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About a month ago I got a letter from the IRS saying they'd reviewed my 2023 return and were sending me an additional refund in 7-10 days. I thought that was great, obviously, but haven't received the check.

Not having a functional government kinda sucks.

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Best one I’ve heard 🤣

#Republicans are comparing #Trump to #Jesus Christ.

Fair enough.

Nail him up. If he comes back in 3 days, I'll admit I was wrong.

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One frustrating aspect of trying to write about all the incredibly reckless and risky actions taken by this administration with govt data is that by the time you're done writing, half the stuff in your story is outdated already, because they've reversed themselves, or they've been reversed. Or, and this is usually the most frequent cause: Because they've gone and done something even more colossally stupid, cruel and/or unwise.

I have not missed this aspect of reporting on the Trump administration at all. But it is absolutely true that their flood-the-zone-with-stupid approach really can become something like a mental ddos on journalists. And ofc that's intentional.

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It's been truly sickening to read the news today: Trump calls Zelensky a "dictator" who took US money to go to war, making it clear as day that the US president sides with Russia in this conflict. Zelensky says the president lives in a circle of disinformation. That is plain to see, even for Trump's supporters, who live in and help cultivate that same bubble.

Meanwhile, Russian officials are offering American companies the chance to make billions by coming back to Russia. And wouldn't you know it? The White House is open to this idea. Nevermind that just two years ago Russia appropriated a good portion of the brands for the Fortune 100, and then took over their stores and sold them to Friends of Putiny.

nytimes.com/2025/02/19/world/e…

I am speechless.

"As far as Mr. Trump is concerned, Russia is not responsible for the war that has devastated its neighbor. Instead, he suggests that Ukraine is to blame for Russia’s invasion of it. To listen to Mr. Trump talk with reporters on Tuesday about the conflict was to hear a version of reality that would be unrecognizable on the ground in Ukraine and certainly would never have been heard from any other American president of either party.

In Mr. Trump’s telling, Ukrainian leaders were at fault for the war for not agreeing to surrender territory and therefore, he suggested, they do not deserve a seat at the table for the peace talks that he has just initiated with Mr. Putin. “You should have never started it,” Mr. Trump said, referring to Ukrainian leaders who, in fact, did not start it. “You could have made a deal.”

nytimes.com/2025/02/18/us/poli…

#USPolitcs #Trump #Ukraine #FreeArticle

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Imagine if we could liquidate and distribute Elon Musk’s assets…

3-year study finds MacKenzie Scott’s $19 billion in charitable giving has been ‘transformational’ for nonprofits fortune.com/2025/02/18/study-c…

#Philanthropy #MacKenzieScott #ElonMusk #DeportElonMusk

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Bill Gates warns of millions of deaths if Trump and Musk don’t reinstate axed foreign aid funding
fortune.com/2025/02/18/bill-ga…

#USAid #StopTrump #StopMusk #USPol

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You know why we Germans are so pedantic about data protection? Someone around 90 years ago went through all records available, selected people with certain criteria, with the help of IBM, and then killed them all.

We don't want to be on any list.

And now the US Gov and Musk are trying to get access to all data they have about every person and put them into a big fat DB and run AI over it.

I am afraid what they will do with that.

This entry was edited (10 months ago)
Unknown parent

@HistoPol @leobm @SaanichGuy @fenkt @MrLaCave
When she was in her teen, she followed neo fascists organizations but now no. She simply can't. She avoided 'fascism' carefully since a long time. She even addressed fascism as 'evil'.
The fascist party is banned from italian politics and it's a formal crime as casted in the 1948 constitution.
She's far right. Ultra conservative. But in the very moment she would say the words 'I'm fascist' or pay homage to Mussolini, she would be charged.
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If you want to know what "DEI firing" leads to, look at the amazing economic powerhouse that is Afghanistan under the Taliban since 2022!

Afghanistan's version of "DEI firing" was directed against women in public life.

It was motivated by religious bigotry (like Trump's anti-DEI bullshit) and it made everything worse, including the economy.
hachyderm.io/@stevel/114021787…

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Want “life advice” for “unstructured time”

Sensitive content

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in reply to myrmepropagandist

Want “life advice” for “unstructured time”

Sensitive content

in reply to myrmepropagandist

Want “life advice” for “unstructured time”

Sensitive content

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In walking limbs, the range of motion and control decreases as you move away from the body. In limbs made for manipulation things are less consistent. The human shoulder is a lot like the coxa in ants, it allows a wide range of movements in multiple dimensions. The elbow only allows one dimension of motion.

Ants have many more joints after that but they are like a stiff chain, no fine control. However, ants can flex their claws and expand and retract their foot pads.

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in reply to myrmepropagandist

Ants use their front two legs differently from the back legs. They may use these limbs to dig or hold objects in place when manipulating them with their mandibles. The coxa of the front leg is often longer while all of the other segments are shorter. Ants have a comb on their front legs which they use for grooming—

I don’t think the front legs are used for manipulation in enough ways to have that be their primary purpose but there is a distinction that makes them more like “arms”

in reply to myrmepropagandist

from what I know, humans are rather unusual among mammals in the flexibility of our shoulder joints; dogs, horses, cattle, deer, etc, don't have nearly as much flexibility. Mainly it's aboreal (and some scansorial) mammals that have as much shoulder flexibility as humans. (And also bats. And I don't know about aquatic mammals.) The same is true of wrist and ankle rotation.

