Reading

Created
Thu, 12/09/2024 - 23:00

Gabe Hudson was a remarkable writer and reader, who showered those around him with care and affection. He worked tirelessly to uplift other writers, to help them believe in themselves and the value of their work. For many, he was a beacon, an inspiration, the consummate literary citizen. After he tragically passed away, due to complications related to undiagnosed diabetes, his mother, Sanchia Semere, endowed a new award in his honor. Each year, on Gabe’s birthday, September 12, the Gabe Hudson Award will be given to a writer who has just completed their second book-length work of fiction, and who embodies the spirit of humor and generosity that Gabe and his work did.

We are thrilled to announce that the winner of the first-ever Gabe Hudson Award is Ayana Mathis for her new novel, The Unsettled.

Created
Thu, 12/09/2024 - 22:19

On September 12, 2024—the birthday of the late writer Gabe Hudson—McSweeney’s is honored to announce the winner of the inaugural Gabe Hudson Prize. After Gabe’s sudden passing from complications due to undiagnosed diabetes in November 2023, his mother, Sanchia Semere, made a generous gift to McSweeney’s to establish a prize fund. On September 12, McSweeney will confer the Gabe Hudson Prize, which honors a fiction writer’s second book, published in the United States the year prior, and includes a $10,000 cash award.

The 2024 Gabe Hudson Prize winner is Ayana Mathis for her novel The Unsettled (Knopf, 2023). The Unsettled was also named a New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book of 2023, a Best of 2023 by the New Yorker, Publisher’s Weekly, an Oprah Daily Best Novels of 2023, and a Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2023. The novel was a finalist for the 2024 Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. The New York Times calls it “Poignant, heartbreaking."

Created
Thu, 12/09/2024 - 22:00

“In Tuesday’s presidential debate, former President Donald Trump again falsely claimed that Democrats support abortions ‘after birth’ and ‘executing’ babies.” — NPR, 9/11/24

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Concrete Shoe Baby Booties
The little tyke can go either to the top of your expense list or to the bottom of the Hudson.

The Wicker Man Bee Helmet
If someone asks how your abortion was carried out, tell ’em it’s none of their bees-ness.

Baby Plinko
The baby is dropped into a special Price Is Right Plinko machine, where it wins $10,000 or lands on a cobra.

Stone Cold Stunner
For a few extra bucks, Stone Cold will pour a beer on your baby and give it a double bird salute.

Dagger Mobile
It’s just like any other mobile, until the timer goes off.

Created
Thu, 12/09/2024 - 18:45
Source The Gini Index quantifies the wealth disparity between the richest and the poorest members of a society. A score of 100 represents perfect inequality. In the 1960s and 1970s Sweden was world-famous for its welfare state and equality. Since then income and wealth disparities have steadily increased. The development in Sweden over four decades […]
Created
Thu, 12/09/2024 - 14:43
On Tuesday (September 10, 2024), the UK House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee released their first report for the Session 2024-25 (HL Paper 5) – National debt: it’s time for tough decisions – which was the result of their decision to hold an inquiry – How sustainable is our national debt? – into whether “UK’s…
Created
Thu, 12/09/2024 - 13:07
The Conditions For Breakthrough Societal Power

Societies become breakthrough powerful under fairly specific historical conditions.

Competition in a concentrated area.

This covers most breakthrough shifts. Let’s give some examples.

Europe

A large number of kingdoms and republics, in constant competition. If you didn’t advance militarily, culturally (administration and culture matter) and technologically, you were in trouble. As administration improved and military technology changed to favor “despotic kings” like Louis XIV and Henry the VIIth (a very underrated King), decentralized and smaller power, internal (nobles) and external were brought under control. Constant warfare and other forms of competition lead to rapid advancement.

Created
Thu, 12/09/2024 - 11:00
JV Last at the Bulwark asks the right question: What will it say about America if Trump’s numbers don’t drop over the next week? We have had every chance to reject Donald Trump. We saw him mishandle a crisis, resulting in an economic collapse and hundreds of thousands of excess deaths. We saw him attempt a violent coup. When voters said, “I don’t love Trump, but that other candidate is super old . . .” Democrats went and swapped out Joe Biden for Kamala Harris. Harris has been a good candidate. She has run as a rock-solid moderate. She just curb-stomped Trump in front of tens of millions of voters. What else do people want? I’m serious about this: What else could Harris possibly do? Because it looks to me like she’s an above-average candidate, running in a good economic environment, playing near-perfect baseball against a guy who says he wants to be a dictator. And the response of the American people is: Harris +1.1. What happens if, a week after last night’s demonstration, this race is still a toss-up? What does that tell us about the long-term viability of American democracy?
Created
Thu, 12/09/2024 - 10:30
The Deep State Is Scared

Say whatever you want about Trump, and I will agree. Got that? Okay, good.

When I saw that Dick Cheney–the fastigium of the Deep State–endorse Kamala Harris I was speechless.

I had wondered for a long time if Liz Cheney was Dick’s cat’s-paw, but now I’m just gobsmacked. The Deep State is truly scared of a Trump 2.0 and they have clearly mobilized every asset they have to make sure our managed reality stays properly managed. At least, managed ccording to Deep State preferences. After last night Harris confirmed that Uncle Joe’s foreign policy will remain unchanged. I expect that she’ll be allowed to manage a few pet projects on the margins, but do not expect any adults to attend to her foreign policy.

I don’t necessarily dislike managed reality. I’ve seen direct reality and experienced a bit of it myself and it ain’t all its cracked up to be. I’d just like better managers.

Created
Thu, 12/09/2024 - 10:00
(I am re-posting this piece from 2016, in commemoration of 9/11) No Words (Originally posted at Den of Cinema on September 11, 2016) I don’t get out much. In 60 years, I’ve yet to travel anywhere more exotic than Canada. That’s me…born to be mild. Oddly enough, however, I  was “out of the country”  on September 11, 2001. OK, it was Canada. I was enjoying a 3-day getaway at Harrison Hot Springs, a beautiful Alpine setting in British Columbia. I was booked to check out of the hotel on Tuesday, September 11th. I woke up around 9am that morning, figuring I had enough time to grab breakfast and one more refreshing soak in one of the resort’s natural springs-fed outdoor pools before hitting the road for the 3-hour drive back to Seattle. I was feeling relaxed and rejuvenated. Then I switched on CNN. Holy fuck. Was this really happening? I actually did not understand what I was watching for several minutes. It was surreal. It was especially discombobulating to be out-of-country at the very moment the United States of America appeared to be under attack. My first impulse was just to get back to the U.S.A.