Tag: politics
#oneaday Day 752: What do the police even do any more?
I am someone who grew up with what I would describe as a healthy sense of respect for the police. I have never run afoul of them -- the most "negative" encounter I have had with them was when I was about 18, driving my Mum's car around at about midnight, having been to visit...
how many months of centrist think pieces must we endure?
On the organizational front, a group of House Democrats aligned with a new centrist initiative, launched in the immediate aftermath of the democratic socialist victories, framed the wins as a reputational liability. “They should not be the face of our party,” the group declared, positioning the effort explicitly as a corrective to the party’s direction....
lions, and tigers, and lenin, OH MY
OH NO, whatever shall we do?! 🙄 [Avila Chevalier] maintained a since-deleted Twitter account with repeated sympathetic references to communism, Marxist ideology and Soviet figures, including Vladimir Lenin. Source: Deleted tweets on Darializa Avila Chevalier’s account...
oh to be in 1936… or something
not me over here, yearning for the constraint of the 1930s... smdh The ruling overturned the Supreme Court's 1935 precedent that had recognized the authority of Congress to protect leaders of certain regulatory agencies from presidential removal at will. Source: US Supreme Court vastly expands Trump's presidential power
bulshit new student loan rules start in 2 days?
If you are behind on payments, you may qualify for an Unemployment Deferment or an Economic Hardship Deferment, but be warned: These programs are being eliminated for loans initiated on or after July 1, 2027. Forbearance will be limited to a maximum of nine months every two years for loans funded on or after July...
Trophies
Eight-thirty and I’ve been awake since six. The body has been doing this since I sent the dissertation in: waking itself before I decide to wake, some obscure bodily alarm I didn’t set going off in the dark. I ended up at a coffee shop I’d never tried before–less by choice and moreso because all...
Video: Rise Up for the First Amendment
I was honored to be asked to share some remarks at a celebration of the First Amendment. The video should start from they block in which I'm speaking at the 1:30:48 mark. https://www.youtube.com/live/B7EbkKNy7Vk?si=wp7byCfAr8qyV3zt&t=5448 Freedom expression, religion, want, fear by libraryofcongress is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0
The Rabbit Hole: Freeing the Courts
New legislation offers the possibility of free and searchable access to court records. But there are other systemic issues within the judiciary that still hinder transparency
The Rabbit Hole: Freeing the Courts
New legislation offers the possibility of free and searchable access to court records. But there are other systemic issues within the judiciary that still hinder transparency
The Rabbit Hole: Freeing the Courts
New legislation offers the possibility of free and searchable access to court records. But there are other systemic issues within the judiciary that still hinder transparency
Période de questions
June 10th. Twenty to six, and I’ve just arrived at Centre Saint-Pierre for RÉZO’s annual general meeting. The long tables usually here have been folded and pushed against the right-hand wall. Plastic and metal chairs in rows facing a screen. Fluorescent light. I find a seat and the shaking starts, low and steady. There is...
ich ich ich
In der Zeitschrift Blätter ist ein Artikel erschienen, der für das erstarkten der rechten eine Erklärung findet, die mir so schlüssig erscheint wie schon lange nichts mehr. Nicht unbedingt und ausschließlich das versagen der anderen Parteien ist schuld. Auch soziale Missständen, Ungerechtigkeit und …
Why the Way We Understand the South Matters — Especially in Criminal Justice
In a special edition of Closing Argument, Jamiles Lartey reflects on the region as the nation’s 250th celebration approaches.
