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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 1 day ago
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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN
November 6, 2024
Heather Cox Richardson
Nov 06, 2024
Yesterday, November 5, 2024, Americans reelected former president Donald Trump, a Republican, to the presidency over Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. As of Wednesday night, Trump is projected to get at least 295 electoral votes to Harris’s 226, with two Republican-leaning states still not called. The popular vote count is still underway.
Republicans also retook control of the Senate, where Democrats were defending far more seats than Republicans. Control of the House is not yet clear. 
These results were a surprise to everyone. Trump is a 78-year-old convicted felon who has been found liable for sexual assault and is currently under indictment in a number of jurisdictions. He refused to leave office peacefully when voters elected President Joe Biden in 2020, instead launching an unprecedented attack on the U.S. Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes, and said during his campaign that he would be a “dictator” on his first day in office.  
Pollsters thought the race would be very close but showed increasing momentum for Harris, and Harris’s team expressed confidence during the day. By posting on social media—with no evidence—that the voting in Pennsylvania was rigged, Trump himself suggested he expected he would lose the popular vote, at least, as he did in 2016 and 2020. 
But in 2024, it appears a majority of American voters chose to put Trump back into office. 
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, offered a message of unity, the expansion of the economic policies that have made the U.S. economy the strongest in the world in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and the creation of an “opportunity economy” that echoed many of the policies Republicans used to embrace. Trump vowed to take revenge on his enemies and to return the country to the neoliberal policies President Joe Biden had rejected in favor of investing in the middle class.
When he took office, Biden acknowledged that democracy was in danger around the globe, as authoritarians like Russian president Vladimir Putin and China’s president Xi Jinping  maintained that democracy was obsolete and must be replaced by autocracies. Russia set out to undermine the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that enforced the rules-based international order that stood against Russian expansion. 
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, who overturned democracy in his own country, explained that the historical liberal democracy of the United States weakens a nation because the equality it champions means treating immigrants, LGBTQ+ individuals, and women as equal to men, thus ending traditionally patriarchal society.
In place of democracy, Orbán champions “illiberal democracy,” or “Christian democracy.” This form of government holds nominal elections, although their outcome is preordained because the government controls all the media and has silenced opposition. Orbán’s model of minority rule promises a return to a white-dominated, religiously based society, and he has pushed his vision by eliminating the independent press, cracking down on political opposition, getting rid of the rule of law, and dominating the economy with a group of crony oligarchs. 
In order to strengthen democracy at home and abroad, Biden worked to show that it delivered for ordinary Americans. He and the Democrats passed groundbreaking legislation to invest in rebuilding roads and bridges and build new factories to usher in green energy. They defended unions and used the Federal Trade Commission to break up monopolies and return more economic power to consumers. 
Their system worked. It created record low unemployment rates, lifted wages for the bottom 80% of Americans, and built the strongest economy in the world in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, setting multiple stock market records.  But that success turned out not to be enough to protect democracy. 
In contrast, Trump promised he would return to the ideology of the era before 2021, when leaders believed in relying on markets to order the economy with the idea that wealthy individuals would invest more efficiently than if the government regulated business or skewed markets with targeted investment (in green energy, for example). Trump vowed to cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations and to make up lost revenue through tariffs, which he incorrectly insists are paid by foreign countries; tariffs are paid by U.S. consumers. 
For policies, Trump’s campaign embraced the Project 2025 agenda led by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which has close ties to Orbán. That plan calls for getting rid of the nonpartisan civil service the U.S. has had since 1883 and for making both the Department of Justice and the military partisan instruments of a strong president, much as Orbán did in Hungary. It also calls for instituting religious rule, including an end to abortion rights, across the U.S. Part of the idea of “purifying” the country is the deportation of undocumented immigrants: Trump promised to deport 20 million people at an estimated cost of $88 billion to $315 billion a year. 
That is what voters chose.
Pundits today have spent time dissecting the election results, many trying to find the one tweak that would have changed the outcome, and suggesting sweeping solutions to the Democrats’ obvious inability to attract voters. There is no doubt that a key factor in voters’ swing to Trump is that they associated the inflation of the post-pandemic months with Biden and turned the incumbents out, a phenomenon seen all over the world.
There is also no doubt that both racism and sexism played an important role in Harris’s defeat. 
But my own conclusion is that both of those things were amplified by the flood of disinformation that has plagued the U.S. for years now. Russian political theorists called the construction of a virtual political reality through modern media “political technology.” They developed several techniques in this approach to politics, but the key was creating a false narrative in order to control public debate. These techniques perverted democracy, turning it from the concept of voters choosing their leaders into the concept of voters rubber-stamping the leaders they had been manipulated into backing. 
In the U.S., pervasive right-wing media, from the Fox News Channel through right-wing podcasts and YouTube channels run by influencers, have permitted Trump and right-wing influencers to portray the booming economy as “failing” and to run away from the hugely unpopular Project 2025. They allowed MAGA Republicans to portray a dramatically falling crime rate as a crime wave and immigration as an invasion. They also shielded its audience from the many statements of Trump’s former staff that he is unfit for office, and even that his chief of staff General John Kelly considers him a fascist and noted that he admires German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
As actor Walter Masterson posted: “I tried to educate people about tariffs, I tried to explain that undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes and are the foundation of this country. I explained Project 2025, I interviewed to show that they supported it. I can not compete against the propaganda machines of Twitter, Fox News, [Joe Rogan Experience], and NY Post. These spaces will continue to create reality unless we create a more effective way of reaching people.” 
X users noted a dramatic drop in their followers today, likely as bots, no longer necessary, disengaged. 
Many voters who were using their vote to make an economic statement are likely going to be surprised to discover what they have actually voted for. In his victory speech, Trump said the American people had given him an “unprecedented and powerful mandate.” 
White nationalist Nick Fuentes posted, “Your body, my choice. Forever,” and gloated that men will now legally control women’s bodies. His post got at least 22,000 “likes.” Right-wing influencer Benny Johnson, previously funded by Russia, posted: “It is my honor to inform you that Project 2025 was real the whole time.” 
Today, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would launch the “largest mass deportation operation” of undocumented immigrants, and the stock in private prison companies GEO Group and CoreCivic  jumped 41% and 29%, respectively. Those jumps were part of a bigger overall jump: the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up 1,508 points in what Washington Post economic columnist Heather Long said was the largest post-election jump in more than 100 years. 
As for the lower prices Trump voters wanted, Kate Gibson of CBS today noted that on Monday, the National Retail Federation said that Trump’s proposed tariffs will cost American consumers between $46 billion and $78 billion a year as clothing, toys, furniture, appliances, and footwear all become more expensive. A $50 pair of running shoes, Gibson said, would retail for $59 to $64 under the new tariffs.
U.S. retailers are already preparing to raise prices of items from foreign suppliers, passing to consumers the cost of any future tariffs. 
Trump’s election will also mean he will no longer have to answer to the law for his federal indictments: special counsel Jack Smith is winding them down ahead of Trump’s inauguration. So he will not be tried for retaining classified documents or attempting to overthrow the U.S. government when he lost in 2020. 
This evening, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán posted on social media that he had just spoken with Trump, and said: “We have big plans for the future!” 
This afternoon, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at her alma mater, Howard University, to concede the election to Trump. 
She thanked her supporters, her family, the Bidens, the Walz family, and her campaign staff and volunteers. She reiterated that she believes Americans have far more in common than separating us.
In what appeared to be a message to Trump, she noted: “A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results. That principle as much as any other distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny, and anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it. At the same time in our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States, and loyalty to our conscience and to our God. 
“My allegiance to all three is why I am here to say, while I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fuels this campaign, the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness and the dignity of all people, a fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation, the ideals that reflect America at our best. That is a fight I will never give up.”
Harris urged people “to organize, to mobilize and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together.” She told those feeling as if the world is dark indeed these days, to “fill the sky with the light of a billion brilliant stars, the light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service,” and to let “that work guide us, even in the face of setbacks, toward the extraordinary promise of the United States of America.” 
LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
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mariacallous · 7 days ago
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Less than two weeks before his 2020 election defeat, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration rolled out a document that purported to promote women’s health and rights while declaring that there was “no international right to abortion.”
“It’s the first time that a multilateral coalition has been built around the issue of defending life,” then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at a signing ceremony, conducted virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic. Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, and Uganda joined the United States in sponsoring the nonbinding directive, called the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family. Another 28 countries, many with authoritarian governments that repress women’s rights, signed it.
Abortion is one of the most pivotal issues that will determine whether Trump returns to the Oval Office. The Republican nominee routinely brags about his role—via three Supreme Court nominations—in overturning Roe v. Wade in a 2022 court ruling that inevitably limited abortion access for millions of people in the United States. Less known is the work that Trump and his appointees did to prevent women in other countries from obtaining the procedure.
The Geneva Consensus Declaration, which encourages governments to improve women’s health care without abortion, is one slice of Trump’s work to impose anti-abortion values on people overseas. It has garnered fewer concrete results than his expansion of the Mexico City policy, a perennial Republican rule that prevents foreign organizations that accept U.S. assistance from providing abortions or related services. But if Trump is elected, the declaration is expected to have renewed vigor. In fact, it could loom over all U.S. foreign assistance.
While the one-page document—with its emphasis on health and human rights for women—presents as nonthreatening, detractors assert that a Trump victory on Nov. 5 could make it very threatening indeed.
“I mean, sorry—to be brutal about it, women are going to die,” said Swetha Sridhar, a senior global policy research officer for Fòs Feminista, an international alliance that promotes sexual and reproductive health and justice. “That’s what we’re going to see.”
President Joe Biden withdrew the United States from the declaration upon assuming the presidency in 2021 because, his administration said, it “promotes anti-LGBTQI sentiment and undermines women’s health.” But Washington’s rejection of a document that it produced did not kill it. The declaration has been kept alive largely through the work of one former Trump administration official, Valerie Huber, who is known as its “architect.”
Sridhar and other abortion and gender rights advocates say that the Geneva Consensus Declaration represents a long-term, conservative attempt to create new international standards grounded in faith-based views of abortion and family structures.
“It has a big impact when you have these established global norms,” said Serra Sippel, the executive director of the Brigid Alliance, which provides logistical support for people who need to travel to obtain abortions within the United States. “Anti-gender, anti-rights folks can use this consensus as a tool to try to get countries to pass laws,” Sippel added.
The effort to export anti-abortion policies to other countries did not start under Trump. The Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam), an organization with ties to the Catholic Church, worked for 24 years to create a declaration, said its president—Austin Ruse—in a statement issued the day of the signing ceremony. In a summation of the declaration’s principles, Ruse said: “There is no international right to abortion. There is no international obligation to fund abortion. The United Nations has no business interfering in sovereign decisions when it comes to protecting life in the womb.”
C-Fam did not make anyone available for an interview for this story.
