495 lines
54 KiB
HTML
495 lines
54 KiB
HTML
|
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
|||
|
|
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
|
|||
|
|
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
|
|||
|
|
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
|
|||
|
|
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
|
|||
|
|
<title>10 December, 2021</title>
|
|||
|
|
<style type="text/css">
|
|||
|
|
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
|
|||
|
|
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
|
|||
|
|
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
|
|||
|
|
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
|
|||
|
|
</style>
|
|||
|
|
<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
|
|||
|
|
<body>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Millions of Tons of Carbon Emissions That Don’t Officially Exist</strong> - How a blind spot in the Kyoto Protocol helped create the biomass industry. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/the-millions-of-tons-of-carbon-emissions-that-dont-%20officially-exist">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In New Mexico, the Pandemic Rages On</strong> - As unvaccinated patients overwhelm hospitals, health-care workers are being pushed to the edge. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/in-new-mexico-the-pandemic-rages-on">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Pro-Life Movement Plans for a Future Without Roe</strong> - Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the Susan B. Anthony List, is preparing for new abortion laws to pass in at least thirty states. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-pro-life-movement-plans-for-a-future-without-roe">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ted Cruz and Company Pick Their Poison</strong> - When drinking the Kool-Aid isn’t enough. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/blitts-kvetchbook/ted-cruz-and-company-pick-their-poison">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Enes Kanter Freedom’s Political Awakening</strong> - The N.B.A. star, who has been outspoken about human rights in China, discusses his embrace by the right and his harsh words for LeBron James. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/enes-kanter-freedoms-political-awakening">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What the first Starbucks union means for workers everywhere</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A group of people sit in a meeting room and watch a monitor." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/DhpBvdtA7TtJWf53aq9cRU4lUls=/237x0:3776x2654/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70251458/1237120600.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Starbucks employees in Buffalo today watch as votes for their union are counted. | Eleonore Sens/AFP via Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
A Starbucks in New York state is the first in the US to unionize.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TBVPTF">
|
|||
|
|
On Thursday, workers at a Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York, voted to form a union, making it the first of more than 8,000 Starbucks locations in the US to unionize. A second Buffalo location voted against unionizing; a third had a majority vote for the union but, due to a number of challenges to individual ballots, the results aren’t final.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YryonK">
|
|||
|
|
For the Starbucks employees at the union store, this means they’ll begin to negotiate a contract for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. For everyone else, this could spur more unionization across the US — whether at more Starbucks locations or anywhere else — thanks to the company’s high profile.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UWEh9k">
|
|||
|
|
“Sometimes strikes and union organizing victories can be very contagious,” said Johnnie Kallas, a PhD candidate at Cornell’s Industrial and Labor Relations school, which hosted a panel ahead of the vote tally on Thursday. “We saw this in 2018 with teacher strikes. They began in West Virginia; they quickly spread to North Carolina, Arizona, Oklahoma, and other states.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CXRFgi">
|
|||
|
|
He added, “[This vote] could inspire a lot of workers across the country in a low-unionized sector to fight for union rights.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LgCyLF">
|
|||
|
|
It’s not clear exactly how widespread union organizing is in the United States right now, due to the limitations of existing datasets, said Kallas, who is the project director for a <a href="https://striketracker.ilr.cornell.edu/">tool that monitors union actions</a> across the country. By his count, there have been 243 strikes through November of this year, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has only <a href="https://www.bls.gov/wsp/">documented 13 strikes</a> (the agency only collects data on strikes that include more than 1,000 workers). The BLS count would not have included, for example, a strike of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/not-where-we-expected-be-massachusetts-nurses-strike-hits-7-n1281053">700 nurses in Massachusetts</a> earlier this year. Even so, the number of those larger strikes that the BLS does count has declined since the 1970s.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LfL8NS">
|
|||
|
|