A Flower Traveled in My Blood
For readers of Say Nothing and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks , the epic, true story of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, grandmothers who fought to find their stolen grandchildren during Argentina's brutal dictatorship. In the early hours of March 24th, 1976, the streets of Buenos Aires rumbled with tanks as soldiers seized the presidential palace, overthrowing Argentina's leader. To many, it seemed like just another coup in a continent troubled by them, amid political violence and Cold War tensions. But there was something darker about this new regime. Quietly supported by the United States and much of Argentina itself, which was sick of constant bombings and gunfights, the junta quickly launched the "National Reorganization Process" or El Proceso —a bland name masking their ruthless campaign to crush the political left and instill the country with "Western, Christian" values. The dictatorship, which continued until 1983, decimated a generation. One of the military's most diabolical acts was the disappearance of hundreds of pregnant women. Patricia Roisinblit was among them, a mother and leftist revolutionary labeled "subversive" and abducted while eight months pregnant with her second child. Patricia gave birth in captivity, making one last call to her mother, Rosa, before vanishing. Her newborn son was also taken, one of hundreds given to police, military families, and dictatorship supporters, while their biological parents were secretly executed and their bodies disposed of. For Rosa and the other mothers in her same situation, the loss was unimaginable; their only solace was the hope that their grandchildren were still alive. United by this faith, a group of fierce grandmothers formed the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, dedicated to finding the stolen children and seeking justice from a nation that betrayed them. A Flower Traveled in My Blood is Rosa and the Abuelas' extraordinary story, told by a journalist with unique access. With authority and compassion, Haley Cohen Gilliland brings this tale to life, tracing the lives of Patricia, Rosa, and her stolen grandson, Guillermo. As the Abuelas transform into detectives, they confront military officers, sift through government documents, assume aliases to see suspected grandchildren, and even pioneer a groundbreaking genetics test with an American scientist. A compelling mystery and deeply researched account of a pivotal era in world history, A Flower Traveled in My Blood takes readers on a journey of love, resilience, and redemption, revealing new truths about memory, identity, and family.
How The Supreme Court Is Tightening Early Prison Release
In recent decisions, the justices restricted the bipartisan First Step Act that President Donald Trump signed in his first term.
Six Flags White House
Kevin D. Williamson writes for The Dispatch about the spectacle of setting up a UFC match on the White House lawn. It does not matter whether you live in a trailer park or a brick ranch house or something more grand and getting grander, it is all the same: Tornado bait is tornado bait. When...
Les inscriptions sont fermées pour le moment
The conversation is over. My friend and I are sitting in the particular stillness that follows something hard, the kind where the next thing hasn’t become possible yet. I know how to be here. I’ve learned, over years of this kind of work, how to stay inside difficulty without flinching toward resolution, and that knowing...
Emergency Brake
New at Religion Dispatches: Another Mass Shooting. More Dead Muslims. This is America.
The night before the 101st birthday of Malcolm X, the night before the 105th birthday of Yuri Kochiyama, as I go to a reading group at the Jewish Cultural Center of Harlem to discuss the song “Strange Fruit,” I get the news. Another mass shooting. More dead Muslims. Portrait Billie Holiday, Downbeat, New by libraryofcongress...
money
januar 2026. oxfam veröffentlicht, wie jedes jahr pünktlich zum weltwirtschaftsforum in davos, seinen ungleichheitsbericht. die zahlen sind nicht neu, aber sie werden jedes jahr größer. 2025 ist das vermögen der milliardär weltweit um 2,5 billionen us-dollar gewachsen — in einem einzigen jahr. …
BRIDGES ARE SOCIALISM
The great MetLife Stadium walking debate, why a bridge is not about crossing a road, but because bridges are socialism.
A Pyrrhic Defeat - Margins on Power and the Iran War
To comprehend the ongoing upheavals in Iran, one must grasp the underlying nature of class struggle in the country over the past half century.Before 1953, Iran possessed a democratic government under the leadership of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who undertook the bold step of nationalizing the oil industry, then under British control. In order to safeguard the interests of capitalist corporations, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and British intelligence (MI6) coordinated a coup...
