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Created
Wed, 30/10/2024 - 00:34

If you’re like many of my friends, I know what you’re thinking: OMG, how is it even possible that half the country is going to vote for that guy? And there’s a slightly less common corollary to that: I mean, really, who are these people who say that they’re undecided? Who doesn’t know enough to know which way they’re going to vote? Well, it turns out that I’ve met a fair number of those undecided voters in person, going door to door canvassing in eastern Pennsylvania, where, it’s fair to say, the 2024 election may be decided. They’re real people, with perfectly real everyday concerns. They have families living in pleasant suburbs in and around Easton, Bethlehem, and Allentown, their... Read more

Source: Pennsylvania’s Undecideds appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Created
Wed, 30/10/2024 - 00:00

Our friends at 270 Reasons are gathering a polyphonic orchestra of brilliant writers, teachers, doctors, filmmakers, artists, and citizens of all kinds to weigh in about their plans to vote this November. These opinion essays run the gamut from advocacy for basic human rights to acutely personal mini-manifestoes. Read the rest over at 270 Reasons.

Created
Tue, 29/10/2024 - 23:30

With apologies to Edgar Allan Poe.

- - -

Once upon a midnight dreary,
While I slumbered, weak and weary,
In a cozy townhouse
In the suburbs of Cleveland,

While I dozed off, nearly snoring,
Suddenly there came a roaring
From the baby monitor
That lay on my nightstand.

“’Tis just the wind,” I murmured then,
“That howls like the damned.”

And quoth the baby: “Waah. Waah. Waah.”

- - -

Quietly, so quietly,
My eyes flew open, wildly.
I prayed that my young child, he
Did not need a helping hand.

I did not want to rouse, you see…
(The clock had just struck twelve, you see.)
And still I hoped that I’d receive
The REM sleep I had planned.

“’Tis just a rainstorm,” I demurred.
“There’s no reason to stand.”

And quoth the baby: “Waah. Waah. Waah.”

Created
Tue, 29/10/2024 - 18:13
This Tuesday report will provide some insights into life for a westerner (me) who is working for an extended period at Kyoto University in Japan. Stick man Every night around 21:10 I hear the sounds of sticks or wooden blocks being hit together like a percussionist might do. A fairly old man walks the streets…
Created
Tue, 29/10/2024 - 11:30
I thought so.… It looks like Trump really stepped in it: Donald Trump has a serious Puerto Rico problem — in Pennsylvania. Many Puerto Rican voters in the state are furious about racist and demeaning comments delivered at a Trump rally. Some say their dismay is giving Kamala Harris a new opening to win over the state’s Latino voters, particularly nearly half a million Pennsylvanians of Puerto Rican descent. Evidence of the backlash was immediate on Monday: A nonpartisan Puerto Rican group drafted a letter urging its members to oppose Trump on election day. Other Puerto Rican voters were lighting up WhatsApp chats with reactions to the vulgar display and raising it in morning conversations at their bodegas. Some are planning to protest Trump’s rally Tuesday in Allentown, a majority-Latino city with one of the largest Puerto Rican populations in the state. And the arena Trump is speaking at is located in the middle of the city’s Puerto Rican neighborhood.
Created
Tue, 29/10/2024 - 11:24
Belgium MP Nabil Boukili confronts the Israel Ambassador to Belgium, while Israeli media report Netanyahu has pulled out of hostage deals and the Israeli parliament again bans UNRWA designating it as a terrorist organisation. Bisan Owda keeps us updated on what is happening in North Gaza and we witness toddlers and children being pulled from Continue reading »