Pasquale Chiesa, Battle Scene (Naples 1650) The Battle is a work well-known to specialists in 17th-century Neapolitan painting, largely because it was included in the original catalogue of the 1985 exhibition in Madrid on the subject.
Contributing editor, Harper's Magazine; Lecturer, Columbia Law School; Attorney
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Pasquale Chiesa, Battle Scene (Naples 1650) The Battle is a work well-known to specialists in 17th-century Neapolitan painting, largely because it was included in the original catalogue of the 1985 exhibition in Madrid on the subject.
Brian Goldstone: A Labor Day reminder: today there isn't a single city, county, or state in the U.S. where a full-time minimum-wage worker can afford a modest 2-bedroom apartment. Millions of people with jobs—even multiple jobs—aren't safe from homelessness in America.
Trump makes the cover of the new issue of Le Point, as a consensus builds across Europe that he was recruited by the Soviet intelligence services in the 80s and continues to be under the influence of their Russian successors.
Just a reminder: this 34-time convicted felon is also an adjudicated rapist
Welcome to Texas, where shooting an 11-year-old to death because he rang your doorbell is a thing. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press
States not recognizing Palestine: Trump and Netanyahu States recognizing Palestine: all the others
Warren Buffett, a legendary philanthropist, has made a monumental pledge of $6 billion to combat world hunger. His record donation underscores his long-standing belief in the power of wealth to address global challenges.
NYT runs a story, but it essentially buries it, as with all prior demonstrations.
The National Guard explains what they have been up to since Trump deployed them to DC to address the state of emergency arising from too much trash and insufficient late summer mulch in the parks.
Old Guard? He reflects the thinking of the current younger Democratic majority: Nadler ‘said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel was committing mass murder and war crimes in Gaza “without question.”’
Critics of Andrew Bailey, Trump's pick to help run the FBI, say the Missouri AG got the attention of the White House by following Trump’s tactic of targeting political opponents. “What better way to show loyalty than to do exactly what Trump wants,” one said.
Today in Israel, a convicted terrorist deploys police to crack down against protesters, as the Attorney General tells him it's illegal.
Genocide by prospectus. A plan circulating in the White House to develop the “Gaza Riviera” as a string of high-tech megacities has been dismissed as an “insane” attempt to provide cover for the large-scale ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territory’s population.
The Atlantic produces another masterpiece of vacuous Beltway bloviation on a subject which is actually quite serious... not to this writer, however.
President Trump said Monday that, while he has no intention of paying Rudy's legal bills, he’s awarding former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He announced the honor two days after his erstwhile attorney was badly injured in a traffic accident in New Hampshire.
Uday and Qusay have a favorite grift, and it always involves crypto. Here's why. The Trump family notched as much as $6 billion in paper wealth on Monday after its flagship crypto venture opened trading of a new digital currency. www.wsj.com/finance/curr...
National Review: "The courts have been unpersuaded that we live in a state of permanent national emergency that is global in scope and decades-long in duration, requiring swift executive action on the theory that Congress could never assemble in time to address the issue..."
On this day in 1939, J Robert Oppenheimer, along with his student Hartland Snyder, published “On Continued Gravitational Contraction” in Physical Review, Vol. 56, describing the theoretical collapse of massive stars into what we now call black holes—the earliest scientific treatment of the concept.
Leading world Holocaust scholars vote overwhelmingly a resolution concluding that the Israeli operations in Gaza constitute genocide as defined in the UN Convention on Genocide.
News from DeSantisstan: sidewalk and crosswalk wars still running hot
The Labor Day BBQ is minutes away...
Robert Mueller's formal diagnosis with Parkinson's came four years ago, and the symptoms had manifested themselves long before. Which explains how Bill Barr steamrollered him when he was completing his report. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
At the Shanghai summit of all of America's enemies, Putin proclaims that at the Anchorage summit, Trump agreed to resolve the Ukraine war on terms that he would dictate. Probably true. www.independent.co.uk/asia/china/s...
Another invasion. It's the safest city in America, so that pretext doesn't work. Instead the reason is that Boston's mayor has been sassy, apparently. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...
Ah-ha. NYT gets around to reporting something very obvious. And notice how long it took them to do it.
Kristi Noem pledges all-out war on American cities (but only the ones that voted against Trump) as a part of the retribution campaign. Around the world this is seen as clear evidence of how fascism has taken hold in America; in US media it merits hardly a mention.
