Writers and Editors

Listen to Amy Collins on How to Get Your Books Into Bookstores and Libraries, a brillian pep talk on Tom Corson-Knowles Publishing Profits Podcast (a while ago, but the advice still seems sound). Amy is knowledgeable, practical, and a really good, speaker. Here's one point she makes, from 2015 data: Over 60% of Americans have a library card; over 40% of them have been in a library in the last month. Only 5% of them have been in a bookstore in the last month.

   A lot of books will license an e-book, for a limited time. And if the e-book is popular, when the license is up, they'll re-up.

• The Humble Neighborhood Library: Why It Should Be Part of Your Book-Enthusiasm-Generating Plan (Kelly Turner on Jane Friedman's blog, 2-13-25) Since most readers don't have an independent bookstore in their neighborhood, public libraries can be an ideal spot for author events.

    Comments are interesting, including this by Kelly herself: From the ‘author’ side, I found it helpful (and honestly a little jarring) to talk to other readers at the event. I realized I’ve become quite clinical in the way I talk about books: ‘genre – pov – tense – setting – kind of story.’ The readers I spoke with talked about books very differently, which reminded me that if I want to have and engage with readers, I shouldn’t drown them with all this ‘backend’ vocabulary.

    "According to the Panorama Project's 2019 survey of nearly 200 libraries in 30 states, about half of responding libraries produced ten or more events (including book clubs, speaker series, and author events) each year. Libraries hosting fewer than 10 events per year were more likely to host community book clubs and speaker series than author events. I can't claim these data are representative of the (over 17,000) public libraries in the US, but given the American Association of Publishers reports nearly $30 billion in US book sales in 2023, there's capacity for more library events connecting authors and readers."

There are four times as many libraries as there are bookstores in the U.S.--in Canada, six times as many. There are over 2400 independent bookstores in the U.S., but 12,000 public libraries (9500 physical permanent public library branches). A lot is going on in libraries and their budgets are going up. The average library system budget is about $1.8 million, some of which goes to staffing, magazines, and other materials. They buy hardcover and paperback and license ebooks and in many cases audiobooks (sometimes from self-published and independent authors). The materials budget is roughly distributed thus:
• Paperbacks: 41%
• Audiobooks: 20%
• eBooks: 19%
• Hardcover books: 9%.
If they can’t afford your book they’ll find a competitive book that’s less expensive. Having your books in the library increases sales of your books outside libraries.

How to sell books to libraries
To sell books to libraries, you have to be listed in the two main library databases and with at least one main wholesaler.

Libraries won’t order books until they have money in their budget and they will pay you through the wholesaler they purchase books from (the wholesaler will pay the publisher).
Authors: Traditional publishers will typically register your books with library databases. 

Indie publishers, it's important to register yours in library databases, also. 

The two easiest ways/venues to register your books in library databases:
1) Register your book and ISBN with Books in Print (RR Bowker, My Identifiers), by registering your ISBN: www.myidentifiers.com and get a BARCODE

2) Register with OCLC, which funds and runs WorldCat Registry (OCLC Developer Network)
It's pretty easy, or you can hire a company to create a PCIP (publisher cataloging in publication) block for you. The Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) is an American nonprofit cooperative organization that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large--to make information more accessible and useful.

What are cataloging, CIP, and PCIP?:Cataloging is descriptive information about a resource, using a set vocabulary, formatted according to national standards and created by a trained cataloger. When an item has CIP or PCIP, a cataloging block is usually found on the back of the title page.

---What the heck are CIPs and PCIPs, ISBNs and ISSNs, ISNIs, LCCNs and PCNs, BISAC, WorldCat, and barcodes

(Also EAN, ASIN [Amazon], GTIN, LC-CIP, MARC, UPC) and does every product need one or need listing?  (Writers and Editors website)

PRODUCT IDENTIFIERS:
---Product identifiers, General
---ISBN, ISSN, and barcodes for books
---CIP, LC-CIP, AND P-CIP (cataloging in publication)
---LCCN (Library of Congress Control Number and PCN) (Preassigned Control Number)
---BISAC Subject Headings
---ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier)
---WORLDCAT (a global catalog of library materials--books, music, video, articles and more)

More tips on the Writers and Editors website:
• Selling your book to libraries, bookstores, schools
• How and where to get reviews that lead to library purchases
• Library sites and portals

READ THIS as an antidote to Trumpism:

Lori Gallagher Witt's essay: on What a liberal believes and thinks

     January 7, 2018 Copyright Lori Gallagher Witt

     (Then listen to Robert Reich's expansion on what an oligarchy is (scroll to bottom)

"But then the 2016 election happened, and staying quiet wasn't an option anymore. Since then, I've received no shortage of emails and comments from people who were shocked, horrified, disappointed, disgusted, or otherwise displeased to realize I am *wrinkles nose* a liberal. Yep. I'm one of those bleeding heart commies who hates anyone who's white, straight, or conservative, and who wants the government to dictate everything you do while taking your money and giving it to people who don't work.

Or am I?

Let's break it down, shall we? Because quite frankly, I'm getting a little tired of being told what I believe and what I stand for. Spoiler alert: Not every liberal is the same, though the majority of liberals I know think along roughly these same lines.

1. I believe a country should take care of its weakest members. A country cannot call itself civilized when its children, disabled, sick, and elderly are neglected. Period.

2. I believe healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Somehow that's interpreted as "I believe Obamacare is the end-all, be-all." This is not the case. I'm fully aware that the ACA has problems, that a national healthcare system would require everyone to chip in, and that it's impossible to create one that is devoid of flaws, but I have yet to hear an argument against it that makes "let people die because they can't afford healthcare" a better alternative. I believe healthcare should be far cheaper than it is, and that everyone should have access to it. And no, I'm not opposed to paying higher taxes in the name of making that happen.

3. I believe education should be affordable and accessible to everyone. It doesn't necessarily have to be free (though it works in other countries so I'm mystified as to why it can't work in the US), but at the end of the day, there is no excuse for students graduating college saddled with five- or six-figure debt.

4. I don't believe your money should be taken from you and given to people who don't want to work. I have literally never encountered anyone who believes this. Ever. I just have a massive moral problem with a society where a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth while there are people literally starving to death, freezing to death, or dying because they can't afford to go to the doctor. Fair wages, lower housing costs, universal healthcare, affordable education, and the wealthy actually paying their share would go a long way toward alleviating this. Somehow believing that makes me a communist.

5. I don't throw around "I'm willing to pay higher taxes" lightly. I'm self-employed, so I already pay a shitload of taxes. If I'm suggesting something that involves paying more, that means increasing my already eye-watering tax bill. I'm fine with paying my share as long as it's actually going to something besides lining corporate pockets or bombing other countries while Americans die without healthcare.

6. I believe companies should be required to pay their employees a decent, livable wage. Somehow this is always interpreted as me wanting burger flippers to be able to afford a penthouse apartment and a Mercedes. What it actually means is that no one should have to work three full-time jobs just to keep their head above water. Restaurant servers should not have to rely on tips, multibillion dollar companies should not have employees on food stamps, workers shouldn't have to work themselves into the ground just to barely make ends meet, and minimum wage should be enough for someone to work 40 hours and live.

