EU lifts economic sanctions on Syria, following US move last week
The European Union has lifted economic sanctions on Syria in a bid to help the war-torn country’s recovery, Reuters reported citing Vice-President of the European Commission, Kaja Kallas, offering the nation another critical lifeline after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad.
This follows an announcement by the United States last week that it is lifting sanctions on Damascus.
EU lifts economic sanctions on Syria, following US move last week
Sanctions were levied during the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, who was toppled in December.Al Jazeera
Ali Velshi: The giant Trump banner at USDA is another sign the U.S. is sliding into autocracy
The giant Trump banner at the USDA is another sign the U.S. is sliding into autocracy
Ali Velshi reacts to a new portrait of Trump at USDA and explains how the president is following in the footsteps of other authoritarians around the globe.Ali Velshi (MSNBC)
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Democrats pity Biden — but can’t avoid atoning for his ‘Sin’
Democrats pity Biden — but can’t avoid atoning for his ‘Sin’
Some are on offense as Republicans suggest a cover-up of his cancer diagnosis, but most are ready to face the issue.David Weigel (www.semafor.com)
The Venn diagram of people defending him now and the people who hid how bad he was mentally since assuming office is basically just a blurry circle.
They're not trying to take the high road, they'll just say anything except admit they lied to the entire country for four years
If they wanted to take the high road, they'd have used article 25 when Biden was in office and let a fair primary happen in 2024.
I honestly couldn't give a shit about Biden's mental state when he was in office, because he didn't try to control everything himself. He put qualified people into the right positions and let them do their work, and the US had the most effective government it's seen in decades.
The president should be a figurehead and a facilitator, and let career bureaucrats do what they do, and Biden did that well.
Female-dominated fields more vulnerable to artificial intelligence, says UN report
Jobs traditionally done by women are more vulnerable to the impact of artificial intelligence than those done by men, especially in high-income countries, a report by the United Nations' International Labour Organization showed on Tuesday.
It found 9.6 per cent of traditionally female jobs were set to be transformed compared with 3.5 per cent of those carried out by men as AI increasingly takes on administrative tasks and transforms clerical jobs, such as secretarial work.
Human involvement will still be required for many tasks, and roles are more likely to be radically changed rather than eliminated, the report said.
"We stress that such exposure does not imply the immediate automation of an entire occupation, but rather the potential for a large share of its current tasks to be performed using this technology," the report said.
Here's the study ... ilo.org/resource/news/one-four…
One in four jobs at risk of being transformed by GenAI, new ILO–NASK Global Index shows
The refined global index of exposure to Generative AI offers policymakers a vital tool for managing the impact on work.International Labour Organization
Absolutely, I keep idly thinking about it and universal basic income seems to be the only way we can maintain order, but it's obviously never going to happen.
This is gonna get worse before it gets better.
‘It’s Outrageous That You Banned American Products From Your Shelves’
cross-posted from: lemmy.ca/post/44213932
Pete Hoekstra thumbs through an imaginary document, and pauses for effect: “This is a serious proposal — pile one.” Then he raises a second document. “I can’t believe this,” he guffaws. “This is a joke.” Straight to the discard pile.That, says President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Canada, is how it will go — one way or another — when newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney submits a proposal on a revamped economic and security agreement with the United States
- Deporting citizens
- arresting judges
- hiring totally unqualified heads of departments
- Pardoning homegrown terrorists
- hiring a billionaire to shutter departments to kill investigations under the guise of cutting waste
- having a military parade for a senile president
Just to add to the list or clarify further
- Arresting a mayor despite him obeying ICE orders
- Deport citizens and non-citizens without credible evidence and without due process
- Weaponize the judicial system against political dissidents and rivals
- Punish citizens and non-citizens for their First-Amendment-protected speech (which they claim to oh-so-love)
- Withdraw funding for USAID to immediately cripple the agency and deprive millions of people of basic human needs around the world
Hoekstra again?
This you?
This you?
This useless shit stain lied his way through his job in the Netherlands (and as far as i remember he didn't talk to the press anymore ever after those disastrous interviews) and shouldn't be allowed to represent a potato
Russia classifies population data as birth rates plunge to 200-year low
Russia has moved to classify key demographic statistics following a dramatic collapse in its birth rate, which has plunged to levels not seen since the late 18th or early 19th century, according to a leading Russian demographer.
For decades, Russia has been experiencing a plunging birth rate and population decline, which appears to have worsened amid its ongoing invasion of Ukraine—with high casualty rates and men fleeing the country to avoid being conscripted to fight.
Projections estimate that Russia's population will fall to about 132 million in the next two decades. The United Nations has predicted that in a worst-case scenario, by the start of the next century, Russia's population could almost halve to 83 million.
Russia Classifies Population Data as Birth Rates Plunge to 200-Year Low
Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov has said reviving the nation's birth rate is one of Russia's "top priorities."Isabel van Brugen (Newsweek)
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…Wow.
So what’s the tankie angle to this? From that perspective, the war is objectively awful for Russia, even if all the stated war goals are true.
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So what’s the tankie angle to this?
“Sure this news is bad, but what about this non sequitur?”
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I mean, billions of people would disagree with you. Many would say Ukraine and their western backers are at fault.
But theoretically, I am struggling to picture how Russia’a war goals (again, accepting every reason for its continuation from Russia) could possibly be beneficial to Russia, and the um oppressed Ukrainian people, in light of this measurable effect on demographics. Whatever the reason for Russia staying in Ukraine is, even with the most extreme sympathetic view of Russia and their position, it is clearly not worth it, and they should just capitulate an pull out for their own benefit.
and they should just capitulate an pull out for their own benefit.
Sounds like they're already pulling out too much.
The tankie angle is that it’s NATO’s fault. Would never have happened if mean old west hadn’t invaded Ukraine and genocided Russian-speakers who are ethnically and linguistically identical to Ukrainians but also totally different and superior but also must be defended by daddy Vladdy.
And also Ukraine is an inseparable part of Russia, especially Crimea. Khrushchev was only kidding when he gave Crimea to Ukraine, which isn’t a real country.
And the west totally broke its verbal promise that no one’s ever heard to never allow another country into NATO. But The Budapest Memorandum wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. For some reason.
You just don’t understand Russian history. Russia has a very long memory. When it comes to grievances. Theirs.
You’re just russophobic.
Ugh, you said that way too well.
Still (again, rolling with the reasoning), it's an existential problem, no matter who's fault it is or how much of a victim they are or how much fatalism they've accepted...
No one wants to live in putins world
Shit i mean meow
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And even ones that want kids take one look at the economy and their bank accounts, and decide to wait until both look better, because they want to be able to afford the kids a happy childhood. The worst thing for population growth is giving people the ability to choose when, if ever, to get kids, and an environment they don't want to have them in.
Two ways to fix that issue. Which one is used tells a lot.
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Ukraine should send more steriliser over to russia.
news, not every culture needs to stick around forever.
We should be wary of making blanket statements like that. That way fascism lies. The only thing that's horribly wrong with Russian "culture" at the moment is the desire to subjugate Ukraine, and by extension, any desire to do the same to other countries once that's done.
Everyone in Russia who doesn't share that particular world view is keeping their head down - or, as this article implies, refusing to breed with those of that world view. Or else, for reasons related to the fact that those of that world view exist.