We also don’t have union membership data yet for 2021. What we do know is that the share of Americans who are members of unions has been declining for decades, thanks to difficult hurdles to forming unions. But in 2020, it ticked up slightly to about <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm">11 percent</a>. In the private sector, the rate is about half that. The number of union petitions filed with the NLRB has also declined in recent years, though labor attorney Richard Griffin, a former general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, said that a recent increase might not be reflected thanks to extended shutdowns at the organization during the pandemic.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div id="p0T29H">
|
|||
|
|
<div id="datawrapper-MoQt3">
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7YpaKF">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w9De0E">
|
|||
|
|
But there are reasons to think unions and union activism have become more popular since the start of the pandemic, which has caused many Americans to rethink their relationship to work.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="evlb1s">
|
|||
|
|
Despite dwindling union membership, Americans have expressed an increasingly positive opinion of labor organizing<strong> </strong>over time. Union sentiment is at a generational high in the US, with 68 percent of Americans supporting unions, according to <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/354455/approval-labor-unions-highest-point-1965.aspx">data from Gallup</a>. The last time union approval was so high was 1965.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div id="8LmvHQ">
|
|||
|
|
<div id="datawrapper-J5AlA">
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iTyRUK">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S0depy">
|
|||
|
|
Employees also have an advantage in a very tight labor market in which employers are struggling to find enough workers. A record 4.4 million Americans <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22776112/quit-
|
|||
|
|
jobs-great-resignation-workers-union">quit their jobs</a> in September, and a similar number did so again in October, according to the latest available data. This has forced employers to raise wages, especially for some of the lowest-wage workers in industries like <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22748448/service-food-hotel-workers-pay-raise-
|
|||
|
|
resignation-jobs-wages-benefits">leisure and hospitality</a>, as well as to offer a variety of other better working conditions, including remote work, to some employees.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O3sX0o">
|
|||
|
|
There have been a number of recent high-profile union efforts that are bringing union issues to the fore, including at companies like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/business/john-deere-strike-uaw-union-contract.html">John Deere</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kelloggs-union-rejects-offer-3-percent-raises-will-remain-strike-
|
|||
|
|
rcna7985">Kellogg’s</a>. But perhaps the most <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22607933/amazon-union-election-rwdsu-
|
|||
|
|
nlrb-mailbox">high-profile efforts have been at Amazon</a>, the second-largest private employer in the US. A union vote in Bessemer, Alabama, failed earlier this year, but organizers will hold a new vote after the National Labor Relations Board determined that <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/11/29/1022384731/amazon-warehouse-workers-get-to-re-do-their-
|
|||
|
|
union-vote-in-alabama">Amazon improperly pressured warehouse staff</a> not to join the union.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C7N6iV">
|
|||
|
|
That fits into a broader trend. “Companies engaged in unfair labor practices with increasing frequency from the 1970s onward, including firing organizers, holding mandatory anti-union meetings, and hiring replacement workers during strikes,” according to Shelly Steward, director of the Future of Work Initiative at the Aspen Institute.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sV76qq">
|
|||
|
|
Unionization has also struggled due to increasingly difficult governmental hurdles.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZqYAC7">
|
|||
|
|
“Through the second half of the 20th century, labor laws increasingly favored employers over workers,” Steward said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3KtrEb">
|
|||
|
|
However, current legislation is striving to make those hurdles more manageable. The <a href="https://www.vox.com/22319838/house-passes-pro-act-unions">PRO Act</a>, which is currently in the Senate, would make it much easier for employees to unionize and would establish tougher penalties if employers illegally try to thwart those efforts. It would also allow contractors and gig workers — an increasingly larger share of the workforce — to organize alongside traditional employees.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WdryFy">
|
|||
|
|
Even just at Starbucks, whose union was organized by the Workers United Upstate New York, these votes are just the beginning. Three more stores in Buffalo, a city <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/starbucks-union-battle-to-be-decided-by-baristas-in-labor-friendly-buffalo-
|
|||
|
|
n-y-11638987588">known for its higher level of unionization</a> than the nation as a whole, have filed petitions with the National Labor Relations Board to unionize, as has a location in Mesa, Arizona.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8MWUhl">
|
|||
|
|
This also opens the door for more unionization in so-called unskilled labor sectors, like leisure and hospitality.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="e0dWWe">
|
|||
|
|
This is a new concept even for workers in the field.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BBc6Ab">
|
|||
|
|
“My dad is in the teachers union, but I had only ever really associated unions with teachers and nurses and mainly construction workers in the building trades,” Casey Moore, a Starbucks barista in Buffalo, said in the pre-vote briefing. “So when I first started I was like, ‘Really, a union for baristas?’ But then the more I learned about it, the more I thought, ‘Why not?’ There’s no reason that baristas shouldn’t get the same benefits and quality of life that other workers do.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bmXupG">