Huber, the declaration’s most visible proponent and a former U.S. special representative for global women’s health in the Trump administration, has spent the past few years traveling the globe, sometimes working with foreign first ladies to bring more countries on board. Huber also founded the Institute for Women’s Health, which “identifies high-impact solutions to promote women’s health and thriving,” according to its website. The institute created a framework called Protego to partner with countries that sign the declaration and provide guidance as they implement “high-impact, low-cost interventions” to meet the needs of women and their families, Huber said in two statements issued in response to an interview request.
“The tenet of the GCD [Geneva Consensus Declaration] regarding abortion points to the sovereignty of nations to chart their own path on this issue—therefore, GCD coalition nations have differing laws regarding abortion,” Huber wrote. “The GCD accurately states that abortion is not an international right, but rather it is up to the country to decide on its own abortion policies—without external pressure.”
Of course, countries already have the ability to pass and enforce their own laws on abortion. Opponents of the Geneva Consensus Declaration, however, argue that the document would allow governments to ignore international accords related to abortion, such as the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, better known as the Maputo Protocol. That 2003 treaty recognizes abortion rights in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, life-threatening fetal anomalies, and situations in which continuing a pregnancy would endanger the pregnant woman’s life or her mental and physical health.
Nevertheless, a handful of the countries that ratified the agreement do not permit abortion under any circumstances.
“The Maputo Protocol is an African instrument for Africans, created by Africans. No external pressure,” said Kemi Akinfaderin, who leads global advocacy work for Fòs Feminista and is based in Lomé, Togo.
To date, the Geneva Consensus Declaration does not appear to have many real-world consequences for women, according to abortion rights advocates in the United States and abroad. It is not an official treaty and, therefore, has no teeth. It also has had no consistent overseer, the secretariat having been passed from the United States to Brazil and then, after new leaders emerged in those countries, to Hungary.
But its trajectory—and implications for women worldwide—could change rapidly if Trump wins a second presidential term in the Nov. 5 election, abortion rights advocates who spoke with Foreign Policy said.
Trump, who has courted abortion opponents in his three presidential runs, has pledged to rejoin the coalition that signed the declaration, now numbering 39 countries (despite withdrawals from Brazil, Colombia, and the United States). In addition, Project 2025, a document seen by many in the United States as the blueprint for a new conservative presidency, proposes that U.S. foreign policy should align with the declaration’s tenets on abortion and the family.
“As soon as the next president is elected, we will reveal our priorities for the next four years,” Huber said in her statement.
For women in some of the world’s poorest countries, a return of Trump could signal real danger, according to abortion rights advocates in the U.S. and abroad.
Sridhar, who is based in Mumbai, might sound hyperbolic when she predicts an increase in deaths, but her fear is based on Trump’s track record. During his four-year term, he greatly expanded the Mexico City policy, forcing medical providers that received U.S. money to make a choice: Either they stopped providing abortions and related services, such as counseling or referrals—even if they were subsidized by non-U.S. money—or they lost what was often the bulk of their funding. Many clinics that provided a full array of services, including HIV/AIDS testing and treatment, closed.
A report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences estimated that Trump’s reinstatement of the policy between 2017 and 2021 led to 108,000 maternal and child deaths and 360,000 new HIV infections.
Project 2025, which was drafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank with the help of Trump administration alumni, including Huber, would expand the Mexico City policy considerably further. Starting with former President Ronald Reagan in 1984, every Republican president has invoked the policy, dubbed the “global gag rule” by opponents, and applied it to foreign assistance for family planning services. (Every Democratic president has rescinded the policy.)
Trump extended it to all health care aid and changed the policy’s name to the “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance” policy. Project 2025 would extend the practice to apply it to all foreign assistance, including humanitarian aid.
Layered on top of that would be the Geneva Consensus Declaration. Project 2025 proposes applying the anti-abortion, pro-family doctrine not only to foreign nongovernmental organizations and governments, but also to large international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO), which have programs that support reproductive rights and health.
Lynn Morgan, a professor emeritus of anthropology at Mount Holyoke College and an expert on the declaration, said that Trump could use it to undermine the work of U.N. agencies and the WHO, which sets international standards for health care.
“It’s going to empower a coalition of countries who might want to say, ‘We don’t want to participate in the World Health Organization anymore. We’re going to stop funding the World Health Organization because of their advocacy around abortion,’” Morgan said.
The declaration would gain potency if Trump made it a condition of foreign assistance, said Gillian Kane, the director of policy and advocacy at Ipas, an international organization that supports access to contraception and abortion. “I think what the Trump administration could do is say, ‘Hey, if you don’t sign onto this, or if you sign off of this, you’re not going to get foreign aid,’” Kane said. “I think this can be a real cudgel and sort of force people to align to this ideology.”
Huber said in her statement that no matter who becomes president, the Institute of Women’s Health seeks to build consensus. “We don’t want anything to stand in the way of improved health and wellbeing for women and families,” she wrote.
But it’s difficult to fathom Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, working with Huber and other proponents of the declaration. Harris has been outspoken in her support of abortion rights, and advocates say that they hope she will go further than Biden has to promote access abroad.
Although Biden rescinded Trump’s version of the Mexico City policy and withdrew from the Geneva Consensus Declaration, abortion rights advocates said his administration was slow to communicate with foreign aid recipients. Akinfaderin, of Fòs Feminista, said that some U.S. agencies were implementing Trump’s restrictions well into Biden’s term.
Akinfaderin said that she would like a Harris administration to view reproductive rights and justice “more holistically” to include such issues as infertility, comprehensive sex education, and maternal mortality. And, she said, Harris should stop conservatives from “rolling back everything that we’ve done—every single thing that we’ve done.”
Beirne Roose-Snyder, the director of the Preclusion Project, an independent legal organization that supports gender rights, said that supporters of abortion and gender rights would relish working with a President Harris, whom she described as “a very public advocate on reproductive rights and sexual orientation and gender identity.”
“This is not someone who is going to take to the creation of fake documents particularly well,” Roose-Snyder said in reference to the declaration. “So I think we would expect to see continued distance and maybe even further engagement with other countries about diminishing the role and power of the future of the Geneva Consensus Declaration. I think we’d expect to see that.”
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serpentinesheldonserpentine · 2 months ago
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Attention Teacher’s Union: They’re not coming back. Hope you had fun on your extended COVID vacation.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, public-school enrollment has declined by about a million students, and researchers attribute the drop to families switching to private schools—aided by an expansion of voucher programs in many red and purple states—and to homeschooling, which has seen especially strong growth. In addition, as of last year, an estimated fifty thousand students are unaccounted for—many of them are simply not in school.
…In September, 2020, as many public schools in Democratic-leaning states started the new academic year with remote learning, I asked Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, whether she worried about the long-term effects on public education. What if too many families left the system in favor of homeschooling or private schools—many of which had reopened—and didn’t come back?
She wasn’t concerned about such hypotheticals.
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yourreddancer · 17 hours ago
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Heather Cox Richardson 11.6.24
Heather Cox Richardson 11.6.24
Yesterday, November 5, 2024, Americans reelected former president Donald Trump, a Republican, to the presidency over Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. As of Wednesday night, Trump is projected to get at least 295 electoral votes to Harris’s 226, with two Republican-leaning states still not called. The popular vote count is still underway.
Republicans also retook control of the Senate, where Democrats were defending far more seats than Republicans. Control of the House is not yet clear. 
These results were a surprise to everyone. Trump is a 78-year-old convicted felon who has been found liable for sexual assault and is currently under indictment in a number of jurisdictions. He refused to leave office peacefully when voters elected President Joe Biden in 2020, instead launching an unprecedented attack on the U.S. Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes, and said during his campaign that he would be a “dictator” on his first day in office.  
Pollsters thought the race would be very close but showed increasing momentum for Harris, and Harris’s team expressed confidence during the day. By posting on social media—with no evidence—that the voting in Pennsylvania was rigged, Trump himself suggested he expected he would lose the popular vote, at least, as he did in 2016 and 2020. 
But in 2024, it appears a majority of American voters chose to put Trump back into office. 
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, offered a message of unity, the expansion of the economic policies that have made the U.S. economy the strongest in the world in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and the creation of an “opportunity economy” that echoed many of the policies Republicans used to embrace. Trump vowed to take revenge on his enemies and to return the country to the neoliberal policies President Joe Biden had rejected in favor of investing in the middle class.
When he took office, Biden acknowledged that democracy was in danger around the globe, as authoritarians like Russian president Vladimir Putin and China’s president Xi Jinping  maintained that democracy was obsolete and must be replaced by autocracies. Russia set out to undermine the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that enforced the rules-based international order that stood against Russian expansion. 
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, who overturned democracy in his own country, explained that the historical liberal democracy of the United States weakens a nation because the equality it champions means treating immigrants, LGBTQ+ individuals, and women as equal to men, thus ending traditionally patriarchal society.
In place of democracy, Orbán champions “illiberal democracy,” or “Christian democracy.” This form of government holds nominal elections, although their outcome is preordained because the government controls all the media and has silenced opposition. Orbán’s model of minority rule promises a return to a white-dominated, religiously based society, and he has pushed his vision by eliminating the independent press, cracking down on political opposition, getting rid of the rule of law, and dominating the economy with a group of crony oligarchs. 
In order to strengthen democracy at home and abroad, Biden worked to show that it delivered for ordinary Americans. He and the Democrats passed groundbreaking legislation to invest in rebuilding roads and bridges and build new factories to usher in green energy. They defended unions and used the Federal Trade Commission to break up monopolies and return more economic power to consumers. 
Their system worked. It created record low unemployment rates, lifted wages for the bottom 80% of Americans, and built the strongest economy in the world in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, setting multiple stock market records.  But that success turned out not to be enough to protect democracy. 
In contrast, Trump promised he would return to the ideology of the era before 2021, when leaders believed in relying on markets to order the economy with the idea that wealthy individuals would invest more efficiently than if the government regulated business or skewed markets with targeted investment (in green energy, for example). Trump vowed to cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations and to make up lost revenue through tariffs, which he incorrectly insists are paid by foreign countries; tariffs are paid by U.S. consumers. 
For policies, Trump’s campaign embraced the Project 2025 agenda led by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which has close ties to Orbán. That plan calls for getting rid of the nonpartisan civil service the U.S. has had since 1883 and for making both the Department of Justice and the military partisan instruments of a strong president, much as Orbán did in Hungary. It also calls for instituting religious rule, including an end to abortion rights, across the U.S. Part of the idea of “purifying” the country is the deportation of undocumented immigrants: Trump promised to deport 20 million people at an estimated cost of $88 billion to $315 billion a year. 
That is what voters chose.
Pundits today have spent time dissecting the election results, many trying to find the one tweak that would have changed the outcome, and suggesting sweeping solutions to the Democrats’ obvious inability to attract voters. There is no doubt that a key factor in voters’ swing to Trump is that they associated the inflation of the post-pandemic months with Biden and turned the incumbents out, a phenomenon seen all over the world.
There is also no doubt that both racism and sexism played an important role in Harris’s defeat. 
