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They suck so hard: IN EARLY FEBRUARY, Republicans brought an FBI veteran to Capitol Hill whom they hoped would expose a “deep state conspiracy” among Democrats and their accomplices in the intelligence community. The GOP witness was part of a network of “whistleblowers” — funneled to congressional Republicans’ new Weaponization of Government panel by allies of Donald Trump — to reveal covert attacks on the former president and broad, anti-conservative discrimination. But before the interview was over, it was the GOP witness who was failing to answer difficult questions — and Democratic committee staff doing the asking. In the interview, the witness, former FBI supervisory intelligence analyst George Hill, had admitted he had little or no firsthand knowledge of alleged “deep state” scandals. Instead, he brought baggage of his own: a history of inflammatory commentary on social media.

By Ralph Nader Most citizen advocates who work with U.S. senators on a wide variety of issues probably would agree that the late South Dakota Democrat, James Abourezk, was one of a kind. It was not that he was so honest, so down to earth, or so engaging with friend and foe alike. Rather, it […]

The post Ralph Nader: Prairie Populist, Honest Senator James Abourezk, Fearless Fighter for Justice appeared first on scheerpost.com.

"Every day that this community doesn't have relocation options," said local organizers, "is another day this community is in crisis."

The post ‘Get Our Grandkids Out’: East Palestine Residents Erupt at Norfolk Southern Meeting appeared first on scheerpost.com.

The use of the century old Espionage Act in the Julian Assange case continues to set the chilling precedent of a bleak future in American journalism, a precedent that endangers even those outside US borders.

The post The Nightmare Espionage Act That is Killing Julian Assange and the First Amendment appeared first on scheerpost.com.

6 eggs, well beaten12 ounces fresh or 1-pound can bean sprouts, drained⅓ cup thinly sliced green onions½ cup finely chopped celerySmall can water chestnuts, thinly sliced1 teaspoon salt⅛ teaspoon pepper2 tablespoons oil For Sauce:2 teaspoons cornstarch1 teaspoon vinegar1 teaspoon sugar¼ cup soy sauce½ cup vegetable bouillon Combine eggs, bean sprouts, green onions, celery, water chestnuts, […]

Imagine my embarrassment when I heard from the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee’s media relations...

~ Today's Water Cooler ~

This is my sixth post on MacAskill’s What We Owe the Future. (The first here; the second is here; the third here; the fourth here; the fifth here; and this post on a passage in Parfit (here.)) I paused the series in the middle of January because most of my remaining objections to the project involve either how to […]

It’s time for CPAC again, the annual gathering of the most committed members of the right wing in America to catch up with their fellow travelers and own them some libs. Lately they’ve been holding their little convention several times a year in different places like Hungary and Texas but this weekend they’re back on their favorite stomping grounds in DC. There’s a bit of controversy over the fact that certain probable presidential candidates aren’t bothering to show up this year, something that would have been unheard of in years past. Instead of attending the traditional hate-fest they’ve decided to go to a big donor confab hosted by the Club for Growth. Why? Because CPAC has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the MAGA movement with Donald Trump topping the bill as keynote speaker. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis decided to attend the donor meeting rather than go mano a mano with the former president, taking refuge with the group that has said it’s dedicated to depriving Trump of another term. DeSantis isn’t the only one. Former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, South Dakota Gov.

In recent years, just under 40 bills have been introduced in various state legislatures that give local prosecutorial powers to state-level officials.

The post 17 States Have Now Tried to Pass Bills That Strip Powers From Reform-Minded Prosecutors appeared first on The Intercept.

Many Australians have turned to non-mainstream sources of news. They are often more reliable, and cheaper. Without them, the Nordstream pipeline sabotage of September 2022 would still be unexplained. Even before Pearls & Irritations’ timely publication of Seymour Hersh’s (literally) explosive expose of the Biden administration’s long-planned operation to prevent Russian gas reaching Germany, online Continue reading »

The very modest superannuation changes have been well received by most people, but the worry is the unwillingness of the Government to acknowledge, let alone tackle, the much bigger fiscal challenges that lie ahead. On Tuesday, the Government announced what it termed a “modest change” where from 2025-26 the earnings on superannuation balances above $3 Continue reading »

More than three years after Boris Johnson got Brexit done with his ‘excellent’ and ‘oven-ready’ deal, his second successor Rishi Sunak may have actually baked it, but only after changing the recipe from cake to fudge. But is there enough fudge to go around? In my previous article, I examined the background to the Windsor Continue reading »