Should they rise up and topple the oligarchy? Easier said than done. It takes courage the average person (Russian or otherwise) doesn't have. And Putin is skilled at making people and their families suffer if they step out of line.
All the other problems Russia has exist at least in part in other countries not allied with them. Should those countries also pack up and die?
This isn't Russia apology. I firmly believe they need to quit this needless war, bring their troops home and stay the heck out of Ukraine until trust can be regained. That might take centuries but the first step is an easy one.
Edit: I've jumped too far to reach to a conclusion here. Left for posterity.
So, what you're saying is that everyone who was alive in Germany at the end of WWII should have been murdered?
Look at yourself.
should have been murdered?
where are you getting this? no one said anything of the sort. Saying that toxic cultural demise is a good thing is not equivellent to saying that people should be murdered.
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There's still a problem. You're just not measuring it anymore.
So, no, it's very much not fucking working.
step 2: potential mothers realize their sons would only be meat in the meat grinder
step 3: nobody wants to have children anymore
step 4: be confused??
That's not unique to Russia. Birth rates in developed nations have been plummeting across the board. The only reason the US was escaping it and hanging out around replacement was because of immigration, and, well, I don't know if you've been keeping up with the news lately, but it seems like that's going to change.
There's lots of reasons driving demographic collapse, but I don't think war is one of them. South Korea is usually heralded as the shining example of demographic collapse because their birth rate is the worst by far, and it generally seems to be the case that as economies becomes more "advanced", women have less time and supports to focus on motherhood, and so just choose not to have kids. I put advanced in scare quotes because it seems to me that a truly advanced economy wouldn't footgun itself with rapid demographic collapse. Not to say that the trend shouldn't be towards a smaller population that will tax the Earth's resources less, but the way to get there safely for civilization isn't by falling off a cliff.
I have thought long and hard about having a kid. The only positives are some happy moments, my parents getting a grandbaby, and having someone to help make sure I don't get taken advantage of when I'm old (I believe it is my financial responsibility to plan for myself but I know my brain may decline). Then I think of the negatives. The money, the loss of sleep, the loss of autonomy, the loss of time, it's just all so so much. My life would get substantially worse.
Then I think about adopting someone older than a baby, and it's an interesting idea, I don't feel a need to spread my genes, but it's the same thing. Then I think maybe adopt a teenager, it's not as long of a commitment. But by this point it's such a nasty equation of tradeoffs and I never want a child to be thought of that way. Plus, I really don't think I have the heart or patience for adopting an older child.
So the only real thing I feel like I'm missing is having someone to make sure I'm not a victim of elder abuse. I'll just try to keep getting you get friends and keep them close. I'm 33. My youngest close-ish friend is about 22. If I keep making young people my friends then hopefully if I'm in the nightmare scenario of mental decline and my spouse has passed that one of them can check up on me when we're both old. That seems less shitty than adopting a child for that reason.
Home - Big Brothers Big Sisters of America - Youth Mentoring
Empowering youth to reach their full potential through mentorship.Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
I'm a parent. I'm not going to try and sell you on having a kid; don't do it unless you know you want to. What I'm about to say isn't trying to sell you on parenthood or making apologetics, but just sharing my own personal experience having thought of almost all the same things you've thought and then crossed the bridge anyway. I figure that parenting really isn't about what you get out of it, and you do get stuff out of it- the love, the experience, the ups and downs, someone to depend on and who depends on you. In a lot of ways it's a microcosm of the human social experience in that you much more personally experience the things that make up existing with others in a society. You don't necessarily need kids the same way you don't necessarily need a significant other or a circle of friends, it's just that humans are, by our nature, social creatures, and we're almost always better off with richer social connections in our life than not. Yeah, you definitely do lose stuff; take autonomy, it's kind of similar to how you lose a certain degree of autonomy when you get into a serious long term relationship, only you really shouldn't break up with your kids if they piss you off. If that tradeoff isn't for you, that's cool!
Everybody's different, but my kids have motivated me to get involved in politics (beyond just voting) at the local level and try to start planting trees whose shade I may never get to enjoy. It made me think hard about the kind of world that we're leaving to them, and about what responsibility I have as a parent to do what I can to make that world a better place. I don't expect anything from them; if they move away to live their life, that's fine, I trust them to use their best judgment and live their life how they see fit, and just knowing that they're depending on us to do everything we can for them has really motivated me to think differently about things in ways that I believe are generally positive. In case you're curious about it, you could always try hosting an exchange student. It's about the lowest commitment way to be a parent to someone, especially since they're typically older teenagers. If you hate their guts, you can always ask the host organization that they be placed elsewhere. I've hosted I think eight exchange kids, and in hindsight, I don't regret a single instance, even for the kids we didn't get along with and had to place elsewhere.
I blame Emmeline Pankhurst!
Well, not really.
"Allowing women to work" turned into "expecting women to work" and is now "two people's wages are required to have a roof over your head".
House price and rent caps would be marvellous, but no government is brave enough to shatter the teetering mess of economics that is built on it all. It should never have got to this point, and nobody wants to stop it getting worse. We need to bring the cost of housing down. Build more. Prevent prices rising. Hard caps on rent for basic properties. If not enough basic properties exist in an area, mandate they must be built instead of luxury expensive properties. Bring back council houses.
This might be a good time to pitch looking into joining or starting a local chapter of Strong Towns. They're a local-first advocacy group rooted in the premise that our cities are broken because we've been building them badly for nearly 100 years now. Strong Towns aims to restore cities as places that are built first and foremost for people to live in. As I've gotten deeper into this, it's really shocked me how much of the blame lies nearly exclusively with municipal policy and political inertia (politicians sticking with doing things the established bad way because that's the established way and they'd rather have a bankrupt, unlivable city than risk changing what they know). The good news is that municipal policy is probably the easiest, most accessible level of policy to effect, and it has the most direct and immediate impact on your life and the lives of people around you. Affecting good urban policy to make our cities livable is what Strong Towns is all about.
You might also look at the Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability. They're another local-first group that focuses on all forms of justice for lower-income communities.
Russia has a unique problem, and it is war. Just not the war in Ukraine by itself.
WWII was absolutely devastating to the Soviet Union's population. Tons of "excess females", which means there were so many men killed that women could not find a husband. The baby boom did not happen there; kinda the opposite. This affects both modern Russia and Ukraine.
Every 20 years or so, there is an "echo" of that loss in their population pyramid. It's a drop in ~~birth rates~~ new births from a relative lack of young adults starting families for part of the cycle. The echo reduces with each cycle, of course, but one of them is hitting right now. Putin is now amplifying that echo by having another war with such high losses.
Edit: clarified some wording.
Population will fall to about 132 million in the next two decades
Which means that it already is that low. If you don't count the parts of Ukraine that Russia thinks it owns and the hundreds of thousands of young people who fled the country earlier in the war.
2-3 millions are dead or have fled for what I know.
But a birthrate at 1.5? That's bad news, 0.6 lower than the replacement level (2.1) so every new generation will be 30% smaller!
Dude these numbers smells like Kremlin's ass, you better back them up well if you want me to believe them.
Also why on earth would people go back to Russia? Except like holidays.
BBC estimates between 164,223 to 237,211 killed
bbc.com/news/articles/c5yg4z6v…
Why go back? Family, home,, property...
