IN THE NEWS
THE NEW PROPAGANDA WAR
May 6, 2024
On june 4, 1989, the Polish Communist Party held partially free elections, setting in motion a series of events that ultimately removed the Communists from power. Not long afterward, street protests calling for free speech, due process, accountability, and democracy brought about the end of the Communist regimes in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. Within a few years, the Soviet Union itself would no longer exist.
... full article1978: EL DÍA QUE DIEGO SE QUEDÓ SIN MUNDIAL
May 19, 2023
Podría ser la angustia de un pibe cualquiera en una noche cualquiera y por un motivo cualquiera, pero es la reacción de un joven prodigio ante una causa fuera de lo normal. Fue el ahogo con el que Diego Armando Maradona terminó el 19 de mayo de 1978, el viernes en que el técnico de la Selección, César Luis Menotti, le dijo que no jugaría el Mundial 78. Faltaban 12 días para el torneo.
... full articleDear Bernard,
It is your turn, today, to ride into the unknown lands. You will be sorely missed by all of us who had the good fortune to get to know you a little and love you for as long as we have presence of mind and memory of the good cheer, optimism, and adventurous spirit that you so generously shared with us. And you will continue to be held in the highest esteem around our world by countless followers of your fine work as an artist.
You will always be our brave King Theoden, a person able to lead through example, to adjust his course and evolve, a beacon of love and our steadfast riding companion.
Steady as you go, friend.
“Where now are the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the harp on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gather the smoke of the deadwood burning,
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?”
“Where now are the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the harp on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gather the smoke of the deadwood burning,
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?”
(J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers)
Trump’s bombardment of dishonesty: Fact-checking 32 of his false claims to Time
May 4, 2024
Former President Donald Trump delivered a bombardment of dishonesty in his interviews with Time magazine.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, made at least 32 false claims in the two April interviews that Time released this week. His serial inaccuracy spanned a wide range of subjects, including the economy, abortion, the NATO military alliance, the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, his legal cases, his record as president and the 2020 election he has relentlessly lied about for more than three years.
... full articleThe thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.
We Columbia University students urge you to listen to our voices
May 4, 2024
On Tuesday night, we watched in horror as hundreds of riot police flooded our beloved campus and brutalized our classmates. The next day, students awoke with swollen faces, bruised wrists and lacerations – all results of inhumane police treatment. The past two weeks have been tumultuous, marked with mass arrests of student demonstrators, an encampment on our lawns, national media attention and vile acts of hatred. Countless have spoken on our behalf. But by speaking over us, media outlets and politicians have created a distorted narrative – one which unfairly characterizes our community.
... full articleBe sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
I teach democracy at Princeton. Student protesters are getting an education like no other
May 4, 2024
I teach democracy at Princeton. Student protesters are getting an education like no other
Razia Iqbal
Students across the US are forging bonds in the face of brutal power structures. You might say they’ve already won
Sat 4 May 2024 07.00 EDT
Share
Teaching an undergraduate class on democracy at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs this semester has felt urgent and clarifying. In the classroom, we’ve been looking at backsliding and the slow corrosion of democratic norms in so-called democratic countries. Meanwhile, what’s been happening outside the classroom in more than 120 universities around the US and the world tells us a more ominous story about democracy.
For two weeks, we focused on the United States; there were lively discussions on political polarization, January 6 and the threat posed by supporters of Donald Trump, as well as how robust or fragile US democracy currently is. Looking at each democracy involved criticism of the state. In the class on Israel, we examined, among other areas, controversial proposed judicial reforms, as well as the incarceration of Palestinian minors held in administrative detention, as examples where democratic values might be defined as absent.
... full article