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Title idea: The Kandahar Paramour

Protagonist name ideas:

• Ethan Sharp?
• Grayson Grimm?
• Hunter Savage?

Character: Layla. Divided loyalties. C-cup.

Flashback: Bad guys kill protagonist’s fiancée (HOT/WHITE/ETC.)

Title idea: The Baghdad Seduction: Seduction in Baghdad

More protagonist names:

• Jack Skinner?
• Jack Killgore?
• Jackson “Jack” Jackington (THIS ONE)

Idea: Layla knows jiu-jitsu (STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER)

Jackson’s character traits:

• Jawline
• Marksmanship
• Approachable brutality

Possible bad guys: Jihadists? China? Are there Chinese jihadists? (GOOGLE)

Just break the IP laws and set up app stores with 5% feeds. Create jail break kits for John Deere tractors, and so on.

There’s no reason that a Canadian app store would have to confine itself to Canadian software authors, either. Canadian app stores could offer 5% commissions on sales to US and global software authors, and provide jailbreaking kits that allows device owners all around the world to install the Canadian app stores where software authors don’t get ripped off by American Big Tech companies.

A British Museum curator explains why making sense of archeological ruins is like finding a single brick in a huge soil heap

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

How French modernists from Proust to Mallarmé were alarmed and inspired by the voracious dynamism of the newspaper world

- by Max McGuinness

Read at Aeon

While honouring people’s preferred pronouns, we’ve begun to neglect forms of formal address. Perhaps we need a rethink

- by David Benatar

Read at Psyche

Chris Deluzio keeps winning a Republican district in the nation’s most pivotal swing state — could he point the way forward for his floundering party?

A deep dive with the young Pennsylvania representative whose populist economic message is beating the political odds.

The curse of finance ministers whose country’s business model is broken is that they are powerless to transform the economy, yet too powerful not to take the blame. But when the economy is merely stagnating, not yet in free-fall, preventing the descent into a financial crisis should require no more than average competence. Sadly, the […]

The post Rachel Reeves’ unbearable acquiescence to the City bankers – UNHERD appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.

How Donald Trump won the support of working class Americans, while selling out their interests to global plutocrats like Elon Musk

Donald Trump is throwing his second US administration into an already volatile mix – adding his own blend of disorder, writes Alexandra Hall Hall

The Conservative party leader and her Shadow Justice Secretary have made a series of inflammatory comments over the past week

Today (January 16, 2025), the Australian Bureau of Statistics released the latest – Labour Force, Australia – for December 2024. Employment growth was relatively strong but concentrated on part-time employment, which suggests the quality of employment fell. Employment growth was also unable to keep pace with the underlying population growth and the rising participation rate…

Just before the president’s executive order, his own administration sounded the alarm about data centers’ energy consumption, water use, and emissions.

Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal on almost entirely the same terms as a proposal that fell apart in the summer.

The post A Deal Too Late: Israel Agrees to the Ceasefire It Rejected Months Ago, Thousands More Died appeared first on The Intercept.

Of course: Oil executive Chris Wright, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Energy Department, has argued that climate change has not fueled more frequent and severe wildfires — a claim at odds with the scientific consensus. Wright’s arguments drew scrutiny from Senate Democrats during his confirmation hearing Wednesday, as deadly wildfires continue to ravage the Los Angeles area, destroying thousands of homes and killing at least 25 people. In a 2021 appearance on the PetroNerds podcast, Wright criticized mainstream media outlets for drawing a connection between wildfires and warming. Wildfires are “a major thing in the news now,” he said. “‘It’s climate change. It’s climate change.’ … The short answer: It is not.” Wright, head of the fracking company Liberty Energy, has also disputed this connection in more recent LinkedIn posts, according to a review of his comments conducted by the environmental group Evergreen Action and shared with The Washington Post.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

In their confirmation hearings, John Ratcliffe, Pam Bondi, and Tulsi Gabbard gave government mass surveillance two thumbs up.

The post Trump Decried This Law as a Deep State Spy Weapon. His Nominees Sure Seem to Love It. appeared first on The Intercept.

What do Trump voters really want: the perennial question. The Pew poll asked the question. They also asked what they really think. Let’s just say, it’s not reassuring: They are also liars, at least to themselves: That is nuts. He was clear as mud about everything but immigration and tariffs. The rest was just the usual bluster and bullshit. Utter nonsense. They will meltdown like the wicked witch of the west if he shows even the slightest concern for the Americans who didn’t vote for him. Luckily for them, he’s never going to do that.

During his Senate confirmation hearing, Russell Vought downplayed Trump’s moves to strip protections from civil service employees.

The post White House Budget Office Nominee Tries to Whitewash Trump’s First Term appeared first on The Intercept.