The Bulwark’s resident curmudgeon JV Last offers up a disturbing thought that has certainly been crossing my mind a lot these days. He asks, “what if Trump is right about America?” meaning what if Trump just understands American’s better than the rest of us? He points to these things Trump has been right about: (1) Republican voters. For 40 years it was dogma that Republican voters wanted a president who blended social and fiscal conservatism and waited his turn to run. In 2016, Trump understood that Republican voters no longer wanted any of those things. They wanted the craziest son-of-a-bitch available. (2) The Republican party. The GOP looked like a formidable, disciplined gatekeeper. Trump understood that it was weak and would go along with whatever a man of pure will demanded of it. (3) The Conservative movement. For three generations conservatives pretended that they cared about policy ideas, such as restrained spending, small government, free trade, and robust foreign policy.
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After the “butter emails” debacle you don’t really need this but if you want another example of how editorial choices about what to cover in politics can actually lead to a lack of understanding, here’s a good one: The wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. told a Washington Post reporter in January 2021 that an upside-down American flag recently flown on their flagpole was “an international signal of distress” and indicated that it had been raised in response to a neighborhood dispute. Martha-Ann Alito made the comments when the reporter went to the couple’s Fairfax County, Va., home to follow up on a tip about the flag, which was no longer flying when he arrived… The Post decided not to report on the episode at the time because the flag-raising appeared to be the work of Martha-Ann Alito, rather than the justice, and connected to a dispute with her neighbors, a Post spokeswoman said. It was not clear then that the argument was rooted in politics, the spokeswoman said.
Each time money is used, an epistemology, a metaphysics, a politics, an ethics, and even a theology is evoked. Money condenses the spirit of capitalism. Money did not create capitalism—the early factories and mills were rarely funded by bank loans—yet money transmits, propagates, and vivifies it. This thought-provoking quotation (p. 20) is from Theology of […]
With the ICJ ordering a cessation of Rafah hostilities there is now close to a certainty Netanyahu and defence minister Gallant will be charged with a war crime. At the heart of the ICJ’s decision is that Israel all but ignored its previous order and fell far short of “all necessary and effective measures” to Continue reading »
Big old trees are few in number but store lots of carbon. Loopholes found in Victoria’s ban on native tree logging. Great Barrier Reef bleaches for fifth time in eight years. Which trees hold the most carbon? The somewhat complicated figure below illustrates a very important point: the few, older, larger trees in primary forests Continue reading »
The rather timid headline for a recent aggressive story in the New York Times (NYT) introduced a detailed investigation by that newspaper of how the governance of Israel has been captured by brutalised backers of apartheid. Michael Edesess recently observed how headline writing is regarded a special skill in journalistic circles. The NYT, he noted, Continue reading »
Despite industry and political spin, our Australian native forests continue to be destroyed. The many mythologies put forward in defence of continued logging are contradicted in detail by the facts and evidence. In this podcast, David Lindemayer, AO, distinguished professor, forest ecology, Australian National University (ANU) and author of the book ‘The Forest Wars: the Ugly Continue reading »
Thousands of innocent civilians are dying– men, women, children– being bombed to death as they sit in their homes. Thousands of Ukrainian and Russian men have been unwillingly drafted into the military, torn from their families, forced to kill each other, and forced to die. Images and videos of cold-blooded genocide plague our news in Continue reading »
“For 57 years, Israel has been maintaining a regime of wrongdoing and evil, and now, at last, the world is waking up and starting to act against it. Will it also be able to wake up at least some Israelis from their heedless, twisted sense of justice?” writes senior Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy. Watch the Continue reading »
Showrunner Russell T. Davies and series stars Ncuti Gatwa & Millie Gibson go "Black Mirror" for Doctor Who Episode 5: "Dot and Bubble."