|
|||
|
|
As for her experience so far, she said, “Every single day was us learning about how difficult it is to form a union in this country and just the odds against us are incredibly insurmountable. But today is our vote count and we are confident that we’ll win the first unionized Starbucks for the United States, despite those odds.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>American democracy is tottering. It’s not clear Americans care.</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/oUj3QMGOWIJfxi9wYmYC7CI5jyk=/322x0:4955x3475/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70251133/1358067475.0.jpeg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Joe Biden enters the room before his address to the Summit for Democracy at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, on December 9. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Biden’s Summit for Democracy is supposed to highlight democracy’s global plight. But in America, not many people are paying attention.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JEbyz9">
|
|||
|
|
During the opening speech at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMeJZDRZszg">Thursday’s Summit for Democracy</a>, President Joe Biden told the assembled international leaders that the stakes of their meeting were nothing less than existential: that the survival of democracy itself depended on what his audience did next.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ETe4kU">
|
|||
|
|
“We stand at an inflection point in our history,” Biden said. “The choices we make at this moment are going to fundamentally determine the direction our world is going to take in the coming decades.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1kodfe">
|
|||
|
|
No one other than Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in the room to hear Biden’s call to action. The summit is a fully virtual affair due to the pandemic, with leaders of democratic countries speaking to each other via videoconference.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jENXYN">
|
|||
|
|
Absent the applause and pageantry of an in-person event, Biden’s words rang strangely hollow. It was as if he was issuing a dire warning to no one in particular.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JQuv2b">
|
|||
|
|
This is a decent metaphor for the current American approach to democracy where it counts the most — at home.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZW6PCh">
|
|||
|
|
There is no doubt that <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-
|
|||
|
|
politics/2021/6/15/22522504/republicans-authoritarianism-trump-competitive">democracy in the United States is at serious risk</a>. The year began with an attack on the Capitol designed to thwart the transition of power; instead of repudiating this violence, Republicans doubled down on the lie that Trump won the election and are working, right now, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/january-6-insurrection-trump-
|
|||
|
|
coup-2024-election/620843/">to rig the system in their favor</a>. Neither Democrats nor the general public are doing much of anything to stop them.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DgYscB">
|
|||
|
|
Several pieces of legislation on voting rights have been stopped cold by the filibuster, as neither Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) nor Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) seems willing to make an exception to <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/3/25/22348308/filibuster-racism-jim-crow-mitch-mcconnell">the archaic Senate rule</a> in order to protect democracy. Meanwhile, the voters who care are mostly <em>Republican</em><strong> </strong>partisans, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/10/why-do-some-
|
|||
|
|
still-deny-bidens-2020-victory-heres-what-data-says/">believers in Trump’s lies about 2020</a>. An <a href="https://www.grinnell.edu/news/52-americans-believe-democracy-facing-major-threat">October poll</a> found that 71 percent of Republicans believe democracy is facing a “major threat,” as compared to just 35 percent of Democrats.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pkmQR1">
|
|||
|
|
Experts on democracy warn that America is sleepwalking toward a disaster, a situation where the electoral playing field is so tilted in the GOP’s favor that America’s people no longer have a meaningful voice in who rules them. “We’ll wake up one day, and it’ll become clear that Democrats can’t win,” says Tom Pepinsky, a political scientist at Cornell University.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AKDSYJ">
|
|||
|
|
In theory, the Summit for Democracy is <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/12/08/biden-democracy-summit-story-523909">supposed to be the crown jewel of Biden’s global democracy agenda</a>. It kicks off an international “year of action” where countries across the world, including the United States, work to strengthen democracy at home and abroad. In his speech, Biden called for the passage of two laws — the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act — as a way for America could fulfill this promise.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KfNk6P">
|
|||
|
|
But so far, neither his government nor the public in general is doing much to force these bills through. It’s a state of affairs that raises a grim question: Is this what it looks like when a democracy dies and nobody cares?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="LDs2sz">
|
|||
|
|
We need a mass pro-democracy movement. It doesn’t exist.