7. I am not anti-Christian. I have no desire to stop Christians from being Christians, to close churches, to ban the Bible, to forbid prayer in school, etc. (BTW, prayer in school is NOT illegal; *compulsory* prayer in school is - and should be - illegal) All I ask is that Christians recognize *my* right to live according to *my* beliefs. When I get pissed off that a politician is trying to legislate Scripture into law, I'm not "offended by Christianity" -- I'm offended that you're trying to force me to live by your religion's rules. You know how you get really upset at the thought of Muslims imposing Sharia on you? That's how I feel about Christians trying to impose biblical law on me. Be a Christian. Do your thing. Just don't force it on me or mine.

8. I don't believe LGBT people should have more rights than you. I just believe we should have the *same* rights as you.

9. I don't believe illegal immigrants should come to America and have the world at their feet, especially since THIS ISN'T WHAT THEY DO (spoiler: undocumented immigrants are ineligible for all those programs they're supposed to be abusing, and if they're "stealing" your job it's because your employer is hiring illegally.). I'm not opposed to deporting people who are here illegally, but I believe there are far more humane ways to handle undocumented immigration than our current practices (i.e., detaining children, splitting up families, ending DACA, etc).

10. I believe we should take in refugees, or at the very least not turn them away without due consideration. Turning thousands of people away because a terrorist might slip through is inhumane, especially when we consider what has happened historically to refugees who were turned away (see: MS St. Louis). If we're so opposed to taking in refugees, maybe we should consider not causing them to become refugees in the first place. Because we're fooling ourselves if we think that somewhere in the chain of events leading to these people becoming refugees, there isn't a line describing something the US did.

11. I don't believe the government should regulate everything, but since greed is such a driving force in our country, we NEED regulations to prevent cut corners, environmental destruction, tainted food/water, unsafe materials in consumable goods or medical equipment, etc. It's not that I want the government's hands in everything -- I just don't trust people trying to make money to ensure that their products/practices/etc are actually SAFE. Is the government devoid of shadiness? Of course not. But with those regulations in place, consumers have recourse if they're harmed and companies are liable for medical bills, environmental cleanup, etc. Just kind of seems like common sense when the alternative to government regulation is letting companies bring their bottom line into the equation.

12. I believe our current administration is fascist. Not because I dislike them or because I'm butthurt over an election, but because I've spent too many years reading and learning about the Third Reich to miss the similarities. Not because any administration I dislike must be Nazis, but because things are actually mirroring authoritarian and fascist regimes of the past.

13. I believe the systemic racism and misogyny in our society is much worse than many people think, and desperately needs to be addressed. Which means those with privilege -- white, straight, male, economic, etc -- need to start listening, even if you don't like what you're hearing, so we can start dismantling everything that's causing people to be marginalized.

14. I believe in so-called political correctness. Not because everyone is a delicate snowflake, but because as Maya Angelou put it, when we know better, we do better. When someone tells you that a term or phrase is more accurate/less hurtful than the one you're using, you now know better. So why not do better? How does it hurt you to NOT hurt another person? Your refusal to adjust your vocabulary in the name of not being an asshole kind of makes YOU the snowflake.

15. I believe in funding sustainable energy, including offering education to people currently working in coal or oil so they can change jobs. There are too many sustainable options available for us to continue with coal and oil. Sorry, billionaires. Maybe try investing in something else.
I think that about covers it. Bottom line is that I'm a liberal because I think we should take care of each other. That doesn't mean you should work 80 hours a week so your lazy neighbor can get all your money. It just means I don't believe there is any scenario in which preventable suffering is an acceptable outcome as long as money is saved.

So, I'm a liberal.

(c) 2018 Lori Gallagher Witt. Feel free to share, but please give Lori Gallagher Witt credit, and if you add or change anything, please note accordingly. [Nothing changed here.]

Robert Reich's response 

summarizing the essence of Trump's attempt to create an oligarchy:

    Replacing civil servants with loyalists.

    Upending the lives of millions who rely on federal programs.

    Grotesquely blaming "DEI" for disaster.

Trump wants to consolidate power through divide-and-conquer tactics.

We must stand together and fight back."

Source: his powerful discussion on 

  See earlier (or listen to) A Warning from 1994 of a Two-Tiered Society (Robert Reich) "In 1994, I took a lot of heat for this speech warning that the American middle class was in danger. That was 29 years ago this week. Watch and tell me if I was wrong."

Republicans:This is going to come back and bite you.

Democrats: Fight back!

• Elon Musk Has Broken the Constitutional Order (Matt Ford, New Republic, 2-5-25) The tech oligarch has unleashed his slow-rolling coup d’état across the federal government, and it’s not clear anything can prevent a total takeover.
   "There is no precedent in American history for anything like this. Musk is a private citizen who has not been elected to anything. He is not a federal employee; he has not been confirmed by the Senate to any office or post. (DOGE itself is technically a hollowed-out version of the former U.S. Digital Service, a White House office, instead of the outside consulting group that was originally pitched.) He is not abiding by any of the ethical or legal restrictions to which public officials are subject. Spending a quarter-billion dollars on Trump’s reelection efforts has effectively allowed the world’s richest man to buy the federal government itself."

      "In any other situation, this would be called state capture, and people around the world would be condemning it," says Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid, who writes in a new blog post that "Elon Musk is staging a coup."

    What you can do to stop Musk and Trump?  Scroll to bottom for tips.

• Bernie Sanders Dismantles Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos Oligarchy (YouTube speech to U.S. Senate, 2-5-25, 20 minutes, with transcript) During remarks on the Senate floor, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) accused President Trump and the billionaire 'oligarchs' such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, of leading the United States to ‘authoritarianism’.

• All the executive orders Trump has signed after 1 week in office (NPR Staff, 1-28-25) A chart of all the orders, explained.
• Trump’s Executive Orders: Reversing Biden’s Policies and Attacking the ‘Deep State’ (Zolan Kanno-YoungsMichael D. Shear and Noah Weiland, NY Times, 1-20-25) The president moved swiftly in his first hours in office, signing a slew of executive orders in front of a roaring crowd and then in the Oval Office.

• Overview of President Trump’s Executive Actions on Global Health (Jennifer Kates, Josh Michaud, Kellie Moss, and Lindsey Dawson, Global Health Policy fact sheet, KFF, 2-5-25)

• Is Elon Musk Staging a Coup? Unelected Billionaire Seizes Control at Treasury Dept. & Other Agencies (12-minute video, Democracy Now, 2-3-25) "Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and unelected adviser to President Donald Trump, is asserting control over much of the federal bureaucracy and sensitive government computer systems despite lacking clear authority. The highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Department was pushed out after refusing to hand Musk's team the keys to the government's entire payment system and the $6 trillion in payments the system processes annually, including Social Security checks, tax refunds and Medicare benefits. Musk and his team have also seized control at the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration, key institutions that function as the central nervous system of the U.S. government."

• Steve Bannon's 'Flood the Zone' Strategy Explained Amid Trump Policy Blitz (Peter Aitkin, Newsweek/MSN, 2-6-25)

    "The 'flood the zone' strategy seemingly being used by the Trump administration, which has resulted in a relentless onslaught of new directives and policy announcements, is drawing renewed scrutiny during the beginning of his second term. The "flood the zone" strategy seemingly being used by the Trump administration, which has resulted in a relentless onslaught of new directives and policy announcements, is drawing renewed scrutiny during the beginning of his second term.
   "The term was reportedly coined by former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon in 2018 when he said the best way to deal with media was to "flood the zone."
    "The strategy from Bannon was to continually attempt to overwhelm opposition from Democrats as well as the media through a flurry of moves that would be difficult to respond to all at once.
   "Trump appears to have embraced the strategy in his second term, issuing a seemingly relentless number of policy announcements and signing a large number of executive orders in the first weeks of his second administration.
   Said Steve Bannon: "The media can only—because they're dumb and they're lazy—they can only focus on one thing at a time."
   "And all we have to do is flood the zone," Bannon said. "Every day we hit them with three things, they'll bite on one, and we'll get all of our stuff done. Bang, bang, bang. These guys will never—will never be able to recover. But we've got to start with muzzle velocity. So it's got to start, and it's got to hammer," he continued before being cut off.

