#ms office 2016

[vividotg]

Install and running Microsoft Office 2016 Excel Word power point Desktop PC on exagear windows emulator on android

[kringelorde]

I wish steve jobs was real so I could beat him to death with hammers for what he's done to the language, aesthetics, and general culture surrounding technology. "app" shut the fuck up it's a program, it's a piece of software you fucking clown I'll fucking kill you

[bittutech]

S.P Group of Institute (Best Computer Institute)

MS-Office (Microsoft Office Shortcut keys) जब हम MS-Office का उपयोग करते हैं, तो अधिकतर लोग माउस का सहारा लेते हैं, लेकिन क्या आप जानते हैं कि शॉर्टकट कीज का उपयोग करके आप अपने काम को और भी तेजी से और कुशलता से कर सकते हैं? MS-Word, MS-Excel, MS-PowerPoint, और MS-Access में शॉर्टकट कीज का सही तरीके से उपयोग न केवल आपके समय की बचत करता है, बल्कि आपकी उत्पादकता को भी कई गुना बढ़ा देता है। इस ब्लॉग…

[angofwords]

I've already seen a ton of posts referring to Kamala Harris by her first name exclusively and I hate it. It pissed me off back in 2016 when the race was "Trump" versus "Hillary," and it's looking like we'll have a repeat in "Trump" verses "Kamala."

It's flat-out disrespectful. With Clinton, people justified it by suggesting that it made the distinction between the candidate and her husband, but we all knew which Clinton was running for office, right? No one would think we meant Bill. Now, we don't even have that, and yet Harris has repeatedly been referred to by her first name, both here on Tumblr by supporters and in the media, where support is less clear.

We don't need to be informal because she's a woman. We don't need to underscore her female-ness as she runs for office any more than we've ever needed to underscore a candidate's male-ness. It's disrespectful to be more casual with female candidates because it makes them seem lesser. There's a reason you call an adult Mr or Ms Whatever and yet call their kid by their first name.

It's a social hierarchy, and by using Harris's first name, you're sending out a message that she commands less respect.

[simply-ivanka]

Trump and the Lawfare Implosion of 2024

Will his prosecution end up putting him back in the White House?

Wall Street Journal

By Kimberley A. Strassel

What’s that old saying about the “best-laid plans”? Democrats banked that a massive lawfare campaign against Donald Trump would strengthen their hold on the White House. As that legal assault founders, they’re left holding the bag known as Joe Biden.

In Florida on Tuesday, Judge Aileen Cannon postponed indefinitely the start of special counsel Jack Smith’s classified-documents trial. The judge noted the original date, May 20, is impossible given the messy stack of pretrial motions on her desk. The prosecution is fuming, while the press insinuates—or baldly asserts—that the judge is biased for Mr. Trump, incompetent or both. But it is Mr. Smith and his press gaggle who are living in legal unreality, attempting to rush the process to accommodate a political timeline.

What did they expect? Mr. Smith waited until 2023 to file legally novel charges involving classified documents, a former president, and a complex set of statutes governing presidential records. The pretrial disputes—some sealed for national-security reasons—involve weighty questions about rules governing the admission of classified documents in criminal trials, discovery, scope and even whether Mr. Smith’s appointment as special counsel was lawful. Judge Cannon notes the court has a “duty to fully and fairly consider” all of these, which she believes will take until at least July. This could push any trial beyond the election.

Mr. Smith’s indictments in the District of Columbia, alleging that Mr. Trump plotted to overturn the 2020 election, have separately gone to the Supreme Court, where the justices are determining whether and when a former president is immune from criminal prosecution for acts while in office. A decision on the legal question is expected in June, whereupon the case will likely return to the lower courts to apply it to the facts. That may also mean no trial before the election.

A Georgia appeals court this week decided it would review whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can continue leading her racketeering case against Mr. Trump in light of the conflict presented by her romantic relationship with the former special prosecutor. The trial judge is unlikely to proceed while this major issue is pending, and the appeals process could take up to six months.

Which leaves the lawfare crowd’s last, best hope in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s muddled charges on that Trump 2016 “hush money” deal with adult-film star Stormy Daniels. That case was a mess well before Judge Juan Merchan allowed Ms. Daniels to provide the jury Kama-Sutra-worthy descriptions of her claimed sexual tryst with Mr. Trump, during which she intimated several times that the encounter was nonconsensual.

Mr. Trump is charged with falsifying records, not sexual assault, and even the judge acknowledged the jury heard things that “would have been better left unsaid.” He tried to blame the defense for not objecting enough during her testimony, but it’s the judge’s job to keep witnesses on task. Judge Merchan refused a Trump request for a mistrial, but his openness to issuing a “limiting instruction” to the jury—essentially an order to unhear prejudicial testimony—is an acknowledgment that things went off the rails. If Mr. Trump is convicted, it’s also a strong Trump argument for reversal on appeal.

Little, in short, is going as planned. The lawfare strategy from the start: pile on Mr. Trump in a way that ensured Republicans would rally for his nomination, then use legal proceedings to crush his ability to campaign, drain his resources, and make him too toxic (or isolated in prison) to win a general election. He won the nomination, but the effort against him is flailing, courtesy of an echo chamber of anti-Trump prosecutors and journalists who continue to indulge the fantasy that every court, judge, jury and timeline exists to dance to their partisan fervor.

These own goals are striking. Mr. Smith wouldn’t be facing delays if he’d acknowledged up front the important constitutional question of presidential immunity, or if he’d sought an indictment for obstruction of justice and forgone charging Mr. Trump with improperly handling classified documents, which gets into legally complicated territory. The federal charges might carry more weight with the public had Mr. Bragg refrained from bringing a flimsy case that makes the whole effort look wildly partisan. And Ms. Willis’s romantic escapades have turned her legal overreach into a reality-TV joke.

