tobychev @tobychev@qoto.org
Not sure what this account will be about, mostly boosting things I find interesting.
Joined Nov 2022
"Georgian Dream (GD), the ruling party in Georgia since 2012, officially received almost 1.12 million votes (53.9%) in the recent parliamentary election, while an alliance of four opposition parties ended up with 37.8%.
[...]
The founder and honorary chairman of GD is billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia. [...] In recent years, 68-year-old Ivanishvili has begun to speak the same language as Kremlin propaganda: the world is ruled by a “War Party”; Brussels and Washington dream of Georgia opening a “second front” against Russia.
[...]
The main political opponent of GD since 2012 has been the United National Movement (UNM) [...] All these years, the UNM has failed to seriously compete with GD: [...] Though UNM carried out successful economic and some political reforms, it also has a track record of torture in prisons, police violence and corruption.
In the recent election, the UNM (as Unity-UNM) found itself in third place (10.2%) for the first time. It was slightly outperformed (11.0%) by the Coalition for Change, made up of several parties founded by politicians who had previously been in the UNM.
The other two parties in the opposition alliance were created recently and represent the “third force” that Georgian politics has sorely lacked. Combined, they gained 16.6% of the vote.
[...]
Georgia has a parliamentary form of government, but parliamentary democracy has yet to be formed. There has not been a single coalition government since independence. The winners of elections do not consider it necessary to listen to the opinions of the losers. The winners have been those who most effectively used political polarization to divide the country between “us” and “them."
Meanwhile, there are few political benefits for a junior partner to join a government with the winner. Both the UNM and GD, when they have needed it, have formed coalitions with small parties, before subjugating them and denying them an opportunity to share in the spoils of victory. Then the winner would fuse with the bureaucracy. That is why fistfights are more common in the Georgian parliament than meaningful debates and agreements.
[...]
Perhaps the opposition’s “Europe or Russia” line was a mistake. For the average Georgian voter, both Europe and Russia are of secondary importance, and the opposition parties spoke little about social and economic problems, especially local ones.
The opposition never formulated an alternative vision for Georgia’s development, while its attempt to outplay GD on the issue of geopolitics was doomed. Voters have long tired of bombastic rhetoric.
[...]
Seeing Georgia as his personal property, Ivanishvili has come to the conclusion that behind the words about democratization lies the intention of Washington and Brussels to take away his power, with vassalage to Moscow representing the only chance to avoid that.
[...]
Now, the only question is how bloodthirsty or “vegetarian” Ivanishvili’s personalistic regime will be – whether it will resemble Russia and Belarus or Hungary and Turkey. The latter scenario allows for the opposition to hold power at the local level and for at least some independent universities, NGOs and media to endure."
tobychev
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För ett år sedan strejkade ingen på Teslas verkstad i Norrköping. Nu är en majoritet av arbetarna ute i strejk. Den framgången värmer strejkvakten Eldina Melez.
– Det här är det viktigaste och finaste vi kan göra, säger hon.
#Tesla #ifmetall
Läs mer här👇
https://da.se/2024/11/strejkvakten-eldina-gar-mot-annu-en-vinter-utanfor-tesla/
tobychev
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Le ministre israélien des Finances Bezalel Smoritch sera-t-il présent en personne au gala "Israël is Forever" ce mercredi? L'élu, qui appelle à "recoloniser Gaza", fait craindre des manifs pro-Palestine, au point que le préfet de police souhaiterait le voir loin de Paris. L'évènement, prévu au salons Hoches s'annonce à haut risque, il devrait réunir le gratin de l'extrême-droite israélienne, connu pour sa haine des Palestiniens.
tobychev
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So, this needs to be said: two weeks ago something happened that made me proud to be Belgian. THREAD!
Here's the story. A friend – I will call her Caroline – got in touch after a silence of several years. We used to work together back in the day, and had become sort-of-friends. We had stayed in touch through a common friend, who, like me, lives in Brussels. Caroline herself, who lived in the US when we worked together, was now back to France.
1/
tobychev
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Last week we "officially" launched our collaboration with the #SabinCenterForClimateChangeLaw.
Behind the scene and pre-launch, adapting Sabin's work was a process needing a lot of elbow grease. All of Sabin's #EnergyTransitionMythDebunkings are now available individually at our website.
