Source: Washington Sun
by Paige Winfield Cunningham
“Earlier this year, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seemed destined for a short tenure in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. Now, the Make America Healthy Again movement’s footing looks surer in the administration and those around Kennedy say they believe the health secretary is here to stay. Incoming White House chief of staff Stephen Miller is friendlier to Kennedy’s priorities than ousted chief Susie Wiles, who former Kennedy advisor and MAHA activist Calley Means excoriated over the last few days for shutting down MAHA initiatives. Trump is enthusiastically backing top Kennedy efforts into researching autism and vaccines.” (11/08/26)
“U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said he was ‘only kidding’ when he suggested UFC CEO Dana White could become his next White House press secretary, after a social media post a day earlier stirred speculation about recruiting his feisty ally and signalled a combative approach to dealing with Democrats as they prepare to take control of Congress. Trump said White, a prominent supporter, ‘loves the idea’ of taking the job but insisted he had not been serious about the prospect, describing the suggestion as ‘just a little fun.'” (11/08/26)
“Samantha Hancox-Li chats with Andy Craig, senior editor at the UnPopulist, about the most revealing results from the election, including Mississippi and Texas, what it means for the future of the Republican Party (nothing good), and how corruption can unite ‘affordability’ Democrats and ‘Reconstruction’ Democrats.” (11/08/26)
“The First Amendment’s Establishment and Free Exercise clauses seem clear. They guarantee the free exercise of religion while prohibiting the state from endorsing a particular religion. In the words of the Late Antonin Scalia, ‘The state may not discriminate among religions, and a favor available to one must be made available to all.’ Yet some of the Christian Nationalist crowd is shifting away from this widely accepted interpretation. … As new excuses beyond plain bigotry must be found to disparage and marginalize Muslims, Hindus, and other non-Christians, Christian Nationalists have attached themselves to a reactionary view of our founding. They’ve convinced themselves that if a view sounds archaic enough, they can spin it and say the Founders must have believed it.” (11/08/26)
“Paris is burning again but this time the fire is spreading and it’s spreading fast. What ostensibly began as the latest upheaval in a long, proud tradition of Parisian student uprisings has exploded into a human inferno scorching every corner of the European map. … While America keeps its subjects busy with make-believe democracy at the ballot box, the kids in Europe are fucking around with the real thing in the streets and I can’t be the only stateside anarchist who wants a taste of the uncut stuff.” (11/08/26)
“Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has requested a new passport and identity card to allow her to return from self-imposed exile in India. The request is the clearest sign that Hasina, who has been living in India for two years, plans to make good on her promise that she would return to Bangladesh in December. Hasina told the Reuters news agency that she intended to surrender before a court in Bangladesh, and her aides said on Monday the date would be announced once various formalities were completed. Bangladesh’s war crimes court sentenced Hasina to death in absentia last November for ordering a deadly crackdown on student protests that swept the country in 2024. … Last week, Junior Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir said Bangladesh wants Hasina returned under an extradition treaty with India. New Delhi has declined to hand her over.” (11/09/26)
“Baseball is my favorite game because of the lessons it teaches. First, it’s a team game that individuals play: your at-bats and fielding are yours and yours alone, but they are put to work in the service of your team. Second, and most importantly, it is a game of individual and team failure: you are out more often than you are on base, a team winning percentage of .550 – .600 — just more than half of your games played — is a championship-caliber team, and each attempt is isolated. It is recorded. There is nowhere to hide the miss. The game forces you to live with failure as a normal outcome. Maybe as a result, a wide range of superstitions and rituals developed and many have been passed down through the generations.” (11/08/26)
