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Post by mhbruin on Jun 23, 2023 8:15:48 GMT -8
A book just fell on my head. I've only got myshelf to blame.
It's 1984 All Over Again
“‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’”
Winston introduces the theory behind the work he does at the Ministry of Truth. The Party understands that by rewriting the events of the past and controlling the narrative of history, they can maintain their position of authority.
“Suddenly there sprang into his mind, ready-made as it were, the image of a certain Comrade Ogilvy, who had recently died in battle, in heroic circumstances. . . . It was true that there was no such person as Comrade Ogilvy, but a few lines of print and a couple of faked photographs would soon bring him into existence.”
While working at the Ministry of Truth, Winston invents the backstory of a fallen soldier to cover up the mention of a person who had been declared an unperson. This moment shows both the cynicism Winston holds toward the work he does and also how thoroughly he has internalized Party ideology, because he is able to imagine the kind of person the Party would most approve of.
Beware the Savage Door of 1984
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) hit the "Do Nothing Congress" with accusations that they are more focused on their own political fantasies than doing the work they're paid by taxpayers to do.
Fox reporter Chad Pergram tweeted that Republican House Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) have introduced resolutions to "formally expunge records of House impeachments for [Donald] Trump in 2019 and 2021."
Their goal is to say that it would be "as if such Articles of Impeachment had never passed the full House of Representatives."
Unfortunately, those records are already at the National Archives, and the video clips of the hearings and evidence are all over the internet. It makes it a lot more difficult to make something as if it never happened when the information is still available.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 23, 2023 8:17:07 GMT -8
Cash For Crash
IN A BLISTERING attack on her Senate colleague last week, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., warned independent Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema that a proposal to reduce the number of required in-flight training hours for pilots would result in “blood on your hands.” The attack from Duckworth was prompted by an amendment supported by Sinema and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., that would allow pilots to meet training requirements by substituting hours spent in a flight simulator for actual flight time.
For Duckworth, who lost both of her legs to a rocket attack on the Black Hawk helicopter she was piloting in 2004 during the Iraq War, the issue is personal. “Now is not the time to put corporate profits ahead of the lives of our constituents who may want to board a commercial flight in the future,” Duckworth said. “A vote to reduce a 1,500-hour rule for pilot training will mean blood on your hands when an inevitable accident occurs as a result of an inadequately trained flight crew.”
The eleventh-hour amendment in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation comes as the September 30 deadline to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Act looms.
Sinema’s campaign received an influx of cash over the last year from the airline industry. The donations would be crucial to the senator as she strikes out as a newly christened independent during a challenging reelection bid. Without her Democratic Party affiliation, Sinema heads into the 2024 race without the political or financial backing of her former party.
“Any change to the rule must have sign off from the pilots or we don’t trust it. It’s that simple.”
Sinema’s amendment is being opposed by pilot and flight attendant unions. “Any change to the rule must have sign off from the pilots or we don’t trust it,” Sara Nelson — president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, representing 50,000 flight attendants — told The Intercept. “It’s that simple.”
According to campaign finance data compiled by OpenSecrets, Sinema raised over $150,000 from the airline industry over the past two election cycles, with the majority of that money received over the last two years. Sinema’s donors include the largest air carrier trade group Airlines for America, in addition to regional carriers like Alaska Airlines. Sinema’s office did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 23, 2023 8:19:08 GMT -8
Freedom's Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose
Republican hardliners in the House Freedom Caucus reportedly don't think Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is enough of a right-wing ideologue for their standards.
Politico reports that two Freedom Caucus members recently pushed for the group to start purging members who are inactive or who are too cozy with Republican leadership -- and that includes Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has been accused by some on the right of cozying up to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) at the expense of her right-wing purity.
Although House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-PA) denied that Greene had become a target for a purge, the publication also writes that "the fact that he had to illustrates how the group continues to struggle with its identity since former President Donald Trump left office, not to mention the acrimony caused in the lead-up to the handshake deals McCarthy made to win conservative votes during January’s grueling speakership battle."
Sources also tell Politico that some Freedom Caucus members no longer speak as freely as they used to during meetings for fears that other members will snitch on them to McCarthy, who has been feuding with the group ever since he cut a bipartisan deal with President Joe Biden to raise the debt ceiling.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 23, 2023 8:22:05 GMT -8
The QOP is Creating Jobs
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had hoped to elevate Mexico’s detrimental impact on the U.S. economy this month by airlifting Venezuelan migrants seeking asylum near the Texas border to the “havens” of Sacramento and Los Angeles.
It turns out that the far right of his own Republican Party was thirsty for another fight.
