Not everything is income inequality. Race is still an issue in 2016, and your resistance to examining this as distinct and worthy of your focus is why you are losing big right now. Don’t listen because it’s politically expedient—though it is. Listen because people’s hearts, and people’s lives, are at stake. Hillary isn’t the perfect anti-racism candidate, but until you wake up and listen, on racial justice, you lose to her.

Nobody seems to much mind that Sanders is a socialist—a moniker that would have gotten him run out of town on a proverbial rail, not long ago. Nor does anybody seem to care that he’d be the first Jewish person in high office (not to mention he and his wife would be the first interfaith couple)—a milestone surely as significant as JFK breaking the Catholic taboo in his day. What’s holding back this startling candidacy is instead his inability, to date, to open his view. Bernie is stuck in a single-lens interpretation of American reality, nuanced in its way, but leaving out critical facets. And that keeps him from gathering in crucial voters for any Democratic candidacy. The irony is that Bernie migh prove a more politically syntonic leader for people of color than his rival.

The good news is that Bernie’s surprising early success in the primaries has forced—or allowed?—Hillary to move way further left than she’s been inclined to risk for decades. Let’s not forget, she backed some dodgy policies of her husband’s, that landed huge numbers of people in prison and kept them there. She is still a full-on hawk on foreign policy. Let’s not let her trending success in the primaries keep us from challenging these positions, which are not the least bit liberal, never mind “progressive.” And no, Madeline (and Gloria, et al), there is no special place in hell for those of us who happen to be female and who also don’t love Hillary’s politics. For crying out loud, if feminism doesn’t mean respecting every woman’s right to choose her politics, then what good is it? Would I love to see a woman president? You bet. Elizabeth Warren, we’re waiting with bated breath.

Claire Blechman’s A Guy Walks Into A News Cycle.

I watched a robot competition the other day. It was fun, and it made me think we are pretty close to robots taking on a whole passel of jobs that now require humans. The degree to which this will reshape our lives may be as radical as the advent of the internet, and of course it’s not unrelated.

Tim Cook’s stance on FBI commandeering of private Apple-employed engineers to do the feds’ bidding is a position we need to get behind. The more the Internet of Things advances, and the more we all depend on these connections (and our beloved hand-held devices) for our day to day lives, the more we risk every aspect of personal and workplace privacy. I don’t know about you, but from where I sit that’s a frightening loss.

Some intrusions can’t be prevented, but they can be repelled. Our website has seen some attacks of late, so if the spam-bots wound up sending you something with our press name on it that looked fishy, it is fishy. Send it to your spam filter. We’re working hard to prevent these invasions, and the trolls and spammers keep working hard to crack every possible exploitable angle on the internet.

Did I mention Matthew Inman’s Autocorrect Hates You?

Here’s a bookstore made up of collections curated by famous individuals: One Grand, Desert Island Books.

Nin Andrews’ comic tribute to Auden.

with love,
sammy