March 22, 2024

Viagra Boys - Troglodyte (Official Video) Swedish electro punk band from here in Stockholm

Label: Year0001 – YR0164LPRT, Year0001 – YR0164
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Stereo, Orange Opaque, 180g
Country: UK & US
Released: 7 Jul 2022
Genre: Rock
Style: Punk, Post-Punk

March 22, 2024

Keir Starmer calls for England to scrap kit with new St George's Cross design

Euros shirt under fire from various political quarters

Labour leader also hits out at cost of new replica kit

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/mar/21/keir-starmer-calls-for-england-to-scrap-euros-kit-with-new-st-georges-cross-design-football



Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has called for England’s new kit for the Euros to be scrapped following the decision to swap in a multicoloured St George’s Cross for the traditional red and white one on the shirt. Nike and England dropped the red and white cross on the collar, replacing it with navy, blue and purple stripes. Nike insisted the “playful update” was meant to “unite and inspire” fans for the 2024 tournament.

The FA was reported as stating that the idea was to honour the “classic colour regime of 1966 training gear” used when England won the World Cup but, after Lee Anderson and Nigel Farage of Reform UK vented their fury, Starmer also followed up in an interview. The leader of the opposition, currently enjoying a large lead in the polls with an election expected in the autumn, was speaking to the Sun political correspondent Harry Cole and said: “I’m a big football fan, I go to England games, men, women’s games. And the flag is used by everybody, it’s unifying, it doesn’t need to change.

“We just need to be proud of it. So I think they should just reconsider this and change it back.” Starmer continued: “I’m not even sure they can properly explain why they thought they needed to change in the first place. They could also reduce the price of the shirts.” The redesigned shirts, which England will be wearing for the first time in their pre-Euros friendly on Saturday at Wembley against Brazil, are retailing at £124.99 for adults and £119.99 for children.

“The England 2024 Home kit disrupts history with a modern take on a classic,” a Nike spokesperson said. “The trim on the cuffs takes its cues from the training gear worn by England’s 1966 heroes, with a gradient of blues and reds topped with purple. The same colours also feature an interpretation of the flag of St George on the back of the collar.”

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March 22, 2024

Congressman apologizes for using racial slur instead of saying 'bugaboo'

U.S. Senate hopeful Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) made the comment while discussing tax rates in a budget hearing

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/03/21/david-trone-congress-racial-insult/

https://archive.is/GwLVM



Senate hopeful Rep. David Trone (D) used a racial slur during a congressional budget hearing Thursday and later apologized, saying he misspoke and did not know what the word meant. Trone dropped a derogatory word for Black people into a brief speech praising President Biden’s tax proposals toward the end of a friendly exchange with the director of the Office of Budget and Management. After explaining that corporate tax rates did not influence how he invested hundred of millions in his national liquor company, Trone continued:


The slur is among the derogatory terms used to caricature Black people. After being contacted by The Washington Post hours after the remark, Trone apologized in a statement. “Today while attempting to use the word bugaboo in a hearing, I misspoke and mistakenly used a phrase that is offensive. Upon learning the meaning of the word I was deeply disappointed to have accidentally used it, and I apologize,” the statement said.

Trone, 68, is a leading Democrat in the May 14 primary race to succeed retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and represent the most diverse state on the East Coast. Polling released this week shows the race is wide open, with 39 percent of primary voters undecided and Trone leading his chief opponent, Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D) by 7 percentage points. The winner is likely to face former Maryland governor Larry Hogan (R) in November’s general election.

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March 22, 2024

Two years after start of Ukraine war, Russian titanium keeps flowing to West

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/21/russia-titanium-exports-sanctions/

https://archive.is/Xlo9b


Western firms bought hundreds of millions of dollars of titanium metal from a Russian company with deep ties to the country’s defense industry after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to a review of Russian export data. The purchases illustrate how the West remains dependent on Russia for certain products despite pledges to break economic ties with Moscow. In the case of titanium, that dependence raises security concerns, industry and defense analysts say, as the metal is vital in the manufacturing of both commercial and military airplanes.

“Russia could shut off the flow of these … materials and leave companies critical to national defense and civil aviation scrambling,” said William George, director of research at ImportGenius, the company that supplied the trade data gathered from an official Russian database to The Washington Post. After more than two years of war in Ukraine, Russia continues to export oil and gas that eventually reaches the United States and its allies, and Russian firms are still able to sell everything from diamonds to uranium because the West wants the goods and allows carve-outs from sanctions.

The titanium firm, VSMPO-AVISMA, has not been placed under sanctions by the United States or the European Union despite being partly owned by Rostec, a defense conglomerate that owns hundreds of companies and is under U.S. and European sanctions. Rostec is led by an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Sergey Chemezov, who has been personally sanctioned since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.


