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I have some strong feelings about the social web (aka “the fediverse”) right now. I don’t aways communicate them well, because they feel so essential to me, which can be frustrating for my friends, colleagues and allies. I want to set out some steps for my reasoning. A lot of people don’t agree with me … Continue reading ActivityPub, the SocialCG, and the social web →

The author on writing his new book “Crossings,” about the environmental destruction of roads.

The post My 3 Greatest Revelations appeared first on Nautilus.

The dynamics in the House make it very difficult to see how they get the funding bill passed. The best hope may be that Trump wants to save the issue for himself. It’s been quite a week in the US House with MAGA superstar Matt Gaetz, R-Fl., leading a small band of incoherent revolutionaries to topple Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy just to show they could. Then all day Thursday the media was overwhelmingly excited at the rumor that Donald Trump was going to heroically run to the rescue of the House Republicans and save them from themselves by stepping in as the House Speaker. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene enthusiastically endorsed him and it was announced that he would be travelling to the Capitol for the first time since January 6th, 2021 within days. Sadly, late last night, Trump himself stuck a shiv in that trial balloon by announcing that he was endorsing Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio for the job which will likely assure his victory.

Recent speculation about the regulatory obstacles to the AUKUS agreement add to the Congressional concerns over the industrial base’s capacity to deliver the Virginia class submarines and meet to USN’s force level targets. Moreover, hanging over all of America’s foreign policy positions going forward is the faltering support for foreign adventures and the prospect of another Continue reading »

In Asian media this week: America must show it has answers to global problems. Plus: Thai government talks of gun control; Australia-China de-coupling is impossible; Myanmar military’s killing, torture and rape; Cold War returns to Korean Peninsula; China’s EV makers have edge over US. The battle between the US and China has moved to a Continue reading »

In 1888 Lowe Kong Meng, Cheong Cheok Hong and Louis Ah Moy took the moral high ground in The Chinese Question booklet. They were ignored, of course. It was the time. A century later, in 1998, the Queensland Chinese Forum denounced the Queensland Liberal Party for its decision to preference Pauline Hanson One Nation Party at the Continue reading »

Pumped hydro storage is the ideal complement to wind and solar electricity generation: versatile, modest in scale, cost and build-time, little environmental disruption, mature component technologies, few toxic chemicals, durable. Yet it is consistently overlooked in mainstream discussion in favour of gas-fired power stations, batteries and the nuclear zombie. It is also shackled by out-of-date Continue reading »

To truly serve all students, we’ll have to rethink how schools ‘do school’. The disability royal commission has reported. The commissioners want greater inclusion of disabled children in mainstream schools, with some wanting to eventually phase out special schools altogether. That could happen, but not without a serious rethink about how schools ‘do school’. The Continue reading »

“She was the longest-serving female senator in US history, a trailblazer for women in politics and a champion for social justice and gun control.” So began a piece from the Sydney Morning Herald’s North America correspondent on the passing of Californian Democratic Senator, Dianne Feinstein. This statement recapitulates the misplaced adulation for one of the Continue reading »

Doom's (Sooz Kempner) day reaches its final hour in the closing chapter of the Doctor Who multimedia event, Out of Time by James Goss.

Democrats were the adults in the room when they agreed to vote for a CR without Ukraine funding. Saving McCarthy was a bridge too far. Greg Sargent on this irritating notion among much of the punditocracy that the Democrats are at fault for the mess in the House because they failed to step up and save Kevin McCarthy from the monster he helped create: Because Republicans are such firm believers in benevolence toward political foes, they are furious with Democrats for failing to save Kevin McCarthy. After Democrats voted en masse this week to remove the California Republican as House speaker, his fellow Republicans responded by revoking some of Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s Capitol office privileges. They are reportedly planning more acts of retaliation. But Democrats were right not to save McCarthy. With the forces unleashed by former president Donald Trump and the MAGA movement damaging the House GOP caucus, Democrats absolutely shouldn’t have stepped in, because so doing would help Republicans erase their own culpability for nourishing those forces for so long.

Oh, so you’re planning to be a [stay-at-home / working] mom once your baby is born? Ha! More like a [slacker who just wants an excuse to binge Real Housewives in her pajamas all day / heartless bitch who doesn’t care about her kid].

You might think that [staying home / working] is best for your kid, but [it’s not healthy for kids to be around their mothers 24-7 / mothers should really be around for their kids 24-7].

Everyone knows that you [staying at home / going back to work] is actually the worst thing for your child. Thanks to you, your poor baby will be [stuck in a bubble with its brain rotting from zero socialization / neglected while it cries for hours in baby jail, a.k.a. daycare] and probably grow up to be a serial killer. I believe Jeffrey Dahmer’s mom [stayed at home / worked outside the home].

