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2 months ago | metafilter.com | Violet Blue

At a time of intensifying great power competition, the EU has to choose between becoming a vassal of the U.S. or breaking free to steer its own course — and it must decide quickly. Two keynotes at the influential Munich Security Conference made that clear: one illiberal by U.S. Vice President JD Vance, the other classically liberal by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

2 months ago | metafilter.com | Violet Blue

In a move reminiscent of Musk's mass firings and forced resignations at Twitter, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent 2 million government employees a deadline-driven offer of “deferred resignation” over an eight-month payout if they resign before 06 February 2025. The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents 150,000 employees in 37 federal agencies and departments, urged employees to stand their ground.

2 months ago | metafilter.com | Violet Blue

In an article that deserves to go viral, the Guardian's former Johannesburg correspondent Chris McGreal traces how Musk and Thiel's South African and South West African boyhoods continue to influence Musk and Thiel's worldviews. As it turns out, Musk's Nazi salute is also the salute used by the AWB (Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging), a neo-Nazi party, founded in the early 1970s to oppose any relaxation of apartheid.

Jan 22, 2025 | metafilter.com | Violet Blue

In the beginning, I thought Biden was going to do a second term. When doubt crept in, I began to sink into despair at an-all-but-unthinkable Trumpian future. But before I ever needed to really grapple with that possibility, Harris popped up. For a little while, I dreamt of a modern American presidency. Ugly doubt crept back in when her numbers started to stall. Early in the evening on election night, it was clear that Harris was a goner — and my mood sank in tandem.

Jan 15, 2025 | metafilter.com | Graeme McMillan

Until 2020 Diamond Comic Distributors had a decades-long near-monopoly as supplier of comics & merchandise to the North American direct market. This changed following the arrival of COVID-19 when many of the biggest publishers signed deals with new distributors. Yesterday Diamond announced that it had filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.