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Barney-Smith wants to 'mix it with the best'
British and Commonwealth super-featherweight champion Royston Barney-Smith has ambitions to "mix it with the best" at 130lbs.
If Not AOC, Then Who?
What do we do if Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decides not to run for president in 2028? It makes sense that many leftists are currently focused on calling on her to take the plunge. But the absence of a Plan B, or even much discussion about one, is worrisome. The US Left can’t afford to sit out the 2028 Democratic primary. Doing so in 2024 was a disaster: our abstention self-marginalized anti-billionaire politics from the national conversation and thereby gave space for Harris to pivot to the “center” (i.e. the policy preferences of corporate donors, establishment hacks, and AIPAC). Abstaining again in 2028 would be especially counterproductive since democratic socialists now have so much wind in our sails after our big electoral wins in NYC and across the country. It’s time to deepen our momentum, organization, and profile — not to retreat to the margins during America’s single most important political battle. Even more urgently, keeping Trump’s heir out of the White House may depend on whether leftists and the party’s unprecedentedly disenchanted base can force the Democrats in 2028 to take meaningful steps towards a very angry electorate and away from the corporate-consultant blob that has helped get us into this mess. If AOC (or Abdul El-Sayed) decides to run, we should enthusiastically go all in — DSA, fighting unions, progressive organizations, anybody who wants to see a better country and world. But, as far as I can tell from the outside, there’s a real chance that she doesn’t run. And we can’t just wait and see where she lands before discussing alternatives, since AOC’s decision might not come for quite a while, giving us little time to scramble at the last minute for an alternative. So we should start working now on getting a Plan B into motion, and recruiting a good candidate for the role. Here’s one idea. A Worker Candidate — Healthcare Not Warfare 2028 Run a union worker Leftists don’t need to always run experienced, well-known socialist politicians for high-profile contests. Lula, the current president of Brazil, began his political career as a metalworker militant who ran for governor of São Paulo in 1982. Especially in an era of institutional distrust, it’s possible to lean hard into making a virtue out of a working-class comrade’s distance from traditional politics. Experience abroad shows this clearly. Rachel Kéké — an immigrant hotel housekeeper — ran as the candidate of the leftist La France Insoumise for the National Assembly in 2022, defeating a former minister in the Macron government. The Belgian Workers’ Party in 2024 won its first Flemish seat in the European Parliament by running Rudi Kennes, a three-decade veteran of the Opel Antwerp auto factory. And the South Korean left in 2024 elected auto factory militant Yoon Jong-oh to the National Assembly. If a tiny French Trotskyist organization could make such a big splash in 2002 and 2007 by running a well-spoken postal worker cadre for office — the LCR’s Olivier Besancenot received about 1.5 million first-round votes — it’s not far-fetched to expect that a much larger organization like DSA, together with a broader coalition of the willing, could run this playbook to much greater effect. This is especially the case now that almost everything DSA does immediately becomes a national news story. We don’t need someone famous. We just need a charismatic, well-vetted comrade who works in a relatable working-class occupation — e.g. a nurse, or a worker in auto or construction, or at Amazon. Ideally, they have a compelling personal story or have been part of a significant strike or organizing campaign, but even those criteria don’t necessarily have to be deal-breakers. The main lesson of the Graham Platner fiasco isn’t that we should never run outsiders for office (the momentum he generated proves the exact opposite), but that they need proper vetting and roots in democratic membership organizations like DSA or a union. In any case, there are plenty of ways to signal working-class authenticity without resorting to Platner’s or Fetterman’s performative macho white dude affect. Better to have someone of any gender or race who is actually working class, with firm socialist politics, who can speak from experience about the day-to-day realities of trying to make it in America. There are surely at least a dozen such worker leaders in our movement nationwide; we just need to sit down and convince one that their personal sacrifice for the greater good (i.e. running for president) will be worth it. If we don’t have a frontrunner with a clear path to victory like AOC (or El-Sayed, were he to win Michigan), it’s better to embrace someone whose decision to run in itself tells an important story about US politics: workers have been iced out of our political system and are now fighting hard to break back in. The novelty factor, in itself, would generate press. And it would help democratic socialists signal to the American public that our movement’s defining characteristic is that we represent workers vs. bosses, not that we’re “the furthest left” force in American politics — a framework that suggests we’re extremists and that helps our opponents isolate us from non-college-educated voters by highlighting extremely minoritarian (and misguided) stances included in DSA’s platform like prison abolition. We don’t get many opportunities to speak to tens of millions of Americans; we need to use these opportunities to broaden our appeal beyond those already in our orbit. Run to polarize the 2028 primary and general election around “Medicare for All” and “End All Aid to Israel” Why should democratic socialists use our scarce time and volunteer energy to run in a race we’re unlikely to win? Running in the 2028 primary will not only recruit us scores of members (imagine having a DSA member intervening in eleven nationally televised primary debates!), but — more importantly — it has the potential to be a decisive leap forward towards an America that finally starts meeting the needs of working people instead of HMO and AIPAC billionaire donors. Polarizing litmus tests are good, actually — as long as they’re fought for around popular demands in a thoughtful and strategic way. Democratic socialists have an opportunity and responsibility to make the 2028 primary about two of the most widely and deeply felt issues of our moment: domestically, America’s unaffordable, family-breaking private healthcare system; internationally, America’s bankrolling of the genocidal Israeli government. A candidacy relentlessly demanding Medicare for All and No Aid to Israel would pose a sharp question to the American public, the Democratic Party, and other 2028 contenders: Why can’t working-class Americans afford their healthcare bills at the same time that our government is spending at least $3.8 billion yearly to fund an Israeli regime eager to keep dragging us and the world into more forever wars? Our candidate can agitate around a clear message: I’m running to give voice to all those working-class Americans