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Who dares enter my domain!? Don’t you know who I am? You think a lowly peon such as yourself is worthy of my precious time? Because, jeez Louise, I am absolutely slammed right now.

Tremble before me: I am the judge, jury, and executioner! I could slap a death sentence on you right now if I wanted to—no oversight, no checks, no balances. No anything.

I have to admit, I didn’t end up here through ambition or talent. I’m not the nephew of anybody important. One afternoon, the whole office got an email about all our funding being slashed. The next day, I was the only one who showed up. Now I’m an all-powerful overlord with a terrible bloodlust and an even more terrible work-life balance.

I sleep under my desk on a growing pile of takeout burger wrappers. I have to use PTO whenever the clocks change for Daylight Saving Time. My wife won’t even talk to me (there’s no bad blood between us; she just thinks I’ve been kidnapped).

At least without any coworkers, I have way fewer Zoom meetings. So there’s that.

The Trump administration’s push for war on Venezuela includes alleging Maduro controls a government-run “narcoterrorist” conspiracy.

The post Rubio Says Maduro is Terrorist-in-Chief of Venezuela’s “Cártel de los Soles.” Is It Even a Real Group? appeared first on The Intercept.

What is love to you? An artist focuses on the hands and gestures of his subjects as they reflect on this boundless question

- by Aeon Video

Watch on Aeon

In a tight Democratic primary, El-Sayed is trying to distinguish himself as one of two candidates running from the left.

The post Abdul El-Sayed Wants to Be the First Pro-Palestine Senator From Michigan appeared first on The Intercept.

Doctors said my son would die. I wouldn’t believe them, raised millions of dollars and travelled the world for a cure

- by Lina Zeldovich

Read on Psyche

Loose threads, tugged seams and torn hems. How wearing vintage clothes helps me accept the discomfort of imperfection

- by Freya Howarth

Read on Psyche

This life-giving element, stored in rock and organic material, moves around Earth in an ancient cycle we have just broken

- by Jack Lohmann

Read on Aeon

It is fifty years today since the death of Francisco Franco, the dictator who ruled Spain with an iron hand for thirty-six years. Despite the passage of decades, the influence of his dictatorship can still be felt in Spanish politics and society. In 1982, the socialist leader Alfonso Guerra jubilantly declared ‘Not even her mother […]

Presented as a spontaneous youth-led uprising against corruption, violent protests that erupted across Mexico this month were backed by local oligarchs and an international right-wing network determined to topple the popular President Claudia Sheinbaum. Violent demonstrations which erupted in over 50 cities across Mexico on November 15 were secretly financed and coordinated by an international right-wing network and amplified by bot networks, a new report by public fact-checking platform Infodemia has concluded. Those findings were amplified by Mexican President Claudia […]

The post Mexico’s ‘Gen Z rebellion’ exposed as viral right-wing plot first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post Mexico’s ‘Gen Z rebellion’ exposed as viral right-wing plot appeared first on The Grayzone.

In Earth’s cracks, slow-motion temblors rumble while the planet repairs itself

The post Here’s How Rocks Heal Themselves in Deep Faults appeared first on Nautilus.

Members of Congress are getting rich trading stocks and flouting the current, toothless regulations.

The post Everyone Wants to Ban Congressional Stock Trades, but Some Supporters Worry Mike Johnson Is Stalling appeared first on The Intercept.

Decapitated remnants of Aspidorhynchus fish from the Late Jurassic hint at who they hunted—and who hunted them

The post These Gory, Rare Fossils Unravel Ancient Marine Rivalries appeared first on Nautilus.

“President Trump assailed an American journalist in the Oval Office on Tuesday for asking Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, about the violent death of a Washington Post columnist at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018. ‘You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that,’ Mr. Trump told the journalist.” — New York Times

Excuse me, what kind of a question was that? Good God, do you kiss your mother with that mouth? I can’t believe you’d put our esteemed guest, Jason Voorhees, on the spot like that with your horrible, insubordinate, terrible, muckraking, fact-based journalism. That’s no way to treat a gentleman. That’s my friend you’re humiliating. Only I’m allowed to humiliate my friends.