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The Origins of Zionism

In the first of a series of programs on Zionism, Professor Barry Trachtenberg discusses the origins and early development of Zionism. Trachtenberg holds the Rubin Presidential Chair in Jewish History […]

The post The Origins of Zionism appeared first on KKFI.




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Freeze Frame: “Heretic” (R), “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” (PG), “Absolution” (R), “Small Things Like These” (PG-13)

Hugh Grant goes against type and scores as a psycho philosopher in the slow burn horror entry “Heretic.” Grant lures a pair of Mormon missionaries into an elaborate trap in his […]

The post Freeze Frame: “Heretic” (R), “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” (PG), “Absolution” (R), “Small Things Like These” (PG-13) appeared first on KKFI.




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Why it's not just your brain that makes you smart

Science journalist Annie Murphy Paul, author of The Extended Mind, wants to dispel us of our brain fixation. Meanwhile assistant professor Julia Kam, who runs Internal Attention Lab at the University of Calgary, emphasizes how important it is to let the mind wander.




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Beyond consumerism

J.B. MacKinnon has travelled the world to try and discover what might be inconceivable to many – what if, one day, the world stops shopping? Thad Russell’s parents built an off grid home, but their plan to live a more modest life wasn’t as nearly simple as they hoped.




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The Art of Rest & Smuggling Jewish religious items into the Soviet Union

Pairing science with psychology, Claudia Hammond wrote the book on rest - and why we need more of it. The previously untold story of Canadian hockey executive Sherry Bassin is recounted in a documentary by NPR's Gary Waleik.




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Writer Julian Barnes asks what the world would look like if paganism had won

Julian Barnes’ latest novel, Elizabeth Finch, asks the question, what if civilization took a wrong turn in the 4th Century, by choosing Christianity over Hellenistic and Roman paganism?




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Ali Smith on the circular movement of time in nature, life and art

Eleanor Wachtel spoke with the Scottish author about her novels, Autumn and Winter, in 2018.



  • Radio/Writers & Company

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Danielle Smith and disinformation; scented candle reviews as COVID indicator; a surgeon in Tigray and more

What Danielle Smith posted on her subscribers-only social media; how litter boxes in schools became a Republican talking point; Yankee scented candle reviews as COVID indicator; a surgeon struggles to care for patients through Ethiopia's civil war; Brent Bambury returns and more.



  • Radio/Day 6

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The risk of arming Ukraine, board game cafes in Iran, iconoclasm, Bayonetta 3, the Proud Boys and more

How a multi-Billion dollar campaign to arm Ukraine might fuel the illicit arms trade; How Iran's board game cafes allowed young people to imagine a different future; Bayonetta 3 is out this week — should you play it?; a brief history of targeting art for political protest; author Andy Campbell says the era of political violence the Proud Boys helped usher in is here to stay; and more.



  • Radio/Day 6

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ChatGPT, Indigenous-led conservation, Ye and the mainstreaming of antisemitism, our holiday book guide & more

Meet ChatGPT, the free AI chatbot that's blowing people's minds; Indigenous-led conservation efforts take centre-stage at COP 15; Marsha Lederman on Ye and the mainstreaming of antisemitism; how climate activists are capitalizing on the collapse of FTX to reign in crypto's carbon emissions; Becky Toyne's holiday guide to gifting books; and more.



  • Radio/Day 6

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Jailed Turkish journalist wrote prison memoir smuggled out on bits of paper

Celebrated Turkish writer Ahmet Altan was freed on April 14, 2021, after international pressure helped secure his release. He’d spent four years and seven months in prison. This episode by IDEAS producer Mary Lynk won an Amnesty International Canada Media Award for outstanding human rights reporting.




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The Underachievers - Indigoism

Breaking out of the new New York, a young rap pair of palpable promise.




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UK manufacturing poised for post-Budget rebound, says RSM UK

Commenting on the latest CIPS UK Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index which has decreased to 49.9 from 51.5, Mike Thornton, national head of manufacturing at RSM UK, said: “The manufacturing PMI dipped in October, falling below 50 for the first time in six months.




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AI on the frontline: How can retailers outsmart fraudsters in real time?

By Aviram Ganor, General Manager EMEA, Riskified.

Retailers have plenty to keep them awake at night, whether it’s enticing consumers to shop,  utdoing their competition or – most worrying of all – how to ensure their long-term survival in a rocky economy.




