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Created
Mon, 05/02/2024 - 01:00
Joe Biden dominates South Carolina Democratic primary With over 95 percent of the vote counted in Saturday’s Democratic primary in South Carolina, President Joe Biden swept every county, garnering 96 percent of the vote overall and 95 percent or better in every county. As The New York Times put it, “There was not much drama Saturday night.” Biden himself was in Southern California, reports Politico. At the watch party at the state fairgounds in Columbia, people were headed for the doors less than an hour after poll closing. Self-help author Marianne Williamson edged out Rep. Dean Phillips (Minn.), with the pair earning a combined 2 percent of the vote. With the Biden vote so dominant, the race so uncompetitive, and the vote count so low (a mere 131 thousand), the Times attempts to draw comparisons to past primaries, but comparables are slim: The last time an incumbent Democratic president sought re-election, in 2012, President Barack Obama went unchallenged in South Carolina — and the state did not hold a primary.
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 22:23

Wherever we turn, we witness the triumph of capital. Capital has prevailed everywhere: in warehouses, factories, offices, universities, public hospitals, the media – in space but also in the microcosm of genetic engineering. So, how do I dare claim that capitalism has been killed? By whom? The deliciously ironic answer is that capitalism was killed […]

The post Technofeudalism -a video essay summarising the book appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

