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Fri, 21/02/2025 - 10:00
Trump’s eager embrace of Vladimir Putin is still startling even though we were well warned in advance. He’s just such a sucker, so bizarrely needy, so insanely shallow and stupid. A reminder of what’s awaiting Ukraine if Trump’s iridiculous attempt at getting the Nobel Peace Prize actually comes to pass: Bucha, a suburb of 37,000 about 20 miles northwest of the capital, Kyiv, has become a notorious symbol of Russian brutality. The Russians took it over within days of invading in February 2022, and in the month that followed, they killed more than 400 civilians, Ukrainian officials say, leading to global accusations of war crimes. Images from that time ricocheted around the world: The priest left dead in a garage, his mouth open. The church choir singer and his family, their limbs cut off, their bodies burned. The woman shot dead pushing her bicycle home on Yablunska Street. On Wednesday, many in Bucha seemed to be struggling to take in Mr. Trump’s comments. When the Biden administration was in power, the United States was Ukraine’s most powerful ally. Now they had many questions: Was Mr. Trump just speaking off the cuff?
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Fri, 21/02/2025 - 08:30
The Washington Post/Ipsos poll is not good news for Trumpmusk: President Donald Trump has opened his second term with a flurry of actions designed to radically disrupt and shrink the federal bureaucracy, but reviews from Americans are mixed to negative on many of his specific initiatives, and 57 percent say he has exceeded his authority since taking office, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll. Overall, 43 percent of Americans say they support what the president has done during his first month in office, with 48 percent saying they oppose. Those who strongly oppose outnumber those who strongly support by 37 percent to 27 percent. This is important: Americans also are clear what the president should do if a federal court rules that he has done something illegal. More than 8 in 10 say he should follow the court ruling. That includes more than 9 in 10 Democrats along with roughly 8 in 10 Republicans and independents. They are working overtime to propagandize their base, which is all they care about, into believing that the president is a king and there is no institution, law or norm, including the U.S. Constitution, that can tell him what to do.
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Fri, 21/02/2025 - 07:00
We won’t either For a man so obssessed with defending free speech that last week he scolded Munich Security Conference partners for shunning neo-Nazis and for their governments trying to curb the spread of “so-called misinformation,” JD Vance is caught censoring his own speech at CPAC this morning. “If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you,” Vance warned the Munich conference last week about not engaging opponents. Clearly not. Not when members of Vance’s own U.S. party are “scared shitless about death threats and Gestapo-like stuff” from members of his own party. And while DOGE is busy purging political opponents from government jobs under the pretext of improving “efficiency” and eliminating “fraud” the DOGEes have yet to formally document with anything more substantive than Elon Musk tweets. Here’s Vance being shy about what he really means this morning at CPAC while discussing immigration.
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Fri, 21/02/2025 - 05:30
Fox News host Jesse Watters made an on-air plea that the Trump administration be “less callous” when implementing when laying off federal employees after a military veteran friend was “DOGE’d” in Elon Musk’s Pentagon cuts. A report on Wednesday revealed that the Pentagon had provided the Trump administration with a list of probationary employees who could be targeted in the next wave of federal workforce reductions. Watters took to the air on The Five to raise the case of his friend, a veteran of 20 years, who was months into a new role at the Pentagon and still under probation but discovered this week that his job was set to be terminated as part of DOGE’s initiatives. “Let me tell you a story about Chris. Chris was a guy I met at a shooting event in New Jersey,” Watters began…. a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Military, one of the guys who has killed a lot of bad guys. Put his life on the line. He punched out after 20 years of working for the Pentagon.
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Fri, 21/02/2025 - 05:00

Tonight, Canada and the USA square off in the final game of the Four Nations Face-Off to determine first place in the international hockey tournament. And—let’s be honest—America isn’t exactly “likable” these days. In fact, we’re kind of “an irredeemable hellscape.” But the moment the puck drops, perhaps you’ll feel a dormant pang of patriotism you only associate with Simone Biles spinning through the air or watching Bruce Springsteen in a Jeep commercial. It’s not that you want to pull for your own country—how could you possibly live with yourself?—but also, wouldn’t life be simpler if you could?

