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549 lines
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<title>31 May, 2021</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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<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>The Sudden Rise of the Coronavirus Lab-Leak Theory</strong> - Scientists and political commentators are no longer dismissing the possibility that COVID-19 emerged from a Chinese laboratory. What changed? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/the-sudden-rise-of-the-coronavirus-lab-leak-theory">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>American Democracy Isn’t Dead Yet, but It’s Getting There</strong> - A country that cannot even agree to investigate an assault on its Capitol is in big trouble, indeed. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/american-democracy-isnt-dead-yet-but-its-getting-there">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>California’s Novel Attempt at Land Reparations</strong> - Property seized from a Black family a century ago is being returned to their descendants. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/californias-novel-attempt-at-land-reparations">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>La lucha por mejorar las tasas de vacunación entre los latinos en Nueva York</strong> - Enormes disparidades persisten en los niveles de inmunización entre las comunidades de la ciudad. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/la-lucha-por-mejorar-las-tasas-de-vacunacion-entre-los-latinos-en-nueva-york">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Republican Party, Racial Hypocrisy, and the 1619 Project</strong> - As the G.O.P. seeks to deny Americans knowledge of their own history, Nikole Hannah-Jones is denied tenure. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-republican-party-racial-hypocrisy-and-the-1619-project">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 unstoppable, villainous glamour of Cruella de Vil</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1mfaC8HWwP1qqGor8PnwTdjbJ6E=/0x0:1440x1080/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69365780/cruella_de_vil.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Cruella de Vil wears her signature “absolutely simple white mink cloak” in Disney’s 1961 <em>One Hundred and One Dalmatians</em>. | Walt Disney Productions
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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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Cruella de Vil has been a style icon since she first set foot on the page.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="URBTds">
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Is there a children’s villain out there with more style or panache than Cruella de Vil? Her fabulous car, her cigarette holder, her long red gloves — as a child, I longed to have a rotary phone to dial with the cigarette holder, just like Cruella does in Disney’s 1961 animated film <em>One Hundred and One Dalmatians</em>. She is pure wicked glamour with skunk-streak hair.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kySOxr">
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In honor of Disney’s new <a href="https://www.vox.com/e/22215924"><em>Cruella</em></a> movie, I went back to the books that started it all. Disney’s <em>One</em> <em>Hundred and One Dalmatians</em> is based on a 1956 children’s novel by Dodie Smith, whose most celebrated work, 1948’s cult favorite <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/10/20/16503280/i-capture-the-castle-dodie-smith"><em>I Capture the Castle</em></a>, includes extended musing on clothes and furs and why both matter so much. Smith knew style was important — and she wrote Cruella’s style in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hundred_and_One_Dalmatians"><em>The Hundred and One Dalmatians</em></a> with so much villainous glee, our dear Mrs. de Vil fairly takes over the whole book. She doesn’t have that many scenes, but those she does have are unforgettable.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sicDC5">
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Smith’s Cruella is, by the way, married. Her husband is a nonentity who barely speaks, which is perhaps why he doesn’t appear in any of the Disney adaptations. Such is Cruella’s commitment to her vibe that she made him take her name instead of the other way around. (Cruella Smith simply wouldn’t have had the same ring to it.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k0sW0t">
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Mr. de Vil “didn’t seem to be anything but a furrier,” Smith writes cattily, and Cruella married him for access to furs. Furs are essential to her lifestyle because she is always cold, and Smith strongly implies that nothing short of hellfire will ever be quite hot enough for her. (<em>The Hundred and One Dalmatians</em> is a very Anglican book, and I will warn you now that, similar to <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21526708/the-witches-movie-2020-review-roald-dahl-antisemitism">many other English children’s books of its era</a>, the novel’s anti-Semitism is only barely coded.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g8L6yF">
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In her pursuit of warmth, Cruella travels everywhere in what Smith describes every time as “an absolutely simple white mink cloak,” and at one point appears wearing a brown mink coat <em>underneath</em> her existing cloak, along with a fur hat, fur gloves, and fur boots. Every night she sleeps between ermine sheets. Moreover, she flavors all her food — including ice cream — with nothing but pepper, and when the Dalmatians bite her, they discover that she too tastes of pepper.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fjRxGi">
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Cruella’s style doesn’t extend only to ingenious ways to beat the cold, though. She drives a car painted in black and white stripes to match her hair. (Her hair was black and white even when she was a small child, we learn, and she wore it in one black plait and one white plait.) In her home, a green marble hall leads into a red marble drawing room (Christmasy!), and her dining room has black marble halls and a white marble table.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iUxHli">
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And then, of course, there are her clothes.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ygL8eY">
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Here’s how Smith describes Cruella in her first appearance: “She was wearing a tight-fitting emerald satin dress, several ropes of rubies, and an absolutely simple white mink cloak, which reached to the high heels of her ruby-red shoes. … Her hair was parted severely down the middle and one half of it was black and the other white—rather unusual.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7PxL5Q">
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Served with this utter look, our ostensible hero Mr. Dearly, whose dogs Cruella will shortly steal, peers down his nose and says, “Isn’t she a bit showy?” and truly, I don’t see how Smith could have expected anyone to root for him after that.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1tzox3">
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Regardless, by the end of <em>The Hundred and One Dalmatians</em>, the Dearlys and their dogs do defeat Cruella, leading her to flee England in disgrace. But Cruella makes a triumphant return in the sequel, 1967’s <em>The Starlight Barking</em>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BR3O49">
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<em>The</em> <em>Starlight Barking</em> is not really about Cruella, who appears in only a single scene for a glorified cameo. (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starlight_Barking">What the book is actually about is bonkers</a>, by the way, and I don’t think I could spoil it if I tried.) Still, she makes every moment of it count.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E0FIJQ">
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The Cruella who returns in <em>The Starlight Barking</em> is now an entrepreneur in her own right. She runs a company called Cruella de Vil & Co.: Makers of Kloes that Klank, which the Dalmatians, who are also bad spellers, are able to decode as “Clothes that Clank.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ggVn2o">
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Cruella’s clothes now clank because, having abandoned fur after losing to the Dalmatians in the previous book, Cruella has since embraced tin. With characteristic commitment, she now sleeps on tin sheets. She is manufacturing and selling tin raincoats, which come “in bright colors, scarlet, emerald, sapphire, flame” and have sharp cutting edges. Perhaps relevant to Cruella’s interests after the Dalmatians ripped all her old furs into pieces, they are also unbreakable.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JAs6T2">
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Cruella is a fashion visionary, and I am willing to accept that she knew something the rest of us didn’t. If the new <em>Cruella</em> movie becomes a hit and inspires a Cruella-centric take on <em>The Starlight Barking</em>, will 2021 mark the moment the rest of us finally start dressing in tin?
