Israel Today, Germany Then

Uri Avnery gush-shalom
Ya'ir Golan, the deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli army, made a speech on Holocaust Memorial Day. Some accuse him of comparing Israel to Nazi Germany in that speech. Nothing of the sort. He compared developments in Israel to the events that led to the disintegration of the Weimar Republic. And that is a valid comparison. Things happening in Israel, especially since the last election, bear a frightening similarity to those events.

The Fading Meaning of ‘GMO'

James Hamblin The Atlantic
The National Academy of Sciences is urging people to focus less on the process and more on the product.

Spiralling Global Temperatures

This powerful visualisation of climate change by climatologist Ed Hawkins plots the global average temperature for every month since 1850. The farther from the center, the hotter the month.

Pirates of the Caribbean (in Vietnam)

This Vietnamese concert series brings contemporary music, including rap, pop and film as well as remixed classical and symphonic works directly to a street audience in the form of a flashmob.

Wilmore vs Trump Impression-off

Donald Trump (Bob DiBuono) challenges Larry to an impression-off after a recording surfaces of the GOP candidate masquerading as a publicist on his own behalf. 

Bernie Sanders: 'Let the People In'

In front of a boisterous crowd in Carson, Calif. on May 17, Bernie Sanders called on the Democratic party to "open the doors; let the people in." Sanders vowed to continue fighting rival Hillary Clinton for the party's presidential nomination. (Sarah Parnass/Washington Post)

'America Was Never Great'

Home Depot worker Krystal Lake of Staten Island, NY, tells why she wore a custom-made hat reading 'America was never great' to work and what response she got.

Friday Nite Videos -- May 20, 2016

Portside
'America Was Never Great.' Bernie Sanders: 'Let the People In.' Wilmore vs Trump Impression-off. Pirates of the Caribbean (in Vietnam). Spiralling Global Temperatures.

Koch World

Tom Gallagher Los Angeles Review of Books
Mayer charts the domestic far-right effort to remake the political system through foundations, think tanks, university institutes, paid political commentators and huge campaign contributions by heirs to energy giant Koch Industries. One strategist admitted, "We want to decrease regulations. Why? It's because we can make more profit, okay?" Yet selling that line is hard. So they pose that ameliorative legislation denies the "opportunity for earned success" to the poor.

One Day Longer

Shaun Richman Jacobin
Forty thousand Verizon workers have now been on strike for a month. These days, a strike of the Verizon action’s scale and duration is exceedingly rare. That’s largely because the stakes for workers are so high. Strikers don’t just lose their pay and benefits — they risk losing their job entirely.