Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches. They're joined by Ria Lina looking into changes in the NHS, Fin Taylor on the Royals, and with an original song from Ed MacArthur.

The show was written by the cast with additional material from Rachel E Thorn, Aidan Fitzmaurice, Joe Bates and Cody Dahler.

Voice Actors: Joz Norris and Gemma Arrowsmith.

Producer: Rajiv Karia Production Coordinator: Katie Baum

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4

Democracy Now! 2023-12-18 Monday

• Headlines for December 18, 2023
• ​​Al Jazeera's Marwan Bishara on IDF Killing AJ Journalist, the 3 Hostages & U.S. Support for Israel
• "Tragically Historic": The Guardian's Nina Lakhani on the Failure of Yet Another U.N. Climate Summit

Download this show

Democracy Now! 2023-12-21 Thursday

• Headlines for December 21, 2023
• "The Hostages Weren't Our Top Priority": Israel's "Bombing Frenzy" Endangered Hostages Held in Gaza
• "The U.S. and Israel Stand Alone": World Demands Ceasefire as Gaza Death Toll Tops 20,000
• Colorado Disqualifies Trump from Ballot, Triggering Battle over Constitution's Insurrection Clause
• "Fascism Out Loud": Trump's Escalating Racist Rhetoric & the Far Right's Plan for a Slow Civil War

Download this show

Raw link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycyxytk1NAQ

In this ~25 minute video, I present my new Emacs configuration. It is an advanced setup that starts with a literate Org program as the “source of truth”. This file generates all the individual modules and custom libraries of my setup. I explain all the technicalities and why this approach is the best of both worlds to (i) document the rich corpus of work found in my dotfiles while (ii) not compromising on code excellence.

• Website: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/dotemacs
• Git repo on SourceHut: https://git.sr.ht/~protesilaos/dotfiles
  • Mirrors:
    • GitHub: https://github.com/protesilaos/dotfiles
    • GitLab: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/dotfiles
• Mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/dotfiles
• Backronym: Do Observe, Transpose, Examine, or Mirror All Configurations, Stranger (dotemacs); Dotfiles Operate Transparently For the Included Linux and Emacs Setups (dotfiles).

W. Bush - Obama - Trump - Biden

Party rocking against the dying of the light.

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Reagan - H.W. Bush - Clinton

Don't stop thinkin' about tomorrow.

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The Bush administration unleashes the first war of the 21st century.

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Ben and Hesse from Seeking Derrangements stop by to cover a slew of gay-related news stories, from gay sex in the senate hearing room, to the downfall of George Santos, sex crimes among the sex-panicked Moms For Liberty, and some guys trying to build a libertarian utopia in the Mediterranean.

Subscribe to Seeking Derrangements at: https://www.patreon.com/seekingderangements

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This is a quick demonstration of using Deepgram's streaming API to do speech recognition live. It isn't as accurate as OpenAI Whisper but since Whisper doesn't have a streaming API, it'll do for now. I can correct misrecognized words manually. I tend to talk really quickly, so it displays the words per minute in my modeline. I put the words into an Org Mode buffer so I can toggle headings with avy and cycle visibility. When I'm done, it saves the text, JSON, and WAV for further processing. I think it'll be handy to have a quick way to take live notes during interviews or when I'm thinking out loud. Could be fun!

I'm still getting some weirdness when the mode turns on when I don't expect it, so that's something to look into. Maybe I won't use it as a mode for now. I'll just use my-live-speech-start and my-live-speech-stop.

(defvar my-live-speech-buffer "*Speech*")
(defvar my-live-speech-process nil)
(defvar my-live-speech-output-buffer "*Speech JSON*")

(defvar my-live-speech-functions
  '(my-live-speech-display-in-speech-buffer
    my-live-speech-display-wpm
    my-live-speech-append-to-etherpad)
  "Functions to call with one argument, the recognition results.")

(defun my-live-speech-start ()
  "Turn on live captions."
  (interactive)
  (with-current-buffer (get-buffer-create my-live-speech-buffer)
    (unless (process-live-p my-live-speech-process)
      (let ((default-directory "~/proj/deepgram-live"))
        (message "%s" default-directory)
        (with-current-buffer (get-buffer-create my-live-speech-output-buffer)
          (erase-buffer))
        (setq my-live-speech-recent-words nil
              my-live-speech-wpm-string "READY ")
        (setq my-deepgram-process
              (make-process
               :command '("bash" "run.sh")
               :name "speech"
               :filter 'my-live-speech-json-filter
               :sentinel #'my-live-speech-process-sentinel
               :buffer my-live-speech-output-buffer)))
      (org-mode))
    (display-buffer (current-buffer))))

(defun my-live-speech-stop ()
  (interactive)
  (if (process-live-p my-live-speech-process)
      (kill-process my-live-speech-process))
  (setq my-live-speech-wpm-string nil))

