Jim Bauman
@sojneighbor.bsky.social
Retired linguist. Gay. Small town journalist. West Virginian. Dabbler in politics to stay edgy, Buddhism to get enlightened (someday). The wordy me hangs at https://medium.com/@sojneighbor or https://sojneighbor.org.
Morrisey’s request to change SNAP shows poor West Virginians lose when rich people represent us westvirginiawatch.com/2025/05/27/m...
Morrisey’s request to change SNAP shows poor West Virginians lose when rich people represent us • West Virginia Watch
Instead of working to lift people out of poverty, our leaders are following the lead of President Donald Trump and making things worse.
westvirginiawatch.com
May 27, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Morrisey’s request to change SNAP shows poor West Virginians lose when rich people represent us westvirginiawatch.com/2025/05/27/m...
George Saunders's Liberation Day story collection. Read it for his great veiled take on the current and pending evils of the Trump administration.
medium.com/@sojneighbor...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/564990...
medium.com/@sojneighbor...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/564990...
Liberation Day by George Saunders: 9780525509615 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “One of our most inventive purveyors of the form returns with pitch-perfect, genre-bending stories that stare into the abyss of our national character. . . ....
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
May 14, 2025 at 8:24 PM
George Saunders's Liberation Day story collection. Read it for his great veiled take on the current and pending evils of the Trump administration.
medium.com/@sojneighbor...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/564990...
medium.com/@sojneighbor...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/564990...
So where are you going on your next vacation? The choice looks to be Moscow in the winter or Paris in the spring.
February 20, 2025 at 2:06 PM
So where are you going on your next vacation? The choice looks to be Moscow in the winter or Paris in the spring.
From Timothy Snyder:
"The United States cannot deal with adversaries without qualified civil servants in the departments of government that deal with money, weapons, and intelligence. All of these are being gutted and/or run by people who lack anything vaguely resembling competence."
"The United States cannot deal with adversaries without qualified civil servants in the departments of government that deal with money, weapons, and intelligence. All of these are being gutted and/or run by people who lack anything vaguely resembling competence."
The Weak Strongman
Impotence and Unfreedom, Together
substack.com
February 14, 2025 at 5:11 PM
From Timothy Snyder:
"The United States cannot deal with adversaries without qualified civil servants in the departments of government that deal with money, weapons, and intelligence. All of these are being gutted and/or run by people who lack anything vaguely resembling competence."
"The United States cannot deal with adversaries without qualified civil servants in the departments of government that deal with money, weapons, and intelligence. All of these are being gutted and/or run by people who lack anything vaguely resembling competence."
Reposted by Jim Bauman
Reposted by Jim Bauman
One thing Democratic leadership could do right now is to name an alternate HHS secretary--someone to provide ongoing public updates and health information. And do it for other departments too. Start showing voters what a Democratic government would look like--press conferences, speeches, all of it.
February 13, 2025 at 5:33 PM
One thing Democratic leadership could do right now is to name an alternate HHS secretary--someone to provide ongoing public updates and health information. And do it for other departments too. Start showing voters what a Democratic government would look like--press conferences, speeches, all of it.
When is the best time to engage for the next election coming up? And a related question. When is the best time to try and convince the undecided how to vote in the next election?
medium.com/@sojneighbor...
medium.com/@sojneighbor...
Getting Swing Voters to Lend Some Weight to Your End of the Seesaw
Convincing the undecided voter
medium.com
February 9, 2025 at 5:51 PM
When is the best time to engage for the next election coming up? And a related question. When is the best time to try and convince the undecided how to vote in the next election?
medium.com/@sojneighbor...
medium.com/@sojneighbor...
An appreciation for how John #Steinbeck got the correct bead on American #capitalism of 2025 60 years after he wrote the Winter of Our Discontent.
medium.com/@sojneighbor...
medium.com/@sojneighbor...