Outraged that Bud Light had partnered with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney, conservative luminaries such as Kid Rock launched a boycott just as DeSantis was making his California move.
Sales of Bud Light sank. Sales of a rival from Mexico, Model Especial, rose.
The Mexican economy is now producing the most popular beer in the United States.
Politically, never before have the issues of immigration, LGBTQ+ rights and beer been linked in a national political drama. Gastronomically, never in modern times has America’s favorite beer been from Mexico.
Jobs in Mexico
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 23, 2023 8:25:46 GMT -8
I Think He is a Racist, Authotarian Thug. Am I Wrong?
Narendra Modi Is Not Who America Thinks He Is
But here is what Americans need to know about Mr. Modi’s India. Armed with a sharp-edged doctrine of Hindu nationalism, Mr. Modi has presided over the nation’s broadest assault on democracy, civil society and minority rights in at least 40 years. He has delivered prosperity and national pride to some, and authoritarianism and repression of many others that should disturb us all.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 23, 2023 8:26:44 GMT -8
Every Time He Gets Indicted, He Gets a Bump ... In News Coverage Claiming He Got a Bump in the Polls
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 23, 2023 8:27:43 GMT -8
It's 1861 All Over Again
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 23, 2023 8:28:56 GMT -8
If You Can Imagine This, You Can Imagine the QOP
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 23, 2023 8:34:56 GMT -8
I Wonder How This Would Look on LSD
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 23, 2023 8:36:41 GMT -8
Amazon Isn't #1. Maybe the Problems is they Only Use Almost Slave Labor.
US lawmakers are warning of an "extremely high risk" that products sold on the Chinese fast-fashion online shopping site Temu have been made with forced labour.
The claims arise from an ongoing investigation into compliance with a 2021 US law that bars the import of goods made using forced Uyghur labour.
Nike, Adidas and Shein are also being investigated.
Temu said it was not responsible for third-party sellers using its platform.
It did not respond to a request for comment from the BBC.
The fast-fashion online retailer, which is backed by Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo, has exploded in popularity since launching in the US less than a year ago.
Known for its rock bottom prices, the online seller which has more than 80,000 suppliers has regularly been one of the most downloaded names in Apple's app store.
According to Bloomberg, its sales in the US last month exceeded that of rival Shein, which became the world's largest online-only retailer in 2021.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 23, 2023 8:42:33 GMT -8
Chonhar Bridge is Falling Down, Falling Down, Falling Down
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 23, 2023 8:45:10 GMT -8
Does Tony Bennett Sing About Jacksonville?
Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis slams San Francisco constantly, most recently as a “once great” city that has “really collapsed because of leftist policies”. ”No wonder why we’ve had so many people move from San Francisco to Florida over the last few years,” he declared.
That may play well with Twitter’s Elon Must or on Fox News and other rightist media, or (bafflingly) in the Atlantic Magazine, New York Times, and other herd-journalism outlets where due diligence fact-checking the endless anti-San-Francisco tirade has been nil. But not for anyone who checks even basic facts.
No one has criticized San Francisco governance more over the last 30 years than the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. Republican ex-Vice President Mike Pence even cited a CJCJ report on San Francisco’s racially-biased policing in his debate against Democrat Kamala Harris.
But we do believe that arguments require solid documentation. Let’s compare the supposed Sin City of San Francisco with the country’s biggest Republican city, Jacksonville, which has had a Republican mayor for the last eight years* and 26 of the last 30 years, and happens to be in DeSantis’s solidly Republican-governed, Republican-legislatured state of Florida. Surely, Jacksonville must be the shining paradise of what DeSantis means by “sanity.” No blaming liberals allowed.
Compared to supposedly terrorized San Franciscans, Centers for Disease Control and police agency figures show that Jacksonville residents are 5% more likely to be victimized by violent crime, 10% more likely to die from fentanyl overdose, 28% more likely to from violent causes, 45% more likely to die as infants or in childbirth, 59% more likely to commit suicide – and here it gets really ugly – 2.6 times more likely to be murdered, 3.3 times more likely to die from COVID-19, and 3.8 times more likely to die by guns.
How about the economic measures conservatives worship? Jacksonville: per-capita income of $37,461, poverty rate of 15.4%, downtown office vacancy rate of 26.1%. San Francisco: per-capita income of $63,394, poverty rate of 10.3%, downtown office vacancy rate of 24%. Jacksonvillians are just half as likely to have bachelor’s degrees or higher and three times more likely to lack health insurance compared to San Franciscans. However, San Francisco’s cost of living is 2.6 times higher than Jacksonville’s, primarily because San Francisco was greatly overpopulated and overbuilt by the early-2000s now-receding tech boom.
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