;; (define-minor-mode my-live-speech-mode
;;  "Show live speech and display WPM.
;; Need to check how to reliably turn this on and off."
;;  :global t :group 'sachac
;;  (if my-live-speech-mode
;;      (my-live-speech-start)
;;    (my-live-speech-stop)
;;    (setq my-live-speech-wpm-string nil)))

;; based on subed-mpv::client-filter
(defun my-live-speech-handle-json (line-object)
  "Process the JSON object in LINE."
  (run-hook-with-args 'my-live-speech-functions (json-parse-string line :object-type 'alist)))

(defun my-live-speech-process-sentinel (proc event)
  (when (string-match "finished" event)
    (my-live-speech-stop)
    ;(my-live-speech-mode -1)
    ))

(defun my-live-speech-json-filter (proc string)
  (when (buffer-live-p (process-buffer proc))
    (with-current-buffer (process-buffer proc)
      (let* ((proc-mark (process-mark proc))
             (moving (= (point) proc-mark)))
        ;;  insert the output
        (save-excursion
          (goto-char proc-mark)
          (insert string)
          (set-marker proc-mark (point)))
        (if moving (goto-char proc-mark))
        ;; process and remove all complete lines of JSON (lines are complete if ending with \n)
        (let ((pos (point-min)))
          (while (progn (goto-char pos)
                        (end-of-line)
                        (equal (following-char) ?\n))
            (let* ((end (point))
                   (line (buffer-substring pos end)))
              (delete-region pos (+ end 1))
              (with-current-buffer (get-buffer my-live-speech-buffer)
                (my-live-speech-handle-json line)))))))))

# Based on streaming-test-suite
# https://developers.deepgram.com/docs/getting-started-with-the-streaming-test-suite

import pyaudio
import asyncio
import json
import os
import websockets
from datetime import datetime
import wave
import sys

startTime = datetime.now()
key = os.environ['DEEPGRAM_API_KEY']
live_json = os.environ.get('LIVE_CAPTIONS_JSON', True)
all_mic_data = []
all_transcripts = []
all_words = []
FORMAT = pyaudio.paInt16
CHANNELS = 1
RATE = 16000
CHUNK = 8000

audio_queue = asyncio.Queue()
REALTIME_RESOLUTION = 0.250
SAMPLE_SIZE = 0

def save_info():
    global SAMPLE_SIZE
    base = startTime.strftime('%Y%m%d%H%M')
    wave_file_path = os.path.abspath(f"{base}.wav")
    wave_file = wave.open(wave_file_path, "wb")
    wave_file.setnchannels(CHANNELS)
    wave_file.setsampwidth(SAMPLE_SIZE)
    wave_file.setframerate(RATE)
    wave_file.writeframes(b"".join(all_mic_data))
    wave_file.close()
    with open(f"{base}.txt", "w") as f:
        f.write("\n".join(all_transcripts))
    with open(f"{base}.json", "w") as f:
        f.write(json.dumps(all_words))
    if live_json:
        print(f'{{"msg": "🟢 Saved to {base}.txt , {base}.json , {base}.wav", "base": "{base}"}}')
    else:
        print(f"🟢 Saved to {base}.txt , {base}.json , {base}.wav")

# Used for microphone streaming only.
def mic_callback(input_data, frame_count, time_info, status_flag):
    audio_queue.put_nowait(input_data)
    return (input_data, pyaudio.paContinue)

async def run(key, method="mic", format="text", **kwargs):
    deepgram_url = f'wss://api.deepgram.com/v1/listen?punctuate=true&smart_format=true&utterances=true&encoding=linear16&sample_rate=16000'
    async with websockets.connect(
        deepgram_url, extra_headers={"Authorization": "Token {}".format(key)}
    ) as ws:
        async def sender(ws):
            try:
                while True:
                    mic_data = await audio_queue.get()
                    all_mic_data.append(mic_data)
                    await ws.send(mic_data)
            except websockets.exceptions.ConnectionClosedOK:
                await ws.send(json.dumps({"type": "CloseStream"}))
                if live_json:
                    print('{"msg": "Closed."}')
                else:
                    print("Closed.")
        async def receiver(ws):
            global all_words
            """Print out the messages received from the server."""
            first_message = True
            first_transcript = True
            transcript = ""
            async for msg in ws:
                res = json.loads(msg)
                if first_message:
                    first_message = False
                try:
                    # handle local server messages
                    if res.get("msg"):
                        if live_json:
                            print(json.dumps(res))
                        else:
                            print(res["msg"])
                    if res.get("is_final"):
                        transcript = (
                            res.get("channel", {})
                            .get("alternatives", [{}])[0]
                            .get("transcript", "")
                        )
                        if transcript != "":
                            if first_transcript:
                                first_transcript = False
                            if live_json:
                                print(json.dumps(res.get("channel", {}).get("alternatives", [{}])[0]))
                            else:
                                print(transcript)
                            all_transcripts.append(transcript)
                            all_words = all_words + res.get("channel", {}).get("alternatives", [{}])[0].get("words", [])
                        # if using the microphone, close stream if user says "goodbye"
                        if method == "mic" and "goodbye" in transcript.lower():
                            await ws.send(json.dumps({"type": "CloseStream"}))
                            if live_json:
                                print('{"msg": "Done."}')
                            else:
                                print("Done.")
                    # handle end of stream
                    if res.get("created"):
                        save_info()
                except KeyError:
                    print(f"🔴 ERROR: Received unexpected API response! {msg}")

