Reading

Halloween

Michael Myers breaks through your front door. He informs you that your son volunteered you to bring a “homemade sweet treat” to the kindergarten holiday parade, which is in two hours.

Psycho

You hit it off with a cute guy and agree to move in with him. He neglects to tell you he lives with his Mother.

Rosemary’s Baby

You’re pregnant with the devil’s baby. Your husband won’t stop saying, “We’re pregnant with the devil’s baby.”

Us

You meet your exact double—almost. She’s slightly taller and prettier than you. She just got engaged to a more handsome version of your boyfriend. The rock on her finger is enormous.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Leatherface careens toward you with his rusty chainsaw. He gives you lopsided microbangs.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Against your will, you fall asleep. Freddy Krueger makes you dream about the time you dinged the car mirror and your dad yelled at you.

The voting system for Mayoral and PCC elections could return to a more proportional system, reversing changes allegedly designed to benefit the Conservative Party

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee sent out a statement this week drawing attention to the fact that the Trump campaign is dragging its feet with respect to the presidential transition process in which both candidates are expected to participate in anticipation of a possible win in November. Generally they start months ahead of time to get a head start on vetting people for staffing the large number of political appointee jobs throughout the administration and coordinating with the current staff to ensure a smooth transition to the new presidency. So far, the Trump team has missed two important deadlines to sign agreements to get it started. Trump, you may recall, doesn’t respect this process very much, having fired his first transition team right after the election in 2016. And he prevented the Biden team from accessing the process in 2020 while he contested the election dangerously delaying them from getting started. However, one might think it’s a bit odd for them to do that this time since once you sign the papers you have access to money and services that make the whole thing easier.

Cruz’s opponent, Rep. Colin Allred, is no crypto foe, but the industry heavily favors Republicans.

The post Crypto PAC Throws a Lifeline to Ted Cruz in Tightening Senate Battle appeared first on The Intercept.

Facing a manpower crisis, the Israeli army struggles with low morale and desertion as soldiers question objectives in Gaza, while reports surface of a possible ceasefire with Hamas.

The post ‘The Platoons Are Empty’: Israeli Army Battles Low Morale, Soldier Defections appeared first on MintPress News.

Tyler Perry’s analogy We are a quilt in this country, Tyler Perry told a Kamala Harris rally in Atlanta on Thursday. A nation of immigrants. “We are all shapes, sizes and colors, but we are one.” Look, unless you are a Native American, you and your people came from somewhere else. And even indigenous people on this continent came from somewhere else. Just over 20,000 years before Donald Trump and his America Firsters arrived. I mean, if we’re claiming privilege based on who was here first? But no. MAGA wants it all. Perry launched a pointed barb against Donald Trump and his MAGA movement, saying he voted for a candidate who understands that America is a quilt. “And I could never stand with a candidate who wants America to be a sheet.” Perry paused to let the dual meaning sink in. The crowd didn’t miss it in Atlanta, Georgia.

Unpacking the reasons why working-class Democratic stalwarts are shifting their alliance to Trump.

The riots that gripped the UK this August were heavily inspired by anti-Muslim agitator Tommy Robinson. His rise to prominence is largely the product of the North American Zionist lobby, representing a clear break with traditional far-right British activism. A wave of anti-Muslim and anti-migrant riots which consumed British society in racist violence this August were fomented almost entirely by a self-proclaimed “counter-Jihad” activist who goes by the moniker Tommy Robinson. This October 26, Robinson will return to the public […]

The post How the Israel lobby fueled the rise of Britain’s top anti-Muslim chaos agent first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post How the Israel lobby fueled the rise of Britain’s top anti-Muslim chaos agent appeared first on The Grayzone.

Peter Jukes looks at the mounting evidence that Elon Musk is using his social media platform as a vector to attack Ukraine and support Putin’s murderous invasion

Some topics deserve a mention but not a full article and that’s what quick takes are for.

