August 18, 2023

Ben Shapiro Is Gaslighting America

Conservative grifters are conspiring to exonerate Trump from his egregious crimes while vilifying the Democrats at the same time.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/ben-shapiro-is-gaslighting-america

https://archive.li/qEdKD





The stunning 41-count indictment includes charges of racketeering, forgery, conspiracy to commit election fraud, and multiple counts related to making false statements and impersonating a public officer. It was unsealed earlier this week, making a new total of 91 charges leveled against the former president in four different jurisdictions. The Georgia indictment, like the others, is devastating. Former President Nixon’s White House counsel John Dean told CNN Trump’s latest indictment is “much bigger than Watergate,” and for good reason. The indictment lays out in meticulous detail an extraordinary attempt by multiple parties to overthrow the election on the basis of provable lies. It is the text book definition of a criminal conspiracy and outlines clear violations of Georgia’s RICO law (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization). No one with a shred of credibility believes the indictment is unwarranted, which makes Ben Shapiro’s statement all the more ridiculous. But it is worth analyzing for several reasons.

The Youtube intellectual

In the Youtube/Twitter era of political media, the 39 year old Shapiro is generally regarded as the Right’s most prominent intellectual. He is a product of “The Intellectual Dark Web” — a renegade alliance of mostly conservative influencers like Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan, and Dave Rubin who made their names gaming social media algorithms with controversial, clickbaity opinions. Shapiro is a religious conservative (he’s an orthodox Jew), and a reluctant Trump supporter who claims only to be behind the MAGA movement because “Democrats have lost their minds.” This gives him a unique position in American conservative circles where he can speak to Trump supporters and traditional conservatives alike. Shapiro is a savvy operator with his own growing media empire, The Daily Wire, that profits from this highly lucrative niche. The Wire isn’t overtly MAGA, but it provides intellectual cover for conservatives keen to justify their support for the MAGA agenda. Given his huge audience, this means what Shapiro says matters.

Logical lunacy

Let’s look carefully at Shapiro’s words. He says that: “Whatever you might think of the Trump indictment, one thing is for certain: the glass has now been broken over and over again.” This is an explicit acknowledgment that Shapiro isn’t interested in the contents of the indictment. In other words, Trump might have committed egregious crimes against his own country, but Shapiro doesn’t care because Trump is a leading candidate for president. Shapiro also implies — without a shred of evidence — that the Georgia indictment is part of a broader conspiracy by the White House to use the power of the law to persecute political enemies. This is going to become an important talking point in conservative circles over the next year and a half. The GOP’s media organs will be working overtime to distract the public from the contents of the four indictments, and frame them as a Democratic conspiracy to silence their political opponents. As Shapiro implies, Trump might have committed a few small crimes here and there, but Democrats are guilty of the big ones.

Appointed by God?

Shapiro’s talking point also presumes a Trump candidacy and presidency is some sort of God given right — that the law has to stop working specifically for Trump if and when he chooses to run for office. The reality is that no one forced Trump to run. It is likely he decided to do so specifically to avoid prosecution, calculating that it would be much, much harder to indict the leading GOP candidate for president. Shapiro knows this, but understands his audience is desperate for a narrative that paints Democrats as the bad guys and not the obvious criminal. This is grotesquely irresponsible because it further undermines the rule of law at one of the most vulnerable times in US history. If half the country believes Democrats are using the law to persecute political enemies, then it justifies them doing the same:



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August 18, 2023

Sweden raises terror threat alert to 'high', another Quran burning expected in Stockholm on Friday

https://www.thelocal.se/20230818/today-in-sweden-a-roundup-of-the-latest-news-on-friday-93

https://archive.li/sB6BX


Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

Sweden raised its terror threat level from “elevated” to “high”, after “extremist groups and foreign powers” exploited anger in Muslim countries over a spate of Quran burnings. "The reason for this decision is the deteriorated situation with regard to attack threats to Sweden, and the assessment that the threat will remain for a long time," said the head of the Swedish Security Service (Säpo), Charlotte von Essen, at a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

Speaking at a separate press conference, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said "planned terrorist acts have been averted". "People have been arrested, both in Sweden and abroad," he said, providing no other details. Both advised people to keep living their lives as normal, but pay attention to information from Swedish authorities.

