Reading

Created
Wed, 15/11/2023 - 01:00
Jay Rosen’s reporting principle As tedious as it is commenting on Donad Trump’s latest verbal atrocities, as well as on the relentless 2024 horse-race coverage in the press, it would be far more tedious seeing Trump abolish the United States if given half a chance. Or any Republican Trump wannabes, for that matter. I’m already musing about bumper stickers. ABOLISH AMERICA | VOTE TRUMP. Four words. NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen has a six-word formulation for how the press should be reporting the 2024 presidential race instead of its reflexive horse-race framing: “Not the odds, but the stakes.” That’s my shortand for the organizing principle we most need from journalists covering the 2024 election. Not who has what chances of winning, but the consequences for our democracy. Rosen thinks (in this case, anyway) Axios gets it right. Stakes: “I am more worried for America today than I was on January 6,” Michael Luttig tells the Guardian.
Created
Wed, 15/11/2023 - 00:00

Introduction

So you’ve mastered going tinkle while sitting on your bottom. It may seem that there is little more to achieve in affairs of the potty. On the contrary. I have perfected the art of balancing on two feet while making a pee-pee, and this is my MasterClass.

Fundamentals

The foundation of going pee-pee whilst upright is pulling down one’s pants and big-boy undies. It is a common misconception that one should undress completely. Far from it, pants and big-boy undies must be lowered to the ankles. Do not neglect this critical step, for this is what activates the pee-pee.

To Grip or Not to Grip

One must cultivate the discipline never to grip one’s wee wee. Like a garden hose, it must whip around autonomously. Both hands must either rest upon the hips, or else be positioned in front of the wee wee to intercept the stream for research purposes.

There is one exception that goes without saying: one may hold and point one’s wee wee up at one’s face to get a view of the pee hole at just the moment it fires.

Created
Tue, 14/11/2023 - 23:00

Joe Biden’s response to the Hamas attacks of October 7 was to fuse the wars in Israel and Ukraine into a single struggle. Immediately after he returned from his visit to Tel Aviv, where he had both literally and figuratively embraced Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden addressed the US public from the Oval Office. “You know,” he […]

The post Biden’s Selective Outrage appeared first on The New York Review of Books.

Created
Tue, 14/11/2023 - 12:17
This Tuesday report will provide some insights into life for a westerner (me) who is working for several months at Kyoto University in Japan. Culture Day – Kyoto Botanical Gardens – November 3, 2023 Friday, November 3 was Culture Day in Japan – a public holiday and a time where all sorts of activities depicting…
Created
Tue, 14/11/2023 - 11:00
Mary Trump Barry died today. She was known as the protective big sister toward Donald but she knew what he was. His niece Mary Trump spoke with her about him for her book and recorded the conversation. It was something: Maryanne Trump Barry was serving as a federal judge when she heard her brother, President Trump, suggest on Fox News, “maybe I’ll have to put her at the border” amid a wave of refugees entering the United States. At the time, children were being separated from their parents and put in cramped quarters while court hearings dragged on. “All he wants to do is appeal to his base,” Barry said in a conversation secretly recorded by her niece, Mary L. Trump. “He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this.” Barry, 83, was aghast at how her 74-year-old brother operated as president. “His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God,” she said. “I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying.
Created
Tue, 14/11/2023 - 09:30
Nothing else matters Philip Bump takes on the age old question of whether Trump is pushing fascism because he believes it or if he’s just a sadistic narcissist who gravitates to it like a moth to flame without understanding any of it. I vote for the latter: There’s a forgotten moment from Donald Trump’s history that I think about with some regularity. About two decades ago, Trump got into a fight with the town of Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., over a flagpole he installed at his golf course there. The pole was installed without a permit and the height violated local codes. This was not the fight he had centered on an oversized flag installed at Mar-a-Lago — a story that became part of the Trump-as-patriot lore of his followers, with details exaggerated in service to the idea that he put the display of the flag above all else.