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>The best $130 I ever spent: A Major League Baseball TV pass</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="An illustration of a baseball on a yellow background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/to1YMYcC_wgnj0RYomrUakEVMpo=/500x0:3500x2250/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69365628/Baseball.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Dana Rodriguez for Vox
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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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It turned out that after the past year and change, I needed a new type of narrative.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CXizGG">
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There are a million things worse than watching a movie on a Monday night. But at the end of this past March, I couldn’t think of any. Suddenly, I didn’t ever want to watch a movie, ever again.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="h8UpET">
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This is not a great position to find yourself in if what you do for a living is write about movies. I could read a book, of course, or watch television, but during this awful year, those have been my choices every night: watch something on my TV or read a book. Rinse and repeat.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YP1NOf">
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“I cannot,” I announced to my husband one night, after dinner, in a spasm of desperation — “I simply <em>cannot</em> watch anything else.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sIUeRA">
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I knew some of it was simply the weight of my world crashing down on my head. I’d been writing and teaching all year, trying to act like my work life was normal. I was sad and worried about friendships strained by distance. And like everyone, I felt uneasy about the unknown future.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XNhCxc">
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But it took a while for me to realize what was really going on. What I really needed was baseball.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pqbuPE">
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In early April, my Twitter feed was suddenly alight with friends celebrating yet another holiday we missed last year: Major League Baseball’s cheerful springtime opening day. The 2020 season had been truncated, axed to half-length by the same damn pandemic that cut everything short. This year it was back for the full season, April 1 to October 3, 30 teams, 162 games.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3cXxDc">
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I meant to watch the shortened season last summer, but when it launched I realized it made me too sad to watch players in empty stadiums (<a href="https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/how-are-mlb-teams-handling-empty-stadiums-the-good-bad-and-weird-from-baseballs-fan-less-experience/">clever solutions notwithstanding</a>). Everything made me sad then. I didn’t need one more thing added to the pile.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5R63TA">
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But now they were back in full force, and I felt a familiar pull. I hadn’t watched baseball consistently since college. It takes commitment to follow the season, with games almost every day, each three or four hours long, time I normally don’t have. And as a cradle Red Sox fan who’s lived in Brooklyn for 15 years, it’s hard to go see my team at the stadium.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QXa6MJ">
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On April 5, though, as a kind of experiment, I flicked on an evening game. It was the Red Sox’s fourth game of the season, against the Tampa Bay Rays, at Fenway Park. They’d lost their previous three games, and thus had an inauspicious 0-3 record, but anything is possible. They were playing baseball. There were people scattered in the stands. And it was on TV.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qMH9hP">
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The game started just after 7 pm, and to my delight, the Sox won easily, with a final score of 11-2. The next night I turned it on again and the game went to 12 innings. There were wild pitches and fielding errors, and when the Sox won it was — at least for us fans — like the end of a great movie, where you hope they’re going to win but you don’t know if they can pull it off.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KB657j">
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I was elated. I was hooked. I needed this.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kxCclk">
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Within a couple of days, I’d decided what I had to do: I plunked down $130 on MLB.TV’s virtual table and asked, politely, if they could please give me all of the baseball.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sMOcab">
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And so they did. That sum gets me a stream of most out-of-market games (that is, games that aren’t being broadcast on my local stations) for every team in the league, except when they’re playing in my town — and it turns out one of the best things about being a fan of an out-of-town team is that I can see almost all the games.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qin6Qf">
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Nearly every day, there’s something for me to watch — or semi-watch. Keeping an eye on baseball isn’t a full-concentration sort of deal, the way some sports are. (I love hockey, but it demands your eyeballs.) I can turn it on while I am grading, or writing, or doing chores. I know when to look up at the screen and when it’s safe to look away.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qk0Adk">
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That’s part of why it feels so different to watch a baseball game than to watch a movie or read a book, both activities that should require my full attention. The bigger reason has to do with something else: storytelling.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kpGSe4">
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There’s a narrative arc to a baseball season. Becoming a fan of a team means catching up, however cursorily, on that team’s story. The Red Sox, for instance, were one of the eight charter franchises in the American League. They’ve been playing in Fenway Park since 1912. In the early days, they won a whopping four world championships, but in 1918, they sold star slugger Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, and thus set off the “Curse of the Bambino,” an 86-year championship dry spell that was only broken when they finally won the World Series in 2004. (A victory that was even sweeter because they got to the series by beating their archrivals, the Yankees, in the American League championships.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aSVu2L">
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I remember that 2004 season vividly. It ended during my senior year in college, among the most stressful times in my life. In addition to commuting from my parents’ home half an hour away from campus, working two jobs, and taking a full load of senior-level computer science courses, I was also in the job hunt. I had to travel 100 miles south to New York City for second-round interviews several times during the semester. There was some mess in my personal life, too, and sadness about my friend group getting ready to move on. I felt a huge amount of anxiety about the unknown future.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E8o9Tp">
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Nearly every night, till I got in my car in the wee hours of the morning to go home and sleep a little, I sat at a table in the student union and worked on homework. I’d done that for four years. Keyed up and tired, I found my mind wandered away from my work and into the unknown.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Bk5ck">
