Broadly speaking, the left represents movements, political figures, and organizations united by a critique of the capitalist system and the Republican and Democratic establishments and the fight for more social protections and power for the working class and other underprivileged classes. But this unity encompasses fundamentally different strategies for achieving this goal and visions of what it would require.

During the tumultuous interwar period in Germany, two strains of Left organization held the majority position -- the largely reformist SPD and the largely revolutionary KPD.

It was the SPD who ultimately took the cause of socialism forward, allying with centrist and rightist elements of the Weimar bureaucracy to crush the KPD. This turned out to be a relatively short period of celebration, however, as the SPD were then destroyed by the NSDAP, more commonly known as the Nazi party.

Raman regularly votes for increasing the police budget, and has repeatedly doubled down on her support of Israel. Despite their campaign promises of stopping police sweeps on unhoused communities, Raman, Soto-Martinez, and Hernandez have not only continued but even increased them during their tenure. Hernandez betrayed her campaign promise to the Hillside Villa tenant union, one of the LA tenant movement’s strongest forces in recent years. During her campaign, she promised to support the tenants’ initial demand that the city acquire the building from their slumlord through eminent domain. Instead, upon her victory, her office negotiated concessions with the tenants’ landlord behind the tenants’ backs and pressured the tenants to accept them.

Most concerningly, there is little mechanism for holding these officials accountable for positions they take that are contrary to the will of DSA-LA’s own membership. They are not even accountable to each other: three of its elected officials would even sacrifice solidarity with their own political ally’s bid for power to back the establishment candidate. This bizarre situation, in which Raman’s closest political allies have instead endorsed her establishment rival’s run, only all too perfectly captures the chapter’s distance from, not expression of, power. This approach, just like that of the Democratic establishment, may secure some policy gains and electoral successes that may benefit workers. However, it contributes little to strengthening the political independence of the working class, and developing a strategy that goes beyond simply incremental reforms.

DSA should not be in the business of simply endorsing the most progressive candidate on the ballot. We should be building political relationships with candidates who share our vision, proudly identify as democratic socialists, and understand that their power comes from a movement of organized working people, not from their individual political brand.

Good piece. I do not think that Nithya Raman is a socialist, therefore I do not believe it is the business of a socialist organization to recommend her, let alone endorse her.

It loops, because it’s cursive and that’s what cursive does, but it doesn’t stay between the lines, instead climbing up, up to the end of the word. It’s Santa Monica cursive, and you can see it on the Montana Branch Library, the Camera Obscura, other places too.

But an L.A. Material review has found that is far from the full story. Organizers failed to lay basic groundwork for the festival, such as obtaining police permits for myriad events. Not a single speaker or panel was formally booked for the “State of Jazz” conference and the overall process was marred by confusion.

🎵 local 🎵 drama 🎵

The definitive oral history of Silversun Pickups’ “Lazy Eye” music video. The band, director, and actors reveal how the 2006 indie rock classic was made.

I was obsessed with this video when it first came out, so neat to see a proper interview about how it came about. We're all old millennials now.

Some honesty, please. Of course it feels good to own a car; sometimes it is even necessary to own a car, because enough people have decided that it feels good to own and drive a car.

Excellent article about Los Angeles and transit and cars and American culture. I do honestly believe that the car is an evil machine, and this country's reliance on the car is a sign of our general backwardness and social myopia. It is a wretched deal that was struck before my time but I still must deal with. Ain't that being a millennial.

I abhor the fatalistic pessimism that regards American public transit as unfixable, and I extend that to Los Angeles. But while increasing ridership through coverage and frequency is in the hands of LA Metro and funding, the broader experience of getting around is a bit more complicated. A lot of my complaints fundamentally boil down to a desire for there to be fewer cars.

The LAPD is ending its agreement with Flock Safety, a company that operates surveillance cameras throughout the city.

huzzah!

The idea is that for the average person visiting LA, using a car to exit the airport won't be necessary at all. It won't be anywhere near as convenient as Chicago, but it will be a massive improvement.

God, I can't wait until this thing opens. If it ever opens!! ha ha! public transit in America is a nightmare

Los Angeles is built on a grid much like Toronto’s. Its suburbs have a population density similar to Toronto’s, which is considerably higher than that of the suburbs of the eastern cities we tend to view as friendlier to transit. A grid of buses is an ideal transit system for a decentralized city like L.A., and the city has already built much of the rapid transit backbone the model calls for. But what Los Angeles has never had, and what turns out to be the most essential element, is the unglamourous bus frequency on which Toronto’s success actually rests.

I'll admit that as a Transit Enthusiast I am, of course, predisposed to the noble Train. But the humble Bus has advantages -- the easiest to nail of course is adaptability and usability on streets without infrastructural modification. I think this is an intriguing take! I have some concerns, especially since LA's traffic patterns make buses almost as liable to slowdown as cars (bus lanes help, of course, but can only help so much), but more regular and reliable transit is always good.

A map of the 2026 Los Angeles mayoral primary through its political geographies: Conservative LA, Liberal LA, and Left LA.

Beautiful website with some claims I find a bit presumptive but still educational. I agree with the authors that there are effectively three cities voting in LA, I am not so sure about the projected turnout in races.

None of the three front-runners I believe will be substantively different than Bass in running Los Angeles -- Raman is a compromised candidate with a spotty voting record especially on public housing, Bass is a dyed-in-the-wool conservative liberal, and Pratt is a fascist. I have no faith that Raman will not fold immediately to conservative interests, Bass already has folded to conservative interests, and Pratt... is a fascist. The biggest scam in Los Angeles' city budget remains the LAPD, and I do not believe any of the three front-runners have the power to dismantle the funding apparatus of the LAPD.

Anyway, that's my opinions. I recommend reading the piece regardless -- my commie griping aside, I do think this is a well-argued article with some really lovely data visualization work. Where I am fully in agreement with the authors is the fact that this sort of power mapping is crucial to understanding how and why LA is the way it is.

Until now, riders needed to purchase and reload a TAP card to ride Metro buses and trains. Transit officials say the new system eliminates that extra step by allowing passengers to tap a contactless credit card, debit card, smartphone or smartwatch directly at fare gates and onboard bus terminals.

Real contactless NFC payments for LA Metro! World Cup stuff notwithstanding this is a great step forward for the Metro.

The endorsements by Hernandez, Jurado and Soto-Martínez are aimed at denting left-wing support for Nithya Raman, who polls show is battling Spencer Pratt for a runoff spot against Mayor Bass.

Archive here.

Really odd moves here from some local candidates running on a DSA-LA slate. It's things like this that make me skeptical of electoral strategies by Left organizations like the DSA -- there's a worrying lack of discipline around these individuals.

I don't think that there is any guarantee of individual actions hewing to the Party line unless the Party is sufficiently fierce about discipline and political education. I'm not even a Nithya fan by any means, but this just looks sloppy and disappointing.

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