Reading
The return of Sinclair’s Mighty Wurlitzer Public Notice and Judd Legum’s Popular Information assembled another stew of cookie-cutter commentaries from right-wing Sinclair Broadcasting’s local talking heads. Sinclair repackaged talking points from the Wall Street Journal’s widely panned June 4 article, “Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Sipping,” questioning Joe Biden’s mental fitness. The sourcing is questionable. Conveniently, repetition obliterates questions: Nevertheless, the Wall Street Journal piece was repackaged by Sinclair Broadcast Group and beamed into the homes of millions of Americans. Sinclair, which is controlled by right-wing media mogul David Smith, owns or operates 185 local television stations across 86 markets. Sinclair repackaged the Wall Street Journal story through its centralized news team, known as The National Desk. The segment was then pushed to dozens of local news stations owned by Sinclair. Local anchors introduced the piece by reading from a nearly identical script.
Mozilla, the maker of the popular web browser Firefox, said it received government demands to block add-ons that circumvent censorship.
The post Firefox Browser Blocks Anti-Censorship Add-Ons at Russia’s Request appeared first on The Intercept.
Oreos, beer, snack food and sedition How gullible do Donald Trump’s footmen think his #MAGA base is? Pretty gullible, judging by their latest conspiracy theory regarding Hunter Biden’s three felony convictions. And conservatives claim it’s liberals looking down their noses at them. CNN: In the wake of Hunter Biden’s conviction on federal gun charges Tuesday, right-wing media personalities sought to downplay the jury’s decision, falsely claiming the case was a “fake trial” designed to “cover up” other supposed crimes committed by the president and his family. The reaction showcased how far to the fringes the right-wing and pro-Trump media ecosystem has drifted in recent years, with high-profile personalities defaulting to conspiracy theories and innuendo in response to inconvenient political news. Via Greg Sargent at The New Republic: “Hunter Biden guilty. Yawn,” tweeted MAGA thought leader Charlie Kirk. “The true crimes of the Biden Crime Family remain untouched.
Been There, Smelled That explores the aromas of places around the world. Travel writer Maggie Downs investigates some of the world’s most potent smells, looks at how odor cultivates a connection to place, and presents how humans engage with smells, from scents that have endured generations to the latest innovations in aroma-making.
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Years ago, when I was a newspaper reporter at my first job out of college, I wrote a series about a teenager waiting for a heart transplant. When the lifesaving organ finally became available, I was lucky enough to be invited into the operating room to witness the procedure.
I barely remember any of it. In my head, I can only visualize it like a collage of images, as quick and jarring as a trending TikTok. I can’t even picture the room. There’s only a gaping white spot, like a cartoon backdrop that’s been erased. It’s as gone as last night’s dream.
The Green Party has unveiled a manifesto that promises to bring water companies, the Big Five retail energy firms, and the rail network into public ownership, positioning the party significantly to the left of Labour – even if they don’t use that word
My Monday started with a pleasant surprise that is only possible in cross-timezone collaborations: Ted “tedbow” 1 had made a huge leap forward on #3450957: Prevent modules from being uninstalled if they provide field types used in an Experience Builder (XB) field, where he’s working on the first aspect where XB’s JSON blobs in the database must be queried.
Sit in the bathroom and use your creativity to make it the most exciting place in the entire hotel.
Become frustrated that rearranging the towels has failed to turn the bathroom into the most exciting place in the entire hotel.
Remember that your child’s crib has wheels, and see if you can wheel it into the not-particularly-exciting bathroom without waking them up.
Stop moving the crib in a panic after one of your child’s eyelids briefly flutters open. Spend the next ten minutes silently begging them for forgiveness.
Listen to the peaceful sound of your child’s breathing and feel guilty that it is boring you rather than inspiring you to compose a sonnet.
Wonder if going to the hotel bar would count as negligent parenting, given that you and your child would technically still be in the same building.
Decide that going to the bar counts as negligent parenting, but going to the adjacent hotel room would be totally fine.
Remember that you have no idea who, if anyone, is staying in the adjacent hotel room.
Ampika Pickston's AP Care Homes Ltd has been barred for caring for children since late January and is now subject to a Care Standards Tribunal
In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: TWD: Daryl Dixon - The Book of Carol, The Talamasca, Arcane, The Boys, Doctor Who, Cobra Kai, and lots more!
Migrant communities could be the hidden kingmakers in a border poll, but to engage they must feel safe
Labour ditched its plans in February but has announced a new net zero transition policy - it isn't enough
- by Aeon Video
The IMF joint hosted a conference in Tokyo last week – Fiscal Policy and Sovereign Debt – and the continues its misinformation campaign on the ‘dangers’ of public debt. The conference claimed that it brought together ‘leading scholars and senior policymakers’ and upon examination of the agenda it was clear that there was very little…
As Democrats continue with their perennial handwringing over the election and media bigfoots write the 3,785th article about why, despite polls showing a tied election. Joe Biden should drop out it’s interesting to note that the recently convicted felon heading up the other party’s ticket is being deliriously embraced by voters and officials alike. Not even one Republicans has suggested he step down. Not one newspaper or right wing columnist. Nada. The Huffington Post’s S.V. Date takes a look at the GOP’s total unwillingness to even consider dumping Trump: Eight years after a credible effort to dump Donald Trump as their presidential nominee because of his vulgarity, Republicans today appear stuck with the newly convicted felon for November, with no realistic means of taking the nomination away from him at their convention next month, even if they wanted to. “There will be no move to, no mechanism for and no interest in removing Trump at the convention,” said Richard Porter, a Republican National Committee member from Illinois.
Ten books we loved this year.
The post Introducing the Nautilus Summer Reading List appeared first on Nautilus.
Simon Rosenberg has a good one today. He shows that Biden has made some slight gains in the polls in the wake of Trump’s conviction although it’s still essentially tied. He also notes: 538 unveiled its 2024 forecasting model this morning and it gives Biden a 53% chance of winning the election. The key to how we win in this model is our strength in MI, PA, WI, the blue wall states which get us to 269 Electoral College votes, or check as I’ve been calling it. He also notes that we have reports in the last week or so showing that the economy is rolling, crime is way, way down and (I would add, border crossings are also much lower in the last 6 months.) Rosenberg concludes: In the last few weeks we’ve gotten repeated confirmation of the success of the Biden Presidency – inflation is down, food prices are down, crime and murder rates are way down, gas prices are down, the flow to the border is down.
Prediction usually boils down to figuring out essentials.
I’m committed to finding out the 20% which explains 80%. Despite what one might think, that involves quite a lot of work, I’ve read thousands of books over the years, and don’t just get my info on twitter and from news media but I often cover current events and that requires current info, not carefully thought out books. (As an example, I’ve read books on Hezbollah.)
I find a few determined priorities/ideology/power + resource constraints tend to create most apparent complexity (most, not all.) Complexity is mostly in execution, not in ideation or decision.
Much of Fed rate policy from 79 to the 00s, for example, can be explained by a simple commitment to crush wage based inflation. Add in a commitment to increase asset prices and you have two theses which worked very very well predictively at the time and which still have a great deal of utility.