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Created
Sat, 19/10/2024 - 05:00
Apparently, most Americans think so In September of 2020, 200,000 Americans had just died of COVID. There was no vaccine, unemployment was at 8%. The whole world had just been shut down and was only slowly coming back to life. Donald Trump was pushing snake oil cures and pretending the whole thing wasn’t much of a problem. And yet 55 percent of Americans believed they were better off than they’d been four years ago. And only 39 percent believe that now. WTF?
Created
Sat, 19/10/2024 - 05:00

Your Wife Never Truly Loved Halloween

She claims she used to be in love with All Hallow’s Eve and that she spent years trying to work things out with the spooky season. But it’s become abundantly clear that she is a liar. Your wife never loved Halloween. And you know what? GOOD. Halloween doesn’t need her anyway. Halloween’s got candy corn, Freddy Krueger, and peeled grapes that feel like eyeballs. And someday, I’m sure Halloween will find someone who loves it for the holiday it truly is, not the idealized holiday she wishes Halloween was.

The Skeleton Wasn’t Really the "Last Straw”

She says the divorce isn’t because of the skeleton; the skeleton is just the latest example of your selfish and irresponsible behavior, and she’s fed up trying to raise her children and an immature man-child husband. But nah, it’s definitely because of the skeleton. If you ask me, she’s probably just jealous that you have a cool giant skeleton. Also, she’s the immature one. And she’s stupid.

Created
Sat, 19/10/2024 - 04:59
Israel succeeded in what it is good at destroying, killing children and women and assassinating leaders, in killing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. But the Israelis are only deceiving themselves if they think that through their crimes, they can accomplish success for their colonial project and force the Palestinian people to surrender. Since its establishment in Continue reading »
Created
Sat, 19/10/2024 - 04:58
For years, the Israeli authorities have restricted food, fuel and essential supplies to the Palestinians in Gaza, turning the deliveries on and off at will. This contributed to the desperate Hamas outbreak on 7 October 2023, which some experienced observers believe the Netanyahu government expected Continue reading »
Created
Sat, 19/10/2024 - 04:57
Readers may recall my recent P&I post, Israel does not have a right to defend itself, as our PM keeps saying, 11 October. Since publication I have been questioned by some: does the argument made in respect of Palestinians resisting from the West Bank and Gaza, occupied by Israel, apply as well to resistance in Continue reading »
Created
Sat, 19/10/2024 - 04:56
‘Rude’, ‘deeply unprofessional’, ‘bad mannered’, a ‘slap in the face’, ‘insulting’, and ‘inhumane’. You could be forgiven for thinking the Australian state Premiers were engaged in a collective criminal enterprise to warrant such strident rebuke from the British press pack. In fact, they had simply declined an invitation to the welcome reception for our visiting Continue reading »
Created
Sat, 19/10/2024 - 04:54
The horrific incarceration of Australian Daniel Duggan, a political prisoner in his own country, will have lasted two years next week. In that time he has been locked up in four different maximum security prisons, based only on untested allegations from the United States government. He has no charges against him in Australia and has Continue reading »
Created
Sat, 19/10/2024 - 04:00
We have officially entered the manic stage of the presidential election in which the candidates are suddenly everywhere. At least Kamala Harris is everywhere. She’s holding huge raucous rallies all over the swing states, appearing on podcasts and mainstream interviews even going on Fox and subjecting herself to a barrage of hostile Trump inspired accusations from anchor Brett Baier who didn’t seem to want her to actually answer them. (She showed she cannot be intimidated which was probably the point of the interview in the first place.) Nobody at this point should complain that she isn’t being available to the public. Just turn on your TV and you’ll see her there. Trump, on the other hand, is as present as always by holding looney rallies and post on crazy comments on Truth Social, but is refusing to debate Harris again and has cancelled numerous scheduled interviews this week. Yet he’s holding events in California and New York which aren’t even on the radar.
Created
Sat, 19/10/2024 - 02:00

How should I prepare for my first mammogram?
On the day of your exam, don’t apply deodorant or scented lotions. Also, be sure to remove any nipple piercings, nursing children, and/or tiny nipple top hats.

Will I need to arrive early to fill out paperwork?
Yes. We have efficiently limited the pre-procedure paperwork to a short eleven pages by reducing the print to size-seven font. Feel free to grab a pair of readers from the lost-and-found box. Also, be prepared to detail your entire family’s medical history, including your great-aunt Cornelia’s cup size and nipple circumference to the closest quarter inch.