who are struggling to get by. No matter what state you live in, who you voted for in 2024, or your background, it’s just plain common sense that we should make healthcare more affordable instead of spending billions to enable the Israeli government’s crimes against humanity. Every American who agrees with me when I say ‘Medicare for All — Not a Dime for Israel’ should make their voice heard through our campaign. Racking up a high number of votes for this agenda is a crucial way to show the Democratic Party and the country as a whole that we can’t keep supporting a life-destroying status quo in our healthcare system and in the Middle East. If we want to defeat Trump’s handpicked crony this coming November, we need to speak to ordinary people’s frustrations with the status quo — we can’t keep running the same tired establishment playbook and expecting a different result. For those highly engaged voters (or skeptical media pundits) who raise concerns about wasting votes, the candidate can take the time to explain why this isn’t the case: It's true I'm a long shot. But Zohran showed anything can happen — and voting for me is a pragmatic decision, not a wasted vote. In a heavily divided primary with a large number of candidates and a very discredited establishment, my campaign and the democratic socialist movement I’m part of are positioned to be the balance of power if we can get a large enough number of voters to loudly demand Healthcare Not Warfare. Since there’s a high chance no candidate will get to 50% in the 2028 primaries, the Democrats could very well be heading towards a brokered convention, where a disciplined, principled current committed to breaking from corporate donors can play an outsized role in making sure whoever ends up with the nomination raises the banner of single-payer healthcare and cutting aid to Israel. How exactly could running this sort of primary campaign be translated into actual leverage? The candidate replies: I’m aiming to win the nomination, but if I don’t achieve that goal, my delegates and I will pledge our support in the primary only for a candidate who agrees in the general election to call for ending US aid to Israel and establishing Medicare for All at home. These are both winning planks for November against the Republicans, and the only reason I can see that other candidates haven’t yet raised these is that they’re still more scared of the donor class than they are of the people. That needs to change. If Democratic leaders want young people, workers, and those sick of the status quo to show up in big numbers this November, they need to meet us halfway. In this way, whether or not we win the nomination, democratic socialists could still play a decisive role in 2028. The approach outlined here is similar to what radical left parties periodically do in parliamentary democracies like Denmark or Sweden when they find themselves as a junior partner electorally: they dictate to center-left allies what their terms would be for enabling, from the outside, the formation of a new government. Running a Healthcare Not Warfare candidate will make it significantly more likely that the 2028 Democratic candidate stands with ordinary people instead of donors on these two pivotal planks — a shift that will, in turn, make it easier to achieve the existentially important task of defeating MAGA’s heir in November. Look at how much popular traction the Uncommitted movement got with a similar strategy in 2024 with so little on-the-ground organization — surely we can go much further with a working-class candidate, a much bigger DSA, and a Democratic Party base that has turned against Israel, billionaires, and the hacks in the party who prop them up. Objections and Responses There are quite a few objections to this proposal, many of which are very reasonable. Let me briefly address each here. Socialists shouldn’t waste their scarce time and resources on a candidate unlikely to win. This is a good rule in general, but there are important exceptions, and presidential elections are the main one. There’s no other political contest that gets anything like this level of attention and engagement in the US, so if you want to be a serious force in nationwide politics, you basically can’t afford not to have a candidate. Far from being an overall drain on our resources, running a dynamic 2028 campaign would likely result in a major net increase in members and capacity. In that spirit, the very pragmatic Milwaukee sewer socialists — who mostly ran to win at home in Wisconsin — supported Eugene Debs’s propagandistic presidential campaigns, which they correctly saw as a crucial means of recruiting to the Socialist Party. And now that the (post-1972) Democratic Party gives more weight to voters than party operatives in determining its presidential nomination, it’s become feasible to run as a socialist in primaries without risking a split in the vote against the Republicans in November. We should just support Ro Khanna, who also supports M4A and ending aid to Israel. I like Ro Khanna and would enthusiastically vote and canvass for him for president were he to get the nomination. But there’s a real chance that Khanna’s bid for office doesn’t catch on; he lacks the grassroots organizational apparatus of DSA, and, because he’s not really of the Left or labor (despite his current very good positions), he’s unlikely to generate the type of buy-in and enthusiasm that a DSA candidate would. Moreover, Khanna would be running as an individual, not as someone emerging from and building an organized movement — his campaign would not likely focus on building sustained power from below, nor would it likely polarize the 2028 primary around M4A and Israel aid. Also, and not inconsequentially, the poor electoral results for Tom Steyer and Saikat Chakrabarti this spring suggest that there’s perhaps not much of a popular appetite in the Democrats’ base to support multi-millionaire class traitors. Much better, then, to run a democratic socialist worker. If by Super Tuesday it’s clear that our campaign has captured the main left lane in the primary, Khanna should drop out and endorse us; conversely, if he’s managed to capture this lane, DSA could at that point transform its Healthcare Not Warfare campaign into an independent campaign to elect Ro Khanna focused on winning (and holding him accountable to) those two critical planks. An openness to consolidating an anti-corporate candidate by Super Tuesday is a necessary component of the strategy I’m proposing, because otherwise we risk splitting the primary votes (per DNC rules, you need at least 15% to get any delegates to convention). We should convince Shawn Fain or Sara Nelson to run for president instead. I agree it’d be great if either ran for president, but my impression is that there’s basically no chance that will happen in 2028, because both are firmly focused on their union leadership duties (and, in the case of Fain, beating back a federal witch-hunt). This plan could have DSA end up endorsing a non-socialist, non-DSAer for president. That’s against our principles. It’s a myth, and bad politics, that socialists can’t ever support candidates who aren’t members of their organization and/or who don’t call themselves socialists. Bernie, after all, was not