I live in Santa Monica, California and as you can imagine, the last few days have been traumatic. We are lucky to live a couple of miles from the fire zone and are not currently in any danger. But I know many people who were evacuated and some are still waiting to go back to their homes because the danger is still acute. Everyone I know knows someone whose house has burned; one of my closest friends lost everything and literally escaped with just the clothes on his back. We’re all still on alert here waiting to see if the winds pick up as predicted next week, praying that the worst is behind us. All natural disasters are frightening. I’ve been through a few earthquakes and one big hurricane. But I have to say that watching a firestorm threaten America’s second largest city right on my own doorstep is a particularly terrifying experience.
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The union believes it "may have been a targeted break-in, possibly linked to corporate espionage"
What-iffing Trump troops in the streets Donald Trump talks tough about deploying troops in the streets. Why? For the same reason he muses about “acquiring” Greenland and the Panama Canal. Trump, Alex Shepard believes, “is driven almost entirely by his desire to appear strong—or, more to the point, his fear of looking weak. This is why he picks senseless fights with smaller allies while avoiding brawls with the strongmen he so greatly admires.” Yes, Greenland may have significant resources, but as we pointed out last week, that’s not really why Trump wants it. That’s about Trump’s obsession with size (The New Republic): As is almost always the case with Trump, though, the cleanest and perhaps most persuasive explanation is the simplest and dumbest: The territory, like Canada, looks really, really big on the commonly used (and widely distorted) Mercator projection. Adding it would be a huge ego boost for a man who, hours after planes hit the Twin Towers, boasted that he now owned the tallest building in New York City.
The dead and missing aren’t all counted CNN’s landing page this morning blares: LA fires at critical stage as winds to return and death toll rises. The Washington Post: Death toll rises to 24 as region braces for return of dangerous winds The New York Times is more specific about the death toll: The Eaton fire has killed 16 people, making it one of the deadliest in California’s history, and at least eight people have died in the Palisades blaze. Another 16 people have been reported missing in the areas of the two fires, and officials have warned the number of fatalities is likely to rise. CNN has already begun profiling the lives lost: An amputee and his son with cerebral palsy were among the 24 deaths in the fires raging around Los Angeles. The father was found at his son’s bedside. One victim told a relative that he did not want to evacuate. He died trying to fight the blaze that consumed his home of more than 50 years. Another victim, an 85-year-old woman, refused to leave her home as the fast-moving Palisades Fire approached, preferring instead to stay behind with her beloved pets.
Ncuti Gatwa (Doctor Who) shines in Gatsby in Harlem, BBC Radio 3's socially-charged adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
If you’re reading this, you purchased a Snapple manufactured in July of last year. During that time, our computers were down. Since we’re not Dr. Pepper (or Diet Dr. Pepper), we have to rely on fun facts on the undersides of our bottle caps to get people to buy our products. And without computers, our writers had to come up with facts they knew to be true without the ability to fact-check them.
While all the facts printed were true, we must retract the following Snapple Facts as they are not quite interesting enough to live up to the standard we set for ourselves:
So, Trump has threatened, most of the world, including most Germany and much of Europe, with 25% tariff rates. Under Biden, with the destruction of three of the four underseas pipelines from Russia to Europe, along with sanctions, Germany in particular and Europe in general have been losing energy-price sensitive industry to America. They close down in Europe, they open up in the US. Natural gas from America is much more expensive than Russian gas.
- by Aeon Video
- by Christoph Heine
- by Cynda Hylton Rushton
Britain's 'newspaper of record' had two complaints over inaccuracy upheld against it in one day
A year in Palestine, living in fear of not just genocide — but AIDS.
The post Queer, HIV-Positive, and Running Out of Medication in Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
A year in Palestine, living in fear of not just genocide — but AIDS.
The post Queer, HIV-Positive, and Running Out of Medication in Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
Both the UK economy and the new Labour Government needs an urgent shot in the arm. Could this be the solution?
The daily nonsense that economics journalists pump out in search of sales for their newspapers is nothing new and one would think I would be inured to it by now. But I still am amazed how the same old lies are peddled when the empirical world runs counter to the narratives. I know that the…
Not these guys So the GOP California House delegation hurried to Mar-a-Lago this weekend for an audience with Dear Leader while fellow Californians were trying to get through an epic firestorm. But why not? Their constituents won’t care. It’s just a bunch of Los Angelenos. Let ’em burn. The rest of the world is not as callous: Here are some locals with more compassion than GOP leaders:
In recent weeks, political soothsayers have speculated about a wide variety of odious new policies the incoming Trump administration and its allies in Congress may or may not pursue. No one can predict with certainty which of those measures they will inflict on us and which they’ll forget about. But we can make one prediction with utter confidence. The White House and large bipartisan majorities in Congress will continue their lavish support for Israel’s war on Gaza, however catastrophic the results. Washington has supplied a large share of the armaments that have allowed the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to rain death and destruction on Gaza (not to speak of Lebanon) over the past year and a quarter. Before October... Read more
Oh my, my. Steve Bannon has declared war on Elon Musk: “I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day,” Bannon told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera this week. “He will not have a blue pass to the White House, he will not have full access to the White House, he will be like any other person.” “He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down,” Bannon added. “Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it; I’m not prepared to tolerate it anymore.” Bannon’s still beating the H-1B visas conflict, obviously banking on being able to continue his grift on the hardcore racist MAGA base. And he’s cleverly doing it by turning the racism on to the tech-bro Mafia that’s infiltrated the upper reaches of MAGA. Does he have his finger on the pulse? He said, “This thing of the H-1B visas, it’s about the entire immigration system is gamed by the tech overlords, they use it to their advantage, the people are furious. No blacks or Hispanics have any of these jobs or any access to these jobs.