        # Set up microphone if streaming from mic
        async def microphone():
            audio = pyaudio.PyAudio()
            stream = audio.open(
                format=FORMAT,
                channels=CHANNELS,
                rate=RATE,
                input=True,
                frames_per_buffer=CHUNK,
                stream_callback=mic_callback,
            )

            stream.start_stream()

            global SAMPLE_SIZE
            SAMPLE_SIZE = audio.get_sample_size(FORMAT)

            while stream.is_active():
                await asyncio.sleep(0.1)

            stream.stop_stream()
            stream.close()

        functions = [
            asyncio.ensure_future(sender(ws)),
            asyncio.ensure_future(receiver(ws)),
        ]

        functions.append(asyncio.ensure_future(microphone()))
        if live_json:
            print('{"msg": "Ready."}')
        else:
            print("🟢 Ready.")
        await asyncio.gather(*functions)

def main():
    """Entrypoint for the example."""
    # Parse the command-line arguments.
    try:
        asyncio.run(run(key, "mic", "text"))
    except websockets.exceptions.InvalidStatusCode as e:
        print(f'🔴 ERROR: Could not connect to Deepgram! {e.headers.get("dg-error")}')
        print(
            f'🔴 Please contact Deepgram Support (developers@deepgram.com) with request ID {e.headers.get("dg-request-id")}'
        )
        return
    except websockets.exceptions.ConnectionClosedError as e:
        error_description = f"Unknown websocket error."
        print(
            f"🔴 ERROR: Deepgram connection unexpectedly closed with code {e.code} and payload {e.reason}"
        )

        if e.reason == "DATA-0000":
            error_description = "The payload cannot be decoded as audio. It is either not audio data or is a codec unsupported by Deepgram."
        elif e.reason == "NET-0000":
            error_description = "The service has not transmitted a Text frame to the client within the timeout window. This may indicate an issue internally in Deepgram's systems or could be due to Deepgram not receiving enough audio data to transcribe a frame."
        elif e.reason == "NET-0001":
            error_description = "The service has not received a Binary frame from the client within the timeout window. This may indicate an internal issue in Deepgram's systems, the client's systems, or the network connecting them."

        print(f"🔴 {error_description}")
        # TODO: update with link to streaming troubleshooting page once available
        # print(f'🔴 Refer to our troubleshooting suggestions: ')
        print(
            f"🔴 Please contact Deepgram Support (developers@deepgram.com) with the request ID listed above."
        )
        return

    except websockets.exceptions.ConnectionClosedOK:
        return

    except Exception as e:
        print(f"🔴 ERROR: Something went wrong! {e}")
        save_info()
        return


if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(main() or 0)

(defun my-live-speech-display-in-speech-buffer (recognition-results)
  (with-current-buffer (get-buffer-create my-live-speech-buffer)
    (let-alist recognition-results
      (let* ((pos (point))
             (at-end (eobp)))
        (goto-char (point-max))
        (unless (eolp) (insert "\n"))
        (when .msg
          (insert .msg "\n"))
        (when .transcript
          (insert .transcript "\n"))
        ;; scroll to the bottom if being displayed
        (if at-end
            (when (get-buffer-window (current-buffer))
              (set-window-point (get-buffer-window (current-buffer)) (point)))
          (goto-char pos))))))

(defun my-live-speech-toggle-heading ()
  "Toggle a line as a heading."
  (interactive)
  (with-current-buffer (get-buffer my-live-speech-buffer)
    (display-buffer (current-buffer))
    (with-selected-window (get-buffer-window (get-buffer my-live-speech-buffer))
      (let ((avy-all-windows nil))
        (avy-goto-line 1))
      (org-toggle-heading 1))))

(defun my-live-speech-cycle-visibility ()
  "Get a quick overview."
  (interactive)
  (with-current-buffer (get-buffer my-live-speech-buffer)
    (display-buffer (current-buffer))
    (if (eq org-cycle-global-status 'contents)
        (progn
          (run-hook-with-args 'org-cycle-pre-hook 'all)
          (org-fold-show-all '(headings blocks))
          (setq org-cycle-global-status 'all)
          (run-hook-with-args 'org-cycle-hook 'all))
      (run-hook-with-args 'org-cycle-pre-hook 'contents)
      (org-cycle-content)
      (setq org-cycle-global-status 'contents)
      (run-hook-with-args 'org-cycle-hook 'contents))))

