(NUNAL) (EYEBALL)

singing to the herd, Galuut soum, Bayankhongor aimag, Mongolia Tsevengdorj - Gandii Mot from Dimitri Staszewski on Vimeo .

This is one of the better articles I have read in this surrealistic and depressing post-election moment. Especially regarding the terrible imbalance for populous blue states that disproportionately send tax dollars to DC and yet are saddled with unfair representation in Congress and in the electoral college.  It does offer a bit of hope via federalism, where enlightened states can actually begin to pursue their own interests in the absence or hollowing of federal programs. Under Trump, red states are finally going to be able to turn themselves into poor, unhealthy paradises and this piece is a good reminder that the big danger from Trump is his embrace of the Big Lie and related propagandistic efforts. " Rather than obsessing about Trump's outrageous tweets, we should focus on the more systematic ways he threatens our democracy." The astonishing thing is that these kind of analyses of Trump's danger to the system iteself--to democracy-- are coming from mainstr...

After a long time in gestation, this edited collection is finally coming out and is available for pre-order. I have a chapter in here about trainhopping old time punks. Nope, none of them called them selves "bohemian,"  but they didn't call themselves much of anything, really. The other chapters look really interesting as well, and it's a real honor to be included with this group of authors, many of whom I have read for years.

There is no shortage of excellent anti-Trump columns. They are especially useful when you can give them to someone who is still clueless about the threat Trump poses to our culture and political system (yes, some of those people are still around in surprisingly and depressingly large numbers).  T his one by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar  should be read and widely shared.

In the hearings today about Wells Fargo's fraud , she proves her fearlessness, mettle, and morality: "During the hearing, senator after senator expressed astonishment that the creation of unauthorized deposit and credit card accounts by Wells Fargo employees could have gone on for so long without more assertive action by senior management. But Warren turned that line of questioning personal, suggesting the "cross-selling" strategy that prompted some employees to make the phony accounts enriched Stumpf's own stock portfolio. "While this scam was going on, you personally held an average of 6.75 million shares of Wells Fargo stock," Warren said. "The share price during this time went up by about $30, which comes out to more than $200 million in gains, all for you personally," Warren said. Warren's plain-language questions, context-setting remarks and call for tough penalties show why she has become such a feared figure among Wall Street ...

This weekend I was really happy to be invited to be part of the 3rd Annual Appalachian Food Summit in Berea, Kentucky, put on by  Grow Appalachia .  The whole program was very interesting . The AFS is a young and growing organization dedicated to sustainable food traditions in Appalachia, and it draws a very diverse group of academics, activists, organizers, farmers, and others. I talked about tacos in globalized and Latinized Appalachia. It's is a topic about which I am passionate, as you might guess, especially since it connects many of the areas of my research with a very basic love of tacos. And a research project for which I really sacrificed for by driving 1500 miles through Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina seeking out (and eating) the very best tacos available. The winner on this leg of the taco accounting in the mountains are these fine tacos from a taco truck in Toast, North Carolina My plan someday is to right the definitive guide to the...

Worthwhile article pointing out the numerous ways that Trump's outrageousness serves to insulate him from any rational or normal standard of accountability: Matthew Yglesias , Donald Trump gave an interview this morning that should be shocking — but we’re numb"A few observations about all this: "In a normal election cycle, a candidate making an offhand racist remark about a sitting US senator would be a big news story. In a normal election cycle, a candidate making an offhanded lie about the state of his personal finances would be a big news story. To be totally honest, even in a normal election cycle a candidate exhibiting total confusion about the mechanics and merits of monetary policy probably wouldn’t be that big of a news story but it would at least get some attention. Seriously. Stop. Take a breath. Now imagine if Mitt Romney had run exactly Mitt Romney’s campaign but then suddenly in mid-September went on television and called Elizabeth Warren Pocahont...