Roughly 15,000 tons of titanium worth $370 million were exported by VSMPO in 2022, the vast majority of it sent to Western nations that supported Ukraine, according to the export database, with Germany, France, the United States and Britain topping the list. VSMPO, which essentially is a monopoly in Russia, then exported at least $345 million in titanium in 2023, according to more-limited data for that year seen by The Post. Russian trade data was difficult to acquire in 2023, with the available data lacking most of the details that showed transactions with Western firms. George said ImportGenius could not comment on why certain details were no longer in the data.

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March 22, 2024

Gaza: UN humanitarian intervention needed

Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war and the international community must exercise its ‘responsibility to protect’.

https://www.socialeurope.eu/gaza-un-humanitarian-intervention-needed



There is growing global recognition that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. The IPC, the body that assesses food-security crises, believes that famine is imminent for half of its population, some 1.1 million people. The laws of war prohibit the use of starvation in this way. Under the Rome statute establishing the International Criminal Court, parties to a conflict must not prevent citizens gaining access to ‘objects indispensable to their survival’, including by ‘wilfully impeding relief supplies’. A recent Oxfam report has however identified a number of ways in which Israel is deliberately obstructing the entry of humanitarian aid. These include an unjustifiably inefficient inspection system; arbitrary rejection of items on grounds of their supposed ‘dual use’ character; wholesale destruction of civilian life in an unprecedentedly brutal military campaign; forced displacement of populations; attacks on aid workers, facilities and convoys, and systematic disruption of humanitarian-relief organisations.

The overland routes are by far the most efficient way to get aid into the strip. Talk instead of maritime passage or air drops risks obfuscating the problem that Israeli control is being used deliberately to starve the people of Gaza. Reflecting the reports of their own staff on the ground, many western officials are recognising the severity of this unfolding crisis. The most senior diplomat in the European Union, Josep Borrell, high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, has accused the state of Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war. Even the German government, so often stridently pro-Israel since the Hamas atrocities of October 7th, has now echoed Borrell’s analysis.

Rapid-reaction force

Can anything be done to avert this catastrophe? Calls for an immediate ceasefire, as well as the cessation of arm sales, are very welcome and should be acted on urgently. But this, in itself, might not be sufficient to force Israel to facilitate the passage of food aid. Serious consideration should be given to other options to secure the entry of aid, including the use of a rapid-reaction force mandated by the United Nations. Military action should not be taken lightly. It should always be a last resort. In this case, the political barriers are clearly enormous.

But the world has a shared ‘responsibility to protect’ when ‘national authorities manifestly fail to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity’. This threshold has evidently been met in Gaza. A UN Security Council resolution would make a peacekeeping operation lawful. The mandate could be narrowly defined—a limited UN military operation to open and protect humanitarian aid routes into all of Gaza, independent of Israel Defence Forces control and inspection. In all likelihood, practical steps in this direction could be sufficient in themselves to force a change in policy by Israel. But international parties would have to be prepared to follow through if necessary.

Humanitarian intervention...........

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March 22, 2024

Omnipollo X Burley Oak - Bianca J.R.E.A.M. Blueberry Lime Pecan Cobbler Lassi Gose "Juice Rules Everything Around Me"

Weekend beer tip.....................

Skål!

March 22, 2024

Hit 'em Where It Hurts: Rachel Bitecofer on How to Stop Trump, MAGA -- and Save Democracy

https://washingtonspectator.org/rachel-bitecofer-on-how-to-stop-trump-maga-save-democracy/



Despite a surprisingly good showing by many Democrats in 2022 and recent special elections — due in part to the backlash against the Supreme Court’s 2022 abortion ruling and extremist GOP candidates — there are good reasons to fear the very real possibility of a Trump victory in November. Just look at Trump’s lead in polling in seven swing states as just one sign of the trouble the incumbent President is facing – and the wishful thinking of some pundits like Ezra Klein and nearly half the electorate that Biden should leave the race. That sentiment, at least for now, has lost some of its momentum after last week’s robust State of the Union speech. Even so, Democrats are still struggling to respond to negative views of Joe Biden’s memory and age. This was heightened by the gratuitous smears about the President’s memory in the investigation filed by special counsel Robert Hur into Hunter Biden’s business activities, which recommended that no charges be brought against either father or son. These findings were notable in part because Hur had been nominated in 2017 by then president Trump to serve as US Attorney for the District of Maryland.