• Fight Against Elon Musk’s Government Takeover (Annabelle Timsit and Matt Viser, WashPost, 2-4-25) The SGE [special government employee] designation, which has come under scrutiny under Democrats as well, exempts short-term federal employees from certain disclosure rules.

• Elon Musk is a ‘special government employee.’ What does that mean

(Washington Post, 2-4-25)

     A special government employee is “anyone who works, or is expected to work, for the government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period,” with or without compensation, according to the Justice Department. It is not clear how long Musk’s mission as head of the Department of Government Efficiency is expected to last.
    The classification means Musk is not a volunteer but is considered less than a full-time employee. It also means he is exempt from some of the rules — including around financial disclosures and conflicts of interest — that apply to full-time government employees.

• Senate Democrats raise concerns about Musk team access to Treasury payment systems (Federal News Network)

• Trump says he’s firing Kennedy Center board of trustees members and naming himself chairman(Will Weissertap, AP News, 2-8-25) He also indicated that he would be dictating programming at one of the nation’s premier cultural institutions, specifically declaring that he would end events featuring performers in drag. Trump’s announcement Friday came as the Republican president has bulldozed his way across official Washington during the first weeks of his second term, trying to shutter federal agencies, freeze spending and ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the government.

• NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately (Dan Diamond, Carolyn Y. Johnson and Lena H. Sun, Washington Post, 2-8-25) Trump allies hailed NIH’s move. The U.S. DOGE Service, the office led by billionaire Elon Musk that has focused on slashing government spending, said NIH’s new policy would save billions of dollars in “excessive grant administrative costs” and praised the “amazing job by NIH team” in a post on social media.

    NIH’s policy shift centers on how it awards grants to support scientific research on cancer, heart disease and diabetes. It also provides overhead funds to cover the costs of facilities, administration and other approved costs. Researchers say it would hurt facilities that work on medical issues such as cancer research and heart disease. Elon Musk contends the old policy was “a ripoff.”
---A sense of foreboding hangs over the National Institutes of Health (Rob Stein, Shots/Health, NPR, 2-5-25) "Most scientists are very worried," agrees Bruce Alberts, a professor emeritus of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, who served as the president of the National Academy of Sciences from 1993 to 2005. Kennedy and Bhattacharya "both have a record of ignoring the best science and making statements and opinions that are not based on the best science and more are based on emotion and the misreading of science.

• Trump has tapped an unprecedented 13 billionaires for his administration. Here's who they are (Peter Charalambous, Laura Romero, and Soo Rin Kim, ABC News, 12-17-24) The nominees make up the richest presidential administration in modern history (a cabinet of cronies--read about them!). How likely are they to focus on supporting the welfare and rights of the average (much less the poor) citizen as well as they focus on the well-to-do? Peak achievement: Waiters won't have to pay taxes on their tips.

• Trump’s Pardons and Purges Revive Old Question: Who Counts as a Terrorist? (Hannah Allam, ProPublica, 2-10-25) The president’s sweeping clemency for Capitol rioters and his administration’s ongoing removal of career national security specialists foretell a permissive new climate for extremist movements, say current and former officials and researchers. For the Justice Department, Stewart Rhodes' seditious conspiracy conviction was bigger than crushing the Oath Keepers — it was a hard-won victory in the government’s efforts to reorient a creaky bureaucracy toward a rapidly evolving homegrown threat. (Rhodes was founder of the far-right Oath Keepers movement.)

     On his first day in office, Trump erased that work by granting clemency to more than 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants, declaring an end to “a grave national injustice.” Chat forums filled with would-be MAGA vigilantes who fantasize about rounding up Democratic politicians or acting as bounty hunters to corral undocumented migrants. Researchers noted one Proud Boys chat group where users had posted the LinkedIn pages of corrections officers who purportedly oversaw Jan. 6 detainees.

• What you can do, Revised and expanded  (Robert Reich, 2-6-25)

Some of the headlines (each followed by instructions):

1. Protect vulnerable members of your communities who are undocumented or whose parents are undocumented.

2. Protect LGBTQ+ members of your community.

3. Help protect public officials whom Trump and his administration are targeting for vengeance.

5. Urge your Democratic senators to continuously demand quorum calls and object to unanimous consent, to deny Senate Republicans the ability to enact Trump initiatives.

6. Urge Democratic House members to vote against all Republican initiatives.

11. To the extent you are able, fund groups that are litigating against Trump. Much of the action over the next months and years will be in the federal courts.

    The groups initiating legislation that I know and trust include the American Civil Liberties Union, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, Public Citizen, Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental Defense Fund, Southern Poverty Law Center, and Common Cause.

13. Urge friends, relatives, and acquaintances to avoid Trump propaganda outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, X, and, increasingly, Facebook and Instagram.

• Flooding Trump and Musk’s zone (Robert Reich, 2-9-25) How to deal with their tyranny. Do read this!

• Stop Elon Musk's Coup (Video)

• Don’t Believe Him (The Ezra Klein Show, 2-2-25) Look closely at the first two weeks of Donald Trump’s second term and you’ll see something very different from what he wants you to see. In Trump’s first term, we were told: Don’t normalize him. In his second, the task is different: Don’t believe him....

   "Perhaps this Supreme Court, stocked with his appointees, gives him powers no peacetime president has ever possessed. Perhaps all of this becomes legal now that he has asserted its legality. It is not impossible to imagine that bet paying off.

    "But Trump’s odds are bad....Bravado aside, Trump’s political capital is thin. Both in his first and second terms, he has entered office with approval ratings below that of any president in the modern era. Gallup has Trump’s approval rating at 47 percent — about 10 points beneath Joe Biden’s in January 2021....

    "That is the tension at the heart of Trump’s whole strategy: Trump is acting like a king because he is too weak to govern like a president. He is trying to substitute perception for reality. He is hoping that perception then becomes reality. That can only happen if we believe him.
    "The Trump administration is waging an immediate war on the bureaucracy, trying to replace the “deep state” it believes hampered it in the first term. A big part of this project seems to have been outsourced to Elon Musk, who is bringing the tactics he used at Twitter to the federal government. He has longtime aides at the Office of Personnel Management, and the email sent to nearly all federal employees even reused the subject line of the email he sent to Twitter employees: “Fork in the Road.” Musk wants you to know it was him."

    "I suspect Musk thinks of the federal work force as a huge mass of woke ideologues. But most federal workers have very little to do with politics. About 16 percent of the federal work force is in health care. These are, for instance, nurses and doctors who work for the Veterans Affairs department. How many of them does Musk want to lose? What plans does the V.A. have for attracting and training their replacements? How quickly can he do it?"

