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Created
Mon, 09/10/2023 - 04:00
It’s been quite a morning for the GOP superstar women on TV this morning You won’t find a better encapsulation of Nancy Mace’s phoniness than her going on CBS today & claiming her big problem with McCarthy was he didn’t do enough for abuse survivors, then in the next breath endorsing Gym Jordan for speaker. She stands for nothing beyond getting on TV. — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 8, 2023 Brennan: Do the past allegations of Jim Jordan that he turned a blind eye to sexual abuse give you reservations? Mace: I’m not familiar or aware of that. Brennan: Ohio state university allegations. Mace: I don’t know anything pic.twitter.com/OGQQFqR9pt — Acyn (@Acyn) October 8, 2023 Brennan: McCarthy said his ouster is personal payback from Gaetz for the house ethics committee investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct… Does that bother you? Mace: Well, again, he’s not indicted for anything. I don’t really — I don’t know much about it.
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Mon, 09/10/2023 - 03:14

In his new book, ‘Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism’, Yanis Varoufakis explores how giant tech firms, both in the US and China are expanding their control over the planet. His analysis is that, whilst material resources certainly matter, the real battle ground is over digital real estate. Aaron sat down with Yanis to talk about how […]

The post Interviewed by Aaron Bastani, for Novara Media, on my TECHNOFEUDALISM appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

Created
Mon, 09/10/2023 - 02:50
With any phenomenon of interest, understanding its nature or essential properties allows us to relate to, or interact with, it in more knowledgeable and competent ways than would otherwise be the case … A surprising number of social theorists, when embarking on substantive analyses, pay almost no attention at all to insights bearing on the […]
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Mon, 09/10/2023 - 01:30
A teeth-grinding interview What if the next presidential election is a rematch between President Biden and Donald Trump. Kristen Welker of Meet The Press sat down with four Pennsylvania “swing voters” how they feel about that. First off, how were they chosen for this conclave? What makes theses four representative stand-ins for swing voters in general? What makes their opinions somehow illuminating? “If it’s a Biden and Trump race, I would vote for Biden even if he was dead. And I’m a Republican.” -A Pennsylvania voter to Meet the Press host Kristen Welker. pic.twitter.com/DJy6dgZdfb — Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) October 8, 2023 At least this Republican voter (above) will take a stand even if he believes (somehow) that Biden is on the edge of senility. Welker didn’t ask in this edit what people thought of Kamala Harris as president in the event…. That might have been revealing. Samantha Cieslinski voted Republican in the past but now feels her “moral compass” won’t let her choose either Biden or Trump.
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Mon, 09/10/2023 - 00:00
We can’t even bury fascism Yesterday’s first post explains why I’m not up to speed on what’s happening in Israel and Gaza and likely won’t catch up for a day or two. Compounding the problem is the inherent complexity of what’s happening there on the ground and what’s now happening with the internet. Digby tweeted (to hell with Musk) yesterday, “I used to turn to twitter at times like these but now I have no clue what’s real and what isn’t…” A couple of observations about that. Washington Post: Amid concerns the rise of artificial intelligence will supercharge the spread of misinformation comes a wild fabrication from a more prosaic source: Amazon’s Alexa, which declared that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Asked about fraud in the race — in which President Biden defeated former president Donald Trump with 306 electoral college votes — the popular voice assistant said it was “stolen by a massive amount of election fraud,” citing Rumble, a video-streaming service favored by conservatives.
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Sun, 08/10/2023 - 11:00
What a difference an administration makes. On October 9th, 2020, the Former Occupant of the White House issued an official Columbus Day Proclamation, which read in part: Sadly, in recent years, radical activists have sought to undermine Christopher Columbus’s legacy. These extremists seek to replace discussion of his vast contributions with talk of failings, his discoveries with atrocities, and his achievements with transgressions. Rather than learn from our history, this radical ideology and its adherents seek to revise it, deprive it of any splendor, and mark it as inherently sinister. They seek to squash any dissent from their orthodoxy. We must not give in to these tactics or consent to such a bleak view of our history. We must teach future generations about our storied heritage, starting with the protection of monuments to our intrepid heroes like Columbus. This June, I signed an Executive Order to ensure that any person or group destroying or vandalizing a Federal monument, memorial, or statue is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I have also taken steps to ensure that we preserve our Nation’s history and promote patriotic education.
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Sun, 08/10/2023 - 10:00
It’s become a perennial question and there aren’t a lot of good answers. But they should at least try to do something different. I’m not sure I agree with all of these suggestions by Tom Rosenstiel in the LA Times but it’s worth considering. I do think that Trump absolutely must be covered because it’s vitally important that the normal people in this country do not lose sight of what a monstrous imbecile he really is, which is easy to do if he just becomes a regular candidate and they only cover him as some sort of a phantom from a vaguely remembered past. People must be relentlessly reminded of his current statements, which are even worse in many ways than those we recall from the last two elections. He is not a has-been clown we don’t need to worry about anymore, he is running again with a full-blown cult backing him up and it’s going to be close. I have my doubts about what Rosenstiel says about journalists confronting Trump in interviews — he prevails by spewing a fire hose of bullshit that runs over even the best reporters. I think interviews are overrated anyway.
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Sun, 08/10/2023 - 09:00
An insane man says Democrats kill babies after they’re born if the mother doesn’t want them Trump says this is Democrats’ position on abortion: “If it’s after the 9th month and the baby was born you put the baby aside. You discuss with the mother and if the mother doesn’t want the baby we execute the baby. This is part of their thing.” pic.twitter.com/1bZlO9MWQI — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 7, 2023 And that’s not all: Trump claims Hamas would not have attacked Israel if he was president, and Russia would not have invaded Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/GkoD9sIeyX — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 7, 2023 Trump on Biden going shirtless at the beach: “I have a much better body than him.” pic.twitter.com/tjFXCcUH65 — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 7, 2023 Trump says grocery stores make people show photo ID to buy food. pic.twitter.com/Q2psGqL0Lz — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 7, 2023 Aaaaand: Trump on Hannibal Lecter: You know why I like him?
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Sun, 08/10/2023 - 08:54
Hamas Attacks, What Does It Mean?