a DSAer. And socialists abroad regularly make tactical decisions about if and when supporting a non-socialist candidate makes sense from the standpoint of promoting working-class interests, defending democracy, and building a socialist current in the process. If your “principles” prevent you and DSA from helping achieve the momentous stride forward of having a Democratic candidate in 2028 run on Medicare for All and ending aid to Israel, those “principles” are not very good. In fact, they actively undermine the causes they’re aiming to support. We shouldn’t confuse principles (working-class independence) with tactics (the best way to advance this in a given context). In my recent article in Catalyst on Milwaukee sewer socialism (I’ve uploaded the full text here), I have a section showing how similarly rigid rules about endorsements had to be eventually discarded in the old Socialist Party nationwide after WWI because they tended to lead socialists towards a sectarian abstention from broader anti-corporate electoral insurgencies beyond their party’s control. For what it’s worth, Lenin’s current under Tsarism frequently backed bourgeois candidates in the second round of elections and Lenin himself advocated that British Communists support Labour Party candidates; for his part, Kautsky in 1912 defended the German Social Democracy’s electoral pact with the Progressives in the runoffs. If our predecessors could be that tactically flexible in an era before the limits of their underlying strategic assumptions about intransigent class politics in capitalist democracies were made clear, then there’s no need to insist on being more tactically rigid today, after a century’s worth of accumulated experience. As long as you maintain your own political profile and organization while engaging in broader coalitional efforts, there’s zero inherent contradiction with the principle of political independence. More specifically: DSA and allied organizations should enthusiastically back Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed if AOC declines to run and he throws his hat in the presidential ring. (I have no idea whether he’s even considering this path, but there’ll surely be chatter about it if he wins his Senate race this November.) Though he doesn’t call himself a socialist, El-Sayed is a principled Berniecrat, a consistent fighter for Palestine, and would have a clear path to victory. Using the “s” word is far less important than whether a campaign fights for the interests of working people at home and abroad — and whether actively participating in it can grow the organized working class and the Left. And the same holds true if a less anti-corporate candidate were, under pressure, to adopt our two Healthcare Not Warfare planks. Why focus only on M4A and ending US aid to Israel? There are so many other important issues to fight for! Obviously there are many pivotal issues beyond healthcare and Israel, and our candidate — and especially our organizations involved in the campaign — should be prepared to speak on all of these. But one of the crucial lessons of the Zohran campaign is that you have to relentlessly stay on message if you want to cut through the noise. CNN and Fox News will want to talk about DSA’s views on Venezuela and abolishing the police; we need to polarize the debate on the widely and deeply felt issues that are most favorable for growing the Left, isolating our opponents, and winning urgently needed changes. One recent poll found 63% of Americans support M4A, even after respondents were told it would raise taxes and eliminate most private insurance. Another found that 74% of Democrats opposed “providing additional economic and military support to Israel.” And focusing on two demands sets the campaign up to be able to leverage its mandate to make clear demands upon other candidates (which we can’t do if we run with a laundry list of demands). Talking about a Plan B is a distraction from the more urgent work of building a groundswell of calls on AOC to run. It’s good for DSAers, fightback unionists, and progressive organizations to try to convince AOC to run. This proposal is meant as an addendum to pushes to get AOC to run and to line DSA up for that eventuality, not as a substitute for those efforts. But I’m worried that, like in 2024, we might eventually find ourselves with no time to find a viable alternative unless we start now. DSA, with its abundant deliberative processes, moves slowly. The approach you’re suggesting seems risky. If a DSA candidate runs but doesn’t receive a lot of votes, it’ll undercut our current national momentum. This is a reasonable worry. All big initiatives always carry risks, and the path I’m advocating is certainly not free of these. That said, if a Healthcare Not Warfare campaign doesn’t catch on like we envisioned, it’s a pretty simple pivot in March 2028 to explain that in the future we really need our standard-bearers like AOC, or our growing bench of national electeds, to step up in presidential primaries. Moreover, it’s worth noting that the risk of my Plan B proposal is on the whole significantly less than the risk entailed by an AOC run. We should all back her if she runs, since she’d fire up the base, provide huge openings for organizing, have a real shot at defeating a Republican (especially given MAGA’s unpopularity), be a great standard-bearer for our issues, particularly M4A and ending aid to Israel, and be less willing than mainstream candidates to capitulate to any anti-democratic machinations from Trump and co. But it’s also true that AOC could lose, which would be a devastating setback to the country and the Left. Or she could win and find herself unable to pass much, if any, of her (and our) program, a demoralizing prospect. So if we’re willing to take these risks with AOC (and we should), it follows that we should be able to take lower-level risks if she doesn’t throw her hat in the ring. What’s Your Plan B? The US Left is facing its biggest opening for growth and influence since the 1930s. Initiatives that would have been impossible a few months ago are now potentially feasible. A President AOC is now easier to imagine, but if she ultimately assesses that the risks aren’t worth the potential reward in 2028, we can’t be left flat-footed. So even if you’re not convinced by the specifics of my Plan B, I hope you can at least agree that it’d be a disaster for us not to have one — and not to start getting a Plan B into motion. Hopefully other organizers and political currents will put forward their responses and alternative ideas ASAP. The stakes are too high to just wait and see. More As always, please share this article widely. This newsletter depends on all you lovely people to get the word out. Thank you! I uploaded the full text of my Catalyst article on Milwaukee sewer socialism here (it’s updated and 3x as long as the version published earlier on this substack). If you haven’t yet, please make sure to subscribe to Catalyst here; I read every issue front to back, highly recommend. 🌹🎵 Ivan Lins (arranged by Arthur Verocai) — “General da Banda” 🌹🎵
Fantasy Baseball Week 20 Preview: Two-start pitcher rankings highlight Troy Melton, Logan Henderson
Two-start pitchers for Week 20 including top fantasy baseball streaming options.
