In 2024, independent voters grew their share of the vote, split their tickets and expanded their influence

Thom Reilly, Arizona State University; Jacqueline Salit, Arizona State University

Postelection analysis of 2024 voters’ behavior reveals several ways self-described political independents differ from those who say they are Republicans or Democrats.

Assad leaves behind a fragmented nation – stabilizing Syria will be a major challenge for fractured opposition and external backers

Sefa Secen, Nazareth University

Opposition forces marched into Damascus on Dec. 8, seemingly ending the half-century rule of the Assad family. But what happens next?

Trump’s plans for tougher border enforcement won’t necessarily stop migrants from coming to US − but their journeys could become more costly and dangerous

Katrina Burgess, Tufts University

Fluctuating rates of illegal migration to the US over the past few decades show that the government’s approach of trying to stop migrants with more security has not worked.

Insurance companies aren’t the main villain of the U.S. health system
Noah Smith, Noahpinion
It’s mostly the providers overcharging you, not the middlemen.
First of all, insurance companies just don’t make that much profit. UnitedHealth Group, the company of which Brian Thompson’s UnitedHealthcare is a subsidiary, is the most valuable private health insurer in the country in terms of market capitalization, and the one with the largest market share. Its net profit margin is just 6.11%:

The 24 Seven: Globalism
Tom LoBianco, 24 Sight

1. Syria Fallou
2. Gabbard Heat
3. Prison Branding
4. The Zeitgeist
 5. Dems
 6. The Madigan Trial

Inside the CEO shooter standom
Taylor Lorenz, User Mag

The phrase deny, delay, depose, which has been widely interpreted as a pointed critique of insurance industry tactics, has been embraced by millions as a rallying cry. Online, conversations have shifted away from the killing itself to lionizing the assailant.

People are comparing the grainy shot of the shooter to modern-day revolutionary iconography. A look-alike contest for the gunman was held in Washington Square Park on Saturday. Others are getting tattoos of the man’s face, making fancams, and the memes are flowing.

The Red Mist of Genocide – Switching Off the Brain’s Humanity
Dr Dan Goyal

Despite the challenges in assessing the mental and cognitive state of those committing genocide in real time, there appears to be a scientific consensus about what is happening to the brain during genocide. The psychology studies are beyond the scope here, but the neuroscience concurs with the most accepted understanding of the genocidal brain. Through simulation studies, neuroscientists have worked out what parts of the brain are likely to become overactive and, crucially, what parts of the genocidal brain effectively switch off.

To carry out such levels of cruelty to strangers of a particular group, it appears as if one must effectively switch off (reduce the activity of) the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The mPFC is part of the higher brain and is involved in social cognition, the formation of relationships, and the ability to recognise human qualities – such as thoughts and feelings – in other people. While not a ‘humanity centre’ as such (we don’t have such a thing as a humanity cortex as humanity requires many aspects of the brain), it is quite a central point in being able to achieve humanity, civility, and relationships.

So the AI boom of the last 12 years was made possible by three visionaries who pursued unorthodox ideas in the face of widespread criticism. One was Geoffrey Hinton, a University of Toronto computer scientist who spent decades promoting neural networks despite near-universal skepticism. The second was Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, who recognized early that GPUs could be useful for more than just graphics.

The third was Fei-Fei Li. She created an image dataset that seemed ludicrously large to most of her colleagues. But it turned out to be essential for demonstrating the potential of neural networks trained on GPUs.

But at the same time, the user experience is nearly identical to familiar, traditional social media, and it addresses some of the challenges identified with Mastodon, such as the learning curve for choosing a server. A surge in creation and use of starter packs on Bluesky – curated lists of people to follow – have also accelerated the creation of community and social networks. And the sudden buzz around the platform all at once has created momentum for entire former Twitter communities, such as Academic Twitter, to partially reconstitute themselves.

No one site to rule them all
Despite my optimism for the continued growth of Bluesky, I don’t think there will ever be a “new Twitter.” Social media fragmentation is here to stay, and many people are very happy on Threads or Mastodon or even smaller alternatives capitalizing on the latest X exodus. And X itself has over 600 million active monthly users.

