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Every single day he rolls out another one. Here’s the latest: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Tuesday that he signed a major piece of legislation aimed at weakening public sector unions by making it harder for them to collect dues from members. Senate Bill 256 forbids most unions representing government employees from having dues deducted directly from workers’ paychecks. It also requires that affected unions maintain at least 60% membership in their bargaining units, or else they could face decertification and lose their contracts. The new law will force public sector unions to develop new ways of getting dues from members — such as setting up electronic bank transfers — and will also imperil the existence of those unions that don’t meet the 60% threshold. Although DeSantis and other Republicans have cast the bill as “paycheck protection” for workers, they excluded unions representing police, firefighters and corrections officers — i.e., the unions that are typically more likely to support Republicans. The unions that are subject to the law tend to represent teachers, sanitation workers and other government employees.
This is the dinner that you, my friends, chose as my Spring Dinner from Great Dinners from Life by Eleanor Graves***. (1969). The globe artichoke is surely the engineering marvel of the vegetable world. It is so formidably constructed that one wonders what inquisitive Italian first though that the bud of the thistle plant wouldContinue reading Great Dinners from Life: Shrimp-Stuffed Artichoke (1969)
The nurse told him: You have malaria—the kind that kills you. So why wasn’t it killing the birds?
The post When Disease Comes for the Scientist appeared first on Nautilus.
I think we’ve all probably pored over Timothy Snyder’s little booklet “On Tyranny: 20 lessons for democracy” more than a few times over the past few years. (If you haven’t, get it. It’s worth it.) Anyway, I was intrigued by this piece by William Saletan for the same reason: This is part of Saletan’s super interesting deep dive into what happened to Lindsey Graham. It’s not about what a servile fool he is — he is used as a representative for the entire Republican party: Many other journalists have written about Graham and Trump. Most of them have focused on the personal relationship between the two men. They examine the ways in which Graham’s evolution was distinctive. I’m not interested in what’s distinctive about Graham. I’m interested in what isn’t. How does his story illuminate what happened to the whole Republican party? How did the poison work? We need to answer these questions because the authoritarian threat is bigger than one man. Donald Trump’s ascent to the presidency destroyed the myth that the United States was immune to despotism.
Among the soft obscurantists some aim at truth, but do not respect the norms for arriving at truth, such as focusing on causality, acting as devil’s advocate, and generating falsifiable hypotheses. Others do not aim at truth, and often scorn the very idea that there is such a thing. By assumption, these non-respecters of truth […]
The Supreme Court justice switched sides on a landmark legal doctrine, satisfying his benefactors’ conservative advocacy machine.
Firstly I would like to thank theunaustralian.net for the opportunity to share with you a few tips and tricks that will not only work on the Federal budget but could also help you with your own household budget. Times are... Read More ›
The verdict found him guilty of sexually abusing and defaming Carroll to the tune of over 5 millions dollars. The verdict was unanimous (which it does not have to be in a civil trial) and the jury included at least one MAGA wingnut who admitted that a far right youtuber was his main source of news, which says something. Trump was not found guilty of rape, however. According to legal commentary on MSNBC, it was probably because while she clearly knew he penetrated her with his fingers, she felt something else but she couldn’t see if it was his penis. (Fingers don’t count in a rape charge, I guess.) He has been found guilty by a jury of sexual battery and defaming his victim. This is how the right is dealing with it: Trump hasn’t gotten the memo: Here’s how Trump’s Christian followers are dealing with it:
One of the defining features of our civilization is that we deny what we don’t want to believe is true if it’s inconvenient to us.
Covid has been the most recent example, with the World Health Organization (WHO) taking two years to admit that it was an airborne virus, insisting it spread thru droplets. I daresay that refusal to admit reality cost a couple million people their lives.
Back in the 2000’s a number of us warned about the housing/sub-prime bubble for years. (A correspondent said he found 42 people who publicly predicted the crash.) It was obvious just from looking at charts, it was classic bubble formation.
