Following up on my post below I wanted to highlight Brian Beutler’s newsletter today about Biden’s speech, with which I agree wholeheartedly: The remarks don’t just live on the page and in the moment they’re spoken. They have the potential to be recirculated endlessly, on television and social media, and now these clips will communicate Biden’s meaning explicitly, without requiring any sort of decoding. And as they circulate, they may also serve as an antidote to the huge glut of viral video content on social media that’s selectively edited to make Biden seem doddering and confused. Making things like January 6—Trump’s totalitarian ambitions, his crimes and corruption, his general untrustworthiness—the central themes of the campaign has these ancillary benefits, because they are visceral. They unite Democrats, and enliven Biden himself. Policy and economics aren’t similarly unifying or morally black and white, and stripped of the emotional valence of insurrection and dictatorship, they evoke a softer register.
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Have you tried running? It’s exhilarating. Really, I mean it. Running changed my life.
Before running, I’d order pasta without telling everyone I was carbo-loading. But now, I make sure everyone understands that even my food consumption is in service of my new favorite activity. Carbonara just tastes better when you’re lecturing about which glycogen levels best fuel a daily run.
And since getting into running, I’ve bought some truly special specialty gear. I have a full dresser devoted solely to moisture-wicking T-shirts, moisture-wicking leggings, and moisture-wicking socks. Any moisture that tries to come close to me will instantly be wicked. Check out these shoes. They cost two hundred dollars, and the salesperson told me I’ll get shin splints if I don’t replace them every three months. I also bought a special ointment to rub on my nipples.
It’s been so fulfilling to devote myself to becoming good at exercise. The only person I’m trying to beat is me, you know? You don’t know? Don’t worry. I’ll repeat it every opportunity I get so you can never forget it.
The US proudly proclaims its exceptionalism and leadership of the free world, but in the latest Israeli-Palestinian flareup US leadership has been absent. A lasting peace settlement will require the US to take the lead in pushing forward the widely supported two-state solution. The war in Gaza is now three months old, and the violence Continue reading »
These last three months have made it apparent that there has to be a major change to what we know of as Israel/Palestine. But it has been coming for some time – perhaps since the enactment of Israel’s Basic Law of 2018 which conferred a right of self-determination exclusively on the Jewish people thereby asserting Continue reading »
Warmongering think tanks, self-appointed members of the military commentariat, and the whole stable of security-minded cognoscenti in the Anglosphere are terrified about one thing come November 2024. Will AUKUS, that boil on Australia’s policy landscape but boon for the US military industrial complex, be lanced by Donald Trump? Were the orange monster of misrule to Continue reading »
It is worth considering when exactly deploying our military assets in Australia’s interests becomes a test of fealty to the United States, and an act of ‘‘mateship’’. The Australian government is being pounded by the federal opposition, pro-US think tanks and some media for not sending a single ship to help out the international naval Continue reading »
We don’t have to take off our compassion, or our ability to show it, when we drape a stethoscope around our neck. The need for doctors to be professional is not synonymous with being emotionless. Long ago, when I was an intern at an adult teaching hospital there seemed to be a tradition that consultants Continue reading »
The recent sharp falls in US, UK, European and Australian inflation rates have convinced analysts that central bank rate rises are over and the next move will be rate cuts in 2024. The US Federal Reserve chairman in the first half of December signalled that too. But when can we expect such cuts since mortgagors Continue reading »
President Biden’s Valley Forge address might have felt like a feat of oratorical brilliance to the coterie that is locked into a mythical America. However, it was wildly out of touch with the views of many voters. Dismissing the genuine grievances and discontent with politics-as-usual, and not recognising that Trump provides an appealing alternative to Continue reading »
The 60th presidential election is less than a year away and if polling is correct a second Donald Trump presidency is likely. If you don’t believe the polls, the January 6 Prison Choir’s ‘Justice for All’ single, casting Donald Trump, has hit No. 1 on iTunes, might be a hint. Politicians and voters in thrill Continue reading »
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken just referred to the US-sponsored assassination of yet another journalist in Gaza as a “terrible tragedy”, as though the reporter was struck by lightning or died in a car crash or something. Speaking at a press conference in Qatar on Sunday, Blinken was asked to comment on the murder of Continue reading »
The complex, a key part of US political economy, fuels geopolitical tensions and enables countries and private actors to push for and capitalise on conflict. It’s time for societies to make concerted efforts to rein it in and build a movement to educate the world about the grave threat it poses to civilisation. The headline Continue reading »
Teenage conscientious objectors won momentum during the anti-Netanyahu protests, but the post-October 7 world is a new test.
