Paul Tullis

Will the new hire be getting hardship pay?

...which would have had some, er, issues, without Jessica's superb factchecking

The underground network: Prehistoric fungi feed the world’s plants and resist climate change, but face an uncertain future Trillions of miles of tiny fungal tubes embedded in soil transport nutrients to crops and other plants and fight climate change by storing carbon. Scientists are racing to understand how these fungi—i...

New must-read @tullis.bsky.social feature @thebulletin.org: Mycorrhizal fungi networks supply plants with essential nutrients and water and help sequester carbon, but they're facing many threats. Why scientists are racing to understand—and protect—the biodiversity under our feet.

You might not feel sympathy for Nick Reiner, but 1000s of folks with mental illness in the US commit no crime until the cops show up, who haven't been trained in how to manage PWMI. To be sick and tossed in jail without a trial, treatment, or meds for MONTHS--that is an actual crime. 5/5

Nick Reiner might be ill enough to kill his parents but not so ill that he can't understand the charges against him or the court process. Then he'll be one of the lucky ones--going to trial. 4/5

Detainees have spent months waiting for a bed while getting zero treatment. At least one killed themself. States have paid at least $86.7m in court-ordered fines. 3/5

This experience often causes detainees' mental health to get even worse, increasing the length of stay when a bed does open up--which extends the time in jail w/o treatment for those still waiting. 2/5

If Nick Reiner is found unfit to stand trial by reason of mental incompetency, he'll go to a psych hospital until declared fit. Unless there aren't any beds-which happens ALL THE TIME, as I wrote for @TheAtlantic Then it's jail, likely w/o treatment www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
🧵

I will stop trolling you now 😜

30-40% of middle-class people in metro Albany can't afford basic necessities
brook.gs/4pOQhvQ

And by tax rate I mean share of income actually paid in taxes, not the IRS marginal rate

We should meet for borrel and compare notes!

I think the list of policies that enable US acquisition of wealth and do not not compromise acquisition of a decent life for working-class people where they don't pay $7500 a year for crap health insurance, work 50 weeks a year, and drink lead for breakfast is very short.

Europe's choosing a different path doesn't mean its policies are a failure because it doesn't make it easy to be a financier making $1m/yr who pays a lower tax rate than an electrician making 40k

Isn't part of what makes the US "rich" that it doesn't take care of ordinary people? Its policies foster growth, enabling acquisition of "wealth" for a few, but at the expense of the well-being of the many. Low taxes mean not enough money to fund infrastructure.

You mean the lack of material wealth? Or maybe we have different definitions of "working class." I live in Amsterdam and used to live in upstate New York and I saw a lot of broken-down cars in driveways, collapsing porches, and billboards for opioid rehab.

Growing faster to what ends? At whose expense?

"The US is sort of the perfect place to open a plasma center, not only because there’s fewer regulations on frequency and it allows payments, but it’s an environment where people are frequently financially desperate.”

How Impoverished People Selling Their Blood Fuels Drug Profits

My latest, for Bloomberg Businessweek

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Last week was not the first time Tanzania's government violently repressed its people, as I reported for @bw in 2023 www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

I am not explaining this to you btw but to other readers of the comments.

LBJ had a Dem Senate and Dem house the entire time he was in office, and the opposition party didn't use the filibuster to torpedo anything they didn't like. Granted the Democratic Party had some conservatives then, but the Republicans included some liberals (a majority voted for VRA)

It’s Cool to Have No Followers Now As social media has become older, more manipulable, and more automated by artificial intelligence, flouting online popularity has gained a new cachet.

I'm totally owning this www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...

You missed my only newsletter of 2025, and you are despondent. Fret not! You can read it (and subscribe to future editions) here: paultullis.net/so/b1P4JdLx4...

As I wrote last month in @motherjones.com (with @moranb.bsky.social), Israel is pushing forward a bill to advance govt control of news media www.pressreader.com/israel/jerus...

"[This is] how patronage works when it’s filtered through capitalism. The harder you have to work to sustain yourself, the harder it is to keep asking the big questions that can create political change."

Patron-Supported Journalism Can’t Be the Future of News Writing about the failure of patron-supported journalism is itself a kind of...

I always thought Substack was the new version of magazines asking you to write for free because instead they'd give you "exposure" and now the always brilliant Ana Marie Cox has articulated for me what the newsletter subscription model means for journalists

talkingpointsmemo.com/tpm-25/patro...

The Retail Storage Hiding Under the Champs-Elysees As parking lots empty out in Paris's city center, retail logistics hubs are moving in. From there, goods can be transported a short distance by bike.

A logistics hub under the Champs-Elysees--crazy, right? But if done correctly it could reduce traffic congestion and GHG emissions. Paris is about to find out.

My latest, for Bloomberg CityLab

www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Meinung: Energiewende: Diese Fakten werden Ihr Weltbild verändern Auch gut informierte Menschen in diesem Land haben eine massiv verzerrte Vorstellung davon, wie sich die Welt gerade entwickelt. Gehören Sie dazu?

Percentage of new electricity capacity installed in 2022 that was renewable:
83
in 2023: 86%
in 2024: 92.5%

column by @christianstoecker.de

www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft...

Israeli media's distorted view of the war in Gaza While global news showed a humanitarian disaster, most outlets in Israel remained silent.

4. "Israeli Media’s Distorted View of the War in Gaza,"
@moranb.bsky.social @tullis.bsky.social @motherjones.com

"Barkai and Tullis introduce Ronen Argov as a rare voice of dissent against the Israeli media’s dominant narrative of the war."

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...