The Billionaires Compete for Dear Leader’s Favor Yep: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is making sweeping changes to the social internet, all in line with the desires of President-elect Donald Trump and his supporters. Out with the fact-checkers that conservatives deride. In with more permissive rules for posting conservative opinions. The recent elections “feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech,” Zuckerberg said in his announcement, justifying relaxed new content moderation rules on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. “Governments and legacy media have pushed to censor more and more,” Zuckerberg said, repeating a right-wing talking point used to undermine fact checking.
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I confess: I was disappointed when the Justin Trudeau Liberals won the fall 2015 election. I was hoping for an orange break-through. So, it comes with some irony that I find myself defending the economic policy legacy of the Justin Trudeau Liberal government nine years hence. The acute drama that unfolded in December with the Finance Minister’s resignation ahead of [...]
He won Four years ago today I watched on television as Trump supporters stormed the Capitol during the joint session of Congress to stop the certification of the presidential election and I thought to myself, “it’s finally over. Trump can’t possibly come back after this.” Until then I had assumed that he would immediately start his comeback. It didn’t occur to me that he could survive inciting this violent assault, especially since he egged it on as it was happening: As we later saw on video, the crowd soon began chanting “hang Mike Pence!” Later in the evening Trump finally emerged and put out a video telling the rioters he understood why they were so upset about all the evil people who stole the election but they needed to go home now. He said he loved them and they were very special: Over the course of many hours we watched on TV as bizarre Trump supporters occupied the Senate floor and took possession of the dais, the Capitol was vandalized and trashed and rioters beat police over the head with American flags. It was the most shockingly surreal event I’ve ever observed in American politics.
At the time Republicans knew how bad it was: “A shrine to democracy for our country, and the world, was overrun by violent extremists seeking to overturn an election. We must hold those responsible to account.” Senator John Thune in Jan. 2021 Today: I don’t know how we can survive this level of delusion and mendacity.
The tumult continues: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation Monday after nearly a decade in power, bowing to rising discontent over his leadership and growing turmoil within his government signaled by the abrupt departure of his finance minister. Trudeau, the latest incumbent to be driven out amid rising voter dissatisfaction worldwide, said it had become clear to him that he cannot “be the leader during the next elections due to internal battles.” He planned to stay on as prime minister until a new leader of the Liberal Party is chosen. “I don’t easily back down faced with a fight, especially a very important one for our party and the country. But I do this job because the interests of Canadians and the well being of democracy” are “something that I hold dear,” said Trudeau, who was initially teary-eyed at the announcement outside his official residence. He said Parliament, which had been due to resume Jan. 27, would be suspended until March 24. The timing will allow for a Liberal Party leadership race.
Oh, that’s rich The leaders of the incoming Republican administration share the same first and middle intials, just in reversed order: D.J. Trump and J.D. Vance. I’m trying to decide if they stand for Delayed Justice or Justice Denied. On the delay and deny front, Juan M. Merchan, the New York trial judge overseeing Donald Trump’s “hush-money payment to a porn star” trial, denied a Monday request by Trump’s lawyers to delay his Friday sentencing, reports The New York Times: Although Mr. Trump’s lawyers had implored the judge to postpone the sentencing, Justice Merchan dismissed their claims as “a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past.” Mr. Trump is now poised to escalate his effort, court filings show, turning to a New York appeals court in hopes that it will intervene in his case. Late Monday, Mr. Trump’s lawyers filed a civil proceeding against Justice Merchan before the appeals court, challenging two of the judge’s recent decisions to uphold Mr. Trump’s conviction. Mr. Trump’s lawyers will argue to the appeals court that Mr.
Aaaand: More threats: The average price of eggs in the US today is $3.02.
As a new year begins and the blog starts fresh in 2025, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the highlights of the blog in 2024. In case you missed any of our posts the first time round, the five most viewed posts of last year were: We hope you enjoyed the blog … Continue reading Our top five posts of 2024
It’s a snow day in Baltimore and that means one thing–a post about cocktails! Full disclosure: I wanted to share these before New Year’s Day, but I’m lazy. And distracted. And lazy. Let’s be honest. I’m just really, really lazy. But better late than never, right? These two new Bloody Marys are the result ofContinue reading Snow Day Bloody Marys (Hemingway and Doritos)
Compare and contrast On this Sunday morning, a question springs to mind: How much of an idiot is “Captain Underpants“? Elon Musk is beside himself that President Biden awarded philanthropist George Soros the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his pursuit of “global initiatives that strengthen democracy, human rights, education, and social justice.” (Biden gave the award to 18 others, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.) Musk posted a meme mocked up to show Biden handing the medal to the evil Emperor Palpatine. “Must be the lighting,” he quipped. Naturally, the right is as incensed that their liberal bogeyman received the award as it wasn’t when Donald Trump awarded one to Rush Limbaugh during a State of the Union Address in recognition of Limbaugh’s Three Decades Hate. What draws attention to Musk besides his infantile sense of humor, his inability to string more than 10 words together in most of his tweets, and his turning Jack Dorsey’s world forum into a MAGA cesspool, is the contrast with a real genius.