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I can’t believe that Taylor Swift is [encouraging people to vote / dating someone who did a Bud Light commercial / dating a woke Illuminati vaccine zombie / not complying with my expectations of a pretty, blond-haired white woman].

Taylor Swift’s popularity is clearly a sign of societal decline because she doesn’t embrace my [patriotism / Judeo-Christian values / need to force girls and women into giving birth]. It’s sad to see someone who was once a hero of so many tiki-torch-carrying white men become [liberal / independent-minded / someone who will never date me].

Good Lord. Philip Bump has the story: America transitioned out of its covid-19 mobilization the same way it transitioned in: awkwardly, unevenly and with mixed results. The Biden administration’s interest in formalizing the end of the official pandemic — under pressure from President Biden’s right — meant that systems that had been cobbled together to measure and address the problem were often just switched off, with varying downstream effects. Given that the tools we’d used to track the pandemic are now mostly broken or out-of-date, it’s a bit harder to know when and if the virus might again be surging. But in recent weeks, there’s been little question: wastewater measurements and other calculations made clear that infections were again rising. Hopefully, despite the shift to cooler weather in the Northeast, the recent plateau in cases means the trend is reversing. When KFF earlier this month asked Americans if they thought that cases were surging, however, about a third said they didn’t. That was a minority position, but the demographic divides on the question were revealing.

Real probability samples have two great benefits: (i) they allow unbiased extrapolation from the sample; (ii) with data internal to the sample, it is possible to estimate how much results are likely to change if another sample is taken. These benefits, of course, have a price: drawing probability samples is hard work. An investigator who […]

Political strategist Simon Rosenberg got the 2022 election right when almost everyone else got it wrong. He’s worth listening to. Here, he discusses that Washington Post/ABC poll and suggests, correctly, that they should have just thrown it out. (And the rest of the media should have ignored it.) He has some other info you might find interesting: A few other notes on this poll and other recent election data: -In a recent post I talked about something I’ve been calling asymetrical engagement. It’s the idea that right now, due to Republicans having a robust primary and Democrats not that our two coalitions are not paying equal attention to the Presidential election, and polls are coming back a bit more Republican than is the actual state of things. A confirmation of this theory is the new CNN poll of New Hampshire, a state where voters are paying attention and engaged, which has Biden ahead of Trump 52-40. Biden won NH by 7 pts in 2020. So in this large sample poll of a state where ads are flying Biden is outperforming 2020 by 5 points, similar to our overperformance in special elections across the US this year.

MintPress founder Mnar Adley argues that Canada's celebration of a Ukrainian Nazi in parliament continues its historical legacy of hosting Nazis post-World War II and arming Nazi-linked fascists in Ukraine.

The post Revealed: How Thousands of Ukrainian Nazis Were Smuggled Into Canada after WW2 appeared first on MintPress News.

Premise of GOP’s Biden impeachment inquiry It is a consistent ploy of conspiracy theorist that where supporting “evidence” is concerned, what they lack in quality they make up for in quantity. That was plenty evident on Wednesday when Republicans introduced their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden by releasing 700 pages of bird shot. It did not go well for House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) when asked by NBC’s Richard Neal to explain why whatever Hunter Biden did when his father was a private citizen was somehow an abuse of power and worthy of impeaching Joe Biden now. U.S. Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) melts down as an NBC reporter questions GOP claims of DOJ political interference in favor of Joe Biden before he was president. pic.twitter.com/Afm75G5CDq — Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) September 27, 2023 But we have 700 pages! Have you read our 700 pages?!

Trump was found guilty in a very interesting suit.

Judge Arthur Engoron, ruling in a civil lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, found that Trump and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing loans.

Kundera chose to take the long view, reflecting on the relationship between the Jews and Europe, and, more broadly, on the Jews and that European, literary spirit to which he saw himself heir.

