Bad Hombre on X - "Democrats: Trump wants to take away IVF!
Trump: signs executive order mandating insurance companies cover IVF.
Democrats: *bombs fertility clinic*"
Erin Cruz π΄☠️ on X - "On May 15, a day before the IVF clinic bombing, an account believed to be Guy Edward Bartkus (alias: IndictEvolution) posted detailed plans describing the chemical method he’d use. h/t @planet_nerf π https://t.co/CqzbhsVaQ3 π https://t.co/91bCQzI3Cs https://t.co/tUIrZlbiFX"
Andy Ngo on X - "All the FBI and state resources being spent on investigating Jan. 6 and the far-right online while the pro-abortion suicide bomber planned his attack completely in the open on social media."
Naturally, left wingers were pretending he was a right ring MAGA extremist Trump supporter
Suspect in Palm Springs fertility clinic bombing left ‘anti-pro-life’ writings - "A 25-year-old man the FBI believes was responsible for an explosion that ripped through a Southern California fertility clinic left behind “anti-pro-life” writings before carrying out an attack investigators called terrorism, authorities said Sunday. Guy Edward Bartkus of Twentynine Palms, California, was identified by the FBI as the suspect in the apparent car bomb detonation Saturday that damaged the clinic in the upscale city of Palm Springs in the desert east of Los Angeles. His writings seemed to indicate anti-natalist views, which hold that people should not continue to procreate, authorities said... Investigators said Barktus died in the blast, which a senior FBI official called possibly the “largest bombing scene that we’ve had in Southern California.”... Bartkus attempted to livestream the explosion and left behind writings that communicated “nihilistic ideations” that were still being examined to determine his state of mind, said Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office. U.S. Attorney Bilal “Bill” Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in the area, called the message “anti-pro-life.”"
Left wingers immediately blamed anti abortion people and MAGA, of course
Meme - Tina K. @TheEsteemedFox: "It's 1989 and Northrop Frye hates "the twentieth-century attraction for these antiseptic-sounding words beginning with de-" in literary criticism like 'deconstruction' and 'demythologizing'. He jokes that "that's just original sin" but this shit really was the English dept's Fall"
"Bultmann decided to talk about demythologizing the Bible, which is like removing the skin and bones from the body. I don't understand the twentieth century attraction for these antiseptic sounding words beginning with 'de'. I don't know why Bultmann speaks of demythologizing the Bible when he means remythologizing it. And I don't understand in literary criticism why Derrida speaks of deconstruction when what he means is reconstruction. But that's just original sin."
Happy 14 year anniversary to "A Golden Crown"! : r/HouseOfTheDragon - "While Harry Lloyd and Emilia Clarke are very conventionally attractive, their acting and styling really made them stand out and seem otherwordly compared to the other characters. You really got a sense that you were looking at a distinct kind of people. Yes, you can say it was easier because they were the only Targaryens, but still. And even on GoT, as the styling got progressively worst Daenerys herself lost that aura. Obviously not a Targaryen, but to me the best example of this decline was in Myrcella's styling. The first actress had beautiful natural looking hair, her features looked straight out of a pre-raphaelite painting. The second actress had a very "iphone face" and the hair styling looked very modern, more like The Reign than GoT."
"The show's costume started looking way too modern by season 5."
"The costumes in the first half of GoT were perfect. To me, Sansa had some of the best ones. Such perfect sillhouettes and great choices of fabrics. They looked believable, like real clothes as opposed to just costumes. I mean, just look at this. It's perfect."
Happy 14 year anniversary to "A Golden Crown"! : r/HouseOfTheDragon - "Every woman became a feminist by season 5, so they had to go full girlboss mode. Even Cersei lol"
I accidentally became the head of IT because I fixed the Wi-Fi with a bag of frozen peas : r/office - "I’m a middle-aged office mom. I bake banana bread, remind interns to hydrate, and keep a stash of emergency tissues in my drawer. I am not tech-savvy. My phone still has a home button. Anyway, last week our office Wi-Fi went down. People were panicking. The guy who “knows tech stuff” was on vacation. Our boss started printing things just so he’d feel in control. I went to the server room because I heard a weird noise (it sounded like my air fryer when it overheats). Turns out the router was literally melting. One of the interns had placed it next to the window “for better signal.” It was too hot outside. So I panicked, unplugged it, and I grabbed my lunch bag and slapped a bag of frozen peas on it. Gave it 10 minutes. Plugged it back in. Internet came back. Now everyone thinks I’m some kind of networking wizard. They keep sending me IT tickets. Someone asked if I could “optimize the cloud.” I told him I optimize casseroles. I just wanted to eat lunch without weird noises and nothing more."
