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In a sea of crazy Like being dipped in living waters. That’s what it’s like anymore to hear an actual expert testify on Capitol Hill instead of partisan shills. Imagine hearings without grandstanding and hectoring from Republicans such as those on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “World’s greatest deliberative body,” indeed. Roll Call: Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee spent a hearing Tuesday making the case for legislation that would put the Supreme Court under an ethics code if the justices didn’t do so themselves, but witnesses were split as to whether Congress has the power to do so. The backers of proposed bills argued that the justices have waited for too long to impose their own ethics code, exemplified by recent reports about undisclosed luxury trips and a real estate transaction Justice Clarence Thomas received from a billionaire GOP donor. Amanda Frost, a University of Virginia Law School professor, testified that the Constitution is silent about the internal workings of the Supreme Court and instead left it to Congress to establish the court’s size, budget and rules like a quorum.
There are four primary determinants of social hierarchy. They are productive ability, social ties, ideology and violent ability. All are affected by geography.
None of these operate in isolation. Productive ability directly affects violent ability. Ideology determines what people will and won’t do but over time tends to move towards what a Marxist would call material determinants, though that time can be a LONG time: it took about two thousand years for the early kings to rise after the introduction of agriculture, so the power of ideology, though not the only factor slowing adoption, shouldn’t be understated. Two thousand years shows a lot of resistance.
The rise and fall of digital pioneers Ben Smith is making the rounds to promote his new book, “Traffic.” The proprieter of the shuttering BuzzFeed News told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Tuesday night he did not aniticpate, in its infancy, what digital media would do to legacy media and politics. The pursuit of clicks contained in the BuzzFeed name came to define the goal of social media. That business model was the digital equivalent of “if it bleeds, it leads.” I recall once sitting in a packed Netroots Nation workshop on writing clickbait headlines to attract eyeballs before clickbait was a word and swiftly became a four-letter one. Smith did not forsee in those days what the lefties’ tech tools that gave rise to Jezebel or Huffington Post would become in the hands of the radical right. I recall, too, that Right Online, the onetime conservative shadow to Netroots, was thought a joke by our younger attendees. Right Online seemed a collection or hopelessly unhip retirees in the digital age trying still learning to turn on a computer and manipulate a cursor. That was then.
Part of what’s devastating about Jennifer Grotz’s Still Falling, her fourth full-length collection, is the calm, piercing exactitude of her renderings. Her language is supple, clear-eyed, neither showy nor minimalist, evincing an almost journalistic fidelity to the real—a fidelity that simultaneously allows her to leap and associate in dazzling, unexpected ways. She has the spiritual ranginess of W. S. Merwin or her teacher Adam Zagajewski, but also their consistency: you pick up a Jennifer Grotz book because you want to hear that voice again, and again. She’s making some of the finest work of our times. Maybe it’s no surprise, then, given these times, that her newest sweep of poems—Still Falling—is a cataract of grief, a cascade of elegy that is as quietly ecstatic as it is undaunted, steady, loving life as it mourns. There are echoes of Ellen Bryant Voigt in the opening sequence, which takes its measure, its beginning, from a bewildered memory of leaving behind a lover—of having to go, even as so much in the speaker of the poem yearns not to. As she drives away, the voice wonders:
Here's what Big Finish has in store for its 60th anniversary event as Tom Baker returns for Doctor Who - Once and Future Ep. 1: Past Lives.
We were very disappointed when our Airbnb rental turned out to be just the space underneath a table at a Red Lobster restaurant. We’d been led to believe that our rental would be a stand-alone room, including a bed, walls, and a door. By the time we realized the true state of our accommodations, there were no remaining hotel vacancies in the area and we were stuck under the table for the duration of our five-day vacation.
Our stay was unsatisfying for numerous reasons, the lack of privacy being chief among them. Since it was our honeymoon, my wife and I looked forward to being intimate without an audience of strangers, but that proved impossible under the Red Lobster table. Most diners who noticed us seemed alarmed and not always receptive to sharing the space.
At one point, I was repeatedly kicked in the neck by a restless toddler. Another time, a diner spilled coleslaw in my wife’s hair and she had to rinse off with half-drunk water glasses from the table. Though it was never explicitly stated, we’d been under the impression that bathrooms with showers would be included in the rental.
Andrew Kersley speaks to a man awaiting the bailiffs as campaigners warn that cuts to housing services are leaving vulnerable people desperately unsupported
I’m sat here at Costa Coffee in Paddington waiting for the 10:30 to Totnes.
I walked a good few miles yesterday exploring the back-alleys, greenways, footpaths and canal paths from Muswell Hill through Hornsey and down along the Regent Canal. I just love walking …
A new report lifts the lid on the urgent need for a strategy on how this ignored group can be supported to lead fulfilling lives
Just three media groups dominate the national newspaper market – and help shape our political narrative, while the Government has failed to act against 'lawfare', a new report finds
Historian Alfred W. McCoy discusses China’s rapid economic and political rise and how Beijing is well positioned to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.
The post China, the Peacemaker? appeared first on The Intercept.
- by Aeon Video
- by Laura Niemi, Jesse Graham & John M Doris
- by Psyche Film
It’s Wednesday, and we have a few observations on recent events including a music feature. But the main issue in the last 24 hours is the decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to add an 11th interest rate increase at a time when inflation is falling significantly. As I noted last week, the…
Okay THIS is the REAL sci-fi technology.
Sun's out, guns out.
2 cups fresh, cooked asparagus2 (7-ounce size) jars pimentos, drained½ cup skim milk2 raw asparagus spears, to garnish2 lemon slices Place first 3 ingredients in blender container; process at medium speed until puréed. Place puréed mixture in saucepan. Cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Pour evenly divided into 2 glasses. Garnish each serving with […]
Witches Contest The randomly-chosen winners of a digital copy of The Witches of World War 2 are: Paul Conway. Ken Norton. Taylor Nelson. Colin O’Mahoney. Ron Murphy. Thanks to everyone who took part. The Witches of World War 2 is Out Now #ThisMagicKillsFascists My new original graphic novel from TKO Studios, The Witches of World War […]
French authorities are detaining demonstrators without filing charges as public anger persists over President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular hike in the retirement age.
The post French Police Are Sweeping Up Protesters and Bystanders in Crackdown on Dissent appeared first on The Intercept.
The activists face 20 years in prison for handing out flyers that identified a cop they said was linked to the killing of a protester in the Atlanta forest.
The post Activists Face Felonies for Distributing Flyers on “Cop City” Protester Killing appeared first on The Intercept.