Reading

Created
Wed, 10/05/2023 - 05:35
The verdict found him guilty of sexually abusing and defaming Carroll to the tune of over 5 millions dollars. The verdict was unanimous (which it does not have to be in a civil trial) and the jury included at least one MAGA wingnut who admitted that a far right youtuber was his main source of news, which says something. Trump was not found guilty of rape, however. According to legal commentary on MSNBC, it was probably because while she clearly knew he penetrated her with his fingers, she felt something else but she couldn’t see if it was his penis. (Fingers don’t count in a rape charge, I guess.) He has been found guilty by a jury of sexual battery and defaming his victim. This is how the right is dealing with it: Trump hasn’t gotten the memo: Here’s how Trump’s Christian followers are dealing with it:
Created
Wed, 10/05/2023 - 05:31
Denial Of Reality

One of the defining features of our civilization is that we deny what we don’t want to believe is true if it’s inconvenient to us.

Covid has been the most recent example, with the World Health Organization (WHO) taking two years to admit that it was an airborne virus, insisting it spread thru droplets. I daresay that refusal to admit reality cost a couple million people their lives.

Back in the 2000’s a number of us warned about the housing/sub-prime bubble for years. (A correspondent said he found 42 people who publicly predicted the crash.) It was obvious just from looking at charts, it was classic bubble formation.

Created
Wed, 10/05/2023 - 04:58
The historian of American foreign policy Gabriel Kolko would often say that those who seek to determine the destiny of humankind were in for surprises and, ultimately, disappointment. Any vainglorious and limitless ambition to rule the world is doomed to failure, regardless of the state. The world, whether it be the global economy or the Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 10/05/2023 - 04:57
In 2022, Australia exported a record 81.4 million metric tonnes of LNG, earning the industry $92.8 billion (when expected revenue was $44 billion). If all of these windfall benefits were taxed, the revenue could be used to completely rewire the nation and accelerate the shift to a clean energy future. This has not happened and Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 10/05/2023 - 04:54
Being led by the nose by warmed-over former colonies like the US, Australia and India to fight a country thousands of miles away is neither smart diplomacy nor smart foreign policy. In war games, Beijing’s missiles and rockets cascade down on Taiwan and on U.S. forces as far away as Japan and Guam. Initial casualties Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 10/05/2023 - 04:52

Drupal core is moving towards using a main branch. As an interim step, a new 11.x branch has been opened, since Drupal.org infrastructure cannot fully support a Drupal core branch named main currently. This will bring Drupal in line with many other projects.

Before: Moving development branch

Drupal core previously opened a new minor branch (like 10.2.x) each time the previous minor released its first alpha (like 10.1.0-alpha1). This ensured that developers could immediately work on the next minor development version, but it made the most recent branch a moving target that changed every six months.

From 10.1 onwards, we will change our branch naming strategy, for the following reasons:

Created
Wed, 10/05/2023 - 04:51
As the Russia-Ukraine war enters what could be its most decisive phase, the award-winning American journalist, Stephen Kinzer, has announced a ‘Society for Abolishing World War II Analogies’. Members of this club, he writes in The Boston Globe, must pledge never to call anyone a new Hitler or dismiss peace proposals as appeasement and ‘another Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 10/05/2023 - 04:50
The key to economic development and ending poverty is investment. Nations achieve prosperity by investing in four priorities. Most important is investing in people, through quality education and health care. The next is infrastructure, such as electricity, safe water, digital networks, and public transport. The third is natural capital, protecting nature. The fourth is business Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 10/05/2023 - 04:00
This piece by Dan Pfeiffer in the NY Times makes the case. This has got to stop: After months of unity, some Democrats, reverting to their natural state of disarray, are breaking ranks to pressure the president to the table. A poll from Echelon Insights showed that voters support the idea of negotiating over the debt limit. Mr. Biden’s strategy is undoubtedly risky. But from the perspective of someone who had a front-row seat inside the White House to the last two debt-limit standoffs between a Democratic president and a Republican House, Mr. Biden’s refusal to negotiate on the debt ceiling is the best strategy. Facing an urgent deadline and a daunting political context — with the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, joined to an unstable, far-right bloc of Republican representatives who limit his maneuverability — the president can ideally find a way to extend discussions around the debt ceiling and fiscal issues. Otherwise, he will have to find a way around the House. The president must know that Mr. McCarthy is not a negotiating partner who can be trusted to deliver.
Created
Wed, 10/05/2023 - 03:00

The slow failure of our infrastructure is a crisis that everyone knows about, but no one wants to talk about. We all see the problems and know they’re getting worse, but addressing them head-on is politically tricky. For most people, it’s simply easier to stay silent. Well, I’m not most people. I’m a farmer with one wolf, one goat, and one head of cabbage, and American infrastructure has failed me.

Every day when I go to the market, I have to cross a river using only a rowboat. That’s already an outdated system, but it gets worse. Thanks to a chronic lack of upkeep enabled by a culture of inertia in Washington, the rowboat can hold only me and one of my three items. This creates serious problems, which our political system is ill-equipped to handle.

Politicians just aren’t familiar with the constant struggles and challenges Americans like me face. When I attempted to speak to my senator at a Town Hall, he suggested that I simply take the goat across, row back, take the cabbage across, row back, and finally take the wolf across. When I tried to explain why that wasn’t possible, he moved to the next question.

Created
Wed, 10/05/2023 - 02:43
One of the Georgia fake electors says he was just doing what Trump’s lawyers told him to do: Lawyers representing David Shafer, the embattled chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, are arguing their client should not be charged with any crimes for his actions following the 2020 election because he was following advice provided by attorneys working for former President Donald Trump, according to a letter sent to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis last week. Specifically, Shafer’s attorneys say their client was relying on “repeated and detailed advice of legal counsel” when he organized a group of “contingent” electors from Georgia and served as one himself, thus “eliminating any possibility of criminal intent or liability,” according to a copy of the May 5 letter. The letter, which was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, comes as Willis and her team of prosecutors investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia are planning to make an announcement on possible charges against Trump or his allies later this summer.
Created
Wed, 10/05/2023 - 00:30
Don’t repeat the mistakes of 2016 Yes, it’s Mike Allen. But remember how wrong we were in 2016. No way was America crazy enough to elect Donald Trump as president: Call it the Trump Law of Inverse Reactions: Everything that would seem to hurt the former president only makes him stronger. Why it matters: Trump’s grip over Republicans seems stronger than ever — and chances of beating President Biden are as high as ever. Allen checks off the Trump investigations, the 34 felony indictments, the expected indictments, the rape trial and the rest, like he’s Arlo Guthrie ticking off the 24-8×10 color glossy pictures, etc. And that’s not to mention the two impeachments. (Allen doesn’t.) And still Trump is the frontrunner for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination. The 18% have gone down the rabbit hole, turned the hole inside out, flattened reality and formed it into a Möbius strip. They are beyond saving. What of the rest of us? “Trump far surpasses Biden in being seen as having the mental sharpness and the physical health it takes to serve effectively as president,” reports ABC News.