How Russia suffered record losses in Ukraine in 2024
Last year was the deadliest for Russian forces since the start of the full-scale war with at least 45,287 killed.Olga Ivshina (BBC News)
Oh that's okay then (BTW what a precice number, 164223 to 237211. It is more like 400.000)? The other 800.000 are just crippled invalides nothing to see here, casualties arent going home to work.
Why go back? Family, home,, property
I specifically said they'd only go home on holidays so you couldn't pull the "go home to family", but you still did.
Several Millions of young russians are gone from russia forever, and their demographics will kill the country if the economy doesn't.
80 million habitants at the end of the century. Oil & gas no longer relevant. Good riddance IMO.
FDA will limit Covid vaccines to people over 65 or at high risk of serious illness, leaders say
FDA vaccine framework changes Covid shot recommendations | STAT
FDA leaders said recommending universal vaccination against Covid-19 is out of step with the rest of the world and may no longer be neededLizzy Lawrence (STAT)
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and will require manufacturers to conduct clinical trials to show whether the vaccines are of benefit to healthy younger adults and children.
So...
Any/All data regarding COVID vaccines/vaccinations acquired from 2020-2025(1/2) doesn't count for anything, huh??
Proven safe and effective in the wild is meaningless then, huh???
🤦♀️ 🤡 🖕 🖕
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This is why fascism always eventually fails. Reality doesn't give a shit about your spin and scapegoating, and will happily bring a pandemic roaring back when you do something stupid for the sake of the narrative.
The only question is how many people get hurt while it fails.
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That's funny that's exactly the main demographic still getting COVID vaccines on the regular in the UK, you know, because they have weaker immune systems
Edit: I misread that they were limiting it for them and not to them. Which on reflection probably should have made me read again....
Everyone should be able to get one if they want
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Thank you, kind stranger.
And to you, yours, and us all, I wish a speedy unfuckening
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From the actual commentary ( nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM… ):
Over the past two seasons, uptake of the annual Covid-19 booster has been poor, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Less than 25% of Americans received boosters each year, ranging from less than 10% of children younger than 12 years of age in the 2024–2025 season to 50% of adults over 75 years old.4 Even health care workers remain hesitant, with less than one third participating in the 2023–2024 fall booster program.5 There may even be a ripple effect: public trust in vaccination in general has declined,6 resulting in a reluctance to vaccinate that is affecting even vital immunization programs such as that for measles–mumps–rubella (MMR) vaccination, which has been clearly established as safe and highly effective. In recent years, reduced MMR vaccination rates have been a growing concern and have contributed to serious illness and deaths from measles. Against this context, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeks to provide guidance and foster evidence generation.
Absolutely fucking bullshit spin, trying to redefine "poor" and scapegoat the vaccines themselves for the anti-vaxxers' disinformation.
My insurance company company said I could no longer get shots at the pharmacy (CVS). I talked to my doctor about it and he told me to go to a different pharmacy. My doctor is usually great but this did not help.
So I didn't get any shots last fall. Fuck insurance companies.
While I think this is kinda dumb, there are SO many exceptions it includes almost everyone. I understand they want to generate more data to determine the effectiveness of these vaccines, but this exception list is just pointless. Either open it up to everyone like it was or make the exception list more restrictive if you want to do actual science.
Here is the exception list. Some of these should truly be exceptions, but inactivity? Depression? Granted I’m no doctor but this seems asinine.
Key Underlying Health Conditions Include:
• Chronic Diseases:
• Diabetes (type 1 and type 2)
• Obesity (BMI >30 kg/m² or >95th percentile in children)
• Chronic kidney disease (including those on dialysis)
• Chronic liver diseases (such as cirrhosis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, alcoholic liver disease, autoimmune hepatitis)
• Chronic lung diseases (asthma, COPD, bronchiectasis, interstitial lung disease, pulmonary embolism, pulmonary hypertension, cystic fibrosis)
• Heart conditions (heart failure, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathies, etc.)
• Cancer (including hematologic malignancies)
• Cerebrovascular disease (such as stroke)
• Immunocompromised States:
• HIV infection
• Primary immunodeficiencies
• Use of corticosteroids or other immunosuppressive medications
• Solid organ or blood stem cell transplantation
• Neurologic and Developmental Conditions:
• Dementia, Parkinson’s disease
• Disabilities (including Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, neurodevelopmental disorders, mobility disabilities, and others)
• Mental Health Conditions:
• Mood disorders (including depression)
• Schizophrenia spectrum disorders
• Other Conditions:
• Pregnancy and recent pregnancy
• Smoking (current or former)
• Physical inactivity
• Tuberculosis
And the provider giving the shots will probably make you bring paperwork stating you have whatever condition (to cover their ass), which narrows it down to those with the time and money to get it -- and I doubt insurance will be required to cover it any more, so that's another $200-300.
But that's not even the point, since if the goal is less spreading and mutations, which means the more who get the vax the better, and that means including young and healthy. [narrator: that, of course, is not the goal]
Well, they sure proved the "you can't trust the government when it comes to vaccines" message they were trying to put out during the pandemic.
I guess that's kind of always been the Republican playbook: Complain about something in the government. If it's not true, wait until you're in power and make it true.
What the Comfort Class Doesn’t Get - People with generational wealth control a society that they don’t understand.
... I have one of those wearable devices that monitors my heart rate, sleep quality, activity level, and calories burned. Mine is called an Oura ring, and at the end of the day, it told me what I already knew: I had been “unusually stressed.” When this happens, the device asks you to log the source of your stress. I scrolled through the wide array of options—diarrhea, difficulty concentrating, erectile dysfunction, emergency contraceptives. I could not find “financial issues,” or anything remotely related to money, listed.According to a poll from the American Psychiatric Association, financial issues are the No. 1 cause of anxiety for Americans: 58 percent say they are very or somewhat anxious about money. How, I wondered, was it possible that this had not occurred to a single engineer at Oura?
For all of the racial, gender, and sexual reckonings that America has undergone over the past decade, we have yet to confront the persistent blindness and stigma around class. When people struggle to understand the backlash against elite universities, or the Democrats’ loss of working-class voters, or the fact that more and more Americans are turning away from mainstream media, this is why...
Archive: archive.is/r42Ba
What the Comfort Class Doesn’t Get
People with generational wealth control a society that they don’t understand.Xochitl Gonzalez (The Atlantic)
I had my annual at the VA a while ago, they asked if I was stressed and I said yeah, but that was normal given the circumstances...
We're nearing the point where this shit is the norm, and that's incredibly dangerous for a society and the people living in it.
Crashing out is going to stop being the exception, hell, you could argue all the white 20 somethings that voted for trump are actively crashing out.
They don't understand the problem, let alone capable of finding real solutions.
They just know shits fucked and that fucks with our risk assessment, that's "crashing out". Things no rational person would consider suddenly sounds like valid plans. Because prolonged stress shortens how far in the future we plan.
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The old joke about the French diet: they just drink wine, eat baguettes, and smoke cigarettes, but all Frenchmen seem to live to 100.
Turns out having fairer labor laws and access to healthcare does a great job of prolonging your life!
squints
There is a California lifestyle. Inspired, by that same French paradox
Note that what matters seems to be (at least to me) not so much wealth but stability.
If there is a social safety net that provides for you in cases of need, that reduces the worries a lot.
