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One theme of this blog, for the last four years or so, has been the end of the unilateral, American, order.

Let’s review:

The US & NATO poured support into Ukraine, and the Ukrainians are losing the war. This is clear now, and anyone denying it is either lying, stupid or a complete captive of propaganda.

The West can’t produce enough weapons or ammo. There have been massive drawdowns of stocks and production is not enough to replace it, nor is production ramping up either enough, or quickly enough, to deal with the issue.

Russia, however, was able to ramp up weapons and ammunition production fast. At the start of the war, and for far too long afterwards there were cries that the Russians would run out of missiles, shells and so on. No such thing. Their allies came thru, plus they massively increased their production.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Some of it, at least That was last night. This is today: Special counsel Jack Smith has outlined new details of former President Donald Trump and his allies’ sweeping and “increasingly desperate” efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, in a blockbuster court filing Wednesday aimed at defending Smith’s prosecution of Trump following the Supreme Court’s July immunity ruling. Trump intentionally lied to the public, state election officials, and his own vice president in an effort to cling to power after losing the election, while privately describing some of the claims of election fraud as “crazy,” prosecutors alleged in the 165-page filing. “When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office,” the filing said.

In our five-minute scroll on X: Julian Assange recognised as a political prisoner; shameful, divisive western media commentary; Iran strikes Israel’s most secure air base; Russian carpet bombs in Volchansk; Malcolm Turnbull speaks his mind on Peter Dutton, and Hong Kong anti-China groups awash with mystery cash. Julian Assange recognised as a political prisoner @@wikileaks Continue reading »

Toyota Camry

I’m a regular guy like you. I drive cars, sometimes several at once, and say “zoom zoom” and “brrrrrbrrrbrrrrbbbbbbrrrrr” when I drive fast. Just like you do. I know cars—in fact, I’m married to a car, but please don’t check. So, when I look at a Toyota Camry, I see the watery eyes of a child gazing up at me, hoping they can afford healthgroceryhousingcarecaid. It’s a sad state of affairs. Purchasing this Camry from me and my boss, who will be SO mad if I miss this sale, is like taking a deep breath of clean air and exhaling. Think about that, not the car itself. And if you have doubts, just know that this—this right here—this is my face, and it’s talking, and it’s got the gift of the gab, and it’s 100 percent real human. Trust.

A letter from four construction bosses’ organisations to Murray Watt, Minister for Employment, has blown open the real agenda behind the attack on the CFMEU.

The post EXCLUSIVE: Bosses’ letter to Labor reveals conditions, union rights the real reason for attack on CFMEU first appeared on Solidarity Online.

Rick Perlstein is out with another interesting piece in the American Prospect today, this time about “undecided voters.” He references the great Chris Hayes piece from 2004 that I’ve often discussed over the years. It had the same effect on me that it had on Perlstein who describes it as “the most important piece of political journalism I have ever encountered.” As he says: The future MSNBC host’s TNR piece was an account of the lessons he learned canvassing among undecided voters in Wisconsin for John Kerry. It incinerates a basic foundation of how political junkies think: “Perhaps the greatest myth about undecided voters is that they are undecided because of the ‘issues.’ That is, while they might favor Kerry on the economy, they favor Bush on terrorism; or while they are anti-gay marriage, they also support social welfare programs.” Chris noted that while there were a few people he talked to like that, “such cases were exceedingly rare.

North Carolina was once a climate leader, but more than a decade of Republican and corporate obstruction left the state ill-prepared for the historic disaster.

The Opposition’s shadow minister for home and foreign affairs, Barnaby Joyce, has called on the Government to look into the issue of shrinkflation. Namely the shrinkflation he gets whilst swimming. ”Albo’s keen to get out their and tackle shrinkflation, fair... Read More ›

Some go gently into the night. Others die in freak accidents or deadly invasions, or after a showy display.

The post Your Cells Are Dying. All The Time. appeared first on Nautilus.

A reader friend by the name of Sean Kelly, a scientist, seeing me flail about trying to deal with polling, offered this explanation and agreed to let me share it with you in case you are feeling the same way. It cleared a few things up for me: So. Political polling. It is basically experts making data informed guesses, and the reported margins of error are pretty much meaningless in context. Experts making informed guesses are a useful thing, and the best realistic option, but poll results are not scientifically rigorous things. Let me explain some of that context. The reality of political polling usually involves people that answer their phone when the call is from an unknown number. That skews the sample to older people, as many people avoid scammers and random sales people by not answering calls by unknown numbers. Older people grew up in a society where avoiding callers was impolite, so are more likely to pick up – not certain, but more likely. Alternatively, a small army of people can buttonhole people on the street, but that skews the poll to shoppers or business people that are out on the street.

Users of Meta’s platforms could see posts taken offline if they include the upside-down red triangle symbol.

The post Facebook and Instagram Restrict the Use of the Red Triangle Emoji Over Hamas Association appeared first on The Intercept.

Representative Mike Collins posted this “perfected” image of JD Vance on his Twitter feed yesterday: Uhm, no: Is this Collins’s fantasy? Vance isn’t hot enough for him as he is? What? And they wonder why people think they’re weird.

Greg Sheridan is doubtless now too long in the tooth to change his journalistic ways. But it really is time that he recognised the force of that immortal observation by Shakespeare’s contemporary, Francis Bacon, that ‘Speaking in perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but love’. No Sheridan article seems complete without some person or policy Continue reading »

I thought this was a BS way to frame the abortion issue last night and because of the rule that the moderators could not fact check Vance’s lies (or even their own questions!) Walz had to just repeat over and over again that it wasn’t true. As TNR reports: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was asked to respond to Donald Trump’s outlandish abortion talking point during the vice presidential debate Tuesday. “Former President Trump said in the last debate that you believe that abortion ‘in the ninth month is absolutely fine.’ Yes or no, is that what you support?” asked CBS moderator Norah O’Donnell. “That’s not what the bill says, but look, this issue is what’s on everyone’s mind,” Walz replied, explaining that Trump had made way to destroy national protections for abortion. During the presidential debate last month, Trump had claimed that Walz supported abortion in the ninth month—and after. Trump claimed that Walz “also says, ‘Execution after birth’—execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born—is OK.

“The simple fact is that the housing crisis lies squarely at the feet of the malevolence of developers just like Donald Trump himself.”

The post J.D. Vance Blamed Immigrants for the Housing Crisis. Corporate Greed Is the Real Culprit. appeared first on The Intercept.