Philip Bump with a smart take on the DeSantis campaign “retooling” There was California Gov. Pete Wilson in September 1995, who, the Associated Press reported at the time, was heading “into the fall with a new plan to cut costs but without veteran strategist George Gorton” as he sought the Republican presidential nomination. He’d drop out soon after. In June 1999, it was Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) who, according to the Houston Chronicle, “scaled back his [presidential] campaign operation” because of “the difficulties of raising money in a crowded Republican field.” He was out by August. In June 2003, it was Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) who needed to figure out “how to build on the campaign’s fundraising successes while cutting costs,” as the National Journal wrote. He made it to February of the following year. It seems as though there’s a candidate like this in every cycle, the one who jumps into the presidential race only to quickly overextend themselves, demanding a scaling-back of staff even before winter. In 2011 it was Jon Huntsman Jr. In 2015, Jeb Bush. In 2019, Kamala D.
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On his way to Beijing to repair bilateral climate change relations John Kerry announced to the world the US would ‘under no circumstances’ pay climate change ‘reparations’ to the developing world. Why such a statement? Some enterprising researchers help explain why by producing data which confirms the extent to which the Global North is responsible Continue reading »
Even as the war in Ukraine is raging, NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg is now turning to Asia in an attempt to fan the flames of dissension in the region. In an article by Brad Lendon (CNN, Updated 4:54 AM EDT, Tue July 11, 2023) on the 2023 NATO Summit in Vilnius, he said: “NATO Secretary Continue reading »
A lot of opportunities have been missed to engage more closely with Indonesia over the last few decades, a period when Australian government enthusiasm and funding for engagement with Indonesia declined significantly. Correcting that is getting harder as time goes on and Indonesia grows in economic and political influence. The recent three-day visit to Australia Continue reading »
The Holmes report into the Robodebt scandal gives the Albanese government all the authority and mandate it needs for root and branch reform of the public service, including a spill of its senior leadership. Bet your life, however, that this administration simply lacks the courage, and that all we will see is some piecemeal changes, Continue reading »
Some readers may recall that under the Morrison government in 2020 the Department of Home Affairs released a document called Life in Australia: Australian values and principles. The statement was an odd one at the time, insofar as its main purpose was to explain the government’s idea of our values to visa applicants. In this Continue reading »
The recent exchange in Pearls and Irritations between John Frew and Ross Fox about teaching severely disruptive students comes at a time of frenetic interest in school reform, sparked by two current high stakes reviews. In brief, Ross Fox, the Director of Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn has claimed the review of teacher education supports the action he has Continue reading »
An exchange between Larry Stillman, Harold Zwier and Chandra Muzaffar on the question: When does criticism of Zionism and Israel lapse into antisemitism? In late 2022 Dr Chandra Muzaffar with others, announced a bold global initiative called Saving Humanity and Planet Earth (SHAPE). Dr Muzaffar, a Malaysian political scientist, is an Islamic reformist and human Continue reading »
Although it may come across as dramatic and unprecedented, Move Forward Party (MFP) leader Pita Limjaroenrat’s ordeal in trying to take office as prime minister after winning the May 14 election is par for the course in Thai politics over the past two decades. Every time a party wins convincingly at the polls and its Continue reading »
When I burst forth from Earth’s molten core into downtown Manhattan, I had one intention: to destroy every living thing on Earth. “I will turn the world into my dominion of shadows, a barren wasteland of chaos.” The humans shrugged, unfazed by my horrific threat. “Also, I’m a lesbian.”
The humans screamed, their faces twisted in disgust. “Oh God, it’s going to make us design websites for its gay wedding!”
As I picked up my first victim in my serrated claws, I expected him to beg for his life. But instead, he said, “I think you just haven’t been with the right guy yet.” As I approached a school, ready to vaporize it with my eyes, humans shrieked, “No, that monster will teach the children how to scissor!” When I wrapped my thirty-foot-long tail around a woman’s neck, she wheezed, “It’s really cool you’re killing me, actually. Representation matters.”
I foolishly believed being a lesbian was just another part of me, like my ability to breathe a noxious gas that turns human organs into slurry. But these humans didn’t care that I was destroying them. They just wondered which character I most identified with on The L Word.