Democrats faced a critical choice last year: Try to win an election by confronting the real problem of a weak and old president presiding over unpopular far-left policies, or try to rig an outcome by embracing a lawfare stratagem. They chose the latter. Perhaps a court will still convict Mr. Trump of something, although that could play either way with the electorate. Lawfare as politics is a very risky business.

[insanityclause]

The Night Manager will be returning for two more seasons with Tom Hiddleston at the helm once again, it has been reported.

The renewal of the hit adaptation of John le Carré’s 1993 novel, which aired to great fanfare eight years ago, has been greenlit by Amazon Prime and the BBC, according to Deadline.

It is understood that the new seasons about the hotel-manager-turned-spy will be filmed later this year in London and South America.

According to reports, David Farr – who wrote the original series – has been brought back to write season two.

The first series, which won two Emmys and three Golden Globes, featured an impressive cast including Olivia Colman, Elizabeth Debicki, Tom Hollander and David Harewood.

It followed Hiddleston as Jonathan Pine, the former British soldier who is recruited by the manager of a Foreign Office taskforce to infiltrate an arms dealer’s inner circle while he is the night manager of a luxury Cairo hotel.

The series quickly became one of the top-rated UK dramas of 2016 and spawned a number of subsequent le Carré adaptations from The Ink Factory, the production company run by le Carré’s sons Simon and Stephen Cornwell.

The new adaptation will be set in the present day, according to Deadline, and will follow Hiddleston’s Pine facing a new and more deadly challenge after being informed that arms dealer Richard Roper – played by Hugh Laurie – is dead.

Laurie, Colman and Hiddleston all won Golden Globes for their performances in the 2016 spy thriller, which became an international success and even led to rumours at the time that Hiddleston, 43, could be the next James Bond.

While the Bond rumours may have been put to bed, it remains to be seen where the plot may take Pine, seeing as Le Carré‘s novel has no sequel.

When Laurie was asked in 2016 whether the series would return, he said: “It’s based on a novel, we’ve got to the end of the novel and John le Carré has yet to write another novel. So in cold practical terms, no, we’re done.”

Le Carré, who died in 2020, took a very hands-off approach to the first series, but was said to be pleasantly surprised by the alterations Farr made to his novel for the script.

Charlotte Moore, the BBC TV chief, told The Telegraph in 2017 that “Le Carré is very involved” in discussions about the next series, saying: “We wouldn’t be talking with them if he didn’t think it was a good idea.”

Announcing the new series, Ms Moore said: “After years of fervent speculation I’m incredibly excited to confirm that The Night Manager is returning to the BBC for two more series.”

“Of course he wants to take part in it, it’s his work. He will definitely be involved in what we do next,” she added.

The Telegraph has contacted Le Carré’s estate for comment on the announcement of the new seasons.

Previously, Susanne Bier, who won an Emmy for directing the first series, revealed that scripts for a second instalment were “slowly being developed”, but she said writers were wary about being able to create the same hit again.

Elizabeth Debicki, Tom Hiddleston, Susanne Bier and Hugh Laurie at the premiere of the first season

Elizabeth Debicki, Tom Hiddleston, Susanne Bier and Hugh Laurie at the premiere of the first season Credit: Michael Tran/FilmMagic

Farr agreed with this sentiment at the time, telling Variety in 2016 that he was “not keen” to do a second series, adding: “I liked the fact that the story ended where the story ended.

“But that’s entirely personal. Given the characters, there is a potential for something more to happen, and I’m sure someone could find the right idea. But for me it’s done. My simple feeling is that I wouldn’t be able to make the next one as good.”

Hiddleston, 43, will be returning to executive produce the new seasons as well as play Pine.

The British actor said: “The first series of The Night Manager was one of the most creatively fulfilling projects I have ever worked on. The depth, range and complexity of Jonathan Pine was, and remains, a thrilling prospect.”

Simon and Stephen Cornwell said season one proved “a landmark moment for the golden era of television – uniting on-screen and behind-the-camera talent at the top of their game – and an audience reception which was beyond our wildest imagining”.

“Revisiting the story of Pine also means going beyond the events of John le Carré’s original work: that is a decision we have not taken lightly, but his compelling characters and the vision David [Farr] has for their next chapter were irresistible,” they added.

Vernon Sanders, the Amazon MGM Studios head of television, added: “We are elated to bring additional seasons of The Night Manager to our Prime Video customers.

“The combination of terrific source material, the wonderful team at The Ink Factory, a great writer in David Farr, an award-winning director in Georgi Banks-Davies, as well as the talented cast truly make the series the full package.”

[contemplatingoutlander]

It appears that Mexico is now the 60th UN member nation who has had a woman as head of state.

It just goes to show how the U.S. is still a very sexist culture. I've always believed that a major reason that Hillary didn't win the electoral vote in 2016 was that too many Americans felt uncomfortable having a highly qualified woman in the Oval Office.

