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Created
Fri, 02/05/2025 - 22:00

The big 4-0. It was supposed to be a moment of reflection. A time to consider what the next chapter of life will hold.

But that morning of my fortieth birthday, something was different.

I awoke to a sharp, unsettling sensation, as though something in the universe had shifted and my very DNA had been altered. The low, almost imperceptible hum of a Fender Rhodes electric piano reverberated through my bones. The room was the same, but something felt… wrong. Almost…sinister.

I grabbed my phone, half-conscious, still trying to shake off sleep, when I saw it. The screen lit up like a portal to something foreign yet familiar. A doorway into a world of adult-oriented rock.

It was Steely Dan. Their entire discography. Every album, every track, downloaded without my consent. As if it had materialized overnight, as if it had come for me.

“I’m not a Steely Dan fan,” I said to my reflection in the mirror. “I’m a 2000s indie kid. I like the Strokes, and… some more recent bands I can’t name at the moment. I’m not some middle-aged dad.” Granted, I literally am forty and have kids, but you know what I mean.

Created
Fri, 02/05/2025 - 17:00
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May 2nd, 2025next

May 2nd, 2025: Every year I go to Toronto's Hot Docs film festival where I get to see a lot of documentary films. I've been doing it this year too!

Created
Fri, 02/05/2025 - 11:14

The overt replacement for the CIA’s foreign political action funding has transitioned back to covert funding, using ‘duty of care’ as a rationale. This article was originally published by Jack Poulson and Lee Fang at All-Source Intelligence. The National Endowment for Democracy, a U.S.-government backed nonprofit designed to influence the domestic politics of countries across the globe, says its efforts are part of a campaign to promote “open and transparent government.” The group, funded by Congress and working in tandem […]

The post The National Endowment for Democracy goes dark first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post The National Endowment for Democracy goes dark appeared first on The Grayzone.

Created
Fri, 02/05/2025 - 03:01

“Trump, who has argued that China will bear the brunt of his tariffs, acknowledged during a Cabinet meeting on April 30 that the duties may mean fewer—and more expensive—products available for American families. ‘You know, somebody said, “Oh, the shelves are going to be open,” Trump said. ‘Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of thirty dolls. And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally.’”MSN

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In our pursuit of economic freedom, the Trump administration’s position remains that income caps are essentially anticapitalist and discourage the pursuit of the American Dream, which, in simple terms, is to own more property and possessions than anyone else on the planet.

Imposing caps that punish hard work is un-American. What is American is telling children they can have only a grand total of two dolls—no more—and they will have to work to earn the money to pay for them.