Hello you, it's me.

Happy new year, allegedly. I’m still not convinced that 2021 was technically a “year” distinct from 2020. Meanwhile, I wanted to share something I wrote last week in response to your questions on a range of topics.

Below, I cover how to deal with the intentional amnesia around the January 6 attack on the Capitol and ideas for preserving democracy; positive news on climate coverage; and the very mixed bag that is Web3, cryptocurrencies, and decentralized everything. Oh, and I’ll be going live on my Instagram with my colleague Tina Nguyen today at 5pm ET/2pm PT to reflect on the insurrection and how things feel worse a year later. Fun! Seriously, we’ll have fun.

If you still haven't signed up, you can remedy that now by subscribing here. You'll get access to newsletters and articles from myself and Tina, in addition to the rest of our large and growing team of journalists: Matt Belloni, Julia Ioffe, Bill Cohan, Teddy Schleifer, Peter Hamby, and more.

Thanks,

Baratunde

The Politics of 2022: Insurrection Amnesia, Blockchain, & More

Reflections on the Capitol insurrection, cable news myopia, Web3 scammers, bitcoin democracy, and the regenerative technology that gives me hope.

One of the most rewarding aspects of my work at Puck has been engaging with feedback from our community of subscribers. This week, as we close out the year, I’m opening my notebook to address some of the most pressing questions on my mind and in my inbox. If you have critiques, feedback, or further questions, write me back at [email protected]. My inbox is always open.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack recently released a report presenting evidence that Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, was deeply involved in the failed effort to overturn the 2020 presidential result. Meanwhile, Trump loyalists are winning local elections around the country with the specific aim of changing election laws to ensure that next time, the coup succeeds. What can ordinary people do about the threat of another assault on democracy in 2024?

First, read this piece in The Atlantic, titled “Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun.” Warning: it takes about an hour to read, and it will greatly upset you, or it should. If it does not, then you greatly upset me, and that’s a different problem. We have to start by understanding that the “threat of another assault on democracy” is not some distant threat timed to 2024 but is happening right now. The Republican Party is preparing to systematically disregard the will of the people by blocking, discarding, or otherwise disqualifying the votes of millions of people—and neither the Democratic Party nor President Joe Biden have yet fully grappled with the scale of the danger.

After digesting the horrors within that document, I might recommend joining a bunch of active groups like Indivisible or SwingLeft and making sure you register to vote and writing checks to various civil society groups. But before anything so specific or mundane, I want us all to ask ourselves a few questions:

1. What do you need to feel secure, healthy, free, and generally trusting in your day to day life?

2. Do you feel like you have those things currently?

3. Does the current political system feel responsive to those needs? 

4. If not, what changes would make that system feel more responsive to those needs?

5. Are you willing to work to make those changes? If not, are you willing to live in a worse version of a system that’s already broken?

Now I want you to imagine that worse version...

FOUR STORIES WE'RE TALKING ABOUT