(defvar my-live-speech-wpm-window-seconds 15 "How many seconds to calculate WPM for.")
(defvar my-live-speech-recent-words nil "Words spoken in `my-live-speech-wpm-window-minutes'.")
(defvar my-live-speech-wpm nil "Current WPM.")
(defvar my-live-speech-wpm-colors  ; haven't figured out how to make these work yet
  '((180 :foreground "red")
    (170 :foreground "yellow")
    (160 :foreground "green")))
(defvar my-live-speech-wpm-string nil "Add this somewhere in `mode-line-format'.")
(defun my-live-speech-wpm-string ()
  (propertize
   (format "%d WPM " my-live-speech-wpm)
   'face
   (cdr (seq-find (lambda (row) (> my-live-speech-wpm (car row))) my-live-speech-wpm-colors))))

(defun my-live-speech-display-wpm (recognition-results)
  (let-alist recognition-results
    (when .words
      ;; calculate WPM
      (setq my-live-speech-recent-words
            (append my-live-speech-recent-words .words nil))
      (let ((threshold (- (assoc-default 'end (aref .words (1- (length .words))))
                          my-live-speech-wpm-window-seconds)))
        (setq my-live-speech-recent-words
              (seq-filter
               (lambda (o)
                 (>= (assoc-default 'start o)
                     threshold))
               my-live-speech-recent-words))
        (setq my-live-speech-wpm
              (/
               (length my-live-speech-recent-words)
               (/ (- (assoc-default 'end (aref .words (1- (length .words))))
                     (assoc-default 'start (car my-live-speech-recent-words)))
                  60.0)))
        (setq my-live-speech-wpm-string (my-live-speech-wpm-string))))))

(defvar my-live-speech-etherpad-id nil)
(defun my-live-speech-append-to-etherpad (recognition-results)
  (when my-live-speech-etherpad-id
    (emacsconf-pad-append-text my-live-speech-etherpad-id (concat " " (assoc-default 'transcript recognition-results)))))

Krystal and Saagar discuss protests erupting in Israel after the IDF shot 3 hostages, shipping crisis amid escalating Yemen US tensions, Trump uses 'Nazi' immigrant rhetoric, Nikki Haley sweats when pressed on Trump support, Ukraine kidnaps disabled people for war service, Fetterman says he isn't a progressive, Senate staffer fired for gay sex tape in Congress, and Bibi admits two state solution is dead. 

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Fermin gave an interesting talk to the 2023 EmacsConf. The title of the talk was The Emacsen family, the design of an Emacs and the importance of Lisp. He starts with the premise that Lisp is the right language for Emacs implementation and extension.

That takes him to Elisp. It was, he says, a pretty nice language when Stallman designed it and today it’s still “good enough”. But that brings up the question, “Why not Common Lisp?” As we all know, RMS is not a fan but there’s more to it. When Emacs was being developed, a final specification was still 10 years away and there weren’t any (or at least any “free”) implementations available so RMS rolled his own.

But, Fermin says, we can do much better today with Common Lisp. In particular, the SBCL implementation is fast, compiles to native code, and is stable. That brings him to Lem. Lem is Emacs reimagined and implemented in Common Lisp.

The developers have made a conscious effort to make Lem familiar to Emacs users but also to make it more general and easier to extend. Take a look at the video or read to transcript for the details.

One thing I like about it is that it’s 100% Common Lisp. There’s no C core; just Lisp all the way down. That makes it easier to customize or extend any part of the editor.

It’s an interesting project but I doubt it will gain much traction among Emacsians. Using Common Lisp solves at lot of problems with Emacs but Emacs users are famously conservative about such things. Just consider the fury that a small change to how registers work provoked (see this reddit post and the Emacs-devel thread about it starting here).

In any event, it’s an interesting talk and worth watching. The video is 18 minutes 27 seconds so plan accordingly.

A State Department official resigned on October 14, writing in a letter that the U.S. support for Israel’s assault on Gaza “will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and Palestinian people.” The director of the New York office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights resigned on October 31, stating that “once again we are seeing a genocide unfolding before our eyes and the organization we serve appears powerless to stop it.”

With over 20,000 now dead in Gaza, there’s one government official who you’d assume — at least if you take her own words seriously — would join them. That is Samantha Power, current head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Before that, she was the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. during the Obama administration.

