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So, this tweet from Stancil, a particularly deranged Democratic partisan:

Hard to express my contempt for people who engage in the “I’m not voting for president” routine, a rejection of the basic civic reality that sometimes all the options aren’t going to be custom-built for you but democracy doesn’t work if you throw a sulk and refuse to participate

Refusal to choose between two genocidal maniacs is “anti-democratic”, rather than an acknowledgment that the Democratic system in the US is broke if it only offers Cheeto-Hitler and GenocideJoe.

Oavsett hur mycket förtroende du har för de ekonomisk-politiska åtgärder som förespråkas av regering och riksbank nuförtiden, kan det inte förvandla dålig åtstramningspolitik till bra jobbskapande politik.   Åtstramningsåtgärder och överdriven och enkelspårig fixering vid penningpolitiska åtgärder och inflation är inte vad som krävs för att få vår haltande ekonomi ur dess nutida dvala — och […]

Republicans plan “Jan. 6 hearings” on age Tired: Benghazi-Benghazi-Benghazi. “But her emails.”Wired: Ageism. “Joe Biden is better on his worst day than Donald Trump is on his best day,” Lawrence O’Donnell noted Monday night, referencing Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s accomplishments in office and physical condition when he ran for a fourth presidential term. There are serious stakes for these United States in this fall’s elections, particularly regarding who wins the White House. But Republicans are proving themselves no more serious today than they were in 2016, 2018, 2020 or 2022. They plan to campaign on ageism. Paul Krugman wrote on Monday, Lincoln’s birthday: But watching the frenzy over President Biden’s age, I am, for the first time, profoundly concerned about the nation’s future. It now seems entirely possible that within the next year, American democracy could be irretrievably altered. And the final blow won’t be the rise of political extremism — that rise certainly created the preconditions for disaster, but it has been part of the landscape for some time now.

The Government is refusing to expand the list of approved forms of voter ID despite warnings of large numbers of voters set to be turned away at the general election

What pleasure, what gratification, can we offer to people that exceeds the pleasure of hating?

The MVC team explores the wedding-industrial complex in celebration of Valentine’s Day.

When the Civil War ended in 1865, the 76-year-old Constitution needed an upgrading and those leading the country did indeed dramatically transform it with the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, known collectively as the Reconstruction Era amendments. The 13th (1865) abolished slavery, while the 15th (1870) gave voting rights to newly freed Black men. However, it was the 14th Amendment, first drafted in 1866 and ratified in 1868, that would prove the most far-reaching and that today sits all too squarely between Donald Trump and his white nationalist and authoritarian dreams. While much attention has been rightfully focused on its “insurrection” clause (Section 3) and whether, thanks to it, Trump should be allowed to hold office, given... Read more

Source: Throwing Out the Constitution appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Above banner this a.m. from the Washington Post Let the follies begin (Washington Post): The Senate passed a $95 billion national security package to aid Israel, Ukraine and other U.S. allies early Tuesday morning after a monthslong debate that has deeply divided congressional Republicans. The bill passed 70 to 29, after 22 Republicans joined Democrats in approving the aid. God immediately told House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to reject the Israel aid because the package wasn’t harsh enough on strangers in the land. Johnson dismissed it premptively Monday night. “In the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will o these important matters,” Johnson said in a statement. “America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.” Johnson’s statement comes after he and other House leaders helped torpedo an earlier version of the legislation that includes sweeping border security measures and other reforms. The whiny voice of God Johnson is hearing is Donald Trump’s, if not Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speaking through Donald Trump.

Taken from works of the late great Cormac McCarthy.

Protesters plan to target the Labour leader's decision to ditch his flagship climate commitment

For those of us working to expose the scandals surrounding the regeneration of the former steelworks site on the River Tees’ south bank, known as Teesworks, the last month has been eventful. Touted as the UK’s ‘largest freeport’ and ‘most agile and innovative industrial zone’, in reality — thanks to the oversight of Tory Tees […]

Generative agents will change our society in weird, wonderful and worrying ways. Can philosophy help us get a grip on them?

- by Seth Lazar

Read at Aeon

Carl Jung’s approach to architecture is a provocation: how are we creating spaces for the forgotten dimensions of our minds?

- by David Borkenhagen

Read at Psyche

This blog post highlights recent research that focuses on technological change and central banking, COVID-19’s effect on labor force participation, U.S. trade in critical sectors and minimum wage.

In 2020, Bernie Sanders gained millions of votes and mobilised thousands of supporters for his vision of a social-democratic America. The centrepiece of his campaign was the Green New Deal; a harkening back to the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the ‘GND’ connected the environmental concerns of young, liberal voters with a promise of […]

Det pågår en låg­intensiv jordbävning i den ekonomisk-politiska debatten. Mantrat sedan 1990-talet om att det alltid är klokt att spara i ladorna – det som på ekonomspråk kallas överskottsmålet – håller på att ifrågasättas av både politiker och ekonomer … Baserat på en gedigen bilaga av professor Lars Calmfors landar [Långtidsutredningen] i slutsatsen att ett […]

As states crack down on prison-phone price gouging and resulting government kickbacks, telecom companies and their private equity backers have new ways to game the system.

One structural source of weakness in contemporary liberal democracy is that it does not seem to be able to solve some important, even bread and butter, policy challenges.  That it does not do so with the threat that global warning involves is, while highly regrettable, no mystery. It’s very difficult for democracies to take non-existing […]

This isn’t on some obscure corner of the internet. It’s on Newsmax which is watched by many MAGA Republicans and on which many GOP elected politicians appear: I just thought you’d want to know what your fellow Americans are watching. Now, go have a drink.

Source - Patreon