Kevin Drum adds: There is, obviously, not much that can be done about the fact that Biden reads as old. But having now listened to a number of Biden’s recent speaking gigs, there’s really no question that this is solely about his physical appearance. Cognitively, Biden is perfectly normal. The worst he ever does is the occasional verbal flub, a longtime Biden habit. Agree with him or not, he says what he means to say and has obviously run the White House to his own specifications. He withdrew from Afghanistan despite internal qualms. He continued negotiating with Joe Manchin even though much of his staff hated the guy. He is staunchly pro-Israel in the face of a virtual staff revolt. He thinks Xi Jinping is a dictator and has repeated this through the grimaces of his Secretary of State. Contrast that with Donald Trump, who doesn’t read as old but can barely remember who the president is, who he’s run against in the past, and how many world wars we’ve had. We can either have the charade of an active president with a deteriorating mind behind it, or we can have an actual active president with a strong mind but physical limitations.
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Now that we've seen Russell T. Davies & David Tennant's Doctor Who/BBC Children in Need scene, here's a look behind the scenes & new images.
Is social media fueling the economic angst This explains things a little bit to me: Look at economic data, and you’d think that young voters would be riding high right now. Unemployment remains low. Job opportunities are plentiful. Inequality is down, wage growth is finally beating inflation, and the economy has expanded rapidly this year. Look at TikTok, and you get a very different impression — one that seems more in line with both consumer confidence data and President Biden’s performance in political polls. Several of the economy-related trends getting traction on TikTok are downright dire. The term “Silent Depression” recently spawned a spate of viral videos. Clips critical of capitalism are common. On Instagram, jokes about poor housing affordability are a genre unto themselves. Social media reflects — and is potentially fueling — a deep-seated angst about the economy that is showing up in surveys of younger consumers and political polls alike. It suggests that even as the job market booms, people are focusing on long-running issues like housing affordability as they assess the economy.
Doctor Who: David Tennant's 14th Doctor appears in a Russell T. Davies-penned scene for BBC Children in Need to answer a key Dalek question.
NYU and Human Rights Watch accidentally doxxed up to 8,000 victims, journalists, and activists due to a basic security error.
The post Online Atrocity Database Exposed Thousands of Vulnerable People in Congo appeared first on The Intercept.
Joseph LeDoux on writing his new book, "The Four Realms of Existence: A New Theory of Being Human."
The post My 3 Greatest Revelations appeared first on Nautilus.
‘Daddy, I love you very much’. Those were the last words of Gordon Wilson’s daughter, Marie, on the 8 of November 1987. Both Gordon and Marie had been attending a Remembrance Day parade in the Northern Irish town of Enniskillen when a bomb exploded, planted by the Provisional IRA just behind the cenotaph. Buried under […]
While the Israel-Gaza horror carries on, Biden and Xi manage to thaw the frozen relationship with China a little bit This David Sanger piece is a nice succinct rundown of the summit this week Between Biden and Xi: When President Biden met President Xi Jinping on Wednesday on the edges of Silicon Valley, there was a subtle but noticeable shift in the power dynamic between two countries that have spent most of the past few years denouncing, undercutting and imposing sanctions on each other. For the first time in years, a Chinese leader desperately needed a few things from the United States. Mr. Xi’s list at the summit started with a revival of American financial investments in China and a break in the technology export controls that have, at least temporarily, crimped Beijing’s ability to make the most advanced semiconductors and the artificial intelligence breakthroughs they enable. All this may explain why Mr.
The horrors in Gaza are just one part of Israel’s unified system of controlling Palestinians from the river to the sea.
The post Different Tactics, Same War: The Perils of Treating Israel’s West Bank Offensive as Separate From Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
Give yourself one point for each answer yes.
1. Are your pants unbuttoned before the appetizer is even put on the table?
2. Are you wearing a pilgrim hat and drinking your fourth High Noon?
3. Did you loudly ask what the turkey’s pronouns were, then smirk into your Modelo?
4. Did you explain the origins of the holiday to the children’s table using one to three racist terms?
5. When called out for using one to three racist terms, did you then proceed to use four more?
6. Did you walk into the kitchen and say, “How you girls doin’ with the cooking?”
7. Did you also ask if they’ve been “slaving away”?
8. Then call them “busy beavers”?
9. Instead of eating the home-cooked meal, did you pull out a bag of Ancestral Supplements because you’re on the Liver King’s hunter-and-gatherer diet?
10. Did you just spend a single semester in England, and call the can of cranberry sauce a “tin,” then compliment your cousin on her “jumper”?
Calling out China for its persecution of Uighurs is not to be a Sinophobic racist. Calling out Myanmar for its crimes against Rohingya people is not to be anti-Buddhist. Calling out Saudi Arabia and Egypt for their murder and suppression of dissidents is not to be Islamophobic or anti-Arab. And calling out Israel for its Continue reading »
In recent weeks some frightening possibilities have come to the world’s attention. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has noted plans, by some, for high density Jewish cities in the Gaza Strip. Such plans call for total destruction and mass expulsion in Gaza. Other plans include reducing the Gaza Strip to its southern part only, to which Continue reading »
The US national security establishment has long-standing, pervasive and influential linkages with civil and military bureaucracies throughout the world who see their primary role not as serving their own governments but subordinating them to the interests of the United States. There is need for constant vigilance against this enemy within. It’s a familiar story, and Continue reading »
The Albanese government is about to have to make a really important decision. It’s going to have to decide what’s more important: supporting Australians who are financially under water, or keeping an election promise. And it’ll have to do it soon. It’s already working on its May budget, now just six months away. That choice Continue reading »
Labor is too naïve in dealing with Dutton; how Canberra smooths the path for well-heeled lobbyists; how the “cost of living” obsession obscures serious social and economic fault lines; the RBA graded by an aged academic, and how to identify a conservative. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and Continue reading »
In the 1990s, in an Aboriginal community near Alice Springs a young boy, aged about nine, and I stood looking at some soft, waving, light-filled spinifex, seemingly floating over the deep red earth. See? he said. I shook my head. I was blind to the possibilities right in front of me. The period between the Continue reading »
In Indonesia old soldiers never die; they just infiltrate civic affairs, then grab jobs from the worthy and talented young, slowing the economy. After two decades of being confined to barracks, the Indonesian army is marching back into civil and political life in a country that claims to be a democracy. This is bad news for smart Continue reading »