Reading
A lot! Joyce Vance gives us the low down: Friday night, Judge Chutkan rejected Trump’s “big” argument that he couldn’t be criminally prosecuted for acts committed during his presidency because he had blanket immunity. We discussed the motion when he filed it in early October (read here if you want a refresher on its substance). At the time, I characterized the argument as a flawed one, likely to be a swing and a miss. Judge Chutkan agreed. “The Constitution’s text, structure, and history do not support that contention [that the charges should be dismissed],” she wrote in her opinion. “No court—or any other branch of government—has ever accepted it. And this court will not so hold. Whatever immunities a sitting President may enjoy, the United States has only one Chief Executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.’” Read her entire opinion here.
When Doctor Who: The Star Beast was broadcast last week, it came with a Prologue. Just one that the director of the episode hadn't seen.
Philip Bump takes the time to outline all the ways that Trump has already shown that he will fulfill the plans he’s touting on the campaign trail [T]his would not be comparable to his inauguration in 2017, an event that took most people by surprise and demanded that he quickly figure out what, exactly, he was going to do. Positioned between the base that devoured his hostile rhetoric and the party that facilitated his election, he split the difference, bringing with him advisers (Stephen K. Bannon and Reince Priebus, respectively) from each camp. He learned his lesson. The latter camp encouraged him to respect the informal (and, of course, formal) boundaries that accompanied the job. The former camp let him do what he wanted. By the end of his term, nearly all that was left was those enablers, and he’d discovered that most of the boundaries he’d been encouraged to respect were transparently thin. That’s the recognition that he’d take into January 2025. Trump’s rhetoric, as the likelihood of his being renominated increases, has been less constrained even than it was on the campaign trail in 2015.
Our friend and former McSweeney’s editor Gabe Hudson passed away on Thanksgiving. As with any loss, the ache is dulled a bit when we can hear new stories about someone we’ve lost. It expands our sense of the person and adds pages to their story. So we’d like to invite all those who knew Gabe to help us remember him. Friends, family, colleagues, former students—please send us memories of Gabe. Doesn’t matter how short or long. Email them to remembrances@mcsweeneys.net, and we’ll post new memories every day.
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From Michael Matesich:
I hosted an event with Gabe in the summer of 2017 in Tampa, Florida. We were together for just two or three hours, which is, it is apparent, two or three hours more than Gabe needed to show you the whole of the beautiful, sensitive person he is. My mother was there at the event that day, and she met Gabe in the signing line. “Whether it’s about writing or not,” she told me after, “please, please be like Gabe.” We have kept in touch ever since.
They have lost their minds He’s not lying.
The Doctor versus the Toymaker - a fight the Doctor can't win (what?!?). Here's a look at Doctor Who 60th anniversary episode "The Giggle."
Biden does some mild corporate bashing. And it’s smart politics: President Joe Biden took aim at corporations for charging prices he said were artificially high even though the rate of inflation has slowed and some shipping costs have fallen. “Any corporation that has not brought their prices back down, even as inflation has come down, even as the supply chains have been rebuilt, it’s time to stop the price-gouging,” Biden said at the launch of a new White House supply chain initiative. “Give the American consumer a break.” While it’s true that the annual rate of inflation has cooled from its high last summer, this doesn’t translate directly into falling consumer prices. It only means that prices are rising at a lower rate. Prices for some everyday goods have fallen over the past year, a reality reflected in lower Thanksgiving costs this year, for example. And lower costs have in turn left some consumers with more money in their budgets for things like Black Friday shopping, which rose 7.5% this past weekend over a year ago.
