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“‘I am not a senator, a governor or a former cabinet secretary,’ J.D. Vance wrote on the first page of ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ by way of establishing his regular-guy bona fides. That was all true in 2016, when Vance was a former Marine and Yale Law School graduate with ‘a nice job, a happy marriage, a comfortable home and two lively dogs.’ His memoir reads a little differently now.” – Critic A.O. Scott, New York Times, 7/15/24

“What separates the successful from the unsuccessful are the expectations that they had for their own lives Peter Thiel’s money and how willing you are to lie for it. Yet the message of the right is increasingly: It’s not your fault that you’re a loser; it’s the government’s the Left’s fault. And it is.”

Social media users branded the post "outrageous" and it was slammed by the National Black Police Association

Yes, you can use Signal without sharing your personal phone number. Here’s how I did it.

The post How I Got a Truly Anonymous Signal Account appeared first on The Intercept.

We’re often taught to live according to our values, but this is easier said than done without pausing to reflect deeply

- by Valerie Tiberius

Read at Psyche

Nation-states are no longer fit for purpose to create a habitable future for humans and nature. Which political system is?

- by Jonathan S Blake & Nils Gilman

Read at Aeon

A letter, coordinated by the UK Open Government Network, has been sent to the Prime Minister offering him support and requesting a meeting

Trump's selection of an anti-Ukrainian, anti-British politician for Vice President, means the UK must urgently look to Europe for our security

Starting in 2009 and especially after Citizens United, I’ve been advising Americans who can get out to do so. I recognize that many people can’t: you have to “shelter in place”, but for those who are able to leave America and haven’t, well, the advice is the same, but more urgent.

The US is no longer meaningfully a Democracy. The funneling of wealth and income to oligarchs continues unabated and even accelerated during the pandemic. Official economic statistics from the US are now almost entirely fantasy based: completely unrelated to reality due to how inflation and other statistics are “calculated” and due to the over-reliance of GDP, which is no longer tracking welfare.

The massive increases in necessities like food is a very very bad sign.

The possibility of civil war is real, and so is the chance of collapse. Nothing is going to get better for the majority of Americans; everything is going to get worse.

Trump’s vice presidential pick pressured regulators to let police access the records of people who cross state lines for abortions.

This is frighteningly close to reality.

Source - Patreon

Trump is getting so cocky. He picks Vance which was a mistake. And then this: Uh huh. Honestly, this surprises me. I thought he’d have her at the convention sitting in the audience for his speech. And maybe he will. But not to have called her immediately was a huge error.

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Source - Patreon

Greg Stoker, ex-Army Ranger, offers a critical analysis of the security failures that led to a deadly shooting at a Trump rally, highlighting systemic incompetence and the potential impact on the upcoming election.

The post Lax Security at Trump Rally Leads to Deadly Shooting: Analysis by Ex-Special Forces Soldier appeared first on MintPress News.

Recent studies show it wasn’t the climate that did them in.

The post What Happened to Ancient Megafauna? appeared first on Nautilus.

“My view on this has been very clear. It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term. It’s whether a child should be allowed to live even though those circumstances of the child’s birth is inconvenient or a problem to the society.” This is absurd! Trump VP Pick JD Vance calls rape an "inconvenience" When asked about not allowing women to have an abortion when they are the victims of rape or incest, his response is disgusting. It's as if he's a character from the Handmaids Tale. “My view on this has been… pic.twitter.com/Fv8nbhfsbI — Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) July 15, 2024 Clearly, Trump has decided to just say “fuck it, I’m going for it.” He thinks he can just bulldoze his way into the White House with little resistance because Biden whiffed in the debate. We’ll see about that. A lot more women than men vote in every election. Even more will vote this time.

For years, The Lever has exposed the Ohio senator’s hypocrisies and what they mean for the American people.

My youngest daughter, after a couple of years of tough studies and hard work, last week succeeded in getting into her highly sought-after program. You never gave up. You never gave in. Congratulations, Linnea!

“It is incredible that such an act can take place in our country.” — Donald Trump, writing on Truth Social after an attempt on his life, 7/13/24

It is a sad time in American history, folks. A crazed gunman attempted to assassinate me, Donald Trump, in an act of hatred and violence that sits in stark contrast with the political era of hatred and violence I have single-handedly created.

This article by David Frum sums him up perfectly. Apparently, Vance used to write for Frum a decade or so ago and was part of his inner circle who said he was modeling his career on Barack Obama. Frum thought he was a thoughtful “reforminst conservative” who “scorned culture-warring, valued expertise, endorsed social inclusion, rejected partisan rancor, and supported America’s important role in world security.” He thought he was sincere. And he wasn’t the only one: Before the 2016 election, Vance’s future political path looked straightforward. He would await the expected Trump defeat, then emerge as a next-generation Republican savior: a candidate who could speak from his origins in Appalachia to the suburbs of Columbus, all while preserving his connections to his donors in Silicon Valley. Trump’s Electoral College victory complicated the calculation. Some Democrats wooed Vance to change parties. Obama’s campaign guru David Axelrod had Vance as a guest on his popular podcast the month after Vance’s Times article was published.

Australian Opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has taken time away from his little American Vacation to lecture the Australian media on the need for the country to look at greater potato peeler control laws. ”We live in a country that is... Read More ›