Pithy summary of article, also known as a “deck”

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Today’s gonna be a little different.

Hello reader,

Thank you for your click. I’m out of the office today to participate in the general strike in observance of International Women’s Day. I am not working today and will resume posting content tomorrow. In the meantime you can read this very good piece by Awl pal Jia Tolentino:

Reflecting on the Women’s Strike made me feel embarrassed about the ease of my own working conditions: I work from home, on a flexible schedule, with no children or dependents, and if I were to go on strike for a day, the only person likely to notice is my editor, whose day might even improve as a result. (On Monday, Condé Nast employees received an e-mail from human resources sanctioning the use of a personal day or a volunteer day for A Day Without a Woman.) But I can’t see much use in becoming emotionally or ethically paralyzed by the difference between my situation and that of, say, an undocumented housekeeper and mother of two. I’d rather strike, and look for structures that can fill the gap between us. Her concerns, regardless, are my concerns, too.

The Women’s Strike and the Messy Space of Change

For urgent matters, I guess you can contact Alex Balk, but he will only laugh at you (“we run a website, not an emergency room”). See you tomorrow.

In solidarity,

Silvia

What’s different about today?

Happy International Women’s Day! As every day for the last four months (remember four months ago today? When you woke up feeling possibly excited but definitely relieved? And then later that night you felt worse than you thought you could ever feel? And then each day after somehow felt even more terrible?) has been an incomprehensible nightmare from which you begged to awaken, maybe this will break the cycle. I am not an optimist, but I am also a man, so why do I know? Here is some music to start the day off. Enjoy.

★★★ There were no specific clouds to see, but something was scattering the morning sun. New Jersey was clear and visible yet brown with haze once more. Buds were greening while lips were chapping. It would be the last day to wash and hang up the jeans before the damp was due to return. Gradually the clouds became visible ones, then thicker, and at last a solid furrowed mass, closing out the day.

Back-catalog sales numbers of note from Nielsen SoundScan.

The definition of “back catalog” is: “at least 18 months old, have fallen below №100 on the Billboard 200 and do not have an active single on our radio.”

Last night I couldn’t sleep so I watched all four available episodes of “Big Little Lies.” I did not expect to like it as much as I did, but man do I like it. It gets several things about rich Northern California pretty dead on, Chloe is very good, and also Reese Witherspoon fucking rules. Also, I’ve now heard that one Leon Bridges song, “River,” many times. So I know without Googling why his Coming Home jumped to the top of the back catalog.

Just in case you don’t trust me, here is a link to a news article that says, “Columbia’s radio team notes that the song is up by 8000% in US digital sales this week.” The whole album is up 409% over last week.

The black stetson-wearing country star Aaron Watson is coming out with a new album, so his wildly successful (“first album by a male artist to debut at the top of the Country Album charts with a self-released and independently distributed and promoted LP”) debut The Underdog is back on the charts. Besides having a Spanish title (“cowboy”), the album features a song about Mexican immigrants. Watson claimed in a recent interview not to have a position on the wall, but says if he lived in Mexico and knew he could have a better life in Texas, he’d pack his bags. Hmmm.

The 30th anniversary of Roy Orbinson’s Black & White Night concert was celebrated with a newly updated and expanded version. Not sure what’s up with Godsmack? They appear to be getting excited for “the spring festivals,” which include things called Las Rageous. Good, very good.

We are GEARING UP for spring festivals and ROCKIN’ OUT with you all! 💥🎸💥 Get your tickets NOW at https://t.co/yhLBqh3HDj !!

 — @Godsmack_Music

The fact that Heathers was turned into a fucking musical is a detail worthy of, well, Heathers. Snaps to Bryson Tiller for naming his album with annoying spaces between every letter, in that Herrmanesque style colloquially known to internet people as “widetext” (funny that there’s no space) and to me as “on-purpose bad kerning.” And finally, Taylor Swift at the bottom of the list. Enjoy it while it lasts.

6. BRIDGES*LEON COMING HOME 3,723 copies

42. WATSON*AARON UNDERDOG 1,952 copies

50. ORBISON*ROY BLACK & WHITE NIGHT 1,828 copies

69. GODSMACK LIVE & INSPIRED 1,590 copies

101. VARIOUS ARTISTS HEATHERS THE MUSICAL 1,364 copies

112. TILLER*BRYSON T R A P S O U L 1,296 copies

200. SWIFT*TAYLOR TAYLOR SWIFT 992 copies

(Previously.)

Mark Cuban almost loses it.

Shark Tank returns from commercial. A twentysomething appears on screen, driving around on an off-road vehicle, but wearing pressed khakis and a bowtie. The land is muddy and ripped up because it has been hydraulic fractured so many times.

