Australis13

... this creates a fascinating contradiction: Republican state legislators are pushing for more control over tech companies, while Republican federal legislators are accidentally making that control impossible. It’s almost as if they don’t actually have a coherent technology policy beyond “do whatever seems politically expedient at the moment.”

Emphasis mine. The author is so close to getting it.

Again, likely to be one of those half-baked plans to remove regulation for their benefactors but they lack both the intelligence and understanding of the subject matter to realise what the full implications are.

That is remarkably coherent for a sovcit.

The administration didn't just do this out of the goodness of their heart:

This development follows NED’s March 5 lawsuit resulting from the unlawful denial of access to congressionally appropriated funds, including $167 million in obligated funds and an additional $72 million already appropriated by Congress.

Nor is it a complete restoration:

The partial restoration of funding today allows NED to begin stabilizing operations and resume grantmaking. NED looks forward to ensuring that it will receive access to the full amount of its congressionally appropriated funds, and that its funding will not be similarly interrupted in the future.

Delivery drivers are really hit and miss. I've had some really good ones who pay attention to what they're doing and treat my parcels with care. Others just stomp across the garden bed (plants notwithstanding); the worst I had was at my previous residence where they just threw the parcel towards the door rather than walk up the short path.

Honestly not surprised that Amazon didn't want to pay up until they were forced to.

Not good, but understandable. I'm concerned that we're going to end up in the situation where it will be impossible to get a BD drive for a PC.

Of the thousands of books tucked into the library’s stacks, one author has emerged as a patron favourite: Louise Penny, the bestselling Canadian novelist and creator of the detective Armand Gamache. ... Penny made headlines in recent weeks after donating C$50,000 (US$36,000) to help fund a new entrance to the library, an “elegant” solution to the diplomatic snafu created in wake of new restrictions. “I have the resources to help because of the support of American and Canadian readers. The least I could do is give back,” Penny said. “Plus, it’s like giving the finger to the current administration: you close one door, we will open another one.”

This is exactly what I would do - make sure there is an accessible entrance on the Canadian side. Make it so that if the US really wants to be difficult, they have to put up a wall down the middle of the library.

This is very true. Several people who are close to me have mentioned feeling exactly this - that they had some personality defect, when in reality they were neurodivergent.

I'm sorry to hear you're going through that. It sounds like you are suffering from Long COVID. Have you sought medical help? Are there any Long COVID support networks in your area? Also, the vaccine can sometimes reduce the severity of Long COVID, so if you're eligible for your next booster you could try that as well.

Unfortunately Long COVID (and particularly its intersection with neurodivergence) is poorly understood, but seems to be related to ME/CFS. An essential part of managing either of those is pacing yourself (this also applies to autistic burnout, which I am slowly climbing out of), which can be really challenging to implement. The basics such as sleep, nutrition and exercise (just don't overdo it! Pushing yourself will make it worse) are also important.

The full study for those interested: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354152560_The_Psychology_of_Online_Political_Hostility_A_Comprehensive_Cross-National_Test_of_the_Mismatch_Hypothesis

At least you could get away with using a chair cover and share the chair.

I ended up getting not only a second chair, but an elevated cat bed too so that both my cats had somewhere comfy to sit whilst I was at my desk!

No, Australia does not use first past the post. We use preferential voting for the house and proportional for the senate.

Labor (ALP) is centrist.

The Liberal-National Coalition (LNP) is the largest conservative group and was centre-right, although drifted more to the right after some of the more moderate liberals lost their seats to centrist independents in 2022.

Then there are a lot of smaller parties and independents that range from far left to far right.

It is likely that the ALP won this election due to (1) the LNP running an absolute shambles of a campaign (repeated back flips and changes, lack of details, etc.) and (2) the global backlash to Trumpian politics (which had a huge influence on Canada's recent election).

She really has no self-awareness, does she? https://live.australiainstitute.org.au/2025/05/australia-institute-live-election-2025-results/#a87d1a79e7