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in reply to myrmepropagandist

I think I need to mention that many ants dig just like dogs ... using their front limbs to fling sand or loose soil between their back legs. It's very frantic, but also effective. I have some videos of Dorymyrmex digging this way. When mammals dig this way is it a stereotyped action, or somehow learned? What about with ants?

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Dominic Lawson in The Sunday Times says the tide is turning on net zero. Trump has axed renewable energy subsidies, pulled out of the Paris climate agreement and “declared he will do everything to maximise hydrocarbon output”. China has increased wind and solar capacity last year, but its oil and gas output also hit a new peak and coal plant construction surged. BP announced it has stopped spending on new renewables, a massive U-turn on its 2020 policy. But our UK politicians remain unmoved.

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Sec State Rubio pays tribute to Holocaust victims during visit to Yad Vashem.

VPOTUS Vance meets with AfD leaders, who deny and minimize Holocaust history and rail against those who highlight Germany’s obligations and duty to remember.

POTUS floats ethnic cleansing for Gaza and forced annexation of new territories.

We are governed by a clique that pretends to respect human rights AND pretends not to pretend.

The free world will rightly turn their backs on this collapsed democracy.

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Say goodbye to the Rose Garden at Trump’s White House
dailykos.com/story/2025/2/18/2…

#SlovenianHooker #USPol

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One guy posted a panicked rant about losing his USDA job at 9 PM on Valentine’s Day after 22 years of service. He still loves Trump but desperately wants his job back.

“I voted for you, Sir, three times, and I still support you.”

Stop begging, dingus. It’s pathetic.

thegodpodcast.com/p/trump-supp…

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Like banning access to cancer information websites because some AI bot detected the word "breast" and put it in the p0rn category.
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We aren’t just defending the right to read anymore. We’re defending… *checks notes* facts. Great. We’re now defending facts. They’re rewriting history before our eyes and they’re conveniently leaving out anything that makes white men look bad, like slavery. We all need to have a talk with ourselves and figure out how far we are each willing to go to preserve the truth.

clarksvillenow.com/local/books…

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The ad that the Washington Post refused to run.

If you don't have the balls to be a newspaper owner, don't.

#JeffBezos #WillLewis #WashingtonPost #WaPo #Journalism #FreePress #BoycottAmazon #BoycottWholeFoods #EatTheBillionaires #USPol

in reply to Democracy Matters

Obviously Jeff Bezos never really understood the responsibilities & duties of the free press as an essential part of a democratically governed society.
And possibly arising conflicts of interests with his other businesses dependent on contracts with politically changing administrations.

#FreePress #UnfreePress #WaPo #JeffBezos #Cowardice #Cluelessness #Corruption #CivilCourage #Law #Justice #Freedom #Democracy #USPol #USPolitics

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It wasn’t just a few people—it was the entire arena, sending a message loud and clear: America has lost the respect of the world.

thegodpodcast.com/p/canadians-…

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🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️
The #Trump administration has pressured Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions on the self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, a champion of the US president who is facing criminal charges in Bucharest — Financial Times
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My latest 'Field Notes' are out, with some of the places my adventures in sign painting have taken me recently on the world wide web.

bl.ag/fieldnotes/field-notes-f…

#FieldNotes #SignPainting #SignPainters #Lettering

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Hope so.


With the Trump tariffs planned for this Spring we can already see a slow down in the sale of American made goods.

Companies like Coca Cola, McDonalds, Starbucks and AirBNB are also seeing a slow down. In the next few weeks, tourism is expected to decline as the rest of the world vacation elsewhere.

#tariffs #economy #trump #musk #MAGA #gop #LeavingMAGA #canada #mexico #china #tourism

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With the Trump tariffs planned for this Spring we can already see a slow down in the sale of American made goods.

Companies like Coca Cola, McDonalds, Starbucks and AirBNB are also seeing a slow down. In the next few weeks, tourism is expected to decline as the rest of the world vacation elsewhere.

#tariffs #economy #trump #musk #MAGA #gop #LeavingMAGA #canada #mexico #china #tourism

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Pretty morning but the wind overnight was fierce. Took down this white pine across several driveways.

Still windy — not safe for running in the woods.

Be careful, wherever you are.

#photography #photo #foto #fotografie #fotografia #running #nature #trees #morning #winter #sunshine

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Morning Brew says US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent requested that Ukraine give the US about 50% of the ownership rights to its deposits of precious minerals, which are key ingredients in the manufacturing of hi-tech products.Trump reportedly framed the deal to reimburse the US for its financial support following Russia’s invasion in 2022.
Zelensky did not sign. A mineral deal could still materialise in some form. Zelensky left the door open for more negotiations.

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Elon Musk’s DOGE wants access to the tax information of every American, and Trump plans to give it to him
fortune.com/2025/02/17/elon-mu…

#StopTrumpNow #TrumpDidThis #RepublicansDidThis #RepublicansOwnThis #GOPKakistocracy #GOPWeirdos #NoRepublicansEverAgain #USPol

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