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But by some mercy, I found the solution: baseball. My boyfriend and I had gotten into watching games over the summer; his family would sometimes buy tickets to games at Fenway and then drive the three hours out and back in one night. It was fun in the stadium, a crowd of people enjoying themselves watching guys like Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon and Big Papi do their thing down on the field. Everyone was loudmouthed and boastful — it’s Boston, after all — but also visibly nervous about whether Babe Ruth’s ghost would show up and wreck what seemed like a beautiful team.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Qy2K10">
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By the fall, it was harder (though not impossible) to both get to Boston and to get tickets. And this was 2004; my computer was not yet able to stream baseball games, and I had no way of watching them at school. (You could watch the game in the campus pub, but they were very strict about IDs, and I didn’t turn 21 till after the series.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OmK3fR">
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Still, I was in luck. MLB had released a software platform called GameDay that showed a little graphical representation of the field, and updated it as plays happened on the field. It was like watching a lo-fi cartoon of the game. If I parked myself at a table near the entrance to the campus pub, I could hear people shout together when someone homered or caught a fly ball. I felt connected to them, to the game, to the wins. The night the Sox beat the Yankees and captured the American League pennant, my heart was racing, but not, for once, because of my own anxieties. Just because of happiness.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H6H1zp">
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Coming back to watching it this season feels like reinserting myself into a glorious story. I needed a reminder of where I’ve come from, and who I am, and how far I’ve gone.
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</p>
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<div class="c-float-right">
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<aside id="lYW5U7">
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<q>I needed a reminder of where I’ve come from, and who I am, and how far I’ve gone</q>
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</aside>
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</div>
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A lightbulb went on at that April 6 game, the one that went 12 innings. It ended well past midnight; by the time it got into extras, I had set aside my other distractions and was pinned to the game. The Sox would be behind by one at the top of the inning, and then, in the bottom of the inning, with three outs and two strikes, a player would hit a home run or bat a runner in, tying the game and sending them into another inning. When they finally won, it was because at the absolute bottom of the 12th, when it looked like they’d probably lost, J.D. Martinez hit a two-run homer and won the game.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bMSO7B">
|
|||
|
“What a twist!” I found myself thinking. And then remembered that there are no writers’ rooms in baseball, no guarantees. This was real life. You couldn’t plan how it would go.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OH8qLh">
|
|||
|
That’s so different from a movie, where someone has carefully written, shot, and edited a story with the goal of giving the viewer a particular experience. Or even a reality show, where the material of life is crafted and edited into a narrative. Nobody was guiding me through this experience, though, curiously, the rails on which it ran were even more evident than in most narrative art: innings, outs, strikes, balls, runs, singing “Sweet Caroline” in the seventh-inning stretch. But the final outcome was undetermined by me, the league, or anyone who might be watching. We were waiting to see what would unfold.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9JBRgv">
|
|||
|
Right now, that’s where I’m living. Post-vaccination, there’s still plenty of uncertainty, but I have some small idea of what the structure of my year will look like. I know, in other words, the “rules.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Nx4YOn">
|
|||
|
But I am still waiting on the outcome, wondering what twists are going to come and where the story will lead. I am living in several different waiting rooms simultaneously, having no idea, in some respects, what I’m even waiting for. I am still sad and nervous and worried.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8XDZ91">
|
|||
|
Watching baseball, right now, I’m reminded of two things. This part of my life is part of a bigger story I’ve been living for a long time. And as much as I love narrative media and great stories, life is a lot more like an open-ended game where the end isn’t written yet. That’s frightening, but it’s also invigorating. A win is just as likely as a loss, and nobody loses forever.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lxge04">
|
|||
|
Maybe one more thing, too. Any curse can be broken eventually. And when it is, there is celebration on the other side.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p class="c-end-para" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yk8m6e">
|
|||
|
<em>Alissa Wilkinson is a critic and senior culture reporter at Vox and an associate professor at The King’s College in New York City.</em>
|
|||
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
<li><strong>Biden’s $6 trillion budget proposal would rebuild America’s social safety net</strong> -
|
|||
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
<img alt="President Biden Departs The White House For Trip To Virginia" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5MY6Fo6Yr4eEPNCy0kbIcL7zkhI=/204x0:3457x2440/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69364257/1233152953.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
President Joe Biden leaves the White House on May 28. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
|
|||
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
Biden’s first budget aims to herald a new era of big government
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wfQbf1">
|
|||
|
President Joe Biden’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/budget_fy22.pdf">fiscal year 2022 budget</a>, released on Friday, lays out an ambitious plan for the country. It calls for just over $6 trillion in total spending in the coming fiscal year and reimagines how — and for whom — the American economy works.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z88SUQ">
|
|||
|
As proposed, the budget would reinvest in infrastructure and education, raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations, and meet many — but not all — of Biden’s campaign promises. It also represents the most substantial expansion of the federal government’s spending powers since World War II and a direct rebuttal of the small-government principles of his Republican, and even many Democratic, predecessors.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hYCKSN">
|
|||
|
The budget is also notable for what it does not include: a renewal of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/videos/21454689/obamacare-abortion-hyde-amendment">Hyde Amendment</a>, which bars federal funding for abortions. That rule, in place for more than four decades, has been criticized for contributing to economic and racial inequality — and its absence is one of several ways that this budget aims to affirmatively target root causes of inequality.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="k7bkAl">
|
|||
|
