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☆ Opinion | Democrats: Stop Panicking
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-29 | by ( Stuart Stevens | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It’s baffling that so many Democrats are failing to rally around a wildly successful president after one bad night. But it does remind me of why Republicans defeated Democrats in so many races Republicans should have lost. The Republican Party lost its mind and decided that this one victory negated everything we know about politics. One debate does not change the structure of this presidential campaign. For all the talk of Mr. Biden’s off night, what is lost is that Mr. Trump missed a great opportunity to reset his candidacy and greatly strengthen his position.

Persons: Biden’s, Donald Trump, Mitt Romney, Trump Organizations: Republican, Democratic Party, Democratic, Republicans, Democrats, Republican Party

☆ The 84-Year-Old Visionary With One Answer for Two Real Estate Crises
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-28 | by ( William Falk | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Liberty Tower went up for sale in Manhattan’s financial district in 1978, there was only one bidder for the 33-story skyscraper. The building was dated and dilapidated, and even though rent had plunged to $5 a square foot, it was two-thirds vacant. New York City itself had tumbled into a downward spiral after a severe fiscal crisis and a deep recession. “The financial district was failing. Liberty Tower was the first major residential conversion of an office building in New York’s financial district.

Persons: Joseph Pell Lombardi, ” Mr, Lombardi, Nobody Organizations: Liberty, New, Sinclair Oil, New York Stock Exchange, World Trade Center Locations: New York City, New York, Liberty, New

☆ After Splash Park Shooting, Michigan Community Feels a Familiar Pain
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-16 | by ( Sophia Lada | Isabelle Taft | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

One day after a shooting in a splash park in suburban Detroit injured nine people, including children, residents on Sunday were struggling to process what happened, with bafflement, fear and shock. It’s hard to function this morning,” said Alex Roser, a 33-year-old pharmacy technician who said he grew up in the area. On Saturday afternoon, a gunman opened fire at a splash pad — a play area for children with blue cylinders that spray water — in Rochester Hills. The police identified the shooter as Michael William Nash, 42, and said that the handgun recovered at the scene was legally purchased in 2015 and registered to him. Mr. Nash was found dead with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound later on Saturday in his home nearby, they said.

Persons: ”, Alex Roser, Michael William Nash, Nash Organizations: Detroit, Sunday, Authorities Locations: Rochester Hills

☆ Opinion | Why the Manhattan Trial Is Probably Helping Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-18 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Throughout the Republican primary campaign (such as it was), it was perfectly clear that the multiple indictments of Donald Trump helped him consolidate support. This was a source of moral exasperation to liberals, but their bafflement coexisted with the hope that what played well with the MAGA faithful would have the opposite effect in the general election. Trump’s cries of persecution might rally conservatives in a primary, but the trials themselves would help Joe Biden cruise to re-election. But watching the trial play out so far, it seems just as likely that as in the primaries, so now in the general election: Any political effect from being charged and tried is probably working marginally in Trump’s favor. First, consider how this trial plays if you are not paying close attention to the legal details.

Persons: Donald Trump, MAGA, Trump’s, Joe Biden, we’re, Trump, Stormy Daniels Organizations: Republican

☆ Opinion: The magic art of changing your mind
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-04 | by ( Opinion Tess Taylor | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The poem shows a human speaker in the vulnerable act of changing their mind. Keats doesn’t want to be in the sky, eternally (and probably uncomfortably) unblinking, or even to be an “Eremite,” — which is just a fancy word for hermit. Keats doesn’t want to be distant at all, it turns out. It was the poem’s role to change its mind out loud, by setting out one way and then changing course. I’m not saying that poetry doesn’t have a place to hold our rage.

Persons: Tess Taylor, John Keats, Tess Taylor Adrianne, Keats, Keats doesn’t, he’d, He’s, what’s, certainties, ”, —, WB Yeats, I’m Organizations: “, CNN, Hulton, Twitter, WB Locations: absolutes

There are more heavily trafficked routes across the Baltimore Harbor than the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The Harbor Tunnel carries double the daily traffic of the Key Bridge and the Fort McHenry Tunnel much more than that. The six men who are missing were part of this tradition of working Baltimore: members of a construction crew, working overnight hours filling potholes on the bridge. One day in 1977, Mr. Metzger said, his father, a truck driver, was coming back home from his route and happened upon the bridge’s ribbon cutting. And the Key Bridge is gone.”