Front page in London tabloids; unreported in US media: Ron DeSantis orders the arrest of two pastors who were praying on top of a Black Lives Matter mural, another chapter in the war on Christianity in DeSantisstan. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
This is brilliant trolling... set to "I'm a survivor." www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
The whole thing is so much bigger than I am, and I can't understand it, so I just trust myself to it; and forget about it. —Edwin Hubble, when asked about his beliefs
A horrific tragedy that American media unanimously concluded was not reportable news... presumably because of the skin color of those who perished.
Yesterday on Kremlin TV: Chief Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan proclaims "mission accomplished," discussing America's weakened economy and diminished stature in the world under Trump. He's "our guy," even if he's limping towards the grave right now. youtu.be/ezOyEED4j2g?...
Polling in Oklahoma two years ago revealed that few Oklahoma Republicans had any idea what their violent crime rates were, and were shocked to learn that they were far higher than the rates in California, Illinois and New York (but still lower than Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana)
Harry Enten: Voters have turned on Trump's tariffs like college football pundits turned on Arch Manning after Saturday. Opposition's up like a rocket from 48% in 2024 to 60% now. Voters have had a taste of tariffs & spit 'em out: saying prices will rise short-term (77%) & long-term (50%).
What a weird, weird piece. How does something as nutty as this get published, I wonder.
Carl Schmitt translator Adrian Vermeule celebrates America as a Catholic nation. And when he says "Catholic," that means something Pope Leo XIV would consider a heretical abomination, but Opus Dei would rejoice in.
In Greg Abbott's Texas, it's a criminal offense to express criticism of Israel's assault on Gaza and the West Bank, notwithstanding the fact that this reflects the perspective of a substantial majority of Americans. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
The Economist's look at deficit-populism à la Trump
On Labor Day, the traditional start of the campaign season, New York City's major labor unions issue a joint endorsement of Mamdani. Unsurprising.
Just a quick reminder of who JD Vance is... his entire life is defined by his encounter with Peter Thiel, who "made" him.
Proof of Life (or a very convincing, Kremlin-style double): this morning at the White House
It's time to observe the obvious: our major media have completely failed the test of basic competence in a time of crisis.
This is from the Origins of Totalitarianism, and it indeed perfectly fits the moment
More detail on the Russian attack on the plane carrying EU President Ursula von der Leyen earlier today. www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/ursu...
Earthquake in the east of Afghanistan www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
Trump’s interventions against the world’s most powerful central bank have led to fears that the Fed’s powers to set interest rates to keep inflation in check will be compromised. A poll of 94 economists foresaw disaster in a Trump-run Fed. www.ft.com/content/be70...
What looks just like a meeting of the DPRK Politburo? Trump's cabinet is a study in incompetence and sycophancy. And an all-time low for US democracy. Gideon Rachman has his say. www.ft.com/content/4052...
Russia tries to take down the plane of the EU president. A suspected Russian interference attack targeting Ursula von der Leyen disabled GPS navigation services at a Bulgarian airport and forced the European Commission president’s plane to land using paper maps. www.ft.com/content/3c33...
Paul Robeson sings Joe Hill for Labor Day. H/t Greg Mitchell. youtu.be/zLnwUYtpMKE?...
The Most Communist President Ever. Rs, before the Trump cult took hold, frequently railed (rightly so) against communist and fascist regimes that nationalized industry, indulged in crony capitalism, and substituted propaganda for free speech. (The five-year plan is working!) How times have changed.
Does Trump want to kill us all? No, only about a quarter of us. "It’s gonna be a health care election, but I think it’s gonna be wrapped into this whole issue of affordability. There’s a wicked brew here that is amassing against Republicans"—Brad Woodhouse of Protect Our Care.
Xi ascendant. The clear winner in the trade war with Trump lays how his agenda for a new global order, dominated by a Beijing-Moscow axis... With the United States as a modest, peripheral power. www.ft.com/content/ccf6...
Thank you, Trump. The Las Vegas hospitality industry has been smashed.
We Ran the CDC: RFKJr Is Endangering Every American. 9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American." It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced."
Both Xi and Putin are huge beneficiaries of Trump's actions.
Trump now routinely barks orders to the Opus Dei Court and they do whatever he commands of them.
Good discussion from Greg Sargent, especially on RFKJr and the dismantling of the US healthcare system. People at NIH and CDC fully appreciate what's going on right now. US media hasn't got a clue.
Erik Loomis: The labor movement has failed to step up to the moment in countering Trump, even as Trump unilaterally strips public sector workers of collective bargaining. Labor will die as a movement if this continues.