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="82GV7H">
|
|||
|
|
Across the world, there are many cases of democratic “backsliding” — where a once-stable democracy starts buckling, taking on characteristics of an authoritarian system. Sometimes, as in modern Venezuela or Hungary, this ends in a full-tilt slide away from democracy. Other times you get “<a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/democracys-near-misses/">near misses</a>,” cases where democracy beat back the authoritarian threat. Some notable cases include Finland in 1932, Colombia in 2010, and <a href="https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/md/politik/personal/croissant/s/croissant__2020__beating_backsliding.pdf">South Korea in the mid- to late 2010s</a> — countries that <a href="https://www.state.gov/participant-list-the-summit-for-
|
|||
|
|
democracy/">are all participating</a> in Biden’s democracy summit.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z7aKYf">
|
|||
|
|
When you read about these near misses, two factors prove decisive again and again: when a society’s elite stands up to an authoritarian faction, using their power to beat it back, and when the mass public organizes and demonstrates in favor of democracy.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SKGmUA">
|
|||
|
|
In Finland, conservative President Pehr Evind Svinhufvud’s repudiation of violence committed by the fascist Lapua Movement <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/democracys-near-misses/">played an important role</a> in its decline. In South Korea, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38114558">massive street protests</a> against President Park Geun-hye helped create the conditions for her impeachment and, ultimately, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55657297">a 22-year jail sentence for corruption and election law violations</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5gsWUV">
|
|||
|
|
In the United States, we are experiencing failures on both the elite and mass public level. Republican elites, unlike Svinhufvud, have chosen to normalize the violence committed by their extreme right flank on January 6 — and pass legislation, like <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22368044/georgia-
|
|||
|
|
sb202-voter-suppression-democracy-big-lie">Georgia’s SB 202</a>, that actually enable Republican partisans to subvert the 2024 election.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="estu8j">
|
|||
|
|
Many elite Democrats are fully aware of the problem. Some, like Sen. Raphael Warnock (GA) and the activist group Indivisible, have worked to try to sound the alarm. But at the very highest levels of the party, democracy has become something of a side issue rather than a top priority.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GUor5s">
|
|||
|
|
“Democracy will be on trial in 2024. A strong and clear-eyed president, faced with such a test, would devote his presidency to meeting it,” <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/january-6-insurrection-trump-
|
|||
|
|
coup-2024-election/620843/">the Atlantic</a>’s Barton Gellman writes. “Biden knows better than I do what it looks like when a president fully marshals his power and resources to face a challenge. It doesn’t look like this.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d5PQtE">
|
|||
|
|
There’s a similar asymmetry on the mass public level. The Trump faithful are gearing up for a fight in 2024, organizing at the very local level to influence the outcome of future elections. <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/heeding-steve-bannons-call-election-deniers-organize-to-seize-control-of-the-
|
|||
|
|
gop-and-reshape-americas-elections">A September ProPublica</a> investigation documented the emergence of a “precinct strategy,” beginning with a call to action on Steve Bannon’s radio show, in which Republicans have begun flooding local voting precincts with volunteers who could shape the counting process in the next election cycle.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ln4tjJ">
|
|||
|
|
“ProPublica contacted GOP leaders in 65 key counties, and 41 reported an unusual increase in signups since Bannon’s campaign began. At least 8,500 new Republican precinct officers (or equivalent lowest-level officials) joined those county parties,” the outlet explains. “We also looked at equivalent Democratic posts and found no similar surge.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><img alt="Demonstrators with a sign in favor of the Freedom to Vote Act.
|
|||
|
|
" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/adest2vH8OjbfTZvsrD8Hx7CPxs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23076263/1237070103.jpg"/> <cite>Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images</cite></p>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
A pro-voting rights demonstration in Washington, DC, on December 7.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AerpdW">
|
|||
|
|
Republicans, at both the elite and mass public level, are actively organizing against democracy — with largely ineffectual pushback from Democratic elites and partisans. There is no evidence of a mass movement to save democracy in America today.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WCUHik">
|
|||
|
|
Why?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IF5uMq">
|
|||
|
|
Broadly speaking, it looks like elites and the mass public are locked in a mutually reinforcing democratic disinterest loop. The party leadership has chosen a political strategy that deprioritizes democracy reform, making partisans less likely to care about the issue. At the same time, Democratic partisans are less interested in the issue with Trump out of power, making them less likely to push their leaders to act.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vBg3v6">
