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Created
Thu, 21/09/2023 - 22:48

This week, it was revealed that the Labour Party has further weakened its policies to strengthen workers’ rights.  Labour set out its commitment to ‘raise Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and make it available to all workers, including the self-employed’ in its 2021 employment rights white paper, A New Deal for Working People. But a document […]

Created
Thu, 21/09/2023 - 22:00

Greetings, Earth farmer. We come in peace. Take us to your leader, the one they call Jake from State Farm.

Snake farm? This is not State Farm? Dammit, Todd, I told you to use Google Maps. Where is State Farm? Take us to State Farm.

What do you mean State Farm is not a farm? Then why would they call it State Farm?

What is insurance?

That sounds like a scam.

I’m glad we agree on something, Earth farmer. Now, please, we must speak with the all-powerful Jake from State Farm.

Of course, he is powerful. We see him constantly on your Earth television, laughing and throwing sports balls with Earth celebrities like Aaron from Green Bay, Patrick from Kansas City, and Drake from Toronto.

Wait, Aaron from Green Bay is now Aaron from New York? We love the Giants from New York.

The Jets?!

Sorry to hear that. We are thankful we don’t have Achilles heels. We don’t even have heels.

Anyway, on with the taking us to your leader.

Created
Thu, 21/09/2023 - 21:43

The task of marketing Israel as “the only democracy in the Middle East" is no longer an easy sell.  With the 'democracy' pillar crumbling, the 'stability' pillar is falling apart, as well. And without stability, investors simply run away. 

The post Tel Aviv’s Losing Brands: The Israeli ‘Coup’ and the Death of False Democracy appeared first on MintPress News.

Created
Thu, 21/09/2023 - 19:03
Mathematics is a limited component of solutions to real-world problems, as it expresses only what is expected to be true if all our assumptions are correct, including implicit assumptions that are omnipresent and often incorrect. Statistical methods are rife with implicit assumptions whose violation can be life-threatening when results from them are used to set […]
Created
Thu, 21/09/2023 - 10:49
Money Is Not Wealth

Money is something you can (sometimes) exchange for wealth, but it’s not wealth itself.

When I say sometimes I mean that there are things you can’t buy: what those things are change from place to place and time to time. The classic formulation of the preconditions for capitalism includes the ability to buy land, labor and capital. In most places and times you couldn’t actually hire most people to work–they were bound to the land, their clans, or whatever or they could support themselves and sure didn’t want to work for someone else.

Likewise most land was inherited or in the commons and definitely not for sale. You couldn’t buy it.

Wealth is what you control (not own, control) that can be used to make something, grow something or support violent people.

Created
Thu, 21/09/2023 - 08:30
All is not lost: The Republican Party’s increasing Trump-era tendency toward more extreme nominees and its struggles to account for the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade have already cost it plenty. It’s quite possible that these things cost it control of the Senate in both the 2020 and 2022 elections. If unpopular GOP nominees in key states had merely matched the political fundamentals, Republicans might have held the Senate for the duration of Joe Biden’s presidency and had a much more significant House majority with which to work today. Now, these same things may have cost Republicans control of a state. New Hampshire on Tuesday became the latest state in which Democrats over-performed in a special election — a trend that has held very steady ever since Roe was overturned last summer. Democrat Hal Rafter won by 12 points in a state House district that went narrowly for Donald Trump in 2020.
Created
Thu, 21/09/2023 - 07:00
MSNBC framing of today’s hearing: Attorney General Merrick Garland appeared before the House judiciary Committee for the first time since Donald Trump and Hunter Biden’s separate indictments and it went about how you would expect it to go. House Republicans accused AG Garland of politicizing the Department of Justice to protect President Biden. Democrats accused Republicans of politicizing Judicial Oversight to benefit Donald Trump and AG Garland, well, he just tried to defend himself. Oh those crazy Republicans and Democrats. They’re all full of shit, amirite? Just playing politics. Waddaya gonna do? This is the problem, folks. It’s not “both sides.” It’s Republicans. It’s not hard to make a judgment about this. It’s called reality.