Despite Russian hints about the use of nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine, consider it strange — amid other world-endangering possibilities — how little attention nuclear destruction gets anymore. And that’s despite the fact that there are now nine (yes, nine!) nuclear powers on this planet, ranging from the United States, Russia, and China to Israel and North Korea.  Still, at some point in your life, you’ve probably heard about the theory of “nuclear deterrence” embraced by so many in our military and those of other major powers globally. The idea is that nuclear weapons actually keep us all “safe” by their mere presence in the hands of those powers. According to such thinking, their existence restrains the leaders... Read more

Source: At the Brink? appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

2024 REPUBLICAN
2nd GOP PRIMARY DEBATE
SIMI VALLEY, CALIFORNIA
SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

9:00 PM: Fox Business host Stuart Varney welcomes the audience. “I’m Stuart Varney, my British accent makes tonight’s disgust toward working people and minorities sound intelligent. I’m thrilled to be here with my co-moderators, Dana Perino, who is contractually obligated to be blonde and present, and… this other woman… she’s—it’s ‘Uni’? ‘Uni Vision’? Is that something? She speaks Spanish. This does not seem legal. Do we have any immigration officers here? Can we telephone INS?” Univision’s Ilia Calderón responds, “Thank you, Stuart.”

Trump is wounded but not done There is some good news out there: Democrats keep winning post-Dobbs elections. A recent poll from Univision shows Latinos trust Democrats more than Republicans to lower their cost of living (their No. 1 concern). As you saw yesterday, better polls than the Washington Post’s admitted outlier show Joe Biden better positioned for 2024 than the soon-to-be bankrupt Donald Trump. The GOP is determined to shut down the government, doing no one any favors. The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson summed up the GOP debate Wednesday night by posting, “I’ve attended probably 30 primary debates and watched most of them over the last 30 years. This is the most shambolic trainwreck I’ve ever seen.” Nevertheless, the threat of violence persists from the fringe right when democracy does not hand them the power they demand. Eric Levitz writes: Last Friday, the Republican Party’s presidential front-runner suggested that America’s top general deserves to die.

by Daniel Wortel-London

New York City was busier than usual last week.

The occasion was Climate Week, a host of events devoted to charting and increasing environmental progress. Hundreds of sold-out summits, covering everything from biodiversity to energy, could be found across the metropolis. And within those halls, would-be thought leaders discussed the challenges of sustainability with both earnestness and self-congratulation.

There was a tension,

The post Three Telling Takeaways from Climate Week in New York City appeared first on Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.

The last scene from the semi-lost Doctor Who story "The Celestial Toymaker" might explain why The Toymaker returns for the 60th Anniversary.

New research published this week by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) shows workplace absences are at a ten-year high, with stress a leading cause of long-term sickness. Its analysis of data from over 900 companies employing 6.5 million staff found 76 percent of respondents had been off work due to stress over […]

The only person associated with the CIA's global torture program who was prosecuted and imprisoned was the man who blew the whistle on it — John Kiriakou.

The post I Was the Only US Official Imprisoned Over the Torture Program — Because I Opposed It appeared first on MintPress News.

This is the last time you'll ever know about ex-MPs who lobby for nuclear, gambling and energy industries visiting Parliament - because Jacob Rees Mogg had all the data destroyed

For Israel, recognition by UNESCO of Jericho as a World Heritage Site in Palestine complicates its mission of erasing Palestine, physically and figuratively, from existence.

The post Ghosts of the Past: For Israel, War on UNESCO is an Existential Battle appeared first on MintPress News.

David speaks with the hosts of Blowback about the history of foreign intervention in Afghanistan.

From Valhalla to mind uploads, why does the notion that death is not the end of consciousness refuse to kick the bucket?

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

A North Carolina facility’s record of violations undercuts the dream of plastics recycling.

The post They Promised “Advanced Recycling” for Plastics and Delivered Toxic Waste appeared first on The Intercept.

Understanding why negative views persist in the face of contradictory evidence could help inform depression treatment

- by Tobias Kube

Read at Psyche