Mamdani wants to change the tax code. Here’s what that could look like. Gothamist
Crackdown on crypto tax evasion comes into forceFinancial Times
The Bruising Reality of Searching for a Job at 65Wall Street Journal.
When I was 13, I carried a secret shame. We were so poor that I often went to school with no food. At recess, while my classmates opened their lunches—apples, cookies, sandwiches—I sat pretending I wasn’t hungry. I buried my face in a book, hiding the sound of my empty stomach. Inside, it hurt more than I can explain. Then, one day, a girl noticed. Quietly, without making a fuss, she offered me half her lunch. I was embarrassed, but I accepted. The next day, she did it again. And again. Sometimes it was a roll, sometimes an apple, sometimes a piece of cake her mother baked. To me, it was a miracle. For the first time in a long time, I felt seen. Then one day, she was gone. Her family moved, and she never came back. Every day at recess, I’d glance at the door, hoping she would walk in and sit beside me with her smile and her sandwich. But she never did. Still, I carried her kindness with me. It became part of who I was. Years passed. I grew up. I thought of her often, but life went on. Then, just yesterday, something happened that froze me in place. My young daughter came home from school and said: “Dad, can you pack me two snacks tomorrow?” “Two?” I asked. “You never finish one.” She looked at me with the seriousness only a child can have: “It’s for a boy in my class. He didn’t eat today. I gave him half of mine.” I just stood there, goosebumps rising, time standing still. In her small act, I saw that girl from my childhood. The one who fed me when no one else noticed. Her kindness hadn’t disappeared—it had traveled through me, and now, through my daughter. I stepped onto the balcony and looked at the sky, my eyes full of tears. All at once I felt my hunger, my shame, my gratitude, and my joy. That girl may never remember me. She may not even know the difference she made. But I will never forget her. Because she taught me that even the smallest act of kindness can change a life. And now, I know: as long as my daughter shares her bread with another child, kindness will live on. By Mr Pitbull
Private equity firms sell assets to themselves at a record rate Financial Times
The Harvard professor provides a ceaseless flow of startling details in this exhaustively researched, 1000-year account
The word “capitalism” originated in France in the 1840s, but the system is much older. Sven Beckert starts the story in the port of Aden in 1150...
Nothing sweet about the tax system as costs soar by $50 billion
BREAKING: Drone attack on Putin residence directed at a Russian nuclear command and control center Steven Starr
The 20 Best Podcasts of 2025, incl. Signal Hill (“this inventive program functions like an audio magazine”) and Our Ancestors Were Messy (“this delightful show recounts stories from the pre-civil-rights era in the vein of social pages & gossip columns”).
“The Global Village Construction Set is a modular, DIY, low-cost, high-performance platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a small, sustainable civilization with modern comforts.”
GAME OVER: THE END OF FINANCIAL REGULATION AS WE KNEW IT LPE Project
Toby Buckle for the New Republic: The Americans Who Saw All This Coming — But Were Ignored and Maligned.
This is not that far from the position many ordinary Americans found themselves in at the start of the Trump era. They weren’t time travelers but saw what was coming clearly enough. They called Trump’s movement fascist from the very start, and often predicted specific milestones of our democratic decline well in advance. They were convinced they were right — and often beside themselves with worry. Accordingly, they did everything they could to get others to listen.
But not enough people did, and many attacked them — even as events proved them right, again and again. As late as February 2025, respected legal commentator Noah Feldman was casually asserting our constitutional system was “working fine” and Jon Stewart was scolding people who used the word “fascist,” claiming all they had done “over the last ten years is cry wolf.”
I’m glad Buckle wrote about this…it’s infuriating. Who were the folks attempting to sound the alarm?
The first thing to say about fascism’s Cassandras is they’re usually women. Not all women are Cassandras (most aren’t), but most Cassandras are women. My sense is that Black Americans, of either gender, are likelier than whites to be Cassandras, and trans and nonbinary people are heavily overrepresented within the group.
I was posting about Trump’s authoritarianism in the months before the 2016 electionbecause I felt it was pretty easy to spot but mostly because I was listening to the sorts of people that Buckle interviews in his piece: predominately Black, many women, many LGBTQ+ folks. And what were they saying? Jamelle Bouie, then a columnist at Slate, stated it plainly in Nov 2015: Donald Trump Is a Fascist. Buckle again:
What were they afraid of? Authoritarianism, political violence, racism, sexism, corruption, as well as threats to bodily autonomy and LGBT rights, were the common themes. Everyone mentioned at least one of those, and the vast majority mentioned multiple. “All the implications that I knew the election would have that have all come true, essentially,” as Emily, a 38-year-old white female writer in Chicago, put it. Cassandras are defined by seeing in MAGA not just policies they disagreed with but a loaded gun pointed at the heart of our politics and culture. “It just felt to me like we were the Weimar Republic; the lying press, the way he was weaponizing American people … the othering of people — Hispanics, they’re rapists, and all of that,” said Sonia, a 52-year-old white woman who works in marketing in Los Angeles.
The anti-alarmists — Buckle lists several of them: Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias, Bret Stephens, Corey Robin, Jon Stewart, David Brooks, William Watson, John Harris, Simon Jenkins, Zachary Karabell, Josh Barro, and Noah Feldman — scolded and derided the Cassandras. Going forward, we should be skeptical of giving them and others like them our attention when they pooh pooh people fighting against obvious racism, fascism, and kleptocracy; dismiss these dangers as mere partisan differences, culture wars, wokeism, or rhetoric; and argue for what amounts to meeting the nazis halfway.
US finds Ukraine did not target Putin in drone strike: Report Anadolu Agency. The Russian footage really does not prove anything but Russia would not publish satellite info if such existed due to not wanting to expose their capabilities and limits.
However, John Helmer and Dmitri Liscaris have pointed out “fog of propaganda” details, such as the oddly long time it took for Lavrov (and why Lavrov being the spokesperson on this issue being unusual) to accuse Ukraine, the fact that Putin’s residence is much closer to Latvia and Estonia than Ukraine, and that former Ukraine official Alexi Arestovich has claimed the target was a nuclear command center/bunker, which if so, would in Russia’s nuclear doctrine call for a nuclear response. Helmer stressed that only Arestovich made this claim.
Did the West try to kill Putin Julian Macfarlane. Larry Johnson has a parsimonious explanation, that the point was to (further) poison the negotiations, and Ukraine (or rather official Ukraine) may not have been involved.
Russia is Treating the Latest Drone Attack on the Putin Residence as Something More Sinister Than Just Another Terrorist Attack Larry Johnson. This is a newer post where he has an aside that Zelensky personally may not have been involved.
That does not mean the implications are not serious. Scott Ritter likes to paint in bright colors but that does not mean that he is directionally incorrect: Some thoughts regarding the Ukrainian drone attack that targeted President Putin
10 moments that defined the Ukraine war in 2025Ian Proud
2025: Battles and numbers Events in Ukraine