Anyway. Congratulations to Mexico! Below are some excerpts from the NY Times article:

Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won her nation’s elections on Sunday in a landslide victory that brought a double milestone: She became the first woman, and the first Jewish person, to be elected president of Mexico. Early results indicated that Ms. Sheinbaum, 61, prevailed in what the authorities called the largest election in Mexico’s history, with the highest number of voters taking part and the most seats up for grabs. It was a landmark vote that saw not one, but two, women vying to lead one of the hemisphere’s biggest nations. And it will put a Jewish leader at the helm of one of the world’s largest predominantly Catholic countries. Ms. Sheinbaum, a leftist, campaigned on a vow to continue the legacy of Mexico’s current president and her mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, which delighted their party’s base — and raised alarm among detractors. The election was seen by many as a referendum on his leadership, and her victory was a clear vote of confidence in Mr. López Obrador and the party he started. Mr. López Obrador has completely reshaped Mexican politics. During his tenure, millions of Mexicans were lifted out of poverty and the minimum wage doubled. But he has also been a deeply polarizing president, criticized for failing to control rampant cartel violence, for hobbling the nation’s health system and for persistently undercutting democratic institutions. Still, Mr. López Obrador remains widely popular and his enduring appeal propelled his chosen successor. And for all the challenges facing the country, the opposition was unable to persuade Mexicans that their candidate was a better option.

[edited]

[tomorrowusa]

Right now is the time to get involved in the defeat of America's most dangerous enemy since the Cold War.

The traditional election season, starting on Labor Day, is a thing of the distant political past. And considering the magnitude of the threat to democracy, even waiting for the end of the primary season may be too late.

The worst president in our history is, arguably, stronger within the leadership ranks of the Republican Party than he has ever been. He is now the most dangerous presidential candidate in U.S. history. As a consequence, the great question before the rest of us is whether enough of us are ready to do whatever is necessary to defeat this threat as we have all those that have come before. Sadly, there is reason to believe that this time we may not meet the challenge. Right now, Donald Trump is one of two people who could be our next president. The race, at the moment, between him and President Joe Biden, is too close to call.

The people with their heads up their ass over Biden's age are either hypocrites or dissemblers. On Inauguration Day 2025, Donald Trump will be 95.66% of Joe Biden's age. And Trump will also be older in January of 2025 than Biden was upon assuming office in 2021. Biden may have a lifelong stutter but he is still grounded in reality in a way the narcissistic nepo baby Donald Trump never was.

Joe Biden by any objective metric has been one of the most successful presidents in modern U.S. history. He has led the creation of more major legislative initiatives benefiting the American people than any president in 60 years. He oversaw the creation of more than 14 million jobs during his first three years in office. He has brought down inflation and reduced the prices of vital medicines to affordable levels. He has restored American leadership worldwide, expanded our vital alliances like NATO, and stood up to our enemies. All presidents face challenges and make missteps. But it is hard to deny that in the wake of the U.S. economic recovery, the passage of the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, the CHIPs and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, the expansion of NATO, and the creation of new Indo-Pacific alliances, Biden’s record is formidable. That a president with this record is in a horse race with a candidate who is a menace to the country, who led an insurrection, who is a pathological liar whom courts have found to be a fraud and a rapist, and who has no real ideas, no credible policy proposals, no record of actually ever achieving anything for the American people is chilling.

In normal times, over 40% of US voters would NOT pick a notorious sex offender for president. But these are not normal times.

You would have thought that the sight of mobs carrying Trump flags and weapons and chanting for the death of Vice President Mike Pence on January 6, 2021, would have been alarm enough. You would have thought the same of Trump’s Access Hollywood tape, in which he confessed his impulse to abuse women. You would have thought the two dozen women who accused him of abuse would have had that effect. Even if none of those things were quite warning enough, you would have thought the findings in the E. Jean Carroll case would have been enough. After all, respected federal judge Lew Kaplan wrote, “The fact that Mr. Trump sexually abused—indeed, raped—Ms. Carroll has been conclusively established and is binding in this case.” It should have been enough. But so far, it has not been.

And who would have thought that the party of Ronald Reagan is now led by a stooge of the Evil Empire?

You would have thought that Trump reaching out on national television to our Russian adversaries for aid during the 2016 campaign would have been enough. You would have thought the conclusive findings of every major U.S. intelligence agency that Russia sought to aid Trump’s campaign would have been enough. You would have thought that Robert Mueller’s finding 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice by Trump would have been enough. You would have thought Trump kowtowing to Vladimir Putin and taking his word over that of our intelligence and law enforcement communities would have been enough. You would have thought his illegally withholding aid to Ukraine to seek dirt on Joe Biden would have been enough. You would have thought his impeachment for that would have been enough.

Are you willing to spend more time and money than in previous election cycles to end a major threat to Western democracy and to undermine homegrown fascism for at least the rest of this decade?

So, ask yourself, is that enough to make you do more than you have done? Is that enough to commit for the next 10 months to do more than you have ever done during an election year? To give more? To canvas more? To spread the word more? To help get voters to the polls? To ensure every member of your family, your friends, your co-workers do the same? The stakes are too high to do less than everything you can.

I rarely quote Margaret Thatcher and would probably disagree with at least 90% of her views. But she did know something about winning elections and combating the USSR. If she was good for just one thing, it's for this observation in a speech made in her retirement.

[N]o battles are ever finally won; you have to go on winning them by example and by being prepared to defend your way of life against those who would attack it.

If we learn just one thing from the Trump threat, it's that we can never rest on our past laurels. A slacker democracy is one which will not outlast a determined demagogue.

Civic involvement by pro-democracy citizens is absolutely necessary to maintain freedom.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

NYT: Harris Campaign’s Legal Team Takes Shape as Election Battles Heat Up

Nick Corasantini at NYT:

Amid threats of certification battles and mass voter challenges, Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign has assembled an expansive senior legal team that will oversee hundreds of lawyers and thousands of volunteers in a sprawling operation designed to be a bulwark against what Democrats expect to be an aggressive Republican effort to challenge voters, rules and, possibly, the results of the 2024 election.

