Reading

Like many roads that cut through Wyoming, the highway into the town of Rawlins is a long, winding one surrounded by rolling hills, barbed wire fences, and cattle ranches. I’d traveled this stretch of Wyoming many times. Once during a dangerous blizzard, another time during a car-rattling thunderstorm, the rain so heavy my windshield wipers couldn’t keep pace with the deluge. The weather might be wild and unpredictable in Wyoming’s outback, but the people are friendly and welcoming as long as you don’t talk politics or mention that you live in a place like California. One late summer afternoon on a trip at the height of the Covid pandemic, I stopped off in Rawlins for lunch. There wasn’t a mask... Read more

Source: Murdering Eagles to Save the Climate? appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Once again, many, many thanks to those of you who’ve contributed this year. I am so grateful, There are so many options out there for people to subscribe to good writing and great analysis so it really warms my heart to see that some of you are choosing to support the work we do here. I’ll never have a paywall — I want people who have limited ability to pay to be able to read us too — and I don’t want to go back to featuring ads, so I really appreciate those of you who have the means and the desire to donate. I don’t know how many of us have the stomach to be dissidents. I certainly don’t know what I will do if I’m forced to ask myself that question. But it’s probably something we should all think about at least a little bit ahead of time. With people like Tom Hohman saying they plan to arrest people who “harbor” undocumented workers and Trump and his henchmen threatening to jail everyone in sight, it’s not completely out of the question that we might be confronted with some unpleasant choices before too long.

Australia’s part-time Opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has threatened Australia’s press to leave him alone over the festive season, and only contact him when it is time to start the annual whinge fest that is how to celebrate Australia Day. ”I’ve... Read More ›

Yum. I hope he doesn’t want to ban antibiotics too or we’ll be in worse trouble than we already are. By the way: Recall this? Nov. 10, 2010 — An effort by Pennsylvania schools to get students to eat healthier is coming under fire from Sarah Palin. The proposed new guidelines would limit the amount of sweets in classroom parties and reduce the number of holiday and birthday celebrations. On the proposed regulations, Palin called Pennsylvania a “nanny state run amok.” In protest, she brought 200 sugar cookies to a Bucks County school fundraiser Tuesday. “I had to shake it up a little bit because I heard there is a debate going on in Pennsylvania over whether most schools condemn sweets, cakes, cookies, that type of thing,” Palin said. “I brought dozens and dozens of cookies to these students.” Instead, parents would be encouraged to serve healthy snacks, such as fruits or vegetables. But hey, the two Sarahs never said you shouldn’t serve raw meat, raw egg yolks and raw milk to kids, amirite? Perfectly legit.

Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – December 15, 2024

By Tony Wikrent

 

How Much Do I Need to Change My Face to Avoid Facial Recognition? 

[Gizmodo, via Naked Capitalism Water Cooler 12-09-2024]

This drone story taking the country by storm is almost certainly nothing nefarious. People are all over the internet with videos of what are obviously airplanes shrieking about drones the size of SUVs. It’s possible that there’s something going on with drones in New Jersey but with Fox News screeching about an “Iranian mothership” launching them off the Jersey shore we really have reached full Idiocracy. ABC News broadcast about a mysterious orb in the sky. Well, actually this is full Idiocracy: That should be all you need to know but just in case you’re curious: 1. Project Blue Beam is a conspiracy theory that alleges a secret plan by entities like NASA and the United Nations to establish a new world order through advanced technological manipulation. Here’s a detailed breakdown of what the theory claims:  2. Objective:The primary goal is to implement a new global religion that would serve as the ideological foundation for a totalitarian world government.

That’s just the most high profile. They bought themselves cabinet sets. The Big CEOs are all donating at least a million to the inauguration and ABC settled a totally bogus lawsuit for 15 million to be donated to Trump’s “presidential library and foundation” which doesn’t exist. They threw in George Stephanopoulos being forced to apologize as a sweetener. (That was probably worth more to Trump than the money.) I expected Republicans to bend the knee. That’s not unusual. Even a few Democrats following suit doesn’t surprise me. But the media and the business community totally capitulating, bringing gifts to the baby Trump like they’re the three wise men wasn’t something I expected. Those guys have so much money I assumed they’d never have to curry that kind of favor. It appears to me they want to. Maybe it’s just a matter of not wanting to be left out of the Mar-a-Lago party. But this is definitely happening and it’s very, very worrying.

Descent into madness Two of my friends (barely a couple of years older) had polio as children. One still walks with a limp. The other told me just yesterday that she spent time in an iron lung as a kid. I was shocked. Remember when medical ventilators were in super-high demand during the COVID-19 pandemic? Before ventilators there were iron lungs. Obsolete now (save for extremely rare cases), iron lungs fell out of use in the 1950s when positive pressure ventilators came along. Coincidentally, vaccines that ended the polio outbreaks of the 1940s and 1950s arrived about the same time. My parents put me in line at a Chicago park one night to get the Salk vaccine by injection gun. Getting vaccinated against polio back then was a community event. You can imagine what my friends think of RFK Jr.’s proposal for having the FDA decertify the polio vaccine. The one with iron lung experience used spicier language yesterday than used by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, 82, himself a polio survivor (CBS News): Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell issued an apparent warning Friday to Robert F.

