He’s selling out the country for personal gain … again Brian Beutler points out in his fantastic newsletter today (subscribe here) that Trump’s extracurricular foreign policy activity is almost certainly in service of his election in November and suggests that the Democrats take this seriously: President Biden may have reached his wits end, however belatedly, with Benjamin Netanyahu. A readout of their most recent conversation suggests that, in the wake of the World Central Kitchen killings, and the subsequent flight-to-safety of humanitarian workers, U.S. aid will be conditioned going forward on a rapidly implemented ceasefire (of uncertain length) in order to meliorate the catastrophe on the ground.
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Hey man, welcome to our brewery. I’m gonna be your draft list today. The first thing you should know about me is this: I’m approachable. I believe beer is for everyone. If that means I’m a draft list without a single beer that tastes like beer, then hell yeah, brother—that’s what it’s all about.
You seem like the type of guy who’s lookin’ to sip on a couple of easy-drinking light brews with the fellas. I bet you even wanna be able to stand up and walk in a straight line when you head out of here. Counter pitch: maybe you don’t?
Listen, I pride myself on my impressive and diverse range of beers, but every single one has an ABV of 7.5 percent or higher. No matter what beer you choose, you better buckle up, my man, because you’re about to black out before the sun sets.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has twisted himself into a pretzel trying to please his fractious caucus and he’s starting to show the strain. Unfortunately, the people of Ukraine are currently paying the price as he struggles with what appears to be a cage match with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who is making it clear that she intends to blow up the House of Representatives in an election year if she doesn’t get her way. The state of play remains what it’s been for weeks now. The Senate passed a tortuously negotiated bipartisan bill that included funding for Ukraine and the border months ago which the House rejected upon orders from Donald Trump who openly admitted that his motives were purely to benefit his campaign. Since then Johnson has been running around in circles insisting one day that he won’t bring any Ukraine funding bill to the floor and the next suggesting that he has an agreement on Ukraine that would include a provision that would seize frozen Russian assets and categorize the Ukrainian aid as a loan, an idea floated by Donald Trump and S. Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Jessica Buxbaum explores the complex web of connections between celebrities, media companies, and pro-Israel organizations, as the battle for public opinion rages on.
The post Israel’s Celebrity Charm Offensive: The Truth Behind the Glamorous Trips appeared first on MintPress News.
Professor Ross Anderson, who died on March 28, was a great friend and ally to Open Rights Group. He said in jest that we’d set it up “because FIPR wasn’t radical enough”, which if you knew Ross, was the kind of sharp but well-meaning remark you could expect from him. He knew which side you […]
Rebecca Solnit speaks with Anand Giridharadas It’s a feature of our minds that we remember the coincidences, the little serendipities, and quickly forget events in life that, but for a second here or there, might have radically altered our lives, Brian Klaas writes in “Fluke.” We also too easily forget what’s accomplished and obsess over what’s not. “One thing I have taken to saying a lot is that amnesia leads to despair and it also leads to powerlessness,” Rebecca Solnit tells Anand Giridharadas. “People don’t trace the trajectory of change.” I find that a feature of some on the left, the humorless glass-half-empty set I sometimes refer to as left-wing fundamentalists. At The Ink, Solnit traces some of the many accomplishments progressive organizers have won over the last decade or so on human rights and on climate. But they are quickly forgotten as we tackle issues yet unresolved. “I think that a lot of American hopelessness, despair, cynicism, and defeatism is so tied to the inability to trace the arc of change,” Solnit says.
Green Party Presidential candidate Dr.Jill Stein joins Mint Press director and host of the MintCast podcast Mnar Adley to talk about Dr. Stein's position on Gaza, the two-party system, US militarism, climate change and her campaign objectives
The post Presidential Candidate Jill Stein On Gaza, The Two-Party System and US Militarism appeared first on MintPress News.
Only a minority of Brits back the plan pushed by right-wing Conservative MPs to quit the international court
Though her family sometimes received food stamps and occasionally had their utilities cut off, Marcie Alvis Walker’s parents led her to believe that they were an average middle-class Black family. They encouraged her to pursue her dreams and told her that if she worked hard enough, she’d achieve them. The small catch was that Walker’s dream was an elusive one for any cash-strapped and undereducated Black woman: being a New York Times–bestselling author. Now, as a published non-bestselling author, she wishes she’d had a backup plan.
Inhumanity is policy on Day 1 Donald Trump and his MAGA followers find community in “rejoicing in the anguish of those they see as unlike them,” Adam Serwer wrote in 2018. If Republicans reoccupy the White House in 2025, they plan to make a formal project of it. The Biden-Harris campaign wants to be sure you don’t miss that. We are all horrified by Israeli policy in Gaza, and by President Joe Biden’s tardiness in issuing a “tense” ultimatum to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “protect Palestinian civilians and foreign aid workers” (Reuters): “There was always going to be a point at which the Biden administration felt that the domestic and international cost of supporting Israel’s campaign in Gaza outweighed the benefit of what Israel was able to achieve on the ground,” said Mike Singh, a former National Security Council official on the Middle East. “What is remarkable is not that this is happening but that it took so long.” “Israel is better than the way this war is being waged. It is better than blocking food and medicine to civilians.
Alex Kingston will return as River Song for a new round of Big Finish's Doctor Who audio dramas set AFTER "Silence in the Library."
The founder of a recruitment consultancy lifts the lid on what is it like to work with the Department for Work and Pensions
Lawyer Stephen Kinsella examines the exploitative use of legal threats, and offers advice on how not to play the game
Hello,
It’s the Democrats. The 2044 election is fast approaching, and we need your support now more than ever. It is the most important election of our lifetimes.
We know it feels like we’re always saying that this presidential election is the most important election of our lifetimes. But we wouldn’t be saying that if it wasn’t true each and every time. Especially this time.
As you’ll recall, the 2024 election was the most important election of our lifetimes, just as the 2020 election had been the most important election of our lifetimes. It was only through tireless grassroots organizing that Joe Biden prevailed. The grave threat posed to our democracy by Donald Trump was (narrowly) defeated, and America was wrested from the jaws of authoritarianism.
At least, for four more years.
Google prohibits using its tech for “immediate harm,” but Israel is harnessing its facial recognition to set up a dragnet of Palestinians.
The post Google Won’t Say Anything About Israel Using Its Photo Software to Create Gaza “Hit List” appeared first on The Intercept.
- by Psyche Film
Analyzing double-haters’ criticisms of both presidential candidates with campaign adviser Anat Shenker-Osorio.
The post No to Biden, No to Trump: Insights From Swing-State Voters appeared first on The Intercept.
- by Tunde Aideyan
In the wake of the sentencing of SBF last week there were two mighty takedowns of effective altruism: one (here) “The Deaths of Effective Altruism Sam Bankman-Fried is finally facing punishment. Let’s also put his ruinous philosophy on trial” by Leif Wenar (Stanford) at Wired; the other and better written, “Neo-Utilitarians Are Utter Philistines” by Justin Smith-Ruiu (Paris) at his […]
Why are generic drugmakers fighting a plan to let them make more medicines?