing crises that just so happen to match up with their hateful worldview.

Here are 14 great songs, three videos worth watching, Los Angeles as their biggest manufactured crisis yet, a call to reject Elon forever, four other things, three great pieces of writing, and one important date.

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where would we be without good music?

This latchkey kids track is my favorite song of 2025 so far. A great song, and a great song for the moment.

This song blew me away. Flutes! Trumpets! Stay Inside just keeps getting better.

This is their second track in a row named for a disgusting beverage (previously: “tequila redbull”) but Equipment continues to be one of the very best and most consistent bands around.

First Day Back just put out a new record that sounds like it could have been released in the 90s. RIYL Braid.

Megan From Work is a band I’m constantly listening to and you should be too.

LaterGator feels like a band that could blow up in the emo scene at any moment. Get familiar.

Kerosene Heights did it again. And by it, let’s just say I mean wrote a ripper of a song.

Mariel Loveland of Best Ex is back with a new band (A+M Radio) and the first track is a fun catchy bop about your main character moment.

The Carolyn with another quick sharp blast of their brand of punk.

Pretty Bitter’s second release from their upcoming record. I can’t wait for this one.

Perennial want to know if you’re abstract, baby. I’m feeling abstract.

Hyber’s new song will get stuck in your head.

Pool Kids are back and they’re pushing their sound to new places.

Local sweethearts ONEFALL with a great song and a fun video.

three videos worth your time

A Florida meteorologist with a stark warning. This feels like one of things that might break through to people. We have the ability to predict weather, it keeps people safe, and we should not give it up just because it doesn’t matter to the rich idiots in charge. There is no argument for these cuts. This is a problem that could be solved, instead they’ve made it worse.

I’ve seen people online say “we don’t need these positions, I can see the weather on my phone.” Another example in the rising genre of '‘people don’t realize how good we have it.’ The weather on your phone is fine but it’s just data, but we need experts in the field who actually look at the data and interpret it. A phone app will never replace that expertise. This is a common theme. So many parts of the government run so smoothly in the background that people think so many things are just automatically happening. It’s not true. DOGE even admitted they didn’t find much fraud or waste, and that they only thought they would because they come from Silicon Valley where people sit around not doing much all day.

I was stunned and inspired by this local teen’s words after being released from ICE.

Newsom’s address last night was very well done. Clear, to the point, accurate, calling out bullshit. I am not a fan of his either, I know. His podcast was truly a terrible idea. He’s been good the last few days. Also hello other Democrats, go on TV and talk about this! You can do that! Take the mantle of leadership!

just describe the world as it is!

I am just so sick and tired of the people in charge and their lies. We all know they are liars! None of this had to happen! Immigrants are not invading. Los Angeles is not burning down nor does it require liberation. Science and research were not in any kind of crisis. Trade deals did not need to be ripped up and discarded. These are all imaginary crises but more accurately they are manufactured. The Fox News watching, Twitter scrolling people believe it because it’s what they’ve been fed. The propaganda has worked and until we can fight back in some substantial way, I’m not sure how we recover. But the thing I keep coming back to is this: it’s all fake, and none of it needed to happen. It’s being shoved in our faces. That’s part of their point.

This is all for nothing. Pain. Tragedy. Suffering. Death. For nothing. This is an old, addled president with a fever dream of crushing anyone who doesn’t kiss his ass, aided by an evil troll (Miller) who is consumed by hatred, which is plain to see based on his words and actions, even if ABC suspended and fired a reporter for saying so. Donald Trump is nothing if not a “world class hater” but this guy loses his job for saying what we all know. No good is coming from any of this. The media is going to bothsides us into authoritarianism. These companies seem to think that this next one will be the one time Trump stops going after them if they just give him what he wants. Real wallet inspector hours around here. Fighting back should be the only option.

Speaking of, I feel like people are waiting as if there will be a moment where Trump and Co. come right out and say “I’m a Nazi!” or “I’m a dictator!” and until that moment it’s not right to use those words. (Now, his brain doesn’t work so well so there IS a non-zero chance he’ll say it one day, I admit it.) He’s literally doing Nazi shit. He’s literally doing dictator shit. The same exact shit. I mean, there’s a playbook from history, it was in Project 2025, and it’s part of the Network State. Say it. Just describe the world as it is!

They keep saying they’re not cutting Medicaid, but it’s a straight up lie. They’ll never admit it, but it’s true.

Trump is going to announce trade deals that really don’t do more than get us back to where he was before he blew up the world economy and he’ll claim that’s a win. Throw a boomerang, cause all kinds of real and lasting damage, catch it on the way back and celebrate. So stupid.

I think some people are finally waking up to the constant falsehoods. What is actually happening in LA and what is being described as happening in LA are two very, very different things. There was no crisis until ICE started kidnapping people. That’s the crisis. Before Trump, Obama actually deported a whole lot of people even though we didn’t hear much about it, but he did it in a much more targeted way. I wholeheartedly disagree with all of it, but he did what Trump claimed he wanted to do, but he’s taking it much further. Before Trump, 1 in 16 ICE detainees had no criminal charges or convictions. Now it’s 1 in 4.

Let’s describe the world as it is! The federal government has invaded California. California did not ask for this. California did not need this. It was forced and manufactured. They are kidnapping people from Home Depot, from 7-11, from elementary schools, from restaurants. Friends, parents, neighbors, children. Kidnapping people from their literal jobs kinda ruins the right wing myth of the freeloading lazy immigrant. They don’t see the irony. They are irony blind and always have been.

Speaking of irony, think of all the right wingers stocking up on MREs and ammunition to protect themselves, telling us that the government could come after them any day, a thing that Joe Biden was obviously never going to do. So weird how they’re silent now that the government is actually going after people. It’s fine though, because it’s not them.

Throw another iron-y on the fire…y? Transphobes (the people who sit around all day and think about other people’s genitals and then tell us we’re the weird ones for not doing that) are all “what if a cis guy pretends he’s a trans woman and goes into the women’s bathroom to assault cis women!” a thing that does not happen. That’s a big fear for them, which is just not rooted in reality. But those same “we must protect women!” people don’t care that men are posing as ICE agents and kidnapping women off the street. This is happening. Just like they don’t really care about women’s sports, they don’t really care about women. It’s just pure transphobia. It’s not deeper than that. And that’s why at every chance we need to stand up for our trans neighbors. Their gender presentation is not the cause of any of the problems we’re facing and they deserve to live in peace just like everyone else.

It’s not long until people start shooting back. It’s going to get so much worse. And yet a lot of people I listen to and read have been called hysterical for months or years for predicting this extremely likely outcome. That’s part of their game.

This is all a choice. We don’t have money for weather prediction. We don’t have money for teachers. We don’t have money for cancer research. We don’t have money to keep kids from starving. There’s no money for air traffic controllers. There’s no money for healthcare. There’s no money for vaccines. But there’s a blank check for kidnapping and terrorizing people. They’ll spend any amount on a parade for the big important orange birthday boy. Look, celebrating birthdays is important, and we all know a few people who take it way too far. This one is costing all of us. That’s our tax money they’re spending against us. They are spending one BILLION dollars just to make him feel good about himself between the parade, the bribe jet, and an ad campaign thanking him that he himself requested. One man’s ago. A billion dollars. And that’s just the start.

Los Angeles was not overrun by terrorists or looters or gangs or anyone. People were just living their lives. There were peaceful protests contained to a few city blocks, but nothing worse than a Super Bowl parade. It sure seems like most people love living in LA. I’m not arguing that it’s a perfect place because nowhere is, but there’s a great deal of pride. American pride. Weird how no one ever talks about city life in the way that rural suburban life gets valorized. Small towns and cornfields are spoken of with such reverence, but imagine someone speaking like that about a city? It’s like you’re not a real American if you’re proud to live in a city? Only certain places in a small number of states (swing states, thanks Electoral College) really matter. Inequality is everywhere you look.

1 in 12 Americans live in California. 1 in 35 Americans live in LA county. The city IS America. It’s a diverse blue city in a blue state, so it became a target.

LA had awful wildfires. We watched and our hearts broke. Trump did nothing. A couple Waymos got set on fire and he’s sending in thousands of troops. The first was a natural disaster. The second is a Trump disaster. Like I said when he was reelected, everything will be so much worse for the rest of our lives all because of one man. None of this had to happen.

Sure, arrest people who set the cars on fire. It’s just not even close to the biggest problem here. It’s like crying over a scraped knee when your arm just got cut off. The kidnapping is what started all of this. The illegal troop deployment, the kidnapping, the dozens and dozens of videos of cops shooting “less lethal” (what a bullshit term, they are extremely dangerous) rounds on innocent people, and on the press, on purpose.

