Reading

Created
Tue, 21/11/2023 - 01:00
On the public dime Republicans do not have a governing majority, argues Jennifer Rubin. What Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D- Calif.) did with her thin Democratic margin as speaker, Republicans cannot with theirs. Not without the Democrats’ help. This leaves Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) in a unique position. He has the best of both worlds: He’s not responsible for electing a speaker whose Christian fundamentalist views and financial questions make him a weight around the necks of Republicans in swing districts. He can castigate Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for his noxious views and effectively produce legislation that does not compromise Democrats’ minimum standards. At a Wednesday news conference, Jeffries emphasized, “House Republicans are unable to govern on their own. Period, full stop, no further observation necessary.” Ask Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.). Rubin describes what Democrats are able to do (and have) from the back seat. “Now, imagine what Democrats could do if they had the mathematical majority,” she concludes. Gerrymandering and sluggishness have left Democrats here in North Carolina in a far weaker position.
Created
Tue, 21/11/2023 - 00:00

Fahrenheit 305

Guy Montag, a Miami-Dade School Board member endorsed by Ron DeSantis, is in charge of rounding up books deemed too dangerous for Floridians to read, such as The Diary of Anne Frank, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and anything by a Latino author. He begins questioning his role when a chance encounter with Miami’s preeminent intellectual, a wordsmith known only by his moniker, Pitbull, opens his worldview “worldwide.”

2023

All of the misinformation and doublespeak of 1984, but the sophisticated, omnipresent technological surveillance apparatus, rather than being used to police you, is mainly used to sell you Cheech and Chong CBD gummies.

The (Evacuation) Road

A father and son wander in search of shelter after a devastating wildfire destroys their home in Hawaii/Canada/Greece/Spain/Italy/Chile/ Kazakhstan.

Created
Mon, 20/11/2023 - 17:19
The Logic Of Ethnic Cleansing And Genocide

So, at this point basically all hopspitals in Gaza are shut down, forcibly, or just barely running. None of them were proved to have any significant Hamas presence beyond that would be expected by the fact that Hamas is Gaza’s government. (Does the US have a presence in American hospitals?)

The obvious point here, is that if you want to kill the most people possible, hospitals are bad since they keep people from dying.

Then there’s this beautiful bit:

Israeli General Giora Eiland’s weekly call for genocide: “The international community warns of a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and of severe epidemics. We must not shy away from it, as hard as it is. After all, severe epidemics in the south of the Strip will hasten victory”

Created
Mon, 20/11/2023 - 11:30
 California Gov. Gavin Newson is sending a warning shot at Florida’s Ron DeSantis over abortion ahead of their anticipated clash on Fox News later this month. On Sunday, Newsom is debuting a new TV ad that accuses the Republican governor and presidential candidate of pushing policies that criminalize women and doctors who pursue abortions after six weeks. The ad, narrated by Newsom, shows pictures of a woman and a doctor under a “Wanted” sign and states that their possible arrest is “by order of Governor Ron DeSantis.” DeSantis signed Florida’s six-week abortion ban into law this year, upending his state’s status as an abortion haven in the South as he sought to boost his conservative bonafides in the presidential primary. Democrats, meanwhile, have capitalized politically since the Supreme Court overturned abortion protections, with anger on the left fueling better-than-expected results at the ballot box.
Created
Mon, 20/11/2023 - 10:00
It turned out to be a vape pen Our new Christian Nationalist Commander Mike Johnson has released all the January 6th footage which shows not every minute of the insurrection was violent, thus proving that there was no violence at all. Or at least that’s what the right wingers seem to think. Here’s an example of how it’s going: As expected, new conspiracies are being launched based on the J6 footage released by Speaker Mike Johnson, each one crazier than the next. The hottest one making the rounds claims that someone in a MAGA hat is flashing a police badge inside the Capitol. This feeds the conspiracy that J6 was orchestrated by FBI agents dressed as Trump supporters, advanced by several Members of Congress. Just this past week, Rep. Clay Higgins claimed that busses of FBI agents disguised as Trump supporters came in “ghost busses.” And now, a US Senator gets in on the action: The new conspiracy, latched onto this morning by Utah Senator Mike Lee and several others, is that one of the J6ers inside the Capitol must be holding an FBI badge because, I guess, it supposedly looks like a badge.