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Created
Tue, 24/12/2024 - 02:30
Were we born under a bad sign? The Ink and Adam M. Lowenstein this morning consult with a researcher on “the internet and social media shape the intersection of politics, propaganda, and people.” Renée DiResta, an associate research professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown has assembled some of her conclusions in “Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality.” DiResta’s and colleagues’ work for the Stanford Internet Observatory pissed off House Republicans enough that Stanford pulled the plug on the research after five years. Let that be a lesson to libtards everywhere: The shutdown comes amid a sustained and increasingly successful campaign among Republicans to discredit research institutions and discourage academics from investigating political speech and influence campaigns.  SIO and its researchers have been sued three times by conservative groups alleging that its researchers colluded illegally with the federal government to censor speech, forcing Stanford to spend millions of dollars to defend its staff and students. (I just grabbed the audiobook.
Created
Tue, 24/12/2024 - 01:22

The New York Times deleted a video of violence in Amsterdam it published, once it realized that the perpetrators were Israelis, and not an anti-Semitic mob. Why did they do this, rather than inform viewers of what really happened?

The post Worthy Victims: Why the New York Times Deleted Israeli Fan Rampage Video appeared first on MintPress News.

Created
Tue, 24/12/2024 - 00:27
Some Countries Need Less Population

There is a genre of population decline doomerism. An example:

Here’s the thing, Japan imports about sixty percent of its food. Japan is, by any reasonable measure, over-populated.

If you can’t feed your population and if there is no reasonable prospect that you could feed your population, perhaps you have too many people?

Another country for which this is true is Britain, which imports about 80% of its food. Yet the British have also been importing over a million people a year.

Created
Mon, 23/12/2024 - 22:00

About The Job

The Maccabees are a small, start-up militia charged with defending the holy temple from the invading Greek army. Our rockstar candidate should be a motivated, goal-oriented self-starter, because we don’t have the bandwidth or manpower for micromanaging.

You’ll be leading a team of five employees meant to maintain stability and longevity while upholding the core values and integrity of the overall organization. It should be noted that there have been several hostile takeover attempts, and we do not expect them to cease anytime soon. So, if a fast-paced, high-stakes environment is not for you, this may not be a great fit.

Along with heading the group and taking ownership of accomplishments, this is not purely a managerial oversight role, as you will be working with your team to ensure streamlined efficiency in operations. This is not a sit-by-and-run things job; you’ll need to be right there with your team, in the trenches, for what may or may not end up lasting eight workdays.

Created
Mon, 23/12/2024 - 16:56
Last week I noted in my review of the Australian government’s Mid-Year Economic and Financial Outlook (MYEFO) – Australian government announces a small shift in the fiscal deficit and it was if the sky was falling in (December 19., 2024) – that the forward estimates were suggesting the federal government’s fiscal deficit would be 1…
Created
Mon, 23/12/2024 - 11:00
It’s not beyond the realm of possibility I don’t mean to give you nightmares but no matter how much we may want to ignore how close we are to something very dark, we really shouldn’t. Mother Jones’s Pema Levy lays out what could happen if the Supreme’s follow the lead of the 5th Circuit. It’s Leonard Leo’s dream: Imagine Obamacare is dead and millions of Americans have lost health coverage. Abortion is illegal nationwide, pills to end pregnancies are off the market, and doctors wait until the mother’s death is imminent before attempting lifesaving care. Domestic abusers freely carry guns and government attempts to stop untraceable homemade semiautomatic rifles have been quashed, rendering gun licenses and background checks useless. Environmental regulations founder as climate change worsens. With the sidelining of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Wall Street has returned to its greediest days, making bets that threaten economic stability and preying on consumers with predatory loans and hidden fees.
Created
Mon, 23/12/2024 - 09:30
Everyone’s been saying that Elon’s really in charge. And it stands to reason. Poor Trump is obviously past his prime. He’s 78 and fading fast. It happens. But he’s not happy about it: He’s rattled. And I don’t think he got quite the crowd reaction he was expecting… Trump most definitely does not like having smart people around him and he certainly doesn’t like having someone who take the spotlight as Musk does. It’s bothering him. But I don’t know if he can get rid of him. He’s scared of Musk’s money and the fact that Musk is now a MAGA leader means he is a competitor. He showed that this week with the wrecking ball he took to the continuing resolution that Trump had signed off on. And yes, he did sign off on it, despite what the Trumpers are saying. The Washington Post has a good tick-tock on how it all fell apart (gift link): Several people close to Johnson say the speaker talked frequently with the president-elect and kept him abreast of ongoing negotiations. But another Trump adviser described him as blindsided by the bill’s contents and furious.
Created
Mon, 23/12/2024 - 08:58

Some 2,000 years ago, an itinerant preacher, Saul of Tarsus, was writing to a wayward congregation in Corinth, Greece. Curiously enough, his words still capture the epochal change that may await us just over history’s horizon. “For now we see in a glass, darkly,” he wrote. “Now I know in part, but then shall I know fully.” Indeed, mesmerized by a present filled with spellbinding events ranging from elections to wars, we, too, gaze into a darkened glass unable to see how the future might soon unfold before our eyes — a future full of signs that the four empires that have long dominated our world are all crumbling. Since the Cold War ended in 1990, four legacy empires —... Read more

Source: The World’s Four Legacy Empires Going Down appeared first on TomDispatch.com.