From Fox News to the New York Times, these people are being paid well to describe things that just are not happening. They are not describing the world as it is. They have failed us. There are men who are armed for war on the streets snatching people. They are unidentified and masked, and they do not allow legislators to inspect their facilities as they are legally allowed to do. How can they be called anything other than secret police? During Covid they cried “we can’t breathe” under a mask, but the American Gestapo have no problem covering their faces. They are evil, there is no reforming. Abolish ICE was always the moderate choice.

Don’t let them tell you this is what we want. New polling just out today shows Trump underwater in everything. 38% approval rating. 27% on his spending bill. 40% on deportations. Musk at 30%. Vance at 35%. RFK Jr at 38%. That’s a full rejection of all of this. (Yes, the Republican only numbers are scary. But they are vastly outnumbered.) We should not be guided by polls and we should do what’s right based on its rightness, not polling, but it’s instructive to see. More polling: 3 in 4 Americans are against his birthday parade, including 64% of white evangelicals. When they’re against anything he does, something is happening.

This is not wanted. This was not needed.

Describe the world as it is.

This didn’t need to happen.

This is happening here.

This is happening now.

Describe the world as it is.

you can’t spell elon backwards without no

Under NO circumstance should there EVER be an Elon Musk rehabilitation. Just because he broke up with Trump doesn’t mean Democrats (or anyone) should want him on their side. He truly belongs in jail, but that feels so unlikely. At least he should be made a pariah. His companies should be fined and regulated heavily. Democrats (and everyone, since I have no faith in the party) need to run against billionaires, against Silicon Valley Brain (which should be added to the DSM), against oligarchy, against technofascism, against the Curtis Yarvins of the world, against the Network State. We need to say loudly we’ve had enough from the ultra-wealthy and the tech titans and it should be very clear now their goals are actively against what is good for the rest of us. They are not the gods they think they are. Stand up against them. Stand for something. Don’t just go with where you think the political winds are blowing or where the money is. Make your own path and make it loud.

A quick reminder: get off X. It is cooking your brain. It is a brainwashing machine that shows you what Elon Musk and his algorithm want you to see. Come on over to Bluesky, and you can simply see the posts of the people you follow in chronological order.

four other quick things

Abrego Garcia is finally coming home, and now they’ve made up new charges against him. A high-ranking federal prosecutor resigned from his job over the charges over concerns (clearly correct) that the charges were being brought for purely political reasons.

Marco Rubio claims no one has died from foreign aid cuts. He’s only off by about 300,000 people, including 200,000 children. The number grows by 103 people an hour. Appalling.

New York City, as great as it is, can’t ever seem to elect a Mayor who doesn’t suck shit. Zohran Mamdani seems like the real deal.

Trump’s speech at Fort Bragg yesterday was one of the most nakedly authoritarian things I’ve ever seen. He got the troops to boo his enemies, the press, etc. All the usual targets, but to the troops. Those who disagree with Trump were told to opt out. He didn’t just want his fans in attendance, he wanted them to look the part. “No fat soldiers,” said one message that went out to the units. There was also a pop-up shop selling Trump merch and a fake credit card that read “White Privilege Card: Trumps Everything.” I can’t say I’m shocked by much but all of this was a big wtf. We’re at the point where we have to hope the number of military members who won’t illegally follow orders outnumber those that will. Anyone attending that speech isn’t on our side.

the best things i’ve read lately

Marisa Kabas on Trumpian justice: “Donald Trump is the ‘get-out-of-jail-free card for the rich.”

Hamilton Nolan laughs at the cowards of ICE: “Oh, Mister Miller, sir! I put on 40 pounds of tactical gear and tackled a 55-year-old partially disabled day laborer! I prevented him from doing some drywall work and feeding his family, for you, sir! I yearn for your approval!”

Alexandra Tanner on The Rehearsal: I quickly found that the question of the real—whether an emotion or an experience is real, or feels real, and whether performance, repetition or forced logistical investment can make it become real—is at the center of the show… All at once a cringe comedy, a docuseries, an improvisational exercise, a piece of gonzo journalism, a well-funded lab study, a surrealist ballet, a prestige drama, and a piece of theater of cruelty, The Rehearsal is serious and silly, ridiculous and self-ridiculing, frequently unearthing and then just as quickly burying the real—burying it, and then just as quickly unearthing it—over and over again, sometimes within the span of seconds. As the Fielder-character wanders repeatedly into the emotional and intellectual traps his subjects have asked him to lay for them, his capacity for self-denial deepens: he’s shown a truth about himself, and he turns from it, shrugging off the genius of his own increasingly elaborate mechanisms of apocalyptic revelation. At least that’s what might be happening.

june 14. no kings.

no kings. not now. not ever.