A Half Century of Our Discontent
A better-late-than-never appreciation of John Steinbeck’s last novel
medium.com
February 4, 2025 at 8:50 PM
An appreciation for how John #Steinbeck got the correct bead on American #capitalism of 2025 60 years after he wrote the Winter of Our Discontent.
medium.com/@sojneighbor...
medium.com/@sojneighbor...
Black History Month has taken a blow from Trump. It will not change the need for it, but it will change its visibility. It is now going to tell the story of "black American patriots." Can you guess whose stories will NOT be told? medium.com/@sojneighbor...
Black History Month 2025
We’ll need new signs
medium.com
February 1, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Black History Month has taken a blow from Trump. It will not change the need for it, but it will change its visibility. It is now going to tell the story of "black American patriots." Can you guess whose stories will NOT be told? medium.com/@sojneighbor...
A Guide for the Perplexed: Democrats in Distress
open.substack.com/pub/contrari...
open.substack.com/pub/contrari...
Cynthia Phillips on The Contrarian
Something interesting I read after the election pointed out a gaping hole in D's message delivery. To reach the low-information and/or low-income voter, you need to find the platforms that are free to...
open.substack.com
January 31, 2025 at 4:34 PM
A Guide for the Perplexed: Democrats in Distress
open.substack.com/pub/contrari...
open.substack.com/pub/contrari...
The scarlet F is coming for Trump — and there's nothing he can do about it
www.rawstory.com/raw-investig...
www.rawstory.com/raw-investig...
The scarlet F is coming for Trump — and there's nothing he can do about it
2025: The year American Oligarchy officially begins? I’m an unpaid volunteer member of the board of directors of a nonprofit that’s making use of a multi-million-dollar endowment, and working with the...
www.rawstory.com
January 7, 2025 at 4:10 PM
The scarlet F is coming for Trump — and there's nothing he can do about it
www.rawstory.com/raw-investig...
www.rawstory.com/raw-investig...
Ann Telnaes's cartoon essay on how tough it is to navigate the promise of free speech.
10th anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo killings
On January 7, 2015 the editorial cartooning community suffered a horrible blow
anntelnaes.substack.com
January 7, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Ann Telnaes's cartoon essay on how tough it is to navigate the promise of free speech.
Tim Miller's the Bulwark Podcast on Dec 20 2024 had Jon Favreau as guest. It was an hour of a beautiful dance between a once and future conservative, never-trumper and a once and forever Obama acolyte, progressive.
www.thebulwark.com/p/jon-favrea...
www.thebulwark.com/p/jon-favrea...
Jon Favreau: Funny and Horrible
While it's still going to be bad, for the first time since the election we're beginning to see that we may actually have a little fun watching these idiots prove they don't know how to govern.
www.thebulwark.com
December 23, 2024 at 3:24 PM
Tim Miller's the Bulwark Podcast on Dec 20 2024 had Jon Favreau as guest. It was an hour of a beautiful dance between a once and future conservative, never-trumper and a once and forever Obama acolyte, progressive.
www.thebulwark.com/p/jon-favrea...
www.thebulwark.com/p/jon-favrea...
Reposted by Jim Bauman
If we weren't at such a weird moment in history, the collapse of Assad's regime would be widely understood as a huge success for the Biden administration, which pursued sanctions on Russia and Iran as well as Syria, armed Ukraine and thus weakened Russia, and supported Syrian democrats and activists
December 13, 2024 at 7:05 PM
If we weren't at such a weird moment in history, the collapse of Assad's regime would be widely understood as a huge success for the Biden administration, which pursued sanctions on Russia and Iran as well as Syria, armed Ukraine and thus weakened Russia, and supported Syrian democrats and activists
Reposted by Jim Bauman
Hard not to escape the conclusion that the Korean political system is more resilient than the US system
December 14, 2024 at 11:50 AM
Hard not to escape the conclusion that the Korean political system is more resilient than the US system
Reposted by Jim Bauman
I'm trying to put my finger on what's happening with this great capitulation to Trump -- ABC News, Chris Wray, the Democrats signing up to work with DOGE, Mark Benioff, etc. It's like you can feel the air going out of an entire social order.
