Odds and Ends — 5 December 2024

A no-confidence vote in the French parliament on Wednesday has triggered the collapse of the government, plunging the country into political chaos and stoking anxiety about the euro zone’s second biggest economy.
Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s administration becomes the shortest-serving government in the modern French republic and the first in six decades to be toppled by a no-confidence vote. Although the motion was put forward by a leftwing alliance, the swing votes of Marine Le Pen and her far-right lawmakers, wielding unprecedented influence, were key to its passage.
The trouble is, there’s no obvious cast of characters who could form a stable government.

https://twitter.com/Angry_Staffer/status/1864200410707214725

Move along folks; nothing to see here: German ministry cannot confirm reports on Baltic Sea incident with Russia

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1864307701951484386

America’s nightmare is two feral parties

Had Kamala Harris won the U.S. election last month — and it was close, remember, despite the tone of the coverage since then — would Donald Trump have conceded defeat within 24 brisk hours? Would Republicans in Congress be preparing to certify the result in the new year? Would the party’s voters accept her as the legitimate president when asked in polls? On all three counts, there is enough doubt that posing the questions doesn’t seem exotic.
Without quite acknowledging it, American politics has arrived at an understanding. One side can ignore the rules of the game — to the point of challenging election outcomes without proof of fraud — and the other can’t, or at least doesn’t. In the language of the street, but also of game theory, the Democratic party is the sucker. If it were one of the two detainees in the prisoner’s dilemma, it would confess to a crime, the accomplice wouldn’t, and jail would beckon for the former. The prisoner at least has the excuse of ignorance. Democrats are aware of being diddled.
This isn’t tenable. The ultimate risk to the American republic is that Democrats give up their unilateral observance of basic norms. The system can survive, just about, one of the two main parties going feral. It can’t survive both.

https://twitter.com/OliviaTroye/status/1864379358246207944

Understanding the Roots of Far-Right Politics

Richard Seymour, author of Disaster Nationalism, argues that the roots of far-right politics lie not just in economics but in people's feelings about the world.

https://twitter.com/AmericanMuck/status/1864433096147239160

We can probably assume that this will be overturned in January: Biden bars new ‘forever chemicals’ from expedited approval

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1864340755352862961

Americans Have Little Sympathy for Murdered Health Insurance Exec

Across social media, the response to the killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO was contemptuous of the industry he represented

https://twitter.com/stealthygeek/status/1864053894793310294

Biden White House Is Discussing Preemptive Pardons for Those in Trump’s Crosshairs

https://twitter.com/traecrowder/status/1864413687928508428

Texas judge blocks anti-money laundering law's enforcement nationwide

https://twitter.com/BohuslavskaKate/status/1864423527492760021

Putin Decides That Stalin’s Victims Were Guilty After All

Authorities in Moscow once exonerated people who were tortured, imprisoned, and killed during the Soviet era. The current president wants to undo that.
…his government is methodically reviving criminal charges against thousands of previously exonerated victims of the Soviet regime. “Who controls the past, controls the future,” George Orwell wrote in 1984. “Who controls the present, controls the past.” Putin’s historical revisionism has become an indispensable feature of his regime. And as long as he controls the present, his war on memory will only broaden and deepen.

https://twitter.com/AmoneyResists/status/1864073297777852521

Serendipity:

https://twitter.com/LuckyTed417/status/1864120436771967225

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3 comments

@shanibeer 72

about 1 month ago

... Give the Indians in South Dakota Mountain Rushmore and a truck full of dynamite and tell them to go nuts ...

Great riff all the way through.

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@preparedwombat 77

about 1 month ago

It would probably take a lot more than one truck. I’ve been there and unless you’ve gotten up close, it’s hard to grasp the scale of it.

I’m not sure how much dynamite the Lakota have used so far on the much larger Crazy Horse Memorial, but after years of working on it, they seem to have only scratched the surface of the blasting that will be needed.

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@shanibeer 72

about 1 month ago

Ah shame. I enjoyed the idea, though.

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