Reading

Created
Sat, 06/04/2024 - 01:39
Rebecca Solnit speaks with Anand Giridharadas It’s a feature of our minds that we remember the coincidences, the little serendipities, and quickly forget events in life that, but for a second here or there, might have radically altered our lives, Brian Klaas writes in “Fluke.” We also too easily forget what’s accomplished and obsess over what’s not. “One thing I have taken to saying a lot is that amnesia leads to despair and it also leads to powerlessness,” Rebecca Solnit tells Anand Giridharadas. “People don’t trace the trajectory of change.” I find that a feature of some on the left, the humorless glass-half-empty set I sometimes refer to as left-wing fundamentalists. At The Ink, Solnit traces some of the many accomplishments progressive organizers have won over the last decade or so on human rights and on climate. But they are quickly forgotten as we tackle issues yet unresolved. “I think that a lot of American hopelessness, despair, cynicism, and defeatism is so tied to the inability to trace the arc of change,” Solnit says.
Created
Sat, 06/04/2024 - 01:25

Green Party Presidential candidate Dr.Jill Stein joins Mint Press director and host of the MintCast podcast Mnar Adley to talk about Dr. Stein's position on Gaza, the two-party system, US militarism, climate change and her campaign objectives

The post Presidential Candidate Jill Stein On Gaza, The Two-Party System and US Militarism appeared first on MintPress News.

Created
Sat, 06/04/2024 - 00:00
Inhumanity is policy on Day 1 Donald Trump and his MAGA followers find community in “rejoicing in the anguish of those they see as unlike them,” Adam Serwer wrote in 2018. If Republicans reoccupy the White House in 2025, they plan to make a formal project of it. The Biden-Harris campaign wants to be sure you don’t miss that. We are all horrified by Israeli policy in Gaza, and by President Joe Biden’s tardiness in issuing a “tense” ultimatum to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “protect Palestinian civilians and foreign aid workers” (Reuters): “There was always going to be a point at which the Biden administration felt that the domestic and international cost of supporting Israel’s campaign in Gaza outweighed the benefit of what Israel was able to achieve on the ground,” said Mike Singh, a former National Security Council official on the Middle East. “What is remarkable is not that this is happening but that it took so long.” “Israel is better than the way this war is being waged. It is better than blocking food and medicine to civilians.
Created
Sat, 06/04/2024 - 00:00

Though her family sometimes received food stamps and occasionally had their utilities cut off, Marcie Alvis Walker’s parents led her to believe that they were an average middle-class Black family. They encouraged her to pursue her dreams and told her that if she worked hard enough, she’d achieve them. The small catch was that Walker’s dream was an elusive one for any cash-strapped and undereducated Black woman: being a New York Times–bestselling author. Now, as a published non-bestselling author, she wishes she’d had a backup plan.

Created
Fri, 05/04/2024 - 23:02

Hello,

It’s the Democrats. The 2044 election is fast approaching, and we need your support now more than ever. It is the most important election of our lifetimes.

We know it feels like we’re always saying that this presidential election is the most important election of our lifetimes. But we wouldn’t be saying that if it wasn’t true each and every time. Especially this time.

As you’ll recall, the 2024 election was the most important election of our lifetimes, just as the 2020 election had been the most important election of our lifetimes. It was only through tireless grassroots organizing that Joe Biden prevailed. The grave threat posed to our democracy by Donald Trump was (narrowly) defeated, and America was wrested from the jaws of authoritarianism.

At least, for four more years.

Created
Fri, 05/04/2024 - 20:59
In the wake of the sentencing of SBF last week there were two mighty takedowns of effective altruism: one (here) “The Deaths of Effective Altruism Sam Bankman-Fried is finally facing punishment. Let’s also put his ruinous philosophy on trial” by Leif Wenar (Stanford) at Wired; the other and better written, “Neo-Utilitarians Are Utter Philistines” by Justin Smith-Ruiu (Paris) at his […]