Swedish vocabulary: the terror threat level – terrorhotnivån

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A new demonstration is set to be held on Friday, with organiser Salwan Momika again planning to burn a copy of the Quran, this time outside the embassy of Iran, reports Swedish newswire TT. Momika is one of the people behind a series of Quran burnings in Sweden this year. The permit was granted before Säpo announced they were raising the terror threat level.

The Swedish government has previously condemned the desecrations of the Quran while noting the country's constitutionally protected freedom of speech and assembly laws, which make it hard for police to reject an application for a demonstration permit regardless of the type of demonstration. It has vowed to explore legal means of stopping protests involving the burning of holy texts in certain circumstances, though a majority in parliament appear to be opposed to such a change.

Swedish vocabulary: to burn – att bränna

(my add: you likely already know bränn from brännvin (burnt wine) aka snaps or (in German) schnapps)

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August 18, 2023

Denis Joelsons juxtaposes linear house with circular garden terraces in Sao Paulo

https://www.dezeen.com/2023/08/17/denis-joelsons-linear-house-circular-gardens-sao-paulo/













































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August 18, 2023

Charli XCX - Speed Drive (From Barbie The Album) [Official Music Video]

August 17, 2023

Trans women banned from world chess events while review takes place

Fide decision draws criticism from advocacy groups

Association says review could take up to two years

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/aug/17/trans-women-banned-from-world-chess-events-while-review-takes-place



The world’s top chess federation has ruled that transgender women cannot compete in its official events for females until a review of the situation is made by its officials. The decision by Lausanne, Switzerland-based federation Fide was published on Monday and has drawn criticism from advocacy groups and supporters of transgender rights. Fide said it and its member federations increasingly have received recognition requests from players who identify as transgender, and that the participation of transgender women would depend on an analysis of individual cases. That process could take up to two years.

“Change of gender is a change that has a significant impact on a player’s status and future eligibility to tournaments, therefore it can only be made if there is a relevant proof of the change provided,” the federation said. “In the event that the gender was changed from a male to a female the player has no right to participate in official Fide events for women until further Fide’s decision is made,” it said. It acknowledged that questions regarding transgender players were an “evolving issue for chess” and that “further policy may need to be evolved in the future in line with research evidence.”

No one immediately responded to emails to top federation officials and calls to the federation’s headquarters in Switzerland seeking further comment. Word of the decision comes as the federation is hosting a World Cup event in Azerbaijan where top players including No 1 ranked Magnus Carlsen are attending. The federation has open competitions that allow all players to take part, as well as specialized categories for women, young players and even computers.

Many sports involving intense physical activity – which chess does not – have been grappling with how to formulate policies toward transgender athletes in recent years. The International Cycling Union has joined the governing bodies of track and field and swimming as top-tier Olympic sports addressing the issue of transgender athletes. Last month, the cycling federation ruled that female transgender athletes who transitioned after male puberty will no longer be able to compete in women’s races.

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August 17, 2023

The Insane Scale of Europe's New Mega-Tunnel

August 17, 2023

Sir Tony Blair's institute continued to receive Saudi Arabian money after murder of Jamal Khashoggi

The former prime minister's organisation is involved in a multimillion-pound partnership to help a modernisation drive led by the Gulf state's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - who was accused of ordering the assassination of dissident Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

https://news.sky.com/story/sir-tony-blairs-institute-continued-to-receive-saudi-arabian-money-after-murder-of-jamal-khashoggi-12939029



Sir Tony Blair's institute has continued to advise and receive money from Saudi Arabia's government since the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, it has emerged. The former prime minister's organisation is involved in a multimillion-pound partnership to help a modernisation drive led by the Gulf state's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Sunday Times reported.

The prince, widely known as MBS, who is the country's de facto leader, was accused of ordering the assassination of dissident Washington Post journalist Mr Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. He denied any involvement and blamed rogue agents.

Sir Tony's spokesman confirmed to the Sunday Times the institute had continued its involvement in Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, a wide-ranging programme of economic reform aimed at boosting tourism and reducing reliance on oil, after Mr Khashoggi's death. According to a statement, "anxieties" were initially expressed internally as the institute considered how to proceed with the partnership, which started in 2017, following the killing.

But ultimately, Sir Tony was of the view that continued engagement was "justified" despite the "terrible crime," the spokesperson said. No staff or board member opposed the decision. "The renewed engagement of the USA and Western nations with Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman illustrates why this decision was correct," a statement said.



