Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
This article originally appeared on AlterNet. In the past few years, San Francisco’s massive rents have displaced long-time residents and worsened the city’s already epic homelessness problem, sending more people into encampments or forcing them to live in cars or doubled up. Now, residents have the opportunity to experience that glamorous lifestyle by paying $600…
This story has been corrected since it was originally published. When the history of this period of comic books is written, we might have to reuse an old term. What could this be but a new Golden Age? Half the reason for the current glory days is the bottomless hunger for comic book properties in…
Employees and other people are evacuated by bus from the site of a mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center Dec. 2, 2015, in San Bernardino, California.Photo by David McNew/Getty Images As Americans have become more and more accustomed to the routine nature of mass shootings in this country, the media, including Slate, have…
Maybe Donald Trump, pictured at a campaign rally in Davenport, Iowa, on Dec. 5, 2015, isn’t out of touch with the electorate. We are.Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images On Monday, in a press release, Donald Trump called for a “complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” It’s the latest in a series of…
Are you a loyal Twitter user? Brace yourself, because your favorite social media platform might get turned on its head: Twitter is experimenting with a new way of sorting your timeline that breaks with the reverse-chronological format it has used since its inception. Certain users have already been selected for testing, and a Twitter…
Like all good things, it started at brunch. It was a bitter January, before Empire even premiered and the idea that I would ever wear a leopard-print fedora was even a possibility. I was sitting in a restaurant, sipping my tea and absentmindedly checking my email, patting myself on the back for the biggest accomplishment…
Over at the ‘Meet the Press’ site, where NBC’s Chuck Todd holds forth, this question was recently asked: Why the selective political outrage? “It says something about our current polarized politics, as well as the sheer number of violent killings in this country, when the left and right are picking which mass shootings to exploit…
Entry Text Earlier today, the candidate currently leading in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” That was, of course, Donald Trump. As Jeffrey Goldberg just tweeted, “Donald Trump is now an actual threat to national security. He’s providing jihadists ammunition for…
I can’t stand Elmo, just can’t deal with this damn Muppet anymore. He’s cute, he’s shrill, and he has made Sesame Street worse. I write this knowing that many people love Elmo, but Sesame Street’s most-marketed character is an over-exposed drag. He has managed, ironically, to make a children’s show too childish. Thanks in large…
Every dollar in Mark Zuckerberg’s private charity is a dollar wrested from public coffers — and democratic control. The media-as-public-relations-machine was in full swing last week, abuzz over Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s public letter to their daughter that contained a $45 billion pledge to establish the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The mainstream media produced…