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So, what do you think? Never in your wildest dreams, right? It’s hard to know where to begin, because the house is almost unrecognizable, but let me show you around. You won’t believe what I’ve done to the place.

I really wanted the living room to come alive, so I reimagined this couch as a precariously balanced cushion fort. Not only does it add visual height to the room, but it’s great for jumping on. The deconstructed sofa draws elements of the city into the home and elevates your “boho-chic” style into more of a “contempo-roadside-shanty.” And since great design is all about the little things, I’ve also gone ahead and peppered the rug with gravel.

Now, I know you love your TV, but it can be a distraction when there’s a single smudgy handprint right in the middle of the picture, so I balanced things out by smearing the rest of the screen with oatmeal.

And I’m obsessed with these hardwood floors, but they can be slippery when I’m not wearing my socks with the grippy bottoms, so I slathered them with an adhesive coating of organic apple juice and upcycled pee. You can already smell it working.

A few weeks ago, Cyril Hédoin responded insightfully and constructively (here) to an essay I recently published  @Liberal Currents. Subsequently, he did a follow up piece in which he assimilated my stance on what I call the ‘platonic skepticism’ (more on that below) of liberalism  into a larger framework about different kinds of skepticism exhibited by liberals. In the piece that triggered […]

They made this mess for themselves and they can’t get out of it. It’s over for 2024. But they somehow believe it will all right itself for 2028. They are as delusional as always. The remaindered class of the Republican presidential field was in survival mode last night in Simi Valley, where seven candidates took the stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library to make their case, however weakly, against Donald Trump. They were visibly feral from the start, thirsty for airtime, stomping all over each other for a breakout moment, or a fight, whichever presented itself first. […] Privately, however, the Republican professional class is more cynical than ever following last night’s debate. Here are the four things that everyone is thinking, but not yet saying out loud. Donors Are Already Giving Up Trump’s rivals know that to make it to Iowa, they need to quickly convince donors sitting on the sidelines (or those disillusioned by former Golden Boy DeSantis) that their anemic campaigns deserve an infusion of fresh capital. A strong showing at the debate can do that. Alas, despite being so cash starved, no candidate substantially rose above the pack.

In an exchange on BBC Radio 4's 'PM' programme, the MP was shut down by Evan Davis when he mentioned this newspaper’s special investigation into the now suspended GB News presenter Dan Wootton

Interesting times just got more interesting Minutes ago (Associated Press): U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a centrist Democrat who was elected to the Senate in 1992 in the “Year of the Woman” and broke gender barriers throughout her long career in local and national politics, has died. She was 90. Three people familiar with the situation confirmed her death to The Associated Press on Friday. Feinstein, the oldest sitting U.S. senator, was a passionate advocate for liberal priorities important to her state — including environmental protection, reproductive rights and gun control — but was also known as a pragmatic lawmaker who reached out to Republicans and sought middle ground. She was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969 and became its first female president in 1978, the same year Mayor George Moscone was gunned down alongside Supervisor Harvey Milk at City Hall by Dan White, a disgruntled former supervisor. Feinstein found Milk’s body. Feinstein had been in declining health for some time and had obvious memory issues.

Manufacturing culture war test cases A Washington Post investigation pulled back the curtain on a legal advocacy group’s decades-long efforts to sherpa conservative culture war test cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled in June that Colorado’s public accommodations law could not force web designer Lorie Smith to design wedding web sites for gay couples because it violates her religious beliefs. The 6-3 decision was not about discrimination, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote. No. Coercing Smith to create a message with which she disagrees violates her First Amendment rights. Smith, SCOTUSblog reminds us, is “a devout Christian who owns a website- and graphic-design business [who] wanted to expand her business to include wedding websites – but only for heterosexual couples, and she wanted to post a message on her own website to make that clear.” Here’s what stood out as weird. Smith cited a request from a man named “Stewart” as the basis for her lawsuit.

The army, or a part of it at the war college, has perked up and noticed some of the lessons of the Ukraine war, and that it’s a war that the US military could not fight. They’ve missed a lot of things, or felt they couldn’t/shouldn’t write about them, but they’ve figured some stuff out and written about them in a new report, “A Call to Action: Lessons from Ukraine for the Future Force” by Lieutenant Colonel Katie Crombe, and Professor John A. Nagle.

The entire thing is worth reading, but I’m going to pull out three of the main points. The first is that a volunteer US military can’t fight a real war.

The manner in which the Conservatives' anti-net zero campaign has been waged has resonant parallels with that which produced Brexit, writes Julian Petley

Job Summary

The Vivek Ramaswamy campaign for US President seeks a red-blooded, Ford-driving, Bud Light-drinking, Bass Pro Shops hat-wearing American who is cool with being yelled at all the time.

As Lead Bro, your primary role will be to make sure that Vivek stops getting called “annoying” by the media and everyone he went to college with. “Strange” is fine, even “unhinged” can be punk rock. But “annoying” is for hall monitors and step-dads, not the leader of the free world.

About Vivek

Vivek is the youngest and freshest new voice of the Republican Party. Some haters have called him an “inexperienced pest,” but Vivek knows that’s also what they called the rat from Ratatouille before he went on to do great things.

Mahmoud Abbas has not only betrayed the Palestinian cause for his own gain, he has paved the way for Israel's legitimacy in the Arab world, argues Israeli human rights activist Miko Peled.

The post Mahmoud Abbas at the UN: A Global Betrayal of Palestine’s Struggle for Justice appeared first on MintPress News.

In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Doctor Who, Ahsoka, Gen V, SAGAFTRA/AMPTP, Peacemaker, Stranger Things, The Sandman, Good Omens 3, and more!

From the Lobbying Act to condemnation of peaceful campaigners by Government figures, free speech has been thoroughly degraded, the authors argue

Tackling climate change is the major economic, social and political challenge of our time. After a summer of raging wildfires and extreme flooding that has devastated countries around the world, it is clear that the effects of global heating are worsening, and the urgency of cutting emissions is growing. Contrary to Rishi Sunak’s claim that […]

Through layers of paint, ash and broken objects, a Syrian artist tells stories of the vanishing Damascus of his childhood

- by Psyche Film

Watch at Psyche

Academics need to think harder about the purpose of their disciplines and whether some of those should come to an end

- by Rachael Scarborough King & Seth Rudy

Read at Aeon

The 2006 film set in a dystopian London of the future has much to say about modern Britain – especially the 'doom loom' trapping younger generations, writes Matt Gallagher

The Three Showrunners Unite! Russell T. Davies shared an image with Steven Moffat & Chris Chibnall at Doctor Who @ 60: A Musical Celebration.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon