I offer you a gift link to the whole interview (and transcript if you prefer.) It’s super interesting. A little excerpt: Klein: I think attention is now to politics what people think money is to politics. Certainly at the high levels. There are places where money is very powerful, but it’s usually where people are not looking. Money is very powerful when there’s not much attention. But Donald Trump doesn’t control Republican primaries with money — he controls them with attention. I keep having to write about Musk, and I keep saying he’s the richest man in the world. But it’s actually not what matters about him right now. It’s just how he managed to get the attention and become the character and the wielder of all this attention. And that’s a changeover I think Trumpist Republicans have made, and Democrats haven’t. Democrats are still thinking about money as a fundamental substance of politics, and the Trump Republican Party thinks about attention as a fundamental substance of politics. Hayes: I really like this theory.
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Two sides of the same bitcoin… David Corn’s very skillful lede to his new piece: On Monday, the three wealthiest men in the world—Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg—are scheduled to be at the Capitol as honored guests for Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, seated where four years ago Christian nationalists, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, militia members, and other extremists, incited by his brazen lies about the 2020 election, violently attacked Congress to overturn American democracy and keep Trump in power. This transition—from brownshirts to billionaires—encapsulates what has gone wrong. It is a clear signal that the United States is broken. With the news that Trump launched that new shitcoin and has made at least $25 billion overnight, I feel very hopeless today. This is what it’s come to. Corn’s piece is very good. But gird yourself.
Gaza has become a killing field—that is the view of a well-informed Israeli veteran who was an enthusiastic supporter of the initial Israeli response to the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023. He believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the mastermind of the all-out retaliatory bombing and ground attack there, is now a contemporary Continue reading »
Despite causing widespread criticism overseas, in the 1950s under the Menzies government, Australia’s whites-only immigration policy seemed as popular as ever. Indeed the rise of Communism in the region added extra justification to the need to prevent Asians entering the country. But that was to change. Deborah Kennedy (DK): John Menadue leaves his home in Continue reading »
As negotiators from Israel and Hamas continue discussions in Qatar about a possible Gaza ceasefire, we speak with Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed, who spoke at a press conference of Gaza media workers last week urging the international press to speak up for their Palestinian colleagues. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate says nearly 200 journalists have been Continue reading »
Humanity stands at a crossroads, its future bound not to conquest but to synthesis. The world before us is not one of irreconcilable opposites locked in perpetual conflict but an intricate ecosystem of human Adaptive Systems, each defined by its strengths and vulnerabilities. In a rapidly interdependent world, Western elites must abandon the confines of Continue reading »
It’s time to rid ourselves of the concepts of disadvantage and equity and immerse ourselves in the practices of learning and knowledge like never before. I did not come from a disadvantaged family. It was however low-income, with my father working at the local milk factory and my mother working nightshift, part-time at the local Continue reading »
Worshippers of Death, They will remain such, In the annals of human history. Never forgiven, Never forgotten, For the genocide, They perpetrated! … GAZA, GAZA, GAZA I look at the photos I look at the videos I look at the explosions I look at the obliteration Dust rubble Everywhere Every image Witness to the horror Continue reading »
“Israel is a liability,” said one Palestinian-American rights advocate. As a ceasefire and hostage release deal was reportedly reached between Hamas and Israel on Wednesday, new polling made it clearer than ever that Vice President Kamala Harris‘ refusal to break with the Biden administration’s position on Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza had an impact on her support from voters, Continue reading »
Trump’s describing his ultimately abandoned pursuit of the Reform Party’s presidential nomination in 2000: Trump had inked a deal with Tony Robbins, the frighteningly upbeat motivational speaker, by which Robbins would pay Trump $1 million to give ten speeches at his seminars around the country. Crucially, Trump had timed his political stops to coincide with Robbins’ seminars, so that he was “making a lot of money” on those campaign stops. “It’s very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it,” Trump said. … That was then, this is now: I’m speechless. Tom has more below…
Climate killers head to trial, an oasis forms in an abortion desert, students score another payday, and the Golden State gets golden laws.
With the Supreme Court approving the TikTok ban, the U.S. is embracing the type of internet authoritarianism it long opposed.
The post Washington’s TikTok Ban Hypocrisy: Internet Censorship Is Good, Now appeared first on The Intercept.
As three men challenge their commutations, others brace for imminent prison transfers and the finality of a life sentence with no chance of release.
The post Biden Commuted Their Death Sentences. Now What? appeared first on The Intercept.
The justification for the TikTok ban is that it supposedly collects a ton of data.
TikTok’s data collection practices are insane. The app gather data that other apps normally consider off limits, including the content of users’ private messages, and the full contents of a user’s device contacts.
I agree, this is insane. But it isn’t unusual, and it isn’t even the worst in class.
That’s a lot of data – but it’s worth noting that TikTok does not seem to collect more data than other social media companies. A privacy researcher working with the Washington Post found that TikTok gathers less data than Facebook in some cases.
I am just heartsick over the plight of the animals lost in the LA fires. People have lost their pets and many others have nowhere to live so are having to house them at shelters. And then there is the wildlife that live in the neighborhoods and foothills that were ravaged by the firestorm. There are many groups rushing in to help, some even having to evacuate shelters in the path of the fire. 🔗 Lost and found pets: Cleo&Hooman’s lost/found spreadsheet and @eatonfirefoundlostpets are helping reunite pets with their owners. BFAS has set up a volunteer interest survey for those interested in helping. Pasadena Humane / @pasadenahumane Due to overwhelming support, Pasadena Humane has no more capacity for material donations or fosters, and has put a pause on volunteer applications, but is in need of monetary donations. L.A. Animal Services / @laanimalservices You can sign up to foster or adopt for from one of 13 city and county shelters. This will open up space for new animals.
Fossil fuel operatives are pushing Trump and state governments to buy billions of a volatile cryptocurrency, jeopardizing taxpayer dollars and the environment alike.
The worst of the worst rising to the top: Mr. Miller was influential in Mr. Trump’s first term but stands to be exponentially more so this time. He holds the positions of deputy chief of staff, with oversight of domestic policy, and homeland security adviser, which gives him range to coordinate among cabinet agencies. He will be a key legislative strategist and is expected to play an important role in crafting Mr. Trump’s speeches, as he has done since he joined the first Trump campaign in 2016. Most significantly, Mr. Miller will be in charge of Mr. Trump’s signature issue and the one that Mr. Miller has been fixated on since childhood: immigration. And he has been working, in secrecy, to oversee the team drafting the dozens of executive orders that Mr. Trump will sign after he takes office on Jan. 20. “I call Stephen ‘Trump’s brain,’” said Kevin McCarthy, the former House speaker who credited Mr. Miller — a private citizen at the time — with helping to rally Republican lawmakers to insert a sweeping border crackdown into a spending bill in 2023. In the four years since Mr. Trump has been out of office, Mr.
Cling to reality, folks. It’s all we’ve got. And the reality is that Trump is no popular, he’s an idiot and so are most of the people around him. Not that he can’t do damage, of course. But he is no colossus.