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Created
Wed, 26/04/2023 - 03:00

Hey, just so you know, Andrew’s coming tonight. Before he gets here, we should probably go over a few things about him.

Andrew is a bit of an enigma. He’s not someone you can “take at face value.” He never really got over the 2000 presidential election, if you know what I mean. Now’s a good time to google that.

Honestly, to understand Andrew, you have to meet his dad. But to understand his dad, you have to meet Andrew’s uncle. Not his dad’s brother—his mom’s brother. Andrew’s dad hates that guy. That hatred informs his worldview.

To understand Andrew, you have to have known him at Brown. If you didn’t get into Brown, it might suffice to have gone to a school in a bordering state. But not in Connecticut. And definitely not MIT. Andrew is anti-everyone in STEM. I recently switched career paths from my gig at SpaceX when he seemed provoked by my employment there—I’ve always wanted to try and hack it as a busker anyway.

Created
Wed, 26/04/2023 - 00:30
Anxiety does not inspire Millennials are not as bad off as advertised, Jean M. Twenge writes in The Atlantic. Reports that they were the first generation not to be better off than their parents was a premature take, post-Great Recession. “By 2019,” Twenge writes, “households headed by Millennials were making considerably more money than those headed by the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, and Generation X at the same age, after adjusting for inflation.” But shaped by their rough start, they are not feeling it. John Della Volpe, who heads up the latest Harvard Youth Poll, studies Gen Z (born since ~1997). The latest data shows that three quarters of 18-29 year-olds worry about being homeless, he told The 11th Hour Monday night. A third think it could happen to them, and that’s almost 50 percent among people of color. Check out a quick Twitter thread here. A sampling: Fewer than half (42%) of young Americans who grew up in conservative households call themselves Republicans today. Among those who grew up in liberal households, 60% are Democrats. But left-leaning is not the same as voting. People need motivation to get off their couches.
Created
Wed, 26/04/2023 - 00:00

PORTLAND, Ore., 25 April, 2023 – The Drupal Association is thrilled to announce that Drupal, the most powerful open source content management system in the world, has been approved as a Digital Public Good (DPG) by the Digital Public Good Alliance (DPGA). Drupal's registration as a DPG is a recognition of the positive global impact that Drupal has had in promoting equity as an open source technology.

“Registration as a Digital Public Good is an acknowledgment of the important role that Drupal and the Drupal Community plays in advancing the Open Web.” commented Tim Doyle, CEO of the Drupal Association. “We are proud to be a part of the registry and support the efforts of the Alliance in prioritizing open source digitalisation for the improvement of public service delivery.”

Created
Tue, 25/04/2023 - 23:26

It’s not often that conservative lobbyists beat the drum for increased environmental oversight and regulation. But that’s what happened this month when the far-right Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), through its legal arm, filed a brief in federal court demanding that the Department of Homeland Security conduct an extensive environmental impact study examining, of all things, immigration policy. In a press release, the group laid out its reasoning: “Clearly, DHS desperately wants to avoid the impossible task of explaining, in detail, why adding millions of illegal aliens to our population does not harm the environment, or why the harm it does cause is somehow ‘worth it.’” Ostensibly green rationales for ever harsher immigration policies are hardly a new phenomenon.... Read more

Created
Tue, 25/04/2023 - 23:00
Begins with securing freedoms now under attack President Joe Biden released his opening reelection ad early this morning. First word: Freedom. That’s an excellent start. Personal freedom is a sacred value Democrats must hammer and reclaim from a movement bent on unmaking America. MAGA extremists’ twisted idea of freedom is standing athwart history, yelling “Stop, or I’ll shoot!” Without the “stop.” “We are in a battle for the soul of America,” Biden said four years ago. “And we still are.” Our freedoms are under attack from the right (if you haven’t noticed). Elections are about choices, not poll numbers. So amid Politico’s recent pronouncement that President Biden’s poll numbers are “grim” and NBC’s reminder that Biden is still more popular than Donald Trump, remember that election outcomes hinge on turnout. Voters need a reason to. Michael Tomasky believes Biden has to go for broke. “What can he and the Democrats do to energize people about the 2024 election?” (The New Republic): Biden should do something bigger and bolder.
Created
Tue, 25/04/2023 - 22:00

“Public schools in Texas would have to prominently display the Ten Commandments in every classroom starting next school year under a bill the Texas Senate approved Thursday… the Senate also gave final passage to Senate Bill 1396, which would allow public and charter schools to adopt a policy requiring every campus to set aside a time for students and employees to read the Bible or other religious texts and to pray.” — The Texas Tribune

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Members of the school board, I’m here to voice my outrage about a disgusting book I found in my child’s backpack. The book contained graphic violence, prostitution, sodomy, and perhaps worst of all, a woke agenda that promotes loving your neighbor instead of passing laws to control their access to healthcare. I’m talking, of course, about the Holy Bible.

Created
Tue, 25/04/2023 - 19:30

Over the last two decades, the Italian Resistance has been a subject of sharp public debate, with both political and historical efforts “radically to repudiate the role and significance” of anti-fascism in Italy’s contemporary history. As Pier Giorgio Zunino wrote in 1997, “for the Italian history of the second half of the twentieth century, anti-fascism […]