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Pep Talk

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/pep-talk
Created
Tue, 28/05/2024 - 22:00

I can tell what you’re all thinking. Those guys in the other locker room are bigger than us. Stronger. Faster. Hell, they even got prettier cheerleaders. Moms who bake better cookies. Uncles who’re more conscious of their prejudices and are doing the work to listen and learn.

But you know what we got that they don’t? The thing that’s gonna turn this game in our favor?

Anyone? Because I’m stumped. And without some secret weapon up our sleeve—or an injury so tragic that it results in immediate cancellation and, later, a candlelit vigil—I’m positive we’re gonna get demolished.

Report on Closure of Private School is ‘Attempt by Conservative Establishment to Scare Voters Away From Labour – and has Nothing to do With Party’s VAT Payment Plans’ 

https://bylinetimes.com/2024/05/28/report-on-closure-of-private-school-is-attem…
Created
Tue, 28/05/2024 - 19:34
Alton School is closing due to a "continued decline in pupil numbers" and years of financial challenges, yet the closure is being reported in connection with Labour plans to introduce a 20% VAT levy on private school fees

California GOP on the rise?

https://digbysblog.net/2024/05/27/california-gop-on-the-rise/
Created
Tue, 28/05/2024 - 08:00
Not bloody likely This piece by Punchbowl is yet another “red tsunami” horse race piece designed to give Democrats heartburn. (Fun for MAGA and Villagers alike!) We’ve talked a lot during the past two years about the group of a dozen-plus vulnerable House Republicans who hold districts President Joe Biden won in 2020. But what if these Republicans aren’t as endangered as we thought? We’re in southern California all week talking to candidates running in competitive races that may decide control of the House. In conversation after conversation, we found rank-and-file Republicans increasingly ready to embrace former President Donald Trump in toss-up seats. Trump lost California by roughly 30 points in both 2016 and 2020, so this is a significant development. There are five Republican incumbents in the Golden State who represent seats that Biden won. Given the razor-thin GOP House majority, if Democrats flip all these seats they could win the chamber back this fall. But it’s not so simple. Much has changed since 2020 when Biden beat Trump in a popular vote and Electoral College landslide.

Escargots à la Caudéran (Snails, Cauderan Style)

https://vintagerecipecards.com/2024/05/27/escargots-a-la-cauderan-snails-cauder…
Created
Tue, 28/05/2024 - 06:47
Ingredients:2 slices ham2 cloves garlic10 shallots1 Tablespoon lard½ cup crumbled stale bread1 cup dry white wine1 cup chicken bouillon1 bay leaf1 sprig, or ½ teaspoon dried thymesalt, pepper4 dozen canned snails (without shells) Instructions: Although live snails are used in France, they are not available in America. Canned snails are sold either in their shells, […]

One Of The Very Worst

https://digbysblog.net/2024/05/27/one-of-the-very-worst/
Created
Tue, 28/05/2024 - 06:30
Ric Grenell: from internet troll to Trump’s twisted foreign policy guru If you have the time to read just one long piece today, read this one about Grenell, on tap to be Trump’s Secretary of State or something equally horrifying. He will serve as one of Trump’s top deputies in any case: Richard Grenell’s quest to be secretary of state in a second Trump administration began late on Election Day in 2020, when the defeated president dispatched loyalists to run shambolic “stop the steal” operations in battleground states. President Donald J. Trump tapped Mr. Grenell — his combative former ambassador to Germany, acting national intelligence chief and special envoy to the Balkans — to fly by private plane to Nevada, where Mr. Grenell ensconced himself, his dog Lola, lawyers and a crew of activists in a suite at the Venetian Resort, which served as the group’s war room in Las Vegas. In a days-long spectacle, the Trump team filed a lawsuit and aired false accusations of fraud, including one wrongly implicating hundreds of members of the military. It was all a sham. Mr. Grenell told the team in the war room, two G.O.P.