|
|||
|
|
“The Democratic coalition is focused on normal coalition politics and governing, which is understandable in some ways but also neglects the gathering threat,” explains Brendan Nyhan, a Dartmouth political scientist and the co-director of the pro-democracy group Bright Line Watch. “Covid and the economy have sucked up a lot of oxygen and Trump is receiving a tiny fraction of his past coverage. Diffuse threats to democracy don’t command the same level of attention.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KK1Ika">
|
|||
|
|
In this sense, the politics of saving democracy look like a sped-up version of the politics of climate change. In theory, everyone on the Democratic side knows it’s important. In practice, the threat feels remote and abstract — far enough removed from their everyday concerns that they aren’t willing to change their behavior to avert looming catastrophe.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T75KwA">
|
|||
|
|
I asked Rob Lieberman, an expert on the history of American democracy at Johns Hopkins University, about what social forces could take us off this current path. His first thought was pointing to the summer of 2020, where Americans across the country organized against racism and <a href="https://www.axios.com/police-reform-george-floyd-
|
|||
|
|
protest-2150b2dd-a6dc-4a0c-a1fb-62c2e999a03a.html">galvanized successful police reform efforts</a> across the country. That energy, he thinks, could be harnessed in democracy’s defense.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BG7Hk1">
|
|||
|
|
“If the Democrats, or the Black Lives Matter movement, or some coalition on [the pro-democracy] side can mobilize around the idea of multiracial democracy, and a vision that embraces that, maybe that’s a possibility,” he said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gu0AqY">
|
|||
|
|
That the prospect feels so remote at this late hour suggests just how serious our situation is — how difficult it will be, in the coming years, for America to remain a democratic model for the world.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8CI5gx">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QXpYah">
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7KMonV">
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Main character syndrome, explained by Carrie Bradshaw</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Kristin Davis and Sarah Jessica Parker wearing black coats while filming “Sex And The City” in
|
|||
|
|
New York." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/n_Ni1vhTiz1MrffLvp0FJwxVsWs=/200x0:3000x2100/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70250039/2774519.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), right, bullied Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) into giving Carrie her engagement ring so Carrie could put a down payment on her own apartment. | Mark Mainz/Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The heroine of Sex and the City and its new reboot embodies the self-centered trope that’s all over social media.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lm6VAY">
|
|||
|
|
If you’ve ever started to wonder exactly when Carrie Bradshaw turned from plucky, charming rom-com heroine to raging narcissist, the answer is in season four, episode 16, “Ring a Ding Ding” of <em>Sex and the City</em>, at precisely 18 minutes and 57 seconds.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FsvCJx">
|
|||
|
|
The episode is the final one addressing Carrie’s broken engagement with Aidan (John Corbett). After he leaves, she receives a legal document asking her to pay for her apartment, which he had purchased under the premise that they would live there together. Carrie doesn’t have the money for the down payment; by her own accounting, she has spent all her money on shoes. She proceeds to try to scrounge up cash any way she can, notably by zeroing in on the expensive engagement ring left behind in the wake of her friend Charlotte’s (Kristin Davis) broken nuptials.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TCjziP">
|
|||
|
|
“Why didn’t you offer me the money?” Carrie demands, before launching into a lecture about the ways she herself has always supported her friend.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nG4pcI">
|
|||
|
|
Charlotte’s reasonable, loving response — that Carrie is a 35-year-old woman who needs to fix her own finances — offends Carrie to her very core. She storms out of her friend’s apartment.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="24XVij">
|
|||
|
|
At the end of the episode, a sufficiently browbeaten Charlotte does give her the 2.17 carat Tiffany ring and goes so far as to tell Carrie that it was wrong not to offer her $30,000 for her down payment. Carrie accepts the money and tells Charlotte she will pay her back. The series never shows Carrie cutting Charlotte a check. (Not to mention Paper-Covers-Rock-Gate, two seasons later, in which Carrie bulldozes the news of Charlotte’s new engagement by bemoaning a recent breakup. Suffice to say that scene involves a Post-it note and will make you want to scream.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yPwG0v">
|
|||
|
|
The truth of the matter is that two Carries Bradshaw exist: The flirty, quirky one we’re supposed to follow through her ups and downs and the sociopathic psychic vampire who leaves her boyfriends as husks of their former selves and bullies her girlfriends for unconditional (financial!) support, all while refusing to let them have even one moment in the sun.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ns5H61">
|
|||
|
|
