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Will the Cuban revolution survive the storm of 2025?

https://thegrayzone.com/2025/01/01/cuban-revolution-survive-2025/
Created
Thu, 02/01/2025 - 06:37

Danny Shaw has been traveling to Cuba since 1995 in support of the country’s socialist revolution. Unsatisfied with the official proclamations and guided tours for international leftists, he embarked on a project of first-hand ethnographic research across the country over the decades. With a command of Cuban Spanish, Shaw wandered off the beaten path, independently evaluating conditions in the country. Surveying the perspectives of some of the most marginalized populations in Havana, he assesses their responses to the US unilateral […]

The post Will the Cuban revolution survive the storm of 2025? first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post Will the Cuban revolution survive the storm of 2025? appeared first on The Grayzone.

Stay Away From X

https://digbysblog.net/2025/01/01/stay-away-from-x/
Created
Thu, 02/01/2025 - 06:30
At this point we have very limited information about the attack in New Orleans last night. It’s a horrific assault which the authorities are saying they don’t believe was done as a lone act of terrorism. The story is unfolding and very little is known as yet except for the fact that the perpetrator was an American from Texas whom they think was flying an ISIS flag. If you’d been on Elon’s hellhole for the past few hours — or watching Fox News — you would have been told that he was an illegal immigrant who had come over the border unlawfully in the last few days, among other lies. I’m not going to speculate about what this is about but I wanted to alert everyone once more to the fact that Twitter is a cesspool of misinformation on any day but especially at times like these, much of it led by dishonest MAGA leaders. It’s a terrible space during any kind of emergency nowadays which is truly sad because it used to be so good. BlueSky doesn’t have the scale but if you got there at least you won’t be confronted with a bunch of MAGA weirdos, foreign bots and racist miscreants flooding the zone with lies.

Jealous Junior?

https://digbysblog.net/2025/01/01/jealous-junior/
Created
Thu, 02/01/2025 - 05:30
Remember yesterday when I called Elon the son Trump never had? Well… Donald Trump Jr. has trashed his father’s annual New Year’s Eve bash at Mar-a-Lago on his “Triggered with Don Jr.” podcast, calling it “amateur night” and saying guests have often treated him like a “freaking imbecile.” Footage of this year’s celebrations captured Donald and Melania Trump, running mate J.D. Vance (and his wife Usha) and partying MAGA supporters clapping and singing along to Village People’s “YMCA.” He was there but he wasn’t having any fun. Probably because Lara Trump was singing. And then there was this which angered Don Jr’s pals to no end: It seems his voters didn’t know about this, since he never mentioned it. In fact, he was on record opposing the H-1B visas for years: Many of the rubes won’t know about this or they’ll forgive him. But it’s caused a huge rift among the big MAGA grassroots leaders. It’s going to be a problem.

Trump Knows

https://digbysblog.net/2025/01/01/trump-knows/
Created
Thu, 02/01/2025 - 02:30
He’s the smartest broke billionaire in the room No superlatives are too bigly to describe El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago. Trump knows competence “I always felt we have to have the most competent people in our country. We need competent people. We need smart people coming into our country.” It takes a very stable genius to recognize other extraordinary people like RFK Jr. and foreign models. Trump knows social media Days ago, Trump filed an amicus brief on his desire to rescue TikTok from the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act that will likely ban the app in the U.S. on January 19. Even the Wall Street Journal found Trump’s argument preposterous. He wants the Court to treat him (a private citizen) as though he’s co-president with Joe Biden before being sworn in (Raw Story): “The brief is extraordinary in several ways, none of them good,” the board said, later adding: “Mr. Trump wants the Court to treat him as if he’s already President before he’s inaugurated.” Trump for all intents and purposes is a “private citizen” until he’s inaugurated, the board countered.

Big Yellow Kleptocracy

https://digbysblog.net/2025/01/01/big-yellow-kleptocracy/
Created
Thu, 02/01/2025 - 01:02
You don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone People with higher profiles have warned what could happen to this country under Donald Trump if he were reelected to the White House. I did so myself in 2024 here and here and here. Those three posts all referenced Michael Lewis’s “The Fifth Risk,” his celebration of selfless dedication, essentially, in public service by geeks more interested in mission than in money. Blasphemy! In a few short weeks, America will embark on a journey into the unknown. Dave Neiwert published “Alt America” in 2017 about the rise of the eliminationist alt-right movement. Trumpism, an expression of that movement, seeks not only to eliminate non-white immigrants but those very civil servants who make the nation you know the nation you know. Stephen E. Hanson and Jeffrey S. Kopstein consider what it means that Trump 2.0 will be staffed with incompetents and cronies chosen more for their loyalty to one man than to stewardship of the republic that will be 250 years old in 18 months. What Trump and those backing him intend for this country is not new, inventive, or an improvement on popular sovereignty.

Class Is Canceled Until Further Notice While I Do My Job

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/class-is-canceled-until-further-notice-whil…
Created
Thu, 02/01/2025 - 01:00


Our most-read article of 2024.

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Originally published March 27, 2024.

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Dear Students —

I am sorry to say that I will need to cancel all classes for an indeterminate length of time while I work on doing my job.

I realize you think that teaching is my job, but there are many other aspects to being a professor. In the unlikely event that you are curious about what else a professor might have to do, here are a few of the issues that need my attention.

The recent change to our course-management system has meant that I need to re-upload every document and assignment and reassign every homework. I will be attending three two-hour training sessions to help me do this. I was staying ahead of the class for the first few weeks, but I’ve finally lost that battle.

US judge awards pro-regime change journo Shane Bauer $113 million seized from Iran

https://thegrayzone.com/2025/01/01/journalist-shane-bauer-lawsuit-iran/
Created
Wed, 01/01/2025 - 19:25

UPDATE: U.S. District Senior Judge Richard J. Leon has awarded pro-regime change journalist Shane Bauer a whopping $113 million in money seized from Iran by the US sanctions regime. Together with his ex-wife, Sarah Shourd, and their friend, Joshua Fattal, Bauer sued the Iranian government for millions in damages they claim to have incurred during their two year-long imprisonment in Tehran. The three Americans were arrested by Iranian soldiers near the border of the Kurdistan region of Iraq in 2009. […]

The post US judge awards pro-regime change journo Shane Bauer $113 million seized from Iran first appeared on The Grayzone.

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Uh Oh

https://digbysblog.net/2024/12/31/uh-oh-3/
Created
Wed, 01/01/2025 - 11:30
I think we may have found out why Trump is suddenly talking about territorial expansion. Somebody mentioned a little history over dinner and YMCA at MAL and he got all excited. He thinks it will be his Louisiana Purchase and he’ll go down in history as bigger than Alexander the Great. Apropos of nothing: You’ll be glad to know that his minions are hard at work normalizing this lunacy: