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(Again?) I’m unclear about the unique national security risk Washington believes Tik Tok to be. The questioning from members of congress last week showed they are clueless about social media so I’m not convinced. (Emptywheel has some thoughts on that question.) Be that as it may, I am very sure of the political risk that banning tik-tok will bring to the Democratic Party and I don’t know if these people are savvy enough to realize it. This article spells it out: For Chris Mowrey, a TikTok creator who posts popular videos focused on politics, the app represents more than just a platform: It provides a sense of community for his generation, connecting like-minded users and motivating them to take action. TikTok had a “massive influence on young people getting out to vote” in the 2022 midterm elections, Mowrey argued to me in an interview, particularly for those Democratic-leaning voters who may have felt isolated in a red state or area.

David Brooks

Though you live in Connecticut, you consider yourself a great admirer and friend of those who live in the Heartland, because every summer you eat at least one ear of corn. You claim to love listening to baseball on the radio, but you haven’t done so in years.

Paul Krugman

You call anyone with a PhD “professor.” After a recent trip to Italy, you decided to keep a few euros in your wallet as a reminder of the global economy’s complicated majesty. When your spouse asks you to organize your books, you laugh and take it as a compliment, but it’s started causing pretty serious turmoil.

Maureen Dowd

Instead of your usual white wine, you’ve recently started ordering champagne during work lunches, and honestly, everybody’s pretty okay with it. Against all odds, you like knitting now.

This kind of thing is nothing new for the forced childbirth crowd. But it’s even more reprehensible in the wake of Dobbs as desperate women from other states are having to travel long distances to obtain an abortion: Florida regulators over the last year punished more than a dozen abortion providers for violating a nearly decade-old law that requires pregnant patients wait 24 hours before getting the procedure. Florida legislators approved the law in 2015, but it remained in limbo after the American Civil Liberties Union challenged it. After a judge upheld the law in April, Florida’s abortion regulator, the Agency for Health Care Administration, almost immediately began issuing fines. Abortion-rights advocates say providers were given little chance to prepare for the law, which requires patients to wait 24 hours between clinic visits. In some instances, clinics were not in compliance with the “24 hour” law because of paperwork issues or computer problems. Florida has become a hub for abortions since the fall of Roe v.

"The bailout really did protect billionaires from taking a modest haircut."

US policy takes a hit in the Middle East.

The politics of loud and obnoxious Jamelle Bouie turns a phrase that distills the loud-and-belligerant’s approach to politics: the heckler’s veto. From Clear Skies to Healthy Forests and beyond, American conservatives have displayed a knack for couching objectionable legislation in unobjectionable terms. When Democrats were 19th-century America’s conservative party, they framed their defense of slavery as “states’ rights” — “pro-slavery” being too gauche even for Southern slave owners. MAGA Republicans’ 21st-century enthusiasm is for “parents’ rights,” a catchall for “pro-book-banning,” “pro-censorship,” and “pro-discrimination.” Particularly in Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Florida-based, freedom-frosted fascism incubator. Envious GOP governors in Texas and Virginia nip at his heels. Bouie explains: The reality of the “parents’ rights” movement is that it is meant to empower a conservative and reactionary minority of parents to dictate education and curriculums to the rest of the community.

Per person, the ECHR dealt with fewer human rights challenges concerning the UK than anywhere else in 2022, Josiah Mortimer reports

After being blacklisted as "anti-Semitic," Roger Waters has embarked upon a legal battle against German authorities over his support for BDS, criticism of the Israeli government and support for the Palestinian people.

The post Roger Waters V. the Machine: Inside the Pink Floyd Frontman’s Battle For Free Speech in Germany appeared first on MintPress News.

In a recent essay titled “What Economists (Including Me) Got Wrong About Globalization,” adapted from a forthcoming book on inequality, Krugman writes that he and other mainstream economists “missed a crucial part of the story” in failing to realize that globalization would lead to “hyperglobalization” and huge economic and social upheaval, particularly of the industrial […]

Almost four years ago, I became a Labour councillor in Leicester, serving my home ward of Stoneygate. My experiences have evidenced how unwelcoming and closed off the party is for young people, people of colour, and women—certainly if you dare to speak your mind. This was reaffirmed to me last week when the party barred […]

On a day of shame for the Labour party, a few stood firm – while some unions betrayed the movement. In last night’s PLP meeting, only Barry Gardiner spoke up for Corbyn at Labour’s parliamentary meeting As Skwawkbox reported earlier, the Starmerite – and Stalinist – drones on Labour’s national executive (NEC) have voted to […]

If this geopolitical shift continues, the world will, once again, find itself divided into camps. While it is too early to determine, with any degree of certainty, the winners and losers of this new configuration, it is almost certain that a US-western-dominated world is no longer possible. 

