Week 29

The Lever: "How Republicans Rejected A Texas Flood Warning System.. Lawmakers spent years rejecting Kerr County’s demands for a disaster warning system."

TASS: "Pakistani PM asks Putin to help resolve conflict with India"

TASS: "Trump hopeful Gaza ceasefire deal can be 'straightened out' within a week"

AUKUS was a stupid deal..

The Guardian: "Pentagon launches review of US-UK-Australia Aukus security alliance.. Future of $240bn defense pact in doubt as Trump administration reviews it to see if it aligns with ‘America first’ agenda"

Trump says once (on self-driving cars) "we will not allow those things on American roads". Notice the word American roads, which supposedly gives the opposition a nationalist (rightist) character. But, the car is American, its producer is American, its software is American. The issue is already within national boundaries. The faux right-wing characterization falls flat on its face.

I remember some in MAGA were against self-driving cars bcz it would steal jobs from the working class. So.. you are against a business interest?

Politico: "How the GOP Regulars Won Over Donald Trump.. Much has been made of Trump’s lock-step mastery of Congress, but House and Senate leaders still set the boundaries... Projecting American force against the country’s traditional adversaries in concert with U.S. allies and signing a tax bill that nearly could have been written by the Wall Street Journal editorial page, Trump demonstrated that the GOP still defaults to a muscular abroad and business-friendly at home posture."

MAGA is in the wrong party. They try to package economic left with nationalism (it sounds right-wing), but doesn't always work. The ideology is internally inconsistent.

DJT wanted to tax the rich but the Rep congress clearly nixed the idea

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MAGA has economic left elements in it. The official left needs to take them back.

Two types of people, who otherwise could like it, bash on this movie. One is Zaslaw haters who killed Woke at WB. Other is neocon, anti-government pro-rich billionaire bootlicker section of the right-wing because billionaires were made to look bad in this movie (via Luthor). Both groups will be crushed at the box office and they will be sorry.

Cornsweat version is more relatable and still strong male. I saw him in the recent Twister movie, he played it butch... That's when I knew he could pull off the new role.

Cavill depicted a warrior-like SM version. Snyder likes that stuff anyway (director of 300). He likes the epic, stoic, brooding.. Cavill is like from south Britain right, a Catholic, basically a paisan a Mediterrenian Superman, we consider him as one of us... He did a Greek warrior movie before too.. This new guy is more apple pie, it fit the hopeful, sunny new tone.

"@elithebearded@fed.qaz.red

.. 'Stereotype' is a printer's term. Moveable type is expensive. You don't want to keep it tied up longer than needed, so you make a mould from the set type and cast a plate from that.

The 'stereotype' is the mould.

A 'cliché' is what the French called plate made from that mould, it's onomatopoeia from the sound of removing the plate from the mould.

'Boilerplate' is widely repeated text from the round stereotype castings of newspaper columns ready to throw on a drum press."

u.boxofficemojo("Superman")

Out[1]: 
{'Domestic Opening': '$122,000,000',
 'Domestic': '$122,000,000',
 'International': '$95,000,000',
 'Worldwide Total': '$217,000,000'}

I am looking forward for more movies from this universe.

Gunn's Supes was good. This character's problem was mostly being unrelatable. Gunn made him relatable, the hero is beaten down a lot but gets up, continues.. To stress the point Gunn even made SM give a "I am relatable" speech ("I am human", "just like you"!). There was spectacle, the film provided sufficient grandiosity in its action, scenery to entice more asses on more seats, likely triggering word-of-mouth.

Levant24: Ongoing negotiations between the Syrian government and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have hit a roadblock, with officials and sources close to the talks blaming the impasse on the SDF’s unwillingness to compromise on key issues outlined in the March 10 agreement.

Despite active mediation by US Special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, and the participation of European observers, including France, the latest round of discussions concluded without major breakthroughs. According to sources speaking to Levant 24, the government reiterated its commitment to national unity and the integration of all local institutions and military forces under a centralized Syrian state, while rejecting demands for decentralization or federalism.

A One-Sided Stalemate

The SDF, continues to insist on preserving its military structure and advancing its model of decentralized governance in northeastern Syria. Damascus views these positions as incompatible with Syrian sovereignty and the provisions of the agreement signed in March between President Ahmad al-Shara and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi.

Netanya is a stooge of the private complex. He does their bidding, creates "demand" for their products, in return he is greeted as a champ in Washington even though he has innocent people's blood in his hands.

NYT: "We found that at key stages in the war, Netanyahu’s decisions extended the fighting in Gaza longer than even Israel’s senior military leadership deemed necessary. This was partly a result of Netanyahu’s refusal — years before Oct. 7 — to resign when charged with corruption, a decision that lost him the support of Israel’s moderates and even parts of the Israeli right. In the years since his trial, still ongoing, began in 2020, he instead built a fragile majority in Israel’s Parliament by forging alliances with far-right parties. It kept him in power, but it tied his fate to their extremist positions, both before the war and after it began.

Under political pressure from those coalition allies, Netanyahu slowed down cease-fire negotiations at crucial moments, missing windows in which Hamas was less opposed to a deal. He avoided planning for a postwar power transition, making it harder to direct the war toward an endgame. He pressed ahead with the war in April and July 2024, even as top generals told him that there was no further military advantage to continuing. When momentum toward a cease-fire seemed to grow, Netanyahu ascribed sudden significance to military objectives that he previously seemed less interested in pursuing, such as the capture of the southern city Rafah and later the occupation of the Gaza-Egypt border. And when an extended cease-fire was finally forged in January, he broke the truce in March in part to keep his coalition intact."

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Dessler: "Texas flood was a warning about climate change... The physics is straightforward: For every degree Celsius our planet warms, the atmosphere holds about 7% more water vapor. When a storm occurs in our warmed world, the air converging into the storm carries more moisture, leading to more intense rain events. In fact, “more intense rainfall” is one of the oldest predicted consequences of climate change and has since been confirmed in observational datasets."

They feed you toxic corporate food, then sell you corporate toys to profit from the resulting condition.

"Barbie launches doll with type 1 diabetes in a bid for ‘inclusivity and representation’.. Mattel launches Barbie doll with type 1 diabetes to promote inclusivity and representation for children with the condition."

"@Natasha_Jay@tech.lgbt

Why do we say 'slept like a baby'? Babies wake up every two hours crying.

I want to sleep like my cat. 14 hours, no responsibilities, zero regrets."

Iron Heart is ok... entertaining. A. Ramos, Thorne were cast well. The show is properly diverse, not annoyingly Woke.

Saw Thunderbolts - not a good movie, that means reviews were misleading (rotten).

United Nations: "This report investigates the corporate machinery sustaining Israel’s settler-colonial project of displacement and replacement of the Palestinians in the occupied territory. While political leaders and governments shirk their obligations, far too many corporate entities have profited from Israel’s economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and now, genocide. The complicity exposed by this report is just the tip of the iceberg; ending it will not happen without holding the private sector accountable, including its executives."

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#Sudan 06/01 - 07/10

Not much going on, RSF lost a little more.. Except.. what's with that new little RSF area in the North?

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