But my own conclusion is that both of those things were amplified by the flood of disinformation that has plagued the U.S. for years now. Russian political theorists called the construction of a virtual political reality through modern media “political technology.” They developed several techniques in this approach to politics, but the key was creating a false narrative in order to control public debate. These techniques perverted democracy, turning it from the concept of voters choosing their leaders into the concept of voters rubber-stamping the leaders they had been manipulated into backing. 
In the U.S., pervasive right-wing media, from the Fox News Channel through right-wing podcasts and YouTube channels run by influencers, have permitted Trump and right-wing influencers to portray the booming economy as “failing” and to run away from the hugely unpopular Project 2025. They allowed MAGA Republicans to portray a dramatically falling crime rate as a crime wave and immigration as an invasion. They also shielded its audience from the many statements of Trump’s former staff that he is unfit for office, and even that his chief of staff General John Kelly considers him a fascist and noted that he admires German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
As actor Walter Masterson posted: “I tried to educate people about tariffs, I tried to explain that undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes and are the foundation of this country. I explained Project 2025, I interviewed to show that they supported it. I can not compete against the propaganda machines of Twitter, Fox News, [Joe Rogan Experience], and NY Post. These spaces will continue to create reality unless we create a more effective way of reaching people.” 
X users noted a dramatic drop in their followers today, likely as bots, no longer necessary, disengaged. 
Many voters who were using their vote to make an economic statement are likely going to be surprised to discover what they have actually voted for. In his victory speech, Trump said the American people had given him an “unprecedented and powerful mandate.” 
White nationalist Nick Fuentes posted, “Your body, my choice. Forever,” and gloated that men will now legally control women’s bodies. His post got at least 22,000 “likes.” Right-wing influencer Benny Johnson, previously funded by Russia, posted: “It is my honor to inform you that Project 2025 was real the whole time.” 
Today, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would launch the “largest mass deportation operation” of undocumented immigrants, and the stock in private prison companies GEO Group and CoreCivic  jumped 41% and 29%, respectively. Those jumps were part of a bigger overall jump: the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up 1,508 points in what Washington Post economic columnist Heather Long said was the largest post-election jump in more than 100 years. 
As for the lower prices Trump voters wanted, Kate Gibson of CBS today noted that on Monday, the National Retail Federation said that Trump’s proposed tariffs will cost American consumers between $46 billion and $78 billion a year as clothing, toys, furniture, appliances, and footwear all become more expensive. A $50 pair of running shoes, Gibson said, would retail for $59 to $64 under the new tariffs.
U.S. retailers are already preparing to raise prices of items from foreign suppliers, passing to consumers the cost of any future tariffs. 
Trump’s election will also mean he will no longer have to answer to the law for his federal indictments: special counsel Jack Smith is winding them down ahead of Trump’s inauguration. So he will not be tried for retaining classified documents or attempting to overthrow the U.S. government when he lost in 2020. 
This evening, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán posted on social media that he had just spoken with Trump, and said: “We have big plans for the future!” 
This afternoon, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at her alma mater, Howard University, to concede the election to Trump. 
She thanked her supporters, her family, the Bidens, the Walz family, and her campaign staff and volunteers. She reiterated that she believes Americans have far more in common than separating us.
In what appeared to be a message to Trump, she noted: “A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results. That principle as much as any other distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny, and anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it. At the same time in our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States, and loyalty to our conscience and to our God. 
“My allegiance to all three is why I am here to say, while I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fuels this campaign, the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness and the dignity of all people, a fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation, the ideals that reflect America at our best. That is a fight I will never give up.”
Harris urged people “to organize, to mobilize and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together.” She told those feeling as if the world is dark indeed these days, to “fill the sky with the light of a billion brilliant stars, the light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service,” and to let “that work guide us, even in the face of setbacks, toward the extraordinary promise of the United States of America.” 
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From Midnight, With Love: A Writeblr Love Letter, that includes rambly divulging thoughts, a short story, and many thanks <3
Prelude
Good evening / timezone writeblr!! I know that this may come fifteen days too early, considering that December 31st, on the cusp of the new year, would be a more reasonable time to thank everyone on writeblr for this absolutely marvelous year of 2022, but I've decided "fuck it!" and banked on doing it now. So! Without further stalling... thus will begin this love letter, underneath a read more, for the sake of all those who don't delight in scrolling through walls of text.
But before that... the different sections of this love letter, will be opened by quotes that I find, from fellow writeblr mutual @lockejhaven.
Contents:
The Passion of Writing Stories (my past as a writer / my blog's origin story)
A Welcome to the Writeblr Corner (a fictional story that delves into my first steps in being a writeblr!)
From Midnight, with Love (some final thoughts, and many, many thanks.)
I. The Passion Of Writing Stories (aka: my blog's origin story)
"Worlds are burning, my child. Gods alone cannot suffocate the flames." - @lockejhaven
Ahh, how fitting. As almost everyone knows by now, the pandemic known as the Coronavirus has gone and affected the jobs and livelihoods of anyone, and everyone for two going on three years now, and my journey as a writeblr begins as a mere speck in the initial startling throes of the COVID rampage.
As many people know though, I did not have the luxury of taking a walk down the expansive, and seemingly endless library of writeblrs all contained within the care of a single blessed hellsite called Tumblr, when I was just about in my Grade 6 to 7 year. Despite that however, I wrote a lot of things, both good and not-so good throughout those years.
Of the many writing highlights I can think on, I will say with absolute certainty that it was my group-written Minecraft roleplay-style story, titled, "Beacon City: Herobrine's Apprentice" which had left me thinking recently: - "Why couldn't I have just called it 'Beacon City' and left it at that?" - "With the whole 'Herobrine's Apprentice' thing tacked onto the end of the title, like a kid who desperately clings to his mother to let him go to a party of great proportions, why did it seem like I was planning sequels when the main story was already being written?"
But moving from that, I cherished every moment of writing that Minecraft roleplay story with my friends, during blocks in class where we'd half-finish our work and sneakily call it a "free period" for us to work on that story.
Well, and I was definitely right to cherish those moments, because as the years passed and I slightly moved up the rungs of my personal ability scale as a writer I naively didn't look back to those previous times, and before I knew it... I had just entered Grade 10, and was four months into the academic grind, when my high school got the news that my amazing friend Gavin, who had been friends with me since middle school in band class and outside band class in my regular classes, had passed away due to complications from cancer.
This hit me, and still hits me hard. He was an amazing writer and helped out a lot on the Beacon City story, and on top of that was a great friend to hang out with. But it didn't take me long to immortalize him in my memory and keep him there in spirit.
Eventually though, I managed to move past that trauma of a loss, from a student's perspective, and get back into writing more things.
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In the present day, I have reflected many a time on my middle school writing era, so to say, and the many improvements I've made. Although like many others, I ridiculed how bad my writing style was back then and didn't bother to elaborate or reflect on it, but now I see the point in reflecting positively on your older writing.
I've realized that even if your writing is bad, just appreciate that it's yours and that you are making progress towards being a better writer, no matter how long that may take.
Now setting the scene for a bit here: I was 14, at the time I was in middle school, and I had just started taking writing seriously, to the point where I was writing small things every day. I had just started writing stories at the age of 10, and drawing upon the breadth of knowledge I had gained since then, had decided it was a great idea to improve on my passion that was telling stories.
This is where the first mentions of my main OC, Midnight, were born. He had started out WAY differently than how he is in the present day with all the development he's gone through. Two years after middle school though, in 2021 is when I decided to create a Tumblr account, starting off by making it a sort of askblog for Midnight, and just a smorgasbord for Melodiverse related stuff on top of that.
That cycle continued for a good long while with very infrequent posts and little traction... up until July 5th, of 2022, when I thought my blog was long overdue for a rebranding.
And I was only just about to discover the wonderful endless library of writers that lay behind an ornate door in Tumblr's expansive hub of small self-contained corners of the internet.
II. A Welcome to the Writeblr Corner (a fictional story that delves into my first steps in being a writeblr!)
"In a memory as old as mine, there is a truth worth seeking; a light worth following." - @lockejhaven
(A/N: And now for something completely different, that ISN'T a dive into my past as a writer, and more in my comfort zone hehe)
I found myself standing in the center of a very stimulating landscape. Almost too stimulating, in fact.
This landscape I could see around me was the darkest of blue for a solid ground, the wall was filled with reblogs and textposts, many of those that were from mutuals of mine and people that I follow. And even though this was a virtual world, that didn't stop very intrusive promotional ads from occasionally blocking my view of certain posts, as I had to physically keep my distance from them, instead of scrolling past them.
The landscape was filled with seas of people flocking to the constantly-updating walls to reblog the latest art piece, latest new fanfic and original work, or a very emotion-driven piece of poetry, penned by a user who's identity had ceased to exist, lost within this hellsite's annals of time and punctuated by an anonymous icon that acted as that blog's tombstone, with the epitaph reading whatever that user's last post before death was.
After mulling on that for awhile, and walking over to the wall to like that poetry post from that user who no longer exists, safely archived by reblogs, I liked the post to pay my respects and began walking towards my own personal room, of which was my blog's control panel and also a lounging space.
However, on my way there, I heard the faint chirping of birds and the rustling of trees, behind a cold white wall, repeating down the hallway seemingly endlessly, with noisy fluorescent lighting illuminating the way forward.
I turned around, and walked back out into the stimulating landscape of Tumblr's hub, before the ambiance of the birds and trees had become slightly louder and I faced the source of the sound. A large wooden door with a sun and open book painted on the front.
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Nervously, I continued forward, and after opening and shutting the door behind me, leaving me within the enclosure of a meadow, I admired how nice it was to no longer be inundated with notifications every second, and bathed myself in the serenity of nature. The tweeting of birds, and rustling of trees were more sonically noticeable by now.
I strolled through, and from outside yet another door, I perceived a very calming atmosphere, as I perked my ears up to the door, to hear the flipping of book pages, the typing of laptops, the sipping of coffee, and general soft conversation.
I had to psyche myself up for a bit, before I felt confident enough to go in. But my legs must have completely taken control, because before I knew it, I found myself facing the exact door I entered into. Only this time, there was a fluffy wreath on the front, followed by the words scrawled into a neat script: "Writeblr Corner: A comfort lounge for both the veteran wordsmiths and those who are new to the art of pen and page."
I closed my eyes before opening the door with a loud creak and stepping foot onto what seemed like a freshly cleaned carpet.
I opened my eyes soon after, and was greeted by the lovely aroma of coffee, and looked further around me to see endless walls of books, most of them penned by the people in this lounge, who were strangers to me at first.
I strolled around the isles as soft jazz music played over the speakers, until I found a table with a piece of lined paper sitting face up. "Introduce yourself to the patrons!" it read, almost as if it was beckoning me to introduce myself to the sea of wordsmiths who had no idea about me or what I did.
But I wrote down my name, my stories that I had in progress, and other things that people should know about me, before heading to a large corkboard, which held writer introductions from ages past to more recent ones, and I stuck mine under recent, and eagerly awaited to see what would happen.
I heard the pushing in of a chair as someone got up from their table of friends and was heading my way. We briefly made eye contact before they beelined for the corkboard, grabbed a pen and scrawled something down.
