Extra, Extra
It’s Mourning in America: “The merging of state power and economic power around one man who accepts that power as his due would not be possible without the algorithmic grift that has so all-consumingly captured our attention. The internet and the people who, for all intents and purposes, now own it have excelled at making Trump good at authoritarianism. They commodified information. They quelled regulation. They escaped blame for degrading collective action while raking in profits for spectacles of violence that degradation predictably produces. Now, via their president, they are using it to crush the First Amendment, to supercharge the Second Amendment, to stand up bot armies and real armed militias to defend their ownership of your civil liberties.” Tressie McMillan Cottom in the NYT (Gift Article) with a really good essay that ties together the administration’s authoritarian leanings, the consolidation of media ownership, and the attack on free speech. Mourn, or Else.
+ No Hook From Crook for Cook: “While the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has repeatedly cleared the way for the president to fire leaders of other independent agencies, the justices have recently signaled that the central bank is uniquely independent.” Supreme Court Allows Lisa Cook to Remain at Fed, for Now.
+ Jane: “Jane Goodall, one of the world’s most revered conservationists, who earned scientific stature and global celebrity by chronicling the distinctive behavior of wild chimpanzees in East Africa — primates that made and used tools, ate meat, held rain dances and engaged in organized warfare — died on Wednesday in California. She was 91.” Jane Goodall, Eminent Primatologist Who Chronicled the Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91. (Might be a good time to watch the documentary Jane, on Hulu and elsewhere.)
+ Familiar Figure of Speech: “The current group is headlined by actor and activist Jane Fonda — whose father, actor Henry Fonda, was one of the early members of the first Committee for the First Amendment, which was founded in the 1940s to oppose the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee.” Hundreds of celebrities relaunch a McCarthy-era committee to defend free speech.
+ We Better Talk About Fight Club: There’s a growing number of Americans who think violence might be necessary to get the country back on track. (And the recent gains are mostly among Dems.)
+ Use Your Noodle: “Doctors are warning of a food trend inspired by the popular Netflix movie “KPop Demon Hunters” that is leading to serious burn injuries. The trend involves children and teens imitating a scene from the hit streaming movie by eating hot instant noodles, but doctors say it has become dangerous.”
