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538 lines
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<title>11 August, 2023</title>
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<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>
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<body>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Ohio Voters Defeated an Effort to Thwart Abortion Rights</strong> - Opponents of the measure capitalized on fears of a Republican power grab. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/how-ohio-voters-defeated-an-effort-to-thwart-abortion-rights">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Mind-Bending World of Trump, His Indictments, and the 2024 Election</strong> - After weathering the former President’s assaults in late 2020 and early 2021, the American justice system, and its commitment to the rule of law, is about to be tested again. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-mind-bending-world-of-trump-his-indictments-and-the-2024-election">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The End of Legacy Admissions Could Transform College Access</strong> - After the fall of affirmative action, liberals and conservatives want to eliminate benefits for children of alumni. Could their logic lead to reparations? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-end-of-legacy-admissions-could-transform-college-access">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>2024 Preview: Bidenomics Versus the Trump Freak Show</strong> - The President’s feel-good tour offers a stark contrast to his predecessor’s summer of conspiracies and criminal indictments. But will it work? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/2024-preview-bidenomics-versus-the-trump-freak-show">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Legacy of the El Paso Shooting</strong> - Four years after twenty-three people were murdered by a white nationalist, Texas Republicans continue to speak about an immigrant invasion. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-legacy-of-the-el-paso-shooting">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>The Montgomery boat brawl and what it really means to “try that in a small town”</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="A riverboat tied to a river dock." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wIlbz3hCd8vTQJlt7tX9Xiud13Y=/376x0:7715x5504/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72534273/GettyImages_1585079269.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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The Harriott, a riverboat, docked on the Alabama riverfront in downtown Montgomery, Alabama. | Julie Bennett/Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The viral fight valorized Black resistance — and punctured Jason Aldean’s racist “small town” narrative.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R2c3Zt">
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One of the key facets of extremism is the element of plausible deniability. As such, “<a href="https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2016/11/7/13549154/dog-whistles-campaign-racism">dog whistles</a>” — coded language used to mask a deeper extremist or discriminatory rhetoric — have become a pervasive part of the way we talk about politics and the culture wars. They’re also exhausting to unpack.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gX9dVd">
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No matter how diplomatically or plainly you point out the underlying racism or bigotry of a specific image or turn of phrase, there’s always someone eager to take the code literally, to dismiss its context, its subtext, and clearly harmful impact. They’re happy to claim this is just what happens when you pucker your lips and blow, and any hateful dogs that come running are just a coincidence.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lAYSTO">
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Then a song comes along like country singer Jason Aldean’s risible “<a href="https://genius.com/29069879">Try That in a Small Town</a>.” The lyrics and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1_RKu-ESCY">accompanying video</a> are layered with references to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2023/07/20/jason-aldean-song-video-pulled-cmt-controversy/">Black Lives Matter protests</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/2/22/18235335/green-book-guide-to-freedom-documentary-oscars">sundown towns</a> (“see how far you make it down that road”), and white protectionism (“good ol’ boys … we take care of our own”). The video’s main location was no less than the site of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/20/1188966935/jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town-song-video">historical lynchings</a>, a particularly unsubtle jab. Inevitably, however, when you attempt to illuminate this racist imagery, a “Try That in a Small Town” defender will show up. They will assert that the whole thing is really just about, as Aldean himself <a href="https://twitter.com/Jason_Aldean/status/1681382697875144717">tried to assert</a>, “the feeling of community” and the desire for a return to “a sense of normalcy.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="opsLRY">
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Normal, to Aldean, seems to be a reality where Black protesters don’t disrupt the everyday lives of white citizens — even if those citizens are, as the song suggests, stockpiling guns and turning paranoid eyes on any and all outsiders. This attempt to reframe socially sanctioned racism as “just a community looking out for itself” has long been a part of the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/reconstruction-white-southern-responses-black-emancipation/">discriminatory tactics</a> used against Black Americans, from <a href="https://www.vox.com/21295670/robert-fuller-malcolm-harsch-hanging-history-lynching">lynch mobs</a> to the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22229082/capitol-riot-insurrection-kkk-white-supremacy-supremacists">racist, KKK-apologetic</a> <em>Birth of a Nation</em>, to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/05/us/ahmaud-arbery-defense-opening-statement.html">legal defenses</a> used by white men who murder unarmed Black ones. It’s a cultural tactic used to not only disenfranchise Black Americans, but to then gaslight them about their own reality and experience. It’s a tactic that turns aggression into “self-defense.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K8sL2X">
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It’s one big reason, out of an infinitude of reasons, that the world was transfixed earlier this week when video surfaced of a group of Black boat workers in Montgomery, Alabama, appearing to voraciously fight back after a group of white pontoon boaters began attacking a Black boat captain.
