Paul Simon was asked to say a few words during a concert back in 1973. His response? “Let’s hope that we continue… to live.” Like the wise-beyond-his-years singer-songwriter, we believe that every day you spend above ground is a good one. Unless you’re being tortured or something. Or being forced by Brian Kemp to carry your rapist’s fetus, which is exactly the same thing.
The staying-above-ground caucus has had better days, though. Mass shootings continue in America. Yemen continues to suffer outrageous misery at the hands of the Saudis, the worst neighbors and least hospitable people on Earth. (You might scoff; but try spending 17 hours in the Jeddah airport and check back with me.)
And most crucially, the United States seems to be hurtling into another disastrous war in the Middle East. This time, the Republicans aren’t even putting in the effort to fabricate evidence. The endless torment, bullying, and humiliation of Iran is not enough, of course; we have to literally make life as unbearable as possible for people in the country… in the hopes of what exactly? Turning it into Iraq? John Bolton is like the host of the world’s worst HGTV show.
Trump, of course, knows nothing about geography, history, ethics, demographics, logic, or life itself — so the fact that Iran is, like, a pretty big country with 81 million people never crosses his mind. The question is rightly asked: it’s not whether Trump knows things. Does he actually know what it is to know things?
I think you know the answer to that. We’re all off to look for America!
Here’s this week’s best-of-the-public-sphere:
- The Night The Lights Went Out (The Concourse)
- How a Phone Glitch Sparked a Teenage Riot (Medium)
- Opinion | The three reasons unimpressive white men all think they can be president (NBC News)
- Opinion | The Myth of Testosterone (NYT)
- Building St. John’s Cathedral (The Prepared)
- Asia Bibi flees Pakistan to safety (BBC)
- She was the “queen of the mommy bloggers.” Then her life fell apart. (Vox)
- Every Woman Is a Working Woman: an interview with Silvia Federici (Boston Review)
- Augusta Savage: the extraordinary story of the trailblazing artist (Guardian)
- Historian at U Minnesota ‘celebrates’ tenure with critiques of governing board’s recent actions in renaming debate (Inside Higher Ed)
- The Racist Origins of America’s Tech Industry (OneZero)
- The legal limbo of Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange (Columbia Journalism Review)
- Change the Subject – a documentary about libraries, labels, and activism
- The Story of a Mass Shooting Survivor and Anthropologist (Anthropology 365)
- My Butch Lesbian Mom, Bruce Springsteen (Electric Literature)
- Denver Votes on Whether to Decriminalize ‘Magic Mushrooms’ (NYT)
- Meet the Queer Skeptics Who Hate Astrology (Them)