https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-walks-back-prices-down_n_675af8f3e4b04606476ba6cd

Huh. Who knew?

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/12/the-demise-of-the-robocall-king

«As is so often the case, though, the real scandal here is what was perfectly legal:

“In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment barred states from setting any limits on a charity fund-raiser’s fees.” [NY Times]»

«Brynn stood back up straight and walked right toward our destination.

“Always afraid, never a coward,” I mumbled to myself. My blood started racing. I stood up, tightened all the straps on my pack, and followed.»

This needs to be my motto.

“The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion” by Margaret Killjoy.

Well, that’s just horseshit.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/11/politics/north-carolina-legislature-overrides-veto/index.html

«Under the bill, the incoming Democratic governor, Josh Stein, would be stripped of appointments to key state boards and control of the State Board of Elections will be transferred to the state auditor, a Republican. The legislation also shifts power away from the incoming lieutenant governor, attorney general and superintendent of public instruction, all Democrats.

The bill was introduced after last month’s elections, when Democrats broke the GOP’s legislative supermajority. Republicans will lose their ability to override gubernatorial vetoes after the new legislature is seated in January.»

Supposedly, for Hurricane Helene relief. 135 pages, of which 12 were devoted to moving money from one account to another, and the rest devoted to transferring power from Democrats to Republicans.

https://cornerstone.ghost.io/essentials-december-9-2024/

«Let’s be clear. Big Journalism never stopped doing stenography for the most prolific bullshitter in American political history. As the “exclusive” NBC interview showed, it’s still journalistic business as usual. Media malpractice is still the norm.»

“Stenography.” 🙂

«Bethge is shocked at the idea of committing murder and tries to talk Bonhoeffer out of it. He reminds Bonhoeffer that he once said Christians must defeat their enemies with the power of love. “That was before Hitler,” Bonhoeffer glowers. Bethge, despondent, asks, “Will God forgive us if we do this?” Bonhoeffer shouts him down: “Will he forgive us if we don’t?!”

The line gets Bonhoeffer’s thinking about the conspiracy exactly backwards. He was tortured by his decision to violate God’s clear and inviolable commandment not to kill. Everyone, without exception, is beloved of God, and killing is, in every situation, wrong. At the same time, it would be wrong to sit idly by as millions were murdered. No matter what he chose, whether he joined the conspiracy or not, he would be guilty. He had to act, he wrote, “in the sphere of relativity, completely shrouded in the twilight that the historical situation casts upon good and evil.” He joined the plot, but he refused to see his decision as morally justifiable. “Here the law is being broken, violated,” he deplored. It might be true that “the commandment is broken out of dire necessity,” but to say he broke the commandment of necessity is still to say he broke the commandment. Rather than pretend this was some positive moral good, Bonhoeffer instead threw himself at God’s feet and begged forgiveness for the sin he could not but commit. The movie has none of this squishy moral agony.»

https://www.christiancentury.org/features/new-bonhoeffer-movie-isn-t-just-bad-it-s-dangerous

NC peeps…

https://actionnetwork.org/events/moral-monday-stop-the-legislative-coup-coverup?source=direct_link&

«Different programs have their own exotica—JAXA has candidates fold a thousand origami cranes over the course of a week to show they can maintain high standards while doing monotonous tasks. Russian candidates are dropped out of an airplane and made to solve puzzles tied to their wrists before the parachute opens.»

*A City on Mars: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?* by Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith

😳

https://theconnector.substack.com/p/news-the-post-24-democratic-tech

«If the voter who gets phonebanked or has their door knocked on today has no way to ever reach that person again and have a conversation, that is not organizing, it’s telemarketing.»

«”We’re over-reliant on analytics and not on the emotional or narrative elements of politics.”»

I guess I’ll believe it when I see it.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/khamenei-iran-syria/680920/

«It is a persistent folly of progressive thought to believe that wars do not achieve meaningful political consequences.»

Oh, Eliot Cohen, arrogant Counselor of the United States Department of State under George W. Bush, not all of us have forgotten you. I see you have not changed your spots.