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</p>
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<h3 id="xUvp2D">
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What happened at the Montgomery boat brawl
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FLhWtV">
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The white boaters, coming from nearby Selma, had <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/08/09/montgomery-alabama-riverboat-brawl-captain/">allegedly repeatedly caused trouble</a> at the dock by parking their pontoon illegally in the spot reserved for a large tourist riverboat, the <em>Harriott II</em>. On Sunday, August 5, the riverboat had been waiting for around 45 minutes, with passengers aboard, to dock. Damien Pickett, the riverboat’s first mate and co-captain, disembarked in order to move the pontoon boat himself. In response, according to reports, at least three of the boaters attacked Pickett, punching him in the face, beating and kicking him.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h60eIO">
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This sounds like an all-too-familiar tragedy in progress: white-on-black violence, motivated by a sense of racist entitlement. Speaking to <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/montgomery-brawl-riverboat-captain-says-attack-was-racially-motivated">the Daily Beast</a> after the incident, the boat’s captain, Jim Kittrell, stressed that the only motive appeared to be racial: “It makes no sense to have six people try to beat the snot out of you just because you moved their boat up a few feet. In my opinion, the attack on Damien was racially motivated.” Kittrell’s assumption seems to be bolstered by eyewitness testimony: One bystander, a victim’s family member, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/atlanta/news/witness-racist-language-was-used-before-assault-at-montgomery-dock-court-document-shows/">said in a sworn statement</a> that she heard one of the white men drop the n-word before the fighting began.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O5LP5N">
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It’s important to consider this incident in the broader context of Montgomery’s history, as well. Montgomery, one of the major historical fronts of the civil rights movement, is no stranger to racialized violence. It was there, in 1954, that a young Martin Luther King Jr. took up pastorship at a local church, where he became a spokesperson for the Montgomery bus boycotts alongside Rosa Parks. Through boycotts and years of sustained activism amid tense civil unrest, Montgomery protesters successfully challenged the rule of Jim Crow in the South and ultimately changed the nation. Montgomery also saw devastating segregationist violence throughout this period, including one of the most violent moments in the civil rights movement, “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/3/7/8151311/john-lewis-bloody-sunday">Bloody Sunday</a>.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eO7OfC">
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In 2023, coming after a cultural period of intensifying racialized protests, a group of white people whaling on an unsuspecting and defenseless Black man could have led to tragic consequences or, at the least, traumatized victims and onlookers.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kf4MdV">
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What the video shows happening next, however, flipped the script: Seeing one of their colleagues being attacked, other Black boat workers rushed in to defend him and fight back. Bystanders also joined in, with one teen now known as “<a href="https://meaww.com/who-is-black-aquaman-internet-hails-teenager-from-viral-alabama-brawl-for-swimming-across-river-to-help-battered-dock-guard">Black Aquaman</a>” famously jumping into the water and swimming across the dock in order to help. One man, a person known to the internet as “Folding Chair Guy,” gained instant fame when he went after the three attackers with, you guessed it, a folding chair.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ghbqe7">
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The suddenness of the fight, combined with the enthusiasm of the brawlers, the glee of the onlookers, and the fact that everyone had phones out recording the incident, made the Montgomery brawl — dubbed the Alabama Sweet Tea Party — into an immediate viral sensation. It produced everything from evocative <a href="https://www.whatimreading.net/p/montgomery-alabama-fight-black-twitter-memes">Twitter reactions</a> to a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@memesfordays876/video/7265195720322452778">live swimming pool reenactment</a> to a <a href="https://twitter.com/ReneUpshaw1/status/1689504656672821248">remix</a> of Ernie Barnes’s iconic painting of Black partiers, <em>Sugar Shack</em>. The folding chair was <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/838407/the-black-history-of-the-montgomery-brawl-folding-chair/">instantly memorialized</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x28It3">
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Most extraordinarily of all, no one rushed to mete out punishment for the Black dock workers who fought back. Though multiple fighters were briefly detained, all were released. Folding Chair Guy, real name Reggie Gray, has been dodging police requests to speak with him, but no one seems to be pushing too hard for his arrest either, although the investigation into the brawl is ongoing. At a press conference, Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert notably didn’t attempt to distort the power dynamics, <a href="https://www.revolt.tv/article/2023-08-08/320612/authorities-address-montgomery-riverboat-brawl-in-new-press-conference/">stating simply</a> that “several members of the Harriott II came to Mr. Pickett’s defense.” The three white attackers <a href="https://www.wsfa.com/2023/08/10/2-more-montgomery-riverfront-brawl-suspects-surrender-police/">turned themselves in to police custody</a> after <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/08/us/montgomery-boat-dock-fight/index.html">warrants were issued</a> for their arrest.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8HJHa9">
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The prevailing public mood around the Montgomery brawl has not been racist backlash or anxiety over such a backlash, but rather deep satisfaction at a battle in which justice seems to have prevailed: The perpetrators were rounded up and the victims received a rousing defense from the community. For once, the marginalized underdog — a Black man being ganged up on by a group of white bullies — came out no worse for wear; Pickett <a href="https://www.wsfa.com/2023/08/10/co-captain-riverfront-brawl-montgomery-i-was-just-doing-my-job/">reportedly walked away</a> from the fight with only a headache and some minor cuts and bruises.
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</p>
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<h3 id="yfzqEq">
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What it means to try that in a (not entirely) small town
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pbDJsY">
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The collective sense of satisfaction might be exactly the kind of communal security Jason Aldean was attempting to portray in “Try That in a Small Town.” This was, in fact, almost the exact scenario Aldean says he was attempting to capture in his ode to small-town vigilante justice: a group of outsiders come into town, refuse to obey the local customs or follow the local laws, and then get their asses duly whooped by the town citizenry.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jLGAvO">
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While Montgomery is not a “small” town, its history of banding together to rout out racists is deeply relevant here. Montgomery is precisely the type of heartland town that deserves to have songs written about the bravery and commitment of its citizens to protecting one another, to fighting back against injustice — to defending its people and its way of life at all costs. But there’s plenty of reason to suspect that Montgomery wasn’t the kind of town — and this wasn’t the kind of scenario — that Aldean had in mind. We know that celebrating moments of Black defiance is incredibly rare in American history.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hyTgXG">
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The Montgomery brawl represents an extraordinary triumphant moment in which Black resistance has been seen as a just force rather than a threat to the white establishment. Black shows of defiance, even when used in clear self-defense, are all too often <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22983104/justice-forgiveness">wielded against the victim</a>. Historically, instances of rebellion such as that of slave revolt leader Nat Turner have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/how-overpolicing-causes-black-rebellion--not-the-other-way-around/2021/05/26/7dd3ad6e-bd65-11eb-9c90-731aff7d9a0d_story.html">been used to justify more violence</a> against Black people. Today, in cases where Black victims of police violence attempt to seek justice, the legal doctrine of “<a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/3/21277104/end-qualified-immunity-police-definition-george-floyd">qualified immunity</a>” — in which police have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-police-immunity-race/">almost unlimited power</a> to use force without fearing a lawsuit in response — is invoked.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wNuPvJ">
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The entire justice system, in other words, too frequently gets weaponized against Black Americans who assert themselves in the face of threats to their safety, property, and human dignity. Black citizens are rarely allowed to be “<a href="https://thequintessentialqueer.tumblr.com/post/134868530418/i-love-hamilton-but-something-about-the-way-white">heroic through defiance</a>,” to reclaim Black rebellion as an act of valor, or to wield reactive violence as a form of patriotism and idealism. That framing of violence is almost exclusively reserved for the kind of white supremacists Aldean’s song seems interested in protecting.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OryePb">
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The Montgomery brawl was subversive, shocking, even refreshing in its memeability — not because violence is something to be enjoyed, but because the long arc of history, honed to oppress, simply could not withstand the glorious righteous fury of a bunch of boat workers who’d been forced to stand around for nearly an hour thanks to some entitled jerks who refused to follow the dock rules.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d5fW3Z">
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It’s worth asking whether the public’s reaction to the brawl would have been as laid back if the stakes hadn’t been so clear. These Black dockhands, after all, were working in the service of something undeniably anodyne, even arguably white-coded: a cruise on a <a href="https://www.funinmontgomery.com/Home/Components/FacilityDirectory/FacilityDirectory/224/3052">19th-century riverboat</a>, with all the ties to <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/travel/destinations/2019/01/11/mississippi-river-cruise-american-queen-steamboat-company/2507648002/">antebellum history</a> such a tour implies. Would this minor moment have been framed as heroic had the victims been trying instead to dock a summer cruise full of raucous Black partiers? If the dockhands had all turned out to be Black Lives Matter activists, would their rebellion have still been valiant?
