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Created
Thu, 25/01/2024 - 02:30
Think outside the box A friend in high state office told a large crowd at a party event over the weekend that this is the most important election of our lifetime. Yes, the last election was too. But really, we mean it this time. (I’m riffing here.) What’s infuriating about that hoary admonition is that it provokes Democrats into adopting a defensive posture when offense is required. Time and again, Democrats play defense. Their idea of finding a new gear is doing the same thing they’ve always done, the way they’ve always done it, just more of it. When it’s the most important election of your lifetime you don’t take chances, don’t experiment. Also, you don’t change, don’t grow. Worried about taking risks? That’s a huge one. “Most important election of our lifetime” makes me grind my teeth almost as much as “voting against their best interests” and the jokey “vote early, vote often.” For Democrats of a certain age, they are unfortunate verbal tics. Democrats may be the party of the left, but thinking outside the box is often in short supply.
Created
Thu, 25/01/2024 - 01:00

When I went vegan, the single hardest delicacy to give up was my daily sausage wrapped in a pancake and eaten on a popsicle stick. Breakfasts were a challenge for years—what did people eat, I wondered, if not this? Imagine my delight when the fine folks at Morningstar Farms ended my years of sorrow with their latest meat-adjacent product.

But like any holy grail, this food wasn’t an easy conquest.

The first trial was making sense of “Incogmeato.” Its logo looked like a mustachioed man with wings for hind legs and a Santa hat perched atop his rear end. Or maybe a bumblebee/angel hybrid facing backward and sleeping. What either of these visuals had to do with vegan meat, I knew not. But I wasn’t about to let that deter me.

Created
Thu, 25/01/2024 - 01:00
Republican voters come to the light To no one’s surprise, Donald “91 Counts” Trump handily defeated Gov. Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire Republican primary on Tuesday. The surprise was results were closer than a late poll showing Trump polling ahead of Haley by 18 points among likely voters. The final spread was 11 points. But the Washington Post-Monmouth University poll was taken before Florida Gov, Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race. Haley may have picked up votes there. “Undeclared” voters are allowed to vote in the Republican primary. Exit polls suggest tepid support for Haley. Aaron Blake notes, “Nearly 3 in 10 expressed some reservations about her, and 4 in 10 said their vote was mostly about dislike for the other candidates — or, more aptly, candidate.” Trump. It is significant “that so many voters who felt so meh about Haley turned out to register what amounted to protest votes.” Watch that space this November. Trump has been a net plus in elections for Democrats ever since he took office. Even in 2022 when he had left office after fomenting a violent insurrection.
Created
Wed, 24/01/2024 - 19:54
Farmers’ protests are being embraced by the far right. The precedents are chilling. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 19th January 2024 When environmental activists calling for less pollution sit in the streets, across Europe they are now abused and attacked, arrested and handed extreme and draconian sentences. When farmers contesting pollution rules block […]
Created
Wed, 24/01/2024 - 19:00
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January 24th, 2024next

January 24th, 2024: Sorry for saying "opera gloving" on the internet!!

– Ryan

Created
Wed, 24/01/2024 - 16:13
Construction of Reality: Interaction Ritual

Three Chapters from the preview remain after this one:

9.The Ritual Masters (How rituals create different types and classes of people)

10. The Ideologues (How identity is tied into story, ideology and meaning)

11. Reign of the Ideologues (How ideology is used to create civilizations and the payoffs for ideologues)


We have, so far, talked mostly about more obvious rituals like worship or signing the national anthem or saluting the flag.