Community Spotlight
Community Spotlight is dedicated to finding great writing by little-known or unknown Community members whose work hasn’t gotten the visibility it deserves. We rescue and promote their stories based on the original vision set out by Susan Gardner, who single-handedly began our mission in 2006.
Stories collected by Community Spotlight
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Why punching down will always backfire and cost you winnable elections
My last post generated a lot of conversation — and, predictably, a lot of the same dynamic it was describing. Some people engaged thoughtfully, even if they disagreed. Others told me I didn’t understand the stakes, that I was contributing to the “circular firing squad”, that I needed to get in line. Others still didn’t…
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Charisma is to Politics what Hands are to Surgeons
I think it’s possible I’m not the only one that finds charisma suspicious. So many bad people have charisma (as I’ll define it), that I sometimes in my life have wondered if charisma, whatever it is, is a feature of narcissistic tendencies. I’ve thought at times it’s affective because people seem positively reactive to many…
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Music open thread: Sixth Symphonies
People heard the aftermath of war in the end of Robert Simpson’s Seventh Symphony, completed in 1977. “The end is C-sharp,” Robert Simpson insisted, referring to the long-held note at the end of the symphony. It was not the first time a British composer had said his newest symphony was not about war. When people…
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The most beautiful nebulae. Episode 1, the Crab Nebula.
The United States is entering a dark age, and you, dear readers of the Daily Kos, and your peers will be the primary victims of kleptocratic obscurantism. Perhaps I am being a bit too pessimistic, as I believe the November elections will not proceed as usual. In any case, I am working on a series…
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The Cries Of A Child
I tutor kids at a charter school in another state, online. It’s basically state homeschooling. I have a good number of parents who have chosen me to teach their kids, and a lot of those families seem to be Muslim. I don’t know if it’s the kippah and the beard or what but over half…
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The OMB proposes to end American scientific leadership A new slush fund?
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has posted new rules to be applied to science funding at all relevant government agencies. The proposed rules can be found here: https://www.regulations.gov/document/OMB-2026-0034-0001 An excellent (and much shorter) summary of the rules can be found here: https://elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/summary-of-key-changes-in-ombs-proposed A Scientific American article on the rules can be…
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Thoughts on Reform of the U.S. Legal System
I responded to a comment on another of my posts requesting my thoughts on reform of our legal systems. Not comprehensive but it’s a start. A wholesale review and reworking of our systems of laws and justice is needed. In my years of practice I helped lead the Legal Services to the Poor committees of…
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Devs’ token games show the folly of pushing A.I. on everyone
Something about A.I. makes pointy-haired bosses focus on the worst metrics for measuring the productivity of software developers. Some of these bad metrics have been around for a long time. Others, like A.I. token usage, are fairly new. When a dev’s job depends on a bad metric, he’s got no choice but to game it.…
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When Prevention Becomes the Enemy: Panic, Neglect, Repeat
A virus does not read executive orders. This is the first thing to understand about the Ebola outbreak now burning through the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the last thing the policies arrayed against it seem to grasp. The outbreak is the third largest ever recorded, and it announced itself only…
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The Democrats Are The Genuine Faith Based Party
The Republicans have postured as the party of so-called “family values” and Christian faith since they formed up their alliance with the Christian right in 1980. At the same time, Republicans have constantly bullied Democrats and questioned their religious beliefs. For example, the GOP contended that President Obama was a “phony Christian” and even falsely…
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Sci Fi Literature Is Currently Experiencing A Golden Age – And It’s Thanks to LGBTQ+ and Minority Authors
Explicitly progressive authors are increasingly driving the genre both critically and commercially
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Air-Minded: Seeing Mirages
… I saw plenty of Belgian Mirage IIIs during my time in NATO, and once had a semi-close encounter with a pair of French ones while on a cross-country to Spain, a story worth sharing here.