Persons: Francis Scott Key, “, ”, Kurt L, Mr, Schmoke, Rafael Alvarez, Dali, Jim Lo Scalzo, Curtis Bay, Alvarez, Baltimoreans, James Metzger, Metzger, Metzger’s Organizations: Fort, University of Baltimore, Chesapeake, Washington , D.C, Bethlehem Steel Plant, Amazon Locations: Baltimore, Fort McHenry, Baltimore’s, Maryland, Washington ,, New York City, Shutterstock

☆ ‘Bark of Millions’ Review: Children of the Revolution
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Laura Collins-Hughes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Somewhere close to the four-hour mark in “Bark of Millions,” the polychromatic cavalcade of splendor that is Taylor Mac and Matt Ray’s new rock opera, I finally realized why the woman in front of me had been reading on her phone throughout the performance. The words on her phone were excerpts from the show’s lyrics, a free digital version of the printed fan deck on sale at concessions. More than 50 songs in, she was grasping at that text in an attempt to follow along. Because the great frustration of “Bark of Millions,” which continues through Saturday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Harvey Theater, is that there are far too many songs in which the music drowns out the lyrics, making the meaning a bafflement. If “Bark of Millions” were aiming to succeed on aural gorgeousness and visual spectacle alone, there would be no cause to quibble.

Persons: Taylor Mac, Matt Ray’s, Brendan Aanes, Mac Organizations: Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Locations: Versailles, Vegas

☆ While some are making fun of Gen Alpha's 'brainrot' memes, Gen Zers are reminding each other of the ridiculous memes they grew up with
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-04 | by ( Kieran Press-Reynolds | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

As Gen Alpha memes dominate the internet, many have ridiculed them for being too inane. Gen Zers are now reminding each other their memes have been equally as ridiculous as "Skibidi Toilet." Older generations — particularly Gen Z — worried they were falling out of touch since they didn't understand its nonsensical humor. Three of the most popular TikToks over the last few weeks feature chaotic montages recalling popular Gen Z memes. The TikToks feature hypothetical quotes on-screen about people saying Gen Alpha "is literally watching brainrot," and then include a statement insinuating that what Gen Z watched wasn't any better.

Persons: Zers, —, Z —, Alpha, Gen, Snoop, Gen Z, Y'all, Zers didn't, @aymj13, Knuckles Organizations: Alpha, Service Locations: yolo

☆ ‘Next Goal Wins’ Review: Offside
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Jeannette Catsoulis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Bland photography and perfunctory writing are the very least of my issues with “Next Goal Wins,” a movie-shaped stain on the class of entertainment known as the sports-underdog comedy. Whatever Waititi’s past sins — I’m looking at you, the cringe-inducing “Jojo Rabbit” (2019) — his work has usually been polished and, yes, funny; this degree of carelessness is something new. A horrifyingly miscast Michael Fassbender stars as Thomas Rongen, a pugnacious Dutch-born soccer coach whose sideline rages have earned him professional banishment to American Samoa. Ten years earlier, the island’s soccer team had suffered a 31-0 defeat in its 2001 World Cup qualifying match against Australia, and since then has failed to score a single goal. With just three weeks until the team’s next important game, can Rongen whip its cosmically inept members into shape?

Persons: Bland, ”, Mike Brett, Steve Jamison’s, Taika Waititi, “ Jojo Rabbit ”, —, Michael Fassbender, Thomas Rongen Organizations: New, American Samoa, Australia Locations: New Zealand, Dutch, American

☆ ‘Orlando, My Political Biography’ Review: A Collective Approach to Joy
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Manohla Dargis | More About Manohla Dargis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Along the way, Preciado draws attention to the construction of identity and that of the movie itself, fusing form and subject. Preciado’s most provocative conceit is that he shares the role of Orlando with 20 other trans and nonbinary individuals of different ages, hues and shapes. Like her Orlando, his travels widely (if on a shoestring budget), undergoes metamorphoses and weaves through the centuries. By sharing the role of Orlando, Preciado shifts the story from the individual to the collective, taking it out of the private realm and into the public sphere. “I wouldn’t exactly say that either,” Orlando says with a Mona Lisa smile.

Persons: Woolf, ”, Christine Jorgensen, Orlando, Amir Baylly, Liz Christin, Dr, “, she’s, ” Orlando, Mona Lisa Organizations: Orlando Locations: Orlando

☆ The ‘Mandela Effect’: How a psychological phenomenon took over the internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Jacopo Prisco | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

But you might also be experiencing the so-called Mandela Effect. Ken Drinkwater, a fellow researcher at Manchester Metropolitan, added that the effect might be connected to a condition called false memory syndrome. Jon Elswick/AP; Scott Olson/Getty ImagesSome common examples of the Mandela Effect have perhaps logical explanations, such as Mr. “Advocates of the Mandela Effect think it’s a genuine effect. These people had this false memory right after learning about the characters!

