Reading

I was a doubter about Xi. His early anti-corruption drive seemed most likely to be a way to purge the Party of his enemies, and I assumed he was driven primarily by ambition for personal power.

I was wrong.

If you want to join the CCP, you have to be accepted. It isn’t automatic. Once accepted you undergo training and if you want real power you have to rise: you have to be in charge and deliver.

In this the CCP is similar to the old Roman Republic: high political rank required you to rise up thru the cursus honorum. Doing so required you to gain experience with government: roads, sewage, trade, law and so on. In practice, few people were elected to the highest offices without military experience, and the result was that high elected officials had some actual experience with how both military and civic affairs ran.

REQUIRED ITEMS

• One 750 ml bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey
• A television or any device capable of streaming the debate live
• A sense of resigned masochism that can come only from no longer having any reason to believe that we live in a world where outcomes can be predicted using logic and reason.

THE RULES

Every time Biden makes a moderately self-deprecating joke about his age—but manages to lose the thread and stumble over the punchline—take a drink. You’re going to need it to make it through this nightmare.

Each time Trump waves his freakish little jazz hands and places the emphasis on a random simple adverb at the end of his Gordian Knot of a sentence, consider running to the store for something a little stronger. Possibly Everclear.

Any time it becomes clear that both candidates actually agree on an issue—and that issue is nowhere near the border of your own personal ethical road map—take two shots, because why the hell not? What even is the point of this spectacle?

‘We’re all scared of what is coming. There are people who are losing not only their jobs but their homes, too. There is little to no support from head office. We are counting down the weeks, wondering what will happen.’ That was the reaction from one worker to the news in late April that Whitbread […]

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

A new documentary tells the stories of three Palestinian families as they have fought to survive nine months of genocide.

The post The Night That Won’t End in Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.

- by Alissa Hebbeln & Russell Kolts

Read at Psyche

What is the price elasticity of demand, what factors can affect it, and how might influencers be using it to their benefit?

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Trying to turn the page on my mom’s death.

The post Reading Through Grief appeared first on Nautilus.