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Stage Zero: Unwelcome Discovery

Your rather unrefined friend sends you a link to an AI-generated violin concerto.

“Cool, right?!” she texts, followed by the laughing emoji.

You touch the callus on your neck from your twenty-two years of playing violin. Suddenly, the memory of the ruler-wielding teacher you had before you started the Suzuki method invades your mind, and you wince, subconsciously hiding your knuckles.

You click on “Vibrant Expressive Baroque Concerto.”

Stage One: Denial

It’s not that good.

It sounds like the B-side of a knockoff of the Brandenburg Concertos.

Nobody wants pretty good music. Nobody wants a pretty good burger. This is New York, you tell yourself, we don’t do “pretty good.”

Stage Two: Anger

You are more of a depression person. Eat your moping croissants and skip directly to the next stage.

Dr. Elias Doonesbury is a fictional “veteran psychologist” warning the world about Trump’s dementia But the real question is if he has a stiff gait. That’s the real sign of someone unable to perform the duties of president.

One might have thought that after the political upheaval caused by the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade the conservative justices would feel that it was the better part of valor to play it cool for a while and let the smoke clear before they launch into another radical assault on American jurisprudence. But apparently, taking away established rights for half the population was just a warm up act. Last week, they signaled pretty clearly that they’re prepared to enshrine an imperial presidency into the U.S. Constitution. First , we were all treated to the sickening spectacle of the five conservative men on the Court batting around ideas about how many organs need to be failing before an emergency physician can step in to save a pregnant woman’s life. You see, they value the rights of states, a government entity, far more than they value the rights of individuals. Well, individual women anyway. It was obvious that at least four of the Justices are fully prepared to say that any yahoo in a state can override the federal law against allowing people to bleed to death in their ER.

The blood in the water is yours Opponents of women’s reproductive rights are just getting warmed up. As if you needed reminding. Abortion bans are a loser for Republicans, but they are slow learners. They need reminding. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● For The Win, 5th Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV planning guide at ForTheWin.us.

Tel Aviv’s claim to “defense” and security primacy, upon which much of its exports were successfully marketed for decades, has been amply demonstrated to be bogus.

The post “Military and Moral Failures”: How Iran’s Israel Strike Reshaped the Region Forever appeared first on MintPress News.

The DNC’s Chicago convention won’t look like 1968 When I told my partner-in-blog I’d been elected a North Carolina delegate to the 2024 DNC convention in Chicago, her advice was to bring a flak jacket. The thought had occurred to me. Those of a certain age remember too well what happened in Chicago at the 1968 convention. It is another reason a 2016 Bernie Sanders delegate insisted I run after Ezra Klein’s reverie about an open convention. Plus, anything might happen between April and August. He wanted me there in case things go off the rails. As things have in Chicago. David Frum writes in The Atlantic why, security-wise, the kind of disruptions Chicago saw in 1968 are unlikely to happen again. Even as American campus protests over the Israeli prosecution of a war in the Gaza Strip draw headlines, 2024 is not 1968. Protesters presuming to replicate 1968 (as some will) are deluding themselves, Frum explains: From 1968 to today, responsibility for protecting political conventions has shifted from cities and states to the federal government. This new federal responsibility was formalized in a directive signed by President Bill Clinton in 1998.

Outgoing Green MP Caroline Lucas and party Co-Leader Carla Denyer suggest gains for their party this week in England will put pressure on Starmer to be radical

As Europe’s far-right movement gains alarming momentum, what are its funding, tactics – and prevention strategies?

“Trump VP contender Kristi Noem writes of killing her dog—and goat—in new book.” — The Guardian 4/26/24

The dog is wiry and playful. Its red mouth hangs open and the tang of blood briefly throbs through the chilly South Dakota air with every heaving pant. The chicken stares blankly into the sun. The chicken’s owner takes wary steps toward the mongrel fearing its boundless energy and needle teeth. The pup dances back and targets another hen. The pile of corpses grows as the day stretches and warps.

The patriot snarls an oath of contempt at the cur. She had taken it on as a hunter to help scare pheasants into the air and retrieve them when she sends them bleeding back to earth. But in its fourteen months it had discovered it much preferred bouncing joyously through the tall grass in erratic circles.

Regulators are failing to stop the media from encouraging vigilante action against activists – the law must step in to keep them safe, argues Tom Hardy

The censorship of Palestine solidarity is nothing new, but it has accelerated in the months since Israel launched its latest assault on Gaza. According to a report by advocacy organisation CAGE published in December, by that month there had already been a 455 percent increase in cases of support for Palestine being repressed, a disproportionate […]

The Conservative campaign in London has been accused of more 'underhand’ campaign tactics

On this week’s bonus episode of Lever Time, we explore how lax enforcement of antitrust laws allowed big companies to rob the middle class.

‘This girl, this woman, this… me?’ Helen shares her horrifying experience of being deepfaked for pornography

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

In the Middle Ages, a new sense of balance fundamentally altered our understanding of nature and society

- by Joel Kaye

Read at Aeon