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Okay, fine. You caught me. Congrats on catching the real Easter Bunny in the act. Yeah, I’m real. As real as Santa Claus. You know what else is real? My hatred of Santa Claus. Seriously, screw that guy. Like his job is any harder than my job. You know how long it takes to hide two dozen eggs? How much creativity? What I do is much more complicated than throwing a bunch of presents under a tree.

But please continue to regale me with tales of wonder about Santa and his elves, the hundreds of talented elves making and wrapping the toys for Santa, happily taking care of all of the details that make Christmas so… Christmas-y. Such a plentiful support staff. And every last one of them is abso-fucking-lutely delighted to make Santa’s job easier. None even entertain wishes or dreams of their own. Nope, they’re just there for Santa. What else could they even want? So don’t think for a moment that they’re being exploited, that they’re an indentured workforce, trapped in a frozen wasteland, working off a debt they know they’ll never fully repay. Don’t think that because it’s probably not true. Only maybe I’ve heard some shit. From very reliable sources.

Reminding everyone all the time how he used to be [a bad] Director of Public Prosecutions may not have been the smart tactic Keir Starmer’s vile exploitation of child abuse victims to attack Rishi Sunak exploded in Starmer’s face today. Last night Labour posted a graphic claiming Sunak doesn’t care about protecting abused children or […]

For as long as I can remember, Democrats have been on the defensive about enacting their agenda because it was assumed that it would engender a backlash among “the silent majority,” as former president Richard Nixon called it, or what modern Republicans call “Real America.” Reacting to the counter-culture of the 1960s and the massive social changes it engendered, the left wing of the Democratic Party was always admonished by the centrist and conservative wings not to go too far or too fast. The media even blithely asserted that “America is a conservative country” as if it were an act of God. This article of faith hobbled progress for a very long time and empowered the Reagan Revolution through the Tea Party and Donald Trump’s MAGA movement. Nobody ever seemed to consider that enabling the right wing to become more and more extreme over the course of many years might engender a backlash of its own. It appears as if that time may have finally come — and it’s clear the Republican establishment doesn’t know what to do about it. The question is whether the Democratic establishment does either.

In a bonus podcast segment for supporting subscribers, the progressive lawmaker reveals the day-to-day impact of corporate money in Congress.

The fight is heating up — but wins for workers won’t come easy.

The post The Teamsters and the UAW Gear Up for Struggle appeared first on The Intercept.

Emboldened by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, religious ideologues attacked one of the few spots of Palestinian control in the city.

The post Israeli Settlers Move on the Holiest Site in Jerusalem — Setting Off a New Crisis appeared first on The Intercept.

Despite Tennessee saying, Hold my beer While the world’s attention focused on Tennessee yesterday, the NC GOP took advantage of its new House majority (that’s another story) to pull draft bills out of drawers meant to attack disfavored minorities the way Tennessee legislators expelled two Black members on Thursday. ABC 11 Raleigh: North Carolina Republican lawmakers filed several bills aimed at regulating transgender youth especially when it comes to participation in sports. These bills are similar to ones GOP lawmakers pushed a couple years ago. While those bills failed, Republicans are hopeful their new supermajority — achieved by getting Mecklenburg Democratic Rep. Tricia Cotham to switch parties — will be able to force the bills through. There are two bills in the legislatures that would ban transgender athletes in some way. Legislation in the house and senate would require all sports teams be designated as male, female or co-ed based on their biological sex at birth. It’s what the NC GOP does when attention is diverted or when SCOTUS lets them.

Swedish governments have for years now announced that they want to tighten the rules for religious for-profit free schools. Last year Minister of Education Lina Axelsson Kihlbom claimed that this would be “an important step in regaining democratic control in schools.” Goodness gracious! And to think that we still have to hear this nonsense. It’s […]

Converus is pitching EyeDetect to defense and intelligence agencies. But experts say eye movements are not reliable indicators of deception.

The post Lie Detector Firm Lobbies CIA, DOD on Automated Eye-Scanning Tech appeared first on The Intercept.

On this week’s Lever Time, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez discusses Biden’s latest moves, the new Clarence Thomas bombshell, the Squad’s political strategies, and more.

Please support a bill in Congress that would block federal agencies from using facial recognition to track and misidentify millions of people.

You’re under attack. Get busy fighting. Gotta go do a thing this morning. Courage for America’s bus stop is up the road: Americans count on Social Security for retirement and rely on Medicare and Medicaid for prescription drugs and essential care. After a lifetime of hard work and paying in, these programs allow Americans to live and age with dignity and respect. Some in Congress want to end these guarantees by refusing to pay bills they already owe. They would rather default on our debt obligations or make extreme cuts to hard-earned benefits than protect the seniors, veterans, teachers, health care workers, small business owners, and millions of Americans they swore to serve. That’s why we’re on the road to demand Congress promises to back off our benefits. We started in Speaker McCarthy’s district and will finish up in D.C. to mark the MAGA House agenda’s 100th day. Join us on tour and add your name to the Back Off Our Benefits petition. My health care hero Laura Packard is on that bus. She’s alive today because the ACA was there for her. Is the ACA enough? No. But it’s something to build on.

Drought profiteers - financial industry executives buying up public freshwater resources in a time of increasing drought - are pushing the US water supply to the brink of collapse, reports Lee Camp.

The post Drought Profiteers: Wall Street Billionaires Are Snatching Up America’s Water appeared first on MintPress News.

Dear Farmers and Black Market Animal Traders of 2300 BCE:

My name is Noah, son of Lamech and ninth descendent of Adam. I am six hundred years old and I need to look at your animals’ pee-pees. Long story short, God’s sending a colossal wall of water to cleanse creation of wickedness, which means I’ll for sure need to take a peek at basically every species of animals’ nuggins and noodles within the next, like, two or three weeks.

To be clear: this isn’t something I want to do or have dreamed of doing ever since I was a tiny prophet in my mother’s arms and first laid eyes upon the sumptuous underbelly of our neighbor Jehoshabeath’s prized meat hog, and I’m definitely not making this whole flood thing up so I can go around the lands of Ararat and score a gander at a bunch of titillating animal down-unders.

The GOP looks for the upside.

By Walt Zlotow / Antiwar.com When President Biden announced sanctions against Russia over their February, 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he called it a battle of democracy over tyranny. He expected Africa to rally to the US lead. Unsurprisingly, not one of Africa’s 54 countries as joined US sanctions against Russia. Many are neutral; some even […]

The post Africa ‘All Out,’ 54-0, Against Joining Biden’s Proxy War on Russia appeared first on scheerpost.com.

Cowardly Starmer sends minions out to take the heat for his crassness and lack of moral principle Labour right-winger and front-bencher Lucy Powell suffered an absolute car-crash of an interview this morning when she tried to defend last night’s vile and racist exploitation of child abuse victims for cheap political points on social media by […]

After years of confrontation and souring relations with Spanish energy giant Iberdrola, Mexico's AMLO government has just agreed to purchase 80% of the company's Mexican operations.

In a bit of synchronicity, after pointing out that the Collective West was more free with information with respect to Ukraine than was ideal during a war, today we have the US government het up about an apparent leak. The New York Times reported that some US and NATO plans for building up the third […]

By Kevin Gosztola / The Dissenter The warden of Her Majesty’s Prison Belmarsh blocked representatives with the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) from visiting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, despite previously reviewing RSF’s request and agreeing to grant access. Rebecca Vincent, the director of operations and campaigns for RSF, declared, “We followed all rules […]

The post Belmarsh Warden Blocks Assange From Meeting With Representatives of Press Freedom Organization appeared first on scheerpost.com.