DUKE KIP: My name is Duke Kip and I’m a young, ambitious, talented conservative who loves launching companies as much as I love America. During the day I work as a lawyer for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. During the night I sleep four hours, sometimes less, and then invent products that will be manufactured exclusively in America. By people who pass drug tests and don’t use welfare.

My product is the Town Hall-ogram, a hologram for Congressional town halls. Donald Trump inspired a populist rebellion, the first of its kind since Andrew Jackson, but some people hate that. Members of Congress can use the Town Hall-ogram to avoid and distract liberal crybabies while they get busy dismantling the deep state and also undoing Obama and Hillary regulations that choke growth and stifle innovation.

[DUKE holds up his phone.] It’s simple. Members download the app, assign a staffer to launch it, and a hologram in their image displays on the stage.

A middle-aged white man appears on stage. The crowd boos heartily. Someone off camera tosses a soiled, full diaper onto the stage. The diaper slides directly through the Member’s left leg.

DUKE appears inside the Shark Tank television studio. He presses a button on a boombox, and the first chords of U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” begin blasting.

DUKE: My name is Duke Kip and this is a Republican congressman [gestures to HOLOGRAM] and we’re seeking a $100,000 investment in exchange for a 10% equity stake in my company, Town Hall-ogram.

LORI GREINER: Hi Duke. How did you come up with this idea?

DUKE: After I read Donald Trumps’s The Art of the Deal, I moved to Washington, because the best way to unshackle the markets is to work in government. But so much of Congress’s time is wasted talking directly to constituents. How can we be capitalists when all our time is spent responding to the problems of those we represent?

BARBARA CORCORAN: That’s a good question, Duke. But I’ll tell you what bothers me. You said in your package that you want to manufacture exclusively in America. I find that the labor here is too expensive given how unskilled it is. I moved to New York in 1971 with fifty dollars in my pocket. Today that couldn’t pay for the back surgery of even one displaced American factory worker. That’s why I manufacture primarily in China and Vietnam. I’m afraid I’m out.

DUKE: Can I —

BARBARA [to LORI]: These factories are not re-opening. [LORI doesn’t care. Her investment, Scrub Daddy, is the Tank’s most successful product, and she has no idea where they’re made. Supply chain management is nation agnostic.]

KEVIN O’LEARY but please call him MR WONDERFUL: Why don’t you tell us what your product does?

DUKE [proudly]: Sure. Well, in case you didn’t notice, this guy next to me isn’t really a congressman. He’s a hologram. [DUKE presses something on his phone.]

HOLOGRAM [in robotic voice]: The Democrats can talk about impeachment all they want. We’ll be over here cutting two regulations for every one we add. Regulations stifle God-given growth. Now who would like to buy an American made gun? [HOLOGRAM makes a gun with his fake fingers.]

MARK [running up and hitting the HOLOGRAM, his fist flying through the projected image]: I’ve always wanted to punch a politician.

ROBERT HERJAVEC: You mentioned Andrew Jackson. Isn’t your product by nature anti-populist? What’s a town hall but a group of people?

DUKE: Andrew Jackson did inspire me, and Andrew Jackson would’ve never listened to a bunch of whiny liberals before he decided to act. He was the antebellum Donald Trump.

MARK [witheringly]: Yeah right. [MARK pulls out a twenty dollar bill from his extremely thick wallet]. This guy had great hair. [The camera zooms in on MARK’s finger tapping Andrew Jackson’s mane.] Your guy? Not so much.

BARBARA [Greek chorus-like]: Andrew Jackson was a genocidal psychopath, guys.

[MARK sighs so loudly that LORI, seated three sharks away, rolls her eyes.]

MR. WONDERFUL [to MARK]: Can I talk to the kid, please?

LORI: Hold on, Kevin. [KEVIN and MARK talk over LORI, who, as the most successful Shark, isn’t fazed by their disrespect.] Look, Duke. You seem like a good kid. I could get you into every big box retailer tomorrow. But I wouldn’t know how to market this, and so for that reason I’m out.

DUKE [desperately]: People go to big box retailers after they attend town halls. Or before. On the way. To pick up poster board and markers and snacks and lawn chairs because the lines — you should see some of these lines.

LORI [smiling fakely]: Your customers aren’t those people. Your customers are Members of Congress. I’m out, Duke.

ROBERT: Tell us about your sales.

DUKE: We’re pre revenue.

MARK: Five hundred thirty-five Congress people and you haven’t sold one hologram yet? You did learn economics from Donald Trump. [MARK opens phone and drags Donald Trump on Twitter.]

DUKE [pivoting]: The mainstream media only reports on the town halls where violence breaks out. Our town halls take places without all the drama. Reporters lose interest and don’t write anything. The Town Hall-ogram helpfully quiets dissent.