• Fraud and Musk (Robert Reich, 2-11-25)"The Trump-Musk regime is accusing federal civil servants of fraud, based on no evidence, while at the same time allowing corporations to pay off foreign officials, dropping bribery charges against Mayor Eric Adams, pardoning a former governor of Illinois who tried to sell his Senate seat, and stopping investigations into foreign influence-peddling in the United States."  

     "Today, Musk held forth in the Oval Office, claiming that drastic reductions in the federal workforce were justified because it was rife with fraud.

   "I’ve spent more than a dozen years in the federal government, and I can tell you that the vast majority of civil servants I’ve had the honor of working with are dedicated and hard-working. They are delivering critical services to Americans and protecting them from corporate malfeasance....
    "Musk has the integrity of a slug. Since Trump was elected president, Musk’s fortune has increased $270 billion. If you think that’s an accident, you haven’t been paying attention.When Trump was sworn into office, Musk’s six corporations were under more than 32 continuing investigations conducted by at least 11 federal agencies, according to a review by The New York Times. Most of these cases are now closed or likely to be closed soon, and the agencies that initiated them are being defanged by Musk and Trump."

See also an earlier post: Warning: Severe Trouble Ahead in Trump 2.0

(Updated 2-10-25 [and regularly] and expanded from an earlier version)

Alarming news from the first weeks of the second Trump administration:

• This is what dictatorship looks like (Robert Reich, 2-5-25)

We are now in a coup. Trump's goons are taking over the federal government without congressional authority and with  very little public awareness.

   They're using two techniques.

---The first is to physically take over an agency or department. 

---The second technique being used by Musk and his tech goons is to gain access to the Treasury Department's payments system, responsible for nearly all payments made by the U.S. government, and alter it.

Says one outside observer: "It's a very strange coup where no one can believe you are doing it so you just waltz in and take what you want."
---DOGE broadens sweep of federal agencies, gains access to health payment systems (Dan Diamond, Lauren Kaori Gurley, Lena H. Sun, Hannah Knowles and Emily Davies, WashPost, 2-8-25) Associates of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE] have spread out across the federal government in recent days, alarming many career employees.

 
• What to do about a lawless president? (Robert Reich, 2-10-25)  The Trump regime is refusing to be bound by the federal courts. Where will this end? The end of law? He is the most lawless president in American history.
     "He’s allowed Musk’s rats unfettered access to the Treasury’s payments system. Banned birthright citizenship. Refused to spend money appropriated by Congress. Closed U.S. AID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, independent agencies, without Congress’s approval. Substituted political loyalists for civil servants. Unleashed the military on civilians. And on it goes."

• Why Washington is getting nervous about a shutdown (Jennifer Scholtes, Politico, 2-5-25) President Donald Trump's truculent first days in office have created an especially unfavorable climate on Capitol Hill for landing any cross-party accord, whether that’s a “grand funding deal” ahead of the government shutdown deadline or an agreement to lift the debt limit to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on more than $36 trillion in loans in the coming months. Washington is growing increasingly worried about the potential for a government shutdown — and what devastation it could bring.Trump infamously presided over the longest government shutdown in U.S. history (35 days!) in 2018–2019.

• Trump and Musk Have All of Washington on Edge—Just Like They Wanted (The DC Brief, Time's politics newsletter, 2-3-25) The candor on the tarmac Sunday night at Joint Base Andrews, under the wing of the presidential aircraft, came without any flinch of self doubt. “This is retaliatory,” President Donald Trump told reporters, essentially summing up his first two weeks in office in the most inelegant but honest bit of sloganeering. He was talking about tariffs against U.S. neighbors but he just as plausibly was describing his posture toward all corners of his new empire.
• Week 1 (Weekly Sift, 1-27-25) "Trump is president now, and that fact has consequences. But he’s not all-powerful. We need to educate ourselves about how to oppose him most effectively."

TREASURY'S PAYMENTS SYSTEM
• Elon Musk’s Team Now Has Access to Treasury’s Payments System

    (Andrew Duehren, Maggie Haberman,Theodore Schleifer, and Alan Rappeport, NY Times, 2-1-25)
 "Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave representatives of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency access to the federal payment system late on Friday, according to five people familiar with the change, handing Elon Musk and the team he is leading a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending. [No, Musk was not elected to office.]
    "The new authority follows a standoff this week with a top Treasury official who had resisted allowing Mr. Musk’s lieutenants into the department’s payment system, which sends out money on behalf of the entire federal government. The official, a career civil servant named David Lebryk, was put on leave and then suddenly retired on Friday after the dispute, according to people familiar with his exit.

TARIFFS
• Trump hits Canada, Mexico and China with steep new tariffs; Canada retaliates (Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 2-1-25) The White House said today that Trump signed executive orders imposing a 10% tariff on Chinese goods and a 25% tariff on Mexican and most Canadian goods.
• Trump's negotiating style (Facebook reels, read column on the right) The best, most cogent and elegantly simple explanation of the inexplicably destructive negotiating processes of the president, by Prof. David Honig of Indiana University. "The problem with Trump is that he sees only distributive bargaining in an international world that requires integrative bargaining. He can raise tariffs, but so can other countries. He can't demand they not respond. There is no defined end to the negotiation and there is no simple winner and loser. There are always more pies to be baked. Further, negotiations aren't binary. China's choices aren't (a) buy soybeans from US farmers, or (b) don't buy soybeans. They can also (c) buy soybeans from Russia, or Argentina, or Brazil, or Canada, etc. That completely strips the distributive bargainer of his power to win or lose, to control the negotiation."
---Canada and Mexico Move to Retaliate on Trump Tariff Orders (New York Times, 2-1-25)
---Trump Tariffs Could Hurt Oil Companies and Increase Gas Prices (Rebecca F. Elliott, NY Times, 1-31-25) Some oil refineries will probably struggle to replace imported crude oil if President Trump imposes 25 percent tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico.

---Trump tariff news (Matina Stevis-Gridneff, New York Times, live)
     Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will retaliate by placing 25 percent tariffs on $106 billion worth of American products. 
    Trudeau calls on Canadians to choose Canadian goods, to forgo Florida orange juice, Kentucky bourbon, or holidays in the United States.

    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country is readying a "forceful and immediate response" if Trump moves forward with tariffs.

• What Are Tariffs and Why Is Trump In Favor of Them? ( Rebecca Schneid, Time Magazine, 2-2-25) Trump has said that he planned to impose tariffs on imported goods to boost American manufacturing and end, what he says, are unfair trade practices. Trump has also stated that the tariffs are intended to stop the flow of undocumented immigrants and illegal drugs into the United States. Discussing the tariffs in a series of posts on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump stated that the decision was made to “protect” Americans “because of the major threat of illegal aliens and deadly drugs killing our Citizens, including fentanyl.” (Tariffs are unlikely to stop the flow of fentanyl, but they will also raise the cost of avocados imported from Mexico, for example. I'm puzzled about tariffs and undocumented immigrants.)

AGGRESSIVE NATIONALISM (Panama, Greenland, and Canada)
• The Historical Roots of Donald Trump’s Aggressive Nationalism (Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 1-28-25) What the President’s confrontations with Panama, Greenland, Canada, and Colombia suggest about his expansionist vision.
• The Return of American Exuberance (Adam Rowe via Compact, 1-20-25) Trump's foreign policy is not as unprecedented as it seems. Frum captures both its ideals and illusions well, particularly in his warning that Trump threatens to turn America “from protector nation to predator nation.”

