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“Now I become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” — J. Robert Oppenheimer, on witnessing the first detonation of a nuclear weapon.

What have I, J. Robert Oppenheimer, done? The deadliest weapon in history was made by my hand, leaving me the terrible responsibility to build a quote of equal magnitude, a remark just as horrifying and enduring, a soundbite so pretentious it almost eclipses what I did in the first place.

No one man should wield that much power. Yet still, I found myself experimenting with verbs in places no man has ever put them, constructing previously untested sentence structures, blissfully ignorant of what their irreversible consequences would be.

Now, decades of historical fiction epigraphs will carry the weight of my actions. Entire English departments will be brought to their knees by my words.

I don’t sleep anymore. Every night, I am gripped by the same question: “When my life is over, how will my name ring out in the annals of BrainyQuote.com?”

In the second part of its three-year investigation, Byline Times examines the professional conduct of the TV presenter when he was a leading editor at Rupert Murdoch’s powerful British tabloid

Think back 10 years and imagine what you would have thought if you saw this conversation on CNN: Advisors to former President Donald Trump have told him the only way he can avoid facing jail time is to win the 2024 presidential election, according to sources who’ve spoken to New York TimesNYT -2% reporter Maggie Haberman. “His advisors, in private conversations, have been pretty blunt,” Haberman said Wednesday on CNN This Morning. “They see it as he has to win the election and that is how he guarantees that he does not face jail time.” “The fact that they are looking to an election to the highest office in the land as some kind of insurance policy or an out for him really affects or colors the entire presidential race,” Haberman said. Good lord. And his followers call themselves patriots.

Sierra Club workers are taking a stand for environmental justice and solidarity with Palestinians in the face of the Sierra Club’s controversial apartheid tours to Israel.

The post Sierra Club Workers Challenge Leadership’s Greenwashing ‘Apartheid Tours’ appeared first on MintPress News.

Policy Exchange, Institute for Economic Affairs, Global Warming Policy Foundation and co refuse to name their donors. But Peter Geoghegan has found recently published US tax documents that reveal important new details about who funds these secretive think tanks

Trauma, bleeding, trickery and abandonment Unintended consequences ain’t necessarily unforseen consequences. Just yesterday, a friend mentioned fallout from a GOP effort in North Carolina to change how school board members are elected. The change would in theory make it easier to elect Republicans either by making the elections partisan or (in my county) by redrawing school district lines. Try explaining the latter to kids who suddenly find themselves assigned to different schools. Partisan-inspired chaos ensues. Fallout from the Dobbs decision was not unforseen either. GOP-led states are rushing to ban abortion. Women’s lives are put at risk. In Texas, for example (The New Republic): Women who suffered medical complications after being denied abortions in Texas are now having to relive the trauma of their injuries and dead babies as they plead their case against the state. Welcome to the Republican Party’s America. On Wednesday, women who are part of a 15-person (both patients and doctors) lawsuit against the state of Texas, returned back to court to challenge the state’s extreme abortion ban.

In October 2022, the far-right politician Giorgia Meloni became Italy’s first female prime minister. Her party, Fratelli d’Italia, campaigned under the same logo––a red, white…

Tories are using "fake" local newspapers in all three by-elections

Watching last night’s debate in the House of Lords was a disappointing experience as peers failed to protect the privacy of the 40 million British people who use private chat service. It was the final session of Report Stage in the House of Lords, and the last chance for the Online Safety Bill to be […]

Seeking news coverage about the Adriana, the boat crowded with some 700 people migrating to Europe to seek a better life that sank in mid-June off the coast of Greece, I googled “migrant ship” and got 483,000 search results in one second. Most of the people aboard the Adriana had drowned in the Mediterranean, among them about 100 children. I did a similar search for the Titan submersible which disappeared the same week in the North Atlantic. That kludged-together pseudo-submarine was taking four wealthy men and the 19-year-old son of one of them to view the ruins of the famed passenger ship, the Titanic. They all died when the Titan imploded shortly after it dove. That Google search came up... Read more

Source: Migration and the Shadow of War appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

by Daniel Wortel-London

A chapter in the U.S. Code entitled “Statements to accompany significant regulatory actions” contains a critical directive. It declares that any notice of proposed rulemaking by a federal agency that may result in expenditures of $100,000,000 or more must be accompanied by an estimate of that rule’s effect on economic growth.