But Power first rose to prominence with her 2002 book “‘A Problem From Hell’: America and the Age of Genocide.” It won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, with the citation reading, “Samantha Power poses a question that haunts our nation’s past: Why do American leaders who vow ‘never again’ repeatedly fail to marshal the will and the might to stop genocide?”

In the book’s introduction, Power makes this observation: “This country’s consistent policy of nonintervention in the face of genocide offers sad testimony not to a broken American political system but to one that is ruthlessly effective. The system, as it stands now, is working.”

There is no sign of Power taking a principled stand on Gaza, however. Rather, she is spending her time proudly tweeting about all the good the U.S. is doing in the world, such as the arrival in Egypt of 147,000 pounds of humanitarian aid. This is approximately one ounce per person in Gaza. 

In her book, Power depicts a grim history of U.S. realpolitik — during the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and more — that is totally indifferent to human suffering. In her telling, the ranks of the government are filled with cowardly, faceless apparatchiks who consistently choose their careers over humanity. Power describes them as “those who sat before their computers or bumped into one another in the [State] department’s drab cafeteria … [bureaucrats] who were protective of turf and career and not at all in the habit of rocking the boat.”

The book would be unbearably bleak if it weren’t for various heroes that Power locates in the labyrinthian halls of government, individuals who are so sick at heart at U.S. policy that they can no longer carry it out and publicly resign.

First, Power celebrates George Kenney, the State Department’s acting Yugoslav desk officer, who stepped down in 1992. Kenney decried George H.W. Bush’s disinterest in various massacres during the dissolution of Yugoslavia, with his cri de coeur making the front page of the Washington Post. When Power later covered the Balkans as a journalist, she wore a camouflage vest and helmet given to her by Kenney.

Then, in August 1993, Marshall Freeman Harris, the State Department’s Bosnia desk officer, resigned. Power interviewed him and quotes him as saying, “When you are in a bureaucracy, you can either put your head down and become cynical, tired and inured, or you can stick your head up and try to do something.”

Then, two more State officials left. Power cites a letter from one of them, Steven Walker, in which Walker wrote, “I can no longer countenance U.S. support for a diplomatic process that legitimizes aggression and genocide.”

So you might believe that Power herself would obviously step down now in the face of Israel’s actions in Gaza. After all, what’s happening now is arguably a greater indictment of the U.S. than what she writes about in “‘A Problem From Hell,’” which covers examples in which the U.S. government took little or no action to intervene to halt mass death. Here the U.S. is directly and unyieldingly supporting mass death.

Read our complete coverage

Israel’s War on Gaza

At the end of the book, Power considers the past century and asks some cogent questions: “How many of us do not believe that the presidents, senators, bureaucrats, journalists, and ordinary citizens who did nothing, choosing to look away rather than to face hard choices and wrenching moral dilemmas, were wrong? And how can something so clear in retrospect become so muddled at the time by rationalizations, institutional constraints, and a lack of imagination? How can it be that those who fight on behalf of these principles are the ones deemed unreasonable?”

How indeed. For now, however, Power shows no signs of asking herself any such questions about the present and her role in it. If she did, she might see herself in these lines from a poem by Joseph Brodsky that she tweeted out four years ago:

Time, whose sharp blood-thirsty quill
Parts the killed from those who kill,
Will pronounce the latter tribe
As your type.

The post Samantha Power Calls on Samantha Power to Resign Over Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.

When Bernie Sanders launched his first presidential campaign in early 2015, the political world could not have been more different than it is today. His run set in motion a movement — or, really, a series of movements that clashed and blended over the ensuing years, reshaping both the Democratic Party and the country. On today’s episode of Deconstructed, we’re trying something new: Host Ryan Grim narrates the audio version of his new book “The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution.” Macmillan Audio has allowed Deconstructed to run edited excerpts. But we’ve spliced Grim’s audiobook with interviews, speeches, and newscasts, making it into an audio documentary for the podcast. Our first episode takes you inside the first Sanders campaign, where we explore the tension between the right wing of the Democratic Party and Sanders’s “political revolution.” Part 2, coming out later this week, will look back at the historical forces that pushed members of the Squad into politics — and the spotlight. And Part 3, coming out next week, jumps further into the book, exploring the big-money pushback against the new insurgent energy.

You can find Grim's book here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250869074/thesquad

If you’d like to support our work, go to theintercept.com/give, where your donation, no matter what the amount, makes a real difference.

And if you haven’t already, please subscribe to the show so you can hear it every week. And please go and leave us a rating or a review — it helps people find the show. If you want to give us additional feedback, email us at Podcasts@theintercept.com.