EDUCATION
• Here Are Trump’s First-Week Actions That Could Affect Schools (Brooke Schultz, Education Week, 1-24-25)
None of these orders deals with schools exclusively, but they signal how the Trump administration will approach protections for LGBTQ+ students that the Biden administration tried to institute and immigration enforcement on and around school campuses. Some of Trump’s orders that more generally took aim at the workings of the federal government could have an effect on operations at the U.S. Department of Education.
---Overturning years of precedent, immigration officials can now make arrests at schools. 
---Trump considering action to dismantle Education Department, sources say (CBS News, 2-3-25)
---Trump order prioritizing education choice likely to affect Ohio less than other states (Katie Millard, Central Ohio News, 2-4-25) Trump’s order directs the Secretary of Education to prioritize school choice programs in its grant programs and requires the Department of Health and Human Services to issue guidance for states to use grants for educational choice. Educational choice refers to parents being able to choose where to send their children using tax-funded scholarships or vouchers to attend private or charter schools.
---A school safety board, assembled to advise federal agencies on best practices to protect students, was disbanded
---In some of his sweeping first-day actions, the president imposed a temporary hiring freeze at most federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Education.
• Trump Admin. Axes Newly Created School Safety Board (Evie Blad, Education Week, 1-25) The Trump administration has disbanded a school safety board that was recently assembled to advise federal agencies on best practices to protect students. The panel was enshrined in legislation, leaving its fate unclear.

IMMIGRATION
• Debunking the Myth of Immigrants and Crime (American Immigration Council, 10-17-24) The scapegoating of ethnic and religious minorities is well-tread historical ground in the United States, and immigrants have always made for an easy target. "However, a robust body of research shows that welcoming immigrants into American communities not only does not increase crime, but can actually strengthen public safety. In fact, immigrants—including undocumented immigrants—are less likely to commit crimes than the U.S.-born. This is true at the national, state, county, and neighborhood levels, and for both violent and non-violent crime."
• Immigrant Communities in Hiding: ‘People Think ICE Is Everywhere’ (Miriam JordanHamed Aleaziz and Heather Knight, NY Times, 1-30-25) Schools, churches and shops are feeling the chilling effect of the fear of deportation. One minister said fewer congregants were showing up for services. The owner of Park Plaza Barber Shop in Los Angeles said fears of immigration enforcement had led many customers to stay away.

• How Disaster Provides Cover for Authorities to Target Immigrants (V.N. Trinh, Time, Made by History, 1-27-25) Deporting people is challenging and requires time and resources. During Trump’s first term, deportations peaked in the 2019 budget year, when the federal authorities removed about 347,000 people. Efforts to target immigrants amid the 1992 L.A. Uprising point to what deportations might look like under Trump 2.0.

     In the Los Angeles Uprising, the LAPD, INS, and other government agencies coordinated to surveil, seize, interrogate, and deport undocumented immigrants. They carried out these efforts indiscriminately, categorizing everyday people going about their daily lives as “riot aliens.” As a result, more than a thousand Los Angeles residents were expelled from their communities.

     Just over a year into Donald Trump's first term as President, immigration agents raided a meat processing plant in Bean Station, Tennessee, arresting 104 workers. It was the largest worksite raid in a decade. Two months later, 114 were arrested at a large-scale nursery in Sandusky, Ohio. The next year, immigration agents raided poultry plants in six towns in central Mississippi, arresting 680 workers in one day.
     Eric Ruark predicts that reviving of workplace raids will prompt a collision within the Republican Party, as pro-business Republicans are likely to see the raids as undermining the economy.
• What we know about unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. (Jeffrey S. Passel and Jens Manuel Krogstad, Pew Research Center, 7-22-24) The facts. Always better than campaign slogans.
    "The unauthorized immigrant population in the United States grew to 11.0 million in 2022, according to new Pew Research Center estimates based on the 2022 American Community Survey, the most recent year available. The increase from 10.5 million in 2021 reversed a long-term downward trend from 2007 to 2019. This is the first sustained increase in the unauthorized immigrant population since the period from 2005 to 2007."

    "Immigrants made up 14.3% of the nation’s population in 2022. That share was slightly higher than in the previous five years but below the record high of 14.8% in 1890. "As of 2022, unauthorized immigrants represented 3.3% of the total U.S. population and 23% of the foreign-born population. These shares were lower than the peak values in 2007 but slightly higher than in 2019.

     "Meanwhile, the lawful immigrant population grew steadily from 24.1 million in 2000 to 36.9 million in 2022. The growth was driven by a rapid increase in the number of naturalized citizens, from 10.7 million to 23.4 million. The number of lawful permanent residents dropped slightly, from 11.9 million to 11.5 million. As a result, in 2022, 49% of all immigrants in the country were naturalized U.S. citizens."

SHUTTERING USAID
“CLOSE IT DOWN,” Trump said on social media of USAID before the judge’s ruling.
• Almost all USAID workers will be pulled off the job worldwide, Trump administration says (Ellen Knickmeyer and Matthew Lee, Associated Press, 2-5-25)
• Government showdown: Trump administration clashes with Democrats over move to shutter USAID Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday that he is now the acting director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the Trump administration is trying to shut down as an independent agency.

• In Breaking USAID, the Trump Administration May Have Broken the Law (Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Brett Murphy, ProPublica, 2-9-25) The Trump administration may have broken multiple laws in crippling USAID, according to experts. While USAID was first created by President John F. Kennedy in a 1961 executive order, Congress passed a law in 1998 to make it an “independent establishment” like others in the cabinet. Multiple administrations, Democratic and Republican alike, built USAID into an institution that has helped save millions of lives around the world, promoted U.S. interests in remote corners of the globe and employed thousands of Americans.
Now Trump and Musk have nearly destroyed it in three weeks.

    “It’s very hard not to see what’s going on as a constitutional crisis,” said Peter Shane, a law professor and one of the country’s leading scholars on the Constitution. “It’s very scary and tragic.” Monday will be crucial to see if the Trump administration follows a court order blocking their efforts.

• "Make no mistake: The takeover and dismantling of USAID is a test case for whether Musk and the Trump regime can destroy a part of government without legal or political resistance. So far, the answer seems to be yes."~Robert Reich in his blog post on Dictatorship.

PUBLIC HEALTH
• The man no rational person would put in charge of the public’s health (Robert Reich, 1-28-25) "Robert Kennedy Jr. is not just a nutcase. He’s also a designated hitter in the oligarchy’s efforts to get government out of public health — and force Americans to rely instead on private for-profit corporations for their health insurance, hospitalization, vaccines, and pharmaceuticals. These corporations continue to merge into giant for-profit monopolies and oligopolies. If confirmed, Kennedy Jr. would also oversee Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act. Taken together, these three programs provide health insurance to more than half the American population.
      "Kennedy Jr. has assured senators that he doesn’t want to take vaccines away from Americans but his history of anti-vaccine advocacy has made those promises difficult to believe. He has repeated over 100 times false claims linking vaccines to autism — a theory debunked by decades of scientific research. He was a leading proponent of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, erroneously suggesting the vaccine has killed more people than it has saved. RFK Jr.’s misinformation about vaccines continues to endanger public health. Given his anti-vax advocacy, there is no reason to trust his judgment on the development of vaccines against bird flu."