Splitting sculpted hairs Don’t use the R-word. The extremely litigous future former president actually won one in court this week. ABC News agreed to pay Donald J. Trump $15 million dollars in a defamation lawsuit brought against network anchor George Stephanopoulos and his employer, plus $1 million in legal fees. That’s a lot of Eau de Trump. The network agreed to make a $15 million contribution to a “Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff.” [Read on once you’ve stopped laughing about where that money will actually wind up.] The network will also issue a statement of “regret” over comments made by Stephanopoulos in a March 10 interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.). As NBC News tells the tale: In the initial complaint, Trump’s lawyers alleged that Stephanopoulos “knowingly or recklessly made multiple false and disparaging statements regarding Plaintiff during ABC broadcasts.” Mace, who has publicly discussed being [R-worded] as a teenager, was asked during the March interview with Stephanopoulos about Trump’s treatment of women and the E. Jean Carroll case.

William Shatner joked that Doctor Who is "an intergalactic troublemaker," and guess what? He's absolutely right! The Doctor brings chaos!

The democracy crisis led to these primal screams of outrage over health care.

What it will take for Americans to finally demand change?

The jurors that sent Hall to death row never heard critical evidence that could have convinced them to spare his life. Some of them now support his bid for clemency.

The post Charles Hall Insisted He Wanted the Death Penalty. Now He’s Asking Biden for Mercy. appeared first on The Intercept.

Uncover the myths holding back our economy and explore a bold vision: jobs for all, zero interest rates, and a system designed to serve the many—not the few

I’d not taken a picture with a “real camera” since October 22nd, which is my longest such hiatus since 2007. So yesterday, I decided to step out and start again.

by Donni Wang* ———–* Donni Wang holds a PhD in Classics from Stanford University. Her research on non-capitalist modes of economics in ancient Greece is featured in her book Before the Market: The Political Economy of Olympianism. Now an independent scholar and historian, she is dedicated to paradigm change through both academic and creative approaches. *****While […]

I’m guessing you’ve already had it up to “here” with holly jolly Burl Ives and Rudolph with his frigging red nose so bright wafting out of every elevator in sight. Christmas comes but once a year; this too shall soon pass. I promise I won’t torture you with the obvious and overplayed. Rather, I have curated 20 selections that aren’t flogged to death every year; some deeper cuts (and a few novelty items) for your Xmas creel. Happy Crimble, and a Very New Year! Alan Parsons in a Winter Wonderland – Grandaddy The stockings are hung with irony in this California-based indie band’s rendition. Gone awayIs the blue birdHere to stayIs the new birdHe records a love songThe production’s right onAlan Parsons in a winter wonderland All I Want For Christmas – The Bobs The Bobs have been stalking me. They formed in the early 80s, in San Francisco. I was living in San Francisco in the early 80s; I recall catching them as an opening act for The Plimsouls (I think…or maybe Greg Kihn) at The Keystone in Berkeley. I remember having my mind blown by a cappella renditions of “Psycho Killer” and “Helter Skelter”.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

THE renovated Coffs Harbour Showground Exhibition Hall is ready for occupation and will officially open this weekend. The Management Board is inviting all past and present board members and staff, the construction team, licensees, lessees, and any interested public, to the Grand Opening on Saturday, 14 December, at noon. Advertise with News of The Area...

The post Exhibition Hall opens at Coffs Showground appeared first on News Of The Area.

COFFS Harbour City Orchestra’s recent concerts at the Race Club drew in the crowds with audiences enjoying the programs of inspiring and uplifting music. “The Race Club generously provides this venue free of charge each year for our orchestra and as always our intention was to donate to a worthy charity from our ticket sales,”...

The post Coffs City Orchestra’s concerts and carols appeared first on News Of The Area.

WHEN Coffs Harbour birding enthusiast Ellany Whelan snapped a photo of a shorebird early one morning at Old Bar beach, she had no idea the picture would open up the fascinating details of the bird’s travel itinerary of the past eight years. A member of both the Bellingen Birders group and the Coffs Coast Bird...

The post Banded South Island Pied Oystercatcher a record achiever appeared first on News Of The Area.

I’ve been wondering about the problem of young people growing up in a time when Donald Trump is ubiquitous and seen as a normal political leader. The youngest voters were only 6 years old the last time we had a presidential election in which he wasn’t the candidate. He might as well be FDR to them. It became particularly worrisome to me when I heard about all those text messages being sent to Black kids and girls right after the election saying they were going back to the plantation or “your body my choice” and processions in the halls of high schools waving Trump flags. It’s just so ugly. This piece by a high school senior says it all: After Trump’s victory, it became okay to be young and a Trump supporter and anti-woke. It became okay to make offensive jokes, which in many cases were not jokes but just crude and rude insults. It became okay to support the oppression of marginalized groups. I attend a school that fits well into Middle American Republicanism in the Northeast. I won’t repeat the many things I’ve heard in class and the halls that would be classified as hate.