Hawa Abdi, Somali Doctor, Dies at 73
A humanitarian hero has passed away – her obituary is in the New York Times …
Feminism
Republicans are hypocrites. They happily ‘de-funded’ the police we actually need
The Guardian, again, hits the nail on the head with this spot on essay “Republicans are hypocrites. They happily ‘de-funded’ the police we actually need” by David Sirota: After two weeks of police violence and protests, Republican politicians have been pretending to have a fainting spell over the phrase “defund the police.” “There won’t be … [Read more…]
The NEWS you may not have read …
In the Columbia Journalism Review is an essay The bad news quietly buried during the pandemic by Zoë Beery: With the world’s attention glued to the coronavirus pandemic, news about anything else has been slipping farther and farther down the proverbial front page. But that doesn’t mean nothing’s been going on. Whether by design or … [Read more…]
Lillian Hellman: Scoundrel Time
I just finished reading Lillian Hellman’s Scoundrel Time and am fascinated that these events from 1951 – 1952, the HUAC hearings, have such resonance with today’s administration. Today, thieves are thick, grandstanding the operative mode, derision and bullying are the norm as they were with Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon in this era. Employing such … [Read more…]
Disinformation For Hire: How A New Breed Of PR Firms Is Selling Lies Online
I get a digest of the latest news on news and reporting from the Pew Research Center. One recently caught my interest was from Buzzfeed on the new “Black PR firms” who will, for a fee, generate, structure and support any lie you wish. Scary isn’t a strong enough word, terrifying is more apt. It … [Read more…]
Winter Solstice Card – TMS – 2019
From my very talented sister Theresa Marie
A Few Notes About the Future of Work
Seems that themes come in batches, the newest theme for me is the old Jetson’s promise of leisure time replacing work, somewhere in the future we’d all work at what we’re good at and there would be enough (food and other goods and money) to go around. I’m firmly convinced that since the dawn of … [Read more…]
Read Sacha Baron Cohen’s scathing attack on Facebook in full: ‘greatest propaganda machine in history’
The Guardian published the contents of a speech by Cohen: In a speech last night at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen attacked Facebook and other social media platforms for enabling the proliferation of hate speech and misinformation. The speech was striking in its sincerity – Baron Cohen appeared as … [Read more…]
Real Americans by Joseph O’Neill
In the New York Review of Books, this essay Real Americans by Joseph O’Neill is noteworthy. O’Neill reviews two books, This America: The Case for the Nation by Jill Lepore and This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto by Suketu Mehta. O’Neill delivers a fine essay covering many points of the current state in … [Read more…]