All posts tagged: Republic

The GQ Guide to Shopping Banana Republic in 2024

The GQ Guide to Shopping Banana Republic in 2024

Published by skeptic

For those that haven’t checked GQ.com recently, Banana Republic is, quite simply, very good again. There are multiple reasons for the brand’s resurgence, but the short version goes like this: a couple of years ago, the big-box retailer started mining its storied archive, embraced the styles that made it a household name in the first place, applied some of the world’s finest fabrics to those exact styles, and proceeded to drop a whole slew of them every season since. These days, the brand shows no sign of easing up. Looking for some Rat Pack-worthy polos in surprisingly luxe blends? Banana Republic has you covered. Voluminous pleated trousers with just the right kind of drape? Ditto. Summer knits that will age infinitely better than the weekend decisions you make while wearing them? A seemingly endless supply, each rendered in more dazzling fabrications than the last. PRODUCT QUICK LINK LIST Luxurious Knits We’ve been consistently impressed with Banana Republic’s knitwear program and it’s undoubtedly among the best things that the brand has to offer. Spring and summer …

Poland’s Gift to the American Republic

Poland’s Gift to the American Republic

Published by skeptic

What does it feel like to watch a republic die? And what does it take to revive one? Whether the American republic survives could be decided in the next few months. Decades or centuries hence, the signs will seem clear; today, we live through one of those moments when we feel the weight of our own decisions, even as the larger historical forces, powerful as they might be, remain elusive in our daily life. This is what I was thinking, walking along Delaware Avenue to attend the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month, when I found blocking my path a snowplow named “Casimir Plowaski.” The machine, brought into summer service to assist the city’s crowd-control effort, was christened Plowaski earlier this year by Chicagoans in a popular vote. To name Department of Streets and Sanitation equipment after an 18th-century hero of America’s Revolutionary War is a whimsy of democracy, but it may also be a reminder of how human choices at crucial moments make a democracy possible. Without that snowplow’s more accurately spelled namesake, …

From Blackpink to Street Woman Fighter 2: Singapore-based Jam Republic makes a mark in K-pop

From Blackpink to Street Woman Fighter 2: Singapore-based Jam Republic makes a mark in K-pop

Published by Sam

In 2017, Ong and Gallarde thought they had built a vast enough network of dancers from all over the world, and went on to create Jam Republic The Agency.  “Initially, it was difficult to get choreographers, period. Not just global, just any choreographers to join our company,” Ong said. He explained that when they started Jam Republic The Agency, there were not many dance agencies outside of the United States. “It was a very new concept to a lot of dancers. They don’t know what we do. They don’t know if we can help.”  What bolstered their credibility was that they had proven, through Jam Republic Collective, that they were able to get dancers jobs. It also helped that they had made connections with studios in other parts of Asia. In fact, meeting the “right people” proved to have a domino effect. After working with one partner, the agency would often be recommended to another in a different country. Recalling the early days of Jam Republic The Agency, Ong shared that whenever dancers and partners were …

New York Flight Attendants Accused Of Smuggling Millions In Drug Money To Dominican Republic

New York Flight Attendants Accused Of Smuggling Millions In Drug Money To Dominican Republic

Published by skeptic

Four flight attendants from the New York City area have been accused of participating in a multimillion-dollar drug money smuggling operation which saw $8 million make its way to the Dominican Republic, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The accused, identified as Jarol Fabio, 35, of New York City; Charlie Hernandez, 42, of West New York, New Jersey; Sarah Valerio Pujols, 42, of the Bronx; and Emmanuel Torres, 34, of Brooklyn, allegedly transported the funds over a span of several years, exploiting their positions as flight attendants to bypass the stringent security measures in place at JFK International Airport. “These flight attendants smuggled millions of dollars of drug money and law enforcement funds that they thought was drug money from the United States to the Dominican Republic over many years by abusing their privileges as airline employee[s],” stated U.S. Attorney Damien Williams. “Today’s charges should serve as a reminder to those who break the law by helping drug traffickers move their money that crime doesn’t pay.” According to …

The Washington ‘Blob’ Seems “Ready To Wreck The Republic To Save Themselves”

The Washington ‘Blob’ Seems “Ready To Wreck The Republic To Save Themselves”

Published by skeptic

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, Prisoners of Themselves “Ok, let’s be clear. If the intelligence community led by the CIA is not the ‘deep state’, what is?” – Jeffrey Tucker You realize, don’t you, that the gross misconduct of government officials from RussiaGate on down to the courtroom of Judge Juan Merchan has amounted to one continuous operation against the American people? If it were ever honestly adjudicated, many hundreds of them might go to prison, or worse. Each successive seditious and treasonous action they attempt against their arch-nemesis, Mr. Trump, only compounds their criminal liability — the Steele Dossier, CIA agent Eric Ciaramella’s 2019 impeachment prank, the Covid-19 caper, the George Floyd-BLM hustle, the 2020 election hijinks, the J-6 op and the House J-6 Committee conjured up to spin it, the present battery of farcical court cases — and yet the Golden Golem of Greatness not only remains defiantly at large, but seems to amass ever more electoral mojo. The epic failure of these mighty efforts, and the humiliation entailed, has lately …

What Is a Banana Republic?

