James Van Dyke

Totally agree with you. It is "uhhhmmm the people we typically like did something and are saying things that our people tend not to like, so we don't really know what we should say here that will piss off the fewest people we rely on for gobs of money"

Pete Hegseth Should Sit This One Out By inserting himself into the situation in Minnesota, the secretary of defense is only making things worse.

"Pete Hegseth might consider adding another task to his many duties, one that would be of immense help to the nation and to the armed forces: He should shut up."

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Best thing about being an expat who doesn't earn enough to break the foreign-earned income exclusion is knowing not one of these people is funded by my taxes.

I wrote this as snark on reddit for just that reason

Yet Kyle Rittenhouse walks free, propped up for all to see

He showed up with a gun, and shot someone

The right will applaud, and get everyone to laud

He's free, you see, after spilling the red

The rest of us may as well be dead

There were a dozen set up for Jonathan Ross on the right, too. GoFundMe is going nuts with scam fundraisers at the moment

Mandatory voting hasn't achieved that. There are still extreme politicians in the Australian senate especially

Australian media is fairly RW-captured. But, the electoral system is not just compulsory and preferential. There is also:
1) Elections on saturdays, so easier for everyone
2) An independent electoral commission, so less gerrymandering
3) Parties get funds proportional to their electoral success

"run" is a massive assumption there

I'd prefer to see him as a senator. The senate democrats absolutely need someone like him to inject some fire, and I think the vulnerabilities listed here would not be as impactful in that race as they would for president

The czar needs to know what his minions are doing to us in his name

The Lost Cause myths are institutionalized at a DEEP level, even in places that are slightly more progressive in their history teaching. It's a huge source of the culture war BS that we are dealing with now.

Robert was spot-on with this monologue, but coming from the southern US, nothing was more true than what he said about the confederacy. My k-12 history education in Virginia was more or less 'the south did nothing wrong'. The brutality of slavery was barely mentioned, if at all. It's disgraceful

Even the Conservative subreddit, which is full-on MAGA, has a consensus that this is a bad, idiotic idea

Trump: "I may put a tariff on countries if they don't go along with Greenland because we need Greenland for national security"

The 'facts don't care about your feelings' people always have an abundance of feelings

Too many congresspeople, senators, and judges either seek to ride his coattails or are too terrified. We didn't drain the swamp, we flooded it.

The Mayor from Jaws is always a relevant trope to these sorts of conflicts

Ah, but those submarines....

Right in line with 'killing all humans COULD solve world hunger'

'Extraordinary' nesting season for endangered freshwater turtle A record number of clutches of white-throated snapping turtles have been found along the Burnett River in Queensland's Bundaberg region.

www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

First CES panel. Intuit CMO Thomas Ranese is proud of his company's integration with OpenAI, which involves giving AI read/write access to tax data. Since prompt injection attacks are unavoidable, I asked him who will be liable when customer data is exposed: Intuit, OpenAI, etc?

He had no idea.

Keep asking those questions!

Weaponized incompetence

From a resource perspective, I think it is more about rare earths than oil.

Add in the 'look at what I did' politicization, plus the shift to western-hemisphere strategy focus announced recently, and 'easy win' propaganda.

Emma Johnston was a visionary scientist, environmentalist and leader, with an abiding hope for humanity The University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor, who has died aged 52, was driven by a deep love of science and a desire to safeguard the planet’s future.

Devastating news that marine biologist, science communicator, and UniMelb VC Professor Emma Johnston has died after a short illness.
She really was an extraordinary and visionary leader, and I have no doubt she would have made a fine Chief Scientist one day.
theconversation.com/emma-johnsto...

Come and work with us! Please share widely!
Applications close 18 January 2026 at 11.55pm.

www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

@ecolsocaus.bsky.social @deakinuniversity.bsky.social

It's possible some of them are starting to see the horse they've hitched to is a bit touched

Cooking in the summer/freezing in the winter is just part of the experience

We need more whimsy

This is utterly outrageous by the Group of Eight unis, and deeply insulting and undermining for environment and climate experts trying their hardest to achieve a more sustainable future for society. Shameful stuff.