***

This blog is for understanding the present, making educated guesses at the future, and telling truths, usually unpleasant ones. There aren’t a lot of places like this left on the Web. Every year I fundraise to keep it going. If you’d like to help, and can afford to, please Subscribe or Donate.

***

I’ve written about US ship building problems before, but it’s not just about that, the Navy is retiring ships faster than they are being built. (And yes, China is building them way faster than it is retiring them.)

Before Rawls’ shadow in left-liberal political philosophy there was Arnold S. Kaufman (1927-1971), who died when his airplane collided with a military jet while traveling (recall this post). While there is no Wikipedia page devoted to him, Kaufman was rather famous during the 1960s because of his involvement with the student movement at the University […]

Biennial Republican celebration October is normally leaf-looker season here in the Cesspool of Sin. But after Hurricane Helene’s tragic visit last month, not this year. (We can’t drink the water yet and victims are still missing.) But neither rain, nor snow, neither darkness of heart nor climate change-spawned natural disaster will stop MAGAland’s celebration of migrant caravan season. Republicans celebrate biennially, like clockwork, observes The New Republic’s Greg Sargent. Caravan season may not be an October surprise these days, but it is an October miracle. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York is chair of the House Republican Conference. And by Jiminy, she will “stop the madness” by electing a madman. A Customs and Border Patrol spokesperson tells Newsweek: “We are aware of recent reports of a migrant caravan that has materialized in Southern Mexico, as we hear about several times per year.”

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.

Because She Won’t Eliminate the Department of Education

I’m the kind of woman JD Vance finds doubly disturbing: a childless cat lady who is also a public school teacher. Does he know that, regardless of whether they have their own children or not, teachers refer to their students as “my kids”? After all, we care for them six hours a day, 180 days a year. And even after they leave our classroom, our students continue to be “our kids.”

It’s a platform, right? A platform you stand on. Not too big, not too small. Platform-sized. You get the picture. The platform is flat. I guess that goes without saying. Who ever heard of a slanted platform? A slanted platform is a ramp. A ramp is not what I’m pitching.

Wait! The platform has walls! Four walls, to be exact. Also, a roof. Well, more of a ceiling. A roof is a ceiling from the outside. But this platform is inside. Inside, with four walls and a ceiling. An enclosed platform, is the basic gist. A fully enclosed platform.

Also, remember when I said there were four walls? I was kind of stretching the truth, because—wait for it—one of those walls is actually a door. Not a revolving door, mind you, or a screen door. A screen door would make no sense in this situation. It’s also not any kind of door with hinges or a knob. “A door without a knob?” you’re asking yourself. “This guy is nuttier than a cashew farm!” Just bear with me. The door on this platform is what you might call a sliding door. A sliding door made of two metal slabs that come together and open up on their own.

Anti-migrant activist detained by police ahead of a London demonstration, as his online following surges due to promotion by 'X' owner Elon Musk

The headlines about Chris Kaba tell us more about the society and media in this country than his killing

The economy is the most important issue for voters in the US Presidential Elections, with 40 million people living below the poverty line and new homelessness records being set.

Darius’s 100-mile run is a testament to the distances people can go – physically and mentally – after a lifetime of feeling lost

- by Psyche Film

Watch at Psyche

For all the promise and dangers of AI, computers plainly can’t think. To think is to resist – something no machine does

- by Alva Noë

Read at Aeon

Dan, a former student of mine and now an academic, activist and friend, is referring to the regular rallies that are taking place across the world in response to Israel’s annihilation of Gaza. We are talking, at my instigation, about the character of those gatherings; and while in some ways it feels indecent to focus... Continue Reading →

On a bleak industrial state outside Fremantle, Simon Gilby is smiling broadly, waving me up towards the spacious unit that temporarily serves as his artistic studio. His advice was to wrap up warm, which I’ve done, though I notice that Gilby himself is wearing a motorcycle jacket so spectacularly derelict a gust of wind may... Continue Reading →