The post Xi’s ‘Chilling’ Remarks: What the New Multipolar World Means for the Middle East and Africa appeared first on MintPress News.

Came across this tweet about the Philadelphia water spillage the other day:

Some wars acquire names that stick. The Lancaster and York clans fought the War of the Roses from 1455-1485 to claim the British throne. The Hundred Years’ War pitted England against France from 1337-1453. In the Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648, many European countries clashed, while Britain and France waged the Seven Years’ War, 1756-63, across significant parts of the globe. World War I (1914-1918) gained the lofty moniker, “The Great War,” even though World II (1939-1945) would prove far greater in death, destruction, and its grim global reach.   Of the catchier conflict names, my own favorite — though the Pig War of 1859 between the U.S. and Great Britain in Canada runs a close second — is the War... Read more

Source: The War of Surprises in Ukraine appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Now tolerating “pure evil” is How long before carnival shooting galleries replace little yellow ducks with cutouts of schoolchildren? Would anyone notice? Would anyone take offense? First news reports Monday said the Nashville elementary school shooter was a woman. All the rest was familiar. All too familiar. Read the gory details elsewhere. What stood out in the aftermath more than the gender identity of the shooter was the exasperated reaction of one Nashville tourist, Ashbey Beasley: “It’s only in America can somebody survive a mass shooting and then go on vacation…and find themselves near another mass shooting.” “That is a thing that happens now in our country,” MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow told viewers Monday night. “Gun murders are in fact so common in this country that the shooter in one attack can shoot and kill 11 people [and] drive to a nearby parking lot to kill himself at the site of where another mass shooting had occurred just a few years prior.” Beasley’s preliminary assumptions about the shooter appear incorrect, but so are many early reports about these events.

NEC vote is another chapter of shame The Starmer-run Labour party has voted 22-12 to ban Jeremy Corbyn permanently from standing as a Labour candidate. Starmer’s disgusting betrayal of the man he once opportunistically said had been unfairly smeared is complete. The vote tally suggests that reports of dodgy deals behind the scenes with some […]

Through my work at the Global University for Sustainability, I have come to know Professor Wen Tiejun. He provides a key analysis of the ten crises China has endured. I highly recommend his book to you (PDF), kindly donated to the reform community as an open access book.  There are 10 lectures that accompany the Continue Reading

The post Introducing China’s Leading Economist first appeared on Michael Hudson.

UK police forces are under scrutiny for their lack of transparency regarding the use of harmful technologies known to exacerbate racist policing

“France is protesting against Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the retirement age. After months of strikes and protests, tension reached its peak on Thursday, with some violent outbursts in Paris that brought back memories from the months-long Yellow Jacket movement.” —Politico

Emily’s big product launch at Gabriel’s Chez Laveau bistro is nearly ruined when tear gas completely spoils the vibe—and the leg of lamb. Luckily, she has a plan: diners post selfies of their involuntary tears with the hashtag #sogoodicried. Emily’s eyebrows perfectly offset her smeared Dior mascara. Her post gets 6.2 million likes, including from President Macron himself.

The problem with the likely indictment of Donald Trump is that his offense is a metafiction. It is a story about a story. None of the main plot points—which are expected to lead to Trump becoming the first former or sitting US president ever to be charged with a crime—relate to what actually happened on […]

The post Bump and Grind appeared first on The New York Review of Books.

Former Labour leader turns on successor – who had stood up for Miliband’s father against disgusting smears in right wing press Former Labour leader Ed Miliband said during a radio interview today that he backs Keir Starmer’s decision to bar Jeremy Corbyn standing as a Labour candidate, supposedly because of ‘antisemitism’. In 2013, when Miliband […]

Over 150 journalists have been assassinated in Mexico since 2000. Behind the killings is a nexus of corruption and violence that links organized crime, police, and government.

The post Chris Hedges Report: How Mexico’s Epidemic of Murdered Journalists is an Ominous Warning to the Press Everywhere appeared first on scheerpost.com.

The U.S. celebrates the charges against Putin, but pressures the ICC to refrain from prosecuting Israelis and Americans.

The post ICC Charges Putin With War Crimes While US and Israeli Leaders Enjoy Impunity appeared first on scheerpost.com.