The age of corridors
The role of the Venezuelan people in the political crisis of the past decade is ironic. The legitimacy of a leader, in principle, can only be recognized by the people. The paradox here is not so much the will of society, as the capacity for that will to pass through a recognized procedure and become legitimate power, such as elections. When electoral bodies, courts, media, and security forces operate as checkpoints; the people can reject a government/authorities in the collective consciousness. ...
leistungslos geerbt
februar 2026. der nationalrat lehnt die wiedereinführung einer erbschaftssteuer auf hohe vermögen ab. mehrheitlich, mit den stimmen von övp, fpö und neos. (parlament österreich, februar 2026) die debatte ist nicht neu, aber sie wird lauter — angetrieben durch budgetdefizit, wachsende ungleichheit …
die kluft liegt zwischen der elite und allen anderen
sam levine, leiter des department of consumer and worker protection unter zohran mamdani in new york im zeit.de-interview: ...es geht viel zu oft um die Frage, ob Milliardäre wegziehen. Und es geht viel zu selten darum, warum etwa so viele Schwarze New Yorker die Stadt verlassen müssen... dass so …
Manufacturing Consent
A Powerful Assessment of How the U.S. Mass Media Fail to Provide the Kind of Information That We Need to Understand the World In this pathbreaking work, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky show that, contrary to the usual image of the news media as cantankerous, obstinate, and ubiquitous in their search for truth and defense of justice, in their actual practice they defend the economic, social, and political agendas of the privileged groups that dominate domestic society, the state, and the global order Based on a series of case studies—including the media’s dichotomous treatment of "worthy" versus "unworthy" victims, "legitimizing" and "meaningless" Third World elections, and devastating critiques of media coverage of the U.S. wars against Indochina—Herman and Chomsky draw on decades of criticism and research to propose a Propaganda Model to explain the media’s behavior and performance. Their new introduction updates the Propaganda Model and the earlier case studies, and it discusses several other applications. These include the manner in which the media covered the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement and subsequent Mexican financial meltdown of 1994-1995, the media’s handling of the protests against the World Trade Organization, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund in 1999 and 2000, and the media’s treatment of the chemical industry and its regulation. What emerges from this work is a powerful assessment of how propagandistic the U.S. mass media are, how they systematically fail to live up to their self-image as providers of the kind of information that people need to make sense of the world, and how we can understand their function in a radically new way.
Murder the Truth
"Authoritarian governments abroad have long used legal threats and lawsuits against journalists to cover up their disinformation, corruption, and violence. Now, as master investigative journalist David Enrich reveals, those tactics have arrived in America." — Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen David Enrich, the New York Times Business Investigations Editor and the #1 bestselling author of Dark Towers, produces his most consequential and far-reaching investigation an in-depth exposé of the broad campaign—orchestrated by elite Americans—to silence dissent and protect the powerful. It was a quiet way to announce a In an obscure 2019 case that the Supreme Court refused to even hear, Justice Clarence Thomas raised the prospect of overturning the legendary New York Times v. Sullivan decision. Though hardly a household name, Sullivan is one of the most consequential free speech decisions, ever. Fundamental to the creation of the modern media as we know it, it has enabled journalists and writers all over the country—from top national publications to revered local newspapers to independent bloggers—to pursue the truth aggressively and hold the wealthy, powerful, and corrupt to account. Thomas’s words were a warning—the public awakening of an idea that had been fomenting on the conservative fringe for years. Now it is going mainstream. From the Florida statehouse to small town New Hampshire to Donald Trump's White House, this movement today consists of some of the world’s richest and most powerful people and companies, who believe they should be above scrutiny and want to silence or delegitimize voices that challenge their supremacy. Indeed, many of the same businessmen, politicians, lawyers, and activists are already weaponizing the legal system to intimidate and punish journalists and others who dare criticize them. In this masterwork of investigative reporting, David Enrich, New York Times Business Investigations Editor, traces the roots and reach of this growing threat to our modern democracy. With Trump’s emboldened right-wing coalition committed to demonizing and punishing those who attempt to hold them accountable, Murder the Truth sounds the alarm about the looming war over facts, laying bare the stakes of losing our most sacrosanct rights. The result is a story about power in the age of Trump—the way it’s used by those who have it and the lengths to which they will go to avoid it being questioned.
