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Created
Thu, 12/09/2024 - 00:30
Harris demonstrated Trump’s weakness Kamala Harris is hardly the first person to observe that Donald Trump is easily manipulated with flattery. Particularly, flattery from autocrats and dictators he admires and whose respect he craves. They belong to an exclusive club he desperately wants to join, a strongman club that wouldn’t have an infant like him for a member. Harris said of Trump during last night’s debate: He’s trying to again divide and distract from the reality, which is it is very well known that Donald Trump is weak and wrong on national security and foreign policy. It is well known that he admires dictators, wants to be a dictator on day one according to himself. It is well known that he said of Putin that he can do whatever the hell he wants and go into Ukraine. It is well known when that he said when Russia went into Ukraine it was brilliant. It is well known he exchanged love letters with Kim Jong un.
Created
Wed, 11/09/2024 - 23:14
Men kartläggning och analyser av detta slags släktbaserade nätverk som genom hot om våld och trakasserier ut­övar stor makt i invandrartäta förortsområden och genom detta allvarligt förhindrar integration lyser med sin frånvaro … I Sverige får man ha vilka värderingar man vill. Att omfatta och propagera för till exempel kommunistiska, islamistiska, kristna, reaktionära, feministiska, patriarkala […]
Created
Wed, 11/09/2024 - 23:00
The childless cat lady sings You can’t unsee it. Donald Trump last night bested Joe Biden with a Grandpa Simpsonesque debate performance even more unsettling against Vice President Kamala Harris. If Trump’s goal was to be best of the worst, congratulations, Donald, you did it. Trump made at least 33 false claims during the debate, fact-checker Daniel Dale told CNN viewers Tuesday night. But that’s not the point anymore. Facts have never mattered to Trump, nor to his MAGA cult. As Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” How did they feel about seeing Trump afraid even to look at Harris? How did Americans feel about Harris pledging to fight for them, all of them, while Trump whined about his crowd size? How did they feel about Trump citing Viktor Orbán, the autocratic prime minister of Hungary, as a character reference? There were too many memorable moments to review. Too many Harris zingers and Trump belly flops. But I’m reminded of Gov.
Created
Wed, 11/09/2024 - 22:44

Every year, we wonder what might be appropriate on this day, and we can never think of anything more appropriate than this piece, which John Hodgman originally delivered at a literary reading shortly after September 11, 2001.

- - -

Good evening.

My name is John Hodgman. I am a former professional literary agent, which on a good day is a pretty small thing to be, and these days feels rather microscopic. Before I was a professional literary agent, I thought it would be a good idea to be a teacher of fiction in a college MFA program because it is easy and you are adored all the time and of course it pays a lot of money.

I used to have a lot of bright ideas.

Created
Wed, 11/09/2024 - 22:00

BABY NAMES
Matilda
Archibald
Benjamin
Katherine
Theodore

CHILDHOOD NICKNAMES
Tilly
Archie
Benji
Kat
Teddy

NAMES FOR A JOB INTERVIEW
Maddie
Arch
Ben
Kate
Ted

NAMES FOR A REBELLIOUS TEENAGER
Madison
Ash
Benny
K
Spyder

PEN NAMES
M. K.
A. W.
B. R. R.
K-C
T

WRONG NAMES CALLED OUT BY A BARISTA
Melinda
Arnold
Ken
Cameron
Todd

Created
Wed, 11/09/2024 - 18:29
The weird, uncanny consistencies of far right politics. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian  6th September 2024 I’ve been thinking about a famously orange-skinned former presenter of trashy TV programmes, who lives on a luxurious coastal estate. He has a history of racist and Islamophobic remarks, of blaming asylum seekers for bringing disease into […]
Created
Wed, 11/09/2024 - 16:29
When giving courses in the philosophy of science yours truly has often had David Papineau’s book Philosophical Devices (OUP 2012) on the reading list. Overall it is a good introduction to many of the instruments used when performing methodological and science theoretical analyses of economic and other social sciences issues. Unfortunately, the book has also fallen […]
Created
Wed, 11/09/2024 - 12:45
Has Communism Happened Yet?

Marx was probably the most important intellectual of the 19th century, based on impact, but it’s generally believed he was wrong about his major predictions, and thus his theories are largely garbage. I have some sympathy for this view, but let’s look at the counter-argument.

Marx said that Communism would develop from industrial nations, with the proletariat, finally realizing they were producing all the value, taking control. What happened instead is that the two major “communist” revolutions happened in agrarian societies: Russia and China, and while China’s hard communist period (pre-Deng) advanced China significantly, they didn’t become a massive surplus society until market reform took place.

If you call a dog a duck, it’s still a dog.

Created
Wed, 11/09/2024 - 09:30
Here’s the story on Loomer, from last May. She is on the inside of the Trump campaign: Loomer, a far-right activist and former Republican congressional candidate, has plenty of evidence that Trump likes her. There are all the times he’s boosted her videos on Truth Social. There was the event last summer, at Trump’s New Jersey golf club, when the former president spotted Loomer on the rope line and invited her onto his private balcony. There was the shout-out at a rally in Iowa, in January, when Trump praised her as “a very important person, politically.” There were the former president’s invitations to fly on Trump Force One, his Boeing 757 — Loomer remembers being a passenger three times, Trump aides recall only two — bobbing along to Sinéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U”en route from Palm Beach to Des Moines last January. There’s also the fact that Trump reportedly wanted to hire her for a campaign role last spring,before aide sintervened.