Persons: Ash, Fiona Broome, Nelson Mandela, Mandela, Broome, “ Luke, ”, Wilma Bainbridge, hadn’t, Deepasri Prasad, Bainbridge, Prasad, Stan, Jan Berenstain, ” Bainbridge, Neil Dagnall, Dagnall, “, ” Dagnall, Roediger, McDermott, Ken Drinkwater, they’ve, Drinkwater, they’d, you’ve, Jon Elswick, Scott Olson, David Adkins, Sinbad, Dennis Van Tine, Shaquille O’Neal, Clara Nellist, Lionel Flusin, hasn’t, ” Drinkwater, University of Chicago’s Bainbridge Organizations: CNN, “, Bears, University of Chicago’s, Science, UChicago, Dartmouth College, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester Metropolitan, Monopoly, Fox Television Network, European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, Collider Locations: South Africa, “, Hanover , New Hampshire, United Kingdom, New York City, Switzerland —, Geneva

☆ What Can Literature Teach Us About Forgiveness?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Ayana Mathis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Narratives about prodigal children generally have reconciliation as their goal; this typically involves repentance followed by unconditional forgiveness. In Berriault’s hands, such forgiveness isn’t on the table. “What the hell else did you do with your life?” Eli’s father wants to know. “Could be you’re being punished for wrecking your life.” He has nothing to offer his son, no comfort, no wisdom. By the end of the story, Eli is, in a sense, reconciled with his mother and father, seeing them as objects of love and sorrow.

Persons: isn’t, ”, ” Eli, “, Eli, he’s, “ He’d, he’d, she’d, bafflement, Celie, Jim Crow Locations: ”, Seattle

☆ Trump's 4 criminal cases, ranked in order of how screwed he is
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | Sonam Sheth | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Former President Donald Trump has been indicted in four separate criminal cases since leaving office. This week, he made history again as the first former president to be charged in four separate criminal cases. For some charges, he's unlikely to see jail time if he's convicted. Trump has denied all the criminal charges against him. Ethan Miller/Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesManhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was the first to bring criminal charges against Trump.

Persons: Donald Trump, Fani Willis, Trump, Stormy Daniels, Ethan Miller, Chip Somodevilla, Attorney Alvin Bragg, Michael Cohen, John Edwards, playbook, Melania, Daniels, Jack Smith's, Jack Smith, Mike Pence, Joe, Congress —, Tanya Chutkan, Smith, it's, he's, Joe Raedle, Aileen Cannon, Prosecutors, —, Alan Freed, Ben Gray, — RICO, Ronald Carlson, doesn't, Carlson Organizations: Service, Trump ., Images Manhattan, Attorney, Trump, Capitol, Congress, US, Washington DC, Mar, National Archives, Justice Department, Prosecutors, Fulton, REUTERS, University of Georgia School of Law Locations: Wall, Silicon, Fulton County, Trump, Trump . Georgia, York, Washington , DC, Washington, Bedminster, , Georgia, Georgia

☆ This woman used an AirTag to track her lost bag -- and fly to get it
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-06 | by ( Julia Buckley | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Three months earlier, Shuster had bought an AirTag – Apple’s tracking devices – to know where her daughter’s bag was. “It had moved maybe 50 feet, and the AirTag was embedded in the bag – I doubted someone stole it,” she says. A day off work and a trip to ChicagoThe bag was at Chicago, in exactly the place the AirTag had said it was. ‘We never heard of that’While United staff said the bag was in Baltimore, the AirTag showed its correct location: Chicago. Why couldn’t the guy at baggage claim in Denver call Chicago?

Persons: Sandra Shuster, Shuster, Ruby, –, didn’t, “, ’, ’ ”, we’re, they’d, ”, Barhydt Ruby, ‘ Mam, Nam, she’d, “ We’ve, ORD, I’d, It’s, Shuster –, ” United, we’ve, ” Shuster, she’ll, that’s, She’ll, ’ “ Organizations: CNN, United, Denver, Airlines, Chicago, United’s Twitter, Twitter, ” Staff, ”, ‘ Airlines Locations: Denver, Chicago, Baltimore, O’Hare, San Francisco, California

☆ How Four Female Philosophers Responded to a Dire Decade
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Jennifer Szalai | More About Jennifer Szalai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

THE VISIONARIES: Arendt, Beauvoir, Rand, Weil, and the Power of Philosophy in Dark Times, by Wolfram Eilenberger. If hell is other people, then so, too, is this world. “Around us other people circled, pleasant, odious or ridiculous: They had no eyes with which to observe me. I alone could see.”It’s a quote that Wolfram Eilenberger uses to potent effect in “The Visionaries,” which traces the lives of four philosophers in the tumultuous decade before 1943. Beauvoir, Simone Weil, Hannah Arendt and Ayn Rand: Each addressed the foundational question of the relationship between the self and others, between “I” and “we,” only to arrive at wildly different conclusions.