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The 2008 economic crisis changed the world. In the United States, the meager response by Barack Obama and the Democratic Party produced a recovery that was far too slow, drove an eviction crisis, and fueled a populist backlash. On the left, it took the form of Occupy Wall Street, which put the problem of wealth and income inequality — the 99 percent versus the 1 percent — into the national political conversation for the first time since the Great Depression. Followed a few years later by the Movement for Black Lives and an upsurge of climate activism, the new radical energy among young people prepped the ground for the first Bernie Sanders campaign. In 2016, the Vermont senator came shockingly close to the presidential nomination, but as he faded, a chunk of his staff that focused on organizing grassroots supporters decided to quit and try something new: They would recruit and support Bernie-style populists and take over the House. On this episode of Deconstructed, Ryan Grim brings us another audio documentary, adapted from an excerpt of his newest book, “The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution.” This episode chronicles the 2008 economic crisis, Obama’s election, and zeroes in on how individual members of the Squad became politicized. Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the excerpt.

You can find Grim's book here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250869074/thesquad

If you’d like to support our work, go to theintercept.com/give, where your donation, no matter what the amount, makes a real difference.

And if you haven’t already, please subscribe to the show so you can hear it every week. And please go and leave us a rating or a review — it helps people find the show. If you want to give us additional feedback, email us at Podcasts@theintercept.com.

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More than 18,600 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s latest wave of attacks began just over two months ago, following the October 7 Hamas attack that killed some 1,200 Israelis. While the Biden administration continues to support Israel in its devastation, politicians and heads of state around the world are calling for a ceasefire. The last extended war on Gaza, in 2021, would reshape the Democratic Party's posture toward Israel and Palestine. 

On this episode of Deconstructed, Ryan Grim brings us another audio documentary, adapted from an excerpt of his new book, “The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution.” In this episode, Grim revisits the 2021 Gaza war. When members of the Squad and their allies began speaking out about the U.S. government’s support for Israel, the debates in Washington grew extremely messy. The Squad’s opposition led to a political showdown, with special interest groups and other politicians applying pressure on those critical of Israel’s attacks. It threatened a government shutdown and further pushed the conversation on the U.S.’s unconditional support for the Israeli military, setting the stage for the widespread opposition seen today, as well as the highly organized and well-funded reaction from supporters of Israel. Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the excerpt.

You can find Grim's book here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250869074/thesquad

This is the last episode of 2023. Thank you for listening this year. We will be back with more episodes in 2024.

If you’d like to support our work, go to theintercept.com/give, where your donation, no matter what the amount, makes a real difference.

And if you haven’t already, please subscribe to the show so you can hear it every week. And please go and leave us a rating or a review — it helps people find the show. If you want to give us additional feedback, email us at Podcasts@theintercept.com.

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Today, we’re sharing an episode of our sister podcast, Deconstructed, hosted by Ryan Grim.

More than 18,600 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s latest wave of attacks began just over two months ago, following the October 7 Hamas attack that killed some 1,200 Israelis. While the Biden administration continues to support Israel in its devastation, politicians and heads of state around the world are calling for a ceasefire. The last extended war on Gaza, in 2021, would reshape the Democratic Party's posture toward Israel and Palestine. 

On this episode of Deconstructed, Ryan Grim brings us another audio documentary, adapted from an excerpt of his new book, “The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution.” In this episode, Grim revisits the 2021 Gaza war. When members of the Squad and their allies began speaking out about the U.S. government’s support for Israel, the debates in Washington grew extremely messy. The Squad’s opposition led to a political showdown, with special interest groups and other politicians applying pressure on those critical of Israel’s attacks. It threatened a government shutdown and further pushed the conversation on the U.S.’s unconditional support for the Israeli military, setting the stage for the widespread opposition seen today, as well as the highly organized and well-funded reaction from supporters of Israel.

You can find Grim's book here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250869074/thesquad

If you’d like to support our work, go to theintercept.com/give, where your donation, no matter what the amount, makes a real difference.

And if you haven’t already, please subscribe to the show so you can hear it every week. And please go and leave us a rating or a review — it helps people find the show. If you want to give us additional feedback, email us at Podcasts@theintercept.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Aging population to hit U.S. economy like a 'ton of bricks'," Reuters reported in 2021. "Aging Is The Real Population Bomb," the International Monetary Fund cautioned earlier this year. "How an aging population poses challenges for U.S. economy, workforce and social programs," PBS declared in June. "Why we're borrowing to fund the elderly while neglecting everyone else," The Washington Post's Catherine Rampell wrote just this past November.

Year after year, it seems, American media issues the same warning: The population of the US, due to - among other factors - rising life expectancy and falling birthrates, is getting older, which spells doom for our economy. A graying public, we're told, will inevitably upend the labor force, destroy productivity, bleed programs like Medicare and Social Security dry, and thus place an undue burden on the younger population.

But the premises for this panic are based on misleading stats, goofy non-sequiturs, and misdirected faux class warfare. So, why do media keep insisting the olds are out for your hard-earned money? Who gets to shape our understanding of what an aging population actually means economically or socially? How does this narrative shift the burden from the state to the individual in terms of managing retirement benefits and systems of care? And what are the real harms of treating people over the age of 65 like they're a cancer on society?