I assume you will then enter all the information into my chart?
The paperwork is purely performative, and we will shred it immediately after you hand it to us. Be prepared to answer all of these questions again. And again. And again.

Created
Sat, 19/10/2024 - 01:30
Federal judge slaps down Florida’s surgeon general In another smackdown for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his lackeys, a federal judge on Thursday issued a temporary restraining order against state threats to prosecute TV stations that run ads in support of Florida’s abortion-rights amendment: The temporary restraining order addresses a lawsuit filed against the state by Floridians Protecting Freedom, a group campaigning for Amendment 4, which will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot. This order expires Oct. 29, when a hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled. Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker’s sharply worded ruling prevents the department from “taking any further actions to coerce, threaten, or intimate repercussions” against broadcasters for airing the ads or “undertaking enforcement action” against them. In citing one case used in his ruling, he offered a brief summary: “To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid.” “Political advertisement is political speech — speech at the core of the First Amendment.
Created
Sat, 19/10/2024 - 00:00

Our friends at 270 Reasons are gathering a polyphonic orchestra of brilliant writers, teachers, doctors, filmmakers, artists, and citizens of all kinds to weigh in about their plans to vote this November. These opinion essays run the gamut from advocacy for basic human rights to acutely personal mini-manifestoes. Read the rest over at 270 Reasons.

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Because Trump Doesn’t Read

The Republican Party has become the official party of book bans, and a Trump victory in November will be vigorously celebrated by book banners across the country. The movement, aided by right-wing media, will be even more emboldened to wage pressure campaigns against schools to take books they don’t like off library shelves. Groups that, blind to irony, use words like “liberty” to curtail the liberty of other people’s children to read, will look to challenge and ban more titles.

Created
Sat, 19/10/2024 - 00:00
Or is it Dumptyism? Trumptyism? The former Republican Party (now the Party of Trump) sold itself for decades as opponents of the Soviet empire and insistent on upholding law and order. LAW! ORDER! As I’ve said of other professed “values” from that team, those boasts were always a mile wide and an inch deep. The people who for decades of accused the left of being squishy on morality have taken squishy to a new level. Helpfully, Jonathan Chait offers a kind of phrasebook for interpreting “law and order” as Donald Trump understands it (Intelligencer): One of the most important and consistent facets of Donald Trump’s thinking is that the law, as most people understand it, is conceptually meaningless. Legal activity, as he understands the term, means anything done by or on behalf of Donald Trump (this can include tax fraud, stealing and refusing to give back classified documents, assaulting police officers in an attempt to overturn an election, or other clear violations of federal criminal statutes).
Created
Fri, 18/10/2024 - 23:00

Guess If These 40 Peripheral Figures in Your Life Actively Despise You or Don’t Know You Exist

What Happy Days Character Are You? You Are Chuck

Here Is Your Bed. This Is Not a Quiz

Can You Guess Whether These 51 Tips to Feel Great Will Work?

I Am Not Genuinely Curious How Many of These Recipes You’ve Stared At

Make a Hot Dog and Use Some of That Full Loaf of Nine-Grain as a Bun, and I’ll Shake My Head At You

You’d Think That by Completing This Quiz About, Shit, I Don’t Know, Cardi B, That You Would Stimulate Yourself in Some Way

How Many of These Party Memories Can You Let Go Of?

You Will Not Reach the End of This Quiz

Whether You Choose Lying on These Couches or Seeing These Bands Live Will Tell Us What We Both Already Know

Which of These Office Supplies Is Probably Your Soulmate?

How Many of These TV Series Have You Binged While Slack-Jawed?

35 Things I Put in a List and Called a Quiz, Go Ahead and Fire Me, Because God Knows I Won’t Build Up the Energy to Quit

The Words “Quit” and “Quiz” Are One Letter Apart and Here’s a Picture of My Knee

Created
Fri, 18/10/2024 - 21:57
July 19, 2024 This essay falls into three parts. First, I  discuss the question of what it is which makes  humans unique — that is, irreplaceable.  Second, I consider whether  machines  on balance  enhance or diminish humanness.   This has become an issue of the moment  with the growth of machine intelligence. Finally, I try … Continue reading Will Artificial Intelligence replace us? – The Article Interview