• Trump's Gag Order Halts CDC Publication (Rachael Robertson, Enterprise & Investigative Writer, MedPage Today, 1-23-25) "This is a concerning precedent that public health messages won't be left to public health professionals and experts, and instead will be potentially controlled by politicians," Sonja Rasmussen, MD, a former editor of MMWR who worked at the CDC for 20 years, told MedPage Today.
     "The bottom line is every day the publication is delayed, doctors, nurses, hospitals, local health departments, and first responders are behind the information curve and less prepared to protect the health of all Americans," Frieden said in a statement shared with MedPage Today.

     The federal public health gag order that went into place on January 21 implied that government websites that publish public health data would not be updated -- things like COVID, influenza, RSV, and norovirus surveillance. Bird flu trackers were also under threat, which was pretty bad timing considering New York just joined the states with cases in poultry.

     NIH Research Starts Grinding to a Halt: Real Impact
The gag order on communications and meetings to adjudicate research proposals at the NIH also includes purchasing research supplies, CNN reported.
• I’m a health researcher. NIH’s pause on research grants could have a devastating cost. (MSNBC) This is a potentially devastating event — not just for the scientific community, but for all Americans. If this pause is not reversed soon, the fallout for scientific research in the U.S. may be felt for years to come.

• Health Programs Shutter Around the World After Trump Pauses Foreign Aid (Stephanie Nolen, NY Times, 2-1-25) Lifesaving treatment and prevention programs for tuberculosis, malaria, H.I.V. and other diseases cannot access funds to continue work. Lifesaving health initiatives and medical research projects have shut down around the world in response to the Trump administration’s 90-day pause on foreign aid and stop-work orders.

   Does the Halt in Foreign Aid Hurt People Yet? Yes: Real Impact. Not next year. Not next month. Not next week. Now.

• Trump hits NIH with ‘devastating’ freezes on meetings, travel, communications, and hiring (Meredith Wadman, Jocelyn Kaiser, STAT News, 1-22-25) Researchers at the National Institutes of Health facing “a lot of uncertainty, fear, and panic.”

    Researchers who have clinical trial participants staying at the NIH's on-campus hospital, the Clinical Trial Center, said last week they weren't able to order test tubes to draw blood as well as other key study components. One researcher who was affected said his study would run out of key supplies by this week. If that happened, the research results would be compromised, and he would have to recruit new patients, he said.

• The Mayhem Trump's First Week Did and Did Not Cause in Public Health (Jeremy Faust, MedPage Today, Opinion, 1-27-25) The theory versus reality of what's really happened to date.

TRUMP'S WAR ON Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
• Researchers reel as Trump administration moves quickly to cut funding and end DEI health programs (Angus Chen, Usha Lee McFarling, and Jonathan Wosen, STAT News, 1-20-25)  ‘The work is hard enough to do as it is,’ said one advocate who urged scientists to push back,.

---What’s the Point of Trump’s War on D.E.I.? (Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 1-31-25) To distract from his larger plan to gut the federal government, the President has taken a relatively powerless program and turned it into an excuse for everything that goes wrong in the country. 
---Trump’s DEI purge targets federal workers who did not work in DEI (Laura Meckler, Hannah Natanson, Julian Mark, MSN/Washington Post, 2-1-25) At least 50 employees at the Education Department have been put on leave in recent days after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to eliminate all positions related to diversity, equity and inclusion. But almost none of them worked in jobs directly related to DEI, according to union officials and interviews with affected workers.

ANTI-ABORTION STANCE DESPITE TRUMP SAYING IT'S A STATE ISSUE
• Trump re-enacts policy banning aid to groups abroad that discuss or provide abortions (Rachel Carlson, Fatma Tanis, Goats and Soda, NPR, 1-24-25) On Friday, he reinstated the Mexico City Policy, which cuts off U.S. aid to any group operating in another country that provides abortion services, counsels people about abortion or advocates for abortion rights.

• Trump Declares Open Season on Abortion Clinics (Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, 1-25) Trump’s pardons and the commutations for the Jan. 6 insurrectionists might be the single scariest thing that happened in a really scary week. And now it has an add-on, which is a series of pardons for people who protested—and did a lot more than protest—at abortion facilities (against abortions). It seems like just another song in a different key: Anybody who decided to take the law into their own hands is just fine as long as they were doing it for something that Donald Trump likes.

PLAIN OLD CORRUPTION AND INFLUENCE PEDDLING
• Trump’s crypto-ligarchy (Robert Reich, 1-27-25) "It will blow up in his face — and possibly take the financial system with it. Days before taking the oath of office, Trump announced on his social media platform the creation of the $TRUMP coin, featuring Trump’s image from the July assassination attempt and said: “Join the Trump Community. This is History in the Making!”
     Despite no details about the coin’s value, use, or risks, Trump supporters, gamblers, and those wishing to suck up to Trump bought it — sending the coin’s price into the stratosphere. On paper, the Trump family is now several billion dollars richer.

PROJECT 25

President Trump wants a massive tax cut and immigration crackdown bill. Now Republicans must decide what to cut to help pay for it.

• Project 25 "Building for conservative victory through policy, personnel, and training. Get the facts."

Top Republicans are passing around a 50-page list of ideas on how to cover the cost of a tax cut and immigration crackdown bill, including cuts to Medicaid and a 10 percent tariff on all imports. The list also includes tax cut proposals, such as lowering the corporate tax rate and eliminating income taxes on tips.

Here are a few options under consideration (a sample from a 50-page document)

   Do look at Wikipedia's page on Project 25, the Republican plan that Trump is clearly trying to push through.

   And here: https://www.project2025.org/

WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE
• House G.O.P. Floats Medicaid Cuts and More to Finance Trump’s Huge Agenda

(Catie Edmondson and Andrew Duehren, NY Times, 1-23-25)

---Read: Draft Options for G.O.P. Cost Cuts for Tax Bill (Ways and Means Committee)

Download the original document:

https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/28cb85c5ed1f6c52/44e83eb4-full.pdf

https://www.project2025.org/

Here are a few items from the 50-page list of Republican proposals:

Limit Federal Health Program Eligibility Based on Citizenship Status

Up to $35 billion 10-year savings

"Currently, many non-citizens who entered the country illegally are eligible for federal health care programs including advance premium tax credits and Medicaid. This policy would remove specified categories of non-citizens from eligibility for federal health care programs."

Eliminate Medicare Coverage of Bad Debt

Up to $42 billion 10-year savings

"Medicare currently reimburses hospitals at 65 percent of bad debt (uncollected cost-sharing that beneficiaries fail to pay), while private payers do not typically reimburse providers for bad debt. This policy brings Medicare more in line with the private sector by gradually reducing the amount that Medicare reimburses providers for bad debt."

Eliminate Inpatient-only List
Up to $10 billion in 10-year savings
Eliminate the inpatient-only list so more same-day surgeries and procedures can be performed in lower cost, outpatient settings

Reform IRA's Drug Policies
Up to $20 billion in 10-year costs
Reform the Inflation Reduction Act's prescription drug policies to discourage price setting on innovative drugs treating rare patient populations.

HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE

Border wall funding appropriation
No score yet; deficit increase
The Homeland Committee would like funds to build border barriers, including the "Trump Wall" (a 33 ft high concrete barrier) along 700+ miles of the border.
The Homeland Committee estimates $18 billion for 734 miles of new wall, $7.8 billion to replace legacy fencing/vehicle barriers, and another $ 10 billion for additional secondary barriers.
Leadership stated the need for Rio Grande River buoys but no specifics were provided.