America is not just suffering from a wealth gap; America has the equivalent of a class apartheid. Our systems—of education, credentialing, hiring, housing, and electing officials—are dominated and managed by members of a “comfort class.” These are people who were born into lives of financial stability. They graduate from college with little to no debt, which enables them to advance in influential but relatively low-wage fields—academia, media, government, or policy work. Many of them rarely interact or engage in a meaningful way with people living in different socioeconomic strata than their own. And their disconnect from the lives of the majority has expanded to such a chasm that their perspective—and authority—may no longer be relevant.
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Wow the Atlantic posting an article about class politics in which the class being questioned isn't the working class
Something very bad is coming
My therapist recently in her visit notes, put in "scare quotes" that my fears of potentially losing my SSDI (I am currently going through a semi regular, every 5-7 years review) are "rational and justfified".
She called me the next day to suggest I try to apply to Medicaid.
Not only am I already on Medicare, which I explained to her, and I have tried to qualify for both simultaneously, and failed multiple times... which I also explained to her.... not only she would know this already if she had any useful experience with clients on Medicare/Medicaid...
She suggested this to me on the literal same day that the Big Beautiful Bill was getting massive media coverage for being set to cut Medicaid by what, 2/3rds of its funding gone?
I don't class my therapist as some kind of oligarchichal technocrat, but uh yeah it would be nice to not be gaslit by my apparently utterly detached from reality therapist, whom I literally have to pay money to see so that Social Security believes I am still disabled.
Wonderful nonsense system we have here.
Personal secretary and adviser to Mexico City's mayor killed in attack
The personal secretary and adviser to Mexico City's mayor are shot dead
The personal secretary and an adviser to Mexico City's mayor were shot dead Tuesday, authorities said, in the worst attack against public officials in the capital in recent years.The Associated Press
Bees face new threats from wars, street lights and microplastics, scientists warn
War zones, microplastics and street lights are among the emerging threats to the bee population, according to scientists.
Bee experts have drawn up a list of the 12 most pressing threats to the pollinator over the next decade, published in a report, Emerging Threats and Opportunities for Conservation of Global Pollinators, by the University of Reading.
Increasing war and conflict around the world is harming bees, the scientists warn. This includes the war in Ukraine, which has forced countries to grow fewer crop types, leaving pollinators without diverse food throughout the season.
The researchers found microplastic particles were contaminating beehives across Europe, with testing from 315 honey bee colonies revealing synthetic materials such as PET plastic in most hives. Artificial light from street lamps has been found to reduce flower visits by nocturnal pollinators by 62%, and air pollution has been found to affect their survival, reproduction and growth.
Bees face new threats from wars, street lights and microplastics, scientists warn
University of Reading report says conflicts including war in Ukraine among 12 most pressing threats to pollinatorHelena Horton (The Guardian)
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Top Democrat Rips Red ‘Taker States’ Getting Subsidized By Blue ‘Donor States’ Like New York: That’s ‘Actually Not Fair’
Top Democrat Rips Red ‘Taker States’ Getting Subsidized By Blue ‘Donor States’ Lik ...
"It's actually not fair that you have many states in this country who subsidize other states. New York subsidizes other states"Alex Griffing (Mediaite)
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Hakeem Jeffries is a large part of the problem.
Like, in general he's part of the problem, but specifically trump being in office; Jeffries was one of the ones hiding how bad Biden was and trying to shove him down America's throats.
And he's desperate for everyone to forget how much he fucked up:
“You interacted with President Biden during those days, those final days he was president of the United States. Did you see, did you sense there was a major deterioration?” Blitzer followed up.“Well, in the conversations that I was able to have on behalf of the House Democratic Caucus in those final days, we simply expressed our perspective as to what would be best for the party at that given moment in time. President Biden subsequently made the decision that he was going to pass the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris. Of course, that was a decision that we supported strongly,” replied Jeffries.
mediaite.com/politics/cnn-anch…
Days before tell all books started dropping, he's still pretending Biden was the right choice up to the second he dropped out.
Neoliberals will never admit their own failings.
CNN Anchors Take Turns Asking Hakeem Jeffries About Biden’s Mental Decline: ‘Why Should Voters ...
CNN anchors Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown took turns asking House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Wednesday how voters can trust Democrats after they insisted President Joe Biden was mentally fit to stay president ahead of his dropping out …Alex Griffing (Mediaite)
Neoliberals will never admit their own failing
What is worse is they can't let anyone else evolve (unless it is towards fascism) either or they start to panic just like Republicans.
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I think the important part was when he gave a half hearted apology in 2020, Hill said it wasn't enough. And then he just still to this fucking day says it was enough and refuses to actually apologize.
Biden has always thought he was the smartest guy in the room, even back in law school when he was plagiarizing everything to barely pass.
That's not a trait we want in a leader
inappropriate sexual absences
I had to look this up.
Inappropriate Sexual Absences: A term referring to the failure of an individual to be present in a context where their participation in romantic or intimate interactions is reasonably expected, resulting in potential emotional distress or misunderstanding among involved parties. Such absences may arise from a variety of circumstances, including but not limited to, willful neglect, avoidance of relational obligations, or the pursuit of extraneous activities that detract from the fulfillment of intimate commitments. This term may encompass both the intentional and unintentional nature of the absence, and its implications may vary based on the established expectations of the relationship in question.
Why would anyone do that?
You don't start rebuilding the neighbors burnt down house while yours is actively burning down.
That just results in none of us having a house...
So we’re not going to be lectured by people who are actually in what has sometimes been referred to as taker states, who actually receive more money every year from the federal government. Than they send in terms of taxpayer dollars as to what is fair and what is right.It’s actually not fair that you have many states in this country who subsidize other states. New York subsidizes other states, and so to provide some measure of relief through the state and local tax deduction, I think is a modest step toward balancing the revenues that come in and the revenues that come out.
The people of New York are fine with continuing to be a donor state, but it is unfair to cap the state and local tax deduction at $10,000. And if my Republican colleagues were really interested in providing relief to middle-class taxpayers that they represent, then they would simply say and make clear that this budget should remain silent on the state and local tax deduction because by doing nothing, the cap disappears effective December 31st of this year.
forbes.com/advisor/taxes/salt-…
It's just this. Not anything to do with how local taxes work.
What Do They Mean By The SALT Tax Deduction?
Are you paying hefty state income taxes or property taxes? Before the passage in 2017 of a major tax law—dubbed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—you may have itemized deductions and gotten a write-off for those payments on your federal income tax return.Janet Berry-Johnson, CPA (Forbes)
That's not how money works.
Putting that aside this is not that far removed from "useless eaters" fascist rhetoric. It's the same shit as Republicans accusing poor people of using up the "taxpayer money of hard working Americans" by using more in public services than they contribute in taxes.
In summary, fuck off with this shit.
The hypocrisy of the Republican position?
That's just a misunderstanding of their position. Their position is the government should spend money on them without taxing them, and shouldn't spend money on anyone else and collect all taxes from everyone else.
Republicans just want to bring slavery back.
They can’t have it both ways imo. If they’re reaping the benefits of it, then they should acknowledge it’s good and should be in place. That’s blatantly not the case though.
I personally would prefer if we continue to support these people since plenty of the people living in those states are not voting against their own self-interest. Imo, caring people living in the deep red or deep blue states should move to more purple districts in purple states to help move the country as a whole to be more caring politically.
I think blue states should also move to implement more safety nets on their own instead of waiting for a blue supermajority federally. If people see how their state and local government can work for them, they’d be more likely to want those policies in their own states. States by that same token should be willing to go into debt to fund long running infrastructure and policies that will be value adds to the state and residents living there.
