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Part One: The Kidz

Dana Wilkinson, Kidz Bop Producer: People don’t remember this, but there was a draft in the early 2000s. We’d show up at some third-grader’s door, and they could only bring one duffle bag and a handful of their homeland’s soil with them. We called them the Kidz Korp.

Eileen Atwater, Kidz Bop Kid: The Kidz Korp was run by Irving “Big Irv” Schopenhauer, who was a studio exec from the 1940s.

Harry Collins, Kidz Bop Kid: Big Irv was strict but fair. We could only eat cat food and cigarettes, but we could have all the cat food and cigarettes we wanted.

Mike “Fancy Feast” Lewis, Kidz Bop Kid [archival interview]: We all ate the cat food. I don’t know why I’m the only one who got the nickname Fancy Feast… I’ll die a happy man if no one ever calls me Fancy Feast again.

[Ed. note: Mike “Fancy Feast” Lewis was killed in 2014 when his tanning bed fused shut and burst into flames.]

Harry Collins: Fancy Feast said that? Crazy.

Donald Trump's decision to freeze all foreign aid opens the door for Britain to re-exert it's own position on the world stage, argues Francis Shin

A lifetime of pleasure and pain, beauty and misery, collapsed into a single scene in this sprawling animated artwork

- by Psyche Film

Watch at Psyche

Trump’s recent executive orders show unwavering support of Israel and the further dehumanization of Palestinians.

The post Trump’s Nightmare Plan for Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.

Humans always end up with clogged arteries, right? That’s not what the lives of the Tsimane in the Amazon basin tell us

- by Ben Daitz

Read at Aeon

The founder of Mothers Against College Antisemitism says her 62,000-member Facebook group is influencing NYU policy.

The post A Well-Connected NYU Parent Is Trying to Get Students Deported appeared first on The Intercept.

Let this be the moment we look forward to a brighter future at the heart of Europe, argues Green MP Ellie Chowns

Li Andersson is not like most other left-wing politicians. She is young, personable, charismatic, and very down to earth. She’s also pretty good at winning elections. I met Andersson at Käänne Festival — a conference she organised to bring the left together in the wake of a strong performance in the recent European Parliament elections. […]

(Hi all, wonderful to become part of this great blog! But now, directly on to some content!) Imagine that you have a toothache, and a visit at the dentist reveals that a major operation is needed. You phone your health insurance. You listen to the voice of the chatbot, press the buttons to go through […]

Devastation across Gaza as Palestinians return to rebuild makeshift homes. Craig Murray witnesses devastation in Lebanon that shows Israel plans to make more land inhabitable. Owen Jones points out that the world is turned on its head. At home, Peter Cronau calls for interrupters to scrutinise the platforms of Peter Dutton. There has never been Continue reading »

The environmental agency just scrubbed most mentions of the global crisis from its online presence.

Not happy and for good reason: Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, has reportedly been criticised by some of the party’s state governors for not resisting Donald Trump’s agenda and cabinet nominees strongly enough. The exchange took place in a conference between Schumer and six Democratic governors that laid bare differences within the party over how to counteract a seemingly rampant Trump as he wreaks upheaval across the political landscape with an avalanche of executive orders, the New York Times reported. The governors, led by JB Pritzker of Illinois and Maura Healey of Massachusetts, pleaded with Schumer to slow down the confirmation of Trump’s cabinet by persuading fellow senators to vote against his nominees wherever possible. They said the party needed to generate more public opposition than senators had managed in the chamber so far. The appeal came in the week the Senate is meeting to confirm two of Trump’s most contentious cabinet picks, Robert F Kennedy Jr, as health and human services secretary, and Tulsi Gabbard, for the role of national intelligence director.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

“… meaning the lumber” Bloomberg is reporting that he’s going with the 25% tariffs. I haven’t seen that confirmed anywhere else. But it’s certainly causing trouble already: Trump’s 25% Tariff Vows Send Canada, Mexico FX Tumbling President Donald Trump’s renewed pledges to slap 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico on Feb. 1 jolted foreign exchange markets late in the New York trading session, sending currencies from both countries plunging against the US dollar. The Mexican peso slid 1.1% and Canada’s dollar fell as much as 1.2% after Trump told reporters at the White House he would follow through on trade restrictions, which he’d vowed during his inauguration, on Saturday. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index erased an early loss to gain as much as 0.2%. All because he’s mad that they haven’t properly licked his boots. Enjoy your guacamole today because it’s going to be unaffordable before long.