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Sun, 13/10/2024 - 04:30
He wants people to think he’s a superman: That’s no doubt true. “I may be a criminal, a fascist and an all-around disgraceful human being but I’m leading in the polls, so vote for me!” does sound like Trump. I also think he just believes that he can make reality conform to his desires. And for millions of his cult members, he can. But there’s an actual, longstanding campaign strategy involved as well. I wrote about it back in 2022 just before that election: One more day until the voting is done. Hallelujah! When the polls are so tight and the campaigning so intense you reach a point where you almost don’t care who wins anymore and just want it to be over. But of course you do care, as we all must in this age of authoritarian right-wing, lunacy. I wrote on Friday that nobody really knows anything about this election. It could go either way. It might be a close result or one side could sweep both houses of Congress with big wins. But if you just read the headlines and listen to the pundits and strategists on TV, you’d think the evidence showed clearly that Republicans were running away with it.
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Sun, 13/10/2024 - 03:00
The alleged billionaire feels poor: Donald J. Trump took his seat at the dining table in his triplex penthouse apartment atop Trump Tower on the last Sunday in September, alongside some of the most sought-after and wealthiest figures in the Republican Party. There was Paul Singer, the billionaire hedge fund manager who finances Republican campaigns and pro-Israel causes, and Warren Stephens, the billionaire investment banker. Joining them were Betsy DeVos, the billionaire former education secretary under Mr. Trump, and her husband, Dick, as well as the billionaire Joe Ricketts and his son Todd. Some politicians might have taken the moment to be charming and ingratiating with the donors. Not Mr. Trump. Over steak and baked potatoes, the former president tore through a bitter list of grievances.He made it clear that people, including donors, needed to do more, appreciate him more and help him more. He disparaged Vice President Kamala Harris as “retarded.” He complained about the number of Jews still backing Ms. Harris, saying they needed their heads examined for not supporting him despite everything he had done for the state of Israel. At one point, Mr.
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Sun, 13/10/2024 - 01:30
Rumors and their origins Northeast of here, near the the little town of Spruce Pine, NC, there is a mine that provides key minerals used in the manufacture of microelectronics (NPR): Semiconductors are the brains of every computer-chip-enabled device, and solar panels are a key part of the global push to combat climate change. To make both semiconductors and solar panels, companies need crucibles and other equipment that both can withstand extraordinarily high heat and be kept absolutely clean. One material fits the bill: quartz. Pure quartz. Quartz that comes, overwhelmingly, from Spruce Pine. “As far as we know, there’s only a few places in the world that have ultra-high-quality quartz,” according to Ed Conway, author of Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization. Russia and Brazil also supply high-quality quartz, he says, but “Spruce Pine has far and away the [largest amount] and highest quality.” Conway says without super-pure quartz for the crucibles, which can often be used only a single time, it would be impossible to produce most semiconductors.
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Sun, 13/10/2024 - 00:00
What else is new? New reveleations yesterday from Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book, “War,” out just in time for the fall of the American empire. An MSNBC pundit last night wryly observed that the first two outlets to report it are based in England (that is, beyond Donald Trump’s immediate reach should he win a second term next month), The Independent and the Guardian. The Independent first: Mark Milley, the US Army general who Donald Trump appointed as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, now says the current Republican presidential nominee is a “fascist to the core” and says no person has ever posed more of a danger to the United States than the man who served as the 45th President of the United States. In perhaps an unprecedented (time to retire that term?) move, a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff asked to meet with the new U.S. attorney general. Milley urged Merrick Garland post-Jan. 6 to investigate domestic extremists and far-right militias.
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Sat, 12/10/2024 - 21:21
I förra veckans avsnitt av Starta Pressarna  fortsätter debatten om Riksbankens självständighet och hur vi hittar rätt balans mellan finans- och penningpolitik.  Medverkande i det här avsnittet är — förutom Daniel Suhonen och Max Jerneck — Per Molander och Lars Calmfors. En intressant och initierad diskussion — men när det gäller frågan om Riksbankens självständighet […]
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Sat, 12/10/2024 - 14:04
This Nobel Prize season spurs to once again air an observation that in the past economists were awarded the Nobel prize for explaining to the general public something that only economists understood, but in recent decades they win it for explaining to their fellow economists something that the public has always known 😉 – Politicians […]
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Sat, 12/10/2024 - 10:30
Fat Bear Winner! Mama Bear beats the Big Bruiser: In an exciting and personal rematch from last year, 128 Grazer and 32 Chunk faced off again in the final round of 2024’s Fat Bear Week contest. And this year, embattled mama bear 128 Grazer has retained the crown of the most popular fat bear in the annual online competition, which is observing its 10th anniversary this year. Grazer more than doubled Chunk’s vote count, garnering 71,248 votes to her male rival’s 30,468 votes. The nature site Explore.org administers the online voting, which saw a final tally for the weeklong contest of 1,041,124, according to the site around 9:30 p.m. ET Tuesday. The contest is held by Katmai National Park & Preserve to promote public awareness about the wild brown bears of Alaska. Like scenic drives to see the changing leaves, it’s become a popular fall ritual in the United States and around the world. She’s the first female bear to win it and it was a grudge match: 128 Grazer and 32 Chunk are developing quite the history between them, and it’s not all in the manmade, online brackets-style competition, either.
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Sat, 12/10/2024 - 09:00
I know most of you don’t punish yourselves by going on Truth Social. I do it so you don’t have to. Considering all that’s going on in the election I thought you might wants to know some of what Trump’s talking about when he’s just with his cult. I’ve just cherry picked a few from the last couple of days. Sure, he sounds totally stable. A perfect person to handle the nuclear codes. Update. It gets worse:
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Sat, 12/10/2024 - 07:30
It looks like he’s going to try Elon Musk has more than 250 Billion (with a B) dollars. He could spend a hundred billion of it on this election and still be the richest man in the world. Anything he spends in these last couple of weeks amounts to the change you or I might find in the couch cushions. His fortune is essentially infinite. He’s all in on Donald Trump and he’s not trying to hide it. Here’s a gift link to the NY Times article. I think you need to read it: In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, the richest man in the world has involved himself in the U.S. election in a manner unparalleled in modern history. Elon Musk, seen over the weekend jumping for joy alongside former President Donald J. Trump at a rally in Butler, Pa., is now talking to the Republican candidate multiple times a week. He has effectively moved his base of operations to Pennsylvania, the place that he has recently told confidants he believes is the linchpin to Mr. Trump’s re-election. He has relentlessly promoted Mr.
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Sat, 12/10/2024 - 06:46

If the US were to go to war with Iran, it wouldn’t be a 2003 Iraq scenario. From Iran’s vast missile capabilities to its battle-hardened regional allies, a conflict would be far more complex and dangerous for US forces.

The post A US-Iran War: What the Battlefield Could Actually Look Like appeared first on MintPress News.