On this episode, we examine the narrative that an aging population is necessarily dire, looking at how it's instrumentalized to gut public benefits for seniors and thus for everyone, advance the financialization of retirement, and reframe the conflict between rich and poor as one between young and old.

Our guest is social security expert Nancy Altman.

This week, hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot talk with biographer Will Hermes about his recent book on Lou Reed, as well as Lou’s music, persona, legacy and more.

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Lou Reed, "Walk on the Wild Side," Transformer, RCA, 1972

The Beatles, "With A Little Help From My Friends," Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Parlophone, 1967

The Velvet Underground and Nico, "Sunday Morning," The Velvet Underground & Nico, Verve, 1967

The Velvet Underground and Nico, "Heroin," The Velvet Underground & Nico, Verve, 1967

The Velvet Underground, "Pale Blue Eyes," The Velvet Underground, MGM, 1969

Lou Reed, "Coney Island Baby," Coney Island Baby, RCA, 1975

The Velvet Underground, "Some Kinda Love," The Velvet Underground, MGM, 1969

Lou Reed, "How Do You Think It Feels," Berlin, RCA, 1973

Lou Reed, "Perfect Day," Transformer, RCA, 1972

The Velvet Underground, "Sweet Jane," Loaded, Cotillion, 1970

The Velvet Underground and Nico, "I'll Be Your Mirror," The Velvet Underground & Nico, Verve, 1967

The Velvet Underground, "Candy Says," The Velvet Underground, MGM, 1969

John Prine, "Hello In There," John Prine, Atlantic, 1971

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Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis present the week via topical stand-up and sketches. They are joined by Zoe Lyons, with some news of recent rare sightings, Pierre Novellie, exploring the latest in middle class crazes, and Jess Robinson, singing about the real stalwart of 10 Downing Street.

The show was written by the cast with additional material from Mike Shephard, Tasha Dhanraj, David Duncan and Cody Dahler.

Voice Actors: Jason Forbes & Roisin O'Mahony

Producer: Sasha Bobak Production Coordinator: Katie Baum

A BBC Studios Production for Radio 4

Andy Zaltzman quizzes the week's news. Providing the answers, hopefully, are Ian Smith, Ria Lina, Hugo Rifkind, and Robin Morgan

In this final episode of the series Andy and the panel discuss some problematic protests, the looming general election, and BRITS IN SPACE!

Written by Andy Zaltzman

With additional material by Cody Dahler Mike Shephard and Adam Greene

Producer: Sam Holmes Executive Producer: Richard Morris Production Co-ordinator: Dan Marchini Sound Editor: Marc Willcox

A BBC Studios Production

As many of you know, I’ve long been fascinated by those who can write LaTeX at speed. By “at speed” I mean, for example, being able to keep up with a math professor’s lecture in the classroom. It seems almost impossible but guys like Gilles Castel showed that it could be done. Castel did his work in Vim but, of course, the same thing can be done in Emacs as Karthink demonstrates.

Castel depended on the Vim equivalent of yasnippet. Karthink also used yasnippet but his main tool was CDLaTeX. Recently, I came across a post that suggested that laas was much more efficient than CDLaTeX. I haven’t tried it but looking at the builtin shortcuts, it seems like it would be very useful for entering LaTeX at speed.

If you, too, would like to take LaTeX notes in your classes or other real time situations, you should definitely take a look at laas. And, of course, you absolutely must read Castel’s and Karthink’s posts.

My days in the classroom are long over but I was trained as a mathematician and if I were back in school today, I would definitely want to be able to take my notes in LaTeX. As I say, it seems like an impossible dream but Castel and Karthink showed that it’s possible.

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Craig Mokhiber resigned as Director of the UN's New York Office of the Higher Commissioner for Human Rights citing the organizations insufficient response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the pushback he received even before 10/7 when critiquing the human rights violations perpetrated by Israel. In our interview, Craig applies his expertise as a human rights lawyer to substantiate the claim that Israel is in fact committing a genocide and dives deep into what is broken at the UN, such as capture by US interests, and what must happen to advance the rights of Palestinians.

Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod).

Produced by Armand Aviram.

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).

Democracy Now! 2023-12-14 Thursday

• Headlines for December 14, 2023
• Israel Accused of War Crimes for "Apparently Deliberate" Killing of Reuters Journalist in Lebanon
• Jeremy Scahill: Gaza "Scorched-Earth Campaign" Is a "Joint U.S.-Israeli Operation"
• Palestinian Student Shot in VT & Granddaughter of Holocaust Survivor Join Haverford Sit-In for Gaza

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The Pentagon is working to expedite weapons exports to Israel by deploying a so-called Tiger Team of experts to facilitate the transfers, according to procurement records reviewed by The Intercept. Some of the arms sales will be carried out through a new Army initiative designed specifically for the provision of weapons to Israel.