How and why dictatorships fall

But all such “eternal” regimes have one fatal flaw: Soldiers and police officers are members of the public too. They have relatives who suffer, cousins and friends who experience political repression and the effects of economic collapse. They, too, have doubts, and they, too, can become insecure. In Syria, we have just seen the result.

Nevertheless, the end of the Assad regime creates something new, and not only in Syria. There is nothing worse than hopelessness, nothing more soul-destroying than pessimism, grief, and despair. The fall of a Russian- and Iranian-backed regime offers, suddenly, the possibility of change. The future might be different. And that possibility will inspire hope all around the world.

The slew of illicit shops padlocked by police on the local news, and the rise of organized-crime-driven operations in suburban neighborhoods, have the potential to alarm Americans who have only just begun to support the notion of legalization. And it could provide fuel for those who are opposed to it.

A growing number of reputable sources within medicine and the scientific community are already sounding the alarm about increasingly potent products sickening users. There’s almost no doubt that at least some of those products are illicit and unregulated. As a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recently noted, the patchwork laws from state to state have contributed to the risks.

In that way, the black market could backfire against the very legalization movement that has allowed it to come out of the shadows.

Trumpomuskovia is a word I introduced in an essay about some historical moments that might help us to understand the coming reality. Some of you asked why. Here are five reasons.

1. Novelty. We need a new name for the coming regime because we need to recognize the novelty of the situation — legally, structurally, and morally.
2. Personalism. Part of the novelty is the prominence of the two personalities. This is why the regime should bear the personal names “Musk” and “Trump.”
3. Russia Why the “Muskovia” part of “Trumpomuskovia”? It is Musk’s name, of course. But it is also a name for Russia, and this is an association we need
4. Oligarchy. The stronger connection to Russia, though, is a resemblance to the 1990s, which also suggests the name Trumpomuskovia.
5. Instability. The word “Trumpomuskovia,” with its length and awkward accents (like “Czechoslovakia”) is meant to suggest the inherent weakness of the new regime. New things are unstable. Personal politics are unstable. The Russia of the 1990s was unstable. Oligarchies in general are unstable.

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad fled the country on Sunday, bringing to a dramatic close his nearly 14-year struggle to hold onto control as his country fragmented in a brutal civil war that became a proxy battlefield for regional and international powers.

The exit of the 59-year-old Assad stood in stark contrast to his first months as Syria’s unlikely president in 2000, when many hoped he would be a young reformer after three decades of his father’s iron grip. At age 34, the Western-educated ophthalmologist appeared as a geeky tech-savvy fan of computers with a gentle demeanor.

The fact that different opposition groups have taken control of various once-government-held areas points to a crucial fact: Syria is de facto partitioned. The northwest is controlled by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army. The northeast is under the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, supported by the United States.

Despite a shared goal of ousting Assad and the joint offensive on Aleppo, conflicts between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and the Syrian National Army are frequent. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, led by Abu Mohammad al-Golani aims to assert control over opposition-held areas, including those currently managed by the Syrian National Army.

The swift collapse of Syria’s regime brings a humiliating end to Russia’s and Iran’s sway and opens the door for greater Turkish influence. But the Islamist movement that seized power has yet to show its full intentions.

Jolani’s record from Syria’s Idlib Governorate, which was under HTS (with Turkish patronage) control, is mixed. He seems to have learned the lessons of the Islamic State and eschewed the most severe forms of political control, but HTS still ruled with an iron fist. Even as HTS fighters liberated Assad’s prisons, Jolani’s opponents were bearing witness to the abuses of his own jails.

For Washington, Assad’s demise was certainly an unexpected development after more than a year of stunning events in the Middle East. There will be an urge within the American policy community to want to help Syrians build a more just and democratic order.  It is a laudable goal and noble impulse, but Washington should resist them. Both President Biden and President-Elect Trump have so far set the proper tone, indicating that the United States must stay on the sidelines. To get involved in the revolution unfolding in Syria is unlikely to help Syrians or advance American interests. Syria is for the Syrians.