Reading

Created
Wed, 15/11/2023 - 04:53
The final count of all votes cast in the New Zealand general election has brought into play a third element in the new government’s coalition negotiations. The outcome is one the National government desperately wanted to avoid. Party leader and Prime Minister elect Christopher Luxon and his team consistently appealed to voters not to support Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 15/11/2023 - 04:50
After a one week China tour organised by some Chinese entrepreneurs to mark the anniversary of the 1971 pingpong diplomacy which opened China to the outside world, two firm impressions remain. One is the extraordinary pace and dynamism of the economic, and social, progress. The other is the political stagnation, with our guides still clinging Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 15/11/2023 - 04:00
The Art of the Con Don Jr. testified for the defense in the NY fraud trial on Monday and spent his time talking about his father’s brilliance and his company’s success: n a return appearance at a trial that has featured a parade of Trumps on the stand as they fight for the future of their family business, the junior Mr. Trump testified in bursts of hyperbole and platitudes. His rhetoric sounded as though it had been ripped from the pages of an airline magazine or a travel brochure, and he saved the highest praise for the man who he said made it all happen: his father, a “visionary” who is “an artist with real estate” and “creates things that other people would never envision.” Yet some of his high-flying claims clashed with present-day reality. In recent years, the Trump Organization has shrunk, as the family name was scrubbed from some of the properties he extolled, taken off buildings in New York, Washington and, soon, Hawaii. Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street have also, at times, lost a number of tenants. Some of the former president’s properties struggled even to turn a profit.
Created
Wed, 15/11/2023 - 02:30
Eating the Big Enchilada one bite at a time From the point of view of private profit, one of these analysts enthusiastically observes, “the K-12 market is the Big Enchilada”. (2007)  What is the largest portion of the budget in all 50 states? (2011) Money laundering for the masses (2012) “Folks, they want to destroy public education,” the state Senate minority leader told a room full of supporters last year. (2014) Venture capitalist, Eric Hippeau, believes the “education market is ripe for disruption.” (2014) Readers know by now that the promotion of school “choice” is not aboutand the diversion of public ed funds into private academies (“the money follows the child“) is not about what’s best for America’s children. Like so many other special-interest enthusiasms, it’s about the investor class chasing public money. Oh sure, they’ll leverage the religious right’s paranoia that public schools are indoctrinating little Dick and Jane in the ways of Satanic multiculturalism and science. But they’re just investors’ useful idiots.
Created
Wed, 15/11/2023 - 02:05

The UK government refused to condemn Israel’s targeted murder of Dr. Maisara Alrayyes, a Palestinian alumnus of the British Foreign Office’s prestigious Chevening scholarship. Meanwhile, London has instructed media outlets to keep silent about its direct involvement in the Gaza slaughter. Since the beginning of Israel’s military assault on the besieged Gaza Strip, the British government has remained unflappably silent on the carnage inflicted on Palestinian civilians with one notable exception. On November 8th, the Foreign Office announced the death […]

The post Britain implicated in murder of Gaza doctor sponsored by its Foreign Office first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post Britain implicated in murder of Gaza doctor sponsored by its Foreign Office appeared first on The Grayzone.

Created
Wed, 15/11/2023 - 01:46
When he opened the seminar that prompted these essays, Fred Turner said that Silicon Valley built more than semiconductors or search engines or smart phones or sharing platforms. Indeed, he suggested that Silicon Valley’s true product is ideology. In my notes, I wrote and underlined, “Silicon Valley creates and retails visions of the future.” This […]
Created
Wed, 15/11/2023 - 01:32

America’s Global War on Terror has seen its share of stalemates, disasters, and outright defeats. During 20-plus years of armed interventions, the United States has watched its efforts implode in spectacular fashion, from Iraq in 2014 to Afghanistan in 2021. The greatest failure of its “Forever Wars,” however, may not be in the Middle East, but in Africa. “Our war on terror begins with al-Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated,” President George W. Bush told the American people in the immediate wake of the 9/11 attacks, noting specifically that such militants had designs on “vast regions” of Africa. To shore up that... Read more

Created
Wed, 15/11/2023 - 01:00
Jay Rosen’s reporting principle As tedious as it is commenting on Donad Trump’s latest verbal atrocities, as well as on the relentless 2024 horse-race coverage in the press, it would be far more tedious seeing Trump abolish the United States if given half a chance. Or any Republican Trump wannabes, for that matter. I’m already musing about bumper stickers. ABOLISH AMERICA | VOTE TRUMP. Four words. NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen has a six-word formulation for how the press should be reporting the 2024 presidential race instead of its reflexive horse-race framing: “Not the odds, but the stakes.” That’s my shortand for the organizing principle we most need from journalists covering the 2024 election. Not who has what chances of winning, but the consequences for our democracy. Rosen thinks (in this case, anyway) Axios gets it right. Stakes: “I am more worried for America today than I was on January 6,” Michael Luttig tells the Guardian.
Created
Wed, 15/11/2023 - 00:00

Introduction

So you’ve mastered going tinkle while sitting on your bottom. It may seem that there is little more to achieve in affairs of the potty. On the contrary. I have perfected the art of balancing on two feet while making a pee-pee, and this is my MasterClass.

Fundamentals

The foundation of going pee-pee whilst upright is pulling down one’s pants and big-boy undies. It is a common misconception that one should undress completely. Far from it, pants and big-boy undies must be lowered to the ankles. Do not neglect this critical step, for this is what activates the pee-pee.

To Grip or Not to Grip

One must cultivate the discipline never to grip one’s wee wee. Like a garden hose, it must whip around autonomously. Both hands must either rest upon the hips, or else be positioned in front of the wee wee to intercept the stream for research purposes.

There is one exception that goes without saying: one may hold and point one’s wee wee up at one’s face to get a view of the pee hole at just the moment it fires.

Created
Tue, 14/11/2023 - 23:00

Joe Biden’s response to the Hamas attacks of October 7 was to fuse the wars in Israel and Ukraine into a single struggle. Immediately after he returned from his visit to Tel Aviv, where he had both literally and figuratively embraced Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden addressed the US public from the Oval Office. “You know,” he […]

The post Biden’s Selective Outrage appeared first on The New York Review of Books.