Opinion | Putin Is Hunting Down Ordinary People All Over the World - The New York Times - "In November 2022 my editors asked me to be careful about what I ate and stop ordering takeout. Initially, I didn’t think much of it. But I soon realized the importance of their advice when, just one month later, my colleague Elena Kostyuchenko discovered she had been poisoned in Germany, in a probable assassination attempt by the Russian state. Such stories have become routine. Last year an investigative journalist, Alesya Marokhovskaya, was harassed in the Czech Republic; in February the bullet-riddled body of a Russian defector, Maxim Kuzminov, was found in Spain. In both cases, the Kremlin was assumed to be involved. Russian opposition figures know well that even in exile they remain targets of Russia’s intelligence services. But it’s not just them who are in danger. There are also the hundreds of thousands of Russians who left home because they did not want to have anything to do with Vladimir Putin’s war or were forced out, accused of not embracing it enough. These low-profile dissenters are subjected to surveillance and kidnappings, too. Yet their repression happens in silence, away from the spotlight and often with the tacit consent or inadequate prevention of the countries to which they have fled. It’s a terrifying thing: The Kremlin is hunting down ordinary people across the world, and nobody seems to care... Host countries are often complicit. In some places, local police officers even conduct surveillance on behalf of their Russian colleagues"
Books written by academics are a con, says professor - "Books written by academics are a “con” designed to sound more complex than they really are, according to a prominent professor. Prof Kehinde Andrews dismissed the work of many of his peers as “devastatingly bad” and “mind-deadening”. “We make money as academics by being overly-convoluted. That’s the game. That’s the con. Honestly, it’s a con,” said Prof Andrews, the UK’s first professor of black studies. He claimed that one academic had written something so bad that “he writes like he has a brain injury”. “There’s a way you write as an academic, there’s a way you’re trained into writing – it’s devastatingly bad, honestly. I was in that same world of having to do it. I stopped going to academic conferences because it’s mind-deadening.”... His abiding rule when communicating is to “make it plain”. In a conversation at the Hay Festival, he said: “There is no concept that is so complicated that a seven-year-old shouldn’t be able to have some vague understanding of it.” Prof Andrews, of Birmingham City University, published a book in 2023 titled The Psychosis of Whiteness. He previously caused controversy with his claim that “the British Empire was worse than the Nazis” because it lasted longer and killed more people. His latest book is Nobody Can Give You Freedom, a biography of Malcolm X. In it, he describes himself as “a recovering academic” who had graduated with “the Whitest psychology degree in human history at the University of Bath”. He writes: “[I] bear the title of ‘professor’, which I view in a similar way to that of ‘chief constable’. I’ve been trained in the ways of Whiteness and sold my soul to the academic industrial complex to reach where I am today.”... “Today it’s probably more useful to have a social media account than it is to have a PhD if you want to be published. What does that say about the publishing industry? That is up for debate.”"
Norway To Randomly Select 100,000 Millennials, Gen Z For Tax Cuts - Newsweek - "The initiative aims to measure if lower taxes could drive higher employment. If it is passed by parliament, the group of 100,000 people would be part of an academic study... Norway is not the only European country to look at tax breaks for young people. Portugal has introduced a comprehensive tax relief program targeting individuals aged 18 to 35. Under this scheme, young professionals earning up to €28,000 ($32,000) annually are exempt from income tax in their first year of employment. France meanwhile offers the "impatriate tax regime," which provides tax benefits to individuals returning to France after working abroad."