Will the Albanese government restore Medicare as a universal system? Covid is still killing about 500 Australians a month; and crazies in the Liberal Party branches try to undermine their few remaining sound parliamentarians. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, reports, podcasts and other media on current political and economic issues Continue reading »

In the early 1940s ‘phony war’, before Pearl Harbour in December 1941, many Australians were not interested in the ongoing European war, even given our troops in Greece and North Africa. In 2023, in reverse, while the Covid-19 war continues, ‘pandemic fatigue’ has taken over, as if we are ‘post-war’, that is ‘post-Covid’. Numerous ‘presenters’ Continue reading »

Some might think that state genocide is a new phenomenon in Israeli occupied Palestine. I can assure you that this is the very essence of Zionism. The point was, and still is, to occupy the land, get rid of the people by any and every means, and change the topography and the demography of Palestine Continue reading »

On the passing away of Edward J. Kane

Everyone at INET is dismayed by the news of the passing of our long-time colleague, Dr. Edward J. Kane. Ed Kane worked with us for many years and no short discussion can adequately convey the importance of his many contributions. INET was born out of the conviction that the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 pointed to serious defects in how mainstream economics analyzes finance. Dr. Kane’s strikingly innovative and beautifully argued papers showed better than anyone else’s just how correct that supposition is.

His papers and some of his presentations for INET can be found here:

• Papers & presentations

Short introductions to his leading ideas include:

In a new article titled “European antiwar protests gain strength as NATO’s Ukraine proxy war escalates,,” The Grayzone’s Stavroula Pabst and Max Blumenthal document the many large demonstrations that have been occurring in France, the UK, Germany, Greece, Spain, the Czech Republic, Austria, Belgium and elsewhere opposing the western empire’s brinkmanship with Russia and proxy Continue reading »

I’ve done it.

After years of biohacking and tweaking, I have become… optimal.

Body fat percentage, optimal. Triglycerides, optimal. Dietary fiber, weekly activity levels, resting heart rate, 365-day meditation app streak, all optimal.

Now I can spend the next one hundred years staying optimal until I die.

I go for a long hike on a moonlit mountain trail, watching my step counter the entire way.

I feel the morning sun warm my face, and rush inside to use my sun lamp, which stimulates vitamin D production without skin damage.

I sit motionless on the floor of an empty room, enjoying the perfect harmony between my omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

Last week, I was offered a new job—creative, frightening, and meaningful. The challenge of a lifetime. I turned it down because it lacked the optimal combination of ten thousand daily steps, adequate income, and zero stress that I enjoy as deputy floor manager at the Sanderson Cardboard Box Depository.

I have not eaten cake since my sixth birthday. My lifestyle factors predict I will live at least 120 optimal, cake-free years.

Short slide presentation, mostly numbers.

ECNS (Chinese official English news service)
Number of Chinese netizens rises to 1.06 billionLong-form article with details also at ECNS

This is not a joke, unfortunately: Donald Trump and a group of individuals incarcerated for their alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 riot have collaborated on a song called “Justice for All.” It will debut Thursday at midnight on streaming services, including Apple Music and Spotify, according to a person with knowledge of the project. The track interpolates Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance into “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which is performed by a group of about 20 inmates, called the J6 Prison Choir, housed at the Washington, D.C. jail. The song ends with the inmates chanting, “USA!” Profits are slated to benefit the families of people imprisoned for their alleged roles in the Capitol riots that left five people dead. A music video featuring footage of Trump performing patriotic acts during his presidency and shots of the riots, including police firing tear gas, will debut later Friday morning on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. Trump recorded the Pledge of Allegiance at Mar-a-Lago a couple of weeks ago, specifically for this track.

Big Finish shared details on Episode 1 of their 60th anniversary event, with Tom Baker returning for Doctor Who - Once and Future: Past Lives.

Long time without a blog post, but I have been active on social media. I had an issue on the website with posting new article and I fixed it this afternoon (oh, the joy of self hosting... -_-`). Anyway:

I'm still penciling on the next episode of Pepper&Carrot, and this week, I did my daily warm-up before working on the pages with the sketches you'll find here under.

Here is a cleaned compilation of them (credits in image descriptions). These are all mascots of Free/Libre and open-source web services interoperable using the activityPub protocol (eg.Peetrube/Mastodon/Misskey/Pleroma/PixelFed/Funkwhale), the global name of the network resulting of the interaction of all these apps is named the Fediverse.

Sources will be uploaded later here.