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tfHY6l">
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It may seem silly to ask these kinds of questions about a heavily memed brawl involving a folding chair and a person known only as “Black Aquaman,” but this is exactly when we should be asking them. It’s the constant policing and challenging of ordinary Black existence by the white establishment — through microaggressions, or macro-aggressions, like writing an entire song about how badly you want to lynch outsiders — that leads to the fomentation of anger that spills over into protest. That then gets used to justify more policing and challenging of ordinary Black existence.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yhd8a9">
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That’s why the Montgomery brawl was, on a level, a brilliant deconstruction of the lie behind “Try That in a Small Town”: It effortlessly destroyed the song’s flimsily veiled conceit that the “community” that needs protection is that of innocent white people being besieged by scary Black protesters.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4EzE0k">
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Perhaps that’s also why Aldean’s song, though it had a brief stint atop the Billboard Hot 100 after <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/20/1188966935/jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town-song-video">all the controversy</a> surrounding it broke, immediately plummeted a full 20 slots. This was <a href="https://twitter.com/chartdata/status/1688659273234993152">reportedly</a> one of the biggest drops in history, and the <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town-falls-hot-100-chart-1234802602/">biggest ever</a> for a song that didn’t debut at No. 1.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Wz7hNE">
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The deepest irony of all this is that Jason Aldean — who grew up in the big town of Macon, Georgia, and now resides in the bigger town of Nashville — tries to court “<a href="https://www.vulture.com/2023/07/jason-aldeans-offensive-small-towns.html">that small-town vibe</a>” without ever delving into what the vibe actually is. Anyone who’s from a small Southern town understands exactly what he’s referencing.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ouA6Rb">
|
|||
|
|
Like anywhere, small towns are full of wonderful individual people and affirming communities. But also like anywhere — and perhaps even a little more often than anywhere, given their size and emphasis on the collective — they can be subject to toxic groupthink. When the idea of a small town is freighted with notions of an “us” and a “them,” notions that can distort a sense of self and what exactly needs to be defended, they can also be as alienating, dangerous, and violent as anywhere else on earth.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rgC2dH">
|
|||
|
|
That’s why narratives of Black defiance are all the more crucial as representations of what real community can be. A sweet tea party, indeed.
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>An insidious form of climate denial is festering in the Republican Party</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Elephant with dry planet earth in parched country with cracked soil." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AK6Z3n1ZRCwNEUtyZ1T2WSU_ndY=/0x0:4664x3498/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72534222/GettyImages_1318601664__1_.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Partisan divides on climate change have grown over the past 20 years, as GOP leaders became more emboldened in denying the science. | Getty Images/iStockphoto
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The GOP’s only “climate policy” is actually bad for the environment.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Tr3CJJ">
|
|||
|
|
When Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) questioned US climate envoy John Kerry at an oversight hearing in July — a month that became the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/08/02/july-hottest-month-global-temperatures/">hottest</a> ever recorded — he sidestepped that the country was in the grip of repeated heat waves, fires, and a looming hurricane season. Over a six-minute interrogation, the House Freedom Caucus chair claimed Kerry wanted to charge taxpayers a “quadrillion dollars to fix a problem that doesn’t exist” and accused him, along with thousands of scientists and the 195 governments signed onto the Paris climate accord, of “grifting.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UxN7OH">
|
|||
|
|
Kerry shook his head when Perry concluded. “That’s a pretty shocking statement,” he said, “that you believe all the scientists of the world are grifters.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="anlbP5">
|
|||
|
|
The shock from the emotionally charged attack may have been the point. “There’s a longstanding history of climate deniers going after the messenger as well as the message,” <a href="https://people.miami.edu/profile/19dbd62ef7e2e5fcd155ef0c53f35bc8">Geoffrey Supran</a>, a University of Miami associate professor who studies climate disinformation, told Vox. “The harder it is to dismantle the message, the easier it is to go after the individuals most prominently communicating it.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="58EHAC">
|
|||
|
|
Collective climate change denial in the Republican Party is not new. But the Perry-Kerry exchange illustrates how the GOP’s claims are becoming increasingly audacious — as signals from human-caused climate change become all the more apparent.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="O0nd75">
|
|||
|
|
Record heat? “Normal”: “It’s hot, hot, hot all right,” said Laura Ingraham on her <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4008687">Fox News show</a>. “After all, we’re in the middle of a season called ‘summer.’” (Fact check: More than 3,000 temperature records were shattered in the US for the month of July alone, something scientists say would be “<a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/23807520/heat-wave-record-temperature-history-death-valley-climate">virtually impossible</a>” without human-caused climate change.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qvowpK">
|
|||
|
|
Forest fires? “Nature naturally burns itself off every 11 years with natural disaster forest fires,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK). “This is a forest fire.” (Fact check: The severity of wildfires such as the historic blazes in Canada this year are fueled by <a href="https://www.vox.com/science/2023/6/7/23752832/canada-fires-smoke-climate-change">complex conditions </a>including forest management and drought primed by climate change.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EwVJX7">
|
|||
|
|
Stronger hurricanes? Just a part of life: “This is something that is a fact of life in the Sunshine State,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/28/ron-desantis-climate-crisis-campaign">Fox News interview</a>. “I’ve always rejected the politicization of the weather.” (Fact check: Climate change drives the warming of ocean waters, <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/23816029/hurricane-2023-season-forecast-tropical-storm-ian-florida">which provide fuel for more devastating hurricanes and typhoons</a>.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="x0Qm1T">
|
|||
|
|
More Americans are impacted by climate change; 62 percent of all voters recognize climate change is caused by human activity, according to a <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/474542/steady-six-say-global-warming-effects-begun.aspx">Gallup poll</a> from this spring. Yet, climate change denial is not only alive and well in the GOP, it’s become “a lot more insidious and polarizing,” said <a href="https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/1028119-john-cook">John Cook</a>, a University of Melbourne researcher who has tracked the path of climate disinformation online using <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/12/09/climate-change-study-misinformation/">artificial intelligence</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="MV377k">
|
|||
|
|
Here is what has made climate change denial worse.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="MUP81o">
|
|||
|
|
Climate change denial is becoming more personal
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OuTRPF">
|
|||
|
|
