We Don’t Need A Cure For The Weight Of The World

Dragonette’s dance-y new hit “Let it Go.” Get it (legally) here.

What Drives Neil Degrasse

If only people like this led our country…

A Turning Point For Venezuela

The Article: Venezuela’s turning point by Samuel Moncada in The Guardian.

The Text: Ten years ago Latin American history reached a turning point. In Venezuela, a US-backed military coup against the elected government of Hugo Chávez was stopped dead in its tracks after just a few days. It marked a clear break from the coups and subsequent dictatorships installed to defend economic elites that had cast a long shadow across Latin America. (Indeed, Pinochet’s 1973 coup in Chile shows what could have happened in Venezuela.) A tide of progressive governments across the continent followed.

Over the three days of the coup many were killed. Like many others, I had a friend shot dead by coup police. Casualties and human rights abuses were widespread and all democratic institutions annulled. Having appeared on national TV the day before to warn that a coup was coming, I was concerned I’d be arrested. I was lucky. The others dragged away from my apartment block were not.

The seizure of power united much of the old order – big business, media moguls, landowners, the church hierarchy – with the US. They opposed reforms giving the government a greater share of the nation’s oil wealth. But against these powerful forces stood millions of long-excluded Venezuelans. They rose up, took over the city centres and surrounded army bases demanding the return of their elected president. In defeating the coup, they began a new chapter in Venezuelan history.

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Let Me Speak To You

Lemonade’s slow summertime jam “Neptune” off their EP of the same name.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Worst Nightmare

The thought of lacrosse players directing foreign policy is my worst nightmare. I agree with Kurt.