The line between the Carrie we love and the Carrie we hate is thin, give or take a re-watch or two.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JZii8o">
|
|||
|
|
The thing is, though, while this type of selfish behavior is outlandish, it isn’t unfamiliar to most people; it’s a set of traits based in reality. Today, we have a name — a nonmedical diagnosis, even — for this way of being: <a href="https://reallifemag.com/main-character-
|
|||
|
|
energy/">main character syndrome</a>. The concept, popularized on TikTok by Gen Z, is as an affliction where someone acts like and believes the world centers around them. Just like Carrie.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DrHS3d">
|
|||
|
|
Carrie Bradshaw is obviously the main character of <em>Sex and the City </em>and its forthcoming reboot, <em>And Just Like That</em>, but what’s really annoying — and relevant — is the way that character acts like she knows she’s starring in her own show.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="K2S3m3">
|
|||
|
|
How Carrie Bradshaw became an avatar for main character syndrome
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MoOKEO">
|
|||
|
|
Main character syndrome as a term is thrown around, often sardonically or ironically, to define behavior where someone acts like (and maybe even believes that) the real world essentially serves as a TV series about their own life. This is characterized by behavior that indicates that everything that happens exists only to further their story or contribute to their own enlightenment, and that they feel and understand things with greater clarity than the people around them.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XHqo9h">
|
|||
|
|
Platforms like Instagram and Facebook have been goading us to curate and romanticize our lives for years now. It’s gotten to the point that what’s put on social media has become a performance that we’re all in on, that we all know is just another fantasy. And since we are all the main characters of our own social feeds, it’s not a big surprise that this behavior has tipped over into something of an extreme.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xnFP8p">
|
|||
|
|
Vox’s Rebecca Jennings spotted the main character trend in the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/8/18/21372510/instagram-reels-bad">summer of 2020</a> where young women would ironically (or not) imagine themselves as the main characters of their own scenarios on TikTok. Since then, the term has become more and more <a href="https://twitter.com/KisseslikeKay/status/1467200921075650563?s=20">self-referential</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/SophiaTassew/status/1467121318609010695?s=20">self-deprecating</a> as a way to recognize our <a href="https://twitter.com/earringdealer1/status/1468475120830369793?s=20">own moments</a> of self-absorbed behavior.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div id="q24fCO">
|
|||
|
|
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
|||
|
|
me walking out of the theatre after seeing a life changing movie <a href="https://t.co/spq0MLZ5iA">pic.twitter.com/spq0MLZ5iA</a>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
— bethany</blockquote></div></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<ol class="example" type="1">
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/fiImgal/status/1462163790246690818?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2021</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ol>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w7KosE">
|
|||
|
|
Carrie Bradshaw is a useful avatar for main character syndrome because yes, obviously, she is the literal main character of her show. Beyond that, though, her, at times, absurd lack of self- reflection becomes a mirror for the viewer. She’s a conduit through which you can feel free to laugh at your own overwrought behavior: Maybe you’re experiencing sadness so powerful or such intense emotional clarity that it feels like nobody but you could ever possibly understand. Of course, that’s not the case, but it can feel good to wallow, and that’s why the pull of MCS — of “being a Carrie” — is so strong.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="agU9G9">
|
|||
|
|
“I’m a Carrie” might have meant being flirty, romantic, or charming back when the show premiered in 1998, but the meaning has evolved along with the character. Now it can mean something a lot closer to “sure I’m egotistical, but smart enough to clock it for what it is.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="cthOz0">
|
|||
|
|
Carrie Bradshaw was never meant to be relatable
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W7t4b6">
|
|||
|
|
One of the best analyses I’ve read about <em>Sex and The City</em> that’s helped me understand my own howling dislike of Carrie is <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/07/29/difficult-women">Emily Nussbaum</a>’s assertion that Carrie is an anti-hero. Carrie, Nussbaum argues, is more like Tony Soprano or Don Draper than she is Mary Richards on <em>The</em> <em>Mary Tyler Moore</em> <em>Show</em> or Lucy Ricardo <em>I Love Lucy</em>. This isn’t true from the beginning, but the turn happens when she dates, breaks up with, and later has an affair with a character known throughout almost the entire series only as Big (Chris Noth).
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Kristin Davis, Sarah Jessica
|
|||
|
|
Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kim Cattrall on Location for “Sex and the City: The Movie” - September 21, 2007" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Mo4IlVXQKtRQRZUEiQUalTx8tHg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23075054/76982697.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Carrie Bradshaw shows you that only a main character can use a hatbox as an accessory.
