Reading

Created
Sat, 23/03/2024 - 03:00
He’s following the Goebbels playbook to the T You get the feeling that among the jaded beltway establishment there is a belief that the horrified reaction against Trump’s Hitler analogies is just a bit overwrought. Sure it’s discussed and analysed but there’s a perfunctory vibe about it that makes it seem as if it’s just another of those “Trump says the darnedest stuff” things. And sure, the idea that he’s been studying Hitler’s speeches because he once had a book of them is a stretch (and even though he has said that Hitler “did some good things”) because Trump doesn’t study anything. But he is an instinctive autocrat and he’s got a few people around him who do understand the power of fascist imagery. Contrary to popular belief, much of the most outrageous rhetoric he spews at his rallies isn’t off the cuff. It’s scripted.
Created
Sat, 23/03/2024 - 02:42

Lowkey interviews Dalloul Neder from Gaza, who lost five members of his family, including his mother and brother, when Israel bombed them. Dalloul attempted to bring the case to the attention of his MP, Angela Rayner of the Labour Party, but was assaulted and beaten by police.

The post Israel Killed My Mother! Lowkey interviews Dalloul Neder from Gaza appeared first on MintPress News.

Created
Sat, 23/03/2024 - 01:30
What we’ve got here is failure to legislate “Morning Joe” Scarborough today gave Donald “91 Counts” Trump exactly what he asked for: blame for chaos at the southern border. Trump demanded Republicans in Congress kill the bipartisan border bill. He owns this morning’s New York Post headline. Remember (Washington Post, January 28): Republican front-runner Donald Trump said he wants to be held responsible for blocking a bipartisan border security billin the works in the Senateas President Biden seeks emergency authority to rein in a record surge of unauthorized border crossings. Trump told a Las Vegas rally, “I’ll fight it all the way. A lot of the senators are trying to say, respectfully, they’re blaming it on me. I say, that’s okay. Please blame it on me. Please.” American Bridge issued this video and statement on February 5: As president, Trump publicly urged Congress to send him a comprehensive, bipartisan bill to address immigration reform and border security.
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Sat, 23/03/2024 - 00:58
I veckans avsnitt av Starta Pressarna intervjuas Clara E. Mattei — författare till boken Kapitalets ordning: Hur ekonomer skapade åtstramningsdoktrinen och banade väg för fascismen  (Verbal förlag, 2023) — och diskuteras hennes tes om att den ekonomiska åtstramningspolitiken historiskt växt fram som ett sätt att hålla tillbaka arbetarklassen. Som alltid på den här podden — […]
Created
Sat, 23/03/2024 - 00:00
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for “The man is mentally unstable,” I told my parents over dinner at their kitchen table in 2016. I could not bring myself to believe that Americans were crazy enough to elect a president as unfit as Donald Trump so obviously was. But H.L. Mencken was right a hundred years ago. I don’t wish to make that mistake again. Nonetheless, Republican primary results and the drip-drip of bad legal and financial news for Trump and his 2024 campaign seems to indicate he is losing support. Perhaps it is Trump fatigue. Perhaps his small-donor base is tapped out; his fundraising is ebbing. Perhaps Earth 1 is finally breaking through to the least-committed members of the cult. Trump lately is alternately begging for money and boasting that he doesn’t need any. The Biden-Harris campaign and the DNC are lapping Trump and Team MAGA. If fundraising is a measure of support, Trump’s is slowly sinking. Then again, is still costs nothing to cast a vote, and MAGA minions are busily plotting to steal the fall election. With that caveat….
Created
Sat, 23/03/2024 - 00:00

Been There, Smelled That explores the aromas of places around the world. Travel writer Maggie Downs investigates some of the world’s most potent smells, looks at how odor cultivates a connection to place, and presents how humans engage with smells, from scents that have endured generations to the latest innovations in aroma-making.

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Around noon, my guide to the Westman Islands grabs a knotted rope and swings along the side of a cliff. Ebbi is a middle-aged man in a sweatshirt and jeans, a newsboy cap pulled low over his brow, and yet up on the cliffside he looks like an Olympic gymnast. Back and forth he goes, flying higher with each pendulum swing, until he’s close enough to reach a bird’s nest that’s nestled along a slender outcropping.

Created
Fri, 22/03/2024 - 23:00

“Senators push to declassify TikTok intel and hold a public hearing ahead of ban vote.” — NPR, 3/21/24

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Fellow Senators, I implore you to vote yes on this bill to ban TikTok, a social media platform that threatens to throw our extremely normal media ecosystem into chaos. We must not let this app steer Americans who get their news from obscure corners of Reddit and alt-right Facebook groups toward strange ideas.

You see, democracy needs a well-informed electorate to function, and thanks to today’s very orderly information environment of rage bait, both-sides journalism, and seven-hour YouTube interviews with Jordan Peterson, our electorate has never been less confused about things.