We have a new surprise Doctor Who 60th-anniversary teaser to share - this time, it looks like Neil Patrick Harris is dialing up the "big bad."
The historian of American foreign policy Gabriel Kolko would often say that those who seek to determine the destiny of humankind were in for surprises and, ultimately, disappointment. Any vainglorious and limitless ambition to rule the world is doomed to failure, regardless of the state. The world, whether it be the global economy or the Continue reading »
In 2022, Australia exported a record 81.4 million metric tonnes of LNG, earning the industry $92.8 billion (when expected revenue was $44 billion). If all of these windfall benefits were taxed, the revenue could be used to completely rewire the nation and accelerate the shift to a clean energy future. This has not happened and Continue reading »
After the nauseating display of royal excess and dynastic exceptionalism last week, an Australian republic cannot come soon enough. On 2 May, four days before his coronation, King Charles III gave the royal assent to a controversial new Public Order Act, signing it into law. The Act gives the UK police unprecedented powers to stop Continue reading »
If we fail to reach the goal of reducing emissions by 50 percent by 2030, it won’t be for lack of options. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions to keep the world from heating to catastrophic levels is entirely possible and would save money. Although emissions continue to rise, there’s still time to reverse course. Ways to Continue reading »
Being led by the nose by warmed-over former colonies like the US, Australia and India to fight a country thousands of miles away is neither smart diplomacy nor smart foreign policy. In war games, Beijing’s missiles and rockets cascade down on Taiwan and on U.S. forces as far away as Japan and Guam. Initial casualties Continue reading »
At what point did you lose your empathy and compassion towards those outside your circle? Why are you able to feel for those around you yet not for other human beings who live close by and who have exactly the same wants and desires from life as you and your family? Dear Mr Netanyahu, You Continue reading »
Drupal core is moving towards using a main branch. As an interim step, a new 11.x branch has been opened, since Drupal.org infrastructure cannot fully support a Drupal core branch named main currently. This will bring Drupal in line with many other projects.
Before: Moving development branch
Drupal core previously opened a new minor branch (like 10.2.x) each time the previous minor released its first alpha (like 10.1.0-alpha1). This ensured that developers could immediately work on the next minor development version, but it made the most recent branch a moving target that changed every six months.
From 10.1 onwards, we will change our branch naming strategy, for the following reasons:
As the Russia-Ukraine war enters what could be its most decisive phase, the award-winning American journalist, Stephen Kinzer, has announced a ‘Society for Abolishing World War II Analogies’. Members of this club, he writes in The Boston Globe, must pledge never to call anyone a new Hitler or dismiss peace proposals as appeasement and ‘another Continue reading »
The key to economic development and ending poverty is investment. Nations achieve prosperity by investing in four priorities. Most important is investing in people, through quality education and health care. The next is infrastructure, such as electricity, safe water, digital networks, and public transport. The third is natural capital, protecting nature. The fourth is business Continue reading »
“I realized I’d better jump on this while there are still some left on the market,” Mike Lindell said.
This piece by Dan Pfeiffer in the NY Times makes the case. This has got to stop: After months of unity, some Democrats, reverting to their natural state of disarray, are breaking ranks to pressure the president to the table. A poll from Echelon Insights showed that voters support the idea of negotiating over the debt limit. Mr. Biden’s strategy is undoubtedly risky. But from the perspective of someone who had a front-row seat inside the White House to the last two debt-limit standoffs between a Democratic president and a Republican House, Mr. Biden’s refusal to negotiate on the debt ceiling is the best strategy. Facing an urgent deadline and a daunting political context — with the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, joined to an unstable, far-right bloc of Republican representatives who limit his maneuverability — the president can ideally find a way to extend discussions around the debt ceiling and fiscal issues. Otherwise, he will have to find a way around the House. The president must know that Mr. McCarthy is not a negotiating partner who can be trusted to deliver.