Royals' Luinder Avila: Hits shelf with forearm tightness
Royals' Luinder Avila: Hits shelf with forearm tightness
Health department temporarily closes restaurant, fire destroys 12 apartments and more Flint-area news
Learn more about these stories and other Flint-area news with these local headlines from the past week.
Biggest Winners, Loser From UFC Belgrade
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) touched down in Serbia for the first time yesterday (Sat., Aug. 1, 2026) to stage UFC Belgrade from inside Belgrade Arena in Belgrade, Serbia, which saw Uros Medic absolutely destroy Daniel Rodriguez in just 30 seconds (see it again here). In the co-main event, Navajo Stirling secured one of the biggest […]
Maine’s Democratic Senate candidate touts his rural appeal. His hometown has mixed feelings.
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Dodgers acquiring pitcher Tarik Skubal in blockbuster trade
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Prince Edward shares sweet moment with his great-niece, Princess Charlotte, at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow
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Battle your way to Gold, Diamond and Champion in Reload Ranked to be eligible for the first,second and final respectively Event of the Season! Compete for the opportunity to win a cash prize! Reach Round 2 (top 1600 in EU; top 800 in NAC; top 320 in OCE, ASIA, ME, BR, NAW) where every player who earns a Victory Royale will earn $100 USD - good luck and have fun!
Troy Jackson launches his first general election ad in Maine Senate race, criticizing Susan Collins
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Solo Reload Victory Cup in Europe: Day 1 Day 1 Round 1
Battle your way to Gold, Diamond and Champion in Reload Ranked to be eligible for the first,second and final respectively Event of the Season! Compete for the opportunity to win a cash prize! Reach Round 2 (top 1600 in EU; top 800 in NAC; top 320 in OCE, ASIA, ME, BR, NAW) where every player who earns a Victory Royale will earn $100 USD - good luck and have fun!
Solo Reload Victory Cup in Europe: Day 1 Day 1 Round 1
Battle your way to Gold, Diamond and Champion in Reload Ranked to be eligible for the first,second and final respectively Event of the Season! Compete for the opportunity to win a cash prize! Reach Round 2 (top 1600 in EU; top 800 in NAC; top 320 in OCE, ASIA, ME, BR, NAW) where every player who earns a Victory Royale will earn $100 USD - good luck and have fun!
Solo Reload Victory Cup in Oceania: Day 1 Day 1 Round 1
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Small business owners reunite for a second chance as The Collective Boutiques opens on Barnes Road
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Champion Aphrodite FNCS Cup Battle Royale in NA Central: Session 1
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Opinion | Trump’s Proposed Rules for Funding Would Destroy American Science
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This 4,000-year-old city defied the rules of history
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After Hobbes vs Rousseau: Politics must move beyond human nature
Since the great debate between Hobbes and Rousseau, our political theory has been organised around a single question: is human nature essentially good or essentially corrupt? Graham Harman, the philosopher behind object-oriented ontology, argues that this is simply the wrong question to be asking. The real forces governing our collective fate - climate change, artificial intelligence, geography, and pandemics - are non-human; therefore, questions about human nature are not the central ones. Instead, Harman proposes a politics reorganised around our relationship to non-human objects and environments, in which quasi-government institutions incentivise and deter actions with the aim of extending the survival of the human race. “It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” This has become one of the most popular phrases among twenty-first-century intellectuals. Often misattributed to Fredric Jameson, it has been warmly embraced by such influential authors as Slavoj Žižek and the tragically departed Mark Fisher, and has fueled the notion that the major problem with the political Left is that it simply needs to become more speculative and creative. Naturally, this is never a bad idea in any human pursuit. But what if the political distinction between Left, Right, and Center itself results from a failure of imagination? SUGGESTED READING Hobbes vs Rousseau: are we inherently evil? By Robin Douglass This particular division has been with us only since the summer of 1789. During the simmering prelude to the French Revolution, it referred originally to the physical position in the National Assembly of radical figures on one side and loyal monarchists on the other. These positions are linked with two entirely different camps of modern political theory. On the Left we find a series of authors ranging from the moderate (Locke) to the supercharged (Rousseau) to the truly radical (Marx), all of them contending that exploitation of the many by the few justifies revolutionary overthrow of the existing order. On the Right they are countered by the likes of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Schmitt, a group of thinkers convinced that corrupt human nature can be tamed only by force. In the words of the Nazi supporter Schmitt: “One could test all theories of nature and state and political ideas according to their anthropology and classify these as to whether they consciously or unconsciously presuppose [humans] to be by nature evil or by nature good.” This is the division we continue to face today, even in the daily retail politics of Western democracies.___Our species has regularly proven itself capable of both the noblest gestures and the most scathing cruelties, making it hard to define us as essentially either emancipatory or brutal in our aims.___The most refreshing feature of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s 2021 book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity was their awareness that the forced choice between Rousseau and Hobbes (as they put it) is no longer sufficient. Our species has regularly proven itself capable of both the noblest gestures and the most scathing cruelties, making it hard to define us as essentially either emancipatory or brutal in our aims. Far from being stationed “beyond good and evil,” we seem to be fully entangled with both. We are not naturally good or evil, Graeber and Wengrow contend, but naturally experimental and imaginative. They rest their case on the archaeological record, which seems to bear witness to numerous episodes of seasonally shifting governments and festivals, which vacillate in the same society (even in the same year) between the egalitarian and the dictatorial. Such praise of political experiment makes a good fit with the generally anarchist position defended by these authors. Yet it is also what I find most disappointing in their position. Although they are right that the forced choice between Hobbes and Rousseau falls short of what our new situation requires, the authors simply replace it with praise for the human being as a political tinkerer and performer. In other words, they give us just another theory of human nature, one that would not have been out of place in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. What other options might we have?