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August 17, 2023

When Naomi Klein Realized People Regularly Confused Her With Naomi Wolf, She Went Down a Rabbit Hole

In this exclusive excerpt from her new book, Doppelganger, the Shock Doctrine author takes on the Beauty Myth author, whose COVID conspiracism has further muddied the Naomi waters.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/08/naomi-klein-naomi-wolf-book

https://archive.li/Ko3s0



The first time it happened, I was in a stall in a public bathroom just off Wall Street in Manhattan. I was about to open the door when I heard two women talking about me. “Did you see what Naomi Klein said?” I froze, flashing back to every mean girl in high school, pre-humiliated. What had I said? “Something about how the march today is a bad idea.” “Who asked her? I really don’t think she understands our demands.” Wait. I hadn’t said anything about the march—or the demands. Then it hit me: I knew who had. I casually strolled to the sink, made eye contact with one of the women in the mirror, and said words I would repeat far too many times in the months and years to come. “I think you are talking about Naomi Wolf.”

That was November 2011, at the height of Occupy Wall Street, the movement that saw groups of young people camp out in public parks and squares in cities across the United States, Canada, Asia, and the United Kingdom. It was a collective howl against economic inequality and financial crimes that would, eventually, birth a new generational politics. That day the organizers of the original Manhattan encampment had called for a mass march through the financial district, and you could tell by all the black clothing and heavy liquid eyeliner that no one in that bathroom was on break from derivative trading.

I could see why some of my fellow marchers had their Naomis mixed up. We both write big-idea books (my No Logo, her Beauty Myth; my Shock Doctrine, her End of America; my This Changes Everything, her Vagina). We both have brown hair that sometimes goes blond from over-highlighting (hers is longer and more voluminous than mine). We’re both Jewish. Most confusingly, we once had distinct writerly lanes (hers being women’s bodies, sexuality, and leadership; mine being corporate assaults on democracy and climate change). But by the time Occupy happened, the once-sharp yellow line that divided those lanes had begun to go wobbly.



At the time of the bathroom incident, I had visited the Occupy plaza a couple of times. I was mainly there to conduct interviews about the relationship between market logic and climate breakdown for what would become This Changes Everything. But while I was there, organizers asked me to give a short talk about the shock of the 2008 financial crisis and the raging injustices that followed—the trillions put on the line to save the banks whose reckless trades had caused the crisis, the punishing austerity offered to pretty much everyone else, the legalized corruption that all of this laid bare. Naomi Wolf, once a standard-bearer of 1990s feminism, had intersected with the protests as well, and I suppose that’s where the confusion began. She had written several articles arguing that the crackdown on Occupy demonstrated that the United States was tipping into a police state. This was the subject of her book The End of America, which outlined “ten steps” she claimed every government takes on its way to outright fascism. Her evidence that this evil future was now upon us was the aggressive way that Occupy demonstrators were having their freedom restricted. The city was not allowing megaphones and sound systems to be used in the park, and there had been a series of mass arrests. Wolf, in her articles, argued that activists should defy restrictions on their freedom of speech and assembly in order to prevent the takeover she insisted was unfolding under their noses. Not wanting to give the police an excuse to clear the protest camp, the organizers took a different tack, using what became known as the “human microphone” (where the crowd repeats the speaker’s words so that everyone can hear them).

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August 16, 2023

This Otherworldly 'Sky Island' Might Be America's Next National Park

Arizona’s best-kept secret is ready for its close-up.

https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/things-to-do-in-chiricahua-national-monument-arizona-next-national-park



About 120 miles east of Tucson, Arizona lies a sea of monolithic wonders forged in volcanic fury. Here, thousands of rocky hoodoos twist skyward under a vivid blanket of stars. The Martian-like landscape is crawling with rare creatures and abstract natural phenomena unlike any you’ve ever seen. And soon, Southeastern Arizona’s Chiricahua National Monument could take its rightful place in the spotlight. Hot on the heels of Virginia’s newly minted New River Gorge National Park, a new bipartisan bill could soon promote Chiricahua from national monument to national park. And should Congress pass the bill following two failed attempts, this 12,025-acre stunner will become the 64th wilderness in the America’s Best Idea club.

Dubbed the “The Land of Standing-Up Rocks” by the Apache, Chiricahua’s iconic rhyolite pillars earned it national monument status back in 1924. These otherworldly oddities—reminiscent of the orange-hued hoodoos of Utah’s Bryce Canyon—number in the thousand and were formed millions of years ago by a volcanic eruption 1,000 times more powerful than Mount St. Helens. Adding to the mystique, Chiricahua is one of Arizona’s “sky islands,” a prodigious mountain range that emerges from the desert like a hazy mirage.



