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Maura Quint’s Presidential Debate Recaps: The One with the Tackle and the Bait

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-one-with-the-tackle-and-the-bait
Created
Thu, 12/09/2024 - 01:30

2024 Presidential Debate
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
September 10, 2024

9:01 PM: The candidates enter. Vice President Kamala Harris walks up decisively to former President Donald Trump, introduces herself, and extends her hand to shake. Trump tells her to have fun and looks around expectantly to see when the actual candidate he will be debating will arrive.

9:02 PM: Moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir introduce the debate participants and note that there will be no audience in attendance because security advised there wasn’t a way to prevent Philadelphians from smuggling in hoagies. They ask the candidates to, whenever possible, inhabit the same universe, one that reflects general reality. Harris smiles. Trump squints.

Proving The Point

https://digbysblog.net/2024/09/11/proving-the-point/
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.

Kriminalitet och forskning

https://larspsyll.wordpress.com/2024/09/11/kriminalitet-och-forskning-2/
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 […]

Dog my cats indeed

https://digbysblog.net/2024/09/11/dog-my-cats-indeed/
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.

Our Baby Name Book Acknowledges That There’s More to Life Than Infancy

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/our-baby-name-book-acknowledges-that-theres…
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

The Past Is Orange

https://www.monbiot.com/2024/09/11/the-past-is-orange/
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 […]

Randomization — a philosophical device gone astray

https://larspsyll.wordpress.com/2024/09/11/randomization-a-philosophical-device…
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 […]

Has Communism Happened Yet?

https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/niyBMplQItCrIZdAroWcT57XZWGWhlJv
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.