China’s Parallel Web Behind the Wall
The unique web and internet of China, largely cut off from the rest of the world by the Great Firewall, yet not completely isolated. The climate and history that shaped the censorship and regulations which formed China's domestic internet, which operates largely independently of the interconnected global network known by many. Looking at topics subject to censorship, different services used, culture, and the growing impact of artificial intelligence.
Beyond the Square and Under the Rug
The Tiananmen Square protests and massacre that occurred on June 4th, 1989, with emphasis on the context surrounding the event and the Chinese government's aggressive censorship. Also clearing of misconceptions surrounding Tank Man.
Consequence as Weather
The coffee shop near the Palais des congrès is already full of Liberal Party of Canada convention delegates when I join the line outside. Cop cars are parked down the street. Inside, every table has a staffer. Suits. Baseball caps. #LIB2026 lanyards. Louboutins under a table where someone’s set a Prada bag on the chair...
A Decisive Victory
Well, a decisive victory for no one.
Persia
This Persian rug hangs on our wall. As far was we know it is a family heirloom possibly from Baku, Azerbaijan where my grandmother was born. I don't know the family history beyond that but with the Jewish name Rosenberg they had most likely emigrated there from Germany and some point. Azerbaijan was part of Persia for most of it's history. Persia began it's long decline after the Arab conquest of 633, but it wasn't until 1935 that it became known as Iran. In the Bible the Persian kings Cyrus and Darius where kind of our heroes, freeing the Jews from Babylonian captivity and contributing to the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. Even in modern times, up to the 1979 revolution, Iran had a thriving Jewish community. I had a colleague who, along with her family and thousands of other Iranian Jews, fled after the 1979 revolution. There is a huge community of them in L.A. now, keeping the culture alive. As I write this late in the afternoon on April 7, 2026, I think most of us expect that Trump will do what he always does and back down, change the deadline, claim victory, and obfuscate the situation with some other BS. Still there is a chance that the mad king is going to do something really terrible. If it comes to that the very best case scenario it that our military leaders come to their senses and refuse to take part in war crimes. Of course this would infuriate Trump who would promptly fire them all and attempt to find some soulless individual willing to do his dirty work. But if the military were to take a stand it's possible that congress would then also grow a backbone and invoke the 25th amendment, which was written expressly for a time like this. One can only hope. So tonight we sit on a tightrope with the future of humanity in the balance. If Trump is allowed to follow through with his threat that "a whole civilization will die tonight", it will not just be Persia, but it will be the death of the United States as well. Persia has existed for thousands of years, the U.S. a mere 250. Already the world is reorganizing into new alliances of which the U.S. is not a part. Unless Trump is removed from power very soon we will be seen as a rogue nation and an enemy to the peace and prosperity of the citizens of planet earth. Could any of us ever foresee that when world war three breaks out it would be the free world against the United States of American?
El Paso
From New York Times reporter Jazmine Ulloa, a sweeping human history of El Paso, revealing violence, power, and privilege at play in America's most famous border town. El Paso has been called the "Ellis Island" of America's southern border, a mountain pass cum border town cum bifurcated metropolis where past meets future, and disadvantage meets opportunity, or so the promise goes. El Paso is an extraordinary, can't-look-away reported history; it uses deep research and dozens of new interviews to blow away the myth of this place, where Mexico's Juarez and America's El Paso intertwine. It charts the history of El Paso through five families. From the Mexican Revolution and the Mexican Repatriation, to the shifting immigration laws under Reagan and Trump and the violence and bloodshed brought on by the drug war, El Paso captures a place often misunderstood or forgotten by the rest of the country, and the world. El Paso is a brave new work of narrative nonfiction that gives new voice and perspective to history that has long been checked at the border, or told through the lens of white men alone. Ulloa draws upon meticulous research and reporting and stunning historical detail to craft the intimate narratives of an unforgettable cast of characters.