___The time is ripe for a retheorization of politics on the basis of something other than human nature… We are not just alienated and limited by objects, but also empowered and unleashed by them___One fresh approach would be to treat politics within a broader framework than human nature, given that the polis does not exist in a vacuum filled exclusively with people. When Bruno Latour went to observe the baboons of Kenya with the San Diego anthropologist Shirley Strum, they jointly concluded that these primates were more socially interdependent than our own species. Each baboon is so reliant on the dynamics of the group that they find themselves locked into constant surveillance of their potentially dangerous peers. The group structure turns out to be inherently volatile. Humans, by contrast, are able to stabilize their societies to a large degree through the mediation of inanimate objects. Although one’s position in society may seem to fluctuate over time, considerable stability is produced through such items as apartment keys, wedding rings, and identification cards, all of them serving to secure us a place distinct from that of our fellows. The Italian philosopher Maurizio Ferraris has written at length about the crucial role of documents in establishing social relations, making him a hero among notaries in his country. Proper names and license plates cement our position amidst other humans, as do symbolic achievements such as graduation from a top university or distinguished wartime service with its various medals and ribbons. None of this is found among baboons, despite their closeness to us on the evolutionary tree: after all, we did share a common ancestor just 25 to 30 million years ago. SUGGESTED VIEWING The goodness paradox With Richard Wrangham The time is ripe for a retheorization of politics on the basis of something other than human nature, whether understood in the manner of the Left or of the Right. We are not just alienated and limited by objects, but also empowered and unleashed by them. But initially, it is true, we face non-human things primarily in the form of constraints. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to form a human civilization underwater, deep underground, atop Mount Everest, or in outer space. Human dependence on the non-social background takes on subtler form in discussions of political geography, especially unloved on the more idealistic Left. Consider the luckless position of Poland during World War II, sandwiched between Hitler on one side and Stalin on the other. By contrast, note the good fortune of the United States in not having a military peer positioned on any land border. Anglo-American geopolitics, since the writings of the American naval commander Alfred Thayer Mahan and the British geographer Sir Halford Mackinder, has been wedded to the notion that one or more liberal offshore naval powers should prevent any authoritarian “heartland” regime from gaining effective control of Eurasia. That remains the case whether the opponent is the impatient Napoleon, the swashbuckling German Kaiser, the villainous Hitler, the murderous Stalin, or the industrial juggernaut Chinese. In their current Foreign Affairs article “Heartland vs. Rimland,” Michael Beckley and Hal Brands analyze the current and coming state of the world on the basis of these same rather durable principles. In recent years a similar outlook has been embraced, in inverted form, by the Putin-loving Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, an icon of the Rightist intellectual underworld. For Dugin, the Anglo-Saxons are an evil force bent on destroying the spiritually superior people of the land: much like Athens in its failed war with Sparta, or Carthage in its eventual collapse against Rome. But the shared notion on both sides is that any strategy that fails to take geography into account is likely to end up as a defeated form of excessive optimism.___When dealing with environmental degradation, then, we are doing business with forces that promise dire effects on our species as a whole.___More striking for us today than geography is the non-human object called climate, which threatens rimland and heartland equally. Even if we contend that humans are one hundred percent responsible for triggering the climate crisis, it remains non-human in the sense of being an independent force beyond our effective control. In a major work published just before his death in 2002, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, the American paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould noted the tendency of evolutionary theorists to focus too closely on the fate of individuals in view of their successful or failed adaptation to circumstances. With climate change, however, we confront a force that goes well beyond the scope of any individual life. Whereas Richard Dawkins extended evolutionary questions downward from individuals to the sub-individual gene, Gould pushed it upward, speaking of entire species or clades as impacted by environmental change. The asteroid that struck the Yucatán 66 million years ago is only the most famous example of this sort. In the wake of that catastrophe, large animals needing abundant supplies of food were at a fatal disadvantage by contrast with the smaller birds and mammals of the planet. When dealing with environmental degradation, then, we are doing business with forces that promise dire effects on our species as a whole. The effect is to shift our attention away from individual beings towards the survival of the group.In the United States in particular, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked considerable backlash among those who asserted a nearly absolute degree of individual freedom. In California I encountered those who demanded that their businesses be allowed to reopen, that it was enough to cover their mouths but not their noses, or that they should have the right to enter any public area despite refusing vaccination. Yet public