December 14, 2024 at 10:52 PM
I'm trying to put my finger on what's happening with this great capitulation to Trump -- ABC News, Chris Wray, the Democrats signing up to work with DOGE, Mark Benioff, etc. It's like you can feel the air going out of an entire social order.
Reposted by Jim Bauman
The idea of giving $15 million to build a library for a group that's more likely to burn books than it is to read them...
December 14, 2024 at 10:06 PM
The idea of giving $15 million to build a library for a group that's more likely to burn books than it is to read them...
Reposted by Jim Bauman
Obama's brand of technocratic liberalism was fundamentally inadequate to the historical moment in which he was elected, and his eight years in office ended with the rise of the MAGA Right.
His speech yesterday in Chicago showed that he's learned nothing from the experience.
My latest for MSNBC:
His speech yesterday in Chicago showed that he's learned nothing from the experience.
My latest for MSNBC:
Opinion | Obama still doesn’t get why Trump won. That’s the problem.
The 44th president's message at his democracy forum was just his same old brand of centrism, which is unsuited to the current populist era.
www.msnbc.com
December 7, 2024 at 12:17 AM
Obama's brand of technocratic liberalism was fundamentally inadequate to the historical moment in which he was elected, and his eight years in office ended with the rise of the MAGA Right.
His speech yesterday in Chicago showed that he's learned nothing from the experience.
My latest for MSNBC:
His speech yesterday in Chicago showed that he's learned nothing from the experience.
My latest for MSNBC:
Still reading Adam Johnson's 'Fortune Smiles.' His story 'Dark Meadow' treads the very thin and quivery line that a reformed, but still haunted pedophile walks between his desires and his resolve. It could as well relate to any sort of addiction.
December 6, 2024 at 6:05 PM
Still reading Adam Johnson's 'Fortune Smiles.' His story 'Dark Meadow' treads the very thin and quivery line that a reformed, but still haunted pedophile walks between his desires and his resolve. It could as well relate to any sort of addiction.
Tooting my horn. Just published a "thought" piece about Red angels versus Blue angels. Trying to make sense of which angel people listened to in the 2024 election.
The Mind of Your Better Angel
Angels to the left of me, angels to the right.
medium.com
December 6, 2024 at 5:50 PM
Tooting my horn. Just published a "thought" piece about Red angels versus Blue angels. Trying to make sense of which angel people listened to in the 2024 election.
Adam Johnson's story 'Fortune Smiles' in his collection of the same name takes a nuanced look at the appeal of totalitarian regimes (here North Korea) and gives reason to reflect on the American election of 2024
Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson: 9780812987232 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
The National Book Award–winning story collection from the author of The Orphan Master’s Son offers something rare in fiction: a new way of looking at the world. “MASTERFUL.”—The...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
December 4, 2024 at 4:14 PM
Adam Johnson's story 'Fortune Smiles' in his collection of the same name takes a nuanced look at the appeal of totalitarian regimes (here North Korea) and gives reason to reflect on the American election of 2024
I just added my thoughts regarding the (hopefully temporary) demise of #DEI and along with thoughts on the branding problem this will cause the #MAGA crowd. The usual antonyms for #diversity, equity, and inclusion come across as mildly to acidly negative.
medium.com/p/f79819818f...
medium.com/p/f79819818f...
Medium
medium.com
November 25, 2024 at 10:11 PM
I just added my thoughts regarding the (hopefully temporary) demise of #DEI and along with thoughts on the branding problem this will cause the #MAGA crowd. The usual antonyms for #diversity, equity, and inclusion come across as mildly to acidly negative.
medium.com/p/f79819818f...
medium.com/p/f79819818f...