“It is a budget that reflects the fact that trickle-down economics has never worked, and that the best way to grow our economy is not from the top down, but from the bottom up and the middle out,” Biden wrote in his budget message to Congress. “If we make that understanding our foundation, everything we build upon it will be strong.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<div id="WbPK6f">
|
|||
|
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
|||
|
Today, I released my budget for the upcoming fiscal year. It builds on the progress we’ve made over the last few months and makes historic investments that will help our nation build back better for decades to come. Read more here: <a href="https://t.co/6dKv8wa4yI">https://t.co/6dKv8wa4yI</a>
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
— President Biden (<span class="citation" data-cites="POTUS">@POTUS</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1398335190229995521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2021</a>
|
|||
|
</blockquote></div></li>
|
|||
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sNEBSk">
|
|||
|
When the Biden administration unveiled a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/FY2022-Discretionary-Request.pdf">partial budget request</a> framing its discretionary spending proposals in early April, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22375777/biden-budget-discretionary-funding-request">Vox’s German Lopez wrote</a> that the plan was “grounded in a clear vision: The government can — and should — do much more to solve the many problems facing the country.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5sE7hx">
|
|||
|
Biden’s full budget continues to reflect that philosophy while fleshing out Biden’s broader presidential agenda, including legislative proposals like the American Jobs and American Families plans.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qarJNw">
|
|||
|
However, nothing in Biden’s budget is binding, nor is the ambitious plan likely to be enacted in full. The president’s budget is a regular feature of the broader budget process, but it’s by no means the final word. That’s up to <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/about/congress/federal_budgeting_accessible.jsp">Congress</a>, which will eventually pass its own budget resolution and a series of appropriations bills to actually fund the government into the next fiscal year.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qzJEaH">
|
|||
|
As <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/2/27/14751872/budget-process-explained">Vox’s Dylan Matthews explained</a> during the Trump years, the president’s budget is instead best viewed as a messaging document: a sketch of the administration’s spending priorities and a way to set the tone for Congress as lawmakers hash out the particulars of the budget. It’s also a statement about which of Biden’s campaign promises he wants to focus on — and which are no longer a priority of his White House.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<h3 id="ohx49X">
|
|||
|
Democrats are mostly happy with Biden’s budget. Republicans are not.
|
|||
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4pU4oA">
|
|||
|
Biden’s budget has been greeted gladly by Democrats in Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) heralded it as “an unequivocal declaration of the value that Democrats place on America’s workers and middle class families” in a <a href="https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/52821-0">statement</a> Friday, and the House Progressive Caucus <a href="https://progressives.house.gov/press-releases?ID=172A385B-A5EF-4E61-98F5-B0673B2EDA06">highlighted</a> Biden’s “strong commitment to making our tax system fair for working people.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<div id="JRYnrz">
|
|||
|
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
|||
|
A federal budget should be a statement of our national values. <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation" data-cites="POTUS">@POTUS</span></a> Biden’s budget is an unequivocal declaration of the value that Democrats place on America’s workers and middle class families, who are the foundation of our nation’s strength and the key to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BuildBackBetter?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BuildBackBetter</a>.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
— Nancy Pelosi (<span class="citation" data-cites="SpeakerPelosi">@SpeakerPelosi</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1398359532657643521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2021</a>
|
|||
|
</blockquote>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xe1cN2">
|
|||
|
The GOP, meanwhile, struck a more apocalyptic note in response to the Biden budget. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) described the plan as “the most reckless and irresponsible budget proposal in my lifetime” and warned of “dire fiscal and economic consequences” in a Friday <a href="https://www.republicanleader.gov/the-most-reckless-and-irresponsible-budget-in-my-lifetime/">statement</a>, while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) dismissed it in a <a href="https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1398332736008491018?s=20">tweet</a> as “dead on arrival.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d52XgE">
|
|||
|
And both parties pushed back on one aspect of the budget: military spending. Progressives argued in a <a href="https://progressives.house.gov/press-releases?ID=172A385B-A5EF-4E61-98F5-B0673B2EDA06">statement</a> that the budget spends too much on national defense, further expanding an “already-bloated $740 billion Pentagon budget.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jA6KTV">
|
|||
|
“At a time when America’s military budget is larger than those of the next ten countries combined,” the Congressional Progressive Caucus wrote, “we believe it is essential to identify and cut military waste, fraud, and abuse in the budgetary process.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yTXTcT">
|
|||
|
Republicans argued the opposite, saying the proposed budget underspends on military operations and defense. While the Pentagon’s budget would increase by 1.6 percent under Biden’s proposal — representing a record military expenditure — it’s still the smallest increase of any federal agency.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E3SwEa">
|
|||
|
House and Senate Republicans released a statement arguing that the proposed military budget “is wholly inadequate” and represents a spending cut in the face of inflation.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<div id="OvvO9o">
|
|||
|
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
|||
|
JUST IN: Ranking Republicans of the Senate & House Armed Services committees reject <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation" data-cites="POTUS">@POTUS</span></a> FY 2022 defense budget as “wholly inadequate”<br/><br/>“It’s nowhere near enough to give our service members the resources, equipment and training they need” per <a href="https://twitter.com/JimInhofe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation" data-cites="JimInhofe">@JimInhofe</span></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMikeRogersAL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation" data-cites="RepMikeRogersAL">@RepMikeRogersAL</span></a> <a href="https://t.co/JR5XSVI5oE">pic.twitter.com/JR5XSVI5oE</a>
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
— Jeff Seldin (<span class="citation" data-cites="jseldin">@jseldin</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/jseldin/status/1398333904692580355?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2021</a>
|
|||
|
</blockquote>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Jw341t">
|
|||
|
“A budget like this sends China and our other potential adversaries a bad signal — that we’re not willing to do what it takes to defend ourselves and our allies and partners,” the statement reads.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<h3 id="puxp50">
|
|||
|
The era of big government is back
|
|||