health is probably the clearest argument against libertarianism, which often merely asserts the autonomy of individuals against any claims of the commons. In normal times the individual is worth defending; under conditions that threaten the survival of part or all of our species, compulsion may be our only resort, as with perfectly reasonable blackouts and rations in wartime. To rebuild human society under the constraints of climate change will be one of the great challenges of the century to come, as will our improvised grappling with artificial intelligence. Such phenomena pose existential risks for humanity, and leave far less room for tolerance of individual brattiness. Cases are mounting of devastating wildfires caused by arson. Recently it was reported that there is even a website where one can bet on the location of coming wildfires, raising the specter of deliberate blazes set to collect on wagers. The death penalty has steadily lost support in a world where many stress the infinite value of human life. But if we focus instead on entire ecosystems, those who purposely burn the forests may begin to look worse than serial murderers.___The politics of the future may be splintered by disagreement over such topics as how to manage our environing background and how to permit or restrict the entry of new objects into the political sphere.___So far I have spoken of force, authority, and punishment: measures sure to have greater appeal to those who identify with what we know as the Right. But other implications of the post-anthropocentric world are likely to have different backers. If non-human objects are seen as structuring political space, it stands to reason that they can no longer be introduced solely by the pace of technical breakthrough. Fields ranging from cybernetics to energy will demand increased politicization once they are reconceived not just as products of individual human investment, but as renovations of collective political geography. This need not involve world government, with its inherent risk of tyranny, but may involve quasi-governmental enforcers of prestige along the lines of a less corrupt FIFA or International Olympic Committee, punishing deviant states not with violence but with less tangible incentives.Politics will never lose its historic links with conflict and faction. But rather than factions aligned by differing theories of human nature, the politics of the future may be splintered by disagreement over such topics as how to manage our environing background and how to permit or restrict the entry of new objects into the political sphere. This will prove just as incommensurable with the modern Left/Right spectrum as a globe is with a two-dimensional map.
Troy Jackson ran anonymous account to troll Republicans online
In 2012, Troy Jackson had plenty to say about Maine politics. An outspoken Democratic state lawmaker, Jackson openly feuded with then-Republican Gov. Paul LePage.
Rolls-Royce CFO: Orders for data center energy business up over 50%
Rolls-Royce Chief Financial Officer Helen McCabe discusses half-year earnings, small modular nuclear reactors, data centers, and investing in the U.K.
FTSE 100 to fall from record high after Fed holds interest rates and Iran attacks; Rolls-Royce expects higher profits
Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as global stock markets drop after US central bank keeps interest rates steady
Brush fire destroys over 100 tile pallets at Kern County business, sparking fire safety concerns
A brush fire destroyed 100+ tile pallets at a Kern County business. Officials urge defensible space as fire season peaks.
Nebraska football players set to receive $7.5M from NIL deals once denied by CSC
Athletic director Troy Dannen said the deals have been resubmitted and were approved by the College Sports Commission.
The Ambitious Open-World Cyberpunk Action Game Troy Baker Was Working On Gets Hit With Mass Layoff
After internal review, Lightspeed LA said Last Sentinel wasn't living up to expectations forcing a creative shift in development
Forever Chemicals Are Uninsurable. Here's What That Means for Business.
This blog was authored by: Roya Alkafaji, Manager, Healthy Communities, and Abhinand Krishnashankar, Manager, Economics and Policy. Photo credit: iStock zoomstudio Every year, new lawsuits reveal the shocking scale of PFAS contamination. These common and long-lasting synthetic “forever” chem
Willie Nelson urges communities to ‘fight against data centers’ that are ‘destroying the environment’
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‘He can touch everybody’: Roy Williams describes why America loves MJ
Roy Williams said he and Michael Jordan have remained close over the years.
House committee passes Foreign Funding Transparency Act to expose foreign donations to nonprofits
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New pharmacy opens in Pearland
Royal Atoms Pharmacy is now open in Pearland, staff said.
NC political campaigns ramp up with 99 days until midterms
Though the U.S. Senate race between Roy Cooper and Michael Whatley has attracted the most attention, down-ballot contests could have significant implications for the state and nation.
In the Grip of Politics
All of us, from academics to fishermen, have now internalized a practice of reading the social world as a field of political or latently political signs. TV watching habits, food choices, clothing, interpretive approaches to 19th-century British literature: Everything becomes an opportunity to take a political stand, and to position yourself in relation to others taking political stands—and in a profession where discourse is everything, such opportunities abound.
Oglethorpe's Dr. Leroy Carson shares why strategic planning drives business value
Oglethorpe's Dr. Leroy Carson shared insights on entrepreneurship, strategic planning and business value during a national business show.
Weiser’s leadership crucial for rural win-win
Attorney General Phil Weiser is going to win the gubernatorial election. That said, Colorado agriculture and rural communities have a 30-year track record of finding the win-win be it for species or industries or habitat. Former Governor Roy Romer possessed what Gov. Jared Polis has demonstrated repeatedly he doesn’t have: the willingness to find compromise […]
TV Tinsel: GAF royalty Rhiannon Fish returns in 'A Royal Wedding'
After two tries at last Rhiannon Fish is part of royalty — like Meghan Markle. Well, not exactly. Fish’s foray into nobility is by way of the third fictional saga,
Joey Votto mentions painful Reds memory on Sunday Night Baseball
"Any Philly fan knows the Reds because we were no-hit on this field vs. Roy Halladay in 2010," Joey Votto said on NBC's Sunday Night Baseball.
