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Fri, 24/11/2023 - 05:30
Moms For Liberty paying off their friends It’s all one big grift: A Pennsylvania school board that banned books, Pride flags and transgender athletes slipped a last-minute item into their final meeting before leaving office, hastily awarding a $700,000 exit package to the superintendent who supported their agenda. But the Democratic majority that swept the conservative Moms For Liberty slate out of office hopes to block the unusual — they say illegal — payout and bring calm to the Central Bucks School District, whose affluent suburbs and bucolic farms near Philadelphia have been roiled by infighting since the 2020 pandemic. “People are really sick of the embarrassing meetings, the vitriol, they’re tired of our district being in the news for all the wrong reasons. And … the students are aware of what’s been going on, particularly our LGBTQ students and their friends and allies,” said Karen Smith, a Democrat who won a third term on the board.
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Fri, 24/11/2023 - 04:58
With the expansion of all services of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) – no matter that it is consistent with a defensive posture – China’s every strategic move now is rendered totally unacceptable after passing through a prism designed and issued on a complementary basis by the US. Hyper-suspicion is the attitude and threat inflation Continue reading »
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Fri, 24/11/2023 - 04:57
The world watches the destruction of Gaza as 13,000 thousand Palestinians are killed including 5,600 children. The world watches as Gazan hospitals are invaded, patients ordered to flee south where there is neither water, food nor safety. The world watches while Israeli spokespersons claim they never target civilians, and then comes the propagandist fig leaf Continue reading »
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Fri, 24/11/2023 - 04:54
Last week Australians were forced to suffer through the spectacle of their parliament being dragged to a new low as the Coalition hammered the Labor government for not being better prepared for the prospect that the Commonwealth might lose the most recent High Court case about whether indefinite detention of refugees is unlawful or unconstitutional. Continue reading »
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Fri, 24/11/2023 - 04:52
“Gough Whitlam was an Australian democrat. He passionately believed in our institutions; the supremacy of parliament, the independence and integrity of the judiciary and the separation of powers to curb possible abuses by the executive government. In the dismissal these institutions failed us. Those with responsibility deceived us. Tradition and conventions built over centuries were Continue reading »
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Fri, 24/11/2023 - 04:51
Four in 10 Palestinian men spend time in Israel jails. Hamas says it wants to exchange captured Israelis for them. In golf carts, vans and on motorbikes, Hamas fighters have taken dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers back to the Gaza Strip after their attack on Israel on Saturday. As Israel’s fighter jets bomb the Continue reading »
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Fri, 24/11/2023 - 04:50
Israel and Hamas have reportedly agreed to a four-day ceasefire which will entail the release of 50 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for 150 hostages held by Israeli forces. In an article titled “Biden admin officials see proof their strategy is working in hostage deal,” Politico describes the deal as “the administration’s biggest diplomatic Continue reading »
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Fri, 24/11/2023 - 04:00
From your once and future (God help us) president Well, at least he didn’t call anybody vermin. Update: The New York judge overseeing Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial and his law clerk have received hundreds of harassing messages that court security has deemed “serious and credible” since the former president began publicly criticizing court staff. Since October 3, when Trump posted on social media a baseless allegation about Judge Arthur Engoron’s law clerk, threats against the judge “increased exponentially” and were also directed to his clerk, according to Charles Hollon, a court officer-captain in New York assigned to the Judicial Threats Assessment unit of the Department of Public Safety, who signed a sworn statement. Hollon said the threats against the judge and his clerk are “considered to be serious and credible and not hypothetical or speculative.” Trump’s social media posting prompted the judge to impose a gag order prohibiting the former president from making statements about court staff.
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Fri, 24/11/2023 - 02:30
“I would much rather be us than them” One red state I track from cycle to cycle showed half its Democratic county committees leaderless or unorganized this time in 2022. When I checked the state party’s website again this week, Every Single One had a county chair listed with email contacts (all but one). I was elated. It won’t change anything electoral-count-wise in 2024, but it’s remarkable organizing progress in two years. It could mean a less-red state legislature in the near future, and a more hospitable environment for residents, especially women. It’s something to be thankful for today. Something else (Daily Kos): In a historic victory, Democrats have gained their first majority on the Board of Commissioners in Dauphin County since at least 1919—and possibly ever—after Republican Chad Saylor conceded to Democrat Justin Douglas following this month’s elections.
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Fri, 24/11/2023 - 00:28
In 2022, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) placed a large bet on an experimental drug developed to limit brain damage after strokes … The gamble seemed warranted. Lab studies, most by a longtime grantee, prominent University of Southern California (USC) neuroscientist Berislav Zlokovic, had generated promising data. A small safety study of the […]