It has often been suggested that the LNP have always used an underlying fear and insecurity in the general public as a means of securing voting support on the basis that they offer better protection against external and internal threats. Typically, these threats are left vague, yet it is wholly evident that the main stream Continue reading »
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The last week in September saw the much delayed (due to Covid) opening of the 19th Asian Games. This event which is held on a four-year cycle involves participants from 45 nations, and perhaps unsurprisingly given the enormous populations in this part of the world sees a larger number of athletes taking part than even Continue reading »
There’s been much less coverage of this actual thing that happened than there was of Trump’s various suggestions that he would do it (followed by him not doing it). https://t.co/qU9h9AWR8Y — Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) October 3, 2023 President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that the manufacturers of all of the first 10 prescription drugs selected for Medicare’s first price negotiations have agreed to participate, clearing the way for talks that could lower their costs in coming years and give him a potential political win heading into next year’s election. The drugs include the blood thinner Eliquis, which the White House said was used by more than 3.7 million Medicare enrollees from June of last year through this past May and had an average out-of-pocket cost of $608 per enrollee for 2022. Also included is diabetes treatment Jardiance, which was used by nearly 1.6 million Medicare enrollees and had a 2022 out-of-pocket cost per enrollee of $490.
Yours truly, of course, feels truly honoured to find himself on the list of the world’s 20 Best Econometrics Blogs and Websites. 2. Bruno Rodrigues 7. Eran Raviv Blog Statistics and Econometrics 9. How the (Econometric) Sausage is Made 14. Lars P Syll Pålsson Syll received a PhD in economic history in 1991 and a PhD […]
Stardate 59963.2
Welcome to a new school year. In the coming days, a cohort of cadets will begin arriving on campus, and I look forward to continuing our centuries-long tradition of preparing students to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and boldly go where no one has gone before.
There was much positive news for the Academy over the summer break. In the newest QS rankings, we improved by two positions and are now in a three-way tie for sixty-third in the Alpha Quadrant with the Pakled Institute of Technology and Cornell. We also broke ground on the construction of a new dormitory and satellite campus to serve students in the growing Borg Collective market, thanks to the generosity of a record number of anonymous donors.
QOTD: John Kelly CNN reports: “What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly said, when asked if he wanted to weigh in on his former boss in light of recent comments made by other former Trump officials. Of course we knew all this. Kelly has now confirmed it. MAGA cultists believe that all these people who worked for Trump are liars. All of them Tens of millions of deluded people believe it. As Kelly says, “God help us.”
As GOP-gerrymandered legislatures vie for Most Authoritarian North Carolina Republicans held the state budget and Medicaid expansion hostage to a failed attempt to expand casino gambling for three months. They finally passed the budget on September 22. Gov. Roy Cooper allowed it to become law without his signature. A veto and inevitable override vote would have been a pointless additional delay. We sounded the 🚨 on this when the NC budget dropped with this hidden language. Now the national media are paying attention. Thanks to @JuddLegum and @tesszeeks for putting some ☀️on what’s happening here in NC. https://t.co/vnl6425yhP — Sen. Graig Meyer (@GraigMeyer) October 2, 2023 There was one teensy rider added. Judd Legum reports in a thread: In other words, something like National Security Letters provided for in the Patriot Act (for those who ain’t). 5. Gov Ops is dominated by Republicans and pursues partisan investigations. It is co-chaired by Senate Leader Phil Berger (R) and House Speaker Tim Moore (R).
UsForThem is linked to controversial anti-vax campaign figures and organisations believing in a global socialist 'Great Reset' led by powerful capitalists
Consider another problem of motivation in the house of fiction: why characters write.
On August 28th, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks chose the occasion of a three-day conference organized by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), the arms industry’s biggest trade group, to announce the “Replicator Initiative.” Among other things, it would involve producing “swarms of drones” that could hit thousands of targets in China on short notice. Call it the full-scale launching of techno-war. Her speech to the assembled arms makers was yet another sign that the military-industrial complex (MIC) President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about more than 60 years ago is still alive, all too well, and taking a new turn. Call it the MIC for the digital age. Hicks described the goal of the Replicator Initiative this way:... Read more
Source: AI Goes to War appeared first on TomDispatch.com.
After several years of infighting, leadership challenges, and policy shake-ups, the Conservative Party is truly beginning to look like a spent force. This apparent exhaustion was laid bare by the ghostly spectre of a Conservative Party Conference being held in Manchester in the midst of a major row over whether the government will axe a […]
En fiktiv dialog med en skotsk 1700-talsfilosof på spårvagnen genom Göteborg – det låter som en usel idé. Rentav pinsam. Men har man Horace Engdahls bildning, stil och värdighet kan man uppenbarligen förvandla ett sådant upplägg till en bladvändare. Värdigheten, förresten. Den är fortfarande sårad efter metoo-skandalen vid Svenska Akademien, där Engdahl försvarade sin vän Jean-Claude […]
While many in the West take a very dim view of China, China expert John Ross is far more positive, telling MintCast that China has seen the highest sustained economic growth of any country in world history. "People don’t understand the scale of China’s success, and they still don’t understand what it means, therefore, in the transformation of the lives of ordinary Chinese people,”
The post Why China’s Rapid Rise is Terrifying the United States, with John Ross appeared first on MintPress News.
A time for “calling in” If the threat posed by the authoritarian right is as existential as it seems, some of us might want to unhunch our shoulders and not be as reflexive about running off potential allies. If Digby’s Monday post about Red Caesarism was not a wake-up call, you just ain’t woke. About that. A repeated theme in Anand Giridharadas’s “The Persuaders” is “Is there room among the woke for the waking?” Do those on the left edge of the left — at the cutting edge of consciousness, if you prefer — possess enough critical mass to achieve the progressive goals they seek: Veteran activists Giridharadas profiles have decided they do not. Success means expanding their movements without compromising them. They’ve learned to “call in” progressives with whom they mostly agree rather than just calling them out for their failings, to focus more on conversion than on hunting heretics. They walk a fine line seeking to coalition with more moderate allies without watering down their own goals. A listserv I once enjoyed blew up when the “call out” fad hit the progressive movement.
Following the flow of US taxpayer dollars: How the CIA-linked National Endowment for Democracy funds anti-North Korea propaganda.
The post Unreliable Sources: News on North Korea, Brought to You By the CIA appeared first on MintPress News.
Attention, everyone!
I have decided to start wearing dainty little rings.
For those wondering, “How many dainty little rings? How many fingers?” I am excited to announce the answer is multiple fingers across both hands. Currently, I am up to three total dainty little rings: the middle and pointer fingers of my left hand and the middle finger of my right. From there, only time will tell where we will go.
You can expect to see the impact of this on my personality, effective immediately.
When I slip on my dainty little rings, I immediately feel ten years older and five times sluttier. Of course, there are still times when I do feel like a man who is still wearing his wedding ring, despite the divorce papers sitting in his desk drawer and the fact that his wife is in Cabo with her trainer, Stephen—the same feeling that prevented me from wearing rings in the first place. But when the rings are dainty, and my nails are shaped and painted like little Jordan almonds, I don’t feel like I have big fat man fingers; I feel like a Woman Who Works in PR.
Plus, how to consider the next generation without despair.
By backing ambitious and transformative environmental policies, Labour could offer a clear vision for substantive change, writes the CEO of the Environmental Justice Foundation