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Created
Thu, 29/12/2022 - 10:30
Stock buy-backs and dividends instead of fixing infrastructure This is stunning: As travelers and airline workers reel from mass flight cancellations, a corporate watchdog noted Wednesday that Southwest Airlines spent nearly $6 billion on stock buybacks in the years ahead of the coronavirus pandemic instead of spending that money on technological improvements that unions have been demanding for years.
Created
Thu, 29/12/2022 - 09:00
Aaron Rupar caught Santos’ appearance on Fox last night with none other than Tulsi Gabbard who was a surprisingly effective interviewer. Oh boy: "I am not a fraud. I am not a fake. I didn't materialize from thin air" — George Santos to Tulsi Gabaard George Santos goes full whataboutism after Tulsi Gabbard asks him, "Have you no shame?" George Santos: "Everyone wants to nitpick at me" "These are blatant lies and it draws into question how your constituents and the American people can believe anything you may say on the floor of the House — Tulsi Gabbard actually did an impressive job grilling George Santos, who was clearly flustered George Santos's Fox News interview was a complete disaster. Check out how it ended. Here is the entire Tulsi Gabbard-George Santos interview in one video Originally tweeted by Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) on December 28, 2022. I’m sure he’ll be fine. Pathological lying is perfectly respectable in the new GOP. Just look at their Dear Leader. Why should this guy be held to a different standard?
Created
Thu, 29/12/2022 - 07:30
It’s so hard to choose! It’s fair to say that the Republican Party of 2022 is a much broader coalition than it used to be. Once upon a time it was defined as the party of Main Street and the country club: white middle-class and upper-middle-class guys in gray flannel suits. But in recent years they’ve opened the doors and invited in a whole bunch of other Americans who don’t fit that mold. Starting in the 1960s they willingly veered into overt racism mantle and with their embrace of the Christian right in the ’80s, all the anti-gay, anti abortion flock began to move their way as well. The new Trump majority within the party captured a chunk of the previously nonvoting public that believes in fringe conspiracy theories and far-right ideologies and worships at the altar of vapid TV celebrity. That said, the Republican coalition still isn’t very diverse. It’s nearly all white, of course, with only a tiny fraction of racial and ethnic minorities. It’s almost all Christian and most are non-college-educated and rural.
Created
Thu, 29/12/2022 - 07:30
For various reasons I'm a bit of a skeptic on the whole "electric car" thing. Skeptical that replacing the country's fleet of gas vehicles in under 15 years (or so) is realistic. The battery fireballs are one reason. The problem with urban charging stations - difficult to have enough in places where significant numbers of people don't have off street parking - is another. The reality of cobalt mining is yet another.

The charging station problem especially seems to be one where the answer is, "oh, we'll figure it out," and I'm not sure they will!!! Tesla Superchargers optimistically get your battery to 80% in 15 minutes, which makes the "gas station" model for charging not yet realistic.

The self-driving "it will go charge itself" model obviously isn't happening.

Maybe there are solutions, but they are not problems that will simply solve themselves.
Created
Thu, 29/12/2022 - 06:30
During natural disasters, "looting" is quite often "people getting what they need to survive from closed stores." Do we save people from dying or do we stop people from taking some diapers from a closed CVS? Not a tough choice, apparently!
Created
Thu, 29/12/2022 - 06:27

Our 9th most-read article of the 2022.

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Originally published January 24, 2022.

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9. Third month

This is an easy call, because the morning sickness is full steam ahead, all day, every day, with every breath you take. The kitchen’s whole vibe makes you puke, and your sense of smell is superhero strong, so you live alone in the basement now. You’re more tired than you’ve ever been in your life, but since you haven’t told anyone you’re pregnant yet, you have to pull it together and gaslight everyone into thinking drinking cans of ginger ale at 8 a.m. has always been part of your morning routine.

Created
Thu, 29/12/2022 - 06:19

What’s to blame for mass cancellations and dysfunction at the formerly beloved Southwest Airlines? Long Island has a new Congressman-elect, Mark Santos. But nothing he told us about himself seems to be true. Ironically, his lies make him look worse than the reality of his hardscrabble upbringing. Supreme Court is allowing Section 42 to remain...

The post DMZ America #81: Southwest Airlines, Mark Santos and Section 42 first appeared on Ted Rall's Rallblog.
Created
Thu, 29/12/2022 - 06:08
Chomsky: Wars could break out all over the map Noam Chomsky Interviewed by Dhaka Tribune December 28, 2022. Dhaka Tribune. American linguist and philosopher Prof Noam Chomsky predicts a grim future for the world as the superpowers are at loggerheads over establishing supremacy centering on the Russia-Ukraine war. In April, soon after the outbreak of […]