Extra, Extra
No Shelter From the Storm: “It began, as many modern love stories now do, with a swipe on a dating app. It ended, a little over a year later, in a roar of exploding glass and concrete from a Russian missile strike.” A reminder of the invasion the world has forgotten over the past month. Love and death in the shadow of Putin’s endless massacre. WaPo (Gift Article): He proposed in a bomb shelter. They died together in a Russian strike.
+ The Empire Has No Clothes: “With no hourly compensation system in place for garment workers, there’s also no tangible record of a worker’s labor, such as pay stubs. Bilma’s daily routine extends from 7 am to 7 pm, yet she describes feeling like a ghost as she navigates her day, her labor nearly invisible. On top of it all, the conditions in the factories she works in are deplorable: She describes sewing threads tainted with rat urine, poorly vented rooms with dusty air, and unstable chairs on which she must perch throughout the day.” And in the end, her product is stamped with a label. Made in America.
+ All the Rage These Days: “One of those two candidates faces relentless newspaper columns and TV pundit ‘takes’ arguing that he should drop out of the race. (Spoiler alert: It’s somehow not the racist authoritarian sexual abuse fraudster facing 91 felony charges.)” Thomas B. Edsall in the NYT (Gift Article): The Roots of Trump’s Rage. “The man who, as president, incited a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol in order to overturn an election is again openly fomenting political violence while explicitly endorsing authoritarian strategies should he return to power. That is the story of the 2024 election. Everything else is just window dressing.” Plus, from Peter Wehner in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Have You Listened to What Trump is Saying? “Trump’s rhetoric is a permission slip for his supporters to dehumanize others just as he does. He portrays others as existential threats, determined to destroy everything MAGA world loves about America. Trump is doing two things at once: pushing the narrative that his enemies must be defeated while dissolving the natural inhibitions most human beings have against hating and harming others.” (I somehow got on a text list for GOP candidates, and it’s incredible how many of them warn of the threat of Democrats trying to destroy America. I’ve seen less projection at a cinema multiplex.)
+ Love Reigns in Plains: “But perhaps more than anything, many who knew the Carters and many who did not shared their sadness over the end of a marriage they admired for its endurance and the evident strength of the bond between the two people in it. ‘The closeness of it,’ said Stephanie Young, who lives in Plains and owns a trophy-and-gift shop. ‘Their love story is the most important thing they have achieved, in my opinion.'” NYT (Gift Article): The Carters’ Hometown Mourns for the Love of a Lifetime.