Elections won by Democrats in the United States: Thousands
Elections won by Socialists in United States: Twelve
Do you think you'll reach those people by understanding their frustrations or by telling them to shut up?
If you're just going to tell them to shut up then I think you're the one who doesn't ever want to win an election
Only strong action on emissions can restore economic stability, UN climate chief says
The climate crisis has raised the price of commodities and exacerbated famine – and only strong action on greenhouse gas emissions can restore economic stability, the UN’s climate chief has said.
Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change, was speaking in Panama, where recent years of drought drove the water to perilous lows that disrupted international trade.
He said: “The same droughts that plague the canal are affecting essential commodities worldwide, reducing harvests, emptying shelves, and pushing people into hunger. Famine is back, and the role of global heating cannot be ignored.”
But he said investors around the world were “ready to hit the go button on huge investments” if they had the right signals from governments.
Only strong action on emissions can restore economic stability, UN climate chief says
Simon Stiell says investors ‘ready to hit the go button’ if they have the right signals from governmentsFiona Harvey (The Guardian)
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Cory Booker Ripped After Voting to Confirm Ivanka’s Father-in-Law
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Because it's not "both sides." There are three sides, here. You've got Republicans, who are universally awful. Then you've got corporatist Democrats, who are also universally awful, although marginally less so. Finally, you have actual Democrats like AOC, who aren't awful in the slightest.
The "both sides" people never differentiate between the second two groups. What we need is more of group #3 and less of groups #1 and #2, but pretending all we have is #1 and #2 is bullshit that doesn't help anyone.
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I'm here for group three
The revolution is basically inevitable now. May take decades before anything meaningful changes for the people, but it's suffering is inevitable.
The dems are complicit, as a youth I was an independent. Bernie got me to register Dem, and I've never felt so betrayed, betrayed by this party constantly. I'm out. Its going to get worse before it gets better, sucks but, here weeeeee ah goooo
His sincerity has been lacking for awhile now. This kind of puts the final nail in. There is no reason in the world that would be okay that he approved this guy, other than he hit the wrong button by mistake.
Booker, who has been touted as a potential 2028 presidential candidate following his mammoth 25-hour speech criticizing Trump, has come under fire for siding with Republicans to confirm a man the president pardoned for crimes including tax evasion and lying to the Federal Election Commission.
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Let me just throw out all at once these idioms about this guy.
All talk and no action
All sizzle and no steak
All foam and no beer
All glitter and no gold
All tail and no cock
All fart and no turd
All broth and no beef
All smoke and no fire
All mask and no measure
All rhyme and no rhythm
All sound and no fury
All squawk and no scratch
All frank and no beans
Stolen from a Google search.
Turning the Executive branch into a corrupt family business again must be unacceptable to every American democrat.
Didn't Booker learn a thing from Trump's inexcusable 1st disaster term & stone-cold Jared's antisocial performance during the Coronavirus pandemic?
vanityfair.com/news/2020/09/ja…
#Trump #CriminalNetwork #Corruption #ObstructionOfUSGovernment #AmericaDeservesBetter #RuleOfLaw #Law #Justice #Democracy #Freedom #USPol #USPolitics #RaiseYourVoice #UnitedInDiversity #StrongerTogether #WeThePeople
“That’s Their Problem”: How Jared Kushner Let the Markets Decide America’s COVID-19 Fate
First-person accounts of a tense meeting at the White House in late March suggest that President Trump’s son-in-law resisted taking federal action to alleviate shortages and help Democratic-led New York.Katherine Eban (Vanity Fair)
He was absolutely shredded! Yoked to the max! Built like a brick shithouse!
Oh, he just ruffled some feathers. Another day in Congress.
Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
The Democrats are complicit
Wow I'm surprised this hasn't been scrubbed yet.
03-04-05 -- Kushner, Charles -- Sentencing -- News ReleasePolitical Contributor and Developer Charles Kushner Sentenced to Maximum 24 Months for Witness Retaliation and Other Crimes
NEWARK - Real estate developer and political contributor Charles Kushner was sentenced today to 24 months in prison for his pleas of guilty to assisting in the filing of false tax returns, retaliating against a cooperating witness and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.
Calling Kushner's crime "disgraceful and reprehensible," U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares sentenced Kushner to the top of the eligible range - 18 to 24 months - under the his plea agreement with the government.
"The court of law was the great equalizer for Mr. Kushner, who had obviously convinced himself that his power, influence and immense wealth put him above the law," Christie said. "We are very pleased that justice was done."
Judge Linares ordered Kushner, 50, of Livingston, to surrender to the federal Bureau of Prisons by May 9 to begin serving his sentence. Judge Linares also fined Kushner $40,000, the maximum amount as determined under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
On Aug. 18, Kushner pleaded guilty to 16 counts of assisting in the filing of false tax returns, one count of retaliating against a cooperating witness and one count of making false statements to the FEC.
Kushner admitted then that, as chairman of Kushner Companies, he assisted in filing false tax returns claiming over $1 million in partnership charitable contributions as office expenses, causing losses to the IRS of between $200,000 and $325,000.
Kushner further admitted at his plea hearing that he devised a scheme to retaliate against a cooperating witness - his sister - and her husband by having a prostitute seduce the husband and covertly filming them having sex. Kushner admitted that he paid a private investigator $25,000 to arrange for the seduction and videotaping of the cooperating witness' husband. Kushner admitted to personally recruiting the prostitute and instructing that the videotape be mailed to the cooperating witness.
Kushner also admitted to making false statements to the Federal Election Commission which allocated campaign contributions to certain individuals who had no knowledge that contributions were being made in their names and had not consented to him making the contributions.
Christie credited Special Agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Joseph Billy, Jr.; and Special Agents of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation section, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Patricia J. Haynes.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott Resnik and Thomas Eicher of the Special Prosecutions Division.
- end -
Defense Counsel:
Benjamin Brafman, Esq. New York, NY
Alfred DeCotiis, Esq. Teaneck, NJ
Jeffrey Smith, Esq. Teaneck, NJ
Representing the people is representing the people.
Representing the interests of the mega corps that is trying to extract labor from that populace while also overcharging for their product is not representing those people that perform the labor and but the product.
This is not complicated
So I understand you likely are against any universal healthcare in our country? Because of jobs?
There's always more healthcare staff needed everywhere, maybe if education and trainings for those jobs wasn't so expensive...
Not every person in New Jersey works for big pharma. There are other folks too, Booker should be representing all of them, not just the ones who pay him off.
They sometimes overlap.
They also often conflict.
You're acting like they are always in lockstep
Republican nepotism.
50 / 51 Republicans voting yes.
44 / 45 Democrats voting no.
"Democrats are bad." "It's the ratchet effect." "They're all against us."
Dems care about us!
They just hate Trump as much as we do.
Reminder that neither Biden nor Kamala said no to Israel. If they aren't enemies, they're at least self-serving cowards. Biden didn't use his immunity to bolster the middle class, he used it on his own family and half-ass some debt forgiveness.
They lost two elections because they ignored wealth inequality and labor unions in favor of virtue signalling and petty culture wars that all failed (woooooke!).
All I see are two enemies fighting it out. Fuck em both. America deserves better.
I get anxiety thinking about thinking about "two sides." It's like alarm bells going off. Us vs them, simple and easy to understand explanation for current event, anything a frustrated or cynical person would generate automatically, etc.
