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Gay Couples Rush to Marry Ahead of Trump’s Second TermIn the endless postmortems about why Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump, there is a truly stupid narrative that holds that Democrats “ .” Let’s unpack this myth. For starters, the cultural left is not the same as the pocketbook left. Democrats did run into trouble by going left on the range of “woke” themes, of which more in a moment. But their stance on this set of issues was rendered far more problematic by the failure of the top of the ticket to articulate a credible and muscular economic populism. For a strong rendition of the pocketbook left, we can look to Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. As Sanders put it the day after the election, “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.” For 40 years, the economic security and living standards of working Americans have been undermined by increasing economic concentration at the top. That economic power has translated into political power to “rig the rules,” as Warren famously puts it. Payroll jobs have become insecure gigs; pensions have been eliminated by most employers. Housing has become unaffordable, and medical care unreliable. College requires debt unless you have the private head start of affluent parents. Daily life has become more of a hassle. With households requiring two incomes, day care has become a standard expense for families with kids. This is the experience of the entire working class and much of the middle class. This is especially true for non-college-educated Americans, who went so heavily for Trump. Democratic presidents, from Carter to Obama, did far too little to challenge this trajectory. Clinton actively promoted the financial deregulation and speculation that caused the 2008 collapse. Obama prevented a second Great Depression, but on terms favorable to Wall Street. Only Biden belatedly rejected much of neoliberalism. But the hole was so deep for ordinary people that four years of intermittent populism was not sufficient to fundamentally alter the basic trajectory, or remedy the deep pocketbook distress, or restore the Democrats’ credibility. Donald Trump, who was criticized for sounding increasingly “dark,” accurately channeled the darkness that so many working-class Americans of all races feel. Kamala Harris’s politics of joy didn’t do it, nor did her tacking back and forth between sounding a bit populist and trying to also seem pro-business. , down-ballot Democrats who sounded themes of pocketbook populism all ran better than Harris. Even self-described moderates survived by emphasizing kitchen-table economics. gave Republicans a strategy to divert attention from the plain fact that their economic policies serve billionaires and hurt working people. Overall crime rates are down nationally, but in cities where Democratic mayors or district attorneys took a lenient approach to prosecutions of shoplifting or to encampments of people who were homeless, drug-dependent, mentally ill, or all three, they were voted out of office by a fed-up working and middle class. Taking great care to use the term “Latinx,” ridiculed by native Spanish speakers as a travesty of their language, did not offset the economic vulnerability felt by so many Hispanic voters. If anything, it made politically correct Democrats seem hopelessly out of touch with their real concerns. DEI is another case where the cultural left may have overreached and provided a fat target. I preferred the older term, “affirmative action,” which was well established and broadly accepted as a necessary remedy for the legacy of slavery and state-sponsored segregation. “Diversity, equity, and inclusion”—and many proponents now want us to add B for Belonging—to the non-woke sounds precious. It does little to promote solidarity and invites resistance. While the cultural left goes ever further out on the limb of exquisitely correct language, affirmative action itself is under assault by the courts. And the linguistic correctness of white would-be allies fails to impress Black and Latino people who are struggling economically. More sensitive language did not prevent defections to Trump. Trans issues present the trickiest politics of all. The infamous ad targeted at football and baseball TV audiences (“ ”) was effective partly for its mockery of language. Note that Trump, having astutely taken the abortion issue off the table by saying it is a matter for the states, has now taken gay rights off the table by appointing a gay secretary of the Treasury (who is also a Wall Street hedge fund billionaire). Scott Bessent lives with his husband, John Freeman, in South Carolina. They have two children. There was not a peep of protest from MAGA. Trans people have not yet attained the general level of acceptance that gay and lesbian people have achieved after decades of struggle. But the more that progressives want to take political risks to advance unpopular rights, the more credible they need to be as champions of working people. And they have a long way to go.bugoy wowowin 。