Americans increasingly care about climate change, unless you’re asking the Republican voter base. The GOP’s obsession that liberal elites want to worsen the average person’s way of life through climate action has chipped away at their voters’ support for solutions and belief that the planet is warming. Party leaders and presidential candidates have insisted, wrongly, that Democrats’ climate solutions will mean bans on <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/marsha-blackburn-finds-new-home-appliance-s-eager-rescue-rcna96171">laundry machines</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-burger-falsehood/2021/04/26/9afca0be-a6a2-11eb-8d25-7b30e74923ea_story.html">hamburgers, </a>and <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/23559852/gas-stove-myths-debunked">gas stoves</a> and that unabated <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2022/12/10/23496712/esg-gop-climate-corporate-responsibility">“wokeism” has infiltrated</a> the corporate world.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RD81k0">
|
|||
|
|
It’s a useful scare tactic, employed to delay action. Supran, who has conducted research on <a href="https://www.vox.com/22429551/climate-change-crisis-exxonmobil-harvard-study">historical oil industry ads</a>, found those in the 1990s “trotting out the same rhetoric, with different wording: ‘No more SUVs, no more driving around freely,’” to stave off new energy efficiency standards.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="V5QzQV">
|
|||
|
|
“It plays into this elitist narrative, that these are the elites and they aren’t like us and they’re trying to tell us all these cultural changes they’re trying to bring about,” explained <a href="https://republicen.org/bob">Bob Inglis</a>, a Republican and former South Carolina member of Congress who now runs the advocacy group RepublicEn to promote climate solutions among conservatives. Inglis said it’s helpful for the politicians who sell doubt on climate change to make it seem like people who support solutions “have their heads in the clouds trying to solve things the rest of us practical people don’t need.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HpwWI6">
|
|||
|
|
Inglis pointed out the problem with this narrative. “The thing about climate change is we’re all experiencing it right now,” he said. “We’re all in the midst of it.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="45D489">
|
|||
|
|
The party is making climate a culture war issue
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="G8RUCm">
|
|||
|
|
Republicans have spent years hammering this message to the electorate and it has made a major difference to the average Republican voter. <a href="https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10283598">Research</a> shows that the GOP politicians’ cues do impact how voters see the issue.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="puWhxt">
|
|||
|
|
We can measure the effect of their rhetoric in the polling: A recent <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/509129/update-partisan-gaps-expand-government-power-climate.aspx">Gallup survey</a> looked at partisan divides on a number of issues every 10 years from 2003 to 2023. One of the starkest shifts in the polling was around party views on global warming and environmental issues, ranking alongside gun laws and <a href="https://www.vox.com/abortion">abortion</a> as having the highest polarization. Republicans have become less concerned with global warming, even as the effects have grown more pronounced since 2013. And fewer Republicans think global warming is a result of human activity today than they did 20 years ago.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7loHck">
|
|||
|
|
There are serious consequences to all this, and the far right plans to translate climate denial into official federal policy that encourages fossil fuels and blocks a <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy">clean energy</a> transition, should <a href="https://www.vox.com/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a> win the next presidential election.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JOKITh">
|
|||
|
|
The conservative think tank Heritage Foundation has drawn a 920-page blueprint called Project 2025 to unravel all of the US’s efforts so far to tackle climate change. It is a methodical, systematic undoing of the federal bureaucracy, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/28/far-right-climate-plans-00107498">Politico first reported,</a> shuttering key programs from the Environmental Protection Agency, slashing climate and clean energy solutions, blocking the expansion of wind and solar on the grid, and turning over pollution oversight to the fossil fuel industry and handpicked Republican officials.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="IspO2Q">
|
|||
|
|
The GOP’s only “climate” policy is actually bad for the environment
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wpkeCb">
|
|||
|
|
Cook has found in his research that Republicans are increasingly concerned with spreading misinformation about solutions, grossly oversimplifying what needs to be done to avoid addressing fossil fuel emissions. One of those misleading ideas is a House Republican push for the <a href="https://naturalresources.house.gov/legislative-priorities/trillion-trees-act.htm">Trillion Trees Act</a>, which has not come up for a vote.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qWYAY7">
|
|||
|
|
When Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR) first proposed the <a href="https://naturalresources.house.gov/legislative-priorities/trillion-trees-act.htm">Trillion Trees Act</a> in 2020, environmentalists said the bill “would significantly increase logging across America’s federal forests, convert millions of acres into industrial tree plantations, increase carbon emissions, increase wildfire risk, and harm wildlife and watersheds.” The idea was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, effectively giving loggers more allowances as long as they planted seedlings which are decades away from delivering climate benefits.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7KQkYt">
|
|||
|
|
But the GOP has come to champion the idea as their climate plan. “We need to manage our forests better so our environment can be stronger,” said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). McCarthy proposed planting trees so the US could focus on its natural gas industry, one of the world’s leading methane polluters. “Let’s replace Russian natural gas with American natural gas, and let’s not only have a cleaner world, let’s have a safer world,” he said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="shwhJa">
|
|||
|
|
Trump was in favor of a tree initiative while president, even while he was dismantling government action on climate change. And other leading climate deniers have focused on “forest management” or the timber industry as an easy fix for worsening wildfires. In a CNN town hall in June, presidential candidate <a href="https://www.vox.com/mike-pence">Mike Pence</a> said, “We’ve got to be able to tell some of the radical environmentalists that you’ve got to harvest some trees in the forest to keep the forest healthy.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dPoqiU">
|
|||
|
|
Planting a trillion trees to save us from climate change is <a href="https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/22679378/tree-planting-forest-restoration-climate-solutions">not a serious proposal</a> on its own. The authors of the 2019 study that has inspired the GOP’s talking point have themselves said that planting trees alone does not <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/08/02/trillion-trees-republicans-climate/">eliminate</a> “the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="49dFF8">
|
|||
|
|
As Inglis put it, “trees can be part of the solution, but they’re not a solution on the scale of the problem. … What we’re looking for is a worldwide solution to the challenge of climate change.” Inglis’s group advocates for what he calls a conservative approach that does address the scale of the problem, a revenue-neutral carbon tax along with a border tax adjustment that works across the <a href="https://www.vox.com/economy">economy</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AZSqXH">
|
|||
|
|
The GOP idea to plant more trees may seem innocuous compared to calling climate change a hoax, but the outcome is the same. They will try “anything that pushes the problem downstream,” said Supran, to shut down more immediate action. Invariably, inertia on climate change benefits the status quo — which just so happens to benefit fossil fuel industries, a major benefactor of the Republican Party.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZWwrrw">
|
|||
|
|
“There’s so much talk but so little commitment to action both from the GOP and fossil fuel interests,” Supran said. “I feel like we’re in some kind of twilight zone, the talking points go round and round. The end result is just the same as it’s always been, which is lackluster action.”
