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Sun, 28/05/2023 - 04:30
If you haven’t been following the story of the most corrupt, immoral wingnut AG in the country, here’s a rundown. Let’s see if Republicans can summon the will to do something about him: The Republican-dominated Texas House has scheduled a vote on the impeachment of the state’s Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, for Saturday at 1 p.m. The vote was set to take place just two days after a bipartisan but Republican-led committee of representatives recommended that Mr. Paxton should be impeached for a range of abuses that may have been crimes. The attorney general has been handling various legal challenges for years, weathering multiple investigations with few political repercussions. On Friday, Mr. Paxton again denied any wrongdoing and invited supporters to “peacefully” make their voices heard during the impeachment vote at the State Capitol. Here’s what to know. Who is Ken Paxton? Before he become the attorney general in 2015, Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. worked as a lawyer and state legislator, serving in both the State House and Senate.
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Sun, 28/05/2023 - 03:00
Fergawdsakes: “Murderers.” “Criminals.” “We are watching you.” These are just a handful of the threats and abuse sent to meteorologists at AEMET, Spain’s national weather agency, in recent months. They come via social media, its website, letters, phone calls – even in the form of graffiti sprayed across one of its buildings. Abuse and harassment “have always happened” against the agency’s scientists, Estrella Gutiérrez-Marco, spokesperson for AEMET, told CNN. But there has been a rapid rise recently, coinciding with extreme weather in Spain. A severe drought has shrunk water levels to alarming lows, exacerbated by record-breaking April temperatures. The abuse got so bad that in April, AEMET posted a video on Twitter calling for an end to the harassment, and asking for respect. Even the government intervened.
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Sun, 28/05/2023 - 00:30
(But not without struggle, it seems) Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, addressed the 2023 graduates of Johns Hopkins University: The time is of the essence, and it is that essence that I would like to talk about today. One of the most common truisms on Earth is the advice to value or at least not waste time. Why has it become so widespread? Every person eventually realizes that time is the most valuable resource on the planet, not oil or uranium, not lithium or anything else, but time. Time. The very flow of time convinces us of this. Some people realize this sooner, and these are the lucky ones. Others realize it too late when they lose someone or something. People cannot avoid it. This is just a matter of time. Now, you can look back at the time you have spent here at the university studying—did you get everything you needed from it? You have even more time ahead of you, a whole lifetime. These are the careers you will build. This is your parents’ pride, which they have every right to, if they raised the children who graduate from Johns Hopkins. These are your families who, I wish you this, will bring you love.
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Sat, 27/05/2023 - 23:00
sto·​chas·​tic (stə-ˈka-stik) stō- “[T]he actual threat to American freedom is coming from the states,” begins Jamelle Bouie’s NYT op-ed: It is states that have stripped tens of millions of American women of their right to bodily autonomy, with disastrous consequences for their lives and health. It is states that have limited the right to travel freely if it means trying to obtain an abortion. It is states that have begun a crusade against the right to express one’s gender and sexuality, under the pretext of “protecting children.” It is states that are threatening to seize the children of parents who believe their kids need gender-affirming care. And it is states that have begun to renege on the promise of free and fair elections. That it is states, and specifically state legislatures, that are the vanguard of a repressive turn in American life shouldn’t be a surprise.
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Sat, 27/05/2023 - 19:30

‘Tackling certain privileges was always going to anger the economic powers. We have implemented a different model for this city — a fairer, more democratic and feminist one… [Within Spain] we are leaders in social spending and public housing. We have increased green spaces and bike lanes, improved public transport and shut thousands of illegal […]

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Sat, 27/05/2023 - 09:30
Urban jungle edition Rick Perlstein sent me this from Chicago: New York, the famous escaped Owl named Flaco: And the latest from here in Los Angeles, some wonderful news: Mountain Lion cubs! World, meet P-113, P-114, and P-115. That’s the designation for three healthy, month-old female mountain lion kittens that biologists recently discovered nestled in a dense patch of poison oak growing around large boulders in the Simi Hills. The sisters belong to P-77, a 5- or 6-year-old lion who biologists captured and radio-tagged in the same area a few years ago. Researchers hope to do the same with the three kittens late next year, just before the girls get old enough to leave their mom. Tagging these lions is part of a National Park Service study that’s been going on in and around the Santa Monica Mountains since 2002, in an attempt to determine how the cats survive — or don’t — and what might help to stabilize their threatened existence. Each year, local mountain lions are killed trying to cross nearby freeways, by poachers, and through exposure to rat poison and other hazards that come with living so close to an urban center.
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Sat, 27/05/2023 - 08:00
I’m a Never GOPer so much of this doesn’t apply to me. But the idea that Ron DeSantis will be a big improvement over Trump is a fallacy and it’s good to see this critique come from those on the center right who see the real threat for what it is. It isn’t just Trump. It’s MAGA, and DeSantis is a first generation MAGA-ite. Tim Miller writes: In 2024, the chosen one will be Gov. Ron DeSantis. It has thus been decreed by the old-guard members of Conservative Inc. Or at least the ones calculating enough to have survived the MAGA takeover. Rupert has dubbed him DeFuture. Republican hedge fund donors have taken their Trump tax cut and run. National Review is indistinguishable from a DeSantis Fanzine, lavishly extolling his virtues and wagging their finger at anyone who dares challenge their precious. Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire is not any less effusive and is already cashing in on the new bell cow. To be honest, I understand this calculation. DeSantis is the golden ticket.
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Sat, 27/05/2023 - 07:29
Vår främste filmmusikskapare har gått ur tiden. Stefan skrev den sorts musik som glömskan inte rår på. Tack för allt. Vila i frid min vän. Bille Augusts och Ingmar Bergmans mästerverk — med Stefan Nilssons musik, det vackraste och mest suggestiva i filmmusikväg som någonsin gjorts. Pelle Erobreren — baserad på Martin Andersen Nexös episka […]
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Sat, 27/05/2023 - 06:30
DeSantis knows these are the new rules and he’s taking advantage of it: Officials who work for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration — not his campaign — have been sending text messages to Florida lobbyists soliciting political contributions for DeSantis’ presidential bid, a breach of traditional norms that has raised ethical and legal questions and left many here in the state capital shocked. NBC News reviewed text messages from four DeSantis administration officials, including those directly in the governor’s office and with leadership positions in state agencies. They requested the recipient of the message contribute to the governor’s campaign through a specific link that appeared to track who is giving as part of a “bundle” program.  “The bottom line is that the administration appears to be keeping tabs on who is giving, and are doing it using state staff,” a longtime Florida lobbyist said. “You are in a prisoner’s dilemma. They are going to remain in power.