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Made Smarter powers SME manufacturers to invest £25m in technology

Made Smarter, the movement accelerating the digital transformation of SME manufacturers, recently reached a major milestone - backing North West companies to invest £25m in new technologies.




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Leveraging robots for smarter internal logistics ~ The role of precise, adjustable motors in optimising warehouse processes

“We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails,” Dolly Parton once said. In the face of uncertainty and disruption, all we can do is adapt. This rings especially true for the logistics industry, which has been subject to major disruption over the last five years. Here, Dave Walsha, sales and marketing director at drive system supplier EMS, explores how robotics could streamline internal logistics operations.




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Leaping over waves, vaulting to glory: Athleticism is on display in photos from the 2024 Paris Olympics opening weekend




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Systemic Racism in the Home Mortgage Context: We Don't Have Time to Notice


In 2020, pivotal events ushered in a season of antiracism rhetoric in the U.S. The brutal deaths of unarmed black Americans at the hands of police officers and white vigilantes, and the disproportionately harsh impact of COVID-19 in the black American community, launched the nation into a discussion about systemic racism. Unfortunately, it seems likely that the 2020 antiracism discourse was merely seasonal rather than enduring, and unlikely to result in meaningful change. 


Black American’s vulnerability in the face of systemic racism is not limited to death, sickness and injury as a result of COVID-19 or antiblack bias in police departments. Our vulnerability is precipitated by things like lack of access to nonpredatory financial services. This is just one of the contexts that compromise black Americans’ economic survival. Unacknowledged systemic racism destroys the wealth and wellbeing of black individuals, families and communities, sometimes causing working and middle-class black Americans to plummet into poverty. As 2020 comes to a close, an election that threatened democracy in the U.S. and the existential threats of an uncontrolled pandemic, eclipse a system of intentional antiblack racism on the part of the financial institutions that engaged in predatory mortgage lending in the years leading up to and beyond the 2008 recession. It is now well documented that lenders, brokers, and mortgage servicers engaged in conduct that was fraudulent and misleading. The mortgage market charged excessively high rates and fees, engaged in high-pressure sales tactics, imposed unnecessarily harsh prepayment penalties, and distorted loan structures to avoid the application of consumer protection statutes.  But, more than a decade later, many black Americans are still fighting to prevent financial institutions from taking away their homes. 


In a book I coauthored with Dr. Janis Sarra, a law professor at the University of British Columbia, Predatory Lending and the Destruction of the African American Dream (Cambridge University Press, 2020), we describe new iterations of predation that continue to target black consumers years after financial institutions settled litigation that alleged pervasive fraud on their part for steering black Americans into predatory subprime loans. But these renovated predatory practices are obscured by the nation’s focus on COVID-19 and a vitriolic election season. Meanwhile, more black Americans will lose their homes even after investing all or most of their wealth in attempts to keep them. This reality requires the calls for moratoriums on mortgage foreclosures to be answered in the affirmative.





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Fascism Rising & the Burning of the Reichstag: February 27, 1933


 

Fascism means an extreme concentration of power in one person who thereby rises above the law. Such irrational power concentration always arises from lies, delusions and hatred--such as racism. It always leads to violence, bloodshed and war. From its origins in Italy after World War I through today as manifest in Donald Trump, and his comrades in arms, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping, it always fails and leads to destruction and mass death. Human rights violations and oppression universally accompany fascism. Even a cursory review of history reveals that fascism entails pain, misery, and mass murder. Yet, fascism rises across the world and even in America. Tuesday, November 5, 2024, will determine whether fascism will march forward in the world or fail to overcome the freedom, prosperity and determination of the West. I will chronicle this contest here.

Along the way we will explore the history of fascism and its manifold failures. Fittingly,    today coincides with the 91st anniversary of the Burning of the Reichstag. This event launched Adolph Hitler toward totalitarian dictator. The next day the German President Paul von Hindenburg suspended civil liberties. Opposition to Nazis effectively became a crime. Today, controversy surrounds the Burning of the Reichstag. The new consensus in Berlin holds that the Nazis did it. In any event, it became a Big Lie that supported the onset of fascism in Germany. Things did not end well for the German people nor the wider world--over 8 million Germans perished.

Donald Trump already called for the suspension of the Constitution so that he may seize power. He promises to be a "dictator" on day one of his new administration. He claims power to override the Constitution via executive order--the first President to ever make such an outlandish claim. Trump will never concede defeat and acquiesce in the peaceful transition of power as he proved on January 6, 2020 when he led an insurrection rather than concede defeat. 