Misiorowski breaks more records as Brewers destroy Rockies
Jacob Misiorowski has done more things that have never been done before in a Brewers win over the Rockies
Chestnut Hill small businesses are in the spotlight during the 'Royal Rummage'
This weekend in Chestnut Hill, an annual tradition took place to support small businesses during the summer
GameThread: Detroit Tigers vs. Kansas City Royals, 1:40 p.m.
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Pleasanton council to discuss Arroyo Lago development, other business postponed due to wildfire
The Pleasanton City Council is set to hold its second regular meeting of the month this Monday after the city postponed the session last week due to a 1,007-acre wildfire that began spreading rapidly south of town hours before the meeting was supposed to start.
Democrats Reset the Maine Senate Race. Now Comes the Tricky Part.
Troy Jackson is replacing Graham Platner, but Republicans are seeking to tie them together as a remade race kicks off with high stakes.
Phillies acquire outfielder from Royals to add left-handed depth
Kameron Misner has struggled in the majors but gives the Phillies another left-handed outfield option after a productive stretch at Triple-A.
Democrats pick new Senate candidate in Maine in aftermath of Platner debacle
Troy Jackson won his party's nomination by commandeering the progressive movement that fueled Graham Platner's rise. He will face off against GOP Sen. Susan Collins in November.
Troy Jackson Picked to Replace Platner as Democratic Nominee in Maine Senate Race
Mr. Jackson, a progressive former State Senate president, clinched the nomination at a hastily arranged state party convention.
Troy Jackson officially clinches Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nomination
Former logger from Allagash turned politician Troy Jackson on Saturday officially became the Democratic nominee in the U.S. Senate race for longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ seat.
Ronald Reagan center director: How to talk politics with family, friends and neighbors, without losing them
A new civility handbook offers a simple framework for disagreeing without destroying the relationships that matter most.
Maine Democrats are poised to pick their Senate nominee at an unusual party convention
Maine Democrats are poised to pick Troy Jackson as their new Senate nominee on Saturday, the culmination of a brief and unusual contest to replace Graham Platner after he left the battleground race amid scandal.
Democrats in Maine gather to replace Graham Platner in the race against Susan Collins
Democrats are hoping to move past Platner's scandal-plagued campaign as they look to unseat Republican incumbent Susan Collins. The apparent front-runner is former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson.
Steelers training camp countdown: Troy Fautanu's position switch will be critical to the offense
The Steelers’ first open practice is July 29 at Saint Vincent College, and we’re counting down the days with a look at their 15 most important...
Flock license plate readers 'destroyed' in Troy, mayor says
A trio of the devices were taken down Thursday night, Mayor Carmella Mantello said.
What to know about Troy Jackson, Maine Democrats' likely nominee for US Senate
Maine Democrats who have been scrambling to tap a new nominee for a pivotal U.S. Senate race against Republican Susan Collins are expected to nominate Troy Jackson at a last-minute convention this weekend.
What to know about Troy Jackson, Maine Democrats' likely nominee for US Senate
Maine Democrats who have been scrambling to tap a new nominee for a pivotal U.S. Senate race against Republican Susan Collins are expected to nominate Troy Jackson at a last-minute convention this weekend
Popular CT family-friendly business washed away by floodwaters in 2024 has rebuilt and reopened
Old Sawmill Miniature Golf was destroyed nearly two years ago by floodwaters in Oxford and, with support of the community, the popular business has reopened. The soft reopening was in June with the grand reopening and ribbon cutting…
The Week in Business: What's Driving Rolls-Royce in Mankato?
This week’s top stories from Twin Cities Business.
Maine’s Bet on the Progressive Platform
Maine Democrats have coalesced around Troy Jackson, a progressive former state senator who lost a gubernatorial election earlier this summer, to replace Graham Platner on the Senate ticket. Also: A new slate of Black officials is poised to lead some of Maryland's biggest counties.
Free summer celebration Saturday at Manatee Lagoon to feature science, stories, activities
WPEC CBS 12 provides local news, weather, sports, traffic and entertainment for West Palm Beach and nearby towns and communities in South Florida including the Palm Beaches and Treasure Coast, serving Stuart, Royal Palm Beach, Fort Pierce, Vero Beach, Port St. Lucie, Okeechobee, Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, Wellington, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Lake Worth, Boynton Beach, Greenacres, Belle Glade, Palm Beach, and Riviera Beach.
Astros Trade RP Nate Pearson to Royals
Today, the Houston Astros announced they have traded reliever Nate Pearson to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for righthanded pitching prospect Max Martin. Martin, 22, has posted a 6-2 record with a 2.01 ERA in 26 relief appearances across two levels of Class A ball in the Royals system this season. Martin was a […]
Astros Trade RP Nate Pearson to Royals
Today, the Houston Astros announced they have traded reliever Nate Pearson to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for righthanded pitching prospect Max Martin. Martin, 22, has posted a 6-2 record with a 2.01 ERA in 26 relief appearances across two levels of Class A ball in the Royals system this season. Martin was a […]
Montello business destroyed in fire
A Montello business was destroyed in a fire Tuesday afternoon, firefighters reported Wednesday morning.
