Reading

Created
Tue, 21/11/2023 - 04:03
Briefing for the Report Stage, November 2023 DATA BILL WILL SET BACK UK ECONOMY AND RIGHTS The Data Protection and Digital Information (DPDI) Bill will have its report stage in Parliament on November 29 2023. In this briefing, we explain how the Bill weakens data rights, lowers scrutiny and accountability, unduly expands Government powers and […]
Created
Tue, 21/11/2023 - 02:30
Timidity and irresolution and menace After a Colorado court ruled against barring Donald Trump from the ballot there, I commented on the atmosphere of menace Trump has created around any attempts to hold him accountable before the law for any of his actions. This includes attempts to disqualify him from holding elected office via the 14th Amendment. I focused on the fact that three different judges had cited three different reasons for not giving Trump the boot. That’s not so say (and I did not mean to suggest) the rulings were in error. But I did not address what the ruling did or did not do for Trump cases on appeal. Kim Wehle does so this morning at The Bulwark. The 102-page ruling contains findings of fact that Colorado District Judge Sarah B. Wallace clearly wrote “with an expectation that judges at higher state courts and likely even the U.S. Supreme Court would wind up studying her analysis on an appeal petition,” Wehle writes.
Created
Tue, 21/11/2023 - 01:00
On the public dime Republicans do not have a governing majority, argues Jennifer Rubin. What Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D- Calif.) did with her thin Democratic margin as speaker, Republicans cannot with theirs. Not without the Democrats’ help. This leaves Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) in a unique position. He has the best of both worlds: He’s not responsible for electing a speaker whose Christian fundamentalist views and financial questions make him a weight around the necks of Republicans in swing districts. He can castigate Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for his noxious views and effectively produce legislation that does not compromise Democrats’ minimum standards. At a Wednesday news conference, Jeffries emphasized, “House Republicans are unable to govern on their own. Period, full stop, no further observation necessary.” Ask Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.). Rubin describes what Democrats are able to do (and have) from the back seat. “Now, imagine what Democrats could do if they had the mathematical majority,” she concludes. Gerrymandering and sluggishness have left Democrats here in North Carolina in a far weaker position.
Created
Tue, 21/11/2023 - 00:00

Fahrenheit 305

Guy Montag, a Miami-Dade School Board member endorsed by Ron DeSantis, is in charge of rounding up books deemed too dangerous for Floridians to read, such as The Diary of Anne Frank, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and anything by a Latino author. He begins questioning his role when a chance encounter with Miami’s preeminent intellectual, a wordsmith known only by his moniker, Pitbull, opens his worldview “worldwide.”

2023

All of the misinformation and doublespeak of 1984, but the sophisticated, omnipresent technological surveillance apparatus, rather than being used to police you, is mainly used to sell you Cheech and Chong CBD gummies.

The (Evacuation) Road

A father and son wander in search of shelter after a devastating wildfire destroys their home in Hawaii/Canada/Greece/Spain/Italy/Chile/ Kazakhstan.