What a turnaround in just a couple of days. I’m following this very closely and I think I’ve finally lost the thread. Josh Marshall feels the same way: I don’t pretend to even understand the moving parts of how this is supposed to work. But almost out of the blue Speaker Mike Johnson has decided to go all-in on an aide package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. As this started to come into view over the last two or three days I had a number of TPM Readers write in to say, why is this happening? What’s the catch? Or why is walking the plank like this. What is he sacrificing his Speakership for? And I don’t have a really good answer. Let’s start by noting the one thing that is at least a catalyst if not the trigger: the thwarted Iranian missile attacks on Israel. That clearly changed the game for many House Republicans. Passing some Israel aid became a necessity for a number of Republicans. I assume that Johnson concluded that without assistance from at least some Democrats that too wouldn’t be possible and that he had no choice but to move ahead with Ukraine aid too.
Reading
There are two forces in history.
The first is weight. Or mass. Or trajectory. The unstoppable force. The US overtaking Britain as the premier industrial power. The two continental powers, Russia and the US, dividing Europe between them, an ancient pattern. Then the US outlasting the USSR because the US’s alliance had more people and resources and better geography.
The rise of China. The inexorable march of global warming and ecological collapse. The financialization and hollowing of a hegemonic power which always follows the decision to do free trade seriously
The second is human decision making at crisis points. Think the Cuban Missile Crisis. There were powerful men in the US who wanted to strike Cuba or Russian ships. If they had done so, there would almost certainly have been a nuclear exchange.
A Bylines Times commissioned poll has revealed that people might finally be prepared to pay for better medical care in the UK as frustrations with the service grow
Republicans deserve everything that’s coming to them Democrats have plenty of experience with snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The Israeli war on Hamas in Gaza is not helping President Biden. There are panicked missives in my in-box this morning about how him signing the TikTok bill if it passes will further erode his support among younger voters. Plus, as Dan Pfeiffer acknowledges, the Donald Trump campaign is much better run than it was in 2016 and 2020. That said, Pfeiffer believes Biden has advantages the increasingly addled Trump wishes he had. For starters, incumbent advantage and non-stop offense: While Trump-the Degenerate degenerates like nobody’s never seen, Biden is flush with cash, “boasts 300 paid staffers across nine states and 100 offices in parts of the country.” (His first staffer moves into our offices by the end of the month.) And Trump? Nothing to see here in N.C. Yes, the country’s mood is a wild card. But if all politics is local (is that still true?), then the sideshow candidates Republicans are fielding in North Carolina may persuade voters to vote and vote D even if they are put off by national politics.
by Gary Gardner
In my frustration over humanity’s sluggish response to the urgent issues of our time, I find a bit of hope in an idea championed by the philosopher John Rawls. He had a simple and appealing suggestion for shifting people’s preferences in the direction of the common good.
Rawls proposed that anyone deliberating about public matters–legislators, officials, citizens, and others–start from behind a “veil of ignorance,” that hides from them their place in society.
The post Sortition for a Steady State Economy? appeared first on Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.
Haiti has descended into chaos. It’s had no president or parliament — and no elections either –for eight long years. Its unelected prime minister Ariel Henry resigned recently when gang violence at the airport in Port-au-Prince made it impossible for him to return to the country after a trip to Guyana. Haiti is the poorest country in the region, its riches leached out by colonial overlords, American occupying forces, corporate predators, and home-grown autocrats. As if that weren’t enough, it’s also suffered an almost biblical succession of plagues in recent years. A coup deposed its first democratically elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, not once but twice — in 1991 and again in 2004. An earthquake in 2010 killed hundreds of thousands,... Read more
Parties appearing before the Supreme Court can fund the groups that file briefs supporting their arguments — and almost never have to disclose it.
The post The Gaping Hole in Supreme Court Rules for Tracking Links Between Litigants and Influence Groups appeared first on The Intercept.
Freakin’ Anthony Burgess horrorshow Read that Washington Post headline again. Is there anything you’ve read lately that encapsulates the ultraviolence the MAGA cult is committing against the United States of America (land of the free, and all) than “Red states threaten librarians with prison”? Who knew “A Clockwork Orange” (1962) was to be so prescient? Anthony Burgess published Clockwork during the Cold War, in the year the U.S. and the Soviets came closest to nuking each other. Laced with Nadsat, the Russian-based teen slang Burgess invented and put into the mouth of his thuggish protagonist, the book itself was designed as a subtle form of conditioning. Burgess wrote in 1980, “The novel was to be an exercise in linguistic programming, with the exoticisms gradually clarified by context: I would resist to the limit any publisher’s demand that a glossary be provided.
Namibia's solidarity with Palestine underscores a broader shift in global politics, where shared histories pave the way for meaningful alliances against colonial oppression.
The post A Tale of Two Genocides: Namibia’s Stand Against Israeli Aggression appeared first on MintPress News.
An internal leak investigation ended without a “definitive conclusion,” as the Times cuts ties with a controversial Israeli freelancer.
The post New York Times Brass Moves to Stanch Leaks Over Gaza Coverage appeared first on The Intercept.
Why you can’t build another Apple with VC bucks.
The post Don’t bring venture capital to a knife fight appeared first on Zeldman on Web and Interaction Design.
EU Reporter has launched an investigation after Byline Times questioned it about reporting on the protest that took place when Moldovan President Maia Sandu visited Bucharest
Full Fact has called on the Government to clarify how mis- and disinformation will be challenged in this pivotal election year
Although it’s more than forty years now since I was a research student at the University of California, on a rainy day like this, I sure wish I was back in Redondo Beach, Ocean Park, Venice Beach, Berkeley Marina, Tilden Park, Telegraph Avenue, Yosemite, Joshua Tree ….. .
If you think a piece is 100 percent done, it’s actually 45 percent done. To get it to 100 percent done, you can’t.
If you think you need “just a few more hours,” you really need a few more months.
“I’ll send it by EOD”—no, the odds are 6-1 you won’t. 7-1. 17-1.
“EOD” equals 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 11:59 p.m., as well as 2 a.m., 8 a.m., 10 a.m., and 11 a.m. the next day.
Each breakthrough equals ninety days of clinical depression. (But you can’t pay upfront; if you commit to ninety days of clinical depression, then you may or may not get one breakthrough.)
Tragedy plus time equals a best-selling funny personal essay collection.
“Best-selling” equals selling better than however much you thought it would sell (0).
If something is due Friday, it might as well be due Monday, which might as well be due Tuesday, which might as well be due Wednesday, which might as well be due Thursday, which might as well be due Friday. This is why God (She/Her) gave us seven days.
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In August 2022 I received an email asking if I would like to read Sam Sax’s debut novel with an eye towards possibly becoming the book’s editor. I said yes immediately, and read Yr Dead later that day in a single sitting. The book, which takes place entirely in the span of time between when Ezra, the protagonist of the novel, lights themself on fire and when Ezra dies, is told in lyric fragments that span both lifetimes and geography. It’s a queer, Jewish, diasporic coming-of-age story that questions how our historical memory shapes our political and emotional present.
In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Reacher, The Flash, Stranger Things, Trump/Kimmel, For All Mankind, Sweet Tooth, Euphoria, Doctor Who & more!
Plus, the obscure court circuit trying to repeal the 20th century, how your utility bill funds climate denial, the real reason conservatives oppose student debt relief.
In 1930, economist John Maynard Keynes published an essay in which he predicted that, by 2030, the average work week would be a mere fifteen hours. Today, the people are working longer and harder just to meet their basic needs. In the UK, real wages have been stagnant for well over a decade. And people […]