TWO. SIIIIDES.
Money really needs to get out of politics. It's foul how we have to play the game to judge the integrity of decisions.
For the people? Or for the payout?
Obnoxious government
Thank you for your sincere response
I love how you got downvoted for posting a factual number.
Bernie bros in 2025 is a cult, you can’t reason with them or point out their contradictions cause they just downvote you and continue their hypocrisy
Trump DOJ Lawyer Floats ‘Criminal Charges’ for Jill Biden
Trump DOJ Lawyer Floats ‘Criminal Charges’ for Jill Biden
The one-time Fox News contributor has added to the MAGA pile-on against Joe Biden and his family.Leigh Kimmins (The Daily Beast)
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No MoRe LaWfArE nOw ThAt LoRd TrUmP hAs WoN!!
-Dumbfuck projecting-ass manipulative piece of shit Republican "representatives."
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That doesn’t always reform a bully.
If his father had actually loved him and paid attention to him, he might not have been so desperate for attention and adulation.
Still, I wish someone had kicked the shit out of him.
Violence almost always makes people double down about whatever shitty thing they were already doing because now they can mark themselves as a victim even if what they were doing was horrendous. Because society views physical abuse as somehow worse than mental, sexual, spiritual, and financial abuse.
Anyway yeah kick the shit out of this fat loser fuck. I don't give a damn if he's old.
AOC Seen as ‘Face’ of Democratic Party — and It’s Not Even Close: New Poll
AOC Seen as ‘Face’ of Democratic Party — and It’s Not Even Close: New Poll
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is seen as the "face" of the Democratic Party according to new polling.Zachary Leeman (Mediaite)
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There have always been factions in the main parties.
It's almost like 2 political parties is insufficient representing the people.
With state level electoral reform, we can ensure equal access to our electoral process for all political parties willing to run.
::: spoiler Electoral Reform Videos
(What most states use now)
Videos on alternative electoral systems
:::
The democrats will never drop their rabid anti gun stance. They will never stop pursuing full disarmament. Beto gave up the game in texas, he should have pretended to care about people's right to bear arms. But the zealot couldnt contain his gleeful enthusiasm to see the working class disarmed. Times have not changed as we can see through David Hogg's ascension in the party.
Not even a insurrection and blatant disregard for other civil liberties the democracts currently hold dear will shake them from this losing policy.
We live in the shitter multiverse. No one will protect us but ourselves. Not the justice system, not our constitution, not even the democratic party itself.
If you can't see this now, given current and past events, there is no need to type any further.
SocialistRA.org
The people might love her, but the party hates her.
Not even after she voted to prevent the rail unions from striking? I guess she just was never gonna be a part of the big club no matter what ideals she compromised on.
Political parties can create their own political realities by leading the electorate
Manufacturing consent? What ever happened to representative democracy?
It certainly feels that way. I simply have no faith in the DNC, let alone the likes of the GOP. I am of the opinion that our political system simply lacks the flexibility needed to reflect the interests of ordinary people. Just look at how medical benefits, SNAP, NOAA, our sciences, federal workers, due process, and so much more are being deconstructed. All for the sake of a small group of people to see their numbers go up.
It would be good to be wrong about this feeling. Unfortunately, hope is rarely a good companion of prudence.
What ever happened to representative democracy?
Political leaders don't just represent the electorate, they lead it. Political reality has always been shaped by parties and leaders, even if sometimes those leaders aren't electoral and so we pretend they aren't political leaders.
For example, MLK Jr was a political leader even if he wasn't elected. He created political realities through organizing and activism and propaganda and sloganeering and speeches. He didn't just wait around for the Overton Window to move, he moved it.
Is that manufacturing consent?
Either we use politics to shape political reality or we allow the right wing to do it for us. Fascists will manufacture consent for our extermination if we let them.
~~The party~~ The people that vote in the primaries for the party that claims to be “for the people” keeps putting centrists in charge.
Most people don't vote in the Democratic primaries. Did you?
I think it’s very likely the dems will slowly (depending on AOCs popularity, faster) shift more progressive.
"First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season."
Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."
- MLK jr
And that likely takes time, but also consider generational shift. I think it's very likely the dems will slowly (depending on AOCs popularity, faster) shift more progressive. Let's hope the democratic system isn't entirely degraded till then, and Trump get's less popular as well.
I will kill Poe's law or die trying. I hate the idea that we share so little context as a culture that every joke needs a signpost. I fight it my way, but the real war will only be won when global society has enough shared culture for us to make each other laugh without honking a bike horn and giving an exaggerated full-body wink.
Edit: I know I'm being grandiose, you don't gotta point it out
You make foolish assumptions about me that could be easily disproved by a glance at my history. Democrats do not get to sell out their base just because republicans are more evil. Turns out that the democrats are incapable of dealing with the situation. So before we can work on republicans we have to bring democrats to heel.
Complaining about republicans being stupid or evil is a waste of time because at this point i don’t see any republicans voter being swayed by logic or empathy, or even their own interest. Its a waste of my breath complaining that water is wet.
Its too bad the Democratic party is so full of shit that trying to clean house has put you on the defensive. And you reflexively blame abandoned voters for the parties failings. But the party is too incompetent and an active obstacle in dealing with trump
You do you. Though the platform was never ‘less genocide’ the platform was ‘an unwavering support of our ally in Israel’. It was an assumption that trump would be more genocidal, due to his inherent evil. But as far as i can see, trump so far has not escalated that situation any faster than the previous trajectory.
Seems to me that getting the democrats under control, and answering to progressive voters is the better long term play. Maybe they would actually then run on a no genocide platform. You can’t say ’don’t let perfect be the enemy of good’ when we are not even at neutral yet let alone good.
It takes years to get a new party off the ground and in a meaningful position to take federal offices at any significant rate.
Excuse me, but how the fuck do you know that? You say that like 3rd parties being created and taking federal offices happens all the time. We haven't had a serious 3rd party, let alone one that takes federal office, for well over 100 years. Don't pretend you know what it takes, because we haven't even fucking tried. It's uncharted water!
You can also choose "no party" as a voter. Idk how that affects voting in primaries, depending on the state you live in... but it's an option as well
Edit: missed the part about "going into politics", which kinda changes the dynamic of my statement... but still, it's an option for voters that aren't going into politics
That is not a genocide. I mean its evil and we should not stand for it. But lets not be hyperbolic over the term genocide. When we are talking about the genocide in Gaza, we are not being hyperbolic.
When looking over more then just the situation in Gaza, trump is undoubtedly worse then Biden. The issue is that choosing the lesser of two evils has brought us to this point, the only way to pass progressive policies is to use the leverage voters have to force democrats to comply. That means if democrats refuse to accept progressive terms, that republicans will consolidate power, and that would be bad. However, in such a scenario, ours and democrat loss would have been guaranteed regardless of a vocal call to task. The only power the progressive voter has is to leverage their vote against the threat the republicans face, and if you capitulate, then best case scenario is the can gets kicked down the road and the democrats become more right wing.
She's a woman and a POC to boot, so....it's rather self-evident that anything she does is going to be worse.
