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The little pigs are their own worst enemy. Don’t get me wrong, I want to support the little pigs. Plenty of folks like me sympathize with them, but their own actions are the biggest detriment to their cause.

The little pigs make a dramatic show of their new tactics. Fresh brick, rebar construction, double-paned windows—shiny new toys they are only too happy to play with.

What some little pigs do not understand is that they are alienating potential allies. Nobody wants to see a house made of brick. It’s selfish, unsightly, and turns would-be supporters into opponents.

Past movements were much more respectful. It seems like only yesterday the little pigs were building houses out of straw. Everyone on both sides of the issue understood where the little pigs were coming from. We might not have agreed on everything, but at least we saw eye to eye.

Thousands of students face severe consequences for protesting Gaza violence. Alan Macleod investigates the powerful financial and ideological ties to Israel driving the harsh responses from America’s top universities.

The post Follow the Money: How Israel-Linked Billionaires Silenced US Campus Protests appeared first on MintPress News.

Even the Sopranos weren’t this dumb On the last day of testimony in Trump’s NY hush money case, a dozen or so grasping Trump sycophants dressed in the official elite MAGA uniforms of a red tie and blue suit (the troops wear the red hats) all gathered in the Manhattan court house to show their solidarity with their Dear Leader. The group included the Texas Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick who weirdly excoriated “the ruling class” of which he and Donald Trump are very much members. SNL alum Joe Piscopo showed up as did former White House physician and current oddball congressman Ronny Jackson. Donald Trump Jr was there for the first time as well, apparently inspired to attend as a MAGA follower rather than a family member in support of his father. It’s become a daily self-abnegation ritual for those yearning to be on the inside of Trumpworld and that apparently includes his own son. If it weren’t for the boring blue suits and red ties, the daily tableau would be more reminiscent of a criminal gang than a political party.

Just a grift before I go Is it possible that the same affinity for conspiracy theories on the right (yes, the left has its own) accompanies the gullibility that makes conservatives fall for grifts? Charlie Kirk is selling Blackout Coffee, you know, for when “The world is in flames, and Bidenomics is a complete and total disaster,” and the liberal zombie apocalypse comes to turn you gay. There are some brands that cater to lefty sensibilities, writes Ali Breland at The Atlantic. But it’s the expansion of niche products for the conservative paranoid that has caught his attention: The ads reflect the new paradigm of advertising. In previous decades, ads had to appeal to whole segments of the population—and products were made with that in mind. That some readers of Vanity Fair might want a Givenchy handbag, and some readers of Sports Illustrated might want Callaway golf clubs, was as targeted as ads could get. Now the country has fractured into partisan subgroups, and companies have access to reams of analytics that enable them to target ever more precise demographics.

You read a poem and it awakens you to something that you already knew.

Poachers, when caught stealing content from our website, always blamed the theft on an “intern” or “freelancer.” We always pretended to believe them.

The post Ah yes, the famous “intern did it” syndrome appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

You gotta laugh to keep from crying One of MSNBC’s commentators remarked Tuesday on the “thugocracy” on display at Donald Trump’s criminal trial. A parade of characters has pilgrimaged to Lower Manhattan to display their fealty to Boss Trump. On the day his defense rested, they included Chuck Zito, former convict and former leader of the New York chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. Trump likes his “heavies.” Rachel Maddow remarked: The Hells Angels leader is a very large man wearing a very flamboyant suit with a big, dyed-black pompadour, and huge, gaudy jewelry on very large hands. And he’s sitting next to Boris Epshteyn, who kind of looks like his body double. And there’s Alan Dershowitz, and there’s other recognizable people. And there’s members of Congress and well-known lawyers. And everybody seems sort of, there is a sort of performative aspect to the way they’re behaving in court. It is very noticeable for those of us who are there observing as journalists. I don’t know if they’re catching the jury’s attention so much.

In this column, professional speechwriter Chandler Dean provides partly satirical, partly genuine “How To” advice focused on a hyper-specific subcategory of speeches—from graduation speeches to wedding toasts to eulogies, and all the rhetorical occasions in between.

Writing is already hard when everything is fine. But often, things are bad. Sometimes, for example, someone has died. And as if that person’s loved ones haven’t suffered enough, they are soon subjected to an afternoon of inexperienced public speaking.

Fundamentally, the process of writing a eulogy is surreal. For any other life event where you have to give a speech, no one would ever encourage you to wait until that week to start writing.

In "Boom," Steven Moffat reveals more of the slightly hidden lore of the 51st-century history he created in Doctor Who beginning in 2005.

Since Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine Central Asian states and the EU have been forging ties to end their reliance on the sanctioned country

Alert: This is Verizon letting you know that an unrecognized device, the only device you’ve ever used to sign in to our website, has logged into your account. Was that you? Was it??

We are freaking out over here. We have no idea if this device—your only device—was you logging in. For all we know, it could be anyone. It could be an enemy that you have. Is there an enemy you have who might’ve used a device we don’t know to log into your account? Or was it you?

It was you, right???

It might not be. That’s why we asked, Is “AUDREY FARNSWORTH MACBOOK AIR” you, Audrey Farnsworth? We don’t recognize this device, even though you have literally never used any other device to log into our website.

But that doesn’t mean it’s NOT possible that it wasn’t you. There is actually no way of us knowing that. We weren’t there, physically, to see the logging in. That’s why we’re asking. So, was it?

With news that senior Murdoch executives now face a civil trial, Peter Jukes looks back on a decade of deceit

In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: The Rookie, Walker, The Boys, X-Men '97, Smiling Friends, Starfleet Academy, The Acolyte, Doctor Who & more!

Clair Wills has long been among the most supple and illuminating explorers of the intertwined cultural histories of Ireland and Britain. She works in the intersections between social experience and literary representation, giving as much weight to supposedly ordinary lives as to momentous political events and artistic movements. That Neutral Island: A History of Ireland During […]

The post Making Sense of the Missing  appeared first on The New York Review of Books.

An animated day-in-the-life of this historic English county travels from market to dale to capture its northern essence

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

Just because you live in a body, doesn’t mean you feel at one with it. Embodiment psychology can help you reconnect

- by Elna Schütz

Read at Psyche

More young adults seek mental health treatment and struggle with affordability than older adults. Do economic factors play a role in worsening mental health indicators?