Trump proved he will never consent to the peaceful transition of power. Which is why his admission that he seeks to exercise dictatorial power on day one of his new administration should he win the election must be taken seriously:

It is hard to imagine a more clear and present danger to our Constitutional Republic than Trump's own admission that he seeks dictatorial power.

 




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The Supreme Court, Jack Smith, and the Death of the Rule of Law II

  

Today, the United States Supreme Court obliterated the Fourteenth Amendment, section 3, in Trump v. Anderson. The language of this section appears simple enough:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

The Court held that: "the Constitution makes Congress, rather than the States, responsible for enforcing Section 3." More specifically, the Court held that only Congress may enforce the disqualification of section 3 and that states could only enforce the provision against state candidates for office and state officeholders. Otherwise the nation would face a risk of a patchwork of state outcomes. This, despite the fact that in 1868, shortly after the provision became law, the Governor of the State of Georgia disqualified a federal candidate for office. (See fn 3).

Further, if "only" Congress holds power to enforce section 3 then why did the drafters of the Amendment just insert an "only" in the section granting Congress power. The Court needs that "only" and it simply does not exist. Rather than apply the plain meaning the Court instead pretends there is an only when there is no such word. Section 5 plainly states: "The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article." The Court did violence to the statute to protect Donald Trump.

Former Fourth Circuit Judge J. Michael Luttig, a prominent conservative jurist explains:


The Supreme Court did leave one last avenue for accountability under law that the Biden Administration or DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith could use to disqualify Trump. 18 U.S.C. section 2383 provides:

Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

The Court cited this section with approval. It would provide a uniform federal solution. And, it arises from an exercise of Congressional power. Even this Court (which works overtime to protect Trump) would uphold such an action. 

Why did Jack Smith (or Attorney General Merrick Garland before him) fail to use this section against the obvious insurrectionist Donald Trump? Or, alternatively, why not bring such an action tomorrow morning? Colorado would provide a form indictment and a trial map, complete with comprehensive evidence?

So, the Court today shifted the spotlight to DOJ with today's SCOTUS ruling. Agreement or disagreement with the Court's opinion no longer matters. Many excellent arguments support the use of section 3 in precisely the manner of Colorado. All moot.

Why did DOJ fail (and continue to fail) to seek disqualification through a criminal action a criminal action? 

The most disturbing and vivid reality of all of this: law failed to hold Trump to account as an oath breaking insurrectionist despite many available pathways.

 

 




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'A Carol For Two,' 'Holiday Mismatch' and more: How to watch the new Hallmark holiday movies coming out this weekend




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Loadsman prepares for big weekend on The Voice

Former Elizabeth Macarthur High School student Andrew Loadsman has progressed to the final eight as a contestant on The Voice, and will fight for a place in the top four on Sunday night.




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Small steps, giant leap to manhood

A GROUP of teens braved the dark and cold on Friday for a 24-hour challenge as part of Panthers on the Prowl’s pilot program, Building Young Men.




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Two tiny turtles recover from storm smashing

The two turtles were rescued by locals and are now being cared for before being released. Long neck turtle Cara Mi-shell and terrapin Squirt were both discovered on beaches.




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Young batsman’s climb up the ladder

At just 16, Thomas has made cricketing history.




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Journalism's fight for survival in a postliterate democracy

On Friday night, after I appeared on Alex Wagner’s MSNBC show to talk about my essay “Lessons on media policy at the slaughter-bench of history,” the number of subscribers to this newsletter exploded and nearly doubled overnight. via Pocket




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Authoritarians like Trump love fear, defeatism, surrender. Do not give them what they want




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John Geleynse on LinkedIn: Senior Director, Evangelism - Careers at Apple | 107 comments