For once I was taken by surprise. I didn’t expect this attack and despite my low opinion of the Israeli military, would not have expected it to be so successful.

Hamas actually captured the Israeli southern command base briefly. It was retaken with massive air strikes (meaning Israel was willing to hit its own people.) In the initial 12 hours or so they wiped the floor with local Israeli forces.

This is the most successful Palestinian military operation I can think of.

Hamas could not, of course, hold the ground it took and is retreating to Gaza. Israel has declared war and stated that they will invade Gaza.

A ground invasion will be extremely bloody, Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on Earth, and Hamas has had plenty of time to prepare. Bombing and shelling urban areas does not make invasion significantly easier.

Let’s drawn out some specific points:

Complete Mossad Intelligence Failure

Created
Sun, 08/10/2023 - 07:53
¾ pound Italian sausage¼ cup finely chopped onion¼ cup finely chopped celery¼ cup finely chopped crro1 8-ounce can tomatoes, cut up1 6-ounce can tomato paste¾ cup water1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed½ teaspoon salt⅛ teaspoon pepper12 ounce fresh ricotta or cream-style cottage cheese ( 1½ cups)¼ cup grated parmesan cheese2 beaten eggs2 tablespoons snipped parsley⅛ teaspoon […]
Created
Sun, 08/10/2023 - 07:30
If you’re in earshot of Donald Trump, chances are you’ll hear him blurt out some classified information Our best satirist Alexandra Petri makes a good point here: The more that comes out about Donald Trump’s post-presidency conduct, the clearer it becomes that the real challenge was not prying confidential information out of Trump but avoiding receiving confidential information. I think I see the problem. Donald Trump has two modes of conversation. He is either ranting about all the things he intends to do when he becomes dictator of the country — so many rights to strip away! so much vengeance to extract against his enemies! so many guardrails to dismantle! — or he is volunteering classified information. Those are really it. If you don’t want one, you have to buckle in for the other. Which brings us to the news from special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation that Donald Trump apparently shared sensitive information about U.S. nuclear submarines with an Australian billionaire. You might be wondering: Is this a private party, or can anyone play? Yes!
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Sun, 08/10/2023 - 06:00
50 years ago, Kissinger said that Nixon was too drunk to talk to the British Prime Minister when the Yom Kipper War broke out. During Yom Kippur War fifty years ago this week, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger tells aide Brent Scowcroft that President Nixon is “loaded” and thus cannot speak to British Prime Minister: pic.twitter.com/RgbWnD9Evl — Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) October 7, 2023 Right wingers are attacking Joe Biden all over the internet for waiting a couple of hours to issue a statement about the Israeli crisis, suggesting that he’s “in his basement” (which would be correct since that’s where the Situation Room is. ) Anyway, I think they need to shut their pieholes.