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Biden’s risky Persian Gulf bet</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="Portion of a US Navy patrol ship, painted grey, with a US flag flying." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UDS0pGOcp_G921RouQg3oQG38KE=/555x0:4928x3280/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72534167/1189076812.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
US Navy sailors stand guard aboard the USS Sirocco patrol ship while docked at the US 5th Fleet Command in Bahrain’s capital Manama on December 17, 2019. | Mazen Mahdi/AFP via Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Why the US is sending 3,000 Marines to secure the world’s oil.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZzbykR">
|
|||
|
|
This week, thousands of US sailors and Marines <a href="https://www.cusnc.navy.mil/Media/News/Display/Article/3484635/3000-sailors-and-marines-arrive-in-middle-east-aboard-uss-bataan-uss-carter-hall/">landed</a> in the Persian Gulf to pursue a widening mission to protect the strategic waterway, where about a <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=42338">quarter of the world’s oil</a> passes daily.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tb554a">
|
|||
|
|
For decades, the US has in effect guaranteed the security of the Gulf. But Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sent 3,000 Marines and sailors for a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/persian-gulf-tensions-us-armed-guards-57295a81dc45c9e0755bd6a83ece86d9?taid=64cbddacea98280001e92a11&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter">newly expanded role</a> that, according to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/thousands-marines-sailors-deploy-middle-east-deter-iran/story?id=102072031">news reports</a>, may include boarding US-flagged ships to escort them through the Strait of Hormuz in response to increased Iranian aggression.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fVy605">
|
|||
|
|
“It would be a pretty pronounced change in the way the US polices the Gulf,” Gregory Brew, an oil historian and analyst at the Eurasia Group consulting firm, told Vox.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HEJgtU">
|
|||
|
|
The deployment shows that, beyond securing the important energy route, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">Biden administration</a> wants to assert US power in the Middle East. With that comes risks, especially if the troops were to actually escort or even board commercial ships. The US did something similar during the Tanker War of 1987 to 1988, in which the Reagan administration reflagged Kuwaiti vessels and escorted them through the strait as a deterrent measure during the <a href="https://www.vox.com/iran">Iran</a>-Iraq war — leading to intensive US involvement in the Gulf. That has culminated in the US military enlarging its massive footprint, with <a href="https://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2021/jan/05/us-military-deployments-around-iran">tens of thousands of troops in a network of bases throughout the Gulf</a>. Now, the new operation could lock in an even bigger and more ensnared US military presence.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PhyX9Q">
|
|||
|
|
President Joe Biden’s administration says the threat Iran poses to international trade is serious enough to warrant the significant new deployment. “Since 2021, Iran has harassed, attacked or seized nearly 20 internationally flagged merchant vessels, presenting a clear threat to regional maritime security and the global economy,” Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder said recently. While Iran denies that it has been harassing ships, some analysts suggested its aggression is in response to US sanctions on Iranian oil exports.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div id="87WdUS">
|
|||
|
|
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
|||
|
|
More than 3,000 Sailors & Marines of the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group & 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit arrived in the Middle East, Aug. 6, as part of a pre-announced Department of Defense deployment.<br/><br/>Read more ⬇️<a href="https://t.co/H3fokPX1e0">https://t.co/H3fokPX1e0</a> <a href="https://t.co/DC7Hpkju9h">pic.twitter.com/DC7Hpkju9h</a>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
— U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet (<span class="citation" data-cites="US5thFleet">@US5thFleet</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/US5thFleet/status/1688427366266073089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2023</a>
|
|||
|
|
</blockquote></div></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="y1GiFC">
|
|||
|
|
The US is wading into a set of operations where many of the hottest and most complex geopolitical issues of the moment collide: energy prices, engagement with Iran, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/3/10/23634464/deal-saudi-arabia-iran-china-explained">China’s rising influence in the region</a>. The most urgent concern may be the meaning of US troops serving as first-responders in situations of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-persian-gulf-tensions-military-deployments-04b2ecc5b7c0ec488647481f82a927c6">potential conflict</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T2uSg3">
|
|||
|
|
The Biden administration hopes to defuse the tensions in the Gulf, but it could also exacerbate a dangerous, escalatory cycle with Iran that’s been festering <a href="https://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2021/jan/05/us-military-deployments-around-iran">since the Trump administration</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="atHz6Q">
|
|||
|
|
“We’re talking about using the lives of US service-members as a deterrent,” Emma Ashford, a researcher at the Stimson Center, told Vox. “The Biden administration is betting all on deterrence here. And that may well work, but it’s a bet.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="pmmAnQ">
|
|||
|
|
Why is the US doing this in the first place?