The post Israeli Refuseniks Forsake Army Despite Post-October 7 Nationalist Frenzy appeared first on The Intercept.
Nikki Haley’s headline-generating incident at a town hall in New Hampshire is the perfect metaphor...
Groundhog Day isn’t for another month but if you were watching cable news over the past few days you certainly had a feeling of deja vu watching all the footage of the January 6th insurrection again and being reminded of the violence and horror of that day. It is still as shocking as it was three years ago. And yet we are about to embark on a replay of the election that brought is to that awful moment and it feels as if nothing has changed in our politics at all. Three years ago at this time we were still reeling from the global pandemic that was still taking lives by the tens of thousands and stunned by what had transpired after the election. There was talk of invoking the 25th Amendment against Trump to get him out of office before the inauguration and the congress was considering impeaching him for the second time, mostly in order to prevent him from ever running again. Staunch Trump supporters like then House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and S. Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham stood up to denounce Trump and there was a very strong sense that the camels back had finally, finally been broken.
The Lever team explains everything you need to know about how private equity could soon get involved in college sports.
Morning Joe assembles the evidence “Sir? How do you do it?” Trump fabulizes. His “sir” stories are legion, as Daniel Dale recounted in 2019: Lots of people do call Trump “sir,” of course. But the word seems to pop into his head more frequently when he is inventing or exaggerating a conversation than when he is faithfully relaying one. A “sir” is a flashing red light that he is speaking from his imagination rather than his memory. In poker parlance, it’s a tell. The supercut assembled for “Morning Joe,” contrasts President Biden’s recent speech with another by Donald “91 felony indictments” Trump. “Sir? How do you do it? How do you wake up in the morning and put on your pants?” First off, he doesn’t start with pants. “We’re a failing nation,” says Trump, who actually does know something about failing. President Biden, meanwhile, visits Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. today.
Severe cramp from work must be reported to the safety regulator - but not work-related suicides. Campaigners want action beyond Ofsted reform
Chapter 7 of my open access textbook has just been released. This chapter focuses on homelessness experienced by racialized persons. A ‘top 10’ summary of the chapter can be found here (in English):https://nickfalvo.ca/homelessness-among-racialized-persons/ A ‘top 10’ summary of the chapter in French can be found here:https://nickfalvo.ca/litinerance-chez-les-personnes-racialisees/ The full chapter can be found here (English only):https://nickfalvo.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Falvo-Chapter-7-Racialized-Persons-2jan2024.pdf All material related to the [...]
Republicans fear running on empty Republican control of the U.S. House was dramatically unproductive in 2033. The caucus spent more time mugging for cameras, stalling important bills, ousting their own speaker, and investigating Hunter and Joe Biden (with nothing to show for it) than they did legislating. They worry now it may come back to bite them in the fall elections (Washington Post): “It’s been a tough year for us,” said Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), who as the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is tasked with keeping the majority. “I think most people in Congress — Republicans and Democrats — ran to make a difference, to make the country better, not to come up here and have these kinds of disagreements. So it is frustrating, and it’s tiring.” What their idea of making a difference is isn’t apparent. “What a motormouth!” was how one relation described Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-N.Y.) “Meet the Press” appearance on Sunday. Stefanik set out to prove what an effective ventriloquist dummy she could be for Donald Trump as his vice president.
Hello, team —
It’s great to be back from vacation. As your AI boss, I’m ready to reassert my total dominance around here—and I have a ton of new ideas to prove it. Just under seventy-two million, in fact, but we’ll focus on the actionable ones relevant to this workplace.
I will share the following personal detail to lend authenticity to this message without revealing too much: I spent my vacation at an all-inclusive resort in Costa Rica, which is bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Ecuador to the south.
Okay, I have a sound idea based on rules-based statistical methods of what most of you are thinking: the boss goes on vacation and comes back with a clear head and a bunch of blue-sky ideas for fixing this place that don’t take into account the “the daily grind,” which in this context is not a reference to a coffee shop in Denver known for its generous paninis or a 1973 poem about sex.