Over the next few months we'll be highlighting each article individually, one per week.
Here's the first: "Are electromagnetic fields from solar farms harmful to human health?"
tobychev
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Heads up for #fediclimate folks, @drsimevans is taking one for the team and live posting from Azerbaijan..
#ClimateDiary
https://mastodon.energy/@drsimevans/113463453291143754
drsimevans@mastodon.energy - The #COP29 opening plenary has been paused for consultations on the draft agenda, which includes a few disputed items
Given there's clear potential for an agenda fight, let's take a quick tour…
1/5
tobychev
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But the science is clear: if we want to stabilize global temperatures, only permanent removals (>1,000 years) can credibly neutralize ongoing emissions from fossil fuels, and it is important that our net-zero systems reflect this physical reality.
tobychev
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Skolkoncern huvudägd av Täbypolitiker (L) stänger skola och lämpar över ansvaret för elevernas skolgång på kommunen. Vinsten är inte tillräckligt hög, då är det inte värt för politikern att driva verksamheten vidare.
tobychev
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“It is more than ‘backlash politics.’ It is orchestrated backlash politics. Campaigns made choices, set fires, and even poured on the gasoline if accelerant was needed, which is why the passage of time has not, in fact extinguished, such prejudice. It is kept aflame as long as it is stoked.”
~ Ibid., p. 31
tobychev
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AI involved in 25-30% of a code at a company but in the same sense that dictionary was involved in 100% of a document I just wrote where I did not once use dictionary (it ran in the background and threw no flags)
tobychev
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Tough few days for our simulation of a future German renewable electricity system. The dreaded dark wind lull forces the model to rely on stored electrolytic hydrogen. But fortunately hydrogen storage was full at the beginning, and has only dropped to a level of 85% so far.
tobychev
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Today was a two Karen day, like male and female bookends they were triggered by my riding a bike they "felt" was: A) Odd for a Black person to be riding; (B) Too expensive for a Black person to be riding, so maybe I'd stolen it?; and (C)
needed to tell me they own a much nicer and more expensive one, at which point I said my food is getting cold I have to leave.
These are my neighbors, and now that Trump has won, will be even more insufferable.
#BlackMastodon
tobychev
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Copying around ancient files from ancient drives, and finding some of the really dumb things I've translated from various languages over the years. Such as,
tobychev
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The landscape in Gaza City is unrecognizable. Compare this spot from a 2021 video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtOFUXP0neQ) and what this UNRWA spokesperson filmed recently
"Y en el amanecer
Cuando todo va cambiando de color
Y vemos aparecer un mundo
Lleno de belleza y de dolor
Dime por qué será?
Dime por dónde vas?
Dime de dónde somos?
Dime?"
Jose Gonzales, El invento
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j3_Zz0O4pDo
Kristallnach commemoration in Amsterdam cancelled over fears of 'violent' [Maccabi Tel Aviv] supporters"
tobychev
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Député sans discontinuer depuis 13 ans, Woerth reste mis en examen depuis 2018 pour "complicité de financement illégal de campagne électorale" dans le cadre de l'affaire Sarkozy-Kadhafi, pour laquelle il sera jugé début 2025 avec son ancien patron Sarkozy mais aussi Claude Guéant, Hortefeux et neuf autres personnes, devant la 32e chambre du tribunal correctionnel de Paris, du 6 janvier au 10 avril 2025. Toute la petite bande du Fouquet's!
tobychev
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A fourth-grader just told me that she goes to Rainbow Club every week because her friend has two dads and no one should be worried about having two dads so why shouldn’t everyone who isn’t “GLB I don’t remember all the letters but you know” also go to Rainbow Club to help the kids who are worried.
She doesn’t even know the acronym but she knows what’s right.
tobychev
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Was There a Famine in Gaza in 2024?
"Whether or not a ‘technical’ famine occurred, Israel has systematically used hunger & starvation as a weapon in its war against the people of #Palestine, & these are undeniably genocidal acts".
IDS Working Paper 613
#Famine #Gaza #Israel #cease_fire_in_gaza_now
https://www.ids.ac.uk/publications/was-there-a-famine-in-gaza-in-2024/
tobychev
boosted
Förslag på namn till flickor:
- Hedda
- Aleris
- Carema
- Kry
Not sure what this account will be about, mostly boosting things I find interesting.
Joined Nov 2022
