Writers and Editors

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.
• 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)
• 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 

Publications that offer free email newsletters (typically in a particular subject area)

Newsletters and magazines, in alphabetical order:
• The Atlantic
• Arkansas Democrat Gazette
• CNN email newsletters
• Early Chirp about the latest happenings in technology, business, and culture
• The Guardian newsletters (UK) 
• Morning Brew 5-minute updates about the business world every day of the week from Wall St. to Silicon Valley
• The New Yorker newsletters
• New York Times e-mail newsletters Most are free and accessible for everyone, but some are available only to digital or Home Delivery subscribers.
• Washington Post newsletters

What other free newspaper-supported email newsletters do you recommend?