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WINNERS AND LOSERS: A review of the May 28 Michigan Democratic primary debate
Senate hopefuls Abdul El-Sayed, Mallory McMorrow, and Haley Stevens faced off in a one-hour debate last Thursday over who would be the best Democratic nominee for Michigan’s 2026 Senate election. The debate can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5L9FFdEQe8 Here’s some takeaways from the debate. Winner: Abdul El-Sayed Confident and comfortable with himself, El-Sayed came away the…
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Racism: The Historical Factor Powering Trump and his Supporters
Trump falsely believes he is the power behind the throne. That he alone is the reason he can assert openly that “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” What Trump has accomplished, in a thoroughly depraved and fascistic way, is a kingly crowning of…
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The Republic as a Vanity Project
What does it mean when the grounds of the White House are torn up, fenced off, and reduced to a construction zone? It is easy to call it maintenance or improvement. But in a political moment defined by spectacle and self interest, the symbolism feels far less innocent. The answer, at this point, is not…
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On the (Rail)Road again!
Photo journal of a trip on the Rocky Mountaineer train through the Canadian Rockies.
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Which Way Home?
A cross‑country life story about identity, belonging, and discovering that home isn’t always where you started—or where you thought you’d end up. “Last night me and Kate, we laid in bed, talkin’ about getting out Packing up our bags, maybe heading south.” — Bruce Springsteen, My Hometown A Childhood Memory The heavy rain that had…
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Eliminating the federal gas tax to help the environment
I’ve been giving the idea of eliminating the federal gas tax some thought. That’s an odd position, as I have been a big gas tax proponent for many years. I’ve always liked the idea of at least $2/gallon as a federal tax. Yesterday I decided to revisit that opinion I formed decades ago. Times have…
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The race for Money
I’m an astrophysicist; I earn 130,000 francs a year, and people sometimes ask me why, after such a long course of study, I haven’t thrown myself into a frantic race for higher pay—why I don’t “monetize” my degrees, as they say—when an engineer here studies for four years and earns well over 200,000 francs. The…
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Congressman Raskin proposes a 13 seat Supreme Court
Congressman Jamie Raskin has proposed a 13 seat Supreme Court which would provide a single Supreme Court justice to represent each of our 13 federal circuit courts. He details the stealing of two seats by the Republicans under Mitch McConnell at the beginning of the video along with examples of this Court’s activist conservative majority…
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WHY AND HOW SINGLE PAYER IS GOOD FOR THE MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSION
Stephen Vernon, MFT The top of everybody’s list of challenges to the profession of mental health services in general includes such factors as low reimbursement rates, increased administrative burden, decreased clinical control and down-shifting of risk through self-styled value-based reimbursement. In the midst of a shortage of clinicians, fewer and fewer quality people are…
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What Will It Take to Get US Drivers to Adopt Battery Powered Cars?
In the last ten weeks of the Iran war, Americans have paid $45B or $300 per household more in gas and diesel prices. Estimates are that if the Strait of Hormuz does not open by June, the average price of gas will be $5 per gallon (up from $4.50 today). I have consumed virtually no…
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The Art Of TheGentle Correction: An Example
I run a nonprofit theater, and one of our regulars is a old fellow who I’ll call Joe who has a crusty, abrupt demeanour. He’s not the easiest person to talk with, but we have bonded somewhat over his deep love of jazz and knowledge about its history. Music is a safe topic, and he…
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What 19th Century Agricultural Practices Can Teach Us About the Digital Economy
The digital economy is taking up an ever larger share of the greater economy, as can be evidenced by current stock valuations and discussions of community resources being consumed by the construction of vast data centers. Indeed, as growth in manufacturing and agriculture slows, the advances in the digital technology sector are accelerating. Manufacturing and…
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Women getting an education can lead to madness and murder? WTAF Jesse Welles?
Before getting into the meat of the article, I want to state that I used to be a big Jesse Welles fan. I even joined his literal fan club on Facebook. However, a troubling pattern began to emerge for me, especially after his song “Charlie,” where Jesse Welles essentially tries to turn Kirk into a…