Reading
Seriously, it’s like a 4th grader’s book report — and the 4th grader didn’t read the book. Utterly embarrassing. Steve Benen does a nice job of succinctly critiquing it: The preamble: Before the blueprint begins in earnest, there’s a preamble, spanning nearly three pages, which appears to have been written by Trump himself. It’s filled with vapid, all-caps, bumper-sticker-style declarations, featuring a combination of vague goals and proposals that President Joe Biden has already delivered. Here it is. Definitely a Trump special. Replete with inappropriate caps and bad punctuation. Our Nation’s History is filled with the stories of brave men and women who gave everything they had to build America into the Greatest Nation in the History of the World. Generations of American Patriots have summoned the American Spirit of Strength, Determination, and Love of Country to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges. The American People have proven time and again that we can overcome any obstacle and any force pitted against us. … But now we are a Nation in SERIOUS DECLINE.
The Trump-led 2024 Republican platform instead calls for an American Iron Dome and the largest deportation operation ever.
The post GOP Platform Doesn’t Mention the Word “Climate” Once — Even After Hottest Year on Record appeared first on The Intercept.
Climate change and rocket exhaust are seeding a light show in the northern skies.
The post Don’t Miss the Electric Clouds This Summer appeared first on Nautilus.
I would be interested in hearing from the legal beagles on this to know if there’s any possible chance they won’t be able to pull it off: Donald Trump is expected to launch a new legal battle to suppress any damaging evidence from his 2020 election-subversion case from becoming public before the 2024 election, preparing to shut down the potency of any “mini-trials” where high-profile officials could testify against him. The plans come after the US supreme court last week in its ruling that broadly conferred immunity on former presidents opened the door for the US district judge Tanya Chutkan to hold evidentiary hearings – potentially with witnesses – to determine what acts in the indictment can survive. In the coming months, Trump’s lawyers are expected to argue that the judge can decide whether the conduct is immune based on legal arguments alone, negating the need for witnesses or multiple evidentiary hearings, the people said.
The British Labour Party (BLP) won 32% of the vote but with First Past the Post voting it won 62% of the seats. That was the biggest gap on record between votes won and the number of seats. If the UK had preferential voting as we have, the result would have been much closer. The Continue reading »
Ukraine can only be saved at the negotiating table, not on the battlefield. Sadly, this point is not understood by Ukrainian politicians such as Oleg Dunda, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, who recently wrote an oped against my repeated call for negotiations. Dunda believes that the U.S. will save Ukraine from Russia. The opposite is Continue reading »
My copy of Iris Chang’s THE RAPE OF NANKING is missing its collection of historical photographs. Having seen them once, I could not bear to see them again, nor risk my teenage son coming across them, so I ripped them from the book. Now, every day on social media that is not controlled by the Continue reading »
Before leaving the Labor Party, Senator Fatima Payman made it clear she did not sign up to a Labor Government whose caucus had not itself signed up to the Labor Party platform which required a recognition of the state of Palestine and a two-party solution to the Middle East’s endless malaise. She made that discovery Continue reading »
A week after Julian Assange’s release from Belmarsh prison, a boisterous gathering of 200 very happy Assange supporters packed the St Kilda Bowls Club in Melbourne to celebrate Julian Assange’s 53 birthday on July 3. Assange, who was in seclusion still recovering from his ordeal, did not attend. In his place, his father John Shipton Continue reading »
The most pressing problem we face is climate change. It’s even more important than – dare I say it – getting inflation down to 2 per cent by last Friday. But we mustn’t forget that climate change is just the most glaring symptom of the ultimate threat to human existence: our continuing destruction of the Continue reading »
Andrew Podger, former Public Service Commissioner and advocate for reforms that take account of recent failures in public administration, is circulating a paper on priorities for change. About thirty former senior public servants, most with senior Order of Australia postnominals, have endorsed, without necessarily adopting each specific suggestion, his paper as a basis for a Continue reading »
Melbourne tabloid The Age has done its already sagging reputation no favours by running, as an exclusive, an article that claims to detail what it calls the “denial and disinformation facing October 7 survivors” – Israelis who were attacked by Hamas – with the centrepiece of the article being an interview with an Israeli reservist Continue reading »
Moves by other countries to impose higher tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles could benefit Australians shopping for a new car. Australian car buyers could be the beneficiaries of new tariffs the European Union has slapped on imported electric vehicles from China. The taxes of up to 37.6 percent which provisionally come into effect on July Continue reading »
PORTLAND, Ore., 10 July 2024—The Drupal Association is pleased to announce HeroDevs as the inaugural partner for the new Drupal 7 Extended Security Support Provider Program. This initiative aims to support Drupal 7 users by carefully vetting providers to deliver extended security support services beyond the 5 January 2025 end-of-life (EOL) date.