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VIBhtL">
|
|||
|
|
“A man practically woven out of red flags, Big wasn’t there to rescue Carrie; instead, his ‘great love’ was a slow poisoning,” Nussbaum wrote. “She spun out, becoming anxious, obsessive, and, despite her charm, wildly self-centered — in her own words, ‘the frightening woman whose fear ate her sanity.’”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0Nw9Ny">
|
|||
|
|
This critique makes all the unlikable stuff Carrie does — shaming Charlotte into a down payment for her house; being a jerk about Samantha’s chemical peel at her book party; physically striking Big because he rolls on her while asleep; inviting Big to Aidan’s country cabin; stalking more than one ex’s ex; telling her friends that it makes sense they’re in therapy and that she doesn’t need it, ad infinitum — make some sense. We’re not supposed to like her or her actions because they’re genuinely bad, perpetrated by a woman who we’re not supposed to be rooting for.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IDN71b">
|
|||
|
|
But Carrie being a rotten person is only half of the answer. The problem that elicits my howling groans is that the show never really seems to understand just how deranged her behavior is. Because SATC functions as a serialized rom-com, the breakups and heartbreak that are the cause of (or just as often caused <em>by</em>) her behavior are considered real moments of pain and loss — yet the fact that so often they’re the consequences of her own actions gets overlooked.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Gzi5L">
|
|||
|
|
Above all, the show is supposed to be about friendship, which is where it truly falls flat to me. I don’t expect someone like Carrie to fully acknowledge the boundless nature of her selfishness, but the logic of the show would lead you to expect that someone else should. Here’s a woman who is always with her three fully grown, professional adult besties, and none of them point out that she’s a terrible, horrendously selfish friend. By not really pushing her, they just flatten into accessories.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gk0E3R">
|
|||
|
|
Wouldn’t Miranda, in all her self-righteous sarcasm, ask: “Carrie, tell me you did not shame Charlotte into giving you her engagement ring?” Or wouldn’t Charlotte firmly but politely remind her about the payments from time to time? Wouldn’t Samantha turn it into a sex joke, wondering if her friend is this self-obsessed in bed?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b56Lam">
|
|||
|
|
I’m excited to see if, with the many years between the original series and the new reboot <em>And Just Like That</em> (which premiered December 9 at midnight), the show’s writers will have Carrie possess a self-awareness about her own selfishness that she didn’t before. Keeping her self-absorbed and righteous would maintain the character’s integrity, I suppose, even though it might turn the miniseries into a Carrie hate-watch or tale of caution for some dedicated fans.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NOoDEi">
|
|||
|
|
But it would also be fascinating to see her grapple with or be embarrassed by her past behavior or have a throwaway joke about how awful she was (justice for Charlotte). Having seen the first two episodes, it seems like the show is setting up a huge life shift for Carrie. If that does lead to a major mental or emotional evolution, we’d have to find another patron saint of that pesky syndrome, but it’d be reassuring to know that people, and maybe even main characters, grow.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>FIA’s Masi sends out collision warning ahead of F1 title showdown</strong> - After the race in Jeddah, 1996 world champion Damon Hill told Sky Sports the governing FIA needed to warn Verstappen and Hamilton of the consequences should a collision between them decide the title</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>PNC Championship | Tiger Woods to return from injury next week</strong> - Tiger chooses PNC Championship to resume prowl</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>ITF Asian junior tennis | Chirag ousts Woobin</strong> - Chirag Duhan knocked out top seed Woobin Shin of Korea 6-3, 6-4 in the Aryan Pumps ITF Asian junior tennis quarterfinals at the Deccan Gymkhana here o</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Manipur beats Railways, claims 21st title</strong> - Wins 2-1 on penalties; fine work by custodian Okram Roshini Devi</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Spinners script Tamil Nadu’s win in Vijay Hazare Trophy</strong> - Mumbai and Pondicherry prevail via VJD method</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Half of Meghalaya ‘Congress-free’, courtesy Trinamool</strong> - 11 members of district council follow eight MLAs of State’s Garo Hills region to TMC</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>NGT pulls up State for poor solid waste management</strong> - Green tribunal says action plan not satisfactory</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Over 70 years ago, trouble in the air in Kotagiri</strong> - In 1950, an Air India Douglas C-47B aircraft crashed near Kil Kotagiri in the Nilgiris, killing its 20 passengers and crew, among them a noted statistician</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>DGCA starts probe into SpiceJet’s 737 Max aircraft that made emergency landing at Mumbai airport</strong> - The plane – which has registration number VT-MXE – will remain grounded till it is cleared by the DGCA, its chief Arun Kumar said.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>37% of trains in India being hauled by diesel locomotives, rest by electric engines</strong> - Total diesel and electricity consumed for running trains were 2,370.55 million litres and 13,854.73 million KWH</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Swedish artist Anna von Hausswolff gives secret gig after Satanic slur</strong> - Two of Anna von Hausswolff’s French gigs were cancelled under pressure from fundamentalist Catholics.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, court rules</strong> - Judges are reassured by US promises to reduce the risk of the Wikileaks founder taking his own life.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Valérie Pécresse: Part-Thatcher, part-Merkel and wants to run France</strong> - Valérie Pécresse has given the Republicans a lift, and a poll suggests she could be president.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russia Ukraine: Putin compares Donbas war zone to genocide</strong> - Russia’s leader ramps up his rhetoric as the US and Ukrainian presidents discuss border tensions.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How a Russian invasion of Ukraine could spill over into Europe</strong> - A senior Western intel official warns war would have far-reaching consequences on the continent.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Holiday reading: 19 book recommendations from the Ars staff</strong> - From new to old, nonfiction to coffee-table books—we give some recs for your TBR list. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1818173">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rocket Report: Astra to launch from Florida, NASA troubleshoots SLS issue</strong> - “Construction of Starship orbital launch pad at the Cape has begun.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1818245">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Zeroday in ubiquitous Log4j tool poses a grave threat to the Internet</strong> - Minecraft is the first, but certainly not the last, app known to be affected. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1819454">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Matrix Awakens is 2021’s must-play flex of current-gen console power</strong> - Real-time visual muscle: Unreal Engine 5 gets its biggest red (pill) carpet treatment yet. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1818922">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Shkreli’s infamous price-gouging scheme finally shut down in $40M settlement</strong> - The trial against Martin Shkreli is slated to begin next week. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1819411">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>I was standing at the bar of Terminal 3 in the International Airport when this small Chinese guy comes in, stands next to me, and starts drinking a beer</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
I asked him, “Do you know any of those martial arts things, like Kung-Fu, Karate, or Ju-Jitsu?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
He says "No, why the f**k would you ask me that? Is it because I am Chinese?"
