Politics

House Hypocrisy

I vote to rebuke the House of Representatives for refusing to pass the border law that THEY WROTE, just because Trump wanted to have the border as an issue during the election!

“Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said the resolution was ‘fake and fraudulent’ and that Harris was never appointed ‘border czar,’ as the measure stated.

“Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, who is the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Harris ‘was narrowly tasked with developing agreements that could help bring government and private sector investments to those countries that are sending migrants to the United States.'” That’s a far cry from being a “border czar.”

Source: “House Republicans vote to rebuke Kamala Harris over administration’s handling of border policy” https://apnews.com/article/border-kamala-harris-congress-1825185b8bb82144d726d09f2d255643

Source: “Senate Republicans block bipartisan border package, then scramble to find support for Ukraine aid” https://apnews.com/article/congress-ukraine-aid-border-security-386dcc54b29a5491f8bd87b727a284f8

Source: “Broken Congress: It can’t fix the border, fund allies or impeach Mayorkas as GOP revolts” https://apnews.com/article/congress-fails-mayorkas-impeachment-border-bill-3bb2de710406cd5c5314e855c75efbef

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2024-08-02
Politics / Society

BBC Weekly Newsletter about US Elections

The BBC has a weekly newsletter focusing on the U.S. elections and how they are perceived and affected by the rest of the world.

“Each week, they’ll send you takeaways of what you really need to know from the election race and help you see the bigger global picture.

“They will also suggest articles for essential further reading to help you feel well-informed.

“As you probably know, American politics can be serious, amusing and downright absurd, and sometimes all three at once, so they’ll try to cover the lighter aspects too.”

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68093155

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2024-08-02
Politics / Society

Large US-Russia Prisoner Swap Concluded

It’s always a mixed bag when we agree to prisoner exchanges. Especially when we know that Russia (why is it always Russia?) made up accusations of espionage that were unfounded and untrue.

Well, at least these Americans (and Germans) are home again.

“The 24 people — some prominent, some not — included a collection of journalists and political dissidents, suspected spies, a computer hacker and a fraudster. Even a man convicted of murder.

“Russia released 16 people, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan. Both were facing long prison sentences after being convicted in Russia’s heavily politicized legal system of espionage charges that the U.S. government called baseless.

“Also freed by Moscow was Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen convicted in July of spreading false information about the Russian military — accusations her family and employer have rejected.”

Source: https://apnews.com/article/russia-gershkovich-whelan-prisoner-swap-354df585ad321ecdbea4c0f2c557f0aa

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2024-08-02
Philosophy / Technology

An Interview with ChatGPT

Okay, this is very interesting!

You probably know that ChatGPT isn’t just limited to typing and reading, but it also has a voice mode. It is conversational, where you can talk to it and it talks back to you (rather than putting text on a screen).

This video is, well, an interview with ChatGPT, and Alex O’Connor, the host of this YouTube channel, tries to get ChatGPT to admit that it is conscious, mostly based on the words that it uses.

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2024-08-01
Science / Society

Scientists Renaming Plants that Use Racist Terms

Libraries aren’t the only group that is recognizing the racist or derogatory roots of some of their terms.

“An international group of researchers has voted to modify the scientific names of more than 200 plant species whose names carry a derogatory word.”

“The community of plant, algae, and fungi researchers has acknowledged that some of the names are problematic, demeaning, or even racist and took a series of steps to start tackling these issues.”

Source: https://www.npr.org/2024/07/31/g-s1-14441/renaming-racist-derogatory-plant-names-science-society-inclusion

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2024-08-01
Politics / Society

70+ Election Deniers in Key Roles in County Election Boards

There are many true believers working as county election officials who have denied that Biden won in 2020 and are poised to refrain from certifying the elections this fall.

“At least 70 pro–Donald Trump election denialists are working as election officials in key swing states, according to a report published Monday from Rolling Stone and the right-wing extremism research newsletter American Doom.

“Officials who had promoted election conspiracy theories were identified in at least 16 counties in six swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

“These individuals were identified through scouring coverage of refusals to certify 2020 election results and other denialist behavior, as well as sifting through the social media profiles of election officials in these states.

“Across these swing states, Trump loyalists stand ready to disrupt the results of democratically held elections—at least 22 of them have already refused or delayed certification in recent years, indicating likely chaos in November.”

Source: https://newrepublic.com/post/184340/trump-election-deniers-power-swing-states

Interview with the author: https://youtu.be/cojKYPWoUyE?si=ApUDdMHsGu9M6KvN

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2024-08-01
Information Literacy / Politics

Russia Still Spreading Disinformation about 2024 Election

“The Kremlin is turning to unwitting Americans and commercial public relations firms in Russia to spread disinformation about the U.S. presidential race, top intelligence officials said Monday, detailing the latest efforts by America’s adversaries to shape public opinion ahead of the 2024 election.

“Groups linked to the Kremlin are increasingly using private public relations firms or unwitting social media users to spread their false claims as a way to hide their tracks.

“The warning comes after a tumultuous few weeks in U.S. politics that have forced Russia, Iran and China to revise some of the details of their propaganda playbook. What hasn’t changed, intelligence officials said, is the determination of these nations to seed the internet with false and incendiary claims about American democracy to undermine faith in the election.

“The American public should know that content that they read online — especially on social media — could be foreign propaganda, even if it appears to be coming from fellow Americans or originating in the United States,” said an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under rules set by the office of the director.”

Source: https://apnews.com/article/russia-trump-biden-harris-china-election-disinformation-54d7e44de370f016e87ab7df33fd11c8

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2024-07-30
Economy / Society

Barcelona Ends Short-Term Rentals

When housing becomes less available in a tourism-driven city, decisions have to be made. Short-term rentals (like Airbnb) are harder to justify when local housing is scarce or increasingly expensive. And hotels are still available.

Barcelona, Spain, is dealing with this situation. “Barcelona City Hall announced last month that it would not renew any tourist apartment licenses after they expire in 2028. Deputy Mayor Laia Bonet said the city wants tourism, which accounts for 15% of the local economy, but must help residents cope with skyrocketing rents and real estate prices.”

Source: https://apnews.com/article/barcelona-spain-tourist-apartments-154cf293078aa14c299e3539d90e9350

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2024-07-28
Language / Politics / Society

First Name or Last Name?

I’ve been noticing that people tend to refer to Kamala Harris as “Kamala” but use other politicians’ last names. It made me wonder if this was a kind of discrimination, not showing the same respect for her as for the men, or maybe it was an attempt to make her seem more relatable or approachable.

In video clips I’ve seen, people in the crowd behind her when she’s giving a speech have signs that say KAMALA and the crowd has chanted her first name. If they’re printing up signs, that’s pretty intentional.

Below is a link to an interview on NPR this week that discusses this very phenomenon. Here are a couple quotes from the interview:

“Strategically, politicians often try to seem relatable, which a first name can help achieve. And at the same time, they try to present themselves as leadership figures of authority, which a last name can help achieve.”

“I do actually think it is a sign of disrespect in an environment where you have multiple candidates, and you’re referring to one by her first name and then all of the men by their last name. You are making her the exception and not giving her that very small piece of respect that we give people in positions of power.”

“I do think that this election provides an environment where this might be more positive than negative for Harris. And that’s because we’re looking at an election where almost all the major issues are domestic policy issues. These are things that voters might actually think women are going to be better at handling.”

Source: https://www.npr.org/2024/07/24/nx-s1-5049773/powerful-women-tend-to-be-called-by-their-first-name-its-not-an-accident

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2024-07-27