Two of the ABC’s best-known broadcasters, Patricia Karvelas and Michael Rowland, have signed off for the final time from their respective morning programs. ABC News Breakfast host Michael Rowland is leaving after 15 years in the role. Credit: ABC Rowland wrapped up nearly 15 years at ABC News Breakfast helm in an emotional final bulletin surrounded by his family and colleagues. “Thank you very much, It’s been wonderful,” said Rowland in his last words on the show. “I have been genuinely touched and overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and affection from our viewers. One of my great achievements over the last 15 years has been building up this fantastic audience,” said Rowland. Meanwhile, Karvelas signed off after three years of hosting ABC’s flagship morning radio show RN Breakfast. “You’ve been there with me throughout great change in our country and the world, and I want to thank you for it,” Karvelas said, thanking listeners and the Radio National team. Patricia Karvelas hosted RN Breakfast for three years. Credit: Scott McNaughton Karvelas reflected on her “uniquely Australian” story, growing up in a household where she didn’t speak English. “Because of a strong public education system and dedicated teachers and incredible family support, I got to grow up and host a national radio show where rigour and curiosity is at the centre of what we do,” she said. Karvelas wished the best of luck to her replacement Sally Sara. “I’ll be listening because I care about this show, and I care about journalism, and I care about telling the truth in a world where the truth is not to be contested.” Education Minister Jason Clare has rejected the idea the Coalition’s nuclear policy would cost less or be better for the environment, saying it had “the shelf life of a seafood milkshake”. Speaking on Seven’s Sunrise , Clare described the announcement as “the biggest hoax since Milli Vanilli.” “This is never going to happen,” he said. “Best-case scenario, it takes 30 years to turn a lightbulb on, we can’t wait that long.” Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley was also asked by the program whether the policy would result in cheaper energy bills but said she wouldn’t “get ahead of that announcement”. “If the system costs less, you pay less,” she said. “If our system is substantially cheaper, and you will see that it is, then Australians will pay less, and right now, they’re paying more, they’re paying more in their electricity bills every single month.” Read more about the costings here. Nuclear power doesn’t stack up for Australian families or businesses, says Fortescue chairman Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest. “As our national science agency has shown, ‘firmed’ solar and wind are the cheapest new electricity options for all Australians,” he said in a statement. Billionaire businessman Andrew Forrest. Credit: Bloomberg “The cost of electricity generated on a grid dominated by firmed renewable energy in 2030 will be half what you would have to pay if it came from nuclear, CSIRO found.” Forrest, who is a big player in the non-fossil fuels energy market, said that without continued action on “low-cost, high-efficiency renewable energy”, Australians will be left with “pricier power and crumbling coal stations”. “We must never forget – Australia has the best renewable resources in the world,” he added. “Seizing these Australian opportunities must be our shared national goal.” AAP It wasn’t just the Coalition dodging questions this morning, with Labor frontbenchers Chris Bowen and Bill Shorten playing coy on the broken 2022 election promise that power bills would come down by $275 by 2023. Energy Minister Chris Bowen was asked if he regretted making the promise in 2022, but he was keen to redirect the question to discuss the cost of renewable energy. “I don’t regret obviously pointing out that renewables are the cheapest form of energy,” Bowen said. Energy Minister Chris Bowen. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen “I look forward to debating the competing plans before the Australian people at the next election.” Pushed to answer the question again, Bowen said we were dealing with “a different set of circumstances internationally” post-2022. “Australia’s increase in energy prices has been less than a lot of other comparable countries. We delivered billions of dollars of energy bill relief, which has been the appropriate thing to do, which has been opposed by the Liberal and National Party.” Asked about the promise on Nine’s Today , NDIS Minister Bill Shorten also opted to pivot to the Coalition’s nuclear plan. “We know that energy prices are part of the cost-of-living pressure on families. That’s why I think that the heroic assumptions of Peter Dutton promising some fanciful solution in 25 years time is just a crock,” Shorten said. “The idea we’re going to come from scratch and build a whole nuclear industry in Australia is, you know, just a fantasy”. Coalition frontbenchers have avoided promising energy bills will be cheaper if they win government, as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton prepares to reveal the costings of his signature nuclear policy later today. Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie and MP Barnaby Joyce were both asked if they would pledge power would be cheaper under the Coalition, but both dodged the question. McKenzie was asked on Nine’s Today , where she first said that the price was attached to the “cost of delivering something”. “And our plan is absolutely cheaper than Labor’s plan to get to 2050,” she said. Asked again if the Coalition would bring down power bills, McKenzie weaved again, saying prices would come down in the longer term. “By adding net zero nuclear to firm up the renewables that we’ve got in the grid as well is the way to actually get prices down over the long term,” she said. Joyce was asked the same question on ABC’s RN Breakfast. On the fifth iteration of the question, Joyce finally answered: “That is asking for a hypothetical question, which I could answer you, but I would not be telling the truth because I don’t have the facts before me.” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese took time out of his busy pre-Christmas schedule to join the farewell party for Sammy J on ABC Radio Melbourne this morning, but he wasted no time at all in using his appearance to go into political attack mode. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Credit: Kate Geraghty “It’s Friday the 13th, an auspicious day, I’ve got to say, for Peter Dutton to drop his nuclear nightmare policy out there,” Albanese said, bypassing the pleasantries and bonhomie in favour of dropping a bomb on the opposition leader. “Oh, so straight into it,” said Sammy J (aka Sam McMillan). “Have you had a sneak peek [at Dutton’s nuclear power plan]?” he asked. “I had a look at some of the fiction that’s out there,” the PM replied, claiming nuclear power would not lead to savings on the cost of household power but rather “increase bills by $1200′′. “The truth is that renewables are the cheapest form of new energy. Everyone knows that’s the case. The science tells us that that’s the case. The economists tell us that’s the case.” Energy Minister Chris Bowen says he doesn’t accept the Coalition’s claim that Labor’s energy policies will cost $594 billion, as the debate over whose plan will cost more gets underway. The Coalition will claim their nuclear energy policy will be $263 billion cheaper than Labor’s renewables plan, costing $331 billion. Joining ABC News Breakfast ahead of the release of Peter Dutton’s nuclear energy costing later today, Bowen said Coalition must have done some “mental gymnastics” to come up with those numbers. “We’ll go through the details today, I don’t believe they have released it to the ABC or the ALP, funnily enough,” Bowen said. The energy minister said they must have made some “very heroic assumptions” and “really stretched the truth” to come up with the “very dodgy figures”. Bowen said he “doesn’t accept” the $594 billion figure for renewables, an estimate modelled by consultancy Frontier Economics for the Coalition. “What they have also done is very clearly in the costings of their own policy rejected the CSIRO and AEMO’s work,” Bowen said. “What the Coalition is asking the Australian people to believe is this: That they can introduce the most expensive form of energy and it will end up being cheaper. It won’t pass the pub test. It won’t pass the sniff test because it is just a fantasy.” The nation’s top science agency has declared its independence after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused the CSIRO of bias in its findings that nuclear is the most expensive energy source. CSIRO’s GenCost report, released on Monday, found yet again that nuclear was at least 50 per cent more expensive than renewables, and it would take at least 15 years to build the first reactor in Australia. The opposition claims nuclear power is cheaper and quicker to build than this. Dutton responded to the news with an accusation that the CSIRO had ceded to political interference by Energy Minister Chris Bowen. “It just looks to me like there’s a heavy hand of Chris Bowen in all this,” Dutton said on Monday morning. CSIRO released a statement last night that declared: “We conduct our independent, rigorous research without fear or favour. We do not advocate, defend or debate the merits of government or opposition policies. To assert otherwise requires compelling evidence.” The statement went on to state it conducts research in the national interest: CSIRO conducts research in the national interest that will benefit the Australian community – from navigating the energy transition to adapting to a changing climate to safeguarding Australia from pathogens that threaten our health, biodiversity and food supply. These areas have a direct impact on the Australian community and naturally give rise to a range of views and opinions. For an organisation like CSIRO, this means we can be caught in the middle of debates. CSIRO can be trusted to deliver independent, non-partisan and high-quality research to help solve the challenges facing Australia and Australians.” Airports around the country are bracing for chaos as hundreds of Qantas engineers walk off the job. But the airline has assured customers there will be no impact on their travel plans on one of the busiest travel days of the year. Around 500 workers from three different unions began a 24-hour strike action at 3.30am this morning. It’s expected to impact major airports across the country, including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, and will end at 7.30am on Saturday. Friday marks the first day of the 6-week summer travel period when 13.5 million travellers pass through Australia’s domestic airports. It’s also the first day of school holidays in South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland. A Qantas aircraft at Melbourne, one of the airports affected by the industrial action. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui The striking workers, responsible for the towing and marshalling of planes, are calling for a 5 per cent per year pay increase over 5 years after what they say is 3.5 years of frozen wages. Qantas says it has put forward a competitive package with 3 per cent per year over three years, with negotiations now at a stalemate. Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union National Secretary Steve Murphy says industrial action was the only way to get Qantas to the bargaining table. It’s been six weeks since the last strike. “Workers have no other choice. They will be taking industrial action to bring Qantas back to the bargaining table,” Murphy said. “Qantas is to blame if there’s any disruption to commuters over the holiday period. They have had six weeks to simply do what they said they would.” A Qantas spokesperson said a number of contingencies are in place to prevent delays. “Around 160 aircraft maintenance engineers are rostered on during Friday’s industrial action, and only members of the alliance unions can take industrial action,” said Qantas. The spokesperson noted there were no delays or cancellations during the previous strikes. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will ask Australians to support hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending on nuclear energy, including a controversial move to use taxpayer subsidies to build the industry while promising to bring down household electricity bills. Dutton is expected to reveal more details of his plan on Friday with a pledge to build seven full-scale nuclear power stations , rather than smaller “modular” reactors, to deliver baseload electricity and lower the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. Coalition MPs will be briefed on the plan in a party room meeting on Friday morning at 10am. A key part of the plan will be an assumption that coal-fired power stations will continue to operate while a Coalition government awards contracts to build the nuclear plants, even though energy companies are planning to stop using coal over the next two decades. Read the full story, including the results of exclusive polling, here.AIIMS, IIT Delhi, And UCL Collaborate To Advance Healthcare InnovationTesla shares just reached a new all-time high following Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election, propelling the company to a massive $1.5 trillion valuation as of December 18, 2024. This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Marcus Lu , highlights the most valuable automakers by market cap worldwide as of Dec. 13, 2024, based on figures from CompaniesMarketCap.com . Tesla accounts for nearly half of the market capitalization among global carmakers. Its valuation surpasses the combined value of the next 29 automakers. Trailing far behind Tesla, the four other top automakers on the list are Toyota ($231 billion), BYD ($107 billion), Xiaomi ($98 billion), and Ferrari ($81 billion). Investors believe Elon Musk’s close relationship with Trump, along with Musk’s growing role in government, will serve as a powerful catalyst for Tesla. Additionally, some of the stock’s recent gains hinge on expectations that Trump’s planned corporate tax cuts will benefit U.S. manufacturers, including Tesla. Tesla’s stock has also regained popularity due to investor expectations that its Robotaxi and Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology will drive a new phase of growth. Year-to-date, Tesla’s stock is up 57%. However, Tesla’s massive market cap is not reflected in its production numbers. In 2023, Tesla sold 1.8 million vehicles, while Toyota sold 11.2 million vehicles during the same period. Tesla’s success has further extended Elon Musk’s lead as the richest person on Earth. In December 2024, Musk’s net worth reached $462 billion, far ahead of Jeff Bezos in second place at $243 billion. If you enjoyed this topic, check out this graphic showing where Tesla and BYD make their cars.

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The latest entry in the franchise launched 30 days ago, and it was clear from the start that Activision had another hit on its hands. Just days after the launch, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was boasting on an earnings call about . Today, the company shared some statistics about just how big the release had been, with the game now being the biggest ever. The social media post by the official page revealed that has taken the crown of being the entry with "#1 Total Players" in the franchise. This applies to the numbers seen in the first 30 days of launch. During the same time frame, the title had also achieved "#1 Hours Played" as well as "#1 Total Matches" played ranks in the 21-year-old franchise. "Thank you to the Call of Duty community for continuing to make the launch of one for the record books," . "In the first 30 days from launch, together you made the Biggest ever. While exact sales numbers have not been announced yet, the title launched across a large number of current and last-gen platforms. This included PC (Steam, Battle.net, and Microsoft Store), as well as Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. Being the first ever game to launch into Xbox and PC Game Pass day one probably helped a lot in achieving massive player numbers, too. However, the game has performed immensely well on non-Game Pass platforms, too. Microsoft CEO Nadella that Steam and PlayStation stores performed 60% better in sales compared to the previous entry is currently in , with more maps, weapons, and other drops incoming soon in a mid-season update.