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This is how half the country becomes inured to blatant corruption: That is Fox News blithely normalizing Trump’s flagrant corruption. No biggie. Just Trump trying to bribe the oil industry into giving him a billion dollars. What’s the problem? It’s not that this sort of quid pro quo wasn’t implicit in the past. But they used to couch it in the idea that they were ideologically aligned and never made such a blatant pitch for specific “deliverables” in exchange for cash. You have to love the fact that the “oil man” told this reporter that a billion dollars in exchange for destroying regulations isn’t really a good deal. I guess they’re negotiating. But hey, why not? There’s no further need to pretend that the Republican party has any integrity. It’s all for sale and they’re fine with it.

Veruca Salt: Like Captain Ahab, you are defined by an all-absorbing monomaniacal obsession: to find comfortable shoes that aren’t hideous.

Pavement: You spent your twenties watching movies off the Criterion Collection to impress boys, and it actually worked, so now you’re stuck with plotless black-and-white subtitled movies forever.

Smashing Pumpkins: You’ve disowned family members because they weren’t supportive enough of your career (i.e., they stopped buying the rash-inducing makeup and/or piss-scented essential oils from your MLM company).

Nirvana: You could never be one of those stereotypical soccer moms. (Your kids play lacrosse.)

Nine Inch Nails: You’re learning to pretend that gardening is an adequate replacement for the sexual adventures of your youth.

Eve 6: You go to PTA meetings just so you can whisper “critical race theory” into the microphone and then slip out the back door amid the pandemonium.

Where are all of his ecstatic supporters? There have been a lot of raised eyebrows over the fact that with the exception of one appearance by his son Eric, Donald Trump’s family is not present to support him at his criminal trial in Manhattan. Normally you would see the wife and the adult kids lined up behind the defendant to show a united front, even if the subject at hand was uncomfortable. After all, there really isn’t such a thing as a pleasant criminal trial but it’s just something that is commonly done and I would certainly have thought that it would be wise in this case, since he’s running for president and all. It would have been especially useful to at least see Melania and Ivanka playing the trad-wife and loyal daughter suggesting by their presence that their man can do no wrong in their eyes. They’re supposed to be Republicans, after all. But how could they? Everyone knows that his cultivated image of a wealthy playboy who wined and dined beautiful women like he was some kind of matinee idol is another one of his lies.

The Doctor and Ruby are on the run from Jinkx Monsoon's Maestro in this preview clip from Disney+ & BBC's Doctor Who, "The Devil's Chord."

How frosty pockets in valleys could help protect some trees against climate change.

The post A Buffer Zone for Trees appeared first on Nautilus.

An open letter from government attorneys questions the legal cover for arms transfers to Israel.

The post Even Biden’s Lawyers Are Urging the White House to Change Course on Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.

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Cowardly, yes Donald Trump is not invincible in spite of MAGA mythology, explains Jamelle Bouie: In the folk wisdom of recent American politics, Donald Trump is a figure of herculean invulnerability to traditional scandal. What lands as a crippling blow to most politicians leaves nary a scratch on Trump, who effortlessly deflected the slings and arrows of the 2016 presidential campaign and paid no discernible price for the “Access Hollywood” tape, his racism or his general incoherence. There has long been a “please don’t hit me” reflex among established Democrats, a conditioned, abused-spouse behavior. Don’t make Daddy mad. Don’t impeach him. Don’t hold him accountable. You’ll just make him stronger. And madder. Bouie offers some examples. Now on trial in Manhattan, Trump is grinding his teeth to nubs over humiliating descriptions of his sexual encounter with Stormy Daniels, about the age of his daughter Ivanka. Yet the myth of his invulnerability is rising again, like the South. Even so: Let’s look at the situation as it stands.

In this column, Kristen Mulrooney writes letters to famous mothers from literature, TV, and film whom she finds herself relating to on a different level now that she’s a mom herself.

Dear Mrs. Pike,

I hope all is well in sunny Stoneybrook, Connecticut. The school year is coming to an end and like me, you’re probably gearing up for summer vacation. Personally, I’m feeling pretty anxious about having to keep the kids busy for eleven straight weeks. Summer break with your eight kids… that must be tough, right? Right, Mrs. Pike? Answer the question.

Mike Johnson: Integrity Patriot It’s election year again, so voter fraud fraudsters are again flinging smoke bombs into newsrooms and shouting, “Fire!” By the time the smoke clears and no fire is found, they’ve gotten their headlines and reinforced the notion among viewers that all-but-nonexistent voter fraud is a huge problem. Speaker Mike Johnson (R), flanked by other Republican election integrity patriots outside the Capitol Wednesday, announced a bill to make voting by noncitizens illegaler than it is already. In apparent exchange for Donald Trump’s blessing, the Louisiana congressman committed to addressing the non-problem in a manner, writes Philip Bump, that “blends two of Trump’s favorite strawmen: illegal voters and immigrants.” He offered several “incorrect or misleading” reasons for the proposed legislation.

Bonnie Langford and Jacqueline Rayner have written Doctor Who: Death in the Stars, a murder mystery novel featuring companion Mel Bush.

I only have 137 days until my wedding, but I’m starting to worry I won’t finish all of the planning. You see, my mom just cashed in decades worth of goddamned Mother’s Day coupons. All at once.

Let me back up—I was a small, cute child with no money and a dream: a dream to give, honor, and celebrate. Mother’s Day coupons were the perfect way to show Mom what she meant to me. But now, I curse childhood me as I sit here wiping the baseboards of her study. It’s just Lavender & Sea Breeze Mrs. Meyers and me—for the sixth time this week. It’s only Tuesday.

I often wondered why she held on to those expertly crafted coupons, never cashing in a single one. I used to think, “Aw, she loves all of my artwork,” or “She’s saving these to show her grandkids,” but now I know she was waiting and plotting. Just when I thought I’d reached adulthood and started a family of my own, I’m being pulled back.

I sneeze from the baseboard dust and grumble, “Why, Mom, why?”

In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Revival, Bosch: Legacy, Apple, SNL, The Rookie, Doctor Who, Batman: Caped Crusader, Smiling Friends & more!

This week on Lever Time, we look at the forces inside the White House steering Biden’s Israel policy and hear how the war has played out on the ground in Israel and Gaza.

Meet the former government officials and intelligence operatives at the heart of New Lines as investigative journalist Alan MacLeod sheds light on the “independent” think tank’s true agenda and motivations.

The post From PropOrNot to New Lines: How Washington is Weaponizing Media appeared first on MintPress News.

In the early morning of April 30, 2024, we liberated Hamilton Hall at Columbia University. Nearly two weeks earlier, hundreds of people had constructed the…