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Good news about the electorate Pollsters Celinda Lake and Mac Heller discuss the changing age demographics of American voters: It’s easy to envision the 2024 presidential election becoming the third straight contest in which a veteran Democrat goes up against Donald Trump. Once again, the Democrat wins the popular vote but swing states are tighter. Could go either way — and has, right? But things are very different this time, and here’s why: The candidates might not be changing — but the electorate has. Every year, about 4 million Americans turn 18 and gain the right to vote. In the eight years between the 2016 and 2024 elections, that’s 32 million new eligible voters. Also every year, 2½ million older Americans die. So in the same eight years, that’s as many as 20 million fewer older voters. Which means that between Trump’s election in 2016 and the 2024 election, the number of Gen Z (born in the late 1990s and early 2010s) voters will have advanced by a net 52 million against older people. That’s about 20 percent of the total 2020 eligible electorate of 258 million Americans.

Uzupis, a historic district of Vilnius, Lithuania and a vibrant artistic community, had unilaterally declared its independence from the rest of the country. It adopted three mottoes: “Don’t Fight,” “Don’t Win” and “Don’t Surrender.” These seem particularly apt for the ambiguous status of Taiwan with its anomalous international status and phantasmic national identity. Lithuania, the Continue reading »

The Royal Commission into Robo-debt has provided significant insights into how a cavalier government can ignore fundamental processes of good governance by ignoring accepted standards of decision making to pursue its ideological agenda. Commissioner Catherine Holmes is to be congratulated for her comprehensive consideration of the Robo-debt scheme which “lacked a legal framework and revealed Continue reading »

In the last few years, Australian and US foreign policy toward the Pacific has been framed as a benign influence, couched in money terms, offers and suasion. But in such offers comes that bit of intrusive steel, a less than subtle threat that gravitating into the orbit of another power, most notably China, will come Continue reading »

The ground has been shifting under the feet of the world’s central bankers, including our own Dr Philip Lowe, the outgoing chief of the Reserve Bank. This has weakened the power of higher interest rates to get inflation down. Like all economists, central bankers believe their theory – their ‘‘model’’ – gives them great understanding Continue reading »

There is nothing that agitates some whitefellas more than an intelligent, articulate and charismatic blackfella. The emphasis the No Campaign is putting on Thomas Mayo is a classic example. Thomas Mayo attended the Uluru gathering and afterwards travelled the country visiting hundreds of communities to explain the Voice. At each he movingly recited from memory Continue reading »

We are all one and liberation is our destiny. Many friends and compatriots are asking, where are you? Why the silence, when Jenin, your birthplace is burning? Why haven’t you commented on the worst deadly assault by the Israeli Occupation forces in the last 20 years? What about the Palestinian Authority’s Security Forces’ stance during Continue reading »

Labels have power. They shape the way we know the world. They allow people to see actions with greater clarity or distort our understanding to make things unrecognisable. When war involves “collateral damage,” the label strips the incident of shredded flesh and wailing orphans. By labelling the near elimination of abortion access a Pro Life Continue reading »

Yesterday, five metro mayors led by Greater Manchester’s Andy Burnham announced plans to launch legal action to prevent the closure of 1000 railway ticket offices across England. The government’s proposals, which would result in up to 2000 job losses, have been met with strong opposition from railway workers and equalities groups who argue the shuttering […]

French fries “may have played a role” in the incident, a Metropolitan Police Department spokesman said.

I confess that I hadn’t thought of it this way but I think it’s absolutely right:

We’re looking for someone to take over a temporary lease while our bedmate goes on a once-in-a-lifetime visit to a chocolate factory.

About Us

We’re three grandparents who sleep in the same bed in the middle of our daughter/daughter-in-law’s one-bedroom efficiency. We spend all our time in bed, knitting, sleeping, eating soup, watching TV, and raising our sad malnourished grandson. Until recently, none of us had left the bed in over twenty years, but a candy-related miracle has resulted in a sudden vacancy.

FAQs

Is this a sex thing?
No. There was a lot of misunderstanding about our first post, so we had to take it down. To clarify, we are not interested in couples; we’re looking for a single, platonic bedmate. Until yesterday, none of us had so much as stretched our legs in several decades, so you can imagine we don’t get up to much sexually. It makes for a pretty symbiotic relationship, so we’d rather not ruin that by adding sexual tension to the bed. Also, our muscles have atrophied to the point of disuse.

I have been involved in the development of the protocols that enable distributed social networking in apps such as Mastodon. As Meta’s new product, Threads, starts making its move into the social web AKA “the fediverse”, there have a been a lot of questions about what role Canadian institutions can play. To help out, I’m … Continue reading Federated Social Media for Canada Webinar →

A reckoning for the failed coup Former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social feed was active with ragging of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and re-posts of his fandom’s superhero memes on Monday which seemed to be just another day in the Trump 2024 presidential campaign. You would never have known that the night before he had been presented with a target letter from Special Counsel Jack Smith until Tuesday when he posted a rambling, incoherent official two page “statement” announcing it to the world. “Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter … stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and an Indictment” the statement began after which it immediately devolved into whining and crying over his alleged persecution at the hands of well… everyone. He lamented, “it is a very sad and dark period for our nation.” It is a sad and dark period for our nation that an accused criminal ex-president is the front runner for the Republican presidential nomination.

'Has he met her recently?' Byline Times asked. 'Not that I'm aware of, no', the Prime Minister's press secretary told this newspaper

Hahahahaha…

In 2018, I received a grant that supported the adoption of an open educational resource textbook for my Introduction to Advertising large lecture course. Since that time, more than 1,000 students have not had to rent or purchase a book for the class. While actual savings can be difficult to nail down, I’m confident in […]

Keir Starmer's spokesman opened the door to a potential U-turn on his plans to keep the controversial cap, following growing criticism from Labour MPs

Reporters typically don’t write headlines, but… Is Trump fit to serve? Is Trump fit to serve? Okay, the question is posed up front in this Politico article: Donald Trump’s announcement on Tuesday that he expects to soon be a thrice-indicted candidate is forcing GOP candidates to fully contend with the fundamental question of the 2024 presidential primary. Is the former president fit to reoccupy the office? Who the hell with a handful of functioning brain cells thinks Trump’s fitness is an open question? The rest is pointless horse-race coverage about how good GOP contenders are at tiptoeing around referencing Trump’s legal problems on the campaign trail. How do they even mention them without ginning up the Trump base, as one consultant put it. “This is the kabuki dance they’re going to be doing for months — it ain’t going to be the first time and it ain’t going to be the last time,” said Mike Madrid, the Republican strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project.

Kundera’s novels are expansive and support irreconcilable yet arguably valid points of view.