Trump’s minions are busily drawing up plans to prosecute enemies and deploy the military into the streets of America Over the weekend, Democrats celebrated their biennial tradition of hand-wringing and panic about the election a year hence. Every cycle about this time, polls showing that their voters are unhappy with their candidates and wish they had someone better are floated by all the major polling outfits and everyone starts hyperventilating. It seems like only yesterday that the polling showed Democrats being swept away by a “red tsunami” in the midterms and it was inevitable that they would lose both chambers of Congress for the foreseeable future. Oops! One of the more extreme examples of this came back in 2011 when President Barack Obama was running for re-election. With a 61% disapproval rating on the economy and 73% saying the country was heading in the wrong direction in some polls, there was growing talk of running a primary opponent or replacing Joe Biden as vice president on the ticket.
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The Amelia Uncertainty Principle. As confidence in your toddler’s current shoe size increases, consistency in sizing across shoe manufacturers decreases.
Alder’s Observation. A toddler in motion remains in motion. A toddler at rest will pee on itself.
The Third Law of Theo Dynamics. If an object exceeds the temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the atoms of a toddler will begin moving toward that object.
The Jordynn Theorem. The emotional strain of installing a car seat in an airport rental lot produces enough heat and light to be visible from other galaxies.
Graham’s Principle of Least Restraint. The kinetic energy of a thrown Hot Wheels car must always exceed the shatter resistance of a newly replaced bedroom window.
Hanako’s Axiom. It is true that all right angles are equal to one another, and that your toddler will run full-tilt into every right angle in your home an equal number of times.
The UN is calling the Israel-Hamas war a ‘graveyard of children’…. an adult conflict, in which the young are suffering most. What we see on our TV screens every night is impossible to watch. Did Netanyahu see the young lad who had just carried the decapitated body of his friend from the rubble. If so, Continue reading »
The global warming problem seems increasingly insoluble. The past record shows growing gaps between ambition and achievement, decreasing time in which to act, and governments, including Australia’s, stubbornly sticking to policies that have failed to stop emissions growth. Clues to the reasons behind this can be found in the Treasurer’s address to the Economic and Continue reading »
Former Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb, in an exclusive interview with People’s Daily Online, said he viewed the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to China as another step toward normalising political relations. Albanese is scheduled to visit China from November 4 to 7, 2023, during which he will participate in the sixth China Continue reading »
Israel’s strategic choices, as Israelis see it, are rather like those sometimes argued for Australia. It wants powerful friends but cannot take them for granted. Ultimately it must depend on itself, if needs be alone. Surrounded by deadly enemies, it must make the cost of conquest so high, and so uncertain, that invaders are deterred. Continue reading »
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. The Medical Benefits Schedule (MBS) Review Advisory Committee (MRAC) has been tasked with supporting “a continuous review framework that ensures the MBS is contemporary, sustainable, evidence- based, and supports universal access to high value care for all Australians. Good about time. Action to address the inequity relating Continue reading »
The system of fixed term contracts for department heads is not in itself the cause of the recent debacles of Robodebt and Home Affairs. Restoring permanent appointments for departmental heads is unthinkable, not least because the former system rested upon powerful public service boards, now abolished everywhere. We could not restore such bodies even if Continue reading »
An older man, grey-haired but quite firm in his manner as he spoke to the ABC TV reporter on Palestine’s West Bank. He was an Israeli, he said, and he was claiming the building site because, ‘God gave us this land.’ He fingered what seemed to be a real estate contract tucked under his left Continue reading »
He and his teenage son check each other’s porn habits Not a joke: SPEAKER OF THE House Mike Johnson admitted that he and his son monitored each other’s porn intake in a resurfaced clip from 2022. During a conversation on the “War on Technology” at Benton, Louisiana’s Cypress Baptist Church — unearthed by X user Receipt Maven last week — the Louisiana representative talked about how he installed “accountability software” called Covenant Eyes on his devices in order to abstain from internet porn and other unsavory websites. “It scans all the activity on your phone, or your devices, your laptop, what have you; we do all of it,” Johnson told the panel about the app. “It sends a report to your accountability partner. My accountability partner right now is Jack, my son. He’s 17. So he and I get a report about all the things that are on our phones, all of our devices, once a week. If anything objectionable comes up, your accountability partner gets an immediate notice.
In a social media post from earlier today, Disney+ apparently confirmed the date & title of the upcoming Doctor Who "holiday special."
Does the language you speak change how you think?
There is one point, to which in practice I attach a great importance, you do not allude to. In many of these statistical researches, in order to get enough observations they have to be scattered over a lengthy period of time; and for a lengthy period of time it very seldom remains true that the […]
If only there were cameras The head of the Trump Organization takes the stand this morning in its Manhattan civil fraud trial. You can say a lot that will roll of this odd duck’s back, but questioning Trump’s net worth cuts to the core of his pathologically insecure self-image. He’s prone to lash out at those who do. We know that here from experience. The 2019 post that drew a threat letter from one of Trump’s lawyers commented on MSNBC reporting that Trump’s real estate empire was in such shaky financial shape that he had hostile foreign powers backstopping his loans. Hullabaloo got caught in the backlash. Former Trump personal attorney, Michael Cohen, thinks Trump will respond just as poorly to having his financial condition questioned to his face on the witness stand. He won’t be able to keep his cool, Cohen told CNN anchor Phil Mattingly (Raw Story): “At the beginning, he’s going to try.
A bill to restrict public bodies from making ethical financial decisions based on the conduct of foreign states makes no distinction between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
David Sirota speaks with Rep. Mark Pocan about the House’s ceasefire resolution and AIPAC’s attacks on progressives.
The Government rejected a cross party Lords recommendation that political advertising should be regulated according to factual accuracy. The former chair of the Select Committee wonders why
and the royalist style in American politics The reason people chose an authoritarian for president in 2016 was not economic anxiety, although that was there. And it was not racism, although that was there too. Robert P. Jones, founder and president of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) spoke with Chauncey DeVega about the apocalypticism behind White Christian nationalism and the desire to restore “traditional American values.” With violence, if need be. Jones discusses his findings in “The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future.” Results of a recent American Values Survey reveal, says Jones (Salon): Three-quarters of Americans believe that the future of democracy is at stake in the 2024 presidential election. It’s one of the few things that Republicans and Democrats agree on, 84% of Democrats and 77% of Republicans. Now, of course, they mean very different things in terms of their concerns about “democracy.” There is also great pessimism about the country.
Dear Residents,
While this elevator was being serviced yesterday, the emergency phone was inadvertently disabled.
We are taping this note to the elevator to let you know that should you become trapped, you will not be able to call for help.
We are working on getting this fixed. Thank you.
—CoolWater Apartment Building Manager
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Dear Residents,
Unfortunately, someone removed the previous warning note taped here.
One of our residents, Janice in #613, became trapped in this elevator last night and unknowingly tried to use the emergency phone.
Another resident waiting for the elevator overheard Janice screaming, “Help! I’m trapped in this stupid elevator! Why won’t you answer the phone? Oh god, my ice cream cake is melting!”
Please do not scream into the broken emergency phone. Quiet hours in our building are from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.
If you hear screams coming from the elevator shaft, report it during business hours. Please do not remove this sign. Thank you.
—CoolWater Manager
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Dear Residents,