The Drupal 7 Extended Security Support Provider Program allows organizations that cannot migrate from Drupal 7 to newer versions by the EOL date to continue using a version of Drupal 7 that is secure and compliant. This program complements the Association’s D7 Certified Migration Providers Program, which helps organizations find the right partner to transition their sites from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10.
HeroDevs has successfully met the stringent requirements established by the Drupal Association to become a certified provider with its secure, seamless drop-in replacement of Drupal 7 and core modules.
Media critic and former ombudsman Margaret Sullivan has some thoughts on the media pile-on: It’s possible for two conflicting ideas to be true at once. And so it is with the mainstream media’s unrelenting focus on Joe Biden’s mental acuity, following his terrible debate performance earlier this month. First truth: the president’s stumble and the political fallout that followed is a huge, consequential news story that deserves a lot of coverage. Second truth: the media coverage is overkill – not only too much in quantity and too breathless in tone, but also taking up so much oxygen that a story even more important is shoved to the back burner. That bigger story, of course, is the former president’s appalling unfitness for office, not only because he tried to overturn a legitimate election and is a felon, out on bail and awaiting sentencing, but because of things he has said and done in very recent weeks. As just one example, he claimed that he doesn’t know anything about Project 2025, the radical rightwing plan hatched by some of his closest allies to begin dismantling our democracy if he wins another term.
Real estate firms are touring North American cities marketing homes in Israel — and in illegal West Bank settlements.
The post The Companies Making It Easy to Buy in a West Bank Settlement appeared first on The Intercept.
Help to help, because we’re built to help.
The post One weird trick appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.
The Soothing Sleepytime Baby Swing from Gurgle-Goo is designed to float even the fussiest baby to dreamland. In just a matter of minutes, little ones will be snoozing, and frazzled parents will be sighing with relief. Before joining the thousands of happy, well-rested Soothing Sleepytime Baby Swing users out there, be sure to glance at the safety measures below.
1. Do not, under any circumstances, let your baby fall asleep in this swing.
2. While your baby is in the Soothing Sleepytime Baby Swing, you should watch them at all times, ideally from no more than three inches away.
3. Do not look down at your phone.
4. Do not let your mind wander.
5. While your baby is in the Soothing Sleepytime Baby Swing, your only thought should be, “My baby is in the Soothing Sleepytime Baby Swing right now.” Any other thoughts could lead to injury or death.
6. Do not think about the possibility of injury or death while your baby is in the Soothing Sleepytime Baby Swing, because this could make you distracted.
7. Do not turn it on.
8. Do not buckle any of the very complicated buckles incorrectly.
There’s a new USA Today poll that show Harris beating Trump by one point and Trump beating Biden by one point. (They also polled Hillary Clinton for some reason and she beats Trump by two points.) In other words, it tells us nothing. Then there’s this: As you can see, Biden does best against Trump but they all lose. If we were to take all this at face value we’d say that this is a party problem more than a Biden problem. And I’m not sure it’s any more of a problem than it’s been through this whole cycle so far. And then there’s this: Today it does look as if Biden is staying in. And as I’ve been writing since this crisis began, (and even before, to tell you the truth) this isn’t about the candidates as much as it’s about a worldview that’s clashing all over the world. It would be very helpful if we had a president who was vital and exciting but we don’t. And the other side may have someone who’s exciting but he’s also an imbecile who is loathed by half the country. It’s been close all year and nothing has changed. Yet. Gird yourself.