MARK: Your product is so good at what it does that you can’t recall your customers?

MR. WONDERFUL: What’s preventing me from doing this myself? Hiring a crackerjack developer to design holograms of every Member of Congress and then selling them at half the price?

DUKE: I mean. [The HOLOGRAM makes a sad face.]

MR. WONDERFUL: Or what if I just give them away? Stunt PR to drum up business for other uses. I have a lot of friends who are too busy to give TED Talks but want to because they really have something to say. They’d love a hologram version of themselves.

MARK: Yeah right.

LORI [still out, but genuinely curious]: Do you have a utility patent, Duke?

DUKE: I’ve applied for one, but at my day job we’re also dismantling the Patent and Trademark Office so —

ROBERT: I grew up in Croatia where my dad was arrested for speaking out against the totalitarian regime there. And now I’m Canadian where everyone works for the government. I’m skeptical, of course, that you’re destroying what makes your own nation great. But, more crucially, you’re doing so as a government employee. The government needs to be doing less, not more. For that reason I’m out.

MR. WONDERFUL: Is it only town halls you’ve tried using this?

DUKE: We once turned on the hologram in the Senate cafeteria. Senator Schumer appeared and announced the egg salad he was eating was spoiled.

MARK [to producers off stage]: Is this a prank? [MARK gets up again, and walks towards DUKE, menacingly.] Please leave the tank.

MR. WONDERFUL: Jesus, Mark. What if one of us still wants to make an offer?

MARK [realizing MR. WONDERFUL is not kidding]: Then make a [beep] offer.

MR. WONDERFUL: Duke, tell me. When you ride an escalator, do you walk up the stairs or stand and wait for it to pull you up?

DUKE: Honestly, I run up them.

MR. WONDERFUL: That’s what I thought. You seem like a go-getter. I’ll tell you what. I see why the hologram is useful. But five hundred customers won’t get me out of bed in the morning. I’ll give you an offer, but it’s contingent on you finding other uses for the product.

MARK [seizing an aha! moment]: Hold on. I’m back in. I like that you run up escalators. That reminds me of something I’d do when I was starting out. I’ll offer you two hundred thousand dollars. You have no sales and no IP, so it’s straight cash, in exchange for 100% of your company. I want to buy your company.

DUKE [excitedly whispering to the HOLOGRAM]: I came here to make a deal with Mark.

MR. WONDERFUL: I can’t believe this.

MARK [to BARBARA]: I actually have a TED Talk later this month. Win by Showing Up: How to Be Present in a Global Economy. Now I can just send my assistant to turn on the Town Hall-ogram.

DUKE: We have a deal.

[DUKE and MARK shake hands as the other Sharks murmur about how dangerous it is that the white working class now votes as a cohesive, Jacksonian bloc.]

It’s all dirt and fire from here on out.

In Omaha, paved roads are being “reclaimed,” which is a nice way of saying “torn up and turned into gravel.” It’s all part of the way we live now.

While President Trump has called for extensive investments in infrastructure, federally funded efforts are likely to go to decaying interstate highways and airports and dams. Some experts estimate that $1 trillion is needed to repair roads, bridges and rail lines over the next decade. But infrastructure is also decaying at the most local levels — on cul-de-sacs and in neighborhood playlots unlikely ever to see federal funding. So cities like Omaha have resorted to unusual solutions. In Youngstown, Ohio, officials closed off some uninhabited streets. In Gary, Ind., some of the city’s parks could close — a process city officials call “renaturing” — after years of neglect. And in one Michigan county, a deteriorating bridge was torn down, not replaced.

It’s going to be amazing to watch America revert back into its prelapsarian state. Painful, particularly if you are on one of those bridges as they collapse, but amazing. (Did you know Omaha has more residents than Miami? I did not. Although I guess Miami’s got problems of its own.) Anyway: Welcome to the new normal.

Omaha’s Answer to Costly Potholes? Go Back to Gravel Roads

David Byrne tried to warn us about this almost thirty years ago, but did you listen?

You tell me.

Fact: as off e-press time, the president has only favorited 45 tweets from his personal account. Another fact: He has not faved in 2017. A third fact: He has only faved from this account once since being elected. The very first fave was all the way back in 2010, of a Mika Brzezinski tweet, is about Trump ties.

He really likes the Trump ties.. I dont know what it is… sitting on train.. let me go ask him.. at least they inspire him to dress up!

 — @morningmika

Here’s a classic Piers Morgan nonce tweet. At the Diamond Jubilee concert, Alfie Boe sang “O Sole Mio,” and possibly threw in the lyrics to the famous advertisement for the ice cream cone of the same name; I do not care to investigate further. Do you think Trump was watching? Do you think Trump likes Cornettos? I like to imagine he does.

