Reading

Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 22:01

“You won’t feel anything.”
It won’t hurt per se, but it will feel like the nurse is dragging a bone-dry tampon out of your vagina over and over again.

“This might be a little warm.”
This will feel like the time you accidentally burned your hand on the stove, but only for a few seconds.

“This might be a little cold.”
This will feel like you’ve contracted instantaneous frostbite, but for more than a few seconds.

“There may be some discomfort.”
It’s going to hurt more than the worst period you’ve ever had.

“You might feel a slight pinch.”
You’ll think the nurse thrust a hot knife into your cervix, and then twisted it.

“You may experience some cramping.”
You are actually going through labor.

“Most women experience 2-3 out of a pain scale of 10.”
This procedure is a 10/10 on the pain scale. We’d say 11/10, but the scale doesn’t go that high.

Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 21:05

Over a year has passed since the RMT union began industrial action on the railways. In that time, we’ve had three prime ministers, four chancellors and three transport secretaries. One constant, however, has been the determination of the government to force through damaging cuts. The closure of 1000 ticket offices announced yesterday is the latest […]

Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 20:08
Threads.net, Meta’s competitor to Twitter, is launched today, outside of the European Union. It is apparently, “soon” (within a few months) going to work with other Federated social media services such as Mastodon. This is raising fears and hopes for those of us who believe that federation is a huge opportunity.  We understand why EU […]
Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 10:00
I don’t know how many of you care about this but it really seems to have reached critical mass over this past weekend and I suspect the end is nigh. You will notice that my twitter feed on the sidebar is gone and I don’t have an explanation for it except that twitter is now so fubared that it isn’t picking up the feed. I’m still there @digby56 but the writing is on the wall I’m afraid. I’m trying out all the new platforms, Mastadon, BlueSky, Post etc. I’ve kept my handle digby56 at all of them so you can probably find me (or possibly one of the imposters that have crept on some of them…) They all have their good and bad points but they just don’t have the scale. Supposedly Meta is rolling out its new twitter-like platform tomorrow (it’s somehow associated with Instagram) so we’ll see how it goes. I’ll let you know if I land in a particular spot. It’s a shame. I loved twitter and it was an important resource for my work. But Elon bought it as a toy and he’s smashed it to pieces as spoiled little bully boys tend to do.
Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 08:30
Is this about privatizing social security to further enrich Wall St? Or maybe they want Donald Trump to be president again? I can’t think of another reason why they wouldn’t just say, “raise taxes on rich people” and leave it at that. (That is the answer to this problem if, in fact, there is one.) After all, other countries are somehow able to provide universal health care and retirement benefits for their citizens. France is experiencing massive protest right now over a proposal to raise the full retirement age from 62 to 64. We should be so lucky. The usual suspects are talking about raising our retirement age to 72! Maybe they should have a chat with Professor Paul Krugman, their own columnist, who exposed the Deficit Scolds just last May (for the hundredth time) during the debt ceiling negotiations. It’s all nonsense.
Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 07:00
Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman have the story. All these right wingers bellowing about free speech all the time are beyond hypocritical: At first glance, the plight of Katherine Rinderle, a fifth-grade teacher in Georgia, might seem confusing. Rinderle faces likely termination by the Cobb County School District for reading aloud a children’s book that touches on gender identity. Yet she is charged in part with violating policy related to a state law banning “divisive concepts” about race, not gender. This disconnect captures something essential about state laws and directives restricting classroom discussion across the country: They seem to be imprecisely drafted to encourage censorship. That invites parents and administrators to seek to apply bans to teachers haphazardly, forcing teachers to err on the side of muzzling themselves rather than risk unintentionally crossing fuzzy lines into illegality. “Teachers are fearful,” Rinderle told us in an interview.