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Created
Wed, 19/02/2025 - 02:00

In the 2020 disaster movie Greenland, the hero John Garrity (played by Gerard Butler), his wife (Morena Baccarin), and their young son are in a truck driving north from the United States into Canada. We hear on the radio an announcement from NASA: A nine-mile-wide fragment larger than the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs will […]

The post From Comedy to Brutality appeared first on The New York Review of Books.

Created
Wed, 19/02/2025 - 01:40

In early January, Donald Trump Jr.’s private plane landed on a snowy airfield in Greenland. There was little fanfare upon his arrival, but his 14 million social-media fans were certainly tagging along. “Greenland coming in hot…well, actually really really cold!!!” President Trump’s eldest son captioned a video he posted on X. It was shot from the cockpit of the plane, where a “Trumpinator” bobblehead (a figurine of his father as the Terminator) rattled on the aircraft’s dashboard as it descended over icy blue seas. It was a stunt of MAGA proportions. Don Jr. was arriving in Greenland on behalf of his father who, along with his new buddy Elon Musk, had announced a desire to seize that vast Arctic landmass... Read more

Source: The Heart (or Graphite) of Greed appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Created
Tue, 18/02/2025 - 23:00

Good Evening, Burkwood Hills Families—

Due to expected inclement weather, the Burkwood Hills school district is moving to a Flexible Instruction Day (FID) tomorrow. All students should log in virtually for instruction and follow their typical daily schedule. And by “typical daily schedule,” we mean an absolute clusterfuck of pleading and consequence-threatening to get your kids to do literally any of their required work while you also somehow do your job from home. You will break down emotionally and spiritually multiple times throughout the day and annoy everyone in your family.

Scheduled activities will include playing Twister with the cats in a pile of Magna-Tiles, crying, throwing half-eaten Uncrustables at the kitchen window, running manically through the house in pajamas, watching TV, more crying, and eating a gross ton of Z-Bars.

Created
Tue, 18/02/2025 - 22:33
Understanding Canadians Reaction To Trump’s Threats

Most Americans don’t understand why Canadians are so angry about Trump’s actions and his talks of annexation.

I think hockey illustrates it well. Back in 2014 the American anthem singer’s mic failed at a hockey game. Canadians finished the song:

Just recently, fans at a Montreal game booed the anthem.

Here’s the thing: ordinary Canadians thought that America was Canada’s friend. They really believed this.

Thus, hearing Trump’s threats and seeing how many Americans back them and how they deride and insult Canada, they feel betrayed.

Created
Tue, 18/02/2025 - 22:00

In All Manners of Food: Eating and Taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to the Present, the sociologist Stephen Mennell disseminated the determination of good taste. Describing the opacity by which culinary class is arrived at, from established tourist manuals to Michelin guides, Mennell describes how judgements are created without engagement or […]

Created
Tue, 18/02/2025 - 13:00
I was unhappy earlier today about all the media attention to some Arizona voters who told a focus group that they think Donald Trump is just dreamy. It’s the same old same old form the media who are once again working feverishly to pump up Trump’s popularity. But Philip Bump at the Washington Post had some interesting information that indicates that an Arizona focus group may not have its finger on the pulse: YouGov measures the popularity of past presidents among all Americans. And a pair of professors conducts a survey asking members of the American Political Science Association to evaluate presidential “greatness.” At the upper end of the spectrum, there’s general agreement. Abraham Lincoln is the most positively viewed president among both groups. George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt are near the top as well. There’s some deviation on John F. Kennedy, who’s third on YouGov’s list and 10th among the presidential scholars. But that deviation is nothing compared with what happens at the other end of the spectrum. The worst-performing past president among the general public is James K.