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Created
Tue, 10/12/2024 - 10:00
I think everyone knows that the HBO masterpiece “Succession” was based upon the Murdoch family. Well, it turns out that the family has actually based some of its actions on “Succession.” The NY Times (link below) reports that a court in Nevada has ruled today that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch can’t change the irrevocable trust to block the rest of the kids from having any influence on Fox News. He came down hard on them apparently but this isn’t the end of the story. I guess there are appeals and also some end runs to get the job done. But this is just fascinating: The legal maneuvering came to a head during several days of sealed, in-person testimony in Reno in September by Mr. Murdoch, Lachlan, James, Elisabeth, Prudence and a number of their representatives on the trust. The proceedings revealed that Mr. Murdoch’s children had started secretly discussing the public-relations strategy for their father’s death in April 2023.
Created
Tue, 10/12/2024 - 09:02

With Bashar al-Assad deposed and Abu Mohammad Al-Julani assuming power, Syria’s future balances on a knife’s edge, marked by imperialism, internal collapse, and the reshaping of the Resistance.

The post Assad’s Government Collapses, What’s next for Syria? With Afeef Nessouli appeared first on MintPress News.

Created
Tue, 10/12/2024 - 08:30
This is one of the craziest things I’ve heard him say: What is he talking about? He must have been drunk when he said that. It’s been the right that’s pushed the flag and a pledge for the last 60 years! “These colors don’t run!”, “Love it or leave it!” After 9/11 anyone who wasn’t worshiping the stars and stripes was at risk if they didn’t keep their mouths shut. As for the pledge: Francis Bellamy was a minister who was thrown out of his Baptist post because of sermons describing Jesus as a socialist. He and novelist cousin Edward Bellamy both saw a future for the United States as a country in which the government controlled virtually every aspect of a person’s life. Francis Bellamy (who also wrote for a magazine underwritten by flag sales and therefore stood to gain by having schools require a flag salute each day) and his friends got President Benjamin Harrison to incorporate Bellamy’s pledge into the 400th anniversary celebration of Columbus’ arrival in the New World. It has been recited in public schools ever since… [T]he pledge has remained a recurring political hot button.
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Tue, 10/12/2024 - 06:00

In our new paper “Morbid Symptoms: A Feminist Dialectics of Global Patriarchy in Crisis,” published in the European Journal of International Relations, we introduce feminist dialectics as a theory and a method for studying patriarchy as a key ordering principle.

The post First as Tragedy, then as Farce: The Dialectics of Global Patriarchy appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).

Created
Tue, 10/12/2024 - 04:59
I have yet to fully understand how the collapse of the Syrian government could happened at the speed it did happen: Syrian government falls in stunning end to 50-year rule of Assad family -AP, Dec 8 2024 BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government fell early Sunday in a stunning end to the 50-year rule of the Continue reading »
Created
Tue, 10/12/2024 - 04:46

Sachiko Muto headshot

We’re thrilled to introduce Sachiko Muto, one of the newest members elected to the Drupal Association Board in October. Sachiko is the Chair of OpenForum Europe and a senior researcher at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden. She originally joined OFE in 2007, serving for several years as Director, responsible for government relations, and later as CEO. Sachiko holds degrees in Political Science from the University of Toronto and the London School of Economics and received her doctorate in standardisation policy from TU Delft.

We’re excited to have Sachiko on the Board, and she recently shared her insights on this new chapter in her journey:

Created
Tue, 10/12/2024 - 04:38

Just like you, this groundbreaking thermostat rewrites the laws of thermodynamics to be hot and cold simultaneously. It can instantly cool any space to 28 degrees Fahrenheit while simultaneously warming it to 114.

The Smart Thermostat for the Perimenopausal is advertised pretty much exclusively by word of mouth, and each person who tells you about it describes a slightly different array of features.

If you ask your HVAC guy about this thermostat, he’ll confirm that, yeah, he’s heard of it—but the problems with your current thermostat are a normal part of an aging system. Have you tried just learning to deal with them?

Before an unnecessarily snippy cease and desist letter, the thermostat was marketed with the acronym MEST (Modern Essential Sensitive Thermostat). Given its unprecedented speed in reaching elevated temperatures, some people—but not nice ones—called it the HOT MEST.

Created
Tue, 10/12/2024 - 04:00
Time to wake up people. After a month recuperating from the grueling campaign Donald Trump is back in our faces. The presidential election last month was a disappointment to say the least. And ever since then it’s felt as if the air has just been slowly leaking out of the opposition. Much of the mainstream media seems to be attempting to change course and curry favor with the new administration while Democratic officials appear to be in shock. In some ways it’s reminiscent of the days in the lead up to the Iraq war, with a quiet resignation taking the place of the febrile excitement that characterized the push to rally around the flag. People just seem enervated and spiritless. Sometimes it’s hard to remember why we fight when it all seems so futile. Well, I think the opposition is about to get its mojo back. And that’s because for the last month all we saw (to the extent we were even paying attention which many of us couldn’t bring ourselves to do) was the news telling us about what Trump is doing, who he’s nominating and what he’s planning. And that’s all bad! In fact, it’s worse than many of us thought it would be.