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As the Ukrainian war enters its third year, there has been renewed, if rather limp, talk of a ceasefire followed by negotiations. The premise is that since neither side can ‘win’, it makes sense to start making peace. Few now remember that the war almost ended before it got going. On 24 February 2022, Russia … Continue reading The Lost Peace (Short Version)

Back in 2000 when Donald Trump first tested the waters of a presidential campaign , giving a series of speeches as a possible Reform Party candidate, he famously told Forbes Magazine, “It’s very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it.” He was speaking at the time about a weird deal he had going with motivational speaker Anthony Robbins in which he timed his political appearances around paid seminars that Robbins paid him a million bucks to give. By the time he decided to run for real in 2015 he didn’t publicly suggest that he could make money campaigning but he did make the case that he was incorruptible saying, “I don’t need anybody’s money.” (He’d obviously figured out that that real graft was to made once he was in the White House.) He pledged to spend a hundred million of his own money on his run but ended up only giving about $66 million out of $398 million so Trump didn’t “self-fund” by a long shot. In 2020 he didn’t use any of his own money at all instead raising $774 million for the campaign with the RNC and his Super PACs raising much more.

When Mr. Sauce, Esq. goes out of town, two things inevitably happen when I am left to my own devices: I undertake home improvement projects like cleaning the hall closet and installing shelves; or affixing LED rope lights under the kitchen cabinets. I make the more unappetizing DiS cards so I do not subject himContinue reading 145. Ring of Gold →

My new book is out this week (in the UK at least – but those elsewhere can read it right now online). I very much hope it will stimulate debate and discussion. Something that’s really struck me over recent years is that whereas a really rich literature exists on the global justice dimensions of the […]

What’s so witty about Trump, mockery, and “Birdbrain”? Michael Kruse examines how Donald “91 Counts” Trump uses humor “to maintain the useful reputation as a politically incorrect outsider despite his obvious insider status as the leader of the GOP.” “Hilarious, “super funny,” some say. Kruse isn’t joking. He has quotes. Italian fascist Benito Mussolini, “had the same twisted sense of humor,” says Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of “Strongmen.” It’s a part of Trump’s bonding with his audience. “It’s such a huge part of his movement,” Alexander Reid Ross, the author of Against the Fascist Creep and a member of the executive committee of the Far Right Analysis Network, told me. “It is a way of inverting and reversing assumptions in a carnivalesque kind of way. It’s a way of upending morality,” he said.

Parliamentary briefing on amendments to the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill for the House of Lords Committee Stage, March 2024. In this briefing: The ICO and the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has a poor track record on enforcement. In 2021-22 it did not serve a single GDPR […]

MAGA Republicans can dish it out but they can’t take it President Biden’s fiery SOTU hurt MAGA feelings. Axios has it: They’re aborting the State of the Union? Emmer’s demand came after Biden’s March 7 speech. Others in his caucus wanted to abort it. Axios reminds readers. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) introduced a bill in late February to keep Biden from being invited to address the Congress if his budget and national security strategy is late to arrive. On Super Tuesday, MSNBC reported: Rep. Scott Perry raised the specter of rescinding Biden’s invitation. “He comes at the invitation of Congress, and Republicans are in control of the House,” the Pennsylvania Republican told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo. “There’s no reason that we need to invite him to get more propaganda.” Glass jaws on that side of the aisle. Decorum for thee but not for me. Democrats laughed at the Georgia Peach Queen of decorum last May when she called for it after her past heckling of Biden’s SOTU. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download.

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, Part II, and Part III.

The ‘moons and the days’ have brought us round again to the anniversary of the greatest tragedy of modern times, the Commune of Paris of 1871, and with it the recurring duty for all Socialists of celebrating it both enthusiastically and intelligently. By this time the blatant slanders with which the temporarily unsuccessful cause was […]

NHS doctor Chris Day is set to challenge a tribunal decision in a case where 90,000 emails were destroyed 'in the middle of the night' while a hearing was underway

As the UK Tory Party haemorrhages support among young voters, Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Canadian Conservative Party, is moving the dial in the opposite direction

We’re like the early seasons of Great British Bake Off, where everyone helped each other and drank tea while they waited for things to finish baking and occasionally got berated by an older white man who is creepy toward some of the women.

We’re like a group of high school friends who went out one night and accidentally killed someone and then hid the body because they were scared of the consequences, and now we’re forever connected by the shared guilt, fear, and shame.

We’re like a group of people constantly eating at Olive Garden.

We’re all bound together by our fervent belief that our god-like CEO will rescue us from the apocalyptic visions of a dying Earth by taking us to a terraformed paradise in space. Also, we’re not a cult.

We’re like a fictional soccer team with a folksy yet wise coach who is determined that we all should grow into the best versions of ourselves. He also somehow never feels the need to replace anyone because of poor performance or financial realities. (Please note: we do have at-will employment.)

In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Night Court, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live/Dead City, Doctor Who, Ghosts, Star Trek: Discovery & more!

A lone glaciologist performs spiritual and scientific rituals to assess humanity’s impact in Bhutan’s sacred mountains

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

In caring for and bearing with human suffering, hospital staff perform extreme emotional labour. Is there a better way?

- by Susanna Crossman

Read at Aeon

In new research, scientists have looked into the potential benefits of giving people with depression the aesthetic chills

- by Shayla Love

Read at Psyche

From Joe Biden on down, liberals denounce anti-Muslim bias to avoid mentioning the scourge of hate against Palestinians.

The post Let’s Name It: Not Just Islamophobia, but Anti-Palestinianism appeared first on The Intercept.