OK, OK, I'll have a bloody cornetto. #jubileeconcert

 — @piersmorgan

Then there’s nothing for a while until 2012, when he briefly had a campaign for office but chose to sit back in the peanut gallery to make a lot of comments on the electoral college and . Here’s an unusual one about the Kennedy Compound?

@realDonaldTrump i hope after romney gets elected he surrounds the kennedy compound with wind turbines

 — @thislyricisit

One wild card is a cute kid in a car:

First drivers license

 — @drbearce

Obviously people have since found this fave and asked Debbie how she feels about this. Her response makes it pretty clear!

@MFisherREGATED better then killary

 — @drbearce

Here’s the one I cant for the life of me understand. Am I misreading this or does this tweet seem…………….critical?????? Of Trump????????? Do you think Trump was doing a Choire Sicha hate-fave?

@StrongChestwell @realDonaldTrump @KarlRove... for one so self-posessed, you aren't very self-aware. You've hurt the GOP as much as anybody.

 — @StrongChestwell

There’s also a classic, possibly accidental, possibly not, self-fave:

Will be on #Hannity @ 10pE @FoxNews- discussing various subjects including immigration-if elected, we will #BuildTheWall & enforce our laws!

 — @realDonaldTrump

There’s a really good self-fave of a modified retweet (essentially a quote), which expresses, “I love that you love me, thank you for loving me, let me show people I am loved”:

@jean_penny: @realDonaldTrump I love love Donald Trump!" Thanks!

 — @realDonaldTrump

There’s this McKay Coppins tweet about polls, and I genuinely think Trump meant to fave the tweet right before it, where the polls are favoring him, rather than not:

Meanwhile, Washington Post is out with a new 50-state survey that is... less good for Trump. https://t.co/UxnLVEThjU

 — @mckaycoppins

This one is from before Ivanka Trump took over her own social media or at least pretended to and started tweeting in her own voice. Ivanka in the third person penned an op-ed. Posting a tweet about your op-ed with a collage of your life is actually very Trump-ian. The op-ed is about child care. I would love to read an op-ed by Ivanka’s nannies.

Ivanka penned an Op-Ed that ran in the @WSJ this afternoon, read it here. https://t.co/3QE4nRXzLZ @realDonaldTrump

 — @IvankaTrump

Okay this is the one that gets me real good:

Trivia: At what grade level does your congressman speak? According to the Sunlight Foundation the avg lawmaker speaks at what grade level?

 — @BretBaier

It is a trivia question, stated twice. The answer according to the Sunlight Foundation: “Today’s Congress collectively speaks at a 10.6 grade level, down from 11.5 in 2005.” Donald Trump speaks just below a 6th-grade level. You know what, though? It works.

There are only 5 faves from the @POTUS account and four of them are @RealDonaldTrump tweets. But we can partially disregard that because the tweets on that account are done by Dan Scavino Jr.

I cannot account for the faves that were un-faved, but I’m sure they exist. I love to look at people’s faves and speculate what they mean about that person’s state of mind, but also how they view the mysterious purpose of faves, like Facebook posts. What really is a fave? Trump has only faved as many tweets as there have been American presidents. He has never faved one of Melania’s tweets. Who is Debbie Bearce, besides a fierce Trump supporter and Patriots fan? What does it all mean? Barack Obama’s account has ten faves and they read like a laundry list from a bubble: Bill Clinton, Abby Wambach, Shonda Rhimes, The Shriver Report, Wilmer Valderrama, The U.S. Department of Defense, Funny or Die, Nancy Pelosi, Pitchfork, and Hamilton.

Leandro Fresco and Rafael Anton Irisarri, “Cuando El Misterio Es Demasiado Impresionante, Es Imposible Desobedecer”

Days like this are the only days here.

Look, what do you want me to tell you? This is it for now. Nothing’s going to come and save you. Here’s where we are. Is there a chance that maybe things will change at some point in the future? Sure. There is also a chance — a much better one, depending on whose tweets you read — that we’ll all be dead. This is it for now. At least there’s still music. Enjoy.

★★★★ Round buds, lured forth by the days of warmth, stood out where the branches spread against the sharp and cold blue sky. Ears got chilled within two blocks of walking. The wind was piercing and erratic, the sun piercing and steady. The ornamental crosses and crucifixes were shrouded but every detail of the altar window was filled with strong even light. Cold air seeped along the floor in the apartment. The reflections of windows shone on the faces of other buildings and slowly turned red. Short bright daggers of contrails moved toward Newark, pommel first. The day’s only clouds spread low across the sunset to catch color in their bands.