Many of the theoretical assumptions which support the most admirable impulses of the woke come from the intellectual movement they most despise. The best tenets of woke, such as the insistence on viewing the world from more than one geographical perspective, come straight from the Enlightenment. Contemporary rejections of this period usually go hand in […]
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Despite all the hoopla about that one outlier poll showing that Joe Biden is loathed by just about everybody, other polls aren’t showing that. That’s from one of the latest. His approval rating isn’t great but it’s about par for the course in our polarized electorate these days. Here are some other findings: It looks like status quo on the Biden vs Trump rematch: And then there’s Ron DiSaster: It’s not like a huge number say they don’t know, either. He just isn’t popular. Anyway, all these polls are basically just for entertainment. It’s way too early to take any of it seriously. But it’s important not to feed into the Democratic Party panic over Biden that rose up a couple of weeks ago from that one poll. They love to freak out and it’s not good for anyone.
Many transgender bills are authored by experts in hate It’s the usual suspects: At least 17 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, though judges have temporarily blocked their enforcement in some, including Arkansas. An Associated Press analysis found that often those bills sprang not from grassroots or constituent demand, but from the pens of a handful of conservative interest groups. Many of the proposals, as introduced or passed, are identical or very similar to some model legislation, the AP found. Those ready-made bills have been used in statehouses for decades, often with criticisms of carpetbagging by out-of-state interests. In the case of restrictions on gender-affirming care for youths, they allow a handful of far-right groups to spread a false narrative based on distorted science, critics say. “These are solutions from outside our state looking to solve nonexistent problems inside our state,” said Aaron Jennen.
Jurisdictions are increasingly introducing Rights of Nature provisions into their legal systems. International shipping needs to steer a better course to zero emissions. Rewilding Britain one stream at a time. Our relationship with Nature Members of many Eurocentric cultures, encouraged in some cases by their religious teachings, have over the centuries developed a belief system Continue reading »
The spirit of the age seems to foster division more than it nurtures unity. The G7 Summit is meeting in Hiroshima where thousands were killed at breakfast time on a summer’s morning, August 6, 1945. The G7 leaders meet as a hostile imagination fuels a terrifying arms race. How can we yet pull out of Continue reading »
The decision to approve the Isaac coal mine is a betrayal of Australians and indeed people worldwide and as a medical doctor I am justifiably angry. The warning to end all fossil fuel developments recently published in Australian newspapers by 100 prominent Australian scientists and experts was related to the Beetaloo gas development in the Continue reading »
Grief is not something we ‘get over,’ or we must ‘move on’ from. The truth is we grow into grief; we do not get closure from it. The recent deaths at Loafers’ Lodge in Wellington, the ongoing tragic loss of life in Ukraine from the Russian invasion, frequent car accidents, and the continued deaths from Continue reading »
Time to leave for planet Zog. That’s what came to mind recently I as pondered an article about young Japanese men and female holograms. It seems that growing numbers of disaffected and alienated Japanese men prefer to engage with stereotypical holograms rather than entertain the idea of a real-life relationship. And it’s not only sexual Continue reading »
So, you want to go to war with the Americans, Aussie? What have the Chinese ever done to you? Have you forgotten? They were our willing ally during WW1 and 2 Not our enemy! Bravely supporting Australian prisoners of war on the Burma Railway Keeping many from starvation & death What have the Chinese ever Continue reading »
A song that goes out to the courageous Palestinian people and their supporters around the world. Balfour proclaimed in 1917 a settler state to be, A proxy base in the “middle east” – a colonial entity, With use of force they knocked down doors, a killing spree – the rest had to flee, Dispossessed refugees, Continue reading »
I can’t bring myself to write about the debt ceiling debacle again. I had foolishly thought the Democrats had a specific back-up plan for when the lunatics in the House decided to crash the economy for shits and giggles. Anyone could have seen they would try to do that. But apparently the White House and the Dem leadership didn’t see that coming? Really? But a huge part of the problem is, as usual, the way the media is covering the issue. Anyway this piece from TNR spells out the current dilemma: Having watched Capitol Hill fall into chaotic convulsions over the debt ceiling a million times before, I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way to properly negotiate your way through a debt ceiling crisis is to not negotiate at all. But it would seem, for the moment, that President Biden is going to dip a toe in those waters and fashion some sort of compromise. A deal may not be possible; it won’t take but a handful of House Republicans to scuttle any sort of bipartisan offering. So it may be too early to say that Biden is breaking his vow not to repeat the mistakes his former boss made in 2011.
Hyperbole much? Move over Jim Crow, we had to wear a mask and stay home during a pandemic for a few weeks. The humanity. That’s a Supreme Court Justice saying that. My God. I guess the next time we get hit with a new deadly virus for which humans have no immunity (and we will) we’ll just go about our business and pretend it isn’t happening. No need to try to save lives. Just let ‘er rip. We have lost 1.1 million people in the US in the last three years to this virus. We would have lost many times that without the mitigation efforts and the vaccines. And I guess that would be just fine — preferable, actually.
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Milton Friedman – one of the scholastic protagonists and machinists of Neoliberalism – wrote in the preface to the 1982 edition of Capitalism and Freedom, tutoring his disciples: “There is enormous inertia — a tyranny of the status quo — in private and especially governmental arrangements. Only a crisis — actual or perceived — produces […]
Doctor Who: The Decades Collection is a series of six novels, each telling a story from a different decade of the show & that era's Doctor.
Against committed clowns Scott Lemieux comments at Lawyers, Guns & Money on our authoritarian party’s redefinition of freedom. Lemieux referenced Jamelle Bouie’s helpful reframing of FDR’s Four Freedoms as an antimatter version for the MAGA party. It is a repudiation of everything conservatives once claimed to hold sacred and didn’t. But you knew that.
Also, Minnesota creates protections for warehouse workers, electric school bus makers unionize, Chicago addresses environmental racism, and activists sue Shell over emissions.
where gender-nonconformity hurt you Real Americans™ might want to reevaluate their life choices. People who complain loudest about having political opponents forcing randy random things down their throats have a new obsession, says Kat Abughazaleh of Media Matters. It’s piss. * And transphobia. This would be embarrassing if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was capable of it (Al Jazeera): Most recently, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is expected to announce his bid to be the Republican presidential nominee, signed bills that ban gender-affirming care for minors, restrict chosen pronoun use in schools and force people to use the bathroom corresponding with their sex assigned at birth. Lydia Polgreen adds in The New York Times: The new bathroom law is particularly cruel and absurd. Politicians claim these measures seek to make bathrooms safer. But I have yet to see any of these legislators produce a shred of credible evidence that transgender people pose a safety threat to cisgender people in bathrooms. […] Bathrooms have long been porcelain crucibles for our deepest fears and anxieties.
Believe it or not, the debt ceiling is an improvement on what the United States used to do.
The post The Debt Limit Is Just One of America’s Six Worst Traditions appeared first on The Intercept.
Use to discuss topics unrelated to recent posts.
Kevin Drum points to an obscure, but radical proposal to change the way the US government does benefit cost analysis. The Office of Management and Budget has released draft guidance saying One practical approach to implementing weights that account for diminishing marginal utility uses a constant-elasticity specification to determine the weights for subgroups defined by […]