Rupert Murdoch reportedly wants to hand-pick Trump VP, dreads "kissing Trump's ass" for four more years
Uh, maybe you should've thought about that nine years ago when you catapulted a low-rent, gold-plated, reality-TV sex predator into living rooms across America every goddamn night with breathless, fawning coverage, Rupert?!
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Trump’s move to the "center" is stunningly transparent — Jill Fillipovic, CNN
In a nakedly transparent move to hide their radical extremism, the GOP's official new platform ostensibly moderates their stance on reproductive rights and same-sex marriage. The platform suggests that abortion should be an issue left to the states, does not make mention of a national abortion ban as previous platforms have, and, according to The New York Times, claims that the party backs access to birth control and IVF treatments. Unfortunately for them, we know that Republicans are nothing if not morally bankrupt liars who will do or say anything to maintain or recover their grip on power. If they really believed all this, writes Jill Fillipovic for CNN, why haven't they done it already? "Why, when given the opportunity to vote to protect contraception access, did Senate Republicans refuse? Why, when given the opportunity to vote to protect IVF, did Senate Republicans block the legislation from coming to a vote at all? Why have anti-abortion groups tried to ban the abortion pill, and why have many Republicans not only backed them, but taken it upon themselves to warn pharmacies that sell these pills? Why don’t Republicans seem to want to repeal a Victorian-era law that could criminalize abortion pills and potentially contraception as well? The answer is presumably that Republicans don’t actually plan on moderating when it comes to abortion. They simply increasingly understand that they need to say the right things to get into office," writes Fillipovic. While this may seem like a "no-shit-Sherlock" moment for most of us, this pretense of moderation is designed to give people permission to vote for Republicans, which far too many Americans will do despite the obvious rug-pull awaiting them the minute Trump gets back into office. "Voters have a choice: We can believe what Donald Trump and his GOP are saying. Or we can judge them on what they’re actually doing."
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Devastating Houston floods set off MAJOR alarm bells
League of Conservation Voters: We are well on track for 2024 to be the hottest year on record, and the devastating effects of climate change are already making themselves painfully clear as yet ANOTHER brutal heatwave rolls in this weekend as Texas reels from Hurricane Beryl’s flooding — the earliest recorded Category 5 hurricane in history. It's all going to get worse unless we take action NOW! Will you chip in to help the League of Conservation Voters elect legislators who will tackle climate change and protect our future?
Shawn Fain is the president we deserve — Indigo Olivier, The New Republic
While the media plays fantasy football over the fate of Joe Biden's candidacy, The New Republic's Indigo Olivier thinks there's one choice that is seriously flying under the radar — UAW President Shawn Fain. "We should not settle for the expected, but strive for the exceptional: a leader who embodies our collective dreams and aspirations. There is only one person in my mind who fits this bill, and it’s Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers union. After leading nearly 150,000 workers in their historic “stand up” strike against the Big Three automakers, Fain now serves as the clearest embodiment of the democratic project to rebuild the middle class and reinvigorate American manufacturing," writes Olivier. A lifelong advocate for workers, descended from UAW workers, and a reformist leader who ousted the old-guard president after the union's nasty corruption scandal, Fain would signal a return to the Democratic Party’s roots and has the potential to carry broad appeal that could win over swing voters and those disillusioned by establishment politics. As a close ally of the Biden administration already, Fain is in prime position to step in as a potential running mate for Kamala Harris, should the opportunity arise — but if there's one thing we can learn from Europe's elections, says Olivier, "it’s the need for the center-left and center-right to put aside their differences and unite behind a strong candidate in the face of a dangerous far-right coalition." Olivier believes Fain to be the right man for that job.
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More slop for the void: A damning look at AI-generated content to please the algorithms — Ryan Broderick, Garbage Day
Ryan Broderick, award-winning guru of being online, explores the modern phenomenon of "content slop" in a poignant essay for his newsletter, Garbage Day. What is "slop," you might ask? It's the AI pictures of Jesus being carried by Korean flight attendants that are seemingly everywhere on Facebook these days. It's straight-to-Netflix movies written and shot entirely to create GIFs and clips on social media, a barrage of shitty basketballs thrown desperately at the basket of virality. It's any piece of content that exists solely to juice the algorithms of social media networks, and it's pretty much all that gets created these days. "Content slop has three important characteristics. The first being that, to the user, the viewer, the customer, it feels worthless. This might be because it was clearly generated in bulk by a machine or because of how much of that particular content is being created. The next important feature of slop is that feels forced upon us, whether by a corporation or an algorithm. It’s in the name. We’re the little piggies and it’s the gruel in the trough. But the last feature is the most crucial. It not only feels worthless and ubiquitous, it also feels optimized to be so," writes Broderick. The solution? "We have to be the ones to demand that we all make less, aim smaller, be more deliberate about what we consume, and find new ways of funding — and distributing — what we do make."
Israeli strike kills 90, wounds nearly 300 people
The IDF committed yet another horrifying massacre with a missile strike on a designated humanitarian zone in Gaza. "I left the tent and looked around, all the tents were knocked down, body parts, bodies everywhere, elderly women thrown on the floor, young children in pieces," said witness Sheikh Youssef. Many of those wounded in the strike, including women and children, were taken to the nearby Nasser Hospital, which hospital officials said had been overwhelmed and was "no longer able to function" due to the intensity of the Israeli offensive and an acute shortage of medical supplies. Israel claimed they were targeting Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, but it's not clear if he was killed.
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