Western financial institutions are funding the extinction of threatened species. Many EV batteries make lights work. Investing in the extinction of leopards, tigers and rhinos Feeling feverish? No problem, rhino horn will cool you down. Joints stiff and painful? Tiger bone works wonders. Difficulty breastfeeding? Pangolin scales ease the flow. Wind problem? Blown away Continue reading »
Israeli children sing, “We will annihilate everyone” in Gaza. The song was played on Israel’s national broadcaster Kan. This fact was exposed by the Electronic Intifada – Ali Abunimah – on 19 November. It pretty well says it all. So, what can you do about it? Well, one thing you might do is support BDS. Continue reading »
When people consider the many threats facing our planet today, too often the threat of nuclear weapons is overlooked. Yet it is perhaps the most acute of them all, because the existential danger is ever-present for as long as the weapons exist. Anyone concerned about the climate crisis, about environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, needs Continue reading »
Neoliberalist theory and practice went so horribly wrong because governments that put their faith in markets forgot one word – competition. From the early-1980s, much of the Western world began turning to neoliberalism – a faith in free markets and smaller government. The collapse of the Soviet Union by the end of that decade confirmed Continue reading »
Proposals for Gaza by the EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell reflect long-standing European concerns, and show an aspiration to become more involved in a cooperative solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict. Can these European concerns and aspirations have some tangible bearing on Palestinian political prospects? Five weeks after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, European Continue reading »
Rawdon Dalrymple was a senior diplomat and career officer in the Australian foreign service, from 1957-1994. The iterations of his departments morphed from: External Affairs, Foreign Affairs to Foreign Affairs and Trade. He had a distinguished record of high achievement and he was posted overseas to many capitals, initially including: Bonn, London, Manila and Jakarta. Continue reading »
I wake up and I check The radio News I dread I hear the authoritative voice The Newsreader then Israeli government Spokesman Terrorists, the terrorists Hiding under the Hospitals Under the Kindergartens Under the Schools The colonial narrative Always Baying for more dead No electricity, no water No food, no shelter What will happen Hapless Continue reading »
The transition to electric vehicles (EVs) promises massive dislocation. Conventional cars have twice as many parts as electric vehicles, translating into far fewer assembly hours. Striking for wages and security against Detroit’s ‘Big Three’ car manufacturers, the United Auto Workers trade union claims that the transition endangers 35,000 jobs among its 150,000 members. Meanwhile, upstart Continue reading »
Remember when Donald Trump held a press conference to announce that? He made the announcement in response to an attack on Dallas Police in 2016: And you remember how tough he wanted to be on protesters, right? Well…
What a concept The passing of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman named to the U.S. Supreme Court, has received a flood of remembrances. But one in particular emphasizes what differentiates her from justices who came later. She was a politician first, “rising to become the majority leader of the Arizona state Senate” (Politico, Peter S. Canellos): In its history, the court has been divided almost evenly between justices whose primary experience was in electoral politics, law practice or academics, with many of the academic-minded justices having spent significant time as judges on federal courts. But over the years the profile of a judicial nominee shifted strongly in favor of scholarly judges. Today, potential Supreme Court justices tend to establish their judicial ambitions at a very early age, often in their 20s, attain lower-court appointments in their 30s or early 40s and thereby position themselves for appointment to the high court before they reach middle age.
Plus, California farmworkers leverage new labor bill, New York will seal criminal convictions, regulators aim to crack down on overdraft fees, and workers strike on Cyber Monday.
Free at last! George Santos is Rep. Santos no more. In a bipartisan vote that handily exceeded the two-thirds requirement, the U.S. House voted to expel the mutiply indicted Santos on Friday morning. Not to worry, George Washington Anthony Elizabeth Taylor Devolder Kitara Julius Caesar Santos will land on his feet, even if he has (for now) denied he is in talks with “Dancing With the Stars.” He’ll have no trouble staying busy. Facing 23 felony charges (he has pleaded not guilty) Santos has a full schedule planning for his trial in September next year: The schemes laid out by prosecutors are wide ranging. Prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York say he falsified campaign reports with fake donations and fictional personal loans to artificially bolster his standing. They say he stole from donors, using their credit cards without authorization and through a Florida company called Redstone Strategies. And they have charged him with collecting more than $20,000 in unemployment payments when he was, in fact, employed. Prosecutors say that Mr. Santos used the money on personal expenses, including designer goods and credit card payments.
With only hours to go until the next Doctor Who 60th Anniversary episode, the BBC released a new set of "Wild Blue Yonder" preview images.
In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: The Rookie, Bill Maher, Rick and Morty, George Santos, The Boys, Doctor Who, HOTD, Chappelle/Boebert & more!
As Israel resumes its bombing of Gaza, the risk of a wider regional war grows. Mouin Rabbani analyzes the military and propaganda battles between Hamas and Israel.
The post Two Months That Shook the World: The First Phase of the Gaza War appeared first on The Intercept.
Great souls die and our reality, bound to them, takes leave of us. Our souls, dependent upon their nurture, now shrink, wizened … And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper […]