Reading

Since the Affordable Care Act’s passage, the top five health insurers’ annual profits have jumped 230 percent, with much of that going to UnitedHealthcare.

Do Republicans build anything? Temperatures here are expected to fall steadily over the next 24 hours. There is also a wind advisory.* How do I know? The National Weather Service. Where do you think The Weather Channel and other weather information sites get their information? From a bevy of satellites owned or operated by NOAA, NWS’s parent organization. I rather like having that info free and at my fingertips. I rather like that air traffic controlers from the FAA keep my flight from colliding with others in the sky nearby. But our Republican friends are not into that so much. Nor into public education, as we’ve long known: Cultists’ push to charterize, voucherize, or tax-credit scholarship public education out of existence — supported by a religious right profiteers have co-opted — is a betrayal of the country’s founding vision. Public education is the largest portion of annual budgets in all 50 states. The cult sees public schools (and children) as resources to strip-mine. Donald Trump nominating vaccine skeptic RFK Jr. to head the U.S.

Join Kevork Almassian and Seyed Mohammad Marandi as they discuss the stunning fall of Assad’s government, the rise of a former al-Qaeda leader, and Israel’s territorial ambitions in the chaos.

The post From Damascus to Chaos: Assad’s Fall and al-Qaeda’s Comeback appeared first on MintPress News.

And spaghetti against the wall Political skulduggery is born here and raised elsewhere. The North Carolina GOP should advertise. When Republicans won control of North Carolina’s state Supreme Court in 2022, the new 5-2 court quickly reversed a previous ruling and ordered a new redraw of the state’s congressional districts. The new map turned a 7-7 partisan balance in this evenly divided state into an 11-3 split favoring Republicans. Results borne out on Nov. 5 will be felt on Capitol Hill and across the nation. Down-ballot races matter. A lot. A month after Election Day, political power struggles continue in North Carolina. The GOP supermajority in the state House will attempt today to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill marketed as “disaster relief” for western North Carolina. Branded “a sham” by Cooper, the bill “appropriated no new money for areas hit by Helene, nor created the small-business grants requested by local business leaders and Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat.” But the measure does strip powers from Democrats elected on Nov. 5 to the state’s executive branch.

In this column, Kristen Mulrooney writes letters to famous mothers from literature, TV, and film whom she finds herself relating to on a different level now that she’s a mom herself.

Dear Mrs. McCallister,

In 1990, I was about the same age as your son Kevin, and he and I were on the same wavelength—that is to say, I judged the hell out of your parenting. Poor Kevin. The youngest of an indeterminate number of kids, with an antagonistic older brother, a creepy uncle, nasty cousins picking on him in his own home… and a mother who couldn’t give him the time of day.

You said it yourself, Mrs. McCallister: “What kind of mother am I?”

What kind of mother lets her entire family bully her eight-year-old? What kind of mother makes her youngest child sleep alone in a spooky attic? What kind of mother forgets about her baby when she jets off to Paris and leaves him HOME ALONE??

I thought you were the worst mom in the world.

Transparency campaigners slam what they describe as the Prime Minister's 'lacklustre' approach to cleaning up politics

If you are someone who is lucky enough to talk to people you are interested in for a living, you will sometimes get asked, ‘Who would you most like to interview?’ Usually when people do that, my mind goes completely blank. But on the rare occasions when it hasn’t, there has generally been only one […]

In a new report, the Justice Department’s inspector general found that the agency violated its own rules to snoop on reporters.

The post This Is How Trump’s Department of Justice Spied on Journalists appeared first on The Intercept.

DESIGNER 1: The investors want us to make extremely small urban apartments more enjoyable. Got any ideas?

DESIGNER 2: Yes. Extremely small balconies.

DESIGNER 1: That’s genius. How small are we talking?

DESIGNER 2: Just big enough for one person to stand.

DESIGNER 1: How about half as big?

DESIGNER 2: That’s the best idea I’ve ever heard. But is that still too big?

DESIGNER 1: Yes. Let’s make them smaller.

DESIGNER 2: I’ve never lived in the city, but it feels like we’re onto something.

DESIGNER 1: Me neither, and I completely agree.

DESIGNER 3: Hey, I heard you’re working on an extremely small urban apartment project. Do you need more help from someone who has also never lived in a city?

DESIGNER 1: Yes.

O ιμπεριαλισμός τελικά κερδίζει όταν κάνουμε το λάθος να υποστηρίζουμε τυραννικές μορφές όπως ο Ασαντ. Στις 15 Αυγούστου 2021 έπεσε το αμερικανοκίνητο καθεστώς της Καμπούλ. Τότε, εξέφρασα ανακούφιση για την ήττα του αμερικανικού ιμπεριαλισμού και, ταυτόχρονα, τρόμο για το τι επρόκειτο να υποστούν οι γυναίκες του Αφγανιστάν στα χέρια των τζιχαντιστών Ταλιμπάν. Αμέσως, το «φιλελεύθερο»-ιμπεριαλιστικό […]

The post Ο εχθρός του ιμπεριαλιστή δεν είναι πάντα φίλος του αντι-ιμπεριαλιστή – Εφημερίδα των Συντακτών appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

The Government's new plan for welfare has a fundamental flaw at its heart, argues Izzy Wightman

‘Are you a mind with a body or a body with a mind?’ The legacy of a 1970 ‘head transplant’ experiment performed on monkeys

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

Practising a form of ‘deep curiosity’ can help you connect with yourself and others, even if they’re on the ‘other side’

- by Scott Shigeoka

Read at Psyche

Cold homes kill. As a doctor working in busy emergency departments and general practices, I have seen how vital a warm home is to good health. After all, home is where we all go to get better and heal when we need to recover. But this also means that when our homes are rendered cold, […]

Whether they fled or stayed behind, the survivors of Israel’s scorched-earth campaign in northern Gaza experienced untold horrors.

The post Trauma and Terror in the North of Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.

Netanyahu's Government is stepping up its plans ahead of the arrival of a sympathetic Trump administration

Public Health Association of Australia Media Release Australia’s peak body for public health, Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA), applauds the Government’s announcement of a 10-year Action Plan to improve the health and wellbeing of the LGBTIQA+ community. The National Action Plan for the Health and Wellbeing of LGBTIQA+ People, launched today, outlines ways to…

The post LGBTIQA+ Action Plan important to close health gaps, says peak body appeared first on The AIM Network.

The fall of the Syrian dictator poses a whole series of new challenges for the country, says chemical, biological, and radiological weapons expert Dan Kaszeta

By Denis Hay Description: Learn how sustainable productivity can shape Australia’s future by driving productivity within planetary boundaries using “The Doughnut Principle.” Introduction Australia faces an urgent challenge: improving productivity while protecting the environment and supporting social equity. Traditional approaches have often prioritized economic growth at the expense of sustainability, exacerbating inequality and ecological harm.…

The post Sustainable Productivity: Australians’ Role in Change appeared first on The AIM Network.