Before I could ask for their name, the person walked back to their table and sat back down. Which left me to go discover who out of the many patrons here, after all, this lounge was very full with the sound of lively conversation, had left something underneath my introduction.
It turns out, that multiple people had left something under my introduction. I walked up to the board, zoomed into my introduction paper and struggled to read the very ornate handwriting. "Hello Midnight!" read one of the comments, signed by someone named Natsume, which was written in purple ink. "Hi bud!" read another of the comments which was written off to the left side of the paper, but still visible and written in blue-pink ink. This one was signed by someone named Athena.
Many other comments were scrawled all along my introduction paper, and I was happy people were greeting me.
I eventually within a couple days found myself at home and a regular within the Writeblr Corner.
This was certainly the greatest of welcomes I could've expected.
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III. From Midnight, With Love (some final thoughts, and many, many thanks.)
"Surrender to yourself, dragonheart, and all will end as it should." - @lockejhaven
Now I'd like to leave y'all with some final thoughts.
Despite the pandemic making everyday life seem like a localized "hell on earth" scenario, the year 2022 was the greatest I could've ever hoped for.
Within this lovely writeblr community on this blessed hellsite, I made so many new friends, managed to accumulate 180 followers throughout that time, rambled a whole lot about many things, some of which were writing related, others not so much, managed to write small pieces but somehow didn't gain progress on most of my main WIPs (besides Stars, Bits, and Bytes), and just... had so much fun talking about writing and laying my eyes upon other's works of absolute word mastery. (ex. @athena-anna-rose's Terraclaw snippets, @careful-pyromancer's snippets, @lockejhaven's poetry, quotes, and snippets, and literally so many more works of wordsmithery that I would list here but it'd be too long <3)
I enjoyed playing so many writeblr-focused tag games, like Find the Word, Heads Up Seven Up, and a lot more. On top of that, I adored answering the many asks that people would send me, and I also enjoyed writing for Storyteller Saturday, Tiny Scene Sunday, and building more of my world with Worldbuilding Wednesday.
Looking forward, and behind the curtain, to the future of my blog, I'm excited to begin writing darker stuff, cute, fluffy romance, maybe some fanfiction, and definitely poetry as we near the end of my blog's first "arc".
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And we have come to the end of my love letter to writeblr! Whoever of my writeblr mutuals sees and comments on this, know that I appreciate y'all so much <3/p
THANKS TO:
@lockejhaven - for allowing use of their quotes as openers for each of the parts of this love letter, being such a lovely friend, and running the North Haven discord server. Thank you Locke.
@365runesofwriting - for being a "mother figure" for me in terms of writeblr. <3/p
@jadefyre - for being the one to create my most favorite of all writeblr events: Tiny Scene Sunday. <3/p
@scratched-fountains - Thank you Ame for being the OG, and sticking around long enough to see me improve. I hope you'll be one of the ones to leave a heartfelt review on Midnight and the Gift of the Melody Blade when I'm done with it in June of 2023. <3/p
@careful-pyromancer - for being the one with a "chosen one WIP" that unfolded to be greater than the sum of it's parts. I sincerely hope I'll see more from you with Chronicles of Avalon in the future. <3/p
@blue-kyber - for having the most captivating sci-fi fantasy series in all of Tumblr, in my humble opinion. Seriously. Out There: The 1K is the most amazing story I've seen weaved between intricate characters and emotional scenes. <3/p
@athena-anna-rose - for drawing my into checking out more of her work through Terraclaw and Wildlands content. Hope you're doin' well Athena. <3/p
And thanks to those who are anonymous, or are just too shy to personally interact with my blog. Know that I see you, and I adore your presence.
And finally, signing off: From Midnight, with Love, Thank you all so fuckin' much for a marvelous first five months on writeblr. Here's to many, many more.
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allthebrazilianpolitics · 2 years ago
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Lula’s Out to Get Brazil’s Global Mojo Back
Like Biden, Brazil’s old-new president inherited a mess on the international stage.
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Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, better known as Lula, stepped into his third term ready to rebuild Brazil’s international image, which had been largely diminished by his predecessor. And Lula has a guidebook to follow, not only from his two prior terms, but also from U.S. President Joe Biden’s ascension. From the Jan. 8 riots in Brasília to both countries reentering international organizations, Biden and Lula have fought—and will continue to fight—eerily similar battles. 
“Both Lula and Biden are presidents that are positioning themselves as leaders in the democratic world, defending democracy in the region, and with clear priorities on the agenda,” said Bruna Santos, director of the Brazil Institute at the Wilson Center.
During his first two terms as president, between 2003 and 2010, Lula set Brazil up as a major economic and political player on the world stage. Lula was a founding member of BRICS—a geopolitical bloc including Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—and attended its first formal summit in 2009, and Brazil was one of the leading voices calling for U.N. Security Council expansion during the Lula administration. Brazil’s relationships with its neighbors had never been better, with a wave of Lula allies elected into office throughout the region, including Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Argentina, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Hugo Chávez in Venezuela.
But things may not be so straightforward this time around. Despite the recent wave of leftist governments echoing the political tides of the early 2000s, instability has rocked Latin America in recent years, with worsening situations in Nicaragua and Venezuela, violent protests in Peru, and the devastating economic and social impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. The new “pink tide” will be far more turbulent than the first.
“It’s very early on to see how successful he’s going to be, but it’s not going to be the easy ride he had on the first pink tide, when everyone was on better terms,” said Cecilia Tornaghi, the senior director of policy at Americas Society/Council of the Americas.
Continue reading.
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gemsofgreece · 2 years ago
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https://www.lifo.gr/culture/vivlio/rontrik-mpiton-i-ennoia-toy-ellinismoy-itan-pantote-reysti-kai-eyelikti
Found this article and i am curious about this British professor. He has knowledge of Greece's history and politics in detail, but the theme he presented he Hellenism confused me a bit.
What i mean is, is he one of those who believe that Hellenism is not bound only with ethnicity but woth how many people speak it? Could be wrong but he dragged too much about the expansion of greek language and the ways.
I read his interview and an older one with great interest. I agree with him to some considerable degree but not in everything. He says that an ethnicity is a human concept, which is technically true, both for Greeks as well as all other ethnicities. He clarifies that he believes the same for all ethnicities including his own, so it's fair enough.
It is not the same DNA or an exact same ancestral place of origin but the presumption that one has that this is the case and that a certain culture is part of their identity. This is the widely accepted definition of ethnicity, so it's not Beaton's idea.
Given how much Greeks spread their cultural influence and how seamlessly they incorporated foreign cultural elements to their own identity, it makes it twice as hard to create borders / gatekeep hellenism on a historical level. I mean, Greeks were an extroverted people: travelling, sailing, migrating, communicating their culture. Thus Roderick Beaton means the hellenized people of the Alexandrian, the Roman and the Byzantine Empires and all places of Greek influence. Maybe even the Ottoman empire, for some of the Christian Orthodox populations only. The Greek element was primary in the first three and considerable in some parts of the fourth, thus hellenizing some people from originally non-ethnic Greek families. In short, Beaton considers all the heavily hellenized people of those empires - the Greek speakers - as Greeks, who enjoyed access but also contributed to the Greek heritage. The hellenism as a strict definition of the Greek nation living or coming from the modern Greek state's borders is a very new concept after all. 
Besides, Greeks have gone through so much that it is true that there is nothing more robust to rely on for their self-identification than the Greek language. Many things have changed but the language hasn’t (by comparison) and it is unique to the people who identify as Greek. Beaton is right in my opinion to use the language as the axis of his study.
Of course, Beaton does not mean people who learned a word or two or Greek is their fifth language or read Hades and Persephone fanfiction as Greeks. He means people for whom Hellenism had a pivotal presence and (positive) impact on their entire life, shaping of character and perhaps sense of identity, regardless of the origin of their ancestors. Then again, he almost calls himself a Greek and basically says "we" at some point when he refers to Greeks lol, but oh well he's an academic who has spent all his life studying the Greek language and complete history, and he comes here every year or something. So... he might as well feel like that, I guess? Not as a Greek by descent obviously but as a participant in the heritage, who has earned this right to the participation with a lifetime's dedication to it.
Having said that, I haven't read his book so I can't be entirely sure he doesn't fall into the trap of appropriation. It's interesting though that his book is one of the very first now that span 3000 years: the book starts from the Bronze Age and ends with coronavirus! Some more sceptical reviews in Goodreads say that he didn't avoid the typical Western decline of historiographic quality once he moves from Roman to Byzantine era and onwards (weird, given that he is a Byzantinologist), however for a westerner it's still very novel to explore Hellenism through a unifying perspective and without picking out his favourite type of Greeks, and for this alone I have this book in my wishlist. It might not be perfect but it is a start.
Imagine if the point of the book is: "Modern Greeks are Greeks because we are all Greeks anyway" XD eh hopefully not!
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grlhoe · 2 years ago
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Singapore Becomes Gaming Desert spring
During the Coronavirus disaster, all Singapore Pools outlets, the Singapore Turf Club, and two casinos were shut. Since pandemic wellbeing limitations started vanishing, various foundations continued activities at various times. Singapore Pools retail outlets resumed on June 22, 2020, yet others stayed shut longer.
Under the Sack Board's direction, Singapore Pools and the Singapore Turf Club, including horse racing administrators, work lotteries and sports betting. There are no breakdowns of bets or payouts on individual games available in the Sack Board's Yearly Report.
In any case, the outcomes are profoundly encouraging. Indeed, even before Coronavirus, Singapore's gaming industry wasn't major areas of strength for however it could be currently. In the monetary year 2019, card sharks burned through SGD8.1 billion (US$6 billion) on lotteries and sports bets, an amount 14% lower than the most recent levels.
In the last financial year, bettors burned through SGD818 million (US$602.7 million) on horse racing bets, 65% more than the SGD496 million (US$365.45 million) a year sooner. That resists a trend that went on for 10 years, as more youthful ages show greater disinterest in horse races.
World Cup to Lift Bets
The World Cup will without a doubt give Singapore's games betting industry a lift. But at the same time it's prompting an expansion in unlawful bets. Across the globe, nations are revealing unlawful betting tasks, and Singapore is no special case.
This week, police captured 20 individuals the nation over for their contribution in unlawful games betting and gambling. Nineteen men and one lady presently face charges of unlawful gambling, contribution in coordinated wrongdoing, and that's just the beginning.
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Andreas Christensen's SuperOne And Gaming Are About To Be The New Center Of The Internet
As SuperOne's Founder Andreas Christensen once stated: Gaming is so much more than just the game — and massive growth is on the horizon for those who create the full experience!
 By having a mobile gaming platform as the centerpiece of its product offering, SuperOne could really not be entering the sector at a better time. Just in the same way that search engines, mobile phones, and social networks have seized the initiative at different times this century to dominate technology, now is the time for gaming to be at the center of the internet.
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Or at least those are the views of Michael Wolf, co-founder and chief executive of consulting firm Activate Inc, whose views have been widely reported across mainstream media, such as the Wall Street Journal, and on multiple tech blogs. Before taking a deeper look at Activate’s findings, let’s consider the circumstantial evidence.
