How should socialists govern? How can a position of power in the capitalist state be used to advance the socialist project? I wrote about realistic policies that can begin shifting power to the working class, using NYC as an example open.substack.com/pub/thelastf...

How Socialists Should Govern, Part 2

Giving the working class an inch so it can take a mile

open.substack.com

I wrote about 3 of my favorite low-tech design innovations from Iran open.substack.com/pub/thelastf...

The low-tech brilliance of Iranian design

3 resilient technologies demonstrating the remarkable innovation of Iranian engineering

open.substack.com

I wrote about 3 of my favorite low-tech design innovations from Iran open.substack.com/pub/thelastf...

The low-tech brilliance of Iranian design

3 resilient technologies demonstrating the remarkable innovation of Iranian engineering

open.substack.com

When socialists win power within the capitalist state, how should they govern? What are the measures of success? Can they move us closer to socialism, or just mitigate the harms of capitalism? I turn to an essay by Erik Olin Wright for answers open.substack.com/pub/thelastf...

How Socialists Should Govern, Part 1

On using the capitalist state against itself

open.substack.com

Death to America Death to Israel Long live Iran

The 2nd installment in my native edible plant series is here! I wrote about an oak shrub perfectly suited to small gardens that pumps out high-quality food under tough conditions with zero inputs. It’s also an ecological powerhouse that supports hundreds of native insects & mammals

I'm going big on these plants in 2026, Part 2

Another edible native for your garden

open.substack.com

Americans spend more than 3 billion hours **per year** pushing or riding gas-powered lawnmowers. That’s the equivalent of 187,500 people working full-time just on lawn mowing It’s hard to imagine a more vacuous & destructive embodiment of unearned wealth & ecological ignorance

Love this part

Yeah you could say I have a lot going on this month

I’ve started writing a new series on edible native plants Based on my own testing, these are species that belong in your garden, where they can provide abundant, low-input yields while forming the bedrock of a healthy ecosystem open.substack.com/pub/thelastf...

I'm going big on these plants in 2026, Part 1

Edible, native species that have worked great for me

open.substack.com

Had to try it Super good, tart and fruity with a complex herbal finish from the turmeric. Great condiment for anything fatty

This new study shows that restoring peatlands—which cover just 3% of the Earth’s surface but store 2x as much carbon as all forests combined—can restart long-term carbon sequestration in just a few decades This is the real “carbon capture & storage”

Not tylenol or vaccines, dumbasses

This is an ultra-efficient wood-burning masonry heater with an integrated oven and stovetop If this is fueled by a regenerative supply chain—such as a coppice or invasive management program—it’s vastly more sustainable than high-tech heat pumps and induction cooktops

Meanwhile, in Venezuela, the commune movement in collaboration with the Ministry of Food just opened a grocery store in Caracas with prices 50% lower than market. As many products as possible are sourced from communes around the country

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 7mo ago

Brooke Rollins: "We've run over 1,000 simulations. It can cost around $3 a meal for a piece of chicken, a piece of broccoli, corn tortilla, and one other thing. So there is a way to do this that actually will save the average American consumer money."

In America’s class war, only one side is fighting for control of the land

Ignorant apologia for invasive species is rampant, sometimes coupled with nonsense about supposedly harmful language yada yada The reality is that invasive species have created a global ecological crisis and exterminating them should be a top priority

“But what should we actually DO?” To answer that question, you must first understand how to make change open.substack.com/pub/thelastf...

How To Make Change

On The Path To Victory

open.substack.com

Just catching up on this Maduro guy. Look at this tyrannical insanity!

If you want some background on one of the most exciting and important democratic initiatives in the world—the communes of Venezuela—and Maduro’s role in supporting them, here’s a very good and thorough new piece on the subject www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/03/v...

Happy New Year, everyone! Make it a year of joy, meaning, & regeneration. Eschew optimization, competitiveness, & individualism Spend your year perpetuating life, it’s the most beautiful and unlikely phenomenon to ever exist

After successfully fighting to un-dam the Klamath River, a land trust formed by 4 Northern California tribes just completed the purchase of a huge swath of land in the basin. They plan to focus on habitat recovery, cultural resource protection, & fire management lostcoastoutpost.com/2025/dec/29/...

Klamath Indigenous Land Trust Buys 10,000 Acres Along the Klamath River From PacifiCorp

lostcoastoutpost.com

This guy sponsored a bill that legalized shooting prairie dogs from a vehicle

WyoFile@wyofile.com · 7mo ago

Wyoming Freedom Caucus member allegedly admitted that "he drinks while driving for anxiety," Johnson County Sheriff's Office report says.

I wrote about why we don’t need any more renewables, and how we can reduce demand and inequality while improving quality of life instead open.substack.com/pub/thelastf...

We Don't Need Any More Renewables

Here's how to reduce electricity demand while improving quality of life

open.substack.com

Merry Christmas The phrase of the day is “enemy release,” describing the absence of predators and diseases faced by invasive species when they’re moved out of their native range. This gives them an unbeatable competitive advantage over native species in their introduced range

Anybody out there wanna help The Intertribal Buffalo Council set-up a “contact your Congressman” form/email campaign? They’re calling for people to support this bill but don’t appear to have any of the usual digital infrastructure

Just living in a county with industrial agriculture increases your cancer risk: “Even after adjusting for ultraviolet radiation & socioeconomic factors, 2 patterns stood out: Counties with more cultivated cropland and higher herbicide use had significantly higher melanoma rates.”

Obviously hate the emphasis on extractive benefits here—logging & cattle are the enemies of the North American ecosystem—but the research is instructive nonetheless This landscape evolved with prescribed fire; it’s one of the keys to regenerating it

One of my projects for next year is growing some less common milkweeds that are native to my area —Red milkweed (Asclepias rubra) —Fourleaf Milkweed (Asclepias quadrifolia) —Eastern Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata ssp. pulchra) —Clasping Milkweed (Asclepias amplexicaulis)

Not only is Kerala a shining beacon of hope & sanity, it’s also home to the sickest houseboats in the world

jaspermaxxing@hoovybaby.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Guess which political party has governed Kerala for 15 of the last 20 years