Omertà (/oʊˈmɛərtÉ™/, Italian pronunciation: [omerˈta]) is a Southern Italian code of silence and code of honor and conduct that places importance on silence in the face of questioning by authorities or outsiders; non-cooperation with authorities, the government, or outsiders, especially during criminal investigations; and willfully ignoring and generally avoiding interference with the illegal activities of others (i.e., not contacting law enforcement or the authorities when one is aware of, witness to, or even the victim of certain crimes). It originated and remains common in Southern Italy, where banditry or brigandage and Mafia-type criminal organizations (like the Camorra, Cosa Nostra, ‘Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita and Società foggiana) have long been strong. Similar codes are also deeply rooted in other areas of the Mediterranean, including Malta, Crete in Greece, and Corsica, all of which share a common or similar historic culture with Southern Italy.
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“Fiction is just as good, maybe better, in the attention economy” The attention economy powers the internet. It made cable news a 24-hour affair. It makes talk radio infotainment. It makes “influencer” a job description. It makes YouTubers money. It makes TokTok TikTok. It makes Trump Trump. It makes us all stupider and more vulnerable to those who would deceive for their own ends. It killed Ashli Babbitt. God knows how A.I. will metastasize the attention economy. We can see it coming and as feel powerless to stop it as we were to learn from its past predations. Michael Kruse interviews Abraham Josephine Riesman on the release of Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America on how professional wrestling has, as someone else observed of the New Age Movement, dissolved external reality. The result in liberal “choose your own spiritual journey” circles was to make conflict impossible, or at least unlikely. The result among black-and-white thinkers is just the opposite.
Macron’s defense won’t help either The massive street protests in France after President Emmanuel Macron raised the retirement age from 62 to 64 should give pause to Republicans considering raising the retirement age to 70 here. But it won’t. “The French are fiercely protective of their universal health care and generous pensions,” NPR’s Lisa Bryant told Morning Edition. “And it’s a choice society has made: Work hard, pay high taxes, but also retire at a relatively young age with a high standard of living.” If only, right? Meantime, Macron is trying to defend his decision. With this amusing hiccup: Macron argues the retirement age must be raised to prevent the pension budget from running a deficit. BBC News: The exact cost of the watch was debated online, with some of Mr Macron’s critics suggesting it was worth €80,000. But the Élysée Palace told French media the president was wearing a Bell & Ross BR V1-92 model, which is personalised with a coat of arms. Prices online for this watch, without the personalisation, are between €1,660 and €3,300 (£1,460 and £2,900).
An early look at Trump’s speech:
Undisciplined yes, unconventional? Not anymore: Just a week ago, former President Trump’s team was touting his more disciplined approach to campaigning. But now there’s a more familiar Trump: an angry, scorched-earth force on social media, trying to rally his base by casting himself as a victim. Trump’s tirades on Truth Social over his potential indictment in New York were filled with the type of incendiary rhetoric that preceded the Jan. 6 insurrection — and symbolized the colliding forces inside his campaign. Those forces pit a fiery candidate who’s a social media bulldozer when he feels wronged, vs. the more measured, policy focused ex-president his staff has been hoping to show voters. “The Trump campaign team knows the former president’s candidacy has to be more than a stream of consciousness and listing of grievances,” said Ken Spain, an adviser to George W. Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign.
The smart move would be to wait until 2028 Unfortunately, he’s already cast himself as the smart man’s Trump (an oxymoron) and I don’t know if he’d be able to shed it. His donors are already getting antsy: A number of the Florida governor’s donors and allies are worried his recent stumbles suggest he may not be ready for a brutal fight against Donald Trump. Some feel DeSantis needs to accelerate his timeline to run for the GOP presidential nomination and begin directly confronting Trump if he’s to have any chance of thwarting the former president’s momentum. Others believe DeSantis should sidestep Trump altogether and wait until 2028 to run. At a Sunday luncheon following the annual Red Cross ball in Palm Beach, Florida, a group of 16 prominent Republicans, described by one attendee as a mix of DeSantis backers and Trump “skeptics,” discussed misgivings about the governor’s standing for the future if he tussles with the former president. “They liked him — many of them might even support him,” the person who was at the event said of DeSantis.
This is some chilling stuff from Oklahoma. A minority of state Supreme Court Justices make it clear that there is no constitutional right to life for women — only their fetuses. They say that if the state wants to protect the vessels they’re going to have to write a law demanding it. Otherwise, it doesn’t exist: Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, dozens of reports from red states have told of hospitals withholding care from pregnant patients until they are hemorrhaging or suffering catastrophic infections, lest the doctors be prosecuted for providing an illegal abortion. When confronted with these effects of abortion bans, anti-abortion advocates often blame the doctors for misinterpreting the law. There are exceptions for medical emergencies, they say, and it should be easy enough for a doctor to tell when a patient is in deep enough danger to protect her medical team from possible prison time. This is a mealy-mouthed attempt at misdirection. Health crises are never so predictable and containable; they do not progress in linear fashion, with easy off-ramps at every level of endangerment.
Is Israel going to dodge Bibi’s bullet? Maybe … The Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, called on Saturday night for his government to suspend its contentious plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary, arguing that the turmoil it has unleashed within Israeli society and the military has become a threat to Israel’s national security. “The rift within our society is widening and penetrating the Israel Defense Forces,” Mr. Gallant said in a televised speech. He added: “This is a clear and immediate and tangible danger to the security of the state. I shall not be a party to this.” Mr. Gallant’s announcement set the stage for what is expected to be one of the most dramatic weeks in Israeli history. The far-right governing coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has a majority of just four seats, is expected to hold a final vote in Parliament early next week on the first step in its overhaul plan: a bill that would give the government greater control over appointments to the Supreme Court.
Why is her right to life not protected? Because lefties like to debate … and like to be right … and sometimes enjoy browbeating opponents into submission with their superior command of the facts, we sometimes waste time doing that instead of learning something from dialogue. We debate the question presented instead of addressing an oblique one that is more illuminating. Recent reading on Christian nationalism debunks the “Christian nation” myth and provides a surfeit of ammunition for winning any number of debates on the matter. From the Ten Commandments to where constitutional principles conflict with biblical ones, “The Founding Myth” by Andrew L. Seidel provides a stockpile.
Sad about the District Court decision in Hachette vs. Internet Archive; not just because of the ruling against the Archive, but because of many people’s reaction to it online. People have strange intuitions, not just about the status of the law, but also of how it progresses. There’s some tut-tutting that an august institution like […]