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What Your Choice of Wedding Registry Gift Says About You

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/what-your-choice-of-wedding-registry-gift-s…
Created
Fri, 07/07/2023 - 03:00

The Least Expensive Thing on the Registry: You are cheap, sure, but they wouldn’t put the gift on the registry if they didn’t want it, right? Enjoy the picture frame, newlyweds! At the $200-per-plate reception, you’ll be telling the “drinks are on me!” joke at the open bar all night.

The Second Least Expensive Thing on the Registry: Someone already bought the cheapest item.

Le Creuset Dutch Oven: You hope they will buy this for you when you get married. Or at least whatever advanced model is on the market by the time you get married. Someday.

High-End Thank You Notes: Hint-hint.

The Knife Block with Seven Japanese Steel Blades: You grossly overestimated how much this couple likes to cook.

Sur La Table Flatware: You fully expect to be invited over for a dinner party after they get back from their honeymoon.

Ron sputters

https://digbysblog.net/2023/07/06/ron-sputters/
Created
Fri, 07/07/2023 - 02:30
Not exactly news, but this analysis pulls it all together: Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, looking to shift his run for president into a higher gear after an early series of missteps, spent the last two weeks rolling out an immigration policy and holding town halls with voters. But rather than correcting course, he stumbled again this week, raising questions about where his campaign is heading. First, Mr. DeSantis’s team was forced to battle allegations, including from fellow Republicans, that it had shared a homophobic video on social media. Then, a top spokesman for the main super PAC supporting Mr. DeSantis acknowledged that former President Donald J. Trump was the race’s “runaway front-runner,” while Mr. DeSantis faced an “uphill battle.” “Right now in national polling we are way behind, I’ll be the first to admit that,” the adviser, Steve Cortes, said in a livestream Twitter event on Sunday. It was an admission notably at odds with the confidence that the governor’s advisers usually project in public. To top it off — in a visual representation of his recent troubles — Mr.

Το βράδυ της 5ης Ιουλίου 2015 όπως το έζησα

https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2023/07/06/ti-egine-to-vradi-tou-referendum/
Created
Fri, 07/07/2023 - 02:21

Κάθε 5η Ιουλίου, από το 2016 μέχρι και χτες, τα κανάλια της διαπλοκής εξαπολύουν μπαράζ μαύρης προπαγάνδας εναντίον του ΟΧΙ που τόσο τους είχε στοιχίσει. Κάθε 5η Ιουλίου τα κανάλια της διαπλοκής προσπαθούν φιλότιμα να με πλήξουν (εν τη απουσία μου, βέβαια). Δεν είναι προσωπικό το θέμα. Απλά, έτυχε να ήμουν ο ΥπΟικ που τίμησα […]

The post Το βράδυ της 5ης Ιουλίου 2015 όπως το έζησα appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

Dead Reckoning

https://digbysblog.net/2023/07/06/dead-reckoning/
Created
Fri, 07/07/2023 - 00:30
Tom Cruise gets endless rehearsals. We don’t. “Well, this is more than a little terrifying. Shouldn’t we all be paying a little bit more attention?” asks Dan Froomkin. It’s like something out of Mission Impossible. Recent Wagner mercenaries’ moves against Moscow leave the West wondering about Vladimir Putin’s fate, the stability of the Russian state, and the security of the Russian nuclear arsenal (Washington Post): And in recent weeks the drumbeat has intensified, with some well-connected Russian strategic analysts and think tank experts openly proclaiming the “necessity” for Moscow to carry out a preemptive tactical nuclear strike on a NATO country, like Poland — to avoid defeat in the war on Ukraine and to revive Western terror of Russia’s nuclear might. Since the Wagner rebellion, Sergei Karaganov, a former Kremlin adviser and influential Russian political scientist, has doubled down on calls for Moscow to do so.

Who Tallies the Resources?

https://steadystate.org/who-tallies-the-resources/
Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 23:54
by Daniel Wortel-London

The economy of the USA, like that of any other nation, depends on natural resources—minerals, timber, fossil fuels, land, and a host of other renewable and nonrenewable assets. It couldn’t function without these resources any more than you or I could survive without air. So you’d think that determining whether our country’s demand for natural resources exceeds the environment’s supply would be of the greatest importance to politicians.

The post Who Tallies the Resources? appeared first on Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.

Caution: Children at Work

https://tomdispatch.com/caution-children-at-work/
Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 23:30

An aged Native-American chieftain was visiting New York City for the first time in 1906. He was curious about the city and the city was curious about him. A magazine reporter asked the chief what most surprised him in his travels around town. “Little children working,” the visitor replied.  Child labor might have shocked that outsider, but it was all too commonplace then across urban, industrial America (and on farms where it had been customary for centuries). In more recent times, however, it’s become a far rarer sight. Law and custom, most of us assume, drove it to near extinction. And our reaction to seeing it reappear might resemble that chief’s — shock, disbelief.  But we better get used to it, since child labor... Read more

Little victories

https://digbysblog.net/2023/07/06/little-victories-2/
Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 23:00
The right is relentless. The left needs to be. Several small stories this morning worth attention. Lin Wood retired to avoid being disbarred (NBC News): Lin Wood, a high-profile Georgia lawyer who embraced and promoted former President Donald Trump’s bogus 2020 election claims, told the state bar he was retiring amid disciplinary probes. “I understand that this request is unqualified, irreversible and permanent,” Wood, 70, said in a letter to the State Bar of Georgia seeking to be transferred to “Retired Status.” “I further understand and acknowledge that if granted Retired Status I am prohibited from practicing law in this state and in any other state or jurisdiction and that I may not reapply for admission,” he wrote in the letter, which he posted on his Telegram account.

Your OBGYN’s Pain Scale: An Interpretive Guide

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/your-obgyns-pain-scale-an-interpretive-guide
Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 22:01

“You won’t feel anything.”
It won’t hurt per se, but it will feel like the nurse is dragging a bone-dry tampon out of your vagina over and over again.

“This might be a little warm.”
This will feel like the time you accidentally burned your hand on the stove, but only for a few seconds.

“This might be a little cold.”
This will feel like you’ve contracted instantaneous frostbite, but for more than a few seconds.

“There may be some discomfort.”
It’s going to hurt more than the worst period you’ve ever had.

“You might feel a slight pinch.”
You’ll think the nurse thrust a hot knife into your cervix, and then twisted it.

“You may experience some cramping.”
You are actually going through labor.

“Most women experience 2-3 out of a pain scale of 10.”
This procedure is a 10/10 on the pain scale. We’d say 11/10, but the scale doesn’t go that high.

‘I Don’t Know How I’ll Cope if They Disappear’: The Fight to Save Ticket Offices

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/07/i-dont-know-how-ill-cope-if-they-disappear-the…
Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 21:05

Over a year has passed since the RMT union began industrial action on the railways. In that time, we’ve had three prime ministers, four chancellors and three transport secretaries. One constant, however, has been the determination of the government to force through damaging cuts. The closure of 1000 ticket offices announced yesterday is the latest […]

Meta on the Fediverse: Thread or Opportunity

https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/meta-on-the-fediverse-thread-or-opportunit…
Created
Thu, 06/07/2023 - 20:08
Threads.net, Meta’s competitor to Twitter, is launched today, outside of the European Union. It is apparently, “soon” (within a few months) going to work with other Federated social media services such as Mastodon. This is raising fears and hopes for those of us who believe that federation is a huge opportunity.  We understand why EU […]