Cambodia slips into darkness, as the Khmer Rouge seize the country.

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In the wake of Kamala Harris's defeat, the Left's association with identity politics has been a major focus of public debate. But what identity politics is or who primarily benefits from it remains contested.

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber discusses the Democrats’ long-standing attachment to identity politics, why this form of politics can't fight oppression, and the real history behind struggles for justice.

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.

Danny and Derek plug into the mainframe. This week: in Gaza, the ceasefire takes effect (0:37), allowing a surge of humanitarian aid (3:51), the latter being partly facilitated by Hamas’s police force back in power (5:50). Meanwhile, an agreement on the second phase of the ceasefire remains to be seen (7:56); the IDF launches a new operation in the West Bank (14:38); negotiations between the government and SDF continue in Syria (17:11); Turkey hints at a possible thaw with the Kurdish PKK (20:13); Afghan refugees who’d already been granted asylum are stranded after Trump’s executive order (24:54); China brokers a new ceasefire in Myanmar (27:49); M23 makes a new advance in the Democratic Republic of Congo (29:31); Trump threatens myriad economic penalties against Russia if it doesn’t end the war in Ukraine (31:42); NATO’s defense spending might be on the rise (34:19); Colombia breaks off peace talks with the ELN (37:48); Mexico and Honduras react to Trump’s deportation plans (40:10); Oxfam releases a new report on the rise in inequality (42:44); and Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders only a few days into taking office (44:44).    

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Be sure to listen to our post-election special with Alexander Aviña on Trump’s plans regarding immigrants and deportations.

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We’re joined by Better Offline podcast’s Ed Zitron to look at tech at the dawn of Trump 2. From Elon Musk’s “awkward gesture,” to Trump going all in on the increasingly vaporous projects of generative AI, and the slopification & inability to produce useful projects across all of the tech industry. Plus, Musk’s war on Wikipedia, and what’s really going on with the TikTok ban.

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Better Offline podcast: https://linktr.ee/betteroffline

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I originally wrote this in my daily journal, but extracted it to a full post. I’m nearing a point in writing where I need to consider how I might more easily publish elements of my personal journal, while maintaining some as “too private.” This is a significant deviation from my blogs current setup. Much to consider, but what I have works, albeit with “friction”; a topic of the first 2025 IndieWeb Carnival “On the importance of friction”.

I’m smiling as I’m leaning into the robustness of the elfeed package 📖 .

Re-Introducing Elfeed

First, I have an RSS 📖 feed reader. In which the “news” rolls in according to when it was published, not some capturing algorithm.

Second, as I encounter interesting links by feed entries, I can open them in Emacs Web Wowser (EWW 📖) . From there, I give it a read and if I like the general disposition, I can invoke eww-copy-alternate-url to see if there are alternate URLs (e.g. an RSS feed). And add that to my list of feeds.

Third, as I read and want to comment, I invoke org-store-link which will copy the entry’s URL and title. I start capturing my thoughts and invoke org-insert-link to past the feed entry and title. This link type is elfeed. Meaning when I click on the link, I’m taken to the cached elfeed package version of that entry.

Fourth, I extended my elfeed package link type export from Org-Mode 📖 to export the URL of the feed item. Thus when I render my notes as HTML 📖 , the elfeed package link types are transformed to the well-known http://… format. I wrote about this feature in Exporting Org Mode Elfeed Links.

Fifth, is the local cache/database of elfeed package entries. All of those feed entries that have scrolled through my reader. Those, in their full text, are stored locally. (Sidenote: Writing this, I wish I would’ve started using elfeed package many years ago. But alas, those posts are lost to the ether.)

They are available for offline reading, even years past having read them. And I’ve treated these as important artifacts for me to “preserve.” And by that I mean, make sure I have regular back-up copies of that information.

Let’s review that process:

• Generate an occasional copy of the cache.
• Copy that copy to a few different devices.

