If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
By which I mean, the bedrock consensus of political science appears to have been disproved. Broadly speaking, political scientists believe that lawmakers and regulators only respond to the policy preferences of powerful people. If economic elites want a policy, that's the policy we get – no matter how unpopular it is with everyone else. Likewise, even if something is very, very popular with all of us, we won't get it if the super-rich hate it.
Just take a look at the gap between public opinion and policy outcomes: most people think "capitalism does more harm than good"; most Canadians, Britons and Australians aged 18-34 think "socialism will improve the economy and well-being of citizens"; 72% of Brits support a national job guarantee; the majority of Californians support permanent rent-controls; and most people in 40 countries want CEO salaries capped at 4X that of their lowest-paid employees:
The inability of the public to get its way isn't just an impressionistic view – it's an empirical finding, based on a representative sample of 1,779 policy outcomes, that politicians ignore the will of the people in favor of the will of billionaires:
economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.
It's a mystery. There's no policy that would be harder on billionaire wealth and power than vigorous antitrust enforcement (not least because preventing corporate concentration is key to preventing regulatory capture):
Certainly, there are a lot of merely obscenely rich people who are angry that the farcically rich people are screwing them over, and this class division between the 0.01% and the 1% has opened up some political space:
But that wouldn't be enough, not without the massive supermajorities of everyday people who are sick to the back teeth of being abused by corporations, and who are desperate for any outlet to strike back.
Take juries. Orrick is a big corporate law firm that represents the kinds of companies that might find their future in the hands of a jury in a state or federal courthouse. Orrick periodically surveys representative samples of people who show up for jury service to get a picture of their attitude towards the kinds of companies that can afford to hire a firm like theirs:
Their latest report contrasts the results of a pre-pandemic 2019 survey with a 2025 survey of 1,011 jurors in California, Florida, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Texas, New Jersey, and New York.
They found that jurors' trust in the court system has plummeted since 2019 (67% in 2019, 48% in 2025); hostility to cops has tripled (11% to 33%); anti-corporate sentiment is way up (27% then, 45% now). The percentage of jurors who believe that they should use the courts to "send messages to companies to improve their behavior" has risen from 58% to 62%; and 77% want to award punitive damages to "punish a corporation" (up from 69%).
And jurors are notably hostile to pharma companies, energy companies and large banks, but they especially hate social media companies.
It's no wonder that corporations are so desperate to take away our right to sue them, and why "binding arbitration" clauses that permanently confiscate your legal rights are now part of every corner of modern life:
The business lobby has been trying to take away workers' and customers' and citizens' right to seek justice in court for decades, ginning up urban legends like "A lady's coffee was too hot so McDonald's had to give her $2.7 million":
Don't believe it. The courts are rarely on our side, but the fact that sometimes, every now and again, a jury will seize an opportunity to deliver a smidgen of justice just drives plutocrats nuts. Billionaireism is the belief that you don't owe anything to anyone else, that morality is whatever you can get away with. You don't have to be a billionaire to contract a wicked case of billionaireism – but you do have to be stinking rich to benefit from it:
Microsoft and Linux Developers in the same sentence?
Microsoft and Linux Developers in the same sentence? Bash on Windows?
Bash on Windows, Microsoft & Linux and uproarious applause at Microsoft conference, these are things I expect to happen when pigs fly. Well, cover your heads and look up because…Microsoft is reaching out to Linux developers in a way that the company never has before. “The Bash shell is coming to Windows. Yes, the real Bash is coming to Windows,” said Microsoft’s Kevin Gallo on stage at today’s…
Well, someone asked me to go exclusive with them. It happened rather quickly and while I said yes, I am still feeling pretty overwhelmed. I have not really been updating or following the tumblrs too closely because I have busy with that, but I'll see if I can make sense of things.
Hi Everyone!!
I hope you are doing well ;o) For the NaNo'ers, I hope you're getting TONS O' WORDS!
I've just decided every time I get good news I'm going to use the Pig Flying pic 'cause each time something awesome happens I'm still convinced there are pigs flying by my head.
As some of you may know, I have been interning for awesome agent, Louise Fury at L. Perkins Agency for a little over 6 months. Under her expert tutelage, I have learned SO much. I can read with a critical eye. I'm more versed in how to navigate the publishing world. I've also gotten better at editing MS's. She is--in a word--AMAZING.
That's why it's going to be difficult to move on. BUT the reason I'm leaving her side is a great one!
I have now joined the ranks with the highly talented group at
Entangled Publishing as Associate Editor.