What Is a Banana Republic?

Published by skeptic

  The label “banana republic” describes a country whose economy focuses on the export of a single product. Colonial forces assigned this outdated term, which evoked stereotypes of an exploitable, defenseless land with a population they saw as inferior. The plantation system used by foreign corporations has a long history in the Americas. Local populations responded to injustice with resistance. Although the monopolies departed in the 1960s, the impacts of this system continue today.   Where Did the Term “Banana Republic” Come from? Cabbages and Kings by O. Henry, 1910. Source: Library of Congress   A colonialist system used the name “Banana Republic” to refer to the Central American and Caribbean countries it exploited. Thus, it is considered offensive by today’s standards. It was first used by American author O. Henry in 1901 to describe the fantasy nation of Anchuria, much of which he based on his time living in Honduras. Henry published the short story in his 1904 book, Cabbages and Kings.   Anchuria was a tropical country whose economy focused on banana exportation. …

The Enlightenment had its own internet: The Republic of Letters

The Enlightenment had its own internet: The Republic of Letters

Published by skeptic

There was no internet during the Enlightenment, but something surprisingly similar did exist in the 17th and 18th centuries. This was the Republic of Letters: a virtual, global community of scientists and intellectuals who exchanged information using the fastest technology available at the time — the postal service. 15,000 letters The clue is in the name: letters tied this self-proclaimed, transnational society together. Lots of letters. What this “metaphysical republic” lacked in speed, it made up for in volume. Take Leibniz and Voltaire, for example. In their lifetimes, these great minds wrote close to 15,000 letters each, sending them to hundreds of correspondents across all of Europe. Ignatius Loyola managed only 9,000 letters, but the founder of the Jesuit order cast his intellectual net much wider. While Leibniz and Voltaire largely limited their correspondence to Europe, Loyola had pen pals from Mexico to Macau, thanks to a global network of Catholic missionaries and other like-minded co-religionists. Voltaire penning one of his 15,000 letters, wearing what must be his writing cap. (Credit: Art Images via Getty …

Court in Central African Republic seeks arrest of former President Bozizé for human rights abuses

Court in Central African Republic seeks arrest of former President Bozizé for human rights abuses

Published by skeptic

Former Central African Republic President Francois Bozize arrives in Bangui, Central African Republic (CAR), on January, 27, 2020. FLORENT VERGNES / AFP An internationally backed court in the Central African Republic issued an international arrest warrant Tuesday, April 30, for the country’s exiled former President François Bozizé for human rights abuses from 2009 to 2013, a spokesperson said. The Special Criminal Court was set up in the capital, Bangui, to try war crimes and other human rights abuses committed during the coups and violence that the country has experienced since 2003. Bozizé currently lives in exile in Guinea Bissau, where that country’s President Umaro Sissoco Embaló told the Associated Press that he had not received any request from Bangui about the arrest warrant and that the country’s laws do not allow for extradition. Ibrahim Nour, whose father was tortured and killed in the infamous Bossembélé prison, welcomed the arrest warrant. “Justice may be slow, but it will eventually catch up with the executioners. That’s why I welcome the arrest warrant for the men who killed …

Bank Failures Begin Again: Philly’s Republic First Seized By FDIC

Bank Failures Begin Again: Philly’s Republic First Seized By FDIC

Published by skeptic

Who could have seen that coming? (here, here, here, and most detailed here) March will be lit: 1. Reverse repo ends2. BTFP expires3. Fed cuts (allegedly)4. QT ends (allegedly) — zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 8, 2024 Admittedly, we were a couple of weeks off, but trouble has been brewing in the banking sector and tonight – after the close – we get the first bank failure of the year. The FDIC just seized the troubled Philadelphia bank, Republic First Bancorp and and struck an agreement for the lender’s deposits and the majority of its assets to be bought by Fulton Bank. Republic Bank had about $6 billion of assets and $4 billion of deposits at the end of January, according to the FDIC (considerably smaller than the $100-200BN assets with SVB and Signature). The FDIC estimated the failure will cost the deposit insurance fund $667 million. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Republic First had for months struggled to stay afloat. Around half of its deposits were uninsured at the end of 2023, according to FDIC …

20 dead after ferry sinks in Central African Republic, witnesses say

20 dead after ferry sinks in Central African Republic, witnesses say

Published by skeptic

Bangui, Central African Republic —  At least 20 people have drowned in Central African Republic after a ferry sank while carrying passengers on a river, witnesses said Saturday. The wooden ferry was carrying more than 300 people to a funeral over the Mpoko River in the capital, Bangui, on Friday when it started to collapse, witnesses told The Associated Press on Saturday. Local boat pilots and fishermen were the first to react and rescued victims and collected bodies from the river before the emergency services arrived. One fisherman who was involved in the rescue, Adrien Mossamo, said that at least 20 bodies were found while waiting for the military to arrive. “It’s a horrible day,” he said. The death toll is rising as the military takes over the search, officials at Bangui University Hospital Center said. The exact number of deaths is currently unknown, and the government didn’t comment. Civil society groups and local political parties sent their condolences in social media posts and called for an inquest into the sinking. Source link