Generate an Occasional Copy of the Cache

I have the following Emacs 📖 code, which is available on Github):

(defun jf/syncthing-aling ()
"Synchronize files into SyncThing bucket."
(interactive)
;; Ensure we have our queue and our ready location
(mkdir (file-truename "~/SyncThings/queue") t)
(mkdir (file-truename "~/SyncThings/source") t)
(message "Synchronzing denote files to cloud...")
;; There's a 1 in 10 chance that we'll perform the sync. Toss that d10.
(if (= 0 (random 10))
(progn
(message "Syncing elfeed database...")
;; We tar zip into one directory (our queue) and then move that
;; file in its complete state into the ready directory. As move
;; is instantaneous and we don't need to worry about syncthing
;; picking up a partially completed file.
(shell-command
(concat "tar -cvzf "
(file-truename "~/SyncThings/queue/elfeed.tar.gz")
" " elfeed-db-directory " && mv -f ~/SyncThings/queue/elfeed.tar.gz ~/SyncThings/source&")
"*syncthing-aling*"
"*syncthing-aling*"))
(message "I'll get you next time Gadget")))
;; Based on the idea of habit stacking, whenever I pull down my RSS
;; feed, I'll go ahead and sync my notes.
(advice-add #'jf/elfeed-load-db-and-open :before #'jf/syncthing-aling)
(add-hook 'after-init-hook #'jf/syncthing-aling)

Let’s pull out the comments (Sidenote: I made some adjustments to the comments to improve clarity, I hope.) in the order of operation:

• Based on the idea of habit stacking, whenever I pull down my RSS feed, I’ll go ahead and sync my notes; maybe.
• Ensure we have our queue and our ready location.
• There’s a 1 in 10 chance that we’ll perform the sync. Toss that d10.
• We tar and zip into one directory (our queue) and then move that file in its complete state into the ready directory. As move is instantaneous we won’t need to worry about SyncThing 📖 picking up a partially completed file.

Key in this is building the back-up process into a daily or thrice-daily ritual of mine.

I accept that my back-up won’t be “immediately up to date” but in using this process I can more reliably see when there are errors. That is I’m putting the “logs” in a place visible during my ritual of reading my RSS feed.

Copy That Copy to a Few Different Devices

I setup SyncThing on a few different devices. And the RSS feed cache is sent to those devices as “read only.” I don’t want to fuss with multiple devices having conflicting versions of this canonical cache, hence writing them to the devices.

To restore from those backups, I’d unzip and un-tar the files. As there’s no “operational urgency” to the backup, I’d restore at my leisure and then document accordingly. In essence, reverse the process of the Emacs function.

I’ve set my synchronization rules to only run when the devices are on the same network.

Conclusion

I feel a contentedness of having a repository of things I’ve read (or at least gathered) from the Internet. It is something that I should be able to easily re-build were I to lose or replace my primary machine.

I’ve chosen to use SyncThing instead of “pushing to the cloud” in part as a low-stakes experiment on eschewing cloud storage.

Why? This little local archipelago I’m creating requires far less resources than constantly syncing to a “remote” cloud. And I have more control over how it’s used as well as how many copies are saved.

I’m also treating this as a small, concrete, yet reversible experiment with cause for reflection. That is “how might I reduce my cloud storage footprint?” And adjusting my relationship to “always available” versus “available upon request.”

And here’s the realization: I don’t need much to always be available. And, with the current process, there’s space to identify what I want available outside of a tarball and thus “readable” on one of those other devices.

For example, I’ve shifted my Shopping List to write to that ready directory, not tarred and zipped, but as a plain text file. Which I can then read on my phone.

There’s more to think (and thus write) about in regards to how I’m thinking about this SyncThing ecosystem. But for now having a personal back-up is an absolute reassuring joy.

Ronny Chieng covers Trump’s face-off with a woke pastor, his lukewarm review of church, and a "f**k-it" approach to the Jan. 6 pardons. Troy Iwata investigates if the GOP’s amnesia for insurrectionist violence is really a disease. Plus, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog leads anti-Trump march in storming the... coffee shop?

Legendary hip-hop artist Talib Kweli sits down with Ronny Chieng to discuss the future of the music industry and his latest album "The Confidence of Knowing." They talk supporting artists outside of streaming, how hip-hop is deeply rooted in social justice, understanding the political divide beyond Democrat vs. Republican, and how tech billionaires profit off our social media engagement.

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Ryan and Emily discuss Trump hyping H1b, panic in Chicago as ICE raids begin, tech bros slobber on Trump over new AI investments, historic snow storm pummels south, Maddow loses it on Trump Jan 6 pardons, Israel invades the West Bank.

To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.com

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Democracy Now! 2025-01-16 Thursday

• Headlines for January 16, 2025
• Report from Gaza: Ceasefire Announcement Raises Hopes, But Israel Kills 81 in New Attacks
• Daniel Levy, Muhammad Shehada, Jeremy Scahill on Ceasefire Deal, Trump's Role & Palestine's Future
• Pam Bondi, Trump's Attorney General Pick, Has History of Corporate Lobbying and Election Denial

Download this show

Comedian Alison Spittle explores some of her longest and deepest held grudges. The kind of thing most people would be ashamed to still be thinking about 30 minutes later, let alone contemplating exacting retribution decades on.