The Israel-specific program, called the Israel Significant Initiatives Group, is located within the Army’s Defense Exports and Cooperation office, which oversees policy for U.S. arms sales.

The Tiger Team meets daily with the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency, or DSCA, which executes U.S. arms sales, to overcome barriers to arms sales to Israel. The “tiger team,” a crisis rapid response team involving a diverse set of experts, is supposed to examine potential bottlenecks and delays in weapons transfers and offer advice for alleviating the issues.

The existence of both the Tiger Team and the Israel Significant Initiatives Group have not been previously reported.

“As implementer of the vast majority of both State and Defense Department security assistance, DSCA sits at the center of our arms transfers to Israel,” said Josh Paul, a former director for the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which oversees U.S. arms transfers. He said the creation of a Tiger Team is a policy choice by President Joe Biden to get weapons to Israel as fast as possible.

“This shows that at all levels of government, from policy to implementation, the Biden Administration is doing all it can to rush arms to Israel despite President Biden’s recent explicit statement that Israel’s bombing of Gaza is ‘indiscriminate,’ and despite extensive reporting that the arms we are providing are causing massive civilian casualties,” said Paul, who resigned from the State Department in protest of the Biden administration’s ongoing weapons assistance to Israel. “This will not be a proud moment for the Biden Administration, the State Department – or for DSCA.”

The Defense Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the Tiger Team and the Israel Significant Initiatives Group.

According to a source familiar with the Tiger Team, who asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations, the group of experts has raised harm to civilians in Gaza as a potential issue with U.S. weapons sales to Israel.

“The Tiger Team is looking at issues of civilian harm, and is raising those issues, but is being met with absolute lack of interest and direction from the top to keep the process moving,” the source said.

“The Tiger Team is looking at issues of civilian harm, and is raising those issues, but is being met with absolute lack of interest.”

Both the Tiger Team and the Israel Significant Initiatives Group are using defense contractors to staff up. Reference to the Tiger Team appears in a job posting by the Hoplite Group.

“In response to the 7 October 2023 attacks by Hamas on Israel, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency has served as the implementer of the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) process with Israel,” the job listing says. “There is a desire to generate real-time Lessons Learned to assess major bottlenecks, anticipate major hurdles to overcome, and analyze the limits of FMS support to Partner Nations.”

Another defense contractor, Sigmatech, listed a position for an “operations support specialist” to work on the Israel Significant Initiatives Group. The listing has since been removed.

The White House convened a Tiger Team in preparation for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to the Washington Post. After the invasion, the Tiger Team reportedly developed contingency plans for how to respond in the event that Russian President Vladimir Putin resorted to chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons.

Read our complete coverage

Israel’s War on Gaza

According to Paul, the new Tiger Team for Israel shows that the arms sales system, already supercharged after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is still not fast enough for the administration.

“The assembling of a Tiger Team demonstrates that the Biden administration believes that all of the existing mechanisms of arms transfer — mechanisms which have proved their extreme ability to expedite arms transfers to Ukraine for the past two years — do not work fast enough,” Paul said.

The Defense Exports and Cooperation office has previously touted its work providing security assistance to allied countries. Over the past year, for example, it has posted copies of several Defense Department press releases detailing security assistance to Ukraine, as well as other partner countries like Colombia and the Philippines. 

“U.S. Sends Ukraine $400 Million in Military Equipment,” a March press release is titled. The release includes a picture of a tank unit billowing smoke from its howitzers. Another press release, from December of last year, detailed a security package to Ukraine, right down to the specific numbers of munitions like artillery, tank, and mortar rounds. 

When it comes to Israel, the Defense Exports and Cooperation office has not posted a single press release this year. Secrecy has been a hallmark of the Biden administration’s weapons transfers to Israel, as The Intercept has previously reported.

White House spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged the secrecy in October. “We’re being careful not to quantify or get into too much detail about what they’re getting — for their own operational security purposes, of course,” he told reporters. 

Shortly after the October 7 Hamas attack against Israel, the White House asked Congress to remove key restrictions on Israel’s ability to access U.S. weapons stockpiles in the country, as The Intercept reported last month. The White House request sought to “allow for the transfer of all categories of defense articles” from the stockpiles, as well as to remove requirements that such weapons be obsolete or surplus in nature.

In other instances of weapons sales to Israel, the administration has cut out Congress entirely. Last week, the Biden administration bypassed Congress to authorize the sale of 13,000 tank shells to Israel.

The post Pentagon Taps “Tiger Team” to Rush Weapons to Israel appeared first on The Intercept.

The Afghan jihad spreads to Europe, Asia, Africa, and America.

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