Andy Lowry @AndyLowry@social.cleverlibre.org

First post on here. Would love to connect with fellow lefties. A wee welcome boost would be much appreciated.

The mRNA vaccines developed for COVID-19 are as close to a miracle as I may ever experience in my lifetime. Unbelievable that so many people in the US deny this for weird tribal reasons. We don’t have to be sick.

You know, "laws off everyone's bodies" sounds real nice and democratic. Even Ted Cruz (*almost*) gets it.

#tedcruz #roevwade #womensrights #prochoice #texas #republicans #gop #gqp #voteblue #OneV1 #TruBlue #VoteBlue2024 #DemCast

While I value the #BBC's #drama output (which certainly can be world class - #HappyValley for instance), the fact that they cannot 'compete' with #Netflix is not the biggest issue that needs to be resolved.

Rather it is the (now) unbalanced & timid (in its relations with the governing party) news coverage that is the problem... what was a beacon of balanced reporting & incisive analysis, too often now fails to interrogate nonsense & either ignores (or reports late) on crucial politics stories!

"They have also instructed employees to not pay vendors in anticipation of potential litigation, the people said.

To cut costs, Twitter has not paid rent for its San Francisco headquarters or any of its global offices for weeks, three people close to the company said. Twitter has also refused to pay a $197,725 bill for private charter flights made the week of Mr. Musk’s takeover"
~https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/13/technology/elon-musk-twitter-shakeup.html

#ElonMusk #Twitter

All these newspaper articles on #nuclear #fusion saying we can "finally harness the power of the sun" are just laughable. We already know how to harness the power of the sun, but we choose not to—we just invest in fossil fuels instead. We don't need technological breakthroughs to solve the climate crisis. We just need to deploy the stuff we already know works.

So, a little bit on Nursing pay.
When the Tories came to power in 2010, a band 5 nurses salary on point 23 (7 years experience on that pay scale) was £32,440. In 2021, the same band & point was earning £35,340, a rise of 8.94%. Over that same period, overall inflation has been 31.5%, so if the salary had risen in line with RPI, it would be £42,600, an effective loss in spending power of £7,260.
Over the same period, an MP’s salary has risen from £65,738 to £84,144, a rise of 28%

Tories have been deliberately dismantling & weakening the NHS for years.
They rarely say ‘privatisation’ but by underfunding & creating huge waiting lists, they hope to drive us towards a US style system, creating a nightmare for the poorest.
This article describes the misery that awaits if they succeed.
#nhscrisis #NHSPrivatisation
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/14/hospital-wants-83135-dollars-for-saving-my-wife-worth-it-but-where-did-figure-come-from?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Deregulation for the banks, more regulation for the unions - welcome to Rishi Sunak’s “golden age”

https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/23657-deregulation-for-the-banks-more-regulation-for-the-unions-weekly-briefing

A #Roman wooden #sword found in the civilian settlement of the Saalburg fort. It was probably a child's #toy influenced by the military in the nearby fort - maybe it belonged to a 'military brat' who liked to mimic the exploits of the father.
Dating 2nd/3rd century AD.

Photo: Römerkastell Saalburg

#romanarchaeology #archaeology

The UK is now the ONLY Northern European country not in the Single Market.

Our exports have dropped by 17% since leaving the EU.

Many companies have relocated back into the EU from the UK in order to remain in business.

Pathetically small deals with countries on the other side of the world cannot and will never replace the trade we have thrown away with our closest neighbours.

In addition many products we used to get from fellow European countries are now very difficult to find, including some food products. #Brexit

Mastodon News Sources

General News - US and World

BBC News (World) Bot - @BBCWorld
BBC News Bot - @BBC
CNN Bot - @CNN
CNN Breaking News - @cnnbrk
DW (Deutsche Welle) News Bot - @dwnews_bot
NPR US News Bot - @NPR_USNews
NYTimes Bot - @NYTimes
Reuters Bot - @reuters
Rolling Stone - @RollingStone
The Guardian US Bot - @TheGuardian_us
Wall Street Journal Bot - @wsj
Washington Post Bot - @WashingtonPost

Tech News

Ars Technica - @arstechnica
MacRumors.com - @macrumors

According to this Ukraine media account, Twitter is now blocking Ukrainians from creating new Twitter accounts by not listing Ukraine as a country.

Mr. "free speech absolutist" is such a hideous super villain.

Birdsite wants to confirm my phone number today. First time in 10 years. I locked it yesterday...

sure sex is great for your memory but have you ever had sex? i heard it’s great for your memory.

"In July, Rand Paul was listed as an official Russian propagandist by Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation. Instead of denying this allegation, Paul called on Congress to repeal the Espionage Act. Then, Rand blocked a care package bill to Ukraine

Here's my new hobby which you #TwitterMigration folks might also want to try.

Watch your Local timeline for people just arriving or making their first post. (It's not stalking. Really.)

And then reply with something like, "Hello and welcome! 👋"

Sometimes that starts a conversation. Sometimes you wind up following each other.

Why do that? Maybe to be as kind as all the wonderful folks who welcomed us here?

So, go ahead. Pay it forward. Make a new friend. It's fun. And, you know, social.

Looking at photos of largely massless crowds from #AGU22 and thinking, who would have thought the geoscientists would be less attentive to public health and accessibility than the American Economic Association (which is requiring high-quality masks at the January ASSA meeting)?

Twitter 2.0 is just like Twitter 1.0 except half the accounts you liked are gone, there are twice as many ads, things are glitchy, half the content you see is from accounts/topics you don’t follow, there’s even more bigotry, & the main thing everyone is talking about is Twitter.

Today, President Biden will sign the Respect for Marriage Act. It will nullify the odious act known as DOMA, which had enshrined anti LGBTQ+ prejudice and discrimination into law.
Federal recognition of same sex marriages, by statute, is an important safeguard, but we must still do more. We must now enshrine the protections of Obergefell into law, so that no state can deny same-sex couples the rights and privileges afforded heterosexual married couples.