Persons: Arendt, Beauvoir, Rand, Weil, Wolfram Eilenberger, Shaun Whiteside, Simone de Beauvoir, Otherness, ”, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Cassirer, Simone Weil, Hannah Arendt, Ayn Rand, Eilenberger, ” Arendt, Red Simone Organizations: Dark Times, Magicians, Gestapo Locations: France, Rouen, Berlin, Nazi Germany, Paris, Russian, Hollywood and New York

☆ Putin cut deal with Wagner ‘to save his skin,’ MI6 chief says in rare speech
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Nick Paton Walsh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Prague CNN —It was a rare moment when the publicly visible Kremlin matched the reality behind closed doors. And he had, it seemed, been welcomed into the Kremlin to meet Putin days later. Asked by CNN if Prigozhin was “alive and healthy”, Moore replied the Wagner leader was still: “floating around”, per his agency’s understanding. Yet the on-camera speech provided an opportunity for Moore’s expression to convey how shocking the weakness betrayed by Putin that weekend had been. “He really didn’t fight back against Prigozhin”, Moore said.

Persons: Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin, Richard Moore, “ Prigozhin, ” Moore, Prigozhin, Moore, Wagner, Prigozhin ”, Alexander Lukashenko, “, ” Organizations: Prague CNN, Mi6, CNN, Belarus ”, Ukraine ”, Kremlin Locations: Prague, Moscow, Belarus, Denmark, Ukraine, United Kingdom, China, Russia, Iran

☆ The Crossed ‘Signals’ of MoMA’s Largest Ever Video Show
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Jason Farago | More About Jason Farago | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

I sure got my wish with “Signals: How Video Transformed the World,” which closes this weekend at the Museum of Modern Art — and which, screen for screen, hour for hour, stands proud as the most perplexing exhibition of the year. Maybe a dozen times since its opening in March I have ascended to MoMA’s top floor for this ambitious, irregular exhibition of video art, the largest this museum has ever put on. Given the recent subtropical weather here in New York, this final weekend might be ideal for wrestling with “Signals” in MoMA’s climate-controlled galleries. “Signals,” drawn from the museum’s collection by the curators Stuart Comer and Michelle Kuo, is decidedly not a history of video art. (Fair enough: Nauman had a major retrospective in these same galleries in 2018, and Jonas has one coming up next year.)

Persons: bafflement, ”, Stuart Comer, Michelle Kuo, Bruce Nauman, Joan Jonas, Nauman, Jonas, Nam, Paik, Orwell Organizations: “, Museum of Modern, I’ve, New Locations: New York, Paris

☆ Red Bull driver rift adds spice to Abu Dhabi finale
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Abhishek Takle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The Red Bull rift could bring fresh drama to Yas Marina, the circuit where last year Verstappen won his first title and denied Lewis Hamilton a record eighth in a massively controversial clash. read moreVerstappen has little at stake this time, having wrapped up his second title in Japan last month, but can expect a grilling from the world's media after leaving his motives a mystery at Interlagos. read morePerez acidly accused Verstappen of showing "who he really is" in refusing to hand back a place as requested by Red Bull who want the Mexican to end the season second overall. "I am sure that this race will bring back plenty of happy memories from the last 15 years," said the 35-year-old. The German could join them on the sidelines with Haas widely tipped to announce Nico Hulkenberg alongside Kevin Magnussen for next season.

☆ Turkey slashes interest rates by 150 basis points despite inflation at 83%
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Natasha Turak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Turkey's central bank slashed its key interest rate by 150 basis points for the third consecutive month of cuts on Thursday, from 12% to 10.5% — despite Turkish inflation at more than 83%. Market analysts expected a 100 basis-point cut, so the move still managed to take many by surprise despite the increasing regularity of Turkey's interest rate cuts. Erdogan vocally espouses the unorthodox belief that raising interest rates increases inflation, rather than the other way around, and has called raising rates "the mother of all evil." The lira was roughly flat after touching an all-time low following the news at 18.615 to the dollar. "The lira remains weak, real yields are artificially low, inflation has surged and the current account remains in deficit.

With the term “personal taxes,” however, Mr. Garten appears to be conflating income taxes with other federal taxes Mr. Trump has paid — Social Security, Medicare and taxes for his household employees. Fragments of Mr. Trump’s tax returns have leaked out before. Mr. Agalarov’s father, Aras, a billionaire who boasts of close ties to Mr. Putin, was Mr. Trump’s partner in the event. Mr. Trump’s avoidance of income taxes is one of the most striking discoveries in his tax returns, especially given the vast wash of income itemized elsewhere in those filings. When they got to line 56, the one for income taxes due, the amount was the same each year: $750.

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