The legal apparatus within the Harris campaign will oversee multiple aspects of the election program, including voter protection, recounts and general election litigation, and it is adding Marc Elias, one of the party’s top election lawyers, to focus on potential recounts. The legal group is headed by Bob Bauer, who served as personal counsel to President Biden for years, and Dana Remus, the general counsel to the 2020 Biden campaign, and also includes Maury Riggan, the general counsel for the Harris campaign. Josh Hsu, formerly from the vice president’s office, will join the team, and Vanita Gupta, a former director of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and a top Biden Justice Department official, is an informal adviser. The campaign will also lean on the top lawyers at three prominent law firms — Seth Waxman, Donald Verrilli and John Devaney — to handle litigation, and deploy local counsel to eight battleground states and four other states of interest.

Mr. Elias, who has had tensions with Mr. Bauer and other Democratic lawyers in the past, will also bring lawyers from his growing firm, Elias Law Group. He has also previously worked for Ms. Harris, serving as general counsel for her primary campaign in 2020. Ms. Remus said in a statement that the legal team had been working “uninterrupted over the last four years, building strategic plans in key states, adding more talent and capacity, and preparing for all possible scenarios.” “This year, like in 2020, we have the nation’s finest lawyers at the table, ready to work together tirelessly to ensure our election will be free, fair and secure — and to ensure that all eligible voters will be able to cast their ballots, knowing their votes will be counted,” Ms. Remus said.

The origins of the effort date back to July 2020, when Walter Dellinger, a former acting solicitor general, called top officials on Mr. Biden’s legal team saying they needed to create “something we’ve never created before,” because the Trump campaign and its allies were beginning to bring cases and lay the groundwork for litigation. With the lessons of 2020 still fresh in Democrats’ minds, Harris advisers claim that the legal team is about 10 times the size of the 2020 operation. The expansive new Democratic legal team, and the opposing group at the Republican National Committee, is a reflection of the legal arms race that is the new reality of American elections since Mr. Trump’s election victory in 2016. The battle over whose votes count — not just how many votes are counted — has become central to modern presidential campaigns.

[...] Democrats have been highlighting recent wins in many of the court battles as part of their effort to get ahead of voting issues. In Nevada, a judge dismissed a lawsuit in July filed by Republicans challenging a state law that allows ballots arriving up to four days after Election Day to be counted. In Mississippi, a judge rejected a similar challenge from Republicans that ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive five days later should not be counted. And in June, a federal judge rejected an argument from Republicans that voter rolls in Nevada had significant inconsistencies, finding that the R.N.C. and the voter who filed the lawsuit did not have legal standing. Core to the Democratic legal effort is the party’s voter protection program, which operates as both a traditional assistance program to voters as well as the eyes and ears of the legal team to help counter any false claims of fraud or malfeasance.

Helmed by Meredith Horton, the program is focused on eight battleground states (Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and New Hampshire) as well as four states of interest (Florida, Virginia, Minnesota and Maine). The program has more than 100 staff members across those 12 states, they said, buttressed by hundreds more volunteers and thousands of poll monitors recruited by the party. “This program is one that we are building to meet this moment,” Ms. Horton said in an interview, calling it the largest of its kind in Democratic presidential campaign history.

The New York Times reports that the Kamala Harris campaign’s legal team has begun to form in anticipation for post-Election Day battles akin to 2020.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

July 23, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUL 24, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris continues her momentum toward the 2024 presidential election since President Joe Biden’s surprise announcement on Sunday that he would not accept the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination. 

Today more than 350 national security leaders endorsed Harris for president, noting that if elected president, “she would enter that office with more significant national security experience than the four Presidents prior to President Biden.” As vice president, she “has met with more than 150 world leaders and traveled to 21 countries,” the authors wrote, and they called out her work across the globe from her work strengthening partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region to her historic trip to Africa and her efforts to expand U.S. relationships with nations in the Caribbean and North Central America. In contrast to Harris, the letter said, “Trump is a threat to America’s national security.” 

Those signing the letter included former Central Intelligence Agency director Michael Hayden, former director of national intelligence James Clapper, national security advisors Susan Rice and Thomas Donilon, former secretaries of defense Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta, and former secretaries of state Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. 

In a New York Times op-ed today, former secretary of state Clinton praised Biden for his “decision to end his campaign,” which she called “as pure an act of patriotism as I have seen in my lifetime.” She went on to say that Vice President Harris “represents a fresh start for American politics,” offering a vision of an America with its best days ahead of it and, rather than “old grievances,” “new solutions.”

Clinton noted that her own political campaigns had seen her burned in effigy, but said, “It is a trap to believe that progress is impossible” and that Americans cannot overcome sexism and racism. After all, she pointed out, voters elected Black American Barack Obama in 2008, and she herself won the popular vote in 2016. “[A]bortion bans and attacks on democracy are galvanizing women voters like never before,” Clinton wrote, and “[w]ith Ms. Harris at the top of the ticket leading the way, this movement may become an unstoppable wave.”

Today, Harris held her first campaign rally, speaking to supporters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the Republicans held their national convention just last week. The energy from the 3000 people packed into the gym where she walked out to Beyoncé’s song “Freedom” was palpable. 

She began by thanking Biden and touting his record, then turned to noting that in her past as a prosecutor, California attorney general, U.S. senator from California, and vice president, she “took on perpetrators of all kinds—predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So,” she said, “hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump’s type.” She went on to remind the audience that Trump ran a for-profit college that scammed students, was found liable for committing sexual abuse, and “was just found guilty of fraud on 34 counts.” 

While Trump is relying on “billionaires and big corporations,” she said, “we are running a people-powered campaign” and “will be a people-first presidency.” The Democrats, she said, “believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by but to get ahead; a future where no child has to grow up in poverty; where every worker has the freedom to join a union; where every person has affordable health care, affordable childcare, and paid family leave. We believe in a future where every senior can retire with dignity.”