EVs versus movies (a tale of two subsidies) - "Our federal government provides two film and video credits, though only one can be claimed on any project: a refundable 16 per cent of production costs for both foreign and domestic producers or 25 per cent of labour costs for Canadian production (though only up to 60 per cent of production costs). In addition, all provinces provide their own tax credit or grant support for films, including 22 per cent of production costs in Alberta and 28 per cent of production costs or 35 per cent of labour costs in B.C. Together, federal and provincial support can easily cover over a third of production costs. Film support is also common in many other countries, ranging from 20 per cent of production costs in New Zealand to 50 per cent in Poland. The United States has no federal tax credit although it does let companies write off expenditures right away. Two-thirds of U.S. states provide some tax support. California’s film tax credit is 20 per cent of production costs... So it’s no surprise that over-production encouraged by subsidy competition is the industry’s main problem today. A 2023 paper for the Worldwide Intellectual Property Organization shows that average box office receipts per U.S. movie (in 2021 $US) fell from $60 million in 1981 to just $15 million in 2021. At the same time, production cost per movie rose from $15 million to over $40 million. No wonder Forbes reports 80 per cent of movies lose money! Not only do film subsidies result in too many bad films being produced, they fill the pockets of well-off actors and producers. Minecraft certainly did not need its production costs subsidized by Canada and New Zealand. Nor did Jack Black and other actors need their salaries bid up by subsidized producers. On the other hand, most Canadian and New Zealand taxpayers could use the money they were forced to cough up for many movies they’ll likely never watch. Declining U.S. film production and rising layoffs, particularly in California, have caught the eye of one very important movie fan, President Donald Trump, who last week proposed to put a tariff on foreign films, prompting howls from industry and pundits alike, who instead want more tax support in the United States. But maybe Trump would be doing the world a favour. A tariff to counter trade-distorting subsidies would be legitimate, so long as it is applied to the foreign content of film box office receipts in the U.S. If other countries retaliated, all the better. Maybe that would encourage governments to stop the subsidy war. Subsidies have also been a given for EV purchases and production and for EV charging stations and batteries. Canada and Ontario have paid gigantic subsidies to auto and battery producers, including $5 billion to Honda and $44 billion to Stellantis, Volkswagen and now-bankrupt Northvolt. On top of that, buyers of EV autos get $5,000 to $12,000 in federal and provincial credits. Canada is not alone in this subsidy extravaganza. The OECD reports rich countries have thrown billions of dollars at the auto industry since 2006, averaging 0.5 per cent of industry revenues per year and peaking at three per cent in 2009. China has been the biggest subsidizer at roughly 1.8 per cent of company revenues. As EV subsidies grow, however, EVs could face the same crisis of over-production as films. Already consumers aren’t showing up at showrooms, while declining sales have been dragging down profits. Trump’s auto tariffs will hit the profitability of Canadian auto manufacturers even harder. Honda Canada said slow EV sales are why it’s delaying its $15-billion plant but its Japanese parent announced this week it’s shifting CR-V production from Canada to the United States because of the tariffs. In the meantime, Canadian taxpayers are stuck holding a bag full of subsidies that could come to naught."
5 questions every boss should ask their employees, from a manager who's supervised 100 people in her career - "1. What do you want, need, and expect from your supervisor?
2. What are your pet peeves?
3. How do you like to receive positive feedback? How do you prefer to get constructive feedback? And when you get critical feedback, how do you typically respond?
4. How do you like to be recognized when you do good work?
5. What is one thing you're working on as a professional this year, and how can I help you?"
Indeed’s CEO shares the unusual question he’s been asking job candidates for 15 years: Apple or Android? - "“It might seem strange, but I ask everyone, ‘Do you have an iPhone or an Android, and why?’” Hyams tells Fortune. It might seem like a trick question, but the job platform chief says it’s more of an icebreaker that can reveal a lot about an applicant. There isn’t one “wrong answer” that could cost them the job. “I’m mostly curious about how people make decisions,” Hyams explains. “And it’s actually a long 15-minute series of back-and-forth on this, where I get to learn a little bit about the human being, and about how they make decisions.” Most people answer iPhone, with typical reasoning being they’ve stuck with the brand since being put on their family plan in high school. Others open up about the apps they enjoy using on their phone, generally, giving Hyams a peek into their passions. When that happens, he also asks what they would change about the platforms... Gary Shapiro, CEO of $115 million Consumer Technology Association, brings a lot of weight to an interview standard. He asks “How soon can you start?” but how a candidate responds says more than just scheduling. If the interviewee answers they can start in less than two weeks—and they’re currently employed—they don’t get the job. Shapiro says it signals that the applicant isn’t loyal to their employer, and that he would likely get the same treatment...