Studies show that the role you play in the school nativity can affect your life. And Alison is taking those studies very seriously. She was once cast as Mary - big gig - but forced to drop out after the director said she lacked focus. 30 years on, it's still something she thinks about. Can Natalie Cassidy help Alison get closure?

Written by Alison Spittle & Simon Mulholland With Ian Smith and Natalie Cassidy Script Edited by Joel Morris Produced by Lyndsay Fenner

A Mighty Bunny Production for BBC Radio 4

About Alison: Alison Spittle is an award-winning screenwriter, actress and comedian.

She is the creator, writer and star of the TV series Nowhere Fast which aired on RTE2 to critical acclaim in 2017. Her play Starlet premiered to great acclaim at the Dublin Fringe Festival, garnering 5 stars from The Sunday Times. She can also be heard on The Guilty Feminist and BBC Radio 4’s Wheel of Misfortune.

In this episode, Dara and Isy are joined by the astronaut Helen Sharman to learn about how humans learned to survive in space - with some diverting conversations about glitter, cat statues, hibernation, and shell suits.

What? Seriously?? is a new podcast which combines comedy with quirky history, hosted by Dara Ó Briain and Isy Suttie, who will unravel an extraordinary real-life tale each week with the help of a celebrity guest

Dara and Isy unearth stories that are definitely true, but also kind of unbelievable at the same time - the sort of stories that make you go ‘What? Seriously??’ when you hear them, but you resolve to tell them in the pub the first chance you get. The twist is that Dara and Isy have absolutely no idea how these strange-but-true tales will unfold and we’ll all be trying to figure it out together – or Dara and Isy will just go off on funny flights of fancy that are tangentially related to the story. They will be drip-fed the nuggets of narrative by a special guest expert who might just know something about the subject.

Across the series they will be joined by I’m A Celeb winner Georgia Toffolo, the Aussie comedian Rhys Nicholson, the broadcaster Stuart Maconie, Master Chef star Louisa Ellis, Miles from The Traitors, the comedian Richard Herring, the astronaut Helen Sharman, and Slow Horses star Chris Chung.

‘What? Seriously??’ with Dara Ó Briain and Isy Suttie and special guest Helen Sharman. Format co-developed by Dan Page. Story compiled by Gareth Edwards and Dan Page. Producer: Laura Grimshaw Executive Producer: Jon Holmes An unusual production for BBC Radio 4

Although the Trump allies have repeatedly vowed to pivot away from involvement in the Middle East, a major crisis still looms on the horizon with Iran. In his first term, President Donald Trump tore up the Iran Nuclear Deal, also known as the JCPOA, setting the stage for a renewed campaign of sanctions, sabotage, and assassination targeting Iran. Iran responded by vastly ramping up its nuclear enrichment program.

The situation continues to escalate, with Western powers weighing their dwindling options for how to respond to Iran’s nuclear expansion. Even after Israel inflicting major blows on Iran’s allies in the region over the past year, a U.S. war with Iran would be an extremely difficult and dangerous endeavor, and would destroy Trump’s vow to wind down U.S. wars in the region.

The U.S. now faces a choice of reengaging diplomatically with Iran, going to war, or accepting a nuclear Iran as a new reality.

On the new episode of Drop Site News's podcast Intercepted, Sina Toossi, a senior nonresident fellow at the Center for International Policy, joins Murtaza Hussain for a wide-ranging discussion on Iran and the incoming Trump administration.

Subscribe to our free newsletter at DropSiteNews.com

PS> python -m pip install polars

$ python -m pip install polars

!python -m pip install polars

>>> import polars as pl

>>> tips = pl.scan_parquet("tips.parquet")