Again, Download the original document:

https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/28cb85c5ed1f6c52/44e83eb4-full.pdf

Finally, take a look at this:

Chairman Trump's Cultural Revolution

(Lucian K.Truscott IV's newsletter, 2-3-25) and tell me we have nothing to worry about.

• What Are Archives? Society of American Archivists)
• Archives 101: How Archival Records Are Organized (short video, Ryerson Archives and Special Collections)
• Directory of Archival Organizations in the United States and Canada (Society of American Archivists)
• So You Want to Be an Archivist (Society of American Archivists)
• Upcoming Events, National Archives (Society of American Archivists)
• Current Exhibits (U.S. National Archives, Washington, DC)

• U.S. National Archives Facebook page
• Archive Grid OCLC's WorldCat database. ArchiveGrid is largely made up of MARC records from WorldCat. OCLC Research includes over 7 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,400 archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies.
• A Brief Introduction to Archives (video, 8.3 minutes, University of Louisville Archives & Special Collections)

• Online Research Tools and Aids (National Archives)
---Locations of various Research Archives, Records Centers
---DocsTeach (The online tool for teaching with documents, from the National Archives)
---America's Founding Documents (Declaration of Independents, Constitution, Bill of Rights)
---Milestone Documents (Lee Resolution, 1776; Articles of Confederation, 1777; Treaty of Paris, 1783; Alien and Sedition Acts, 1798; etc.
---Research our records
---Veterans' Service Records
---Educator Resources
• Hanging Together (the OCLC Research blog)

• Archives 101 Part I: The Basics of Archival Acquisition and Appraisal (Connecticut League of Museums) This series of five, 1-hour live webinars provides information and instruction in the basics of archival management, including archival acquisition & appraisal; arrangement & description; creating finding aids; preservation storage & housing; and access with emphasis on best standards and practices, as well as low-cost solutions. The webinars are designed for staff and volunteers from historical societies, libraries, museums, archives and other cultural heritage organizations with historic record collections.
---Part II: Fundamentals of Archival Arrangement and Description
---Part III: Creating Finding Aids
---Part IV: Preservation Storage & Housing of Archival Collections: Guidelines & Solutions
---Part V: Making Your Archives Accessible

Let me know if I'm neglected to include an important resource. Please provide both the name of the resource and a URL.

• I’m an author and sell on Amazon: How does sales tax work? (TaxJar) "Probably the best thing about publishing your own book through Amazon Author Central is that you are not the seller of record. Why is this so great? Because it means you are not responsible for collecting the sales tax on the books you publish!

    "In this case, Amazon is the seller of record and will sell the book on your behalf. So when readers get the receipt from your book, they'll see that they bought it from Amazon and not from you directly. If you are selling your book through Amazon, Amazon takes care of charging your customers sales tax and remitting sales tax to the state. So Amazon charges and collects sales tax in states where digital books are taxable. You don't have to worry about collecting sales tax on the books you sell!

    "...A good rule of thumb is to remember that sales tax is always due if a transaction is taxable. Either Amazon (or a publisher, bookstore, etc. that you have a working relationship with) should collect tax from the customer, you should collect it from the customer, or the customer should pay use tax."

But if you do sell books directly (at a book fair or craft show, for example), you are responsible for paying sales tax on the items you sold.

These resources seem like a good primer on the topic, but let me know if I should link to others as well:
• Sales Tax Basics for Writers (Helen Sedwick)
• Selling Books & Sales Tax: Practical Things You Need to Know (Clearsight Books)
• Sales Tax Resources & Updates (Sales Tax Institute) Bookmark this page, useful for all things sales and use tax!

     Here you’ll find quick-reference charts, whitepapers, helpful tools, legislative updates, directories, FAQs and more.
• Frequently Asked Questions about Sales Tax (Sales Tax Institute)

Check out Letty Cottin Pogrebin's Dec. 20 newsletter

"Lots of political wisdom, and heed worthy warnings emanate from E.B. White’s 1940 essay, “Freedom,” written in response to Americans’ passivity in the face of Adolf Hitler’s increasingly tyrannical actions in Europe."

• American Oligarchy (Mother Jones)

For its January + February 2024 issue, Mother Jones explores the rise and power of the emerging class of billionaires—fueled by the monopolistic growth of Big Tech—who are remaking America in their own decadent and extractive image. Their bored whims and futuristic fantasies shape how and where you live and work, even as their own worlds are increasingly siloed off from the rest of us. Welcome to the American Oligarchy.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/01/american-oligarchy/

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

• The Rise of the American Oligarchy (by Tim Murphy, Mother Jones, January 2024)

When the US targeted Russia’s oligarchs after the invasion of Ukraine, the trail of assets kept leading to our own backyard. Not only had our nation become a haven for shady foreign money, but we were also incubating a familiar class of yacht-owning, industry-dominating, resource-extracting billionaires. What targeting Russia’s wayward billionaires revealed about our own. American oligarchy is built on a different kind of resource, not nickel or potash, but you—your data, your attention, your money, your public square.

• It’s Time the Word “Oligarch” Lost Its Russian Veneer (Jeffrey A. Winters, Mother Jones, January 2024)

America does oligarchy better than anyone.

PART 2: HOARDING

• How the US Became the World’s Refuge for Dirty Money (by Casey Michele)

When the US targeted Russia’s oligarchs after the invasion of Ukraine, the trail of assets kept leading to our own backyard. Not only had our nation become a haven for shady foreign money, but we were also incubating a familiar class of yacht-owning, industry-dominating, resource-extracting billionaires.

• The Dark Side of the $100 Bill (by Oliver Bullough)

Benjamins are fueling international crime and corruption. So why are we printing more than ever?

• When Gilded Age Lawmakers Saved America From Plutocracy (Daniel Schulman, Nov. 2023)

And how Biden’s team is using their playbook to take on Big Tech.

• How the Rich Keep Their Riches Out of Reach by Tim Murphy

Eight ways to hide an asset

• Refuge for the Robber Barons by Michael Mechanic.

Deranged stalkers? Bitter exes? Angry mobs? Tom Gaffney’s clients are ready.

• This Is What It Costs to Be Rich by Tim Murphy and Jacob Rosenberg (1-25-24)

Our attempt to document the uncommon common costs for the uber-wealthy.

• Martha’s Vineyard Is Being Gutted by Skyrocketing Housing Costs. Yes, You Should Care. (January 30, 2024)

The fight for affordable year-round housing in this elite summer destination offers lessons for dealing with a national crisis.

PART 3: INFLUENCING

• Philanthropy in America Is Broken (Michael Mechanic)

We taxpayers heavily subsidize ultrawealthy giving. But who really benefits?

• Billionaires’ Giving Pledge: Part Tax Strategy, Part PR Stunt (Michael Mechanic and Tim Murphy)

Has it made the world a better place? You be the judge.

• A Brief History of Superyachts (by Tim Murphy)

And how they explain the world.

• How “Woke Capitalism” Became a Right-Wing Obsession by Hannah Levintova

Vivek Ramaswamy may no longer be running for president. But his anti-ESG legacy has already won.

• Receipts. Proof. Timelines. Screenshots: Why We Can’t Look Away From Rich People’s Drama by Scaachi Koul

The uber-wealthy are losing it over the dumbest things—and we’re hooked.

• How Hollywood Learned to Eat the Rich by Morgan Jerkins (2-5-24)

From “Clueless” to “Parasite,” film and TV have long been barometers for how Americans feel about wealth.

