🤠

Don’t take it from me, take it from Fox News: "Socialists are winning everywhere!"

This week, three Congressional candidates backed by democratic socialist New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani won “stunning” victories in their primary elections. It is even being called the “Mamdani tsunami.” The successes of Claire Valdez, Darializa Avila Chevalier, and Brad Lander confirmed that Mamdani’s own election was not a fluke for the city’s left, in what even the Bezos Post acknowledged was “a signal of strength for Mamdani’s political brand and the democratic socialist movement that powered his rise to City Hall.”

[..]

This is an important moment, and not just because it establishes Mamdani himself as a “kingmaker” who can get his chosen candidates into office. (“The Mamdani name was magic across the city,” the Times concluded.)

It also demonstrates, as the Guardian’s analysis says, “some wider trends in US politics: socialism is no longer a dirty word, criticism of Israel is no longer taboo, and dissatisfaction with Democratic leaders in the Donald Trump era runs deep. Voters are thirsty for energy, fight and fresh ideas.”

Speaking on CNN, Van Jones said “the roof is collapsing on the Democratic Party establishment tonight,” and “this is a new era in Democratic Party politics.”

Amid escalating U.S. aggression towards the Cuban island through a maximum pressure campaign and the threat of military intervention, the United States government has been covertly funding a huge network of Cuban media outlets that claim to be independent in a push for regime change against the independent socialist government.

These outlets present themselves as unbiased investigative journalism, but are quietly being financed by Washington through USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Open Society Foundation in order to sow discontent across the Caribbean nation, softening it up for a potentially “imminent” invasion by the Trump administration.

...

CubaNet is one of the most influential and well-established news outlets covering affairs on the Caribbean island. Founded by anti-government activists in 1994, the site has become the go-to source of information for corporate media, who regularly cite it, and present it as an objective and unbiased independent media (e.g., The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and The Los Angeles Times). CubaNet reporters have written op-eds in major U.S. newspapers such as USA Today, calling for an immediate change in government on the island.

But CubaNet is not as independent as it seems. The outlet is bankrolled by the U.S. national security state. CubaNet has received millions of dollars in funding from USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy, as well as the Open Society Foundation.

...

Another news organization receiving huge sums of money from Washington is ADN Cuba. Literally meaning “Cuba’s DNA,” the outlet has amassed a significant following online, boasting over 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, over 200,000 on Instagram, and over 1.3 million on Facebook. It describes itself as “an independent media outlet committed to freedom and democracy in Cuba.” Yet it is actually based in Spain. And it does not seem particularly committed to transparency about its funding.

What is clear, however, is that ADN Cuba has received millions of dollars from the U.S. national security state. In September 2024, USAID approved a $1.1 million grant to ADN Cuba – a gigantic amount of money for an organization that publishes barely one story per day on its website. This was on top of a $1.5 million allocation for the 2022-2024 period. Indeed, since 2020, ADN Cuba has received in excess of $3 million from USAID alone. This relationship is not disclosed to readers– even in stories directly covering USAID funding Cuban media– and is relegated to the footnotes of obscure U.S. government funding databases.

using a glp-1 for weight loss is not 'loving yourself'. that's literally marketing and it obviously worked.

unfortunately, these are drugs used experimentally at several times the dose they were created to be used at to increase the side effect of weight loss. it is unknown what effects using these drugs at these doses over long periods of time will do to you. it is honestly wildly irresponsible that it is prescribed in this way and people are assuming it's gonna be safe for you. using a glp-1 is assumed to be the healthy thing to do, so 'loving yourself'. but it's not and these drugs absolutely have significant known risks in addition to potentially long term so far unforeseeable risks.

Quick summary on why this is significant:

There are many states (including states with progressive governments) where over 1/3 of all total available hospital beds/clinics/doctor office practices are in Catholic institutions (map here from 2020).

The ban is for all transgender healthcare: HRT, surgery, adults as well as children.

It is a new ban; many of these places previously provided trans healthcare and people have lost their coverage, often the only available coverage in their area.

The ban voted on by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was passed with 206 in favor and 7 against, and they specifically quoted Pope Francis saying, "I want you to fight gender ideology, which is repugnant to the Bible and our tradition," as the reason why it was necessary.