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When COVID struck Rebecca Saltzman’s family, the virus unmasked a life-changing discovery: her husband and two of their kids had genetic heart disease. The kind where people drop dead. As their healthy wife and mother, Saltzman had a new role too—guiding her family through what Susan Sontag called the Kingdom of the Sick. In this column, she’ll explore the anthropological strangeness of this new place, the mysteries of the body, and how facing death distills life into its purest form: funny, terrifying, and sublime.

Read Part I.

That’s no light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a train. We’ve seen this movie. We watched it in 2016. The press, driven by capitalist imperative to sell newspapers and attract eyeballs, promoted every right-wing smear against Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president, most importantly the faux scandal about her private email server. Clinton was likely the most qualified presidential person Democrats have ever fielded for the presidency. To win the presidency, Clinton first had to be an excellent candidate. She was not that, nor was her campaign up to the job. (Don’t get me started.) Nevertheless, the race to defeat Donald Trump, the TV celebrity and failed casino operator, was close. Her campaign suffered death by a thousand media cuts, flogged by right-wing outlets and in the eleventh-hour by grandstanding of FBI Director Jim Comey. It’s happening again with the stream of media attention to President Joe Biden’s age. Republican’s all-but nominee Trump is only three years younger and in obvious cognitive decline.

Use to discuss topics unrelated to recent posts.

1. Will Reba McEntire end the National Anthem by calling for a ceasefire? YES

2. Will the team kicking off first use a holder who will yank the ball away from the kicker at the last second to honor the eve of the twenty-fourth anniversary of Charles M. Schulz’s death? YES

3. Will my wife cry at the Dove commercial? NO

4. Will I cry at the Carl Weathers commercial… and the Dove commercial? NO

5. Will Usher’s “ABC Song” from Sesame Street be part of the halftime show? YES

6. Will Joe Alwyn suit up for the 49ers in a last-ditch attempt to win her back? YES

7. Will the Roman numerals be changed to binary for Super Bowl 111010? YES

8. Will the first serious injury occur in an identical manner to when I try to stand up from the couch too quickly? NO

Writer and investigative journalist Matt Kennard joins Lowkey to discuss Britain's secret military support for Israel.

The post How Britain is Helping Israel to Bomb Gaza, with Matt Kennard appeared first on MintPress News.

Ministers' failure to properly monitor nitrogen pollution in our waterways is effectively encouraging further breaches of environmental law by farmers and big business, reports Thomas Perrett

A new investigation by the BBC has revealed a shocking incident in which Thames Valley Police officers made “sickening” comments about a woman, filmed semi-naked with police body-worn video cameras. The woman was being filmed when her body became exposed while suffering a seizure. Later that shift, officers watched the footage, making degrading comments about […]

The daily grind of non-playable characters offers a clever critique of capitalism’s ‘infinite loop of labour performance’

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

As a republican, Sophie de Grouchy argued that sympathy, not domination, must be the glue that holds society together

- by Sandrine Bergès & Eric Schliesser

Read at Aeon

With its origins in 16th-century India, Bharathanatyam remains hugely popular. Here’s a primer to kickstart your enjoyment

- by Lakshmi Thiagarajan

Read at Psyche

While rent-control policies can mean more affordable housing for some, research shows they can also lead to a decline in the supply and quality of rental housing.

This year we need your help to follow the money, call out corrupt campaigning, and monitor voter suppression wherever it occurs

Every one of us will experience illness, damage, impairment, disability and, inevitably, old age, writes Penny Pepper

"Something worth noting (and may not be readily apparent): Yang Hengjun is an Australian citizen. But to the Chinese government, he's Chinese."

It was interesting to spend a few weeks in London recently and catch up with friends and research colleagues. It always focuses the mind on issues when one is in situ rather than gazing at data and reports from afar. My view of British Labour as being incapable of providing the British people with a…

Somebody’s on the hot seat again: A chief witness and onetime friend of Representative Matt Gaetz is cooperating in an unfolding House Ethics Committee investigation into whether the Florida politician had sex with an underage girl while in Congress, a lawyer for the witness said Friday. Fritz Scheller, who represents Joel Greenberg, said that he had provided documents to the committee and that Greenberg “has and will cooperate with any congressional request,” The New York Times reported. In May of 2021, Greenberg pled guilty to several charges, including sex trafficking, and is currently in his second year of an 11-year sentence. The former Florida tax collector was able to secure a more lenient punishment by agreeing to cooperate with a Justice Department investigation into Gaetz. In February of 2023, the department announced that it was closing the investigation without charging the Florida Representative with any crimes.

Britain's standing on human rights is in "jeopardy" and Good Friday Agreement undermined by the Safety of Rwanda Bill

Source - Patreon

Trump’s been channeling Hitler so I guess this is just par for the course. It’s still startling: Anthony D’Esposito, a congressman from New York, posted a picture on X last week of an undocumented immigrant flashing two middle fingers after being arraigned for allegedly assaulting two NYPD officers. “We feel the same way about you,” D’Esposito wrote. “Holla at the cartels and have them escort you back.” But Republican Congressman Mike Collins took it a step further: “Or we could buy him a ticket on Pinochet Air for a free helicopter ride back.” His post was flagged as violent speech, but it was allowed to stand on the grounds that “it may be in the public’s interest for the Post to remain accessible.” Collins probably considers his statement a joke intended to communicate his views of migrants, and it is best not to overreact to behavior that is designed to provoke. But his post also reflects the mainstreaming of authoritarianism in the GOP.

Source - Patreon