The unique geological features of sky islands result in some pretty unpredictable climate conditions; think tank tops and Tevas at the lower elevations and winter coats and beanies closer to the highest peaks. And as the elevation changes, so do the ecological communities. Located at the convergence of the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Madres, the Sonoran Desert, and the Chihuahuan Desert, Chiricahua is home to five world biomes that range from deserts and grasslands to chaparral, deciduous, and coniferous forests. It’s basically the Grand Central Station of ecosystems, and it’s teeming with innumerable desert-dwelling critters and creepy crawlies.

As of August, the bill was gathering dust in Washington, so it could be a while before we know for sure if Chiricahua will join Petrified Forest, Saguaro, and the Grand Canyon and become Arizona’s fourth National Park. But that shouldn’t stop you from seeing it for yourself today. Here’s how to best experience the starry skies, ancient lava flows, and wildlife of this Southwestern dreamscape.

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August 16, 2023

Catering to Highly Educated Whites is Disastrous for Housing Policy

Another reason Democrats need the working class.

https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/catering-to-highly-educated-whites


In June, Ruy Teixeira gave us, “Five Reasons Why Democrats Should Focus Obsessively on Working-Class Voters” in order to win elections. To add to that compelling case, here’s a sixth reason: the increasing reliance of the Democratic Party on highly educated, upper-middle class white voters comes at a big cost when sitting down to craft public policy. Nowhere is that more evident than on the issue of housing. In my new book, Excluded: How Snob Zoning, NIMBYism and Class Bias Build the Walls We Don’t See, I outline the host of ways in which exclusionary land use policies—such as bans on multifamily housing and minimum lot sizes—harm the country as a whole, and working Americans in particular.


As a matter policy, then, removing exclusionary barriers ought to be a no-brainer for Democrats generally, and especially so for liberal patriots, who see the universal worth of all Americans and don’t want anyone to feel looked down upon or excluded. The challenge, however, is that research finds some of the most egregious forms of exclusionary zoning are often found in politically liberal states and cities. In a recent article in The Atlantic, I examined the New York City suburb of Scarsdale, which comes close to banning any type of multifamily housing. According to data provided to me by New York University’s Furman Center, just 0.2 percent of Scarsdale’s lots contain structures classified as two-or three bedroom homes or apartments. The walls that Scarsdale has erected help explain why its population has a median income nearly three times that of nearby Port Chester, and a population that is 87 percent white or Asian. By contrast, Port Chester, which has much less restrictive zoning, has a population that is 69 percent black and Hispanic. Port Chester is home to many landscapers, housekeepers, and child care providers. They may provide services to families in Scarsdale, but they are effectively prevented from living there.



Earlier this year, New York’s moderate Democratic governor Kathy Hochul tried to do something about these laws that exclude and drive up the price of homes. She proposed a Housing Compact to build 800,000 homes in the next 10 years, with localities required to boost the permitting of housing. If they failed to, a new state process would have been put in place to provide fast-track approval of new housing. The proposal went down in flames, even though many consider the state legislature more liberal than Hochul. The New York suburbs—many of them heavily Democratic—rebelled and defeated the legislation. One Assembly source told New York Focus, “There were a lot of members who though they’d get killed in re-election if they were overriding local control.” The source said: “All the suburban members were very thankful that the mandates are out.” Melanie Spivak, a Scarsdale Neighborhood Associations board member, celebrated the defeat of Hochul’s plan. “Local control of our zoning laws and building requirements are imperative to protecting our unique village,” she said.

Democrats were put in a tough position because they have become increasingly reliant on votes from communities like Scarsdale. In presidential elections, Barack Obama won Scarsdale by a comfortable 12 points in 2012, but Hillary Clinton won the town by an astounding 57 points in 2016. And Joe Biden won Scarsdale 75 percent to 24 percent in 2020. It’s hard—though not impossible—to ignore the voices of those who deliver Democratic votes by such large margins. This challenge is national in scope. The old Bobby Kennedy coalition of working-class Democrats of all races is long gone, and the party’s shift toward highly educated voters has accelerated in recent years. As Teixeira has noted, between 2012 and 2020, the Democratic Party’s support among college-educated white people rose by sixteen points, while its advantage among nonwhite working-class supporters declined by nineteen points.

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