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I know the first trimester sucks, but don’t worry—it gets better. You should really look forward to the second trimester.

In the second trimester, the nausea lifts. You won’t hate the smell of your husband’s breath. You’ll be able to enjoy all the foods you couldn’t in your first trimester, like wet spinach. In fact, it just might become your favorite food.

In the second trimester, you’re simply overcome with relaxing hormones. It’s like being on opioids, but it’s not the Sacklers’ fault. You no longer have sciatica, and you forgive all your exes. It’s bliss.

I know the mood swings are intense right now, but don’t worry—they go away in the second trimester. You’ll stop getting upset about every tiny thing and return to only getting upset about the normal stuff, like the cost of living, the lack of good TV these days, the government, the environment, and the patriarchy. So nice.

Morning sickness is soooo much better in the second trimester. For example, you may get it only in the morning.

We surveyed thousands of scientists in four countries and learned just how important beauty is to them

- by Bridget Ritz & Brandon Vaidyanathan

Read at Aeon

Many dismiss utopian ideas. But imagining a better world is a vital political skill for tackling today’s challenges

- by Caitlin Rajan

Read at Psyche

Misa Tanaka Today the Bank published the 2025–28 ‘Bank of England Agenda for Research’ setting out the key areas for new research over the coming years and a set of priority topics for 2025. Misa Tanaka works in the Bank’s Research Hub and is the Bank’s Head of Research. If you want to get in … Continue reading Launch of the 2025–28 Bank of England Agenda for Research →

I confess: I was disappointed when the Justin Trudeau Liberals won the fall 2015 election.  I was hoping for an orange break-through. So, it comes with some irony that I find myself defending the economic policy legacy of the Justin Trudeau Liberal government nine years hence. The acute drama that unfolded in December with the Finance Minister’s resignation ahead of [...]

Emails obtained by The Grayzone reveal how leading “anti-hate” campaigner Imran Ahmed collaborated with Israeli embassy officials to censor pro-Palestine social media accounts — and courted them for donations to his censorship-obsessed Center for Countering Digital Hate. Since emerging in America from seemingly out of the blue in 2020, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has become one of the trans-Atlantic establishment’s most effective tools for censoring online speech. Its founder, Imran Ahmed, has nurtured close ties with the […]

The post Leaked emails expose ‘collaborative efforts’ between Israeli govt and Center for Countering Digital Hate first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post Leaked emails expose ‘collaborative efforts’ between Israeli govt and Center for Countering Digital Hate appeared first on The Grayzone.

He ruled for about the normal time for Canadian Prime Ministers. This, from Taibbi, is well-written nonsense:

The New Republic takes a look at where the MAGA base is these days. They point out that generally a base movement loses momentum when their party is out of power but that it never happened with the MAGA cult. (I think that’s because its cult leader stayed on as party leader and was still in the public eye.) Now they’re building a new army of foot soldiers: [D]efying the odds, the MAGA movement continued to flourish under Joe Biden. Now, with Trump returning to the White House, the far right grassroots is barreling into 2025 with plenty of momentum, while their leader both helps set their agenda while sustaining it by crowd-sourcing their conspiracies and lies for his own use. The far right is currently animated by several themes, many of them interrelated. For several years, demonizing “DEI” (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) frameworks—which focus on identities, racial and otherwise—was an obsession. But the far right has gradually replaced DEI with “woke,” a vaguer and broader idea which can refer to the vast majority of left-leaning positions and be applied to any number of hot button, culture war topics.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

The tumult continues: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation Monday after nearly a decade in power, bowing to rising discontent over his leadership and growing turmoil within his government signaled by the abrupt departure of his finance minister. Trudeau, the latest incumbent to be driven out amid rising voter dissatisfaction worldwide, said it had become clear to him that he cannot “be the leader during the next elections due to internal battles.” He planned to stay on as prime minister until a new leader of the Liberal Party is chosen. “I don’t easily back down faced with a fight, especially a very important one for our party and the country. But I do this job because the interests of Canadians and the well being of democracy” are “something that I hold dear,” said Trudeau, who was initially teary-eyed at the announcement outside his official residence. He said Parliament, which had been due to resume Jan. 27, would be suspended until March 24. The timing will allow for a Liberal Party leadership race.

The impact of famine may be written in the bodies of future generations

The post You Are What Your Ancestors Didn’t Eat appeared first on Nautilus.

A spat between tech bros and Trump’s base illuminates the growing cracks in the Right’s anti-immigrant coalition.

Peter Baker in the NY Times: To hear President-elect Donald J. Trump tell it, he is about to take over a nation ravaged by crisis, a desolate hellscape of crime, chaos and economic hardship. “Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World!” he declared on social media last week. But by many traditional metrics, the America that Mr. Trump will inherit from President Biden when he takes the oath for a second time, two weeks from Monday, is actually in better shape than that bequeathed to any newly elected president since George W. Bush came into office in 2001. For the first time since that transition 24 years ago, there will be no American troops at war overseas on Inauguration Day. New data reported in the past few days indicate that murders are way down, illegal immigration at the southern border has fallen even below where it was when Mr. Trump left office and roaring stock markets finished their best two years in a quarter-century. Jobs are up, wages are rising and the economy is growing as fast as it did during Mr. Trump’s presidency.

At the time Republicans knew how bad it was: “A shrine to democracy for our country, and the world, was overrun by violent extremists seeking to overturn an election. We must hold those responsible to account.” Senator John Thune in Jan. 2021 Today: I don’t know how we can survive this level of delusion and mendacity.

I listened to James Carville Sunday morning on Jen Psaki’s show and read his Op-Ed in the NY Times. I got the impression from Psaki that his advice is being taken very seriously by Democrats. He believes that we need to stop caring about Donald Trump’s assault on reason and the Constitution and concentrate on kitchen table issues. He says that when people are suffering greatly nobody cares that he’s a corrupt criminal and an enemy of democracy so Democrats shouldn’t talk about it anymore. And he cautions that denouncing the other party and its voters is “no way to win an election.” (Donald Trump would like a word …) He says that Trump won on his economic message. Carville advised Democrats to focus on opposing Republican party economic policies but they also need to offer “wildly popular” economic policies that will appeal to people. He suggests issues such as the codification of Roe v. Wade, a higher minimum wage and support for H1B visas to  “expedite entry for high-performing talent and for those who will bring business into our nation.” Obviously opposing the GOP economic message is vital.

For years, we Democrats have been reminding you that Donald Trump is a danger to democracy and a scourge on our nation. His election back into our highest office is a terrifying, perhaps fatal turning point in American history. He will bring about a backslide from which we may never recover. But what is most important right now is civility. Propriety. Politeness. Today, we’re taking the high road—the one that leads directly off a cliff. This dire threat to democracy must be certified.

Four years ago, this man incited an insurrection. He attempted to thwart the democratic process, to overturn an election. We must never forget what happened that day, no matter how many ways he bends its truth. We must tell of its violence in our history books and teach of its blight to our children so it may never be repeated. Except today, when we need to come together and agree on one thing: That guy should be in charge.

You may be asking, “Wait, so everything’s suddenly fine now? Process takes precedence over country?”

No. Never! Never. Never, ever. Just today, though. Today, yes.