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ya39ET">
|
|||
|
|
The 3,000 sailors and Marines arrived in the Middle East on August 6 alongside a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/15/us-to-send-f-16-fighter-jets-to-gulf-amid-iran-shipping-tensions?traffic_source=KeepReading">deployment</a> of US fighter jets to the region.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AWV9Tp">
|
|||
|
|
What exactly they’ll be doing isn’t yet clear: If US troops were to board commercial ships, the details would need to be worked out with the companies and countries in question. US officials told the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/persian-gulf-tensions-us-armed-guards-57295a81dc45c9e0755bd6a83ece86d9">Associated Press</a> that such a policy is under consideration. (The Department of Defense did not respond to Vox’s questions for this story by press time.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zAYf4v">
|
|||
|
|
The Biden administration <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/3485747/press-gaggle-with-air-force-brigadier-general-pat-ryder-pentagon-press-secretary/">says</a> that the Iranian threat to tanker traffic is the reason for the deployment of sailors and Marines. Iran <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/second-oil-tanker-week-seized-by-iran-gulf-us-navy-2023-05-03/">seized</a> two oil tankers in a week this past spring. Iran also <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/6/us-navy-says-iran-seized-commercial-ship-in-gulf">intercepted</a> a Tanzanian-flagged tanker on July 6, a day after the US Navy intervened to dissuade Iran from <a href="https://apnews.com/article/gulf-iran-us-tensions-shipping-oil-127f8b77aa7e41dcd8266b6fbe5800dc">nearly seizing</a> two ships. Iran has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/7/thousands-of-us-troops-arrive-in-red-sea-amid-ratcheting-iran-tensions">said</a> that it sees itself as responsible for the security of the Gulf, not least because of its long coastline, and claimed it has not illegally seized tankers.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VzIVcm">
|
|||
|
|
Other factors may be contributing to Biden’s decision-making: The US might be thinking about balancing China’s increased presence in the Middle East, as epitomized by the spring’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/3/10/23634464/deal-saudi-arabia-iran-china-explained">surprise rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia</a>. The US also might be responding to concerns from other partners in the region, especially as the US is pushing for <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/8/3/23817467/biden-israel-saudi-arabia-normalization-middle-east-policy">Israel and Saudi Arabia to normalize relations</a>. “The noise has increased a lot from Gulf partners, especially as the [Biden] administration is pressuring Gulf partners on a number of different issues, including normalization with Israel,” Simone Ledeen, who served as a senior defense official in the Trump administration, told Vox. “It’s certainly connected.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7trHtk">
|
|||
|
|
Above all, Iranian actions in the Gulf could affect oil prices. For President Biden, <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2022/10/7/23391575/opec-oil-prices-biden-naive-saudi-arabia">keeping oil prices low</a> has been a priority of utmost importance. It’s partly why he traveled to <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/11/17/23423031/why-america-cant-seem-to-quit-saudi-arabia">Saudi Arabia</a> last summer to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/7/19/23220600/biden-middle-east-policy-human-rights">make up</a> with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. And since then, the Biden administration has sought to reassure Gulf partners like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of US commitment to the Middle East.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hekXEK">
|
|||
|
|
This “forward-deployed presence provides US officials with options,” <a href="https://en.majalla.com/node/297101/politics/future-americas-middle-east-posture-now">writes</a> analyst Bilal Saab, that would make Iran “think twice before using violence to achieve its political aims.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NP1STO">
|
|||
|
|
A more robust US presence in the Gulf might dissuade Iran from further seizures. But it won’t address the deeper, ongoing tensions.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eZkouA">
|
|||
|
|
The US has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/2/us-issues-more-iran-sanctions-amid-stalled-diplomacy">heavily sanctioned</a> Iran’s oil exports since 2018, and the Trump administration <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/iranian-oil-exports-rise-as-tehran-circumvents-sanctions-finds-new-buyers-11608052404">sought</a> to hold its exports at near zero. More recently, however, Iranian exports have <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-floods-global-markets-with-cheap-oil-as-saudi-arabia-cuts-output-e78aeac">doubled</a> from last year to about <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/irans-oil-exports-output-hit-five-year-highs-us-holds-nuclear-talks-2023-06-16/">1.5 million barrels</a> a day, much of it <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-06/iran-oil-snapped-up-by-chinese-private-refiners-as-market-shifts">going to China</a>. With more Iranian oil entering the market, the US has responded by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-confiscates-iran-oil-cargo-tanker-amid-tehran-tensions-sources-2023-04-28/">seizing</a> some of it. We don’t yet know if the new deployment means that the US now wants to ratchet up the enforcement of sanctions.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XPEHeA">
|
|||
|
|
In some ways, Iranian oil entering the market has benefited the US. “The fact that the Iranians have been able to export a lot more oil in the last six months is a major reason why oil prices have been kept down,” Brew, the author of <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/petroleum-and-progress-in-iran/0785005BAF4A2EDB31DF63F3640B53CC"><em>Petroleum and Progress in Iran</em></a>, explains.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rB6IVX">
|
|||
|
|
Brew says more attention must be paid to <em>why </em>Iran has been attacking vessels in the strait. “The reason they go after tankers, I think without exception, is in response to perceived provocations against their own oil exports,” he told Vox. “Each of these attempts to interdict Iranian oil then prompted an Iranian response against tankers in the Gulf. So the Iranians are doing this in response to US action.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="inrQNR">
|
|||
|
|
The risks: Tanker War 2.0
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6BXWxd">
|
|||
|
|
If this doesn’t stabilize the Gulf, where does it lead? For experts, the Biden policy recalls the Tanker War of 1987 to 1988.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gZ7oLQ">
|
|||
|
|
Amid the Iran-Iraq War, the United States Navy entered the Persian Gulf to protect energy supplies as Iran and Iraq were targeting each other’s oil infrastructure. The US also wanted to assert its influence in the late Cold War moment as the Soviet Union’s petroleum production gave it significant power. Oil prices were spiking, and the US was still dependent on imports (and many NATO members were importers). So the US jumped into the fray and reflagged Kuwaiti tankers and then escorted them out of the strait.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div id="D4at1r">
|
|||
|
|
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
|||
|
|
When both sides believe the other will not risk military escalation the risks of military escalation increase. That’s where we may right now in the current US-Iran naval confrontation. <a href="https://t.co/ttW9PZe5VF">https://t.co/ttW9PZe5VF</a>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
— Dalia Dassa Kaye (<span class="citation" data-cites="dassakaye">@dassakaye</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/dassakaye/status/1689034753343655936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 8, 2023</a>
|
|||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LRUjV0">
|
|||
|
|
It was a consequential policy change. Before that, few US troops were stationed in the region. Brew calls it “the beginning of major US military operations to secure the flow of oil in the Gulf.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zosbfe">
|
|||
|
|