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rVFK2a">
|
|||
|
As <a href="https://www.vox.com/22375777/biden-budget-discretionary-funding-request">Lopez</a> and many others have pointed out, the first months of Biden’s presidency can be seen as a repudiation of former President Bill Clinton’s <a href="https://clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov/WH/New/other/sotu.html">famous line</a> that “the era of big government is over.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W1X7Sw">
|
|||
|
Biden’s fiscal year 2022 budget fits squarely into that pattern. It includes two substantial, signature proposals: a $2 trillion <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/3/31/22357179/biden-two-trillion-infrastructure-jobs-plan-explained">American Jobs Plan</a> — which would embrace an expansive definition of infrastructure, not only to modernize America’s road and bridges, but to invest in broadband and elder care — and a $1.8 trillion <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/28/22404411/biden-american-families-plan-inequality">American Families Plan</a>, which would establish free higher education and expand child care, health care, and tax benefits for needy families.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="R4wqBF">
|
|||
|
As a whole, the budget calls for a sweeping rejuvenation of the social safety net and for expanded investment in programs like universal pre-K, affordable child care, and paid leave. It also puts the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/3/31/22360801/biden-infrastructure-plan-jobs-climate-change-transportation-electricity-justice-labor">climate crisis</a> front and center, with proposals dedicated to reducing US emissions, creating jobs in the clean energy sector, and funding climate research.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="97abIx">
|
|||
|
And it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/arts/national-endowment-for-the-arts-funding.html">reinvests</a> in aspects of daily life, from public transit to the arts, that were slashed under the Trump administration. The idea, as Biden outlined it in his budget message Friday, is “not simply to emerge from the immediate crises we inherited, but to build back better.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
<img alt="President Biden Returns To White House From Michigan" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/JfgE0ixKX_NxIfP6o2ePeKx5Jm0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549481/1318714756.jpg"/> <cite>Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
President Joe Biden returns to the White House after visiting Michigan to deliver remarks on infrastructure, May 18.
|
|||
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EWOpbU">
|
|||
|
Among other details, the Biden budget specifically requests funding for two free years of community college; expanded Pell Grants and other programs to make college more affordable for low- and middle-income students; an extension to the expanded <a href="https://www.vox.com/22388062/child-tax-credit-expanded-biden-2021-stimulus">child tax credit</a> included in the already-passed American Rescue Plan, which experts have said could <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2021/03/11/new-child-tax-credit-could-slash-poverty-now-and-boost-social-mobility-later/">cut child poverty in half</a>; and universal paid family and medical leave programs “that would bring the American system in line with competitor nations that offer paid leave programs.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9Nx1cy">
|
|||
|
And if enacted, Biden’s budget would invest tens of billions in advancing racial equity and addressing systemic racism in the US, according to a tally of equity-focused budget items “big and small” by the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/29/us/politics/efforts-to-advance-racial-equity-baked-in-throughout-bidens-budget.html">New York Times</a>.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RBOGCk">
|
|||
|
Additionally, <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/2021/04/09/trumps-budget-didnt-mention-race-bidens-budget-aims-to-undo-systemic-racism/">according to Roll Call</a>, 17 out of 22 sections in the proposal “explicitly mention new or expanded programs focused on racial disparities, inequality or civil rights. By comparison, President Donald Trump’s 150-page fiscal year 2020 budget request did not once mention the words ‘race,’ ‘racial’ or ‘civil rights.’”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bF4ehH">
|
|||
|
In particular, Biden’s budget calls for increased funding for historically Black, tribal, and minority-serving colleges and universities; investment in environmental justice initiatives; and programs designed to reduce racial disparities in health care.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9Y0If0">
|
|||
|
On the campaign trail, Biden made his <a href="https://joebiden.com/racial-economic-equity/">racial equity plan</a> one of the pillars of what he called the “Build Back Better Agenda” — branding that he has carried through into the White House — and he pledged to boost minority-owned businesses, address racial disparities in home ownership, and end pay discrimination, among other issues.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W44mcH">
|
|||
|
Philosophically, Biden’s first budget as president is also a marked departure from the last time he was in the White House, then in the No. 2 job. As Lopez <a href="https://www.vox.com/22375777/biden-budget-discretionary-funding-request">wrote</a> in April, Biden avoids the occasional concessions to austerity politics that cropped up under former President Barack Obama and offers “a largely tacit and sometimes explicit criticism of the past few decades of public disinvestment in public services — arguing that failures to put more money toward pandemic preparedness, clean energy technologies, and programs to help the poor and disadvantaged have helped lead the US to its current crises.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yz7iss">
|
|||
|
Some progressive economic experts, like Bob Greenstein, the founder of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and a current visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, have praised the document for its potential to redress causes of inequality and financial hardship.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="o4N4NF">
|
|||
|
“Having followed Presidents’ budgets for >40 years, I think it’s fair to say that while I might modify some things in the new Biden budget, it would, if enacted, do more to reduce poverty and inequality than any other budget in modern US history,” he said in a Friday <a href="https://twitter.com/BobGreensteinDC/status/1398348768823681024?s=20">tweet</a>.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<div id="PXvPmq">
|
|||
|
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
|||
|
Having followed Presidents’ budgets for >40 years, I think it’s fair to say that while I might modify some things in the new Biden budget, it would, if enacted, do more to reduce poverty and inequality than any other budget in modern US history
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
— Bob Greenstein (<span class="citation" data-cites="BobGreensteinDC">@BobGreensteinDC</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/BobGreensteinDC/status/1398348768823681024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2021</a>
|
|||
|
</blockquote>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<h3 id="802yTm">
|
|||
|
On health care and student debt forgiveness, Biden holds back
|
|||
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GAQZxV">
|
|||
|
As sweeping as Biden’s budget is, however, there are also some conspicuous absences compared to his campaign platform. Specifically, proposals on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/05/21/white-house-biden-health/">health care</a> don’t go as far as some advocates would like — and student debt forgiveness doesn’t make an appearance at all.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Kvq7l">