I think even for the most idiotic of maga, they realized that trying to trash her for dancing was not really getting much traction. Especially among cishet men with eyes? Just sayin'. XD
I think the same thing for trashing her for things like being working class - they were trying that on for a while and that seems to backfire, too. Same goes for some big mic drop attempt they try when they call her "Sandy" in some kind of qnut point about how she had a nickname during high school and/or university? ZOMG! /clutches pearls You are saying she went by the name of Sandy, danced, and worked as a bartender? QED, then, I guess. 🤣
I was going to point out how most of them embrace donnie, who never seems to legitimately laugh at something normal. He does that weird grimace and thumbs-up for photo ops. He does that weird grimace after telling "jokes" that are all about punching down on someone or some group.
Well, TBF, I guess he does do that weird double-dick jerkoff dance that he does to his favorite gay anthem. Maybe he's really trying to tell the world something there? All that talk about being hawt for his own daughter was some kind of weird compensation?
I still laugh to myself when I think of them legitimately hoping they had the bombshell of the century when the "mic drop" of her dancing from college days was released.
I think most people just saw that and thought it was completely normal and it just highlighted how fucking weird and awful people like Tucker were. I think many normies saw it and thought that the qnuts were just sending this to everyone and effectively saying - "holy shit, do you see how HAWT this woman is?" - because whatever message they were attempting by sending this to everyone and trying to make it go viral for some other reason was probably lost on all but the most uptight puritans in the xtian Taliban.
I think normal Americans probably thought something along the lines of - wow, she's incredibly articulate, delivers a message really well, is obviously well-versed in issues that matter to her constituency, AND is also incredibly attractive, knows how to dance and obviously was having fun making this video? What's the problem these weirdo qnuts have with that?
BTW, we need to go back to a concerted campaign of calling conservatives and Republicans WEIRD. Because they fucking are.
You say that like 3rd parties being created and taking federal offices happens all the time.
They aren't, and that's kinda the point. People grossly underestimate how hard it is to do this (pretending it's some great unknown and not something that's been tried and failed literally dozens of times), and what game theory regarding FPTP elections means for the rise of one.
We haven’t had a serious 3rd party, let alone one that takes federal office, for well over 100 years.
We had a few elected to Congress in the last hundred years, even if you don't count ones who changed party at some point. Mostly Farmer-Labor Party between the late 20s and end of WW2. We also had a Conservative Party of New York candidate in Congress in the 70s. And a Libertarian if you do count people who convert while in office. Hell, Trump once tried to run for POTUS as a third party candidate in 2000 for the Reform Party, but failed miserably and didn't win a single state during the primaries.
Don’t pretend you know what it takes, because we haven’t even fucking tried. It’s uncharted water!
How many parties do you think we have that are large enough they operate in multiple states and have ballot access right now? The answer is a dozen. All of which have hopes of eventually getting someone in federal office, you know aside from the Dems and GOP who already do that. Of those twelve, 9 ran a presidential candidate in 2024. You've probably only even heard of 4 of those at most (Harris, Trump, Stein and maybe Chase Oliver [Libertarian]).
What it takes at a minimum is getting a majority of a state or House district on board with you and willing to vote for you rather than a major party, knowing that if enough other people don't buy in it's going to let the candidate farthest from them win instead. If you're pushing for POTUS, then it means getting about 78M people on board in the same way, distributed across most of the country.
Third parties running for federal office isn't untested water, it's just extremely difficult to succeed at. Again, that's why the Tea Party operated as a reform movement within the GOP rather than being an actual third party - it let them hijack the political machinery of the party from within, instead of having to fight against it in a battle that would at most likely cause both to lose if it did anything at all. Literally, had the Tea Party been an actual third party then instead of gaining massive influence they would have at their most powerful caused Democrats to win by splitting the GOP vote.
She's just the most recent candidate. The most recent candidates, and most recent Presidents and Vice Presidents are almost always in these sorts of lists, especially in the weeks and months following an election, before the next campaign starts.
Joe Biden was a favorite in these sorts of polls in 2015/16, despite saying he wouldn't run, because he was just VP.
Like I said, you’re full of criticism of the democratic Party and can divert absolutely any topic whatsoever to be the fault of the Democrats, and trying to get you to come up with any genuine specific criticism of the republicans will fail.
Your criticisms of the Democrats are specific and carry real hatred but your criticisms of the republicans are vague and largely dismissed by you yourself as a waste of time. I've seen it time and time again. You're no different to the other "leftists" and "tankies" even if you like to think you're different. You claim to want left but speak act to keep the right in power, just like Trump wants you to.
You didn’t even try to engage in good faith. But sure—if you want to know why i despise the Republican Party, here’s a start:
Their entire economic platform is a scam—top-down Reaganomics designed to funnel wealth upward under the myth of trickle-down prosperity. They prop up oligarchs while gutting the working class, not out of ignorance, but intent.
Their ‘traditional values’ are a mask for racism, sexism, and authoritarianism. They treat society like a zero-sum game, blocking policies that would uplift everyone—sometimes even when those policies would increase profit—because empowering others threatens their grip on control.
They wield suffering as policy—undermining healthcare, crushing unions, sabotaging public education, and demonizing the poor to maintain wage slavery. They distort religion into a loyalty tool and wrap cruelty in sanctimony.
They claim to champion the myth of the ‘free market’ while enabling monopolies, bailing out legacy industries, and crushing innovation. They undermine democracy, rewrite history, borrow recklessly against the future, and sell out public institutions for short-term gain.
And internationally? They escalate conflict and entrench U.S. hegemony through violence, turning soldiers into pawns, all while claiming patriotism.
There is more i am sure. There is not a single good thing i can think of that would be worth giving to them in principle. Fuck the republicans and those who vote for them
marxists.org/archive/james-clr…
One year after Hitler, Stalin and Otto Bauer were still hoping to come to terms with Fascism. Being what they were it is clear that before they had had actual experience of Hitler, the idea of the German workers fighting Fascism would not have crossed their minds. “After Hitler, our turn,” is the concentrated expression of bureaucratic inertia, cowardice, ignorance and short-sightedness, Stalin could not say openly what he meant. He had to dress it up in revolutionary words, to promise the deluded German workers that the revolution would come after Hitler had come to power.
We already tried accelerationism in the 1920s, genius.
Do you even know what accelerationism means?
Not in opposite land. Have fun voting no preference on genocide, enabler.
She lost, because (IMO) she basically gave a big middle finger to:
- Leftists
- Progressives
- Arab-Americans
And, because she decided these people were great people:
- Dick Cheney
- Bill Kristol
- Georgie Bush
- Mike Pence
You know? The war criminals and war criminal enablers.
The lesson Dems need to learn is that no matter how much they shift right, they're not winning GOP voters. All they are doing is shedding voters on the left. The whole "Vote for us because other team is bad" rings hollow when you're doing everything the other team is doing, too.
I think you missed the entire point of my statement, which, amusingly, proves my point.
The older generations get pissy about being called the "Democrat party" rather than "Democratic party," which, to be fair, is the proper name. But it's really a stupid thing to get worked up over.
The fact that you didn't even realize that I we talking about such a silly little thing is reasonably good evidence that it is, in fact, irrelevant to modern democrats.
Again you make assumptions about me you have no right to. I voted Harris under great duress. At the time i figured that the harm would get worse under her but maybe there would be enough time to get democrats in line.
It was not the loss of the election that had me see different. It was what the democrats did afterward that has shown me exactly what needs to be done.
Harm mitigation only works as a concept with a plan to stop the harm, or if there is no other choice. And that is not the case. You and yours said that the election was not the time to deal with the reckoning the Democratic Party earned? Turns out that time has passed. The next best time is right now.