Created
Sun, 04/02/2024 - 12:00
I don’t feel safe in this world no moreI don’t want to die in a nuclear warI want to sail away to a distant shore and make like an apeman -from “Apeman” by The Kinks, written by Ray Davies Don’t put that umbrella away…the forecast is cloudy, with a chance of cosmic debris: Meteorite hunters have successfully recovered fragments of an asteroid that impacted Earth over Berlin, Germany, on January 21st— and the space rocks could be very rare indeed. The 3.3-foot (1-meter) wide asteroid dubbed 2024 BX1 was spotted by NASA around 90 minutes before it hit Earth’s atmosphere. It burned up upon impact, exploding and creating a fireball seen by observers across Europe. Following the event, on January 22nd, intrepid meteorite hunters were out searching for fragments of Asteroid 2024 BX1. One team that hit pay dirt was led by SETI meteor scientist Peter Jenniskens; the crew found the second and third fragments to be uncovered.
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 10:00
But what if it doesn’t happen? The Daily Beat reports: IN THE MIDDLE of last year, several of Donald Trump’s closest advisers, including some of his 2024 campaign’s senior staff, started noticing an ominous trend in independent polling and in internal Republican survey data: A significant share of swing voters in key states — even some Republicans — say they would not want to vote for a freshly-convicted criminal.  The trend spooked them enough that, in recent months, some of these officials and political allies have directly warned Trump of possible looming catastrophe ahead for his 2024 presidential bid, two people with direct knowledge of the matter tell Rolling Stone.
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 08:30
Don’t believe anything Republicans say In virtually every way, this economy is better than it was under Trump before the pandemic. You know, the best economy the world has every seen? Yeah, that one. In case you were wondering how they are dealing with this? Of course.
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 07:13
To achieve explanatory success, a theory should, minimally, satisfy two criteria: it should have determinate implications for behavior, and the implied behavior should be what we actually observe. These are necessary conditions, not sufficient ones. Rational-choice theory often fails on both counts. The theory may be indeterminate, and people may be irrational. In what was […]
Created
Sun, 04/02/2024 - 07:00
I wrote recently about Kevin McCarthy’s crusade to take down Nancy Mace and the others who engineered his ouster. Mace is a specific target and for good reason. She is a real piece of work. Just this week this was revealed: According to two reports, as pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the presidential election on January 6, freshman GOP Rep. Nancy Mace tried to convince her staff to let her get attacked. The Washington Post reports Mace was so incensed at then-President Donald Trump that she brought up the idea of approaching rioters head-on in the hopes she would get punched in the face and become the “face of anti-Trump Republicans.” She’s since endorsed Trump to become the GOP’s next presidential nominee. Hours after the Post published its piece, The Daily Beast seconded the reporting, noting that three sources who personally witnessed the conversations confirmed they happened. Those sources told the Beast that Mace explicitly said she wanted to “get punched in the face” for “media attention.” This report by Abby Phillips says it all.
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 05:30
Who needs a dog whistle? Some of you may not be fully aware of who Charlie Kirk is and how influential he has become in the Republican Party. He originally started as a right wing youth organizer but in recent years has evolved into a major organizer of right wing activism across the board. Hit Turning Point USA conferences, which are held throughout the year, are major events that attract all the big names in the MAGA word as well as many “establishment” types. His organization is the heir to CPAC which has been losing steam for some time. Here’s a recent dispatch from Dave Weigel at Kirk’s latest gathering: LAS VEGAS – In a Planet Hollywood hotel ballroom, a few steps away from the Criss Angel Theater, around 200 Republican Party activists worked on their battle plans. The Republican National Committee would not save them. They would save themselves. “No more culture of losing,” Turning Point USA CEO and co-founder Charlie Kirk told an audience of RNC members, GOP county chairs, and plugged-in activists. “Embrace Donald Trump. Don’t fight Donald Trump. Embrace what he’s brought to the party.
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 04:59
Australia’s parrots are increasingly threatened. Coal, gas, wind and solar supply the world’s surging demand for electricity. Methane emissions must be reduced rapidly. Parrots in peril In 2010, the Action Plan for Australian Birds identified twelve parrots as Endangered or Critically Endangered. In 2013, Australia’s favourite birdwatcher, Sean Dooley, and Samantha Vine reviewed the state Continue reading »
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 04:58
What to do if morality and loyalty pull in opposite directions: A review of Nicholas Jose, The Idealist The 2023 blockbuster movie Oppenheimer broke box office records in Australia and garnered many Academy Awards. The biographical thriller features a conflicted hero, physicist Robert Oppenheimer. At the first atomic bomb explosion in the American desert, Oppenheimer Continue reading »
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 04:56
The recent Statement from former Australian Foreign Ministers Gareth Evans and Bob Carr calling for Australia to play a role in seeking detente between the US and China in Asia is worthy.  But is it realistic? It tells us that the Australia-Japan initiated International Commission on Nuclear Non- Proliferation and Disarmament of 2009, is a Continue reading »
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 04:55
Waiting for the restoration of devolved government in Northern Ireland (NI) has been like watching the grass grow as the paint dries on a slow boat to China. But I am pleased to report that the wait is now over, though my backyard resembles a jungle and the paint on the boat is cracking again. Continue reading »
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 04:54
Around two decades ago, the Swedish writer, Henning Mankell, took an increasingly close interest in the wretched condition of Palestinians living under punishing Israeli domination. What he saw convinced him that Israel was maintaining an apartheid state very like those he had previously visited, at length, in Southern Africa. Readers may be familiar, from television, Continue reading »
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 04:53
The biggest problem with Artificial Intelligence will be the way we use it, writes Dr Richard Hil. We’ve long been in a “mirror world” of hyper-reality, in which those old stalwarts of truth and reason have been mired in an algorithmic quagmire. This began well before the onset of generative AI. The internet, once quaintly Continue reading »
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 04:52
Consider an ant nest in far flung outer Siberia. The significance of that nest to people walking the streets of Sydney is virtually nil. Multiply that level of insignificance a trillion times, as in almost infinitesimally insignificant. That, we know today, is a true indicator of planet Earth’s place in the universe. If the ant Continue reading »
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Sun, 04/02/2024 - 04:50
“This is precisely why Israel was taken to the International Court of Justice with the accusation that it is committing genocide,” said one legal expert. Palestinian officials on Wednesday demanded an international inquiry after the decomposing remains of dozens of blindfolded and handcuffed bodies were found at a northern Gaza school following the withdrawal of Continue reading »