|
|||
|
As a candidate, Biden distinguished himself from more progressive presidential hopefuls like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), both of whom <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/policy-2020/medicare-for-all/">endorsed</a> Medicare for All, by promising to keep the existing American health care system mostly intact — but he also <a href="https://www.vox.com/21540041/election-2020-joe-biden-health-care">pledged</a> to build on the existing Affordable Care Act and expand health care access in the US.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IgpxMz">
|
|||
|
The centerpiece of that plan was to be a public option: <a href="https://www.vox.com/21540041/election-2020-joe-biden-health-care">As Vox’s Dylan Scott has explained</a>, a “Medicare-like government insurance plan would be sold on Obamacare’s marketplaces, where roughly 12 million Americans buy their own insurance. It would add more competition to areas where only one or two other insurance plans are available. The public option would also cover low-income Americans who are currently denied insurance because of their state’s opposition to Obamacare.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kbpmk8">
|
|||
|
Biden’s fiscal year 2022 budget doesn’t abandon that plan. In fact, it emphasizes that health care “is a right, not a privilege” and says specifically that he “supports providing Americans with additional, lower-cost coverage choices by creating a public option that would be available through the ACA marketplaces.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TvUsK8">
|
|||
|
However, the budget also doesn’t do anything concrete to advance a public option, and funding for one isn’t included in the $6 trillion in overall spending requested in the budget.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yDjCs2">
|
|||
|
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/05/21/white-house-biden-health/">According to the Washington Post’s Jeff Stein and Tyler Pager</a>, the public option was a casualty of last-minute caution by the administration. They reported last week that “the White House jettisoned months of planning from agency staff as their initial plan could fuel criticisms that the administration is pushing new spending programs too aggressively.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fub5ZE">
|
|||
|
The same appears to be true of student debt forgiveness, according to the Post. Just as he did with a public health insurance option, Biden <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/markkantrowitz/2020/11/17/joe-biden-reaffirms-student-loan-forgiveness-campaign-promise/?sh=73fb46e84a98">promised</a> on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/student-debt-cancelation-biden-campaign-promise-public-college-hbcu-2021-4">campaign trail</a> and as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/08/student-loan-forgiveness-could-be-more-likely-but-challenges-remain-.html">president-elect</a> to “immediately” forgive up to $10,000 in student debt for all borrowers. But that promise gets short shrift in the budget, with only one brief mention in regard to “changes … that ease the burden of student debt,” and, again, no funding dedicated to that project.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
<img alt="President Joe Biden stands on a stage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WmWg0dkQ2Ig16c5bykHRBQpYQBg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549382/1231209070.jpg"/> <cite>Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
President Biden participates in a CNN town hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on February 16.
|
|||
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aitpbm">
|
|||
|
Still, while student debt forgiveness didn’t make it into Biden’s budget, it isn’t off the table.<strong> </strong>Congressional Democrats could push to include it in a congressional budget resolution, if they choose, and Biden <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/01/biden-administration-explores-options-for-canceling-student-debt.html">directed</a> Education Secretary Miguel Cardona earlier this year to create a memo outlining Biden’s options for forgiving up to $50,000 in student debt. That’s the amount that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and others have <a href="https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/1369135284517019649?s=20">supported</a>.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<div id="l2RWEk">
|
|||
|
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
|||
|
More than 43 million Americans are crushed under more than $1.5 trillion in federal student loan debt.<br/><br/>A crisis of this magnitude requires bold action.<br/><br/>President Joe Biden can <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CancelStudentDebt?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CancelStudentDebt</a> through executive action <a href="https://t.co/WR2gNo37Cd">https://t.co/WR2gNo37Cd</a>
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
— Chuck Schumer (<span class="citation" data-cites="SenSchumer">@SenSchumer</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/1369135284517019649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2021</a>
|
|||
|
</blockquote>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<h3 id="61znsf">
|
|||
|
Biden’s budget proposal could hinge on Joe Manchin
|
|||
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="E4tZUs">
|
|||
|
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/05/21/white-house-biden-health/">As the Post reported</a>, one reason a public health care option and student debt forgiveness didn’t get more space in Biden’s fiscal year 2022 budget is that the administration already has an ambitious slate of legislative priorities before Congress. With negotiations still in flux, the dollar amounts laid out in the budget could change dramatically — and the final decisions over that spending will likely be subject to the same partisan back-and-forth as any other spending package that reaches Congress.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DHrVYw">
|
|||
|
In short, if the White House wants to pass spending bills through regular order — without resorting to the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22242476/senate-filibuster-budget-reconciliation-process">budget reconciliation process</a> — Democrats will always need at least 10 Republican votes to clear the filibuster.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="18vJL4">
|
|||
|
Biden has already fought for, and won, one costly package: the $1.9 trillion <a href="https://www.vox.com/22310269/third-stimulus-update-2021-package">American Rescue Plan</a>, known as his Covid-19 stimulus package. In his budget proposal, he is now also pushing for $1.8 trillion to expand on child care and health care benefits established in that plan, and $2 trillion for infrastructure, elder care, and broadband.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zB90bQ">
|
|||
|
First up before Congress is the $2 trillion infrastructure and jobs plan, which has already been the subject of a series of <a href="https://www.npr.org/999259452">offers</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/27/1000717244/senate-republicans-release-928-billion-infrastructure-counteroffer">counteroffers</a> between the White House and Senate Republicans. So any bipartisan agreement would likely set the total price tag far lower than Biden’s budget currently requests.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
<img alt="President Biden And Cabinet Members Meet With Group Of Senators In The Oval Office" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GVO39BK367yyLpqt7S0_Wm81kGs=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22549378/1317839430.jpg"/> <cite>T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
Biden makes a statement to the press as Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) listens during a meeting with a group of Republican senators to discuss the administration’s infrastructure plan in the Oval Office on May 13.
