Reading
Now that we’ve had a chance to catch our breath a little bit and get through the grieving process over last Tuesday’s election, the inevitable recriminations have begun in earnest. Social media is awash with accusations against the Biden administration, the Harris campaign, the left, the right and everything in between. The Democrats are out of touch with Real America, they don’t know how to talk to Latinos, men, young voters, anyone really except college educated women. Was it an expression of deep desire for fascism, misogyny and racism or a simple admiration for the reality show ringmaster who tells them what they want to hear? I suspect we will spend many years dissecting what happened that put Donald Trump back inthe White House this year. There is no doubt a kernal of truth in much of what people are saying. Any losing team has to look at their game plan and question where they went wrong.
The re-elected President’s backers believe democracy is finished – the fight to save it must transform it
One of my favorite metasciences lines is: “Does anyone look around and say…things are going great, I just think we need MORE PAPERS?” Obviously, we all want more scientific progress, better evidence, broader scope — but I don’t think that this is best accomplished by churning out more of these fancy peer-reviewed pdfs. Indeed, our systems […]
“Resentment against elites proved to be deeper and more profound than many in both parties had recognized.” — NYT
“Many other billionaires and industry titans have thrown their support behind Trump. Now, some could be in the running for cabinet posts, while others may wield influence behind the scenes.” — USA Today
- - -
At long last, the privileged elites have been defeated. And by who? The perfect heroes, of course. The ultimate anti-elites. The champions of the average worker. The most relatable folks on the planet: the billionaires.
Finally, the out-of-touch vision of the ruling class has been thwarted by a handful of the world’s wealthiest people who plan to make even more money off the suffering of the poor and disenfranchised. Take that, aristocrats!
A marketing problem? Really? “There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them,” closed out each episode of a police procedural from the mid-twentieth century. It also approximates the hot takes this week and in coming months on why Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential election to a fascism-curious, [your list of Donald Trump’s crimes and character flaws here], in obvious mental decline, etc. The world now faces a period of disruption to rival post-September 11 wars, the Great Recession, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a fresh land war in Europe. And maybe worse. The twenty-first century has been nothing if not disruption. Trump fosters it. He keeps rivals off balance with it and blames Others for it. MAGA finds its scapegoats primarily among immigrants but doesn’t limit itself to them. Where pundits find theirs for what happened on Tuesday confounds me. As after Donald Trump’s first election in 2016, the usual suspects will fall back on their usual simplistic answers. Remember “economic anxiety“?
I’m delighted to announce a plethora of new shows for May 2025 with the brilliant Henry Normal. We’re be coming to BIRMINGHAM, CAMBRIDGE, HARROGATE, LANCASTER, LIVERPOOL, LONDON, MANCHESTER, MELTON MOWBRAY, NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME, NORTHAMPTON, STOCKTON-ON-TEES and WHITLEY BAY. Tickets have gone on sale today. As previously announced, we’ll also be reading poems in ASHFORD, BURNLEY, CARDIFF, HALIFAX,…
Horrifying testimony of scenes in a detention center for Palestinians appear to constitute an unprecedented public admission of torture by Israeli forces. The testimony was delivered by an Israeli reporter who served as an intel officer after October 7. A well-known Israeli journalist and former soldier has offered the first apparent acknowledgement of wide-scale torture by his country’s military, describing “masses” of Palestinians who were left “lying… in handcuffs” while subjected to never-ending Israeli music at the Hakirya military compound. […]
The post ‘House of horrors’: Israeli journalist-turned-intel officer confirms widescale torture of Palestinians first appeared on The Grayzone.
The post ‘House of horrors’: Israeli journalist-turned-intel officer confirms widescale torture of Palestinians appeared first on The Grayzone.
The kidnapping of Lebanese sea captain Imad Amhaz by Israeli forces has prompted Beirut to seek answers, with questions mounting over whether Germany quietly supported or overlooked the operation.
The post How Did Israeli Forces Slip Through? Officials in Lebanon Question German Role in Kidnapping Raid appeared first on MintPress News.
Arizona voted to grant state and local police the authority to make immigration arrests, going against Supreme Court precedent.
The post The Looming Fight to Make Local Cops Part of Trump’s Deportation Machine appeared first on The Intercept.
Arizona voted to grant state and local police the authority to make immigration arrests, going against Supreme Court precedent.
The post The Looming Fight to Make Local Cops Part of Trump’s Deportation Machine appeared first on The Intercept.
What Kwame Dawes does in Sturge Town, his far-reaching new collection, is what he’s done book after book: create worlds in a music, and a music for the fleeting world. The first of five sections in the collection is “ … the rapid softening of light …” and then “ … all of light’s fruitfulness …”, which is followed by “ … slowly, from shadow to light …” and “ … I close my eyes to push / away the darting lights,” before the final section: “… Build me a house of light …” —and so the section titles themselves write a kind of tone poem, ending in a prayer for a house, a home. There are eighty-six poems in the book. Music is everywhere, poems like “Night Music,” or the poem called “Recall” with its traces of the reggae vibe that fuels the poet’s poetics, “Reggae’s insinuating bass,” he writes, which “cleaves to my bloodline.”
L’expression “l’ascenseur social est en panne” désigne le déclin de la mobilité sociale, autrement dit, la capacité d’un individu à s’élever au sein de l’échelle sociale grâce à ses efforts et ses compétences. Ce phénomène, autrefois encouragé par l’éducation et le marché du travail, semble aujourd’hui compromis pour une grande partie de la population. En […]
It is a gloomy moment in American history. Kamala Harris has lost the election. Donald Trump and his radical right-wing henchman will soon be the most powerful people on earth. Still, we Democrats can rest easy, knowing that we did a few of the things in our power to stop them.
Hey, “a few things” is a lot more things than we normally do. What exactly did you expect from us here? Iconic media moments? A clear vision for the future? This is the 2024 Democratic Party, pal. The best you’re going to get is the worst debate performance by a standing president of all time and a few shifts to the right on immigration.
Honestly, you should be happy with the mildly effective machine we’ve turned the party into. Back in 2016, we just assumed our candidate was a lock and straight up didn’t give a shit about campaigning in the swing states. This time around? We assumed Trump would eventually self-implode, so we figured we could coast on through with a rapidly aging candidate. I, for one, will find solace in that level of effort as Trump sends out federal agencies to terrorize me.
After 80 years, Polish-Jewish lawyer
Raphael Lemkin’s idea is more relevant than ever
A long awaited plan for ME and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sufferers is due to be published this winter.
- by Psyche Film
Kids in Gaza have been without school for 13 months. Parents are looking to out-of-work teachers and volunteers to fill in the gaps.
The post With Gaza’s Education System in Ruins, Parents Take Matters Into Their Own Hands appeared first on The Intercept.
- by Kirk Schneider