from Daring Fireball John Geleynse, Apple’s longtime head of developer evangelism, on LinkedIn: Doing anything for 25 years is a pretty big deal. Being a part of Apple for 25 years has been the privilege and experience of a lifetime. My last day at Apple was exactly a week ago today. I’d always dreamed of being a part of Apple but never imagined it would be a reality. The most productive and exciting years of my career have been with Apple, and I’ll be forever grateful for the opportunity to meet and work with thousands of creative and passionate developers, designers, and students worldwide. [...] There are no words to describe how grateful I am for the opportunity to work side-by-side with so many great people at Apple. Apple is an immensely special place — far greater than the sum of its parts. Together, we did a lot. I heard about Geleynse’s retirement through the grapevine a month or two ago. I was hoping he’d post something like this publicly, so I could link to it. It’s a lovely departing message. Turns out, in all the years I’ve been writing here, I’ve only mentioned Geleynse by name twice, and both times I was quoting what someone else had written. And those two posts were from 2007 and 2008 — a while ago, to say the least. That’s a shame, dare I say negligent on my part. In third-party developer circles, everyone knows John Geleynse. Most prominently, his role as co-host (with Shaan Pruden) and I think effectively co-chief of the Apple Design Awards. But the ADAs are a once-per-year award show. Year-round, year after year, platform after platform, Geleynse has been shaping, guiding, and defining what it means to be a third-party developer for Apple platforms. The point of winning an ADA isn’t to win an ADA; it’s to reward making a great app that moves the state of the art forward. That’s what Geleynse spent his career trying to do. He’s just incredibly well-liked and well-respected. But, like a typical “bleed six colors” Apple employee, I think Geleynse going all these years operating mostly behind the scenes, with his own name out of the story, taking no personal credit, is just the way he wanted it. He’s going to be missed, dearly — both inside Apple, and out.  ★ 




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GitHub - bhavnicksm/chonkie: ???? CHONK your texts with Chonkie ✨ - The no-nonsense RAG chunking library




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tasmania australia boots - Google Search




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Los vecinos del Besòs apremian a combatir el barraquismo: "Episodios como la DANA pueden ser una catástrofe" | El Periódico

La Coordinadora Vecinal del Baix Besòs ha emitido un comunicado para apremiar a las administraciones públicas a aportar una solución definitiva al barraquismo con presencia en los márgenes del río Besòs desde hace años. via Pocket




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Spin 3.0 – open-source tooling for building and running WASM apps | Hacker News




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Same Last Name Next of Kin Scam - Larry Smith Expecting your reply

Mr Larry Smith's rely to our questions.




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Banking Phishing Scam - Chase Alert(SM): Notice for your Account

A fake Chase e-mail that has PHISHING written all over it.




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Standalone Android-smartwatch op Kickstarter

De meeste smartwatches die tot nu toe gelanceerd zijn waren vooral een accessoire voor je smartphone. Ze werkten via bluetooth als tweede scherm. De TrueSmart van Omate is echter een standalone smartwatch die als volwaardig apparaat gebruikt kan worden en nog waterdicht is ook.




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Seniors, underclassmen battle to a draw at Coors Field in Rockies All-Star/Futures game

For an all-star game, there were tight groups comprised of players both familiar and new to each other.




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Opinion: In small-town Kansas, my uncles returned from war to the kind of support all veterans deserve

My uncles are all gone now. But there are many veterans here with us now, from many fields of battle, suffering the consequences and they don't have the support they need or haven't been connected to that help.





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Flicks of the Week: Will Smith TKOs Another Role



Yes!



  • BET Star Cinema

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Weekend Movie Marathon: Martin and Will Smith Reunite



Two of the world's funniest men reconnect.



  • BET Star Cinema

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#WillSmithSoGreat: The Actor's Impact on Hollywood



"I-Robot" premieres on BET on Saturday, February 6 at 7P/6C.



  • BET Star Cinema


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Black Students In Duluth Assaulted By White Classmates



Their parents have filed a lawsuit.




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Center Stage: Jussie Smollett's Top Musical Feats



Check out #MCM Jussie Smollett do his thing.




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Reggie Bush Will Not Be Given Back Heisman Trophy Despite New NIL Rules

He received improper benefits while in school.




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Ice Me Out! Odell Beckham Jr. $1.8M Smile Is Full Of 13 Carat Diamonds

He also has a diamond-encrusted cross on one tooth!




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Ex-NBA Star J.R. Smith Going Back To School; Hopes To Join North Carolina A&T’s Golf Team

He says Ray Allen talked to him about enrolling




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Racism Sparks Fight At Massachusetts High School Football Game, Coaches Say

The game had to be ended early.




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Andre Rison Defends Raiders Coach Jon Gruden Amid Racism Scandal

“We've all made mistakes."




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Regiment To Hold Assessment Night On June 27

“An assessment night will be held tomorrow [June 27], from 6.30pm to 8.30pm, when candidates can sign up for the next recruit camp, which is planned for July 7 to 19,” the Royal Bermuda Regiment said. A spokesperson said, “Residents are encouraged to attend Warwick Camp this week as the Royal Bermuda Regiment aims to […]