You’re a leader. Your “leaders” will follow you

Weekend reads for February 22, 2025

Hey, friends! Anand here. Happy weekend to you.

As we do every weekend, we have gathered below a cornucopiac collection of links, insights, diversions, food for thought, and, as always, a musical performance to inspire you. In today’s edition of Weekend Reads:

• A brutal car rental experience reveals what big tech stole from us

• The “delightmare” — a new aesthetic that supposedly captures our moment

• How Jell-O mold recipes helped make the case for vaccines

• Encounters with the banality of evil at the front lines of mass deportation

• Paul Schrader, Hollywood shitposter

• A chance to make your own Gulf map (see above)

• A visit to CPAC — where the authoritarians are still very, very weird

• Practical tools and trackers for keeping track of actual policy developments

• A command performance from Panamanian jazz superstar Danilo Pérez

You won’t want to miss any of it. A big thank you to our supporting subscribers for making this newsletter possible. And if you haven’t yet joined our community, why not become part of this today?—AG

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A programming note: We’re Live!

We have two Substack Live events coming up next week that you won’t want to miss: Monday, February 24, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, we’ll have our regular conversation with scholar of fascism Ruth Ben-Ghiat. Then on Friday, February 28, also at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we’ll speak with Stephen Wertheim, the historian, author, and theorist of America’s place in the world. To join us and watch, download the Substack app and turn on notifications. You’ll get an alert that we’re live and you can watch from your iOS or Android mobile device.

Week five: Stop waiting for leaders. You’re a leader

We’ve gotten through another week of Trump II, and we hope everyone’s keeping it together, holding up, and finding a way forward, or at least a warm blanket. It’s Saturday, and you deserve some rest, relaxation, and time for reading (which we’re happy to provide).

We won’t kid you: it’s been a tough week for America. The ever-more-unitary executive branch tried to assign even more power to Trump. Kash Patel and his enemies list were confirmed to lead the FBI. A fresh round of firings put more federal workers and veterans on the street. DOGE’s junior programmers found their way into more critical systems, threatening everyone’s data while creating “efficiencies” like forcing federal employees to use a full requisition process if they spend more than $1.

The CPAC conference provided opportunities for Nazi salutes and gift exchanges between oligarchs of that new symbol of authentic populism: a golden chainsaw. And in a new twist on peacemaking, U.S. negotiators met with their Russian counterparts to talk about a Ukraine deal — leaving out the Ukrainians. And that’s just some of what happened over the decade-or-so of the week that was.

But there are plenty of reasons for hope. Federal workers got organized and got out in the streets. Thousands of everyday folks in every state said “No Kings” and got out in the streets to protest on Presidents’ Day. The legal battle against the administration is in full swing.

And cracks are forming in the Republican coalition, as red-state lawmakers realize the leopards are hungry for their constituents’ faces, too. U.S. diplomats are not on board with Trump’s Russian realignment. And an ailing Pope Francis gave JD Vance another poor grade in theology, reminding him yet again of what Jesus was trying to say.

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Here at The Ink…

Before we get to the outside links below, a recap of what we brought you this week.

We found some genuine inspiration in a pair of live conversations on how to come together and fight fascism — for real. First, Senator Chris Murphy laid out the stakes very clearly — it’s the worst threat the nation has faced since the Civil War — and explained how a true mass mobilization can change conditions and force change. Then, political strategist and messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio gave our readers an actual plan of action to do just that.

After weeks of so many Ink readers bemoaning the lack of action from Democrats, both messages seemed to say: Yes, we hear you. But it ain’t gonna come from high up there. It’s going to come from people mobilizing people, to create pressure that can’t be ignored.

TRANSCRIPT: Senator Chris Murphy warns America may be "months" from "irreversible" destruction of democracy

TRANSCRIPT: Anat Shenker-Osorio's *actual* plan to beat fascism

The curated list of links below is one of the perks of being a paying subscriber to The Ink. If you haven’t yet, join us and stand up for independent, tell-it-like-it-is media that bends to no billionaire or tyrant.

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And now, your Weekend Reads

A diary for the future

I have read several reactions by Germans to the rise of Nazism and I was struck by their difficulty to understand where the daily events they lived through could or would lead. In retrospect, we will know, analyze, and make sense. In retrospect everything will have been determined. We may conclude, as did Amos Alon (The Pity of It All) that what did transpire was not inevitable, that history may have taken a different course. But prospectively we can only fear or hope and we do not know which. I have dark premonitions but this is all I have. [Adam Przeworski’s Substack]

Societal rot, and a car rental gone wrong