5 make-or-break interview questions job seekers can prep for
Do you have an iPhone or an Android, and why?
Tell me about a really hard project, and why was it hard?
What’s the hardest problem you’ve ever solved at work, and how did you reach a solution?
How soon can you start?
How many degrees separate the minute and hour hands of a clock at 3:15?"
Randall Denley: Ontario's school boards have gotten seriously out of hand - "This school year, 31 boards are reporting in-year deficits amounting to $200 million. Back in 2020–21, only 11 boards had deficits. The investigators’ reports should shed light on what’s happening with the three boards, at least. Are they short of money to do their basic job or are they just bad at handling the money they have? Calandra, the education minister, says he will offer financial help if it’s warranted, but that will be a short-term fix, not a solution. Fundamental reform is needed. The provincial government levies the taxes and the school boards spend the money. Those two functions need to be combined if there is to be any accountability in education... Rather than give trustees less responsibility, Calandra could give them more. Until 1998, the province and the school boards shared financial responsibility for education. The province raised money from its array of taxes and the school boards had an education property tax controlled by trustees. That local tax covered about 40 per cent of the cost of education. It gave trustees real financial power, but with the caveat that they were answerable to local taxpayers. The education property tax still exists, but now the province takes it, raking in about $5.9 billion a year. To put that in context, total spending on schools is about $29 billion. Why not have elected trustees take responsibility for that $5.9 billion and increase it if they think local voters will support the spending? Every community has its own ideas of what its students require, but the province’s spending plan doesn’t accommodate that variety. The TDSB, for example, believes its students require 66 swimming pools , an expense for which the province does not pay. If Toronto taxpayers think the swimming-pool program is essential, why not let them pay for it? The provincial government doesn’t tell municipalities how much they can tax and spend. Such an approach would offer a useful democratic safety valve, but the risk is the trustees themselves. Some Ontario school boards are infested with people whose primary concerns are anti-colonialism, the Palestinian cause and climate, gender and race issues ; really anything except their actual job."
Clearly, they just need more money, and Conservatives are evil for not providing more
Von der Leyen’s 'Rearm Europe' plan and the holes in it - "European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen's new plan to "Rearm Europe" included close to no fresh money and left the burden of finding the real cash on member states’ shoulders."
Brussels rebrands 'Rearm Europe' plan after backlash from leaders of Italy and Spain - "The European Commission has confirmed it would phase out the term "Rearm Europe" to describe its multi-billion initiative to rearm Europe after backlash from the leaders of Italy and Spain, who argue the name is excessively charged and risks alienating citizens. From now on, the plan to ramp up defence capabilities and production across the bloc will be known as "Readiness 2030," a reference to the date by which Russia could have the necessary capabilities to launch an attack against an EU or NATO member state."
What do left wingers hate more? Increased defence spending or the US?