I'm THRILLED for this opportunity and flattered that wonderful Publisher and Senior Editor, Liz Pelletier thought so highly of me. I also want to thank my friend and all-around SUPER EDITING GENIUS Adrien-Luc Sanders or @smoulderingsea on twitter. Adrien is someone I've known for a few years and I can say, he is the main reason I applied. For excellent editing advice follow his #editortips. Trust me. You want to.
I have to also thank all my uber awesome CP's who let me edit their MS's, and who edited mine so well, AND my bestie, Brenda Drake who taught me a lot about editing. I could name a TON of writers who influenced me in some way, but this blog post would be three days long.
I'm sure there are typos and wayward comma splices in this post (this is me we're talking about). So now that I'm an editor, I'm hoping you won't judge me for all the mistakes I will surely make. LOL.
So, that's my news!
In other news, DID YOU VOTE? I hope so! Be back soon!
~Er
So. Is That A Pig Who Just Flew By Or Did I Get An Agent?
Hi Everyone!!
I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your summer!! Mine just got a lot better (understatement of the year)!!
At first, I couldn't find a pic of a flying pig (apparently they don't exist, Ha) so my lovely friend Leigh Ann sent me this one, it's all legit 'n stuff, so... we cool.
SO. Yeah. This blog post is kind of hard to write, which is weird. Honestly, I've met SO many awesome friends, tweeps, bloggers, agents, editors, writers, authors, animals (wanted to see if you were still reading) who have enriched my life and made it possible for me to write a blog post of this nature.
I'm THRILLED to announce (if you haven't already guessed) that I have an agent!! SHE is amazing. Okay, okay, I'll tell you who. It's JUDITH ENGRACIA from the AWESOME Liza Dawson Associates. I'm SO excited to work with her!!
GUYS. Jude is the best. Here's our little story...
I sent her a query for my NaNo 2010 MS (yes, that's 2010. I revised/rewrote the crap out of it)... and I get a response back from her saying she was speechless and to send my MS right away. I sent it to her. A week later I get an email from her saying she started my MS and should be done in a couple hours and would I like to talk. UM WHAT? I mean, she said she wasn't even done with it. So, naturally I thought she couldn't possibly offer. BUT. She did. After she finished it, of course. She started the conversation by telling me my MS is a mash-up of Equilibrium, Minority Report and Shutter Island. I loved her instantly. We make an awesome team. She's so personable, sweet, patient. She's enthusiastic about my writing and loves my ideas for my other WIP's. I wanted to say YES, I wanted to scream it from the rafters (I don't have any rafters) BUT. I did have some fulls out that I had to follow-up on. Which I did, and I think I actually made sort of friends with one of the agents that rejected me. Who knew?
So, my journey to agentdom isn't that interesting, but since people loves stats, I'll post them ;o)
Queries sent: 32Rejections: 19No-response: 4Requests from queries: 10 Requests from Miss Snark's Baker's Dozen/Writer's Voice contests: 7Ninja agent (found me on twitter): 1
I have a list a mile-long of people I could thank for putting up with my crap helping me along the way, whether it was with encouragement, beta reading, talking me off a ledge, or just being there. Here we go. I know I will inevitably forget someone.
First, Brenda Drake. She's my Alpha everything and one of my best friends. We meet in NaNo 2010 and have pretty much been inseparable since. LOVE her. Next, Carolina Valdez Miller. She's one of my favorite writer besties, soul sisters, whatever you want to call it. I love her. She's been there for me and she's awesome beyond words. I have to thank the AWESOME Melanie Hoo who is an AMAZING friend and SO much fun to hang with (oh, the memories) The next group are also my writer besties, CP's, overall SUPERB individuals: Cecily White, Leigh Ann Kopens, Adrien-Luc Sanders, Kristen Yard, Jamie Grey, MarikeN, Dahlia AF, @INukeYou, @ifollowthenight, Cait Peterson, Chessie Zappia, Megan Whitmer, LK Gardner Griffie, Jamie DeBree and Brooklyn Ann. Also, a shout out to my new agent sister, KT Hanna. I'm SO excited to be a part of #TeamJude ;o)
AND Of course, All my bloggy and twitter pals!! YOU (that's right, I'm talking to you) are amazing and I LOVE you!! I HAVE to give a shout out to the wonderful Louise Fury who is always there for support and she sends me some seriously AMAZING MS's. I'm not going anywhere, you're stuck with me ;o)
Last but certainly not least #clicheoftheday My wonderful husband who braves lonely nights while I write and who is incredibly supportive of my choices. AND my sister, who was one of my first readers. I know she'll always be there to read every crappy version of every story I write and still tell me she loves it.
DUDE. That's a seriously long post. Sorry for that. Thank you for being here and for reading my incredibly sporadic blog posts. I'm so glad to have the best mosh pit on the internet!!!
<3<3
Er
