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Created
Tue, 22/04/2025 - 02:30

Let’s make one thing very clear: So far, there is almost no proof that JD Vance is directly responsible for the death of Pope Francis. All we know is that the vice president met with the pope and, a few hours later, the pope was dead. To draw a line between those two facts would almost definitely be a little bit premature.

Here’s what we do know: After their meeting ended and Vice President Vance left the room, the pope was still alive. We can deduce that he was alive, because he was heard asking an assistant, “Ho appena incontrato il volto del diavolo?” which roughly translates to, “Have I just encountered the face of the devil?” It’s a very common question that has been asked in many languages after encounters with JD Vance.

It should also be noted that there is a relatively low chance that spending just ten minutes in a room with Vice President Vance is enough to cause someone to die—out of either a feeling of deep disappointment in humanity or, as online forums describe it, “too much cringe.” This probably could not happen, and is unlikely to have happened a few dozen times already to other people who have met with Vice President Vance previously.

Created
Mon, 21/04/2025 - 22:46

There may come a time when we look back on the last decade as an anomaly in the modern history of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis – the figurehead of these years, and a radical by the standards of the Catholic hierarchy – is gone, and we are now likely to see a major shift […]

Created
Mon, 21/04/2025 - 22:14

This is a test. This is only a test. I’m using WordLand to write this post to my WordPress website. It’s a new, stripped-down writer’s tool for bloggers. Think of it as a frill-free writer’s frontend to the majesty of WordPress. The essential features (and some advanced ones, even) in a distraction-free, scribbler-friendly environment. ## […]

The post Writing in WordLand appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Created
Mon, 21/04/2025 - 22:00

“The Trump administration is now flirting with lawless defiance of court orders.”New York Times

- - -

This administration repeatedly ignores court rulings, so, sure, it looks like we are breaking many laws. But even though it seems very, very obvious to everyone that we’re breaking laws left and right, any stable genius can see we’re merely edging ever closer to breaking many laws. Like a teenager sitting next to their crush in a dark movie theater, slowly creeping nearer and nearer to graze their date’s hand.

This isn’t a constitutional crisis. We’re just making eye contact with a constitutional crisis from across the bar, then looking away and giggling.

Created
Mon, 21/04/2025 - 20:42
Lately — especially in the Moderate Party (Moderaterna) and the Liberal Party (Liberalerna) — there has been a push for the euro based on the argument that global economic uncertainties make smaller currencies like the Swedish krona more vulnerable. Facing increased volatility, the euro is said to be a safer alternative. This, however, sounds rather […]
Created
Mon, 21/04/2025 - 13:03
It is a public holiday in Australia today and I decided that I would use the time, which is free of workplace-type interruptions, to work on a project that has an impending (very) deadline. I also did a podcast interview with the team at Macro and Cheese on the state of American this morning. So…
Created
Mon, 21/04/2025 - 11:21

A decade ago, I stood up in Parliament and urged Conservative ministers to save the Redcar steelworks — our blast furnace, our world-class coke ovens. I warned then that abandoning these strategic assets would have generational consequences, and I wasn’t alone in saying so. My Labour colleagues in the neighbouring constituencies (Redcar and Middlesbrough South […]

Created
Mon, 21/04/2025 - 10:53
Dear ES/PE community members, find below and benefit from an abundant and excellent list of great academic opportunities: 28 (!) calls for papers for conferences (some are partly or even fully funded) and special issues, 9 postdoc positions, 7 summer schools, 5 job openings, 4 PhD scholarships, 2 visiting positions, and a research grant in […]
Created
Mon, 21/04/2025 - 07:08

In 2003, the Macedonian police arrested Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen vacationing in their country. They handed the unfortunate man over to the CIA, who shipped him off to one of their “black sites.” For those too young to remember (or who have quite understandably chosen to forget), “black sites” was the name given to clandestine CIA detention centers around the world, where that agency held incommunicado and tortured men captured in what was then known as the Global War on Terror. The black site in this case was the notorious Salt Pit in Afghanistan. There el-Masri was, among other things, beaten, anally raped, and threatened with a gun held to his head. After four months he was dumped on... Read more

Source: Trump Harvests Autocratic Powers appeared first on TomDispatch.com.