Gaming has of late become a social pursuit, and even a socially acceptable one given the constraints imposed on people by the coronavirus pandemic. You can’t be much more socially distanced than when you’re alone in your bedroom playing FIFA against your best buddy from across town.
Truly, you’re never alone in a game; streaming platforms like Twitch allow you to share your personal ups and downs on League of Legends. Committed gamers are no-longer pasty-faced loners prone to acne with no real friends at school. Even the cool kids do it now.
Transcending the barriers
And your favorite gaming platform is, of course, transcending the barriers of what we formerly considered a game to comprise. Many have already completed the transformation into digital hubs that offer people an array of services once only possible in real life.
No wonder the overall time spent gaming has risen by 29% since March — and it can’t all be put down to pandemic restrictions. Here’s the angle that’s so prescient from a SuperOne perspective:
“People are increasingly using gaming platforms to view virtual concerts, for messaging, gambling, dating and even virtual celebrations of weddings and birthdays,”
SuperOne too is also keen to use the game as only the start of the journey of engagement with its gamers, with a number of other projects in development such as social media, travel solutions, and financial services. Andreas Christensen sees endless potential and applications for SuperOne's platform. As he said, it's about more than just the game - It's about the total package.
Activate predicts the consumer gaming industry will reach a value of $198 billion by 2024, not including sales from hardware and devices, augmented reality, virtual reality, and advertising.
Gaming as a subscription service
An industry that once simply sold individual games now frequently monetizes its products through the subscription-as-a-service model — Alphabet, Google, Apple, and Amazon are all at it, competing hard for market share against Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft.
Research conducted by Activate found:
58% of gamers use or intend to use gaming subscription services
38% use or intend to use cloud gaming services
Most new users of VR headsets are buying them for gaming
It also made this bold prediction: that spending in the United States on AR and VR gaming will rise eightfold between now and 2024 to an annual $19.8 billion Gaming is also predicted to connect industries with a wave of mergers and acquisitions involving gaming and tech companies.
Andreas Christensen's Hunt for the ‘Super Users
Activate’s next forecast is music to the ears of Andreas Christensen, which is leading the expansion of SuperOne. “With increased competition, technology and media, companies must pay more attention to ‘super users,’ or the highest-engaged customers, who tend to skew younger, wealthier and more educated.”
Superusers typically:
Make up less than 25% of all consumers
Spend 1.5 times more time-consuming media than other users
Spend 3.5 times more on media purchases
These are the people all companies in gaming, big and small, need to capture for maximum reach. The way SuperOne will do, will be by having a massive sales force in place — 100,000 “Genesis Community” affiliate marketing professionals who will be incentivized to locate gamers and send them gaming credits.
Interestingly, Activate has also looked at fan engagement within sport, a massively important area of SuperOne’s growth strategy given.
(Many SuperOne games will be sports-focused, and the platform is built to leverage the partisan nature of sport.)
The rise of sports betting
Activate believes fan engagement with sports will be more “influenced by content consumed via virtual reality, live-streamed group watching, and interactive sports betting.”
It continues: “Sports betting will begin to function like financial trading, including with real-time trading, pooled institutional money, and media coverage.” (Some of this is already happening in more mature online betting markets like the UK).
“The amount wagered through sports betting in the US will reach $189 billion a year by 2024.” Finally, the gradual reduction of third-party cookies-tracking will transform the digital advertising industry, directly benefiting Facebook, Google, and Amazon who own so much of the customer data other companies seek. Not that it will pose any kind of a problem for SuperOne.
Far from it. SuperOne, by building its own network in advance of the game launch will have easy access to the first-party user data provided by its affiliate partners, and, by extension, its gamers too.
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le-velo-pour-dru · 1 year ago
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[ID 1: A tweet by Friends of Trevor United (@/FriendsOfTrevor) that says, "@/TrevorProject is UNION BUSTING. We want to make that really clear. Today @/TrevorProject announced layoffs effective immediately while our @/CWAUnion reps were in an ACTIVE BARGAINING SESSION. Read our full statement here:". An Instagram link is then provided, but part of it is cut off.
ID 2: The first graphic attached to the tweet. Against a purple background that fades to red, white text reads, "THE TREVOR PROJECT JUST ANNOUNCED MASS LAYOFFS EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY... WHILE OUR UNION WAS IN AN ACTIVE BARGAINING SESSION. HERE ARE THE FACTS". The words "active bargaining" are underlined. A purple seal is below this. In the middle is a deep purple arc interrupted by four stars. Below this are the words, "FRIENDS OF TREVOR UNITED", and even further below this are the words, "CWA LOCAL 1180". There are hands on either side. Around the edge are the words, "LAYOFFS ARE UNION BUSTING".
ID 3: The next graphic attached in the tweet. These next three images all say, "THE TREVOR PROJECT IS UNION BUSTING" at the top, and they're all cream colored with navy blue text. A version of the same seal from the previous image is also on each of these images in the bottom right corner, now in cream, navy blue, and orange colors. This slide reads, "At 9:15 am pst, as many of our members and overnight staff were still sleeping, The Trevor Project announced layoffs effective immediately... while our union representative were in an active bargaining session regarding the terms of these layoffs." The words "in an active bargaining session" are bolded.
ID 4: This slide reads, "Trevor lawyers threatened to proceed with layoffs and withhold severance in order to pressure our representatives into accepting a lesser package. This is bad-faith bargaining and blatant union busting." The words "withhold severance" and the last sentence are bolded.
ID 5: This slide reads, "Our union made every attempt to bargain in good faith. We gave Trevor leadership an opportunity to demonstrate care, compassion, and basic decency in this process, and they refused." The words "and they refused" are bolder.
ID 6: A bulleted list of various LGBTQ+ resources. It reads,
"Q Chat Space is a bully-free online community of LGBTQ teens that can chat with other LGBTQ teens and trained staff from LGBTQ centers around the country.
You can access Q Chat Space at www.qchatspace.org
Gender Spectrum Lounge is a global online community for gender-expansive teens, their families and support professionals to connect, collaborate and find resources.
You can access the Gender Spectrum Lounge at genderspectrum.org/lounge
National Runaway Safeline is a federally designated national communication system for runaway and homeless youth, available 24/7/365, providing access to resources and listening professionals.
You can call NRS at 1-800-RUNAWAY or at 1800runaway.org
Trans Lifeline Hotline is a peer support service run by trans people located all over the US and Canada, for trans and questioning callers.
You can call Trans Lifeline Hotline at 877-565-8860 translifeline.org/hotline
The LGBT National Help Center offers a talkline and weekly chatrooms for youth, providing confidential peer-support, information, local resources and community.
You can call the LGBT National Youth Talkline at 800-246-7743
You can access the Weekly Youth Chatrooms at lgbthotline.org/youthchatrooms
True Colors United has created an online COVID-19 Action & Resource center providing the most up-to-date resources for youth and adults experiencing homelessness. They include resources for folks working in the field, advocates making a difference, and young people looking for help.
You can access the Action & Resource center at truecolorsunited.org/coronavirus-action-resource-center/
Many PFLAG chapters are meeting virtually or providing 1:1 virtual support as requested for parents/guardians or LGBTQ youth. Go to pflag.org/find to look up the PFLAG chapter in your area and reach out by phone, email or on social media to learn more about their virtual support options." /end ID]
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Incredibly disappointing behavior made all the more cynical by it happening just after Pride Month
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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 1 year ago
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Matt Wuerker
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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN
November 2, 2023
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
NOV 3, 2023
In a speech yesterday in Northfield, Minnesota, President Joe Biden explained his economic vision to rural Americans. “Over the past 40 years or so, we’ve had a practice in America—an economic practice called trickle-down economics, and it hit rural America especially hard,” he said. “It hollowed out Main Street, telling farmers the only path to success was to get big or get out.” At the same time, he said, “[t]ax cuts for big corporations encouraged companies to grow bigger and bigger, move jobs and production overseas for cheaper labor, and undercut local small businesses. Meat-producing companies and the retail grocery chains consolidated, leaving farmers [and] ranchers with few choices about where to sell their products, reducing their bargaining power. Corporations that sell seed, fertilizer, and even farm equipment used their outsized market power to change farmers and charge them and ranchers unfair prices.”
Biden noted that the U.S. has lost more than 400,000 family farms in the past 40 years, an area of more than 140 million acres of farmland, equivalent to an area the size of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota combined. Family farms have failed, and as they did so, small businesses, hospitals, schools, and communities also suffered. 
Young people feel they have no choice but to leave home “in search of good-paying jobs and a chance at the American Dream.” 
Biden explained that his plan to invest in America would create new and better markets and new income streams to help rural areas thrive. He noted that $20 billion of the Inflation Reduction Act will go to helping farmers and ranchers adjust to climate change by changing cover crops and managing nutrients and grazing, while urging farmers to diversify from single crops and sell in local markets. 
Biden emphasized that the administration is promoting competition in agricultural markets, noting that currently just four big corporations control more than half the market in beef, pork, and poultry. If just one of their processing plants goes offline, it can cause massive supply chain disruptions (as the closing of a baby formula plant did in 2022). “[T]here’s something wrong,” he said, “when just 7% of the American farms get nearly 90% of the farm income.” 
In addition to the existing national investments in power grids and broadband that will help rural communities, Biden announced $1 billion to fix aging rural infrastructure systems like electricity, water, and waste water systems that haven’t been updated in decades; $2 billion to help farmers fight climate change; $145 million for clean energy technologies like solar panels that will help lower electric bills; and $274 million for rural high-speed internet expansion.
The administration’s vision for rural America appears to be part of a larger vision for restoring competition to the U.S. economy and thus is closely tied to the administration’s push to break up monopolies. In July 2021, Biden promised to interpret antitrust laws in the way they had been understood traditionally, not as the U.S. government began to interpret them in the 1980s. Then, following the argument advanced by the solicitor general of the United States at the time, Robert Bork, the government concluded that economic consolidation was fine so long as it promoted economic efficiencies that, at least in the short term, cut costs for consumers. 
Biden vowed to return to the traditional understanding of antitrust principles championed by presidents all the way back to Theodore Roosevelt at the turn of the last century, arguing that protecting economic competition protects workers, promotes innovation, and keeps consumer prices down. To that, the coronavirus pandemic added an awareness of the need to protect supply chains. 
“Bidenomics is just another way of saying ‘the American Dream,’” Biden said. “Forty years ago, trickle-down economics limited the dream to those at the top. But I believe every American willing to work hard should be able to get a job, no matter where they live—in the heartland, in small towns—to raise their kids on a good paycheck and keep their roots where they grew up.” 
In contrast to Biden’s outreach to farmers, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is facing a dilemma over the nation’s next farm bill, which must be passed by the end of the year. According to Clark Merrefield of The Journalist’s Resource, Congress usually debates and renews the farm bill every five years, and the last one passed in 2018. 
