Interesting, thoughtful stories

Thanks for the link. It’s good to hear that analysis from an academic who has made this his life’s work.

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Naomi Klein does her usual great job here of spelling out the contemporary relevance of an excellent movie:

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As always, the prime universe Naomi is spot on!

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No paywall version
https://archive.li/Y35uu

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It’s a big “duh” for many, but it’s nice to see it spelled out.

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We absolutely do need to get rid of landlordism, and break the power of the Rentier class in the UK, but we also need to build more houses. Building has lagged behind household formation for years, and the UK’s housing stock is old and badly insulated.

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Good evening. Minister, may I put the first question to you? In your plan, ‘A Better Britain For Us’, you claimed that you would build 88,000 million, billion houses a year in the Greater London area alone. In fact, you’ve built only three in the last fifteen years. Are you a bit disappointed with this result?

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Old article, but still interesting to note.

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The CIA were into EVERYTHING, honestly. I think pretty much anything people did abroad had some sort of influence or funding from the CIA…

For people interested in this topic, a good place to start (after that article) is Francis Stonor Saunder’s work:

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True, and I’d also say that there’s no particular reason to think that they ever stopped.

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Oh My God Omg GIF

What? Our cultural programs aren’t free from spies!!! /s :grin:

Yeah, and honestly, I don’t think that complete negates the good faith efforts by the people who aren’t CIA to put these kinds of programs together, either, which most people probably would. I don’t think it’s a black or white issue…

Oh, another good book is about the jazz tours:

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674022607

It’s not primarily focused on the CIA involvement, but it does show the tensions at play between the artists being sent on tour and the US government’s aims, especially the Black artists sent to play in Africa and the Middle East…

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I had no idea, though it isn’t at all surprising.

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This is an interesting look at an NCAA scandal that made headlines:

…four assistant coaches — along with a group of six agents, their financial backers and shoe company representatives — who were arrested in the 2017 federal probe aimed at rooting out an entrenched system of off-the-books payments to players and their families that, at the time, was against NCAA rules.

The article reveals a bit more about the games played behind the scenes for money and influence, as well as how racism and rule changes affected some of the people involved.

New state laws and court rulings over the past three years have brought about the so-called “NIL” era in college sports — for name, image and likeness compensation deals for athletes. Players can now profit through sponsorship deals that begin as early as high school.

Richardson says NIL should stand for “Now It’s Legal” — a nod to the harsh reality that most of those under-the-table payments for which he was jailed can be made legitimately now.

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