Matt Wuerker, Politico
Bill Goris
Clay Jones, Claytoonz
Michael de Adder, The Hill Times
Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News
Trump sought election with promises to lower energy and particularly electricity costs. But since becoming president, he has done every possible step to drive costs up: by blocking new electricity projects and imposing wildly unprecedented tariffs.
Best Twitter riposte of the day. As usual, JD Vance spouts facts that are completely false: he makes them up on the spur of the moment.
90% of all pediatric flu deaths in the US are unvaccinated
I'd love to know who penned this ignorant drool bucket published as an editorial.
Accurate reporting, weird framing. It's not "China using Trump turmoil," rather it's Trump's tariff wars that are bringing together the nations assembled at the Shanghai conference, and orienting them against the US—exactly as every serious macro economist predicted they would.
Spending this year through July has barely budged from last year’s end – worse than any year since 2008-09. We all know what was going on then. This year’s sideways #consumerspending isn’t consistent with a recession, but it is with an economy on the brink of one.
Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), The Musicians (Rome 1597) While Cupid’s presence confirms this is an allegory representing Music, Caravaggio’s painting equally engages with contemporary performance and individualized models, including a self-portrait in the second boy from the right.
The invasion flotilla for Venezuela moves into place. This will make that Nobel Peace Prize a snap!
AJC today: The war at CDC features the entire staff on one side, RFKJr on the other
Ooops
About 4,500 years ago physical adaptations occurred in horses that transformed them from wild untamed creatures into rideable animals, unlocking immense possibilities for societal and cultural change among homo sapiens. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Former Sen Krysten Sinema has found a new grift, pushing psychedelic mushrooms along with Rick Perry. They see a bright future for psychedelics under Trump, who will drive thousands to use them. The most unintentionally comic piece I've seen in weeks.
The antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate, a natural compound found in green tea forms a powerful brain cleaner when combined with a common vitamin, researchers have found, potentially putting the brakes on the buildup of waste associated with diseases such as Alzheimer's.
"Captive Dreamer" appears not to know where Alexander Hamilton came from (he was born on Nevis and raised on St Croix, both in the West Indies, and came to New York on a scholarship to study at Columbia University, where he was immediately involved in student protests).
How can you tell when a fascist dictatorship has arrived in Washington, DC, asks the conservative FAZ? When uniformed soldiers and armored vehicles patrol the streets of Washington. www.faz.net/aktuell/poli...
A good summary of the Kremlin's propaganda strands targeting US Republicans, most of which you can hear any day from the podcasters caught taking Kremlin money, as well as a slew of Republican politicians who very likely do the same.
El País reflects on the conflict between Trump and Sheinbaum, concluding that this has enabled the Mexican president to command unprecedented levels of support as she consolidates the country behind her. Better informed, and 180º different from the idiotic similarly themed story this week in NYT.
Excellent discussion of the musical and theological core of the cantata for Trinitatis XI, Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut, unfortunately only in Swiss German. youtu.be/y-MLhfV19fQ?...
This war crime has been brought to you by the Boston Consulting Group in conjunction with the Trump Organization
It's curious how Rupert Murdoch and son's repeated secretive meetings with JD Vance, like this one in Montana, get huge coverage in London tabloids, but aren't reported or talked about at all in US media. Why is that? www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Nicole Xu's cyborg jellyfish may well be a sign of what's going down in the depths of our oceans. www.haaretz.com/science-and-...
Another federal judge learns that Pam Bondi's assurances of compliance with court orders mean nothing whatsoever.
Ben Samuels: The Netanyahu-Trump Gaza Make-Over Plan. An outlandish series of grotesque war crimes. And completely infeasible to boot. It requires not implementation, but prosecution. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
300,000 Israelis on the streets of Tel Aviv tonight calling for an end to Netanyahu's forever war and the release of the hostages.
Trump's claim of the power of impoundment is essentially an effort to strip away the budget powers from Congress. it thus fundamentally upends the Constitution's separation of powers. thedispatch.com/article/trum...
Stephen King: Trump is such an embarrassment that in thirty years time, his supporters today will fervently deny that they ever voted for him. www.the-independent.com/arts-enterta...
War crime in progress.
Canadians continue to target Red States with special zeal.
On Kremlin TV tonight: Prilepin explains that a ceasefire will be solely for purposes of rearming for the final assault which will lead to the Russian occupation of the rest of Ukraine. The Trump "peacekeeping" initiative is designed purely to placate the American public not yet reconciled to Russia