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Created
Tue, 25/04/2023 - 23:00
Begins with securing freedoms now under attack President Joe Biden released his opening reelection ad early this morning. First word: Freedom. That’s an excellent start. Personal freedom is a sacred value Democrats must hammer and reclaim from a movement bent on unmaking America. MAGA extremists’ twisted idea of freedom is standing athwart history, yelling “Stop, or I’ll shoot!” Without the “stop.” “We are in a battle for the soul of America,” Biden said four years ago. “And we still are.” Our freedoms are under attack from the right (if you haven’t noticed). Elections are about choices, not poll numbers. So amid Politico’s recent pronouncement that President Biden’s poll numbers are “grim” and NBC’s reminder that Biden is still more popular than Donald Trump, remember that election outcomes hinge on turnout. Voters need a reason to. Michael Tomasky believes Biden has to go for broke. “What can he and the Democrats do to energize people about the 2024 election?” (The New Republic): Biden should do something bigger and bolder.
Created
Tue, 25/04/2023 - 22:00

“Public schools in Texas would have to prominently display the Ten Commandments in every classroom starting next school year under a bill the Texas Senate approved Thursday… the Senate also gave final passage to Senate Bill 1396, which would allow public and charter schools to adopt a policy requiring every campus to set aside a time for students and employees to read the Bible or other religious texts and to pray.” — The Texas Tribune

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Members of the school board, I’m here to voice my outrage about a disgusting book I found in my child’s backpack. The book contained graphic violence, prostitution, sodomy, and perhaps worst of all, a woke agenda that promotes loving your neighbor instead of passing laws to control their access to healthcare. I’m talking, of course, about the Holy Bible.

Created
Tue, 25/04/2023 - 19:30

Over the last two decades, the Italian Resistance has been a subject of sharp public debate, with both political and historical efforts “radically to repudiate the role and significance” of anti-fascism in Italy’s contemporary history. As Pier Giorgio Zunino wrote in 1997, “for the Italian history of the second half of the twentieth century, anti-fascism […]

Created
Tue, 25/04/2023 - 13:49

This food timeline started as a way to explore the revolution in Australian food that has occurred during the baby-boomers’ lifetime, but has since expanded to include more about the previous decades (and century) as well. Also included are overseas events and trends that had an impact here. The entries are brief, but there are lots of links if you want more information.

Coronation Quiche

Created
Tue, 25/04/2023 - 12:57
ChatGPT and human intelligence: Noam Chomsky responds to critics Noam Chomsky Interviewed by Ramin Mirfakhraie April 24, 2023. Monthly Review Online.   The recent emergence of OpenAI’s ChatGPT (part of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer family of language models) has attracted a lot of attention throughout the world. It is a chatbot released in November 2022, […]
Created
Tue, 25/04/2023 - 10:40
China Is Winning The Electric Vehicle Race. Why And What Does It Show?

Not precisely a surprise, or it shouldn’t be.

China, already the world’s biggest market for EV, is set to knock Japan from top spot for global car export volume this year after overtaking Germany in 2022

Price on the low end is pretty good, too, though it may only be available in China:

This is the new BYD Seagull and with a price tag starting at just 78,000 yuan ($11,300), it is one of the most compelling new electric vehicles from China launched in quite some time.