Author: nick

[ad_1] Congress on Thursday passed a 45-day extension of the government’s warrantless foreign surveillance authority. The Senate passed the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by unanimous consent while the House followed with a 261–111 vote, authorizing the programs and sending the measure to President Donald Trump’s desk.  The vote came after the Senate blocked a more ambitious House package passed Wednesday that would have reauthorized Section 702 for three years while simultaneously banning the Federal Reserve from establishing a central bank digital currency. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, (R-SD) said the combined bill could not…

[ad_1] Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain Having seen Trump shuffle spasmodically to the Village People’s Y.M.C.A., I think we can rule out dancing as the motivation to construct a $400 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom where the East Wing of the White House once stood. We can also rule out the most recent reason given for the construction of such a Reichskanzlei, which is that only in a Führerbunker funded by tech bros and Epstein patrons will this president ever feel safe. This leads us back to the original intent of the Trump administration with all its tariffs, foreign…

[ad_1] Senate Majority Leader John Thune faces criticism for prioritizing Senate customs over passing the Save America Act sought by 95% of GOP voters. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] In defense of short-form content [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] What will unfold in Lebanon after Iranian pressure on Trump to enforce a provisional Zionist ceasefire? by vanessa beeleyI sit down with Lebanese journalist Marwa Osman to clarify the Resistance strategy in collaboration with Iran and in defiance of Lebanese state plans to normalise with the enemy ‘Israel’Read on Substack I sit down with Lebanese journalist Marwa Osman to clarify the Resistance strategy in collaboration with Iran and in defiance of Lebanese state plans to normalise with the enemy ‘Israel’ This is a very personal review of recent regional tragedies from Lebanese journalist and mother of three Marwa Osman.…

[ad_1] Programmer and former DOGE employee Edward Coristine, known as “Big Balls,” is interviewed on Nick Shirley’s podcast. NICK SHIRLEY, HOST: We’ve talked about Elon a lot in this episode, but I feel like the reason why is because he’s one of the most powerful people, the richest person in the world, who’s in the same fight.EDWARD CORISTINE aka ‘BIG BALLS,’ FORMER DOGE PROGRAMMER: It’s very rare, by the way, like you look at the rest of the billionaires list, they like, they just don’t care. It’s pretty crazy. SHIRLEY: What’s the number one thing you’ve learned from Elon Musk?CORISTINE:…

[ad_1] The Australian government, which has already imposed strict regulations on American tech firms operating in the country, now expects these companies to pay taxes to support Australian journalism. On Tuesday, Australia unveiled draft legislation for a “News Bargaining Incentive,” which would require major tech companies, including Meta, Google, and TikTok, to make commercial deals with news organizations or face a 2.25 percent tax on local revenue, reports The Wall Street Journal. Companies would be incentivized to comply by receiving offsets of either 150 or 170 percent, effectively reducing the tax. The legislation would not apply to AI companies. Prime…

[ad_1] Marjorie Cohn on the Roberts’ Court’s demolition of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the law that brought an end to Jim Crow system of post-Civil War legalized racial segregation. President Lyndon B. Johnson shaking hands with Martin Luther King Jr. at the signing of the Voting Rights Act on Aug. 6, 1965. (Yoichi Okamoto, LBJ Library, Wikimedia Commons) By Marjorie CohnSpecial to Consortium News In perhaps its most insidious decision in nearly a century, the U.S. Supreme Court disemboweled Section 2 of the landmark Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965, the “crown jewel” of the U.S. civil rights movement. The…

[ad_1] Reproduction of a 1900 minstrel show poster, originally published by the Strobridge Litho Co. Library of Congress. Darkology, written by Princeton historian Rhae Lynn Barnes, is a comprehensive, jaw-dropping survey of the grotesqueries known as minstrelsy and blackface. The book explodes the comforting notion that the minstrel show was a long-ago curiosity, an outdated relic of a less enlightened time. It was not a curiosity, nor did it lurk in the cultural margins: It was a shockingly entrenched, pervasive form that saturated the American landscape. Nor, historically, was it that long ago: blackface lasted until the 1970s. It exists,…

[ad_1] As a ceasefire to the war with Iran entered its 24th day, Tehran responded via Pakistani mediators to a U.S. peace proposal, according to reports published Friday.  Axios wrote that Iran’s foreign ministry had presented its terms but did not specify what they are. Last weekend, Iran gave a proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz but to table the issue of Iran’s nuclear energy program. This week the White House sent a list of amendments to that proposal, reinserting the nuclear issue. Iran’s Friday response to those amendments indicates that negotiations are not completely frozen, though diplomatic progress…