Sony's decision to kill off PlayStation discs could destroy the $7.2bn used game market, according to analysts
Sony decided to kill discs at a time when everyone is concerned about affordability, and it may take out the pre-owned games market along with it.
Democrats call for unity, support for Jackson, ahead of Saturday convention
While Jackson is the presumptive nominee, David Costello — who finished third in the June primary won by Platner — and Saundra Pelletier, the CEO of a women’s health company, also qualified to compete at Saturday’s convention.
The Global Second-Hand Video Game Market Is Valued at $7.2 Billion, but Sony's Decision to Kill PlayStation Discs Threatens to Destroy It, Analysts Say
Sony’s decision to end production of PlayStation discs for new games from 2028 threatens to destroy the second-hand market, analysts have said.
Analysis | How a Democratic candidate’s volatility could shape a key Senate race
Troy Jackson has a tough road ahead.
How Troy Jackson went from an anti-abortion Republican to the Democrats’ hope for defeating Susan Collins
Troy Jackson is on the verge of replacing Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine after harnessing the enthusiasm of former Platner supporters who were galvanized by the oyster farmer’s insurgent campaign.
RadNet launches free lung cancer screening program for firefighters
The Los Angeles-based imaging center operator is seeking to aid first responders who served during last year’s Palisades Fire, which killed a dozen people and destroyed nearly 7,000 structures.
Bradford A&E services downgraded by health watchdog
An inspection at Bradford Royal Infirmary reveals long waits, safety risks and staffing pressures.
Maine Democratic Senate frontrunner faces scrutiny over alleged anger outbursts
Troy Jackson’s sudden rise in Maine invites scrutiny of his past and his vulnerabilities
Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson is Democrats’ likely nominee to take on GOP Sen. Susan Collins in an expensive, consequential race following Graham Platner’s exit.
Cam Newton among ESPN layoffs after ‘First Take’ rise
Given his recent addition to the talent roster at ESPN and quick rise through the ranks at First Take, Cam Newton is one of the most surprising names to be let go in the latest round of layoffs at the company. Newton joins a list that includes NFL analyst Ryan Clark, MLB host and play-by-play man…
Troy Jackson puts health care front and center
Troy Jackson already appears to be leaning into health care as one of his key talking points in the battle to win one of Maine's Senate seats this November.
Maine Democratic Senate frontrunner faces scrutiny over alleged anger outbursts
Troy Jackson’s brash conduct raises alarm bells about his temperament as the nominee for a key Senate race, some critics said.
Changes to government science department
The new Prime Minister has merged the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology into a new Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. In response, Paul Nurse, the President of the Royal Society said: “The Prime Minister understands the transformative power of science, knowledge, innovation, and technology. They are all parts of an interlinked and interdependent system of research that drives economic growth, health care, security, education, prosperity and the public...
Royals vs Giants July 20 Live Discussion
The AL Central basement-dwelling Royals have a chance to get some wins against a similarly-bad team.
Democrat set to replace Platner in Maine led state Senate with a temper
Troy Jackson, the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), yelled and cursed at fellow state lawmakers, interviews reveal.
Democrats avoid a messy fight in Maine, but uncertainty lingers: From the Politics Desk
Plus, Darline Graham to seek full Senate term in South Carolina.
Troy Jackson emerges as likely Senate pick for Maine Democrats
Former Maine lawmaker and logger Troy Jackson is set to become the state's Democratic Senate nominee after Graham Platner's exit.
2027 SEC Media Day location and dates revealed
Fans still have to get through the 2026 edition of SEC Media Day, but we know where and when the 2027 version will take place.
‘The Odyssey’ cast go behind the sacking of Troy
‘The Odyssey’ cast go behind the sacking of Troy, filming inside the wooden horse, and the moment that surprised Matt Damon.
Troy Jackson gains momentum to replace Platner
Former Maine lawmaker Troy Jackson has moved into a strong position to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine after several of his opponents dropped out of the race.
In Maine Senate Race, Democrats Go From Chaos to Coronation
Troy Jackson’s emergence as the clear front-runner to replace Graham Platner spares the party some challenges but points to some new ones.
Troy Jackson gains momentum to replace Platner as Democrats' Senate candidate in Maine
Former Maine lawmaker Troy Jackson has moved into a strong position to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine after several of his opponents dropped out of the race
Troy Jackson gains momentum to replace Platner as Democrats' Senate candidate in Maine
Former Maine lawmaker Troy Jackson has moved into a strong position to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine after several of his opponents dropped out of the race.
Troy Jackson gains momentum to replace Platner as Democrats' Senate candidate in Maine
Former Maine lawmaker Troy Jackson has moved into a strong position to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine after several of his opponents dropped out of the race.
Platner ally Troy Jackson locks down delegates as top rivals for Democratic Senate nomination drop out
Troy Jackson locked up delegates after rivals Shenna Bellows and Nirav Shah dropped out of the race to replace Graham Platner against Susan Collins.
Maine Democrats rally around logger Troy Jackson to replace Graham Platner
Jackson, a progressive who champions worker rights and Medicare-for-all, has quickly emerged as the favorite to take on Republican Susan Collins in the Senate race in November.
Isle Royale business prevented from transporting visitors asking to leave
“When people need the help, that’s exactly what we’re there for,” U.P. Adventure Company Owner and Captain Lacy Cygan said.
Royals' Michael Massey: Out of Sunday's lineup
Royals' Michael Massey: Out of Sunday's lineup