Farm bills include price support for farm products, especially corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, dairy, and sugar. It also includes crop insurance, conservation programs, and a wide variety of other agricultural programs, making the farm bill hugely popular in rural areas that focus on farming. 
Also included in the measure are nutritional programs for low-income Americans, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. SNAP serves 41 million low-income Americans, but as a member of the far-right Republican Study Committee, Johnson called for cutting SNAP benefits. Now his far-right colleagues are echoing his position, saying that the need to renew the farm bill is a great opportunity to make significant cuts to SNAP, especially since the farm bill is expected to bear a price tag of more than $1 trillion for the first time in our history. 
“I can’t imagine the Mike Johnson that we know would pass up the opportunity to secure as many conservative wins as possible in this farm bill,” a Republican aide told Meredith Lee Hill of Politico, “[a]nd that means serious SNAP reforms.” 
But even some Republicans—primarily those who hail from agricultural states—object to loading the farm bill up with the poison pill of SNAP cuts, knowing such a tactic would repel Democrats, whose votes will be necessary to pass the measure as far-right Republicans balk. 
It will take a deft hand to get the measure through Congress, and its failure at Johnson’s hands will infuriate hard-hit rural areas. It is one more thing to add to the new speaker’s to-do list, as the deadline for funding the government is looming. The continuing resolution funding the government at 2023 levels, the measure that cost Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) his speakership, expires in just over two weeks, on November 17.
Johnson’s willingness to load bills with poison pills that his conference likes showed today in the House’s passage of Republicans’ aid bill for Israel—Ukraine aid had been cut away—along with dramatic cuts to funding the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), a provision that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office warned would add to the deficit rather than reducing it. Knowing that the measure will not pass the Senate, a number of Democrats voted for it, likely to avoid attacks from conservative opponents. 
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says the Senate won’t even take up the House bill. Instead, the Senate continues to work on its own strongly bipartisan bill that ties together aid to Israel and Ukraine. 
As Kate Riga of Talking Points Memo put it, if the Senate continues to work in this bipartisan way, we will continue to see the same pattern we’ve seen throughout this Congress: “Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans and House Democrats all supporting more or less the same thing, with a chunk of House Republicans out on a branch alone.”
After an angry fight last night over Senator Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) holds on military promotions, in which Republican senators joined Democrats in confronting him, the Senate today confirmed General David Allvin to be Air Force chief of staff and Admiral Lisa Franchetti as chief of naval operations, by votes of 95 to 1. Franchetti is the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Wednesday’s fight appears to have been prompted by the hospitalization of acting Marines Commandant General Eric Smith after an apparent heart attack. Smith was holding down two high-level positions at once owing to Tuberville’s holds, and he had warned his schedule was “not sustainable.” Although the Pentagon says Tuberville is endangering national security, Tuberville insists that his hold on almost 400 military promotions is not hurting the military. 
The new additions mean there are no vacancies on the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the first time since July. 
LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
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mariacallous · 2 years ago
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Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, better known as Lula, stepped into his third term ready to rebuild Brazil’s international image, which had been largely diminished by his predecessor. And Lula has a guidebook to follow, not only from his two prior terms, but also from U.S. President Joe Biden’s ascension. From the Jan. 8 riots in Brasília to both countries reentering international organizations, Biden and Lula have fought—and will continue to fight—eerily similar battles. 
“Both Lula and Biden are presidents that are positioning themselves as leaders in the democratic world, defending democracy in the region, and with clear priorities on the agenda,” said Bruna Santos, director of the Brazil Institute at the Wilson Center.
During his first two terms as president, between 2003 and 2010, Lula set Brazil up as a major economic and political player on the world stage. Lula was a founding member of BRICS—a geopolitical bloc including Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—and attended its first formal summit in 2009, and Brazil was one of the leading voices calling for U.N. Security Council expansion during the Lula administration. Brazil’s relationships with its neighbors had never been better, with a wave of Lula allies elected into office throughout the region, including Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Argentina, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Hugo Chávez in Venezuela.
But things may not be so straightforward this time around. Despite the recent wave of leftist governments echoing the political tides of the early 2000s, instability has rocked Latin America in recent years, with worsening situations in Nicaragua and Venezuela, violent protests in Peru, and the devastating economic and social impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. The new “pink tide” will be far more turbulent than the first.
“It’s very early on to see how successful he’s going to be, but it’s not going to be the easy ride he had on the first pink tide, when everyone was on better terms,” said Cecilia Tornaghi, the senior director of policy at Americas Society/Council of the Americas. 
Deep political polarization was laid bare in two of the Western Hemisphere’s largest democracies during the violent Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in Washington and the Jan. 8, 2023, riots in Brasília. For both Biden and Lula, who each began their time in office amid the wreckage of stormed government buildings, this became an opportunity for further cooperation on strengthening democratic institutions. The United States will be hosting the second Summit for Democracy this month, which is focused on developing an agenda for democratic renewal, which Lula welcomed in his meeting with Biden in February.
“It’s a very positive initiative on the part of both to recognize the similarities and the threats to democracy, and their willingness to cooperate,” said James Green, a professor of Latin American history and Brazilian studies at Brown University. “It’s still to be determined how that will actually play out in practice.” 
But Lula’s image is also not the same as it once was. Lula was handed a 12-year jail sentence for a massive corruption scandal that took place during his first two terms in office. Although the sentence was short-lived and Lula maintains his innocence, the baggage of jail time has become a major point of concern for leaders who may not want to be associated with Lula’s past scandals.
“All the people that see him as a criminal or a former criminal will continue to,” Tornaghi said. “There’s nothing he can say that will change their views, so he doesn’t even try.”
Former U.S. President Donald Trump and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro turned their respective countries into pariahs on the international stage, causing tension with neighbors and turning their backs on multilateral organizations that did not flatter their nationalistic approaches to governing. If Bolsonaro and Trump were often compared while in office, what they left behind is also similar.
Both Bolsonaro and Trump threatened to withdraw from the World Health Organization at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, touting anti-COVID conspiracy theories and discouraging mask use. U.S. and Brazilian standing on the world stage suffered under the two leaders, with Trump and Bolsonaro ignoring—and sometimes railing against—climate issues. Bolsonaro’s threats to withdraw from the Paris climate accord followed Trump’s official withdrawal from the agreement in 2020, citing his “America First” policy.
One of Biden’s first acts as president was to re-enter the Paris Agreement, signaling U.S. commitment to environmental policies and a return to international engagement. Climate change, too, has been at the heart of Lula’s international strategy. Lula visited Washington in his first trip outside of Latin America in early February, following which Lula signaled that the United States is expected to join the Brazilian Development Bank-led Amazon Fund, which raises and directs investments to prevent and combat deforestation in the Amazon. 
“I think President Lula is prioritizing the right thing that can be the hook for the international community to work with Lula and to bring back Brazil as a leader in global affairs,” said Valentina Sader, Brazil lead at the Atlantic Council. “And that angle is climate.”
Brazil is home to 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest. The Amazon is a crucial carbon sink, which helps regulate both local and global climate. Under Bolsonaro, deforestation reached a record high, sparking concerns that the forest would never recover from the accelerating large-scale deforestation.
Within the region, Bolsonaro’s withdrawal from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), despite Brazil’s historic leadership in the organization, over criticism of leftist authoritarian countries within the organization, including Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, further isolated Brazil.
Lula has already taken a different approach, showing his willingness to engage with its traditional allies, strengthen cooperation in the region, and keep the door open to bring leaders such as Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro to the table.
“Lula is being Lula,” Tornaghi said. “What was the first thing he did? He went to CELAC in Argentina. He was celebrated like a rockstar in Argentina—concerts and everything, in his honor. Then he went to Uruguay, a center-right country, and had a great conversation with President Lacalle Pou.”
Santos also believes, given his strong democratic and diplomatic record, that “Lula might be an important moderator in the region when it comes to coordinating and moderating conversations with Venezuela and Nicaragua.” 
“Brazil has a clear path in foreign policy that went a little bit off track with Bolsonaro,” Santos said. “But there is a path of valuing multilateral organizations, regional dialogue, and finding diplomatic solutions for peace. Those are important values for Brazil’s foreign policy.”
That was reflected in Lula’s statements on the Russia-Ukraine war. He expressed his desire for a peaceful end to the conflict and has left the door open to a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin—much to the chagrin of Western leaders who are trying to ratchet up military support for Ukraine from the so-called global south.
“Brazil and Brazilian diplomacy tends to not take a side unless they absolutely have to,” Sader said. “The approach that the Lula administration is taking—and Bolsonaro had this kind of approach as well—is that we defend and want peace, but that needs to be done through diplomatic means.”
Trade is another area where Lula can mark a contrast to Bolsonaro. Brazil is one of the biggest forces inside the Mercosur trading bloc, which also includes Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Since 2019, the bloc’s Association Agreement with the European Union has been pending, and ratification is one of Lula’s foreign-policy priorities. After a 20-plus-year process, ratification must take place in both Europe and Mercosur member states to finally come into force. Despite holdouts like France, Lula’s Amazon-friendly stance may make ratification easier. Ratification has also taken on new urgency after Lula floated the idea of an agreement with South America’s largest trading partner, China, an attempt to soothe the rift among Mercosur leaders after Uruguay toyed with a bilateral deal with Beijing.
“Mercosur and the EU treaty are definitely the low-hanging fruit that he can show his chops on,” Tornaghi said.
But in order to achieve his objectives within Latin America, Lula will have to reckon not only with his own baggage and the debris left by the Bolsonaro administration, but with Brazil’s complicated role in Latin America as well. Many of its neighbors are wary of being engulfed by Brazil due to its massive territory, economy, and geopolitical influence. Linguistic differences have also long set Portuguese-speaking Brazil apart from the rest of the region. 
“Brazil needs to reconcile its soft power in the region,” Santos said. “Because of the language and recent history of our foreign policy in the region, we have to get that back on track and establish clearly that we are prioritizing the relationship of democratic nations that are committed to sustainable development in the Americas.”
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industrynewsupdates · 11 hours ago
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Molecular Cytogenetics Market: Key Insights and Growth Trends
The global molecular cytogenetics market was valued at USD 2.02 billion in 2022, and it is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.6% from 2023 to 2030. This substantial growth is driven by several key factors, including the increasing incidence of oncology cases, ongoing technological advancements in chromosome analysis tools, and the growing shift toward personalized medicine. Additionally, the rise in workshops and conferences focused on cytogenetic analysis is accelerating market expansion by fostering knowledge-sharing and technological adoption. For example, in April 2023, the University of Madras organized a hands-on workshop on genomic techniques in clinical diagnostics, which included a focus on cytogenetic analysis. Such events help spread awareness of the latest advancements and encourage greater use of molecular cytogenetics in healthcare and research.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also had a positive impact on the molecular cytogenetics industry, though in unexpected ways. The urgent global need for rapid and accurate diagnostic testing during the pandemic spurred significant advancements in molecular cytogenetics techniques. Researchers and healthcare providers urgently needed faster, more efficient methods for detecting genetic abnormalities linked to COVID-19, which led to the acceleration of genomic testing technologies. This urgency also advanced the development and implementation of cytogenetic methods that could rapidly identify viral mutations and genetic markers in both the virus and its human hosts.
