Middleboro Review and so on

  Hang on, Republicans: Who are the real "elites," anyway? Kirk Swearingen Support journalism Ted Cruz; Josh Hawley Ted Cruz; Josh Hawley © Provided by Salon Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas (R) and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., are seen outside the Senate chamber on Tuesday, May 3, 2022. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell recently posted some thoughts on the subject of high school sports, of all things. High schools do a good job at elevating elite athletes, he wrote, to the detriment of students of more average ability, or who lack parents who could afford to pay for soccer or baseball camps starting at age six. Gladwell, who is a lifelong, serious runner — and can run a mile at age 55 nearly as fast as I did when I was 15 and winning races on the track team — came up with a law he named after himself: In any sporting endeavor, elite achievement comes at the cost of mass participation. We can easily expand Gladwell's Law to the whole of soc...

  SUBSCRIBE TO THIS NEWSLETTER Nonfiction Book Explains the Oligarchs’ Plot to Break Up the U.S. – To Make It Easier to Sell Off Its Parts By  Pam Martens and Russ Martens : September 12, 2022 ~ Sarah Kendzior, Author and Anthropologist Sarah Kendzior turned 44 on September 1. She has already had  two bestselling books . She holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from Washington University with a focus on authoritarian regimes.   We mention this as background because Kendzior’s latest book,  They Knew: How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent , to be released tomorrow by Flatiron Books, needs to be read as the work of a serious scholar. Six years ago Kendzior correctly predicted in numerous articles what the rise of Trumpism would bring to the United States. On August 3, 2016, three months before the presidential election, Kendzior wrote the following for  Foreign Policy  under the headline: “ Welcome to Donald Trump’s America ”: “For over a ye...

    The Week in Review 'Corrupt as Hell': Demands for Clarence Thomas to Resign Follow New Details of Wife's Election Scheming "If Clarence Thomas had any shame, he would resign immediately," said one advocacy group. "But he doesn't." Read more → Behind Starbucks Union-Busting Stands CEO Who Got $940,000,000 Richer During Pandemic "His personal pandemic wealth gains of $940 million alone could pay for a $3,847 bonus for every Starbucks worker," notes a new report. Read more → Climate Scientists Urge More Civil Disobedience to Signal 'How Deep in the Sh*t We Are' New paper argues direct action "by scientists has the potential to cut through the myriad complexities... surrounding the climate crisis in a way that less visible and dispassionate evidence provision does not." Read more → GOP Repeatedly Opposed Infrastructure Upgrades. Now This Mississippi City Has No Safe Water "We didn't get to this total crisis point ...