PART 4: DOMINATING

• Elon Musk’s Texas Takeover by Abby Vesoulis (photography by Christopher Lee)

How the world’s richest man transformed the Lone Star State into “the modern incarnation of the company town.”

• There Is a Very Good Reason Why Donald Trump Thinks Everything Is Rigged by David Corn

In business, he was a master of gaming the system.

• Meet the Silicon Valley CEOs Who Insist That Greed Is Good (Politics) by Ali Breland

Even if “effective accelerationism” kills us all.

• These Billionaires Want to Disrupt Death—and Keep Their Fortunes Forever by Kalena Thomhave

Sci-fi meets Silicon Valley meets the trust industry.

• Welcome to America’s Wealthiest Zip Code by Dave Gilson. Our guide to one of the nation’s priciest plutocrat playgrounds: Fisher Island

• It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism by Bernie Sanders.

"Only by ending oligarchy can we begin to realize America's promise."

• Monet Changes Everything by Ezra Chowaiki

Tainted billionaires rejoice—redemption is an auction away.

• Australia vs. Rupert Murdoch by Sean Kelly

What's the future of the aging mogul's global empire? Look to the place where it all began.

• Note-Taking is Not Enough: Knowledge Management for Researchers and Writers (morganeua, Writing Cooperative, 5-10-23)

        ["is" should be capitalized; it's a verb.]    

"It wasn’t until halfway through my PhD that I began managing my knowledge. Here’s why I wish I started sooner. It wasn’t until the fourth year of my PhD that I learned about personal knowledge management (PKM) and specifically, the “Zettelkasten” system of note-taking and knowledge management. The zettelkasten ticked all my boxes: it is a flexible, intuitive and enduring method of taking, making, storing, and thinking alongside notes.
     "The zettelkasten, or “slip-box” in English, is a literal box full of slips of paper that the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann used to store his knowledge in the 1960s. Many others have used similar systems before and since Luhmann; including, notably, Umberto Eco, who outlines a similar research process in his book How to Write a Thesis. But Luhmann’s “Zettelkasten” terminology has stuck. Today, many researchers, like myself, house their Zettelkasten not on slips of paper, but digitally as files on their computer.
     "This is the first article in a series of articles I will write to help you better understand the ins and outs of the Zettelkasten — AKA your second brain. However, if you want to get started right away, you can check out my YouTube videos on the topic. David B. Clear also wrote an article for The Writing Cooperative that covers Luhmann’s life and process as well as everything else to do with Zettelkasten. I also recommend refering to the “Getting Started” page on the Zettelkasten website to aid in your knowledge management journey. If books are more your speed, then Sonke Ahrens published a book called How to Take Smart Notes that covers all the basics and will motivate you to start a Zettelkasten of your own.

• Getting Started:Introduction to the Zettelkasten Method (Sascha, Zettelkasten, 10-27-20) The meat of the system.
• Field Report #1: A PhD About Writing with His Zettelkasten (@henrikenggaard, Zettelkasten, 5-27-21)

• How I use Outlines to Write Any Text (Christian, Zettelkasten, 5-24-14)
Outlines are composed of movable parts, as opposed to finished paragraphs and blocks of texts.
Hierarchy creates context. You can see the structure of the ideas you employ.
You can attach research notes as references as they are at first instead of embedding them in the text immediately.

• Zettelkasten — How One German Scholar Was So Freakishly Productive (David B. Clear, Writing Cooperative, 12-31-19)

     Luhmann wrote over 70 books and more than 400 scholarly articles using the Zettelkasten notetaking method.

    'Let's begin with the word "Zettelkasten". This Teutonic word can be broken down into two components: "Zettel", which means note or slip of paper, and "Kasten", which means box. A Zettelkasten is therefore nothing more than a box of notes, properly called a slip box or card index in English.

    Luhmann's Zettelkasten was in fact a piece of furniture. It comprised six stacks of four wooden drawers each, with each drawer filled to the brim with paper notes.'

• How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking by Sönke Ahrens. Read the comments about Ahrens' work on the Amazon page, for more insight into this way of organizing thoughts/material for a book.

• Preparing Fragments Helps You to Ease Into Writing (Christian, Zettelkasten, 11-26-13) Prepare Research First, Compile a Draft Second.
The task of writing a text can be deferred until you’re well-equipped with notes on the topic. It’s easy to connect the parts when it’s time to write the piece itself since you already prepared phrasing their relationships when you linked notes with each other. You prepare your text in manageable parts this way and afterwards get to a complete first draft in no time.

• Composing and Revising – The Two Modes of Writing

• Count Your Words to Increase Your Productivity (Sascha, 2-6-14)

• How to improve your IT support workflow (Atlassian)

    "A knowledge base is the foundation of a knowledge management practice. In IT, the knowledge base is a self-serve online library of information about a product, service, department, or topic. The data in your knowledge base can be from anywhere, but usually comes from several contributors who are well versed on the relevant subject. The knowledge base can include FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and any other details you may want or need to know. (This page is worth a long look.)

    "In service request management, each time an agent handles an issue, they consult the knowledge base first to see if a fix is already documented. If so, they follow the steps outlined in the article, updating it if any of the steps have changed or if the current documentation is confusing. If no such documentation exists, the agent uses the proper process to troubleshoot and resolve an issue while also documenting the issue and the fix in a new knowledge base article.

    "What is knowledge-centered service (KCS)? Knowledge-centered service—also known as knowledge-centered support or KCS—is when support teams not only provide real-time customer, system, or employee support, but also create and maintain documentation as part of the same process. Simply put, KCS is about getting the in-depth knowledge of IT teams out of their heads and onto the page, creating detailed documentation that employees, system users, and new or less experienced engineers can use without constantly bombarding the service desk with the same requests. It’s about treating knowledge as a business asset and not relying entirely on memory and experience to resolve problems quickly.

• Bluesky Welcome to the social internet.
• Blue Sky app Social media as it should be. Find your community among millions of users, unleash your creativity, and have some fun again.
• Debbie's unofficial guide to Bluesky (Debbie Ridpath Ohi) A useful unofficial resource.
• Blue Sky
    To reply to a chat message on BlueSky, click on the message to open it, type your reply in the gray box that says "Write a message," then click the blue arrow on the right.
    If you're trying to reply to a post or a comment, click on the item you're replying to, type your reply in the box, then click the blue "reply" button.
   There are videos on YouTube that can explain whatever process you are attempting.

• What is Bluesky and why are so many people suddenly leaving X for the platform? (The Guardian, 11-16-24)
• Like ‘old Twitter’: The scientific community finds a new home on Bluesky (Kai Kupferschmidt, Science, 11-20-24) After recent changes to Elon Musk’s X, a gradual migration turns into a stampede. Although academics mostly stuck with X in the year after the poll, Bluesky has rapidly emerged as the new online gathering place for researchers, Kucharski among them. They are drawn by its Twitter-like feel, welcoming features, and, increasingly, the critical mass of scientists in many fields who have already made the move. “The majority has spoken, and researchers are moving en masse” to Bluesky, says De-Shaine Murray, a neuroscientist at Yale University who has also migrated to Bluesky.
• If you're leaving Twitter (Samantha Sunne, Tools for Reporters, 11-20-24) BlueSky, Mastodon and Threads are popular destinations
• What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the X competitor (Amanda Silberling, Cody Corrall, Alyssa Stringer, TechCrunch, 12-3-24)

• Tips and tricks for advanced Bluesky Search  Read More