And the conflict expanded: In April 1988, the US launched <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/operation-praying-mantis-shows-destruction-of-potential-us-iran-war-2021-4">Operation Praying Mantis</a> against Iran. Three months later, the US <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/17/accidental-shootdown-iran-united-states-ukraine/">shot down</a> an Iranian civilian airliner and 290 people died.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ql4u1P">
|
|||
|
|
Clearly, the context for this US deployment in the ‘80s is very different than today: The US isn’t trudging into an all out war.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vSRaSH">
|
|||
|
|
But that history can teach us about the potential risks of US involvement. “Then as now, the US was looking at measures to effectively extend its defense umbrella over commercial shipping,” Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer now at the International Crisis Group, told Vox. “And so you could see a very similar set of legal issues being raised,” like whether a congressional vote would be needed should the current mission develop into something like 1987-88, when the US regularly engaged in hostilities against Iranian forces. “Are we going to see a replay — the executive branch, essentially taking the country to war, unilaterally, with Iran?” he added.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DkT26N">
|
|||
|
|
Even if that seems unlikely, a key question then is whether the Pentagon is introducing US service-members into an environment of imminent hostilities. Finucane is particularly concerned about Pentagon leaders potentially delegating authority to lower level personnel — like a US officer who may be escorting a vessel — and that they could engage in hostilities without sign-off from their boss.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="D8DIEg">
|
|||
|
|
That doesn’t mean that either the US or Iran want war. “The Iranians are generally very, very wary of shooting directly at US military personnel. They usually get proxies or third parties to do the shooting for them,” Brew says.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DbjegV">
|
|||
|
|
Nevertheless, the risks of escalation endure.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o41pTV">
|
|||
|
|
Ashford, the author of <a href="https://press.georgetown.edu/Book/Oil-the-State-and-War"><em>Oil, the State, and War</em></a><em>, </em>notes that it doesn’t seem that the US is talking to the Iranians at all, or considering other approaches to lower tensions. “Biden is basically going with the Trump maximum-pressure approach,” she told Vox. “We’re talking about putting Marines in harm’s way to try and deter Iran from attacking ships, because we’re not willing to look at any of the other political options.”
|
|||
|
|
</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>Punjab and Haryana HC stays August 12 Wrestling Federation of India polls</strong> - The order came following a petition filed by the HWA, challenging the move to allow Haryana Amateur Wrestling Association to cast votes in the WFI polls.</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>Daily Quiz | On chess progidies</strong> - Indian GM D. Gukesh recently overtook GM Viswanathan Anand to become India’s no. 1 and World no. 9 in the FIDE live ratings. Here’s another quiz on chess prodigies</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>Market King, Generosity and Coeur De Lion show out</strong> -</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>FIFA Women’s World Cup quarterfinals | Sweden end Japan run to set up World Cup semifinal with Spain</strong> - The exit of the 2011 champions Japan, following the United States, Germany and Norway, means there are no former winners left and a brand-new name will appear on the trophy</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>Bangladesh appoints Shakib Al Hasan as ODI captain for both Asia Cup and ICC Cricket World Cup</strong> - Bangladesh will also face New Zealand in a white ball series in late September before travelling to India</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>Three-day national conference on Clinical Psychology begins at NIMHANS</strong> -</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>Fire breaks out at BBMP Quality Control Lab in Bengaluru</strong> - Fire and Emergency Services said they got a call at 4.52 p.m. and two fire tenders have been rushed to the spot</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>Karnataka government does U-turn, defers order on closure of unauthorised schools</strong> - Minister for the Department of School Education and Literacy said the order has been deferred in the interest of students and action will be initiated in a phased manner</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>Consortium’s proposed acquisition of Forbes under scrutiny over Russia, China ties</strong> - India-based SUN group cited as a concern by former Obama administration intelligence chief and US senators</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>Govt. to come up with 60 quality control orders this year to stop imports of sub-standard goods</strong> - Violation of the law can attract a penalty of up to two years of imprisonment or with fine of at least ₹2 lakh for the first offence which increases to ₹5 lakh minimum for the second and subsequent offences.</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>Russian convicts released to fight with Wagner accused of new crimes</strong> - Victims’ families are distraught that Russian prisoners released to fight in Ukraine are reoffending.</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>Spain 2-1 Netherlands: Salma Paralluelo winner earns Spanish first Women’s World Cup semi-final</strong> - Teenage winger Salma Paralluelo scores a 111th-minute winner as Spain beat the Netherlands to reach the Women’s World Cup semi-finals for the first time.</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>Ukraine orders evacuation of parts of north-east</strong> - Civilians in 37 settlements of the Kupiansk area are told to leave because of “constant Russian shelling”.</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 launches first space mission to Moon in 47 years</strong> - The Russian mission is racing against India to be the first country to land on the Moon’s south pole.</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>Yandex founder slams Russia’s ‘barbaric’ war in Ukraine</strong> - Arkady Volozh, the ex-boss of Russia’s tech giant, has previously faced criticism for not speaking out.</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>Virgin Galactic just flew again, but is the company going anywhere?</strong> - “The new Delta class will be designed for much cheaper operations.” - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1960015">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rocket Report: Astra layoffs; next SLS core stage needs repairs</strong> - What are Blue Origin’s 11,000 employees doing? - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1960059">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russia heads back to the Moon with Luna 25</strong> - Luna 25 will attempt to land on the Moon the same week as India’s Chandrayaan 3 probe. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1960296">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How fame-seeking teenagers hacked some of the world’s biggest targets</strong> - With no skill in software exploitation or encryption busting, Lapsus$ wins anyway. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1960309">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Biden administration: We never coerced Big Tech into suppressing speech</strong> - Conservative-leaning judges to decide if Biden can resume talks with platforms. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1960281">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An out of work pianist with Tourette’s Syndrome was strolling around the streets and bars of London. Walking down Dean Street he sees a lounge bar with a sign in the window: ‘Pianist wanted for evening performances’. “Fucking get in there you cunt!” he says to himself and goes to the bar.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Get the fucking manager of this pigshit middle class wank pit please you cock sucking cunt. Wanker fuck”, he says to a somewhat startled barman. The barman however obliges and his manager comes upstairs.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Can I help you sir?’ he says.”Yes you can you fucking fat arsed piece of shit, I saw your shitty advert in the cunting window and I’m here to fucking audition. Wanker!"
