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Created
Thu, 25/04/2024 - 00:30
Let me count the ways Good heavens, this garbled mess from RNC co-chair Lara Trump. “We now have the ability at the RNC not just to have poll watchers… but people who can physically handle the ballots… So there was a moratorium for about 40 years on the RNC actually training people to work in these polling locations and the tabulation centers where the mail-in ballots come in. And last year, the judge who implemented that passed away, so that was lifted.” “Poll observers are NEVER permitted to touch ballots,” tweets exasperated Democratic election protection attorney Marc Elias. “She is suggesting the RNC will infiltrate election offices.” Observers physically handling ballots is BS, as Elias points out. But she’s just getting started on the wrongness. First, some terminology. Poll watchers or observers are citizens pre-approved to be present inside a polling location as observers during voting. At most (at least in my state), they may bring to the attention of the chief judge any observed infractions or misapplication of voting rules, and that’s all. They are to sit quietly.
Created
Wed, 24/04/2024 - 23:00
The popularizer of “fake news” conspired to create it Projection. Long has the left used that term to describe conservative accusations against the left. When Republicans allege the left commits some infraction against, what — Decency? Patriotism? Rule of law? Election integrity? — then likely they themselves are secretly or more subtly doing the same. Inoculation is the underlying purpose. Loudly and often accuse your opponent of misbehavior in which you engage so that if ever caught in the act you can both-sides the affair. “Well, they do it too.” Fake news is another Donald Trump effort at inverting reality. Trump, authoritarian-in-training, has long attempted bending reality to his will. His inauguration crowd was not more bigly than Barack Obama’s? Photographs prove it? Fake news! His team would present “alternative facts” they knew were untrue but were the Trump-approved version of history. Period! Now on trial on criminal charges in Manhattan, Trump has summoned the MAGA cult, as he did on Jan. 6, 2021, to come by the thousands to protest unfairness like you’ve never seen.
Created
Wed, 24/04/2024 - 22:00

Ha!
A mistaken vocal inflection produced by the waitress when you mentioned you have a boat.

Oh!
Often produced involuntarily when you realize you are much kinkier than you thought you were.

Wham!
Your drunk uncle describing the impact of his 2018 Dodge Ram during his first DUI.

Twang!
A combination of traditional values and piss water boycotts.

Thwack!
Often heard in repetition and completed between three and five minutes with a lackluster partner.

Grrr!
An internal reaction to your mom’s curfew rule (you’re thirty-two).

Rip!
A cool maneuver performed by a single nostril; occasionally from a mirror, more commonly from a urinal.

Slam!
Da-duh-duh.

Da Duh Duh
Let the boys be boys!

Created
Wed, 24/04/2024 - 21:46

Last week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak set out plans to tackle what he called the country’s ‘sick note culture’. In a major speech, he declared that welfare had become a ‘lifestyle choice for too many in our country’, arguing that a tougher approach was needed. It’s a reprise of an all too familiar frame. David […]

Created
Wed, 24/04/2024 - 21:00
Peaceful protesters are facing extreme and multiple punishments for the same offence: the offence of trying to defend Earth systems. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 19th April 2024 When the traditional ruling class was obliged to concede to demands for democracy, it gave away as little as possible. We could vote, but it […]