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Created
Tue, 18/07/2023 - 00:30
Greg Sargent nails it The failure of Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-Ohio) House Judiciary Committee hearing last week to generate any kind of coherent narrative might have been expected (Washington Post): Blame it on the “MAGA persecution complex” — the vast array of outlets in the right-wing media ecosystem that incentivizes GOP lawmakers to pander to conservative victimization and grievance. It’s feasting on so many claims of persecution that it’s essentially eating itself to death. At last week’s hearing, Republicans alleged that the FBI investigated conservative parents at school board meetings. (That’s entirely baseless.) They insisted FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, a registered Republican, personally sicced the FBI on conservatives. (Wray called this “insane.”) They claimed the FBI has eagerly persecuted Trump. (The FBI has actually been rule-bound and cautious.) They railed that FBI plants incited the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
Created
Mon, 17/07/2023 - 23:01
Using ‘simplifying’ tractability or ‘heuristic’ assumptions — rational expectations, common knowledge, representative agents, linearity, additivity, ergodicity, etc — because otherwise they cannot ‘manipulate’ their models or come up with ‘rigorous ‘ and ‘precise’ predictions and explanations, does not exempt economists from having to justify their modelling choices. Being able to ‘manipulate’ things in models cannot […]
Created
Mon, 17/07/2023 - 23:00
“Our campaign is data-driven” The trade show area of political conferences is lined with of booths filled with vendors and staff from nonprofit groups. Lots of tech firms with the latest in campaign software — for fundraising, for campaign communications and social media, for data management. I feel like strolling through dressed as Darth Vader and intoning, “Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed.” That sentiment is not mine alone. Micah L. Sifry discusses a survey of volunteers from 31st Street Swing Left, Markers for Democracy and Swing Blue Alliance. He summarizes their report, “The Experience of Grassroots Leaders Working with the Democracy Party,” calling it “sobering.” One bullet speaks to a pet peeve of mine and a current project (bolded): One volunteer I spoke with recently complained that VoteBuilder/VAN is not only clunky but still has “a 1980s interface.” While Democrats may attempt to update their software, there is a reluctance to update their strategies. There is a systematic overreliance on tech to solve Democrats’ problems.
Created
Mon, 17/07/2023 - 22:00

1. PSAT tutor

2. ACT proctor

3. Buying and selling GameStop index funds while I’m trying to collect the fucking homework

4. Youth soccer camp coach

5. Piano lessons and biweekly plasma donations

6. Wedding photographer

7. Wedding violinist

8. Lifeguard

9. Cadillac car salesboy

10. Running a literacy enrichment program for underserved youth

11. Running a multilevel marketing cannabis empire over Facebook and LinkedIn

12. Waiting tables

13. Instagram influencer for athleisure wear

14. Teaching ten- to twenty-minute online ESL courses to Korean adults (who may confess to opening a second savings account to hide money from their spouses before hitting on you from many time zones away) back-to-back-to-back for six consecutive goddamn hours

15. Scooping water ice at Rita’s, which pays a better hourly rate than the above

16. Summer curriculum alignment for your own school admin, who still pay you less than the Rita’s down the street

Created
Mon, 17/07/2023 - 20:50

The United States is experiencing an investment boom, owing to industrial policies that grant enormous subsidies – including to European firms – for investing in America, largely in green tech. Europe, meanwhile, is responding with a return to the austerity policies that caused it to fall behind the US in the first place. ATHENS – […]

The post Austerity Ruined Europe, and Now It’s Back – Project Syndicate op-ed appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

Created
Mon, 17/07/2023 - 18:16
The question is when is a Labour Party a Labour Party? The answer is: When it is a Labour Party! Which means when it defends workers’ interests against capital and when it defends families against pernicious neoliberal cuts or constraints on welfare. Which means, in turn, that the British Labour Party is a Labour Party…
Created
Mon, 17/07/2023 - 15:05
How can education rise to the massive challenges young people will face? By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 8th July 2023 “From one day to the next, our profession was wiped out. We woke up and discovered our skills were redundant.” This is what two successful graphic designers told me about the impact of […]
Created
Mon, 17/07/2023 - 10:00
Can he be any more obvious? Is there even one of his supporters who cringes when he transparently sucks up like this? Former President Trump praised the judge overseeing his classified documents case as his legal team seeks a postponement of his trial in Florida. Trump’s motion for a continuance of the trial, filed last Monday, awaits a decision by Judge Aileen Cannon, an appointee of the former president who presided over his initial challenge to the FBI search of his Florida home.   Asked on “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News whether he believes the judge will grant the motion, Trump said he did not know. “I know it’s a very highly respected judge. A very smart judge, and a very strong judge,” Trump said. When host Maria Bartiromo noted that Trump appointed the judge in the case, Trump said, “I did, and I’m very proud to have appointed her.” “But she’s very smart and very strong, and loves our country,” Trump said.