Just another word for nothing left to know MSNBC hosts often contrast the fact-based reality here on “Earth One” with the Bizarro World inhabited by the denizens of the Trump personality cult, a parallel universe of “alternative facts.” Dante Atkins this morning reminds Twitter that conservative reactionaries’ efforts to “control the narrative,” as it were, are about more than political spin. They are about more than creating a world where facts don’t matter. They are about imposing a reality where all knowledge is proscribed, by them, where freedom to know and do things is eliminated, where freedom means its opposite. When they rail against “grooming,” Atkins suggests, what they really object to “is existing in public, because merely existing in public imparts knowledge that they do not want you to have.” This is the impulse behind the religious right’s home-school movement. Should parents have the right to educate their own children?
Reading
Big Finish has a trailer for Doctor Who: Once and Future - "The Artist at the End of Time" with Peter Davison, Georgia Tennant & Colin Baker.
To say that Devin Johnston is a master of the sound of poems is to narrow the conversation too much too soon, but it’s useful nonetheless as a starting point for understanding the distinguished power of this poetry. Here’s the beginning of “Tempers,” from Far-Fetched (2015):
Hot days, violent storms,
high clouds, cold rain.
*
Sheets and curtains cast
a white-diamond gloom.
Are you asleep?
Wind heaves
against the glass
and slow breathing
fills the room.
*
Soft pillows, soft
Blankets, soft sheets:
Her kiss? Sweet,
and hard enough
to crack your teeth.
Did the GOP lose its moral compass or ever have one? Thomas Friedman ponders how this country got to where it finds itself by posing several “what ifs”: What if Mitch McConnell, at the close of his scalding speech on the Senate floor blaming Donald Trump for the riot that occurred at the Capitol on Jan. 6, had promised to use his every last breath to ensure that Trump was convicted on impeachment charges and could never, ever become president again? What if Melania Trump, after the porn star Stormy Daniels said Trump had unprotected sex with her less than four months after Melania gave birth to their son, had thrown all of Trump’s clothes, golf clubs, MAGA hats and hair spray onto the White House lawn with this note, “Never come back, you despicable creep!” What if the influential evangelical leader Robert Jeffress, after Trump was caught on tape explaining that as a TV star he felt entitled to “grab” women in the most intimate places — or after Trump was found liable by a Manhattan jury of having done pretty much just that to E.
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Tom Mutch reports from Orikiv in Zaporizhzhia, an area with historic Russian ties, which has turned against Moscow after a reign of torture and terror
John Mitchinson explores what the novelist behind a 1759 masterpiece can teach us about the importance of marketing as a publisher
The Ohio senator quietly delayed the timeline for safer tank cars that regulators say could help prevent train spills like the one in East Palestine.
Recently back from Ukraine, scholar and researcher Rajan Menon shares his observations.
The post Ukraine on the Offensive appeared first on The Intercept.
- by Aeon Video
David and investigative journalist Leslie Kean discuss new revelations about the government’s potential knowledge of UFOs.
- by Lawrence Kramer
Underpaid, overworked, and struggling to hold up a health service in collapse. It was only a matter of time before junior doctors said enough is enough. Today, junior doctors in England are on strike, their third round of strike action since March, and plan a minimum of three days of industrial action each month throughout […]
With minimal parliamentary scrutiny, the Conservatives pass controversial changes to protest laws that could criminalise any disruptive demonstration
I’m on the SDConCast! Myself and editor Tom Peyer pop up on the video version of one of my favourite podcasts, the SDConCast, the chatty version of The San Diego Comic Con Unofficial Blog, who do great coverage in the run up to SDCC. We’re talking about Con and On, of course, and we appear […]
‘Stopping the boats’ and making immigration a key issue is the only strategy the Prime Minister has to keep a core Conservative base come the next election
The author is alive!
It sure is great that the Saudi royal family bought pro golf!
It’s Wednesday and as usual I consider a few topics in less depth than a single blog post, as a precursor to the music segment. Yesterday’s US inflation data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (June 13, 2023) – Consumer Price Index Summary – May 2023 – shows a further significant drop in the inflation…
Preparation time: 15 min.Chilling time: 1 hr. For busy days, consider this dessert-rum-flavored cream, studded with fruits and nuts, spread with a lavish hand over cake slices. It combines eye appeal with ease of preparation. If preferred, you can use fresh fruit instead of canned, depending on the season. For 4 servings you will need: […]
These cases are not the same If anyone things that Trump is being treated less fairly than Pence and Biden they need to realize that Trump is not being prosecuted for any of the highly sensitive documents he gave back to the government, first on his own and then in response to the subpeona. He is only being charged for the documents they found later when they issued a warrant. Biden and Pence have given back all the documents, no subpoena and no warrant necessary. If they were indicted for retaining those documents they would be being held to a higher standard than Trump. Read this piece by Eric Levitz which shows that the DOJ has actually given Trump an easier time than anyone else who did what he did. He runs down all the reasons the Clinton, Biden and Pence cases and makes the same point I made above. He then cites a particular case of an average citizen: [I]t is helpful to contrast the DOJ’s treatment of Trump with its handling of Asia Janay Lavarello, a former civilian employee of the Defense Department. In 2020, Lavarello was on assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Manila, where she had been researching a classified thesis.