Trump is the most public figure in America, possibly the world. And he’s suing to keep a film about him from being released. Defamation law isn’t supposed to protect someone like him but he’s found a way to make it work — for the moment. Threats: Attorneys for Donald Trump have sent a cease and desist letter to the filmmakers behind “The Apprentice” in an effort to block its U.S. sale and release. It warns the team behind the film not to pursue a distribution deal, according to two people who have read the letter. “The Apprentice,” which looks at Trump’s early years as a real estate developer and his relationship with Roy Cohn, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this week. “The film is a fair and balanced portrait of the former president,” the producers of the film said in a statement regarding the cease-and-desist letter. “We want everyone to see it and then decide.” The movie, which was independently produced, stars Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Cohn.
Uhm: “The polls have shown Donald Trump with an edge for eight straight months, but there’s a sign his advantage might not be quite as stable as it looks: His lead is built on gains among voters who aren’t paying close attention to politics, who don’t follow traditional news and who don’t regularly vote.” Read that again. Now read this: “Importantly, these low-turnout voters are often from Democratic constituencies. Many back Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate. But in our polling, Biden wins just three-quarters of Democratic-leaning voters who didn’t vote in the last cycle, even as almost all high-turnout Democratic-leaners continue to support him.”This trend illustrates the disconnect between Trump’s lead in the polls and Democratic victories in lower-turnout special elections. And it helps explain Trump’s gains among young and nonwhite voters, who tend to be among the least engaged.
He tells the world he intends to be an authoritarian. So why won’t journalists repeat it?
The post The Media Still Doesn’t Grasp the Danger of Trump appeared first on The Intercept.
This time it’s the Libertarians ABC News: A split-screen showdown between the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump, and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will occur this weekend at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, D.C., as each hopeful seeks to court the party’s base. Kennedy has already addressed the body. Punish yourselves, if so inclined. Trump speaks today. Some Libertarians it seems are down on authoritarians. Leaving this right here. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.
Plus, Big Oil gets hit for deceptive practices, environmental cleanup sites will become community hubs, and Minnesota shuts down prison gerrymandering.
NC GOP gives veterans the boot After comemmorating Memorial Day with a rally in Greensboro, N.C., Common Defense and Veterans for Responsible Leadership attempted to deliver a letter to the NC GOP state convention “calling on the GOP and on Donald Trump to reject calls for violence inflammatory rhetoric,” per Cardinal & Pine. Listen to the speeches below. The latter was a stunt. The camera crew was a giveaway. Here’s how NC Newsline describes the letter effort: Across the city, the state Republican Party is holding its annual gathering, which will include members of the Republican National Committee, like new co-chair former president Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump. In attendance at the GOP event are multiple individuals, who echo Trump’s doubts about the legitimacy of U.S. elections and his refusal to commit to accepting this year’s results. The former president, who has displayed an unprecedented disrespect for military service over the years, has also repeatedly threatened violence if the election does not go his way.
In "73 Yards," Russell T. Davies once again shows that even in Doctor Who, the worst, scariest monsters are the human ones - as in real life.
In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Lanterns, Doctor Who, The Acolyte, The Powerpuff Girls, Always Sunny, IWTV, The Last of Us, TUA, and more!
Protests against a Russian-style law on ‘foreign influence’ have been touted as signs that Georgia is heading for its 'Maidan’ moment – but experts say the reality is more complex
Medical cannabis has been legal on prescription in the UK since November 2018, and an estimated 30,000 people use it, yet patients are being 'discriminated' against and even arrested and charged
The CPT-4o update was removed just a week after going live and led to the A-lister releasing a statement
India is about to enter the second phase of its general election, amid cries to 'save democracy', with Modi expected to further tighten controls and silence opposition voices if he is re-elected
James Crawford has been described as “Probably Australia’s greatest international lawyer of all time” (SMH, 16 June 2021). James Crawford died on 31 May 2021. But perhaps he still has something to contribute to the major controversy facing today’s world: Palestine. Why should I be aware of someone by the name of James Crawford, you Continue reading »
The World Court on Friday ordered that Israel immediately halt its assault on the city of Rafah in Gaza after a request from South Africa, which brought genocide charges against Israel. By Joe Lauria Special to Consortium News Israel’s assault against Rafah must stop “immediately” to prevent genocide from being committed, the International Court of Justice Continue reading »