‘Bruce Springsteen’s new anti-ICE anthem is no “Blowin’ in the Wind.” And that’s OK.’
Jeff Slate at MS NOW
Bruce Springsteen’s “new anti-ICE anthem isn’t quite as bad as Paul McCartney’s ghastly post-9/11 anthem ‘Freedom,’” but “he’s arguably done more than any other major artist to speak out against the Trump administration’s draconian policies, and maybe that’s enough,” says Jeff Slate. The song’s “lyrics are clunky and the production is unsophisticated, presumably due to the fact that it was written and produced less than a week after Pretti’s death.” But “maybe, in fact, it’s exactly what we need right now.”
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‘California is failing its homeless students’
Margaret Olmos at the San Francisco Chronicle
Nearly “300,000 California students are trying to learn without a stable place to sleep,” and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget “failed to include dedicated funding for students experiencing homelessness,” says Margaret Olmos. The “consequences of inaction are profound.” This moment “presents a clear budget choice. California lawmakers can continue relying on inadequate and unstable federal funding, or they can deepen investment in what works.” Education is “one of the most effective tools for preventing homelessness.”
‘If Cuba falls, the Global South is to blame, too’
Belén Fernández at Al Jazeera
The U.S. has “effectively been trying to destroy” Cuba for “no fewer than 67 years,” says Belén Fernández. “This time around, however, the threat carries a bit more weight in light of the Trump administration’s abduction earlier this month of Nicolás Maduro.” One “would hope, then, that other countries — particularly the self-declared allies of Cuba — might step up to defend the island against U.S. predations or at least credibly register their opposition to imperial impunity.”
‘Starlink’s internet from space works astonishingly well. But there’s a catch.’
Alex Beam at The Boston Globe
A “Starlink hookup affords more or less anyone ample bandwidth to bypass state-controlled or utility-controlled networks,” says Alex Beam. But users are at the “whim of Starlink’s owner, the mercurial Elon Musk, who has been accused of blacking out the service at key moments.” Where “goes Musk, there goes controversy and fulmination,” and “where goes Starlink, there goes friction.” That “being said, it is kind of amazing — high-speed internet beaming down from flashing boxcars in the sky.”