|
|||
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3RP1qM">
|
|||
|
Under reconciliation, though, Democrats could potentially get a much larger package — one that more closely resembles the one initially proposed by Biden and present in his budget — passed through Congress without any Republican support.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="g3WDHt">
|
|||
|
Previously, Democrats <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/3/6/22315536/stimulus-package-passes-checks-unemployment">passed</a> their coronavirus relief package via reconciliation, and they could do so again. However, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), <a href="https://www.vox.com/22339531/manchin-filibuster-bipartisanship-senate-west-virginia">defender of the filibuster</a> and the critical (and conservative) 50th vote in the Democrats’ slim Senate majority, has remained publicly <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/25/manchin-bipartisan-infrastructure-deal-490796">optimistic</a> that negotiators can reach a bipartisan deal, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/infrastructure-joe-manchin-congress_n_60ad7925e4b0a24c4f82447a">telling reporters</a> that “I don’t know why you need reconciliation.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="q3pBuJ">
|
|||
|
“We have to find something reasonable and I’m always looking for that moderate, reasonable, middle if you can,” Manchin said Tuesday, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/25/manchin-bipartisan-infrastructure-deal-490796">according to Politico</a>. “It might not be as big as they want and then you have people on the right that don’t want to do that much or do nothing at all. I probably wouldn’t be there either.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UUl6lL">
|
|||
|
As Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/12/biden-is-reaching-out-republicans-his-real-target-is-joe-manchin/">wrote</a> in the Washington Post earlier this month, it’s possible the White House is aware that the current talks with GOP senators won’t yield much and are simply letting negotiations play out for Manchin’s sake before pivoting to reconciliation.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="19r0Tu">
|
|||
|
But whatever the case, progressives are growing impatient, and are wary of what concessions might be extracted by the Senate GOP on the path to a bipartisan deal.
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zZUA2L">
|
|||
|
“Just like we did with the American Rescue Plan, we believe we must go big, bold, and act with urgency,” the House Progressive Caucus said in a <a href="https://progressives.house.gov/press-releases?ID=172A385B-A5EF-4E61-98F5-B0673B2EDA06">statement</a> Friday following the release of Biden’s budget proposal. “We simply cannot afford to limit our ambitions for Republicans or continue to wait for an offer that will never materialize.”
|
|||
|
</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>Asian World Cup qualifiers to be moved from China due to COVID-19 travel restrictions</strong> - Matches scheduled for the eastern city of Suzhou this week will likely be relocated to the United Arab Emirates</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>Australian cricket board yet to finalise players’ participation in IPL’s U.A.E leg</strong> - Decision can wait as players were just reunited with their families after completing a two-week hotel quarantine, says Nick Hockley.</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>Quarantine completed, Australia’s IPL contingent reunites with family</strong> - The 38-member contingent landed in the country two weeks ago after a stopover in Maldives due to travel ban from COVID-ravaged India.</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>England-born Nick Hockley confirmed as Cricket Australia CEO</strong> - Hockley had been serving in the interim position since the departure of his predecessor Kevin Roberts in June 2020.</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>Copa America without a host after Argentina drops out due to COVID</strong> - The announcement casts doubt on a tournament which has faced major hurdles since the start of the pandemic in March of last year.</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>Help comes to aged couple</strong> - Members of NGO, Help For Needy, helped shift a poor couple to hospital after they had been abandoned on the suspicion that they were COVID-19 patients</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>Punjab launches drive to curb tobacco use</strong> - Health Minister says all 22 districts have been declared as tobacco-free</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>Can’t perform outside without approval, Visva-Bharati tells music teachers</strong> - Faculty members resent the order terming it “caging of their freedom”</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>Adopt legal measures to save Lakshadweep: Ram</strong> - Bid to destruct democracy, Constitution: Brittas</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>Yatnal hits out at CM again</strong> - He says Yediyurappa will be forced to resign</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>NSA spying row: Denmark accused of helping US spy on European officials</strong> - Denmark’s secret service is accused of helping the US target politicians such as Germany’s Angela Merkel.</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>France fugitive caught after shoot-out with Dordogne police</strong> - An armed ex-soldier is shot and wounded after a 24-hour manhunt in south-west France.</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>Ryanair: Dublin flight diverted due to security threat</strong> - A plane from Dublin to Krakow was diverted to Berlin on Sunday after the crew received a warning.</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>Barcelona: Homophobic attacks spark outcry</strong> - One man required surgery after he and his friends were beaten up by a group of men on a beach.</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>Poots: European Union treating NI as a political plaything</strong> - The new DUP leader Edwin Poots has accused the European Union of damaging the NI peace process.</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>Can we keep human inconsistency from confusing expert advice?</strong> - Human variability is great—except when it gets in the way of consistent guidance. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1768449">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Genetic tricks of the longest-lived animals</strong> - By studying long-living animals, researchers hope to pinpoint factors affecting human longevity. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1768728">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Building a better edible</strong> - Scientists are scouring existing studies and research to learn how edibles interact with the body. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1768684">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Movie written by algorithm turns out to be hilarious and intense</strong> - From the archives: Ars talks to the filmmakers who collaborated with an AI for <em>Sunspring</em>. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=896589">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The SolarWinds hackers aren’t back—they never went away</strong> - A new phishing campaign is less an escalation than a regression to the mean. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1768723">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
|||
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