Underlying all this political skirmishing are decades of generally feckless, wonky Democratic responses to effective, emotional Republican messaging which has persistently branded Democrats as dangerous, big-spending, soft-on-crime socialists. More recently, as the prescient political scientist and strategist Rachel Bitecofer has observed, GOP labeling has been updated to include a new emphasis: “Democrats are pedophiles and are going to turn your male children into girls.” In her important new book, Hit ‘Em Where it Hurts: How to Save Democracy By Beating Republicans At Their Own Game, Bitecofer argues for a no-holds-barred counter-offensive in election races at all levels, painting in stark terms the Democrats as the party of freedom and the Republicans as the party of, yes, fascism. “If everybody is pounding the theme of waking America up to the threat that is the modern Republican party, then Democrats should be able to survive. And if we survive, that means democracy can survive,” she told The Washington Spectator in a recent interview. (You can hear an audio of our conversation here.)

Her model for much of this strategy? The Republican Party itself, minus the brazen lies and nutty conspiracy theories. For example, she recommends that the Biden-Harris campaign get out of its weak defensive crouch over age-related issues. Instead, she says, go after Trump and undermine the negative portrayals with ad buys, more close-up news appearances and targeted counter-attacks. “Rather than defending Biden’s age, other than the jokes he makes about it, what they should be doing is spending money making sure America sees how deranged Donald Trump is,” she argues. Here’s the tactic that should be deployed: “You have to pivot and attack and make them regret bringing up mental fitness every time they mention it because then they get barraged with Trump’s rantings.” (A step in that direction was taken last week when the Biden campaign’s X account posted video snippets of Trump’s chaotic verbal stumbles. And Biden in his State of the Union remarks was credited with repeated attacks on his “predecessor” that painted Trump and the GOP as threats to democracy and freedom, while undermining their arguments that he was too impaired to serve as president.)

https://twitter.com/BidenHQ/status/1765030049508425909
Bitecofer is not just another progressive pundit wringing her hands and hoping that the Democrats get tougher. She has earned her reputation as “The Election Whisperer,” in large part because of her eerily accurate prediction of the Blue Wave in the 2018 mid-terms after Trump’s first years in office. She forecast a 42-seat gain, very close to the final Democratic pick-up of 40 seats. She beat virtually all conventional pollsters with a prediction made four months before that November’s election. Bitecofer’s forecasts and prescriptions are shaped by a deep study of actual voting behavior. For example, she punctures the myth that large swaths of the public are truly independent, follow politics and are open to persuasion across party lines. “What dictates voter choice is partisanship,” she notes. “All I need to know: Are you a Democrat or do you lean to the Democratic party or are you a Republican or do you lean to the Republican party? You take away those people who nine out of 10 times are going to vote for the party that they lean towards or are in — and once you take them out of the pool, you’re talking about 15% of the electorate that is kind of really persuadable.” “Based on your views of the two parties, she says, “I will be able to predict your vote choice a year away from the next election.”

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March 22, 2024

Project 2025: The Latest Plot Against America

https://washingtonspectator.org/project-2025-the-latest-plot-against-america/



“Project 2025” has been winning an increasing amount of attention in its own right, but it’s actually the opening salvo of “The 2025 Presidential Transition Project.” This comprehensive playbook was produced under the auspices of the Heritage Foundation and supported by over 100 partner organizations. Officially titled “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” its perverse genius lies in its sheer length—900 pages, much of it mind-numbing bureaucratic prose. But ignore it at your peril. The massive tome is the latest iteration of a four-decade-long process of crafting right-wing policies to dismantle the federal government, deregulate industry and eliminate consumer protections and public health measures, while installing a regime controlled by fossil fuel interests and the Religious Right.

Not coincidentally, the members of its advisory board have been making headlines attacking American institutions at a grassroots level, in preparation for the big takeover—ranging from Moms4Liberty’s assaults on local public schools, to the Koch-founded Institute on Energy Research’s war on climate initiatives. Project 2025 lays out specifics for hundreds of policy objectives affecting every area of public life. Many of them affect three primary areas: first, the dismantling of environmental regulations, clean energy measures, and climate policy; second, a rollback of civil and political rights for women and LGBTQ populations and the elimination of public health measures; and third, a massive purge of career civil servants and the concentration of power in the Executive branch in the White House, to consolidate an entrenched authoritarian regime. The following inventory of Project 2025 prescriptions is far from comprehensive, rather it is an attempt to highlight a few of the more alarming features.