So you're saying you want to pressure the democrats into being a good party by making them lose, because you saw what a bad party they were when they lost?
5/7 perfect plan
Democrats don’t need my help losing—they’re perfectly capable of doing that by ignoring their base and enabling atrocities on their own. And let’s be clear: the goal isn’t to make them lose. The goal is to force actual progressive change, something your “vote blue no matter who” mantra has consistently failed to deliver.
You can’t have it both ways. You don’t get to blame progressive voters for genocide enabled by Democrats while simultaneously insisting those voters are powerless and should shut up. Either our votes matter—and we deserve to make demands—or they don’t, and your argument falls apart.
What your position really defends is endless compromise, endless capitulation, and a party that knows it can take progressive votes for granted while continuing to slide right. You’re not opposing accelerationism—you’re endorsing it, just with a blue sticker slapped on it.
So let’s stop pretending you care about progressive ideals. If you did, you wouldn’t be spending this much time trying to silence the only people still fighting for them.
If you took a 9mm and shot yourself in the head right now, that would matter. You would be dead.
And it wouldn't make the Democrats into leftists. You would not be fighting for progressivism. Sure, your actions would matter. They'd just suck. You'd accomplish exactly the same amount with that action as you would from not voting. Nothing good, plenty bad.
There's this thing you should know about that's way better than shooting yourself in the head. It's called a communist revolution. Put the useless morons in charge so the revolution is easy.
Or shoot yourself in the head and hope it makes AOC win the primary. I dunno I'm not the boss of you. I can't stop you from shooting yourself in the head if you think it's better than voting Democrat.
Trump allows New York offshore wind project after apparent gas pipeline compromise with state
Trump allows New York offshore wind project after apparent gas pipeline compromise with state
Empire Wind 1 would have been the first offshore wind project to deliver electricity directly to New York City.Spencer Kimball (CNBC)
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Trump is playing 9 dimensional Go. He will give the liberals cancer and kill all of their birds, bankrupting them by decimating their property values.
factcheck.org/2019/04/trumps-f…
Trump's Faulty Wind Power Claims - FactCheck.org
During an April 2 speech to the National Republican Congressional Committee, President Donald Trump once again attacked wind power, falsely claiming that noise from turbines causes cancer and that turbines sink property values by 75 percent.Jessica McDonald (FactCheck.org)
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Peertube Picks Firefox release
cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/29785220
PeerTube Picks is now available on the official Firefox Add-ons page!
Firefox users no longer have to worry about losing their data when the browser closes:The name PeerTube Picks was chosen through collaboration with the PeerTube Lemmy community.
This add-on provides video recommendations using a cosine similarity algorithm based on videos you've watched and liked. It aims to predict which videos you're likely to engage with—either by watching for longer periods or hitting the like button.Updates:
The PeerTube Picks icon now appears next to the search bar on any PeerTube page. Clicking it opens a list of recommended videos, ranked by engagement and relevance.A new Options page allows you to:
-Download or upload your video watch history
-Delete your watch history (recommended occasionally to refresh your recommendations)
I’m open to suggestions and contributions—feel free to share ideas or improvements!
PeerTube Picks – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US)
Download PeerTube Picks for Firefox. Tracks watch history videos like on any peertube instances and provides recommendations for future peertube videoaddons.mozilla.org
Advances of Hydrogel Therapy in Periodontal Regeneration—A Materials Perspective Review
Andi's WriteupRecent research shows significant advances in using hydrogels to restore lost teeth and dental tissue through several approaches:
Injectable Hydrogels for Tooth Pulp Regeneration
- Researchers at NJIT developed a first-of-its-kind injectable hydrogel that triggers the body to regenerate lost tooth pulp, funded by a $3 million NIH grant[^3]
- The material recruits dental pulp stem cells to rebuild tissue without requiring live cells, making it viable for off-the-shelf use[^3]
- Early animal trials showed formation of soft tissue, blood vessels, and nerve bundles within a month[^3]Enamel Regeneration
- Scientists in China created a gel containing mineral clusters that can stimulate crystal regrowth to restore eroded tooth enamel[^18]
- Tel Aviv University researchers developed a water-based hydrogel that encourages bone regrowth, potentially transforming dental implant procedures[^5]
- USC researchers engineered peptide-based hydrogels that can rebuild tooth enamel structure and restore early cavity damage[^23]Periodontal Tissue Engineering
- Hydrogels are being used as scaffolds to regenerate periodontal ligament, alveolar bone, and cementum[^2]
- Key components include:
- Natural polymers like chitosan, sodium alginate, and hyaluronic acid
- Synthetic polymers such as polyethylene glycol and gelatin methacryloyl
- Bioactive substances including antibiotics, growth factors, and stem cells[^2]Future Development
- Japanese researchers aim to begin human trials for tooth regeneration within 6 years[^20]
- Current challenges include:
- Creating sufficient blood vasculature
- Controlling bacterial growth
- Improving mechanical properties
- Achieving complete periodontal regeneration[^2][^2]: NIH - Advances of Hydrogel Therapy in Periodontal Regeneration
[^3]: DrBicuspid - $3M project aims to regenerate lost tooth pulp
[^5]: NoCamels - New Gel Could Transform Dental Implants
[^18]: ABC News - Science has found a way to regrow tooth enamel
[^20]: Popular Mechanics - Humans Could Grow Entirely New Teeth in Just a Few Years
[^23]: USC News - Researcher makes strides in gel to regrow tooth enamel
Researcher makes strides in gel to regrow tooth enamel
Around the globe, dental cavities are the leading source of disability and pain: they affect 35 percent of the world’s population, with an economic impact in the hundreds of billions of dollars.https://hscnews.usc.edu/author/melissa#author (HSC News)
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Trump claims he wants to end the Ukraine war. His call with Putin did little to push peace.
Despite denouncing the bloodshed on the ground, Trump seemed to be allowing his Russian counterpart to drag out the conflict.
Donald Trump was optimistic that he could facilitate a ceasefire with one phone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Instead, Trump seems to have bought the dictator even more time to continue his brutal war in Ukraine.
While Trump has repeatedly said that only he could produce a breakthrough via one-on-one talks with Putin, he has failed thus far to sway the Russian leader to make any substantive change.
In an op-ed Monday for The Washington Post, Max Boot — a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations — said that for all of Trump’s boasts of being a master dealmaker “in the face of Russian intransigence, he keeps violating the prime rule of successful negotiating: You must apply leverage.”
“Putin is playing him for a fool, and Trump doesn’t even seem to realize it,” Boot added.
Trump Claims He Wants To End The Ukraine War. His Call With Putin Did Little To Push Peace.
Despite denouncing the bloodshed on the ground, the U.S. president seemed to be allowing his Russian counterpart to drag out the conflict.Marita Vlachou (HuffPost)
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This ought to be clear to everybody by now.
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Trump's Nobel Nonsense - FactCheck.org
President Trump has repeatedly conflated winning a Nobel Peace Prize with being nominated for one, and has wrongly faulted the media for ignoring his nomination after making former President Obama’s nomination in 2009 “the biggest story I’ve ever see…Robert Farley (FactCheck.org)
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LupusBlackfur
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andros_rex
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in reply to floofloof • • •What OP said...
I was referencing the veracity only of the quote.
TomMasz
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