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The manager is naturally a little put off by the man’s abrasive manner but his dire need for a top class pianist forces him to agree to an audition. The first tune the pianist plays is an uplifting jazzy number, not too involving, yet utterly melodic.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
At the end the thrilled barman cries, “Wonderful! Wonderful! What was that called?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“That song, you big nosed fucking twat, was called <strong>‘Excuse Me Prime Minister But I Just Spunked In Your Fucking Daughter’s Eye, And Now The Cunt’s Blind.’</strong>”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Oh” says the manager, somewhat taken aback, “err, can you play me another? Something a little less lively maybe?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Fucking wanker…” interjects the pianist before launching into a powerful ballad of such beauty that it leaves the manager in tears. The manager, through his teardrops asks him the title.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“That little number was called <strong>‘Sometimes When You Fuck A Bird Up The Shit Box You Get Crap On Your Bell End.’</strong>” “I see” says the manager. “Have you got any songs with less offensive titles?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Well there’s my jazz number <strong>‘Do You Want Me To Spit In Your Ringpiece’</strong>, or there’s the epic <strong>‘I Don’t Give A Fuck If You’re Older My Dear, You’ve Still Got A Fucking Cracking Arsehole’</strong>”.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Look,” says the manager, “I think you’re a superb pianist but the title of your songs are a little dodgy, to say the least. I will hire you on the condition that you do not introduce your songs or speak to the audience.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Fuck it”, says the pianist, “why cunting not, I’m in!”
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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On his first night everything is going superbly and the crowd are lapping up his repertoire and his silence is simply being received as modesty. The only thing putting off the pianist is that in the front row there is a gorgeous blonde in a black evening dress with a split up the side revealing the tops of her stockings, and a plunging neckline which boasts a proud and inviting cleavage.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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During the interval the pianist has got such a stonking hard-on that he decides to go to the toilet and knock one out. Just as he has shot his load he hears himself being re-introduced over the sound system, so he rushes back to the stage to finish his act.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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After the show he is at the bar relaxing when the same blonde approaches him. “Hi” she says. “Oh, hello” he winces, struggling to hold in the expletives. She leans over and whispers in his ear, “Do you know your cock is bulging out of your trousers and sperm is dribbling onto your shoes?” Placing his beer confidently on the bar, the pianist grins, looks her square in the eye and says, “Know it? I fucking wrote it!”
|
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</p>
|
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</div>
|
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<!-- SC_ON -->
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Make_the_music_stop"> /u/Make_the_music_stop </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15o495x/an_out_of_work_pianist_with_tourettes_syndrome/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15o495x/an_out_of_work_pianist_with_tourettes_syndrome/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>You know the difference between sex for money and sex for free?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
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<div class="md">
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
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|
Sex for money is a whole lot cheaper.
|
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</p>
|
|||
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</div>
|
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<!-- SC_ON -->
|
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/yeahmaybe2"> /u/yeahmaybe2 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15nwt1j/you_know_the_difference_between_sex_for_money_and/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15nwt1j/you_know_the_difference_between_sex_for_money_and/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The geek, the girl and the bicycle</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
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|
<div class="md">
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
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Two engeneering majors (geeks) meet. One tell the other what happened to him. “Yesterday I had the strangest of things happen. I was walking home from class when a young beautiful women on a bicycle stopped in front of me.” His friend begged him to continue. “So, she looked me up and down, ripped her clothes off, stood naked before me and said: ‘whatever you want - just take it’”. The friend looked puzzled: “wow! What did you do?” - “I took the bike and thanked the lady.”, said the first geek. The second geek nodded in agreement: “Makes sense, the clothes probably weren’t your size and she had ripped them apart!”
|
|||
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|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
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|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/BenMic81"> /u/BenMic81 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15ns0wx/the_geek_the_girl_and_the_bicycle/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15ns0wx/the_geek_the_girl_and_the_bicycle/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The new job</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
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|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
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|
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">A blonde walks into the police department looking for a job.</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></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 officer wants to ask her a few questions…</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
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|
</p><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Officer:</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
</p><ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">“What’s 2+2”?
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Blonde:
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
</p><ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">“Ummmmm… 4!”
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Officer:
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
</p><ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">“What’s the square root of 100?”
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Blonde:
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
</p><ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">“Ummmm… 10!”
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Officer:
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
</p><ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">“Good! Now, who killed Abraham Lincoln?”
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Blonde:
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
</p><ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">“Ummmm… I dunno”.
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Officer:
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
</p><ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">“Well, you can go home and think about it. Come back tomorrow.”
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The blonde goes home and calls up one of her friends, who asks her if she got the job.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The blonde says, excitedly,
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
</p><ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">“Not only did I get the job, I’m already working on a murder case!”
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
|
|||
|
|
</li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/boa_constrictor"> /u/boa_constrictor </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15nmaf9/the_new_job/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15nmaf9/the_new_job/">[comments]</a></span></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
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|
|||
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|
|||
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|
|||
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|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A lawyer’s wife died. At her grave, everyone was appalled.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The tombstone read, “HERE LIES PHYLLIS, WIFE OF ATTORNEY MURRAY WILLIAMS; SPECIALIZES IN DIVORCE AND MALPRACTICE”.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Murray burst into tears. His brother said, “You SHOULD cry, pulling a cheap publicity stunt like this.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Murray said, “You don’t understand. I gave them my business card.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
His brother apologized.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“…and they didn’t include the phone number!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Major_Independence82"> /u/Major_Independence82 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15n9271/a_lawyers_wife_died_at_her_grave_everyone_was/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/15n9271/a_lawyers_wife_died_at_her_grave_everyone_was/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
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|
|
|||
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|
|||
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|
|||
|
|
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