Here are ten things you need to know about Project 2025:



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March 21, 2024

Hogan leads Maryland Senate race by double digits, poll shows

The former governor unexpectedly entered the race last month and has been boosted by widespread name recognition in the state.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/20/hogan-maryland-senate-poll-00148059



Republican Larry Hogan leads Maryland’s Senate race by a wide margin, but voters in the blue state clearly prefer Democratic control of the U.S. Senate, a new poll shows. The Washington Post-University of Maryland survey found Hogan beating both likely Democratic contenders by double digits in hypothetical general election matchups. The moderate Republican led Rep. David Trone, 49 percent to 37 percent, and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, 50 percent to 36 percent.

But the poll, which surveyed 1,004 registered Maryland voters March 5-12, also showed that 55 percent of voters want Democrats in control of the Senate, compared with 35 percent who favored Republicans. That result suggests that Hogan’s path to victory may be tougher than the candidate-versus-candidate poll results imply. The former governor unexpectedly entered the race last month and has been boosted by widespread name recognition in the state.

Although registered Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans, Hogan was known for bipartisanship during his two terms as governor and was well-liked even by Democrats. The survey found that 64 percent of voters viewed Hogan favorably — including 61 percent of registered Democrats — versus 33 percent who said the same of Trone and 26 percent of Alsobrooks. Many voters had no opinion of Trone or Alsobrooks: 46 percent and 58 percent, respectively.

The primary election will take place May 14; Hogan is expected to handily win on the GOP side while Trone and Alsobrooks battle it out in the Democratic primary. Among registered Democrats, Trone had a slight lead over Alsobrooks, 34 percent to 27 percent, with 39 percent undecided. The poll was conducted by phone and online and had an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

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March 21, 2024

Hokas Potus -- are you wearing tech bro trainers like Biden?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hokas-potus-are-you-wearing-tech-bro-trainers-like-biden-78t63876f

https://archive.is/K61qw



As if there isn’t enough to get your head around with the American presidential race, American presidential trainers are becoming a topic all of their own. Are Joe Biden’s new trainers, the hovercraft-like Hoka Transport, evidence that, despite being in his ninth decade, he fits right in around Washington’s hipster neighbourhood Shaw? Or do they represent the latest attempt by an 81-year-old, who has proved himself several times over to be unsteady on his feet, to step up to the re-election challenge rather than fall flat on his face (again). Either way, they are considerably less grotesque than Donald Trump’s gold “Never Surrender” high-tops. These launched last month for $399 and — I am sorry to have to break this to you — have already sold out.

What Biden’s Hokas certainly exemplify is just how confusing contemporary fashion can be. Because one person’s sensible shoe — “conceived”, so the brand’s website opines, “at the intersection of lifestyle and performance” — is another person’s style statement. We are seeing an unprecedented overlap in the sartorial choices made by the young and determinedly cool with those made by the not-young, who may be interested in being cool, or may not be. (With Biden, that’s for you to work out.) Some people buy Hokas simply because they think they are practical, and other people buy them because they think Hokas make them look as if they only buy things that are practical. I know. Keep up. Either way Biden’s in the running with big names such as Harry Styles, Gwyneth Paltrow and Gisele Bündchen. This is why Instagram accounts such as @gramparents, a world of chinos, plaid shirts and hike-ready footwear, has 255,000 followers, 254,999 of whom are hipsters.

The brand was launched in 2009 in Annecy in the French Alps, which — its founders believed — could be better conquered by runners in trainers with an oversized outsole. Hokas soon became popular with runners more generally, thanks to the mix of maximum cushioning and minimum weight. In 2013 it was acquired by the American footwear firm Deckers Brands, which also owns Ugg and Teva, two more brands with their origins in the strictly functional. Hoka One One, to give it its full and rather pompous name, comes from a Maori phrase meaning “to fly”. Though presumably Biden is wearing his so as not to, having already gone flying on stage at a US Air Force Academy graduation ceremony last summer. It was the Silicon Valley bros who were the first to adopt Hokas as a uniform, their chosen garb for global domination more suited to an overnighter in nearby Yosemite National Park than the office.

It was only a matter of time before the look caught on. And what an irony, given that the bros partly dressed like this because they were, in origin, geeks who hadn’t left their bedroom between the ages of 12 and 21, and wouldn’t know cool if it hit them in the face. These days London’s so-called Silicon Roundabout, is full of people who look as if they are about to pitch a tent, in North Face parkas, cargo pants and either Hokas or the even more popular Salomon XT6, both of which have toggled elastic in place of conventional laces because — that signifier confusion again — either they are too busy and dynamic to tie their shoes, or they can’t bend down. There’s even a word for it. Gorpcore. It’s an extrapolation of the original normcore, and supposedly refers to the hiker’s snack of choice, “good ol’ raisins and peanuts”. No doubt Biden is hoping it also stands for “good ol’ returning president”.

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