Additionally, the pandemic highlighted the importance of genomic surveillance to track the spread of viruses, including mutations and variants of concern, such as the Delta and Omicron strains of the coronavirus. This has prompted increased investments in molecular cytogenetic research and the development of genomic infrastructure. As a result, the industry has made significant strides in viral genomics and transmission dynamics, which will continue to impact the broader cytogenetics market moving forward. 
Gather more insights about the market drivers, restrains and growth of the Molecular Cytogenetics Market
Regional Insights
North America
In 2022, North America held the largest share of the molecular cytogenetics market, with a revenue share of 45.97%. This dominance is primarily attributed to the presence of major local players, such as Agilent Technologies, Inc., alongside the region's advanced healthcare infrastructure. Other key drivers of growth in this region include:
• Increasing research funding: There has been a notable rise in financial support for research in molecular cytogenetics, which has bolstered the development of new technologies and applications.
• Growing awareness of advanced laboratory techniques: As medical professionals and researchers become more aware of cutting-edge diagnostic tools and techniques, the demand for molecular cytogenetic products has risen.
• High incidence of genetic and chronic diseases: The region has a high rate of genetic disorders and chronic diseases, which further drives the need for molecular cytogenetic testing. For instance, according to the CDC, approximately 6,000 babies are born with Down syndrome in the United States every year, emphasizing the need for genetic testing and early diagnosis.
• Regulatory environment: North America benefits from an efficient regulatory framework that supports the administration of genetic tests, creating a favorable environment for market growth. The established standards and regulatory bodies in the region help ensure the quality and safety of products, which contributes to their adoption in clinical settings.
Asia Pacific
The Asia Pacific region is expected to experience the fastest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the forecast period. Key factors contributing to the anticipated growth in this region include:
• Economic growth: The steady GDP growth in countries like China and India is expected to significantly improve consumer buying power. As the economic conditions improve, more healthcare investments are likely to flow into the molecular cytogenetics market.
• Workshops and interventions: Various educational workshops, conferences, and training programs in the region are helping to spread knowledge about molecular cytogenetics and advanced diagnostic techniques. These initiatives also foster collaboration and innovation in the field.
• Advancements in disease management: Ongoing improvements in the management of genetic and chronic diseases are encouraging the adoption of molecular cytogenetics. Many countries in the region are making strides in both healthcare infrastructure and disease management technologies.
• Increased awareness: Growing awareness about the importance of advanced therapies and diagnostic tools among the population is anticipated to drive demand. The region is seeing increased attention from both governments and private sector players to improve public health outcomes through better diagnostic solutions.
Browse through Grand View Research's Biotechnology Industry Research Reports.
• The global cancer stem cells market size was valued at USD 2.89 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.5% from 2024 to 2030.
• The global DNA & gene chip market size was valued at USD 9.96 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.3% from 2024 to 2030.
Key Companies & Market Share Insights
Several key companies dominate the global molecular cytogenetics market, focusing on strategic initiatives such as expansion, the development of innovative medical devices, and technological advancements. Partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions are common strategies used to enhance product offerings and expand market presence. For example, in June 2023, Oxford Gene Technology (OTG) entered into a partnership with Applied Spectral Imaging (ASI) to enhance OTG’s cytogenetic imaging and analysis solutions in Great Britain. This collaboration is expected to improve workflow automation and increase efficiency, enabling quicker and more accurate diagnostic decision-making.
Key Molecular Cytogenetics Companies
Some of the major players operating in the global molecular cytogenetics market include:
• BIOVIEW
• Danaher
• MetaSystems
• Agilent Technologies, Inc.
• Abbott
• Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.
• Illumina, Inc.
• Oxford Gene Technology
• F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd
• PerkinElmer Inc.
Order a free sample PDF of the Molecular Cytogenetics Market Intelligence Study, published by Grand View Research.
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misfitwashere · 2 days ago
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November 6, 2024
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
NOV 7
Yesterday, November 5, 2024, Americans reelected former president Donald Trump, a Republican, to the presidency over Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. As of Wednesday night, Trump is projected to get at least 295 electoral votes to Harris’s 226, with two Republican-leaning states still not called. The popular vote count is still underway.
Republicans also retook control of the Senate, where Democrats were defending far more seats than Republicans. Control of the House is not yet clear. 
These results were a surprise to everyone. Trump is a 78-year-old convicted felon who has been found liable for sexual assault and is currently under indictment in a number of jurisdictions. He refused to leave office peacefully when voters elected President Joe Biden in 2020, instead launching an unprecedented attack on the U.S. Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes, and said during his campaign that he would be a “dictator” on his first day in office.  
Pollsters thought the race would be very close but showed increasing momentum for Harris, and Harris’s team expressed confidence during the day. By posting on social media—with no evidence—that the voting in Pennsylvania was rigged, Trump himself suggested he expected he would lose the popular vote, at least, as he did in 2016 and 2020. 
But in 2024, it appears a majority of American voters chose to put Trump back into office. 
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, offered a message of unity, the expansion of the economic policies that have made the U.S. economy the strongest in the world in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and the creation of an “opportunity economy” that echoed many of the policies Republicans used to embrace. Trump vowed to take revenge on his enemies and to return the country to the neoliberal policies President Joe Biden had rejected in favor of investing in the middle class.
When he took office, Biden acknowledged that democracy was in danger around the globe, as authoritarians like Russian president Vladimir Putin and China’s president Xi Jinping  maintained that democracy was obsolete and must be replaced by autocracies. Russia set out to undermine the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that enforced the rules-based international order that stood against Russian expansion. 
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, who overturned democracy in his own country, explained that the historical liberal democracy of the United States weakens a nation because the equality it champions means treating immigrants, LGBTQ+ individuals, and women as equal to men, thus ending traditionally patriarchal society.
In place of democracy, Orbán champions “illiberal democracy,” or “Christian democracy.” This form of government holds nominal elections, although their outcome is preordained because the government controls all the media and has silenced opposition. Orbán’s model of minority rule promises a return to a white-dominated, religiously based society, and he has pushed his vision by eliminating the independent press, cracking down on political opposition, getting rid of the rule of law, and dominating the economy with a group of crony oligarchs. 
In order to strengthen democracy at home and abroad, Biden worked to show that it delivered for ordinary Americans. He and the Democrats passed groundbreaking legislation to invest in rebuilding roads and bridges and build new factories to usher in green energy. They defended unions and used the Federal Trade Commission to break up monopolies and return more economic power to consumers. 
Their system worked. It created record low unemployment rates, lifted wages for the bottom 80% of Americans, and built the strongest economy in the world in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, setting multiple stock market records.  But that success turned out not to be enough to protect democracy. 
In contrast, Trump promised he would return to the ideology of the era before 2021, when leaders believed in relying on markets to order the economy with the idea that wealthy individuals would invest more efficiently than if the government regulated business or skewed markets with targeted investment (in green energy, for example). Trump vowed to cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations and to make up lost revenue through tariffs, which he incorrectly insists are paid by foreign countries; tariffs are paid by U.S. consumers. 
For policies, Trump’s campaign embraced the Project 2025 agenda led by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which has close ties to Orbán. That plan calls for getting rid of the nonpartisan civil service the U.S. has had since 1883 and for making both the Department of Justice and the military partisan instruments of a strong president, much as Orbán did in Hungary. It also calls for instituting religious rule, including an end to abortion rights, across the U.S. Part of the idea of “purifying” the country is the deportation of undocumented immigrants: Trump promised to deport 20 million people at an estimated cost of $88 billion to $315 billion a year. 
That is what voters chose.
Pundits today have spent time dissecting the election results, many trying to find the one tweak that would have changed the outcome, and suggesting sweeping solutions to the Democrats’ obvious inability to attract voters. There is no doubt that a key factor in voters’ swing to Trump is that they associated the inflation of the post-pandemic months with Biden and turned the incumbents out, a phenomenon seen all over the world.
There is also no doubt that both racism and sexism played an important role in Harris’s defeat. 
But my own conclusion is that both of those things were amplified by the flood of disinformation that has plagued the U.S. for years now. Russian political theorists called the construction of a virtual political reality through modern media “political technology.” They developed several techniques in this approach to politics, but the key was creating a false narrative in order to control public debate. These techniques perverted democracy, turning it from the concept of voters choosing their leaders into the concept of voters rubber-stamping the leaders they had been manipulated into backing. 
In the U.S., pervasive right-wing media, from the Fox News Channel through right-wing podcasts and YouTube channels run by influencers, have permitted Trump and right-wing influencers to portray the booming economy as “failing” and to run away from the hugely unpopular Project 2025. They allowed MAGA Republicans to portray a dramatically falling crime rate as a crime wave and immigration as an invasion. They also shielded its audience from the many statements of Trump’s former staff that he is unfit for office, and even that his chief of staff General John Kelly considers him a fascist and noted that he admires German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
As actor Walter Masterson posted: “I tried to educate people about tariffs, I tried to explain that undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes and are the foundation of this country. I explained Project 2025, I interviewed to show that they supported it. I can not compete against the propaganda machines of Twitter, Fox News, [Joe Rogan Experience], and NY Post. These spaces will continue to create reality unless we create a more effective way of reaching people.” 
X users noted a dramatic drop in their followers today, likely as bots, no longer necessary, disengaged. 
Many voters who were using their vote to make an economic statement are likely going to be surprised to discover what they have actually voted for. In his victory speech, Trump said the American people had given him an “unprecedented and powerful mandate.” 
White nationalist Nick Fuentes posted, “Your body, my choice. Forever,” and gloated that men will now legally control women’s bodies. His post got at least 22,000 “likes.” Right-wing influencer Benny Johnson, previously funded by Russia, posted: “It is my honor to inform you that Project 2025 was real the whole time.” 
Today, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would launch the “largest mass deportation operation” of undocumented immigrants, and the stock in private prison companies GEO Group and CoreCivic  jumped 41% and 29%, respectively. Those jumps were part of a bigger overall jump: the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up 1,508 points in what Washington Post economic columnist Heather Long said was the largest post-election jump in more than 100 years. 
As for the lower prices Trump voters wanted, Kate Gibson of CBS today noted that on Monday, the National Retail Federation said that Trump’s proposed tariffs will cost American consumers between $46 billion and $78 billion a year as clothing, toys, furniture, appliances, and footwear all become more expensive. A $50 pair of running shoes, Gibson said, would retail for $59 to $64 under the new tariffs.
U.S. retailers are already preparing to raise prices of items from foreign suppliers, passing to consumers the cost of any future tariffs. 
Trump’s election will also mean he will no longer have to answer to the law for his federal indictments: special counsel Jack Smith is winding them down ahead of Trump’s inauguration. So he will not be tried for retaining classified documents or attempting to overthrow the U.S. government when he lost in 2020. 
This evening, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán posted on social media that he had just spoken with Trump, and said: “We have big plans for the future!” 