Well, if you need help justifying your humiliating attachment to your godforsaken country, here are some things to keep in mind:

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Fri, 21/02/2025 - 04:59
The rapid development of Artificial General Intelligence and advanced AI systems has ushered in a new era of technological capability. These systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated, capable of performing tasks that were once thought to require uniquely human intelligence. From diagnosing diseases to crafting legal arguments, AI is reshaping industries and redefining what it means Continue reading »
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Fri, 21/02/2025 - 04:01
The UK has recently introduced (via “guidance” rather than legislation) a permanent ban on naturalisation for people who arrive in the UK via “dangerous journeys”. The power used to block their applications is the Home Secretary’s discretion to refuse citizenship to someone of “bad character”. This new policy seemingly conflicts with the UK’s commitments under […]
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Fri, 21/02/2025 - 04:00
Over here: The last day has been the worst polling day for Trump during his entire 2nd term. -4 polls show his net approval rating underwater like The Little Mermaid. -The 3 polls with a trend line show his ratings going down. -His one time strength (the economy) is now a weakness. pic.twitter.com/l9IQOhXS9K — (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) February 20, 2025 Meanwhile: He is completely out of it:
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Fri, 21/02/2025 - 03:18

Big congratulations to McSweeney’s friend, colleague, and writer Mac Barnett, who has been named the 2025-26 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Here’s the press release from the Library of Congress:

The Library of Congress and Every Child a Reader announce the appointment of Mac Barnett as the 2025-2026 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Barnett is the ninth author to hold this position. He succeeds Meg Medina, who served as the National Ambassador from 2023 through 2024.

Barnett is the author of more than 60 books for children, including Twenty Questions, Sam & Dave Dig a Hole, A Polar Bear in the Snow and Extra Yarn, as well as the popular Mac B., Kid Spy series of novels, The First Cat in Space graphic novels and The Shapes Trilogy picture books.

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Fri, 21/02/2025 - 02:30
Sellouts are selling out The Lincoln Project poses, “@realDonaldTrump if you truly believe Zelensky is a dictator, then why aren’t you kissing his ass like you do all the others?” Before we get to more ass-kissing, John Harwood states what we all know: “Trump lies about every single thing” because “he’s psychologically unable to tell the truth.” It’s not even worth debunking, although photographic evidence does. “We are one news cycle away from Trump giving military aid to Russia,” the Lincoln Project also posted on Wednesday, presumably not in all seriousness. But who can say with the speed at which King Donald is climbing into Vladimir Putin’s pants? Trump is selling out Ukraine, NATO, and now, not unexpectedly, the United Nations: Here’s the Reuters blurb: LONDON/GENEVA/BERLIN, Feb 20 (Reuters) – The U.S. is refusing to co-sponsor a draft U.N.
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Fri, 21/02/2025 - 02:28
If You Go For The King #2: Romania

So, the supreme court of Romania cancelled the previous Presidential election, ostensibly because of Russian interference.

The guy who won last time, however, will probably win the next elections in May. He recently stated:

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Fri, 21/02/2025 - 02:11
Trump’s assaults on governance could trigger systemic collapse. Here’s how it might happen, and how we can prepare. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian  18th February 2025 Though we might find it hard to imagine, we cannot now rule it out: the possibility of systemic collapse in the United States. The degradation of federal […]
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Fri, 21/02/2025 - 01:32

President Donald Trump has made no secret of his disdain for immigrants, particularly the non-white variety from south of our border. His statements that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of our country,” coupled with Fox News reports on Hispanic-appearing migrants who commit crimes, leave little doubt about what he and his allies think of (non-white) immigrants and their contributions to this country. So it didn’t surprise me that he recently began to follow through on his own and his Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leadership’s earlier intentions (as far back as 2018) to detain immigrants — including unaccompanied children — at military posts. Earlier this month, the first deportation flight carried a few men from the American mainland to our... Read more

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Fri, 21/02/2025 - 01:00
“What can I do today?” The news out of Washington, D.C. and Europe is so insane that let’s start with someone who’s not cowed by the Musk-Trump coup: New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “Every day our job is to wake up and say what can I do today?” “There is no act too small.” You might want to watch that several more times. Meanwhile, Republicans in control(?) of Congress are running scared, too concerned for their political survival to dedicate any of their waking hours to saving their republic (or their European allies) from the Russian puppet sitting in the Oval Office. “Senate and House Republicans know Trump will orchestrate the running of a primary challenger backed by Elon Musk’s unlimited resources if a member defies him.,” Gabriel Sherman writes at Vanity Fair.