>>> tips.collect()
shape: (180, 7)
┌───────────┬───────┬──────┬────────┬────────┬─────┬────────┐
│ record_id ┆ total ┆ tip  ┆ gender ┆ smoker ┆ day ┆ time   │
│ ---       ┆ ---   ┆ ---  ┆ ---    ┆ ---    ┆ --- ┆ ---    │
│ i64       ┆ f64   ┆ f64  ┆ str    ┆ bool   ┆ str ┆ str    │
╞═══════════╪═══════╪══════╪════════╪════════╪═════╪════════╡
│ 1         ┆ 28.97 ┆ 3.0  ┆ Male   ┆ true   ┆ Fri ┆ Dinner │
│ 2         ┆ 22.49 ┆ 3.5  ┆ Male   ┆ false  ┆ Fri ┆ Dinner │
│ 3         ┆ 5.75  ┆ 1.0  ┆ Female ┆ true   ┆ Fri ┆ null   │
│ 4         ┆ null  ┆ null ┆ Male   ┆ true   ┆ Fri ┆ Dinner │
│ 5         ┆ 22.75 ┆ 3.25 ┆ Female ┆ false  ┆ Fri ┆ Dinner │
│ …         ┆ …     ┆ …    ┆ …      ┆ …      ┆ …   ┆ …      │
│ 176       ┆ 40.55 ┆ 3.0  ┆ Male   ┆ true   ┆ Sun ┆ Dinner │
│ 177       ┆ 20.69 ┆ 5.0  ┆ Male   ┆ false  ┆ Sun ┆ Dinner │
│ 178       ┆ 20.9  ┆ 3.5  ┆ Female ┆ true   ┆ Sun ┆ Dinner │
│ 179       ┆ 30.46 ┆ 2.0  ┆ Male   ┆ true   ┆ Sun ┆ Dinner │
│ 180       ┆ 18.15 ┆ 3.5  ┆ Female ┆ true   ┆ Sun ┆ Dinner │
└───────────┴───────┴──────┴────────┴────────┴─────┴────────┘

>>> (
...     tips
...     .null_count()
... ).collect()
shape: (1, 7)
┌───────────┬───────┬─────┬────────┬────────┬─────┬──────┐
│ record_id ┆ total ┆ tip ┆ gender ┆ smoker ┆ day ┆ time │
│ ---       ┆ ---   ┆ --- ┆ ---    ┆ ---    ┆ --- ┆ ---  │
│ u32       ┆ u32   ┆ u32 ┆ u32    ┆ u32    ┆ u32 ┆ u32  │
╞═══════════╪═══════╪═════╪════════╪════════╪═════╪══════╡
│ 0         ┆ 2     ┆ 4   ┆ 0      ┆ 0      ┆ 0   ┆ 2    │
└───────────┴───────┴─────┴────────┴────────┴─────┴──────┘

Read the full article at https://realpython.com/polars-missing-data/ »

[ Improve Your Python With 🐍 Python Tricks 💌 – Get a short & sweet Python Trick delivered to your inbox every couple of days. >> Click here to learn more and see examples ]

Ronny Chieng on Trump pulling the U.S. out of international treaties and organizations, pardoning the January 6th rioters, dissing Melania, and celebrating with the YMCA. Josh Johnson joins freed insurrectionists on their next criminal adventure.

Jordan Klepper Crashes Trump's Inauguration Weekend to talk to MAGA diehards who traveled near and far to witness Trump's... garbage truck?

Actor Stephanie Hsu sits down to discuss her new Peacock series, “Laid.” She talks getting her big break in the “SpongeBob SquarePants” Broadway musical, and the importance of “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”

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Journalist Mohammad Alsaafin returns to the show to discuss the temporary ceasefire & hostage exchange deal reached in Gaza. We discuss why and how this came about during the Biden-Trump transition, what the actual terms of the deal are, how it leaves the political situation in Israel, Palestine and the rest of the region, and the total effects of 15 months of war. Plus, what was actually in the gift bags given by Hamas to the freed Israeli hostages.

If you’re looking for ways to help, this is from Mohammad: More importantly, this is a good place people can donate to. This started out as a small soup kitchen set up by the family of a friend after their home was destroyed and his brother killed. Over the past year they've expanded to several soup kitchens, water trucks, small clinics and a couple of classrooms. The other brother who was running it was killed on his way to deliver supplies to Kamal Adwan hospital last month. They've done so much good work in helping people stay especially in northern Gaza:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/Hot-meals-in-gaza-daily?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-173283450269-b9a1b078addc11ef

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Jon Stewart unravels the absurd "weave" of Trump's Inauguration Day, from Joe Biden's buzzer-beater pardons to the tech billionaire VIPs, to the passive-aggressive transfer of power. Plus, the Best F**kin News Team has full coverage on day one of the second Trump era.

Brooke Harrington, economic sociologist and author of “Offshore: Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism," discusses modern American oligarchies and the behavior of the ultra-rich. They talk Donald Trump’s “broligarchy” of American tech billionaires, how they differ from the oligarchs of Russia and the Gilded Age, and how a coalition of laborers is the only way to dismantle the system.

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Looking back at The Daily Show’s coverage of previous presidential inaugurations.