Yanis Varoufakis is an economist, politician and author of Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism. He swung by JOE Towers to chat to us about his new book, the regression of neoliberal capitalism to a feudal system ran by a few tech billionaires, and the future of global capital. Subscribe to our new podcast now, or you’re […]

The post Interviewed by PoliticsJOE on my TECHNOFEUDALISM appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

And you need to hear it too Greg Gutfeld says “elections don’t work” and “society is in peril and chaos because our elections don’t matter” while urging for a new American civil war. In the following tweets, I will transcribe everything he says in this clip, because it goes into some very dark territory. pic.twitter.com/2FLCz5ptCP — Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) October 5, 2023 This is not a joke, even though Gutfeld presents himself as a comedian. It’s not funny. It’s terrifying. And it’s exactly what the Trump cult is being fed day in and day pout. It’s not just him.  It’s the entire right wing media universe. Between Trump, Fox, the lesser cable newsers, the internet, Steve Bannon and his ilk etc., they’re managing to brainwash tens of millions of Americans.:  “Only certain people get criminal mulligans and Jan. 6 protestors, they don’t get criminal mulligans and here’s why. They’re the oppressor. So the oppressed get criminal mulligans.

Olly Boon reflects on the devastation of a group, DemocracyUnlocked, dedicated to telling readers the truth, which had to cease operating after receiving legal threats from the TV presenter

Set down your coffee cup before reading Daily Beast: The judge who doomed Donald Trump’s family business last week took an aggressive and preemptive step on Wednesday to ensure the former president can’t secretly shift assets to salvage his real estate empire. In an order that was posted on the fourth day of the former president’s bank fraud trial, Justice Arthur F. Engoron commanded that the Trumps identify any corporations they have—and come clean about any plans to move around money in an attempt to hide or keep their wealth. Seriously? And Engoron expects Trump to comply? Sure, it’s something the case demands. But this is Donald J. Trump and family we’re talking about. It’s a powerful maneuver meant to counter the sort of underhanded moves Trump has displayed so far during the three-year investigation. Trump, sons Don Jr.

The Prime Minister knows that he has not shown any great vision of what he believes or how he wants Britain to look, writes Jonathan Lis

I’m running out of W’s T’s and F’s Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel) last night responded to a Daily Mail article. (Yeah, I’m wondering about that too.) The post: BREAKING: While IRS was pursuing felony charges against addict Hunter Biden, they were pursuing a mere lien against addict Rudy Giuliani. I’m sorry, what? The IRS has placed a lien on Rudy Giuliani’s $4.5 million penthouse after accusing the fallen attorney of owing more than half a million dollars in unpaid taxes, DailyMail.com can reveal. The federal tax agency claims the 79-year-old former New York City mayor owes $549,435.26 in unpaid income taxes for 2021, according to a notice filed in court in Palm Beach County, Florida. The IRS placed a lien on Giuliani’s penthouse in Palm Beach, just three miles north of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. If Giuliani doesn’t pay up, the September 1 lien allows the IRS to seize some of the profits from Giuliani’s condo if it were to be sold. Surely Venezuelan software in the IRS machines is responsible. There are “rich and famous” photos of the apartment included. Who cares?

Let's celebrate the Doctor Who baddies, the Sontarans, the original Evil Mr. Potato Head alien invasion clone army/metaphors for endless war.

Setting

Fantasy: My bathroom is four thousand square feet and bursting with natural sunlight. It overlooks my personal botanical garden, overflowing with exotic, lush plants. My vintage clawfoot bathtub is pristine and pairs perfectly with the art deco aesthetic of my entire high-rise penthouse, just as Nate Berkus planned when he designed it.

Reality: My studio apartment overlooks a crime scene, and I need to clean two years’ worth of hair and nail clippings out of the drain before I can get in the tub. A cockroach scuttles by as I yank out a clog the size of a yeti.

Slipping into the bath

Fantasy: I slip out of my perfectly fitting Hermes yachting robe from behind a vintage silk screen. As it falls from my soft, hairless body, the robe immediately flies to the end of my bed and folds itself into a neat square. The bathwater is a soothing temperature, and I slide into it as gracefully as an oiled baby seal, not displacing a single drop. I release a small, satisfied sigh.

By aligning itself with the Kremlin, the Georgian Dream party is at odds with the country's population who want to move closer to NATO and the EU

Art by Matt Smith

So now what yah got tah undahstand is that no one even knew where Sweden n’ Nahway n’ Finland n’ Russia ended back in the Viking days ‘cause back in those days those fuckin’ countries didn’t even prahpahly exist yet! Which actually sounds pretty good in Russia’s case right now, but at any rate all it was was just a bunch’ah kings n’ chieftains n’ shit all doin’ the eahrly stages’ah nation-buildin’ thing in the capital regions but way out there in the great nohrthuhn woods was the semi-nomadic reindee’ah people.

In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Warrior Nun, TWD: Daryl Dixon, Loki, Superman and Lois, Doctor Who, Star Trek: Picard, "Buffy," Ahsoka & more!