“[A]ll of this is to say,” she continued, “Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency. Because…when our middle class is strong, America is strong.”

In contrast, she said, Trump wants to take the country backward. She warned that he and his Project 2025 will “weaken the middle class,” cutting Social Security and Medicare and giving “tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations,” while “working families foot the bill.” “They intend to end the Affordable Care Act,” she said, “and take us back…to a time when insurance companies had the power to deny people with preexisting conditions…. Remember what that was like? Children with asthma, women who survived breast cancer, grandparents with diabetes. America has tried these failed economic policies before, but we are not going back. We’re not going back.”  

“[O]urs is a fight for the future,” she said “And it is a fight for freedom…. Generations of Americans before us led the fight for freedom.  And now…the baton is in our hands.”   

Meanwhile, MAGA Republicans are still scrambling for a plan of attack against Harris. One of their first angles has been the sexism and racism Clinton predicted, calling her “a DEI hire.” House Republican leaders have told fellow lawmakers to dial back the sexist and racist attacks. 

MAGA Republican representative Andy Ogles (R-TN) has taken a different angle: he introduced an impeachment resolution against Harris, while others are demanding that the House should investigate Harris and demand the Cabinet remove President Biden under the 25th Amendment. The Republican National Committee has decided to make fun of Harris’s laugh.

But concern in the Trump camp showed today when Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio shared with reporters a “confidential memorandum” trying to get ahead of polls he says will show Harris leading Trump. He said he expects to see a “Harris Honeymoon” that will end quickly. 

Trump has continued to post angrily on his social media feed but is otherwise sticking close to home. His lack of visibility highlights that the Republicans are now on the receiving end of the same age and coherence concerns they had used against Biden, and there might be more attention paid to Trump’s lapses now that Biden has stepped aside. CNN’s Kate Sullivan noted today, for example, that “Trump said he’d consider Jamie Dimon for Treasury secretary, but now says he doesn’t know who said that.” 

As Tim Alberta noted Sunday in The Atlantic, the Trump campaign tapped J.D. Vance in an attempt to harden the Republican base, only to find now that he cannot bring to the ticket any of the new supporters they suddenly need. 

According to Harry Enten of CNN, Vance is the first vice presidential pick since 1980 who has entered the race with a negative favorability rating: in his case, –6 points. Since 2000, the usual average is +19 points. Vance won his Senate seat in 2022 by +6 points in an election Republican governor Mike DeWine won by +25 points. Vance “was the worst performing Republican candidate in 2022 up and down the ballot in the state of Ohio,” Enten said. “The J.D. Vance pick makes no sense from a statistical polling perspective.”

Sarah Longwell of The Bulwark, who specializes in focus groups, noted that swing voters groups “simply do not like” Vance. “Both his flip flopping on Trump and his extreme abortion position are what breaks through,” she wrote. 

The 2024 election is not consuming all of the political oxygen, even in this astonishing week. Today, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that eight large companies must turn over information about the data they collect about consumers, product sales, and how the surveillance the companies used affected consumer prices. 

“Firms that harvest Americans’ personal data can put people’s privacy at risk. Now firms could be exploiting this vast trove of personal information to charge people higher prices,” FTC chair Lina M. Khan said. “Americans deserve to know whether businesses are using detailed consumer data to deploy surveillance pricing, and the FTC’s inquiry will shed light on this shadowy ecosystem of pricing middlemen.”

The eight companies are: Mastercard, Revionics, Bloomreach, JPMorgan Chase, Task Software, PROS, Accenture, and McKinsey & Co.

In the House, Republicans have been unable to pass the appropriations bills necessary to fund the 2025 U.S. budget, laced as they are with culture-wars poison pills the extremists demand. Today House members debated the appropriations bill for the Interior Department and the Environment which, among other things, bans the use of funds “to promote or advance critical race theory” or to require Covid-19 masks or vaccine mandates. 

According to the European climate service Copernicus, last Sunday was the hottest day in recorded history. The MAGA Republicans’ appropriations bill for Interior and the Environment calls for more oil drilling, fewer regulations on pollutants, no new regulations on vehicles, rejecting Biden’s climate change executive orders, and reducing the funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by 20%.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[steelbluehome]

Trigger Warning: American Politics

Why is anyone voting for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party?

The New Republic

"In fact, no Green Party candidate has ever won federal office. And Stein’s reign has been a period of indisputable decline, during which time the party’s membership—which peaked in 2004 at 319,000 registered members—has fallen to 234,000 today."

Slate

"Mohamed Almawri ...decided to become part of a bloc of Arab voters and cast a “conscience vote” in Michigan. For him, that means voting for Jill Stein.

“We’re going to make history as the Muslim community standing against a U.S.–funded genocide,” Almawri told me. “We’re holding this administration accountable,” ...“The value of defeating the Democratic Party makes Trump a price we’re willing to pay,” he said"

New York Times

"“We are not in a position to win the White House,” another speaker, Kshama Sawant, a former member of the Seattle City Council, told a crowd of about 100 inside an Arab American cultural center. “But we do have a real opportunity to win something historic. We could deny Kamala Harris the state of Michigan.” ...“I like her very much,” Mr. Trump said of Ms. Stein at a rally in June. “You know why? She takes 100 percent from them.” ...figures with ties to Mr. Trump and Republicans who have worked to help Ms. Stein secure ballot access.

In Wisconsin, a lawyer who was previously involved in lawsuits seeking to overturn the 2020 election results represented the Green Party. In New Hampshire, a veteran Republican operative submitted signatures for Ms. Stein.