Jon Stewart covers the first inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009 with help from Jason Jones, Wyatt Cenac, and Samantha Bee. Jon returns in 2013 for President Obama’s second inauguration, joined by Jessica Williams, Al Madrigal, and Jason Jones. Trevor Noah covers Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration with a song. Unpacking the 2021 transition of power to President Biden, Trevor wonders where we go from here.

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Nick and Ciarán talk through the heavy hitting parties in the 2025 snap federal elections in Germany, stay tuned for part 2 on the Patreon

WRITTEN ELECTION GUIDE:
https://sternburgpapi.substack.com/p/the-official-corner-spati-bundestagswahl

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https://www.patreon.com/cornerspaeti

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Danny and Derek welcome back to the program Mohammad Alsaafin, journalist at AJ+, to talk about the ceasefire in Gaza. They go into detail about the ceasefire itself, the reaction in Gaza, the respective roles of the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration, what the ruling body might look like in Gaza following this, the implications for normalization with Israel, and more.

Read Mohammad's piece on the ceasefire for The Nation, "We Have a Ceasefire Deal, but This Isn’t the End".

For an ad-free experience, immediate access to all specials, and lots of more bonus content, subscribe now.

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An agreement on a deal that will halt — at least temporarily — Israel’s 15-month long genocidal assault on Gaza was announced on Wednesday to scenes of celebration by Palestinians in Gaza. At the time of writing, Israel has not yet officially announced it has agreed to the deal. The terms of the agreement being negotiated are nearly identical to what was on the table last May when outgoing President Joe Biden first announced it. Much of the last minute negotiations this month were around specific details, including sensitive topics such as the extent of withdrawal of Israeli forces, a buffer zone, control of the Rafah border crossing, and whether displaced Palestinians would be able to return to their homes in northern Gaza.Sami Al-Arian, director the Center for Islam and Global Affairs, Zaim University, and Muhammad Shehada, journalist and analyst from Gaza, joined Jeremy Scahill to discuss the breakthrough in the deal and the potential loopholes for Israel. While Trump’s interventions have been “monumental” in making the ceasefire deal possible, Shehada said, there is a likely “gift bag” in the deal for Israelis.

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This week on The News Quiz, Andy Zaltzman is joined by Geoff Norcott, Paul Sinha, Angela Barnes and Anushka Asthana to unpack the week's new stories. The panel look into Donald Trump's international ambitions, Keir Starmer looking ahead to the not-too-distant, yet not-too-close future, and the relentless interjections to British politics from Elon Musk.

Written by Andy Zaltzman.

With additional material by: Jade Gebbie, Christina Riggs Mike Shephard, and Angela Channell. Producer: Rajiv Karia Executive Producer: Pete Strauss. Production Coordinator: Jodie Charman Sound Editor: Marc Willcox

A BBC Studios Audio Production for Radio 4 An Eco-Audio certified Production

The short-lived reign of the Khmer Republic; the end of Nixon.

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Jordan Klepper covers Biden's ominous farewell address, in which he warned about the end of democracy and formation of an oligarchy. Desi Lydic and Michael Kosta try to sort out the most important detail of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire: Who gets credit? Plus, Grace Kuhlenschmidt makes an election prognosticator answer for his wrong prediction.

Representative Tom Suozzi of New York’s third Congressional District sits down to discuss what he thinks is the best strategy for Democrats during Trump’s second term, and avoiding the GOP’s culture war distractions to focus on building up the middle class.

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Danny and Derek with your pre-Shabbat news roundup. This week: the terms and concerns of the Gaza ceasefire (0:30); Lebanon elects Nawaf Salam as its new PM (8:02); worries arise over foreign fighters in Syria’s new administration (12:21); in Sudan, the military takes Wad Madani, leading to reprisal killings (14:40); Somalia and Ethiopia agree to restore full relations (18:59); the TikTok saga continues (21:28); President Yoon of South Korea is finally arrested (23:55); in Russia-Ukraine, the US issues new sanctions (26:27) and Russia makes more advances (29:11); the US removes Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list (30:57); and Danny and Derek bid farewell to Joseph Robinette Biden (32:55).

Subscribe now for an ad-free experience and more content, including our in-depth special on the Gaza ceasefire!

Take a look at journalist Sam Hosseini confronting Antony Blinken.

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Jordan Klepper reports on the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and TikTok’s final days. Michael Kosta joins the ranks of those turning to Chinese alternative apps like RedNote. Plus, the lawyers who will get you out of trouble, Trump-style.

Comedian, actor, and poet ALOK sits down with Jordan Klepper to discuss their new comedy special, “Biology!” They talk joking about death, and humor as a practice of resistance.

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