onthedarkside

Can you remember when Republicans still believed in the free market? It was sometime before Donald Trump started routine attacks on the “globalists” of Goldman Sachs and the leaders of large U.S. corporations; before Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used tax policy to attack the Walt Disney Co. because it dared to disagree with his “don’t say gay” legislation; before congressional Republicans harassed social media companies and book publishers over alleged “censorship” of their views; before they threatened Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Major League Baseball over their support for voting rights; before they vowed to use federal resources to retaliate against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for backing a few Democrats; before Republican governors enacted laws overriding private employers’ coronavirus vaccination policies; and before GOP-led states moved to disrupt interstate commerce to block abortion access and morning-after pills. This week brought the latest evidence that the former party of laissez-faire capitalism has reimagined itself in the image of a Soviet State Planning Committee. READ MORE https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/12/esg-house-republicans-james-comer-capitalism/ No paywall archive link

A troll post removed More off topic posts on Biden removed Another reminder this is not a thread about the Ukraine war.

The link supplied has all the details. Trump claimed the US had supplied $171 billion “so far” The facts are that the US has supplied $36.9 billion so far. Trump also claimed that US stock piles were now depleted because of being sent to Ukraine. Not true. However as stated earlier this is not a thread on the Ukraine war.

Berlin is keen to expand its support to Ukraine as the government in Kyiv prepares for an anticipated counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion of the country. The German government has approved a new €2.7 billion package of weapons for Ukraine, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters on Saturday. The package, first reported by German outlet Spiegel, is Berlin’s largest arms delivery to Ukraine since the beginning of the war in February 2022. “We all wish for a speedy end to this terrible and illegal war,” Pistorius said. “Unfortunately, this is not yet foreseeable.” READ MORE https://www.politico.eu/article/urkaine-war-germany-new-arms-package

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ORLANDO, Fla. — An English Language Arts teacher at Lake Nona Middle School left their job after the school opened multiple investigations after complaints about presentations made by students in class on Wednesday. The parent who sent the video said their student had the same assignment, which was to give a presentation about a topic of their choice. Jose Diaz, who is of Mexican heritage, said his son was also in the class and that several students made inappropriate presentations on topics like “Why I don’t like Black people” and “Why I don’t like Mexican people.” Diaz said he was the third parent to complain to administrators on Thursday. https://www.wftv.com/news/local/lake-nona-middle-school-teacher-resigns-after-offensive-student-presentation/2GARQGQABREIVG56KVPKMXYTWQ/ Video Report: https://www.haystack.tv/v/lake-nona-middle-school-teacher-resigns-offensive-student-presentation

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Elon Musk has hired former NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino as the next Twitter CEO. "I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter," Musk, the current Twitter CEO, tweeted Friday. "@LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology. Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app." READ MORE https://finance.yahoo.com/musk-names-nbcuniversals-linda-yaccarino-twitter-ceo-162404429.html

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UPDATE: Ukraine claims gains in Bakhmut after Russia denials Ukraine says it has recaptured ground in Bakhmut, a rare advance after months of grinding Russian gains in the eastern city. Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said Ukrainian forces advanced two kilometres (1.2 miles) in a week. The claims signal a momentum shift in Bakhmut - but more widely, there is no clear evidence of the much-anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65567143

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DALLAS — Students at schools across North Texas staged walkouts against gun violence. About 100 students at Bishop Dunne Catholic School in Dallas were among those who walked out. The teens walked outside to the football field. They locked arms and silently marched for nearly a half hour. The demonstration was organized by students. However, it was an act of civic engagements some administrators supported. READ MORE https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/texas-school-walkouts-gun-violence-amid-allen-outlet-mall-shooting/287-ceef268e-0f07-4653-8135-b2e2685298ef

House Republicans have been promising to expose President Joe Biden’s supposedly criminal business dealings with foreign entities for months. But the biggest takeaway from Oversight Committee Chair James Comer’s (R-Ky.) much-hyped press conference on Wednesday revealing the GOP’s “findings” was just the opposite — they don’t have the goods. What Republicans presented on “judgment day” was a memo outlining more than $10 million in payments received by members of the Biden family from foreign businesses between 2015-2017. But the findings lacked a crucial detail — concrete evidence linking Biden to the dealings of his family members. READ MORE https://news.yahoo.com/don-t-actually-facts-even-233436141.html

Hopefully, the U.S.’s response to the next outbreak will be more streamlined, given the experience the country now has. The public is now more educated about how their behaviors can control the spread of a virus, through high-quality masking, regular testing, and isolation when symptomatic. And legislators have seen firsthand how funding for vaccines and treatments can pay off. The job ahead is to ingrain those expectations and behaviors into the nation’s health care system by directing funding toward continued innovation in treatments; tracking potential new health threats through systems like monitoring wastewater; and building a response network of people, innovation, and supplies nimble enough to detect new infectious threats and respond to them quickly. READ MORE https://time.com/6279138/covid-19-public-health-emergency-end/ no paywall archive link

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Officials in Southwest Louisiana have charged a 58-year-old man in connection with the shooting of a group of juveniles who were playing hide-and-seek, one of whom was injured. The incident happened early Sunday in the small town of Starks, Louisiana, near the Texas state line. Authorities say that a group of juveniles “were playing hide and seek in the area and were hiding on the neighbor’s property,” when David V. Doyle fired his weapon. READ MORE https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/09/us/louisiana-hide-and-seek-shooting/index.html

Its a welcome addition to Ukraine's abilities to strike deep within occupied territory but the versions that have been sent to Ukraine do not have that range. There's a couple of topics on the delivery of Storm Shadow already running in the new Ukraine - Russia war sub category. https://aseannow.com/forum/428-the-war-in-ukraine/