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How Not To Get Hoodwinked About Social Security Going “Bankrupt”

Josh Marshall Talking Points Memo
All the talk of Social Security “going bankrupt” or becoming “insolvent” is just plain wrong. This is just scare talk designed to convince people that big cuts to the program are necessary and inevitable. It’s simply not true.

Forensic Study Finds Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda Was Poisoned

Sam Jones and John Bartlett The Guardian
The toxin clostridium botulinum was in his body when he died in 1973, days after Chile’s military coup. Nobel prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda died after being poisoned with a powerful toxin. Neruda was internationally known Communist poet.

Tidbits – Feb. 16, 2023 – Reader Comments: States Can Tax the Rich; Black Studies Vital, Necessary; History Seeing ‘Socialism’ Under Every Bed; Ukraine War; Ohio Train Derailment; Holly Near Tribute; Paul Robeson 125th Birthday Celebration; More…

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Reader Comments: States Can Tax the Rich; Black Studies Vital, Necessary; History of Seeing 'Socialism' Under Every Bed; Ukraine War; Ohio Train Derailment; Holly Near Tribute; Paul Robeson 125th Birthday Celebration; Cartoons; lots of Announcements;

What the Hard-Won HarperCollins Union Contract Means for the Future of Books

Constance Grad Vox
“I’m feeling in shock, to be honest. It hasn’t quite hit me yet and I don’t think I’ll fully believe it until we’ve ratified,” And until I’ve hugged and cried in joy with my fellow strikers. But excited and nervous to get back to work! And to see the ripples this has across the industry.” Almost 250 workers had been on strike for 66 days.

The End of Liberal Zionism - Israel's Move to the Right Challenges Diaspora Jews

Antony Lerman, Op-Ed The New York Times
In the repressive one-state reality of today's Israel, which Mr. Netanyahu clearly wishes to make permanent, we need a joint Israeli-Palestinian movement to attain those rights and the full equality they imply. Only such a movement can lay the groundwork for the necessary compromises that will allow the two peoples' national cultures to flourish. They should know that Israel is not Judaism. Jewish history did not culminate in the creation of the state of Israel.

Malala Yousafzai: By the Book

The New York Times
The activist and co-author of "I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World" relished "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," the first book she read in the hospital when recovering from an attack by the Taliban.

Microsoft Admits Stashing $92B Offshore to Avoid $29B in U.S. Taxes

David Sirota International Business Times
Microsoft Corp. is currently sitting on almost $29.6 billion it would owe in U.S. taxes if it repatriated the $92.9 billion of earnings it is keeping offshore, according to disclosures in the company's most recent annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such maneuvers -- although often legal -- threaten to signficantly reduce U.S. corporate tax receipts during an era marked by government budget deficits.