This afternoon, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at her alma mater, Howard University, to concede the election to Trump. 
She thanked her supporters, her family, the Bidens, the Walz family, and her campaign staff and volunteers. She reiterated that she believes Americans have far more in common than separating us.
In what appeared to be a message to Trump, she noted: “A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results. That principle as much as any other distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny, and anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it. At the same time in our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States, and loyalty to our conscience and to our God. 
“My allegiance to all three is why I am here to say, while I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fuels this campaign, the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness and the dignity of all people, a fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation, the ideals that reflect America at our best. That is a fight I will never give up.”
Harris urged people “to organize, to mobilize and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together.” She told those feeling as if the world is dark indeed these days, to “fill the sky with the light of a billion brilliant stars, the light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service,” and to let “that work guide us, even in the face of setbacks, toward the extraordinary promise of the United States of America.” 
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marketingreportz · 10 days ago
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Thermoset Molding Compound Market - Forecast(2024 - 2030)
Thermoset Molding Compound Market Overview
Thermoset Molding Compound Market size is projected to reach US$11.4 billion by 2027, after growing at a CAGR of 6.8% during the forecast period 2022–2027. Thermosetting molding compounds such as phenolic resins, epoxy resins, polyester resins, urea formaldehyde and melamine formaldehyde possess properties such as good electrical insulation, corrosion and heat resistance, which make them an ideal material for a variety of end-use applications. A thermoset molding compound is widely employed in the electrical & electronics industry. Since the global electrical & electronics industry is growing, it is supporting the thermoset molding compound industry growth. The Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) forecasted that the production by the global electronics and IT industries would grow by 2% year-on-year in 2020 to reach US$2,972.7 billion and would grow by 7% year on year in 2021 to reach a record US$3,175.6 billion. Factors such as the need for lighter weight in aerospace and transportation drive the growth of the thermosetting molding compound market. Several end-use industries in the Thermoset Molding Compound industry suffered negative effects as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic, which had a direct impact on the Thermoset Molding Compound market size in the year 2020.
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Thermoset Molding Compound Market Report Coverage
The “Thermoset Molding Compound Market Report — Forecast (2022–2027)” by IndustryARC, covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments in the Thermoset Molding Compound industry.
By Type: Phenolic Resins, Epoxy Resins, Polyester Resins, Urea Formaldehyde, Melamine Formaldehyde and Others. By End-use Industry: Automotive [Passenger Vehicles (PV), Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) and Heavy Commercial Vehicles (HCV)], Aerospace (Commercial Aircrafts, Military Aircrafts and Others), Electrical & Electronics (Antennas, Circuit Breakers, Switchgears and Others) and Others. By Geography: North America (the USA, Canada and Mexico), Europe (the UK, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium and the Rest of Europe), Asia-pacific (China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, Indonesia, Taiwan, Malaysia and the Rest of APAC), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile and the Rest of South America) and the Rest of the World (the Middle East and Africa).
Key Takeaways
Asia-pacific dominates the Thermoset Molding Compound market, owing to the increase in investment in the electronics sector and transportation infrastructure in Asia-pacific. This increase can be attributed to the increasing per capita income and growing population in Asia-pacific.
The market is expanding as a result of the positive attributes of Thermoset Molding Compounds, such as their anti-corrosiveness, increased heat resistance and toughness, which make them ideal for use in electrical and electronic applications.
The emergence of nanotechnology, these compounds’ superior performance in comparison to their alternatives and the surge in interest in lightweight and fuel-efficient cars offer the sector promising growth prospects.
However, it is estimated that the high investment cost of Thermoset Molding Compounds may impede the expansion during the forecast period.
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Thermoset Molding Compound Market Segment Analysis — by Type
The phenolic resins segment held a significant share in the Thermoset Molding Compound market share in 2021 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 6.9% during the forecast period 2022–2027, due to their improved properties. Phenolic resins are appropriate for use in insulation due to their low thermal conductivity. Due to its water resistance, high thermal stability and fire resistance, phenolic resin is used as a permanent binder and adhesive for wooden building panels as well as a binder for mineral wool insulation. By altering the manufacturing catalyst, phenolic resin’s properties can be altered for each application. As a result, the demand for phenolic resin-based Thermoset Molding Compound is on a significant upsurge, thereby driving segmental growth.
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Thermoset Molding Compound Market Segment Analysis — by End-use Industry
The electrical & electronics segment held a significant share in the Thermoset Molding Compound market share in 2021 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.4% during the forecast period 2022–2027. The electrical and electronics industries benefit from thermoset molding compounds such as phenolic resins, epoxy resins, polyester resins, urea formaldehyde and melamine formaldehyde because they effectively insulate against electricity and heat. A strong molding material with strong dielectric properties, thermal shock resistance, corrosion resistance, arc resistance and electrically insulating properties is required for parts like circuit breakers, electrical enclosures or housings, covers, relays, switches, insulators and motor components. Furthermore, various electrical & electronic products such as covers, housings and circuit breakers require a molding material that protects sensitive internal electronics and components. This is accelerating the demand for Thermoset Molding Compound in the industry, which is subsequently propelling the segment growth.
Thermoset Molding Compound Market Segment Analysis — by Geography
Asia-pacific held the largest Thermoset Molding Compound market share of up to 42% in 2021, owing to the bolstering growth of the electrical & electronics sector in Asia-pacific. For instance, the consumer electronics and home appliance sector in India generated $9.84 billion in revenue in 2021 and is projected to grow to US$21.18 billion by 2025, according to the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF). The global electronics industry is expected to produce 7% more in 2021 than it did in 2020, reaching US$3,175.6 billion, according to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA). China’s electronic information manufacturing sector experienced steady growth in revenue and profits last year, according to the February 2022 report. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, operating revenue for the sector reached approximately 14.1 trillion yuan (roughly $2.2 trillion) in 2021, an increase of 14.7 percent from the previous year. With the increasing electrical & electronics production, the demand for molding materials significantly increased, which accelerated the demand for Thermoset Molding Compound in Asia-pacific.
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Thermoset Molding Compound Market Drivers
Increasing Automobile Production:
Thermoset Molding Compound provides lightweight materials for use in automotive manufacturing. The high-end vehicle manufacturers use carbon fiber composites to provide an enhanced finish. According to the Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), German passenger car and light commercial vehicle OEM generated foreign market revenue of EUR 274 billion in 2021, an increase of ten percent over 2020. The International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA) estimates that heavy truck production in Europe increased by 31%, from 236,328 units in 2020 to 308,300 units in 2021. India’s domestic automobile production increased between FY16 and FY20 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.36 percent, with 26.36 million vehicles produced in FY20, according to the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF). With the increasing automobile production, the demand for lightweight automotive components is also increasing, thereby acting as a driver for the Thermoset Molding Compound market during the forecast period.
Flourishing Aerospace Sector:
In the aerospace industry, Thermoset Molded internal components are used within the cabins of civilian, commercial and military aircraft as they aid in making aircraft lightweight. The demand for aircraft is on an upsurge in various regions. According to Boeing’s current business forecast, the Middle East would need 2,520 new aircraft by 2030. Also, according to Boeing India, there is a demand for 2,300 aircrafts worth US$320 billion over the next 20 years. According to Boeing, in 2020, 8,995 aircraft fleets were delivered in North America. It is estimated to reach 10,610 fleets by 2039. Considering the importance associated with lightweight airplanes, it is expected that the increasing aerospace industry would act as a driver for the Thermoset Molding Compound market.
Thermoset Molding Compound Market Challenge
Fluctuating Raw Material Prices:
The raw materials often used for the production of Thermoset Molding Compounds are the downstream products of crude oil, such as epoxy resins. During the previous few years, the price of crude oil has been extremely volatile. The price of Brent crude oil has increased from US$43.73/bbl in 2016 to US$71.31/bbl in 2018 and then decreased to US$64.21/bbl in 2019 and US$41.84/bbl in 2020, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. The volatility in the price of oil has caused fluctuation in the prices of raw materials for the manufacturing of thermoset molding compounds. Thus, the fluctuation in the price of crude oil has a direct influence on the price of the Thermoset Molding Compounds, which is a significant challenge for the market during the forecast period.
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Thermoset Molding Compound Industry Outlook
Technology launches, acquisitions and R&D activities are key strategies adopted by players in the Thermoset Molding Compound market. The top 10 companies in the Thermoset Molding Compound market are:
Ashland Global Holding Inc.
BASF SE
Eastman Chemical Company
Evonik Industries AG
Hexion Inc.
Huntsman Corporation
Kolon Industries Inc.
Kyocera Chemical Corporation
Plastics Engineering Company
Rogers Corporation
Recent Developments
In March 2021, BASF announced a partnership with Sumitomo (SHI) Demag to create the first fully-automated, all-electric injection moulding cell for new high-performance polymer manufacturing.
In April 2020, Evonik announced the completion of the Marl expansion of its polyamide plant. The substance also combines quality and performance with excellent parameter estimation, uses very little water, has great structural correctness and has excellent UV resistance.
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darkmaga-returns · 17 days ago
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The following is an excerpt from Dr. Ramesh Thakur’s book, Our Enemy, the Government: How Covid Enabled the Expansion and Abuse of State Power.
Africa and the pandemic panic: Facts not fear
Africa is at risk of getting the worst of both worlds: failure to check the epidemic and failure to check economic collapse. Why?
First, because of a lack of state capacity, most African countries lack the administrations and health systems to implement and enforce “test, isolate, treat, and trace” regimes. What exactly does social distancing mean if you live in sprawling informal settlements that characterise almost all major cities in the developing world. Second, the dominance of the informal sectors and extreme dependence on daily wages to keep families afloat mean that economic disasters will deepen the misery of millions and multiply illnesses and deaths.https://read.amazon.com/kp/card?asin=B0CL99S2K6&preview=inline&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_QDM55S6EBAEXSSD67K1H
SARS-CoV-2 emerged through a chain not yet fully grasped in Wuhan, China and hitched a ride on the world’s flyways to insinuate itself into the very interstices of globalisation and spread rapidly to Iran, Europe, and North America. As at 15 May, the total number of Covid-19 (the disease caused by the virus) cases was 4.5 million and over 300,000 people had died with it worldwide. By any criterion, that is a serious pandemic.
But in perspective, the annual global deaths from leading causes is: coronary diseases 8.7 million, stroke 6.2 million, lung cancers and diseases 4.8 million, influenza and pneumonia 3.2 million, diabetes 1.6 million, and diarrhoea and tuberculosis 1.4 million each. So coronavirus does not represent the end of the world. People suffer but endure. This virus too shall pass and indeed is on the way down almost everywhere.
As of 13 May, the total number killed with Covid-19 in the 55 countries that make up the African Union was 2,382, or an average of 43 and a median of just 10 deaths per country. Algeria and Egypt are the only countries to record over 500 deaths. If we exclude them, the average falls to 1.3 deaths/week per country. That should not be enough to make it even to the inside pages of most newspapers, let alone disrupt life as we know it through massive shutdowns.
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