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Netanyahu’s longtime confidant has been embedded in Washington for years. His latest mission? Cementing unconditional U.S. backing for the next phase in Israel’s Gaza offensive.

The post Israel’s Shadow Diplomat: How Ron Dermer is Orchestrating US Policy From Inside appeared first on MintPress News.

I don’t know what inspired this flash of productivity, but I made this dinner in 2 evenings back-to-back with 194. Individual Meat Loaves.  This moment of achievement was in 2024, so I don’t remember this knocking my socks off. Speaking of knocking (get it–Knockwurst?) I used brats instead. I don’t understand a hot potato salad.Continue reading 193. Hot German Potato Salad with Knockwurst →

This past weekend my partner and I got together with a group of friends. We’ve been meeting every six weeks or so since 1982. Originally, this group of lesbians convened to talk about sex: what we were doing, what we wanted to do, what we fantasized about doing. But you know how it is with any relationship. Over time, it can come to embrace so many other things. That’s how it’s been with the group we call “Group” (or sometimes “A Closed Group with No Name”). We’ve seen each other through breakups, new lovers, job changes, housing worries, ailments, the deaths of lovers, caring for aging and dying parents, and now confronting our own age and the nearness of our... Read more

Source: King Donald appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

An FBI official urged the American Academy of Forensic Sciences to cancel a conference presentation titled “Taking on the FBI.”

The post Forensics Experts Challenged the FBI. So the FBI Tried to Censor Their Conference. appeared first on The Intercept.

Implement a political version of Malwarebytes Musk is the living embodiment of AI: a broken, tech-bro tool that inserts itself into everyone’s life unsolicited and makes everything worse. — Alex Winter Donald Trump is acting like he’s a king the way he fooled the the New York Times (1976) into thinking he was a successful developer. The way he pretended to be a successful businessman on TV. It was a con job then. It’s a con job now. Before we go any further, let’s review Ezra Klein’s “Don’t Believe Him” commentary from the other day on Donald Trump’s efforts to snow people into allowing him to act like a king despite the real limitations of presidential power. Like every move in Trump’s life, it’s a “fake it till you make it” put on. I had not seen the video version until last night and found it a useful tonic. Consider watching it a “take a deep breath” act of self care. Take thirteen minutes, or bookmark this for later. This is from @ezraklein, taken from The Ezra Klein Show podcast.

Blackwater’s notorious founder is circling the battlefield again, and secret negotiations suggest he’s gearing up for his next big payday.

The post Erik Prince Smells Blood in Gaza—And He’s Ready to Cash In appeared first on MintPress News.

The Fugitive Doctor is wanted "Dead or Alive" this July when Jo Martin and Big Finish return with a second round of epic audio adventures.

“We’re OK, Mama”
When I’ve had great banter with the server the whole night, and she comes up to us to ask if there’s anything else we need before she brings the check.

“OK, Mama!!!”
Giving praise to a friend for any minor accomplishment.

“Mama, are you OK?”
When my friend is going through a tough breakup, and he wants to dye his hair platinum blond and is now obsessed with catching the Knockdown Center Killer.

“OK, Mamá”
After my Venezuelan mother reminded me to text my aunt for her birthday.

“Mama…”
When my friend has been at this new job for only six months, and they tell me they want to quit without a backup plan.

“Oh, Mama!”
Johnny Bravo.

“Oh, Mama, we’re not doing that”
At a party after I get cornered by my friend’s friend from Florida who wants to talk at me about the success of the DeSantis administration.

EXCLUSIVE: Hundreds of millions of pounds were invested in arms companies supplying Israel with weapons, including BAE Systems, Caterpillar, Lockheed Martin and RTX Corporation

Copay assistance programs are supposed to reduce drug costs and cover patients’ deductibles — so why are so many people getting stuck with a bill?

Humans are both the gravest threat and the greatest hope for the survival of the rare hoolock gibbons in northeast India

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

In the social media age, it seems impossible not to measure ourselves against others – but we can dodge the worst pitfalls

- by Wojciech Kaftański

Read at Psyche

Moral panics about erotica have coursed through the country’s history. Why do so many Americans think of porn as harm?

- by Rebecca L Davis

Read at Aeon

It's time for Keir Starmer's Government to finally recognise Palestinian statehood and resist the US President's catastrophic agenda, argues Green MP Ellie Chowns

Michael and I chatted about Trump’s tariffs, emphasising the need to see them as political tools that standard neoliberal economics can never fathom. On the ongoing genocide in Gaza, we discussed Trump’s ‘final real estate solution’ envisaging a Palestine without Palestinians – the Zionist’s wet dream. Finally, I explained why DeepSeek was a major blow […]

The post Novara Media’ Michael Walker and Yanis Varoufakis on Gaza, Trump’s Trade Wars, and DeepSeek appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

Analysis shows Reform UK representatives benefit from half of all MP engagement on Twitter despite holding just 3.5% of seats in Parliament

Economics courses at university in Australia have been under threat for several decades now and many specialist degrees have been abandoned by universities as student enrolments declined. When the federal government merged the vocational higher education institutions (Colleges of Advanced Education) with the universities in the late 1980s, traditional economics faculties were swamped with half-baked…

Cuts are coming: Staffers with Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) reportedly entered the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the Department of Commerce in Washington DC today, inciting concerns of downsizing at the agency. “They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: ‘Get out of my way,’ and they’re looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies,” said Andrew Rosenberg, a former Noaa official who is now a fellow at the University of New Hampshire. “They will have access to the entire computer system, a lot of which is confidential information.” Project 2025, written by several former Trump staffers, has called for the agency to be “broken up and downsized”, claiming the agency is “harmful to US prosperity” for its role in climate science.

The world reacts to President Trump’s proposal to take over Palestine. A crime of forced displacement that will create more conflict and bloodshed. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and global journalists respond. President Trump has basically declared his intention to commit the international crime of forced displacement @FranceskAlbs As I seem to be shadowbanned, I Continue reading »

Bondi made her first move and it’s purely about vengeance. Trump must be so pleased: Attorney General Pam Bondi spent her first day on the job Wednesday redirecting the Justice Department’s significant law enforcement authority toward addressing President Donald Trump’s grievances with the agency, making her allegiance to his agenda clear in a series of strongly worded directives. Despite pledging during her confirmation hearing that “politics will not play a part” in her decision-making, Bondi created a “Weaponization Working Group” to review instances of what she described as “politicized justice” – starting with the federal criminal cases brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith. She also pledged to examine what she alleged was federal cooperation in the criminal and civil investigations of Trump in New York — even though they were carried out by state authorities, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

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