Jesse Kline: Throne speech was a win for King Charles, a challenge for Mark Carney - "There was a lot in the throne speech that even conservatives should be able to get behind, but how many of the government’s goals will be realized remains an open question. Phrases such as “speed is of the essence” and assurances that the “government will be guided by a new fiscal discipline” already ring hollow given all the big-ticket promises the Liberals have made and the fact that after a short, three-week spring session, parliamentarians will take an extended summer break . They won’t get down to the business of passing legislation or tabling a budget until the fall. And the Liberals don’t exactly have a great track record when it comes to meeting the goals laid out in a throne speech. After the 2021 election, Governor General Mary Simon spent a lot of time talking about reconciliation, growing the economy, fighting climate change, strengthening our health-care system, making communities safer, reducing the cost of living, building housing and spending wisely. If these priorities sound familiar, it’s because Canada faces many of the same problems today. Though the context has shifted from pandemic recovery to dealing with Trump’s trade war, many of the government’s priorities remain the same, as the Liberals completely failed to fix the vast majority of problems they set out to address three and a half years ago. Despite pledging to build “more housing units per year” and end “chronic homelessness,” new housing starts actually decreased 11.4 per cent between 2021 and 2024, while the number of people in homeless shelters skyrocketed. Despite all the carbon taxes and emissions caps, greenhouse gas emissions remained stagnant . Despite promising to combat “hate and racism” and make our streets safer, antisemitic incidents jumped 122 per cent between 2021 and 2024 , according to B’nai Brith Canada, while the police-reported crime rate and crime severity index both increased between 2021 and 2023. Meanwhile, reconciliation is still a pipe dream and affordability is still a pressing concern. Inflation increased from 3.4 per cent in 2021 to 6.8 per cent in 2022, before falling to 2.4 per cent in 2024. The deficit nearly doubled . And the average time it takes to receive treatment after getting a referral from a doctor rose to 30 weeks in 2024, from 25.6 in 2021 , according to the Fraser Institute. In other words, by virtually every measure, the Liberals utterly failed at almost everything they set out to do. Getting the King to come to Canada to assert our sovereignty and assure Canadians that the monarchy has their backs was nothing short of a coup for Carney, and Charles adeptly performed his duties. But now comes the hard part for the prime minister: succeeding where the previous government, which was largely made up of the same cast of characters, did not. Of this, Canadians would be right to be skeptical."
Carson Jerema: The Governor General just undermined the King of Canada - "Please, I am begging, whatever prime minister appoints the next Governor General, please pick someone who has a clue of what they represent, of how Canadian government operates, and who is the actual head of state. Because Governor General Mary Simon’s office just committed, on Monday afternoon, perhaps the most embarrassing gaffe possible while King Charles III is visiting. A post, dated 4:46 p.m. ET on Monday, from the official Governor General of Canada X account made a total mockery of this country, and for good measure, insulted the King, who is in Ottawa to deliver the Speech from the Throne on Tuesday. The post started off in the typical way. “#GGSimon was honoured to have an audience with His Majesty King Charles III at @RideauHall as part of Their Majesties’ Royal Visit to Canada,” it read. But then, the post added, “These ongoing conversations deepen the meaningful bond between our nations. π¬π§ π¨π¦.” Again, I want to stress that this is from the official account of the Governor General, and if anybody should know that the King is not here representing another “nation,” as he is the King of Canada, it is her. The post, which was presumably written by a staffer, was mercifully deleted shortly after 6 p.m. ET, but that hardly provides much comfort. Simon, as a servant of the Crown, acts on behalf of the King, and the fact she, or those working on her behalf, suggests he is representing another nation is an appalling misstep. For Charles III is both King of Canada and King of the United Kingdom... This is the result of decades of mostly Liberal prime ministers going out of their way to degrade the Crown in Canada for their own purposes. This includes, appointing Governors General, who serve some political purpose completely divorced from the position’s constitutional responsibilities. A basic understanding that the Canadian state, or, more accurately, the Crown, personified by the King, exercises authority through the Governor General cannot be fully grasped by someone who doesn’t understand that the King of Canada is not a foreign king. If Simon does not recognize the nature of her role, how can she be relied upon to competently exercise her constitutional responsibilities."
"Indigenous" "reconciliation" is more important than actually doing and knowing how to do your real job
Why a retirement age of 70 is a bad idea, according to science - "Unfortunately, the rise in lifespan over the past couple of decades has not been matched by parallel rises in their health span, according to a 2021 House of Lords report called Ageing: Science, Technology and Healthy Living. In 2009, for instance, men could expect to live to 62.7 in good health, compared with 63.1 in 2016 – an increase of 0.4 years. During the same period, life expectancy for men rose by 0.8 years. For females, health span actually fell by 0.2 years over the same period, while lifespan rose by 0.6 years. In other words, while lifespan has been nudging up, the amount of time that we spend in poor health before dying has been expanding. “Right now, we are spending more money to keep older people in worse health,” said Professor Faragher... “People may be in slightly poor health, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re too ill to work,” said Professor Gems. “The harsh and brutal reality is that we have an ever-increasing population of older people and fewer younger people.”"