Take out your editor’s pen. Imagine amending this code by replacing “economic growth” with “economic stability.” How might this simple change transform the purpose and operation of federal laws?

Efforts to target minority voters as early as June 2020 “Jack Smith is going to accuse Donald Trump of voting fraud,” Marcy Wheeler wrote Wednesday. The Department of Justice investigation into Donald Trump’s election-related crimes churns slowly. But it does churn. Trump has been named as a target of the investigation into election interference in 2020. Not by Russians as in 2016, but by Americans. Lots of them (Washington Post): Trump disclosed on Tuesday he had been named as a target in special counsel Jack Smith’s probe of election interference. Hours later, the attorney general of Michigan announced she had issued forgery charges against 16 Trump supporters who had posed as the state’s presidential electors. A county prosecutor in Georgia is preparing to present a sweeping case to a grand jury, with indictments possible within weeks. And the attorney general of Arizona in recent months has ramped up a probe into attempts to undermine the 2020 results in that state.

Davros is playing a twisted game in the trailer for Big Finish's Sylvester McCoy-starring Doctor Who - Once and Future: A Genius for War.

On the fallout from Isaac Herzog's visit to Washington and the pathetic display of apartheid apologetics borne of a single congresswoman's bravery to dare call Israel what it is: a racist state.

The post Isaac Herzog’s Visit to Congress: A Showcase of Apartheid Apologetics appeared first on MintPress News.

The restoration of power to people, the Arab spring, peaceful regime change, the Arab spring 2.0 or whatever might be the new nomenclature used or the latest twitter hashtags introduced, this transcendental need for a genuine experience of liberation continues to find its meaningful impulse in the life and writings of Frantz Fanon. The psychiatrist […]

A spokesperson for the Covid Inquiry told Byline Times they still did not know when they would be given access to the messages on the former Prime Minister's phone

Well, registered voters of Bradford County. It’s been quite a ride. As my one and only term as transportation commissioner comes to an end, I can’t help but look back and wonder: Where did it all go wrong?

Losing this election by the biggest voting margin in our state’s history will not tarnish everything I’ve accomplished. A new five-year transportation improvement plan, a revision of the subdivision staging policy, and yes, one unfortunate late-night visit to a twenty-four-hour CVS Pharmacy.

To my 219 loyal supporters, give or take a few mail-in voters yet to be counted, I thank you. And to all the rest of you, let me say again that, yes, I did stuff my penis into that blood pressure cuff. But let me reiterate: it was not a sex thing.

Nor was I drunk or on any narcotics. I simply wanted to see what it would feel like.

It was 2:00 a.m. I made absolutely sure there were no other customers in the store. All I wanted to do was insert “myself” into the medical device, receive a quick squeeze, and a “How’s the family?” then I’d purchase a pint of Chunky Monkey and be on my way. Where’s the harm in that?

In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: SDCC 2023, Star Trek/Kate Mulgrew, Venture Bros., Buffy/Lynskey, Doctor Who, Invincible, DeSantis/CNN & more!

Open Rights Group has responded to last night’s debate on the Online Safety Bill in the House of Lords. Dr Monica Horten, policy manager for freedom of expression at Open Rights Group, said: “It is disappointing that peers have failed to protect the privacy and security of the 40 million people in the UK who […]

The cost of getting British citizenship will rise from £1,330 to at least £1,596.

Can an argument for democracy be based on a mathematical theorem? From Plato’s tyrants to Condorcet’s ‘jury theorem’

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

It took a tremendous effort to distinguish early Christianity from the finely tuned world of pagan beliefs and rituals

- by Martha Rampton

Read at Aeon