<li><strong>“Feeling strange, Mr. Bond? That’s because I’ve laced your martini with a measles vaccine. The autism should be setting in any second now.”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
“Joke’s on you, I already disassembled your doomsday device and rearranged all the parts in order of size.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/oboewan42"> /u/oboewan42 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/noseyg/feeling_strange_mr_bond_thats_because_ive_laced/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/noseyg/feeling_strange_mr_bond_thats_because_ive_laced/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
<li><strong>A Joke for a Sunday</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
Jesus was relaxing in Heaven when he noticed a familiar looking old man. Wondering if the old man was His father Joseph, Jesus asked him, “Did you, by any chance, ever have a son?”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
“Yes,” said the old man, “but he wasn’t my biological son. He was born by a miracle, by the intervention of a magical being from the heavens.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
“Very interesting,” said Jesus. “Did this boy ever have to fight temptation?”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
“Oh, yes, many times,” answered the old man. “But he eventually won. Unfortunately, he heroically died at one point, but he came back to life shortly afterwards.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
Jesus couldn’t believe it. Could this actually be His father?
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
“One last question,” He said. “Were you a carpenter?”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
“Why yes,” replied the old man. “Yes I was.”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
Jesus rubbed His eyes and said, “Dad?”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
The old man rubbed his eyes and said, “Pinocchio?”
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/cachry"> /u/cachry </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/no9ymr/a_joke_for_a_sunday/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/no9ymr/a_joke_for_a_sunday/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
<li><strong>Two dogs are sitting in a bar. The first says, “wanna hear a joke?” The second dog says “sure!” The first dog says “knock knock.” The second says…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
|||
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
WOOF WOOF WOOF! WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF!!
|
|||
|
</p>
|
|||
|
</div>
|
|||
|
<!-- 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/MaroonTrucker28"> /u/MaroonTrucker28 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nougd6/two_dogs_are_sitting_in_a_bar_the_first_says/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nougd6/two_dogs_are_sitting_in_a_bar_the_first_says/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>Sex After Death</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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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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A couple made a deal that whoever died first would come back and inform the other if there was sex after death. Their biggest fear was that there was no after-life at all.
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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 a long life together, the husband was the first to die. True to his word, he made the first contact. “Judy, Judy.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Is that you, George?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Yes, I’ve come back like we agreed.”
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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’s wonderful!? What’s it like?”
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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, I get up in the morning, I have sex. I have breakfast and then it’s off to the golf course. I have sex again, bathe in the warm sun and then have sex a couple of more times. Then I have lunch, you’d be proud, lots of greens. Another romp around the golf course, then pretty much have sex the rest of the afternoon. After supper, it’s back to golf course again. Then it’s more sex until late at night. I catch some much-needed sleep and then the next day it starts all over again.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Oh, George, are you in Heaven?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“No, I’m a rabbit in Kansas.”
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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/notriple"> /u/notriple </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nob468/sex_after_death/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/nob468/sex_after_death/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>Nymphomaniac Convention</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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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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A man boarded an airplane and took his seat. As he settled in, he glanced up and saw the most beautiful woman boarding the plane. He soon realized she was heading straight towards his seat. As fate would have it, she took the seat right beside his.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Eager to strike up a conversation he blurted out “Business trip or pleasure?” She turned, smiled and said, "" Business. I’m going to the Annual Nympho- maniacs of America Convention in Boston ."
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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He swallowed hard. Here was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen sitting next to him, and she was going to a meeting of nymphomaniacs. Struggling to maintain his composure, he calmly asked, “What’s your business role at this convention?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Lecturer,” she responded. " I use information that I have learned from my personal experiences to debunk some of the popular myths about sexuality." “Really?” he said. “And what kind of myths are there?”
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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,” she explained, " One popular myth is that African-American men are the most well-endowed of all men, when in fact it is the Native American Indian who is most likely to possess that trait. Another popular myth is that Frenchmen are the best lovers, when actually it is men of Jewish descent who are the best. I have also discovered that the lover with absolutely the best stamina is the Southern Redneck."
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Suddenly the woman became a little uncomfortable and blushed. “I’m sorry,” she said," I shouldn’t really be discussing all of this with you. I don’t even know your name…"
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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“Tonto,” the man said, “Tonto Goldstein, but my friends call me Bubba.”
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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/margodemers"> /u/margodemers </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/np0xuw/nymphomaniac_convention/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/np0xuw/nymphomaniac_convention/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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</ul>
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