Jay Sekulow, who defended Mr. Trump at his first impeachment trial, has worked on behalf of the Green Party in Nevada, a rare battleground where Democrats have successfully thwarted her.

“We have never knowingly received help from Republicans,” Ms. Stein said, a claim that Democrats find ludicrous. “Now, they might have done this once or twice, having kind of snuck in under the radar.”"

U.S. News and World Report

"Stein is ...targeting voters like me – progressives, and especially Arab Americans. In the battleground state of Michigan, there are at least 206,000 registered Muslim voters ...Stein recently asserted that “under Democrats, the anti-war movement goes to sleep.” On the contrary, the anti-war movement – led by progressive organizations like ours, Common Defense – successfully pressured President Joe Biden and the Democratic establishment to end the forever war in Afghanistan; advocated for Congress to reassert its War Powers Resolution authority; and has called for a cease-fire since the war began in Gaza last year. What has Stein achieved for the anti-war cause? Nothing.

Trump has never engaged with progressives or Muslim Americans, and that won’t change if he’s elected again. When he first campaigned in 2015, he called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” When he became president, he signed an executive order banning people from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S., blocking desperate families of refugees seeking asylum from wars and repressive governments in the Middle East and North Africa. At home, he boosted distrust and hate of Muslim Americans, repeating false claims that “thousands and thousands” of Arab Americans in New Jersey cheered on 9/11 as the twin towers came down.""

USA Today

""All you do is show up once every four years to speak to people who are justifiably pissed off, but you're just showing up once every four years to do that, you're not serious," AOC said. "To me, it does not read as authentic. It reads as predatory." ...The Green Party selected Stein as its presidential nominee in 2012, 2016, and 2024, ...Stein also ran unsuccessful third-party campaigns to become Massachusetts's governor in 2002 and 2010."

[fallout-lou-begas]

I have not tried to play modded new vegas since back during nexus mod manager. I used a computer running windows 7 until like, october of last year (my office still uses MS dos, win95, win98, xp and others for the ancient machines and writing reports, so my frame of refrence is fucked). Anyway, I used project nevada. I'm learning now that people dislike it these days? Im sure it's not being updated anymore, but could you explain what the problem with it is? I'm not interested in defending it, it's just that I have emerged from under a rock. Also, are there any equivalent mods that add the sort of "realistic" feeling where combat is harder and damage seems more meaningful (and also the first person goggles and shit)? I've been trapped in a bunker since like 2016

Project Nevada was really popular back in the day, but is considered very outdated and quite bloated by current modding standards and is the culprit behind a lot of performance issues. It gets an especial amount of flak because if you go to the New Vegas Nexus and sort by "Most Endorsed" or "Most Downloaded" of all time, it'll get recommended right at the top even though basically all of its features (sprinting, rebalance, loot scarcity, etc.) have been implemented by more lightweight, cleaner mods today.

Also, yes, absolutely.

NPCs Use Ammo

Simple AI Merge

Combat Enhancer Updated (NVSE)

Sweet Dynamic Detection System

Tactical Gameplay Modifications (highly recommended as an all-in-one damage overhaul for much more lethal, high-stakes combat that affects both the player and NPCs: my favorite aspect of it is that limbs take much more of the brunt of weapon damage, meaning that getting shot in the leg won't deal much HP damage, but your leg can be broken much more easily, enhancing the importance of aim and cover)

More Attentive NPCs and Creatures

Physics Based Ballistics (Bullet Drop)

General Animations: Realistic Movement and Dramatic Inertia

Combat Animations: Awesome Crippling Effects, Fetal Position Skeleton, Dramatic Staggering, and Better Stand-Up

Martialize: Unarmed Combat Maneuvers for NPCs

B42 Melee Bash

I've got detailed explanations of some of my favorite mods here, and my full mod list here. If you're looking to get back into modding New Vegas in 2024, check out the Viva New Vegas modding guide.

[beardedmrbean]

A court in Iran has sentenced the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi to an additional year in prison, her lawyer says.

The 52-year-old human rights activist was convicted of spreading “propaganda against the system” by a branch of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, Mostafa Nili wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

He said the reasons cited by the court included “comments about Ms Dina Qalibaf”, a student who alleged she was tortured and sexually assaulted by security forces, as well as her call to boycott March’s election and letters to Swedish and Norwegian MPs.

Ms Mohammadi had refused to attend the trial, denouncing it as “unjust and farcical”.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Iranian judiciary.

Narges Mohammadi's family said in a statement that she had now undergone six trials over the past three years and been convicted four times for “protesting, exposing, and narrating sexual harassment and abuse by government officials”.

This had resulted in a “cumulative sentence of 13 years and three months in prison, 154 lashes, exile, and four months of street cleaning”, they added.

Ms Mohammadi was already serving a 10-year sentence at Tehran’s Evin prison, handed down in 2016, when she was awarded the Nobel prize last October for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran”.

Last month, she had demanded that her latest trial be held in public so that witnesses and survivors could testify to what she alleged were "the sexual assaults perpetrated by the Islamic Republic regime against women”.

She said the propaganda charge was a result of a statement she had made in support of Dina Qalibaf, a student at Tehran’s Beheshti University and a freelance journalist.

In April, as authorities intensified a crackdown on women flouting Iran’s mandatory hijab laws in the wake of the 2022 nationwide protests, Ms Mohammadi had urged Iranians to stand against what she called the “war against women”.

In an audio recording released by her family, she called on women not to stay silent about abuse by security forces, but send their stories of "arrest, rape, harassment, humiliation and beatings" to her Instagram account.

The appeal, she said, was prompted by the “bruises and experience of sexual abuse” she had observed when Ms Qalibaf was brought to the women’s ward of Evin prison.

Ms Qalibaf was arrested a day after she posted an account on social media alleging that she had been subjected to electrical shocks by security forces and sexually assaulted by one officer at a Tehran metro station.

The judiciary-run Mizan news agency rejected Ms Qalibaf’s claims at the time. She was released on bail after two weeks in detention.

In December, a revolutionary court handed Ms Mohammadi an additional 15-month prison term after she was convicted in her absence of another charge of “propaganda against the system”, her family said.

She was also banished from Tehran for two years, and banned from travelling abroad, owning a mobile phone, or being a member of political and social groups for the same period.

[hazel-of-sodor]

Day 22-Succession

Traintober 2023

Other Stories

Day 22-Top Hatt

Succession

Autumn 2016

Edward simmered lazily outside Tidmouth Station, the crisp autumn air swirling around his boiler and down to his wheels pleasantly. He stretched slightly, sighing. His valve gear had to started to have minor aches lately, signaling that he wasn't far from an overhaul.

Finally, the back door to the Controller's Office opened and she stepped out.

Jane Hatt II, the newest Fat Controller, cut a striking figure in the traditional 3 piece suit and top hat. She had exchanged the black tie for one in North Western Blue with red lining. Rather than black, her pants and overjacket were a very deep blue, her undershirt a light purple in honor of her grandfather.

"You look splendid Ms.Hatt!" Edward said with feeling.

Jane shrugged, "It feels like I'm playing dress up." She said.

Edward chuckled, "Your father said much the same thing, and your grandfather too. I think that's why Charles chose purple instead of yellow, the difference made it feel more real to him."

"Rather than just playing at being his father." Jane guessed. 

"Exactly." 

"What was he like? The first I mean."

Edward blinked, "Topham?"

"Yes, Dad and Grandpa have told me about him but..." She hesitated.

"You wanna know from one of his engines, not his children."

"Yes."

Edward considered the question carefully, I'm honestly not sure there is all that much of a difference in later years honestly."

He looked at Jane seriously, "He was a serious but passionate man. He cared for us deeply, even early on, but...it was a very different time. Men were expected to be stronger, harsher...He had to learn how to be a controller, and he sometimes got it wrong in the early years."

"The tunnel incident."

Edward snorted, "Remind me to tell you what actually happened with all that when we have time. Topham was fair most of the time but had quite the temper when wronged.  He learned to control it in later years, but by then he had his reputation."

Edward paused, "I think the clearest image I can give you of his later years was the last time I saw him. He was taking your namesake for a picnic, and had come to talk to me while waiting for their trains." Edward closed his eyes, remembering, "He'd been having health problems for months but refused to let them slow him down...they finally caught up with him."

Edward took a deep breath, "He asked me to look after Charles, to help him as controller. He wasn't worried about himself, he was worried about his son having someone to turn to as Controller."

He looked at Jane seriously, "I have kept that promise to him ever since, from Charles to Stephen, and now to you."

He smiled suddenly, "He would have loved you, you know. You would have reminded him of Jane, who he always said was his better half. He often looked back at his early years as a controller far too harshly. He got us through the 20s and 30s, with all of us intact. No other controller could say that."

"So he would be okay with me being controller instead of Richard?"

Edward snorted, "He would be relieved. He'd have loved Richard too, but he reminds me of a young Thomas in all the wrong ways." he chuckled. 

"He would have been very proud of you, and proud of your brother for realizing you were the better fit."

Jane snorted, "If only the news agreed.,

"Just ignore them." Edward advised, "It's what he did."

She patted his buffer beam, "I'll keep that in mind. Thank you, Edward."

"Any time Ms. Hatt."

The fourth Fat Controller turned and walked towards the platform and her first day running the North Western Railway, collecting her Top Hatt from her office as she did so.

Edward happily closed his eyes and began to doze before his next train, confident they were in good hands.

[ukrfeminism]

The number of women dying from alcohol-related diseases has soared in recent years, new figures show, with experts blaming the rise on brands deliberately targeting marketing at women.

The latest data reveals the number of women who lost their lives this way in the UK increased by 37 per cent in five years – surging from 2,399 to 3,293 between 2016 and 2021 and marking the highest levels since records began.

While more men than women still die from alcohol-related diseases, the Office for National Statistics figures show deaths are rising substantially quicker for women than for men, with the latter seeing a 28 per cent in the same period – from 4,928 to 6,348.

Professor Debbie Shawcross, a professor of hepatology and chronic liver failure at King’s College London’s Institute of Liver Studies, said liver disease was a particular problem in female patients. 

“Women tend to present with more severe liver disease, particularly alcohol-related hepatitis, and do so after a shorter period of excessive drinking and at a lower daily alcohol intake than men,” she said. “This can be accounted for by differences in body size and composition – less muscle mass.”

Richard Piper, chief executive of the charity Alcohol Change, claimed the main factor causing the surge is the “incessant marketing of drinks towards women” as he called for stricter regulation of alcohol advertising.

Abigail Wilson, from WithYou, a drug, alcohol and mental health charity, described the rise in women dying from alcohol-related liver disease as “very concerning” as she argued alcohol was as damaging as heroin and crack cocaine. “Women generally are less likely to die of alcohol-related causes than men. There is always a gap there but the gap is closing, and that is really concerning.”

The Independent can also report that:

The number of deaths among women attributed to alcohol-related liver disease in England increased from 1,533 to 2,190 deaths between 2015 and 2021 – a 42 per cent rise

The total number of male deaths linked to alcohol-related liver disease climbed by 34 per cent to 3,870 deaths in the same timeframe

Recent research from 33 countries found that British women are the biggest female binge drinkers

Exclusive polling from WithYou shows almost two-thirds of those who seek support online are women, with more than half seeking support for their alcohol use

Roxanne Knighton, who lives in Staffordshire, told The Independent of the pain of losing her mother Melanie to alcohol-related liver disease in March 2022. She was diagnosed with the illness in her late forties.

“All the earliest memories were mum drinking,” the 34-year-old recalled. “She was alcohol dependent – it made her function.”

Ms Knighton said her mother never went to the doctor and was in denial about her drinking. So Ms Knighton made the call instead. 

“It was me who called the doctors as she couldn’t get up off the sofa – she was full of fluid,” she added. “It had gone into her belly, she had to be drained, they got 12 litres from her.

“I was looking after her each day. It was four years until she died. It still hurts. I didn’t just lose her, I lost her to the alcohol first. You lose them twice.”

Raising concerns about the “feminisation” of alcohol marketing, Dr Piper highlighted annual reports of major alcohol brands which reveal they are deliberately targeting women.

“This is leading to deaths,” he said. “The second reason would be pricing – alcohol is more affordable now than it has been at any point in the last 20 years so people are drinking more.” 

He called for ministers to introduce tighter rules on alcohol marketing and roll out minimum unit pricing for alcohol to make drinks with higher alcohol content more expensive.

Other campaigners warned it is harder for women to get support for alcohol misuse due to services often being tailored towards men. Women routinely do the lion’s share of childcare, meaning they cannot physically find the time, they say.

Helena Conibear, chief executive of the Alcohol Education Trust, attributed the rise in women dying from alcohol-related liver disease to a significant increase in binge drinking in the late Nineties and early 2000s.

Meanwhile, Prof Shawcross argued women who struggle with alcoholism endure greater “cultural stigma” than their male counterparts, which may deter women from pursuing help. 

Alcohol-related liver disease often has no symptoms for many years, she added, while women also have lower levels of the enzyme which breaks down alcohol.

Vanessa Hebditch, of the British Liver Trust, said: “With alcohol becoming increasingly accessible and affordable, as well as more ingrained in our culture, more women are drinking to levels that put their health at risk.”

Siobhan Herbert, a project manager, told The Independent she started drinking a bottle of wine a night – and sometimes two bottles on weekend evenings – around 20 years ago.

“When I went out, I drank less,” the 52-year-old added. “I was a bit of a closet drinker. At home, there would be nobody around to witness me getting trollied. My mother was an alcoholic, she was exactly the same. You would have thought growing up, seeing all that through my teenage years, it would stop you, but it is very addictive.”

Ms Herbert said she eventually stopped drinking in June 2022 due to growing fed up with the impact alcohol was having on her physical and mental health.

She added: “I wasn’t putting Baileys on my cornflakes but every day I felt awful. I felt tired and anxious. 

“I am a whole new woman now. I feel alive. I have more energy. I am sharper. I do not have anxiety. My depression is gone and all of the problems I was blaming on the menopause have massively improved.”

Sandra Parker, a self-professed “classic binge drinker”, said she would struggle to know how much alcohol she had consumed due to blacking out and would sometimes be in bed for two days afterwards.

The 54-year-old, who stopped drinking in 2018, now coaches women to help them stop or cut down on their alcohol consumption, describing her clients as successful professional middle-class women who are secretly drinking harmful amounts of wine at home.

“They may have a single drink when they are out with people from work, or they may not even drink, but they come home and they have a bottle of wine,” she added. “They have learnt that when they have a drink, they feel less stressed, and it becomes a dependency where they really crave that feeling each night.”

A Department of Health spokesperson said. “Alcohol misuse can ruin lives and destroy families, which is why we are acting to support those most at risk.

“We’ve published a 10-year plan for tackling drug and alcohol-related harms and are investing an extra £532m between 2022 and 2025 to create places for 50,000 people in drug and alcohol treatment services. We are also funding specialist alcohol care teams at one in four hospitals in England, based on those with the greatest need.

“Our 10-year women’s health strategy sets out our plan for improving care and support for women.”

[lboogie1906]

Curtis B. Richardson (October 8, 1956) is an elected official, who has been a member of the Tallahassee City Commission since 2014. He served for eight years in the Florida House of Representatives, representing parts of Gadsden and Leon Counties (2000-08).

He was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and raised in nearby Green Cove Springs, Florida. He earned a BS in Psychology from Florida State University, an MA in Counseling Psychology from the University of West Florida, and an MS in School Psychology from Florida State University.

He worked as a school psychologist in the Gadsden County public school system for ten years, until he joined the staff of Florida Education Commissioner Betty Castor. He worked in Governor Lawton Chiles’ office for several years, and then as a consultant for the University of South Florida. He returned to work at the Gadsden public schools, as Director of School Improvement.

He was elected to the Leon County School Board (1990-96). He ran for a seat on the Leon County Commission. He lost in the Democratic primary.

He ran for the Tallahassee-Gadsden County-based Florida House of Representatives seat. He was elected and served four terms until he was term-limited in 2008. In 2010, he ran for Florida Senate but was defeated in the Democratic primary.

In August 2014, he won a special election to the Tallahassee City Commission. He was re-elected in 2016. He lives with his wife, Nina Ashenafi Richardson, a county judge and former president of the Tallahassee Bar Association. The couple have two daughters. Ashenafi Richardson is the daughter of the Ethiopian composer, ethnomusicologist, and educator, Dr. Ashenafi Kebede, and is the sister of the actress Senait Ashenafi. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #alphaphialpha