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“No”, I said, “It’s because you’re drinking my beer, you little prick.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/orgasmic2021"> /u/orgasmic2021 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rd0tez/i_was_standing_at_the_bar_of_terminal_3_in_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rd0tez/i_was_standing_at_the_bar_of_terminal_3_in_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>An Irish dad calls his son in London the day before Christmas Eve and says, “I hate to ruin your day but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Dad, what are you talking about?” the son screams.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“We can’t stand the sight of each other any longer,” the father says. “We’re sick of each other and I’m sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Leeds and tell her.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone. “Like heck they’re getting divorced!”she shouts, “I’ll take care of this!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
She calls Ireland immediately, and screams at her father, “You are NOT getting divorced. Don’t do a single thing until I get there. I’m calling my brother back, and we’ll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don’t do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME?” and hangs up.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife. “Sorted! They’re coming for Christmas – and they’re paying their own way”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!--
|
|||
|
|
SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/WISEcracrEvanStephen"> /u/WISEcracrEvanStephen </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rcvtha/an_irish_dad_calls_his_son_in_london_the_day/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rcvtha/an_irish_dad_calls_his_son_in_london_the_day/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>A butler is cleaning one of the guest rooms in a mansion when the lady of the house walks in.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
She fixes him with an imperious gaze and cocks one arm on her hip “Charles,” she says, “take off my dress.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The butler swallows hard, but he knows his duty. He puts his hands on the buttons of her dress and starts to undo them, one by one. More and more skin is revealed until finally, her dress slides off and puddles on the floor.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Now, Charles,” she commands, “take off my bra.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
With trembling fingers, he unclasps her bra and pulls it off.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“And now, Charles, my panties. Take them off too.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
He hooks his fingers in the waistband of her panties and slowly, slowly slides them down to the floor.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Thank you, Charles,” she says, with a faint smile on her lips. “Now, if I ever catch you wearing my clothes again, you’re fired!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/LostBetsRed"> /u/LostBetsRed </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rcoj5p/a_butler_is_cleaning_one_of_the_guest_rooms_in_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rcoj5p/a_butler_is_cleaning_one_of_the_guest_rooms_in_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>A woman tries getting on a bus, but realizes her skirt is too tight</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
As the bus stopped and it was her turn to get on, she became aware that her skirt was too tight to allow her leg to come up to the height of the first step of the bus. Slightly embarassed and with a quick smile to the driver, she reached behind her to unzip her skirt a little, thinking that this would give her enough slack to raise her leg. She tried to take the step, but only to discover that she couldn’t.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
With a little smile to the driver, she again reached behind to unzip a little more and again was unable to take the step.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
After becoming quite frusturated and embarassed, she once again attempted to unzip her skirt more in order to allow more leg room to get on the first step of the bus.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
About this time, a large Texan who was standing behind her picked her up easily by the waist and placed her gently on the step of the bus,
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
She went ballistic and turned to the would-be Samaritan and yelled “How dare you touch my body! I don’t even know who you are!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The texan smiled and drawled "Well ma’am, normally I would agree with you but after you unzipped my fly three times I kinda figured we were friends.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MichaelBusinessStar"> /u/MichaelBusinessStar </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rciqsm/a_woman_tries_getting_on_a_bus_but_realizes_her/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rciqsm/a_woman_tries_getting_on_a_bus_but_realizes_her/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Cop: So I’m writing you a ticket for driving alone in the car pool lane.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Me: You’re going to feel really stupid when you look in my trunk.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON
|
|||
|
|
-->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/anon123443222737"> /u/anon123443222737 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rcmvbt/cop_so_im_writing_you_a_ticket_for_driving_alone/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rcmvbt/cop_so_im_writing_you_a_ticket_for_driving_alone/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>
|