If he loses the primary don’t ever think he’ll take his ball and go home I wish I understood what all these Republicans running for president hope to get out of it. It can’t be that they actually believe they are going to win. We know that Donald Trump will never accept that he lost so he will proclaim that the winner stole it from him and many of his followers will believe him and they’ll stay home handing the election to Joe Biden. Remember, he even claimed that Ted Cruz stole the Iowa caucuses in 2016. After first conceding the race he turned around and tweeted: “Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he illegally stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong any [sic] why he got more votes than anticipated. Bad!” He removed the word “illegally” but then followed it up with: He let that go when he started winning primaries but once he got the nomination he famously declared that he would only accept the results of the general election if he won. He did win but he still wasn’t satisfied because he lost the popular vote so within a couple of weeks he was declaring that it was the result of voter fraud.
The sweeping opinion grants the luxury vessels the unlimited ability to entertain government officials on their decks in order to gain political influence.
If this survives for an hour, it passes the Bear Test.
Greg Sargent nails it The failure of Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-Ohio) House Judiciary Committee hearing last week to generate any kind of coherent narrative might have been expected (Washington Post): Blame it on the “MAGA persecution complex” — the vast array of outlets in the right-wing media ecosystem that incentivizes GOP lawmakers to pander to conservative victimization and grievance. It’s feasting on so many claims of persecution that it’s essentially eating itself to death. At last week’s hearing, Republicans alleged that the FBI investigated conservative parents at school board meetings. (That’s entirely baseless.) They insisted FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, a registered Republican, personally sicced the FBI on conservatives. (Wray called this “insane.”) They claimed the FBI has eagerly persecuted Trump. (The FBI has actually been rule-bound and cautious.) They railed that FBI plants incited the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
In the run up to the Uxbridge by-election, the Conservative Party appears to be passing off a councillor as an ordinary member of the public
Using ‘simplifying’ tractability or ‘heuristic’ assumptions — rational expectations, common knowledge, representative agents, linearity, additivity, ergodicity, etc — because otherwise they cannot ‘manipulate’ their models or come up with ‘rigorous ‘ and ‘precise’ predictions and explanations, does not exempt economists from having to justify their modelling choices. Being able to ‘manipulate’ things in models cannot […]
“Our campaign is data-driven” The trade show area of political conferences is lined with of booths filled with vendors and staff from nonprofit groups. Lots of tech firms with the latest in campaign software — for fundraising, for campaign communications and social media, for data management. I feel like strolling through dressed as Darth Vader and intoning, “Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed.” That sentiment is not mine alone. Micah L. Sifry discusses a survey of volunteers from 31st Street Swing Left, Markers for Democracy and Swing Blue Alliance. He summarizes their report, “The Experience of Grassroots Leaders Working with the Democracy Party,” calling it “sobering.” One bullet speaks to a pet peeve of mine and a current project (bolded): One volunteer I spoke with recently complained that VoteBuilder/VAN is not only clunky but still has “a 1980s interface.” While Democrats may attempt to update their software, there is a reluctance to update their strategies. There is a systematic overreliance on tech to solve Democrats’ problems.
The UK's 13 biggest housing associations paid their executives over £22m with bosses earning almost double the average for the UK's biggest charities
1. PSAT tutor
2. ACT proctor
3. Buying and selling GameStop index funds while I’m trying to collect the fucking homework
4. Youth soccer camp coach
5. Piano lessons and biweekly plasma donations
6. Wedding photographer
7. Wedding violinist
8. Lifeguard
9. Cadillac car salesboy
10. Running a literacy enrichment program for underserved youth
11. Running a multilevel marketing cannabis empire over Facebook and LinkedIn
12. Waiting tables
13. Instagram influencer for athleisure wear
14. Teaching ten- to twenty-minute online ESL courses to Korean adults (who may confess to opening a second savings account to hide money from their spouses before hitting on you from many time zones away) back-to-back-to-back for six consecutive goddamn hours
15. Scooping water ice at Rita’s, which pays a better hourly rate than the above
16. Summer curriculum alignment for your own school admin, who still pay you less than the Rita’s down the street